Super Sunday

A big congratulations to a couple of athletes I coach – Robert Jarrin and Sean McKeon – who both nabbed HUGE PRs for themselves at their respective races on Sunday.

Robert got off to a fast start at the Army 10 Miler in the nation’s capital, running 1:00:52 to better his previous best by a minute and eight seconds. At 39 years old, Robert is just starting to come into his own as a runner, as the former competitive cyclist has set PRs in the half marathon (1:21:37) marathon (2:49:16) and now 10 miles since I began working with him in 2006. Having missed six weeks of training from June through July this past summer with a torn calf muscle, Robert has been gradually increasing his overall volume with nothing more than easy to moderate running for the last 11 weeks and is establishing a solid base from which to build off moving forward. This morning’s result represented a very big step forward – congrats to JARRIN!

On the other side of America, Sean ripped a minute and 28 seconds off his previous half marathon best, crossing the finish line at the San Jose Rock-n-Roll 1/2 Marathon in 1:10:01 to finish 20th overall. Running a metronomic pace of 5:20 per mile from the sound of the starter’s pistol, Sean also set a 10-mile PR of 53:23 en route. I’ve been working with Sean for the last 8 weeks as he prepares for the Rock-n-Roll Vegas Marathon on December 6th. Having been away from formalized training since graduating from college in 2005, Sean asked me to help him prepare for his second marathon by writing him up more of a structured training schedule. Since we started working together in mid-August, his overall volume has increased and he’s responded very well to the introduction of longer progression runs, extended aerobic intervals and a weekly session of short hill sprints. After this morning’s result, everything appears to be on track for a big marathon PR the first weekend in December. Way to roll Sean!

Here’s a sample week of Sean’s training from September 20-26 (11 weeks out from R&R Vegas)

Sunday – 20 miles: PMP Progression Run
10 easy (6:45-7:15/mi), 5 steady (6-6:15/mi), 5 @ PMP (5:45-50/mi)
Monday – AM: 5 miles EASY; PM: 5 miles easy + 8 x 10-second hill charges
Tuesday – 8 miles easy
Wednesday – AM: 4 miles easy; PM: 12 miles – In-n-Out Intervals
3 x [2 miles (1 mi @ MP/1 mi @ HMP) w/3:00 recovery] MP – 5:45-50; HMP – 5:20-25
Thursday – AM: 4 miles EASY; PM: 4 miles EASY
Friday – 12 miles easy/moderate + 6 x 20-second strides
Saturday – 6 miles easy
80 miles