Selection Sunday and Running Ramblings

Today is a big day if you like college basketball - we are about 4 hours away from Selection Sunday announcements.  Being a fan of the Indiana Hoosiers, I am keeping my fingers crossed that we get a 4 seed in the Midwest, but time will tell.  All I can say is that this year's tournament is going to be a blast.  There are a couple teams right now playing as well as anyone, but really there are 15-20 teams that have a chance of winning it all.  I believe my brackets will be toast by the evening games on Thursday.

Jess has been creating a revolution with LA Fitness to get Sunday kids club hours at our location (if you are a LA Fitness member, please call the Noblesville, IN location at 317-774-0900 and tell them you want Sunday kids club hours!).  It would be nice to be able to do some of the classes on Sundays, but having children makes that difficult.  Today we split up the morning - I got to the gym right as it opened at 8 am and got 10 miles in on the treadmill, and Jess brought the girls at 9:30 to trade off so she could go to a Pilates class.  It worked, but that lost hour from the time change last night is really taking its toll on me as the day goes on.  My foot felt weak early on, but after ten minutes of running it felt fine and the rest of the run was no problem.  Think I may have to be a little more proactive with my foot stretching and warming up.

Anyway, after today I have now logged roughly 54 miles for the month.  In January and February I averaged around 83 miles per month, so I am way ahead of where I was the first two months of the year and all I can see is a big ole' "100 miles" waiting ahead.  I am also now 24 miles ahead of my pace for 1000 for the year.  I figured as the weather turned nicer, and once I started getting longer weekend runs, that the mileage would increase.  Still gotta keep the focus, understanding that I am very lazy in November and December, so I have to rack up the miles while I can before then.

Left, right, repeat

Sunday Runday ... and Pain Day

I finally caved.  Jess has wanted me to join her for a Pilates class at LA Fitness for as long as I can remember.  Typically, she does a class on Thursday's and Saturday's and that gives me a chance to spend an hour on the treadmill.  Seeing a tire around my midsection, I have realized I need to work on my core, so when she found a class on the schedule for today, I told her I would join her.

Ok - I told her I would join her a couple days ago.  Then we decided that last night we would grill out and play some board games with friends.  That also included having a few beers, and staying up about 3 hours past our normal bed time.  And to top that off, I still woke up about 6 AM this morning.  Needless to say, I was not as excited about the 9:45 class this morning when she reminded me about it.  But I sucked it up and off we went.

I found out that my legs are in great shape.  Not overly surprising, since I run races all year long.  But I also found out I probably have the worst abdominal muscles of anyone that was present in class.  And that included all the senior citizen ladies that were in there.  Yeah, my abs are like jelly, and will probably be pretty pissed off at me tomorrow morning.  But, in all fairness, I did like the class.  And I probably will try to incorporate it into my routine.  I realized there is a lot that a class like that offers the could help my running long term.

We still got out for a long run this afternoon.  Even with a 12 mph wind, we nailed down 10 miles of me running while Jess rode the bike next to me.  I had planned on it being an easy run, but that didn't end up happening.  Thanks to analytical tools on Strava, I found out that I spent over half of the run in my "tempo" speed range.  

Speaking of Strava, I got my first "premium" training program email today.  It let me know that tomorrow is a rest day and I have no workout scheduled.  Kind of defeats the purpose of the email, but whatever.  I am excited to have a day of no exercise - I'm sure I will need a rest day as I slither down the stairway in the morning in pain.

Left, right, repeat

February Blues?

After two months, my training log is consistent workouts but lower miles than I would like to have at this moment.  In January, I had 14 run entries covering 88 miles.  After my run tonight, I ended February with 16 runs covering 83 miles.  That puts me at 171 miles YTD, which means I am currently 7 miles ahead of pace to break 1,000 miles for the year.

That last sentence makes me happy.  My goal from day one has been to top the century mark for the year.  Last year, I finished somewhere around 750 miles and felt that 1,000 was a pretty good leap but something within reason.  It's nice to be on pace for it, but I also fear the fact that my November and December months typically suck pretty badly when it comes to mileage.

While I am happy to be ahead of pace, I'm also kind of disappointed right now.  Had you told me on January 1st that through two months I would have 30 runs I would have figured it would have totaled somewhere closer to 200 miles.  My runs have been consistently in the 5-7 mile range each time out, but I really don't have any distance to speak of yet.  Hopefully over the next couple weekends I can log a 10 miler.

