Eugene -- Week 1

Well well well.  Talk about disappearing -- and really no good reason for it.  Last week was just crazy at work and then this past weekend was crazy with fun.

So I've not really set forth my 2012 goals (plans really) yet nor have I recapped 2011.  Ah well.  For 2011, I mostly will say it was a good year for slow and steady growth running wise.  As for 2012, I really don't have much planned yet beyond my first big goal -- it is all a work in progress.  But suffice it to say, 2012 will end up fun, I'm sure.

Luckily my sick but not sick adventure ended right before official week one of my Eugene plan -- I take that as a good omen.  Sick in 2012 - check.   Marked off the list during the first week of the year all tidy and nice like.  Apparently I needed a rest week so I took it -- and complained mightily too.  I'm just a terrible sick person.

Anyhow, all is better and week one is done and only 15 more to go.  Oh how 15 seems like hardly any.  Now I've entered panic mode and will remain there until this thing is over.  Signing up and telling everyone I was running a marathon was all fine and dandy until it was time for the 'official' training.  But official it is so I guess I'm going to do this thing called run 26.2 mile.  At least it will give me something to write about.

Eugene Week 1 (Jan 9 to Jan 15)

I ended up going with a McMillan plan.  I didn't have enough confidence to do my own plan.  With my limited experience and the overwhelming amount of information out there I just didn't trust that I'd put together the right combo of running days, times, etc. so I decided to go with the semi custom approach.  I'd read a bunch on the McMillan site and like his approach so I signed up.  They sent me a questionnaire about my style, what I thought I needed to improve on and what my goals were, strengths were and where I was with my training so far.  It was a nice chance to look back on what I've done (not much really) and where I wanted to go.  My plan showed up on Christmas Eve so I had two weeks to go over it in a bunch of detail (I looked at it daily, often times multiple times a day!) and at first it almost seemed too simple.   But the more I focused on it, the less simple it got -- which is a good thing really.  He just did a good job of paying attention to where I said I was (and started me there) and what I wanted to improve on (more stamina -- even at the expense of speed).

My biggest goal with this will be to trust the plan and paces.  Some of the runs feel so slow (hello 10:40 min/mile recovery run) but I figure these people are the professionals and I'm the super novice.  So instead of overthinking everything (who me?) I've plugged in paces and I'm off to the races.  I've also fired up the heart rate monitor and looked at the suggested ranges and am going to use that as well.  So, we'll see how it all works out.

Without further ado, the weeks work:

Monday - Jan 9

REST!  Gotta love a plan that begins with the first day off.  But I did an ab focused yoga routine which I'll plan on keeping up.  Boy did I feel that for the rest of the week.

Tuesday - Jan 10

50 to 60 minute booster run (easy run with about 15 mins at steady state pace).  Done and done.  59 mins total

Wednesday -- Jan 11


35 to 50 minute easy run -- 50 mins done.  These paces are very easy right now so I'm good.

Thursday - Jan 12

45 to 60 minute easy run.  Did a smidgen over 60 mins but at a bit slower pace.  I've got a friend running Wed and Thursday with me for awhile anyway but she was out of practice so we slowed down.  Probably good to keep me on pace better as it all seems SO SLOW.

Friday -- Jan 13  

Rest -- so I did some yoga.  I'm also incorporating very limited (but I'm still starting it) strength by push ups every day -- will add more stuff as I find groove.

Saturday -- Jan 14

90 to 105 minutes long steady run.  I did 89 minutes -- but it was hills!!  I was out at Rancho San Antonio park that day and it was lovely.  Cold, but lovely.  So managed to keep my friends going for 8.65 miles or 89 minutes.  I'll call it good because of all the elevation change (increase of 1088ft.)

I also went to a fancy dancy party in a winery in St. Helena -- and we ended up dancing probably for at least 3 hours -- maybe four.  So yesterday and today my legs have been a bit heavy.  But I still think three hours of dancing counts as cross training and worth mentioning.

Sunday -- Jan 15

Recovery Run (30 to 45 mins) -- and this one just about did me in.  The goal is to keep the pace between 10:40 and 11:10.  That was almost impossible -- my final avg pace for the 4 miles was 10:36 which I thought was pretty good.  It was hard because when I run slower than what seems comfortable, I loose form and completely fall apart.  Everything starts to hurt -- and I was concentrating so hard on making the pace but I'd look down and see that I was going faster.  It was difficult --  I did, however, start singing. Outloud.  I figured it I could sing, it might slow me down.  I'm not sure it worked.

One thing was interesting -- and I may do a post with HR on them -- but I had a huge effort for this slow pace.  Now it was windy when I left -- but not sure why my HR showed so high.  Way higher than it should have and even higher than earlier in the week.  But I didn't feel like I was expending a lot of effort at all -- other than the effort to slow down.  So it will be interesting to see if that happens again.

Week 1 DONE!  We'll call it good. (daily mile called it gnarly! -- DM -- you haven't seen anything yet!)