Quality: 18 mile long run on Monday
Trail: 12 miles at SkullBuster on Sunday.
Easy: 3 runs for 24 miles.
Cycling: 4 rides for 32 miles.
Total: 5 runs & 4 rides for 86 miles.
Traveled for work this week, which always seems to throw me off a bit. Had to wake up at 4 am on Monday to get in the second leg of my 20/18 back to back before hopping on a plane. I'd almost forgotten how awesome watching the world wake up while out for a run is. Not that I can see myself up at 4 am often for a run. I also used my homemade energy gels again on this run, but this time I went with 2oz of gel & 1oz of water in the flask. Seemed to not only come out easier but wasn't as strong. I may have to maintain this ratio in the future.
Due to getting in wicked late Tuesday night, really Wednesday morning, I decided to just turn my speed session into an easy run. To up the difficulty I did it at 5 pm after dropping the family off at the airport. Also added in an 8.5 mile bike ride to the trail, then 8.5 mile bike ride home. Brought plenty of water for the trip but could have used some calories near the end. Was definitely close to bonking.
Near the end of the week it started to really warm up, like dangerously hot. When it gets like this there's no such thing as early enough to beat the heat. It's 75 at 5am with 80-90% humidity & quickly rises from there. With 16 miles on the schedule I arrived at SkullBuster shortly after sun up. This isn't a trail I'm ready to do much running in the dark on. It is also one of the harder places I run for keeping my heart rate in check. Even the downhills spike it up. By the time I got to my decision point where I could go 12 or 16 I opted to cut it short. My feet were squishing in my shoes from sweat & I looked like I'd found a pool somewhere to take a short swim. With the shortening of this run to 12 I'll just do my back to back in reverse, with the 16 miler on Monday. Speed sessions change to phase two next week, which is the strength part of the Hanson's plan.
Monday, July 25, 2016
2016 Training Log : 7/11 - 7/17
Quality: 3x1600 w/600 recovery at the track on Wednesday.
Trail: 20 miles at CVP on Sunday.
Easy: 4 runs for 29 miles.
Cycling: N/A.
Total: 6 runs for 57 miles.
Could have swore I put this one in last week. I blame a very hectic Sunday preparing for my trip. Another solid week in the books without anything too exciting, which is nice. On Monday I finished up the second leg of my 24/12 back to back. I had my doubts going into this training plan as to the effectiveness of back to back long runs. I am now a believer in them. They absolutely wreck your legs.
Wednesday brought about a return to the track for mile repeats. I have trouble with the longer repeats due to my tendency to check out from time to time. Really hard to stick the pace when auto pilot is so easy to engage. That said I came really close to my 6 minute target & my last interval was my fastest. I might have to reevaluate my pace before I go into phase two of the speed training.
Sunday's long run again had me headed back to CVP. Such a great place to do loops for these longer efforts, but I'm starting to tire of it. I need to diversify my trails. I also mixed in an experiment for this long run. I made my own energy gels! This is something I've been looking to do for a while now as I just can't stomach paying $1.50 per gel. I followed the recipe in this video, except I used honey instead of corn syrup. I'll continue tweaking the recipe until I get it to my liking then do a blog post on it. Currently I'm using some 3oz travel bottles I got at Target for about a buck each. They work ok but are pretty big & hard to get the last drop out of. If I stick with this I'll likely purchase one of the soft flasks out there specifically for this.
No pictures again this week. My phone is hard to operate when I'm absolutely drenched in sweat. Gotta love Kentucky summer...
Trail: 20 miles at CVP on Sunday.
Easy: 4 runs for 29 miles.
Cycling: N/A.
Total: 6 runs for 57 miles.
Could have swore I put this one in last week. I blame a very hectic Sunday preparing for my trip. Another solid week in the books without anything too exciting, which is nice. On Monday I finished up the second leg of my 24/12 back to back. I had my doubts going into this training plan as to the effectiveness of back to back long runs. I am now a believer in them. They absolutely wreck your legs.
