Cherry Blossom 10 miler: Damn you, Fenty!

I ran good ol' CB this morning. My friend and I tried to get there a little later (so we don't stand around forever) and I *barely* made it. I got in the first corral just as they were marching forward with the plastic mesh separating the corrals. I was literally the last guy in. We stood there about 5 minutes and I thought this would be fun to try and get out at 6:40 (my goal pace) with not a step of warming up.

Turns out it was fine. I had to weave a bit, but nailed the first mile at 6:40 and it went by fast. Then I felt a little too good :-) Next was 6:28 and then 6:21. Yikes! HR was at 185 which is about what I expected. I could feel my threshold but felt like I was at it or just under, so I went with it, but backed off a hair. Next two were 6:34, and 6:32. I started to feel it at 5 and felt like things were going about right as I was really wanting to reach the 6 mile marker (my usual MO in a 10 miler). 6 mile split was 6:37.

Now on the old course you turned around for a gentle downhill on Rock Creek Parkway. On this one you had out to the no man's land where many a Marine Corps Marathon has gone to die. Mile 7 is 6:36 and I feel like a PR is assured. My legs are getting a bit rubbery, but after I round the end of Hains Point, what do I see?


ADRIAN FENTY! He ran 62:xx last year and I thought I had no shot, but he's right there in the next group ahead! He's not far off now! Can I PR and beat the Mayor in the same race? Well, I wussed out I'm afraid. I tried to reel him in slowly but it was going the other way and I never got closer. Still, I thought I might beat him on the chip if I could stay reasonably close since "his honor" starts right up front.

Mile 8 was 6:24, but it was short and I wasn't surprised to see 7:00 for mile 9 (6:42 pace for both). I never saw the Mayor again after he turned off Hains Point, but the time at mile 9 gave me some motivation. I realized I had a good shot at 1:05 if I just could run another at ~6:40 (which wouldn't be easy). The last mile is also the toughest with the only real uphill of the course (not much, but enough to notice on this pancake course). I saw the 800m to go mark on the ground and had already used 3:29 (7:00 pace). I can't be slowing this much? I wasn't. Last mile was 6:39 and I just made it -- 1:05:55.

Here's the killer. They just posted the results and Mr. Mayor's chip time was 1:05:53 and he finished one place ahead of me. Just two seconds!!!! Argghhhh!

Nevertheless, I'm super happy. I set a 48 second PR on essentially base training. I haven't done any intervals. I did a short tempo months ago and some really mild repeats. Other than that, the 8k is the only fast running I've done. My "workouts" are just some moderate (155-160) running every 3 or 4 days. I've done good volume and lots of runs, which has gotten my weight back down, but I've checked my records and my weight is the same as last year (164).

Full splitsahol below:

Time Split time Distance Split pace Avg. HR
0:06:40 6:40 1.01 6:37 186 (93%) -- HRM not working
0:13:09 6:28 2.03 6:19 185 (93%) -- HRM not working
0:19:30 6:21 3.06 6:13 184 (92%)
0:26:05 6:34 4.14 6:03 184 (92%)
0:32:38 6:32 5.16 6:26 185 (92%)
0:39:15 6:37 6.17 6:33 185 (92%)
0:45:51 6:36 7.17 6:37 184 (92%)
0:52:15 6:24 8.13 6:38 185 (92%)
0:59:15 7:00 9.18 6:44 184 (92%)
1:05:55 6:39 10.20 6:29 186 (93%)

Magill Drills

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=17578

When you see me say "drills" in my log, this is what I'm doing. Usually ~4.5 miles jog warmup, 4 strides, the drills in the video (with jog/stride/walk between like in the video) followed by 2-4 strides depending on how I feel and a jog of about 1.5 miles home.

I'm absolutely amazed at how much I speed up from the warmup strides after doing the first drill (usually "schoolyard skipping). Before the race Sunday I plan to warmup with 10-15 minutes jogging and a few strides and skipping.

PF or bloody toe

Well, I ran today. I wore the widest shoes I own (Mizuno wave precisions) and loosened the laces as much as possible. On my toe I had a band-aid slathered in as much body glide as the law will allow. It actually went OK. I could obviously feel it with each step, but it wasn't too bad. The bad part is that I could feel the stiff shoes affecting my PF. It's not bad, but it's slowing my healing. Oh, well. I can't run in the other shoes right now (well, without some serious pain).

Bloody toe

Toe hurt throughout the run as it has for over a week. This time I took off my shoe to find a bloody sock. Taking the bandaid off I saw that a pretty thick layer of skin about the size of a dime was flapping in the breeze with raw skin underneath. Ouch. I've had this before (although not this bad). It eventually goes away, but I'm not sure how exactly. I think my shoes are too narrow. Even the Mizunos with the wide toe box are a problem. Maybe I need a wide?

Stumbling upon Hadd?

While running the other day, I remember the massive Hadd thread on letsrun.com and for some reason it struck me that my newfound moderate-every-third-day strategy might be similar to what Hadd described. Well it sure seems to be. Here's the schedule Hadd gave "Joe" for building his mileage

Joe was given schedules to show him how to best get from 50 mpw to 80 mpw.

Mon 60 mins easy 145 HR
Tue 75 mins easy 160HR
Wed Easy 45 mins 145 HR
Thu Easy 60 mins 150 HR
Fri 75 mins easy 160 HR
Sat Easy 45 mins 150 HR
Sun 90 mins easy 155 HR
Approx 60mpw

Mon 75 mins easy 145 HR
Tue 60 mins easy 155-160 HR
Wed 60 mins easy up to 150 HR
Thu 75 mins easy 145-150 HR
Fri 75 mins easy 160 HR
Sat 60 mins easy 145-150 HR
Sun 90 mins easy up to 150 HR
Approx 69mpw

Mon 60 mins jog easy 140-150 HR (or lower)
Tue 90 mins including 70 mins @ 160 HR
Wed 75 mins easy 140-150 HR (or lower)
Thu 75 mins 150-155 HR
Fri 90 mins including 70 mins @ 160 HR
Sat 75 mins easy 140-150 HR (or lower)
Sun 2 hrs easy 145-155 HR (but to include 60 mins @ 160)
Approx 80+mpw

That's pretty close to what I'm doing: jog, easy, moderate. I've even started doing (see last Saturday) warmup and cooldown on the longest run like his 2 hr easy day. Also the 80+ mpw adds up to 9.75 hours and mine has been right at 10 the last two weeks (guess Joe's faster than me!). One big difference is that I'm doing doubles and I'm a weany compared to Hadd's HRs. Here's last week in terms of time/avg heart rate

Mo - 74'/135; 20'/???

Tu - 70'/137; 19'/???

We - 64'/151; 20'/???

Th - 69'/143; 20'/???

Fr - 70'/136

Sa - 98'/153; 19'/???

Su - 63'/143

The AHR are probably often off though because the first 20' is gooned up before I break a sweat. Usually it's 10-20 bpm high, but sometimes it's way low. Still it's pretty indicative and good for relative comparisons. By the way, runsaturday has a nice calendar view that lets you toggle between time/distance, time/heart rate, etc.

week of 29 March

Mon - AM: 7.87 @ 9:25; PM: 2.11 @ 9:21
Tue - AM: 7.84 @ 8:59; PM: 2.09 @ 9:17
Wed - AM: 7.84 @ 8:12; PM: 2.06 @ 9:38
Thu - AM: 7.86 @ 8:45; PM: 2.06 @ 9:53
Fri - AM: 7.36 @ 9:33 -- drills
Sat - AM: 12.25 @ 8:01; PM 2.06 @ 9:15;
Sun - 7.27 @ 8:45

Total: 68.7 @ 8:51; 10:08:18

According to Garmin that's 8,070 calories. I think I ate that in chocolate bunnies and peeps.

Nike Free 3.0v2's arrived on Friday and I couldn't resist a second test run on Sat to try them out. They feel good. Nike runs narrow, but I wear a half size bigger and it seems OK. They don't have quite as wide a "wheel base" in the heal as the 5.0s and feel a little unstable although they are much lighter and don't have that giant heel. I also did my 7+ on Sunday in them but imagined myself hurting myself a week before Cherry Blossom.

