When does it get easier? / Training week 4/6-4/12

Having completed my first 100-mile week of 2009 last week and still feeling some post-50K deadness in my legs, this week I wanted to scale back just a tad to fully recover. By scaling back "just a tad," I mean my goal was to run 80 quality miles, which I did.

Unfortunately, the week got off to a rocky start. On Monday night at 10:30, we were awoken by a screaming Noah, who proceeded to scream for another half-hour before we decided that this was yet another ear infection rearing its ugly head. So we took him to the ER--our second middle-of-the-night run to the ER--and, sure enough, he was treated for an ear infection and we got home a little past 1 a.m. Starting the week sleep-deprived when you're already not getting enough sleep certainly makes running all the harder. But the good news is that Noah's doing well. And I'm getting enough sleep to function well enough to be productive and run relatively well. I'm just not getting enough sleep to be at my best. I find that insufficient sleep makes intense running really hard.

Anyway, things in the Hornsby house stabilized and the rest of the week was much easier for all of us as we went about our daily lives--work, family time, running for me, horse riding for Anne, preparing for an Easter weekend trip, etc. Through it all, I managed to get in a decent tempo run and pretty solid intervals in reaching 80 miles for the week.

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Diet continues to be a critical factor in my training and lifestyle. I continue focusing on a healthy diet with lots of vegetables and whole grains, chicken and fish. I eat tons of spinach, broccoli, brown rice, carrots, red and green peppers, whole-wheat pasta, whole-grain breads, made-from-scratch oatmeal, etc. I do eat too much peanut butter, but it's natural peanut butter and it could be worse. I also continue taking the recommended daily dosage of glucosamine & MSM (joints), l-carnitine (fat metabolism) and l-glutamine (muscle repair). My weight is anywhere from 168-170 lbs.--which is where I need to be.

I'm also doing push-ups and core exercises a few times a week. The core exercises are difficult to get in from a time standpoint, but I try. I just jam in the push-ups prior to my runs.

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Here's how the week went:

Monday
AM: 5 miles easy on the treadmill at 7:45 pace.

Tuesday
AM: 9.25-mile tempo run on the treadmill. I did this run while Noah was still sleeping it off from our hospital visit. From mile 2 on, I ran anywhere from 6:18-6:40 pace, accelerating my pace with each mile. My legs felt very fresh.

Wednesday
AM: 9 miles in and around the Chagrin River valley at 7:45 pace.

Thursday
AM: 10.25-mile interval workout at the high school track. At the last minute I decided to shake things up a little and run 5x1600 in lieu of 3x1600 with a goal of going sub-6:00 for each. Five quality one-mile repeats would require dialing back my pace just a little. My splits were solid: 1) 5:57, 2) 5:55, 3) 5:55, 4) 5:59 and 5) 6:02. I tried to go sub-6:00 on the last interval but my legs were pretty tired.
PM: 4 miles at 7:50 pace on the treadmill
Total miles for day: 14.25

Friday
AM: 10.25 miles in and around the Chagrin River valley.
PM: 5.25 miles on the treadmill.
Total miles for day: 15.5 miles

Saturday
AM: 15 miles in and around the Chagrin River valley. Because we had to leave town early that morning, I was unable to join the South Chagrin Reservation crew and instead went out for this 15-miler at 5:30 a.m. I had some strong surges throughout.
PM: 4.25 miles in very hilly Wheeling, West Virginia. I felt like garbage because my legs got tight on me during the drive to Wheeling. I guess I didn't stretch enough after my run.
Total miles for day: 19.25

Sunday
AM: 8.5 miles in Wheeling, West Virginia. With church and lots of family activities, there wasn't much time for running. So I squeaked in these 8 miles and called it a day.

Total miles for week: 80.0
Total miles for month: 157.5
Total miles for year: 1,068.89

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As I've previously written, the Forget the PR Mohican 50K this Sunday, Apr. 19 will be a training run for me. I'm still thinking about racing the Cleveland Marathon and it would be stupid to do four races in four months (Lt. JC Stone 50K in March, Mohican 50K in April, Cleveland Marathon in May and Mohican 100 in June). So the plan is to run the Mohican 50K as a trainer and then race the Cleveland Marathon if I think a sub-3 is doable. I have a ways to go to get my leg turnover where it needs to be for a sub-3 effort at Cleveland. All along the focus has been on preparing for the Mohican 100 and that's where my focus will remain.

With that said, this week my goals are:

• 100+ miles including a solid training run at the Mohican 50K
• 2x3200-meter (3200=2 miles) intervals at the track, with each hopefully below 12 minutes.
• 4-5 miles at tempo pace (a little less than normal as I don't want to be trashed going into the Mohican 50K).

I will report on my Mohican 50K experience next week.

Good luck to all friends and fellow runners who will be running the Boston Marathon on Apr. 20! There is no greater road race in the world.

In the meantime, onward and upward!