New Week, New Location

I decided to re-start my blog after the vacation I took from it while I was injured. The purpose of this is to keep my friends and family updated on my training and life (but mostly I post training). For those who are unaware I have relocated to Corvallis, Oregon and have moved in to a house with my former teammate from SUNY Cortland. The goal is to pursue running full time (although I will still be working....once I find a job).

Here's a snapshot of last week, when I arrived at Corvallis. I am in the midst of a training block focusing on the Houston half-marathon.

Sunday: Stockade-athon 15k
am - 14.9 miles in 1:30:30 (6:04/mi)

Meh. 4th in 49:02. Don't care about the time, just wanted to be competitive and it wasn't there. I figured the worst I would run was 49:00 if it was a slower day. It wasn't a slower day, so that wasn't too great. Looking back on the race, it shows where my fitness stands with the lack of race specific workouts so I'm not too bothered. I've got a lot of improvement ahead. It was great to have my family there and coworkers, made for a good atmosphere.

Monday:
am - 7.1 miles in 51:30 (7:15/mi)

Last day in NY! Consisted of a morning run with hail pelting my face at 20-30mph, ouch. Loooooong day. Left for airport at 12pm, didn't arrive at house until 1:30am (4:30am eastern time) - plane delay in Portland.

Tuesday:
am - 12 miles in 1:18:30 (6:32/mi)
pm - 6 miles in 42:00 (7:00/mi)

Wednesday: Primary of 8 mile progression
am - 14.2 miles in 1:25:20 (6:00/mi)

It's been awhile since I've done an actual tempo effort. Plan was to start at 6:00/mi and get down to 5:00/mi. Shamus and I were a little aggressive from the start, so the progression was really just the second half being faster than the first. Splits of 5:33, 5:30, 5:27, 5:26, 5:25, 5:14, 5:23, 5:17 (5:23/mi avg).

Thursday:
am - 10 miles in 1:05:30 (6:31/mi)
pm - 30 min of strength circuits and core routine.

Friday:
am - 12.5 miles in 1:22:00 (6:33/mi)
pm - 6 miles in 39:00 (6:30/mi)

Saturday: Secondary - Fartlek of 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 min (1 min active recovery)
am - 12.4 miles in 1:17.00 (6:12/mi)
pm - 5.2 miles in 34:50 (6:45/mi) + 6 hard strides

Great to get the legs moving faster than 5 min pace. Total average of the workout including rest was maybe around 5:20/mi.

Summary:
Volume - 100.3 miles in 10hr 45min (6:25/mi)
Doubles - 3
Primary - 8 miles progression
Secondary - Fartlek: 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 min (1 min active rec.)

Overall quite a solid week. Three quality days and some strength incorporated. The stimulus increase from a race and two workouts caused some soreness which didn't succumb until close to the end of the week. Real glad to get some faster sessions in since it is much needed. Before this I've been focusing primarily on aerobic strength with some steady states and quicker long runs. These two workouts really woke me up and showed me that I've been straying from faster stuff for too long. Will need to introduce more strides and hill sprints progressively. I'm strong aerobically, but need to let my other systems catch up - a very important factor in injury prevention and proper fitness development. More strength and core to be integrated as well. Pretty excited about how things are progressing, just got to keep it consistent.

A couple pictures of Oregon:

Our house:

Entrance to bike path and Williamette River about 1 minute from house:

Williamette River next to the house:

Very useful gym (with pool in back) that we get access to for being in the neighborhood, 1 minute jog to it!

Over a half mile worth of great fields about 1 mile from the house. There are also trails around the circumference.