Quick Review

Due to life been missing for a while I have been unable to get on and blog I am still in the Spinerval Super6 challenge although I did take 9 days off to do the Sufferfest 9 days Challenge. What made the challenge so great was the introduction to Trainer Road a great training software. I love seeing the data when training, even though I can see some of the data in Garmin, it is really not the same, I am able to see HR, Cadence, Power and when in free ride % of FTP right as I train. The graph records HR and Power so you can easily see when you are dropping can't pretend it is not happening, it really help step up my game and make training so much more fun and effective.

I still do not have a concrete plan for the year, just still not sure what I want to do but I love what am doing now with  no pressure of an upcoming race. I am also loving the no pain after workout, not sure if it because I am training smarter with the inrease cross training or what but I will take it.

Recovery Week & March Review

Recovery from the Fool’s 50k went great, had a ice bath when I got back home but note to self make sure water completely cover the legs. The pain concentrated on my quads exactly where the water stop and made using the stick a nightmare. Monday and Tuesday I concentrate on eating close to 6000 calories each day, no junk, mainly some form of carbs & protein, basically my refeed days, my body tend to response to this and it help with my healing process. This time I took Monday off work just because this was a hilly race and I was not looking forward to climbing the constant 4 story stairs required, back at work Tuesday no problem going up the stairs but the quads were slightly sore when going the stairs by Wednesday things were back to normal and I got in some Spinning. Thursday back to running and Friday I started back to strength training using Supreme 90.

March went great, got in all my scheduled runs with some modifications, worked on strength and cross training but need to focus on flexibility in April, still using The Self Coached Runner by Allan Lawrence and Mark Scheid training plan for a 4 hour marathon. So far I love the plan and I have been able to train with it injury free even thou I am running more miles than I ever did and challenging myself speed wise. The only problem with running this many miles is that my shoes need change sooner and with money tight this is fast becoming a problem, so if there is any company out there that need a tester for trail or road shoe am your girl. Running is definitely not as cheap a sport as we all thing, well it could be but to really have fun with it, it is not

Year	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Jan	0	125.8	38.39	7	169.68
Feb	0	94.48	55.61	34.3	159.68
March	0	124.76	86.49	28	164.42

Plans for November

Since I still have 4 races left before the end of the year which include a 30k in December, I realize I need to put together a training program, since I have been using Matt Fitzgerald's Brain Training for Runners program for almost 2 years now, I decided to take a break from it and use one of Hal Higdon's 10K advanced program with modification. I do not run 6 days a week so I dropped one of the run and both base miles are limited to 3 miles which means no long midweek run since I normally only run 4 days a week and now trying 5, if I start to have issues, drop one day and increase the mileage for the single run. The long runs are also longer to capture the 30k, so starting at 12 miles since I ran 10 hilly miles with the turtles recently, so the plan is designed for speed and endurance, first test will be my 5 miler on 11/13 wow that's next weekend. All my paces stays the same, no change to them since I have yet to achieve the 4hr marathon and I still struggle with them sometimes.

For strength training using Montenegro Method, Cathe Butts and Guts plus anything that meets my fancy occasionally from the library. The intention is also to add yoga and pilates back in, hoping this will help with flexibilty and prevention of injury from the additional running day. Still doing the Hardcore workout.

35 mins on the stepper + 10 mins on the Spin Bke + Barry's Bootcamp Upper Body skipped the warmup.

Not having a running goal is hard but I am working on strengthing my core and legs. I am thinking of signing up for Akron before the price goes up, never done the full but have basically ran the whole course in the last 2 years and it is a hard course but I should be fine since it has a 6 hours cutoff and I should have my base back by then.

Other races I am thinking even if I don't race them is Hermes 10 miler, Yates 5 k and the Concord HM ( I think the name changed this year)

Instead of the couch to 5k program, I think I am going to go back to the Personal Running Trainer 4 weeks to 1 mile program that I used last year since I really like it and it worked in helping get my base back.