Finished our peak mileage! Now on to our taper!

We're finally in our peak mileage week. The last several weeks have contained mileage of 80, 86, and 85 miles.  This week, we're going for 90. But before we get to that, let me recap some of our workouts over the last week in a half or so.

Last week, we had a Fartlek-ish style workout that I have come to call a "new style" workout.  I don't imagine I'm the first person to come up with it but it's something that we had never done before until last year so it has been deemed new to us. This workout had to be completed in the evening last  Wednesday because we couldn't pry ourselves out of bed that particular morning. It might have been raining that morning, which is typically a good enough excuse for us to just keep on snoozing. The workout consists of a 6 minute press with 1 minute recovery, followed by 5 minutes press, and 2 minutes recovery working all the way down to where we end up doing 1 hard minute.  It's fairly easy to remember because you always add the press and the recovery and they equal 7 minutes. Much to our surprise, we came through the 3 mile mark under 6 minute average even with our recovery pace mixed in. All in all, we covered 12 miles that evening.

I was a little concerned with just how we would handle our workout Saturday since we were unable to keep all of our longer runs in the mornings during the week. Saturday's workout was scheduled to be a 10 mile tempo with an optional 2 mile recovery and then 1 more mile sub 5:45. The 10 mile tempo also was to include 4 miles at marathon pace and then 1 mile at half marathon pace, then 4 miles at marathon pace again, followed by 1 mile at half marathon pace. Our marathon goal pace is 5:58 and our half pace is about 5:50 miles. The morning started with us taking our tables out to the trail in order for us to have water to grab during the tempo. This also allows us to practice taking our Nutrilite Endurance Cubes while running a long fast effort (basically simulating how it will feel on race day).

We started the workout right on our marathon goal pace and it was feeling surprisingly easy.  For our fifth mile, we increased the pace to 5:50 just like planned. The hard part is settling back into marathon pace and not slowing too much. We were able to get things right back on track for the next 4 miles. There was one mile that the pace crept up over 6 min on but I think that was mostly due to it being the turn around mile and having to fight the wind all the way through Willard. (If you're not familiar, Willard always seems to be windy and often seems that way from both directions). All in all, we pretty much nailed this workout. We even managed to crush the optional 1 mile at the end.

--Skipping ahead a week now--

On Saturday, Kimi and I headed out to Frisco for our weekly long run. This one just happened to be our last really long one prior to our upcoming marathon. We set out to complete a 24 mile long run and that's precisely what we did. For our long runs over 13 miles, we will usually wear our water belts and take along our Nutrilite Endurance Cubes as well so we were definitely packing for this one. We established a plan to run out 9 and back 9, then drop one of our water belts, and go out 3 and back 3. Neither one of us enjoys wearing the belt so we typically alternate wearing the belt for the last bit. At a mere 5 miles into the run, we came to a place on the trail where the tree limbs were hanging low and made it narrow. Usually we will just go single file in order to get through these areas but for some particular reason, I decided last minute to just push the limb to the side. Who knew this would be a huge mistake. I received immediate pain in my left ring finger (specifically my proximal interphalangeal joint).  I could see a small puncture wound but nothing stuck in it. It immediately became difficult to bend the finger but there wasn't really any swelling just yet. I worked it out and continued the remaining 19 miles of the run just fine. Actually, it was quite stellar really.

The next day, we woke up and ran 9 miles and immediately following, my finger swelled up a bunch and I could feel my ring just holding fluid in the finger. The pressure was building. Finally, I decided to find someone that could cut the ring off thinking that with the release in pressure, the swelling would be able to go down and all would start to normalize. 2 days later and I'm still having a lot of stiffness, swelling, and pain in that finger. It is improving but not as quickly as I'd hoped. Of all the injuries I would have considered during a long run, having something like this to a finger, wouldn't have ever crossed my mind.

All in all, last week was a great week, we completed 90 miles (the most I've run since college, and the most Kimi has ever run in a week), one track workout, and crushed our final long run. Now if my finger could just get better, I wouldn't be so concerned with running over the next few weeks.

