Author: Andrew

We rejoin our hero in his epic quest for an insanely fast (for him) half marathon…

Back to the building blocks this week! After last week’s shenanigans, this week has had more structure, more craziness, less beer, less food, less sleep deprivation, and one less wisdom tooth.

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
7 x 0.25 mi intervals	3 miles + 7 strides	40 minute tempo	3 miles + 7 strides	Long Run - 90 min

Monday: 7 x 0.25 intervals. I felt pretty good having not overate or overdrank Sunday night. Also happy to be back running after having my wisdom tooth removed last week. Felt good. The way I put intervals (and tempo runs) into Garmin Connect includes the warm-up (1 mile) and cool down (0.5 mile), and in the case of an interval workout, it includes the balance of the half mile cool down (since there’s 0.25 recovery following each interval, the cool down in the watch is the additional 0.25 mile to make 0.5 mile).  I didn’t count my intervals, and I paid little attention to my watch, I just ran when it beeped and slowed when it beeped. I ran right through my cool-down interval. Oops! So I continued the workout and added a half mile manually. Interval times: 1:51, 1:49, 1:46, 1:47, 1:50, 1:47, 1:50, 1:47 (goal: 1:51 – 1:55), overall 5.26 mi in 0:42:59 (8:10 overall pace).

Tuesday: still feeling good about running and not getting rained on (and despite the claims to a heat wave, it wasn’t all that bad out… or maybe I just felt that way because I was listening to the BibRave podcast and they were talking about Ian Sharman sitting in a sauna in a parka! Ran a quick 3 miles + 7 strides + balance to 4 miles in 33:02 (8:14 pace). Hope the fast run doesn’t come back to bite me tomorrow! After I finished, I did the 2×15 squats that I forgot to do yesterday.

Wednesday: no work day! I took the rest of the week off because today is a holiday and I didn’t feel like working the rest of the week. The plan was a 40 minute tempo run, and I wanted to hit at least 10k as a tip of hat (so to speak) to those running the largest 10k in the country – the PeachTree Road Race in Atlanta.  It was a lot of fast laps around the Batavia Township Park, which is largely flat. Total of 6.6 miles in 53:18 (8:05 pace); tempo portion was 5.1 in 40 minutes, a 7:51 pace. I remembered my squats today, too!

Thursday: easy day. Plan was 3 miles + 7 strides. Since it was trash morning, I ran in the park (had it not been trash morning, I’d have stayed in my subdivision). The park is flat, and my pace shows it. I DID go easy! 4 miles in 33:32 (8:22 pace, about 40 seconds faster than if I was running across bridges).

Friday: long run day. Weather felt better, despite probably being warmer than the other days this week. The plan was supposed to be a 90 minute 3/1, but I forgot the 3/1 part. Started in the park, but crossed into the neighboring subdivision and then across the worn dirt drive path to another subdivision (they’ll be connected someday). Weather felt better. Hydrated with Gatorade Endurance and fueled with Gatorade Gel (the Apple Pear flavor). I received some free gels as an apology from Gatorade for UPS losing my shipment, and I think I’m going to order some (apology accepted! And they recently announced a new mango flavor that the BibRave pros seemed to have been enjoying). Their gel is significantly thinner than Gu, and I think that helps make it taste better as a fruit. Also, the thinner formula is less messy and less prone to end up in my mustache. 10.4 miles in 90 minutes (8:40 pace).

Overall, the week came to 30 fast miles. Looking forward to two races late this month – the first of the NKU XC Series and the Bulldog Blast 5k. Next week has some hill repeats and two more fast days.

Cheers!

This week started halfway into a heat wave. In Cincinnati, that involves 90+ temps with high relative humidity.

Monday: 7 * 0.25 mile intervals; 72F/72F dp (100% RH). I wanted my interval splits between 1:51 and 1:55, and I got 1:50, 1:48, 1:46, 1:46, 1:47, 1:54*, and 1:52. The starred one had some GPS tracking issues. Ran through friendship park and down to the Bengal’s Practice Field loop.

