Friday, September 26, 2014

Weekly Training Report - September 15th-21st

Monday: 3.3 miles (7:22)
We worked armbars from the guard with a few different grip setups and getting a high guard with our leg on top of the shoulder of the arm we were attacking.  We progressed from there if our opponent stands and starts stacking us to reach for the far leg, pivot underneath and knocking our opponent over with the armbar still on.

Tuesday:  No running

Wednesday:  3.6 miles (7:06)
Ran a short workout in the morning, 3 x 500m, paces were 5:49, 5:35, 5:40 with 2:30 jog between intervals.

Thursday: 4.1 miles (7:13)
We worked some sweeps from guard when our opponent stands up.  Basic setup was to get the cross sleeve grip, underhook their near leg (Hooking their leg at our elbow, not using our forearm), and pulling the leg while extending our hips.  Then, if they countered, we worked a transition to an omoplata from there to a sweep.

Friday: 5.2 miles (7:27)

Saturday: 5 miles (7:03)

Sunday: 17.5 miles (7:59)
My longest run since January.  It went pretty good, but I put it off until night time and it was 80 degrees and 80% humidity.

Weekly total: 38.7 miles
Pretty decent week for me in terms of mileage, getting in a long run and a little bit of a work out.  I need to stay consistent with my long runs in the coming weeks.  And start to add a fast finish to everyone other one.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Weekly Training Report - September 8th-14th

Monday:  4.1 miles (7:24)
In standup, we worked on an arm drag to some different takedowns: double leg, single leg, and taking the back.  On the ground, we worked on our standard back defense.  Protecting your neck, bridge up onto your opponent, and move to the opposite side of the choking arm.

Tuesday:  No running

Wednesday:  No running

Thursday: 4 miles (7:14)
We worked the same takedown we've been working all week.  Then, on the ground we worked some attacks and back takes from technical mount.  And I got my first stripe on my blue belt!

Friday: 3.3 miles (7:29)
Did nogi today, at first it was just me.  But, then Anthony (my first instructor at Gracie Barra) and Jeremy York showed up.  We just did some light rolling.  It was fun to get ragdolled by those two guys for an hour.

Saturday: 2.4 miles (8:01); 3.1 miles (5:47)
Ran the Rock 'n Run  5K this morning.  I finished 1st in my age group and 15th overall with a time of 18:05.  That's my second best 5K ever, and so close to breaking 18 minutes for just the second time.  Race report to come later.

Sunday:   No running

Weekly total: 16.9 miles
Wow, didn't even make it to 20 miles this week.  I was feeling real lazy on Sunday.  My jiu jitsu training went well this week though.  And, I ran a pretty good race on Saturday, pacing was a little off... but I'm happy with my time.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Rock n' Run 5K Race Report

This past Saturday was the Rock n' Run 5K in Casselberry.  The second race in the Track Shack Race Series.  It's been a month since the first race, but it hasn't cooled off much at all yet.  And, my training has been pretty spotty this whole summer, so I wasn't expecting anything earth shattering.



I haven't been running a whole lot of workouts.  But, I figured my race strategy would be to try to go out at ~5:30 and hold that as long as I could.  That would give me about a 45 second PR and I haven't run any workouts that indicated I should be able to hold this pace.  So, it sounded like a good plan!  At least I would challenge myself.

The Rock n' Run is a fun race around the "scenic" Casselberry golf course.  Ok, it's not the best looking golf course out there.  But, the race route was pretty much flat, so it had that going for it.  Also, it was this race, two years ago, where I broke 20 minutes in a 5K for the first time!

There were a couple bands out on the course.  My bib came with a couple of rip off tags with band names on them so I could vote for my favorite band.  I honestly don't remember any of the band names or the songs they were singing.

