Running Times, Online

Monday AM rd. 20, hilly great pond loop, 2:07:29. Actually used a measured loop this week and it confirmed what I figured that I have been running a good bit under 7min pace for these runs, so my monday sessions have been longer than I noted them as the last month or so. total 20

PM road 5 shakeout with Melissa-who was pretty sick, found out the next day is was pneumonia. 45:32, skipped exercises for strength because achilles was like 95% and wanted to get it 100%. tot. 5

XT stretching, 100m walking lunge focus on glutes

Tuesday AM 1 mile warm up, 7:53, 18k basic aerobic paced tempo, 1:02:41(5:36 mile/3:29 per K pace)- around 6k loop. the 6k loop is a bit tougher then the 5k loop also it is 40m long, though over similar area, I stopped because I had to go to the bathroom, wanted to go 24K. splits 6k-21:01, 12k-41:48.2(20:47.3), 18K-1:02:41(20:53.6), 1 mile cool down, 7:08, tot. 13+

PM 41:08 easy to fields, about 5.5 miles, exercises for running technique 3×100y each with jog back rests-29:05, mile plus cool down 7:29 tot. 7++

XT stretching, exercises for running technique 3×100y each with jog back rests of springing, high knees, butt kicks, bounding, skipping with high knees. 100m lunge walk focus on glutes. Butts routine (3×15 each leg of prayer hammy, straight leg quad lift, abductor with apposing leg knee drive, mika butts, adductor with opposing knee up, 3×20 calf raises with stretching between sets, 35 straight leg core, 20 back crunches) sorry I don’t know the real names to all that stuff. the routine took 20:56- no rests-

Wednesday AM very hilly rattlesnake hill 9 mile loop- 58:56- again a measured loop confirming I have been underestimating my trail run lengths tot. 9

PM 40:05 easy around phillips and the sanctuary, then 10×50 second hills (roughly 250m) with jog down rests in sanctuary, then jog back to house bit under a mile 6:45- total running time-1:11:42- tot.9+

XT stretching, lunge walk for glutes, Butts routine(21mins)

Thursday AM 3+ warm up, 23:38, strides, 20min tempo on track, windy-bit worse then last week but not crazy- passing 4 miles in 19:49.8- splits- 1k-3:04.1, 2k-6:07.5(3:03.4), 3k-9:16.0(3:08.5), 4k-12:22.5(3:06.6), 5k-15:28.7(3:06.3), 6k-18:36.1(3:07.4). 3+ cool down, 22:39 tot. 11

PM rd.6 solo easy. No time, I forgot the watch. tot. 6

XT stretching, 50m lunge walk focusing on glutes in am, 100m lunge walk focusing on glutes in PM, mika warm up stuff

Friday AM 1 mile warm up-7:55, 26K basic aerobic pace tempo around 6k loop- 1:30:19- longest yet- 5:35 mile/3:28 per k pace. splits- 6k-21:08.3, 12k-41:53.0(20:44.8), 18k-1:02:42(20:49.9), 24k-1:23:20(20:38.1)- last 2k-6:58. Fighting to hold form last 2k other than that one bad patch at around 20 to 22k. 9:46 cool down, tot. 18++

Noon treatment and chiro adjustment from Mika

PM 40:00 easy to fields, 5.5ish, 10mins diagonals on football field- 16 sprints 15 jogs, bit over a mile back to the house, 8:46 tot.8++

XT stretching, mika warm up, 100m lunge walk focus on glutes, butts routine-see above- 22mins

Saturday AM 3 mile warm up, 22:20, 18k of 3′ hard 3′ recovery structured fartlek around phillips fields during a driving rain. 1:02:04 for 18k- 5:33 mile/3:28K pace, windy but that wasn’t the issue it was the mud. My legs were completely shot by the end of this and I was running almost 20 seconds per mile slower than last week around the same loop. My legs were so thrashed I thought I might fall on the cool down, which was 3 miles-22:38 tot. 17+

PM holt hill 5 solo easy 40:50- leg muscles still completely thrashed so I opted not to try the circuit for running technique. tot. 5

XT stretching

Sunday AM 30:37 warm up, 4×1200m hills with jog down rest, Legs very tired!, 4:11.2(5:04), 4:13.8(4:46), 4:09.2(4:49), 4:04.6(4:43), 12:11 cool down. Not as good as last week, but considering how shot my legs were I was pretty thrilled with it. tot. 12+

PM 5.5 or so with Melissa around and over on roads including all of the feaster 5 mile course- 45:09 tot. 5++

XT stretching, butts routine-24mins

Summary 145 miles, 6 workouts- 3 tempo runs 2 long, 1 short, 2 hill sessions- 1 long, 1 short, 1 fartlek/interval session- over 78 kilometers under 3:30 per K pace- that is more then 48 miles under 5:37 or so for the week. This was not a week of breakthroughs. But still the best week yet. The fartlek looks awful compared to last week, but I can’t tell you how much the mud killed me. I can tell you I was shocked to get those times on the hill today with how I felt after running in the mud yesterday. It was my second best hill session during this cycle and I was Hurting! (caps on purpose there) The 20min tempo was the best I have had and the the 26k was the longest session I have had and the first bad patch came much later than in the 25K I did early last week. Also with Melissa being this sick I can’t imagine my immune system has had an easy go this week to get its job done either.

