Tuesday, December 30, 2014

12/29 - 1/3

Mon - 4:30pm (7++) 50:53 - In Spac w/ Megan and Shaun. Took a mile or two before I felt relaxed with the pace, these two can really just jet out at a quicker pace were I've grown accustom to easing into the run.

Tues - 5:15am (3m - 24:34) On the treadmill, this was the first attempt at doubling was able to get the run in and make the 35min drive to work with plenty of time to spare.

6pm (7m - 53:39) From UAlbany did a loop around downtown with Joe, Mulford and Eric. These are good run as the group keeps the pace easy, and we avoid over doing it. Hit up some Chipotle afterwards.

Wed - 5pm (7m - 45:34) started the first 4+ with Eric on a new loop. I have run this a few times in the past month has a good combo of things some nice easy rollers in the start and around 5-6m you get a good 1/2m climb. Happy New Years!!

Thurs - 12pm (17m - 1:59:52) Hang Over half, Paced KQ and Jessy through their workout. We ended up picking up a few others (Dan and James) the goal was 3x3mile over the course of the race. Went very well! Afterwards I ventured back out onto the course to get Joe (who was running his first 1/2) was a good way to start the New Year.

Fri - 6pm (7m - 49:33) Treadmill - slow day at work left at 3pm to make it almost home before being called back in. Was a big shot to my motivation, got home finally around 430pm. Decided for a quick nap before the run. Good choice!!

Sat - 9am (5m - 36:47) went out for a reverse neighbor hood loop. Was decent out with a little wind and a storm making its was into town. 

6pm (5m - 33:43) treadmill run. A day that started out nicely turned shitty pretty quickly. Was called into work around 11am (35-40min drive one way) nothing horrible got me out the door to get stuff done. The horrible part of the day, had a planned 7m with Jessy and Eric (as the plan stated) right before heading out the door I received the 2nd call of needing to come into work. Normally wouldn't bother me except when you screw up my plans. Had to resort to the treadmill as it was nasty out and my motivation was lacking.

Sun - 8am (20m - 2:29:44) with Michelle, Joe, Newman, Aaron, Kyle and a few others. The plan was for 15m did a barn loop (roughly 12m) and decided to head back out to meet the rest of the group and run them in. Unfortunately they finished a different way then I did and I managed to miss the turn they took. This sent me for a tour of Albany, lucky I found a road I knew and tracked back to my car. Oops!! 

Summery: 79m feeling good about this week. Was a it high on the miles then planned but overall did well with the miles, next week will be the test to maintain those miles and hold to the plan. Some highlight were Thursday's 17m was after a late night of celebrating and Sunday's 20m was on an empty stomach. Nice to know the gas tank is still there, also attacked some of the climbs today (even doubled back on one)
 

VCM Journey

It's been some time since I've used the blog for anything useful. I've decided I will bring it back and track my training leading upto VCM and hopefully the remainder of 2015. A bit of background, since mid November I have been running solely base miles, nothing huge but also nothing structured. The plan was to get a nice base before going into the training cycle, I managed to stay around 50-55 miles a week with days off when I felt like being lazy. The last two weeks I added a long run to prep for training to begin (15,16m) I'm taking a very modest approach to VCM this year with the simple goal to obtain a new PR. In review of last year I believe I put to much on the time I wanted to see and really missed some key point, in the end I ran like shit. This week marks the first portion of scheduled training for VCM. 

Goals:
Stay healthy/hungry
Keep easy days easy
Follow the damn plan!
Lastly sub 2:48:04

The plan:
The plan is simple to build in slowly and do it right no short-cuts
Phase 1 - adjust to scheduled mileage and hold a level of consistancy.
Phase 2 - continue to build the mileage with the addition of hill workouts
Phase 3 - Add tempo's in addition to hills and a slight increase in miles
Phase 4 - replace hills with track work and fine tune