AVR - Running Week in Review 4-1-12

This is a combo post, my Sunday daily run and my week in review, on Sundays I think it will just be easier to combine the two posts than try for separate ones from now on.

Today, I just ran, I took yesterday off and only walked a few miles this morning (rested most of the rest of the day), so I was fairly rested and ran in shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt, this afternoon which was nice! I got to thinking about what I wanted to accomplish today and I felt like running a little faster than my usual 9:00-10:00 slog along run that I have done lately.

So I ran in my Newtons and started out faster than I usually do and just kept the effort around 70% and felt strong the entire way. I didn’t bring my iPhone for the GPS app, the only thing that brought was my watch and while I checked on laps 2 and 3, the times were not really all that important to me. I did what I wanted to do, finished my 5K run in under 25:00 without pushing all that hard.

Very happy with this run and it just it felt right.

Running Summary This Week

RunLog Week of 4/1/12

Weekly Summary - RunLog 4-1-12

Miles walked this week: 18.4

Three things Running

Biggest Weekly Mileage Yet this year:
I ran 41.5 miles this week, which is the most I have run in a long time. However, I was tired by Friday and took Saturday off, I know that I needed it and ended with a quick 3.1 today.
Half-Marathon Training run: I finished a 13.1 mile run this week and came within a couple of minutes of breaking 2:00:00 hours! Should have, could have, but didn’t, but now I know that it is in my reach. I really didn’t know how I would do for that kind of distance, I think I am a lot more confident about this distance than I was before.
Lesson Learned on my long run: I am still learning a lot about my running as I get more long runs in, like I am not sure about the hydration pack for long runs, but definitely need a way to carry water and that I need to start re-fueling at about 5.0 miles, so that I don’t crash into the wall. Tomorrow I plan to try my old hiking belt pack and carry a bottle of Chia seed water to see how that does, to go along with a Clif GelShot at 5.0 miles. If this works better than the hydration pack, I may have to look more closely at a new hydration belt that is lighter than what I have now.

This week in a word:

Great!

Blog Posts

Below are my posts from last week:

I have basically figured out that other than my running log entries, that I want to try for only 2-4 added blog posts a week and am even thinking about going to just twice a week for those posts. With nice weather coming I will not have as much time to devote to blogging as I have this past winter. I just have too many other interests that will be taking up my time and I don’t make any money doing this, so there are other priorities that will take my time over the next 6-8 months.

Top 10

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

My Favorite post from last week

Finally Ran 13.1 for Base Time – 3-26-12 This post, details my first time running a timed 1/2 marathon distance.

Weight

I have bounced between 157-159 all week – I was consistently under 160, so I am pretty damn happy about that.

Injuries

None to really speak of, other than the usual stuff that is just going to be a part of my running until I stop, so no use about complaining or whining about them.

Running Shoes

Saucony Kinvara

Kinvaras are not wearing nearly as quickly, now that I am using them only for my long runs over 6.0. They are still small but noticeable rips in the upper material and the soles on the outside of the forefoot is wearing pretty quickly. However, I can still run longer distances with them, so until they start to bother me, I will just keep them for that then.

New Balance MT110I ran once in the MT110s this week a 5.0 miler that was a combo of many different terrains and they did everything I asked them to do. I also use them for my primary walking shoe and they are doing great with that. I know that it will cause them to wear out more quickly, but I do think that wearing the lower profile shoe is helping my walking form and I don’t have my usual aches and pains after a walk nearly as bad.

Newton Gravitas

I have run in them for my short runs and even finished a 7.0 miler this week, so I think that I am pretty much broke into the shoe and can wear them for any distance. After the Kinvaras wear down some more, I plan to switch and see what happens.

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	Application is in
4/28/2012	Joseph’s 5K	Fairfield, Maine
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 great running week overall. A couple of long runs, over 40 miles two weeks in a row. Now for April I have a feeling that I am going to cut back my mileage to 120-130 range, which means keeping my weekly totals around 30 or so. We will see how this goes .