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Fitness and Training

It’s only a month until the Twin Cities marathon. I completed my 4th 20 mile run last Sunday. Training has been going really really well. You can see from my 8 mile run this morning (details below) that my pace is improving. Most importantly my heart rate is remaining lower. It used to jump up to about 175 or so when I was pushing this hard but now I can barely break 160. I think the chances of me blowing away my PR next month are very good. I have the Dick Beardsley half marathon on September 11 and I’m looking forward to a fast time.

Intervals (GPS Interval)
Type Distance Time Total Time Pace Avg HR Max HR
Interval 8:54 133 145
Interval 1 Mi 7:54.21 16:47.34 7:55 146 153
Interval 1 Mi 7:57.28 24:44.62 7:58 147 156
Interval 1 Mi 7:55.03 32:39.65 7:56 144 157
Interval 1 Mi 7:54.82 40:34.47 7:55 153 160
Interval 1 Mi 7:55.45 48:29.92 7:56 155 158
Interval 1 Mi 7:36.06 56:05.98 7:37 155 161
Interval 1 Mi 8:03.14 1:04:09.12 8:04 153 158
Interval 0.02 Mi 0:09.59 1:04:18.71 8:00 157 158

On the fitness front I have been working out a lot and really building my core. I feel a lot stronger and tighter though my weight loss has slowed significantly in the last month. I’m now down to about 215 pounds and I don’t know if I’ll hit 200 before the marathon. But that’s ok. My body is still shrinking and I’m building muscle.


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Effortless Running

What a difference a month makes. My training has been improving so much and in the last week or so my body has just exploded with energy. A couple weeks ago I did my first 20 mile run of the year. It went great. I was able to complete the 20 miles and still had some gas in the tank. Last weekend I took time off of running and focussed more on strength and core training. This has done wonders for me this week. My times have improved and my energy levels are through the roof.
This morning I had a great run. The weather was perfect – 65 degrees, low humidity and a nice easy breeze. I planned to do a relatively easy 10 miles at a 9:00 min pace but I just couldn’t slow my body down. I tried but I just settled into an 8:30 min/mile groove that carried me through all ten miles and change. It felt great. I am planning to do another 10 mile run on Saturday and 20 miles on Sunday. If I feel good I’ll go even further. This will be my highest mileage week for the year.

Intervals (GPS Interval)
Type Distance Time Total Time Pace Avg HR Max HR Notes
Interval 1 Mi 8:43.58 8:43.58 8:44 133 145
Interval 1 Mi 8:46.42 17:30.00 8:47 141 146
Interval 1 Mi 8:40.06 26:10.06 8:41 145 151
Interval 1 Mi 8:27.81 34:37.87 8:28 150 154
Interval 1 Mi 8:25.64 43:03.51 8:26 151 157
Interval 1 Mi 8:23.14 51:26.65 8:24 154 160
Interval 1 Mi 8:30.2 59:56.85 8:31 157 160
Interval 1 Mi 8:23.13 1:08:19.98 8:24 158 161
Interval 1 Mi 8:29.36 1:16:49.34 8:30 151 159
Interval 1 Mi 8:29.78 1:25:19.12 8:30 158 162
Interval 0.25 Mi 2:06.23 1:27:25.35 8:25 163 165

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MSUM 4th of July 10K

I got it done. It wasn’t a perfect race by any means but I am overall pretty happy with my performance.

I finished in 51:33. I had a goal to beat my PR of 48:48 but it wasn’t to be. The first half was right on target at an 8:00 pace but I had a bit of stomach distress in the second half and I was fatigued. It could have been the fact that I ate a banana and a gu gel before the race or it could have been all of the wine I drank last night. I also had a bit of a cough which didn’t help the breathing at all. Anyway, here is how it shook out. Here is the breakdown according to my garmin 405. I’ll update with the official stats once they publish the results.

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An easy 5?

I am really looking forward to the 4th of July 10K race tomorrow at MSUM. I thought I would get out for a nice easy 5 miles today. But as you can see, the oppressive heat and humidity has reared it’s ugly head. I did get 5.4 miles done but it was a very very sweaty 5. My pace slowed throughout but I finished with a 9:44 average.

I snapped a photo when I got back. I ran shirtless today. I am happy that I finally feel comfortable enough to run without a shirt. I know I ain’t pretty, but I’m working on my body. The slobs passing me in their pickups, chewing on their big macs, yapping on their cell phones and laughing at ME can just go to hell. I don’t care any more. If you don’t like what you see, don’t look.
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it’s a HIIT

Yes, I’m talking about high intensity interval training. I tried to do a little bit of HIIT on the treadmill a couple months ago. I have never really incorporated HIIT into my training routines but I know there are lots of benefits to it including greater fat burning and increased performance. I want to increase my speed for the Twin Cities marathon in October.

Well, since the last time I did any HIIT I’ve dropped a lot of weight and I’ve worked on increasing my core strength and upper body strength. A thunderstorm rolled in this morning thwarting my plans to go for a run outside so I headed to the gym. I spent about a half hour working my shoulders and back. I decided to give HIIT another try so I jumped onto the treadmill. To say I was shocked at how readily able I was to do HIIT without dying is an understatement. After a few minutes warmup I set my intervals to run at a 9.5 mph pace for the high intensity and 4 mph walk for the recovery interval. Before I could barely do this for 1 minute at high intensity (or less) followed by 3-4 minutes recovery walking. When I hit my first high intensity interval, it seemed too easy! I managed to run fast for the full minute I planned. When I dropped down to the recovery speed it was too slow so I upped it to a 6.0 mph jog. I managed to keep this up for 30 minutes alternating 1 minute high intensity followed by 2 minutes of recovery jogging. At the end I was sweaty and tired but I felt I could actually do more. Next time I’ll go longer.