Time for another monthly update as we count down the remaining days in August. Current mileage for the month stands at 255, spread out pretty evenly over approximately 32 hours. The endurance base is building nicely from the predominantly heart rate based training, and despite racing 3 times in 4 weekends, the legs are feeling good.
Just like July, the bulk of my training has been carried out at or below 137 bpm as per Dr Phil Maffetone’s 180 formula. You can read more about the Maffetone Method at http://philmaffetone.com, or feel free to check out the excellent Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing available at Amazon.com or any good bookstore.
July 27th – August 2nd [66.4 miles]
Monday – 45 minutes @ MAF.
Tuesday (am) – 35 minutes @ MAF.
Tuesday (pm) – 2 mile warm up followed by the Memorial Scholarship 5K. The heat/humidity was pretty brutal in the race. The first mile felt good (5:40), but things soon fell apart soon after that. I ended up with an 18:45 finish time, but still snagged the age group win.
Wednesday – 1 hour @ MAF with a fast mile to finish.
Thursday (am) – incline treadmill run.
Thursday (pm) – 2 mile warm up, 8 x 200m at the local track, 2 mile cool down.
Friday (am) – 4 miles @ MAF plus 3 progressive miles to finish.
Friday (pm) – 3 mile tire drag @ MAF.
Saturday – 1 hour @ MAF with several 100m strides thrown in at the end.
Sunday – warm up, cool down and the Strider Summer 10 Miler. Another tough race in pretty swampy conditions. Finished 3rd overall in 1:02:52 – out in 31:38, back in 31:04.
August 3rd – August 9th [74 miles]
Monday – 1 hour @ MAF.
Tuesday (am) – 5 miles @ MAF, followed by 8 x 200m on the road.
Tuesday (pm) – 6 miles of mixed pace running. Averaged 6:50/mile.
Wednesday (am) – 1 hour @ MAF.
Thursday – 2 miles outside, but moved inside to the treadmill after a nasty storm blew through. Added on another 5.5 miles @ 7% incline.
Friday – 5 miles @ MAF, followed by another 8 x 200m on the road.
Saturday – 10 miles @ MAF.
Sunday – just over 20 miles for the day including another 5 mile MAF Test (average pace 7:34/mile).
August 10th – August 16th [70 miles]
Monday (am) – 8 miles @ MAF. Fastest pace for a long time thanks to the cools temps and low dew point.
Monday (pm) – short incline run on the treadmill.
Tuesday (am) – 10K @ MAF.
Tuesday (pm) – warm up, cool down and some 200m repeats at the local track testing out my Nike Zoom Rival D 7 track spikes.
Wednesday (am) – 50 minutes @ MAF.
Wednesday (pm) – 30 minutes @ MAF.
Thursday – 1 hour @ MAF with a fast 800m on the track to test the leg speed. 2:37 was a struggle.
Friday – 35 minutes @ MAF.
Saturday – warm up, cool down and the Strider Mile! It’s no real secret I’ve been trying to crack 5 minutes for the mile for a long, long time. I got agonisingly close in 2010 (5:00.88) and I’ve knocked on the door several times since 2006. This year there was no real excuse not to go after it – no Leadville Trail 100 or Western States 100 training to get in the way, no dose of poison ivy to slow me down.
So, in the 10 weeks since the Dawn to Dusk to Dawn 12-Hour race at the end of May, I’ve not only worked on building my aerobic base, but also incorporated some resistance training (weekly tire drags), incline training (weekly treadmill workouts), strength & flexibility (Kinetic Revolution 30 Day Challenge) and naturally a smattering of speed work. The speed work wasn’t super aggressive, but just enough to build some leg speed and get me used to running at or around 5:00/mile pace. The race went well, and I’m now the proud owner of a lifetime best Mile PR – 4:57.25.
Sunday – long run of 2 hours 30 minutes @ MAF. Covered just under 21 miles @ 7:12/mile pace.
August 17th – August 23rd [63 miles]
Monday – 1 hour @ MAF.
Tuesday – 40 minutes @ MAF. Woke up with a sore throat, so cut the hour short as I wasn’t feeling 100%.
Wednesday – progressive 6 miler. Still not feeling great.
Thursday – 1 hour @ MAF.
Friday – 30 minute treadmill run @ MAF.
Saturday – 2 warm up, followed by the East Coast Surfing Championships 5K down at the Oceanfront. I didn’t manage to break 18 minutes, but did run a fairly decent race for 5th place overall. Despite the wind and warm temps I managed splits of 6:02, 5:52 and 5:41. ALways nice to negative split a race.
Sunday – marathon distance long run in 3 hours 17 minutes.
So, all in all in a pretty solid August. With 4 days still to go, I may hit 300 miles for the month which will hopefully stand me in good stead as we move into September and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon which I’ve entered yet again. Thankfully there are no mile races to be run next month, so I can abandon the track work and get back to predominantly MAF training again.