It's been a while folks but I'm back.

To put it lightly, I've been really busy with work the last few weeks.  The basics go like this:

Jan 23 - 28 - 42 miles, lots of strength work

Jan 29 - Feb 4 - 63 miles most while out in Seattle for work. Cranked out some fast ones this week.  Set my PR on a trail I run all the time. It's a 10 mile loop and I set the time during a 20 mile run on miles 10-20.  Pumped.

Feb 5 - 11 -  53 miles.  Should have been more but dinged up my quad on a bike ride and had to cut a hour off my long weekend run.  The good news is that even holding back I ran one of my faster times on my go-to weekend run on the Green Rock trai.  Disappointed that I had to cut it short but was encouraged that I ran what I did while holding back so much.

Feb 12 - 19 -  26 miles+.  Quad was pretty sore on Monday so I went to my chiro and she worked a serious knot out of my quad and poof, the issue was pretty much gone.  Still I talked with my coach and we decided on a rest week.  I kept stretching and foam rolling and things felt way better.  Good enough that I did a 32 story stair climb in Springfield, IL. 

It took me 2:59 seconds to get to the top which was good enough for 10th overall out of 600 or so.  It was a really cool event and there were some real deal climbers there that taught me a thing or two. Justin Stewart is a top flight guy in terms of US stairclimbing so it was really awesome to run into someone like this and have the chance to chat a bit.  He even paced me during my climb.  Amazing how much more fluid he was than me. I was like a bull in a china shop while this guy glided along.  Check out one of his workouts here  

On Sunday I had a 2 hour and 10 minute Negative Split run scheduled. The goal for these is keep it easy for the first half then pick it up for the second "half." The plan was 8 miles out in 1:10 followed by 8 miles back in 1 hour.  From a split persective, thats 8:45 out/7:30 back.  I eased in and felt great outbound really having to hold back to keep the pace in that 8:45 range.  I hit 8 miles at 1:10 on the nose then headed back.  Legs felt great despite the ass kicking stair climb the day before so I settled in to what felt like about 7:30 which was in fact a little closer to 7:05.  This pace got progressively faster and ended up landing my last 3 miles of the run in 19:42 with gas still in the tank and more turnover available. 

The quad feels great, my travel is slowing down a little and results are showing in terms of my speed.  Super excited for the upcoming race season to start! 

 Monday - rest

 Tuesday - easy bike, weights, core - 2 hours

 Wednesday - 2 runs, sprints AM, easy short PM - 10.7 miles

 Thursday - lunges, core, pushups, wrecked - 45 minutes

 Friday - leg blasters, easy trail - 9 miles

 Saturday - rest

 Sunday - 9 mile hike with 30lb pack - 3 hours

 Total - 29 miles, 9 hours training time
 
This sort of week is hard on me mentally.  I have a rough time looking at 29 miles and feeling good, but I did some out of the box training this week that I know will be helpful for the long haul. I still hit 9 hours or training time which is about what I averaged last year, it was just all running as opposed to running and wieghts, core, etc.

 Busy week ahead with work and some travel so I'm going to have to work on a strict schedule to get in what I need too.

 Monday - short easy run and core work - 4 miles
Tuesday - Speed work in the AM, shake out in the PM - 11.8 miles
Wednesday - leg workout and easy run with accelerations at the end - 7 miles
Thursday - Treadmill progression run. Warm up and 9m/m then increase speed/effort every 10 minutes until 6:24m/m for last 2 minutes - 9 miles
Friday - active recovery run - 5.2 miles
Saturday - Easy trail with hard 20 minutes at the end. - 21 miles 4k climbing
Sunday -  Fat burning run. Kept it easy - 12.75 miles

 I ended up with a total of 71 miles for the week and right at 12 hours of training.  This type of volume for me has tended to come near peak training time so to hit it this early and still feel strong is a great sign.  That Saturday run is on my staple trail, the Green Rock, and I think I may have ran the last 2.5 miles as fast as I ever have.  Sunday was also a good indicator as I ran comfortable with hardly any soreness or major fatigue.  It seems like I am starting to adjust to the strength and core training and it is not having as much of an "negative" effect on my pace and effort as several weeks ago.

 Lastly, I'll call out a sweet new piece of gear that I picked up, the  Patagonia Wind Shield Jacket http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/mens-wind-shield-jacket?p=24982-0-791 . I wore this all weekend.  Saturday was about 12 degrees at the start of the run and this jacket paired with a silk-weight base layer long sleeve was perfect.  Plus when it warmed up the full legnth zipper and vented pockets allowed heat to escape.  Sunday warmed up but was really windy. I wore a sleeveless shirt and the jacket and again that was all I needed for 40 degrees and 25mph cold winds blowing across the open fields here in IL. 

 Hope you had a great week!

