Training in Montana

First of my 3 planned 20 milers.  Due to double digit below zero temps I did this on 2 TMs - 5 miles at home, then went to the Y with my family and did 15. It wasn't that bad today. I slept in this morning so was well rested and that helped a lot. Watching Vietnam War in HD on the History channel helped the time go quickly. The last 5 miles I ran at MP, with the last mile slightly faster than MP and I bumped up my speed the last 1/2 mile and finished the last 1/4 at 6:00 pace. A good run all around. 

5 TM miles this morning at home. Legs weren't too tired or sore. Watched last night's episode of The Amazing Race. What a finish! I've never seen them all standing together on the mat at the end. I felt badly for the team that got kicked off. Teamwork and attention to details are tough when in the heat of battle.

4 TM miles at home. I nearly didn't wake up to run these miles but rolled over and looked at the clock one more time and I had just enough time for 4 miles. They felt tougher than yesterday. I think it's a combo of not enough sleep and delayed DOMS (a double delay). I felt the same last week after 19 miles on Saturday. Sunday felt okay, Monday pretty good, but Tuesday felt a bit rougher. It doesn't help that I'm getting less than 7 hours of sleep. I think that's the major culprit.

Yasso! 7x800 on the TM at home this morning. 9.3 mph, 6:30 pace for 3:15 Yasso splits. Good effort, I really like this workout. And I love the step back week.

6 pace miles this morning on the home TM. These miles were hard! Much, much harder than they should have been. I guess it's mostly attitude. I went into this run thinking it would be so easy, that I've worked really hard the past 11 weeks and the 6 previous pace runs I did prepared me for a simple one today. I guess Wednesday's workout was harder than I had thought. I warmed up for 1 mile at 10 minute pace then bumped to 7:19 pace. My legs were tired and a bit sore and I walked for 0.2 miles after 1.75 pace miles. I then wanted to walk again a few times but powered through with Jedi mind tricks. After 5 pace miles my legs woke up and the last mile was simpler. Hmmm.

12 miles this morning...outside!!! It was fantastic to run in the out of doors and have to worry about pace. The temp said it was 35, but that's 600 ft above town and apparently there was an inversion as it was cold and everything was frozen solid with all the melting going on. I was dressed warm enough thankfully.

By the way, running apps on phones stink. Since my Garmin battery died I've used MapMyRun and now use Strava. The GPS abilities stink. The last couple times I've run regular routes and it's measured short. Today was bad. Mile 2 had me at a 6:52 pace while I was running about 8:30. Mile 8 was 3:52 pace. I am amazing, I know. Trying out for the Olympics soon. I still have 4 years eligibility at the college of my choice.... Going to replace my Garmin battery this week.

9 TM miles at home this morning. The roads are almost dry enough to run on, but starting today we'll get more rain and snow so I guess I'm indoors for a while more.

I slept in for 15 minutes and turns out I could've used that time as I wanted to run 10 but no worries. Warmed up for 1/2 mile at 6, then bumped to 7.0 until 2 miles, then 7.6 for 5 miles, and 8.1 for the next 2 miles. Good run, lots of sweat.

5 TM miles at the Y this morning. 6.0 for 1/2 mile, 7.0 for 1 mile, 7.6 for the remainder. Lots of sweat for only a 7:54 pace.

45 heel drops, 25 pushups, 25 situps.

7 x hills on the home treadmill. Warmed up for 1 mile at 6 mph, then cranked up the volume. 7% incline at 7 mph for the first 5, then the last 2 I bumped it up to 8% incline and 7.5 mph. Those last ones left me nearly breathless, which was perfect. Solid workout. It's fun to see the body improve and get stronger and faster over time.

Yesterday at the Y I enjoyed being vain for a few moments. There is a wall of mirrors at the end of the room (with a row of TVs above the mirrors). It's a nice way to see your form and to see if anyone is coming from behind to attack. Great place to be in a zombie apocalypse. Nobody was in front of me so I could see myself in the mirror and it was a thrill to see that I've met my goal of having runner's legs. With each step I could see my quads relax then do the flex/bounce thing on contraction. I used to really envy leg muscles in runners. And to think, it only takes a few thousand miles to do that. Now if only I could work on my upper body....

1 warmup mile, 10 marathon pace miles on the treadmill this morning at the Y. Today's run was more mentally tough than physically tough, and I'll take that. TM running is a bit harder than being out on the roads as well because you can't cheat on pace and it's so monotonous. It's easier to do these runs while watching a movie. Anyhow, I kept up the pace and kept on going. Had to pause once in the middle for a potty break and the TMs turn off at 60:00 so I shut it down at the 7 mile mark then turned it back on again for 4 more. Not crowded so no problem.

45 heel dips, some calf stretching, 25 pushups and 25 situps. Hopefully ready for tomorrow's 20 miler.

20 outdoor miles this morning in town on roads. Once again Strava messed with mileage so I guessed and I might be a bit short but I'll take it. 2:48:51 of running with one pee stop in the middle, 611 feet of climbing. Felt pretty good but not great which isn't surprising considering the 10 pace miles yesterday.

5 windy miles this morning from home. The nice part about running into a strong headwind on the way out is running with the wind on the way home.

Quads a bit sore from Saturday's run but warmed up pretty quickly. On the way back I took off my jacket and hat, just shirt sleeves and thin gloves. Ah.

Too tired to wake up (twice) so slept in. Had a lunch meeting so no run. Will trade off day with Thursday.

