week of 15 February

• Mo AM - 7.94 @9:05
• Tu AM - 8.00 @8:28 treadmill; progression: miles 5-7 @ 8:11/147, 7:53/153, 7:36/159
• Tu PM - 1.78 @9:43 treadmill
• We AM - 5.06 @10:22/127; very tired, jogged and cut short; snow in nbhr was tedious; affected by the tiny big of fast stuff on Tuesday?
• Th AM - 8.00 @9:07
• Th PM - 2.01 @11:06 in feelmax, tedious snow-dodging
• Fr AM - 7.00 @9:20 treadmill
• Sa AM - 7.93 @8:43/154 outside hilly, felt good, ran harder than planned
• Sa PM - 2.04 @9:51 in feelmax; able to run in street more
• Su AM - 10.42 @9:04; ran with friends

Total: 60.18 in 9:14:30, 9:13 pace, 10 runs

Felt bad last week and recovered this week. I might have had a cold or maybe overdid it even with just the 2hr long run & 20' tempo. This week just easy running (and slower paced) with 3 faster miles (still below marathon effort). Might have been a coincidence but I felt bad the day after my tiny bit of faster running.

Feelmax shoes

Took these for a 2-mile spin last night. I've been doing some barefoot running -- 20' in socks on the treadmill -- but wanted to take it outside. These are kind of the less dorky looking version of the vibram five fingers. It's definitely totally different than running in my 7 oz Wave Ronins. The run sucked because I was going on and off the road trying not to get killed and trying to tip toe around cars and trash cans that blocked the sidewalk. I had a couple of unintentional strides when a car was coming and I need to get to a driveway to get off the road. My brain took over and the acceleration started with your hips and upper thighs rather than reaching out to lenghthen my stride. It's really quite different.

The bad news is that I got the wrong size. I measured my foot (damn European sizes) and got a 42 but needed a 43. It's OK for a few miles though. If I ever work up to anything long, I'll need a bigger pair to save my toenails.

When do you cut a run short?

In the olden days, my answer would have involved arterial bleeding. This morning it was just because I felt "off" and the snowy obstacles made the run damn tedious. I cut my long run short on Sunday, too. What's the matter with me? I haven't slept well since last Wednesday, but that probably isn't it. Am I sick? Maybe. Or maybe I'm just not motivated. Blech.

week of 8 February

Mon -easy 8.60 @ 8:43
Tues AM - easy 8.01 @ 8:45 including 10 x 60'' R w/3' rest-- 7.0 mph & 7deg
Tues PM - 2.14 @ 9:21 easy in feelmax shoes
Wed - easy 4.95 @ 9:05 easy including 6 strides
Th - easy 8.32 @ 8:25 including 6 strides
Fr - 7.00 @ 8:04, 20' E, 6 strides over 9', 20' T (up to 6:44/182, avg 6:50/176), 7.5' cdn
Sat - easy 6.84 @ 8:47. Cut back on pace at end to keep < 145
Sun - easy 8.00 @ 8:38. Tired again. Cut back and then quit. Plan was 2 hours.

Total: 53.9 miles in 7h45'

I had a little foray into Danielsim. I'm not sure if it was the training load (didn't seem like much) or my utter lack of sleep on Thursday night that screwed things up. Perhaps 20' T pace screwed me up? Tuesday seemed way too easy to follow with two easy day.

I did like the We/Sun big run schedule I had before, so I might go back to that with circuit training or hill drills on Friday.

My hip had a bit of a setback with this also. Nothing bad. I think cabin fever has made me impatient. Doing 60 miles a week with nothing over 10 miles and nothing hard was a neat trick which maybe I should continue. I'm undecided though. I'd like to do a long run of some kind (<= 2hrs) and something semi-fast.

week of 1 February

Totals: 63.8 Mi, 9:39:29, 9:06/Mi in 9 runs
YTD runs: 52 runs in 38 days
(destroying 365 runs in 2010 pace -- might not be worth tracking)

Sa & Sun on the treadmill because of the snow. Had a bit of a cold since Thursday maybe.

I've been picking up the pace a little. I've been rereading Daniels Running Formula (DRF) and also some advice Nobby gave me on coolrunning. Maybe I run too slow most of the time. (Daniels's "E" pace for 49 VDOT (19:57 5k) is 8:32/miles). My overall pace this week was 9:06 but that was distorted by a 10:19 pace 7 miler in the snow on Monday and other snowy days. I had 4 runs (37 miles) under 9:00 pace. Keeping them at 8 miles (except the long run) doesn't present a problem recovering.

I did my first "long run" in a long time today. It was 2 hours and 13.65 miles. I wouldn't have called that a long run in the past, but it took 2 hours, so definitely long according to Dr. Daniels. Somebody running 6 minute miles would cover 20 miles. My pace was 8:48, but I spent 80% at 7.0 mph (8:34/mile). The overall lower pace was from a gradual buildup from 10:00/mile over the first 20 minutes or so. My HR at 8:34 was 138 at the beginning, mostly at about 143-145 bpm and rose to 150 in the last 10 minutes or so. Not bad. I thought it was interesting that I went from 138 to 145 when playing with the treadmill between 7.0 and 7.1 mph. It's like my economy went to hell when I crossed 8:30 per mile.

I'm getting anxious to do some "quality" and have the reading bug again which is good. My plan is to run a 5k this Sunday, an 8k four weeks later, and a 10-miler 4 weeks after that. I've toyed with the idea of a marathon in May, but I'll see how my hip and the early races go. There are two local marathons on May 2 and both offer a half. The half for one (the preferred one) fills up quickly, so I might need to decide fairly soon. It's a really nice course for the half. The second half of that marathon is an absolute b*tch though.

DRF has a "gold elite" plan among its "fitness plans" (not race specific) that looks kind of interesting. I don't pretend to be elite, but the time (8-10 hours/wk) is about what I'm doing now. It has a 120 minute run on Sundays and a couple of quality sessions a week (nothing crazy though). I could even use the gold "mileage" (time) and the intermediate or introductory workouts. I also have another book I ordered back in November that's finally shipped. It's the Lydiard book Nobby's been pimping on the message boards: "Healthy Intelligent Training: The Proven Principles of Arthur Lydiard" by Keith Livingston.