I do remember turning left, with about 1/3 mile left to go, a band on the corner and the lead singer yelling out "This guy is going to give me a high five".  So, I ran over and gave him a high five, probably the highlight of his day.  He's just lucky I didn't throw up on him.  It was this guy, I found him on Track Shack's facebook page:



Apparently, he's a high five whore.  I thought we had something special.  Oh well, back to the race.

So, the first mile went according to plan.  I went through the first mile in 5:35.  The only problem is I was really hurting already and I had two more miles to go!  Gah!

I tried to keep the same pace for the second mile, but every time I looked down at my Garmin I was going slower.  First it was 5:40, then 5:43, then 5:47.  I stopped looking at my watch.  I ended up going through the second mile in 5:51.  The second mile is usually when I slow down the most during a race, and the same think happened during this one.  It's weird too, because the second mile is when I pass the most people.  I guess there's a silver lining there.  I'm slowing down, but not as much as a lot of the people in front of me.

The last mile, I just tried to hang on.  I know I said the course was flat, mostly flat, but it seemed like the last mile was all up hill.  I slowed down even more on the last mile with a 5:57.

And then it was a slight right and the pain was over!  I finished in 18:05, 15th overall.  That's my second fastest 5K ever, not too bad.  It would have been nice to break 18 minutes for the second time.  But, that will have to wait until 2015.  The next race in the race series is the UCF 5 miler in October.  No more 5Ks scheduled for this year.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Weekly Training Report - September 1st-7th

Monday:  No running

Tuesday:  No running

Wednesday: 9.0 miles (8:00)

Thursday: 4.6 miles (7:11)
Interval workout, 5 x 500m with 500m jog in between sets.  Averages ~5:45 pace on the intervals.

Friday: 4.4 miles (7:23)

Saturday: 5.8 miles (6:57)
Tempo run, 10 minute warm up, 20 minutes at T pace (6:20), 10 minute cool down

Sunday:  15.5 miles (7:47)
With my marathon less than 12 weeks away, I need to get some long runs in.  I wanted to do 20 miles, but this is still a pretty good long run for me.  It's the longest I've run in a couple of months.  I probably would have injured myself if I tried to do 20 miles without working up to it.

Weekly total: 39.2 miles
I had two pretty good workouts this week and a long run.  I was just a little lazy at the beginning of the week.  I also went to Jiu Jitsu 4 times during the week.  I didn't jot anything down though so I don't remember what we worked on.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

2014 FFBJJ State Championships Recap

The FFBJJ State Championships were held a week ago, this past Saturday in Coral Springs.  I competed in this tournament last year as a white belt.  It was my first Jiu Jitsu tournament and I lost my first match.  I feel like I've learned a lot in a year, so it was time to test myself again.  This time, I competed for the first time as a blue belt.


I competed as a lightweight, Master 2, blue belt.  Lightweight meant I had to weigh in at 168 with my gi on right before my matches.  Master 2 means I'm pretty old.  I was pretty much right on weight throughout the last week before the tournament.  I woke up and weighed in at 163, a little high considering that I wouldn't be weighing in until the middle of the afternoon.  So, I went for a run and afterwards I was at 160.  It turned out to not even being close, I weighed 165 with my gi on.

After my run, I showered, had some coffee and jumped in the rented minivan and headed to the gym to pick everyone up.  We had a full van, and a little over 3 hours of driving ahead of us.  But, road trips are always fun!


We got to the Coral Springs gymnasium a little after 9 am and stood in line to check in.  After getting in the gym, it was time to wait.  For those of you who have never competed, it's a lot of waiting around.  Usually the kids go first, starting around 10 am.  And there are usually a lot of kids!  Then white belts, blue belts, purple belts, brown belts and black belts.  Adult blue belts were scheduled to start around 2:30 pm.  The waiting is probably one of the toughest things about competitions.  Your nerves are already on edge, you can't eat much because you are trying to make weight, and gym stadium seating is really uncomfortable.  It's a great time!

