Monday, June 20, 2011

I lied

Of course I did.  Make a statement like "run every day" and then miss two in a row.  I'm still working on this is "for fun" and "stay healthy" and "I don't race anymore."  I mean that's what I want to achieve, but string together 3 weeks of training and your all in.  If I'm honest with myself, I need to run when I can and when I'm banged up I need to rest.  Now it's my hip.  Back to reality.

Which leads me to something I have always considered.  What would be the perfect weekly training regiment for me, right now.  Not someone else and not 10 - 20 - 30 years ago.  The goal would be to get the most out of the least.  Since I don't race short anymore I'd bag speed work...which is nice.  The key would be being able to do it week in and week out.

18 - 10 - 5 - 8 - 13.1 - 8 - 0 = 62.1 (100K)
or
2:40 - 1:25 - 45 - 1:10 - 2:00 - 1:10 = 9:05

Why wouldn't 9 a day work for 63?  How sweet would that be?  Going on vacation soon, I will try and let you know.

Steve = Did you get hurt?  Sounds like a bunch of the Cheeseheads are going up for the Superior weekend.  I'm from PA originally and you need to live here like 25 years and catch a Muskie to be considered.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Get in in

I made the commitment to run about every day for a reason.  It's hard, but it gets one ready in so many ways.  I tried the rest up and have good runs for Ice Age this year.  Four runs a week and about 50 miles.  I did not run like I wanted to.  Maybe there were other circumstances at work, but an 8:04 wasn't what I expected.  I was trashed today, I really felt like a day off, but I headed out the door.  I'm glad I did, I made it work for 8 miles with all the heat training garb on.

Back in the day, I was tired all the time training.  I'd run 80 -100 miles a week with hard stuff twice a week.  It was cumbersome and a heck of a lot of work getting it in.  It always paid off.  When you age and you have other extenuating circumstances it is easy to take days off.  I just can't and still do what I want at events.  When I was a kid, I was always asked why I ran so much.  The simple reason was I didn't like hurting all the time racing.  I trained hard so it wouldn't hurt so much.  That's my reasoning now.  I don't have any asperations of racing, but if I can run fluidly for a long period of time things will work out.  Fifty miles is a long way.  Much of any success is just outlasting other people. 

One thing you learn is when your tired you always feel like your going slow.  It never feels better.  You can tell your getting in shape because even though it feels slow your cruising through check points faster.  I know I could break 18 for a 5k right now.  I still feel if I could hit the track and work at it I could still get near 17.  But, this sport is different.  I'd rather get my miles in and be tired and depend on a good taper.  I really want to hang back at Voyageur and see if I can have a little the last 10 - 15 miles.  When I look back at my logs, I always do better running tired in training all the time. 

I'm not young enough to recover as well as I like an the oral chemo I take daily for years seems to put the governer on me.  The good news is during the day I feel great and if I didn't run I wouldn't have as much energy.  Like I have said before, I'm just a running bum, trying to rub a few sticks together and get a little fire going.      

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Getting close

Just realized there is only about a moth left to train for Voyageur.  Going on vacation for 9 days soon, so I am going to have to try and set a daily goal of at least an hour in the morning.  Hopefully I can sneak in a couple 2 hour affairs.  Did quite a few long runs for Ice Age, so trusting I can sneak by with less of those, but have a larger weekly base.  The heat training seems to be working.  This is my first attempt at this manuver.  Plenty of things wiped me out there last year, but I think this may be one less thing I have to deal with so much.  I just want to stay fluid.  Know that I understand the course, I can sit back and let it come to me.

I am going to try and run every day for the next month.  Get 30+ on the weekend, sandwich a medium long run in the middle of the week, and plan to be at 65+ a week.  I can't do hills or speed without compromising the rest of the week, so just miles in the heat and rely on experience for this one.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Nice and easy

Put on the long bottoms, my Steeler tossel cap, and two long sleeve tops and headed out for an easy 14 on the Drumlin.  Was able to get water a couple times.  It only reached about 62 degrees, but I want to continue heat training for Voyageur.  Got 32 in over the weekend, so ended with 57.5 this week.  I'll take that.  Ice Age was 4 weeks ago and I have been at least 50 miles the past 3 weeks.  I believe I am starting to tolerate the heat better after close to three weeks of bundling up 3-4 times a week.  Didn't really need to when in was in the 90's.

I'd really like to get back to running about every day.  I seem to get stronger when I don't take a lot of days off.  I don't plan on running fast, I just want to get the miles in.  I'm always conjuring up schemes.  My new one is try and run 30+ over the weekend and get around an hour the other days.  Voyageur is generally hot, so that is what I will concentrate on...training for the heat.  Not that I can run 10 minute miles at Voyageur the whole way, but I think that's where I will end up going out at.  Last year, I felt great at the half and took off.  Went from about 30th to top 10-12 and then proceeded to have an epic crash.  I think I split the race 4:21/5:37.  Thinking I can gain an hour on the second half if I stay controlled and don't race.  At least that's the plan.  Putting the number on tends to change things.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Stepping out of the 70's

I'm not sure how much of a blogger I will be.  Not a lot of expectations.  I read a few blogs and on occasion felt I might want to pontificate on a few running items.  Most of what I have learned about running is from practicing it on myself.

I have had many experiences in my running life.  Still, there is much I would like to do.  Mainly I enjoy just getting out there and getting a few miles in.  I seem to always be training, but don't always have many goal races ahead.  Most who know me understand I run about three ultras a year.  Sort of gave up the other events.  The work to run fast wasn't that appealing anymore.  Still, I get fired up to train a bit and my next event is the Voyageur 50 mile on July 30th.  The course killed me last year, so this year I want to go back and do a bit better.

Been kicking around doing Superior Sawtooth 100 mile on September 9-10.  I will be 50 on 9/11 and this event really has been on my mind lately.  I will wait to after Voyageur to make a decision.  It looks out right nasty.  My goal would be just to finish.  I have completed one 100 miler, but not to sure I can stay on my feet for approximately 30 hours.

Training wise, I have been around 50 a week.  Did an easy 18 today and would like to get over 2 hours in tomorrow.  I'd like to juice up to about 65, but like most people it looks easy with the pen and paper.