"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Monday, February 13, 2012

Back to a boring running blog

Ahem.

I took a few days off from running, hoping that the little aches and pains would go away. They didn't. I tried to work out some of the knots with massage; it didn't work. I went to see a couple of experts professionals and was told I shouldn't be able to walk, much less run. We lost track of the number of minor injuries after hitting a dozen.

I'm still trying to evaluate whether or not I have one last attempt at a great race in me. The one thing I've always had is tremendous speed for short distances, but that seems to have evaporated along with everything else; if I can find those missing gears again, I might give it a shot.

The basic week for me looks like this (and yes, it looks like it came out of a couple of recent books):

[Based on a 6:00 mile]

Monday: sprints and drills (easy)
Tuesday: 3-5x1200 in 5:00- 400 in 2:00 recovery (hard)
Wednesday: slow hill repeats (easy)
Thursday: 2 miles in 14 to 15 (moderate)
Friday: rest or make-up day
Saturday: 800m time-trial, 5 minute rest, 2x400m in 88 - 5:00 (hard)
Sunday: 8-9 miles in 70-80 minutes. (easy)
Week total: 33-34 miles in 4.5-5 hours.
............................
If one wanted to run all the races in the MDRA Grand Prix and the USATF team circuit, here's the schedule:
Jan 9 Meet of Miles 1 Mile
Jan 28 Securian 1/2 marathon
Mar 18 St. Pat's 8K
Apr 28 Get in Gear 10K
May 12 New Prague 1/2 marathon
May 17 TCM 1 Mile
May 18 Kraft 5K
June 16 Grandma's Marathon
July 18 Torchlight 5K
July 26 Rice Street 1 Mile
July 28 Run for Blood 5K
Aug 12 MDRA 15K
Aug 29? Rochester 1/2 marathon
Sep 3 Victory 10K
Sep 9 City of Lakes 25K
Oct 7 TCM 10 Mile
Oct 7 Twin Cities Marathon
Nov 4 Rocky's Run 6K

That's a pretty full schedule!

3 comments:

Colin said...

Every time I comment on how well your training seems to be coming along you seem to have a setback. I think I'm jinxing you!

Is that Saturday 800 time a typo? I can't imagine time-trialing an 800 in sub-2:40 if I was in 6:00 mile shape. The 400s in 88 afterwards would be a piece of cake by comparison ...

That Grand Prix/USATF combo would be a very full schedule. Especially the part where you run the TC 10 Mile and come back 30 minutes later to run the full marathon! It sounds like a your kind of challenge ... let me know when you're recruiting members for your USATF team!

Anonymous said...

Steve,
I was thinking about a couple of things with your running and wondering your thoughts.

1. being a long time runner that used to have some speed and no longer have that. Do you think you damaged muscle fibers in your legs and have alot of scar tissue in your musles from being fast at one time?
2. You have Asthma. Do you think you may have scar tissue in your lungs and can't get enough oxygen run fast.

Maybe write something about this,

curious

SteveQ said...

@Colin: Yep, that's a typo. One year my plan was to run the TC marathon and then make it to my church's service, which would require sub-3:15 and no shower or changing clothes.

@Anonymous: I still have decent speed, just not what I had; I think it's a matter of rate of nerve firing, which is the same thing that causes one's maximal heart rate to decrease. I do have scar tissue in my lungs, from severe infections in 2009.