Rare Things Are Happening

This past weekend was a pretty busy one as far as workouts go. On Saturday, we did our Team Epiphany run as usual. I ran just shy of 9 miles with my team and felt pretty good. I even had a pretty strong sprint at the end to simulate the end of a race. After the run, we fueled up and rested a bit before heading to the pool for our 1-hour swim. Following the swim, I did a 1-hour mountain bike ride in the park. It was very windy so I decided riding in the woods might be a little easier as the trees usually break up the wind. I had not been to the trails in a while and it felt good to get into the peace of the woods, rocks, logs, and dirt.

Sunday we slept in a tad and then went to the late church service and then straight to the pool for another hour swim. After the swim, I did something I very rarely do. I took a nap. It was not a very sound nap but I did manage to doze in and out for a while. Often I feel like taking a nap but I usually fight the temptation. This time, I was pretty beat so I succumbed to the siren that is my comfy, warm bed.

I am not sure how long I was in bed or how long I actually slept but I did finally pop up, fuel up with a shake, and then hit the road on my road bike for an hour ride. It was still a bit chilly and there was still some wind to contend with so I felt like I was working pretty hard the whole time. When I got back from the run, I did my 3-mile easy run and then called it a day.

Sunday night something else very rare happened. I had trouble getting to sleep. You would think with all the exercise, I would just drop off. For whatever reason, I tossed and turned for a while and did not end up getting nearly enough sleep. On Monday, I ended up being pretty tired all day at work. When I got home from work, I did manage my 5/1 run with the last mile run at a 6:52 pace. I was pleased enough with that but I had to skip the post-run P90X workout because I was so tired. (see below for details about the run workout).

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	00:43:05	5.01	08:36
1	00:36:11	4.00	09:02
2	00:06:53	1.00	06:52
3	00:00:00	0.00	--:--

On Tuesday morning another rare thing happened. I slept through my alarm. I usually get up around 6:30 but at 7:00, I was awoken by Melissa's alarm. I can't remember when the last time that has happened. Luckily I had a busy day at work which kept me distracted from my tiredness. On the way home from work, it was a big yawn festival.

And since things happen in 3's, yet another rare thing happened. Tonight, I skipped a workout. Tonight's workout was supposed to be a 60-minute tempo run. I decided that napping on Sunday and then not being able to sleep, and then sleeping through my alarm on Tuesday was a sign that I am slightly over training and that I need a rest. Next week is supposed to be my recovery week but I decided to go ahead and work in an extra day of rest. I am not too worried about missing out on a workout. If I had to run the 10K this Saturday, I think I could beat my goal of 46 minutes.

It is important to listen to one's body and pay attention to the signals. There are occasions where I may feel a little tired but am still be able to push a workout. Sometimes I may even get energized by a run. This time around though, all the signs point to a need to slow down and take a break. Thankfully, Melissa is there to step in and help me out. She graciously offered to make dinner and let me steal some bath time from her so I could relax and listen to some peaceful music. I could not train this hard without her support and she deserves a shout out. Thanks Melissa!

Tomorrow morning is our Pro K swim followed by work and then an after work easy run. I have not been paying close enough attention to my training schedule and have shorted myself some mileage. Tomorrow calls for a 6-mile easy run. Hopefully, Melissa and I can run 3 together and then I can tack on my extra 3. Then if I am feeling up to it, I can get in my P90X workout.

Regarding my physical. The doctor went over all my blood work numbers. Most of it does not mean that much to me as far as the numbers go. He explained that my liver function looked good, my electrolytes were good, my blood sugar was good, and my cholesterol measurements were also good.

Again, I do not really understand all the numbers and am too tired to google it. But the doctor said that they like to see Total Cholesterol under 200-mine was 171. He said they like to see Triglycerides under 150-mine measured 58. They like to see HDL cholesterol greater than 40-mine was 52. There was also a measure called LDL Cholesterol Calc that the doctor said they like to see less than 130-mine was 107. There were a lot of other measurements given with my blood work. Without going into all the gory details, the doctor said it all looked good. In addition to the blood work, my blood pressure was 112 over 68 which is also considered good. Finally, I had an EKG while at the physical which also turned out well. My heart rate was 55 while lying on the table with the wires connected to me.