Everything things sorta holding together and I expect to get to the starting line OK. I'll probably double less this week or shorten my morning runs. I do plan to do drills on Saturday because it really seems to prime me for the next days run, but I might not do the full repertoire. Or maybe I should do them Friday? Eh, doesn't really matter. I'm kind of hedging on mileage this week. I probably won't take it super easy as Pike's Peak 10k on the 25th might be a good chance to break 40 if CB goes well. It's a cheater course though. You take one left and run downhill for a few metro stops and then take the train back. I've heard there are some ups and downs, but it drops 190 feet. Weather looking good for CB. High is only 63. Low is 49 and race is at 7:40am.

I've started using runsaturday.com for my runs. I really use SportTracks and then it has a plugin for (very) easily uploading your runs. The site is kind of hard to navigate, but the guy seems to be a hardcore geek and there are lots of features. He publishes all the data in a million ways and you can mashup data in a million ways apparently, but it's all kind of a hodgepodge. I'm "greg" at runsaturday.

Hobby jogger training

I'm a hobby jogger. Nothing wrong with that except that I own lots of books and have spent way too much time thinking about how to run faster when the answer is simple to comprehend, but difficult to achieve: lose weight.

At 5'9.5'' and 163 lbs, I'm not that heavy by 2010 standards, but I could be much lighter and still healthy. As a freshman in college, I weighed 138 lbs at this height and when I took a fitness class that included a skinfold test, my body fat was 11%. I met Alan Webb once and we're just about the same height (I'm maybe 0.5'' taller) and I have a smaller frame, but he weighs 20 lbs less than me and could bench my weight 40 times while I can't do more than one pullup.

Pace is roughly linear with weight for small weight changes, so if you drop 1 or 2%, you can expect to run 1 or 2% faster. If you drop 10%, it might only be 7%, but you get the idea: there is very little you can do to improve your race times that's more effective than losing unneeded weight. Notice I said "unneeded weight." I'm talking about the ridiculousness of a middle-aged guy with a gut wondering why his lung-searing 10x800m interval sessions aren't propelling him to distance running greatness.

Of course you have to run also. When I weighed 138, I think I ran 1.5 miles during our Cooper test (12 minutes) at the beginning of that fitness class. Now, I would probably cover 2 miles in that test (according to McMillan my 32:07 8k is conveniently worth 12:00.2 for 2 miles). Of course, I ran that 1.5 miles while being utterly sedentary. When I started running at 33 years old and 187 pounds, I might have covered 1.2 miles in 12 minutes on a good day.

OK, so unless your already close to your ideal weight, the answer is to run as much as your schedule and body can tolerate and to lose weight. The first helps with the second, by the way. I had a coach last year and I really started to slow down after April when my mileage came down as we shifted focus to higher-quality, lower-quantity 10k training. Not coincidentally, my weight went up as well. I don't think it's easy for good runners to comprehend the tubby tendencies of the hobby jogger. We like to eat! I have a friend who's a very good runner who at over 6' weighs 150 lbs when at peak training and "ballooned" to 155 when a knee injury sidelined him completely for months. I think a lot of "talent" has to do with being skinny. Sure, the "talented" probably eat better on average, but they don't necessarily struggle with it. (I also know a former D1 runner who no longer runs and eats like you wouldn't believe, but is as thin as a rail.)

So, how to train? I could of course save a hell of a lot of time by just shoving less food in my mouth, but as millions of people already know, that's damn hard! Running 10 times a week seems easy by comparison. ( I'm hoping one day I can get both to happen at the same time.)

I think burning as many calories as you can is a good place to start. This means running lots of miles and not getting injured. How?

• Doubling when you can is a good way to burn extra calories without much injury risk. (Cross-training would probably work, but I can't seem to fit that in my schedule while lacing up shoes and going out the door is pretty easy. ) As an added bonus, I don't snack between arriving at home and eating dinner if I'm running and showering.
  
• Limiting off days. The effect of your heroic workout or long run will be negated if you add ounces the next day by eating and not running. Don't waste a perfectly good day.
  
• Up the average intensity if you've hit the limit of your time budget, but try to do it in a way that doesn't reduce the calories you're burning by "wasting" days recovering. Right now, for me, this means moderate running (HR in the 150s) every third day or so.

week of 22 March

• Mon AM - Moderate 7.86 1:04:05 8:09
• Mon PM - Recovery 2.06 0:19:48 9:36
• Tu - Easy 7.87 1:10:18 8:56
• We AM - Easy 7.85 1:09:21 8:50
• We PM - Recovery 2.09 0:20:11 9:41
• Th AM - Recovery 7.83 1:10:55 9:03
• Th PM - Recovery 2.05 0:20:01 9:46
• Fr AM - Drills 7.18 1:09:49 9:44
• Fr PM - Recovery 2.08 0:19:03 9:10
• Sa - Moderate 14.01 1:47:11 7:39
• Su - Recovery 7.86 1:11:42 9:07

This Week - 68.74 10:02:24 8:46

Continued the PF battles this week. It doesn't hurt when I walk barefoot and it only bothers me for a few miles, so I think it's partly paranoia.

I played shoe roulette this week and remembered why I gave up on the Frees. I think they're great for PF as I can easily bend my toes, but the arch is very high and rigid and uncomfortably bashes against my arch. The Precisions feel like Army boots even though they're a lightweight trainer/marathon racer. Loosening the laces let me flex my foot more (picking up my heel) and seemed OK. Still I longed for my ronins and actually wore them on Sunday (even though I estimated they had >1100 miles on them). Anyway, I ordered a new pair of Ronins and found some Free 3.0's that I'd like to pull the trigger on, but couldn't quite spend the extra $$ after buying the Ronins.

The week went pretty well running-wise, getting in 4 doubles and almost 69 miles. I think I might have run Saturday a little too hard. It felt great and I ran ~160 bpm after the first couple of miles, which is well below my MP average (172), while running 7:3x over my usual hilly course. I was wiped out afterwards though like I used to be on a weekly basis when doing long runs. Sunday was a very long 8 miles. I jogged the whole way, but 138 bpm felt tough and I was very glad to be done.

week of 15 March

• Mo - 7.9 @ 9:09
• Tu - 7.9 @ 9:15
• We AM - 7.9 @ 9:15
• We PM - 2.1 @ 9:33 (wore ronins)
• Th AM - 8.2 @ 8:06 -- double out and back when I forgot my keys
• Th PM - 2.1 @ 9:24 -- wore Frees
• Fr AM - 7.2 @ 9:45 -- drills on high school turf (pace includes drills and walking in between)
• Fr PM - 2.1 @ 9:17
• Sa - 13.3 @ 9:04 -- ran w/ friend; slower than I'd have done alone, but maybe good for the weekend after a race
• Su PM - 4.9 @ 9:00 -- about 70 degrees! All I could get with daughter's all-day soccer tournament

Total: 63.4

PF felt better and worse over the course of the week. I ditched my Ronin's which I'd say have about 1000 miles on them. The Frees seemed to help as they did before because my toes can bend easily, creating less tension on the bottom of my foot when I toe off. It's still up and down though.

By Thursday I was recovered enough from the 8k for a moderate run.

On Friday, I did all the Pete Magill drills (except the skip kicks) and was surprised I could to the the carioca drill. I tried the drills barefoot which felt great except a 35 degree sopping wet field is quite cold! I put my shoes back on halfway through.

8k pictures

http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=61503&BIB=3682&S=230&PWD=

Includes some action shots of me avoiding get "chicked" at the end. I gave up on catching a pack of guys on the final straightaway (green tights in the pictures), but when a "girl" came up next to me, that was too much! :-)

My form is so awful and this is probably the best form I've ever run with. I'm sitting in a bucket less than normal and it almost looks like running, but what's the deal with my splayed right hand swinging across my chest?

PF is doing much better. I was pain free in my feelmax shoes last night. A very slight bit of tugging today, but I think I'll be OK.

Plantar fasciitis Day 3

I felt the ugly PF sensation on my Sunday PM run after the race, but stupidly did my 2 miles instead of turning around after the first step and bagging Monday.

I went out on Monday and felt it, but not as intensely -- I think because of heavier shoes -- and it didn't bother me after a mile, so I did my 8.

Today I felt it again and regretted running the last two times, but now what to do? I've only got about 6 weeks left to set some spring PRs and taking a week off will kill that and probably won't help much anyway, so I guess I'll just muddle through. I rolled my calf and stretched after the run and it felt much better. It's also can't be too bad as I don't get that first-step pain in the morning. Here's hoping it will just go away.

hip bursitis? plantar fasciitis?

