Man I wish I was running at that level. I'm struggling to get under 9 min miles for a 5k. Granted it's hilly but I would love to be running that kind of distance in under 7. Hopefully I'll be under 8 by the spring. That's my goal.
ODB, I swear by the hill training. It doesn't let you take it easy. Are you talking about running 5K races?? How are the race courses in Little Rock?? I haven't been to Little Rock in a long time, but as I recall, it's hilly to the West and pancake flat to the East. Those hills will definitely whip you into shape for a flat course, no doubt!
P.S. Speaking of Little Rock... our local track club President specifically mentioned L.R. as a city that Birmingham should be trying to emulate because of its support of fitness activities (specifically road racing). He also mentioned the Gov. running the local marathon. Birmingham is not supportive of road racing and apparently gives the track club and race directors a lot of grief. They don't seem to get it that a well executed race can bring in out-of-towners who spend a lot of money. They also have no interest in promoting fitness of the local citizenry.
Don't worry about your time so much. I think that working on your weaker excercises is key. You prove through your running that your in superb shape cardio/endurance-wise, so I'd say the power output in your Crossfit is not the most important factor.
Kuri, whatever the case... the CF routines always leave me very sore for a couple of days afterward... which must be a good sign that they are doing something!
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WED. 11.16.2005
AM RUN
DISTANCE: 7.15 miles
TIME: 50:53
AVE. PACE: 7:07/mile
Could I have been any more consistent with yesterday's run?? Jeez. Comfortable pace. Cold and windy this morning, which was invigorating. Tomorrow morning, it's supposed to be in the 20's. What a contrast after a warm, muggy morning yesterday. Plus I'll be going from a tank to wintery running clothes in a span of two days. I guess that's pretty typical for November around here, though.
I'm debating whether to do any speed work this week. I would like to run a 9-10 miler with tempo segments, but won't have time Thu or Fri mornings to get that long of a run completed. I may do a workout with 0.5 mile repeats, even though that's probably not optimal late in marathon training... but I still like doing them! My Sunday run is going to be a killer, so I probably shouldn't get too crazy this week. Plus I need to figure out what other workouts I'm going to do! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps of Front Squats (185# prescribed) and GHD Sit-Ups.
Somehow I haven't managed to buy a GHD for my basement workout area [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] , so I improvised by elevating my bench slightly using pieces from my wife's aerobic step platforms and hooking my feet onto the safety bar of my power rack. This gave me a good range of motion, although I doubt I could mimic exactly what I was supposed to get out of these. They were fairly hard, especially after 10-12.
I backed off on the Front Squat weight to 165# for all reps. I thought 185# would quickly become too difficult and slow me down way too much.
Split times:
21 set: F-Sq 4:05 (7/6/2/4/2 -- had some bar position problems/wrist bending to correct); Sit-Ups- 6:21
I think the weight I chose was pretty good - maybe should have gone down another 5 or 10# to increase pace and reduce mini-setting to some degree. Depth was good on the Front Squats. I am certain I have never done anything close to 84 Front Squats in one workout before, and my legs are hurtin' this morning! This workout also had me drenched, and my basement was pretty cold last night. No Pukie visit, but I thought my head was going to detonate for about 10-15 minutes afterward.
Thanks, hard_rox. Yeah, I barely made that 30 minute cut-off!
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THURS. 11.17.2005
AM RUN
DISTANCE: 6.0 miles
TIME: 43:37
AVE. PACE: 7:16/mile
It was freakin' cold this morning - 28 and windy. It felt weird to run in long pants and a heavy sweat shirt, gloves, band for the ears, etc. Slowed down a little compared with the past two mornings. A comfortable pace, but I still think good training for the marathon, since a 7:16 run in my training area takes more effort than 6:45 will on the marathon course.
I can't believe you did all those front squats then ran the next morning! My quads were hurting for a couple days after the FSs.
Great job as always Dave.
I was having similar wrist pain on front squats until I (finally) figured out that you have to keep the elbows real high, bar on fingertips, and the weight resting on the shoulders.
Spend a coupla minutes and figure out the best position for you - it'll pay off.
Kuri, I didn't do the whole workout in 16 minutes like you did! And I didn't do all of those 185 pounders. My quads are pretty sore, but my glutes are really gettin' sore. I can usually run pretty well the morning after a squat routine...sometimes that second morning afterwards is the killer.
I know what you mean with the F/S bar position. This was the first time in awhile that I had so much wrist-bending trouble. I have also learned to look up toward the ceiling as much as possible - that definitely helps with keeping everything high. Next to O/H Squats, this has to be one of the hardest exercises there is... which no doubt means it's really good to do!
