Week 3 Wrap-up

I hit 70 miles for the week and am now back on track according to my build macro. Really, the week went by pretty easily...no issues to report. I ran 6 days, something completely new to me. Next week, I'm going to drop back down to 5 days (I think :), but will still aim for 70 miles. It should be pretty doable. The week after that, it's back to 6 days of running (per week), and my schedule will hopefully stay that way for the remainder of the season.

Settling In

Today, was our third long run of the Portland marathon training cycle. Again, i had 20 on the schedule. Fortunately, there was a good size group that wanted to get 16 miles, which meant I only had to get 4 miles before. Yesh! This meant I could sleep until 4:30am, though not a lot of extra time, it was significant mentally.

The opening 4 were nice and easy, call it an extended warm-up. Once the main run started, our pace was pretty easy for the first 8-10 miles -- 7:40ish...maybe 7:30ish. I had decided the night before I would pick it up for the last three if all was going well. It was! The group actually picked up the pace and ran about a 7 min mile with about 5 to go. We hit a water stop after that mile, and the pace relaxed a bit. I let everyone know my plan, and there were a couple takers. We picked it up nicely for around two miles and then decided to sorta cool down the last mile. Great run: 20 miles at an avg pace of 7:31 (per Mr. Garmin).

Too easy?

This morning I was waffling between going either 10 or 12. I was really leaning toward going 10 because my feet have been very sore/achy the last 48 hours. I know...toughen up! Anyway, Ken wanted to go 12 today, so that was that. We ran a big loop and went out easy (read Slow) the first...call it 5 miles. Once everyone made their respective turn, we picked up the pace a bit. I felt the change of speed for about a mile, but before I knew it, the faster pace felt like the 'easy' pace. Nice! We got the mileage to exactly 12 at overall pace of 7:29.

Hours later, my feet feel much better and I'm pretty sure i could easily go again tomorrow. But I'm not going to push it too much too soon!

MLR

Today the MLR was on tap. I ran a 14 mile out/back from Rogue over to Lake Austin, meandered along Scenic, and the turn around happened at the very end of old Bull Creek Road. All of the crew, except one, was either absent or went a shorter distance. Mark joined me for the run. I had 14 on the dot, with an avg pace of 7:31.

Week 2 Wrap-up

I ended up with 60 miles for the week. I had planned to get in about 65, but mid-way through the week made a slight adjustment due to some aches and pains I was having. I don't know if the mileage adjustment really made a difference, but I'm feeling much better today (Sunday). Next week, I'll aim to get at least 65 and maybe few more if things go well. Only time will tell!

20s

I had 20 miles on the schedule for my long run. The longest supported run was 14, so again, I had to get six in before. Geezer and I took off at 5:05 to get the extra mileage. We ended up w/ 6 plus a bit at an avg pace of 7:51. The 14 mile portion was solid. We started off a bit fast, and as a result, were warned that we needed to slow down about 5 miles into the 14. The group slowed down for about a mile, but the pace gradually picked up the rest of the way.

I felt borderline shitty the last 8-10 miles. I never struggled w/ the pace, but my legs just didn't quite have 'it'. With about 2 miles left, I decided to push it a bit hoping my legs would wake up. After a mile of running at a faster pace, and still not feeling very good, I slowed down significantly. Garmin told me I ran the last mile in 7:14...what a difference a year makes! The overall pace for the 14 mile section was 7:18, according to my watch. Overall, about a 7:29 pace for the 20.

10 on the Trail

We must have done something wrong last week because we were forced run the Town Lady Bird Lake (TLBL) Trail today. Seriously, I had originally planned to run some mile repeats with a buddy who's about to race the Stockholm marathon. This morning, however, our coach asked me what I was doing beforehand, and not really thinking much of it, I told him, "I'm running mile repeats w/ Mike." That was not the correct answer. So, after being advised not to run miles repeats, I ended up running the trail with the other folks. I guess mile repeat fun will have to what until a later date. Boo!

MLR # 1

Today was the first medium long run (MLR) of the training season, 14 miles on the schedule. We took it pretty easy throughout the run. I had a total of 14.2 miles with an average overall pace of 7:58. The route was the St. Eds loop, which has moderate rolling hills. The weather was cool, and it was a nice run overall.

LR #1

I had 20 miles on tap for today. The longest supported run was 14, so I had to grab 6 beforehand. I joined the guys/gals for the final 14. We closed the last 4, which felt good but was a bit tough at the same time. I'd rate the run as an 8 out of 10

Team Rogue Day 2

I stuck with the pre-run routine, and as a result, was ready to roll from the first step. We went 10 miles at about a 7:15 pace (per Garmin). I decided to have a little fun the last 1.5 miles and closed on cue with my buddies. It felt really good to stretch the ole legs out some.

Is this thing on?

Day 1 of Team Rogue Portland -- there were lots of familiar faces this morning and a few new faces also. Today seemed like the first day of class when school starts back up. All in all, it was fun and exciting at the same time.

Completely new to Team Rogue, Coach introduced a pre-run warm-up/stretch routine and corresponding post-run stretches. To me, it felt like I was on the track team again. Fun! Others, I'm not so sure they had stretched before...ever! Ha, just kidding. It's too early to say for sure, but I believe this is something we can all benefit from, if we stick with it.

Regarding the run, I went 10 miles. The pace was little brisk, call it 7:20, attributed to 1st day excitement.