Train Me

My diet is primarily carbs and I eat them every day.

Not eating carbs is silly.

“Carb-ing up” is also silly.

You should just eat a healthy balanced diet every day of your life. If you’re going to experiment with fad diets, you should probably do it during a time period when you don’t have an athletic goal.

Have you run a time trial mile recently to see where you’re currently at?

I saw a 10x100 @ 6:00 min./mi. a few posts ago, but 100 is really short and you didn’t mention how much rest or recovery was in between reps.

You should try 10x200 @ 6:30 with 60 rest between. Maybe 6x400 @ 6:30 with 90 jog recovery between, if possible the following week. Maybe 6:30 would be too fast for those workouts right now (if so, pick a slower pace but don’t go to easy on yourself), but those are short workouts that you would easily be able to do when you are in shape to run a 6:30 mile.

The goal is essentially 4x400’s @ 6:30 with no recovery, correct?

Hopefully you can progress to do the 200’s faster in a few weeks and do something like 4x1000 @ 6:30.

Agree. Did the crossfitters put this no-carb silliness in your head?

Week of 1/27-2/1

1/27-2.95 miles @ 5mph

1/28-3 miles @ 5mph then 1 hr crossfit

1/29-3.35 miles@ 5 mph AM, 4.65 miles @ 5-7 mph PM.

1/30-1 mile (we did squats Tuesday and my legs were so sore until Saturday)

1/31- 1 mile

2/1- 11.5 miles @ avg 10:05

9:31, 9:21, 9:29, 10:01, 10:05, 9:45, 9:56, 10:21, 10:14, 10:46, 10:54, 10:57

I started to really struggle after mile 6 so I stopped by the house and got my kids to come out and run with me. The 15 year old drug me around for around for a couple then the 10 year old swapped with her. Total mistake, she wouldn't stop asking me questions which was making it impossible to breathe.

Weight-146.2

I've been steadily running 30-35 mpw. No real speedwork. Our track has locks on it because the state doesn't want practices right now.

I'm so stressed out. I lost my income. Started immediately applying for jobs and the state office that does background checks is closed so none of my applications are being processed right now.

I don't know what to even do. We started a garden, bought some baby chicks... going to start upping my mileage to work towards a marathon. Hopefully those will be a thing again someday.

My kiddo got a bunch of acceptance letters. John Hopkins was one but she hasn't heard from their coach. She's pretty upset about her senior year probably being over. She is hoping that track season happens after this is over so shes really working hard to keep her head up and run her workouts. Kinda hard on the street without an accessible track.

Sorry to hear of your difficulties. Your sticking with the mileage and supporting your girls is very admirable. Keeping fingers crossed on your eldest's college acceptance. Keep it going and keep us posted on your situation.

Is there a grass or dirt field somewhere? She can do workouts by time.

You can measure every 100m on a street and put a small dot or mark on it with a spray can. At a local bike path, I marked off every 400m and put .25, .5, .75, 1.0, etc. on the trail using a stencil and a paint spray can.

When I lived in Melbourne, Florida, we did workouts in an empty parking lot on a large loop that was about 800m. It was a little long, but easy enough to walk the extra distance to start the next rep.

You can use a GPS watch. Measure in both directions. The measurements won't quite match so use the average between them.

When I did reps on a dirt road, I'd find a landmark every quarter mile... a tree, a post, a bend in the trail.

The Hopkins undergraduate campus is in a very nice part of Baltimore, and is in a totally different part of the city from the medical campus, which is what some folks might find sketchy. Well worth a visit, and if your daughter can make the squad, well worth attending.

We did make some marks on the sidewalk on the golf course. There is a gravel loop around this little lake a few miles away as well and it has markers at every quarter mile. It's an 800m loop. We went over there once this week.

She and I were both fortunate to land jobs with a company handling their phones calls from home. We are going to be collecting and verifying documents for small business loans.

