2 weeks and counting

It is 2 weeks from today that a bunch of us will be gathered in Sedona, AZ for the 1/2 marathon. I'm really looking forward to a fun road trip, hanging out with friends, checking out a new part of the country, and hopefully throwing (trowing if you are from St. Bonaventure) down a new PR in the half. The road trip part of the whole weekend is a part that a lot of people probably hate, but I never cease to be amazed when I travel out here at the expanse of emptiness that you can find. We'll be going through one of those parts in western New Mexico/north eastern AZ.

The weather here was just starting to be warm enough to have all of the snow melted, and now it is looking like the possibility of some snow next week. We were so close to having the mountain bike trails clear. We would still have to ride early while they are frozen, so that we don't tear them up, but having some clear trails to ride would have been nice. Oh well, more time in the pain cave I guess. The weather is good for some hearty winter soups though, which is just what Jaime and I made this week. Actually she made it while I did the riding in the spare room. What a great wife huh? Here is the recipe if anyone wants to try it. It is easy and tasty. I would suggest adding more stock than it calls for though. This will make about 9 bowls of soup as it is listed, but obviously more if you add more stock. http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/quick-recipes/2010/01/lentil_soup_with_spicy_italian_sausage

This week's training went pretty well and looked like this:
2 swims so far, plus one more tomorrow - all 2,000 yards.
#1 had 6x200 at race pace intervals w/:30 recoveries as the main set
#2 had 400,300,200,3x100, all pull at endurance pace as main set.
#3 (tomorrow) has 5x100 sprint w/1:00 recovery, 400 easy, 6x50 sprint w/:30 recovery

4 bike sessions on the trainer.
#1 45 mins with 2x6:00 threshold intervals
#2 1:15 at endurance pace (thank god for criminal minds marathons on TV)
#3 60 mins with 6x:30 VO2 intervals with cadence over 110, rest at endurance pace
#4 60 mins at endurance pace

4 runs
#1 easy 2 miles
#2 easy 2 miles
#3 10 miles with 5x1 mile at 5K pace / 1/2 mile recovery jog
#4 11 miles at endurance pace.

2 strength training sessions.
#1 heavy weights (this is relative, as the weights I'm moving these days are certainly not heavy) 5 sets of 5 reps, full body.
#2 (tomorrow after swim) 300 workout. Check it out at http://www.menshealth.com/men/fitness/workout-plans/muscle-building/article/5e1790ecab7e1110vgnvcm20000012281eac I totally have to reduce the weight in the bench press and have to substitute for the floor sweepers and kettle ball stuff because we don't have the equipment/room at the gym for it. If you want to get completely worked over in a lifting session, try this one out. It doesn't sound all that hard until you do it, and start trying to bring your total time to complete the workout down each time. I promise, when you are done, your whole body will be shaking but you will feel awesome.

If you haven't fallen asleep reading by now, you are at least well on your way to becoming a "mentally strong" endurance athlete. Seriously, though, thanks for reading.

Happy training,

Nick

Great Weather, good running

It's been awhile since the last post. So, what has been happening? Well, we had a huge October snow storm here last week. Over 1 ft in Denver, which is very rare. Unfortunately the mountains didn't get too much. The snow was Wednesday & Thursday, and by Sunday it was all melted. This week we had 2 or 3 days in the 70's. Just can't beat the weather here. Offseason training is going well. Nice to not have too much intensity, and lots more free time. It gives me time to do some cooking, catch up on some reading, etc. Read on for training details and a good butternut squash soup recipe.

2 weeks more of training for the half are in the books. So far, so good. I'm just following a stock plan from runnersworld.com. It is basically an easy, short run, a tempo or track workout, and a long run. As the weeks progress, the mileage goes up and another short easy run gets added. Next week is the first recovery week. I'm finding that my Garmin 310XT is awesome for this; especially the auto lap splits at the miles. It shows me that I tend to run the long and easy runs too fast, and the tempo runs too slow. So, basically, I was spending all my time in the "gray zone", which is not really where you want to be.

Other than the run training, there have been 2-3 easy swims and 2-3 easy bikes each week. Overall volume is very low in both; around 6,000 yards swimming/wk, and about 2.5-3 hrs biking at endurance paces. Strength training is starting to come around, which is a positive sign. I can't believe how weak you become when you stop strength training to focus on the endurance specific training. Next season, I'm going to have to figure out how to keep at least one day of strength training in the plan.

As promised, here is the butternut squash soup recipe. Super easy (even I can do it) and delicious. http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1854009