Pressing Reset

It's been a week since I've been able to workout. This is the first time in years that I have the flu. It sucks but I'm getting better. Still have some head and chest congestion but my energy and voice have returned.

I'm traveling for business this week and I intentionally left my gym gear at home. I'm forcing myself to take an extra few days of rest. Traveling with no gear is the only way I'll rest. Otherwise I'll find myself pushing through the miles.

So I'll be pressing reset on the training plan. I'm going back to how I started this plan in December. I'll be employing at least a month of 180-Age Heart Rate training. The first two weeks will be an additional -5 bpm. I'll see how I feel after a month and make adjustments from there.

Whatever it takes to get healthy. No pressure from wasted race entry fees. That's the beauty of doing your own thing.

Keep moving forward.

Battle of the Chest Crud

It's been a great week for afternoon running. Upper 20s and sunny in Louisville. Unfortunately, I got hit with a chest cold/flu. It started Tuesday morning with a tickle in my chest. By 4pm, I had my first dose of Nyquil and I was sleeping. Wednesday and Thursday were half days of work with fevers in the late afternoon. Let's hope Friday is a fever-free day. I hate the aches from the fever.

Needless to say that I won't be running a half marathon tomorrow. The good thing about running my own personal races is no loss of money. I'll just push things back a week.

Looking ahead...

Saturday, January 26th is my first half marathon distance of 2013. I usually run after bible study with my buddy, Andre. I wonder if he knows we are going long. Guess he'll learn in six days. :-)

Anyhow, here's the course through Douglass Hills near Southeast Christian Church.

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It's a little long. I'd rather go a bit long than be short with my endeavor to complete twelve half marathons this year.

If you are local, you are welcome to join me. We start around 8:30am in the C Lot at SCC. I won't be pushing the pace. Andre is a 10:30 miler and I'll run with him for the first five or six miles before he turns for the cars. I'll move to marathon pace after he departs (9:00-9:10 min/mile). This run is about distance and time on feet. I'll taper and push for half marathon pace in eight weeks. Keep moving forward!

Busy but staying on track

It's finally the weekend. Crazy week. Appointments from Louisville to Columbus. Somehow, I still found time for my scheduled workouts.

I'm still in speed and tempo portion of my training schedule. As much as I enjoy running hard, I am liking forward to another base period.

I started with an easy spin on Monday with my wife followed by our full body weight routine. I focus on my legs and core with some upper body. She likes to focus more on upper body and core. Regardless we still stay together for the entire time. It's my favorite workout of the week. Who wouldn't want to hang with their beautiful wife to start the week?

Tuesday is rest day and Wednesday brought sleet and freezing rain. So,  I shifted my running to the right and just did my living room circuit routine after the kids went to bed. It actually worked out just fine. I was able to get the blood flowing later in the day and stay awake for the KState game. EMAW baby!

Thursday was hill repeats. Man, I was really dreading the hill as I did my warm up. I live in a neighborhood that is shaped like a wishbone. My street is mostly flat but the other one is a quarter mile with five percent grade. That thing will get the heart rate into zone 4 quickly. My goal is to rock it at 5K pace. Finally! I knocked out five at 1:45! Boom! I was struggling to hit two minutes last summer. Talk about a breakthrough run. That was a nice boost.

Friday found me in Columbus OH with tempo repeats on the schedule. Dude. It was cold up there. 19°F is quite a change for the winter we've had in Louisville. I definitely felt the drag on my pace. Mile warmup followed by 5x7minutes at HM pace with one minute recoveries. I was able to keep it below 8:15 but it hurt. Character building workout for sure.

Saturday is always long run day for me. I like to completely shutdown my brain and body until Monday. I met my bible study buddy and we took off at his conversational pace. He yaps about slowing my pace but I actually enjoy it. Keeps my heart rate in zone 1/2 and let's my body stay in aerobic zone. He started getting tired about 45 minutes into the run and I still needed another hour. So, he turned for the car and I pumped up to HM pace for three miles. Then pulled back to zone 2 for the remaining 25 minutes. Forgot to check my average HR. Couldn't have been too high. I'm guessing it was low zone 2.

Anyhow, it was great week of training. Last week of speed and tempo on the schedule next week with my first half marathon distance of the year on Saturday. Planning to mix my pace between conversation and marathon pace. Definitely not going to push it but I would like to finish under two hours.

Keep moving forward!

2013: The Year of the Blog

Decided to start blogging about my endurance training this year. Until April 2012, I was blogging weekly for business but I've sold the company. I've missed finding topics and such. So, here we are for The Year of the Blog.

I've settled on my endurance goals and plan for 2013. Initially, I had planned to run a half marathon distance weekly, but I decided to take it a bit easier. I'll be running a half marathon distance every four weeks with a half marathon at race pace every twelve weeks. It should make for a fun year.

Why the decision to go a little lighter? I had a fatigue setback in early December. I ran a marathon the weekend before Thanksgiving and traveled quite a bit for the next two weeks. On December 1, I ran a Maffetone Test Run and found my heart rate going too high at my usual paces. My resting heart rate was also 8-12 bpm above normal in the morning. I'm pretty good with easy math. I knew that I was fatigued.

So, I took Sock Doc's advice and shifted to a low 180-Age-5 plan for a month. Shoo. That was a mental challenge. I usually training with a set of heart rate zones from my former running coach that are considerably higher. However, it was worth it. I was able to keep the cardio base but still recover and rest. It was a great month of active recovery.

I've finished my second week of training for the month. This week's training included a great whole body weights routine on Monday that was seriously in the pain cave, half mile repeats at 5K pace on Tuesday, 7-minute repeats on Wednesday ten seconds slower than half marathon pace and a nice eight mile run with Andre on Saturday at his conversational pace (10:45). Although, I did finish with a 7:45 pace half mile and 9:30 half mile cool down. Had to shake it out at the end.