Wednesday brought about a return to the track for mile repeats. I have trouble with the longer repeats due to my tendency to check out from time to time. Really hard to stick the pace when auto pilot is so easy to engage. That said I came really close to my 6 minute target & my last interval was my fastest. I might have to reevaluate my pace before I go into phase two of the speed training.
Sunday's long run again had me headed back to CVP. Such a great place to do loops for these longer efforts, but I'm starting to tire of it. I need to diversify my trails. I also mixed in an experiment for this long run. I made my own energy gels! This is something I've been looking to do for a while now as I just can't stomach paying $1.50 per gel. I followed the recipe in this video, except I used honey instead of corn syrup. I'll continue tweaking the recipe until I get it to my liking then do a blog post on it. Currently I'm using some 3oz travel bottles I got at Target for about a buck each. They work ok but are pretty big & hard to get the last drop out of. If I stick with this I'll likely purchase one of the soft flasks out there specifically for this.
No pictures again this week. My phone is hard to operate when I'm absolutely drenched in sweat. Gotta love Kentucky summer...
Monday, July 11, 2016
2016 Training Log : 7/4 - 7/10
Quality: Ladder workout at the track on Wednesday.
Trail: 24 miles at CVP on Sunday.
Easy: 4 runs for 29 miles.
Cycling: N/A.
Total: 6 runs for 63 miles.
Training by heart rate can be frustrating, especially on the trails. I find myself walking a lot more than before & my pace on all runs is way slower than before. The plus side to it is I don't feel totally wrecked after a run, which I guess is kind of the point. I'm going to keep at this through the winter to give it a solid 9 month trial. While I try to stick with the zone 2 running for all my other runs I use my Wednesday run to really step on the gas.
This Wednesday I did a workout that I've been looking forward to since I put it on the plan. Unfortunately I missed it last week but decided to move it to this week. It's a ladder style workout that starts with a 2.25 mile warm up then a 400/800/1200/1600/1200/800/400 ladder with 400 recovery & finally ends with a 2.25 mile cool down. Such a brutal workout but I definitely felt stronger coming out of it. I've got some shorter races on the calendar to test out the benefits of these speed sessions.
Speaking of shorter races. I was fortunate to land a registration to the Hot Hot Hundred 10k for just one dollar. My fall racing schedule is really starting to fill up with a 5k, 10k, half marathon, 50k & 100k. I'm following through with my plan to race more & not just train for A races only.
Sunday's long run was a distance I'd failed at previously. I've blamed that inability to finish the run on heat, nutrition & hydration. What I now know is that I was just running too fast, basically trying to do the entire run in zone 3. This lead to me just being totally zonked out around 16 miles into the run. Sadly I didn't complete the entire 24 miles on Sunday in zone 2. I had a hard cutoff at 11:30 to finish my run by, which led to me cranking it up on my third loop. With the majority of this segment in zone 3 I could really feel the familiar struggle & confirmed that the previous failed runs were caused by going too hard. In hindsight I should have stuck to my heart rate plan & just cut the distance short to make my cutoff, I just had to get that monkey off my back.
Trail: 24 miles at CVP on Sunday.
Easy: 4 runs for 29 miles.
Cycling: N/A.
Total: 6 runs for 63 miles.
Training by heart rate can be frustrating, especially on the trails. I find myself walking a lot more than before & my pace on all runs is way slower than before. The plus side to it is I don't feel totally wrecked after a run, which I guess is kind of the point. I'm going to keep at this through the winter to give it a solid 9 month trial. While I try to stick with the zone 2 running for all my other runs I use my Wednesday run to really step on the gas.
This Wednesday I did a workout that I've been looking forward to since I put it on the plan. Unfortunately I missed it last week but decided to move it to this week. It's a ladder style workout that starts with a 2.25 mile warm up then a 400/800/1200/1600/1200/800/400 ladder with 400 recovery & finally ends with a 2.25 mile cool down. Such a brutal workout but I definitely felt stronger coming out of it. I've got some shorter races on the calendar to test out the benefits of these speed sessions.
Speaking of shorter races. I was fortunate to land a registration to the Hot Hot Hundred 10k for just one dollar. My fall racing schedule is really starting to fill up with a 5k, 10k, half marathon, 50k & 100k. I'm following through with my plan to race more & not just train for A races only.
