Training in Montana

I believe this is the first time this fall that I've laced up the shoes for a sub 40 degree run. I'm getting there mentally. Got up at 6 and headed out for a nice dark run. I like my new headlamp and the bright light it puts out.

AP: 8:44 

4 gorgeous miles under a full moon with scattered clouds. It rained overnight so the air was crisp and the stars were bright. Ran without a headlamp most of the way. No watch. Lovely. I think I can now say "I'm baaack". It took me long enough.

Weekly mileage above 20. Wahoo! What a milestone.

Beautiful morning. Ran up my harder-than-Veyo hill without stopping. #BeastMode.

AP: 9:11 

4 miles this morning. Windy but 46 degrees. Not too bad. Supposed to dip to 8 degrees for a low on Friday. Not really ready for that but I will be. 

Did a couple pickups today on the way home, keeping it around 6 minute pace for a short stretch. Felt good to force my legs to turn over quickly as it's been a while and they'd forgotten. Short term memory loss or something.

AP: 8:11 

Slept in a bit after the alarm so only had time for 3 miles. 35 degrees, little breeze. Nice morning.

AP: 8:50 

Holy Hot Weather Batman! And no, I'm not joking. The crazy warm before the (very cold) storm. Ran at lunchtime today and it was 72 degrees with 20 mph gusts. On the way back the wind was at my back so I ran shirtless and still had to stop and get my HR to go down as I felt so warm. Crazy stuff. Did a couple pickups to 6:30 pace which didn't help but they did feel good. Mostly ran at 8:00 pace, my marathon pace. As others have said a while after a marathon, I can't believe I held that pace for that long. Nice run, now winter begins.

AP: 8:20 

Warmed up by running on the inside track then lifted some weights. Chest press on a bosu ball using dumbbells, then curls and triceps. Feels good to work the upper body.

5 miles in the foggy morning mist. Fairly magical and no breeze so not too cold. 30 degrees but no wind made for a pretty nice run, especially as I was expecting to half freeze. 

AP: 8:38 

Noon: went to Boot Camp. I need to rebuild strength in my core and upper body. It kicked my upper body butt. I could barely lift my arms above my head to wash my hair afterwards. Fun.

8 miles on the treadmill at home. The 20 degree temps and 4 inches of snow didn't scare me but the icy roads and stupid drivers did so I ran while watching Mission Impossible 3. Not done yet but fun show.

75:00 total time. 

4 miles on the treadmill at the Y. Basketball practice has started so I took my 6th grader to the school then hit the Y before work. Warmed up at 5 mph for a couple minutes, then 6 mph until 1 mile, then upped it to 6.5 until 2 miles, then 7.0 until 3 miles, then 7.5 until 3.5, then 8.0 until 3.75, then bumped it up, and up, and up until I finished at 12.0 for the last few strides. Fun to get the legs to move at a 5:00 mm pace. Amazing to me how guys like Jake & others can run that fast for a mile or more.

Did 8 X 400 on the treadmill at lunch. Warmed up for 1 mile then did 0.25 at 9.3 mph and 1.0 incline. Repeated 7 times. On the last one I ran at 10.0 mph then added on another tenth of a mile at 11.0 mph.

Fun times. 

45 tempo minutes on the treadmill at the Y. Warmed up for 1/2 mile at 5 then 6 mph, then went to 7.3 mph (8:12 pace) with 1% incline for the rest of the time. It was tough but not too tough.

6 miles "fast" according to my 5K training plan. I ran outside today as the temp at the airport said 41, and it's close to the city so the temps are normally the same. I was running in town due to dropping off my son at BBall practice and I was tired of treadmills. Thankfully I wore my tights and a long sleeve shirt with a short sleeve underneath and grabbed my thin hat and thin gloves, although I don't normally need a hat in the 40s. Driving into town I saw the temp readout on the Pepsi building and it said 30 degrees. What? 11 degree difference? That building normally has the temp right. After I saw that I noticed thick frost on all the car lots. Hmph. Billings is a 600 foot drop from the airport, being in the river bed of the formerly massive Yellowstone river, and I guess we have an inversion going on, minus the smog. Needless to say, I was a bit cold when I started out my run. My thumbs were frosty.

Started off about an 8:30 pace and kept that the first mile, then dipped to the lower 8s and then down to 7:30. I figured 7:30 was "fast" for me. I mostly kept that pace, dropping a bit lower sometimes and a bit higher than others, but it felt pretty good which surprises me greatly. I know I run much better in the cold but still, this was surprising. Maybe I can hold a 6:30 pace next Thursday.