Tuesday: 3 miles + 7 strides; 78F/73F dp (85% RH), 6 MPH winds. Took it easy across the suspension bridge and the Purple People Bridge. The heat was pretty bad, and I didn’t push it. 4 miles in 0:35:34 (8:52 pace).

Wednesday: 40 minute tempo; 70F/70F dp (100% RH), calm. I tried to not go out too fast, as I wasn’t feeling well (my evaluation at work didn’t go well, I couldn’t sleep because of that) and it felt significantly hotter than Tuesday (despite the numbers disagreeing). I ended up pausing for a drink twice during the run. 6.3 miles in 53:17 (8:27 pace, tempo portion was 4.8 miles in 40 min, 8:20 pace).

Thursday: 3 miles + 7 strides; 73F/72 dp (96% RH), 3 MPH winds + rain. After yesterday, I didn’t want to push it because I know I have a 90 min run tomorrow. And with the rain, I left the phone and headphones in the locker (I’m not really concerned about the AfterShokz, I’m concerned about my POS Galaxy S5). So I ran. Kinda easy. Then realized that I didn’t start the workout and it was just tracking. So I stopped and saved the workout and restarted it as the workout I intended to run (I was only 3 minutes in). 3 miles across the suspension bridge and to the Purple People Bridge, and 7 strides going up from the Newport Riverfront to and across the Purple People Bridge. A grand total of 4.37 miles in 35:43 for a pace of 8:10.

Friday: 90 minutes; 70F/70F dp (100% RH), calm. Felt sluggish, and my pace agrees. Was probably a little under-nourished and dehydrated, and the Gatorade Endurance and Gatorade Gel was probably too little too late. 10.08 miles in 1:30:06 (8:56 pace).

That’s the week. Just under 30 miles.

I decided to start into a more advanced running plan, the Hal Higdon Advanced HM plan. Since the half I’m aiming for isn’t until November (20 weeks away) and the plan is 12 weeks, I’m doing the first two weeks a few times. This week it was:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Hill x 6	3 miles + 7 strides	45 minute tempo	3 miles HM pace	Long Run - 90 min

Monday: New shoe day! I fell back asleep after my alarm went off, woke up nearly an hour late. So I ended up starting my run around the same time I’d normally end my run. Today was 6 hill repeats. Given the places I could go without dealing with too much traffic, I used the Taylor-Southgate Bridge. It was a hot and humid day. 6 intervals,  7:35, 7:13, 7:24, 7:53, 7:50, 7:49. Overall, 4.72 miles in 42:08 (8:56 pace).

Tuesday: messed up day. I had my semiannual teeth cleaning, so I didn’t run in the morning, and I had to assist with a kid going to the doctor in the afternoon, ended up going out to lunch at one of my favorite pizza restaurants and drank a beer with lunch, and went running about an hour or so after eating. I stayed in the subdivision and ran an easy 3 miles. When my watch switched to strides, it had 30 MINUTE strides! Ran those by time and rounded off to 4 miles in 33:45 (8:24 pace).

Wednesday: tempo run. Ran through Friendship park and all the way past the Bengals practice field. Since there were several semi trailers parked on the side of West Pete Rose Way, I only went one loop and then ran back all the way to Friendship Park again, circling back into Yeatman’s Cove to try to talk to a friend that I passed (unfortunately, didn’t see her… then I emailed her and the email auto-responded with a “this email is no longer active” response :-/). 7.19 miles in 58:07 (8:05 pace overall). Tempo portion was 45 minutes covering 5.69 miles (7:54 pace).

Thursday: I was thinking this was an easy 3 miles and 7 strides, and when I went into the park to run, my watch told me it was 3 miles at HM pace. Ohkay! Kept it in the parks (again), 4.5 miles total in 36:02 (8:00 pace). HM pace portion was at 7:39 pace. If I can manage to do this pace in a half marathon, not only will I be happy, but Boston will be around the corner!

