Easy 5 miles

I ran 5 mi at a pace of 9:08 min/mi today. There was snow where I was going backpacking so I decided to delay the trip by a day. I feel very fit after 4-6 weeks of keeping my paces at Daniels' Vdot 42. If I had trained for the Steamboat Marathon this way I would have had a much better time. I think the key parameter is the Easy/Long pace. The proof will be me running a 1:45 in the 9/13 Half Marathon at Boulder Rez.

Rest

Rest day. Ordered Nike Lunar Glide shoes, due in 8/18.

Bobby McGee Half-Marathon Level 1

I replaced AeT D with 45 min in this training plan to give me a view of his aerobic workout lengths.

Bobby McGee 5K level 2 training plan

I went through this plan in his book "Run Workouts for Runners and Triathletes" and replaced the aerobic codes with the minutes for each workout. For example, AeT D is replaced by 45 min.

9 miles

I ran 9 mi at 9:26 min/mi. It was wonderful for the first 8 mi and then I got tired. Dave Scott said "Hi." This concludes 6 weeks of running at Vdot42. It's 6 weeks to the half marathon and I plan on doing that at Vdot43. This is an easy pace of 9:17 and a half marathon pace of 7:58 min/mi. I am going to run 7-8 mi easy, 8:00 min/mi 3-4 mi tempos and 11-13 mi long runs interspersed with backpacking 3 times. My target time for the half marathon on 9/13 will be 1:44:22. I am off to look at Nike Lunar Trainers at Boulder Running Co.

Easy 5 miles

today I ran 5 mi at an average pace of 9:18 min/mi, Vdot43. I know I said yesterday I would go 4 mi but I studied McGee's 5K level 2 race training plan and the majority of the easy days call for 45 min. In my case, 5 mi at 9:17 is about 47 min. So 5 mi is my new easy/recovery run distance from here on out. I plan on running 11 mi easy tomorrow, but tonight I am going to review McGee's training plans for half marathons. I cannot help but anticipate the half easy distance is longer than 5 mi.

Easy 5 miles

I ran five mi this morning with an average pace of 9:17 min/mi. I plan on 4 mi easy tomorrow and Wed will either be a 3 mi tempo or 11 mi easy. Thursday will be easy 4 mi and I go backpacking Fri-Mon in the Gore Range.

Moved up to 4 mi easy

Today I ran 4 mi at an average pace of 9:13 min/mi. My right lower leg felt fine so I am going to have this distance be my new Easy run distance. I plan on running 4 mi tomorrow.

My leg is OK

Today I ran my easy 5K at 9:23 min/mi and the heel and Achilles felt fine. I think snug shoes has a lot to do with it. I've been rethinking my summer plan and am going to take the Repeats and Intervals out. After all, I am going to run the Indian Summer Half on September 13. This will leave me with Easy, Long and Tempo runs, perfect for 13.1 mi race training. My Tempo pace of 8:03 for Vdot 42 is perfect for a target 13.1 at 8:08 min/mi. I'll run 4 mi easy tomorrow and see how that goes.

Heel much better

I ran my 5K at 9:13 today and the heel was much improved. I still had slight throbbing at about 2.5 mi so I will do an easy 5K tomorrow. I read in the Runners World shoe faq that shoes should be tied tight enough so you cannot push the foot out with the other foot. I tightened my shoes before today's run to meet this criteria and it was very nice. Loose shoes may have contributed to this Achilles strain because I remember the right shoe was very loose during my interval session last Sunday. I also may have a touch of planar faciitis because only the heel is still stiff. Once again, the good news is I can still learn and the bad news is I am still learning.

I slowed down

I did 5K at 9:34 and my Achilles feels good. I noticed the throbbing was present when I ran uphill. So I plan on running 9:30 uphill and 9:15 downhill on my 5K course until I feel well enough to run more than 5K. I also did some research on my interval and tempo paces. My plan of running intervals at 5K pace looks feasible but I am going to lower the distance from 5K to 2 mi, my repeat distance. I also am going to increase my tempo pace from half marathon pace to 1.08 x 5K pace. That is going to increase my pace for Vdot42 from 8:08 to 8:03. This is supposed to be for 4 mi but I will continue to run 5K tempos.

Thoughts about pace oriented training

I have switched over to pace training instead of heart rate training in July. I have never achieved my marathon time predicted by my 5K and 10K times. I think this is because I did not run fast enough on my easy and long runs. I have started training at the Daniels's Vdot of 42. The critical numbers are a 5K time of 23:09, a pace of 9:27 for easy/long, and a time of 1:42 for 400m repeats. I am also running 5K worth of .2-.25 mi intervals at 5K pace (7:27) and 5K tempos at half marathon pace (8:08). I have achieved all these goals and plan on staying at this Vdot until the Indian Summer half marathon on Sept 13. This should result in a 1:46:27. I feel more fit now that I have increased my E/L pace with the Garmin 205 GPS. I suspect I was running E/L at 10-11 min/mi while training for the Steamboat marathon. I am having difficulty running at 9:27. Today I ran an easy 5K at 9:01. I wanted to slow down to 9:27 because I have a slightly strained right Achilles, but I just could not slow down, even when the Achilles began to throb at about 4K. So now my plan is to run 5K's at 9:27 until my Achilles heals.

Summer Plans

I have the possibility of following the Daniel's formula or Run Workouts For Runners and Triathletes by Bobby McGee . My number one priority in July and August is backpacking. I will use the Daniels formula to prepare for the Indian Summer 13.1 mi race at the Rez when I am not backpacking. My marathon training was done at too slow a pace so for the summer my emphasis will be on track Repeats, Intervals, Tempos and fartlek's starting at Vdot 42.

Vdot 5K pace 10K pace 13.1 pace 26.2 pace E/L Intervals Tempo Repeats Pace

40 24:08 7:46 50:03 8:03 1:50:59 8:28 3:49:45 8:46 9:50 7:46 8:28 1:46 7:03

42 23:09 7:27 48:01 7:43 1:46:27 8:08 3:40:43 8:25 9:27 7:27 8:08 1:42 6:48

44 22:15 7:09 46:09 7:25 1:42:17 7:48 3:32:23 8:06 9:07 7:09 7:48 1:32 6:08