Busy 4 weeks!

The last several weeks have been some of the busiest weeks of our lives or so it seemed. We tiled the kitchen floor (3 weekends basically to get back fully functional), ran a few races, and completed a bunch of mileage and workouts. Oh yeah, and we cut down a few trees around the house. It's been very busy the last several weeks but with all that's been going on, we've been able to maintain our focus on our training and marathon preparation. We're now on our 4th straight week of miles above 70+. We're planning to maintain the high mileage streak for 2 more weeks topping out at 90 miles.  Looking back at the past few weeks, it's been quite the experience. I haven't run these kinds of miles since I was in college so it's quite empowering to reflect on what we're accomplishing right now on a daily and weekly basis.

Kimi and I are quickly approaching our goal marathon for this year. It's just over 5 weeks away so the nerves are slowly increasing.'Yes' even those of us that have run multiple marathons, and a lot of races throughout the years, still get nervous about races. The main reason the nerves start to creep in for a race like this is due to the amount of time and energy spent in preparation.  What I mean by that is that when you spend that much time training, you get nervous that something out of your control could happen and make it feel like it was all for nothing. Of course, typically when you put in the time and effort in regards to training, the results tend to simply follow suit.  I know we're putting in a solid effort in regards to our training this year so the race should go well.  The real question at that point is simply, 'how well'. This of course must wait the 5 more weeks to be revealed.

On the first weekend of May, Kimi and I went down to the Bradleyville 5k for what is usually a very competitive field. It didn't disappoint again this year. Kimi ran a new personal best for that particular course (she's run there 4 times now). This was my second year to give it a shot and boy was I in for a fight. I was racing a high school age guy who has greatly improved over the last couple years as he's learning how to pace and train consistently. He took out from the start and I didn't know for sure if I'd be able to reel him back in. For those that don't know the course, it's basically uphill for the first mile and then down to the turn around point, and then you retrace your steps. By the time we reached the first mile marker, I was in second place and was pretty sure that the race for first consisted of me vs him.  He was about 3-4 seconds ahead of me at the first mile (this was down from probably a good 30 meter gap at the half mile).  At the half way point, I was basically right on his heels. I intended to make him work hard up the half mile hill back to the 2 mile mark.  He was determined to hold me off though but I kept the pressure on. Any time he faltered a bit, I maintained my rhythm and tried to go around.  Then he would surge back to the front and I just kept consistent. Finally with about 3/4 of a mile to go, I made one final surge.  This time, I didn't want there to be any doubt that I was strong enough to take the pace to the end. I quickly went by and didn't want to look back. My main concern was that I didn't want to let him stay close enough to me that he might somehow get another energetic surge and out sprint me to the finish. I took it to the finish line in 16:49 and crossed in 1st place. Not too much later, Kimi came across the line in 17:26 or so. This was a great day for us.

Since then we have turned our focus primarily to our marathon. The mileage has increased substantially as I stated above. Our workouts have grown in length as well. Just this past weekend, we ran a workout that incorporated a 5k race for Kimi.  I wasn't quite up to racing because this race is usually out of my league though unfortunately, this would have been a good year for me to do it as Kimi ended up being the OVERALL winner (including men, and by about 3 minutes).  We went on to run two more 3 mile repeats while waiting for the awards to be presented following the race. Just yesterday, we completed a 6 mile tempo run at the Frisco trail and just smoked it. Goal was between 5:50-5:55 pace and we accomplished our goal.

Going forward, rest becomes a critical part of training. Any time you start covering high mileage (which is relative to each individual), you must increase the amount of rest (sleep, naps, etc) you get as well to maintain your energy and performance.  Nutrition also plays a huge role in marathon preparation. Fortunately for us, we had a great teacher (Cassie Dimmick, from Achieving Your Best, LLC) help us better master the art of training and racing nutrition.

I'll do my best to keep you all updated on how things are going over the next couple weeks as we do some pretty intense workouts and long runs.

