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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

New Orleans Half Marathon: Here I come!


The base training is going as planned.  I have put together two weeks of very good runs.   I capped last week  off with two easy runs (5.5 and 6.5 miles) and a long run of 13 miles.  So I ran a total of 45 miles, which is the highest mileage in more than 3 months.  

I did a 7 miler (progressive) yesterday and am planning to do 6 easy miles this pm so that I get ready for a tempo run tomorrow.  I keep running my easy runs at 7:45-8:00 min/mile pace.  I feel good and will hopefully keep feeling like this in the months to come.  I just didn’t have this feeling in a long time. I rested, I am healthy and can run faster as a consequence. 

I often think about my race in Chicago.  It was a hard one because my body was really tired.  I was 100% mentally and kept pushing my body on race day and during the training, but it just didn’t respond as expected because it was exhausted.  I am obsessed with running so taking the decision to not training hard on November and December was not an easy one.  But it was the right one!  I have a new pop and feel good and excited about my daily runs.  I am doing strength training like never before. I also feel very excited about finding out  how fast I can run this year.  The question is not whether I am going to finish a marathon or not. The question is: how fast am I going to run? 

I guess we will start finding that out very soon as I am likely to run in the New Orleans half marathon on February 13. It is still very early in the season and I don’t expect to run a PR in this race…Indeed, a PR can be ruled out right today because my overall shape is far from where it will be in 2-3 months. But I can guarantee that I’m going to go as fast as possible.  We just need to see how fast I can run 13.1 miles when I’m at 40-50% of my ideal running shape.  More blogging soon…

Cheers!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Running in NOLA

This is my second week in New Orleans and I am taking full advantage of the nice weather... People keep telling me that it is going to get very hot and humid in a couple of months so I need to have a solid base to survive those conditions.  I know that it will be difficult to do marathon training in the summer. That means that I have to run a good marathon in the spring and I am already training for it.  I don't know where I am going to run but, wherever my next marathon is, I will run it all out.

I ran two fantastic times in 2010 but I know I can run faster than that.  I trained with a lot of intensity yet I raced with a lot of caution. I respected the weather conditions too much!  I can't control the weather but I can control how I approach training and races.  In 2011, I am approaching training and racing in a different way than in the previous year.  If I want to run a sub-3 hr. marathon I need to run faster every day so that my body and mind get ready for the big day in April or May.  I don't know if I am going to run a marathon under 3 hrs.this year but I am going to try!

To accomplish my goals, I am making four fundamental adjustments to my training in the first and second training blocks. First, I am dropping my easy pace down to 7:50-8 min/mile. That is 30-45 seconds per mile faster than in my previous training cycles. I have had no problems with this adjustment yet.  Indeed, I am feeling very good running at this pace.  Dropping my easy pace will hopefully reflect in better and faster long runs every weekend. Second,  I am going to add one progressive run per week (starting next week) to my schedule.  That means that I will have three and not two quality sessions per week and three easy days every week. The intervals and long run sessions will have very small adjustments.  Third, I am going to run at least one 10k race and a half marathon in the first 8 weeks of this cycle.  I know my chances of running stunning times are very slim but I need to get back in to the flow of racing again.  Fourth, I will do strength training at least 4 days per week. I will ideally do 5 strength sessions per week.

I have done 3 workouts this week... 2 easy runs on M and T (7 and 6.5 miles respectively) and a very encouraging tempo run today (6x5 mins with 1 min rest @ 6:40-7:05 pace)... I felt very strong today. I have not done a tempo run this solid in a very long time...

Cheers from NOLA!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Break is over!

I decided to take a long break after running in Chicago.  That explains why I didn’t update my blog in such a long time!  Although I didn’t stop running completely, I reduced my weekly mileage substantially and have not raced since 10/10/10.  My body and mind need to heal after 18 months of continuous and very intense training.  

I am feeling very good and I am eager to race again!   I gained a few lbs. but my legs feel great and my weekly mileage is increasing steadily every week.  I have a good feeling about my next training cycle.  I am healthy and very motivated. I have not decided what races I am going to run this year yet.  I keep analyzing several possibilities that could include marathons in Rotterdam, Vienna, or Prague in the spring and Chicago, Amsterdam, or Marine Corps (DC) in the fall. I will make a final decision about my 2011 calendar in two weeks.

There is a good chance that I will run a 10k race on January 30th and a half marathon in late February or early March (not sure where yet).  In the mean time, I am logging as many base miles as possible.  This week I did 40+ miles, the best week in a long time!  The workouts were:
S- 6 easy miles (high 7’s)
M- 6.5 easy miles
T- 6 easy miles
W- Tempo (3x1 mile @ 6:40)+ 3 easy miles
Th- 5 miles, very easy
F- Cross Training
S- 12 miles (low 8’s)

It feels great to be back!  I missed my long runs so much!