Miles are rising

It's been a few weeks since I've posted on here so I haven't had much to say I guess in terms of running. 

Training is going well, my heart rate efficiency continues to improve. I'm trying not to get hung up on my overall weekly mileage and started to focus mainly on the one longer run on the weekend. I'm up to 14 miles on Saturdays and this will now slowly creep up a couple miles each week. Soon Sunday will increase as well and the weekend will be back to back long runs. During the week I'll try to run 8 miles three days but I've allowed it to vary and am not stressing about it. 

Yesterday I saw a first while out for a run. Two drunks having sex on a dirty dark alley sidewalk at 630am! Add that to the puke counting I've done, the random drunks pissing on the street, random 530am yelling, unmoored boats in the middle of the canal, and domestic disputes. Early weekend mornings bring out the best! 

I've been going long on Saturday, the day I work, versus Sunday because it seems to me that if I'm tired at work I'm more occupied and don't notice it as much as at home. Also my co-workers are usually in the same boat, big workout that morning, ravenously hungry, tired; they understand. It's a conversation point too since I work at a running store. It's nice to be able to "be my worn out self" and have people understand and laugh! We're all well caffeinated and we will also run out as needed for food throughout the day. At home it's too easy to be grumpy around the wife and little one, not good, as finding time to run can be a selfish act anyway. Dragging the tiredness over someone else just isn't fair.

The rain has finally let up but all the trails and paths are soaked so I'm still running on the road. Not bad really but it will be nice to return to my old routes, especially for the longer runs 16 miles and longer. It's also getting lighter earlier, slowly, but it is and that's a start! 

Running injury free at the moment too other than some split skin on my little toe. It's nice to run slower and not be in pain! Base mileage is good! 

So I think I've got around 21 weeks now until the Lakeland 100. My motivation has risen again which is good, so as with before, time to plug in those miles. I'll start looking into my gear and food once spring hits.

January

And the first month of the new year is done and I'm feeling tired! Stuck to my plan of 40 miles per week at a heart rate between 140 - 150 and I've seen significant improvements. I need to incorporate some more speed work though as my leg turnover is too slow to keep my heart rate up where I want it to be. 

So I've never played with this method of training, and I'm by no means 100% sticking to it but it has been working as it's suppose to. The plan, of which I am only vaguely familiar with, is the Maffetone Method. The idea is to train between a certain HR zone over time and your efficiency will improve. 

You take 180 minus your age to get the top end of the zone. I add 10 due to my running history. This zone is supposedly the aerobic zone and the zone where you utilize fat for fuel, not sugars. So it's super efficient. When starting out the pace can be heinously slow but over time it gets better. So for me I run between roughly 140 and 150 bpm. If I'm going up a hill I slow down as much as needed to stay within that zone. 

Looking back at my runs from late November I was clocking around 740 minute miles within that zone, now I'm at around 650 minute miles! Yes, these times do fluctuate a bit if I'm tired etc but it's really cool looking back at the data and seeing the improvement. 

In general I'm tired and having a tough time motivating. I think I need an easy week to recover a bit and then get back at it. It's still really early in the time frame leading up to Lakeland 100, about 6 months, so no need to push too hard or far anyway. I'd like to stay at 40 to 50 mile weeks for a couple more months  and see how I feel. For Superior I averaged around 40 miles per week, for only a few months, with a few stints between 50 and 70, but damn did those weeks tire me out. I figure I'll be pretty well off sticking early to 40 in the training, take a break, and ramp up then early summer. I'll be way ahead of my previous hundred miler training though and also should be able to handle more miles.

It's slowly getting lighter out earlier but still not enough for decent photos. Soon. I hope! Than I'll have something to look at! Can't wait for things to dry out also. The rain has been persisting all winter so any form of trail or path is muddy or flooded. I've been sticking to the roads to keep clean. At least it hasn't been raining very often in the early morning when I'm normally out. 

So on with plugging away the miles, no immediate plans in sight!