Finally, adult blue belts were called up to the warm up area.  I rushed over there, but there was no need.  I think it was another hour of waiting around before my weight class.  At last, my name was called and I got my gi inspected and weighed in.  There were 3 other competitors in my age and weight class.  We walked over to mat 4 and it was time to go.

My opponent was Larry Puchta.  We walked out onto the mat, shook hands with the judge and each other and then our match began.  Usually, I pull guard almost immediately.  My stand up game is horrible, and I'd rather get to the ground with no points being scored.  But, it'd been awhile since I last competed and I wanted to try and go for a takedown if I got grips I wanted.  Unfortunately, Larry got 2 collar grips and jumped guard.  I tried to posture up in his guard, but he controlled my right arm over his centerline and swept me to mount almost immediately.  So, about 30 seconds into the match and I was down 6-0.  I was able to defend his attacks and slowly recover half guard, but he had the underhook and he was eventually able to get to quarter guard and then, finally, pass my guard again.  Now, I was down 9-0.  I worked and recovered half guard again, then I got a knee shield and collar and sleeve grip.  But, there were only about 30 seconds left and I couldn't mount a sweep attempt.  I lost the 5 minute match 9-0.

The flood of emotions after working so hard preparing for a tournament, driving 3 hours and losing your first match is hard to explain.  Immediately afterwards, I felt like I let my team and Instructors down.  It's a questioning about why I train so hard and end up not achieving the results I want on the competition mat.  Is it worth it?  Maybe I should take some time off?  It takes a little while to come out of that funk, but yes it's worth it.  Obviously, I want to win competition matches.  But, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is so much more than that.  It's the camaraderie that you build with your teammates during hours of training together in the gym.



It's the self discipline and quiet self confidence that training in any martial art brings.  Competition itself is testing yourself against other opponents and finding holes in your game.  But, above all that, I think Jiu Jitsu makes me a better person.  It's hard to explain why.  Jiu Jitsu definitely requires you to leave your ego at the door.  From the time that you first tie a white belt around your waist, you lose... a lot, you get smashed and you tap a lot.  As time passes, you gain experience and you tap less often.  But you still tap, there is still no room for ego.  

My teammate, Roberto, shared this quote from Theodore Roosevelt with me after losing that helped put things into perspective:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

 I lost that competition match, but I lost it while giving everything I had to win it.  In the end, my setbacks just feed my fire to keep training, keep trying to better myself.  I may never be an elite competitor, or win gold medals at Worlds.  But, that's not why I do Jiu Jitsu in the first place.

So, Monday morning, I was back on the mats training and eyeing the next tournament where I can test myself again!  Oss!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Weekly Training Report - August 25th-31st

Monday: 4.3 miles (7:58)

Tuesday: 5.0 miles (7:49)

Wednesday: 3.5 miles (7:36)

Thursday: 6.3 miles (7:46)

Friday: 8.65 miles (6:57)
Tempo run: 10 min warmup, 5 miles in 33 minutes, 15 min cooldown

Saturday: 5.3 miles (7:44)
Ran early in the morning before driving 3 hours to Coral Springs for the Florida BJJ State Championships.  Lost my first match in my weight class and then drove home.  I didn't get home until after 1 am, I was exhausted.

Sunday:  No running
I was so close to running every day this week.  But, I was so tired from yesterday.

Weekly total: 33.1 miles
I didn't meet my goals at the State Championships, but it was still a great experience with my Gracie Barra teammates.  And, it gives me something to focus on going forward.  The road trip was a lot of fun though!  My running this week was pretty good, I even got a pretty good workout in on Friday.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Weekly Training Report - August 18th-24th

Monday: 4.5 miles (7:53)
In BJJ, we worked some submissions from guard using the opponent's lapel.  I liked the control of their posture once I got the lapel out.  Conditioning after class, getting ready for States.  It was tough, but hopefully it'll pay off.

Tuesday: No running
Competition class tonight, a little warmup and then live rolling with 5 or 6 hard matches.  It was hard, but fun!