When I'm downtown my Garmin always takes forever to acquire satellites, and I'm guessing it's because the Y is 1 block from the local TV station with its oodles of satellites. There must be interference. It ain't the tall buildings blocking the Southern sky, that's for sure.

AP: 7:46. Splits 8:45, 7:31, 7:32, 7:34, 7:23, 7:18.

Did my 10 mile loop today, but stopped 1/2 mile early as my left achilles/above my heel was hurting. I haven't read up on achilles injuries but I think I was just tight from running fast the day before. It's been a niggling bit for a few runs but I've been ignoring it. Got back and rolled it out and it felt a bit better. The next day it feels fine.

AP: 9:02

6 X 200 on the treadmill at the Y. Warmed up 1 mile and I just wasn't feeling it, so I figured I'd run a bit more then get off without doing my fast intervals. After 2 miles I started feeling it, so a bit later did my fast runs at a 6 minute/mile pace for 0.13 miles each. Felt pretty good. Some slight tightness in the left "achilles" area, but nothing worth stopping for.

Just 2 miles on the treadmill, then will rest tomorrow. After the 5K I guess I'll need to run about 10 more miles to break even for Thanksgiving dinner. Hmmm...

Ran the 2nd Run Turkey Run! which benefits the local food bank. 1670 people completed the 5K, which is fantastic for an area of 100,000 people. It was a great out and back course starting in downtown then going through the streets of some of the cool old homes. I was shooting for a 6:30 pace (20:09) but didn't think I could really hold that as I haven't practiced that pace very much. Ended up with a 6:38 pace which I'm happy about.

Things I learned: The Garmin doesn't work too well with tallish buildings around, even 4 story buildings are too high. Keeping a set pace just by using the Garmin is difficult. Much easier to practice that pace frequently, dial it in to the legs, then just run by feel (or use a pacer). I can run faster than that for 3.1 miles but I need more practice to know my breaking point. My HR was pretty high throughout but I can sustain a higher HR for 20 minutes or less. I never felt like I was at a breaking point so I need more speed work to find my limits.

The weather was wacky. 28 mph sustained wind, 35 mph gusts. 37 degrees, but felt like 25 with wind chill. Wasn't sure how to dress, so wore a singlet with sleeves then a long sleeve tech shirt on top, tights on bottom, thin gloves, and a thin hat plus my always used headband bandanna. The wind wasn't as biting in town as it was elsewhere, so I could've gotten away with shorts, short sleeve shirt or singlet plus gloves. Ended up taking off my hat half way through and tucking it into my waistband.

Overall, very happy with a solid PR and good race. Now here's to getting closer to breaking 20:00 in a 5K.

Ran 3 miles earlier this morning to get warmed up a bit. My 11 yr old also ran the race so after I finished I went back and found him. He finished in 32:08. My 9 yr old did the 1 mile race an hour after we started and he got a side ache so had to walk a bit. He was disappointed but a good opportunity to talk about good races and bad races. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. 

Been Bachin' it since Wednesday as at the last minute my wife & daughter went to visit family for Thanksgiving. It's been great but it does give me appreciation for the single parents out there who find time to run. It's tough! Also with me taking a few days off my focus has been on my 3 boys and making sure we had fun. Got up at 5 today to go deer hunting & also get a pickup load of wood. A friend got a deer, but we didn't see any. We did fill up our truck and a friend's with pine, just in time for a storm tonight & tomorrow. Drove the hour home and what do we see when we get in the driveway? A deer straddling our property line. Called the neighbor, he didn't care, so I harvested her. The last day of the hunt is tomorrow, so I'm thankful I could fill the freezer. Looking forward to getting back to running on Monday.

2.5 on the treadmill at lunch. My left achilles started hurting when I bumped up the mill to 7.5 mph, so I backed down to 6.5 for a short while then ended it. The tendon isn't hurting when I don't run, and as I didn't run since Thursday I forgot to nurse it. Need to nurse it back to health.

I've decided to heal my heel so I'll stop running for 7 days and then test it out. If it hurts, I'll go 7 more. My achilles didn't start hurting until I did speed work. Drat that speed work!

Read about Achilles Tendonitis on an Ortho site and it said elliptical is a good cross training exercise for it. I had avoided doing anything as I wasn't sure which motions would negatively impact the achilles. Cycling is also okay so I may do some spin classes soon.

Did 4 miles on the elliptical this morning at the Y. With large flat screen TVs to watch it wasn't incredibly boring. It is really hard to work up a great sweat though! I guess I need the resistance higher next time. Fairly good work out, I sweated a little, and I feel better. I was about ready to kill someone I think. Yay exercise. Saved another life.