weight PR! 156. Lowest I have hit since growing up was the 157 during a GI bug last semester when I was pretty horribly dehydrated. My diet is going well. Basically I am counting calories roughly, cut out coke, snacks, and am eating a lot of fruits and vegetables. I still get full at meals but I do sometimes get hungry between meals. I have been doing a 200cal carb snack on workout days if I am feeling hungry 1-2hrs before the workout. Otherwise just the 3 meals a day. Hoping to keep this going down to 145 by the end of next month.
PM: 7 including 4x800 in 2:46, 2:44, 2:43, 2:43, 4x400 in 72, 72, 73, 69! 4x200 in 32, 32, 33, 33 with 1min recovery between reps and 2min recovery between sets. This time I slowed down the 800's so that I could get some quality 400's in. And the strategy did not dissapoint. If I can do that back to back in a race (which I suspect I can) I can pull a 4:46. Then maybe by late spring I can pull that down further. The 400's were relaxed except perhaps the second 200 of the 69. After that I just got the 200's in... nothing special. Was a bit sick to my stomach at that point.
PM: 6.5 This winter is really getting to me. It snowed another 4 inches today. AAHH. Why wont it stop already? All I am asking for is clear roads to run and drive on. It can be cold. I can deal with that pretty easily with layers. But the slipping every step making me go sooo slow I just can't stand anymore. We just need 3 days in a row in which it doesn't freeze overnight (fat chance until march, we havent had a single night that didn't freeze since early december). Bah! /end rant
Feeling a little bloated despite sticking strictly to the diet. So I cut another 300cal from dinner cause I was already very full. I think the vegetable mooshoo I made yesterday really fills me up for how many calories it has! It might be my new go-to dish. I have been doing a spagetti with tons of vegies in the sauce. But the mooshoo is just vegies and some oil with some hoisen sauce (which honestly is sugar, msg, and fat, but I dont use that much). Im really looking forward to 154. I will be racing the mile on the 14th and 22nd of this month. I will have to make sure I get enough carbs the night before each which might put me back a little bit in the diet, but I should be racing at something like 152 and 150lbs if all goes well. Next week I am gonna do the gold standard 10x400 w/1min recovery to see what I can expect on race day. I am thinking right now that 4:46 will be in the cards, but 4:45 or below will be a real stretch. When I am feeling good 72's can be relaxed now, but 71's are pushing it. Definitely by mid-late spring I will break 4:45.
PM: 9.15 including 4x2km with 200m recovery in 7:28 (5:59 pace), 7:18 (5:50 pace), 7:22 (5:53 pace), 7:18 (5:50 pace) then 4x200m in 33, 33, 32, 31 with 1min recovery. On the 2ks I was willing to just go 6 pace because it was more volume than I am used to in a workout and we had two guys who were just starting workouts for the season. But on the second one jamie lead and put the pedal down. Then I led the first few laps of the third one and then jordan took over and sped up. And on the last one I led the first half mile right at 6 pace then jamie took over and must have really sped up as we averaged 5:50 pace including the first half mile at 6 pace. During the 200s my left quad was weak as anything and I didn't have much but I managed alright. I think I might have really gained some speed. I want to do another 200 workout on fresh legs to see if I have.
PM: 6.5 Lately I am feeling pretty washed out for my runs. Luckily this will be my last week at 80 for a while. Next two weeks I will be racing then I will take a cutback week to maybe 50. By then hopefully it will be significantly better weather and I can rekindle the running fire and get ready for some 5k's and 5milers in the spring.
AM: 4.25 17F colder than I was expecting. So instead of doing the 10 today we postponed it to tomorrow to get more 'warm' weather in.
PM: 6.5 38F nice weather but 2 guys came out who simply could not complete the run. We went about 9min pace for about a mile or two when one turned back a short way to get back and the other one wanted to continue but then at mile 4 he needed to stop and walk for a bit. Ugh. So we walked a little bit, then ran some more, then he needed to walk again so we kept on running then turned back after a few min to make sure he knew the way back to campus. We ended up walking some and then jogging it in. Took an extra 25 min on the normal 50min run. I did run the full distance or more though because of the back tracking. I put 6.5 miles on the email. I guess I didn't put a pace there but I just assume that people realize that you can walk 10+min miles on roads so by saying running I mean slightly faster. I go slow on my distance runs, but I do actually run them.
PM: 6.25 including 9x400 with 1min recovery in 69, 72, 72, 72, 73, 74, 72, 71, 72... So I lead out the first one and feel pretty good, but henry wanted to lead the next few so I let him and I ran fairly on the outside of the lane to stay close. After he hit 74 I started leading again because I knew I could go faster. Had to go around some people a few times but it wasn't too bad. I had planned on 10x400 but henry dropped after number 8 (which he lead and I needed to pass him). I knew that I would run a 71 or maybe 70 at that point. But since it is an indicator workout, there wasn't much point in doing it once I knew I could. And with nobody to run with I just said screw it. Excuses excuses I know. But I know what I could run, and that is the point of the workout. I don't think the last one has much if any physiological benefit and it might be detrimental to go that hard. Averaged 71.8 (but probably more like 72.2 considering I don't remember the tenths place for any of them). Should be good for a 4:48 or slightly better. The new goal is just to break 4:50 this race and then see if I can break that time next week.
