My Little Buddy

One of my favorite things to do is take a short nap before work with our bearded dragon.

SWOLA 86

This is my enrty for Sunday With Ola SWOLA86

Saturday Workout

I ended up skipping my workout on Thursday.  I was feeling a little off, and decided one more day of rest was needed.

I'm feeling much better today.  When I get off from work at 7pm I'm going to do my hill repeat workout.  I'm feeling better today and looking forward to my after work workout.

SWOLA 85

Got my Sunday With Ola 85 up and running.

I've felt a little off this week.  Haven't done much running.  I'll probably hit some scheduled hill repeats Saturday evening.

Running... Progress?

Last Saturday my workout was pretty straight forward. Warm-up, one mile at a very hard effort, then a cool down.  The warm-up went well, and it all fell apart right after that.  I was hoping to run close to a 6 min mile, but ended up running close to a 7:35 pace.  I did the workout at the track. The first lap felt good, the second wasn't bad, and then the last half mile fell apart.  I think I was just a little more tired than I realized, and I was having a bad day.  I also need to accept that these days happen.

On Sunday I did my workout with my friends, a workout that isn't part of the Garmin workout.  We mix weights with a track workout.  Basically 20 reps of whatever we decide, then one lap around the track, and repeat. I usually end up doing 3-4 miles within around an hour.  On Sunday I got two miles in and called it a day.  I know that I wasn't feeling very energetic and also really ate bad that day and I feel like I didn't get in enough calories for what that workout requires. 

I was supposed to do a 5 mile run on Monday, but forgot that it was on Monday and I did it on Tuesday.  I ran later in the day and it was hotter than what I'm use to right now.  I basically did my 10 min warm-up, got 2 miles into my 5 mile run and called it a day.  I just wasn't feeling it.  I feel like I'm not getting the sleep I need as well, and everything is catching up to me.

Tomorrow I have 5 x 800 meter repeats on the schedule.   Hopefully it goes well.

SWOLA 84

My entry for Sunday With Ola SWOLA84

SWOLA 83 with Ola

Ola Englund commenting on my Sunday With Ola 83 entry.

Time Management

 I was scheduled to do a training run on Thursday morning.  I had it all planned out.  Workout at the gym in the morning, take the kids to school, run as soon as I got home, take a fast shower, then go to work.  I couldn't run after work because my son and I were going to a Death Metal concert as soon as I got off from work.  Goatwhore was coming to town, and there was no way I was about to miss them.

It felt like a solid plan.  Then on Wednesday night I notice an email about a work meeting at 9:00am on Thursday morning.  Shit, how is this suppose to work?

I could have skipped my run, but instead I looked at my schedule.

1.  Get to the gym at 5:15am and get our workout started at 5:30am so we can be done at 6:10am

2.  Leave the gym by 6:15am so I can get home by 6:30am

3.  Start my run at 6:35am so I can finish by 7:25am (I was scheduled to do the same workout as last Thursday and it took me 50 mins, so I just needed to keep the effort, or run faster.)

4.  Leave the house at 7:30am to take the kids to school and be back home by 8:15am

5. Get home and take a fast shower.

6  Leave the house by 8:30am so I can get a breakfast burrito on the way to work and also get there on time.

This was the plan, and I nailed it.  I love having everything planned out on a schedule and having a visual reference to go off of.  I hate being late and not having a plan.

Luckily Brandon and Ashley are very self sufficient and if I tell them that I need them ready at a certain time, they are usually good to go.

My training run went well, and everything is still on track.  On Saturday my training plan calls for a hard effort 1 mile run after the usual warm-up, cadence drill, and acceleration drill.  I'm wondering what type of pace I can hold.  Hopefully a 6 min mile or faster. I guess I'll find out Saturday morning. 

7 Mile Run

 On Monday my scheduled workout was a 5 min easy warm-up, 7 miles at an "easy to moderate" pace, and then a 5 min cool down.

I ended up doing the workout in my neighborhood.  The loop that I started running is just short of 1 mile.  I think it's about .95 miles.  The run felt decent for the most part.  I did my warm-up, ran the 7 miles at an 8:15 min per mile average, and then did a 5 min cool down.  In the end with the warm-up, 7 miles, and 5 min cool down I covered 7.98 miles.

I did eat a little too much for breakfast.  Around mile 5 I really felt like throwing up might be a good idea, but I held my food down and finished my run.

When the workout was over I felt pretty good.  I pushed just hard enough on that day.

This coming Thursday I am going to repeat the 800 meter workout I did last week.  I really enjoyed that workout and I'm really looking forward to doing it again.  I've always enjoyed doing 400 and 800 meter repeats.

until next time...

