End of May Running Days > May 25 - 31

I've started rebuilding my aerobic base by running everyday well within myself between Zone 1 (135 - 149bpm) and Zone 2's lower end (149 - 162bpm). I mostly kept my HR at the 145bpm range and with a speedy day of 149-150bpm on Saturday with the City Park Runner's group. I'll get to the purpose of running everyday in my next entry. But so far I was able to run every day last week, without injury and being recovered in time to run the next day. It's still early in the training cycle, but I'm noticing that while I've been keeping my HR around the 145bpm, I'm noticing I'm getting a little faster. Not significantly, but about 2-3 seconds faster, but I'm trying to develop keeping a consistent pace throughout. But that won't be for another couple of weeks into the base phase.

May 25, 2015 @ 7:18 PM

Just an easy run to get myself back into a new training cycle to prepare for a Fall marathon. But first, get the base back to prepare for a 50k trail run come July 4th. This run is well within my HR and still able to keep cadence nice and high. Just have to be patient as the speed will naturally come, train for consistency first.

6.45 kmDistance
6:15 min/kmAvg Pace
439 CCalories
40:18Time
1 mElev Gain

141 bpmAvg HR
151 bpmMax HR

181 spmAvg Cadence 

193 spmMax Cadence

May 26, 2015 @ 8:05 PM

Felt good throughout the run from start to finish. Found my groove at 147bpm when I was feeling complete flow. Wasn't worried about pace as more to get a sense of that at ease feeling while running.

6.45 kmDistance
5:46 min/kmAvg Pace
419 CCalories
37:09Time
1 mElev Gain

143 bpmAvg HR
152 bpmMax HR

184 spmAvg Cadence
193 spmMax Cadence

May 27, 2015 @ 6:53 PM

A little tired today as I worked last night from midnight until 6am and then when I got home I had to drive my sister to work and I ended up only getting 5.5 hrs of sleep today so I don't think I was fully recovered from yesterday evening's run as by the time I was finished I had to start getting ready for work. There really was no time to take a nap. As for the run, I felt ok, I only have my HR along with the timer showing on my Garmin throughout my runs now so I get a sense of what my HR is at certain moments throughout my run. I was feeling really hungry about 1/2 way through as I didn't get a chance to eat except a salad and some toast when I woke up around 2:45 PM today. I also found myself zoning out a couple of times, but still aware I was running....weird.

6.46 kmDistance
5:58 min/kmAvg Pace
420 CCalories
38:33Time
3 mElev Gain
139 bpmAvg HR
152 bpmMax HR

182 spmAvg Cadence
192 spmMax Cadence

May 28, 2015 @ 6:29 PM

Wow, the benefits of 8 hrs of sleep! I was so tired last night I just turned in early and slept until 6:10 am. Took my RHR and decided to head out and run because it's raining lightly this morning and it's supposed to start raining heavily later in the day, plus I have a couple of errands that have to be done this evening. Run felt great going into it and there was no aches or pains during the run. I feel my muscles getting stronger and my aerobic system is starting to get better. Just have to be patient and keep running within my means for base building.

6.45 kmDistance
5:45 min/kmAvg Pace
426 CCalories
37:04Time
1 mElev Gain
143 bpmAvg HR
153 bpmMax HR

186 spmAvg Cadence
204 spmMax Cadence

May 29, 2015 @ 7: 57 PM

Very cold for late May and strong North headwind. Felt good going into this run. I found myself smiling throughout this run as I just kept going forward still at a very easy pace. I went an extra mile more for the time spent on my legs and aerobic base building than putting on the mileage. I knew I could crank the pace at anytime and I felt comfortably exhausted after the run.

8.10 kmDistance
6:03 min/kmAvg Pace
547 CCalories
49:00Time
3 mElev Gain

143 bpmAvg HR
187 bpmMax HR

187 spmAvg Cadence
205 spmMax Cadence

May 30, 2015 @ 8:02 AM

Good run this morning. Glad I got to run with Osty as the dude is on the mend and he's getting back his endurance. Also got to run with Phil and Paul and then on the way back I ran with Kathryn, Ron, Geoff and Josh and they decided to blast through the trails down the river. Kept within 145-150bpm and managed to keep the cadence humming at 180 spm.

