I'm back!!
After my 10 days, which in all with the crappy workouts that preceded those 10 days, I'm BACK.
The first few days were flipping ROUGH. HR kinda all over the place, fat feeling and bloated as all get out. I'm sure the Mexico bender had NOTHING to do with all that or anything...
But, I am finally feeling so much more like myself. I did one sweat out booze run in Mexico on Monday, but other than that the bulk of my training has been done Thurs- Sunday where I tallied up about 7 hours. My body is tired, but most of all HAPPY! Agh....
Finished the week off with a fantastic run. Not fast by any means, but pushing it. We had dinner last night with some friends of ours B & J - B has only been racing for about 3 years and he's amazing. A sub 3hr stand alone marathon and a 9:something Ironman (Kona too) time. Yes, he has natural talent, but he also works his flipping ass off. His wife J isn't so far behind him with a few more years behind her belt....
Anyway, so last night we were talking about training. He gave us some descriptions of his key workouts, which happened to prove my theory of how I did well in Tucson at the half marathon. I was taking my last 1-2 miles and negative splitting it, letting myself go anaerobic, into zone 3. He however finishes his key long runs with his RACE pace. He said it's hard as HELL, it hurts... but in the end he knows it works.
So, we did it. We took the dogs out for 5.5 miles, then dropped them off and headed out to finish the run off. I was thinking ugh 8:45 pace, but Shane said - NOPE, your HALF MARATHON pace. And, damn it since I just ran a 1:45 apparently that is an 8min mile. SHIT.
So, we let ourselves slowly move into it. Started off with about 4 mins at a 9:30 pace. Then made a turn and hit the 8min pace and held that for 1mile. I was DYING to say the least.... I turned my garmin screen off so I didn't have to see my HR, although you could hear it in my breathing. I said - no more of this 6am shit - we are getting up at FIVE.....
The next stretch was a slight uphill, and I knew I couldn't keep an 8min pace without dying so Shane said he was gonna pick it up & go a little bit ahead. It was about .7 of a mile & I did what I could to not get to far behind him. I kept about an 8:20pace for the first part, then the last .25mile slowed to an 8:30. I So wanted to walk.. Normally, I would. But I kept thinking in my head about how he was describing his workouts, and the effort and how he feels like he is going to die, but he pushes through, and damn it - it pays off.
I thought why can't I do that. Well, obviously I can. I and did. And I started to get a littler runner's high, even though I thought I was going to pass out. I hit the top of the incline with abou .7 to go and dropped the pace to a 7:30 (slight DOWN) - I was happy as a clam - mostly proud of myself for not stopping, for not slowing and getting out of my head. I ended the run with the last .2miles cooling down & ended up with a 2.5ish mile split around 8:20 including the cooldown.
Now, I'm fired up. I feel like myself, and I'm ready to work my ass off for the next few weeks leading up to a half ironman! I just need to translate that energy and effort to the bike. NO more 130 hrs :-)
Here's the summary of my 1st week back. I am sooooo happy to be back!
The first few days were flipping ROUGH. HR kinda all over the place, fat feeling and bloated as all get out. I'm sure the Mexico bender had NOTHING to do with all that or anything...
But, I am finally feeling so much more like myself. I did one sweat out booze run in Mexico on Monday, but other than that the bulk of my training has been done Thurs- Sunday where I tallied up about 7 hours. My body is tired, but most of all HAPPY! Agh....
Finished the week off with a fantastic run. Not fast by any means, but pushing it. We had dinner last night with some friends of ours B & J - B has only been racing for about 3 years and he's amazing. A sub 3hr stand alone marathon and a 9:something Ironman (Kona too) time. Yes, he has natural talent, but he also works his flipping ass off. His wife J isn't so far behind him with a few more years behind her belt....
Anyway, so last night we were talking about training. He gave us some descriptions of his key workouts, which happened to prove my theory of how I did well in Tucson at the half marathon. I was taking my last 1-2 miles and negative splitting it, letting myself go anaerobic, into zone 3. He however finishes his key long runs with his RACE pace. He said it's hard as HELL, it hurts... but in the end he knows it works.
So, we did it. We took the dogs out for 5.5 miles, then dropped them off and headed out to finish the run off. I was thinking ugh 8:45 pace, but Shane said - NOPE, your HALF MARATHON pace. And, damn it since I just ran a 1:45 apparently that is an 8min mile. SHIT.
So, we let ourselves slowly move into it. Started off with about 4 mins at a 9:30 pace. Then made a turn and hit the 8min pace and held that for 1mile. I was DYING to say the least.... I turned my garmin screen off so I didn't have to see my HR, although you could hear it in my breathing. I said - no more of this 6am shit - we are getting up at FIVE.....
The next stretch was a slight uphill, and I knew I couldn't keep an 8min pace without dying so Shane said he was gonna pick it up & go a little bit ahead. It was about .7 of a mile & I did what I could to not get to far behind him. I kept about an 8:20pace for the first part, then the last .25mile slowed to an 8:30. I So wanted to walk.. Normally, I would. But I kept thinking in my head about how he was describing his workouts, and the effort and how he feels like he is going to die, but he pushes through, and damn it - it pays off.
I thought why can't I do that. Well, obviously I can. I and did. And I started to get a littler runner's high, even though I thought I was going to pass out. I hit the top of the incline with abou .7 to go and dropped the pace to a 7:30 (slight DOWN) - I was happy as a clam - mostly proud of myself for not stopping, for not slowing and getting out of my head. I ended the run with the last .2miles cooling down & ended up with a 2.5ish mile split around 8:20 including the cooldown.
Now, I'm fired up. I feel like myself, and I'm ready to work my ass off for the next few weeks leading up to a half ironman! I just need to translate that energy and effort to the bike. NO more 130 hrs :-)
Here's the summary of my 1st week back. I am sooooo happy to be back!
Comments
nice work getting back too.
rockon`