I think having consistent runs is a good thing. I am impressed with your results from "Angie." Your times for the first 50 push-ups and pull-ups are very close to mine, but you hardly slowed for the second 50 of each. I was slowing a lot and opted to move on after 50 of each. 84 Front squats and GHD sit-ups is a lot of work. I think working at a rate of 1 - 2 Crossfit workouts a week is enough to reap the benifits, espically on top of your regular weight workouts and the miles you put in. You are an inspiration.
Thanks, Coach Buk!!!! My quads and glutes and abs are screaming today after that F/S GHD sit-up workout. I had a feeling it would be worse today! I was thinking about doing Fran tonight, but we'll see how motivated I am by this evening.
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FRI. 11.18.2005
AM RUN
1.0 mile TEMPO SEGMENTS/ REST INTERVALS TO 120 BPM
TOTAL DISTANCE: 6.25 miles
TOTAL TIME: 45:36
1. 1.0 mile warmup - 7:28
2. 1.0 mile tempo - 6:43
3. Rest to 120 bpm - 491.9 feet/ 1:34
4. 1.0 mile tempo - 5:59
5. Rest to 120 bpm - 357.9 feet/ 1:00
6. 1.0 mile tempo - 7:23
7. Rest to 120 bpm - 0.22 miles/ 3:36
8. 1.0 mile tempo - 6:16
9. Cooldown/complete run - 0.87 miles/5:33 (6:24 ave pace)
I'm really sore this morning, so I had trouble pushing intensity on this workout... although I think past the first tempo segment I got better. The course was the same as the one I used a couple of times for 0.5 mile repeats on the road -- generally hilly, including one very agreeable 1 mile downhill that has to be followed by a very disagreeable return up that hill! The second tempo segment was mostly downhill, hence the faster time. The third one (step 6) was almost entirely uphill (0.8 mile continuous uphill), so actually I was pretty happy about the time, because my legs were not thrilled with running inclines today. At step 7, it took me a lot longer to cool down to 120 bpm, primarily because I was walking on a fairly steep incline and that kept my HR up -- also recovery from step 6 simply took longer due to higher intensity. The last tempo segement felt really good, and I guess I must have been in a hurry to get out of the 28 degree weather in step 9, because my "cooldown" step was better than most of my tempo steps!
This felt like a good workout, but I am hoping to be able to do some of these out to 9-10 miles if I can get them done before work. Sunlight is limited this time of the year!
I am hoping between marathons to get some quality tempo work done on the hills to help boost my time for the Birmingham Marathon. I hope to eventually finish that one under 3 hours. Last year, only 11 out of 678 finishers were sub-3 hours! If I can tap into my hill training, I may have a shot. This year, I'd like to at least get close. I'm completely obsessed right now with the two upcoming marathons.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 7.5 miles
TIME: 50:25
AVE. PACE: 6:43/mile
Another comfortably-paced run. I ran a less intense route this morning, since I have a 20-21 mile run planned for Sunday morning... so my average pace was faster. My legs were still really sore when I started. Damned CrossFit! They have felt much better since my run this AM. I'm hardly going to be well-rested for this long run tomorrow!
I'm planning some weight training tonight, but won't do anything too obnoxious to the legs. Fran is on my list, but I may wait until sometime next week. After Sunday, I start tapering back the running leading into the Huntsville Marathon.
Just dropping a note to say that I love reading the training part of your log. It's as interesting and motivating as a Race description.
[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Wow, thanks, Mary. I am glad you enjoy my rambling!! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Kuri, yep I went ahead and did Fran...
SAT. 11.19.2005
PM WORKOUT
I. CROSSFIT "FRAN" 21-15-9 reps of Thrusters (95#) and Pullups
Screwed up with the lap button on my watch (hit stop - I tend to do that now with my old watch, which has the lap button on the opposite side of the stop button as the Forerunner), so my watch was stopped during the first 17 pullups in the first set [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] My time minus the first 17 pullups was 8:02. I'm guesstimating my actual total time was ~9:20 . 95# is a little heavy for me on Thrusters for keeping a pace. I did okay on the first 21 -- just had to pause a couple of times in the second half (although I was definitely at failure by 20-21 and am not fast at doing them with this weight). The squat portion is not a problem -- it's the overhead press where I fail. For the second set (15 reps), I actually had to put the bar down a couple of times and re-start, so I lost a lot of time. For pullups, I mixed up using overhand and underhand grips, which seemed to help somewhat, but I was still mini-setting pretty badly, esp. in the 15 and 9 sets.
