Another good week!

I have not updated my blog in two weeks... my fault!  Well, I keep training hard and my health is good, no injuries so far.  The most important workouts of the past two weeks included a 12-mile tempo run and a 20 miler.  Both runs were good.  I ran a very solid 12 mile tempo, hitting all the splits and feeling very good in the final miles. The 20 miler was decent, nothing special.  My legs were tired because I didn't rest a single day in almost 2 weeks (big mistake). But, I am in very good shape and very excited about my next races (New Jersey and Berlin). I have two key workouts this week. They both are a mix of long, easy runs and tempo intervals... 13 and 16 miles respectively...They are very difficult!  Wish me luck!

Speed Workout

Estoy reventado de trabajr con un código larguísimo, que no escribí yo y que por supuesto no termino de entender. Así que he decidido escribir un poco en mi blog.  Esta manana he regresado a hacer trabajo de pista, algo que no hacía desde hace mucho tiempo.  Mi entreno ha sido un poco conservador porque la pista suele cobrar caro cuando no se está bien preparado para ella. Hice 5 series de 800 a 3:02 en promedio. Pude haber ido por un par de 800 más pero he decidido que 5 era el número mágico de hoy. El entrenamiento total fue de 7 millas.  Hacía mucho viento y eso seguro que afectó mi velocidad un poco. Sin embargo, he salido muy fortalecido anímicamente de esta sesión.   Hacer este entrenamiento sin companía es muy complicado porque no hay nadie por delante o atrás de tí que vaya tirando del paso. Por momentos extrané mucho a mis companeros de entrenamiento de South Bend… seguro que hubiera ido mucho más rápido si los hubiera tenido a un lado.  A pesar de todo he tenido unas series bastante buenas. Me estoy dando cuenta que todavía no he corrido los 42 kms. 195 mts. más rápidos de mi vida. Creo que mis piernas tienen muchos kilómetros por delante y pienso que todavía no llego al techo de mi velocidad… hay que seguir trabajando.

3rd. 50+ mile week in the books

I had a very solid week of training.  My workouts suggest that my speed and endurance are getting better by the day. I logged another 50+ mile week and I am feeling very good.  The most important thing so far is that I am very healthy and feeling very good about my training. My legs are moving faster than ever.  I am consistently running my easy workouts at 7:50/8:00 min/mile and I have to constantly remind myself that I should not go faster than that in my easy runs. My best workout last week was a long tempo: 10 miles with 2x20 minute tempo in the middle. It was my best workout in a long time!  I also ran a 17 miler yesterday, it wasn't as solid as I wanted it to be but still in the low 8's.

I have a difficult week of training ahead. It will end with a monstrous 12 mile marathon pace run on Sunday.  I am going to push the pace. no question about it! 

Three good, solid workouts!

I have had three very good quality workouts since my last post. I did a tempo workout on Thursday:  15 min w/u; 2x15 min tempo w/3 min recovery (6:42; 6:50); 1 x 10 min tempo (6:50); 1 mile c/d (9 miles total). It was a great workout because I consistently hit all the splits. My legs felt great and I gained a lot of confidence with this workout. I am gaining strength and endurance. I then had a very easy day on Friday and rested on Saturday.  On Sunday, I did my longest workout in more than 5 months: 28 kms.  The weather was very humid but I managed to run a consistent pace for the entire workout…another confidence buster! 

I already did 2 workouts this week: a 5.5 recovery run yesterday and a fartlek this morning.  The fartlek workouts are not only adding variety to my training plan but also making me faster. I hope that running really fast (@5:10 min/mile) for short periods of time help improving my speed.  I am happy with how things are going so far.  The weather is getting hot and humid but I am doing my best to adapt to it as soon as possible.  Happy Mardi Gras!

The Fall Marathon is Berlin!

I decided that my fall marathon will be in Berlin on September 25, 2011. This race will be my third world major marathon as I have previously done New York City (3 times) and Chicago (3 times).  I am very excited about it because Berlin is a world record course, flat and fast. Berlin has been on my list for more than 3 years, I decided this morning that it was time to act and register to run it. My decision implies that I will have to adjust my training plan a little bit so that I can run my spring marathon in late April or early May. Running in early May will give me almost 21 weeks to fully recover and complete a full training plan toward Berlin. This decision also implies that I do not necessarily have to attempt running a sub 3 hr marathon in early/mid May. I am training hard to run fast in the spring but I need to be careful in my training as I wouldn’t like to get injured.  The possibilities for spring are the New Jersey or the Cincy Marathons… I am leaning toward New Jersey currently.

Intensity, endurance and consistency for the next 4 weeks

I like what I see so far.  My legs recovered from the NOLA half and am ready to shift the focus of my training to intensity, endurance and consistency. The race in New Orleans was a good parameter that allowed me to gain some information about my fitness. I felt good during the race but the recovery was slow and painful. But my legs are back and my mind is ready to take on 12 very intensive weeks of training leading to my next marathon. A year ago my objective was to qualify to Boston. I now think about running a sub 3 hr marathon. It's not an easy task but I am going to try it. A few months ago I read an article saying that to run a sub 3 hr marathon one has to have some special attributes. It's not all about the fitness, the mind also plays an important role. Fitness is something that one can always improve with constant workouts, but the state of mind, and the determination are characteristics that one can difficult improve regarless of the mileage. They are inside of you, waiting to be awaken.

I am healthy, faster, and commited to log hundreds of quality miles. I have learnt that it's not about the quantity of miles I run. Rather it's all about the quality of those miles. I know that I have to run many, many quality miles before attempting to run a sub 3 hr. marathon and I am ready to do so. It's time to prove that I can maintain a fast, consistent pace for 26.2 miles.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the NOLA half...

I ran the New Orleans Half Marathon in 1:30:32. This is my second best time ever in the half marathon. It was a beautiful day for running a distance race. I woke up at 4:15 am to eat my usual breakfast (a coffee, a banana, and a bagel) and to shower. The race started at 7 am so I had to get ready as soon as possible and leave to the start. The organization at the start was good, it was very easy to find my corral (corral 1) so I had plenty of time to warm up. The temperature was in the high 40’s when the race started… beautiful, beautiful! 

I ran a very consistent race, but the lack of racing in the past few months certainly affected my performance. I didn’t really know how fast I could go. The first miles were fast but I then slowed down a little. I ran by myself almost the whole race and that also had an effect on my pace and ultimately on my time. Yet I am satisfied with the result, I ran 45 seconds slower than my half-marathon PR with only 5 weeks of serious training.  I had good speed but lacked stamina and endurance in the final miles. It’s normal, I am far from my peak and am sure my stamina and endurance will be very good in a few weeks. I am happy because my legs hurt after the race, which suggests that I had a great workout.

So here is the good, the bad, and the ugly of the NOLA Half:

The Good:

1.      Racing again after 4 months

2.      The consistency, I ran almost even splits the whole race

3.      The weather

4.      My uniform

The Bad:

1.      I was only 45 secs off my PR

2.      The roads are in terrible shape!!!

3.      I ran by myself almost the whole way

4.      It was a very expensive race

The Ugly:

1.      My legs and left arm hurt after the race and still hurt a bit

2.      It has been a painful and long (3 days) recovery

My splits were:  6:45, 49, 47, 50, 51, 49, 53, 53, 55, 58, 54, 55, 50.  I can run faster than this. I have done three recovery sessions this week. My legs are feeling better and I am going to try an interval session tomorrow. 12 weeks til I come back to run a full marathon… I will be strong!