AVR - Running Week in Review 3-11-12

The Brook 3-10-12

Spring is coming as you can see brook opening up, down-back is snow, mud and ice-covered, so if you go down there you will get muddy, but still have to watch your step. Best of all, I ran a long run in shorts and no jacket and felt comfortable!

This was first week that I have had two runs of over an hour in the same week in forever. I have felt good running all week, even though I have felt tired. The longer runs do take more out of me, I have noticed, but I still feel good about my running.

Due to the pretty significant wear on my Kinvara 2s already, I decided to look for another pair of shoes and came across a fantastic deal on a pair of Newton Gravitas (last year’s model) through the Natural Running Store and ordered them. It will probably be my only chance to try the Newtons out, so it should be pretty interesting – I am excited by this and can’t wait for them to get here.

Running Summary This Week

RunLog Week of 3/11/12

RunLog Week of 3-11-12

Miles walked this week: 24.5

I am very impressed with the number of miles that I have walked already this year (209.5), in addition to my running.

Three things Running

Long Runs: Notice that was plural, I had two long runs this week, one on Monday a 10.0 miler that was planned and went very well even though the footing was dicey in a few places and the second one on Friday which I had only thought that I would be doing 6.0 and ended up with 8.0 (and could have gotten to 10.0 if I had wanted to). The surprising thing was that Friday’s run was at just over an 8:30 pace for the run. Yes that psyched me up a little!
Recovery Days: I didn’t just hammer away every day, I purposely went slower on “off” days to give the body some recovery time and I am taking today off (Sunday), since it has been 2 weeks. I plan to take Sundays off at least every other week and if I have hit my mileage goals earlier in the week than I expected I might even take off an extra day here or there
30 Mile Week: I went over 30 miles for the second straight week with 34.05, so I am starting to build-up my base more, which is a good thing, but now I have to be really careful about stepping up the mileage too much more for a while, I want my body to get acclimated to the 30-35 range for a while. I will probably go ahead and have a step-back week and lower my mileage back to 25-30 miles just to give my body a little more rest, then go back up after that. See I am trying to train smarter .

This week in a word:

Progress

Blog Posts

Below are my posts from last week:

I have definitely hit a flat spot in my blogging the past couple of weeks. As the weather gets better, I notice that I am spending less and less time on the computer and that I have even read a couple of books over the past week. I am sure that I will get back into the swing of things, but I guess I needed a break from constantly working on the blog. I even went back to my old Theme with a different background – The other one was too busy for me and once I find the right background this one will be fine

Top 5

Here are my top five posts for the past week based on pageviews:

My Favorite post from last week

Falmouth Fun Run – January 1, 1979 (Memories) Where I talk about a race that I ran back in 1979 and finished last. Not something I really wanted to tell the world about, but by doing so got rid of a few more demons. We all still have them, sometimes it is just how we face them that makes a difference.

Weight

I have bounced between 162-163 all week – so I did loose a pound. I am not trying super hard to lose the weight, but it is coming off slowly but surely. I just eat too much and too well sometimes

Injuries

My left hamstring is still snarling at me when I go faster than 8:30 pace, but at least it lets me still run (as long as I am putting the heat to it and rolling it out. It still does bother if sit in a chair wrong or if I move just right, so I have to be a little careful with it. The calf seems pretty much healed and everything else is going pretty great. However, I feel tired this week, I am not my perky self, need to get some sunshine and keep eating more garlic

Running Shoes

Saucony Kinvara

I really, really like them for running on roads. I had those two long runs this week, but they are starting to show some real signs of wear on the outer forefoot (on both pair) already. I have a feeling that I won’t be running in them much past 200 or 250 miles. Which is too bad because they are a really comfortable shoe that I like a lot. However if a shoe wears out that quickly I can’t afford new shoes every couple of months anymore, so I have to look at something that should wear better than these have.

New Balance MT110

I ran a couple of good runs in the MT110s this week and they didn’t bother my calf at all, which is a good sign, plus I have walked almost every day in them and will for a couple of more weeks, which will help my transition to them. I really like the tread and grip they have. This morning’s long walk on snow, ice and mud was very good and I was impressed with how well they worked in those varied conditions.

Newton Gravitas

Ordered and should be here next week.

