In many ways, training for ultras can get boring. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy the training, at least most of the time. There are the key workouts, and most of them are long runs that happen on weekends for us working stiffs. The rest of the workouts can be pretty mundane - simply accumulating time on the feet (miles) and hopefully, fitness. It's important to do this, but it's about as interesting as spectating at an ultra. Most of the time, nothing of note is really happening. Or at least, it appears that way.
Last night, I ran 4 miles with my dogs. They were in a playful mood, and the pace was all over the place. At times, we were running at a 7:30 pace and at other times, we were doing a 12:00 pace, and stopping to eat grass or roll in mud (the dogs - not me). Overall, it was just under 38 minutes for 4 miles.
This morning, I had to run earlier than usual before an 8:00 meeting. I felt a bit tired, but still ran a hilly 6 miler at 9:45 pace. A month ago, my pace would probably have been closer to 10:30 for this route. Tonight, I'll run another 6, with 2 tempo miles.
Tomorrow, I start my new part-time job, and I need to finish my workout and be showered by 6:45, so I can make the drive to the new office. So, I'll lift very early tomorrow and then do a nice 10 miler along the shore of Lake Champlain after work.
Same old, same old. Run some, lift some, try to eat well, accumulate miles. Do it over a long period of time and with some focus though, and something almost magical can happen with your fitness.
My focus on my diet continues to be very solid. I'm allowing myself one meal per week where I can eat or drink what I want, but every other meal is closely controlled. I forgot to weigh myself this morning, but I believe I'm down to about 185 or so right now.
59 days until showtime...
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Treadmill repeats
It was pouring when I got off work last night, and to be completely honest, I just didn't feel like running in pouring rain for my planned 5 miler. So, I went to the gym instead and did short, high speed (for me) repeats. Basically, I would run for 30 seconds at a 6:00mpm pace, and then reset the treadmill to 12:00 pace. It took 20 seconds for the treadmill to slow down to that speed. Then, I'd stay at the slow speed for 30 seconds, and then set it for the higher speed. It also took 20 seconds for the thing to speed up that much.
I did 10 quick repeats at 6:00 pace and a total of 3 miles. It was a short, fun workout that was probably more valuable than an easy 5 miler anyway.
This morning, I lifted at the gym. I'm in my 4th week of a 6-week program (Fat Loss 3 from the New Rules of Lifting book), and for the first time since I started this program, I added some weight to some of the lifts. Including warm-ups, I did a total of 100 deadlifts this morning, so I'm sure I'll feel that a bit tomorrow.
I'll finish this program the week before I pace at Massanutten and then move on to a completely different program after that. The next program is designed for building strength rather than for fat loss. So far, I've done mostly fat loss workouts from NROL, but I did one round of hypertrophy workouts as well. This next one will be my first foray into one of the strength programs.
Tonight, I'll do an easy 4-5 miler after work.
I did 10 quick repeats at 6:00 pace and a total of 3 miles. It was a short, fun workout that was probably more valuable than an easy 5 miler anyway.
This morning, I lifted at the gym. I'm in my 4th week of a 6-week program (Fat Loss 3 from the New Rules of Lifting book), and for the first time since I started this program, I added some weight to some of the lifts. Including warm-ups, I did a total of 100 deadlifts this morning, so I'm sure I'll feel that a bit tomorrow.
I'll finish this program the week before I pace at Massanutten and then move on to a completely different program after that. The next program is designed for building strength rather than for fat loss. So far, I've done mostly fat loss workouts from NROL, but I did one round of hypertrophy workouts as well. This next one will be my first foray into one of the strength programs.
Tonight, I'll do an easy 4-5 miler after work.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Oh yeah...
I thought I'd mention something that is pretty amazing to me.
In the Good Calories, Bad Calories book, Taubes talks about how high blood pressure can be blamed on excessive carbohydrate consumption. In the past month or so, I've been eating fewer and fewer carbohydrates, with the exception of one meal on Saturday evening, when I eat whatever I feel like eating. I've been especially diligent with sugar, flour, and potatoes.
My blood pressure has been higher than optimal for years, although not high enough that my doctor has ever suggested treating it. He did ask me to buy a home BP monitor and keep track of my BP over time.
