Week 10 Results... (a story of contrasts)

On one hand, I am happy about the running. Week 10 has proven to me I am *way* ahead of schedule (pace wise) and I am on track for a new PR; if I so desire. But the contrast is I found out earlier this week that my step father has tonsil cancer. While the prognosis sounds like he has a decent chance of beating this horrid disease...it is going to be a fight for him. Chemo, Radiation, surgery, tooth extraction, a feeding tube for months...alone, any one of these is a pain; but he is going to deal with all of them at once and for the better part of 2 months. In many ways I am in shock; but I am doing my best to help him prepare for the fight ahead. Maybe, ironically, this is way I have been fighting my own battles lately...so that I am more prepared 'mentally' and 'spiritually' to console him. Who knows...but this is a tough one. My faith tells me not to worry; it is all in God's hands.

Week 10 recap...60 miles

• Mon - rest
• Tues - 6 miles. 3 miles Tempo - 18:17 or 6:06 pace.
• Wed - 13 miles. 1:51 or 8:33 pace
• Thur - 8 miles. 56:44 or 7:37 pace
• Fri - 3 miles. recovery
• Sat - 20 miles. 2:29 or 7:28 pace. Note: this was about the muggiest run I have ever done. I filled my camelback and ran with it. I drank 30+ ounces of propel on the run and another 10 or so when i was done. I felt nauseous and managed to throw up once I got home. Ugghh. Good run though.
• Sun - 10 miles. 1:11:57 or 7:12 pace. Not bad after a 20 miler the day before.

The next 10 weeks will prove to be a challenge for me...and my family.

Week 8 and 9 Results...

So I have been slacking in my blog posts, now I must catch up on two weeks worth. All in all, the last two weeks have been eye openers; and I have met some good milestones. Week 8 ended the prep work phase, ended the ' rehab' phase, ended with my 1st race since October last year and was the 1st marathon phase for this upcoming October marathon. Week 9 ended with my 1st 20 miler of the season. So here are the results...

Week 8 - 44.5:
Mon: 8 miles recovery
Tues: 10 miles general aerobic
Wed: off
Thur: 8 miles general aerobic
Fri: 4.5 miles recovery
Sat: off
Sun: 14 miles. Erie half marathon in 1:28:21

Week 9 - 52 miles:
Mon: off
Tues: off
Wed: 14 miles Solid run - 7:50 pace
Thur: 8 miles Solid run - 7:20 pace
Fri: off
Sat: 20 miles. 1:26:40 - 7:20 pace. Also note ~5min negative split. 2nd 10 - 1:10:30
Sun: 10 mile recovery

I wanted to run the Erie 1/2 marathon in under 1:30 (see last post)...and I did. In week 9, I wanted to run over 50 miles...and I did. Interesting fact: 52 miles in 4 runs...that's and average of 13 miles per run!!!!. The 1st 20 miler...cake, I could have run harder. That is a great sign for me. Also the fact that I ran 10 miles the day after so that is 30 miles in two days. Hello....that is a record for me!

While there is a lot of good news...it is all not a rosie picture. I still have a partial clot in my calf that is not going away, so I am still on blood thinners. While most of the time it doesn't bother me, about once or twice a week I get a noticeable calf pain/strain. Worrisome?!?, yes but only in terms of "Is this something I will have the rest of my life?" or worse, is this going to pose a problem when I least expect it? I wish it just would go away...it has been 5 months. They keep telling me the timeline is 3-6months...so I quess there is still time.

Week 10 goals:
- I have been in the upper 40's / 50 miles a week range for about 5 weeks now...so I am going to bump up the miles to get into the 60's.
- I am going to switch gears a bit to get more endurance. Lately tempo has played a key factor due to the 1/2. I will cut back to 1 tempo run for the week.

Week 7 Results...

