Running on a Schedule – weeks six and seven

Although I did not post last weekend, I did continue with my 10 week schedule.  I had a good week 6, and on the 19th I started the original portion of my running schedule.  I was able to complete all but the Oct 17th workout although I swapped two runs and could not find a 10 km race so I put in a 35 min moderate run instead.

I had a great long run on Saturday and took the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful fall day running half of the run on the trails.  It is days like these that runs seem to just flow, the air is fresher, and your legs just glide.  I looked high and low for a 10 km race on Sunday, but I could not and decided to put in a good 35 minutes instead.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Totals
Oct 17 Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Oct 18 Rest	Oct 19 X-C Race 6600 m (4 miles)	Oct 20 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 21 LSD 1 hr  or 8 miles	Oct 22 30 min or 4 miles Easy	Oct 23 X-C Race 10000 m Moderate	32 miles
Oct 17 Rest	Oct 18 Rest	Oct 19 X-C Race 6600 m (4 miles)	Oct 20 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 21 30 min 4 miles Easy	Oct 22 LSD 1 hr  or 9 miles	Oct 23 35 min 4.5 miles Moderate	27.5 miles

This week, I notice two things about my efforts to date.  The first is that I am almost done, time has passed quickly.  The second thing I noticed is that I was faster than I remember at 15 years old.  Perhaps I should have started with a schedule from when I was 13 years old instead.  I was easily a foot shorter, and if nothing else I would have a longer stride.

Work commitments forced me to run the 27th-29th indoor on the treadmill.  This allowed me to focus a little on my pace, although by the 29th I was getting tired of the treadmill.  I was happy to discover a great hill for my Fartlek on Sunday.  My body is holding up well with the increased miles I have been putting on in the last two weeks, but I will have to keep an eye out for fatigue/injury as I head into the last three weeks.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Totals
Oct 24  Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 25 Rest	Oct 26 X-C Race 7400 m (4.5 miles)	Oct 27 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 28 LSD 1 hr  or 8 miles	Oct 29 30 min or 4 miles Easy	Oct 30 45 min Moderate (6.5 miles)	35 miles
Oct 24 Rest	Oct 25 Rest	Oct 26 X-C Race 7400 m (4.5 miles)	Oct 27 30 min or 4 miles Easy	Oct 28 LSD 1 hr 8 miles	Oct 29 41 min Moderate 5 miles	Oct 30 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	27.5 miles

I can see the end is in sight as I am looking forward to strong weeks eight and nine.

See you on the trails.

Running on a Schedule – week five

5 down, 5 to go.  Although I am a little behind in posting, last week was a good week.  I even entered a 10 km cross-country race on Sunday, so I altered my schedule.  This included dropping a run, bringing my Rest days to 3 this week, and modifying another to accommodate the unscheduled race.  Although I was not expecting to have 3 rest days, I wanted to stay somewhat rested for the last-minute race.  Unscheduled or not, I still find that I run faster in competition of any kind than I do when it is just me against the clock.  My pace in the race was noticeably faster than my pace in the much shorter mock race on Wednesday.

This Tuesday I move into the original part of the schedule that I ran when I was 15 years old, so I will pay extra attention to keeping to my scheduled runs after that point.  I do have a 10 km race on my schedule for this Sunday, so I have been searching frantically for any local races to fit the bill to avoid another me against the clock time trial.  As of now I have not found anything to fit the bill, but the search will continue.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Totals
Oct 10 Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Oct 11 Rest	Oct 12 X-C Race 6200 m (4 miles)	Oct 13 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 14 LSD 1 hr  or 8 miles	Oct 15 30 min or 4 miles Easy	Oct 16 Rest	26 miles
Oct 10 Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Oct 11 Rest	Oct 12 X-C Race 6200 m (4 miles)	Oct 13 Rest	Oct 14  Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Oct 15 Rest	Oct 16 X-C Race 10000 m +wu/wd     (8 miles)	20 miles

I now ramp up my mileage and number of runs quickly over the balance of the schedule, so I will have to keep a close eye on fatigue and injury, but so far so good.

See you on the road.

Running on a Schedule – week four

Week 4 is now in the books.  I am one week removed from my halfway point.  I noticed that I felt a little sluggish at the start of some of my late week runs.  I will have to keep eye on this as I still have over half of a schedule to go.  I think that my body is trying to adjust to the increased number of runs that I am submitting it to in the last 4 weeks.  I may have to add some variety within the schedule.  As I have not defined a workout for any of my trail runs (Fartlek runs) I may work on variety to keep myself fresh.

