Week 5 Complete

Other then missing my optional Friday weightlifting because I was at work early and then in the city for the night, everything else went fine. I hit all my runs and got the planned distance for the week with no hassle. The only blip was that my planned run in Chicago was about a mile and a half shorter then I planned because of two things, the first was the my route out and around was Navy Pier was blocked because of construction and then on the other side of Solider field was the course for the F^3 Half Marathon, which I avoided. I added the missing distance to my slow recovery run this morning, with not issues.

Week 5-- Runs of 6, 3, 7.5 and 4.5 
Total distance 21 miles.

After struggling last week it felt good to be able to handle the mileage this week, as well as running parts of the Chicago marathon course.

Week 5-- Midweek Report

 So two good runs so far this week, did a nice tempo run after work yesterday, and while for some reason, the treadmill said 6 miles the Garmin said 5.85 miles, it was a good workout, had no issues, and ran the 3:1 Galloway the whole way.

This morning I was up extremely early even for me and ran a slow 3 miles at 3:1 with just some mild tightness in the upper thighs for the first mile while I warmed up, I ran the second mile harder and then ran the last one slightly slower.

Going to be in Chicago overnight on Friday, so I am going to run along the lake shore which I am looking forward to as well as the last 2 miles and the first mile of the Chicago marathon, so that's something to look forward to.

Week 4 Review-- Struggles

Looking back on the week virtually every run was a struggle, each had different struggles, but the interesting thing is when I think about the run, and my perspective after each run a few hours later was that they were good, I had limited soreness, and very little to zero discomfort.

But as I think about it now, I realize I had to push myself motivationally each time to finish. Not sure what all this is about, but its an interesting take on the process.

Completed weeks
Week 1- 18 miles (8 mile long run)
Week 2- 19 miles (9 mile long run) (3 miles less then it should have been)
Week 3- 16 miles (6 mile long run) (2 miles less then it should have been)
Week 4- 22.5 miles (11 mile long run) (1.5 miles less then it should have been)

Future weeks

Week 5- 21 miles with a 9 mile long run (slight change in distance because I will be in Chicago on the weekend)
Week 6- 24 miles, with Saturday speed work and a 9 mile long run. This may be rearranged a bit since I am traveling to DC on Sunday for the week and my schedule might be messy.
Week 7- 27 miles, 2 runs will be in DC, hopefully outdoors! Long run is 13 miles.
Week 8- 28 miles with potentially a half marathon that day, if I can find one.

Week 9- 31 miles with a 15 mile long run (mixed in with the Frosty Footrace 5K)

Week 4 Saturday Run

Ran outdoors today for the first time in this training program, its was 38 out and windy (17mph), but I went for it anyway. Thinking that whatever I did not get in today I would do on Sunday. As it turns out I had to run about half the course in the streets, so I did one lap of 3 miles (scheduled for 11) and packed it in. Since I was scheduled for 3 tomorrow, I will do the long run on the treadmill.

It was nice to run outdoors, it was hard to get the cadence up with all the ice on the paved trail, and then I was just plain careful on the roads. But overall it was good fun. I even brought my selfie stick to capture the fun!

Good Solid Run Today!

Did 5 miles in under 60 minutes (59:31) which is slightly under my goal pace, I also worked on my cadence. The optimal cadence (foot strikes) is 180 per minute, I have been hovering in the mid 160's for a long time. This week I have focused on faster turnover and running more upright. The optimal turnover allows you to be more efficient as a runner, with your foot strike more under you,(so I have read). Anyway, felt very comfortable throughout!

Week 4 Underway!

Week 4 is well underway, I rocked Monday, which of course was a rest day! I rested to the tune of 3,064 total steps for the day, followed by extensive stretching out on the couch watching football. This morning I did my usual upper body workout at the gym, with no difficulties, worked on the contracting phase of the movement, being slow and under control. I could feel the move in the muscle quite well, which was the goal.

Tomorrow and Thursday I have some running to do, 3 miles at speed and 6 miles of tempo running. Looking further ahead there is a likelihood that the weather may be barely decent enough to run outdoors on one of the weekend days, which would be nice!

Week 3 Complete

Well I struggled through my third poor"ish" Sunday run in a row, today. Looking at the schedule, my other three running days seem to be okay, effort and pace wise. When I thought the program out I did not want to run long during the week because of time constraints with work. So the Wednesday and Thursday runs are generally quicker pace and tempo runs, with the weekend runs being speed work and long runs. I also wanted to have two days off for recovery after my long runs, which I think I still need.

So where does that leave me? I think for now I will leave it as is, but I might move the long run to Saturday and the Saturday run to Sunday if I find the same pattern repeating itself. Since from my current perspective I need to be able to handle the distance, for my first marathon more then anything else.