AM: 4.25 Turns out the deadline for registration for the BU meet was last night. Woops. Emailed race director. Looks like he still might let me in. He emailed me back asking what event I wanted to run.
PM: 6.5 Was planning on skipping this run for the taper but the race director hasn't emailed me back again yet. So I don't know if I will be racing on Saturday or not. If I don't hear from him by the workout tomorrow, I am gonna go ahead and assume I won't be racing on Saturday and do the workout. I am not really peaked yet anyway. And one more week of weight loss can only help.
PM: 7.1 including 5x1k with 200m recovery (varied from 1min to 1:45). Because of the short recovery and a slightly different philosophy I have about workouts this year, they were a bit slow on purpose. 3:27 (henry's fault), 3:23, 3:25, 3:23, 3:23. Last year I bust my butt to hit every one at 3:20 and take 3+min recoveries. This year I am more focused on it being controlled fast and reducing the recovery time. Also I think I am still feeling monday's workout in my legs. It looks like Im not gonna race this weekend so that is fine. I'll be ready next sunday.
AM: 7.9 - Yep that's right... the Haynes' Classic Training Run. Trails were more than a bit icy though so I think I'll let this one be it for a few weeks yet. Tonight I might try out my old 8 mile loop that I used almost every non-long, non-workout day for my first marathon. No matter how bad I did on that (3:17:23 walk-running the last 3 miles) the loop is still dear to me.
PM: 8.15 - Did the old marathon training course. It was pretty nice at sunset giving me nice views over the river and over downtown providence at different parts. Not too bad.
PM: 7.75 including 3x2x400,200 with 200m between reps and 600m between sets. The 200s were meant to be only a tiny bit faster than the 400s so we went 72, 36, 73, 34, 72, 34, 70, 33, 71, 33, 70, 33. Recovery was long compared to what I am used to but we kept the 200s to under 90 seconds and the 600s to under 4 min which is almost full recovery except when you are running during it. Nice controlled speed workout. Only pushed the last 400 a bit because with 100 to go I thought we would hit 69 but we missed it by .18 darn.
Instead of going to boston and paying 20 dollars race entry 30 dollars usatf membership and cost of travel I decided to have jamie pace me here. The main reason was really the time though--I have an exam on tuesday and I didnt want this to take all day. And although I didnt hit my time, I doubt that being in boston would have been any different. I also don't think that I am overestimating my fitness. I think that I just had a really bad day. I didn't feel good even from the start. My splits were 70 (including the first 9 meters), 73, 73, 79 -- I was completely rigging from 300m to the finish. I almost shuffled the final 100m because I simply could not pick up my feet like I should. I was willing myself to go faster but that is all I had. There was a fair wind on the back straightaway which might have cost me some time but I doubt much. And I also think that competition would not have helped me a great deal because I know I went as hard as I could. Pacing was alright had I been able to go sub 4:50 which was my goal but the pacing was pretty bad for the time that I did run. I am gonna use this as a stepping stone and try again in 2 weeks with jamie and henry. After the race it took me a good 10 minutes to not feel like I might fall over and start remembering stuff. Then we warmed down 2ish miles and for the first half mile I felt like 9min pace was tempo - I was breathing really hard and felt light headed. But it got much much better after that.
Well, as of 2pm my arms feel like I lifted weights today (probably just from the flood of lactic acid during the race) and I feel like taking a nap. And my lungs feel like death, but my legs actually feel pretty good.
PM: 6.5 Why do I keep doing this if I don't improve at all? To punish myself? Or because I really enjoy it? I think I do enjoy the lifestyle on the whole. But getting out there for a second run in the freezing rain was not very pleasent today. Felt pretty good though. Any soreness will come tomorrow though.
PM: didn't run, was worn out from appartment hunting, staying up most of last night, and the test. I did ride my bike all around prov looking at appartments. Mainly when I got back it was late and I was super cold and hungry. Oh well, this week is gonna be a cutback week anyway.
PM: Breakthrough workout! 8 including 5 miles on the track in 29:24!! The plan was to start around 6:15 and bring it down slowly to slightly sub 6 pace. And it started out reasonably. And as I sped up it just continued to be relaxed until about the last mile when I finally started feeling it. But it was never uncontrolled. Splits were 6:06, 6:02, 5:50 (5k split of 18:40), 5:46, 5:40. I kicked the last 400 a bit (something near 80) but besides that it was just steady as she goes and relaxed.
AM: Bainbridge loop (which incidentally is an out and back course but called loop because it runs partially on a road called bainbridge loop--dont ask me why the road is called loop because it is not a loop either) 10.15 miles.
