Sunday, January 14, 2007

Eugene Training - Week 2

I'm not sure I'll continue with this title throughout the next 15 weeks or so, but it'll work today.

I got serious (sort of) with the program this week and did all six days of training and the mileage called for each day. The major issue I've got, and only I can fix it, is the lack of speed. I started off the week on Tuesday with a 5 miler at 8:32 pace, followed by another one on Wednesday at 8:18. Those were numbers that I could live with. Thursday I headed over to the equestrian trail for 4 miles and was shocked to see my 8:54 pace. I felt faster than that. To get Friday's run in I had to get up and go before work (something I rarely do). My legs were pretty heavy and I clocked a whopping 9:05 pace. See a trend here.

Saturday is usually long run day, but we had some other obligations to take care of and there was a chance of meeting up with Planet3rry in San Diego for a little jog. It appears that he had flight delays, so we weren't able to meet up. I went over to Mission Bay and ran for 27 minutes and called it 3 miles. I could figure it out with gmaps pedometer, but don't really see the need.

After the run, I picked up my oldest son and we had a great dinner together in Little Italy on the northwest side of downtown San Diego. He has taken up walking lately and has been doing it in his skater shoes. His shins have been giving him a bad time of it. He went to a running store and was a little overwhelmed and didn't really have the funds to buy the shoes anyway. I got him a pair of Brooks Beasts on ebay this evening, as recommended at the store. He said they felt the best of the shoes he tried on. From what little knowledge I have on shoes, they seem to be a good choice for him. He broke his ankle when he was 10 or so and that foot is smaller and shaped differently. Oddly the other leg is giving him the most trouble. Perhaps it is over compensating.

Sunday meant long run day. I opted to run in the afternoon. We are in the middle of the coldest snap so far this winter. Like most places we have had a very mild one so far. It was 80° on Monday, while today the highs were in the mid 50's with overnight lows in the 30's. Nothing like going from summer to winter in the span of a week. Our poor furnace ran off and on overnight just to keep the house at 62°. Normally it doesn't run at all after midnight until it cranks up to 68 about an hour before I get out of bed. So rather than run in 30-40 degree weather, I opted for the midday 50's. The sky was clear and there was a light breeze. I ran Brian's Loop, a 15 mile loop through Philips Ranch, Walnut, Diamond Bar and Chino Hills. There are 6 nice hills along this route. I felt good in the sun, and was a little chilled in the shade. I kept a nice relaxed pace and felt really good the entire way. I don't run this route often, so I don't have very good mileage milestones. I went through 21 ounces of 50/50 Gatorade Endurance/water mixture and 1 GU (compliments of my younger son from Christmas).

The 15 miles took me 2:21:35 or an unbelievable 9:26 pace. No wonder I felt good the whole way. 9:26 pace puts me back at 4:00 plus marathon time. That freaks me out. I guess it is still early in the training cycle, but I have a huge doubt and fear in my head. And while I know that it is not all bad to take the long runs slow, I also know that long slow runs lead to long slow marathons, at least for me. At the moment I'm at a loss to figure out exactly how I'm supposed to get my legs moving at sub 8:00 pace. I obviously have a lot of work to do. Errrr.

Total mileage for the week was 36. Next week calls for another 6 day week and 38 miles (hopefully some of them faster!!).

M: Rest
T: 5 miles, 42:40
W: 5 miles, 41:29
H: 4 miles, 35:36
F: 4 miles, 36:20
S: 3 miles, 26:54 (ran by time, not distance)
S: 15 miles, 2:21:35

11 comments:

Wes said...

After two back to back marathons, you deserve a little recovery time, eh? Do you do any speed work? Or is it all distance? The warm weather is over here. Cold is coming ,so its time to get back to being winter. I need to learn more about eating no the run. My first double digit run is coming up Sunday.

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

Good Luck with your training program!

Bob

Backofpack said...

I am the wrong person to comment on speed, so I'll comment on something I know more about: you are one cool Dad! I love the idea that you found your son shoes on ebay - helping him fix his sore shins and encouraging him to keep going. Our older kids need to know we still think about them and care about them even though they're not sharing our house, or even our city. Way to go Dad!

Journey to a Centum said...

Darrell,

Sounds like it's time to head down to the track for some speed sessions. I'm sure a once a week one hour session will get you sub 8 before you know it. Concentrate on turnover as you go for your road runs. Hopefully you can convince a friend or two to join you to make the sessions a bit more tolerable.

If you can't find anymore speed just run the Eugene Marathon with me this summer. I'm going to be running a 50 miler the day before so I'm probably looking at around 4 hours for Eugene. Hey, at least you have a fallback now.

Eric

Sarah said...

LOL...30-40 degrees sounds warm to me right now! It's all in your perspective, I guess. : )

I've been worrying about speed too. Since I've been running trails I feel like I've lost what little speed I once had. Need to work on that. I'm sure you'll get yours back too with some dedicated speed work.

Joe said...

Darrell, does your program call for timing every day? I ask because the principle of "hard day/easy day" comes to mind. Should you push for your target pace daily? Or schedule 2 hard runs a week, getting in the miles on your other runs?

Just some thoughts. You'll figure it out.

Rae said...

Since you and P-terry weren't able to meet up you'll just have to come to TN to meet up with all of us!

Good luck with your running this week! I know you'll find your speed, no problemo!

Mike said...

Darrell,
I wouldn't worry too much about your daily pace or at least the pace for your longer runs. Those are all about time on your feet right?
Just rest up and do some longer pace runs in the 8-12 mile category when your legs are fresh- those will do wonders!
Keep it rolling!

Thomas said...

Don't worry too much about the pace at this stage. You've still got 15 weeks left, and the paces will come down all by themselves, just don't try and force the issue.

If you want to do specific pace training, I find regular tempo runs to be great for speed development. Not on the track, just 5, or 6, or 8 miles at tempo pace.

Unknown said...

First of all, am I supposed to be training for Eugene already? Consider my "long" runs on the weekend as my training.

I wouldn't worry about the pace. Get the miles in and try to move the legs faster on the short runs and I imagine within a few weeks of consistent training you will be back up to speed.

Nice call on the Brooks Beast for your son. I used this shoe after my first marathon and it was great to have all the cushion and support. It's a great shoe.

matt said...

oh, man...i love little italy...i grew up in SD, so that brings back nice memories, buddy. and i will second BOPs 'cool dad' nomination. you're awesome...a real inspiration to this young father.