Typically, I see numbers in the 125/85 range, occasionally 130/90 at the high end, and 120/80 on the low end. But, my past few readings have averaged 112/63, a huge improvement from a month ago.
Maybe this year, when I get my BP checked at Western States check-in, I won't have to convince them that my BP is normally much lower than they are getting. My doctor frequently gets numbers in the 145/95 range when I see him, but I never see those numbers at home. But, I get numbers like that at races too. Hopefully, the lower BP readings are not a coincidence and I'll have a normal reading at WS this year.
In the Good Calories, Bad Calories book, Taubes talks about how high blood pressure can be blamed on excessive carbohydrate consumption. In the past month or so, I've been eating fewer and fewer carbohydrates, with the exception of one meal on Saturday evening, when I eat whatever I feel like eating. I've been especially diligent with sugar, flour, and potatoes.
My blood pressure has been higher than optimal for years, although not high enough that my doctor has ever suggested treating it. He did ask me to buy a home BP monitor and keep track of my BP over time.
Typically, I see numbers in the 125/85 range, occasionally 130/90 at the high end, and 120/80 on the low end. But, my past few readings have averaged 112/63, a huge improvement from a month ago.
Maybe this year, when I get my BP checked at Western States check-in, I won't have to convince them that my BP is normally much lower than they are getting. My doctor frequently gets numbers in the 145/95 range when I see him, but I never see those numbers at home. But, I get numbers like that at races too. Hopefully, the lower BP readings are not a coincidence and I'll have a normal reading at WS this year.
Last week
I ended up doing 40 miles last week, with a long day of 12.5 miles. I did tempo work twice, including 3 tempo miles on Saturday. It was windy on Saturday and I did 10 total miles, with tempo in miles 6, 7 and 8. My time was slow, but the wind and hills certainly affected my time.
I also skied for a couple hours yesterday and I lifted twice last week. All in all, I felt pretty good for a planned recovery week.
Today starts the next 4-week cycle of tough weeks. I'm planning to be over 60 miles for at least the next 3 weeks, and I'll probably hit 70 at least one of those three weeks.
My weight seems to finally be moving down again, and I've been using a different belt notch the past few days. My wife has commented that I seem to be looking a bit leaner (less fat?) in the past couple weeks.
This week's running will include two hard days: tempo on Wednesday as part of a 12-mile day, and then hill repeats on a gravel road this weekend. The road is 4.5 miles long and only has one hill, but that hill climbs 2600 vertical feet. I was thinking of doing 2 or 2.5 repeats, but I think I'm going to do 3 instead.
In 2005, I did 2 repeats on this road in 4:21. Hopefully, I can do 3 repeats in under 6 hours this year. Basically, I power-hike most of the uphill and then cruise-control back down. Although the footing isn't technical, the repeat ups and downs simulate the canyons portion of the WS course somewhat. Of course, because this is Vermont, the heat will also be lacking. There is snow in the forecast for Wednesday right now.
I also skied for a couple hours yesterday and I lifted twice last week. All in all, I felt pretty good for a planned recovery week.
Today starts the next 4-week cycle of tough weeks. I'm planning to be over 60 miles for at least the next 3 weeks, and I'll probably hit 70 at least one of those three weeks.
My weight seems to finally be moving down again, and I've been using a different belt notch the past few days. My wife has commented that I seem to be looking a bit leaner (less fat?) in the past couple weeks.
This week's running will include two hard days: tempo on Wednesday as part of a 12-mile day, and then hill repeats on a gravel road this weekend. The road is 4.5 miles long and only has one hill, but that hill climbs 2600 vertical feet. I was thinking of doing 2 or 2.5 repeats, but I think I'm going to do 3 instead.
In 2005, I did 2 repeats on this road in 4:21. Hopefully, I can do 3 repeats in under 6 hours this year. Basically, I power-hike most of the uphill and then cruise-control back down. Although the footing isn't technical, the repeat ups and downs simulate the canyons portion of the WS course somewhat. Of course, because this is Vermont, the heat will also be lacking. There is snow in the forecast for Wednesday right now.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Sleep
I still feel pretty good after the race last weekend. I've run every day this week, and my 7-day mileage total is at 66 miles, the highest so far this year.
