Getting in the miles

Had my highest training week thus far as a masters runner, hitting 66 miles. No real issues either. Mainly just easy distance with two quality workouts. Wednesday I did hill repeats and Saturday I had a really good tempo workout of 2 x 20 minutes with a 5:00 easy jog recovery. I also ran doubles on two days last week and I've been feeling really good doing that lately. I'm definitely noticing some changes as I bump up my volume. On days that I feel good, everything feels really smooth and I feel like I have tons of gear changes. The hill repeats felt easier than ever. One down side I guess on higher mileage is that on some days you just feel lackluster (luckily usually on recovery days) so you need to just keep the pace real easy or else you'll pay for it on the days that count (hard workouts and races). The plan is to hit about 70 a week for the next two week and then I have a 'down' week scheduled, before bumping back up again.

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Weekly Training Update

Another good week. Hit 63 for the week with no real issues other than the usual aches and pains that go with volume increases. I've made it a point to do post-workout leg exercises and my cat seems to like them too, though he's more of a sprinter type. A few dashes down the hall and Milkshake is ready for a nap. Anyway, my training week consisted of really easy mileage though I did some technique drills again on Wednesday and today's long run consisted of 6 hard hill surges (2 x sprints, 2 x bounds, 2 x high knees) and 6 hard downhills (i.e. race effort). Definite Lydiard flavor to that workout. Next week should bring me to around 65 miles give or take, with the key workouts being hill reps on Wednesday and a 2 x 20 minutes tempo session on Saturday.

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Good week

My first week of base building for the fall went great, without any hitches. Managed to hit 58 miles from last Sunday through yesterday. It was mainly easy distance work, but Coach Pete also had me do some technique drills on Wednesday (followed by an extra long cool down) and I did some hill repeats on Friday. This next week will be pretty similar with me hitting about 62 miles. The goal is to build up to 65-70 and then maintain it for awhile. I think I've finally adjusted to being comfortable at 60 miles a week because I honestly felt good every day this week. Looking forward to adding on more miles this summer!

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Some essential summer reading

Well, summer reading if you're a runner I should say. I've read this article by Lets Run founder Weldon Johnson before and I came across it again the other day. Titled Why I Sucked In College, the piece is an in-depth analysis of Weldon's training and how he came to realize that he was training much too hard on his easy days and thus not running the kind of times he should have been running in races. In a very short time span, Weldon went from not being able to break 30 in the 10K to running 28:06! I'm lucky that I run by myself 99% of the time so I'm not racing my easy runs with a group, but even then I have to constantly remind myself to slow down on the recovery days. I had one of those lightbulb moments on my easy run today. I wanted to run especially easy to make sure I was fully recovered from my race as I have a longer run scheduled tomorrow and a few doubles scheduled for later in the week and then it dawned on me, that my easy days should always feel this easy. Save the hard efforts for the races and hard workouts!

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Back to Basics

With the summer heat kicking in, I'm going to take a little break from racing and try to pump up the volume so to speak and get ready to rumble in the fall. The plan over the next 3 weeks is build up to 65 a week and to then try to maintain 65-70 for about a month after that, before adjusting the schedule for fall racing. I'm looking forward to a period of increasing my mileage without worrying about race performances for awhile. The past 2 months have been good and I have run more my mileage than I have had since high school/college, but this Spring I've been a little up and down with my races as I've adjusted to the workload. Saturday I was really flat in the Bay Days 5 miler, running 28:59 when I felt like I was in shape to run 5:40 pace (28:20) or a bit faster. I'm chalking it down to running a hard race the weekend before (17:00 5K at Run For The Young) and not recovering as much as I thought I had. Can't remember the last time I raced on back to back weekends. I'm looking forward to getting to a place where I can be consistent in the 70-75 a week range. I don't think I really need to go beyond that unless my racing goals change from my current 5K-8K-10K and cross country focus, but it will be nice to test my limits this summer and fall. I know I can be a pretty solid runner on 40-50 a week, but as I approach 45 in November, I really want to know that I've done all that I could to run my best as a masters competitor.

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Black Nite Crash - Array

Named after the best track on Ride’s last album Tarantula, Seattle’s Black Nite Crash dazzle with their heavy melodic sound, which blends together an ‘array’ of influences ranging from 1960s psych rock to classic UK post-punk and shoegaze. The seven-minute opener “Revelator” instantly draws you in with its soulful Stooges vibe, building up to an extended Ron Asheton-like guitar wigout at the end. “Falling Down” follows with its menacing Black Rebel Motorcycle Club-like groove (think “Whatever Happened To My Rock ‘n’ Roll?”) . “Soft Focus” is the most shoegaze influenced track on the album bringing to mind Ride’s infectious Going Blank Again gem “Twisteralla.” Also great is “I Want You,” which sounds a lot like The Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey” before building to a wild Spacemen 3-like finale. Perhaps the best song of all though is the lush closer “Perfect Blue,” which recalls the majesty of The Church with its trance-inducing layered guitar sounds and Jim Biggs’ seductive vocals. Array is actually only available on vinyl, but if you do not have a turntable, don’t fret (each copy also includes a free CD!).

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