Wednesday: 6.0 miles (7:55)

Thursday: 4.7 miles (7:41)

Friday: 5.1 miles (7:53)

Saturday: 7.2 miles (7:47)
We worked on some escapes from side control in jiu jitsu.  Something I can always use a lot of because when I go against the better guys in our gym, I always end up on the bottom in side control.

Sunday: 9.0 miles (8:04)

Weekly total: 36.5 miles
No running workouts this week, just some easy running.
Went to jiu jitsu 6 times this week.  In full preparations for the Jiu Jitsu State Championship next Saturday!

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Weekly Training Report - August 11th-17th

Monday: No running

Tuesday: No running

Wednesday:  4.5 miles (7:37)

Thursday: 7.0 miles (7:08)
3 miles easy, 4 miles faster than Marathon pace... around ~6:30.

Friday: 5.5 miles (7:43)

Saturday: 2.1 miles (7:52); 3.1 miles (5:50)
Ran the Celebration of Running 5K - Race Report

Sunday: 10.0 miles (7:35)

Weekly total: 32.2 miles
I ran a marathon Tempo run this week.  I'd like to do that at least once a week.  I want 6:40 to feel pretty easy going into my next marathon.  The 5K race went better than expected, I also want to throw in an interval session once a week.

Went to Jiu Jitsu 4 time this week, Monday - Thursday.  I didn't write down what we did, so I already forgot it.  Dammit!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Celebration of Running Race Report

Yesterday was the start of the TrackShack race series that starts off with the Celebration of Running 5K near the Florida Hospital and the Orlando Science Center.  We ran right by the TrackShack store, and the area keeps getting nicer to run around with the "Mills 50" rebranding of the area.



I didn't really know what to expect for this race.  My training has been exceptionally lousy lately, virtually no speed workouts and much lower mileage than what I wanted for the summer.  I don't really know what has been going on with my training.  I haven't been injured or sick.  I just haven't had the drive or the desire to really run a lot.  I blame a lot of it on the heat and the humidity and the abundance of thunderstorms, but at some point, I just need to get out and run more.  Especially if I want to have a good performance at the Space Coast marathon at the end of November.



Maybe running some races again will get my competitive juices flowing and I'll run more miles and more workouts throughout the week.

So, as far as the race today, I was just hoping to break 19 minutes.  Actually, that was the worst I wanted to do.  I was going to go out and try to run around 6 minute miles and see how that felt and then adjust from there.  That would put me around 18:30-18:40.  Last year, I ran 18:20.

After some words from the TrackShack owners, John and Betsy, about this being the 37th year of business for TrackShack and 22 years of the Celebration of Running 5K (Wow!), the national anthem was played and we lined up for the start.

The start heads south down Alden road for the first half mile, and it has a pretty good drop in elevation.  So, the start was pretty quick, which was nice, but the bad part is the finish comes back through Alden.  That hill doesn't seem like much right now, but it'll probably suck real bad at mile 3.

I started out the first 1/4 mile at 5:30 pace, way too fast!  That damn downhill...



I got myself under control and went through the first mile at 5:50.  I felt pretty good at this point, but the heat was already getting to me.  I just wanted to be done at this point, before I felt like death.

We passed the Track Shack store with a DJ out front and then ended up on a trail for a bit.  Then we hit the 2 mile marker.  I went through the marker at 11:50, which was a 6 minute mile.  My garmin gave my split as 5:58.  Either way, I was slowing down too much.

I really didn't know how much more I had in me.  We got off the trail and went through a water station.  I think this was around 1/4 mile into the last mile and I was seriously considering walking at this point.  I think the way I pushed through this point was some weird reasoning that I would be on the course longer if I started walking, so I should just keep running and try to push the pace a bit.


So, that's what I did.  I focused on some people ahead of me and just started to try to reel them in.  And, it was working.  I was passing people!  We turned right onto Alden and I could see the 3 mile marker off in the distance at the top of the hill.  I just focused on not slowing down up the hill.  I made it up the hill, one more right turn and there was the finish!  I finished strong and it was over!  Thank God!

