Monday morning

Good morning to you all-  As I sit here at the Firehouse waiting for my relief to show up I decided to write a post about the up coming week.  I am starting week 7 of 20 with Endurance Nations Out Season plan and boy am I sore.  I can't tell you how damn hard it is to do this plan, train for a marathon, and try and lift and do core.  I am glad the Marathon is almost here.  My last 20 miler is this coming Saturday and then we taper.  The marathon is on Dec 3rd in Negril, Jamaica. 

The marathon itself will be interesting cause we fly into Jamaica the 2nd, get our packet pick up, eat a nice dinner, to bed early, and up and run the next morning.  The race starts at 0515 d/t the heat and humidity on the island.  We usually are there a few days to acclimate a little.  It will still be a blast.

This week for me every wko is getting moved to the left one day so I can have a couple of days of rest before the 20 miler.  My last one we did on a Sunday and then Tuesdays bike wko was 2x20, the Wed was four one mile repeats.  Yep that hurt a bit. 

So today's wko for me is 60 min total on the bike with the main set being 2x20.  Then a 45 min EP run with 5x uphill strides.  Tuesday will again be 4xone mile repeats, Wednesday is a bike again.  Then Thursday and Friday I will do nothing but swim and prepare mentally for Saturday.  We will again be running from the Colfax Fire Depart, through M'ville, then on the our skirts of rural Bondurant, then into Altoona.  It is a beautiful run and the best part is we start when the family is in bed and we usually get home, take a shower, and are back in bed before they rise.  All love O'dark thirty.  It is a mental game with me.  I run faster in the dark and really don't care how big the hills are vs the day.  I will try and get the elevation chart up loaded so you can see. 

Note regarding the bike.  I have now transitioned from being outside to the pain cave on the trainer.  This is a huge mental battle for me but we are making progress.  Saturdays wko was great.  Today I am really sore so I will cry and whine like an infant but oh well.  I am currently in the basement in front of the big screen and surround sound.  I am able to open the window and let the fresh cold breeze in.  My wife likes it open cause she likes to remind me that I am not running a gym and that we stink!!!!!  This am the wko will be brought to you by Ironman Championships 2010!!!!!!  I will write the wko and post numbers afterwards. 

All of my interval wko's are done on the treadmill and I really like it.  I switched to this a year ago after reading a few professionals info.  It seems to pay off for me cause after my injury my vDOT fell to a 44 and before the injury I was teetering on a 49/50.  If I could test today which I will next week I think I could throw down a 48-49.  All of my wko's have been great.  I am careful about pushing the run though cause for some reason I am prone to ileo tibial band syndrome.  Two years ago I had this so bad it took me out for almost 20 weeks.  My first year with EN I really learned to listen to my body and if I needed an extra day off I took it.  I only had two small flare ups!!!!!  I remember cause it was during the VO2 Max wko's.  I am telling you those are some hard azz wko's but I had the biggest gains in those four weeks.

About my left knee injury-if you remember I had a grade three MCL tear and a "partial ACL tear".  I still can't flex my left knee all the way and certain days it wants to give out.  When I am running it is stiff at first and in the morning of the next day it hurts but otherwise we are making huge progress.  The ortho feels I may now have a lateral meniscus tear cause once in awhile it pops and feels like there is something in there but we are waiting till the fall of 2012 to see how I am doing.  I know if he gets in there he is going to repair my ACL and everything else as needed.  I would expect that and want to get my races and dreams out of the way first. 

My first race of the year is on May 5, 2012 and it is in St. George Utah.  I can't wait.  Just to let you know I have never climbed a mountain on a bike.  Remember I live in Iowa so all of my training for this race will be on a trainer in the basement.  Can you imagine riding that thing for up to 6 hours.  Well I flip into my IM advanced plan on Feb 13 and right away by Saturday wko's become 4.5 hours on the trainer and Sundays become 3 hours.  The St. George Group within EN is looking to meet somewhere warm this spring like the end of Feb beginning of March to do our first race rehearsal.  That will be fun.