I (perhaps unwisely) did a shakeout 2 miles yesterday afternoon. I felt like I was banging on my right heel from the get go in my feelmax shoes, but I persisted. This morning I did 8 very easy and I don't think I really noticed it, but walking around today I can feel the tugging under my right foot. Uh oh. I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. I had a couple of PF scares that turned out to be nothing, so here's hoping this is more of the same.

My hip has continued to bother me. The pain is pretty local and right on the point of my hip. I've felt all along like it was "in there" and now I'm started to think it's just bursitis. Looking at drawings, it's in exactly the right place. It sounds like a cortisone shot is the real cure if that's the case. Not sure I want to go to the doc though. Maybe ice and vitamin I will get the inflammation down?

week of 8 March - Recovery / 8k race

Mo - Easy 7.84 1:09:06 8:49
Tu AM - Moderate 8.02 1:03:21 7:54
Tu PM Recovery 2.70 0:25:00 9:16 -- hotel treadmill alternate 4' flat/2' @ 2.5 deg
We - Recovery 6.50 1:00:04 9:14 -- hotel treadmill alternate 4' flat/2' @ 2.5 deg
Th - Easy/Moderate 8.00 1:09:59 8:45 -- hotel treadmill alternate 4' flat/2' @ 2.5 deg
Fr - Easy 6.38 0:58:24 9:09
Sa - Drills 4.56 0:43:05 9:27
Su AM - 16:56 warmup, 8k race in 32:07, 7:37 cooldown
Su PM - Recovery 2.08 0:19:38 9:26

Week - 53.70 7:45:14 8:40

Had to travel for work which disrupted things and then I tapered Friday and Saturday for the race on Sunday.

32:07 8k

Ran way better than I thought I would. I went out like a bat out of hell and it felt easy (Garmin said 6:04 pace) and I backed off when I saw >190 on the HRM which didn't match how I felt. Then I saw 238 bpm and knew it was screwed up. I hit the first mile marker at 6:29/189 (HR not right), I passed very fast female runner (low 18s for 5k) in the second mile -- 6:30/187, I concentrated on not gooning up the middle miles and ran 6:25 for the third mile. I hit the 5k split at 19:59 on my watch and thought I'd only have to drop 4 seconds in the last 2 miles. I thought I picked it up, but the next split was 6:30, so I needed to make up 9 seconds to get a PR. I gave it what I have, but realized I was probably come up short. A woman came up and passed on the last straightaway, but I came back even and sprinted in ahead of her. Last split was 6:12 (6:23 pace). Watch said 32:04 -- 9 seconds short of a PR. The results said 20:03/32:07 compared to 19:59/20:04 on my watch, so I think it didn't register me crossing the second mat at the start.

• 06:29 1.01 6:29 6:25 189 (94%) -- HRM messed up
• 12:59 2.03 6:30 6:22 187 (93%)
• 19:24 3.05 6:25 6:17 189 (95%)
• 25:53 4.06 6:30 6:26 189 (94%)
• 32:04 5.06 6:12 6:15 188 (94%) -- 6:23 pace

I felt like I had a spring in my step and my legs felt great even afterwards. I think the drills have helped with my form. My legs didn't give out, but I was sucking wind. My form got kind of off in miles 3 and 4 and I think I corrected it some in the last mile. I was starting to lean back and get my legs in front of me, I think.

Racing again

I'm signed up for my usual St Patrick's Day 8k this Sunday and the Cherry Blossom ten miler on 11 April. Fenty has had some political troubles lately and I'm hoping it has affected his training. Given his 30:10 and 62:59 last year, that's the only way I have a chance.

week of 1 March

Mo - 7.81 @ 8:53 easy
Tu AM 8.00 @ 8:11 - moderate, work route
Tu PM 2.08 @ 9:17 in feelmax
We AM 9.38 @ 9:02 easy
We PM 2.08 @ 9:06 in feelmax
Th AM 8.00 @ 9:08 - MAF test on treadmill (see below)
Th PM 2.31 @ 9:32
Fr - 7.16 @ 9:20 - included Pete Magill drills
Sa - 13.30 @ 8:15 - moderate, home hilly
Su - 7.33 @ 9:04 - jog; 153 (wrong), 130, 129, 134, 134, 140 (uphill), 137, 137

This Week: 67.46 9:55:55 8:50

Nice. 10 hours is what I'd like to shoot for.

Soleus on both legs was sore on Wed, Th, and Fr. Wasn't sure about the Pete Magill drills but I did them and was fine. I did just as in the video. I did about 4 miles jogging, 4 x 40y strides, then 40y skipping, 40y high skipping, 40y high knees, 40y butt kicks, 20y marches, 10y foot shuffles. I took off my shoes and did 4 x 40y strides on the astroturf after and that felt great. Jogged about 2 miles back for 7.16 total.

Did a MAF test on the 'mill on Thursday.

Time          Distance   Split pace   Avg. HR
0:04:49      0.48        10:02            125
0:09:45      1.00        9:29              132
0:14:19      1.50        9:08              135
0:18:43      2.00        8:49              137
0:27:42      3.05        8:33              142
0:35:59      4.00        8:44              143
0:44:49      5.00        8:50              142
0:53:43      6.00        8:54              142
1:02:51      7.00        9:07              142
1:07:50      7.50        9:58              137
1:13:04      8.00      10:30               133

It seems like the heat built on my me as I had a lot more drift than on my run in FL last week that was essentially the same heart rate. Still it's not a terrible place to start from.

week of 22 February

Getting behind...

• Mo - 7.85 @ 9:15
• Tu - 7.83 @ 8:30
• We - 7.85 @ 8:50 -- tortuous day travelling to FL (wx in ATL)
• Th - 8.00 @ 8:19 -- flat course in Florida (28 degrees in FL?!)
• Fr - 7.90 @ 8:56 -- tortuous day traveling back (25 mph winds, gusting to 50 @ DCA)
• Sa AM - 5.11 @ 9:39 -- felt like crap, ran easy
• Sa PM - 2.09 @ 9:32 -- feelmax shoes
• Su - 12.19 @ 8:21 -- moderate, HRs in mid-150s

This Week: 58.83 @ 8:47

The word for the week is "hills." The snow drove me and every runner to the same road. All the 7.85-7.90 run are on the same route. The 12.19 route is the same with some (very hilly) additions. The weird thing is my knee started bothering me after running at 0 degrees on the treadmill for a couple of weeks. The steeper the hills, the better my knee feels. I didn't charge the hills, but I didn't shy away either, so I pushed my HR up a little on the uphills, and rested a bit on the downs.

This was the "no plan" plan and I liked it. If I felt good, I'd run faster (Tu/Th) and then run slowly until I felt better. The moderate run on Sunday just felt right. I'm not doing any "quality" and some might consider the moderate runs "junk" (not slow enough and not fast enough), but I can feel myself getting stronger. Running on the flat ground in Florida was fun. Splits were

Time Distance Split pace Avg. HR
0:09:01 1.00 9:01 160 (80%)
0:17:30 2.00 8:29 131 (65%)
0:25:48 3.00 8:19 135 (67%)
0:34:02 4.00 8:14 140 (70%)
0:42:13 5.00 8:11 141 (71%)
0:50:25 6.00 8:13 143 (71%)
0:58:32 6.99 8:09 142 (71%)
1:06:29 7.99 7:56 145 (72%)
1:06:32 8.00 9:16 126 (63%)

First is obviously a bogus HR. It was nice to see that 7:56 @ 145.

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.

week of 25 January

53.8 miles in 9 runs
YTD runs: 43 in 31 days

M - Fr - The usual with Mr. Tweaky (my knee) getting tweakier by the day.

Sa - Poor planning led to me missing my morning run and I took it as a sign just to give the knee a day off.

Su - 10 miles on the treadmill after an hour and a half of debating whether to run in the 6 inches of fresh snow. No knee tweaks at all until walking in the snow later. Doh!

magneto loop PR

"A magneto loop is what Dave Gordon called any loop that you could do in your sleep. Everyone has them, everyone has a different name for them."

My 8.0 work route is my magneto loop and I just cruised today. I think I was motivated by being late, but I ran it at 8:12 pace. My avg HR wasn't crazy though -- 143 bpm . I even had a nice downhill mile in 7:37. Fun.

