Thursday, January 28, 2010

A Perfect Storm

I'm getting into the kinds of milage in marathon training now where it takes a little more planning than just hitting all of the 3-a-day workouts. The basic plan lays out fine until the long run milage creeps up high enough. Every sport has a speedwork day for speed, a tempo work day for power, and a long day for endurance. Yesterday I put a mile in the pool (long swim), monday I did speedwork in the pool 10 x 100 yd hard repeats. Tuesday I did 40 miles on the bike.

But today the long run was 15 miles. I have been maxing out at that distance lately to peak for the half marathon at tybee next weekend where it's time to go-a-snail crushing. But I'm still following a FIRST training plan for the full marathon March 21st. So after yesterday's mile swim, I blew off the bike workout that evening. And I skipped the company bike ride over lunch today. Instead, I stuffed my face with carbs and good protein.

So I didn't start the run hungry. I was actually prepared for a long run this time, which I had not been for the last several weeks. I had enough gels and gatorade, and the proper recovery nutrition. Heck, last week I started walking out there without even putting the band aids on my nipples. That would have been painful.

I loaded up a bunch of new tunes on the mp3 player last night. Fired that puppy up and started running at a 6.3 speed on the treadmill. It was the perfect storm. I was properly fed and hydrated. I didn't even break a sweat for the first 2 miles! So 5 miles came and went without a single hitch. I didn't even notice, and normally I'm counting down to the 5 mile marker. It was easy breazy beautiful, and I even felt like a cover girl.

I refilled the water bottles and started 'er back up again. Poor treadmill. It might not have been prepared for the kind of abuse I was dishing out tonight. A 6.3 speed is a 9:31 per mile pace. Tempo runs are under 9 minute miles always. But this is a speed that I can maintain for a long time. Training for the last marathon my long run speed was only 6.0, so I'm feeling ok about this. In the second 5 mile block I made it 3.5 miles before ever having to walk. That's 8.5 miles without ever slowing down or speeding up. I like that. Yes I stop every 5 miles to reset the treadmill numbers and refill my water bottles. I know exactly how much water and gatorade I need to take in per 5 mile block. That's a benefit of running inside - you don't have to carry all that crap with you.

So I reset for the third block and had to slow and walk a few times during it. Still, I covered the ground and got all the milage in and it felt great! Everything came together. I never got hungry or mentally drained (well, besides the general living-on-the-edge-of-sanity that is treadmill running). I was smiling the whole time walking back to the locker room. You can't ask for a better run than that one. 15 miles done. Ready to go to Tybee Island and run with the Snail.

---------------------------------------------------
First, I have to go back to SC this weekend. Kelley and I are both doing the Foothills Drifter 6k race tomorrow. It's my first time doing a trail race, and my first time at the 6k distance. I'm just going to go out there and run it the best I can with no expectation besides having fun. Jenny is also running this one, so it will be great to meet up with a fellow running blogger.

The kicker is this giant storm that's moving through. They say it's supposed to dump a foot of snow on Raleigh on saturday. I don't see how since it was 60 degrees today (thursday). But tomorrow is supposed to be a wintery mix of rain and sleet for Raleigh and all points south. So my normal 4 hour drive back to Greenville could be complicated. Saturday in Greenville is supposed to be 31 with freezing rain. Perfect trail racing weather right? Part of me wants to be aggressive. Push things to stay warm, see how many people I can pass on the trail. But I think I'm going to be fairly conservative. The worst case scenario is that I slip and fall on some ice in the trail and bang something up that screws my 2 hour half mary next weekend. So I think I have to be cautious. I'll try and bring the small camera with me to take some pics during the race.

Then sunday I have to drive 4 hours back to Raleigh. They say south of raleigh is just going to be slushy maybe icy, but no snow. So who knows what I'm going to be coming back into. I've got to give serious consideration tomorrow afternoon to staying in Raleigh for the weekend, which I really don't want to do. But will it be safe to get down to Greenville friday night? Will I be able to get back to Raleigh on sunday? Will we actually race in the woods in a horrible winter storm?

Tune in monday night, same bat-time, same bat-blog to see the exciting conclusion. And have a great weekend!

11 comments:

Unknown said...

When do you expect this whole back and forth Greenville to Raleigh stuff to no longer be part of your normal life? It sounds so exhausting!

Sun Runner said...

60 degrees yesterday? Shut up. It was 15 here. And very windy. It sucked. At least today is rest day, so I don't have to run, which is good, because it's even colder now (8 degrees).

Falling on ice is no joke. I took a hard fall on ice while hashing on Sunday and even now, five days later, my knee is STILL angry and tender.

Good luck driving and racing this weekend.

Oh yeah, did I mention I'm going to a winter beer festival tomorrow? I'll be thinking of you slogging through the mud while I'm sampling the fine microbrews of Indiana...

Al's CL Reviews said...

Good luck on the run!

15 miles on the treadmill. Wow!

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

60 degrees yesterday? Yah, I might need to move. It was -5 here w/ a lovely wind that made it -15ish. Pure hell.

I really hope the forecast is wrong. Running in those conditions would suck - and the chances of falling are greater, which would really, really suck.

Well done on the 15 miler! I go bat shit crazy on the treadmill. my longest run has been around 6 miles. I just can't handle resetting the treadmill. Probably something I need to get over as I'll have to do some of my long runs for my 1/2 marathon on the treadmill. Unless Mother Nature stops being a biach and lets us have some mild weather again!

Georgia Snail said...

I've ordered up some fan-frickin-tastic weather for Tybee next weekend...High's in teh low 50's and a clear sky...Let's do this!

Amber said...

I'm seriously in AWE of the mileage that you put in on the treadmill!

carrie said...

Man, how do you do that on the dreadmill? It kills me to even go three. Seven degrees here, though, so I best be getting over the treadmill-hate.

Good luck on the 6K!

Wes said...

yea, with your focus on the marathon, I think its a good thing to concentrate on running right now. I hope the storm is just going to be a lot of slushy nonsense. My guess is that it won't do much to the roads...

Lily on the Road said...

Whatever you do, just stay safe! Have a great weekend.

Jess said...

Great great job on the 15 miles. I like how you break it up into five mile segments. I'm sure that makes it mentally easier as well.

Missy said...

Can't wait to hear about how it went...or didn't? We are iced in a bit. Major roads open, my hood = iced over. One giant snow cone.