Weekly Wrap Up

As I come to the end of my first week of structured training, I want to recap the workouts and how I felt. From what I can remember anyway. I think I will try to do a weekly recap on either Thursdays or Fridays unless something significant happens that drives me to write more often. With the increase in training, there is less time for blogging and other things.

On Saturday we had our first Team Epiphany 10K Training Team run. Melissa had to skip it as she was under the weather. She was feeling pretty bad and had a fever. She pretty much determined that she had food poisoning rather than the flu. So while she rested, I met at 7:30 AM at our church for our first team run.

We have several groups of runners as well as walkers. We have the walking group, the novices, the intermediates, and the advanced group. I run with the advanced group. We ran 6.2 miles for our first training run. It is the longest I have run since last summer's 10Ks. I must say I felt great. The companionship of fellow runners was so wonderful and helped the miles melt away.

After my run, I changed and went to the pool for a 30 minute swim. I had planned to go longer but I started having calf cramps a bit so I decided to call it a day. After my swim, I took the mountain bike to the park but unfortunately, it was so cold, I had to cut it short. I need better winter riding gloves and I need some booties to cover my bike shoes. Or, alternatively, I could use 50+ degree weather. I would rather take the warm weather as gloves and booties are not cheap.

On Sunday, I got another 30 minute swim in while Melissa stayed home. In the 30 minutes that I swam, I was able to do the mileage specified in my training plan so I think that was sufficient. After the swim, I came home and Melissa was feeling better. In fact, she was up for a trip to Whole Foods for lunch and she ended up eating well.

After lunch, I went for a road bike ride. I had wanted to check out this place called West Creek that all the bikers talk about. There is a two lane divided road with very little traffic that many bikers workout on. Again, it was so cold and I thought my toes were going to fall off. I had intended to run afterwards but my feet hurt from the cold so I just bagged it after I completed my 12 miles of riding.

For my first weekend of structured training, I give myself a B. I did not get as much cycling or running as I had originally intended but I got a good start on multiple workouts per day. In fact, that is something I have been meaning to do-doubles. Doubles refers to working out once in the morning and then a second time in the evening. I decided I would try something new and get up 1 hour early during the week so I could do doubles.

On Monday, I got up early and since it was my first day getting up a little early, I did a short workout in the form of Ab Ripper X. Ab Ripper only takes about 16 minutes to complete. I used the extra time to put my lunch together and have a little more leisurely morning than usual. After work I did P90X Chest and Back as my second workout. Usually Chest and Back is followed by Ab Ripper but I decided that splitting them up would give me more time in the evening to eat properly and get to bed at a reasonable hour.

On Tuesday I started the morning off an hour earlier than usual again. I did another 30 minute time trial workout on the bike trainer. I felt really good during this workout and feel like my fitness is starting to improve already. It is amazing how great a workout I can get in just 30 minutes. After work, I did my 30 minute tempo run. Tempo runs are hard for me right now but I managed to do this one pretty well. For my 30 minute tempo run I am supposed to run easy for 10 minutes to get warmed up and then run 10 minutes at about 5 seconds faster than 10K pace followed by 10 minutes of easy running. Using my PR 10K time of 46.01, that would be about a 7:22 min mile pace (5 seconds faster than my 7:27 pace for my 2008 10K).

According to one online running calculator, my tempo runs should be done between 7:30 and 7:49 minute per mile pace. Since different coaches have different ideas about what a Tempo run means, I am going to shoot for around 7:25. I accomplished this on Tuesday night. In fact, I think I ran closer to a 7 minute mile pace for my 10 minutes of fast running bookended by the slower running.

On Wednesday we had swim practice. We did a lot of kick drills and a drill called breathe-away which I call the 'drowning drill.' Towards the end of the hour practice, I started to cramp again in the calves. Currently I am working on rectifying the cramping situation. I have done some online research and have started to incorporate Heed (a sports drink by Hammer Nutrition) into my diet. It could be that the cramping is a result of my stiff ankles according to what I have read so far. I will try to run it by my coach if it continues to be a problem.

On Wednesday, by the time I got home from work, it was snowing like crazy. But I had running on my schedule. So I put on my hat and gloves, some long sleeves and my shorts, and headed out to run in the snow. I had a great run but it ended up being roughly 3 miles which was short of the 4 miles on my schedule. Oh well. I am not too worried about the numbers at this point.

Later that night we got the call that schools would be opening 2 hours late Thursday morning and I would also be going in 2 hours late. Bonus Time! I got up and did 30 minutes on the bike trainer. I did a little different workout than I did on Tuesday morning. Instead of doing the time trial workout, I did the sprint/power workout. This workout entails a warm up and then 10 seconds in a high gear going as fast as possible followed by 50 seconds easy spinning in a low gear. We did 12 repetitions and then a cool down. I say we because there are a couple hundred bikers setup in a big gym doing the workout under the direction of the coach so I sort of feel like I am working out with the group on the DVD which is neat.

Thursday after work I went to the track to do my speed work. I have not done speed work in a long time but was determined to gut it out as speed work is the key to running faster and farther. My plan called for 6X400. Basically this means that I would warm up and then run a 400 (once around the track) fast and then recover with a slow jog and then repeat. The plan I am following calls for the rest interval to take the same amount of time as the sprint interval. When doing the 400, the idea is to be able to go as fast as possible while keeping the exact same pace for all 6 repeats. So it is not an all out sprint but it is definitely a hard run, faster than conversation pace.

I ran a mile around the track to get warmed up. For my repeats, I ran the 400s in 1:40. My slow jog recoveries also took 1:40. 6 repeats was a very attainable goal and I did well to pace myself so I could finish each repeat in 1:40. We'll see how future speed work goes. I used to play soccer which is an hour plus of speed work. I think I still have some of those fast twitch muscles that I built up over the years. Plus P90X helps develop some of those fast twitch muscles when we do Plyo.

Friday is a rest day. I slept in slightly on Friday and then after work, we did our 1 hour X Stretch routine. I followed up the stretching with some foam roller action. That is always a bit painful but very helpful. I have been having a problem with my knee since Wednesday. It feels like I twisted it a bit. After I am finished here, I am off to ice for the rest of the night. I also decided to take some Motrin which I rarely do.

For my first work week of structured training, I give my self a B+. I was about a mile short on my workout plan although I did get an extra 30 minutes of cycling in. I could have easily given myself an A but I have to have room for improvement.

Tomorrow morning we have our second day of Team Epiphany training followed by a swim. Hopefully I will also have time for a quick bike ride before I head up to Vienna for the rest of the day.

Thanks for reading.