It feels like it's improved form that's helping me. I'm running taller, which tilts my pelvis back and gets it out of the way of my legs. I believe (hope, really) that I'm strengthening the right muscles just by consciously running this way. The barefoot thing might be contributing as well. I also have more snap in my legs, which I attribute to not doing any long runs. I'm inclined to just go on this way for a while and see where it goes.

week of 18 January

Total: 61.9 in 11 runs
Year run total: 34 in 24 days

Over 60 miles and my longest run was 9.0. With 11 runs it feels like cheating.

On the barefoot experiment, it's not going well but not perfect. Mr. Tweaky (my knee) still likes to tweak, especially in the first few minutes. I have to work up very, very slowly to keep him at bay and slow down gradually as well. This isn't any different than outside in shoes.

I've really been concentrating on my form and it's forced me to pick up the pace (and effort) a little. It doesn't seem like I can't run as slowly when trying to run tall, make circles, etc.

I ran in Dayton on Thursday morning on a path cover in lots of black ice and a good bit of win. Very tedious.

8 miles and oatmeal

I love a good rut. I probably ordered a "dress one side" from Juniors a couple hundred times in college ($2.63 for a hamburger, a giant mound of fries, and a coke -- refills $0.25 and $0.25 for a chocolate chip cookie).

The rut of the day is slightly healthier: 8 miles and oatmeal. I've run the same route at work 10 times in the last month and have worked my way down from 1:18 to 1:08 (admittedly at a higher heart rate) and it feels great. I get back, stretch, take a shower, and pop in the cafeteria for a cup of oatmeal. At $1.44, it brings me back to Junior's.

week of 11 January -- reached base camp

Total: 57.3 Mi in 9 runs
YTD run total: 23 in 17 days

Feels like I've reached basecamp with 4 consecutive weeks in the 50s. My injury is improving so I'm getting some miles in while headed in the right direction.

I'm focusing a lot on form for the last couple of weeks. I try to think of just one cue at a time. One run I'll concentrate on "floppy feet" -- keeping my feet relaxed. On another, I'll think about "feet in a circle." The most important seems to RUN TALL.

My pace has been improving for the last few weeks.



The big bump in the middle is snow induced.

week of 4 January

Mo - Rest
Tu - 5.40 on sidewalks 47:43 @ 8:50; threw some strides in
We - 9.39 on sidewalks 1:30:06 @ 9:36
Th AM 8.02 on sidewalks 1:17:23 @ 9:39
Th PM 2.11 on treadmill, 21:01 @ 9:58 -- 6' barefoot (socks)
Fr AM 8.02 on sidewalks 1:25:15 @ 10:38 -- ran in about 1'' of fresh snow. great run
Fr PM 2.25 on treadmill 22:00 @ 9:47 -- 10' barefoot
Sa AM 7.50 on sidewalks, trail, and bikepath 1:15:58 @ 10:08 -- still about 1'' of snow
Sa PM 2.06 on treadmill 20:00 @ 9:43 -- all barefoot
Su AM 9.07 on trail 1:22:54 @ 9:09 -- good bit of snow and snow-covered iced
Su PM 2.08 on treadmill 20:00 @ 9:37 -- barefoot

10 runs, 55.89 miles 9:02:20 @ 9:42
56' barefoot
Runs in 2010: 14 (in 10 days -- puttin' a hurtin' on the 365 goal)

Did the barefoot expirment. It went very well. I felt much more confident in my knee barefoot that with shoes (especially on the treadmill). No pain at all (very unusual for a run) Th and Fr. I had one twinge on each of the Sa and Su runs. It seemed to happen when I started to drift on the belt and recentered myself.

Felt really good this week. It seems as if I've adjusted after 3 weeks of 50+. I'm still not better, but am headed that way.

6 minutes barefoot

Parents gave me Born to Run for Christmas and I did a little barefoot running tonight. I'm trendy. Sue me.

I did 15' in my Frees on the treadmill and my knee was killing me. There's something about the absolute flatness and relentless steady pace that gets my knee in just the right position for pain. I generally lean forward and hold on to my back kick (I think I maintain contact a little longer and extend my hips but I probably just look goofy) when that happens and it seems to relieve it.

I tried kicking off my shoes and boy did it feel weird. I thought I could "feel" the road in my Frees. Not even close. The treadmill felt totally different. I could feel the sink of the deck when my foot landed. I had this sensation that it was inclined while I was running. It took a second to realize that it must be because my foot was no longer de-clined by my heel. My knee didn't hurt at all and I felt a little side-to-side bob in my form. I also had a barely audible slap with my right foot. It's the one that points out. The left one hits outer edge first and pronates like you see on the slo-mo movies, but I think the right one hits ball first and slaps the outer edge down. Anyway, it was just 6 minutes so hopefully I didn't hurt anything for the learning experience. If I'm not too sore tomorrow, I'll try 10' next time.

Why am I so sore?

I didn't run at all on Monday and then only 5 miles at lunch Tuesday. (I had to get my cholesterol rechecked Tuesday morning because my muscle enzymes were high at my pre-Christmas check up and I was told to get it rechecked without any strenuous exercise for two days before.)

Imagine my surprise when I was incredibly sore on this morning's run. What the hell? I slogged through my 9.3 glad for it to be over. What happened? Here are my theories in order of decreasing likelihood.

• My legs felt really strong and I felt great when I ran on Tuesday at lunch. It was only 5 miles and I went a little faster than my recent runs (8:51, 9:11, 8:31, 9:09, 8:35 splits) but with a few strides in there, but nothing crazy. Maybe I ran too hard on Tuesday and that's my problem.
• I haven't done the foam roller for a couple of days. Tsk. Tsk. Need to get on the ball.
• I didn't get much sleep. Had to stay up to watch GT punt the orange bowl and got to sleep after midnight. Followed by multiple dog-woke-me episodes before the 5:30 am alarm that said "runnin' time!" Still, I've had nice runs a near coma before.
• I've always seemed to have trouble recovering from even the smallest thing. My coach would throw in something like 3 x 10'' stair bounds at the end of an easy run and I'd be sore the next day. Back in May she suggested I had my Vitamin D checked. I forgot to ask my doc at the physical but I finally remembered when I had my blood checked before Christmas. Came back at "20" (the didn't give units on the phone), which is low normal. Normal range is 20-100. (Don't you love how 20 is normal and 19 is not normal?) Anyway, doc say take 800 IUs/day. Maybe Vit D is part of my problem?
  
• For another chemical possibility, what about this cholesterol medication I'm on? Isn't muscle soreness a side effect? (Which is I get these tests.) First I was on lipitor for a month (pre-running) and was immediately taken off that after my first blood test (liver function high). Then I was on zetia (not a statin), but that didn't do enough. Then I was on crestor (zetia + zocor). There was some flap in the news about crestor and now I'm on pravacol. I'm wondering if that has to do with me flunking the muscle enzyme test. I flunked in June as well, but was too lazy to get it rechecked becuase I'd done a pretty hard long run the day before and assumed that was it. This time though I did a super gentle 8 miler that morning. I used to do that all the time before these tests and not trip the meter. The only time I "failed" before was the day after a half marathon. Even if the pravacol is causing some damage, but not enough to be out of the normal range without the extra kick of running, then that's no good either right? If the latest bloodtest is high I'm think about getting off these things all together and asking the doc for a chance to be a good boy and see if a strict diet can't get me low enough. Frankly I doubt it as I maxed out at 296 total cholesterol. (My dad hit 319!)

week of 28 December

Mo - 4.87 treadmill 46:28 9:33
Tu - Rest; drove back from ATL
We AM - 10.33 work route 1:37:55 9:29
Th AM -6.00 Treadmill 57:20 9:33
Th PM 4.54 lake B lap 0:41:34 9:09; ran with friends
Fr - 7.86 new route with CCT 1:14:56 9:32
Sa 11:30 AM - 6.00 Treadmill 56:48 9:28
Sa PM - 2.50 Treadmill 24:17 9:43
Su - 9.12 lake B two laps 1:21:44 8:58; ran with friends

This Week - 51.21 in 8 runs. 8:01:02 @ 9:24
Runs in 2010 - 4

I finished most of the runs (except those with friends) with some kind of pseudo fartlek for the last 0.5-1.0 miles. Threw some strides in, charged some hills, and picked up the pace. I wanted to finish the runs not feeling too tight. I continued to be religious in stretching after every run. I didn't used the foam roller and trigger points tools (like the ball on the glute) quite as much but I might have overdoing that before.