Sunday's long run was a distance I'd failed at previously. I've blamed that inability to finish the run on heat, nutrition & hydration. What I now know is that I was just running too fast, basically trying to do the entire run in zone 3. This lead to me just being totally zonked out around 16 miles into the run. Sadly I didn't complete the entire 24 miles on Sunday in zone 2. I had a hard cutoff at 11:30 to finish my run by, which led to me cranking it up on my third loop. With the majority of this segment in zone 3 I could really feel the familiar struggle & confirmed that the previous failed runs were caused by going too hard. In hindsight I should have stuck to my heart rate plan & just cut the distance short to make my cutoff, I just had to get that monkey off my back.
Monday, July 4, 2016
2016 Training Log : 6/27 - 7/3
Quality: 16 mile long run at Legacy Trail on Sunday.
Trail: N/A
Easy: 4 runs for 29 miles.
Cycling: 1 ride for 8 miles.
Total: 5 runs & 1 ride for 53 miles.
Another travel week for work & with it the inherent difficulties in making all my scheduled runs. I only ended up missing one run for the week, my speed work session on Wednesday. I was originally going to stay at a location pretty close to a high school track. That fell through & I ended up no where near a track. The plan was to get up early & just do an easy 8-10 miles, which didn't happen. After driving eight hours home I was in no mood or shape to run.
The rest of the week went well. I've fully embraced running by heart rate, completing all runs in between 130-142 BPM. I've had to walk a bit on some hills I would normally run & my pace is a good bit slower. However, I'm completing the runs feeling like I could run forever. The aftereffects of a 16 miler feel no different than a 4 miler. Going to keep at it with the only day above target heart rate being the Wednesday speed session. I've also made a minor tweak to the schedule, moving the back to backs to Sunday/Monday, to avoid conflict with Saturday morning soccer games. This should allow me to run in the cooler morning temps.
During Sunday's long run I stopped at the "peak" of the biggest hill along the Legacy Trail to take a picture. While pulling my phone out I inadvertently dropped my key. It wasn't until I got back to the parking lot that I realized it. Having already ran 16 miles, emptying my water bottle & having no calories on me the idea of 6 more miles to retrieve the key didn't sound smart. Luckily the wife was able to bring me a key so I could get home. After a light breakfast I returned to the trail with my bike to retrieve the key. The added bonus was I got some miles in on the bike, something that's been lacking lately.
On Friday I finally registered for Not Yo Momma's 100K. I can't wait to try my hand at a new distance. The looping style of this course should be helpful for my first time above 50K. Getting back to camp every 16 miles allows me to adjust calories, clothing & hydration during the race. It also allows for the moral support of seeing my wife. Unfortunately we're a lot of rain in the area lately which is keeping me off the trails.
Trail: N/A
Easy: 4 runs for 29 miles.
Cycling: 1 ride for 8 miles.
Total: 5 runs & 1 ride for 53 miles.
Another travel week for work & with it the inherent difficulties in making all my scheduled runs. I only ended up missing one run for the week, my speed work session on Wednesday. I was originally going to stay at a location pretty close to a high school track. That fell through & I ended up no where near a track. The plan was to get up early & just do an easy 8-10 miles, which didn't happen. After driving eight hours home I was in no mood or shape to run.
The rest of the week went well. I've fully embraced running by heart rate, completing all runs in between 130-142 BPM. I've had to walk a bit on some hills I would normally run & my pace is a good bit slower. However, I'm completing the runs feeling like I could run forever. The aftereffects of a 16 miler feel no different than a 4 miler. Going to keep at it with the only day above target heart rate being the Wednesday speed session. I've also made a minor tweak to the schedule, moving the back to backs to Sunday/Monday, to avoid conflict with Saturday morning soccer games. This should allow me to run in the cooler morning temps.