12.11 kmDistance
5:33 min/kmAvg Pace
795 CCalories
1:07:14Time
15 mElev Gain
149 bpmAvg HR
180 bpmMax HR

180 spmAvg Cadence
255 spmMax Cadence

May 31, 2015 @ 6:42 PM

Wk1 aerobic base 10 mile LSD

I should have brought a water bottle on this run. I was pretty dehydrated by mile 8 and it got a little tough but overall the whole run was run well within my means. There were some lulls but when I was concentrating on using my glutes I found myself in the zone and my legs were firing a lot easier. Cool thing was Roberto saw me on Leila and honked at me.

16.07 kmDistance
6:00 min/kmAvg Pace
1,040 CCalories
1:36:34Time
6 mElev Gain

144 bpmAvg HR
156 bpmMax HR

179 spmAvg Cadence
196 spmMax Cadence

The Rebuild

After the completion of Fargo and looking back at my training log, I was thinking of how can I improve and crack that sub 4 hr time?

I put in over 500 miles to get a 4:14:30 time, which I beat my previous PR by 13 minutes done at Twin Cities Marathon in October 2014. My fitness is still not where I want it to be. Mind you I was doing all of my training runs in the dead of winter where temperatures dipped -40C/-40F and it was hard to get in decent training runs. I thought just being out there in the deep freeze of winter would help. But as I was looking at my moods and energy levels with my RHR and training HR's I at times think I was running too much too hard and I would carry on my next training run a little more tired than recovered which brought about slower times as I was seeing especially during the Peak phase.

And I have to admit doing a lot of my runs in the aerobic zone helped a lot, but I think I need to run more and build a stronger base so I can run better and stronger during the Transition and Peak phases and be able to handle LSD's of 16-24 miles without exhausting my energy levels.

I started looking around the blog-o-sphere and came across Rubbish Runner and was fascinated with his progress. I'm a little older than him by a couple of years so we aren't that far off in age, so I figured I'd reach out to him for a little bit of training advice. I'm still very new to running (3 years) and I'm nowhere near his level yet, but being patient and just sticking with running and training, I figure I'll crack that sub 4hr marathon in due time.

So I struck up an email conversation with Rubbish Runner blogger about training zones as I was reading up on his sub 3 hour marathon training plan. We mostly discussed the topic of Heart Rate training zones. And I was able to establish new training zones based on my recent performance in Fargo. These training zones will be in preparation for a Fall marathon, which will most likely be the Twin Cities Marathon on October 4, 2015.

New Training Zones:

So with a Resting Heart Rate (RHR) of 52 and a Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) of 190.
Zone 1 (LSD, Easy and Recovery runs) 60 - 70% of Heart Rate Reserve (HRR) - 135 - 149bpm
Zone 2 (Aerobic or Target HR zone) 70 - 80% HRR - 149 - 162bpm
Zone 3 (Anaerobic zone) 80 - 90% HRR 162 - 176bpm
Zone 4 (V02 max) 90 - 100% HRR 176 - 190bpm

May 2015 > 20 - 24 Running Days [BASE]

May 20, 2015 @ 7:52 PM

Beautiful evening, just had to get out to run. Wasn't feeling any pain in the right foot the Fargo marathon as I thought I might have plantar fasciitis (still might) but I wanted to get out and run.

Too much too far too soon. Should have listened to that voice of reason and not run so far and maybe ran a little too fast. It's been 10 days since the marathon and even though I felt great today those same aches crept up during the latter stages of the run. Stupid ego...this might have set me back as my right foot is now aching again.

Ended up walking the last 3km....sigh.

10.30 kmDistance
7:26 min/kmAvg Pace
625 CCalories
1:16:32Time
6 mElev Gain

132 bpmAvg HR
211 bpmMax HR

164 spmAvg Cadence
200 spmMax Cadence

May 23, 2015 @ 11:09 AM

Slow crawl back to basebuilding. Purpose of this run was to test out my right foot to see if any aches and pains creep up. 

Happy to report nothing major except maybe the front of my right toes were tingling for a little bit. I'm thinking it was more of the process of over-thinking this whole run convincing myself if this was a good thing to do. By the time I was out and running it was reading 31C today so it was a little bit of a challenge to keep my HR at 145 range. I forced myself to slow down a lot throughout the run, but very mindful of keeping the cadence up to 180 which kept my running form in check. Over all happy with how it went. I'll keep going the 5k distance for the rest of the week and then slowly start building up the base again.