I tried some very steep (7 deg) treadmill stints and tweaked my knee a little. The hip seems to be improving day by day. My calf (the medial part just below where the calf gets bigger) was very tight at the start of my Sunday run. The calf seem to be coupled with my knee trouble although it might have just been a coincidence since my knee always bothers me at the beginning of a run.

The 24-minute run was interesting. I think I probably should have actually cut off at 20 minutes. For some reason there seems to be a big difference between 20 minutes and 30 minutes for me on a second run. Of course you have to wonder whether 20 is even worth it or if 30 would be OK if I did less in the morning. I think the 20' is worth something. The problem is the extra time just to get in the run (shower, stretch, etc.). One frivolous thing I do is use the garmin with HRM. Really, why can't I just hop on a treadmill without measuring everything.

2009 rambings

1/25 - Carlsbad HM - 1:29:48
3/15 - St. Patrick's day 8k - 31:55
4/6 - Cherry Blossom 10M - 66:43
4/20 - Boston Marathon - 3:19:01
5/16 - Atoms 5k - 20:23
6/13 - Lawyers Have Heart 10k - 43:36
7/18 - Twilighter 8k - 33:47
9/27 - Dash for Dad 10k - 42:13
10/18 - Home Run 10k - 41:47

Things started out great with a sub-1:30 HM in January, then a 31:55 8k, and finally a 66:43 10 miler in April. The wheels were starting to come off then and I had a somewhat disappointing 3:19 at Boston (note that the 10-miler was my goal race, so I wasn't that disappointed). I took a very luxurious recovery time after Boston and then set my sights on a sub-40 10k for the fall, which I thought was doable based on my 10-mile time.

I picked up an injury at the beginning of July that I never quite shook. I ran my scheduled mileage up until November when I finally cried uncle and tried to heal. (Note that the November bar would be about twice as big if this were time instead of miles because of XT.)

What would I do differently? Well, instead of resting a lot I think I'd substitute a lot of jogging after Boston in my recovery. When I encounter my injury in July, I should have just taken a solid week off and done a lot more foam rollering than I did. Mainly I should listen to my body better. I also have to say that I'd have run more "junk" miles. I just think I thrive on mileage. Part of that is just weight management. I was probably ~4 lbs heavier in the fall, but I think it's more than that. There's also the fact that I just like to run.

Yearly mileage totals and races since I started running for good on 2 Jan 2005. Months are in parentheses.

2005 - 1224
10M - 1:24:49 (4), 20M - 3:06:27 (9), M - 4:49:21 (10), 10k - 50:17 (11), 5M - 38:56 (11)
2006 - 2589
M - 4:17:03 (3), 10M - 1:19:25 (4), M - 4:00:03 (5), HM - 1:40:08 (10), M - 3:56:14 (10), M - 3:43:16 (11), 5k - 21:23 (12)
2007 - 2640
5M - 34:20 (1), 1:09:49 (4), M - 3:24:15 (5), 5k - 20:32 (5), HM - 1:33:29 (9), M - 3:27:34 (10), 5k - 20:35 (12)
2008 - 3180
8k - 32:45 (3), 10M - 1:08:49 (4), M - 3:21:50 (5), 5k - 19:49 (5), M - 3:15:22 (11), 5k - 20:15 (12)
2009 - 2303 + 41h59' XT * HM - 1:29:48 (1), 8k - 31:55 (3), 10M - 1:06:43 (4), M - 3:19:01 (4), 10k - 41:47 (10)

I've also added a chart for my weight above. I gained weight all year. Lost a good bit in November (aided by stress and lunch time workouts) and then gained a lot of it back in December (aided by holiday candy). I'm hoping that recent point (first since getting back form Christmas) is just an outlier.

Goals for 2010? Who knows. I want to run more because I like running so that means listening to my body and not getting injured. I hope to set more PRs. I crossed a lot off what I thought were reasonable lifetime goals (sub-20 5k, BQ, sub-1:30 HM), but I still want to break 40 by 40, so that gives me 18 months. I don't have any 10ks picked out though and it will probably stay that way. I think this could be the year an ultra. I also think I should be doubling more -- gets in the mileage and doesn't tear you up.

Here are some concrete goals: 2800 miles, 365 runs, run a new distance, and PR at a distance I've run before.

week of 21 December

Mo - "Rest" (drove to Atlanta for xmas)
Tu - 9.64, 1:34:41, 9:49
We - 10.00, 1:43:07, 10:19
Th am - 9.81, 1:33:48, 9:33
Th pm - 3.11, 32:20, 10:23
Fr - 3.22, 30:35, 9:30; Snuck in between unwrapping and lunch. Victory!
Sa - 8.75 1:21:50 9:21; hilly road. Felt faster today.
Su - 8.10, 1:20:00, 9:53; Time (and pace) a guess. Garmin out of juice and no watch.

Total - 52.65, 8:36:21, 9:48

Short, slow strides and picking it up -- At the end of all the runs I ran 3 or 4 strides. These were barely strides though. I just picked it up over 30 meters or so (sometimes longer). By mid-week that turned into running the last half-mile or so faster. I think this was good to get me out of the shuffling funk and I think had something to do with running faster on Saturday. I did notice that my shins were getting tight by the end of the week and I believe that was because of the strides. On Monday I didn't do any.

I'm curious to see how far I can get on slow running combined with strides and a sprinkling of fartlek. My guess is "pretty far."

My injury still lingers. My piriformis was considerably better but creeped back up when I stopped rolling my butt on the ball. I'm back on that and it's under control. The groin is the big trouble now. The knee is its usual self. I'm wondering if that has some structural problem that can only be overcome by a surgeon. I hope not.

I think I've made progress, but I realize that if I went back to the volumne and intensity that I had been doing I wouldn't be any better off, so am I better or just avoiding what hurts? In any case, I'm running now, which is good. The pain can linger if it wants as long as I'm not doing further damage.

Cherry Blossom 2010

I was very happy to get in the Cherry Blossom 10 miler, which had a lottery for the first time this year. I've run an April ten miler every year since I started running in 2005 (GW parkway 10 miler in '05 and CB since), so it's been my annual fitness test. The results? 1:24:49, 1:19:25, 1:09:49, 1:08:49, and 1:06:43. Even getting below 70 minuts isn't going to be easy for me this year. The basic plan is to rebuild mileage and stay healthy.

week of 14 December

Mo - 79' running (7.5 miles); 40' out and 39' back
Tu - 78' run 8-mile work loop
We - 76' run 8-mile work loop
Th - 76' run 8-mile work loop; just a little fatigued last mile
Fr - 51' run 5.3-mile work loop mid-day; tired. very easy. 3 x ~30m a little faster w/equal rest
Sa - 41' treadmill 4.0
Su - 26' treadmill 2.5

Total 7h08' with 43.3 miles

ART on Mon and Wed.

Discovered that if I swing my leg from 1:00 to 7:00 (on a clock face) at stop lights I can stretch my groin and piriformis and stop the painful, knee-tweaking transition from walking to running after I stop.

I sped up over Tu through Th over the same course without trying. I really didn't even look at my watch until I was done.

Interesting to see how fatigue accumulated over 4 days at the same distance. I cut back on the Friday to recover. Maybe I should have taken even more rest? I'm enjoying this feeling my way through things. On my run Friday, I thought about what the base of the training pyramid should be. Obviously there's easy mileage, but (now this sounds cliche) recovery and injury prevention (stretching, core strength) is below that -- can't run if you're hurt. On top of easy mileage I'd put drills and strides (and maybe hills -- could be considered core strength also). For a creaky old guy like me, it's important to get those legs used to turning over. Only after all of that I would just start to consider tempo pace and then faster stuff (e.g., 5k intervals).

I spent hours and hours (seriously) shoveling snow on Saturday and Sunday. My back hurt, my head hurt, and I didn't much feel like running plus I was afraid I'd mess myself up running with my sore back.

week of 7 December

Mo - 40' run/walk am (125 AHR), 40' elliptical mid-day; 4' @ 5.5, 1' @ 3.0. The old knee problem is coming back. One hoped-for fringe benefit of this injury isn't coming to pass.

