P90X and Marathon Training

In one word....DRAINING


I've found myself working out until 1:30am once. This past Tuesday, I did phase 2 chest, shoulders and tri's (by far the toughest workout) and immediately followed that with 5.5 miles with a Tabata set.

Luckily, I have only just over a week remaining. I'm in day 24 of P90X now. Supposed to have a rest week, but decided to push that back to next week to accommodate my taper schedule. I figure I can suffer for one more week. Work is also starting to calm down, thank God. I think I'm starting to see some light.

Tonight, it's back, biceps and abs, which I'll probably start at about 11pm. Why so late? Because first league basketball game started tonight. We lost. I stunk it up. Got home at about 8. Took a nap. Had dinner. Rest. Workout.

I guess that about sums up what I've been up to the last few weeks. Work. Workout. Recover whenever I can squeeze in the time.

August miles

I think I'm doing just enough to be complete a marathon without injury. I ran just over three miles in the second week, which is ridiculous for not being sick. Like I said in previous posts, I just haven't been into it. But now that September's here and with nine weeks to go, I have to start picking it up a little bit. I told my wife that I think it's time to start getting serious about training the remaining weeks and she seemed rather pleased about it. That came as a surprise to me because putting running at a higher priority means less time home. Anyways, we'll see how it goes.

Here's the link to my Google spreadsheet for my training thus far.

10 week check

I've already mentioned this in my previous posts, but I am REALLY enjoying skipping the hard marathon training. Just looked at my training plan a minute ago and saw that I was supposed to do 20 today. Didn't come close - did 14 instead, but it felt like 20 because of the warmth and humidity. The only reason I'm doing these long runs now is so that I can at least jog the marathon comfortably. I don't want to have to do a death march starting at mile 13.

Speaking of enjoying the NYC marathon, I think I'm going to borrow my wife's Pre and post photos as I go. I had so much fun taking pictures at the NYC half that I want to do the same for this event. I'll probably need to buy her an extra battery so the charge lasts. As far as time is concerned, I'm probably looking at a 3:45 - 4:00 run including the photos along the way.

Heavy Leg Workouts

Is it the summer? Lack of motivation? For whatever the reason, most of my recent workouts and runs have felt heavy legged. I haven't had the motivation to kick it into my highest gear in the last 30 meters of intervals or just to raise my heartrate too high. Just going through the motions of workouts. Be that as it may, I'm still getting my mileage. Here are my last two workouts:

Tuesday Central Park hill fartleks

Wednesday easy miles

Current training calendar

A Most Memorable Long Run

Had a truly memorable long run in the park this evening. Except for the relative warmth and humidity, it started off rather unassumingly. Part of me wished I had run in the morning because it was cooler and I could've spectated the NY triathlon. But things turned out for the better.

I endured the first 6 miles of ~95% humidity and 83F. In a matter of minutes, the skies opened up. And I mean O P E N E D. Crackling thunder, lightning, and torrential flow from the heavens. At one point, the rain was so thick I couldn't see past 100 yards. Heading up Harlem Hill had the surreal feeling of running upstream on moving ground. At one point, I thought there was a low-flying chopper directly overhead only to realize it was crackling thunder. It felt so close a lady running ahead of me jump startled. It was perfect running weather. I thought the only thing missing was my wife to enjoy the downpour with me. :-)

The rain finally subsided after 4-5 miles. What started off as a soupy, muggy run turned out to be one of the favorite runs I've ever had here in NY.

Now if I could only get my ipod working again.



Current training spreadsheet

Central Park 5 Mi Loop w/ Tabata Set

It was a pleasant, cool workout in the rain tonight and I enjoyed a pensive run. Running is my favorite form of meditation. I escape a little deeper when the rain chases most runners, bikers and tourists away from the park. Those escapes aren't meant to be documented.

As far as the workout is concerned, instead of trying to time a strict 20 seconds, I've noted it takes me just a little 20s to sprint from pole to every other pole along the east side straightaway in the park. I used those as guides, took 10s breaks, and repeated 8 times. Winded, yes, but not as I have been in the past. Admittedly, I did not do this workout at 100%. Probably more along 85%. But it's okay with me for now. Seems I'm going back to 2007 training mode where I'm just doing comfortable mileage. But it's okay for now because I have not yet defined my performance goals for the marathon.

Here's my spreadsheet so far this week. Planning on going for an easy 6-7 tomorrow morning and then 13 on Sunday.

