Training Reports: July 2006 Archives

With a ten-mile run this weekend we're starting to get into the "no, really" phase.

This week was 3-5-3 midweek and 10 on the weekend. I did the 5 mile run as a tempo run at 9:30 miles - mainly to make sure I had time to get ready for work and still catch the train. It's going to be tough on Wednesdays as the runs ramp up.

The "long run" went pretty well. I was being good about keeping my tempo and not speeding up until I stopped to refill my water bottle with about a half-mile to go. I noticed somebody catching up with me and so I put it in gear. I had been averaging a little over 11 minutes a mile but mile 10 was closer to 9:30. Hmm. I suppose it's good that I had the energy for that.

I did some "real" crosstraining this weekend as well - we took a family bike ride to the park and back. Thanks to Google Maps Pedometer I can tell you it was about four miles round trip. Better than nothing.

Weight-wise I was down to 215. I say "was" because Katy made fried chicken, biscuits, and gravy for dinner last night. Wow. I ate like a pig. I'm not getting anywhere near a scale for a few days.

Current chart is here.

So, I've been at this for a month now. This was a surprise revelation to me Saturday morning as I was out running.

Pretty normal week - 3.5-4-3 during the week and 9 on Saturday. Not much to say about that really, except that the 9 miler wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Running that far gave me a chance to eat a delicious gel pack for breakfast at mile 6.

Not surprisingly, my weight came back up a bit to 216.5 but I'm confident that my patented "Eat Less Exercise More" plan will continue to provide a downward trend there. As usual, the chart is here.

On Saturday I ran alongside a guy for a while - and he told me his "Running Life Story." A few years ago he ran the L.A. Marathon - starting training two months beforehand because one of his friends wanted somebody to run with. He "struggled across the line in just under 5 hours." Now he runs Boston Marathon qualifying times. After a mile or so he peeled off to go his own way.

I'll be damn glad to "struggle across the line" in under 5 hours. Good riddance, Boston Qualifier Man.

I'm glad to say that week three is in the books. I'm exhausted.

Not from the running - this week was 3-4-3 midweek and 5 on the weekend - but from watching the Tour de France. Getting through three or four hours of race footage every night is keeping me from getting to bed when I need to.

I also appear to have lost more weight this week - I think my metabolism is starting to pick up a little, but a lot of the change this week is simply because I ran on Sunday morning before weighing in. Perhaps that's cheating but I have been weighing in on Sunday morning so at least I have the "consistency" defense.

As always, the updated training chart is here.

I'm still trying to get into the groove here so it's nice that the midweek runs are still short.

Since I did the 5k at pace on Tuesday I took it easy on Wednesday and Thursday. I ran my usual 3.5 mile loop on Wednesday and I meant to do just 3 on Thursday. Unfortunately I am not good at maths while running before 7 AM and so I cleverly tacked on an extra quarter-mile on the way out. Oh well, I wanted to hurry to get ready for work and dash across the parking lot for the train anyway.

Yesterday's seven miles was somehow easier than the six miles last weekend. Maybe I'm just getting used to the turtle pace that I have to maintain to keep my heart rate down. When you run 12 minute miles it takes a while to get anywhere. The seven miler brought this week's total up to 17.1 miles.

I did somehow manage to lose a little weight, down to 218.5 pounds. The updated chart is here.

Week 1 wasn't too bad. It really is week 0 - my training plan (well, okay, Hal Higdon's training plan) is 18 weeks and the marathon is in 19 weeks, but I wanted to give myself a week of slack in case I get hurt or have to travel.

Tuesday and Thursday were slow runs but Wednesday was tempo day - 9:30 min/mile for three miles. It felt good to get out there three days in a row.

Saturday was the first "long run" of the program. Six miles.

Frankly, I was not impressed going in. Six miles? Feh. I can reel off six miles like nothing!

Turns out, not so much. Wow, was that unpleasant. I struggled through the second half of the run, trying in vain to keep my heart rate in the 75-85% range. I can make some excuses - it was hot, the smog was awful, etc - but frankly I am not in as good a shape as I thought I was. I guess that's probably better to figure that out early.

The one fun fact from Saturday? It's the one and only day that I will run further than the riders in the Tour de France rode. The prologue was a mere 7.1 km / 4.4 mi. Take that, pro cyclists!

Unfortunately, the fourth of July weekend really messed with my patented "eat less exercise more" weight loss plan and I did not lose any weight. Click here to see my current training chart.