Lower volume last week but 3 speed specific workouts but the hurt on me.

Monday - speed work and strength training - 5.5 miles

Tuesday - 1 hour easy bike and strength training

Wednesday - Tabata runs, these sucked! It's a 24 minute workout with 4 minutes of hell ~3 miles

Thursday - Easy trail run - 7.75 miles

Friday - strength training, leg specific

Saturday - off

Sunday - Anaerobic threshold for 2.5 hours on the Chubb Trail. Pretty solid outing with my buddy Tommy who kept me honest and pushing on some really tired legs from the day before. Hit the climbs hard -16.5 miles and around 2k of climb

Total - 33 miles ran, 1 hour bike and 3 leg/strenght workouts.

That Sunday run was a bear. My legs were trashed from the first step so to average a 9 minute pace on this trail with mutiple climbs between 200-400 feet is a good feeling. Sometimes its good to just see what you can grunt out.

Monday - core work

Tuesday - sprints and leg work

Wednesday - 40 minutes super easy running to shake things out.

Thursday - 13.5 miles on Silver Lake Trail

Friday - weights at the gym

Saturday - 25 miles on the Berryman Trail with friends (running and scouting for Mark Twain 100)

Sunday - rest

Total - 48.11 ran/10.5 hours of run+cross training

A little lighter miles this week but starting to feel the positive effects of the strength training.  We turned it up a bit in the last 5 miles of the 25 on Saturday.  Running in the high 7's on the flats and mid 9's on the climbs was pretty great, especially after a leg workout the day before.

Also, I'm signed up for my "A" race for 2012.  Tahoe Rim 100, here I come!

Lastly.... I had a goal to hit 2400 miles for 2011 and I ended up with 2425 which is exactly a 20% gain in mileage over 2010 where I hit 2021.

Monday - 7.2 miles with accelerations the last 10 minutes and core work

Tuesday - leg workout then 12 miles on the muddy wet trail (lots of fun)

Wednesday - 4 mile warm up and cool down with sprints. Run 2 was 5.1 miles on the treadmill at an easy pace

Thursday - Leg workout at the gym

Friday - rest

Saturday - 24 miles on the trail with my buddies to celebrate the 24th of December.  Great run and lots of laughing as we crusied in the bright sun and the cold air.

Sunday - Merry Christmas to you with Tabata Run for 2.77 miles.  Legs were not digging turnover after 5 hours on the trail Saturday,  I'll sneak in a core  workout at somepoint tonight.

Totals: 56 miles ran. 11:30 minutes of total training all with a cold. blah. My abs are super sore this week, but my wife said my stomach "looked more ab-by." I win.

I'm back on the training wagon and for the first time ever, with a real plan.  After some reflection on the past year, as we seem to do in December, I realized that I have more potential than I am using.  As stated in my last post all the things a runner would want to improve on (with the exception of in-race nutrition) have gone up at a steady pace the last few years.  I've done this by simply running more each year compared to the last.  I have always had a loose training plan.  Not completely from the hip as I like to hit certain metrics or items in a typical week.  For example a week might look like this: run 50+ total miles, run fast a time or two, run slow, rest, run a trail with climbs as much as possible, get in 20+ on tough terrain on the weekend.  That's about it.  Not totally lacking of a plan but a loose at best.

I've decided that its going to be a time to focus in and get more serious about things.  I'll still run for the fun of it as that's why I do this, but it sure feels good to nail a race and that item has been sporadic at best.  So what have I done to get focused? A few things, first and most important is changed my mindset.  It is really easy to say "this is it......this time I'm going to...." then as a little bit of time goes on, revert back to those comfortable training methods.  I'm not going to just get in miles in 2012, I'm going to get focused training in for 2012.  Second, I changed my diet.  I'm paleo focused.  I'm not crazy specific about the diet but I do my best to stick to it and when I can't I do my best to be gluten free and low carb.  Lastly, I hired a coach.  Matt Hart (blog)  @thematthart (twitter) took me on as a client and I'm really excited about it.  In my first week, I've already done more speed work than all of 2011 combined.  I look forward to another great year on the trail with friends and unlocking some of that potential that I've yet to do on my own.

Moday - 9.5 miles of running to the gym and back. Legs, lower back, core workout at the gym

Tuesday - 3 miles - Sprint work on the hotel treadmill

Wednesday - 7 miles run. Easy first 50 minutes. Acceleration the last 10 minutes. Core

Thursday - leg workout

Friday - Off

Saturday - 21 miles - Green Rock trail 4k of climb

Sunday - 4.8 miles - super easy and slow recovery run

A nice "back to training week."  The leg workouts were still with me on Saturday and made cornering switchbacks and downhill running a little tougher.  I could feel that deep soreness hanging around, but its new training and I used to lift weights a lot so not much of a suprise.