Friday: Long run day. The agenda for the morning was to take my wife to a funeral for her cousin at 9 AM, so no work. I got up early for a 90-minute run in the park and crossing over to two soon-to-be-connected subdivisions. The park and subdivisions are mostly flat, so it did go pretty fast. I took Gatorade Endurance and Gatorade Apple Pear Energy Gel with me.

Wonder what this tastes like. Guess I’ll go for a run and find out… pic.twitter.com/fmnmnkimLo

— Andrew Rohne 🍺🏃🍕 (@HamBrew807) June 15, 2018

Anyway, the week was about 31 miles, 4:20 spent running, average pace of 8:25, which is pretty fast considering the weather. Spoiler alert, the weather is hotter next week!

Cheers!

This is a replay of last week, only because I don’t want to race this week and that’s what was on the final week of the plan. This week included:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Form drills + 5 miles	3 x 1 mile @ 5k pace	Form drills + 5 miles	40 min tempo	Long Run - 90 min

Even better this week, the weather broke and it wasn’t blistering hot out. Until Friday.

Monday: Ran up the big hill. Skipped form drills because the park was closed for cleanup after Bunburry Music Festival.  5 miles in 44:09 (8:48 pace).

Tuesday: 3 x 1 mile repeats at 5k pace. These are hard, and as I noted last week, I don’t always hit my goal pace, but this time I did: 7:32, 7:22, 7:20. Overall including the 1 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down and half miles between workbouts, 6 miles in 48:10 (8:01 pace).

Wednesday: The weather keeps getting better, and today was nicer weather than yesterday. Ran 5 miles across the suspension bridge and back across the Purple People Bridge. There were a few places where I may have been running harder than I should have, but for the most part I felt rested. 5 miles in 42:05 (8:24 pace).

Thursday: The weather was a little warmer, but also a little breezier than yesterday. Ran a 40 minute tempo run on the normal (Friendship Park/Sawyer Point/Yeatman’s Cove/Smale Park/Mehring/Bengals Practice Field Triangle) route for this. I went “comfortably hard” for it, and ended up with a nice tempo pace of 7:48. Including the warm-up and cool-down, 6.63 miles in 53:10 (8:01 pace).

Friday: Long run. The weather got back to it’s normal hot and humid. I didn’t have much of a plan, so I ran up and down Riverside/Eastern. A little over a mile in, I pointed out a buck to the runners behind me, then about five miles in, I saw this…

The run got tougher as I made it back in to Sawyer Point, and I probably should have taken something other than Gatorade Endurance (like a Gu). Got back to the office and had to wring my shirt out. 10.16 miles in 1:30:01 (8:52 pace)

Overall, it was a good week of running. ~33 miles ran, ~4.5 hours spent running. We’re getting close to halfway into the year, and I’ve run 763 miles. Last year at this time (23 weeks into the year), I was at 555 miles.

My summer schedule is set. I’m running the Bulldog Blast 5k in late July and the NKU Cross Country series in July/August (I’ve registered and sent checks so it’s official!). I also ordered another pair of New Balance Zante v3 shoes.

Cheers!

This is the second-to-last week of the marathon recovery plan.  It looked like this:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Form drills + 5 miles	3 x 1 mile @ 5k pace	Form drills + 5 miles	40 min tempo	Long Run - 90 min

Monday was form drills and 5 miles in my local park. It was largely uneventful and it is an easy loop. Since it was Memorial Day, I got there early – before my wife and kids woke up – and only saw a handful of walkers there. 5.01 miles in 43:13 (8:38 pace).

Tuesday was 3 x 1 mile intervals at 5k pace. It was hard, particularly the last one. The intervals were 7:33, 7:27, and 7:37; my target was 7:22 to 7:36, so the last one was a second long. 5.5 miles in 44:22 (8:04 pace).

