Wednesday, November 14, 2012

KISS

I really came up short this week with trying to figure out what I wanted to accomplish as far as goals. I could have kept the same board as last week, or reverted back to weeks 1 and 2, but they just didn't call to me. As of Monday I could muster up was a weekly mileage of 27. And today I threw in 2 lifts. I guess I'll stick with the good ole acronym KISS: Keep It Simple Silly. I'll let you know later in the week how that goes.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Check marks the box


Snow
Week 3's goal board was pretty extensive and a little more specific. Now that indoor season's on the verge of starting up and I will likely be racing my first race of the season in 4 or so weeks I'm starting to go into crunch mode. One of the big things I want to get in check is my weekly mileage. I've never really been one to fret over how many miles a week I'm doing, I'm a sprinter it doesn't really matter as much. But my plans are changing and that means I need to make changes. I really want to concentrate on going a little longer indoors, and improving my 800 tenfold, this all to hopefully help out my endurance for the hurdles outdoors. I had a great improving season for my 8 last year but I want to continue that. Even though I'm a 400-800 800 runner (for those who don't know what that means, it basically means I train better with speed than with volume. I'd go deeper into the nitty gritty of training of the half mile but it's pretty complicated) I realized that my 5-10 mile a week regime probably isn't going to cut it to go much faster than my 2:19 PR.
First goal up 24 miles for the week. Although that might sound like a paltry number, it is quite the task for me to hit. My track workouts at best hit 3000m which it's only 1.89 miles, usually only one of my days of 3 hit that high, typically the rest are between 1000-2000. Combine that with a 1 mile warmup and 1 mile cooldown I'm ranging from 2.5mi to 4mi, times 3 that doesn't add up to be much. I have 2 rest days that leaves me with 2 days to make up a lot of miles to get to 24. I can take away one of those rest days but still quite a bit of ground to cover and as I get older my recovery time lengthens so that 2nds day is often necessary. All logistics (or we could say excuses) I need and will find a way to get it done.
Lucky for me funky weather has had it's eye on NYC (not so lucky for those still out of power and such from the hurricane that hit only a week ago. My heart aches for them). Wednesday threw in a Nor'easter with a dumping of snow. What do I love more than running, running in crazy weather. I've said it before and I continue to say it, I'm weird. This helped my mileage out for the sake that Wed was one of my off days and Tues track workout was super fast super short stuff (no real mileage there). I ended up going for a 3 miler in the snow, getting me closer to my goal.
By the time Sunday rolled around my days had added up perfectly for the 7 mile long run I planned (the 2nd goal) to equal out my 24 miles. The 7 miles def was no easy feat either, by my lonesome nonetheless, but I proudly chomped through it.
As for the rest of my goal board, I faired pretty well. I missed another stupid lift day, still mad at myself for that and really it's just me being lazy. The nutrition end I missed 8oz of water the 1st day but then rallied back the rest of the week never missing my min mark. And my sweet tooth got me an extra day. Overall I'm not too disappointed with my week. Baby steps to progression.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Week #3

I decided to bump up my goals this week to get a little more specific and also add in some nutritional aspects that I have trouble with.


Sunday, November 4, 2012

HurrIcan(e)

My stormy run
This week started off with a (for lack of better description) bang, New York City and the eastern coast were set to be pummeled by Hurricane Sandy. With the subway shut down, carless, on a tight budget that does not allow cabs, and friends not living close by I was stuck in my house by myself for the duration. I might add I don't sit still very well and LOVE storms. I'm that crazy person that wants to be outside experiencing crazy mother nature, I envy the weather people. I'm weird I know this. I think I make a lot of people worry because of my fascination with awry weather, but I am not completely reckless in thinking I'm invincible from the wrath of MN. Anywho around 1 pm I couldn't take the sitting and waiting so I turned on the tv to check out the prognosis of where and when this hurricane was supposed to hit the NYC area the hardest, it was still 6ish hours away. I couldn't take it so I weather proofed myself laced up the kicks and journeyed out for a run. It was pretty windy, not as wet as I thought. On my journey to crazy land, I learned I was not the only screw loose person out for a run in the madness (this even more solidifies runners are a different breed of people). I stayed on the high line route of the Hudson (see I used my smarts and didn't sneak under the police tape to go down near the water) and went with an out and back 4 miler with a brief stop to capture a quick photo to catalogue. The 2 miles out I had a huge tail wind, so much that mile 2 was a blistering 5:50, I was flying. Mile 3/4 brought me the head wind, a few times with the gusts I thought I was running in place. Then when I was done strangely the rain and wind stopped, seriously, it was an eerie quiet calm. I took that moment to stretch and enjoy it since I knew after that point I'd be stuck in my house again.
The rest of my week just kinda went by. Tuesday I went on a walk/jog to survey the damage, upper manhattan was spared, from the look of news and photos lower manhattan was not. Wednesday parks were still closed which meant tracks were closed, though I stumbled upon Riverbank track open when I went for my run later in the evening. I stopped mid run went into the track did some drills in the infield then did a couple r150's then went back to my run. I was having track withdrawls since I hadn't done a track workout in almost a week. Thursday Columbia was back in the game so I went up there to do a workout by myself with the mid distance folks in the background. Then my schedule kinda went awry. I picked up a few extra shifts at my restaurant, since no one could really train due to transportation being uber limited. Of course the more hours I work there the harder it is to get my own workouts in, standing 6-8 hours holds unconducive to training. Going before leaves me in pain during, going after it's either too late or my body is completely shot. It's my best excuse and I fell trap to it. Sadly it left my board missing a link. One run shy, one lift shy. I will give myself credit for procuring a 6 mile run in my mix bag week. On to a new week of goals