Quote of the week “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” Atticus in Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

Well, my training has been going pretty well and that spunk has returned..yet I have been swimming more than running in my comeback to hard training. In the past 4 days I have swum 18,000 yards in the pool…pretty crazy amount and more than I have done probably ever, even when I used to swim competitively before focusing on running. Jumping in the water knowing I am about to swim for about 2 hours and cover only 6k, compared to what I would cover in two hours of running…funny to think about. haha After the swim workouts I treat myself to a Dunkin Donuts Caramel Swirl Latte and mmmm coffee never tasted so good! If any of you ever swim laps you know what it means to be super hungry probably during and after the swim. I quickly eat a Mint Chocolate GU at the halfway point and if I am feeling a little hungry before I get in the water I either eat a yummy Peanut Butter or Chocolate Power Bar or a pack of delicious GU Chomps :)- They never give me any stomach problems, digest easily and give me energy fast!

It’s hard coming back to running at such a slow rate, but right now this is what my body needs and it makes me want to run more and more every single day…I honestly feel like my heart is breaking when I can’t run when I want. I am going to start doing pool running next week to help my shoulders have a break from all the swimming. A lot of people think you can’t get your heart rate up when swimming, but I think they need to get in and swim for a couple hours. Their lungs will probably feel puffed up like balloons for a couple hours afterward! haha Pool running I think is harder to get your heart rate as high, especially if you wear a waist belt. Not wearing one definitely makes it harder.

My strength training and general strength exercises are going well and now that I am in a routine in all other areas of my training, when the running gets thrown in again I’ll be even happier! All the swimming and strength work has helped me get that spunk back and my motivation is high again. I am always really proud of myself after swimming for so long and so hard and I know it all makes me stronger day by day. Swimming laps is also probably one of the BEST core workouts anyone could ever do!

I’ve also re-vamped my nutrition a bit, and I feel so much better than I ever have. I’ve been a vegetarian for over a year yet I didn’t eat enough fruits and veggies, especially veggies. Lately I’ve been trying to only eat fruits, veggies, beans, nut butters, oatmeal, corn tortillas, soy products, etc….and cutting out a lot of dairy and other processed foods. My body feels great and I still have a lot of energy while feeling like I’m giving my body great nutrients all day. I still eat my GU, Power Bar and Lara Bar foods when needed, but not as a meal supplement or anything. We’ll see how I feel after a few more weeks of this, but I have a feeling I’ll feel fantastic.

I just got a new local sponsor here in the valley…Endurance Rehabilitation. They have two locations, one in Central Phoenix and one in North Scottsdale. I have been going to the one in Scottsdale and I LOVE the staff. I know a lot of them from when I used to work next door to them, but being back and seeing them again after so long is great! They have helped me a lot and I can’t wait to represent them well whenever I train and compete. Thanks to everyone at Endurance!

11/8/09

Mike Wardian, leading the top pack at the 50K World Championships in Gibralter on October 31st.

Hello Everyone,

Hope all is well and your lives are going well.

I am just getting back into things after the 50K World Championships which were held on Halloween (10/31/09) in Gibraltar.

I was able to to run pretty well, 3:00:56 for a bronze medal. Lead the race for most of it but got passed by a really solid guy from South Africa around 43.5K and then a Englishman about 47K, so while I am happy with a bronze I am disappointed I didn’t achieve my goal of coming home with a gold medal for the USA.

That being said, Kami Semick who was also running for the USA, won decisively for the women so we had a great showing overall all for the USA with a gold medal for the woman and a bronze for the men. The rest of the USA team did well too, Justin Fyffe, ran well finishing 9th overall and in the top 10 for his first international race and Amanda Stickel was the 5th woman and ran strong in her first race for the USA.

Mike ended up in third place

Another runner, Jill Perry, who is just an awesome person and a super solid runner had a tough day and didn’t do as well as she could of, but I know that she will come back strong and run really well at one of my favorite races - the JFK 50 Miler in a few weeks.

I was so proud to be a part of the team and can’t wait for my next major challenge which is coming up soon.

