Tempo Run

Yesterday I set out on a tempo run. While not fast by most standards, this run gave me confidence knowing I could sustain a fairly fast pace despite being tired recently.

1.5 mi Warmup (11:43)

20 Min. Tempo Run (2.87 mi/6:59 avg. )

Mile 1 - 7:02

Mile 2 - 6:59

.87 - 5:59 (6:53 pace)

So even as I was clealy fatiguing (felt the lactate, heavy breathing, etc.) I was ble to keep increasing the pace. I'm very pleased with this run.

Total mileage for the day, roughly 4.5. Afterwards, went to gym and lifted/biked.

6.5 Miles Easy

Today I went out with my friend Andrew (great HS runner with a 5k pr of 16:40) down the infamous Holmdel course for an easy 6 mile run. Had a great time and looking forward to our season together this fall.

Unfortunately we had to take a small break at the 5k point because the park was closing and we moved our cars in fear of a ticket.

6 Miles - 48:59 (8:10 avg)

Mile 1 - 8:08

Mile 2 - 7:21

Mile 3 - 7:34

.1 Jog to cars - 0:51

Mile 4 - 8:24

Mile 5 - 8:31

Mile 6 (.91) - 8:07

2 Laps on the track worth of strides, stride the straights jog the turns.

Lots of steep rolling hills and car dodging on the tight shoulder at the end. All in all a GREAT run considering how crappy I've been feeling. Honestly this run felt great and was a real confidence booster.

I'm hoping I can hold up for the 3-4 mi. tempo run scheduled for tomorrow. Guess we'll find out.

6.35 Miles Easy

Today I learned about a new park with trails nearby so me and Myra headed there for a nice easy run. Coming off of three days off, I was just hoping for a painfree run that I could complete. Originally, I intended to do an easy six but all bets were off when I got lost mid trail and couldn't find the parking lot lol. Luckily, Myra came to the rescue just in time.

In addition to the easy run, I got a nice little fartlek-type speed workout during the run due to deer that fear nothing, and a dead-end trail that led to, what I believe, to be a satanic worship area. Needless to say I feel I broke my 800m PR during both these encounters.

6.35 Miles - 57:52 (9:07 avg)

Mile 1 - 8:56

Mile 2 - 9:15

Mile 3 - 9:45

Mile 4 - 8:33

Mile 5 - 9:13

Mile 6 - 8:42

.35 - 3:23

I believe the times are a combination of two things. This being a trail course I was doing a lot of safety-based running, dodging roots and lots of terrain change. Second, my garmin tends to act up when it isn't in an open environment. I do not believe I ran that slowly based on how I felt.

3 Days Off/3.25 mi

Since I've been feeling exhausted and like I was coming down with something I opted for three full days off, and tonight went for an easy 3.25mi run on the treadmill in 26 minutes. Nothing hard or anything, nice easy jog.

In a few hours when I wake up I'll hopefully have six miles logged from my new training program. If all goes well, this could be the motivation and positive reinforcement I so desperately need.

Off Day

Today I went to the beach with Myra, got home and felt really drained and almost as if I was coming down with something. Surprisingly, I took three one-hour naps and feel pretty good. Legs are a little heavy so I took today off and going to see how I feel tomorrow.

On a brigther note, I plugged in my times to runnersworld.com's training plan and have a program all ready to go for the season. Hopefully I'll feel up to starting it out Monday.

3.25 Miles

Headed out with my High School cross country team today for a few easy miles. Found out the hard way I'm not in shape for any speed yet lol. Ended up doing a rather difficult 3.25 miles in around 26 minutes with a few walk breaks, heat and humidity is really going crazy this time of year, never remember it being this bad.

Going to put in a few more easy days and then start up some speedwork to get going for the season, have my physical today and then all that's left to do is race, hopefully my legs stop feeling so dead.

Weekly Mileage: A miserable 15.5 due to sickness, exhaustion, and lack of motivation...

Semi Long Run

Since I missed my weekly long run on Sunday I decided to make up for it yesterday. I hit the treadmill at the gym with Myra because by the time I could get out it was late afternoon and the heat/humidity was unbearable.

Got a nice 8 miler in with a time of 1:01.48, which is slightly lower than 8-minute pace. The treadmill was set at around 7:15 to 7:30 pace most of the time, but I incorporated and easy two mile warmup, so most of my splits were comfortably in the low sevens which I am very happy about.

Althought I despise the dreadmill and get very bored, I do appreciate the pacing capabilities of it that I severely lack.

4 Miles Easy

Monday morning I set out for an easy four miles with Myra in some gross weather. The heat and humidity were out very early this morning. Nonetheless, got a nice easy run in and acclimatized a little for my first upcoming XC race.

Mile 1 - 8:27

Mile 2 - 9:05

Mile 3 - 8:00

Mile 4 - 7:54

Total : 4 Miles 33:28 (8:22 avg)

Afterwards we sprayed each other with the hose to cool down/get sweat off lol.

Little Speed Workout

Got up and went out for a speed workout with Myra.

2.1 Mi W/up

6x1 Min Pickups w/ 30 second recovery jogs

1 - .16mi (6:13)

2 - .17mi (6:02)

3 - .17mi (5:52)

4 - .16mi (6:19)

5 - .17mi (6:02)

6 - .15mi (6:34)

1.5 mi c/d -- 5.1 Miles Total

I liked this workout because it was a nice introduction to start off my summer speedwork. With my legs being very tired lately, it was great to get them moving quickly without over working them.

Took today off and going to try to do a longer run tomorrow, overall very happy atm as my taper/recovery week comes to an end.

Weekly Mileage : 24.1

Off

Despite really wanting to run I took another off day today, guess this is my taper week. With my first 8k on September 5th I want to assure that I'm fresh as can be and can get a good assessment of the season.