Here's a couple photos of our kitchen remodel.  Keep in mind that final pictures will come soon.

Rock the Parkway! What a race!

Over the weekend, Kimi and I went up to Kansas City to run the Rock the Parkway half marathon. I'm going to give my view of how it went down but I'm sure if you want an even better take, you'll be able to check out my wife's blog over the next few days to see her viewpoint of her performance.

To start things off, we have to go back just a bit to the weekend before. Kimi and I went out to the 'Havin' a Crappie Day 5k' to officially bust off any rust in our legs from lack of racing. We hadn't run a single race since November.  We had definitely been crushing some workouts, but there's just something a little different about running hard in a workout vs. racing.  Racing something smaller gives you the chance to practice getting up early, eating a pre-race meal, and handling some of the nerves of standing at a starting line.  You just can't completely simulate these things in practice.  So we got to the race and did our warm-up, toed the line, and completed the 5k nearly stride for stride together (who knew that this would be a prelude to how we would run in a week).  We finished up the 5k in 17:25 and then followed it up with a set of 400's to make the effort of the day truly beneficial.

On Tuesday, we headed out to the Frisco trail to do our final Tune-up workout. We weren't sure how this was going to go since it was warmer than we had been accustomed to running in.  We warmed up 2 miles, toed the line, and off we went. In the past, when we've done this workout prior to a big race, we would run about 11:20 for the 2 mile tempo.  Something special took place today. We opened up with a 5:30 first mile, and then just kept cruising. We ended up completing the 2 mile tempo in 11:01.  We were both pleasantly surprised.  Then we jogged a half a mile and got ready to run our half mile press.  I didn't see this coming either. We crushed a 2:35 (on the trail!).

It was this point that I just had a great feeling about the coming weekend.

*Rock the Parkway*
We woke up at 5:20 and gathered ourselves off the bed to start getting ready for the race. The race was set to start at 7:30 so we wanted to arrive close to 6:30 so we wouldn't be rushed at all.  First thing we did was get up and split a bagel with peanut butter. Then we finished getting ready and headed out to the race.

Prior to the start, we did our usual warm up.  Neither of us felt great on the warm up. In fact, I was kind of wondering if the race would go well at all.  We did a couple strides and then I started to feel a bit better. I knew the weather was set up perfectly for a good race. Finally, the gun sounded and we were off!  About half a mile into the race, the front runners were already starting to separate into groups. Kimi was in my group.  I looked at my watch and we were running nearly 5:40 pace. Kimi looked over at me and said something to this effect, "are we going out too hard?" I turned and said directly back to her, "nah, we're good." By mile 1, our time had crept back up to a 5:56.  It's uphill for the second half mile.  We just kept trucking along side by side until about mile 3. Next thing I knew, Kimi started seriously attacking. She had pressed the pace down to 5:42, 5:46, and 5:47 for the next three miles. I have learned from our practices to just stay out of the way when Kimi starts rolling. I didn't want to tell her to ease it up or anything that might break her rhythm. I just went with it and kept right beside her helping keep the rhythm.  By mile 8 we had started to gain a little separation from the second place female (but not much).  I knew we needed to keep pressing.  That's exactly what we did.

Prior to the race, Kimi and I had looked at the elevation chart and knew that if we made it to the 10-10.5 mile area, the rest of the way was pretty much downhill. We were determined to make sure we had as much separation as possible prior to the downhill stretch because some people can run down hill extremely good and we didn't want there to be any doubt coming into the final stretch. At one point around mile 11, I turned to Kimi and told her that I thought we were on pace to break 1:17.  I knew we were rolling but hadn't been keeping track quite close enough to know exactly. I had intentions of staying with her all the way to the finish line and then I was going to step aside to allow her to break the tape without me being in the way.  This isn't exactly what ended up happening because with about a half mile to go, we were passed by a guy that we had passed about 1.5 miles back and I didn't want him to beat me. I asked for permission to race him from Kimi and she said go for it. I immediately turned on the after-burners and passed the guy back. I closed out the last mile in 5:29 and crossed the finish line in 1:16:20. This was 9 seconds faster than my best performance for this particular course.  Kimi was only a short 6 seconds behind me.

