Monte's Log, Featuring a Debate About Dotard Genetic Potential with an Ant

6/8
PM
Z2 Run
2:00:00 - 13.51 mi/8:53 pace/139 HR

Sleep has been all messed up the last two days, but hopefully this helps me get to bed on schedule and stay asleep tonight.

you're overseas right now? Are you running on the treadmill in a hotel gym or creating a track to follow around the city you're in?

Given a quick glance at the weather, we can only hope that he hopped out of his hotel near Mayfair and took a quick stroll around the park for 2 hours.

I'm up outside of Nottingham right by a nature preserve, so I just did an out and back through the preserve for maybe four miles or so, which then spit me out along the river for another few miles. I went into it thinking I'd just do a few four mile loops around the preserve, but the trails weren't well marked so I just kept going quasi-straight until I hit an hour and it ended up working out better.

I'm heading to Wales tomorrow and Poland on Friday, then back home Tuesday.

Ooh, where in Wales? I lived in Cardiff for 4 years - college and then a year playing rugby after.

You picked a terrible time not to be in Indy. I'd pay top dollar for seats to the IND/OKC series. It is entertaining AF and I have zero rooting interest.

If you're near the Brecon Beacons, I could give you the coordinates of the cave I found. It's chuffing horrible; I'm not sure a tall would fit in it.

I got sick my last few days in Europe and missed about a week of training; I did do an easy hour Saturday, though. This week is the start of my 20 week training block for a fall half marathon where I'm going to try to take a chunk off my PR; this first four week cycle is just base building, after which the work will get more specific. My volume since the ultra has been low, so I'll take a week or two to ramp back up to previous levels, especially given the extreme heat we're getting now.

6/23
AM
W1D1
Z2 Run
60:00 - 6.65 mi/9:02 pace/151 HR

Definitely ran this one too fast; the first 2+ miles were about what I'd expect HR-wise and then it shot up.

6/24
AM
W1D2
Speed Intervals

No easy way to summarize this, but it was 12 minutes of work (3 sets of eight 0:30 intervals) with 0:30 second recoveries between intervals and 2:30 recoveries between sets. I kept everything between 6:10 and 6:30/mi, which given the heat and the fact that I'm still sick was probably too fast. I did walk the last half of the between interval recoveries and cut the cooldown short because it was already 82 degrees when I finished up.

I'll just have to be a bit smarter and go less off of feel for the first few miles and just keep my pace twenty to thirty seconds slower than usual; the confluence of slight detraining, illness, and the heat is not ideal. Back to the gym on Thursday as well; my new office has a gym which seems pretty well equipped, so not too shabby.

Sick of these slow poke times.

Sub1:30 or bust

You and me both; hopefully the temperature breaks in the next few days and I can stop running in 80+ degree 90% humidity. Sub-90 is the goal.

6/24
AM
W1D3
Z2 Run
5.0 mi - 47:19/9:28 pace/142 HR

Still too fast, given my HR averaged over 150 for the last mile.

6/26
AM
W1D4
"Hill" Tempo Intervals
15:00 - 1.76 mi/8:33 pace/135 HR
10:00_1 - 1.26 mi/7:55 pace/161 HR
10:00_r - 1.11 mi/9:01 pace/151 HR
10:00_2 - 1.19 mi/8:22 pace/165 HR
10:00_r - 1.11 mi/9:46 pace/153 HR
10:00_3 - 1.02 mi/8:47 pace/166 HR
15:00_r - 1.54 mi/9:43 pace/153 HR

Another day where it felt like I was inside a steam room; humidity was in the 85-90% range and it was over 80 degrees, so this was a struggle. This workout is ideally supposed to be done on a hill with a 3-5% grade, but the best I can do is 1% close to my house, so I work with what I have. I had to dial my HR way back to stay within Z3, which I mostly managed to do, though it is kind of hilarious that the third interval was slower than my warmup. Oh well, we move on.

As an aside, today is the minis' 13th birthday; that I was posting here when they were born is a bit surreal.

6/27
AM
W1D5
Z1/Z2 Recovery
50:00 - 5.17 mi/9:40 pace/136 HR

6/28
AM
W1D6
Z2 Run
10.00 mi - 1:32:18/9:14 pace/146 HR

Still hot and humid as hell; happy to have gotten 40+ miles this week off of an illness and in this weather.

Still alive, just juggling training in combination with illness and travel. I've been on the road since July 3rd (vacation), and I head home tomorrow with one son that I'm then bringing 100+ miles to camp on Sunday. I'm them flying out for work on Monday. Good times.

After a pretty down June in terms of volume (barely 100 miles), I'm on pace for something low normal (~170 miles) this month.

7/11
AM
W3D5
Hill Tempo Intervals
10:00 - 1.12 mi/8:57 pace/129 HR
10:00_1 - 1.25 mi/8:01 pace/158 HR
8:00_r - 0.88 mi/9:03 pace/137 HR
10:00_2 - 1.15 mi/8:41 pace/164 HR
10:00_r - 1.08 mi/9:18 pace/143 HR
10:00_3 - 1.14 mi/8:48 pace/165 HR
12:00_r - 1.26 mi/9:34 pace/146 HR

I found a pretty good hill near where I'm staying that averaged a bit more than a three percent gradient (with some parts a fair bit steeper) for the length of my tempo intervals, so this was actually performed as intended.

