Monday, January 27, 2014

One down, countless to go!

My first race of 2014 is in the books.  As I reflect on it, I have mixed emotions.  I finished 5th at the New Balance Games Men's Mile in a time of 4:00.6.  I have since received a lot of support from friends and family, which I appreciate so much.  I never take a supportive comment for granted.  But for those of you who know me, 5th place isn't good enough.  I am my own harshest critic, which can be good and bad at times, but I think it's what keeps me motivated.

The race played out well in that the pacers did an incredible job and had the field on pace to run fast times.  The field strung out into a single file line for most of the race which allowed us to stay out of trouble and not get stuck in traffic or get tripped up.  At 400 meters I felt comfortable, at 800 meters I felt comfortable, and at 1200 meters I felt comfortable, but next thing I knew, there was one lap to go and I had not made any sort of move to try to get closer to the front.  I'm not sure if I had a lack of trust in my abilities or if I had just spaced out too much and let too big of a gap open up between myself and the leaders.  Regardless, I learned a lot from my third mile race since college.  For the opening race of the season, I would give it a grade of a B.  The fact that the pace felt really comfortable is the biggest positive from the race, and that it was an indoor PR!  Looking ahead, I will race again in two weeks on February 7th and 8th in an 800 and a 4x800 relay, respectively.

To get ready for last week's race, Coach Gags cut our workouts to only two for the week.  One strength day on Monday which was a little scaled back in intensity, as well as our standard Pre-meet workout on Thursday.  Other than that, our training didn't change in terms of lifting and mileage for the week.  We got dumped on with some snow mid-week but luckily it didn't change any of our training.  Never let the elements outside prevent you from getting done what needs to be done!

Here is my training log from last week as well as a link to Saturdays race.  Video credit to Runnerspace.com and ArmoryTrack.com

January 20-26

Monday
Morning track workout-
9x600 (1:45x3, 1:42x3, 1:39x3)
4x200 (26-26.5)
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 9

Tuesday
9 mile recovery run

Wednesday
9 mile recovery run
Drills/Strides

Thursday
Morning track workout
8x400 (69sec) w/ 60 seconds rest
1x300 (40sec)
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 8

Friday
7 mile recovery run

Saturday
New Balance Games
1 mile race
Total mileage: 8

Sunday
15 mile long run

Total Weekly Mileage: 65

Race Footage:

http://www.armorytrack.com/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=45586&mgroup_event_id=1066&do=videos&video_id=103017



For questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to post below or email me directly at mikeruttrunning@gmail.com!

Monday, January 20, 2014

"I WANNA GO FAST!" -Ricky Bobby

It's race week!  I'm so pumped to get out on the track and lace the up the spikes once more.  I think I speak for just about any track and field athlete when I say that the weeks and months of fall training get long and drawn out.  It's good to be able to see all of that hard work out on the track.

This past week of training was exactly what I needed heading into the race.  We backed off the mileage very slightly because we want our legs to feel a little more fresh.  Yet at the same time it is a looooong year, so we don't want to back off too much and not get a solid training effect from this week.  We stuck to three workouts and one long run as our usual, with one of the workouts being a speed/endurance workout at mile pace.

My body is feeling great overall.  I have occasional aches and pains, but we come to learn that it is just part of the training.  As long as those aches and pains are attended to quickly, there is no need to worry.

One of the big problems with training in the northeast during the winter months, is the weather.  The first few weeks of January were filled with snow storms and subzero temperatures.  It was hard to get myself out the door on those days, I'm not going to lie.  But as a professional athlete, there are no days off.  I had to find a way to get myself out the door and get the work done that needed to be done.  Whether it was to hop in the pool, cross train (via bike or ElliptiGO), or just to bundle up, I had to get the work done.  It's all part of the job!

I will line up on Saturday against a group of fellow sub-4 minute milers.  It's going to be a fun race to open up with.  It will be at the New Balance Games at the Armory Track and Field Center in NYC.  Come check out the race!

Here is a look at last week's training...


January 13-19

Monday
Morning track workout-
3x1600 (4:44, 4:46, 4:39) 1x1200 (3:30)
4x100
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 10

Tuesday
8 mile recovery run

Wednesday
Morning track workout-
1200 (mile pace), 600 (mile pace)
4x400 (60, 58, 58, 54)
Afternoon-
3 mile run
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 10

Thursday
8 mile recovery run

Friday
Morning workout-
2x2 mile pace run (5:30, 5:33) (5:17, 5:18)
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 9.5

Saturday
13 mile long run

Sunday
8 mile recovery run

Total Weekly Mileage: 66.5

For questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to post below or email me directly at mikeruttrunning@gmail.com!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Two weeks until my 2014 racing debut!

Here we are in 2014.  It's a new year and it's almost time to open up the indoor season.  Training thus far has been going great.  There was a lot of strength work in the fall and early winter, followed by a little more race-specific training during the last few weeks of 2013.  This year, Coach Gags has made sure that we don't back off at all on our strength workouts as we go into the new year, which has been a great change to our training program.  I feel that I haven't lost any quality on any workouts and I have been completely healthy, knock on wood!

The first competition of the season will be a one mile race at the New Balance Games at the Armory in NYC on January 25.  To get ready for it we have been doing a few workouts at our goal mile pace, which is somewhere between 3:54 and 3:58.  I'm ready to go out and have some fun with all of my teammates that are racing, but once the gun goes off it's all business.

One of the additions I'd like to start making to my blog is a weekly log of sorts.  I'm going to be posting my training including workouts, mileage, and competitions every Monday.  It will be a good way for me to not only paint a picture of my season for you all, but also to help me log my training because I can be a little forgetful sometimes!  I won't always post every single time on an interval but I'll try to keep the logs as detailed as possible.  So here we go!


January 6-12

Monday
Morning Track Workout-
7x800 (2:18, :18, :13, :14, :13, :08, :05)
3x200 (25.8, 26.0, 25.8)
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 10

Tuesday
9 mile recovery run

Wednesday
Morning Track Workout-
200, 300, 200, 300, 300, 500 (All at 800 pace)
Afternoon-
3 mile run
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 10

Thursday
9 mile recovery run

Friday
15 mile long run with 4 mile tempo in the middle
(5:40, :30, :18, :10)

Saturday
9 mile recovery run
Drills/Strides
Core Session

Sunday
8 mile recovery run

Total Mileage - 70


For questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to post below or email me directly at mikeruttrunning@gmail.com!