Friday, June 21, 2013

Run your own workout

Usually I'm pretty good about running my own workout. Lately, I've been tagging along chasing someone else on their workouts. It's had the desired results. My steady state runs have become quicker and farther. Time to add some speed to the equation.

I've determined my VDOT is 47. This gives me a idea where to try and run my workouts. What I failed to do is look up the actual schedule in Daniels book. This morning I attempted 9 x 400 meters at R pace. The bigger fail was trying to use the youngster's time instead of mine. I attempted 2 repeats at his pace and then just settled in behind and ran my own pace for the remaining repeats.

Still prefer to run on the track chasing or being chased than running solo. At least for this type of workout. Almost comforting having the known distance of the track in front of you versus the uncertainty of the remaining distance on the road.

Runbayou VDOT calculator (link on the left)

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Patience

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”
A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Can't imagine I'm the only runner who is impatient for the results of days past. Hard sometimes to trust the training process to bring us back to that level of fitness. Guess that's one of the benefits of keeping a running log. It's nice to go back to the beginning of a training cycle and see the progression.

I"ve started doing some steady state runs. This past week was the 3rd one in the last 3 weeks. The times have been discouraging. At least, until I put them in perspective to my last buildup. It really isn't a fair comparison to look at numbers from 4 years ago with a base and temperatures below 40 degrees for most every run. I've even used this data to convince myself that my last marathon PR really could have been a sub 3:00 on a little bit cooler day.



Strange foot issues for the first time. It's in the foot I broke, but that's not the issue. The 3rd and 4th metatarsals are really sore after most of my runs. It's almost like the work into a knot or something. It's usually gone by the end of the day. Just a different issue that I've never dealt with. I'll guess it's caused by walking around on my heel in that damn boot for 6 weeks. Perhaps the muscles and or tendons have atrophied? Probably aggravated by the arthritis in my big toe. (self diagnosis) According to the web, I should eat foods rich in amino acids. (meat, eggs and animal protein)

I am going to measure the widths of the different running shoes I'm wearing. At one point I was convinced a narrow toe box was causing my foot issue. That's probably not the case, as the issue is only with the right foot.

Oh and the silly running streak. Still going. Day 36.