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December 2015

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Location:

San Antonio,TX,

Member Since:

Dec 13, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

5K PR - 18:01 - Nov '14

10K PR - 38:37 (workout) - Oct '14

Half-marathon - 1:22:43 - Jan '14

Marathon - 2:58:43 in Boston! - Apr '13

50 mile - 7:49:30 (2nd) - Nov '15

Short-Term Running Goals:

- Balance

- Run more trails, volunteer, more social running, run with a team

- Race a lot more.  learn.

Race results / possible schedule:

Apr 2 - Hells Hills 25k trail - 4th

Apr 9 - Toughest 'n Texas 20-mile Trail - 2nd

May 7 - Paleface - Trail Marathon - 3rd

May 29 - American Hero road 25k - 2nd

Jun 25 - Pedernales Falls 30k nighttime Trail - 5th (sick)

Jul 16 - Muleshoe Bend 30k nighttime Trail - 3rd

Jul 23-24 - Fossil Valley 9-hour nighttime Trail - 2nd

Aug 6 - Colorado Bend 30k nighttime Trail - 4th

Aug 27 - Reveille Peak 30k nighttime Trail (entered)

Sep 10 - Franklin Mountains 50k (entered - not all-out effort...I hope)

Sep 17 - Lighthouse Hill 20-mile trail (entered)

Sep 24 - J&J 50 mile trail

Long-Term Running Goals:

Compete in a few more ultras without going off course (again)

Sub-18 in a 5k

One.  Good.  Marathon.

Personal:

I started running at age 30, in late 2009.  I have 2 daughters (10 and 8 yrs old).

  

 

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Saucony A5 Lifetime Miles: 1054.70
Kinvara 2 - Gray/red Lifetime Miles: 1551.08
Kinvara 3 - Gray/red Lifetime Miles: 1244.23
1160s Lifetime Miles: 888.70
Saucony A5 Red Lifetime Miles: 565.10
Saucony A6 - Yellow Lifetime Miles: 214.00
Saucony A6 - Red/blue Lifetime Miles: 61.50
NB MT101 Trail Lifetime Miles: 302.00
Fastwitch 6 Red #1 Lifetime Miles: 286.50
Fastwitch 6 Red #2 Lifetime Miles: 267.00
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
226.4038.60265.00
Kinvara 2 - Gray/red Miles: 46.00Saucony A5 Red Miles: 28.001160s Miles: 12.00NB MT101 Trail Miles: 44.00Saucony A6 - Red/blue Miles: 30.00Kinvara 3 - Gray/red Miles: 26.00Fastwitch 6 Red #1 Miles: 30.00Saucony A6 - Yellow Miles: 11.00Saucony A5 Miles: 23.00
Weight: 152.48
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.000.0010.00

AM:  48F.  6 @ 7:57 AP.

PM:  60F.  4 @ 7:28 AP.  Lunch run.  Felt better, but far from smooth.  Next week, I think I'll start a mini speed block.  Impossible to go worse than the last one, so I'm excited.

I saw a guy running shirtless on the PM run, meaning that for the first time in 2.5 years of living in San Antonio, I was MORE clothed than another runner.  The apocalypse is upon us.

Kinvara 2 - Gray/red Miles: 10.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(3)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.903.1010.00

43F.  10 @ 7:06 AP.  I can't find my light gloves.  Every year this happens.  Anyway, it was ok today...no wind and 95% humidity.  I have my "Oklahoma gloves" which are thick, but left them in the bag.

Regardless, I liked the temps and put on the type A's today, encouraged by yesterday's PM run, and did a 5k in 19:33 (6:25, 6:20, 6:13, :35) on the way back (downstream - 15-20'/mile downhill).  Recovery is definitely still needed from the race, but I gotta say my muscles needed a lot less recovery from that 50-miler than ANY marathon I've done.  I guess plodding around on dirt is easier than running hard on concrete, even at twice the distance.  Either that or maybe I underperformed...I wonder if you had perfect pacing and somehow maximized your effort if it would be worse?  I'm happy either way - either I can go ahead and run a bunch of ultras since the recovery isn't bad, or I can go a lot faster when I run 'em.  Mighta found my direction...

As a side note I got access to the Rockhoppers group (SA trail running club) and got some of the backstory of the race from a guy that was directing traffic at a transition point; the winner was adjusting his pace based on this guy's intel of how far back I was.  I definitely need these guys on my side!

Saucony A5 Red Miles: 10.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.000.006.00

AM:  39F.  6 @ 8:07.  Take a look at JG's team in training page below:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/boston16/jgillette

 

1160s Miles: 6.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.000.0010.00

AM:  36F.  6 @ 7:49 AP.

PM:  63F.  4 @ 7:26 AP.

Tested out my new trail shoes!  I bought them on specs alone (7.5 oz, 10mm toe drop) but I think they'll work fine.  Going to take them out to Bandera in a couple weeks, so that's the real test.  If I can do a long run without creating a gaping hole in my shoes, then these are the winners.