5.42 kmDistance
6:15 min/kmAvg Pace
407 CCalories
33:54Time
1 mElev Gain

148 bpmAvg HR
161 bpmMax HR

182 spmAvg Cadence
190 spmMax Cadence

May 24, 2015 @ 11:12 AM

Well I now know that 6km seems to be my limit for now. I actually didn't feel any aches during the run and I kept my HRM below 150 despite the +27C heat. But it was after the run where it started to feel achy, about 1 hr after. I'll roll my foot out to strengthen it up.

6.41 kmDistance
6:20 min/kmAvg Pace
456 CCalories
40:36Time
3 mElev Gain

145 bpmAvg HR
162 bpmMax HR

182 spmAvg Cadence
192 spmMax Cadence

My marathon of Sound and Vision

May 9, 2015 @ 7:30 AM

First off I want to congratulate all of my friends from City Park Runners. They were (in no particular order but all important none-the-less) Erick, Sean, Tyler, Dan, Ron, Paul, Barry, Travis, Doug, Agata, Dominique, Kathryn, Phaedra, Becky, Josh, Dave, Tracey, Anita.

Race started in the Fargo Dome. I forgot to acquire a sat signal for my GPS prior to the race start, but I did hit start on my Garmin just as I crossed the timing mats but I managed to get signal around the 2nd mile and along with the cadence count it figured out my mileage and pace from mile 1 which was pretty neat.

I along with Barry, Erick and Tyler kept with the 3:50 pace group pretty much to the 12th mile. The first part of the course ran some parts of last year's 10th anniversary course. Erick marveled at the course and city in general as I ran with him for the first 15 miles. Barry and Ron were keeping up with the 3:50 pace group. It was at mile 16 where Erick told me we had to start 'hammering.' He was getting farther and farther ahead of me and I was hammering with a ball peen to his sledgehammer as he started getting farther ahead. I still felt good, and didn't worry too much as I told myself if I can keep this pace (5:35-5:45/km) going I still might be able to get the sub 4.

Then mile 17 came and you had to go up a hill into the neighborhood part of the course. I didn't blast up the hill to save my strength as I used effort more than pace. But as I crested the hill, I threw up all of the Gels and I noticed I didn't digest the scrambled eggs that was being served in the hotel. Funny thing was I never felt sick to my stomach anytime prior to the race.

I got my shit together and started moving forward. Lucky there was an aid station near by as I took pretty much all the water that was being held out to wash out my mouth and re-hydrate. I'm glad I packed 6 gels as i started taking a gel right away to try and get my calories back. I still felt good, but I knew I was losing steam as I started finding it a little more difficult to keep a steady pace but I was still in good spirits.

By mile 22, going through the downtown area, the wall was starting to call out. And the more I was fighting it, the closer it was coming. I finally had to stop and walk. I won't lie, I felt a little dejected and when I saw the 4:00 pace group creep up to me and start passing, I was doing pretty much everything in my mind to keep up with them. It was only after a mile the pace sign started to float away into the horizon.

It was then I thought to myself, my last attempt I blew up at mile 18. This time I was able to go a little more farther. Yes I was going on dead legs and my willpower was dwindling, but I wasn't too down on myself. I thought of my girls and my mom and my dad who passed away a couple of weeks after the Twin Cities marathon. I was looking around for inspiration to make this experience a little lighter, and what I saw made me realize all the pain I'm feeling in my legs was minor compared to this obese lady who was power walking the 10k course along with her race bag behind her. I could see from her expression, the determination in her eyes that she wanted to be there along side the marathoners. Some guys on mountain bikes came riding by and shouted out "Keep on truckin' lady!" and for a brief moment, I thought it was an asshole thing to say, but they turned around and smiled at her. Not maliciously, but with encouragement and I found myself a little emotional at that point.

All the while I was walk/running as I witnessed this and I realized it was mile 25...just 1.2 fucking miles to go and witnessing that made my spirit whole when it was falling to pieces. My body was pretty much broken, but my spirit was put back together and even though I couldn't find that lost speed, I was able to muster my legs to go that last mile (that couldn't stop winding back and forth...like really?!) Of course we had to run around the Fargo Dome which by that point I really wasn't interested in the architecture. There was nobody really in front of me to try and beat for that last surge your body gets when you can see the finish line. But I gave it everything as I was crossing the finish line into the arms of a race marshall (I'm laughing as i writie this!) who caught me asking me if I'm ok. I told her that I puked up at mile 17 (like she cared...) and asked me if I was going to puke again, probably preparing to drop me, but I shook my head and started making my way slowing through the finishing chute.

Pretty fun race.
Official race time - 4:14:30