Wednesday was an easy 5 mile run, and sure enough I didn’t think very hard about where I was running and ran a little long. Ran across the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge and back across the Purple People Bridge. 5.72 miles in 50:22 (8:48 pace).

Thursday was a 40 minute tempo run. The anger of the park being closed got the best of me with this one, the first 15 minutes were too fast and the last 25 was tough. Having to run around the closed public park sucked, and it was made worse by the first fountain after the tempo portion quit running after I took two drinks. 6.67 miles in 55:00 (8:14 overall pace, tempo pace of 8:05).

Friday was a long run around the closed park. I crossed the Purple People Bridge and then into Covington, but instead of turning around at the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge, I continued down KY-8 to the end of the sidewalk near Ludlow and back. This is a tough route, as most of it is uphill, and I didn’t push it or take any fuel (other than Gatorade Endurance Orange). 10.02 miles in 1:30:02 (8:59 pace).

This closes out the week with just under 33 miles, and the month of May closes out with 112 miles. Lighter than prior months, but the real bang was the beginning of the month with the marathon. Since June isn’t really planned, I’m replaying this week next week.

The summer schedule has materialized. No races in June, July has 3 races: the Bulldog Blast 5k and the first two of the three-race NKU Cross Country Series (the last one is August 7). After those races, the Hudepohl 14k is coming up in September and the Honor Run Half in November.

I’m recovering from the marathon nicely, I’m out of the energy drain and feeling faster overall, despite the weather being much hotter and more humid than it has been. The plan for this week is:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Form drills + 4 miles	3 x 1 mile @ 10k pace	Form drills + 4 miles	35 min tempo	Long Run - 75 min

Monday: Ran up the hill, but did an older ‘variant’ where insead of going to the overlook (following the Flying Pig M/HM route), I went towards the Cincinnati Art Museum and passed on. Major problem with this route is that the trash day for people on Mt. Adams is Monday and the trash truck drivers were leaving cans in the middle of the sidewalk. I decided to run into a parking lot (I’ve usually run past it) to see the view of the city, which was nice. 4.28 miles in 37:19 (8:43 pace).

Tuesday: Three intervals, so I kept it in the flat areas. I had my watch set correctly (unlike last week). Checked on another runner that was squatted (not like ‘taking a 💩’ but more like ‘potentially in pain’), she claimed she was okay, and then I saw her running on the return trip from the far loop. I also got a badge from Garmin Connect, but it’s not a badge I want! 5.5 miles in 44:54 (8:10 overall pace, intervals of 7:39, 7:33, 7:38).

Sidenote: I’ve been using the heck out of the AfterShokz that I won via #bibchat a few months ago, and I fully believe the bone conduction technology is the right thing for runners to be using. Case in point in the image below – I could hear this squirrel getting the styrofoam container out of the trash can while listening to the Running, Beer, and BS podcast.

Wednesday: Easy run up the Purple People Bridge and then back across the Roebling Suspension Bridge. I wasn’t pushing it, but ended up with a progressive pace (8:49, 8:34, 8:31, 8:19). 4.16 mles in 35:41 (8:35 pace overall).

Thursday: Had to get up a half hour earlier to run a tempo run and be cleaned up and ready to ride to a meeting 2 hours away by 6:45. Got it done, though. Since it was a tempo run, I ran out Friendship Park and back, along the river, out around the big loop around the Bengals practice field and then a short loop around the practice field. Ended the run with my normal stretches and 2×15 squats in front of some new planters that are apparently a target for vandalism. Ran 6.12 miles in 50 minutes, 8:10 pace (the 35 minute tempo portion was a 7:59 pace).

