As a youth, I ran, yet I did not exist in a sense. 19 years passed. Today, I exist in one sense because I must run. Perhaps I run to escape the futility of my existence. Perhaps not. In either case, this blog, or whatever it is, will serve to chronicle my training as a runner, my development as a man, and ultimately my demise as a human, because all things pass, fade, retreat into the horizon--and while we run, as we run, the mirage that is the shimmering, glimmering future continues to assert itself just out of reach. And yet, as this picture up above connotes, it may still be beautiful. And so the question may be what is IT? What is it? What is IT?

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

12.27-1.2

12.27 8 miles in 59:30

12.28 Off

12.29 14 miles in 93:55 on treadmill at 2% incline. First 3 miles were in 21:58, next three were in 17:53, next three were in 21:48, next mile was in 5:26, next mile was in 7:12, next mile was in 5:23, last two miles were in 14:08.

This was a solid workout and incorporated some speed and stamina. Having the treadmill at 2% incline actually equates to roughly 5 seconds per mile faster for the faster miles if I was outside. This is according to the following website at http://www.hillrunner.com/training/tmillchart.php.

I do not like treadmill running and nearly all my runs last week were outside, but our first real snowfall pretty much has forced me indoors for now. I just dont trust drivers on snowy roads and roads without any space on the sides for me to run on right now.

12.30 14 miles in 95:13 on treadmill.

12.31 14 miles outside in 97 minutes.

1.1 14 miles outside in 94 minutes. First 7 miles in 46 minutes, then next 2 in 17 with my son, then my last 5 were in 31:20.

I cannot believe how much stronger I feel. I feel much, much stronger than ever before.

1.2 8 miles AM. 2 miles warm up. then 3 miles tempo on treadmill in 16:50 at 2% incline, which equals about 5:30 pace. 800 recovery and then 4 by 200's at 12.5 mph with 200 recovery at 3% incline. 1.5 cool down. 6 miles pm in 41:25.

78 miles

These last two weeks were very intense.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

12.20-12.26

12.20 6 miles in 42 minutes. With the snow, a lot of my runs will take place on the treadmill. I have a treadmill conversion chart in terms of pacing so I will run my training runs at 2% incline which roughly equates to running outside. For my posts, then, I wont be distinguishing between outside runs and treadmill runs.

12.21 12 miles in 82:47

12.22 6 miles outside in 44:23 (AM). 10 miles (PM) on track outside in 62:20. This was 6:14 pace and felt pretty good. Solid pace, but certainly not a tempo run--but fast enough to get the blood moving!

12.23 7 miles in 47:23 (AM); 5 miles in PM at 34:41.

12.24 6 miles AM in 41:12. Last 3 miles were in 18:46 with nine 1 minute surges (strides) with 1 minute recoveries. 9 miles PM in 63:25.

12.25 7 Miles early afternoon. 4 miles warm up and 2.25 miles cool down. In between, I did 6 by 200's at 33 seconds with 25 second recoveries. 5 miles Late afternoon in 31:34; splits were 6:43, 6:31, 6:22, 6:12, 5:46. This was a pretty solid run given this week's workload.

12.26 12 miles in 85 minutes

85 miles

This was the most miles I ever ran in a week. I am pleased.

Monday, December 13, 2010

12.13-12.19

12.13 3 miles easy

12.14 3 miles easy. I hate to take it easy, but this week is all about RECOVERY.

12.15 8 miles in 59 minutes.

12.16 9 miles in 67 minutes.

12.17 6 miles total. 2 miles warm up, then 3 by 600's with 200 recovery followed by one 200 with 200 recovery. 600's were in 1:49, 1:48, 1:50; 200 in 30. 2.25 cool down. This is a recovery week, so I only wanted to add a little speed into my week.

12.18 4 miles easy (28 minutes)

12.19 10 miles in 78 minutes. I did this up in Meredith and there were mountains everywhere, so this was a pretty solid run.

43 miles total

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

12.6-12.12

12.6 10 miles in 61:28. This was a rough workout. I ran 2 minutes recovery at a decent pace and then went fast for a predetermined length of time. First 2 miles with 1 minute sprints (13:01); Miles 3 and 4 with 2 minute sprints (12:10); Miles 5 and 6 with 3 minute sprints (12:00); Miles 7 and 8 with 2 minute sprints (12:08); Miles 9 and 10 with 1 minute sprints (12:09).

12.7 5 miles at 5% grade treadmill. 35:58.

12.8 10 miles in 73:58.

12.9 10 miles (67:30)

12.10 11 miles 76:26 (AM); 4 miles in the pm but only 2 hours after my morning run. What a mistake--I had nothing left in my tank. .5 warm up, then 2 by 1200's in 4:10, 4:08 with 400 jogging recoveries and then 4 by 200s with 200 recoveries at 35 seconds each rep. .5 cool down. I had nothing left in my tank and have been sick all week, so this afternoon workout was worthless.

12.11 6 miles (46:50)

12.12 4 miles 29:30 (Treadmill)

I have run pretty hard the last 4 weeks and enxt week is a recovery week. My legs feel pretty tired.

60 miles total

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

11.29-12.5

11.29 OFF

11.30 6 miles in 45 minutes

12.1 4 miles AM in 27:48. 8 miles PM (53:24) Last 2 miles in 12:13, last mile in 5:38. I just wanted to switch gears at the end.

12.2 9 miles total. Before I go into my workout, I went back into an old workout on my gps watch before my half marathon and realized my 5 mile tempo run where I thought I did 26:24 was actually 19 laps instead of 20. I lost count I guess. Hence, that might explain why I did not feel as strong in the race as I might have expected.

Anyhow, Im feeling great now and ran a really good workout today and I did not lose count of my laps and my watch bears this out! 1/2 mile warm up and then 8 mile tempo run with splits of 5:37,5:34,5:36,5:36,5:36,5:35,5:34,5:26 (44:34). 1/2 mile cooldown. This is by far the fastest 6 or 7 or 8 miles in a row I have ever run. Honestly, I felt pretty good until the 7th mile and then in my 8th I was feeling aerobically challenged. This is most likely about a 5:40 mile pace outside since I ran this on a treadmill at only 1% incline. I still think this is solid, though. Since the half, I have trained seriously so next week I'll take a recovery week to give myself a rest somewhat.

A lot of this is really mental. I need to power through these faster workouts--but training by myself all the time is rough. But by the spring, I expect big things.

12.3 12 miles in 87:42.

12.4 3 easy miles

12.5 6 miles AM in 37:50. 7 miles PM in 48:35.

55 miles total