I am running the Richmond Marathon on 11/14/09. Then I get to do something really fun and with my family. I can not wait go for another Guinness World Record with one of our sons, Grant on 11/22/09 at the Route 66 Marathon.

I heard from one of my friends that someone was trying to break my son Pierce’s Guiness World Record at the Route 66 Marathon so we are going too and it is going to be “pram pushing duel” for the Guiness World Record.

I am really excited and looking forward to using a new BOB stroller to go after a new World Record. We haven’t decided with model to use yet, so if you have suggestions let us know. We still have the “BOB” Revolution that we used for the last World Record so might consider using that again as it was “good luck” the first time but understand some of the newer models might be lighter, so need to research that the next few weeks.

Besides that all is well and starting to feel my legs coming back after the hard effort and travel last weekend.

Really enjoying training at the moment and can’t wait to get back to it.

Hope things are going well on your ends and look forward to hearing your thoughts on which stroller/model to use for the Guiness World Record attempt in a couple weekends.

Cheers,
Mike

Ps. Herewith a video that Arlington County did about our family being a huge part of my running and it is timely with the World Record Attempt coming up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aZe1YNSrgs

Monday 7AM 2 hours easy (2:00:36) road and trail, probably right about 18 but we’ll play it safe and call it 17++

10:45AM Mika for chiro and treatment

PM road 5 shakeout with Melissa, 42:50, exercises for strength after, tot. 5+

XT stretching, exercises for strength - 8×10 jump squats, 8×20 jumping jacks, 8×10 each leg high knee single leg hops, 4 mins walking lunge focus on glutes

Tuesday AM 1 mile warm up, 25K light tempo at Basic Aerobic Pace, on regular 5k loop, 1:26:09 - 5:31 pace, slowed after about 8 miles as I was having a bad patch holding the form running slightly slower it was easy and I felt I could have continued all day, splits-5k-17:08.6, 10k-34:12.2 (17:03.6), 15K-51:15.2 (17:03.0), 20K- 1:08:41 (17:26.4), half mary- 1:12:25, 25K-1:26:09 (17:28.5). 1 mile cool down - 7:33 tot. 17++

PM 40:26 easy to fields, exercises for running technique, jog mile plus back to house, tot. 7++

XT stretching, exercises for running technique-3×110 yards with jog back rest of springing, high knees, butt kicks, bounding, skipping with high knees, then 110 yards of walking lunge focusing on glutes. Butts - 3×15 prayer hammy each leg, 3×15 straight leg quad lift each leg, 3×15 abductor lift with opposite leg knee lift each leg, 3×15 mika butt activators each leg, 3×15 adductor lift each leg, 3×20 calf raises with stretching between, 35 feet from floor to 90 degrees with straight legs for the core.

Achilles and calf on left very sore after long tempo and drills- was waiting for something in that leg to start complaining. You don’t change your stride without side effects.

Wednesday AM Holt hill trail and road 9, 1:03:45, pretty easy, footing on trails real bad with all the oak leaves down now made it tough to hold 7min pace without breaking my ankle. tot. 9

PM road 6 solo shakeout, 47:54, achilles on right very sore and tight, so no short hills and had to stop for some stretching twice on run. tot. 6+

XT stretching (lots extra for achilles and calf), 4min lunge walk focus on glutes, butts routine (see above)

Achilles real rough today and the poor footing in the AM didn’t help. I iced and Melissa massaged it and used a whalebone to do some graston on it.

Thursday AM 3+ warm up-23:58- strides, light stretch, 4 miles tempo on track in 19:59.6- light wind, supposed to be 20mins at 3:04 per K or bit better but struggled a bit, with the wind and in a track suit because it was cooler (I wear a track suit if it is under 50 degrees, so if it’s in the 40s I’m warm during workouts), about the same performance as last week but I was working a bit harder. Not great but with tight achilles I’m not pissed. Plus I’ve been getting better for 2 weeks and holding the same for 1 week on this workout, splits 1k-3:05.7, 2k-6:12.7(3:07.0), 3k-9:20.0(3:07.3), 4k- 12:28.1(3:08.2), 5k-15:36.8(3:08.7), 6k-18:45.5(3:08.8) last 400 in 74.2- 3+ cool down- 22:57. On the plus side the achilles felt better on the tempo and strides than in the warm up and cool down and I had NO trouble what so ever holding the form and no threat of the hammy at all felt I could go much further in terms of that. tot.11

PM rd. 5 solo shakeout 38:34 tot. 5+

XT stretching, ton of extra for calf and achilles, again with icing and Melissa massage and graston