7/13
AM
W3D7
Z2 Long Run
2:00:00 - 13.23 mi/9:04 pace/148 HR

95% humidity this morning, so a bit of a slog. Happy to tough through it, though.

Finally back home, at least for a few weeks; I ran about 20 miles total from Monday through Wednesday (easy, speed intervals, recovery) that I don't feel much like logging.

I did some tempo intervals today, targeting between 7:00-8:00/mi depending on how I was feeling.

7/17
AM
W4D4
Tempo Intervals
6:00_1 - 0.81 mi/7:27 pace/156 HR
6:00_2 - 0.81 mi/7:27 pace/167 HR
6:00_3 - 0.80 mi/7:27 pace/173 HR
6:00_4 - 0.80 mi/7:29 pace/174 HR
6:00_5 - 0.81 mi/7:26 pace/176 HR

A shade below 8 miles of work in 65 minutes when you add in the warmup, cooldown, and three minute recoveries. I walked part of the last three recoveries, but given it was closing in on 80 and 80+% humidity, it felt warranted. My HR was probably a bit higher than it "should" have been (I jumped into Z5 for some of the last few intervals), but overall this felt pretty good and I was glad to hold pace.

7/18
AM
W4D5
Z1/Low Z2 Recovery
75:00 - 7.80 mi/9:37 pace/134 HR

7/19
AM
W4D6
Z1/Low Z2 Recovery
90:00 - 10.01 mi/8:59 pace/144 HR

Still oppressively hot/humid. 45 miles this week.

7/21
AM
W5D1
Z2 Run
75:00 - 8.43 mi/8:54 pace/142 HR

PM
A
NG Pullups: +15 x5x3
RFESS: +40 x6x3

B
Bench: wu, 145x6x3
Facepulls: 4x12
Leg Press Calf: x12x3

C
RDLs: 3x6

D
Incline Bench: 45s x8x3
DB Pullovers: 55 x8x3

E
Overhead Rope Tri Ext: x11, x9, x8
DB Hammer Curl: 20s x10x3

It's been . . . quite a while since I last lifted; luckily I'll be here for another nine days before leaving again. Regardless, my company moved offices and there's a half decent gym with a power rack, cable machine, dumbbells up to 80s (I think, not that I'll need those for a while), so it's a bit easier to sneak in a quick session, especially given how pencildick my sessions are at the moment.

The run was better than expected given the heat/humidity, but I guess that's what a day off will do; luckily it's supposed to get back into the 90s here for a few days, so that will be fun.

7/22
AM
W5D2
Rolling Fartleks
15:00 - 1.76 mi/8:32 pace/133 HR
2:00_1 - 0.30 mi/6:39 pace/159 HR
3:00_1 - 0.45 mi/6:39 pace/169 HR
4:00_1 - 0.60 mi/6:38 pace/174 HR
3:00_2 - 0.45 mi/6:39 pace/172 HR
2:00_2 - 0.30 mi/6:41 pace/177 HR
15:00 - 1.66 mi/9:02 pace/156 HR

This was my first time doing this one, so I wasn't entirely sure how to pace it given I had an almost one minute programmed pace band to play with. I did manage to stay consistent with pacing the reps, but I did walk one minute of each of the last three recoveries (you get one minute recovery after a two minute interval, two minutes after a three minute interval, etc).

Slightly turned my ankle on Wednesday, so I moved my rest day this week to yesterday. Feels essentially fine now, so a rare intelligent training decision on my part.

7/23
AM
W5D3
Z1/2 Recovery
60:00 - 6.34 mi/9:28 pace/134 HR

7/25
AM
W5D5
Z4/5 1 km Intervals
10:00 - 1.13 mi/8:51 pace/138 HR
1 km_1 - 4:25.8/7:08 pace/Max HR 170
1 km_2 - 4:24.2/7:05 pace/Max HR 174
1 km_3 - 4:22.3/7:02 pace/Max HR 179
1 km_4 - 4:26.2/7:08 pace/Max HR 180
500 m_1 - 2:15.4/7:16 pace/Max HR 177
500 m_2 - 2:11.9/7:05 pace/Max HR 179
500 m_3 - 2:12.0/7:05 pace/Max HR 180
500 m_4 - 2:11.1/7:02 pace/Max HR 181
10:00 - 1.09 mi/9:19 pace/160 HR

Today's workout was programmed as eight reps of one kilometer at Z4/5 pace (so at and above threshold) with 90 seconds of recovery, but it was already 82 with 90% humidity when I got to the track, so I figured a bit of discretion was probably warranted and pared the last four reps down to 500 meters, as I didn't adjust my pace down far enough.

