Track Workout

My coach had me do a track workout today to better hone in on my current running heart rate zones. This workout HURT! Also, my left ankle I twisted about 4 weeks ago still hurts after I do hard runs like this.

Here is the workout and the mile splits.

Run Workout (total 5.5 miles):

10' zone 1 + 10' drills + 4 strides with full recovery + 3 X (1600 for time + rest 35'') + 400 for time + 10' zone 1. Rest interval is 35'' between the 1600s and between the last 1600 and 400.

I've done this test 3 times in the past year and it appears that I've gotten a little stronger since before the Chicago Marathon 2007.

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Swimming

Swim workout (2,100 meters):

200 easy free + 100 breaststroke + 4 X 100 free with ankle bands, RI=15'' + 4 X 300 light pace free, RI=10'' + 200 backstroke

shoulders are starting to bother me again. time to ramp up on my shoulder stabilizer exercises.

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A short bike

Bike Workout:

10' zone 1 + 4' gradually bring intensity up to top of zone 4 intensity + 25' zone 2 (every 3' include a 10'' max effort burst) + 10' zone 1

my left spin scan was pretty low today...not sure why. maybe I need to start using my powercranks again a couple times a week.

CLICK HERE for computrainer data.

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Training Week #2

I've realized that keeping a blog is VERY time consuming. Wow. I didn't realize that.

I've been hounded by my friends to post more regularly so I'll try to do that even if it's just what my workout was for the day and how I felt.

Today I had a swim and a run.

Swim workout (1,900 meters): 200 easy free + 100 breaststroke + 200 closed fist and pullbuoy + 50 OK + 50 Index + 50 Pinky + 4 X 100 IM, RI=30'' + 4 X 200 easy free, RI=10'' + 150 backstroke

felt pretty good today in the water. definitely getting back in swim shape pretty quickly. neck was a little sore since i'm not used to using it so much (i.e. breathing in the water)

Run workout: 10' zone 1 + 10' zone 3 + 4 X (30'' stride + 1' walk) + 10' zone 1

stupid HRM wasn't working again. I need to send it to Polar to get the battery in the watch changed. had to run by RPE. figured zone 3 was my 8:00min/mile pace at the half marathon so did that and it felt about right. did 10:00min/miles for the zone 1 times.

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March Madness Half Marathon 2008

Today was the March Madness Half Marathon in Cary, Illinois. It was fun to get out there in the early season and run this long of a race. I had been training for it a little bit over the past couple months and felt pretty good. Some of my friends from the Lifetime Fitness Run Club out of Algonquin were there and it was great to see them. We tend to not get out and run together very much during the winter (too cold).

CLICK HERE for my race day data.

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A Great Run

Yesterday was one of the best runs I had in several months. I wanted to do 2 hours at 9:30-10:00min/mile pace but found a group that was going to run the March Madness half marathon course in Cary, IL. We got just slightly lost and ended up running 14.0 miles instead of 13.1 miles.

Since I didn't know the course I kept pace with a couple guys that wanted to do 8:15-8:30min/miles and figured I just hang with them until I got tired...well that never happened and I felt unbelievable during the run.

I ran in my new Nike Free shoes, which were awesome (except on ice...I almost broke my neck). Even though the weather started at 25 degrees, it was sunny and hardy any wind and I guess my clothing perfectly.

Due to the very hilly course we ended up averaging just under 9:00 min/miles and my avg heart rate was only 149 beats per minute! Very good for me this early in the season.

CLICK HERE for garmin data and CLICK HERE for HRM data.

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Mid February??

Holy crap. I can't believe that it's already mid February! I'm glad I signed up for a half marathon in mid March so I keep some semblance of physical fitness. :)

Last week sucked big time for workouts. I need to stop planning ahead so much and just focus on today...what workouts do I need to complete today and the weeks will take care of themselves.

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