Lap Times:
21 Thrusters- 1:21
21 Pullups - ?? 0:24 after I restarted my watch after pullup 17 to pullup 21
15 Thrusters - 1:55
15 Pullups - 1:57
9 Thrusters - 1:12
9 Pullups - 1:11
II. WEIGHTED DIPS: +25: 6; +25: 4, pause, 2 (and why did I think I would still have upper body strength left after Fran?!?! [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] )
III. MILITARY PRESS: 110- 3; 4 (see above about upper body strength)
IV. SINGLE-ARM DB ROWS: 100ea. - 7;6
V. OVERHEAD SQUATS: 100 - Hahahahaha. Yeah, right... CANCELLED! [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
VI. DECLINE BENCH RUSSIAN TWISTS: +25# db: 6 ea. side; 9 ea. side (ow!)
VII. BICYCLES: +20# ankle wts: 40 each side
VIII. PUSHUPS: 20; 13
Gettin' ready for my long run... definitely a personal challenge, but I am not going to completely kill myself to finish it this close to the marathon. Should be nice and cool! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
DISTANCE: 21.32 miles
TIME: 2:51:25
AVE. PACE: 8:02/mile
ELEVATION PROFILE AND HEART RATE:
I focused on keeping my intensity down for this run, and I finished! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] No stops, no walking, all running. (Well "running" might be a stretch on some of the steeper grades). This was almost 4 miles further than I have ever run before in my local training area without having to include walk breaks. I feel like it was a decent improvement from my 20-mile run several weeks ago, since that course was not as difficult overall, and I wound up walking in the 18th mile.
I probably would have finished this with a faster time if I had increased pace and walked some of the longer or steeper hills, but I feel good about cracking the mental barrier on this one and managing my pace and intensity pretty well. I really thought this was going to be a disaster when I started, because I was feeling leg fatigue in the first 3 miles or so. I also got a little worried around mile 11 when I realized that a 2+ mile stretch I had never run before was a lot hillier than I had expected.
The most ominous part of this route was facing a 450 foot incline starting at mile 17. That's not when your legs are looking for a long uphill stretch. I got through it much better than expected and had some gas in the tank to speed up pretty well for miles 20 and 21.
I'm really happy overall - most of the running gurus suggest doing long runs at 1-2 min/mile slower than marathon pace, and I was about 1:12 over my target pace. Factor in the terrain, and I was actually running at a higher intensity than recommended, but I don't think it will compromise a marathon effort 3 weeks away. Plus, I still don't get how you are supposed to suddenly be able to run a marathon that much faster than any of your training runs... but I guess there are different means to an end.
I'm really happy overall - most of the running gurus suggest doing long runs at 1-2 min/mile slower than marathon pace, and I was about 1:12 over my target pace. Factor in the terrain, and I was actually running at a higher intensity than recommended, but I don't think it will compromise a marathon effort 3 weeks away. Plus, I still don't get how you are supposed to suddenly be able to run a marathon that much faster than any of your training runs... but I guess there are different means to an end.
Good job Dave !
And there are rules written by Gurus.. but there are always exceptions to rules. I hope you get to find out the theory behind what the Gurus say.. but that doesn't necessairily mean it applies to you!
Plus, I still don't get how you are supposed to suddenly be able to run a marathon that much faster than any of your training runs... but I guess there are different means to an end.
[/qb]
The secret is magic.
No, I don't understand that either... my experience with 1/2M's has been that I can run at best 20-30s/mile better in a race than in my long runs. In this past marathon, it was actually only 5s/mile faster than my last long run. I plan on training some VERY fast long runs in the spring to train for the 1/2M's. Maybe at 6:45-7:00 pace for up to 15 miles.
1. Good job on your run...and lifting...I hate looking at your log cause it always makes me sore.
2. One energy system model is the "central governer"...basicly your brain allows you to do whatever it is that you want to do, taking in your experiances, conditioning level, and all the feedback your body is giving to limitallow improvement. It will only let you press so hard for so long before it reins you in (to keep you from killing yourself). It's thought that in certain special circumstances that you can over-ride it to a point...which might help to explain a little.
KM - the pace for my first marathon was closer to my training paces than any other race I have done. However, I held a better pace through the first 17 or 18 miles - I just didn't have the endurance to sustain it beyond that distance. I'm hoping with this second training cycle, the extra miles, days and greater amount of quality running will allow me to sustain a faster pace for longer. But we'll see whether I can actually sustain it all the way through 26.2.
