Alright, already!

Alright, alright, alright. I know. I've been a Blogger Bum. But it's not as if I've actually been a bum. I chaperoned an amazing group of Cincinnati high school seniors on a trip to Poland and Israel. And I was kind of a cheating bum at that, because I blogged about it, but not in this blog. You can read all about it here, in THIS blog. I could never rehash it again, but it's all right there for your reading enjoyment.

Since then, well, I've been running of course. The running has been quite difficutl for me. I trained my ass of with the Pfitzinger 18/55 program. It looked exactly like this, except for the dates. It's alot of miles! Right now I'm in my second week of training for the Columbus Marathon on October 19th. I have two goals: first is to set another PR -- hopefully finishing in 4:20 or better -- and second is to complete 95-100% of the scheduled runs. So far, so good. I'm trying not to be anal about my paces because the first third of the program is so much mileage buildup that I always feel like I'm getting slower not faster. Also, since coming back from my trip, where I didn't run at all, I've been feeling sluggish. I'm still trying to find the motivation!

So. Here WE Go!

Natalie

Dogs Gone Wild

I am definitely sticking with the Pfitzinger program until the end. How else to tell if it works? The long runs, over and over, are just very time consuming to a slow runner like myself. I look at my messy house and think of what I could be doing if I wasn't spending endless hours running. But, oh well.

After cleaning the teenage boys bathroom -- which hadn't been properly cleaned since January (gross!) -- I hit the treadmill for 8 miles with 6x600 at 10k pace for my LT run. Maybe it should have been 5k pace, but I don't think I could have finished at that pace.

First 4.5 miles were at marathon pace: 9:55, 9:57, 9:59, 9:58, 5:11 for the .5. Funny that, with the exception of the .5 which was slower, these were on the treadmill set at 6.0. Hmm...

Then the intervals (90 sec. jog in between): HR between 169-171.

Appropos of the dog discussion on Hal Higdon earlier today, I let my dogs outside in between the 2nd and 3rd interval. Guess what? They escaped. Both of them. 2:30 I get a phone call: "I have Kimo and Olympia." They stuck together, fortunately, and wound up about a mile away but through the woods. It was about a 10 minute drive for me! Thank goodness a dog owner had the good sense to check for tags and hold onto them while he called me. I can't tell you the number of times I've called dog owners from the dog's tags, but it's unusual that someone does this. Definitely only a dog owner would understand how devasted we would be to lose our dogs.
Anyway, Kimo and Olympia are home safe, sound, and very dirty. Especially Kimo, the white Eskie. They are locked up in their kennels for the time being until I can shower them.

I hope they didn't terrorize any runners while they were on their adventure.

RECOVERY: Another Name for Hell

Recovery must be another name for Hell.

5 miles. Avg. HR: 142 bpm. 11:xx avg. pace. With each step I felt like I was going nowhere. No spring. No pep. No forward momentum. Can someone please explain to me how a recovery run of 5 miles is more beneficial than simply taking another rest day? Or a spinning class?

I just kept plodding along as I checked my heart rate monitor about every minute, keeping my HR low. Drag, drag, drag.... Plod, plod, plod... Perhaps the idea is that I hate the recovery runs so much that the long runs are almost joyous! Now I know... there is something even more dreadful than running long. It's running short and sloooowwww..... And, slow is relative, I know. Some people's slow is my fast and my slow is some people's fast. But the feeling must be the same.

What kept me going was thinking of all the people on the Hal Higdon Boards ... Jess, Vivian, Dave, Scott... who have had success with the Pfitzinger program.

So, I kept it slow. And I finished.

#&*%(@!!

Ok, so who is this Pfitz that is making me run 9 miles in the middle of the week and doesn't even call it a "long" run? If this is only the first week of training -- which it is -- I'm in big trouble!

I did my 9. With strides in the last mile. (Hey Matt W, if it says 9 miles, who am I to make it more??). It was pretty ugly. Well, it was ok until the podrunner episode (178 bpm) ended and then I was left with the ipod's choice since it was on shuffle. I think it was incahoots with Pete Pfitzinger in an effort to torture me today by playing Eminem and 50 Cent back to back. Did I really put them on my ipod?

I'll spare the ugly details. Suffice it to say, I started out fine, had a wardrobe malfunction, got a cramp, niggles here, niggles there, and was more than happy to hit the stop button at exactly 9.
Does it get any easier?

Christmas training

Well, well, well. After starting Hal's program yesterday, I went ahead and began the Pfitz program today. I laid in bed an extra hour this morning saying to myself "I don't want to run seven miles today," but eventually I got up, got dressed, and did it. Ack! I just realized that I forgot the speed! I was supposed to run 7 w/ 10x100 m strides, but I was so caught up in wondering what a "general aerobic" run was supposed to be that I completely forgot. Oh, well, it was a good run anyway. The CW-X compression tights and the UA compression shirt felt great on my sore muscles.

My average pace was 9:51 and my average HR was 160. The chart is really beautiful. The elevation goes up and down, but the pace and HR stay very consistant.

Mile 3 was a water stop and Mile 6 was an ipod/water issue. Still, this is nice:

I hope everyone is having a nice Christmas. It looks like we are breaking the movie tradition. The boys have made their own plans with their friends which involve, what else, Chinese food and a movie. We're invited to spend Christmas with my brother-in-laws' family but my boys don't really want to go. Did we raise these guys right or what??? I admit, it is a little bit of an odd feeling to be the Jewish family at a Christmas celebration. We're not going to force the boys to go, though. They're right... it's not their relatives and it's not their holiday either. From their perspecive, it's a boring day with their parent's friends. Instead, they will be spending the day with kids their own age from BBYO which is a philanthropic/social group for Jewish teens.
Sarah and I will watch the final episode of last seasons' Ugly Betty.

Kentucky Derby Marathon Training

TODAY IS THE OFFICIAL START OF KENTUCKY DERBY MARATHON TRAINING.

3 Miles on the treadmill. I mixed it up by playing with the grade and doing some strides the last mile. It was the treadmill in the dungeon so I have to entertain myself while I look at the plain white wall.

Then it was upstairs for the weights. Today looked something like this:

Squats into curls w/ 10 lb dbs
Seated row (20 x 4) SS Step-up squats on the riser (20x4)
Chest press w/ 10lb dbs SS Wall sits (1:00) X 4
Ball hamstring curls (20) SS Pushups (15) X 3
Seated calf raises (50,50,50,55) X 20Pushup rows (10,10) X4

I haven't yet decided whether I'll do Hal's Adv. I or Pfitz 55/18. I'll try Pfitz this week and see how it goes. It looks like it's fewer running days (a good thing), but the runs are longer.

Running is science, Einstein!

40

That's my resting HR. Here's the science of HR training (for me):

Lactate Threshold runs: 152-170
Long Runs: 136-155
Recovery Runs: < 132

These numbers are based on Pete Pfitzinger's HR zone formula. Since I'm going to use the Pfitzinger method of training for my next marathon, I figured I'd research my numbers.

Now, I'm going for a long run wearing my heart rate monitor and I'm going to try to keep my heart rate between 136-155 bpm.
_________
Later: 9 miles in 1:39:23. Avg. pace: 11:02. Avg. HR 151. 11:00 is about the average pace of my long runs anyway, so HR training is really just a reinforcement of what I've been doing. It did keep me from being tempted to pick up the pace.