My AM run was on pavement but my PM run was a pretty hard effort on trails.  I don't know, somehow, somewhere along the way, I let myself believe I was done recovering from the 50.  No.  Legs were crushed after the PM run, and I need to start taking the recovery more seriously.

After a big race, for me, one of two things will happen.  Either I will get unbelievably lazy, or unbelievably motivated.  Fortunately, the latter happened this time, but I need to de-motivate until my decrepit body says it's ready.  Lots of fatigue today...not ready quite yet.

NB MT101 Trail Miles: 10.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(6)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
12.003.0015.00

39F.  15 @ 7:22 AP.  Broke in my other pair of new shoes.  Tried to keep the pace moderate, and did so until the last 3 miles, which were around MP...so hard to run in the Type As and NOT go fast.  Probably save these new ones for a couple workouts then shelf 'em until the HM next month.

Up next, 3 days of real, actual recovery runs.

Saucony A6 - Red/blue Miles: 15.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
3.000.003.00

3 after dinner with the dog.  Felt light headed and dizzy so came back early.

Kinvara 3 - Gray/red Miles: 3.00
Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.000.007.00

42F.  7 @ 8:10 AP.

Kinvara 2 - Gray/red Miles: 7.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.000.0010.00

42F.  10 @ 7:37 AP.

Fastwitch 6 Red #1 Miles: 10.00
Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.503.5011.00

46F.  11 @ 7:10 AP.  Included 7 x 1/2 mile reps, 60-sec jog recoveries.  Averaged 2:59 (3:06, 3:01, 2:55, 2:57, 3:01, 2:58, 2:55).  Felt ok, kinda meh.

It always feels haphazard and random to do these anywhere but the track.  Unfortunately, I was booted from the HS track by a school district cop back in September for being there on a school day, so no track on weekdays anymore.  I never understood what was so suspicious to him about a middle-aged shirtless guy roaming around school grounds at 4:55am... Yep, he was a weirdo.

Saucony A6 - Yellow Miles: 11.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(5)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.000.007.00

58F, foggy.  7 miles...watch died after ~3 miles, but I definitely didn't log any sub-4 half-miles (auto lap was still set to 0.5 from yesterday).

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with work this week, and should be able to log some doubles next week.

Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.001.008.00

52F, with dense fog.  8 @ 7:44 AP.  Did some pretty decent strides in the last 3 miles.

Kinvara 3 - Gray/red Miles: 8.00
Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.000.004.00

Warm 4, no watch...LR tomorrow.

Kinvara 2 - Gray/red Miles: 4.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
14.004.0018.00

51F, rainy.  18 @ 7:26.  Workout fail - set out to do 10 @ ~MP but pulled the plug after 4 and jog-of-shame'd it back, each mile a little slower than the one before it.  Anything below 7-min pace felt like a sprint today.  Just tired from a long week, maybe.

Saucony A5 Red Miles: 18.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.000.005.00

5 @ 8:45.  trail was cut off due to high water, so I was ok with 5, thinking I'd for sure get in a PM run.  No.

Kinvara 3 - Gray/red Miles: 5.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
8.000.008.00

8 @ 7:56 AP.

Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
16.000.0016.00

Ran at Bandera with someone from the local trail running group.  Good stuff.  It ain't the Rockies but not bad for only being an hour away.

 

NB MT101 Trail Miles: 16.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(4)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
9.001.0010.00

51F.  10 @ 7:26 AP.  Last mile around 6:15.  Got a pretty good tendon workout at Bandera yesterday hopping around on boulders for a few hours.  That's going to be a much different kind of race than Wild Hare...

Fastwitch 6 Red #1 Miles: 10.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.000.006.00

AM:  61F, 99%.  6 @ 8:31 AP.  

 

Kinvara 2 - Gray/red Miles: 6.00
Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.002.0012.00

AM:  48F.  8 @ 7:16 AP.  Last couple miles had some fierce fartleking, and I ended up splitting 6:22, 6:06 for those.  These old A5s feel more like socks than shoes though...they may be close to retirement, even though there are no (big) holes in them yet.

PM:  79F.  4 @ 7:30 AP.  Shirtless!  Worked on my tan for 30 minutes in the blistering December heat.

Saucony A5 Miles: 8.00Kinvara 3 - Gray/red Miles: 4.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(4)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.000.006.00

59F, foggy.  6 @ 8:10 AP.  That's probably it for today, long trail run tomorrow.

Kinvara 2 - Gray/red Miles: 6.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
18.000.0018.00

51F -> 61F/90%.  Warming pretty quickly, high is 80 again today.  Ran 3 loops (18-19? miles of trail) at Friedrich Wilderness park with a couple of guys from the trail running club.  Pretty steady effort on varying terrain, working pretty hard the last loop...around 2:50 total running time.  There are some good runners in the group.  Also a pretty cool place to run that I wouldn't have found otherwise.  Great morning!

Merry Christmas all

NB MT101 Trail Miles: 18.00
Weight: 152.40
Comments(3)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.000.006.00

68F, 80%.  6 @ 8:23 AP.  Spent most of the morning putting together an elaborate art desk (lazy Santa) that pretty much made me want to cry when I saw all the pieces.  Got in lunch, a short run on some nicely beat-up legs and now must construct a basketball goal.  You should be able to sub-contract Santa's elves for this stuff.