Strength Training & Stretching

My body is still recovering from last night's workout so instead of going for an easy run, I decided to do some strength training and stretching. Since I'm still in July, I decided to continue with my pull-ups and push-ups challenge. Also added crunches to the routine, and finished off with about 25 minutes of leg stretching for some sort of speed session in CP tomorrow.

The past few weeks, I thought my push-up numbers were hindered because they were done after the pull-ups. Not so. My max per one set are as follows:

Push-ups: 65
Pull-ups: 24

I guess my back has gotten stronger this past month, but not much progress with the pecs.

It's going to be interesting to see my training calendar after this training session is done. It'll provide a nice, quick view of my activities instead of browsing page to page.

My 09 NYC Marathon Training Calendar

Finally put together my training calendar for this year. Haven't followed one since I first started training around the turn of the millennium. Even then, it wasn't my own. I do remember though, the gist of the training. Check it out on Google docs:


I'm not exactly a stickler for structured training. I would much rather have a guide for every week, and that's how I've put together my calendar. The green days are speed workout days. Yellow days are discretionary, which means I can do whatever my body feels like doing that day. One orange days are for recovery, and one weekend day for a long run.

As I go through each week, I'll be filling out my activities. I already keep track on beginnertriathlete.com, but I like seeing the color-coding to remind me what I have to do. I'm going to try to replicate my training earlier this year for the NJ marathon where I BQ'ed. I did shorter training mileage, but kept the long runs (an absolute must!). The faster time, I believe, was a result of doing more speed training throughout the week. Last year, I was doing it only once per week.

2009 NYC Marathon Countdown

Finally started today. Sixteen weeks and counting.

Had the company of a good friend this morning for my first long training run (11+ miles), and while I appreciated the company, I felt like I labored more than I should have. We were going a little fast for the first 5 miles at about a 7:10 clip, but that's something I should be able to handle at this point. I'm still thinking of my goals for this race. Speed? Comfort? Not sure yet, but I'm going to try and define them this first week.

Easy Run Today

Besides the Wednesday track workout, all my runs this week have been short and easy. That included today's bridge run over Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge. I'm hoping it'll be a short summer. I wasn't too fond of the heat and humidity. Interestingly, I used to love working out in this heat. Not anymore. Maybe age has something to do with it.

Go out for my first weekend "long" run tomorrow. I say long because it'll only be the second time I'm looking to run past 10 miles in a couple of months. I'll build up over the next few weeks and hope to have 4-6 twenty milers done before the marathon. I'm going to try to post up a schedule in the coming days.

Active recovery run

Ran an easy 5.25 miles today, mostly to get to the 80% mark of my mileage from the previous week and for the active recovery. Also did 600 crunches and about 90 leg raises hanging from my pull-up bar. It was a great way to get me out of the apartment and enjoy the slightly breezy but still gorgeous autumn day. Just under 14 days to go now. I'm kind of relaxed right now so I don't feel any excitement or worry about it, but I still have a few "housekeeping" things on my list. Off the top of my head, they are:

• order Asics Speedstar 3 running shoes - light trainers but good enough for racing. Flats might have been injurious.
• buy EZ laces from the running shop at 88th and Lexington so I never have to worry about laces becoming undone
• buy caramel flavored Power Gel
  

Hm, not as many things to do as I had thought. On the fitness side, besides my scheduled run, I still have to remember to stretch daily, massage my feet, work up to 1000 crunches on days I'm not running. I'll do about twenty miles next week, most of which will be covered Tuesday evening, and I think I'm just about set!

It's As Good A Time As Any To Get Sick

Yep, I think I'm coming down with a cold. It's not full-blown yet, so I'm trying to fend it off today with lots and lots of green tea, vitamin C, Airborne and going to bed early to get lots of sleep. I am also avoiding desserts and most forms of processed sugar.

The bad news about coming down with anything this week is that I want to log 70 miles this week. The good news is that this is happening four weeks before the marathon. I'm thankful it's not happening four days prior.

If I feel like I'm better tomorrow and well rested, I'm definitely going to log some miles tomorrow. I felt good enough to go today, but Sara talked some sense into me. It's smarter to rest up early and try to nip it in the bud.

Easy run - 6.11 miles

Monday runs are almost always recovery runs from a Sunday long run, and today was no different. I stayed with Sara for about the first mile, then went on my usual easy pace, which I would guesstimate to be about 7:45/min. Here's my lap info:

Lap

Time

Distance

Avg Pace

Avg Heart Rate

Avg Cadence

Calories

1	00:09:08	1.00 mi	09:08	107 bpm	--	104 C
2	00:07:53	1.00 mi	07:53	144 bpm	--	107 C
3	00:08:09	1.00 mi	08:09	151 bpm	--	106 C
4	00:07:40	1.00 mi	07:40	151 bpm	--	106 C
5	00:07:37	1.00 mi	07:37	148 bpm	--	106 C
6	00:09:41	1.00 mi	09:41	129 bpm	--	109 C
7	00:02:11	0.11 mi	20:35	94 bpm	--	15 C

I'm still having an issue with my knee. I took it easy tonight also for this reason. I'm going to continue to hope that it will get better as the marathon approaches.