Hill Repeats

Yesterday I had a pretty busy schedule, but I needed to do my hill repeat workout.  I figured that I would be off from work just before 7:00pm, and I would have about an hour of daylight after work to get my run in.

I haven't done any hill repeats in a long time and the workout called for 15 secs of running uphill and 15 secs of running down hill.  I haven't ran hills in so long that I had no idea what the actual distance would even look like.

There is a hill at Woodward Park that I usually did hill repeats on, and it's a pretty long hill, so I figured it would be a good choice.

The workout was very similar to the last workout I did with the 800 meter repeats on Thursday but with hill repeats substituted for the 800 meter repeats.

I started the workout with a 5 min warmup, and then did a cadence workout, followed by an acceleration drill.  After that I headed over to the hill I would do my repeats on.  I ran hard for 15 secs and made it half way up the hill.  The next step was to have a 1 min walking recovery.  I walked a little more up the hill anticipating that the distance I would cover running down hill would be greater that the covered going uphill.  I ran downhill for 15 secs and then once I hit the 15 sec mark, I turned around and ran back up the hill.  I did the run up, rest, then run down drill 4 times.  Since it was only 4 repeats I made sure to make my effort as hard as I was able to.

After I was done with the hill repeats I did a 5 min recovery jog back to my car.

The workout only took around 25 mins by the time I was done.  It's been nice not overtraining like I tend to do.

Tomorrow I have a pretty straightforward workout.  5 min warmup, a 7 mile run at a relaxed pace, then a 5 min cool down.

I'll probably just do the 1 mile loop I mapped out around my house.  I've always liked doing loops, even if they can get a little boring.

until next time...

SWOLA 83

SWOLA 83

I used my Solar V Type guitar and my old Ibanez bass.  I only have 1 bass, but many guitar to pick from.  I really like the feel of the two Solar guitars that I have.  They play pretty well and the price point is pretty good.

I ran the guitar and bass each through an Ibanez Tube Screamer and an Orange Amps Terror StAmp.  For the guitar I had the gain set to 9, and for the bass it was set to 5.  The guitar had a Celestion V30 12" I.R., and for the bass a Celestion 15" I.R.

My 2nd Workout

 Today I did my second workout on my Garmin Connect Coaching App.  The first workout was pretty straight forward.  I did a 2 min warm-up, 5 mins at a working effort, and a 2 min cool down.  This was the benchmark workout.

Todays workout had a little more to it.

The workout started with a 5 min warm-up.  After I was warmed up I did a cadence drill where the goal was to maintain around 180 steps per min (spm) for 30 secs, and then walk for 30 seconds.  I did this 4 times.  My normal cadence is usually around 180 spm, so this wasn't anything out of the ordinary for me.  This drill was followed by an acceleration drill. I did a 4 x 30 sec drill where I would start at a walking pace and smoothly build to a fast effort in 15 seconds and then slow back down to a walking pace within 15 seconds.  After the acceleration drill I did 5 x 800 meter repeats at a 7 min per mile pace with a 3 min walk break after each 800 meter repeat.  I ended with a 5 min cool down.

My next workout will be on Saturday and will include hill repeats.  I'm looking forward to seeing what the next several weeks have instore.  

Starting Over

I have decided to start over and do a reset with my running.

I have always wanted to check out the training programs on Garmin Connect so I figured I would finally do it.  I haven't been very motivated to run lately, so I figure this will be something that will hold me accountable to keep up some kind of training.  I selected a half marathon distance with a goal time of 1 hour and 32 mins as my target time.  When I was in pretty decent shape a few years ago 1 hour and 30 mins for a half marathon was within my range.  The goal of 1 hour 32 mins is the fastest that Garmin Connect will let me pick from.

I started my training program yesterday (Monday) and it went pretty well.  I only had to run for 9 mins, so it was a nice change of pace.  I ran a benchmark workout so that the watch could figure out my fitness level and use that to make my program.  I did a 2 min warmup, 5 mins at a working pace, and a 2 min cooldown.  From what I understand the app will use my metrics to build my training plan.  I think it's suppose to take into consideration if I'm actually hitting the goals it gives me, or if I'm not hitting them or surpassing them.

The program has me running on Mon, Thurs, and Sat.  I picked these days myself because I think it will work the best with my schedule.  I'm going to try my best to keep updates after every workout I do.  My end date in sometime at the end of August.  

I'm a little unsure if I'll be running any ultras this year, Headlands 100 is up in the air and I really don't know at this point if I have the desire to tackle that distance anymore... but only time will tell on that one.  I have said that I would never do another 100 miler a bunch of times, and I keep finding myself doing them.

At this point in time I'm just focused on this training program. 

SWOLA 82 with Ola

SWOLA 82 with Ola.

SWOLA 81 with Ola

This guy... always talking about my legs.