Saturday, August 30, 2008
A Little Labor for Labor Day Weekend
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
"Where did everybody go?"
Do you remember the part in the Foghorn Leghorn cartoon where the Baby Ostrich, after Foghorn and the Barnyard Dog knock each other into the ground during the boxing match, finally pulls it's head out of the ground, gulps, and asks "Where did everybody go?" Well that was me last night at the track (sans sticking my head in the ground). Nobody was there for the usual Tuesday night speed work. I knew there was a speaker scheduled last night for the running club, but not everyone who shows up is a club member. Maybe there was a memo I missed or something...
So I ran by myself. I did an extended warm-up, waiting to see if anyone else was going to be there. I ran a reverse ladder from 1600m to 200m. I ran a cool-down. That was about the extent of it. Here are my splits:
Warm-up - 2.5 miles with .5 miles of striders on the straights.
1600m - 6:23
400m rest
1200m - 4:56
400m rest
800m - 3:06
400m rest
400m - 1:26
400m rest
200m - 37.86
Cool-down - 1.25 mile
I felt alright, just a little tight in the beginning from my long run on Saturday. The extended warm-up had me feeling good to go for the 1600m. The yellow jackets were out in force, buzzing around my Gatorade bottle. I ended up having to drape my towel over it to keep them away. Other than that, a good workout. Weather permitting, we are planning on starting a Thursday night Pythagoras family training night tomorrow. It will allow Mrs. P to get some training in as she needs to work up to running without walking. It will allow Jr. P to develop some endurance for his soccer matches. And it will allow me to log a few extra miles during the week. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the Fay remnants work their way through before tomorrow night.
Mr. P
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The Long and Winding Road...
Sunday, August 17, 2008
2008 Vermillion Harbor Sprint Duathlon
Thursday, August 14, 2008
I Lied
In other news, since I still haven't replaced my bad back tire on the bike yet, I decided to hook it up to the trainer last night and have a spin. I was able to do 10 miles before I had to stop due to sheer boredom. Indoor cycling is the absolute most boring exercise known to man. But you might ask, "Mr. Pythagoras, what about Spinning classes?" Spinning classes are a whole different ballgame compared to riding a bike by yourself in the basement. There's only so much cinder block and spider web landscape I can take. I'd much rather be out on the road. I just don't trust drivers the way I did when I was younger. Experience, I guess.
Mr. P
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Wednesday Morning Surprise
As for the track workout, we ended up running at the high school instead of the middle school due to a soccer game. The only time I've been on that track is to finish a 5K which is held in the spring. We began with a 1.5 mile warm-up as everyone slowly found their way to the high school. Then it was a set of Yasso 800's. Which is a fancy name for 800 meter repeats, the times for which are determined by your desired marathon finish time. Here's an example: Mr. Pythagoras would like to finish the Columbus Marathon in a time of 3 hours and 45 minutes. He would then go to a track and run 800 meter repeats at a time of 3 minutes and 45 seconds per 800. Here's how that all worked out:
800 m - 3:10
400 m rest
800 m - 3:10
400 m rest
800 m 3:19
400 m rest
800 m - 3:18
400 m rest
800 m - 3:18
400 m rest
800 m - 3:15
As you can see, I wasn't very good at staying on my goal pace. Just by averaging the times out in my head, they are predicting a finish time somewhere around 3 hours and 15 minutes. That would be precisely 1 hour faster than my current PR. Not that that's unrealistic. It's just not a realistic expectation for this year. I think I'm very capable of cutting off at least 15 minutes, if not a little more. There are many variables in the marathon: training, tapering, health on the day of the race, weather, diet, etc... I have two months to do as much as I can to prepare the things I have control over. So far, I think I'm doing fairly well.
Mr. P
(Pain free as of 1:00PM 8/13/08)
Monday, August 11, 2008
Running in Hinckley
The Hinckley Reservation has a lovely 3 mile paved trail loop that runs around the lake which is the center-point of the park. All ups and downs. I've done a few 9 mile runs there before, but this was the longest run I have attempted there so far. 4 laps. 12 miles. The temperature was right around 80, with a mix of sun and clouds, and a decent breeze that would kick up every once in a while. Lap one felt really good. I charged up the hills and caught my breath at the top. Lap one was also the fastest lap of the quartet at 25:03.
I finished lap two in 26:25 as I was not attacking the hills as hard. I was also taking longer to recover from the uphill efforts. I was also starting to notice the heat more. Which is to say, I was sweating like a pig.
Lap three had a time of 27:58. While running the third lap, I kept thinking about how tired I was starting to get and that I still had one lap to go once I finished it. My left shin was bothering me from time to time and my left knee was acting up to, preventing me from going downhill as hard as I would have liked to. At one point I had to walk while drinking to prevent myself from choking on my Gatorade.
Lap four ended up being a bit faster than lap three at 27:26. Considering that I was hurting a bit and was drenched in sweat and was starting to see fuzzy little halos around everything, lap four wasn't that bad once I was into it. I've run longer and hurt much worse, so it didn't take too much to keep going. All in all a good distance training run for October.
As for the rest of this week, I have speed work tomorrow night and my second last duathlon of the year Sunday. That means no long run this week. I'm planning a 13 miler in two weeks. I just need to keep adding mileage until October. I think that if I can keep this up, I'll have a very good chance to shatter my goal of a sub 4 hour marathon in Columbus. As for my shin, it felt much better today. Maybe my body is learning how to cope with a little less down time than last year. I'm hoping to maintain two runs per week. Last year, I think I ran once a week for my marathon training. Any more and it just hurt too much. I'll just take things one week at a time.
Till next time,
Mr. P
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Speed Work Update
I began with a mile and a half warm-up followed by another mile of striders on the straights and jogging the curves. Then the fun began with 200 m relays:
200 m - 38.95
rest 37.45
200 m - 39.79
rest 42.36
200 m - 39.53
rest 42.47
200 m - 41.20
Which were followed by 800 m repeats:
800 m - 3:16
rest 2:42
800 m - 3:18
rest 2:46
800 m - 3:16
rest 3:04
800 m - 3:18
rest 4:02
Consistent, huh? We finished with a mile cool-down. A cool-down in training terms. It was hot and muggy again, so I didn't technically "cool-down" until I had the AC cranked in the car. We had a breeze this week though. That's more than we've had previously, and felt great for half a lap each time around.
I'm a little sore from lifting last night, so I skipped my morning workout today. I need a 12 mile or so run this weekend, but I haven't decided when I'm going to do it. I don't think it's supposed to be as hot, so an afternoon run may work out just fine. I'll be sure to let you know.
Mr. P
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
2008 East Fork Sprint Duathlon (continued)
I'll be back soon with a re-cap of last nights speed workout. It was another tough one.
Mr. p