Friday AM 15+ miles, loops around Phillips campus and sancutary trail, 1:39:39, babying the achilles, the long workout did a number on it with the drills on Tuesday so skipping that stuff today. tot. 15+

PM 6 miles road solo, 45:45, again no diagonals to baby achilles tot. 6+

XT stretching, lots of extra for calf and achilles, again icing and Melissa massage and graston, 4 mins walking lunge focus on glutes, butts routine (see tuesday)

Saturday 6AM 3 warm up, 22:08, 54mins 3′ hard 3′ recovery structured fartlek around Phillips fields, passing 9 laps (16,200m) in 52:56, so average pace with rests of 5:15.5 per mile/3:16.0 per K, for 10.26 miles. 3+ cool down 21:27 tot. 16++

PM road 6 easy, solo, 44:52, again just being careful with achilles so no exercises for running technique tonight, will either start them again tuesday or next saturday. tot. 6+

XT stretching, bunch of extra for Achilles/calf, 4mins walking lunge focus on glutes

Sunday AM 30:56 warm up, 4×1200m Porter Hill with (jog down rest), 4:06.4(4:52.1), 4:06.9(4:44.0), 4:05.0(4:44.5), 4:00.1(fastest yet on this hill old best 4:04.6(4:55.6), best set yet by far had only been sub 4:07 once before today- best set by 15.9 seconds. also far and away the fastest jog downs yet, I’d never come down under 5mins before today. Sub 9 mins for every cycle, had really never been sub 9:30. I think this is all more a measure of how much doing a circuit the night before takes out of my legs than anything else. It would have been nice to crack 4:00 as that is 5:20 pace and been my goal for this hill since I first ran it, 2 mile cool down 11:43 tot. 12+

PM 55:35 shakeout with Melissa, tot. 7

XT stretching, butts routine (see tuesday)

Summary 141 miles for week, 2 tempo runs, one hill workout, one fartlek/interval session. Good week, not as good as last week, but with the achilles hiccup it was pretty good. Last week I had just under 50 miles under 5:30 pace, I think this week I had around 31 under 5:32. I’d like to have about 60 in a week by the end of this cycle. Anyway achilles not at 100% yet but pretty close. I was real happy with the step forwards in the form change. It actually felt natural a couple of times, still don’t have it at all paces and have a hard time shifting gears but it is coming. 25K is far and away the longest session I have done since at least the summer of 2007 without it going, maybe since the problem started in January of ‘07. I’m planning at least one 30K this week. But it may just be one if the extra volume at the pace really kicks the achilles and calf’s butt.

Quote of the week - don’t have one listen to this instead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygNuRpwZqRU

Well, it’s obviously been a really long time sine I last posted a blog entry.  Before the marathon I got so busy and preoccupied with other things and I kept putting it off.  Well, here we are on November 3rd and I’m finally doing it.

I moved back to Tempe, Arizona after living in Eugene for a few months and I am so incredibly happy.  It’s so unbelievably beautiful here and right now the weather is sunny and 80’s everyday.  I got out of the 108+ degree days of July, August and September and loved the summer weather in Eugene.  I slept in most days and I could run pretty much any time of the day.  As the months went on I missed my family, friends, support network and the brother of my two dogs (my brother’s dog) in Arizona.  I knew it would be best for me to move back and in my favorite state in the country (no bias or anything, haha )

Since the marathon I have been in a little bit of a funk.  I know it’s normal after a marathon (especially my sub-par performance) to feel totally ready for a break and have those post-race blues.  I think it’s because you work so hard for so long and then the big day comes and it’s over before you know it.  You have to go back to the drawing board and start all over again with new goals, training, etc. and it can feel overwhelming.  Usually I take my week or two completely off and I am raring to go.  This time after my vacation in Mexico and another week of lap swimming in Eugene, I still didn’t feel ready to run.  I kinda wanted to but not really, haha.  I ran a few days and then it was time to pack up the moving truck and drive back to AZ.  I didn’t run during this because about 100 trips (no joke) up and down 3 flights of stairs is hard enough..forget running for a couple days!!

Well, after a week back in AZ, my motivation is gradually coming back, but it’s harder than it’s ever been.  I am attributing it to everything I have to do (unpacking, settling in) and getting relaxed again in AZ.  I have gone out to breakfast, lunch and dinner with so many friends and extended family members in town, that I’ve hardly had time to do more than unpack a couple boxes.  My room is a mess!! haha  I think when I settle in and I’m not surrounded by boxes, I’ll be able to focus on my training even more.  I guess I need to be grateful for the distractions I have, because sometimes we need them to stop thinking, eating and breathing everything “running” day in and day out.

So here’s to today: my goal is to get completely unpacked and organize my stuff…which will hopefully result in getting my spunk back and out of this funk