I was so proud of her for the way she ran. She set the pace and I just went along for the ride. Races like this are great springboard races to set you up for a great couple months of training prior to the Grandma's Marathon in June.

Weekend results -
Me- 8th overall - 1:16:20 - new course personal best
Kimi- 10th overall (1st place female) - 1:16:26

Racing Season Starting Up

It's been a long awaited 4 months with no racing for Kim and me. If I remember correctly, our last race was the Bass Pro Half Marathon back on the 1st weekend of November.  We're going to be racing this weekend and using it as a rust-buster type of race (as Kimi calls it).  We've already been doing speed work 2x per week but now get to lace up the shoes and toe the line with others to test our fitness levels for real. Any time you have an important race that you've been training for, (whether that's a half marathon, marathon, or even 10k), it is important to get yourself re-acclimated to the entire race environment by competing in a race shorter than the distance of your goal event.

Last week was a break through week for me. Since my knee issue started several weeks back, I've been unable to complete any significant long runs unless the miles were completed in a tempo run or workout setting. Going faster just seems to help my body feel better.  Over the weekend, I completed a 13 mile long run and didn't have any issues whatsoever. I'm still not 100% confident that I'm out of the woods yet, but I'm getting to probably 80% confidence.

Kimi and I also crushed some mile repeats over the weekend.  If things keep going the way they're going, I think I'll be back on track for some high mileage by mid-April.  It's critical that I get back to normal by then so I can have 2 solid months of training prior to the Grandma's marathon in June!

Last week recap
1 workout - 5x1mile repeats (missed out on the second one due to the terrible weather last week
13 mile long run
55 total miles!!!

Starting to get there again!

If you tuned in to my last blog post, you saw just how injuries can and do get to each and every one of us at some point. When you train hard, unfortunately, you are constantly walking the line between injury and health as you push the limits of training. The best thing you can do is to do your best preventative efforts to keep injuries at bay to the best of your ability. This includes things like stretching properly, strengthening adequately, proper nutrition, and training smart.  A part of training smart is to listen to your body. When you feel fatigued for multiple days in a row, it might be time to give yourself a rest day so that your body can complete the regeneration processes.  If you don't, the body will continue to break down and that's when injuries are destined to get you.  That's not the only way injuries can get you though. Sometimes, it's just a freak incident that is out of your control.

My injury occurred from having a lapse in good training judgement for just a few days. Sometimes, that's all it takes to have problems creep in. Fixing the issues takes longer than if you just keep them away from the beginning.

The good news is that over the last two weeks, my rehab has been going extremely well. I felt pretty darn good by Saturday and so I decided I would give the 10 mile tempo run a try. The plan was to do keep going so long as I was able to maintain a solid tempo run pace and so long as I didn't have any discomfort in my knee. Much to my liking, I started the tempo run and was able to hang on to Kimi for the entire way. We smoked the 10 mile tempo run under an hour. I was a bit shocked I was able to hold it together for the entire way.

Last week, I managed a total of 50 miles for the week. This is still much below where I'd hoped to be at this point, but it is much more reasonable than some of the prior weeks had been. Starting the year, I had a goal of 3000 miles.  If I'm going to get there, I'm going to have to start hitting some solid miles pretty soon since I have a lot of ground to make up.

This week's goal-
Keep my streak of consecutive days run alive,
2 hard workouts
2 weights days/rehab days
55+miles

Injuries can get us all. It's how we pick ourselves back up that matter most!

