Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Half Marathon - Week 5

Weekly Total: 24.5 miles. Very good week back in training after being sick.  Swapped my long to Saturday instead of Sunday because it was sunny and 40 degrees.  The 8.2 miles was pretty tough but I think I could have pumped out a mile or two more which is a good sign.

Monday: Rest.
Tuesday: Speed intervals w/ recovery jogs, 1200m @ Race Pace; 2x800m @ 10K pace; 4x200m @ 5k pace; 3.5 miles.
Wednesday: 35 minutes easy. 3.25 miles.
Thursday: 45 minutes. 2x2 miles @ 9:30; 4x100m Sprints. 4.5 miles.
Friday:  Rest.
Saturday: 1:35 at 11:30 pace.  8.2 miles.
Sunday: 60 minutes easy. 5.0 miles.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Half Marathon - Week 4

I am changing the format of my weekly posts moving forward. It will include a quick overview of how my running was and a breakdown of the trainings from each day so that I can better see the workouts I did.

Weekly Total: 14.25 miles. This was definitely a rough week. I had come off a really good week of 23 miles and felt like I was getting back into the swing of things but got grounded with a nasty head cold.  I was finally over it enough on Friday to run but man was I sluggish all weekend.  My long run was cut short because I could barely take another step despite it being beautiful out, felt like a waste of the nice weather we were having.

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Sick
Wednesday: Sick
Thursday: Sick
Friday: 34 minutes easy. 3.25 miles.
Saturday: 55 minutes easy. 5 miles.
Sunday: 1:10, 3 miles easy; 2 miles at marathon pace; 1 mile recovery; 6 miles.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Lesson Learned!

Despite my hesitation to share this story, thought people would enjoy it because it shows how little common sense I have...

I do my hill workouts on the treadmill which is basically 1/2 mile warmup and cooldown with 30 minutes of intervals of sprints with a large incline.

I hadn't done them at the new gym I joined yet and at my work gym I was doing 6mph at 10% incline. I tried this at the new gym and boy was I surprised at how much steeper the setting was,  I tried to jump off because the incline and speed were nearly impossible to keep up with and I missed the foot rest.

Ouch!  Huge bruise the size of an orange on my knee and I'm sure people in the gym were like WTF is this guy doing.

So the lesson is, always slowly increase the settings on different equipment....

Half Marathon - Week 3

Looking back, I would really consider this my first week of real training although my mileage is about at the level it should be at week 3.  I ran my full 23 miles for the week, with 16 of it being on the "dread"mill but I really enjoyed getting back out onto the road for my long run.

I also have switched to a new running app called "RunKeeper" and now I can post my runs details.  Here is my long run for the week:

http://runkeeper.com/user/brianmbento/activity/24745122

I will still keep my stats updated on the blog for PRs, total miles and longest runs but if you want to see my running routes or split times at any point you should be able to just go here:

http://runkeeper.com/user/brianmbento/

This will show you an updated look at my runs for the week. And yes this weeks splits were terrible, 11:00 minute miles are not something i'm completely proud of but hey its a start.

Next week is my last week of 3-3-5-5-Long, as I am scheduled to move to 3.5-3.5-5.5-5.5-Long, which may not seem like much but 2 miles extra plus 1 mile extra for my long is probably going to be rough but hey no pain, no gain, right?

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Half Marathon - Week 1 & 2

It has been a little hectic in the Bento household over the past few weeks as we prepared for the birth of our first child. I am happy to announce Colin Michael Bento was born on January 15th at 10:22PM. After about 5 sleep deprived nights, he is settling in nicely and I have been able to get back to my training, albeit slowly.

The week he was born was supposed to be my first week of training but I missed my long run since we were in the hospital. I still managed to log 18 miles that week including an absolutely amazing 5.5 miles of trail running in the snow in the Audobon reserve near our house. The trail running was at a slower pace, but I could really feel the increased cardio requirements on my body so I am going to try and do one of my medium runs on the trails each week to improve my endurance. The first week home very little running happened because we were getting adjusted but I joined a local gym that is 24 hours so I can go running whenever I find the time.

Here is my new running schedule given that I am going to actually try and be ready for the Boston "Run to Remember" Half Marathon in May. I am going to ramp up the mileage from 25 miles a week to 45 miles over the course of the training which should coincide nicely with the Spring, where I will be much happier running long distances outside.


Schedule
Monday:Medium
Tuesday:Short
Wednesday:Strength/Stretching
Thursday:Medium
Friday:Short
Saturday:Long
Sunday:Strength/Stretching

Run Description
Short:4-6 Mile w/ Hill Sprints or Fartleks
Medium:6-8 Miles @ 10:00 Pace or Trail Runs
Long:8-15 Miles @ Half Marathon + 1:00 Pace

Saturday, January 1, 2011

10k Training Reflections

The biggest thing I learned from training for the 10k was that making the jump to the next distance requires a lot of work and even when you think you are ready you need to push it a little bit further. I thought 12 weeks would be plenty of time and I even had 10+ runs over 10k during my training. However, I am not sure if it is the adrenaline or nerves from race day, but those runs always seem to be tougher than I anticipated.

My next goal is to run a half marathon at some point during 2011. With the birth of our son, yes I am sure you all want to know his name but its a surprise, my training schedule might be a little light for a few weeks so I am leaning more towards the Fall when I will have some more mileage on my legs but we will see how it goes.

As I look to my next goal, I am going to really take the training more seriously and add long hill sprints/fartleks into my training routine to really strengthen my legs and core. Also, I want to learn more about how to handle nutrition during training. I have been on a pretty restricted calorie diet to cut weight, but hopefully in the next 3 months or so I will get down to my ideal running weight and can really focus on nutrition for training instead of weight loss.

10k at Lowell 1st Run

So after about 3 months of training I was ready for my first 10k race. The turn out was really good for it as Tina said they announced 1500+ registrants. The weather was insane for the middle of winter with the peak temperature during the race somewhere around 60 degrees.

I ran a really good first split of 31:46, but I struggled a little towards the end of the 2nd split. Also, I learned a valuable lesson which is to bring my own water bottle because it is pretty hard to drink water from paper cups while running. Both times through the water station I poured water up my nose trying to drink from those stupid cups.

My overall time was 1:05:15 which is my new personal best for the 10k, so overall I am happy and it is good to get my first 10k under my belt.

Here are two pictures from the race: