Running …

… because I can … because it's fun … because it's healthy … just BECAUSE.

Tag Archives: speed workout

A new approach to October

October wasn’t about the finish … it was about getting back on track.

For the past few years, October has been about winding down. It’s been more about ending something rather than starting something.

This year, though, it’s been all about a change of pace, quite literally. With this being the first full month of being a father of two, all I was really striving for was making sure I ran 3 or 4 times a week for 30-40 minutes. If I had it in me, go for 10 miles or so on the weekends.

It turns out this extremely loose plan with no major goals was exactly what I needed to make this October completely different than previous years. And the more removed I am from the Runner’s World Festival weekend, the more I realize how important those few days really were to me.

A few things about this month:

  • I ran 78 miles, the fourth month in a row of increased mileage since a really low mileage month in June.
  • My combined running and biking mileage was more than 100 miles for the third straight month.
  • My streak of running 1,000 miles in a calendar year will end, but in November I’ll still cross a combined 1,000 exercise miles for the year. I’ll take it.
  • I lost 3 pounds of my “baby weight.” September and early October were a bit rough with everything that involved eating. I got things under better control in the past few weeks and feel much better because of that. I’m back to 30 overall pounds lost since early 2004 and I feel a stronger desire than usual to get to my original 40 lost before the end of the year. I can’t obsess about it, but I can certainly stay on this path.
  • After writing about setting a goal of a PR in the 10-miler, I realized I need to actually run at and below that goal pace. A renewed effort with speed work started this week by including 2 miles on the treadmill at 15:21. That, too, is a path to stay on with more and longer speed work.

Now it’s on to November. No major goals other than to build on October.

Let’s go …

Redefining “easy”

yin yang sign runningOne of the best things about running is feeling like I’m constantly learning something. Sometimes it’s about relearning something.

And sometimes it’s about starting from scratch despite what’s so ingrained in my mind.

One of those starting-from-scratch things is the definition of “easy.”

For way too long, running “easy” has been about pace for me. Just like a tempo run or intervals, easy has had some sort of range.

It’s changed over the years as I’ve focused on different races that I’m training for, injuries I’ve dealt with and where I am fitness wise. It’s also changed based on articles I’ve read and advice I’ve sought along the way.

I’ve realized, though, in the past few months that I’ve been approaching easy runs completely wrong.

Running “easy” isn’t always about pace; it’s also a state of mind. It’s also a physical state that my body needs to be in so I don’t overtrain.

When I think back to last summer and my long runs for the Richmond Marathon, the worst long runs were ones in which I didn’t hit a certain pace. While I know that race pace miles are needed, I think I was trying too hard to hit that pace too many times on long runs.

Simply put, I was running myself into the ground. It became a chore.

Last week I looked at my splits for the Richmond Marathon for the first time — there was nothing wrong with the first 14 miles of the race. While my pace was slightly above my goal, I started to let things slip because I was overthinking what I was doing. When I tried to pick the pace up, I didn’t go any faster.

It’s taken me a long time to realize this, but I gave up that day. If I would have stuck with the pace I had set out on, I probably would have landed my best time, but for me it was hit my goal or go home.

And now I blame a lot of that on way too many non-easy miles over the summer.

I love being faster and setting big goals for races, but now I understand that if I’m going to put down more PRs, I need to run easy more often. Both in a physical sense and a mental sense.

Lately on days when I do speedwork, I’m back to a pace I was at a year ago. This week I did a 2-mile tempo in 15:15; a month ago I was at 16:09.

I think my easy days have helped give me a better experience on the days I’ve pushed it.

It’s probably too little too late to see results for the Shamrock Half next week, but for the first time in several months I am confident about where things are headed. And I have easy runs to thank for that.

Doggy wake-up call

Duke, golden retriever, running

Let's run already.

The best runs are the unplanned ones, which for me has sort of been my frame of mind lately.

While I have mileage and time-on-my-feet goals each week, I’ve been doing more running lately that falls in the category of doing what feels right.

That was really working well for me about a year ago and it’s about time I’ve gotten back to it.

Today was one of those days in which I wanted to sleep in a bit. Mondays have been good for that this winter.

Duke, however, had other plans. While he’ll occasionally whine right next to my face, he doesn’t do much nudging at me. Today was a full force nudge, coupled with whining and pacing back and forth in my room.

If he could talk, I think it would have been along the lines of “GET THE EFF OUT OF BED ALREADY DUDE!”

And I fully believe it was because he wanted to run. His sense of urgency to use the restroom was nothing unusual when he hit the grass.

So we ran. And after a mile, I decided we should do some quarter-mile intervals.

After feeling a bit sluggish for the first couple of intervals I stepped it up in the final two, hitting 1:52 and 1:50. It’s been way too long since I’ve hit that speed, but it felt good. I did 6 intervals total and felt like I had much more to give.

I don’t like having to say “it’s been a while” with these runs I’ve had lately, but it’s all starting to feel new to me.

And I really like that. I’ve gone on and on long enough about why my running has been lacking, and I think that it’s time that I focus on days like this where everything feels almost right again.

Day 1: Richmond 2012

I’m not one to count the days up or down with training, but this feels different this time around. All training cycles feel different I guess … maybe “special” is a better word.

We’ll come back to that in a few months.

Today, though, “official” Richmond Marathon training started. Thanks to some traveling I have to do for work Tuesday, I rearranged my training schedule to kick off things with a 6-mile progressive run. I’m pretty sure this was my longest attempt at a progressive run as well.

To say things started well is an understatement. It’s like I put the demons of my funk behind me after I finally wrote about them; things suddenly seem so clear. Perhaps “right” is a better word. (I’ve written way too much in my day job today to think of words …)

Today’s splits were: 9:33, 9:12, 8:37, 8:32, 8:17, and 8:03. All that without really looking at my watch.

I couldn’t have asked for a better start …

Assessing my coach

Nearly 3 weeks ago I quietly mentioned that I was joining Coach Caleb’s team, and I haven’t said anything since.

I wanted to see how the first few weeks went before I made any comments about him or get into too many details about specific workouts. I think it’s unfair to the both of us if I did so.

It’s also been a weird few weeks as I have transitioned to Cleveland Half Marathon training with a short, but specific time frame for it; threw in a “for fun” race in an orchard and another non-race that kicked my ass; and just tried to get into a normal routine of running in the morning.

All that crap aside, these first few weeks with Caleb leading the show have been awesome. I’ve missed a couple of runs mainly to me getting off schedule and I’ve changed/shortened a couple of workouts due to time shortage, but in these few weeks I have pushed myself to do things I haven’t done on my own in a long time.

My long run yesterday, for example, called for 12 miles with the final 3 miles at a moderate pace. After 4 relatively easy miles with my dog, I set out for 5 hilly miles; after 9 miles I was wiped out.

It kind of reminded me of last week’s race — as I entered the home stretch then I had nothing left. Yesterday I had Coach Caleb’s voice in my head (although I’ve never heard his voice) telling me to step it up in the final 3 miles.

I flattened out my route and finished the final few miles in an 8:36 pace. Not bad for tired legs in a “normal” long run. Normally I would have packed it in with the way I felt, and maybe cut it short.

Where I have failed, as I mentioned, it giving myself enough time in the morning. Earlier in the week, a workout called for 12 400-meter repeats, plus a mile at a hard effort. I started about 10-15 minutes later than I wanted and got in seven of the repeats.

That said, my repeats were mainly consistent at 1:47, 1:47, 1:45, 1:50, 1:50, 1:52, and 1:50 and my mile was in 7:37.

At next week’s Carytown 10k, I hope I’ll see this little bit of extra hard work pay off. It’s a race that I’ll actually race; I’ll set a specific goal time around mid-week as I assess how I feel.

Coach Caleb is doing some great things for me and others on the team, and I can’t wait to see how all this transpires over the next few weeks before the Cleveland Half and this summer for Richmond.