These last few weeks with the snow on the ground were frustrating. Just prior to that, Kimi and I had a stellar week.  I wrote my last blog about the time the snow nailed us good. I had plans to be hitting a lot of miles over the past couple weeks and I was determined to make it happen. The first Monday after the first dump truck of snow, Kimi and I ventured out to go for a run.  We cut it short after we decided that the snow was simply too deep to fight through and get any real benefit.  We jumped in the car and I took Kimi to the gym where she finished up her remaining mileage for the day.While she was doing that, I ventured back outside on the treacherous roads.  That's when everything started to fall apart a bit. With my lack of treadmill access, I will typically make it outdoors or not run at all. Since the snow lingered pretty much all week, I was unable to get outside and do much running whatsoever.  By the weekend, Kimi and I decided (against better judgement) to go to Wilson's Creek Battlefield to run Friday, Saturday, and Sunday because this seemed to be the only place we could find where the roads were completely clear. We ran an easy run Friday of 5 miles.  Then we backed it up Saturday with a smoking fast 6 mile tempo run. And then came Sunday; we were planning to do our long run there and after 1 loop around, I started to feel a tweak in my knee. I'm usually pretty cautious in these scenarios so I immediately called it quit with 5 miles.  Most of the time, these types of things are held at bay by simply not pushing through discomfort and making things worse but not always. I went back out for a run the next day and the knee was good until about 6-7 miles into the run. That's when I finally had to pull the plug and start analyzing exactly what was going on with me physically. I haven't been able to do a lot of running over the last 2 weeks due to the knee and my fear of making it worse by running on the snow and icy conditions.  In the mean time, I did a lot of indoor rehabilitation exercises to start stabilizing my hips and knees since the lack of working out definitely seemed to aggravate my condition. I went 4 straight days with no running (complete torture) and then started back into things last weekend.

Easy 4 mile run on Friday went fine. And much to my surprise, I hadn't lost too much of my fitness on Saturday when I decided to go for a tempo run with Kimi. The plan was to simply keep going as long as I felt good and could keep up. I made it the entire 8 miles at sub 6 pace. We were moving!

I think I'm definitely turning the corner and getting back on track. I don't know that I will be ready for Rock the Parkway in April (at least not how I'd hoped) but so long as I'm ready to roll in May and June, I'll be a happy man.

I wrote this blog to let you know that even when you do your best to take care of yourself, injuries can still occur.  As much as we'd love to completely eliminate them, even when you do preventative injury routines and exercises, injuries can still occur.  The entire philosophy behind injury prevention is to reduce the likelihood though it doesn't always work, it does reduce the frequency of injury. (This is my first limiting injury since 2008).

Quick recap!

It's been a while since I have written so let me catch you up really quickly. The main reason I haven't posted recently is because I haven't felt like there has been all that much to talk about.  That, however, has started to change. Over the last couple weeks, Kimi and I have been logging some pretty good miles. Just last week, we finally made it over the 60 mile/week amount for what should have been the beginning of a nice long string of 60+ mile weeks. We have started adding some acceleration runs and steady tempo runs into the mix so that we can start generating some faster strength before we add in multiple workouts each week. Since Kimi and I both don't really enjoy the cold weather, we are typically just trying to survive the winter with enough miles to be rocking and rolling by April and May.  With Kimi's Olympic Trials race a year away, we have been determined to prove to ourselves that we can reach our goals despite the cold weather. Things had been going extremely well prior to the snow fall that makes it nearly impossible to have quality runs outdoors in Springfield. If only I had the means to plow the trails in the area. I would have got it done the first day and then perhaps I wouldn't have ended up with the tragedy of a week that I had last week.  This week, we are focused on getting back on track.

Up to this point, we have completed a 3 mi, 4 mi, and 6 mi tempo run and they have all been quite impressive.  Last year in the early spring, we had several of our tempo runs where it was all we could do to hit 6 min pace or slightly under. So far this year, we've been cruising closer to 5:50-55 pace which is exactly what we're needing to do to truly be prepped for our April and June goals.

Our goal this week is to hit 70 miles with one acceleration run and one stellar ladder workout on Saturday. I'm pretty excited that I'm now able to start focusing more on my running and finishing up our house remodel now that my weekends won't be full of continuing education seminars for some time now. As much as I love learning new things, I also love my weekends!

This weeks goal - 70 miles
Result= in progress!