45 minute tempo day. Oy vey, this was tough. First time in my life that I got close to thinking about puking from running. I was never on a high school sports team so nobody ever pushed me to my limits. I ran at 9.3 mph/6:29 pace for 15 minutes today and if I would've kept that pace another few minutes I would have gotten queasy. That was tough. Started the run at 6.0, then 6.5, then 7.0, then at 15 minutes I bumped up to 9.3 and held it. Watched the latest Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. while running and that was pretty good for keeping the mind off the pain, although commercials are the worst. I really considered walking in the middle of this stretch but kept going. At one point I did hold onto the treadmill arms and lift myself up a bit but that was only for a few seconds. Kept going and burning and pushing. When I finally hit the end of 15 minutes I walked at 4 mph for 6 or 7 minutes, then finished the remaining time at 7 mph. Not exactly a true tempo run because of the walking after the fast paces, but I definitely got what I needed out of that.

I was exhausted last night so I went to bed just after 9, which I normally only do if I'm sick. I think the 20 miler then only getting 6 1/2 hours sleep per night since took a lot out of me. I have to get more sleep after my long runs.

6 miles outside this morning, uphill into a headwind. Fun. Lotsa fun. The return home was nice. Windy but not too cold out.

6 TM miles,  5 MP before making breakfast-in-bed pancakes for my wife. It's hard to keep going on those MP miles but getting easier.

12 butt cold miles outside. 15 degrees,  felt like 3 or colder with wind chill. Up my steep hill then turned around at 6. Last 5 were 7:19, 6:36, 7:30, 7:36, 7:16. Massive downhill in mile 2, solid uphill in 3 & 4. Happy with this run. Praying for good weather April 19th. 

6 frigid miles this morning (20 degrees, 10 mph wind = cold). The cold snap should go away soon. Yesterday we got more snow and broke the record for the most snowfall ever in Billings. Close to 100" for the season. Of course it's all melted off an on and we have 0 snow on the ground now but the mountains are doing mighty fine.

Yesterday was a family day. My wife and kids all had the day off from school so I took the day off as well. I was planning on running 10 miles and got dressed and everything but I just couldn't get out of door so I stayed home. Went to the Y and swam and shot hoops, went to the new city library, then went to a movie. The boys saw Divergent and the girls saw the Muppets. Fun, fun day.

This morning I headed out the door and it was chilly. Like winter chilly. Having fresh legs was very nice. My 3 miles up were a steady 9:52 first mile, then picked it up a bit to 8:29, 8:14, then the turn around and 3 miles downhill. 7:20, 7:11, 7:02. I'm excited by those paces because I'm just running off feel as I don't have my Garmin and my phone with GPS is hidden from view. The computer voice tells me each mile how fast the last one was, and that's nice to get some feedback.

Yasso! 8X800s at the HS track during lunchtime. Nice temps of 43 degrees with a 7 mph wind. They were comfortably hard, goal of 3:15. My garmin is dead so just used a stopwatch, but I think they were: 3:14, 3:11, 3:19, 3:14, 3:15, 3:15, 3:14, 3:13. 1/4 mile walk/jog in between each. As you can see I was spot on for the first one, then a bit quick, then a bit slow. I finally figured out my 200 yd splits and kept better on time. The 4th one I was 4 seconds slow after the first lap, so I turned on the jets and made my time. This is a pretty awesome workout. Dreaded, but fun.

Ran back to the Y for a 1/2 mile cool down.

10 supposed pace miles on a run from home into work this morning but my phone was so far off that I had no idea how many miles I actually ran or the pace. I measured my route just now with MapMyRun and it says 10.5 miles. Total time 1:21:06, so average pace 7:43. Hmph. I thought I was running MP but I had no way of knowing. I should've worn my regular watch as I know the mile markers through mile 5. Next time.

Regardless, a good workout. My birthday is in April and I'm asking for a new Garmin 110. I tried to replace the battery in my 305 and I broke off a prong that's needed for the top of the watch to make contact with the base. Oops. Oh well. It lasted me for lots of runs and many good miles. The GPS watch is a marvelous invention.

My last 20 miler.  Didn't quite get to 20 due to time but no biggie. I wore the wrong shoes for road running and got a nice blister in my left big toe crease. It was painful the last few miles. Beautiful weather,  wore shorts and short sleeve tech shirt and still sweated like a horse. Ah.

My plan was to make a big loop I've never done which would give lots of elevation gain and be hard. My legs were tired & sore from yesterday so I was not interested in speed. First 3 miles are downhill, then a steady up for 3 miles then a big up for 4. I got to mile 10 and the wind naff picked up dramatically. The prospect of running uphill another 400 feet and into the wind another 6 miles before turning around was not positive. I was beat. Called my wife and learned she was heading to town so I had her bring a change of clothes so I could meet them there. Good call. Ended up on roads 8 miles more than planned, however,  and I was wearing trail shoes.  

I made it to town but was slow the last few. I nearly stopped and walked but decided to power through and it was good training for race day. 

AP: 8:33. Blister is feeling better a few hours later.

Snowed 4-5" last night so did my run on the TM this morning at home. Tired and sore legs from Saturday's run so I almost slept in today and skipped the run entirely, but I couldn't do that. I need these last few good runs.

Warmup for 1/2 mile, then most miles at 7.0/8:34 pace. Last two miles I needed to hurry so bumped to 8.0/7:30 and held it. My tired legs wanted to stop but they were just being lazy and it wasn't hard to continue on. Sweatfest, however.

Taper on! I love tapering. My tired legs love the taper.