Yesterday was a first for me, and one that I will remember for a long time.  It was probably my best 2 mile run ever.  With the weather being nice (although extremely windy), Jess and I planned to run a couple easy miles while the girls (ages 8 and 5) rode their bikes next to us.  I figured it would be a slow go, especially with the wind, but we did 2 miles at about a 11:55 / mile average pace!  Granted, we had to have a stop at the playground, but with that being Annabell's first bike ride on a "big girl's bike" I was extremely surprised and happy that we managed that distance at that pace.  I foresee that type of activity happening a few more times over the summer.

My legs feel like jelly tonight.  Feeling rested, I decided to nail some Yasso 800's this evening on the treadmill.  After my warm up, I clocked 5 x half miler at 8.5 mph with a short recovery jog between each set.  That was my first speed workout in a while, and couple that with the gym being roughly the temperature of the sun's surface, I was exhausted afterwards.  But it's done, in the books, and I'm happy about it.

I have an easy run planned for tomorrow, then volleyball game at 9:30 (yikes), then some miles Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week.  March hopefully will have a spike in miles.

Left, right, repeat!

Countdown to the Indy Mini

The Indy Mini (indymini.com) is MY race.  I first ran it in 2005, and to be honest, I sucked.  Years before, I could run a race of any distance without much thought, and do it well.  However, as college and first few years of post-college went by, things had changed.  That race is when I realized that I was completely out of shape and a little hefty.  And that started my push to lose weight and get back to what I was capable of doing.

Since then, I have been hooked on running and specifically, this race.  I have only missed the Indy Mini one year since then, and that was due to an injury.  It's the race that I have marked on my calendar every year as the one I absolutely must perform well.

My training this year has been solid - as of right now, I have 135 miles YTD and I am 4 miles behind my pace of running 1,000 miles for the year.  My times on speed and tempo and have been spot on, and I have had some consistent longer runs as well.  Compared to years past, I should be happy with where I am at in mid February.  However, this morning I find myself scared.

I just realized - the Indy Mini is 76 days 22 hours and 49 minutes from now.  That seems like a long ways away, but for training purposes, it's really not.  The countdown is officially on; the training must kick into action over the next 10 weeks.  It's almost here....

Left, right, repeat!

So.... It's been awhile

I admit it - I have become lazy on this whole blogging thing. My wife reminds me (constantly) that I have not blogged in 6 weeks. This blog was intended to simply hush her up (since she will read it) but now as I type this, I feel like I have a lot to talk about. So what all is new running-wise over the last 6 weeks? Well...

1) How about those Olympic Trials this past Saturday? Jess and I watched the entire three hours of it, and were completely inspired by what we saw. Rupp, Meb, and Ward leading the way for the men and Cragg, Desi Linden, and Shalane (a favorite of Jess and mine) for the women. People think we are crazy because we enjoy watching people run 26.2 miles on TV - but how could you not think Saturday was great for the sport? Given the weather conditions, those six as well as everyone else who finished were awesome.  Check out this section of the USA Track & Field website and you can see all their mile and split times.  I would love to run just one segment similar to what these guys do for an entire race.

2) Speaking of Meb, he's coming to the Indy Mini! OK, so Shalane is a favorite of ours - but Meb is Meb! It was like Christmas for me when I found out last month that Meb was coming to town to be part of a race that I am an ambassador. For more, check this out!

3) Keeping with the running theme and the Indy Mini, two weeks ago Jess and I ran the 3 miler - the first leg of the three race training series. I came in 28th overall (out of 1,441) and Jess set yet another PR! Sooooo proud of her, since she did this completely on her own and she owned that race! Her training is paying off and she will be under 30 minutes easily this year.

4) Speaking of races, as I laced up my gear this past Sunday to go outside and run in 19 degree weather that felt like 7 degrees, Ella told me she wants to do another family race. I have another runner in the making there. Guess Jess and I will have to do some research and find a 5k that the four of us can do sometime.

5) And to round out all this running conversation, I checked out my Strava account this evening.  My goal January 1st was to run 1000 miles this year.  I had something like 770 miles last year.  As of right now, after doing 5 miles today, I am right on pace for 1000.  I feel like that is an accomplishment as after 6 weeks I have kept it up, however I also understand that I need to get some major miles banked up between now and the fall.  Historically speaking, my November and December miles simply suck.  Like, big time.  So I must get as many miles as possible between now and October to be safe.

I probably left some stuff out, but that's all I can think of right now, plus my Indiana Hoosiers are getting ready to tip off.

Left, right, repeat!