Let The Training Begin!

Owing to last year's official time of 2:41:02 I earned the privilege of registering for the 2014 Boston Marathon. When I got this in the mail yesterday it provided a nice little jolt of motivation. 11/4/13 is 24 weeks out from Boston (4/21/14), giving me plenty of time to build up.

I intend to update this blog weekly detailing my training, my diet, and my supplemental work (plyos, weights, stretching, etc). I'll also incorporate some of my views on training, physiology, nutrition, and random musings that come with spending lots of time in one's own head.

A Relaxed Six

Today I convinced Otto to do 2 laps of Glendoveer with me at lunch time. We reversed direction so as not to put undue strain on our legs. We covered the six in 41:40 or thereabouts and proved my rabbitting skills by correctly guessing the pace we were running (6:50/mile). Otto was off by about 20s.

After class I attended my 4th consecutive OBF Thursday (http://www.oregonbrewfest.com/). It lived up to the hype.

Miles: 6 for the day/26.5 for the week
Pullups: 12 for the day/52 for the week

Double Up

With Wednesdays being short, I like to run twice! Though I have discovered that I can make it school with shower time to spare even leaving my house at 6:45AM, which means I can run in the mornings. Next week I am hoping to start implementing this practice with 4 miles easy and progressing to 5 miles easy, which will aid in my mileage chasing goals.

Well, today I did 2 laps of Glendoveer; one in the morning, solo and one after my phys test with Otto. Went 27:50 in the morning and 27:40 in the afternoon, though the afternoon was much much easier.

Miles: 8 for the day/20.5 for the week
Pullups: 12 for the day/40 for the week

Workin' It Out

Because I'm running the BAC 5k this Saturday I decided to squeeze in a workout Tuesday in hopes that an extra day between workout and race would be beneficial. Plus, it was mostly threshold running which can be beneficial even if you're tired. The workout was 4x1600 w/2 min recovery, then 4x200 w/ 200j recovery. Goal paces were 5:20-:25 for the 1600s and :34 for the 200s. I opted to workout at Portland Christian so that I could still study a little bit for my Physiology test after.

Summary:
2 miles warm up, drills, 4xstrides
5:18.6/5:15.7/5:12.6/5:06.8
31.0/32.1/31.5/31.9
2 miles cool down, stretching, cold shower (yeah, you wanted to know that)

This workout went very, very well. I never was out of control and really only pushed hard the last 800 of the last repeat. Considering it was fairly windy (as usual) I wasn't surprised by the 200s. But the miles felt really easy. I was just relaxing and letting everything flow, I guess I gained some strength from Ragnar!

Miles: 8.5 for the day/12.5 for the week
Pullups: 0 for the day/28 for the week

Another Easy One

Since Monday usually comes as a shock to me and I nearly slept through my Gen Pathology class I decided to just run an easy 4 with Otto around Glendoveer. We did it in 28 min and made sure to get a good stretch in. Ragnar was a blast, but it definitely takes something out of you to run that hard with that little recovery.

Miles: 4 for the day/4 for the week
Pullups: 28 for the day/28 for the week

Day of Rest

In the Bible, Sunday was the day the Lord rested, so I did the same. Though in my own way. I ran an easy 4.5 miles in 31:25 on soft surfaces and made sure to stretch very well. I didn't feel too bad all things considered.

Overall at Ragnar I covered 21.5 miles in 2:05:48, which is a 5:51 per mile average. It was a blast running the event because it appeals to my wacky side that enjoys pushing myself like this. The experience was great, though I still prefer Hood to Coast!

Miles: 4.5 for the day/58.3 for the week
Pullups: 6 for the day/35 for the week, ouch.

Ragnar Leg 3

For leg 3 I took off around 6:00AM which is generally a nice time to run anywhere in the world, excepting equatorial locations, like Baton Rouge. Several factors combined to make this leg the best one yet: I got 2.5 hours of sleep, I ran solo through farmland, I watched the sunrise on the Olympic Mtns, it was mostly flat. Here is the map: http://ragnarrelay.com/race/northwestpassage/legs/31 This leg was by far the easiest of the 3 legs I ran.

Generally in these overnight relays there is precious little time to sleep, but I guess we got lucky and pulled into the van exchange first. I saw the soccer field and immediately grabbed my sleeping bag, therm-a-rest, and ground cloth and hopped in as soon as I could. The night was cool and clear and after gazing at the stars for a bit, fell asleep pretty quickly. My alarm went off at 4:45AM and, admittedly, could have been a little later. But why be stressed when you're trying to run well? No reason in my mind. I puttered around and took my time loosening up and checking on where the other van was and downing 2 Red Bulls. On my "warm up" jog (about 5 min, barely qualifies as anything) I noticed that the Olympics were catching some sun and looking quite beautiful. I was sad to turn around and head home, but had to as I had a team depending on me. Fortunately, the sight kept me company as I ran toward Admirality Inlet through some lovely farmland. To me there is a real romanticisim wrapped up in "The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner" and I had a fantastic time running the early portion of this leg. I was alone, it was early (not even the farmers were up!), and I had the most beautiful scene open to me. It was the kind of experience only a runner can get, which is why I love them so much. It's easy to push when you have something that beautiful to take your mind off the pain.

After cresting the peak of my leg, I knew it was all downhill and flat, so I really pushed hard and stopped the watch at 43:05, a 5:31 average mile pace. I was extraordinarily happy with this result, it shows that I still have some strength in me.

Miles: 7.8 for the day/53.8 for the week
Pullups: 0 for the day/ 29 for the week