The one clue I've had that I might be a bit tired has been in the evenings, especially last night. I fell asleep sometime before 8:00 last night. My wife came home from a meeting and woke me up, and I looked at my clock. It said 8:12 and I almost panicked. I thought I was late for work this morning and that I'd missed my run. When I found out that it was still Thursday night, I just went back to sleep and I got 10 good hours of sleep last night.
My weight seems stuck at 187 right now, and I've been gradually making minor changes to my diet to reduce some calories. Hopefully, I'll see some downward progress soon. One of the changes I've been making has been to my post workout recovery drinks. Instead of drinking them full strength, I've been using half of the mix that has carbohydrates and mixing it with a protein powder, to reduce the overall number of carbohydrates. I'm trying to reduce my total carbohydrate consumption to the point where I can feel it start to affect my workouts. After I find out where that point is, I hope to eat just enough carbohydrates daily so I can train well, but no more than that.
My last 4 weekend long runs have averaged over 25 miles. After this weekend, my long run will average over 30 miles for the four following weekends. So, this weekend will be lower mileage. I'm planning on 10 tomorrow morning, doing 5 easy, 3 tempo, and then a 2-mile cooldown. My son has a 90 minute track practice tomorrow morning, so I'll drop him off at practice and run from there.
Sunday will probably be my last skiing day of the season, unless I make it to Tuckerman's Ravine for some skiing next month. I would like to do that, and because you have to earn your turns, it's a workout as well. But, my scheduled long days and the closeness of WS will probably keep my focus on running rather than skiing.
My son's track team had a "scrimmage" meet last night and they mostly ran relays. He ran an 800, a 400, a 200 and a 100 last night, all in relays. He said he hates the 800 because he just locked up after about 600 meters. He also improved his PR in the shot put by 2 feet last night. He's hoping to throw the discus competitively in his meet next week.
His next meet is the middle of next week and he told his coach he wants to run the 3000. She told him she's never had a runner switch from the 100 to the 3000, but his freshman year is a good time to experiment with different events. One of his teammates, another freshman, has already run 12.4 for the 100, and qualified for the state meet at the end of the season. Phil doesn't seem likely to qualify for states this year, but he seems to be enjoying the variety of events he can try.
The one clue I've had that I might be a bit tired has been in the evenings, especially last night. I fell asleep sometime before 8:00 last night. My wife came home from a meeting and woke me up, and I looked at my clock. It said 8:12 and I almost panicked. I thought I was late for work this morning and that I'd missed my run. When I found out that it was still Thursday night, I just went back to sleep and I got 10 good hours of sleep last night.
My weight seems stuck at 187 right now, and I've been gradually making minor changes to my diet to reduce some calories. Hopefully, I'll see some downward progress soon. One of the changes I've been making has been to my post workout recovery drinks. Instead of drinking them full strength, I've been using half of the mix that has carbohydrates and mixing it with a protein powder, to reduce the overall number of carbohydrates. I'm trying to reduce my total carbohydrate consumption to the point where I can feel it start to affect my workouts. After I find out where that point is, I hope to eat just enough carbohydrates daily so I can train well, but no more than that.
My last 4 weekend long runs have averaged over 25 miles. After this weekend, my long run will average over 30 miles for the four following weekends. So, this weekend will be lower mileage. I'm planning on 10 tomorrow morning, doing 5 easy, 3 tempo, and then a 2-mile cooldown. My son has a 90 minute track practice tomorrow morning, so I'll drop him off at practice and run from there.
Sunday will probably be my last skiing day of the season, unless I make it to Tuckerman's Ravine for some skiing next month. I would like to do that, and because you have to earn your turns, it's a workout as well. But, my scheduled long days and the closeness of WS will probably keep my focus on running rather than skiing.
My son's track team had a "scrimmage" meet last night and they mostly ran relays. He ran an 800, a 400, a 200 and a 100 last night, all in relays. He said he hates the 800 because he just locked up after about 600 meters. He also improved his PR in the shot put by 2 feet last night. He's hoping to throw the discus competitively in his meet next week.
