Post Altitude Week

Sorry to not have posted in a while. I have started coaching and helping out at my school. Between that and running, I have not had too much energy to post. I am loving being busy though. It means less thinking.

In the last blog post I mentioned I went to Denver and got a few runs in. Hearing about training a altitude made me wonder about the effects it would have on my running when I ventured back to Chicago. I wondered how the week would go with the soreness I felt from my 17-miler in Denver. Surprisingly enough, my four runs went pretty well.

August 18, 2013

This is probably the most excited I have ever been for a five mile run. I thought I would run like the wind and get this run over asap. That did not immediately happen. My sore legs prevented me from getting out of the gates as quickly as I would have liked. Once the first mile ended, things went really smooth. I ended up with an eight minute mile average. It felt really nice to breathe again on a run. That is where I really noticed the difference. I probably could have and should have pushed it a little harder on this run to test my limits. On to the next one.

August 19, 2013

Very up and down here. If there had been any week where I should have tested my limits, it should have been last week. I have noticed that my runs lately are starting off really slow. I know that I have mentioned that I am a runner that tends to get stronger as they go, but I would like to come out stronger and get a little more consistent. The first five miles went like this: 9:22, 8:51, 8:12, 8:16 and 9:11! The 9:11 split probably came from being stopped at a couple lights, but still, I did not like seeing that number. The one positive that came out of this run is that I felt strong enough to finish strong. I know the goal is the marathon, but I probably should pick it up.

August 20, 2013

Another slow start to one of my runs! Despite that, this is the best run I had during the week. My legs did not feel too sore and I felt great. Nothing really bad to say about this run. I did look at my gps and quietly yell out, "There is no way I ran this time." I need to be happy with some of these times. I am lucky to have made it to this point of marathon training healthy. With that in mind, I still had my longest run of the week go; an 18-miler!

August 24

I typically prefer to get my longer runs in on Sunday. I do this because (and I may have mentioned this before) most races are actually on Sunday. Since I had to work some on Sunday and I had nothing else to do on Saturday afternoon, Saturday would be the day for this run. Once I got done lounging around the house, I finally put on my shoes and left the house.

I kept the first half of his run around the nine minute mile mark. This time the slow start is by design. I needed to make sure that I had the legs to finish the rest of the run strong. This is probably where I truly felt the Denver effect. I felt like I could have run the marathon that day.

According to my gps, I ran the first half of the run at 1:20:29. I felt very happy about this because my legs felt great and his is where I picked things up. Minus a couple of hiccups, the second half went great. I ended up running the second half about four minutes quicker than the first nine miles. I am still learning a lot about running, but I think I have become a much smarter runner over the past three years. Hopefully my body will be ready and willing over the next few weeks. There are some challenging runs coming up.

Thanks for reading. Once I get my schedule down pat, more post will come. I may even start doing these from my phone right after I get done running.

Keep working hard!