Into week 2 of the Hansons Marathon training plan as we get ready for Rock and Roll New Orleans at the end of February, it is always amazing how painful everything is when all I am doing is easy pace and only at 3 miles, sometimes I wonder if I ready did run a marathon.

Before the run did Cathe Xtrain Cardio Leg Blast routine 7 -12 only including warmup and cool down, I only have 2 more weeks to got to complete the 90 days rotation and I have to start thinking what I am going to do next, may be Charlene or Barry's Bootcamp to get a break from Cathe but I do have to say are programs are so well done that most other programs pale in comparison.

Getting cold, actually today was very windy and grey, I think this is the first time in a while that I do not have a race in November or December and February seem so far away but I am learning to honor my body, I also need to build my speed backup wisely, as much as I like to race I have lost so much speed even thou I have the endurance.

With wedding and Birthdays next year, I ready do not have any other race for 2016, and I no idea what I want to focus on either, really hope there will be a tempting offer for something, I did put in for the Berlin Marathon, already rejected for Tokyo and London, not sure am going to put in for New York again, didn't mind paying when there was a guarantee entry after the 3rd trial since they are charging $20+ but I can be playing this game for a long time at this rate with no entry.

A throwback picture, May 2008, 1st Marathon, Cleveland Marathon

Run Aboard

The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad have a special event today called Hike Aboard basically the hikers take the train from the Boston Store to Lock 29 and hike back with a Park Ranger taking the lead, well some runners decided to crash the party. Beautiful day for a run but quite muddy, was going to run to the waterfall after we got back to the Boston store but the trail was closed since they were thinning the deer herd.

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In Between training

Well, since the Houston Marathon my training has realy been whatever I wanted to do running wise + cross training + MAP2012 but that is about to come to an end. I decided to use Focus n Fly for the rest of the year to write my training plan they did the one for Houston and I was happy with it and ran without injury.

I think I found an am running partner, she lives about 15mins from but we meet about half way to run, we are running the same pace and have about the same goal but she is a little bit ahead, I think it will be great if I can get 3 of my week day in on the road instead of all on the treadmill. We have done 2 runs together and things seem to workout out fine, DH is currently out of the country so he is not aware of my morning outdoor runs will see how he reacts to that. Oh well.

The intention will be to run Mon/Wed/Fri which is our easy days together and even thought the scehdule calls for 2-4 miles sometimes the intention will always be to do 6 miles it seems completely pointless to dress up in all that cold running gear just to get 2 miles in @ 5am. Talking about gear since this is the first time I am truly running outdoors in the winter I find that I do not have much to wear, so may have to do some shopping, really hard to sleep in when you have someone waiting for you.

Almost done with Dax Moy training program but thinking I mat repeat it on my own since I like the program and like the result I am seeing. the eating plan has been great, surprise that I can give up Pasta and bread and be fine with it

Boston Store to Jaite–Trail

I really can understand how people in Ohio can easily get depress, after a beautiful sunny blue sky day yesterday, I woke up to the usual 30 degrees and grey sky, what happened to the Sun and blue sky. Oh well.

I decided to join the Fleet Feet Northfield Trail group for a run at 8am, I have never ran with them so want’s sure how fast they are and if they will be accommodating to my slow pace neither was I sure what my legs was going to do since this is a difficult hilly trail run. The group was great to run with, yes they were fast but they stop/slow in front to let us catch up before taking off again, but since we were running on the buckeye trail I wasn’t really concern, know I wasn’t going to get lost.

This is one of those runs better explain in pictures, yes the trail was still muddy.

Boston Store, side view coming back after the run.

Following the blue blaze as you can see on the right.

Nice downhill, which of cause we climb on the way back.

Lots of steps and when you are not doing that

you were doing this

and more of it, or trying to figure out how to get around this

and run across this

But at the end of the day the view makes it all worthwhile.

 

 

Hoping to get my Mojo back

Life since to be getting back to normal and I am ready to ramp my training back up, I made so much gain last year that I was looking forward to capitalizing on but life tthrew me a curve ball so I am really back to square one speed wise.

I signed up for Akron Marathon in Jan, so that is on the schedule but I need to do some races before then just to figure out where I am. Right now I am thinking of running the Lake Health Distance Classic Half with my neighbour on 6/6 ran this last year so it will be a good gauge nice and hilly course and there is a race on 6/16 just because it is on my birthday I feel obligated to run and I need to think of some more before or after Akron. Oh, I am also thinking of doing a race in London in July when I go down to visit my brothers.

Saturday was my longest run of the year - 7 miles

Sunday - Yoga for Runners

Monday - 3.5 miles- base pace run , I was really scheduled to do 4.5 but got out of bed late just too cold

Thinks have been abit hectic lately but I am still trying to follow my training program as much as possible. Occasionally am breaking up the runs to fit it in but none the less getting it in. A minor set back with my left leg and butt not quite sure what trigger except for the fact that I am not stretching and icing after workout or before bed as I was doing earlier in the month and also not strength training as much due to lack of time.
So after reviewing my training log, stretching needs to be priority even if I have to cut the workout short also go back to short strength routine until things calm down at work and my life gets back to normal.

Well, day 1 didn't go as planned was suppose to run 3 miles at a 10:51 pace but ended up at a 10:59 pace. Still need to work on proper pacing, so I can finish up where I am suppose to be. Starting at a lower speed but slowly getting to where I have to be and holding for the miles duration. It was hard not to make this into a speed/interval workout.

1 legged hop 20s
No arm running 20s

Training Plan/Goal

I have been reading Matt Fitzgerald Brain Training for Runners and really like it, so I am going to try the level 1 Half Marathon training program, I really do not have any race in mind but I need something formal to follow just so I am not just doing hard workout which looking at my log that is all I have been doing and that will be setting my self up for injury again.

So what I did is look at my best time for 5K, 1oK, HM and Marathon and then decide on where I want to be within reason. Below are my current best times

5K 29:56
10K 1:06:12 Trail, got lost twice
HM 2:15:10 2 weeks after another hilly HM
Marathon 4:55:06 Walked most of 2nd half due to current injury

Goal:
5K 25:46
10K 53:29
HM 1:58:34
Marathon 4:04:50

So I am going from a target pace level of 49-50 to 43, anything lower I believe will not be challenging with those target goal my running paces are

Recovery 12.12 - 10.52
Base 10.51 - 9.54
Marathon 9.20
HM 9.02
10K 8.36
5K 8.17
3K 8.03
1 mile 7.38

Am going to start the training on 2/9 with Saturday for the long runs and not Sunday, I will add in races to be at the miles needed for the long run or below.