Week 3 Saturday

Using a 5:2 ratio from the Galloway system certainly got my heart rate up during this mornings 5 miler. Once I was well into it my heart rate would climb into the low 130's by the end of the 5 minute run cycle before dropping into the low 100's with the 2 minute walk phase. I have been doing a 3:1 ratio mostly on my runs so this was a bit of a shock to my system. The 3:1 ratio is 75% running and the 5:2 ratio is 72% running so they are comparable, but certainly felt different. I covered the same distance in roughly the same time.pace

Week 3

So this week has been sort of dysfunctional, with the extreme cold, I was able to get my rest day down perfectly, but I did some yoga and body weight exercises in lieu of going to gym to weight lift on Tuesday. Since I struggled to get up and had an early meeting, which closed the window time frame for the workout quite suddenly.

I did get my Wednesday run in yesterday with no trouble, good pace and good feeling throughout.

Thursday morning (today) is another story, its -8 with -30 windchill's outside, and I decided that going to gym was just not a good idea. So I did some body weight exercises in the house, 5 x 10 body weight squats, 5 x 10 one legged squats and 5 x 20 pushups. I will do the run scheduled for today, tomorrow, when hopefully we are no longer living at the north pole!

That will be three runs in a row however (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) so I am not sure how I will handle that, the last time I moved a run, I had one of my worst runs in awhile, the Saturday run is an easy run of 3 miles, so I need to make sure I make it very easy!

UPDATE: Thursday evening I went to gym with my daughter and got my running in, it was not bad once I got to the gym, so Thursday had exercise and the programmed run, my first two a day! So then Friday is back to the no run day with weightlifting.

I love the Ginger Runner

Being a ginger myself until I was 10, I can identify with this guy, he makes some great short films! Well worth watching the videos.

Week Two Reporting!

Week 2 is over, and it was a reasonably good week, had the one clunker of a workout on Wednesday but otherwise good. I did struggle with technology on my Sunday long run, accidentally deleting and then not starting my Garmin, so really only got data on half of my long run.

So here are the weekly mileage totals to date.

Completed weeks
Week 1- 18 miles (8 mile long run)
Week 2- 19 miles (9 mile long run)

Future weeks
Week 3- will be a bit of a cut back in miles on the long run (6 miles), so I can rest just a little so only 18 miles total
Week 4- 23 miles with an 11 mile long run
Week 5- 24 miles with a 12 mile long run
Week 6- 24 miles, with Saturday speed work and a 9 mile long run. This may be rearranged a bit since I am traveling to DC on Sunday for the week and my schedule might be messy.
Week 7- 27 miles, 2 runs will be in DC, hopefully outdoors! Long run is 13 miles.
Week 8- 28 miles with potentially a half marathon that day, if I can find one.

I am slowly building up the miles, the program I based this on has a few rules that I am trying to apply.

• Total Mileage goes up 10% at most per week. (Week 3 to 4 violates this I know.)
• Long run is generally about 40-50% of your total weekly mileage

Week 2 Day 13-- Easy Run

Running on a treadmill is boring, for three miles, even with a TV. I was bored silly. So tomorrow I get to the same thing for 9 miles. Need to bring books on tape, and anything else I can think of.

Today's run was an easy 3 miles, I ran at 12, 13, and 13 minute mile pace with limited issues, 35 minutes later I barely feel like I ran at all. Which is a good thing I suppose. My heart rate averaged about 95 for the entire run, getting as high as 115 at one point. The second half of my workout is later with my daughter, upper body weight lifting, I like to keep her company at the gym when I can.

Week 2-- Day 4, good run for the New Year!

Despite having some champagne to celebrate 2015's arrival last night I had a solid run today. I ran at about 12:30 this afternoon. My goal was to do 5 miles at 11:45 mile pace, and I was successfully able to average a 11:43 pace. I used a 3:1 ratio and ran at 5.7mph and walked for 3.7mph.

I paid pretty close attention to my heart rate, and it got into the 120's near the end, which is fine, I feel "pushed" when I get into and over 135 or so, so no where near that. I was pleased by the 1 minute recovery walks, where the heart rate dropped pretty quickly into the low 100's and in some cases below 100. I think this is the hidden beauty of the Galloway method, it controls your heart rate, and while there is going to be creep as you go further, proper hydration and food intake can control that over very long runs.

My 8 miler on Monday had a similar heart rate profile, drifting up to 130 by mile 8, and recovering down into the 100's. Hopefully training and increased aerobic fitness as I train will lower the training rate and allow me to cruise along like this on race day.