Kinvara 3 - Gray/red Miles: 6.00
Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.000.007.00

73F, 90%.  7 @ 8:29 AP.  Typical June weather.  Thankfully the cold front blows in tomorrow.  Legs are still beat up - I was going to maybe mix some speed into my MLR tomorrow but might just jog it.

On a side note, I finally stepped on the scale a couple times this week.  It's not that I was avoiding it, we just had the bathroom remodeled and it is no longer sitting out in the open, so I don't think about it.  Anyway, I'm up about 7-8 lbs which is kind of a lot for me.  I saw it happening over the last ~3 months (extra fat roll, belt notch, etc) with the reduced mileage - not a huge deal but back to Summer of Joe levels.  It'll take me a long time to get rid of it since I won't eat right.  My weight loss plan is basically to cut back to 1 Coke a day and run more.  Maybe eat Chex Mix instead of Doritos...don't know if it's that extreme yet, but maybe soon.

Alright, time to make some huevos con chorizo!

PM:  3 mile hike at Government Canyon with Keira.

Kinvara 2 - Gray/red Miles: 7.00
Weight: 152.60
Add Comment
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
8.007.0015.00

48F, NNW 15-25 mph.  15 @ 7:10 AP.  Cold front finally arrived.

Picked it up on the way back home, last 7 @ 6:32 AP.  Hit the gas for the last mile downhill to my house and ran it in 5:31 - probably the fastest full mile I've done on a training run...felt pretty good, definitely ran it hard but still had some gas in the tank at the end.

Saucony A5 Miles: 15.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(4)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.000.006.00

37F, ~17 mph wind.  6 @ 8:21 AP.  I might need to find my hat if it gets any cooler!

1160s Miles: 6.00
Weight: 153.60
Comments(1)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.000.0010.00

37F.  10 @ 7:42 AP.  A few short strides toward the end, but the legs are still kinda cranky from Sunday.  So, recovery tomorrow and then I'm thinking ~90 min of solid aerobic running on Thursday to close out my 2 week Bandera training block.  Sad!

Fastwitch 6 Red #1 Miles: 10.00
Weight: 151.20
Add Comment
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.000.006.00

46F.  6 @ 8:07 AP.  Felt good, ready to run harder tomorrow.

Next year I really want to have fun with running, and have several goals to that end.  One of them is that I want need to race more.  I had so much fun running and racing back in 2011, and got a lot faster...partially by racing more, I think.  2015 was pathetic by comparison...5 races all year?!

If I get my way, and run all the races I've penciled in for 2016, it should be a fun year!

Kinvara 2 - Gray/red Miles: 6.00
Weight: 152.60
Comments(8)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
1.0014.0015.00

44F.  15 @ 6:25 AP.  Big breakthrough today.  It's been a long, long time since I've been able to write that.

Original plan was just to average 7:00 for this run (~50k effort?) but in the back of my mind, I knew I'd probably test myself a bit more.  Ran mile 1 in 7:04, which is undoubtedly a mile-1-early-AM PR.  Then the next 14 were 6:42, 6:45, 6:41, 6:50, 6:30, 6:25, 6:27, 6:25, 6:23, 5:58, 6:12, 6:02, 6:07, 5:44.

To put it in perspective, the last 13.1 miles today works out to a low 1:23, maybe 30 seconds off my PR.  Averaged 6:10 for the last 10 miles, ran sub-38 for the last 10k, and averaged 6:01 for the last 5.  Now I just need to hope for a full recovery in 9 days...the angel on my shoulder was telling me to slow down and this was unnecessary, but the devil on the other shoulder needed to see what I could do (he won).

Anyway, good segue into my last chart of the year.  In the past, I'd looked at each month in a vacuum and gotten discouraged when I cratered a month of training.  But I think our fitness is more about what we've done in the past year, not in the past month (today's run solidified that for me).  So I'm looking at my training volume now, using the trailing 12-months' weekly average (red line) instead of looking at each month separately (dotted blue line).  It certainly explains my lack of improvement in the last couple marathons (Apr-14 and Jan-15), and why the Jan-15 race was a little better.

Anyway, I've planned out the next year with yearly volume in mind, instead of hitting weekly goals, which don't always make sense.  Goal is to move the red line to 70 by the end of the year.  Motivation right now is 10/10, and it hasn't been there in years.  Looking forward to a great 2016, happy new year all!

Saucony A6 - Red/blue Miles: 15.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(6)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
226.4038.60265.00
Kinvara 2 - Gray/red Miles: 46.00Saucony A5 Red Miles: 28.001160s Miles: 12.00NB MT101 Trail Miles: 44.00Saucony A6 - Red/blue Miles: 30.00Kinvara 3 - Gray/red Miles: 26.00Fastwitch 6 Red #1 Miles: 30.00Saucony A6 - Yellow Miles: 11.00Saucony A5 Miles: 23.00
Weight: 152.48
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