My time was 18:12, and my last mile was 5:46!  I finished 21st overall and 4th in my age group.  I'm pretty happy with my overall time.  It's faster than my race last year.  But, I'm really ecstatic about having such a negative split on my last mile.  Even with my pretty sorry training, I haven't lost much fitness since my last 5K way back on February 15th.  The weather was 20 degrees colder for that run, so considering the heat, I think these two performances are pretty similar.

Below is my pace graph from Smashrun, the shaded part is my fastest mile of the run at 5:41.  Here's my smashrun entry: http://smashrun.com/woodardb/run/2014/8



Hopefully, this race will spur me on to better training.  Once again, Track Shack did an outstanding job with the race.  As they always do.  I'm looking forward to the next race in the series in September.  And, I'll be back next year to run this race again.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Weekly Training Report - August 4th-10th

Monday: 6.1 miles (7:42)
We worked on some spider guard setup and sweeps today.  Everyone tells me with my length, that this should be my go to guard.  And, I agree with them, but man I just really suck at it.  There's too many moving pieces, I need a lot more reps before I think I'll feel comfortable playing spider guard.

Tuesday: 4.1 miles (7:28)

Wednesday:  No running

Thursday: 4.5 miles (7:42)

Friday: 6.4 miles (7:30)
We did some omoplata setups in Nogi today.  I never really thought of going for an omoplata without the gi, because it seems like it would be too hard to hold without grips.  But, the setup we used to trap the arm and hug under our leg was really pretty cool.

Saturday: 7.2 miles (7:44)

Sunday: 4.2 miles (7:52)

Weekly total: 32.5 miles
No workouts in my runs this week.  Next Saturday is the Celebration of Running 5K by Trackshack.  I think I'm going to do awful, but I'm looking forward to racing for the first time in a long time.

I went to Jiu Jitsu 6 times, Monday through Friday (I went twice on Tuesday).  And I signed up for the Florida BJJ State Championships in Coral Springs.




This was my first ever BJJ competition last year, and I'm looking forward to competing again this year.  This year, I'll be competing as a blue belt.  I feel butterflies in my stomach just writing about it!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Weekly Training Report - July 28th-August 3rd

Monday: No running

Tuesday: 5.2 miles (7:58)

Wednesday: 5.6 miles (6:50)
Tempo run, did 24 mins at T pace ~6:18.

Thursday: 4.7 miles (7:56)

Friday: 3.8 miles (8:02)

Saturday: 3.2 miles (7:30)
Ran 2 x 4 min intervals, 6:45 and 6:20.  With a 4 min break in between.  I wanted to do more, around 4 or 5 total.  But, there was a lof of lightning, so I turned around and hightailed it home.

In BJJ, we worked on guillotine defense at the Saturday class.  Jeremy York from Gracie Brandon stopped by, he competed at last year's ADCC, losing a decision to Ezra Lenon.  He's a cool guy, and it was cool to pick his brain about some of the things he does in guard.

Sunday: 9.3 miles (7:57)
Wanted to run further, but while I was running around UCF I saw lightning to the east and to the west.  I'm pretty tired of the weather dictating how far/when I run...

Weekly total: 31.7 miles
I felt a little more energetic on my runs this week, just frustrated with my low mileage.  Some of which is due to the weather, some is just because I'm not mentally there during my runs.  I've been back on a low carb diet for about a month now, so I finally feel transitioned to a low glycogen state.  It was a tough transition.

I went to Jiu Jitsu 6 times this week, Monday through Saturday.  We worked guillotine defense and opening the guard by standing.  I got some pointers from Donald about maintaining my posture in the guard, so I'm trying to really focus on that when I find myself in someone's guard.  I think it's helping.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Weekly Training Report - July 21st-27th

Monday: 6.5 miles (8:31)

Tuesday: No running

Wednesday: 7 miles (7:32)

Thursday: 10.6 miles (7:35)
In the middle of this run, I did 5 x 2 mins on/2 mins off.

