Ramping the Volume

It's that awesome time of year. Sun starts rising before 6 a.m. The temperature is still relatively cool. I just love ramping my training right now.

I have been adding a half hour every week for the last several weeks. I am now at a steady 6-7 hours of training.  However, this week we'll have me at eight hours. Eight hours is my happy spot for training.

Also with this great weather, I've been able to ride my bicycle. I bought a road bike last summer. Really enjoy a nice two hour ride even though I'm still not real fast. On a long ride my average speed is 13-14mph. I'm going to start adding some tempo workouts on the bike to get the speed increased.

Last week was a bit of a step back week. I did a 5k race on Saturday. So I dropped the volume with a short taper. I did really well at the 5k race. I was quite pleased with a second place age division and a new age group PR. I ran the race in 23:42. My only disappointment in the race was that I did not run the final mile and a half as fast as I could have. I felt like I had too much in the tank at the finish line.

The 5k race was also my wife's first 5k. She enjoyed the day and did a run walk for 38 minutes. I don't know if she's hooked but I do know that she had a good time. I think we'll do another 5k in the fall.

I have been traveling this week. Fortunately, I was able to bring my road bike. I had a great ride from Independence to South Chagrin reserve on Monday and a nice flat Rails to Trails ride on Wednesday near Elyria. Both of the rides were around 2 hours. Also got in a couple of runs one was a tempo with negative splits and then a really nice trail run yesterday that was definitely not the fastest thing I've ever done. Great day to enjoy the trails!

I'm headed home on Friday with plans for a half marathon distance on Saturday morning. I'm still trying to finish a half marathon every month. This will be an easy pace. Maybe. We'll see what Andre has on his training plan.

Keep moving forward.

Slackin' Blogger

What kind of blogger waits six weeks to post a new blog post? Heh. One that spent eight weeks traveling, training, working and being just too darn busy to think about writing. I did sit down a couple of times to write but just couldn't get the fingers moving. Anyhow, travels have slowed and I've been home for a week. Weeee.

I've managed to keep most of my training on track. I did drop a bit in total volume as I was skipping weights and yoga but the mileage was still there. I'm still hitting a half marathon distance each month. My first quarter half for time was 1:57. Considerably slower than my PR from last September of 1:49. However, the stress of work and life definitely had me running a bit slower. No worries. Just keeping the heart rate in training zones and moving forward.

My wife and I decided to enter a 5K race. If you know me, you know that I'm not big on spending money for races with the for-profit race companies. However, we wanted to support the local spring festival and got registered. We'll be running the streets (well, she'll be walking quickly) of Mount Washington KY on May 11. I'm actually looking forward to laying down some speedy miles. I'm pressing for three 7's. Hoping the energy of other runners will scoot me to a sub 22 finish.

Training will keep steady with another peak mileage for a June 15 half marathon. My running buddy and I will at least start together. His PR is 1:58. I'm going for sub 1:50 this time. We're still working on an exact course. Probably start from the front of Southeast Christian Church and wind through the streets of Plainview and Douglas Hills.

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!