During Sunday's long run I stopped at the "peak" of the biggest hill along the Legacy Trail to take a picture. While pulling my phone out I inadvertently dropped my key. It wasn't until I got back to the parking lot that I realized it. Having already ran 16 miles, emptying my water bottle & having no calories on me the idea of 6 more miles to retrieve the key didn't sound smart. Luckily the wife was able to bring me a key so I could get home. After a light breakfast I returned to the trail with my bike to retrieve the key. The added bonus was I got some miles in on the bike, something that's been lacking lately.
On Friday I finally registered for Not Yo Momma's 100K. I can't wait to try my hand at a new distance. The looping style of this course should be helpful for my first time above 50K. Getting back to camp every 16 miles allows me to adjust calories, clothing & hydration during the race. It also allows for the moral support of seeing my wife. Unfortunately we're a lot of rain in the area lately which is keeping me off the trails.
Found it!
The cause of the lost key
Sunday, June 26, 2016
2016 Training Log : 6/20 - 6/26
Quality: 4x1200 w/ 400 recovery on Wednesday.
Trail: 14 miles at SkullBuster on Monday. 16.5 miles at CVP on Saturday.
Easy: 3 runs for 17 miles.
Cycling: N/A
Total: 6 runs for 56 miles.
Got a few new toys to play with this week, basically going all in with the phone as my run tracker. The first addition was the Polar H7 HRM. I've always been intrigued with using HR to pace my runs & have tried a few times with my Garmin HRM to do so. The Garmin strap was just very uncomfortable & caused a good bit of chafe. The Polar H7 is much more comfortable to wear, only causing some minor chafing after a swampy 16 miler. I'll likely need to add some lube to the hot spot in the future.
The second new toy was the Garmin GLO, giving me a 10Hz bluetooth GPS receiver. While I find my phone to be very accurate on the open road I'd began doubting the accuracy on tree covered trails. What I found was the GLO agreed with my FR210 on the trails I run. Confirming my suspicion that the phone's internal chip was clocking a farther distance than I was actually going. A lot of this is likely related to where I carry my phone, in a belt at the small of my back. The beauty of the GLO is it is small enough to fit in the pouch on my Amphipod handheld, putting it in a great position to receive GPS signals.
I also learned two lessons this week. With my kid's soccer games at 9am on Saturday morning I can't get a long trail run in before the game & with temps in the 90s after the game I'm having trouble completing the distance (I had to bail at mile 16 of 24 Saturday). Trying to keep my HR under 145 on the trail is hard enough in mild temps, but when it's an oven outside it becomes near impossible. The combo of high heat & high average HR is causing me to run out of gas before I can finish the run. With the heat I'd almost have to walk to keep my HR in the aerobic range.
With those two pieces of data in mind I'll be shifting my schedule so my back to backs are on Sunday/Monday. Putting the longer distance on Sunday & the shorter distance on Monday. This actually more closely matches the training plan which has them long/short as well. I'll also start walking significant hills early, to keep that HR under 145. Hopefully the cooler morning temps will allow me to get the distance done without having to go to the well.
Trail: 14 miles at SkullBuster on Monday. 16.5 miles at CVP on Saturday.
Easy: 3 runs for 17 miles.
Cycling: N/A
Total: 6 runs for 56 miles.
Got a few new toys to play with this week, basically going all in with the phone as my run tracker. The first addition was the Polar H7 HRM. I've always been intrigued with using HR to pace my runs & have tried a few times with my Garmin HRM to do so. The Garmin strap was just very uncomfortable & caused a good bit of chafe. The Polar H7 is much more comfortable to wear, only causing some minor chafing after a swampy 16 miler. I'll likely need to add some lube to the hot spot in the future.
The second new toy was the Garmin GLO, giving me a 10Hz bluetooth GPS receiver. While I find my phone to be very accurate on the open road I'd began doubting the accuracy on tree covered trails. What I found was the GLO agreed with my FR210 on the trails I run. Confirming my suspicion that the phone's internal chip was clocking a farther distance than I was actually going. A lot of this is likely related to where I carry my phone, in a belt at the small of my back. The beauty of the GLO is it is small enough to fit in the pouch on my Amphipod handheld, putting it in a great position to receive GPS signals.
