Another week down, and I am loving life! Posting this a bit late, but it’s been a hectic week. Anyway, I am not sure I can properly convey how much I missed running. Surprisingly, I had thought I was done with running after my Ironman. But after a long time off and getting back, I cannot get enough. So, Week 2 went great and I cross-training has been a blast too!

I am still experimenting with different apps, and even though I really like the lap function for Apple’s native run app, I realize that I don’t need to review my data in such a detailed level right now. Therefore, I switched to Nike Run Club watch app. I learned that you can sync the run afterwards with the iOS Nike Run Club app which has the running plan. However, you can ONLY sync the run if you did the run in the NRC watch app, not Apple’s native run app. What’s really cool is NRC adjusted my plan based on my training results. It still wants me to run way faster than I can, but it definitely adjusted to something more reasonable, so it appears to be learning. I will keep posting my observations over the next few weeks.

Run 1

I started out my week with a 2.25 mile run. As usual, I am doing run-walk Galloway method of 2 min run, 30 second walk. I am not always able to hit the splits perfectly, and I definitely extend that 30 seconds a good bit towards the end of my runs. However, I am feeling good, my knees are fine, my back feels great, and I am feeling awesome the following day. As always, I do my NTC (Nike Training Club) Wake-up Warm-up. It’s about a 10 minute warm-up that really hits all of the areas that I need to have loose for my workouts.

As a quick note, this is not necessarily the warm-up for you. I tried a lot of different warm-ups, from TNT, P90X2, P90X3, Runner’s World, and tons of different NTC warm-ups. After trial and error, I landed on this one. The key is to know what your general weak or tight areas are, then find warm-ups that help activate those areas. It pays off big time!

Run 2

Tuesday was some interval training. 4 x 400 to be exact. I went at 7mph with 1% grade. I was super tired at the end, and I definitely need some extra walks in the mix. But it felt great. I will be gauging most of my early success by how tough these interval and tempo runs feel each week. I am looking to see that I need less walk breaks and that my HR doesn’t peak so early.

To add to the mix, I also hopped on my bike for 20 min and did my usual NTC warm-up.

Day 3

No running on Wednesday. I needed to get some cross-training in. So I hopped on my bike for an hour. Moderate to high resistance, averaging about 16 mph. I have my road bike hooked up to a dumb trainer. Yes, I am too cheap to buy a smart trainer and additional sensors. I honestly just ride to improve my endurance and binge watch shows.

Run 3

Thursday was another interval speed day. 6 x 200 is what NRC (Nike Run Club) ordered. It’s a bit tough trying to do such short intervals on the treadmill, but I still made it work. I was super winded on my last 200. I did push myself a little harder though. Instead of doing 7 mph with 1% grade, I started with 7.2 mph, which I had to bump back to 7 mph at interval 4. Also did a 1/4 mile walk to recover. As you will see with all of my runs, I started with my NTC warm-up.

Day 5

Friday was cross-training day. I did my usual NTC warm-up, but I also went for some Full Body HiiT (High Intensity Interval Training) on NTC. I was dead, but those work-outs always feel so good.

Day 6

Today was supposed to be my long run, but it was too nice out. I went with my wife on a nice hike at Valley Forge Park. We did a mix of paved trails and “mountain” trails. Overall, a bit over 7 miles of hiking and even though my dogs were barking, it felt so refreshing.

Run 5

Since I postponed my long run on Saturday, I got in my long run on Sunday. I want to say this was great, but the NRC plan I am following (altered with Galloway) had me jump a bit higher for my long run to just over 4 miles, which was basically doubling my current long run. However, I was able to maintain around a 11 min/mi despite being a bit tired from my prior day hike. I know this is a bit far off from my goal of 9 min/mi, but I am pretty excited with this result all things considered.