His next meet is the middle of next week and he told his coach he wants to run the 3000. She told him she's never had a runner switch from the 100 to the 3000, but his freshman year is a good time to experiment with different events. One of his teammates, another freshman, has already run 12.4 for the 100, and qualified for the state meet at the end of the season. Phil doesn't seem likely to qualify for states this year, but he seems to be enjoying the variety of events he can try.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Training "PR"
I have a 10K route that I use to run to and from work quite a bit. It's rolling in both directions, but going home, there is a net uphill of over 500 vertical feet, most of that in the last 2.5 miles. Yesterday, I ran to work in a typical time of just over 61 minutes. Last night, I planned to do a little bit of tempo on the way home, if my legs felt OK.
Just after the 1.5 mile mark, and just after an uphill, I started to push the pace a little bit. I didn't pay close attention to my pace, but I'm sure I wasn't as fast as in my tempo work last week. When I got to the uphill where I intended to stop the tempo work, I realized that I had a chance to run faster on the way home than I ever had before.
Now, to be perfectly honest, most days that I run home I've already run to work on the same route. It's usually done for endurance rather than time. I often walk almost all of the hills in the last 2.5 miles. On occasion, I'll run all of the hills, but my pace is ridiculously slow.
I wasn't sure what my fastest time was in the homebound direction, but I knew I'd never gone under an hour. I checked my logs later and my fastest time was only 61:30, so clearly I'd never really pushed hard the whole way. Normally, it takes me 68 or so minutes to run home.
Yesterday, when I got to the start of the real uphills, I decided to keep working a bit. It still took me 12:14 to do mile 5, but that mile included the two toughest hills. At the end of mile 5, it looked like I could go under an hour. I pushed a bit more and ended up with a total of 57:53. My total time for the day was just over 2 hours. Considering the 50K I had run only 4 days prior, I was very happy with my running yesterday.
This morning, I lifted as scheduled, although I was a bit tired. Tonight, I'll head out with the dogs, and either walk or run, depending on how my legs feel.
Starting next week, I'll get to do one run per week on the bike path along Lake Champlain in Burlington. I have logged many miles on that path, most of them when I was working in Burlington from 2001-2006.
Some consulting work that I've been doing has now morphed into a part-time job. I'm going to continue at my current job, but drop to 4 days per week. Then, I'll be working for a small start-up company for 16 hours per week, including one day in their offices at the University of Vermont. The new part-time job will pay me as much for 16 hours per week as my current job will pay for 32 hours per week. Financially, it would have been tough to say no to that kind of offer. The part-time work is related to diabetes care and management, which is similar to part of my current job.
With the cost of our upcoming vacation to CA and the fact that our house needs a new roof this summer, the extra money will certainly be welcome.
Just after the 1.5 mile mark, and just after an uphill, I started to push the pace a little bit. I didn't pay close attention to my pace, but I'm sure I wasn't as fast as in my tempo work last week. When I got to the uphill where I intended to stop the tempo work, I realized that I had a chance to run faster on the way home than I ever had before.
Now, to be perfectly honest, most days that I run home I've already run to work on the same route. It's usually done for endurance rather than time. I often walk almost all of the hills in the last 2.5 miles. On occasion, I'll run all of the hills, but my pace is ridiculously slow.
I wasn't sure what my fastest time was in the homebound direction, but I knew I'd never gone under an hour. I checked my logs later and my fastest time was only 61:30, so clearly I'd never really pushed hard the whole way. Normally, it takes me 68 or so minutes to run home.
Yesterday, when I got to the start of the real uphills, I decided to keep working a bit. It still took me 12:14 to do mile 5, but that mile included the two toughest hills. At the end of mile 5, it looked like I could go under an hour. I pushed a bit more and ended up with a total of 57:53. My total time for the day was just over 2 hours. Considering the 50K I had run only 4 days prior, I was very happy with my running yesterday.
This morning, I lifted as scheduled, although I was a bit tired. Tonight, I'll head out with the dogs, and either walk or run, depending on how my legs feel.
Starting next week, I'll get to do one run per week on the bike path along Lake Champlain in Burlington. I have logged many miles on that path, most of them when I was working in Burlington from 2001-2006.