Tu - 40' run/walk am (129 AHR), 40' elliptical mid-day; 5.5 mph like monday but only ~5 x 1' walking.

We - 40' elliptical + 40' run/walk (129 AHR) am; 5.5 mph with ~4 x 1' walk breaks. Walks were faster. 3.9 mph

Th - 42' run (10:20) am, 39' elliptical mid-day

Fr -51' run (9:40 pace, 5.3-mile work loop) + 30' elliptical; ran outside and felt pretty good. elliptical'd immediately after running

Sa - 84' run; good old lake route for 8.5 miles. Minimal damage.

Su - 60' elliptical + 20' treadmill; 5.7 mph was ~137bpm

Total: 5h18' running (30.3 miles, 10:28 avg pace, 136 bpm AHR) + 4h09' elliptical (133 bpm AHR)

Notes

Since the 5k on Saturday, I've had a hamstring/adductor strain (kinda in between). It's more of a muscle strain and not the dull, deep ache along my inner thigh that I associate with the osteitis pubis. Starting Monday and definitely on Tuesday I had less of the tightness/pain between my abs and quad to the left of the pubic bone. Butt/hip pain is more confined. The pain seems to be retreating along the path it came in.

ART on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

I haven't mentioned it, but all the ellipticals have include 4-5 x 1' in reverse. This was pretty hard at first, but has become quite easy. Hopefully I've strengthened something that needed strengthening.

I've been doing lat pulls and pushups as well as brief static stretching after ellipticalling. I'm working my way up to 1 pullup! I started at 3-4 x 130# and did 9 x 130# on Monday. I upped the weight to 145 on Tuesday and did 5 x 145.

I'm pretty bummed by knee problem has come back. I think my knee might just be defective. My other thought is that maybe I need to work on massaging/stretching my quads. My trigger point stuff came on Tuesday. Not sure whether it's helpful or quackery. I'm leaning towards helpful, but the DVD tries its best to make it look like quackery.

stop sending me race pictures, please

All the race photo holiday spam didn't bother me as much when I was running.

I kinda like this picture because I'm ahead of the guy in the Boston shirt. I actually ran this as a workout. No, I seriously did. (5 @ MP + alternate miles at 10M and MP.) Finished in 1:32 something. Ah, the old days.

week of 30 Nov

361' elliptical + 75' stationary bike + 69' running = 8h25' total

Mo - 65' elliptical + 15' stationary bike; Had to get up to 77 rpm on elliptical to hit 140bpm. ART at lunchtime.

Tu - 55' elliptical + 10' run on tm @ 6mph + 15' bike; butt hurt badly on run, between ab and leg (left of pubic bone) hurt but didn't run down inner thigh (improvement?); Hit 156bpm at end of run. Ugh I'm out of shape (~30 bpm too high!); elliptical rpms back post-run routine from Pete MacGill's blog -- static stretching, Clif bar, and ice. Because of logistics, my clif bar and ice comes after a shower, so not within 15 minutes. I've did the lunge matrix probably 5 times and the myrtle girdle probably 3. I also had 3 ART sessions.

Saturday's business (5k, new dog, pick up basketball equipment, take daughter to music lessons, ...) sunk my plans for 10 hours.

I noticed a pattern over the week. My elliptical hr was better on Monday. I think the poolrunning was easy over the weekend and I was rested. My hr then degraded until Friday after I cut back on Th and improved again on Sunday after the light day on Saturday.

It's a serious bummer that my run/walk program is what I told my 11 year old boy to do when he wanted to practice for the 5k. One foot in front of the other...

one mile, slow

55' elliptical
10' running at 6mph on treadmill
15' stationary bike

Butt still hurts like hell, but it isn't radiating down my inner thigh anymore, so improvement I guess. Saw the chiro yesterday. Her theory is that tight adductors are puling on my pelvis (pubic bone area) and causing the problem. Not having the adductors involved today might be a good sign. It's amazing how hard 10min/mi was. I've been XTing pretty seriously, but my heart rate was 156 bpm! I should be about 30 beats less at that pace. It's amazing how quickly you lose it. The good news is that I've kept my weight in check.

last three weeks

week of 9 November - 4h20' (no running)

Mo - 30' stationary bike
Tu - 30' stationary bike
We - 30' stationary bike + general strength circuit; left my groin sore -- mistake
Th - 15' elliptical + 5' stationary bike (recovering from We)
Fr - rest (still recovering)
Sa - 2h'00' poolrunning; poolrunning is strange; wicked calf cramps off and on in last 30'
Su - 30' elliptical (limited time)

week of 16 November - 3h06' (ran 5 miles, 49')

Mo - 30' elliptical
Tu - 49' run (9:37); stressed out and needed run. Painful. Bad idea.
We - 45' elliptical; included 6 x 2' @80rpm, 2' @70rpm
Th - 60' elliptical; included 8 x 2' @80rpm, 2' @70rpm
Fr - 0; no time
Sa - 0; same as Fr
Su - 0; same as Fr

week of 23 November - 8h51' (no running)

Mo - 60'
Mo - 60' elliptical + 15' bike; steady ~75rpm
Tu - 36'47'' 3 mile run on grass with daughter at GotR; butt painful from start, groin joined in at 0.5 miles
We - 60' elliptical including 4x1' in reverse (10' in between); sore from run
Th - same on We; not sore
Fr - same as We
Sa 3pm - 81' poolrunning; life in way, late start and pool close before 2 hours
Su 10am - 81' poolrunning; planning 90, but right hip and legs got weak after 75' and I cut short

I've settled into a good rut. My goal is to get in 10 hours a week with poolrunning on the weekend when possible. I'm doing a 5k with my daughter on Saturday, so that's my first test. It's probably not wise to jump into 3 miles, but I have to run with my little girl. After that the plan is to sub running on a treadmill (maybe 15') for part of the elliptical time and see how that goes.

In addition to above I probably did the myrtle girdle and lunge matrix routines 5 times this week after work. I've also been doing static stretches after I exercise and 4-6 x 130# lat pull and 25 pushups immediately following exercise. I've also been icing frequently. You know that stuff your supposed to do.

please not Plantar Fasciitis, too

Well, I've run 8 miles total since the MRI. I ran 5 miles out of frustration two week ago and then 3 miles @12:15 with my daughter for Girls on the Run. Even 3 miles in 36:47 on grass was painful. Ugh. I accepted that it's going to be a long run back.

It was somewhat liberating and I formed the seeds of a plan in my head. After a week of non-weight-bearing activity (bike and pool), I've been able to use the elliptical. The last three days, I fell into 60' elliptical + 15' bike followed by some static stretching. At night I do the Myrtle girtle and lunge matrix routines. I figured a long run of 2 hrs in the pool on the weekend and another 75' pool run and I could start to work up to the 10-11 hrs/week I think is magic for me.

Well, today on day 3 of the elliptical/bike program, I felt a sharp twinge in my left arch. Please, please don't let this be PF. I suffered 18 months of that before. I'm icing it as I write and am about to pop some Vitamin I. I'll poolrun for the next two days. I'm also going to start wearing my Nike Frees on the elliptical. Even my Wave Precisions which are light for a trainer are stiff enough to create a long lever arm and create stress across the bottom of my foot. I think the flexible Frees should help.

On the good news front, I've dropped a couple of pounds in the last few weeks.

week of 2 November -- osteitis pubis

MPW 62 -- did 44 miles + 45' stationary bike

Monday, Nov 2

XT 45 min moderate including GS Circuit

45' elliptical + GS circuit. I assume the 45' means actual time on the elliptical, because this takes about 70' total.

Tuesday, Nov 3

7-8 mile easy run w/7-10x run up bleachers and 2 min @ 3k effort

Butt/hip/groin still hurts. Appt with orthopedist in the afternoon. Did 8.0 @ 9:09. Skipped the bleachers and 3k.

PM: Ortho write me a prescription for Relafen (NSAID) and an MRI to make sure it isn't a femoral stress fracture.

Wednesday, Nov 4

AM: 10-11 mile total moderate run including 30 min progression run. Start out @ marathon effort and finish the last 5 min slightly harder than 10k effort. Full recovery then 10 x 400m @ 3k effort w/1 min jog recoveries

Still have pain, but not quite as bad.