Racing Schedule

I started a Google Calendar - Running In Maine 2012 with a lot of the dates of races in Maine during 2012. Yesterday I worked on updating and adding a lot of races to the calendar, so it is a lot better than it was before

[googleapps domain="www" dir="calendar/b/0/embed" query="showPrint=0&showTz=0&height=400&wkst=1&bgcolor=%23FFFFFF&src=s9uk0sc70vc17rghgcb76qn2jc%40group.calendar.google.com&color=%23182C57&ctz=America%2FNew_York" width="560" height="400" /]

I have it sort of narrowed down to the races listed below

Date	Name of Race	Location	Result
3/4/2012	Chamberlain 5k	Brewer	Didn’t run
4/7/2012	Fly Like An Eagle 5k	China
5/5/2012	Woodfords Family Services 2nd Annual 5K Fun Run/Walk for Autism	Waterville
5/26/2012	Pineland Fams Trail Running 5k	New Gloucester
6/24/2012	Rail Trail 5K & 1/2 Marathon	Augusta
7/4/2012	Friends of the Fourth	Winthrop
7/12/2012	Bond Brook 5K Race Series	Augusta	Wednesday Evening
7/15/2012	Bradbury Mountain 6 Miler	Pownal
7/19/2012	Bond Brook 5K Race Series	Augusta	Wednesday Evening
8/2/2012	Bond Brook 5K Race Series	Augusta	Thursday Evening
8/5/2012	Bradbury Mountain 9 Miler	Pownal
8/11/2012	Topsham Fair 5k	Topsham
9/9/2012	Bradbury Mountain 12	Pownal

11/10/2012	Maine-ly Moose 5k	Portland

As we go through the season, races will change and I have added the Bond Brook series already and taken out a couple of others . This at least gives me an idea of what I would like to run. I have also made a widget for the sidebar of this blog that has the calendar in it. It you see any errors or other information that needs to be updated or added please let me know.

Running Goals

This section shouldn’t change too much from week to week, but I want to keep them right in front of me so that I don’t forget what my goals are

A slight change to my goals – is to make sure that I am enjoying running and not letting it become too much like work.

This year my big goals are to run 1,200 miles, run a sub 20:00 5K and get through 2012 without any significant down time or injuries (running related or others). My unadvertised goals from the start of the year are to be able to finish a half-marathon (notice I said finish not race) and run a few trail races when the weather gets better.

My long-term goal will be to run the 2013 Marine Corps Marathon. I finished the 1983 Marathon and to run/finish Marine Corps again 30 years later would be very cool. This is one of the major goals that I have in mind for my running and it would be even more fantastic if I could qualify for Boston that same day. Therefore, I am doing a 2 year work-up to the Marathon distance, just to see if my knee will hold up.

The reality is that

This has been a very good week overall. A couple of long runs, over 30 miles two weeks in a row and got a fantastic deal on a pair of Newton Gravitas running shoes (I can’t wait – they were tied with the Altra Instincts as my first choices, when I researched what I wanted for new running shoes last month).

Thank You again for your support and reading posts from “A Veteran Runnah“.

Keep smiling and good things will happen!

Originally written by Harold Shaw published at “A Veteran Runnah” © 2011 – All Rights Reserved. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Harold Shaw and A Veteran Runnah” with appropriate and specific directions or links to the original content.

First Run – in My Saucony Kinvaras 2 (aveteranrunnah.com)

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4 comments

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tonee78

March 11, 2012 at 2:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment


I love your weekly recaps!!! You cover it all!!! Great job on another great week!!
1. hshawjr
  
  March 11, 2012 at 4:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
  
  
  Thanks Toni – They help me look back and figure out what to do next week
Aaron Smith

March 11, 2012 at 8:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment


Great week Harold! I like the fact you are looking at a “step-back” week. When you were writing about “over training” that was in the forefront of my mind. I need them every third week it seems and it seems to rejuvenate my mind and body. The week before last was mine, and it helped. .I’m loving how I’m feeling and how well I’m running. I can see that from your posts too, you are “having fun” which is what it is all about! Write at’cha this week!
1. hshawjr
  
  March 11, 2012 at 9:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
  
  
  Hi Smiddy – I haven’t decided whether to do it this week or next, tomorrow’s scheduled 10 miler will tell me, but it will be one or the other Yes I am having fun and it seems as though you are as well and I agree that is what running is all about having fun