I also learned two lessons this week. With my kid's soccer games at 9am on Saturday morning I can't get a long trail run in before the game & with temps in the 90s after the game I'm having trouble completing the distance (I had to bail at mile 16 of 24 Saturday). Trying to keep my HR under 145 on the trail is hard enough in mild temps, but when it's an oven outside it becomes near impossible. The combo of high heat & high average HR is causing me to run out of gas before I can finish the run. With the heat I'd almost have to walk to keep my HR in the aerobic range.
With those two pieces of data in mind I'll be shifting my schedule so my back to backs are on Sunday/Monday. Putting the longer distance on Sunday & the shorter distance on Monday. This actually more closely matches the training plan which has them long/short as well. I'll also start walking significant hills early, to keep that HR under 145. Hopefully the cooler morning temps will allow me to get the distance done without having to go to the well.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
2016 Training Log : 6/13 - 6/19
Quality: 6x800 w/ 400 recovery on Wednesday.
Trail: 12 miles at CVP on Monday. 16.5 miles at CVP on Saturday.
Easy: 3 runs for 22 miles.
Cycling: 2 rides for 8 miles
Total: 6 runs & 2 rides for 68 miles.
One thing about trail running is it teaches you to pick your feet up, sometimes violently. During Monday's trail run I was still recovering from Saturday's bonk. Legs were just a bit heavy & mind a bit tired. I ended up soaring through the air with the greatest of ease three times. I went from someone that had never fallen to racking them up in short order. This all happened in the first four miles, after which I seemed to wake up. The rest of the run was uneventful & rather enjoyable.
Wednesday brought about a return to the track. Once again I biked the 4 miles to the track, did a 2.25 mile warmup, ran 6x800m with 400m recovery targeting 180 seconds, then a 2.25 mile cool down & finally a 4 mile ride home. That short rest between intervals is getting brutal & I can only imagine the suck for the next two sessions. Luckily when I step up to mile repeats I get a two lap rest. Met a guy with what I assume are his boys at the track. They were doing mile repeats, which given how young they were was pretty awesome.
The scheduled back to back for Friday & Saturday was a 14/16. I opted to do the 14 miler on the Legacy Trail due to other commitments that day requiring me to run very early in the morning. For my 16 miler I headed back to CVP, mainly because I needed to stop at a sporting goods store for some fuel. Unfortunately all they had in stock was Gatorade chews, something I'd never used before. Luckily they didn't seem to disagree with me all too much, so I can now add something else to the list of fuel. The plan for my run was to run two 8 mile loops, stopping at the truck to refill my handheld. I also tried a different fuel strategy by eating half a pack of chews every 30 minutes instead of a full pack every hour. This worked out a lot better & I felt strong for the duration of the run. Another new addition was keeping my water in a cooler. Much better than the seemingly boiling water I'd often find in my vehicle. Really starting to question the accuracy of my phone on trail runs. My Garmin GLO is in & I'm looking forward to trying it out next week to see how much of a difference it makes.
Trail: 12 miles at CVP on Monday. 16.5 miles at CVP on Saturday.
Easy: 3 runs for 22 miles.
Cycling: 2 rides for 8 miles
Total: 6 runs & 2 rides for 68 miles.
One thing about trail running is it teaches you to pick your feet up, sometimes violently. During Monday's trail run I was still recovering from Saturday's bonk. Legs were just a bit heavy & mind a bit tired. I ended up soaring through the air with the greatest of ease three times. I went from someone that had never fallen to racking them up in short order. This all happened in the first four miles, after which I seemed to wake up. The rest of the run was uneventful & rather enjoyable.
Wednesday brought about a return to the track. Once again I biked the 4 miles to the track, did a 2.25 mile warmup, ran 6x800m with 400m recovery targeting 180 seconds, then a 2.25 mile cool down & finally a 4 mile ride home. That short rest between intervals is getting brutal & I can only imagine the suck for the next two sessions. Luckily when I step up to mile repeats I get a two lap rest. Met a guy with what I assume are his boys at the track. They were doing mile repeats, which given how young they were was pretty awesome.
