Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Getting in shape?

Finished last week with 29 miles total, plus one indoor bike workout.  Saturday's workout was a good one, consisting of 3 one-mile intervals in a park, on trails, with good rolling hills:  6:28, 6:21, and 6:22, about 4 minutes rest between intervals.  Started this week with 6 miles on trails Sunday (slow, quite fatigued from Saturday's speed workout), then a solid 2 hours of tough tennis last night.  I'm never sure how much value tennis has a workout, but the way I play singles, there is a lot of running involved, much sweating, and significant weight loss after playing.  I guess I'll count it as a workout!

Tonight I hope to be back on the roads, but it will be nocturnal and after dinner.

I am tentatively planning on a 5K trail/cross country race this coming Saturday, so we shall see what Saturday brings..................

Mark

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Back on Terra Firma

I was happily back on firm ground yesterday, running 8:28/mile for 7 miles on grassy trails, with rolling hills. This was the fastest I have run this course this year, and it felt very comfortable.  I may have to run nocturnally tonight, after dinner, so will probably only target 5 to 5.5 miles on roads.

The beach is nice for vacationing, but not so great for running!!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Beach Running: not what it's cracked up to be!

Beach running conjures up images of the initial scene from Chariots of Fire, with the Olympic team briskly and beautifully running along the beach, seeminly with no effort, and theme song playing in the background.  Not so in real life. I am at the beach this weekend, and decided to go for a nice 6 or 7 mile run.  Here are the problems with beach running:
1. beaches are sloped, in some cases fairly severely, causing some discomfort on the feet and knees.
2. sand is soft! and not meant for running.  To overcome this, I ran right at the water level, avoiding the incoming surf, where the sand is somewhat firmer, though still very inconsitent.
3.  People fish at the surf line.  A few times, I had to run around them onto the soft part of the beach.  Annoying!
4.  Beach running is slow!  I averaged 9:24/mile for 6 miles.  A comparable effort on a road or even trails would have been at least 1 minute per mile faster.  Just ran 8:01 per mile for 5 miles on trails a couple days ago.

Other than that, the beach scenery and salt air are great!  And being September, with temperatures in the low 60s, it was ideal running temperature.


Mark

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Training update!

Training has been going well, including a record 34 miles last week, the highest thus far in 2011.  I have also done some good speed workouts in the recent past, including two 1-mile intervals in a hilly park on grass with times of 6:32, 4 minute rest, the 6:17.  Also have done two track workouts in the last two weeks.  This past one consisted of 7 quarters in about 83 to 84 seconds, 1 800 in 2:58, and 2 200s in 37 and 38.

Racing plans for the fall are primarily cross country and trail races.  I may run a flat 5K road race on Sept. 25 to gauge my fitness.  Then I hope to do a 5K trail race on Oct 1, the annual Jensens ultimate XC challenge 8.5 mile hilly trail/obstacle race on October 16 (includes a swim in a cold pond), a 5K national XC race on October 22, a 10K trail race on November 5, and then maybe one more 8K XC race after that.  If the snow holds off long enough, I would then like to finish of 2011 with an indoor mile right at the end of December, but we'll see!

Mark