Progression went OK: 7:08/159 max, 6:57/169 max, 6:46/174 max, 3:18/ 175 max (800m), 4:52/181 max (1200m - 6:32 pace). I'm ~7:00 at below MP HR, but running faster is awkward. I don't seem to have another gear.

10x400 The first two 400s were 94 sec and I strained my right hamstring digging on the second. I just tried to run "fast" and relaxed after that. They were 96-97 each, but my butt grabbed me on number 7 and I stopped.

PM: 4 mile moderate including GS Circuit – run 30 sec strides @ 5k effort for all segments on circuit that state run xx

This was a real grit-your-teeth run. My left knee is now the most painful thing! It's very hard to start after stopping. It's quite painful if I try to support my weight on my left knee when it's at a certain angle (~160 deg). I can feel groin each footfall. I managed a speedy 11:03 per mile

I did the GS circuit at the playground and of course the cop rolls through the parking lot with his flash light while I'm doing squat thrusts. It's never when I'm doing pushups!

Thursday, Nov 5

5 mile jog

I tried to run with as little impact as possible. Knee stinks. Kills me after I have to stop at stop lights. 5.1 @ 10:05 pace.

Friday, Nov 6

8 mile moderate run including 7-10 x 45 sec hills @ 3k effort w/easy jog down rests

8.0. Forgot my garmin but same route as Tuesday. I'm guessing around 9:30 pace. Wasn't horrific, but the knee is bad and the hip/groin is still definitely bothering me.

Saturday, Nov 7

8-10 mile easy run w/8 strides

Got an MRI at 8:15. Ran on the treadmill b/c I was waiting for someone to drop my son off.

Things were going OK and then I thought the doorbell rang. Starting back up was brutal on the knee. My HR was way, way high for the pace. 8.0 @ 9:40. I slowed as my HR rose above 145. I was at 10:30 by the end. Usually I'm at 130 bpm at 9:30-9:45 pace. Not sure what's wrong.

Sunday, Nov 8 -time trial/HR max

14-16 mile total moderate run including 5 strides then 2400m time trial and HR max test. Please report your time for the 2400m. Start out relaxed and increase your pace 1-2 sec’s every other lap. Full recovery then 4 x 2 min @ 5k effort w/1 min jog rests. Full recovery then 3 x 100m cutdowns

Guess I'm hurt. Did 45' w/ 40' on the bike and maybe 5' on the elliptical (not a good idea)

week of 26 October

MPW 61 -- did 60.8 + 90' elliptcal

Monday, Oct 26

rest

Flew to St Louis for 5 days of meetings. Ugh.

Tuesday, Oct 27

8-10 mile total moderate run including 10 strides

10.0 @ 8:41 on hotel treadmill.

Wednesday, Oct 28

10-12 mile total moderate run including 10 min @ LT effort. Full recovery then jello maker hills: 8 x 70 sec hills @ mile effort w/easy jog down rests

10.8 @ 8:52. 5 minutes into the LT, the circuit breaker tripped and 3 treadmills lost power (I didn't think it liked mine on 9 mph!). I got another one after ~5 minutes when somebody was finished, but did the next 5 minutes at 5 deg and a lower speed to avoid disabling the other 3 treadmills. Did the hills as 70' at 8.0 deg with equal rest.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

30' + gen strength circuit. I was able to do a pullup! I've been doing 4 x 150 lb on the lat pull and have worked my way up to a single pullup.

Thursday, Oct 29

5-6 mile easy run

6 @ 9:13 on treadmill.

Friday, Oct 30

10 mile easy run w/5-10x run up bleachers

10 @ 9:19 on treadmill. Did 5 "bleachers" of sort. ~15-20 secs on 10.0 deg incline

PM: 30 min XT moderate

Stopped at work gym on way home from airport (aren't I dedicated?). Did the GS circuit again w/ 26' on elliptical and 4' on stationary (elliptical occupied).

Saturday, Oct 31

7-9 mile easy run

8.6 @ 9:01 on my lake route. This was on the harder side of easy maybe (slow pace, but pretty tough route).

Sunday, Nov 1

15-16 miles total moderate including 2 x 15 min @ LT effort w/3 min jog rests. 5 min jog rest then 5-8 x 45 sec hills @ 3k effort w/1 min jog rests

My hip/butt/groin thing bothered me. Ran on muddy trails in a steady rain, so the pace was slow but the effort was reasonably LTish. My "hip" really grabbed me on the 1st of the hills and I decide to forego the rest. I'm thinking of seeing an orthopedist. This thing hasn't gotten better and looking at my log I've had this since the end of June -- 4 months!

PM: 30 min XT moderate

Drove to work gym on a Sunday (again, aren't I dedicated?) and did 30' on elliptical (no GS since did twice already)

week of 19 October

MPW 58 -- did 57.7 + 60' elliptical

Monday, Oct 19

rest

Tuesday, Oct 20

6 mile easy run

6.0 @ 9:36. Caught my kids' cold. Didn't sleep much. I think the immunity hit from the 10k did me in.

Wednesday, Oct 21

8-10 mile easy run w/5-10x run up bleacher strairs

9.3 @ 9:22. Hardly slept at all. Amazing I got through this. No stairs really around work. Bounded up a couple of steep hills, but I was just lucky to make it through this.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

Being sick, I deferred this.

Thursday, Oct 22

8-10 mile easy run w/5 strides and 2 x 7 min @ HM effort w/1 min jog rests then 10 x 30 sec’s @ 3k effort w/30 sec jog rests then 2 x 7 min @ HM effort w/1 min jog rests

10.2 @ 7:59. Finally slept well. Felt much better.

2.0 to the track. 5 strides on the turf (50 yds each). I did these as 2x1600 w/200m rest since that was very close to the prescription. I did the 10x30 just by time. 1600s were 6:46/169bpm max, 6:39/171 max, 6:41/175, 6:41/176. This is consistent with HM heart rate (or even lower) and these felt pretty easy. Not sure why it's not consistent with my 10ks except maybe I'm hill-challenged (might come with my extra baggage around my waist).

PM, I did the deferred XT from yesterday. I mixed in the general strength circuit with ellptical. 10' elliptical, weights, 5' elliptical, weights, ...., 5' elliptical for 30' elliptical and 55' total time. Quite a workout.

Friday, Oct 23

6 mile easy run

6 @ 9:28

Saturday, Oct 24

8-10 mile moderate run including 5-8 strides

10.0 @ 8:35 over a hilly course. This was a pretty stout moderate run with avg HR splits of 139, 141, 151, 150, 153, 154, 156, 150, and 152

Sunday, Oct 25

14-16 mile total moderate run including 5 strides. Full recovery then 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 min hills @ 10k effort w/1-3 min jog rests.

Did as above except my hill is only 3 minutes long, so I tried to match the total with 1, 2, 6x3, 2, 1. Rest were roughly equal as I jogged to the bottom.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

Did 30' elliptical. I did at the rec center while my son was at swim team. I thought of squeezing in the GS circuit, but 1) not enough time 2) rec center is populated enough that jumping on and off machines isn't easy and 3) it was probably too much for today with 16 in the morning.

I was much about about doing the foam roller this week. My left quad is as hard as a rock compared to my right one for some reason. I think that might have something to do with my recurrent knee trouble.

Home Run 10k elevation profile

Since GPS elevation stinks I used gmap-pedometer to get an elevation profile. Elevation is in meters (because the scale comes out goofy otherwise). This isn't perfect, but it's pretty close to right if you smooth out the noise. The stretch before the turnaround is the toughest, climbing 27 meters in about 800 meters (3.4% grade). That's sounds about right.

week of 12 October

Here's the week. Disappointing race. Perfect weather for me, but I ran a 41:47.

training - week of 2009.10.12

MPW 42 -- did 43.1

Monday, Oct 12

rest

Tuesday, Oct 13

6-7 mile easy to moderate run including 10 strides @ 5k effort

7.2 @ 8:39

Wednesday, Oct 14

8-10 mile total moderate run including 10 x 1 min @ 5k effort w/1 min jog rests

10.0 @ 8:05.

Thursday, Oct 15

4 mile easy run

4 @ 8:50

Friday, Oct 16

4-5 mile easy run including 8 x 20 sec's @5k effort w/1 min jog rests

5.2 @ 8:42. Did GS circuit also.