Between the two marathons, I am considering actually going to 6 days per week of running for the period between my ramp-up and taper. That would be about 4 or 5 weeks. That way if I am not quite there yet for Huntsville, maybe I will be somewhat improved for Birmingham. I think I have myself to the point where I can handle 6 days per week of running. I just ran 6 consecutive days, approx. 55 miles total, culminating with the long run yesterday. If I can manage that level of training between marathons, it may push me closer to a best case scenario time for Birmingham (assuming everything else plays out well). This will make it more difficult to keep up the weight training, so I'll probably reduce back to 4-5 days per week of running after Birmingham.
Gobbla, I'm probably over-simplifying/exaggerating what the "gurus" recommend for marathon training. I know that some or most include tempo work within some long runs -- not really for the entire run, but for a portion. If I don't meet my goals at these two marathons, I may very well try one of the expert plans next season.
My wife is telling me I should go ahead and run the Boston Marathon if I qualify (which I should, barring a disaster). I dunno, though. The expense would be tremendous. I know it could be one of those "once in a lifetime" things to do, but I'm thinking I still have a few decades left for squeezing in a trip to Boston! LOL. She thinks I should go for it asap, since you never know what may happen in the future... Hmmmmmmm.... I actually want to run the Pike's Peak Marathon sometime - I think that one would really be the ultimate challenge and experience.
Really impressive work lately Dave. Nice job on "Fran", I can't believe that you followed her up with your regular workout.
I love seeing the elevation graph for your long run. That is a dauntingly long run, and then thinking about those hills would be a major turn off. And you just blasted through it. I think you are in perfect position to do really well in the Rocket City Marathon.
Thanks, Buk. Well I didn't really get much done with my post-Fran exercises! I underestimated her ability to completely trash my upper body, but I should have known better by now...
TUES. 11.22.2005 AM RUN
DISTANCE: 5.03 miles
TIME: 38:22
AVE. PACE: 7:38
My legs were not happy with me for making them run this morning - still stiff and hammies still very sore from Sunday's long run. I was going to run a little over 6 miles, but changed the route. Actually, I ran a long hill in the third mile, and that seemed to finally get my legs loosened and warmed up, and I improved my pace a lot for the last two miles. Nevertheless, this was definitely a classic "Recovery Run." And actually, I feel 100% better now than I did before the run.
5. 35 Slam-Balls/20# ball (subbed DB woodchoppers - 30#): 15:36
6. 35# DB Walking Lunges, 120 feet: 17:53
7. 35# DB Hang Squat Cleans: 22:39
8. Ring Dips/ 35 reps (subbed regular dips): 27:21
TOTAL TIME: 27:21
This is one I would like to repeat fairly soon, because I think I could shave some time off with correcting technical errors and also just with familiarity with the exercises. Box Jumps, for example... I'm not used to doing them and don't have myself coordinated with them at all... but they are fun to do! I'd like to have an actual platform to jump on, though. Now that my father-in-law lives here, he'll probably have lots of scrap wood from his woodworking projects. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] GHD Sit-Ups... these feel very effective and difficult, but I constantly have to reposition my bench...I also had to stop to weigh down the power cage... not to mention the scabs on my shins from last week's GHD Sit-Ups rubbing off! Ow! Towel pullups would have been a little faster if my towel hadn't started tearing, causing me to have to reposition the towel after almost every rep by the last set.
The walking lunges went fine... I lose a little time walking over to the DBs at the other side of my basement for this exercise and then bringing them back for the squat cleans (guess I didn't have to do that, though), but I probably needed the rest period. The hang squat cleans were more difficult than I expected. I also found them awkward with my adjustable DB's (too large). I need to expand my fixed DB collection. The dips were a disaster... took me freakin' forever...upper body very tired by that point.
I also would have liked to do a real run at the beginning and, if we had some decent moonlight last night, I probably would have. Otherwise it's way too dark out here to run at night, and there are too many potholes on the rural roads.
DISTANCE: 6.45 miles
TIME: 45:38
AVE. PACE: 7:04/mile
More recovered this morning, although I felt really sluggish lumbering up the mountain in mile 3. That Sunday long run has been harder to recover from than the previous weekend's 1/2-marathon race.
New shoes this morning (Mizuno Wave Precision 6), which are lightweight trainers that are supposed to be good for runners with high arches like me. This is bad timing to debut a new pair of shoes, but I'm saving my other pair for the marathon if I don't have these broken in well enough.
Re: See BamaDave Run (and Lift)
[img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] My time minus the first 17 pullups was 8:02. I'm guesstimating my actual total time was ~9:20 
Linear Mode
