Icy Roads and High Winds

I woke up at 6am this morning, took a shower, got dressed, and headed downstairs and got the coffee going. Then I turned on the radio and heard that school is cancelled in Anchorage today. We got freezing rain through the night and it made the roads like an ice rink. School is never cancelled in Alaska, so it was nice to have the day off. Too bad I already took a shower and was wide awake or I would've went to bed for a couple more hours. We were also suppose to have our End of Season Wrestling banquet tonight at South too, but we will now postpone it until next week.

My training program called for 15 miles today. Normally I would do 9 outside and change clothes quickly and do the last 6 on the treadmill, but it was an ice rink outside and windy. I guess winds might be over 100mph in Turnagain arm tonight.

So, I did all 15 miles on the treadmill. It was a great workout though and I didn't mind being on the treadmill. The temperature outside was 38 above and I had my window open so I had an occasional nice breeze. I started out nice and easy and picked the pace up a little every mile. The last 9 miles were around 6:45 pace and it felt super easy. I'm definetly getting my fitness level up close to where I was last year. It's a great feeling when you get in the zone!

Feeling Better

I'm definetly feeling a lot better today. Still trying to get my sleep and rest when I can. Today I did a Lactate threshold workout. It called for 10 miles w/ 4 miles at half-marathon pace. I wasn't sure what I should run my 4 miles at because of feeling a little ill. So, after a 3 mile warm-up I started with 6min. pace and it felt really comfortable. So the remaining miles were (6:00, 5:56, 5:56) then 3 more miles at 7min. pace. I was pretty pumped after the workout because I felt like I could've went a lot longer at 5:56 pace. I was actually singing along on the last 2 miles of the workout.

Lactate threshold runs are tempo runs in which you run for at least 20 minutes at your lactate threshold. Lactate threshold training should be run at close to the pace that you could currently race for 1 hour. For serious marathoners, this is generally half marathon pace. This should be the intensity at which lactate is just starting to accumulate in your muscles and blood. The extra mental toughness required to get through a tempo run when you may not be feeling great should come in handy during the Boston Marathon!




The temperature in Anchorage warmed up to about 20 above today, but the wind has really started to pick up. I guess we have high wind advisory tonight. Oh well, this is Alaska!

A little under the weather

This saturday I did a nice and easy 6 mile recovery run after my son's soccer game around 3pm. I took it really easy and it felt good, but I had a little upset stomach. By 8pm I started getting the chills and my teeth were chattering uncontroablly. So, I grabbed my hot pad and climbed into bed. I felt weak and my whole body was aching. I stayed in bed until 12:30p the next day. I wanted to get up but I just didn't have the energy, plus I still had a very bad stomach ache. I was suppose to run 19 miles today and I was very excited to do so. It would of gave me 77 miles for the week, which would've been my all time high.

At 5pm I felt okay, but still kind of weak. I decided to try and run at a very easy pace (probaly a stupid move). I ended up running just 12 miles on my south loop w/ Service extention. It's a great loop to run when you are training to run the Boston Marathon. It has lots of uphill and some good downhill to give the quads some needed pounding. I took it easy, but could tell I was pretty weak. I had almost no energy going up Huffman hill. I almost felt like laying down on the side of the road. Of course it was 0 degrees out so I knew I had to keep running. When I got home I just crawled into bed and layed their for awhile. I'm not sure if running was a smart move. I just hate getting off my routine and my training program. I always feel that if I'm sick I can still workout, but just lower the intensity. I must have some type of flu bug running through my body right now. My body aches, I feel weak, and my stomach is upset. Hopefully this will all pass in the next couple days.

Treadmill Running

When I woke this morning it was -20 below outside. When school was out it was still -15 below. Like I said before I have the gear to run outside and be comfortable, but I just didn't feel like going outside in this real cold weather.


The workout called for a medium long run of 14 miles. Usually I would split this up when its cold and do some of the workout outside and the rest inside on the treadmill. Well, I did the whole 14 miles on the treadmill.