Everything else also looked good. He examined all the essential parts of my body that you normally think of when being examined by a doctor. We also went over my history a bit. He asks about stuff and I tell him. Alcohol-no. Drugs-No. Smoking-No. Caffeine-No. Apparently my history indicated that I had about 1 soda a day. I updated his records. Soda-No. Before I left he said that they like to see a person my age for a physical either every year or every 2 years. He said that I am a two-year person. Overall I was pleased with the whole thing although I was not expecting bad news.

Tomorrow I am hoping to be back to normal and rested. Thanks for reading.

Week 4 Summary

My training plan specified adding a run day this week for a total of 6 days of running. On Monday I usually do not run and just do my P90X upper body workout. This past Monday I decided to stick to the letter of the law and I completed my 4/1 workout. A 4/1 workout is 4 miles total with the last mile run at race pace. Of course my race pace has not really been concretely defined yet although I am starting to gather enough data to determine what my race pace goal should be. Below is a summary of my Monday run. Additional information about the run can be found by clicking View Details below the table which will take you to the Garmin Connect website and show you all the other data if you are interested.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	00:35:53	4.04	08:53
1	00:27:44	3.00	09:14
2	00:07:25	1.00	07:24
3	00:00:43	0.04	18:49

For this particular run, my "race pace" ended up being 7.24. If I was able to maintain that pace for the entire 10K, I would end up running about 46.11 which would be a good time for me but would not beat my best time of 46.01. So while 7.24 is a decent pace, I am going to declare that is slower than my goal "race pace."

After my run, I did my P90X Back and Biceps workout and Ab Ripper X. I still enjoy these once or twice a week P90X workouts. Strength training and core work is an important component to training for running and triathlon.

On Tuesday after work, I did 30 minutes on the bike trainer. I opted to do the sprint/power workout again because I feel like I get a lot out of it. After my ride on the trainer, I went out for my 50 minute Tempo Run. This time I used the lap button on my Garmin so I could see what my pace was for the 30 minutes of running at "pace." As a reminder, my tempo runs always consist of a 10 minute warm up and a 10 minute cool down. The warm up and cool down bookend the faster running which is supposed to be run just under 10K pace. Below is a summary of my workout. You will see that for this run, my tempo pace was 7:19. This pace is just under my race pace that I clocked on Monday which is precisely the goal of this particular workout. To be honest, while I am happy with all of this, I am hoping that with continued training, I can get my race pace down just a little bit more so I can at the very least beat my PR and if I am able to bring it down significantly, perhaps I can compete with the likes of the great young runner Chad who will be starting 2 waves in front of me at the Monument Avenue 10K.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	00:50:01	6.32	07:54
1	00:10:01	1.08	09:14
2	00:30:00	4.10	07:19
3	00:09:59	1.14	08:46

On Wednesday, Melissa and I both did our Pro K morning swim workout. I was a tough workout. We did lots of drills including swimming with tennis balls in our hands and kick drills. I was a bit burned out on the kick drills which is something I need to work on. Undoubtedly, the Tuesday night workout impacted my Wednesday morning swim.

On Wednesday we had unseasonably warm weather. After work, I ran with Melissa. Both our training plans call for an easy 3 miles on this day. Typically I find it hard to run slow and easy on these easy run days. Melissa runs slightly slower than me so running with her was a great way to force myself to take it easy. The bonus is we get to workout together and talk about this and that.

Thursday night's workout consisted of speed work at the track. Melissa and I both went to the track to do our repeats. My plan called for 4X800 followed by 2X400. The summary of my workout is below along with the link to more details. I ran pretty consistent 800s with a 400 rest interval. Again, when I rest, I am still running but at a much slower pace. I think knowing that I only had to do 2 400s at the end, I ran them pretty fast.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	00:45:49	5.42	08:27
1	00:11:43	1.13	10:24
2	00:03:21	0.51	06:33
3	00:02:30	0.25	09:51
4	00:03:25	0.51	06:44
5	00:02:31	0.26	09:49
6	00:03:21	0.51	06:34
7	00:02:28	0.25	09:45
8	00:03:26	0.50	06:51
9	00:02:29	0.25	09:51
10	00:01:30	0.25	05:59
11	00:01:16	0.13	10:01
12	00:01:34	0.25	06:11
13	00:06:08	0.61	10:06
14	00:00:01	0.00	30:00

Friday was our rest day. Also Friday I had my physical. My plan is to write about the results of my physical in the next blog entry so that this one is not too long. Without spoiling it too much, the last thing the doctor said to me was, "Whatever you are doing, keep doing it."