I was very happy to stick to my schedule this week, all but one rest day which I moved from Sunday to Friday.  My mock X-C Race went well as well, as I was able to cover the 3.5 miles in 28 minutes.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Totals
Oct 3 Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Oct 4 Rest	Oct 5 X-C Race 5800 m (3.5 miles)	Oct 6 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 7 LSD 45 min or 5+ miles	Oct 8 30 min or 4 miles Easy	Oct 9 Rest	23 miles
Oct 3 Treadmill (4 miles)	Oct 4 Rest	Oct 5 X-C Race 5800 m (3.5 miles)	Oct 6 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 7 Rest	Oct 8 LSD 40 min or 5 miles	Oct 9 30 min or 4 miles Easy	22 miles

I noticed a little bit of competitiveness creep back in to me this week.  On my Long Slow Distance run on Saturday another runner passed me and then settled into a pace just 10 meters ahead of me on the road.  I fought the strong urge to pass him and  stayed on my pace for that run.  On my Sunday run, which was at a slightly quicker pace, I was hoping to see the other runner again as this time I thought I would not be so tentative, but no such luck.  At this point in the schedule it is more important for me to get the runs in than to show my competitiveness, that is what races are for.

See you on the road.

Running on a Schedule – week three

Wow, 3 weeks into my 10 week schedule already.  Although I have yet to complete a week as
scheduled, I am noticing that I am making some progress.  I noticed that on my Saturday run on the
trails, I seemed to have another gear on my intervals.  With every up there are some downs, I felt very
sluggish on my mock-race on Wednesday, I just didn’t seem to be able to hit my
stride.  I noticed this again on my Long
Slow Distance run this Sunday, but I fought through it.  This week I was 4 miles and 1 run short of my
weekly target of 21 miles and 5 runs.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Totals
Sep 26 30 min or 3.75 miles Easy	Sep 27 Rest	Sep 28 X-C Race 6300 m (4 miles)	Sep 29 Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Sep 30 LSD 40 min or 5 miles	Oct 1 Rest	Oct 2 30 min or 4 miles Easy	21 miles
Sep 26 30 min or 3.75 miles Easy	Sep 27 Rest	Sep 28 X-C Race 6600 m (4 miles)	Sep 29 Rest	Sep 30 Rest	Oct 1 Fartlek   X-C (4 miles)	Oct 2 LSD 40 min or 5 miles	17 miles

Next week I am striving to run all 5
scheduled days.  This will be a tough
week as my mileage goes up again, but I have the long weekend to look forward at
the end of it.

See you on the trails.

Running on a Schedule – week two

The second week of my 10 week schedule started out with a missed run on Monday Sept 19^th.  I had a good tempo run on Wednesday in very wet conditions for my mock x-c race.  Then the rest of the week was a bit of patch work as I was able to shift around a few days to get in a total of 4 runs.  I have included my original schedule along with my actual log below.  Although I am a little disappointed that the week didn’t come off as planned, I am happy to see that I was only 3 miles off my weekly mileage target.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Totals
Sep 19 20 min or 2.5 miles Easy	Sep 20 Rest	Sep 21 X-C Race 4500 m (3 miles)	Sep 22 Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Sep 23 30 min or 3.75 miles Easy	Sep 24 Rest	Sep 25 20 min or 2.5 miles Easy	16 miles
Sep 19 Rest	Sep 20 Rest	Sep 21 X-C Race 4500 m (3 miles)	Sep 22 Rest	Sep 23 20 min 2.5 miles Easy	Sep 24 Fartlek X-C      (4 miles)	Sep 25 38 min  3.5 miles Easy	13 miles

I have already conceded that I will move my next week’s Thursday run to Friday due to prior commitments, but I am looking forward to a solid week.  On a side note, I did notice some fatigue in my right leg, but I felt great on my very easy Sunday run.  Only two weeks into my schedule and I am already looking forward to next week.  I will have to keep an eye on my body as I ramp up my weekly runs to 5 days from basically 0 days three weeks earlier.

Off to bed, another easy run tomorrow.

See you on the trails.

Running on a Schedule – week one

I started out the training schedule with what was supposed to be an easy 20 minute run. I decided to bring my son in our running stroller, so that we could start my 10 week journey together. After the first mile I noticed that I was struggling a little with pace, I attributed this to pushing the running stroller. By the end of the second mile it was apparent that I overestimated my fitness level. I finished the 2.5 mile distance in just over 21 minutes. Day 1 down, 69 to go.

The next three days, I had booked together as rest days as I was in a conference with work. On Friday, I missed my first day of the schedule. 5 days in and I have already missed a day. Not good, but I didn’t worry too much, I have been through this enough to know that 1 day would not make or break this schedule. Sure enough on Saturday I bounced back with a better than expected workout on the trails. I now remember why cross country is still my first running love, just you and the trail.