Some consulting work that I've been doing has now morphed into a part-time job. I'm going to continue at my current job, but drop to 4 days per week. Then, I'll be working for a small start-up company for 16 hours per week, including one day in their offices at the University of Vermont. The new part-time job will pay me as much for 16 hours per week as my current job will pay for 32 hours per week. Financially, it would have been tough to say no to that kind of offer. The part-time work is related to diabetes care and management, which is similar to part of my current job.
With the cost of our upcoming vacation to CA and the fact that our house needs a new roof this summer, the extra money will certainly be welcome.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Comes a Time
Every year, if I'm making progress on my ultramarathon fitness, there comes a time when my recovery from workouts starts to change noticeably. I will have days where I expect to be tired, yet I feel great. My average running speed will often start to increase with no apparent change in effort. And, I'll start putting together strings of days that should leave me tired, but instead, leave me feeling on top of the world.
When it happens each year, can vary a lot. I looked back at some comments in prior year training logs, to look for when I started to feel like I was really in shape each year.
Last year, it was late June until my workouts really started to click and I started to feel strong. The timing was good, because I started to finally feel fit just before I started my taper for the Vermont 100. In 2006, it was early June when I started to feel pretty good. It's kind of surprising that I hit my stride (so to speak) earlier that year, because I had a really rough winter and ran very few miles early in the year.
In 2005, the last time I was in WS, it was September until I felt really fit. I had a low mileage winter and spring, two minor surgeries in the spring, and I just felt like I was behind schedule all year. Finally, a couple weeks before Halliburton Forest, I started to feel fit. I never really had a point before Western States where I felt like I was really fit.
In 2004, I was entered in Hardrock and ran a lot of miles all through ski season. I made some comments in my log about feeling amazingly fit in late March that year, but then I had a rough April and regressed a bit. But, by early May, I was cruising again and I had some amazing workouts in the last two months before Hardrock.
I mention these past years, because I'm starting to feel like I'm getting to that point in this season right about now. In my 50K over the weekend, while I wasn't fast, my endurance was very encouraging. I wasn't sore at all the next day. I walked Sunday, ran Monday, and ran and lifted yesterday. I expected to be tired this morning. Instead, I had a nearly effortless 6+ mile run to work today.
So, if my endurance and strength are really ahead of where they've been every year since 2004, I'm very encouraged right now. After this week, I will have 4 very tough weeks of training, before one recovery week, one more tough week, and then my taper. If I can really work hard in this next 4 week cycle, I will hopefully see some good improvements in both speed and endurance in the coming weeks.
Hopefully, that will prevent me from battling cut-offs all day and night at Western States this year.
When it happens each year, can vary a lot. I looked back at some comments in prior year training logs, to look for when I started to feel like I was really in shape each year.
Last year, it was late June until my workouts really started to click and I started to feel strong. The timing was good, because I started to finally feel fit just before I started my taper for the Vermont 100. In 2006, it was early June when I started to feel pretty good. It's kind of surprising that I hit my stride (so to speak) earlier that year, because I had a really rough winter and ran very few miles early in the year.
In 2005, the last time I was in WS, it was September until I felt really fit. I had a low mileage winter and spring, two minor surgeries in the spring, and I just felt like I was behind schedule all year. Finally, a couple weeks before Halliburton Forest, I started to feel fit. I never really had a point before Western States where I felt like I was really fit.
In 2004, I was entered in Hardrock and ran a lot of miles all through ski season. I made some comments in my log about feeling amazingly fit in late March that year, but then I had a rough April and regressed a bit. But, by early May, I was cruising again and I had some amazing workouts in the last two months before Hardrock.
I mention these past years, because I'm starting to feel like I'm getting to that point in this season right about now. In my 50K over the weekend, while I wasn't fast, my endurance was very encouraging. I wasn't sore at all the next day. I walked Sunday, ran Monday, and ran and lifted yesterday. I expected to be tired this morning. Instead, I had a nearly effortless 6+ mile run to work today.
So, if my endurance and strength are really ahead of where they've been every year since 2004, I'm very encouraged right now. After this week, I will have 4 very tough weeks of training, before one recovery week, one more tough week, and then my taper. If I can really work hard in this next 4 week cycle, I will hopefully see some good improvements in both speed and endurance in the coming weeks.
Hopefully, that will prevent me from battling cut-offs all day and night at Western States this year.
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