Random Banter

 Another week in the books! I want to try and make this a bit more interesting, not that anyone reads this, but I have yet to figure that out! So once again I'll go day by day...or something like that.  Monday/Friday - These are weightlifting days and this new training is taxing me a bit more than the last one was. So it's a good thing.  I wasn't as sore on the day after, like last week, but they were still a bit taxing. Hopefully I'm getting stronger and it's helping my running.  So far I have not had lower right back issues on the long run like I have had in the past.   Tuesday was the typical easy run.  Like last week I ventured outside. And like last week it was freaking cold!  I felt like I was getting ready to go skiing with the amount of clothes I was putting on.  OMG! Thursday is workout day.  I did a repeat of last weeks workout but hopefully dialed it in a bit more.  I did one long threshold run for 22 minutes. The goal wa...

  I'm going to try and find some way to make this more interesting but for now you are just going to get a recap of my week in workouts/running!   Monday - This is a weight lifting day.  I don't enjoy weight lifting as much as I used to (I used to power lift back in the day) but I know it's important for my thyroid condition so I do it.  Possibly dropping one day for running more in the summer but we shall see.  But this was a new   routine and it left me a bit sore but nothing to bad.  Tuesday - First run outside! It was dark and cold and a little bit windy. But I got it in.  I'm still basing my runs, for better or worse, off of heart rate.  This one was an easy run and the heart rate was a bit higher than on the treadmill but not by the much. Which was surprising.  I think the colder weather might have had something to do with that. We'll see how this weeks outdoor run goes.  It was a whopping 2.4 miles outside! Thursday - Run wor...

 It's been awhile since I've posted here, for just myself, but I thought I'd go ahead and get this down as it will help with my thought process as I move through this off season.   But first lets look back on this season.  This was probably our most successful season.  The biggest takeaway was the half marathon PR of 1:59.04 in late September.  I'd like to say that I knocked off some stuff in regards to the 5K distance but it just didn't happen (only 1 5K race!).  I'm fairly certain that it would go down right now, without a lot of specific training, but we will leave it as it is.  I also set a new PR in the 8 mile Antelope Trail race distance.  Just by a few seconds but a PR is a PR and I'll take it. For whatever reason that course always gets me! And now we begin the off season.  No races have been thought about or planned so I'm considering this the start of my off season and my big goal for this next year is to just get faster. And t...

 The last race I did was a half marathon at the end of March and for my speed it was more of a shuffle than anything. This was my first race since then and with my coach.   The couple of weeks prior to this race we had backed off of the long runs and did some specific running focused on the 5K speed.  I had dreams of setting a new 5K PR at this elevation (I set a 5K PR at a much lower elevation that I hope to break some day!).  In order to set a 5K PR I needed to average a mile pace of something like 8:15 or less.  I was optimistic to start with but after a workout or two of trying to hold that pace I knew it wasn't in the books.  So I re-adjusted and just wanted to beat my time from the previous year (27:10).   It was kind of odd because the race was on Thursday rather than a Saturday when most races are held. But it is what it is.  The weather turned out to be pretty good because we had been having some high temperature's leading into ...

 As is usual I'm really only writing this for myself but I do enjoy writing, it provides and outlet, so I'm gonna put down a few thoughts.  My half marathon on March 24th went better than expected, finish time of 2:26:50, which is better than the previous one I had done.  Despite doing the majority of that training on the treadmill I'm pretty happy with that.  I do plan on getting another one one the list, for the fall, and will hopefully getting close to 2 hours.  I'd love to go sub 2 but we will see.  Along those lines I have hired a coach to see if they can help me go to the next level.  For the past few years, in my mind, I have been stuck at this level.  Just never able to take the next step to more volume and getting faster.  This coaches philosophy is a lot of very low intensity training with one really hard day thrown in.  So I'm running slower than I was previously most of the time but there is one really hard day...or we will g...

 It's been awhile but I wanted to get this out more for myself than anything.  This Sunday the 24th is my half marathon.  Starting off the year with this race.  I'm not considering it an A race by any stretch of the imagination.  It was more of a race that I was using to keep active through the winter.   On reflection I'm not sure it was the best idea.  My time might have been better spent doing some training and maybe pushing things a little more.  However I did run the longest I've run in a couple of years which I think is needed.  Having said that I didn't do anything that got me close to a half marathon distance. So Sunday will be interesting to see how it goes.   My goal is to try and run somewhere around 12:30 to 12 minute miles.  The one thing I have going for me is that this race is at a slightly lower elevation but not much. I'm fairly confident in this because on my last long run outside I was just just running f...

 Today was the long run.  I wasn't sure what to expect on this but I was going to concentrate on keeping my heart rate low. And overall I think I did a pretty good job.  My intention was to run for 65 minutes but as I hit 65 minutes I was still feeling good and was still a bit away from home. So I ran for a few more minutes and went slightly over 70 minutes.  Which I'm really happy with.  At 55 minutes I picked it up a bit.  While I'm trying this slow running I think having some speed in there is important.  Lets call it a fast finish.  So I ran 10 minutes at a faster pace and then had 5 minutes cool down. Overall a great feeling and I'm excited to run again.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do this next week. Maybe some strides on Wednesday but we will see.  I have some vacation time so I might be able to do a bit more! Here's a screenshot of my long run. As you can see not super long and not a lot of power but I'm not worrying about tha...

 It's been a few days...a little over a month! I'd like to say that I've been doing something great but that's not the case. Here's what I think I've done in that time period.  I did the 5 days a week of running and found after a few weeks I just didn't have the desire to run anymore. So I cut it back to 4 days a week, which is what I've mostly been doing, and it's been good but I also feel like I haven't been running enough...LOL!   Last week I attempted to start up a Stryd half marathon training plan but also stopped that.  I did the first two days came down with something, not to bad thankfully, and just had no desire to continue it. Based on these two things I think it shouldn't surprise you that I find it really hard to run or find motivation this time of year.  So for now I'm just running.  More focusing on building that base...the aerobic base that is.  I still have plans to do the half marathon in late March, haven't signed up...

 It's dark and cold outside. That's the reason why my running season has shifted to a treadmill season. And even that has had it's ups and downs...mostly downs.   I really don't mind running on the treadmill but for some reason this season it has been a lot harder to get into it.  I don't know what the issue is but I'm struggling.  I'm mainly down to 3 days a week of running...if I'm lucky!  Most of the time it's like 2 but I'm hopeful that I've found my motivation and I'll be back to at least 3 days with another 1 day dedicated to getting some strength work in.   There are 2 things that I hope will motivate me and keep me going thru these winter/colder/darker months.  That is spending a few weeks running at a lower heart rate and kind of ignoring power for the time being.  I think that may help me a lot.  Tomorrow that experiment begins.  I did that at the start of this year and I think aerobically I was in the best shape that...