I ordered a nordictrack bike so I can do more than run in my house. It got delivered today and she used it before I did.

At the moment she's waitlisted to Notre Dame and got accepted to Amherst. Idk why but she really likes the idea of Amherst. I can't say that I'd ever heard of them before. She said if Notre Dame accepts her then that's her first choice. At this point I'd prefer she not go so far away for obvious reasons. I'm like... are you sure you dont want to change directions and go to the local junior college!?!?!?

John Hopkins offered her a full ride so they are definitely a top contender.

Her accepted list. Fordham, Wellesley, Texas Tech, Graceland, Hollins, Lubbock Christian, Abilene Christian, Huntington, Wheeling, Southern Arkansas, Saint Edward's, washington and Lee, Oral Roberts, univeristy if Mary Hardin Baylor, Baylor, Dallas Baptist, Kings College, Macalester, Case Western, Amherst, Emery, Vasar

She applied to a lot of others that waitlisted her. She said she just applied to every college where a coach offered her to apply for free. I'm like.. holy indecisiveness.

Because of financial plus academics almost all of those offered her a free ride. Lubbock christian required her to have health insurance and gives no money back. Meaning she would either need a job or need me to pay her cell, car, etc. Currently, I'm not sure I could swing that. Hopefully we'll all go back to our former incomes soon.

She got into a bunch of really good schools -- Wellesley, Hopkins, Amherst, Emory, W&L, Vassar, Macalester are the best of the lot, not in order. Of those, she should go where she can go for the least money, where she thinks she'll be happy, and can run.

Totally unrelated but we did abroad jump challenge and I actually beat all my children. As it should be.

That's awesome you got jobs that quickly! Although if you were used to making a lot more before, it'll be a challenge.

Well, her income will be new income. So it will help some. We cut our Netflix. Lowered the coverage on the car insurance (since we're not driving anywhere anyway). Turned off our BoxyCharm, Ipsy subscriptions. Saved $60 on the cell phones by making some changes. And luckily my last phone payment was this month. Turned off my home security since I'm here 24 hours a day now anyway... plus I live in a very low crime area. It was actually a splurge since I could afford it. I got both of the car payments refinanced. They were at 0% and now they are each 1.9% but it lowered the overall monthly payment by over $400. Lowered the channels on my Dish network. Got some refunds for trips that we won't be able to take now.

Anyway all said and told my monthly payments are now $1046 less and I saved $381 on hotels. It was a rather productive day. Honey said she was going to pay her own car, cell, etc for the time being. The 16 year old still has applications out since you have to be 18 for this position.

So did you both get the same job?

I still have a job but don't make much (53k) but am grateful to still have a job.

Yes. We applied to this posting on our local state job board working for a bank in the big city from home. We have to have training next week but my understanding is we'll be helping to process loans. Calls and emails will be routed to us. Its $15 an hour. It is only guaranteed 30 hours a week but I'm NOT complaining! I feel ecstatic about the fact a check will be coming in. And maybe I'll be back to my old job in a month or 2.

That's a good job and hopefully you get your old one back (that pays a lot more I bet).

Best of luck!

Baltimore is terrible, but Johns Hopkins is a pretty good school. If she wants to study a science or medicine, Hopkins is a great choice, considering the full ride.

Quite frankly, if I had a child whose options were: pay to go to Notre Dame or go to Hopkins for free, they would be going to Hopkins.

Mort McMurray wrote:

Baltimore is terrible, but Johns Hopkins is a pretty good school. If she wants to study a science or medicine, Hopkins is a great choice, considering the full ride.

Quite frankly, if I had a child whose options were: pay to go to Notre Dame or go to Hopkins for free, they would be going to Hopkins.

Amherst is a full ride but it includes $2400 a year in work study. Johns Hopkins is full ride without work study. I thought she had talked to John's Hopkin's coach but he or she never replied so neither of these are for running. I told her to reach out to the coaches. So we will see.