Today's training: weights

I've read that it's usually not a good idea to do more running after a marathon pacing exercise. I'd usually discard that and go for an easy recovery run, but I had an appointment with a colleague to go to Chelsea Piers Health Club today so it was a good excuse to not go running. It's also an easy, lower mileage recovery week for me, so I guess it was a good idea to skip a run.

Six hours later, I'm glad I agreed to go to the gym, but my body disagrees. I had an excellent back and core workout and also put in time for a good stretch. Usually around this time of the year, I neglect all strength training and get back into it after the marathon. But it was nice to get some weight training in today. In relation to marathon training, I feel like weight training builds a stronger structure for the engine. I'm confident about my engine at this point, I just want to make sure the rest of me doesn't fall apart during the race.

Marathon Pace Training

31 days and 12 hrs to the NYC marathon! That means I have to start getting very familiar with my marathon pace, so that's what I decided to do this evening. I set my trusty Garmin 405 virtual partner to run 7:25/mile and to make every mile an automatic lap. Going into the workout, I needed to my legs and effort level to understand a ~7:25 effort. I also needed to gauge my exertion levels, and how that corresponded to my heart rate. Here are my results:

Lap

Time

Distance

Avg Pace

Avg HR

Calories

1	00:08:50	1.00 mi	08:50	114 bpm		100 C
2	00:07:27	1.00 mi	07:27	153 bpm		107 C
3	00:07:29	1.00 mi	07:29	156 bpm		105 C
4	00:07:07	1.00 mi	07:07	157 bpm		106 C
5	00:07:32	1.00 mi	07:32	162 bpm		106 C
6	00:07:15	1.00 mi	07:15	158 bpm		106 C
7	00:07:16	1.00 mi	07:16	158 bpm		106 C
8	00:08:43	1.00 mi	08:43	131 bpm		108 C
9	00:00:12	0.02 mi	12:36	131 bpm		1 C

Laps 1,8 and 9 were warmups and cooldowns. I wasn't exactly sure what a consistent 7:25 feels like, and the hills at Central Park did not make it easier to feel the pace. Consequently, I just tried to keep the same effort level after my first mile at 7:27. The good news is that I felt my effort was fairly even throughout, and it didn't feel so difficult. The bad news is that my pace fluctuated according to the the park elevations. I think come marathon time, I'll have to use the downhills to bank some precious seconds.

The other thing about my run tonight is that my lower calf muscles felt like there were on fire. My legs aren't fully recovered yet from the urbanathlon and the 20+ miles the following day. This goes to emphasize how important it is to approach the start feeling physically fresh. I can't wait.

What's my motivation?

I'm feeling challenged to go for a run today. Yep, it's one of those days where I'm feeling lazy and practically have to drag myself outdoors. I've been fortunate enough to have felt energized the last several weeks, but life is not constant. So why do I feel like this today? Here are my initial thoughts:

1. ~86m the last 10 days, not including an easy 4.5 today
2. 23m tomorrow looming like a storm cloud
3. not enough sleep
4. improper nutrition (too much sugar)

I felt a little bad for my wife last night because she had to put up with my grumpiness, which inevitably makes her grumpy, making for a crappy evening for the both of us.

So here's what I'm going to do to fix this mini funk: I'm going to run. I have never once regretted going out for a run, and I'm sure that won't change today.

So what is my motivation...to qualify for Boston!

One of my pet peeves about running in NYC...♦

is smoking. I was having a cool-down jog to my apartment, and about a 150 ft. from my apt. door were a couple of guys smoking some weed. When I got past that, some neighbors who were smoking about 25 ft away. I can't do anything about it except to hold my breath, but it just annoys me sometimes when I'm breathing hard and I get a huge intake of second hand smoke of something. That's what I get for training in the heart of the city.

Gripes aside, I decided to do a pace workout around the five mile loop of Central Park. I'm hoping to do a 7:28 pace to come in at about 3:15 to qualify for Boston, and I have to start feeling that pace. In the end, I was overeager and did a 7:06. Here's a link to my workout from my Garmin 405, which is the best recreational GPS device IMHO. But that's another post.