Today I ran in a local Terry Fox Run, 10 kilometres. I still remember running my first 10 kilometres with my older sister when I was 11 years old, it was also a Terry Fox Run. Many years have passed by and I still remember clearly that run. In all the years since I have only run a handful of Terry Fox Runs. Today I remembered the importance of what this run means to me and will make more of an effort to continue to run in memory of this great individual who at a young age gave hope to so many and united a nation in a selfless act of bravery.

For more information on Terry Fox Run:

http://terryfox.org/Run/

For more information on his Foundation:

http://www.terryfox.org/

Off to bed, another ‘easy’ run tomorrow.

See you on the roads.

Blast from the Past ‘Running on a Schedule’

After much deliberation I have come up with what I think will be a good schedule to ramp up and reproduce the training schedule given to me at 15. Gone is the 20 km and an additional 9 km x-country race (I thought that I would give myself a little bit of a break as I am not 15 anymore). I did however keep the integrity of the original schedule which now starts on October 19th, to align the days of the week with the original. As a result this schedule finishes on the 20th of November rather than the 17th (original).

Please note that the totals at the end of each week are approximates and in miles (I had to get my calculator out for this one as it has been many years since I kept a log in miles).

So without further delay here is ‘The Schedule’:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Totals
Sep 12 20 min or 2.5 miles Easy	Sep 13 Rest	Sep 14 Rest	Sep 15 Rest	Sep 16 30 min or 3.75 miles Easy	Sep 17 Fartlek X-C (3 miles)	Sep 18 Race 10 km Easy (6 miles)	15 miles
Sep 19 20 min or 2.5 miles Easy	Sep 20 Rest	Sep 21 X-C Race 4500 m (3 miles)	Sep 22 Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Sep 23 30 min or 3.75 miles Easy	Sep 24 Rest	Sep 25 20 min or 2.5 miles Easy	16 miles
Sep 26 30 min or 3.75 miles Easy	Sep 27 Rest	Sep 28 X-C Race 6300 m (4 miles)	Sep 29 Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Sep 30 LSD 40 min or 5 miles	Oct 1 Rest	Oct 2 30 min or 4 miles Easy	21 miles
Oct 3 Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Oct 4 Rest	Oct 5 Race 5800 m (3.5 miles)	Oct 6 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 7 LSD 45 min or 5+ miles	Oct 8 30 min or 4 miles Easy	Oct 9 Rest	23 miles
Oct 10 Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Oct 11 Rest	Oct 12 X-C Race 6200 m (4 miles)	Oct 13 Farlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 14 LSD 1 hr or 8 miles	Oct 15 30 min or 4 miles Easy (strides)	Oct 16 Rest	26 miles
Oct 17 Fartlek X-C (4 miles)	Oct 18 Rest	Oct 19 X-C Race 6600 m (4 miles)	Oct 20 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 21 LSD 1 hr or 8 miles	Oct 22 30 min or 4 miles Easy (strides)	Oct 23 X-C Race 10 km Moderate Pace	32 miles
Oct 24 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 25 Rest	Oct 26 X-C Race 7400 m (4.5 miles)	Oct 27 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Oct 28 LSD 1 hr or 8 miles	Oct 29 30 min or 4 miles Easy (4-5 strides)	Oct 30 45 min Moderate (6.5 miles)	35 miles
Oct 31 Fartlek X-C (6 miles)	Nov 1 Rest	Nov 2 45 min Moderate (6.5 miles)	Nov 3 Fartlek X-C Speed (6 miles)	Nov 4 LSD 1 hr or 8 miles	Nov 5 30 min or 4 miles Easy (4-5 strides)	Nov 6 45 min Moderate (6.5 miles)	37 miles
Nov 7 Rest	Nov 8 X-C Race 7000 m (4.5 miles)	Nov 9 45 min Moderate (6.5 miles)	Nov 10 Speed X-C (7 miles)	Nov 11 30 min or 4 miles Easy	Nov 12 LSD 1 hr or 8 miles	Nov 13 45 min Moderate (7 miles)	37 miles
Nov 14 Speed Field (6 miles)	Nov 15 30 min or 4 miles Easy	Nov 16 45 min Easy/Moderate (6 miles)	Nov 17 Speed Field (4.5 miles)	Nov 18 Rest	Nov 19 X-C Race 7200 m (4.5 miles)	Nov 20 Recover Easy run (6 miles)	31 miles

As my goal is to try to reproduce, not kill myself, so I will post updates on my progress over the next 10 weeks.