My pace for the 5 "on" intervals was: 6:14, 6:09, 6:08, 6:08, 6:14.  And my last four miles were all around ~7:30.

Friday:  4 (7:46)

Saturday: 5.2 miles (7:58)

Sunday:No running

Weekly total: 33.9 miles
Pretty pathetic week running.  Tuesday my stomach didn't feel so great at night so I skipped that run.  And Sunday, I just felt blah all day.  I went to Jiu Jitsu 5 times this week, Monday through Friday.  We worked X guard during the advanced classes, working a bunch of sweeps from that position.  I'm finding myself gravitating towards X guard during live rolling, so this week really helped me get a few ideas of what I can do from this position.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Weekly Training Report - July 14th-20th

Monday: 5 miles (7:41)

Tuesday: 7.1 miles (7:15)

Wednesday: No running

Thursday: 5.3 miles (7:31)

Friday:  12.1 (7:35)

Saturday: 5.3 miles (8:01)

Sunday: 12.6 miles (7:49)

Weekly total: 47.3 miles
No workouts this week.  I went to Jiu Jitsu 3 times this week.  I got in a couple of medium long runs on Friday and Sunday.  Still no proper long run.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Weekly Training Report - July 7th-July 13th

Monday: 5.3 miles (7:39); 3.7 (8:34)
Went to Advanced Jiu-Jitsu, we worked on triangles and triangle defense.  Good for me, because I seem to get caught in triangles a lot.  There were 3 variations depending on how deep the triangle was setup.

Tuesday: 7.3 miles (8:28)
Average HR was 136, max 148.

Wednesday: 4.2 miles (7:13)
Sort of ran a workout today.  10 minute warm up, followed by 4 mins at 6:00 then 6 minute recovery jog.  Another 5 mins at 6:00 and 5 minute cool down.  It was hard.  All this slow running is taking any sort of zip out of my legs.

Thursday: 8 miles (7:18)

Friday:  5.1 (8:24); 3.16 (7:58)
Average HR for first run was 143, but my max got up to 166 at the end.  It was HOT.

Second run was just a short run with my wife riding her bike with me.  That was fun, I hope we do that more often.

Saturday: 6.2 miles (7:37)

Sunday: 3.6 miles (7:52)
Another botched long run.  Went out pretty late on Sunday and wanted to do 15+.  After a mile in, I knew that wasn't happening.  This was depressing.

Weekly total: 46.4 miles
Not much to say here.  Running is supposed to be my release, but lately nothing is coming easily and I'm getting discouraged.  I need to run very slow to keep my HR under 145.  And my workouts and long runs are virtually non-existent.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Weekly Training Report - June 30th-July 6th

Monday: 6.5 miles (7:47); 3.6 (7:43)

Tuesday: 10.1 miles (7:53)

Wednesday: 6.2 miles (7:40)

Thursday: 8.7 miles (8:48)
Ran with a heart rate monitor for the first time in a long time.  The goal was to keep my heart rate under 145.  Near the end it was climbing over 150, even though I was running 9 minute miles.  I'm really hating this heat and humidity.  In the winter, I did this same run and was able to run 7:30 minute miles while keeping my heart rate low.  I want to run a couple miles a week with a heart rate monitor to see if this performance gets better or worse.

Friday:  No running
No reason for not running.

Went to Jiu-Jitsu open mat and got absolutely smashed by everyone.  There's a tournament next week, but I'm not really feeling it.  My confidence in running and Jiu-Jitsu is at an all time low.

Saturday: 7.1 miles (7:41)

Sunday: No running
No reason for not running.

