Residuals & a Race Report on Miguel

I hope whoever is reading this is well and healthy! I still have some residual gunk in my chest and can feel it clearing out with each sneeze or cough. My body feels fine though and I don't feel sick. I think it's just a case of bad allergies accompanied by colorful phlegm. Mmmm, lovely.

But running has been going good this week. I met with Miguel yesterday and he looked to be in crazy good fighting shape! He's probably dropped 10 or so pounds since he left for altitude training up in Mammoth Lakes at the end of July. I looked at him and knew I had no excuses not to whip my fat arss into shape. Anyway, he showed me the overview of my training cycle and it looks challenging but very doable. I'm glad he had gotten me up to a few weeks at 75 miles per week this summer. My highest week will be 90 and I will have about 4-5 weeks in the 80 mpw range. I'm so excited to see how my body and running are affected by this. I'm 39 and am in the best shape of my life as far as running and racing. I have only been racing and training with commitment since 2006, so I think I have a good number of years left in which to improve.

This week was a low mileage week in the 50s range. I did a couple of V02 workouts this week and they both hurt. I like my legs going fast, but I have a hard time liking my lungs burning and my head feeling like it's going to explode. The first workout was Wednesday and it was 4 x 200s with :30 recoveries followed by 4 x 400s with 1:00 recoveries followed by 4 x 200 with :30 recoveries. In between each of the 3 sets I took a 3 minute jog. The 200s were all in the :40-:42 range and the 400s were in the 1:29-1:32 range. I need to work on letting go when it comes to these types of sprints. I just need to do it and not hold back, but call me chicken!

The 2nd workout was 4 x 1 mile speed intervals where I got a full 4:00 recovery between each. By the last interval I could have used a 6 minute recovery! Anyway they turned out like this: 5:54, 6:20, 6:21, 6:23. I was so so surprised to see a sub 6 mile on the road! I have not done that before and was pretty happy. But the last 3 intervals brought me back down to earth. In fact, I almost passed out at the end of the last interval. I was absolutely wiped out. When that last mile started, I literally felt scared (of the pain that would soon take over my body). I said some prayers for health and strength and for some reason, God always seems to hear my prayers for help! He amazes me and I am thankful.

I'm happy with the workout because Miguel told me to just run them a little faster than 6:30s. He was happy with the way they turned out too but he says we need to get me finishing faster rather than slower. Absolutely the truth! He also said that with good tempo training, I will soon be able to hold my paces at the faster end of the spectrum instead of finishing almost :30 slower than the first mile.

Okay, today is an easy 3-4 miles and I'll probably do it on the treadmill when the kiddo is napping. My older kiddos are at their step mom's and will be back tomorrow afternoon.

I do think that I will ask Miguel to change one thing: make my long runs on Saturday and easy runs on Sunday. I really want to be able to go to morning mass and enjoy it rather than worry about a long run I have to do later. I think he'll understand. :)

Lastly, I wanted to give a shout out to Miguel for his race performance at the USA 20K Championships. He had taken quite a few days off in the weeks leading up to the race because of an acute achilles injury. He started conservatively in the first couple of miles and then he went for it. He ended up passing 22 runners from the time he picked it up to the finish line and he didn't get passed. He placed 13th overall with a PR of 1:02:18. That's a 5:01 mile average. Awesome!