twenty-first (treadmill tempo run, Nuggets, and Dathan Ritzenhein)

5 miles. 35min.

3 in 21, 1 in 6, 1 in 8 for the cool down. I'm not in good enough shape for it to really be a cool down, though. I was glad to be done.

I watched the last 30 minutes of the Nuggets loss. Few people are in the workout room at 10:30pm, so I had the channel selection all to myself. I just doubled the amount of basketball I have watched all season. 

Anyone else notice how the Nuggets became a decent team just as the Avs started going downhill? It's a perfect little cycle for those of us who only watch the exciting games (the playoffs, and even then, not the entire game). Talk about fair weathered fans. 

Runnersworld.com posted their interview with Dathan Ritzenhein today. Ritz is running the London marathon (only his 4th marathon ever) and will be trying to run fast. As in, take his 2:11 PR and lower it to 2:07ish.  "To tell you the truth, I'd be a little disappointed with a 2:09."

That's some serious ambition. 

It will be exciting to see how he performs at London considering Ryan Hall's performance there last year was a 2:06. I can't decide which marathoner I'm a bigger fan of. If it wasn't for Ritz going to CU Boulder, it might not be a difficult choice. 

The book I have referenced several times in this blog "Run Faster" is written by Dathan Ritzenhein's current coach, Brad Hudson. The interview includes talk of Dathan's injuries/injury prevention/aerobic base/running volume over the past 5-10 years and other elements of training that I have learned about in the book. So far Hudson has kept Ritz pretty injury free, which is a real improvement compared to past years (Before Hudson began coaching him and introducing more hill running/hills for strength training, etc).

I wish I could find other books by various current elite running coaches to compare and contrast the techniques. Considering that I haven't really looked, yet, it might not be very difficult. I'm sure I could find a lot on Alberto Salazar's coaching style.

Just to be the last person to officially say it: It's encouraging/exciting to follow the young US distance running talent (not just the marathoners, either). Plenty of faces to keep track of. If I didn't have to work, I'd be watching every minute of that Boston coverage...

ninth

5 miles in 40min. On the treadmill.

Too cold and windy to want to run outside. In the last 4 weeks of training, I have kept the majority of my runs outside and on asphalt or dirt. I am hoping that this can help prevent injury (and keep me motivated).
I felt strong the entire run, and did not feel any foot pain. I get nervous every time I start to get a small pain in the ball of either foot. I have had trouble with foot pain (two years ago) and I attributed it to an irresponsibly large amount of treadmill running. To be honest, I was running about 25-30 miles a week. I ramped up the volume too quickly and the week I got hurt I ran 10miles on the treadmill, then 8, then 8 again on 3 consecutive days. Dumb.

My goal for this week is 25 miles. I want to formulate an "official" 20 week training plan, so depending on whether I run the Boulder or Denver marathon, I have 5-8 week(ish) of base building left and would like to start my training at 30 miles/week minimum. Hopefully... Assuming all goes well.

I am basing a lot of my training planning off of Brad Hudson's Run Faster. He focuses on high milage and adaptive running. Peaking for a race by incorporating larger and larger portions of race pace running as training progresses. Flexible training schedules to avoid injury (not forcing a workout simply because it is written on the schedule). And several other key points, that offer only a simplistic analysis of his training philosophy.

I will provide more details as I continue to read and continue to flesh out my own training plan.