August in Review

The State Fair has arrived, the Twins are making their playoff run again (this time I like our chances!), Labor Day is just around the corner, and I just got a little less Younger on Saturday when I turned 26.  All this means that my favorite time of year to run is finally here…definitely looking forward to nice cool fall running!

Training - Hitting some Milestones
Ever since Voyageur it’s been a great stretch of training and all in all the last push for miles and fitness that I was hoping for.  Sure there are always some runs that are better than others and I was getting real tired there a couple weeks ago, but kept it rolling and pretty steady.  Here’s a quick summary for August:

• Total Miles in August:  480
• Run Time: 70 hours, 29 minutes
• Highest Mileage Week:  131
• Lowest Mileage Week:  85
  - - - - - -
• Total Miles in 2010:  3,185

I was happy to have the month end with the legs feeling good after some hard training.  It’s been my highest mileage month, highest mileage week, highest mileage 7-day period of 151, and a couple days ago passed by my total mileage from 2009 of 3,144.  Been a lot of really slow running the last couple months, but hoping the hills, trails, and volume strategy pays off in my first 100 miler in a little over a week.

Testing – VO2 Max, Heart rate, Threshold Pace
So I hadn’t set foot on a treadmill since about mid-January, but a couple weeks ago found myself at OptumHealth Performance with Chris and Dan who runs the show over there.  Lundo and I talked about having me do some testing back in the spring, so was glad to hear from him that they just got some new equipment in there and we lined up a time.  It’s incredible what they can tell just based on what you are breathing and your heart rate. 

They had me running 2 minute increments at 6 mph, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10.5, 11, and 11.5.  I hit my lactate threshold around 11 – 11.5, then they increased the incline a bit and that was the end of all that.  It was a lot of fun and got some great info.  I learned I have a VO2 Max of 74.4, threshold pace of I think around 5:20 – 5:30 or so, threshold heart rate of about 190, and max heart rate of 203.  I’m still not sure exactly what it all means, but will help a whole lot when I train for a marathon next.  Definitely recommend doing it if you are interested in learning more, and I’m sure Dan would love to hear from you.

In Other News...
Last week I was driving along the highway minding my own business…then traffic slowed down and the guy behind me didn’t.  No injuries thankfully, but I did end up with one totaled car and one new one.  I was kind of hoping to drive the old one into the ground and save money, but I’m having fun driving around in a new car with a manual transmission!

Oh, and in perhaps my most notable non-running ‘athletic’ accomplishment in my young life, we had an STLF staff outing to the bowling alley last Friday and I bowled a 175!  I was totally on pace for over 200 until I blew it in the 9th.  Left me wondering if just maybe I should switch sports…