My latest revelation is that maybe I'm actually running too slow. We'll see in the coming days.

4 Miles Easy

Did 4 Miles easy yesterday afternoon with Myra, sans watch, somewhere in the ballpark of 35 minutes. More importantly, legs felt good. Going to do another 5-6 today with some 1 min pickups, hopefully all goes well.

Two Days Off

Took two days off to make sure everything is ok. Did a circuit and some abs/core work. Going to do an easy four tomorrow, hope it goes well.

5 Mile Recovery

Last night I set out on a recovery run with my friend Kyle. Unfortunately, I'm still experiencing a very unique soreness in my quadriceps. After three miles my muscles just become extremely heavy and drained no matter what pace I'm going. These past two months I've been putting in more mileage than I ever have, maybe that's the cause?

5 Mile Recovery - 44:44.72 (8:57 avg.)

Mile 1 - 8:35
Mile 2 - 8:24
Mile 3 - 8:27
Mile 4 - 9:20
Mile 5 - 9:56 (30 second walkbreak)

As one can see, after three there was just nothing left and it was a recovery run! I've been putting in 40mpw, while not alot, is something my body is not use to ever attaining for a long period of time. I might take a day or two off to get fresh, any ideas?

10 Mile Long Run

Sunday I set out for a nice early long run with my friend Nick, who is much faster than me. Hit my p.r. for ten miles at 1hr and 20 minutes and felt great for most of the run.

10 Miles 1:20.16 (8:02/mi Avg.)

Mile 1 - 7:56
Mile 2 - 7:58
Mile 3 - 8:03
Mile 4 - 7:28
Mile 5 - 8:02
Mile 6 - 8:07
Mile 7 - 8:17
Mile 8 - 8:12
Mile 9 - 8:06
Mile 10 - 8:03

Overall, I am happy with this run. It was my fastest time so far and it really didn't feel all that bad. Next week I'm going to increase the distance a little bit.

9 Total Miles

Well yesterday I headed down to the beach with my best friend Myra and decided to do some mileage on the boardwalk. Ended up doing 6 miles easy with a slow mile cooldown. Nice little wind was pushing me on the way there, while back down I had a headwind which was a good thing to push through. Later on that evening I did an easy 2 miles barefoot on the beach with her. All and all a good day and got my easy run in.



7 Miles 56:45 (8:07/mi.)



Mile 1 - 8:09
Mile 2 - 7:41
Mile 3 - 7:42
Mile 4 - 8:08
Mile 5 - 7:55
Mile 6 - 7:58
Mile 7 - 9:07 (c/d)


Took today off and going to do a long run tomorrow, hopefully that goes well.

Weekly Mileage: Around 33.5

Off Day

After some contemplation regarding yesterday's "run", I decided I do not want to get demoralized or risk any overtraining so early in the summer/pre-season. Took today off to let my tired legs rest and take care of some aching pains. Went bowling with some friends instead and got running off my mind.

Going to do at least an easy 4 tomorrow and see how I feel from there.

6 Miles Easy (Yeah right...)

6 Miles - 48:37.15 - Avg. Pace: 8:06/mile

Mile 1 - 7:18
Mile 2 - 7:36
Mile 3 - 7:50
Mile 4 - 8:07
Mile 5 - 8:16
Mile 6 - 9:25 (yikes!)

Splits:

I set out for an easy 6 miles; half easy, half recovery. I was cruising along fine until mile 3, where the recent workouts of 8mile beach run on saturday and 10mile long run on sunday caught up with me. My splits starting htiting positives, so I just cruised in to avoid any unnecessary damage from an easy run.

Did some stretching and drills in pool afterwards to avoid any more impact.

Debating tomorrow off or very slow...

7.5 w/ Mile Repeats

Today was a very interesting day, a friend of mine I met at a recent 5k invited me to his cross country practice for mile repeats, me and my friend from college decided to head over and give it a shot.

The course was almost entirely up hill, and juding from the times it may have been more than a mile, my garmin was acting up in the woods and I believe it was a little in accurate. Nevertheless, was a very good speed workout tailored specifically to the upcoming cross country season.

2.5 mi. warm up - (21:04/8:27/mile)

1st Repeat - 1.13mi(8:08/7:11/mile)

2nd Repeat - 1.01mi(7:42.59/7:38/mile)

3rd Repeat - .25mi(1:11.8/4:41/mile)

2.4 mi cool down - (23:47.06/9:55/mile)

The general slowness of the repeats is what leads me to believe the course was off. Even on my worst days I don't think a mile repeat would be that slow, maybe the gargantuan hill at the start is what derailed the training, others reported times that were off as well.

We were really feeling it afterwards so took an extra slow cooldown.

First Track Season

The first topic I want to share is my experiences around my first ever Track and Field season. The high school I came from was so small that we only had a cross country team. Never feeling too great at distance races, I was anxious to go to college and try my hand, or foot, at track. Come to find out, I have a newfound passion for running with this first ever season.

My first T&F season was way more than I expected. I learned that I have a knack for hurdling, running a 57.29 PB at the end of the season in the 400m IH. Also, we had a great group of people who decided to run and train for the 4x800 relay, myself included, and we ended up taking first at regions and second over all at Nationals, in 8:00.99, giving us the title All-American!!

All in all, track is such a great sport and I am looking forward to the 09-10 season, and hopefully bringing home more All-American plaques!

First Entry

Hey everyone out there, I set this blog up a couple of months ago to detail my training and racing experiences throughout my first year of collegiate running.

Now that I have some free time, I'm going to post my training on the blog everyday, along with races and whatever else I decide to include.

I hope you guys find everything interesting, feel free to leave comments/tips/etc. Have a good run!