USAF Training: Week 8

Cutback! Woohoo! “Only” 35 miles!

In what universe is a 12-mile long run considered “cutback”?

The previous week consisted of 45 miles, culminating in an 18-mile long run. The Lady and I discussed this peculiar effect: we felt really strong that week, and went into the cutback pumped. By the end of the cutback week, we felt worn out and had nagging pain showing up (top of her foot, lower part of my ankle).

Don’t know about you, but I’m thinking there’s more to running than just the physical act of running. Just a crazy theory, of course.

Training has been going well; aside from the aforementioned ankle nagging, it’s been going extremely well. The ankle issues only just cropped up in the middle of our 12-mile long run last week. It feels like a bit of a pulled muscle, and so I’ve been doing calf raises and ankle stretches I picked up from PT to try and strengthen it and the surrounding muscle, and also work out any gunk from inflammation. It’s not keeping me from running, and it’s not getting any worse. It also tends to loosen up as I go. Basically, I’m just keeping a close eye on it for the time being.

For the 12-miler, we met up with our former Ragnar DC teammates Tim and Alys for a run along the Great Allegheny Passage that runs literally behind their apartment complex.

Taking a breather in the sprawling metropolis of Duquesne, PA.

Tim and Alys took a bit of a hiatus from running following their wedding, as demands of graduate school got particularly intense (I CAN RELATE), but they’re just now getting back up near double-digit long runs, so they accompanied us for 9 of our 12 miles. They kept our paces very honest, and we got to explore a section of the GAP we hadn’t seen before. Plus, running with company is always wonderful.

The final 3 miles of this run were at goal pace–BQ pace for The Lady, 1:35 half marathon goal pace for me (7:15 min/mi). The only downside of running along the GAP is it can occasionally be very exposed, and that was certainly the case for the final 3 miles. Thankfully, I actually felt great for the first 2, slowly progressing from an 8:30 down to my goal pace. After the first mile, I found I was locked at a 6:55 pace; oddly enough, it felt comfortable, so I figured I’d just ride it as long as I could. It was in the 3rd and final mile that the beating sun started hitting pretty hard, and I pulled up a little bit, but not before logging one of my most solid race-pace portions of a long run in recent memory.

Very consistent easy pace, followed by 3 kickass miles at race pace.

This week, we’re cranking the mileage back up: 44 on the docket with an 18-mile long run and a 9-mile tempo. Here’s the kicker: my sister and her husband are having their “second” wedding this weekend in Athens (tl;dr version: they’re legally married already but didn’t have a chance for a reception, so now they’re having one), and given how busy these things tend to be, The Lady and I figure we need to get all our quality and long run miles in before we leave…on Thursday evening.

SO. 9-mile tempo run tomorrow, and an 18-mile long run Thursday morning! Throw in this morning’s 8-mile run and Wednesday’s 1-miler, that’s a grand total of 36 miles in 4 days. Anyone want to join us? 🙂

Other points of interest include:

• This morning marks 78 days of run streaking. Still have a long way to go to beat my previous record of 118, but it’s certainly looking good so far! Just taking things one day at a time and enjoying the satisfaction that comes with getting at least 1 mile in every 24 hours.
• I registered for the Big Sur 2015 International Marathon! The Lady and I managed to beat the rush (albeit on separate days, but all’s well that ends well) along with some good running buddies of ours, so we’ll be running it on April 26, 2015! SO. EXCITED.

Mmmm.

• The Lady and I will be running the Run for Gold 26.2K (that’s 16ish miles) in another 2 weekends. My goal as of right now is to beat my previous time (2:24:37, an 8:53 pace), which I think should be more than doable. Given how I was tied in some pretty tight physical/mental knots last time, I’m thinking beating my previous time is a pretty safe bet, at least in terms of keeping things from getting TOO stressful.

In the meantime, trying not to think about how high our mileage is going to get in August…

USAF Training: Week 1

I feel somewhat like an imposter writing this up: I’m actually “only” running the half marathon come September (as I mentioned in a previous post), but I’m still training with The Lady as if I was running the full, at least until such time that my thesis obligations mandate a decrease in mileage.

But anywho. How about that first official week of training?!

Strava, for all its faults, has nice visualizations.

This week featured the first 1600-repeats track workout in a very long time. I was aiming high–I really, really want a sub-20 minute 5K this year–and I didn’t miss by much. I don’t even remember when the last track session was with mile repeats, but it’s been at least a couple of months. Not a bad performance given that kind of lag in between workouts!

1st and 2nd repeats were dead on; sub-6:30 min/mi is pretty much my goal. The 3rd set I struggle-bugged it a little, as I was really feeling like death at that point. Still, it was a solid showing and definitely a good spot for further improvement.

This week’s long run was 12 miles (yeah, the first of the training cycle!) and featured the awesome loop that goes all around the city, hugging the rivers and taking us through the likes of Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, Schenley, Point State Park, and the Strip District. My first few runs along this route were…varied in quality…but in the last year this has been a mainstay that I love simply by virtue of how much of Pittsburgh I get to see. It’s beautiful.

Heinz Field!

City of Bridges.

Check out those ripped arms 😉

The last 2 miles of our 12-miler were at race paces: The Lady at her goal marathon pace, and me at my goal half-marathon pace.

I should expound a bit on this point. The last two half marathons I’ve run were PRs, but I’m still gunning for that elusive sub-1:40. However, at this point, I’ve switched gears and set my sights at my all-time goal: 1:35. I’ve been hungry for this one for over two years, and have joked at times (honestly, kind of half-joked) that I would retire once I hit 1:35. Don’t ask me why it’s so important to me; once I hit it, I’ll probably just set my sights at 1:30 anyway. But there it is.

So despite not having notched 1:40 yet, I’m already setting my goal half-marathon pace at 7:15min/mi, at least for the purposes of training. I know it’s bloody fast, and I’m still entirely open to the idea that, come September, I just won’t yet be able to crank that hard for 13.1 miles. But I figure that, in the spirit of running with reckless abandon–flirting heavily with that line between having fun and pushing a little too hard–I’m going to train at 7:15, and let the chips fall where they may at Air Force.

The last 2 miles on our 12-miler were 7:26 and 7:11. Not too shabby.

I’m still treating my non-long-run, non-quality-workout days as “run whatever feels good”, i.e. not looking at my watch, specifically so my legs (and brain) can recover. I’m also prepared for the possibility that I’ll crash and burn on a few quality workouts, and maybe even during the half-marathon pace portions of our long runs. But I’ll roll with it. Part of my problem last year was perpetual mental gridlock between “I must run faster” and “I must rest.” This year, I’m returning to where I started: “Sure, why not? I’ll pull back if I need to.” It has its problems, but it’s arguably a significant step up from the former.

…and I may need to pull back, given that we’re in a 4-week build:

Long runs!

It was a bit of scheduling voodoo that necessitated a 4-week build cycle. I’m rather excited about it!

And next weekend, The Lady and I are running the Man Up 10K! Last 10K before I submit my application for a seeded position at the September Great Race. Given I was accepted the last two years, I’m hoping for a hat trick…and so I can start up front with The Lady, who was invited to be a seeded runner. Badass!

Oh, and: we’re both participating in the Runner’s World run streak. Today was day 15, though I came into the streak with 14 consecutive days before that, which I’ll tally up once the streak ends on the 4th of July. At which point, I’d love to snap my previous streaking record of 118.

Streaking is awesome, folks.