Friday: Today was a 75 minute run. I didn’t have much of a plan in place, so I ran across the Purple People Bridge, then the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge, then the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge, then the Roebling Suspension Bridge, then the Taylor Southgate Bridge. My pace for miles 2 – 8 were all clustered around 8:37, which was nice (it would have been nicer if the first two miles were closer to it, but mile 1 was 9:02 and mile 2 was 8:22). I did bring some Gatorade Endurance with me, because it was hot and sticky. 8.72 in 1:15:01 (8:36 pace).

On Wednesday (payday!), I decided I’d go ahead and register for the Honor Run Half Marathon in Florence, KY. I’ve run this twice before, the first time was a then-PR and my return to a half marathon after an injury. The second time was with a back strain and I didn’t PR. This time, I feel like I’m going to crush it because of the marathon AND because I’m going to do a harder training program (Hal Higdon Advanced!) that will include an additional running day. However, my next races will be the Bulldog Blast 5k and the NKU XC Series, once I register for them!

The week concluded with just under 29 miles ran and just over 4 hours spent running. Next week kicks up the mileage a little bit more to continue the post-marathon rebuild.

Cheers!

I’m getting back into normal weeks… sort of. I’m following the Hal Higdon Intermediate recovery plan (although I may not end it with a race). This is a different week because I would normally run all five days, but I’m only running 4 because I’m going to a geek gathering (Dayton… er… Xenia Hamvention) on Friday.

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Form drills + 3 miles	3 x 1 mile @ M pace	Form drills + 3 miles	Long Run - 45 - 75 min	Hamvention!

Monday: I did my form and mobility drills, but I skipped the strides. 3 miles across the bridges. I decided to change up ‘normal’ and cross the Suspension Bridge and the Taylor Southgate Bridge. 3.21 miles in 0:26:57 (8:24 pace… a little too fast, really). It was blistering hot out, even in the early morning.

Tuesday: The plan says 3 intervals, the watch tried to say 2. In my haste of setting this up in Garmin Connect, I neglected to ensure that there were 3 repeats. Anyway, 1 mile warm-up, 3 – 1 mile repeats at M pace with 0.5 mile recovery between. 5.5 miles in 46:01 (it would have been 45:59 if my watch didn’t crash at the end). Overall pace: 8:22. Intervals: 8:11, 7:54, 7:46 (the last one was manually timed).

Wednesday: It was a warm one. The plan was for 3 miles, and it was a warm one. I did my ‘normal’ loop of the suspension bridge to the Purple People Bridge. 3.61 miles in 30:40 (8:30 pace).

Thursday: The plan was 45 – 75 minutes, I ran 1:06, which got me to 7.5 miles. I felt sluggish in the first few miles, but hit my stride a few miles in. I brought some Nuun with me, and I thought I kept feeling my bottle drip on me. 7.5 miles in 1:06:10 (8:49 pace).

That’s it for the week. I haven’t really thought much about the summer and fall schedule, but I’m thinking it will be the same as normal – Bulldog Blast 5k, NKU XC Series, Hudepohl 14k, and the Honor Run Half Marathon. Maybe I’ll do another one if I find anything later in the year.

Cheers!

Beings that this week started the day after the Flying Pig Marathon, it was a different week than what I was used to. I’m following the Hal Higdon Zero Week and Intermediate recovery plans (although I may not end it with a race).

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
Rest!	Rest!	Rest!	3 mi	3 mi

Monday: Rest, relaxation, and Catch A Fire Pizza at MadTree Brewing (and at least two other groups that ran the marathon Sunday had the same idea).

Tuesday and Wednesday: since these were no-running days, I went for a walk in the morning.

Thursday: Got to run 3 miles! It was slower than I had been for a while and I was still sore. 3.12 miles in 28:07 (9:02 pace).

Friday: Ran another 3-something miles. Decided to run across the bridges. 3.53 miles in 30:26 (8:36 pace).

So for the entire week, including Sunday, I ran 32.85 miles. The marathon was tough, but I’m not one-and-done!