The training starts tomorrow so wish me luck.

See you on the roads.

A Page from the Past

I picked up a one page training schedule my high school cross country coach gave me when I was 15. It was the first time I was given a formal training schedule. Up until that point I had formal training, but did not keep a log. This was a complete plan with target races and a goal race at the end, the B.C. High School Provincials. It also carried the following message at the end of the page:

Consistency, Dedication & Hard Work Will Pay Off!

The schedule started on the 16th of October and carried through to the 16th of November. Looking at the schedule, I noticed that I struck out all entries up to and including the 5th of November. On that day I ran a regional qualifier for the Provincial meet and finished the 7,000 m race in 12th, more than enough to qualify for the Provincials. My memory escapes me over the next 12 days, of what training I completed and what I did not, but that year I finished 58th in the Provincial race (7,200 m).

This year as I search for inspiration many years later, several kilos heavier and several injuries later, I will dust off this training schedule and revisit my past. I enter this with the full expectation of not trying to duplicate the result of many years ago, but to relive some of the moments of that truly breakthrough season.

Background

If memory serves me correctly, the schedule was given to me part way through the season because I was somewhat underperforming to my coaches expectations and this was his attempt to get me focused on a goal. Since I did not document the first part of the cross-country season I have to look back at the calendar for that year. School started on the 3rd of September. Cross-country sign up would have been most likely on the 5th or 6th with the first practice likely on the following Monday. So my first run is today. I will have to improvise over the next 6 weeks, mainly to get myself up to speed as I am not too worried about the distances in the program (although I have a race bib of a 20k I ran on the 18th of September that year).

 
On the schedule there are 3 categories of running paces: L.S.D (long slow distance) – easy conversational pace, Moderate – 6:40 to 6:55 min miles, and Easy 7:00 – 7:30 min miles. These will be my same guidelines this time through.

 
As I will not have the benefit of the races on my schedule, I will run the 5 races on the schedule as tempo runs over the actual distances (outlined in the schedule). Other races, that I have race bibs for include the afore mentioned 20k on September 18th, a 10k on the 29th of September (most likely road – based on the time) and a 9 km cross country. I will also add 4 additional tempo runs to make up for the weekly school races that I would have run during September and early October of that year.

Finally, since this was a cross country training schedule, I will utilize trails near my home to mimic the training and racing on the trails. I will have to fill in some of the gaps on the trail training as the details of those workouts was not captured on paper, but are still in my head.

Well that is all for now, I off to work on the schedule. Stay tuned.

See you on the trails.

Welcome back

Almost 2 years since I first posted and over 1 year since I last posted, I am back online. I have had a busy year, new title at work, new baby (first) and now a renewed interest in getting back to running.  I have been running, don’t get me wrong, but too far and too few between.  I have also been in a few races since last posting, but nothing to write home about.  The one highlight was a Father’s Day run pushing my son in his BOB stroller, a first for both of us.

See you on the roads.

Dan.

Glass half full

When you sign up to be a runner you are getting a lot of positives you may not have been aware of when you started – a healthy lifestyle, self esteem, a competitive edge, an expanded social network of other like minded individuals. With all of the positives, there come some negatives.

One negative that has continued to plague me over the last 8 months is injury. I seem to be ruled by my right groin and hamstring over the majority of the last year and it is frustrating to say the least. I recently ran and completed a 30 km race a full 20 minutes behind my time last year. Although my hamstring only gave me minor twinges throughout the race, the lack of preparation leading up to the race started to show in the last 10 km or so and I was just happy to see the finish line. I have been selectively testing my groin hamstring with some tempo and distance over the last two weeks since the race just to see if it will feel better or feel worse. Unfortunately the result is the same regardless of tempo or distance, noticeable but not painful. Glass half empty.

Although I could have let this injury get me down, I am looking at this as more of a glass half full. Sure I am training less than last year at this time, but I have noticed that the training that I have been doing of late has purpose and is not just filler kilometres. I do notice my injury it has not stopped me from running and training. Last summer, I limped across the finish line in a 30 km and then a month later a marathon. This spring I was able to start out easy and pick up mid-race before lack of conditioning kicked in. Mentally I am right where I want to be and physically I am close considering the circumstances. I will employ a test and evaluate strategy for the rest of the spring, happy that although I still feel discomfort in my leg it is better than last summer and fall when it forced me to the sidelines for the remainder of the year.

I will take it one step at a time, waiting anxiously for the day when I will be discomfort free. Until then it is a steady measured road to recovery slowing down enough to enjoy the roses along the way.

See you on the road.