The scheduled back to back for Friday & Saturday was a 14/16. I opted to do the 14 miler on the Legacy Trail due to other commitments that day requiring me to run very early in the morning. For my 16 miler I headed back to CVP, mainly because I needed to stop at a sporting goods store for some fuel. Unfortunately all they had in stock was Gatorade chews, something I'd never used before. Luckily they didn't seem to disagree with me all too much, so I can now add something else to the list of fuel. The plan for my run was to run two 8 mile loops, stopping at the truck to refill my handheld. I also tried a different fuel strategy by eating half a pack of chews every 30 minutes instead of a full pack every hour. This worked out a lot better & I felt strong for the duration of the run. Another new addition was keeping my water in a cooler. Much better than the seemingly boiling water I'd often find in my vehicle. Really starting to question the accuracy of my phone on trail runs. My Garmin GLO is in & I'm looking forward to trying it out next week to see how much of a difference it makes.
Received a gift card to Amazon from work, which led to new shoe day!
Left to right: Saucony Peregrine 6, Ride 8 & Kinvara 6.
Saturday, June 18, 2016
2016 Training Log : 6/6 - 6/12
Quality: 12x400 w/ 400 recovery on Wednesday.
Trail: 10.5 miles at CVP on Friday. 19 miles at SkullBuster on Saturday.
Easy: 2 runs for 12 miles.
Cycling: 2 rides for 8 miles
Total: 5 runs & 2 rides for 60 miles.
Week 1 of the training plan for NYM was an interesting one. Rode 4 miles out to the local high school track for a speed workout. Did a 2 mile warmup, then 12x400 targeting 90 seconds with a 400 recover & finished with a 2 mile cool down. It was really nice to get out & really rev the engine up. The bike ride to & from serves as an extended warmup & cool down. It also allows me to mentally reset afterwords. If only there was enough time in the day to use the bike to get to all my running spots.
Friday & Saturday were the start of back to backs, with a 10/16 scheduled. In trail running they say it's not if you fall but when you fall. On Friday I got to experience my first ever superman. Started day dreaming near the end & checked out a bit. An exposed root snapped me back to reality & sent me airborne. Luckily only minor scratches were incurred. On Saturday I went out for a 16 miler that ended up going a bit longer than expected. I don't know if my GPS was that much off or my math. I figure it was a combination of the two. I packed two 140 calorie baggies for the run & a 20oz handheld. By mile 16 I ran out of gas & started to feel the bonk coming on. By mile 17 I was walking. The last 2 miles took over an hour to complete with a few pit stops to sit down & try to recover a bit of energy. The lesson learned here is to take more calories & water to the trail than you think you'll need, you can't base it off what you'd need for a road run.
Trail: 10.5 miles at CVP on Friday. 19 miles at SkullBuster on Saturday.
Easy: 2 runs for 12 miles.
Cycling: 2 rides for 8 miles
Total: 5 runs & 2 rides for 60 miles.
Week 1 of the training plan for NYM was an interesting one. Rode 4 miles out to the local high school track for a speed workout. Did a 2 mile warmup, then 12x400 targeting 90 seconds with a 400 recover & finished with a 2 mile cool down. It was really nice to get out & really rev the engine up. The bike ride to & from serves as an extended warmup & cool down. It also allows me to mentally reset afterwords. If only there was enough time in the day to use the bike to get to all my running spots.
Friday & Saturday were the start of back to backs, with a 10/16 scheduled. In trail running they say it's not if you fall but when you fall. On Friday I got to experience my first ever superman. Started day dreaming near the end & checked out a bit. An exposed root snapped me back to reality & sent me airborne. Luckily only minor scratches were incurred. On Saturday I went out for a 16 miler that ended up going a bit longer than expected. I don't know if my GPS was that much off or my math. I figure it was a combination of the two. I packed two 140 calorie baggies for the run & a 20oz handheld. By mile 16 I ran out of gas & started to feel the bonk coming on. By mile 17 I was walking. The last 2 miles took over an hour to complete with a few pit stops to sit down & try to recover a bit of energy. The lesson learned here is to take more calories & water to the trail than you think you'll need, you can't base it off what you'd need for a road run.
It's been a long time since I stepped foot onto one of these
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