Weekly total: 42.2 miles
Another low mileage week and only ran 5 days this week.  I feel like I'm losing my mojo with running and I'm frustrated with how I feel lately while running.  My plan was to be running 70 mile weeks by this point, and now I don't know what to do.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Weekly Training Report - June 23rd-June30th

Monday: 5.0 miles (7:53)
Advanced Jiu Jitsu class, it was only me and Geico (a four strip purple belt).  So, it was like a private lesson!  We worked two half guard sweeps that work together, which is great getting tips from Geico, because half guard is probably his favorite position and he's very good at it.  I need to work on keeping my underhooking arm at a diagonal and keep reaching for the opposite shoulder.  I have a tendency to let it hang out down around my opponent's waist.  That is a weak underhook that usually leads to me getting darced, or cross faced and flattened out.

Tuesday: 9.2 miles (7:37)

Wednesday: 9.8 miles (7:42)

Thursday: 6.2 miles (7:41)
Went to the Randori Jiu Jitsu class and messed my back up pretty bad.  I think it was when I was trying to finish an omoplata and my opponent stacked me.  I felt my neck pop a couple times and my back is pretty sore.  I was planning on running again tonight, but not anymore.

Friday:  No running
Back is still sore.

Saturday: 8.2 miles (7:18)

Sunday: 4.1 miles (7:30)

Weekly total: 42.6 miles
This was a pretty miserable week for running.  No workouts and a hurt back kept me at a pretty low volume for this week.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Weekly Training Report - June 16th-22nd

Monday: 6.1 (7:33)

Tuesday: 9.4 miles (7:32)

Wednesday: 9.3 miles (6:27); 2.6 (8:09)
Tempo run, 50 minutes at T pace (6:14).  Probably my longest tempo run ever, I felt really good.  I would categorize it as "comfortably hard", but my breathing was controlled and I never felt like I was redlining.

Thursday: 8.1 miles (7:54); 3.1 (7:56)

Friday: 8.2 miles (7:22)

Saturday: 10.5 miles (7:50)

Sunday: 16.7 miles (7:46)
This was my longest run since my marathon at the end of February.

Weekly total: 73.9 miles
Well, I finally made it to 70 miles in a week.  It took me a little longer to get here than I thought.  My first 70+ mile week since November last year.  I also doubled for the first time this week, and I actually liked going out for my shakeout runs at night.  My daughter rode her bike with me and it was nice to have her company.

I probably won't do any workouts for the next week or two and try to hold my mileage in the 70s.

So, I ran a lot this week, but only made it to Jiu Jitsu once.  I can't seem to do both.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Weekly Training Report - June 9th-June 15th

Monday: No running

Tuesday: 7 miles (7:34)

Wednesday: 8 miles (7:46)

Thursday: 5.3 miles (6:23)
Tempo run, 30 minutes at T pace (6:17)

Friday: 4 miles (7:30)

Saturday: 10.3 miles (7:22)

Sunday: 7 miles (7:37)

Weekly total: 41.6 miles
Very low mileage week, I did get a workout in.  But, no long run.  On the other hand, I went to Jiu-Jitsu classes 6 times this week.  So, I feel like that somewhat makes up for my lack of miles this week.

I've been a blue belt for a few months now, and there's a Naga tournament coming up in my area: U.S. Open.  So, I'm contemplating doing that tournament.


Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Weekly Training Report - June 2nd-8th

Monday: 8.5 miles (7:03)

Tuesday: 10.0 miles (7:30)

Wednesday: 7.6 miles (7:21)

Thursday: 10.8 miles (7:31)

Friday: 5.4 miles (7:29)

Saturday: 8.4 miles (7:35)

Sunday: 12.5 miles (7:12)

Weekly total: 63.2 miles
Not much to say about this week.  I didn't run any workouts, just a bunch of easy running.  Training is getting a little monotonous with no races on the horizon for a couple of months.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Weekly Training Report - May 26th-June 1st

Monday:  No running
This was my first day without running in 532 days.  I felt like it was time to break the streak.  Sometimes, I'd find myself running when I probably shouldn't just to get in a couple miles to keep my streak going.  It definitely felt weird not going for a run.