Sometimes I can get real bored just staring out my window on the treadmill. But, today it didn't really bother me. It was still light out for half the workout, so I was able to kill some time looking at cars and people passing by. Sometimes I can get zoned out to pass time. 20 minutes will pass by and I forget that I was even running and can't really remember what I was thinking about. Usually I'm thinking about Wrestling or a race that I'm training for. It's also a good time to work out problems I have in my head. Maybe its work related or something I need to get done. Bottom line is that you do a lot of thinking while running on a treadmill.

I love the fact that I own a real nice treadmill and its located right in my house. I have it upstairs. I call the room my workout room, but it was suppose to be a spare bedroom. It's facing a window which is nice. I have an ipod home speaker system for music. I also have some motivational running poster and my Boston Acceptance cards on the wall. I could do more to fix it up and make it a better workout room. It would be really nice to get a nice TV with a DVD player to maybe watch a movie to pass the time. I'm sure someday I will. I just love the fact that I'm able to have a workout room in my house.

It's cold outside

It was -15 below today when I decided to go out for a run. That may seem extreme, but I have some real nice running gear to help keep me warm. Plus, the sun was out and I wanted to run in it. I really didn't feel like running on my treadmill today. Especially since I have a 14 miler tomorrow and if the weather keeps it up I may be inside.






Today's workout called for 10 miles (general aerobic effort) w/ 10 X 100m striders. I've made myself a Pre-Boston playlist on my ipod to help with the first month of training. It seemed to help today. I took off from my house and did the south loop with an extra mile added on at the end. It felt great. At the end of the workout my time on my watch showed that I was running an average of 6:53 min. miles. Not bad considering it felt pretty effortless.

I can sure build up the frost around my eyelashes, eyebrows, and hat. I've looked in the mirror after runs and everything is completly white. I get some pretty good stares while I'm running. It must look like I'm freezing, but I'm really comfortable as long as I am moving.

I'm going to leave you with a good cold play song.

Doubles!

Marathoners can sometime benefit from running twice a day. In my training schedule I have recovery days of 10 miles that are broken into 2 short runs. Running 10 straight miles on a recovery day may take too much out of your body. If you split it into 2 short runs you also speed your recovery because each run will increase blood flow to your muscles and take little out of yo$u.



I woke up at 5am this morning (since I had to be at work by 7am) and ran a super easy 6 miles on the treadmill. I can handle easy recovery runs early in the morning because I don't really need to be wide awake. After work I did another 4 miles super easy on the treadmill.

To get my mileage up to 80/90 miles a week I'll have to throw a couple doubles in each week. Hard to believe I'm already in week #4 on the Road to Boston!

Back From Hawaii to the ice cold temps of Anchorage.

I returned from the land of Paradise to some extreme cold temperatures in Anchorage, Alaska. It was a pretty extreme temperature change. I boarded the plane in Honolulu with a temperature of 80 degrees and when I got off the plane in Anchorage it was -15 degrees below zero. A difference of 95 degrees. At least we are gaining daylight right?



I've neglected my blog due to the fact I had no internet access in our hotel unless I was wanting to pay for it. In a way it was kind of nice to not know what was going on in the world. I did have my cell phone which has internet connection so i could at least get sports scores and text message friends.

Hawaii was an excellent vacation. It was great to be able to spend some time with just the family. We spent everyday outside on the beach. The weather was very cooperative. It was right around 80 degrees everyday and never got below 72 even at night. It rained a few times while we were sleeping which made things a little humid in the morning while I was running. We didn't venture to far from Waikiki beach but that is what made it more relaxing. Swimming, snorkeling, and laying in the sun for 10 straight days.

The bonus of this vacation was that I was able to get some real good training for Boston. I ran every single morning and got 97 miles in on the island. I'm actually kind of proud that I was focused enough to get up at 6-6:30 everyday to get my run in before it got hot. Plus, I didn't take time away from the family to go run. They were able to sleep in, eat breakfast and we were all ready to head to the beach by 9am. Not once did I turn the alarm off and sleep in. It just proves that I'm going to be prepared to run fast in Boston this year.

Here is my mileage on the island of Oahu:

12/23- 8 miles
12/24- 13 miles
12/25- 5 miles
12/26- 11 miles
12/27- 6 miles
12/28- 18 miles
12/29- 6 miles
12/30- 10 miles
12/31- 14 miles
1/1- 6 miles

Total- 97 miles