Looking at the data after the run, my heart rate got up pretty high into Z5 (175 -182) even towards the end of the 500s, so I definitely didn't pace it correctly given the heat. Hopefully it will be a little nicer next week; if not, I'll dial back the pace a bit and shoot for 7:15s and see how that goes.

7/26
AM
W5D6
Z1/Low Z2 Recovery
60:00 - 6.38 mi/9:24 pace/133 HR

7/27
AM
W5D7
Z2 Long Run
10.0 mi- 1:31:45/9:10 pace/142 HR

Disgustingly humid; had up to two hours programmed, but I just couldn't do it.

7/28
AM
W6D1
Z1/Low Z2 Recovery
60:00 - 6.26 mi /9:36 pace/132 HR

PM
A
NG Pullups: x9, x7, x6
Walking Lunges: 30s x8x3

B
OHP: wu, 95 x6x3
Pallofs: x10, x8x2
Seated Calf: 3x12
Facepulls: 4x12

C
Leg Ext: x12x2
Leg Curl: x12x2

D
Low Incline DB Bench: wu, 55s x8x3

E
DB LTEs: 25s x10x3
Single Arm Incline Curl: 3x8

The gym at my new office has about 90% of the stuff I'd want and is 100% more convenient, so hopefully 2-3x/wk is in the cards once I get back from my latest round of travel in August. The weather continues to be hot, swampy ass, but I'm at least getting the miles in.

7/29
AM
W6D2
Rolling Fartleks
22:00 - 2.61 mi/8:26 pace/136 HR
2:00_1 - 0.30 mi/6:42 pace/164 HR/169 Max
3:00_1 - 0.45 mi/6:41 pace/170 HR/176 Max
4:00_1 - 0.59 mi/6:44 pace/175 HR/182 Max
3:00_2 - 0.45 mi/6:44 pace/175 HR/181 Max
2:00_2 - 0.30 mi/6:44 pace/173 HR/178 Max
15:00 - 1.59 mi/9:26 pace/159 HR

It was (is) still oppressively humid, so this really sucked. As with last time, I walked a minute of the last three recoveries to get my heart rate back down. Added seven minutes to the warmup to get to one hour in total (including the recoveries) for a bit more than 7 miles. I'll take it on a day like today.

7/30
AM
W6D3
Z1/2 Recovery
60:00 - 6.34 mi/9:28 pace/132 HR

7/31
AM
W6D4
Z4/5 1 km Intervals
10:00 - 1.13 mi/8:54 pace/134 HR
1 km_1 - 4:25.4/7:07 pace/157 HR/Max HR 164
1 km_2 - 4:27.1/7:10 pace/157 HR/Max HR 167
1 km_3 - 4:26.3/7:08 pace/160 HR/Max HR 170
1 km_4 - 4:25.1/7:07 pace/163 HR/Max HR 171
1 km_5 - 4:24.6/7:06 pace/164 HR/Max HR 172
1 km_6 - 4:26.3/7:09 pace/166 HR/Max HR 174
1 km_7 - 4:23.5/7:04 pace/166 HR/Max HR 178
1 km_8 - 4:24.1/7:05 pace/168 HR/Max HR 175
10:00 - 1.09 mi/9:12 pace/150 HR

The weather was a fair bit better today than last week; the humidity was still 90+%, but the temperature was 8-10 degrees cooler (low 70s today). I was much more in control today, my pacing was much better, and I only went above threshold HR (175 bpm) for a few seconds in the seventh interval (I assume on the part of the track going into the wind). I can probably afford to push this a bit the next time I do it in a slightly favorable environment (which will not be next week, as I'll be in South Carolina).

8/1
AM
W6D5
Z1/Low Z2 Recovery
80:00 - 8.66 mi/9:14 pace/129 HR

8/2
AM
W6D6
Z2 Long Run
1:50:00 - 12.00 mi/9:10 pace/142 HR

Yesterday's run was in 65F weather in Indy and today's was in 80F/90% RH South Carolina, so even though the pace was close, the effort was much harder today, relatively speaking. Even so, I stayed entirely in Z1/2 today, so mission accomplished.

Hi Monte!

Glad you are still working out and doing well

Great to see you man, and thanks! How's your health?

8/4
AM
W7D1
Z2 Run
75:00 - 8.02 mi/9:21 pace/139 HR

8/5
AM
W7D2
Rolling Fartleks
15:00 - 1.76 mi/8:32 pace/135 HR
2:00_1 - 0.28 mi/7:10 pace/157 HR/164 Max
3:00_1 - 0.43 mi/7.04 pace/167 HR/173 Max
4:00_1 - 0.57 mi/7:02 pace/170 HR/178 Max
3:00_2 - 0.43 mi/6:58 pace/172 HR/178 Max
2:00_2 - 0.29 mi/6:58 pace/172 HR/180 Max
3:00 - 0.33 mi/9:12 pace/155 HR

Over 80 degrees at 95% humidity at 7 AM meant I cut the pace by 0:15/mi for each interval and still only barely got it done. I cut the cooldown short because I was already pretty spent; I'm already dreading the kilometer repeats on Thursday.