Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Shaking off the rust

I need to give myself a swift kick in the pants for my lack of blogging lately.  I apologize to any of you who read my blog regularly.  Life has been busy lately for me.  I have been working more hours than normal and when I'm not working, training, or competing, I am trying to get other aspects of my every day life under control.  Not that there is anything negative going on in my life at all...just the joys of the real world!

After a solid month of training, it was time to shake off all the cobwebs.  The Penn Relays was my opening race this past weekend.  Going into the race, I knew that I was fit.  Training has been going great and my body was responding really well to all of the work we were doing.  I wasn't concerned with my time as much as I was about going out there and competing.

I have always loved the Penn Relays, so to open up my season there was a lot of fun.  I was able to spend my warm up on the infield of the stadium and witness the chaos that is the USA vs the World Relays events.  In high school it was always my dream to be able to be in the infield, and I was finally able to experience it.  The crowd is always loud and the atmosphere is as good as it can get in the stadium.  There were times when I couldn't even hear myself speak and I found myself standing in awe of the noise that the spectators created.  It truly is one of the best meets in the world.


My view from the infield of Penn Relays

My warm up felt great so all I needed to do was go out on the track and race smart.  The pacing was fine for the first 1200 meters.  My instruction from coach was to sit back and let the pack to the majority of the work.  With 300 meters to go, I felt the need to get up towards the front before it was too late.  I moved up into second place and started to kick for home.  Unfortunately, I ran in lane two for too much of the last turn which was a mistake on my part.  I was working to hard to hold my position instead of tucking into the poll until the home straight.  I wasn't able to pull off the victory, finishing in 3:58.5 for second place.  I had mixed emotions afterward because no matter what race I'm in, I want to win.  But, I was able to take a look at the race differently after my cool down and my post-race talk with Coach Gags.  A season debut at 3:58.5 is not a bad result.  I will be able to run a low-key 800 this Friday night at West Chester Henderson which will be a good test to see where my 800 fitness is at!

Here is my training from the past two weeks.  Below you can find a link to my post race interview on FloTrack!


April 14-20

Monday
Morning-
6x800 (2:20, 2:16, 2:12)x2
4x200m
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 10


Tuesday
8 mile recovery run
Drills/Strides


Wednesday
Morning-
4 mile tempo (5:20, 5:17, 5:12, 5:10)
6x150m hill
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 11

Thursday
8 mile recovery run
Drills/Strides


Friday
Morning-
 1x1000, 2x600, 2x400 (mile pace)
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 8
Saturday
12 mile long run

Sunday
OFF

Total Weekly Mileage: 58 (6 days)


April 21-27

Monday
Morning-
5x800, 1x200 (25 sec), 1x400 (800 pace)
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 9


Tuesday
8 mile recovery run
Drills/Strides


Wednesday
Morning-
8x400 w/ 1 min rest
1x300 @ 40 seconds
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 8

Thursday
8 mile recovery run
Drills/Strides


Friday
Morning-
6 mile shake out run
Strides

Saturday
Penn Relays OD Mile
3:58.5
2nd place

Sunday
13 mile long run


Total Weekly Mileage: 59


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

Monday, April 14, 2014

One....more.....week

It has felt like AGES since I have raced last.  Luckily, I don't have too much longer to wait.  First, I want to say sorry for not posting last week.  I have been crazy busy with training and working lately and last week I just needed to take a break.

But the training has been going really well lately.  It's hard to really tell where I'm at until I race for the first time, but I'm thinking I'm in good shape at the moment.  Over the past two weeks we have tested our 800 and mile fitness while still maintaining our strength work on the track and the weight sessions in the gym.

For those of you that haven't read some of my latest posts, I'll be opening up at Penn Relays on the 26th.  I plan on racing the Open Mile which will be a great test to see where I'm at physically.  In other news....you may or may not have heard that Hoka One One has made a big announcement in the past week.  I'm happy to welcome 2012 Olympic Silver Medalist Leo Manzano to the Hoka family!  I don't know Leo very well but the little that I've talked to him, I know that Hoka has made a great choice in bringing Leo on board.  Although we will be competitors when we step on the track, I'm excited to have Leo wearing the same uniform that I am.

As we get closer to Penn, I'll back off some of my workouts, but I plan on keeping my mileage high through that meet because I'm not trying to peak anytime soon!  Here is my training for the past TWO weeks....thanks guys!


March 31-April 6

Monday
Morning-
6x1200
3x200 (25 sec)
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 10


Tuesday
8 mile recovery run
Drills/Strides


Wednesday
Morning-
3mile tempo (5:23, 5:17, 5:06)
6x200m
Total Mileage: 10

Thursday
Morning-
8 mile recovery run
Drills/Strides


Friday
Morning-
 1x1200m, 6x400, (Mile pace)
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage:10
Saturday
15 mile long run

Sunday
8 mile recovery run

Total Weekly Mileage: 69


April 7-13

Monday
Morning-
6x1000 (2:55x2, 2:50x2, 2:45x2)
3x150m
Afternoon-
Weight Session
Total Mileage: 10


Tuesday
8 mile recovery run
Drills/Strides


Wednesday
Morning-
2x2 mile tempo (5:20, 5:20, 5:03, 4:53)
6x200m
Total Mileage: 12

Thursday
8 mile recovery run
Drills/Strides


Friday
Morning-
 1x600, 1x400, 3x300 (800m pace)
Total Mileage:9
Saturday
15 mile long run

Sunday
6 mile recovery run

Total Weekly Mileage: 68

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