Absolutely perfect 13

This morning I ventured out to the Todd's Road Stumblers meeting place to tackle the 13 mile hilly course. The weather was perfect being in the low 50s and clear. Nothing like watching the sunrise while in the middle of a run. I ended up running the 13 miles in around 1:30 for an average pace just under 7 mins per mile. My right leg really tightened up during the second-half of the run. I was also really fatigued, but still able to finish strong despite the hills and almost tempo pace for the 13 mile. The first 3-4 miles were really fast in the 6:40 min per mile range as I wanted to catch some people and make sure that I beat almost everyone back to the meeting place. It felt good to have a change scenery and to tackle the hills while getting tons of fresh air from horse country.

Its going to be an active day with distillery & winery tours in the afternoon.

Beautiful weather aheads

No running today although the weather made me want to run. I'm saving my legs for tomorrow at the Todd's Road Stumblers and the hilly 13 mile course.

Arms

Weighted Chinups - 4x12
Reclined Dumbbell Curls - 4x12
Tricep overhead presses - 4x12
Close Handed Barbell Tricep press - 4x12
Hammer Curls - 4x12
Weighted Dips - 4x15

Shoulders

Barbell Shoulder Shrugs - 4x15 hold for a 3 count
Kettlebell catch & snatch - 4x24


Abs

Pass the ball - 4x15
Side Planks on a medicine ball - 4x75secs

Legs... legs... legs

This morning I joined the 5:30am group for a run. Today was the 6.3 mile course. We averaged around a 6;55 min per mile pace. Alot slower than the previous 2 days. The previous day's repeat were showing this morning. We finished in about 43:40 or so. Not my best day, but it could have been worse.

Legs was the order of the day at the gym.

Legs

Barbell Squats - 6x12
Superset - Medicine Ball Lunges - 4x30, Box stepups - 4x24
Fire Hydrants - 4x24 - 3 seconds count
Hip Adductors - 4x15
Half-ball - dumbbell squats - 4x15


Lots of stretching as my hamstrings were really tight after the weight session.

Evening 2 mile repeats...?

Ok, so I think I do my best running in the morning by far, but when a friend asked me to go for an evening run and to attend a nutrition lecture, afterwards, I said sure cautiously. We parked where the lecture was to be and took off into the twilight. The initial pace wasn't too bad we put in about 1 mile around UK's campus before heading to the UK arboretum. The loop around the arboretum is right at 2 miles so my friend wanted to do a couple of loops which we proceeded to do. There are usually alot of people running, walking, etc. around the loop because it is a nice place to get out. The pace definitely got faster and faster. We were clipping along at around a 6:40ish pace which isn't the most fun considering the insanity from yesterday (6:20 min paced for 6 miles). Plus, the loop has rolling hills throughout. Anyway, at the end of the second loop I was dead. Pretty much the 2 mile repeats were done in an average of about 13:20 so I was hurting at the end of these. We then made our way back to the parking spot for a quick change before heading to the nurtition lecture.

The lecture was ok. It was very informal being pretty much a question and answer session. I did learn about "recovery carbs" and how they are critical to replinish glycogen stores after hard workouts. Good to know this stuff.

No lifting today, but I did bump myself back up to 5 days of running this week.

Finally.... almost normal legs

So I woke up for the usual 5:30am group run, this morning. We started out at a typical warmup pace of around 7:30 mins per for the first mile. Then, the fun began. I'm guessing we averaged around a 6:20 min pace for the next 6 miles because we finished the 7 miles in 46:30 this morning, and I was able to keep pace through the entire run. In the past 2 weeks, I had to slow down at around the 4-5 mile mark due to leg fatigue and the throbbing pain from the crater on my left foot. However, this morning everything seemed to be clicking. I maintained my pace through the entire run, didn't feel too bad considering my previous 10k PR is only at 40 mins although I was fighting IT band syndrome when I PRed. Anyway, it makes me curious how much faster I am these days, but I'm going to worry about fitness more than race times until next spring. I ran a 1 mile cooldown for a total of 8 miles this morning.

All I can say is its amazing how long it takes to recover from races. Pretty much 1 day per 1 mile ran at race pace.

I hit the gym for some back work to balance out the chest work from yesterday.

Back

Inverted rows - 4x15
Barbell bent over rows - 4x12
Wide Grip pullups - 4x12
High Rows - 4x12
Dumbbell rows - 4x24
Close Grip pullups - 4x12

Abs

Weighed Kneeups - 4x15
Side Plank on a medicine ball - 4x75 secs

New week..... feeling better

No running today after 21 miles this weekend. Hit the gym for some chest work.

Chest

Barbell Flat bench press - 4x12
Barbell Incline bench press - 4x12
Barbell Decline bench press - 4x12
Superset - Flat cable flys - 4x12, Inclined cable flys - 4x12
Superset - One armed medicine ball pushups - 4x15, Tricep medicine ball pushups - 4x12
Dumbell Incline One armed presses - 3x24

Abs

Hanging Leg raises - 4x12

NYC Marathon

So for the record, I really needed the extra hour of sleep from the DST change last night. I went to bed at 10pmand awoke at around 7am this morning. I guess my body is really in healing mode trying to fix all the damage I have done. Of course, training all along is probably prolonging the healing process more than anything. Some people take a whole week off after a big race, but I have too much OCD to allow myself more than a few days off in a row.

This morning I got in a recovery 8 mile run with the usual stretching at the 4 mile & 6 mile points. I ended up running a bit too fast due to being inspired by the NYC Marathon(more on this in a minute). I averaged a 720 pace or so during this run.

After coming back, from the run I watched the online race coverage throughout the morning. It was great that someone from the USA won, but he was still a African born runner. Its always inspiring to see a big race like this. Makes me want to signup for a marathon, but I have to keep telling myself all in due time. I also tracked a friend of mine who ran the race. His time was amazing(from a normal runner's standpoint), but he still hit the wall badly after mile 18. I think he'll be disappointed with his results (a 2:49 marathon), but I still think he did very well.

Lots of football and resting. Let's hope this week brings fresher legs.