Tuesday: 8.5 miles (7:42)

I had blood in my urine after this run.  That really freaked me out, it's never happened to me before!  It was very hot and I ran during lunch, but didn't really drink before my run.  So, I think it was just due to dehydration.  I made sure to drink a lot for the next couple of days and never saw it again.

Wednesday: 8.0 miles (7:19)

Thursday: 3.1 miles (7:18)

Friday: 9.1 miles (6:38)
I did a tempo run for 40 minutes, just over 6.3 miles.

Saturday: 10.0 miles (7:32)
My legs were tired from the workout on Friday.  I never really felt very good during this run.

Sunday: 15.1 miles (8:21)
First long run in a couple weeks.  Ran about 4 miles before meeting up with the running group in Winter Park.  It's also been over a month since I've run with the group, so it was nice to see everyone and have some company on a long run.  Still want to up this distance to the 17-20 mile range.

Weekly total: 53.8 miles
Slight lower mileage this week due to taking Monday off.  Maybe next week I'll shoot for 70+ miles.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Weekly Training Report - May 19th-25th

Monday: 8.0 miles (7:47)

Tuesday: 12.2 miles (7:38)


Wednesday: 8.5 miles (7:02)
Did 4 x 1km intervals today with full jogging rest (~5 mins), the pace for the intervals were ~5:30.  The rest was probably a little too long.  But, I wanted to do more intervals than I did last week.  Plan is to keep increasing the number of intervals I do and decrease the rest time.

Thursday: 7.5 miles (7:09)

Friday: 9.1 miles (7:22)

Saturday: 8.0 miles (6.53)
Did ~32 mins at T pace, a little over 5 miles.  So that works out to 6:20 pace.  I felt really good the whole time, comfortably hard, just the way it should be.  Its nice when workouts go the way they're supposed to.

Sunday: 10.2 miles (7:48)
I still have been horrible at getting up in the morning to get my run in.  Usually I would wait until the sun sets before going on my long run if I don't do it in the morning, but we were going to a friends house at night for a party.  So, it was either run outside or go to the gym and run for 2 hours on the treadmill.  At 11am, it felt pretty good out, not too hot.  So, I chose to run outside.  By the time I actually got out of the house, it was almost noon.  It still wasn't too hot, but after about 5 miles in, it was pretty oppressive.  I planned my run to run by water fountains every couple of miles so I could drink and douse my head.  But, I started getting chills at mile 9, so I called my wife to come pick me up (luckily I had brought my cell phone).

Weekly total: 63.6 miles
Back over 60 miles, but this is two weeks in a row where I've bombed my long runs.  I have to get those back on track.  Other than that, I'm happy with my two workouts this week.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Weekly Training Report - May 12th-18th

Monday: 7.5 miles (7:25)

Tuesday: 4.0 miles (7:42)


Wednesday: 8.3 miles (7:14)
Did intervals today and they really sucked, I only did 2 x 1km repeats at 5:33, 5:36... blah

Thursday: 9.0 miles (7:41)

Friday: 8.0 miles (7:03)
Did about 22 mins at T pace, a little over 3 miles at ~6:20.  I want to try to build this up to 5 miles.

Saturday: 12.5 miles (7:35)

Sunday: 6.9 miles (7:55)
This run really sucked, I wanted to do 15-17 miles.  But, I ate like crap this weekend and my stomach wasn't into this run at all.  I got about halfway and had to walk about 4 miles home.  I guess we all have bad runs, but this one really got me down.  It sucked, and I need to get my nutrition squared away.

Weekly total: 56.2 miles
This is my first week under 60 miles in almost 2 months, and I only had to run about 3 more miles on my long run on Sunday to get there.  But, I blew up on that run.  Oh well, I need to forget about this week and get back at it next week.