Well...another overall pleasing week; although I was 6 miles short of goal. But I am Ok with that. I started off the week with 2 days off...so that puts me in the hole early on, then the travelling over the weekend / heat wave makes it hard to play catch up. I am pleased though with the pace I am running now...I am back in the thick of things. I will find out were I stand for sure come this Sunday...my 1st race since injury, the Erie 1/2 marathon. Goal - Better than the 1:30 last year. Can I do it???

Recap - 44 miles
Mon - off
Tues - off
Wed - 12 'steady state' miles @ 7:26
Thur - 8 miles. Six at Tempo pace of 6:43. Sweet!!!
Fri - 6 miles @ 7:13 pace.
Sat - 18 miles. 8:20 pace.

The interesting thing is I ran Friday at 11:45 PM since we travelled to Philly. Ran hard to get the mile in quickly since it was so late. I ran Saturday at 11am to 1:30pm so in the span of 12 hrs I ran 24 miles. The 18'er was in the heat, temp's over 80 degrees. So I am pleased with my performances of the week. My average run pace for the week is about 7:30. That is huge...since 6 weeks ago I was pushing 9-10 minute pace; and that was for only 3 miles.

Goal for next week...Upper 50 miles (get back on track) and run a personal best Erie 1/2 marathon.

So there it is in writing...I will run a sub 1:30 half. ONLY 5 months and 1 week after knee reconstruction!!

Week 6 results...

Yes...I am again pleased with another successful week. As I noted last week, my goal for this week was a 40+ mile week; with a 16+ mile long run. What I am noticing is that my 'sustainable' pace is picking up...which is great; but it make me more tired than I would say I was during weeks 3 and 4 when I was doing similar mileage but slower pace. Take a note of Sunday's long run...I am so happy about that. I real good gut check.

Mon - Rest
Tues - Rest
Wed - 10 miles. 1:15 / 7:33 pace
Thur - 6.6 miles. 47 min / 7:08 pace
Fri - 4 mile recovery. 35 min
Sat - 8 miles. 1:04 / 8:01 pace
Sun - 17 miles. 2:02 / 7:11 pace YES!! Did I say, Yippee. Awesome, hard run.

I am writing this about 6 hrs after the long run. I am sore and tired...but that should be expected. I ran harder than I intended, but i have a rule of thumb I follow on my runs. No mile is to be slower than my 1st mile. 1st mile was 7:30...so when I ran that I knew I was in for a hard run. I quickly decided to run a 'double' tempo run. 2 mile warmup, 4 miles tempo, 3 miles controlled, 4 miles tempo, 4 miles controlled. All without breaks...except the one I explain below.

I ran this long run on the Buffalo trail since i am getting bored with my normal routes since i have about a dozen courses I do some sort of variation of for my runs. The buffalo trail runs 20 miles from Freeport PA to Butler PA and for the most part is a nice tree covered crushed limestone trail with a river on one side and a steep hillside on the other; very scenic. My issue with the trail...no water stops. Uggghhhh. I thought I had hydrated well...but i quickly learned I had not. By mile 7 I was pretty thirsty. By mile 12 I was almost spent and needed water badly. With my 'survival' experience from watching Discovery channel and my quick eye I took notice of a mountain stream coming off the hillside. The water looked clear and clean, but I really have no idea where the water was coming from. A quick sniff test and taste test I went for it. Because I was so thirsty, I thought this was the best water I ever had. ;-) I feel fine now, so let's hope it wasn't tainted in some way.

After the run, I drank a large gatorade, a 20 oz bottle of water, a 20 oz pepsi all before I got home. Once home, within an hour I drank more water, 3 glasses of milk and some iced tea. Man...I was dehydrated. But I am feeling better now. Note to self: drink more water!!!! I think the camel back is going to have to come out for runs like this.

Goal for week 7: Back to the 50 mile range...running tempo's 1 to 2 times during the week. 18 mile long run at some point. The holiday week will probably present a challenge to reaching this goal.