Friday, February 18, 2011

Great Weather in February!

Wow, what a beautiful week weatherwise! And only 2 weeks after the biggest snowstorm to hit Springfield since I moved here. Yesterday was in the mid 60's!

Coaches gave me quite a week, but I hit every pace! Here's what I did this week:

Sun Feb 13- Long run of 17 miles:
Plan with actual paces in ():
2 mi warm up (10:45, 11:20)
4 mi @ 10:00-10:20 (10:16, 10:06, 10:11, 10:01)
6 mi @ 9:30-10:00 (9:34, 9:35, 9:37, 9:33, 9:32, 9:34)
4 mi @ 9:05-9:25 (9:06, 8:55, 8:56, 8:49) *tail wind*
1 mi cd (10:11)

Took Monday off to spend time with the hubby on our first Valentines Day as a married couple!

Tues Feb 15th- 6.2 mi recovery run, plus I felt awesome so I came home and did 45 min on the trainer.

Wed Feb 16th-Swim 1750, and ran a 9 mi tempo:
1.5 mi warm up (1 mi @ 10:34, 0.5 mi@ 10:20)
2 mi @ 8:30-8:40 (8:31, 8:29)
5 min rec (0.52 mi @ 10:02)
2 mi @ 8:20-8:30 (8:14, 8:11)
5 min rec (0.48 @ 10:30)
1 mi @ 7:55-8:10 (7:46)
1 mi rec (1 mi @ 10:36, 0.46 mi @ 10:34)

Thurs Feb 17th- Hills + Speed: I would not normally do a hill workout the day after a tempo workout, but I was off work wed night and I had to take advantage of that, so I went into town to run on the hills of the frostbite festival course:
1.5 mi wu (1 mi @ 10:46, 0.5 mi @ 11:08)
2 mi rolling hills @ 8:45-9:00 (8:42, 8:42)
1 mi @ 8:05-8:15 (8:05)
2 mi rolling hills @ 8:45-9:00 (8:42, 8:40)
1.5 mi cool down (1 mi @ 10:48, 0.52 mi @ 10:30)

Today (Fri) I'm going to do some time on the trainer, just whatever I can bear. Tomorrow looks like an easy recovery of 1 hr 10 min. I tell ya, I'm hitting these paces in the speed workouts, and I get that I can do it, but I look back a week later going "wow, did I seriously hit those 8 something paces for 5 miles of the tempo workout? crazy!"

Listened to a webinar on getting ready for the Illinois Marathon. The speaker was selling a book, so I decided to pick it up since I got it for a discount for having listened to his speech. It's called Running Anatomy by Joe Puleo and Dr. Patrick Milroy. It looks like an interesting read. Gives a lot of exercises to do and exactly which muscles those exercises target, and then tells you what it has to do with running muscles, etc. I'll let you all (haha, I think I only have one reader anyway! lol) know how it turns out!

Lata for now!

P.S. I started reading the forum on beginner triathlete that's all about the IM Louisville, looks like some really nice people and I'm already getting great info from them. I'll definitely be keeping up with that forum. Looks like there are some group training rides on the course throughout the summer, maybe I can get in on a few of those.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

A Big Year Ahead!

Ok, training update:

I'm at the end of week 5 of training for the Illinois Marathon. Here's what my week turned out:

Monday- I did my long run because I worked on Sunday. Did 18 miles like this:

2 mi warm up (10:52, 10:57)
5 mi @ 10:00-10:15 (10:16, 10:12, 10:08, 10:03, 10:01)
5 mi @ 9:30-9:45 (9:29, 9:29, 9:29, 9:30, 9:29)
5 mi @ 9:00-9:15 (9:00, 9:02, 8:58, 8:47, 8:21)
1 mi cool down (11:14) this was thru town in the slush and nastiness, hard to run on!

Tues- normally I do a 6-7 mi recovery run. Didn't do it. My legs are dead and I needed a day off.
Wed- 9 mi of tempo like this:

1.5 mi warm up (1 mi @ 11:02, 0.5 mi @ 10:59)
2 mi @ 8:35-8:45 (8:37, 8:35)
5 min recov (0.5 mi in 5:19 with a pace of 10:28)
2 mi @ 8:25-8:30 (8:23, 8:24)
5 min recov (0.5 mi in 5:07 with a pace of 10:22)
1 mi @ 8:00-8:10 (7:56)
1.5 mi cool down (1 mi @ 10:49, 0.5 mi @ 10:54)

Thurs- I normally do a trainer ride session. Again, feeling dead. Took another day off. (That's two in one week, got to be like a record for me so far this year)

Friday- 7 mi Hills that went like this:

1.5 mi warm up (1 @ 10:37, 0.5 @ 10:44)
1 mi @ 8:30 (8:27)
4 repeats up and down the hill at a steady pace (1.5 mi= 1 mi @ 8:24, 0.5 @ 8:32)
1 mi @ 8:25-8:40 (8:29)
4 repeats up and down the hill at steady pace (1.3 mi= 1 mi @ 8:30, 0.3 @ 8:42)
1.5 mi cool down (0.8 mi @ 9:56)

Sat- (today) to do a 6-7 mi zone recovery run.

The week went good considering how achy and tired I felt. I hit all the major/important runs that I was supposed to and I hit all my paces in those runs. I just took a non active recovery approach this week. But the good news is that I think I've identified the problem. I believe I'm running on dead shoes. I didn't expect them to go dead so fast, so I didn't even think about it. But I forgot that I've been putting in some pretty good mileage in the past 3 months, more than usual. I guess it's time to start searching the internet for my next pair of asics 2150's.

Ok, so no on to the big news!

So far my plans for the year have grown and grown. This was clearly looking like an epic year for me and my racing. So far, I'm signed up for the Lincoln Memorial Half Marathon on April 2nd, the Illinois Marathon on April 30th, and the Ironman 70.3 Racine in July.

Now I've just signed up for the Ironman Louisville! That's right, the big mama of all triathlons! I can't believe I'm going to do it, but it is so exciting. I wanted to get it in before I have children, which we want to do pretty much right away. I told my husband that I would like just one good season of racing before we start trying. He's totally down with that, but I'm not sure he knows just what he's in for. I explained the best I could without having actually done an ironman yet. He gets the fact that I'll be gone training all the time and he's going to support me. That's about it. So, there you have it. One epic year. I just couldn't pass up on the excellent fitness I'll have with the Illinois Marathon and only put that toward the 70.3. Which would have been fine in itself. But I've been dreaming of the full Ironman distance since I started triathlon 3 years ago, and I know I won't have a chance to do it until all of my children are in full day school, and even if that.

That's it for now. We'll see what the coaches have in store for me next week. Should be lots of fun!