Saturday, Oct 17

2-3 mile easy run including 8 x 20 sec's @5k effort w/1 min jog rests

3 @ 8:59

Sunday, Oct 18

AM: 10 miles total including 2 min @ LT effort, SNW and Home Run 10k or Rediscovery 10k.

2.5 warmup. 10k in 41:47. 1.9 cooldown.

The course is on some main roads and the footing is good. There are also very few turns -- pretty much just an out and back. The course has some significant climbs. If you believe my garmin, we gained 150ft from 1.75 miles to the 3.1 turnaround.

I felt like I gave it a good effort. 6:23/174 avg bpm, 6:29/184, 6:47/185 (big uphill), 6:29/185 (back down), 6:29/185, 6:39/185, 2:28/186 (0.36). Splits were Garmin. Garmin was 6:34 pace overall. Actual was 6:43, so add 9 secs to each. I'd expect the heart rates to be a little higher, but I ran an even effort and really felt like I had nothing left.

PM 3 mile easy run

3.0 @ 9:51.

my weight -- trending in the wrong direction

I think it is no coincidence that my weight is up as my mileage is down.

week of 6 October

MPW 59 -- 54 miles. Went to my 20th HS reunion this week. I hit the low end of the scheduled mileage on a couple of easy days because of time contraints.

Monday, Oct 5

rest

I had a work conflict on Tues AM, so I did 6.1 @ 9:06 on Mon PM. No bleacher, but used a steep hill.

Tuesday, Oct 6

6-8 mile moderate run on rolling hills including 5 x bound up bleacher stairs, jog down easy

Rest

Wednesday, Oct 7

10-12 mile total moderate run including 8 strides and 7-8x 3 min hills @ 10k effort (not harder)w/ 2 min jog rests. Finish run w/ 3 x 100m cutdowns

11.6 @ 8:40. Did 8x3' hills. Maybe easier than 10k effort? It's hard to tell. Hill was only 3 minutes, so I had to jog 3 minutes back down each time.

I did 30' XT in the PM because I didn't notice it wasn't on the schedule! A healthy effort.

Kept in the 150-155bpm range from 10' on. Did lat pulls because I knew I'm trying to work up to one chip up!

Thursday, Oct 8

5-6 mile easy run

6.1 @ 9:18. I did the GS routine in the PM (w/o the chin ups, of course).

Friday, Oct 9

8-10 mile moderate run on rolling hills including 5-8 x bound up bleacher stairs, jog down easy and run 1 min @ 3k effort

9.9 @ 8:35. Nice moderate run. Bleacher bounds were up a steep grass hill. 8:35 pace includes bounds. Pace was 8:18 for the middle 6 miles.

Saturday, Oct 10

7-9 mile easy run

7.1 @ 8:46. Wanted to do 9, but cut short due to time.

Sunday, Oct 11

13-14 mile moderate run including 5 mile progression run beginning at moderate hard effort for the first mile and increase your effort every mile so the last 1 mile is @ 10k effort. Finish w/5 strides

5-mile progression was on a one-mile gravel loop. The loop has a pretty steep climb (~40 feet on my garmin) in the first 0.25-mile before a nice downhill. Times were 7:56, 7:23, 7:07, 7:02, and 6:51. I felt like I couldn't go any faster on the last one, but my maxHR was only 182.

week of 28 Sept

General Strength 1

Foam Roller Exercises 1-2 x this week

Weights – 1 x this week

-- I need to figure out what to do with this. The weights are too much to do before XT on my big days, but I can't get myself to go to the gym an extra day just for weights.

Core 100 1-2 x week – 100 total reps of ab/back exercises

-- I did the lunge matrix and myrtle routine several times this week, but I didn't get the core 100 done.

22 weeks to Goal Marathon

MPW 56 -- 55.4

Monday, Sept 28

Rest

Tuesday, Sept 29

6 mile easy run

7.0 @ 8:43

Wednesday. Sept 30

8-10 mile moderate run including 10 strides

10.00 in 1:25:01. Like the symmetry. This hilly 10-mile loop in 75' should be my gold standard of moderate runs I think.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

30' elliptical. I tried not to take it as easy as usual and stayed in 135-140 bpm instead on ~130.

Thursday, Oct 1

4-6 mile moderate run on rolling hills including 5 x bound up bleacher stairs, jog down easy

6.3 @ 10:03. Guess I missed the moderate! Seriously I was a little sore and did this pretty easy. The 10:03 includes the time doing the bleacher bounds though. I did the bounds on some very steep steps that are perfect for this.

Friday, Oct 2

8-10 mile moderate run including 5 strides and 3 x 2 min @ 3k effort w/2 min jog rests

Same loop as Wed in 54 more seconds. My butt was sore and I felt like I pulled it some on the second 3k effort.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

30' elliptical. More wimpy than Wednesday. low 130s. Felt a little fried.

Saturday, Oct 3

6-8 mile easy run

Kinda sore and tired, so very easy 6.1 @ 9:29.

Sunday, Oct 4

14-16 mile total moderate run including 10 x (1 min @ 3k effort w/15 sec jog rest then ½ mile @ HM effort then without rest run 30 sec's @ 3k effort w/30-60 sec jog rests between all reps). Finish run w/8 strides.

15.95 @ 7:56. Started off very tired and a little sore, thinking this wasn't going to turn out well, but hey, it was 49 degrees when I went out the door!

5.4 to the track, then did exactly as above. I did the 3k by time and feel and then noted a marker and did 2 laps for each 1/2 mile @ HM. The first was slow but the rest were pretty quick and even. My HRs were pretty low too. I'm surprised this was as easy as it was. 800m segments were 3:36/159 MHR, 3:23/168, 3:23/170, 3:21/174, 3:19/173, 3:23/172, 3:21/176, 3:21/178, 3:20/180, 3:20/180, 3:20/180. Oops, I did 11! I did the strides on the way back, but it was the same as usual. I get stiff/tight when jogging after a hard effort and then tweak my knee on the first stride. I loosened up and half-assed the rest.

I cover 8.98 in 60:09 miles in the workout portion (including HM, 3k, and rest portions) according to the Garmin, which is 6:42 pace. Not bad. It's also 3 sec/mile faster than my Garmin read for 10k last Sunday. This was a track and the race had hills, but still.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

I thought of several excuse for skipping this, but the truth is "DNS due to chafing."

week of 21 Sept

MPW 32 -- 33.2

Monday, Sept 21

rest

Tuesday, Sept 22

7-8 mile moderate run including 10 min @ LT effort, 3 min recovery then 3x 400m @ 5k effort w/1min jog rests then 3x 1200m @ 10k goal pace, 2 min recovery between reps. Finish w/3 x 150m cutdowns

A little sticky and warmish, 67 and 90% humidity, so I wasn't expecting much, but it went well.

2.0 wup to track. 2400 in 9:57 (6:40 pace). 400m jog. 3x400 in 94 (6:18), 97(6:30 -- oops), 94 (6:18) w/ 200m jog. 3x1200 in 4:46 (6:24), 4:48 (6:26), 4:48 (6:26). I was already up to 7.9 miles (and this was supposed to be 7-8 miles?), so I did the 3x150 cutdowns on the way back as 3 x 30sec. Did 1.7 total back (walked the last 0.3) for 9.6 total.

Wednesday. Sept 23

5 mile easy run including 10 x 20 sec's @5k effort w/1 min jog rests

5.0 @ 8:49 as above

Thursday, Sept 24

4 mile easy run including 3 x 100m @ 10k goal pace w/1 min jog rests and 10 x 20 sec's @5k effort w/1 min jog rests

4 @ 9:06 as above

Friday, Sept 25

3 mile easy run including 3 x 100m @ 10k goal pace w/1 min jog rests and 7 x 20 sec's @5k effort w/1 min jog rests

3 @ 8:41 as above

Saturday, Sept 26

2 mile easy run including 5 x 100m @ 10k goal pace w/1 min jog rests and 4 x 20 sec's @5k effort w/1 min jog rests

2.15 @ 8:27. Very hard to squeeze that in 2 miles. Had 3 minute wup and 1 minute cdn and still over 2 miles.

Sunday, Sept 27

8-10 mile total run including 2 min @ LT effort, SNW and 10k race!

2.0 wup.

10k in 42:13. Ugh. Mile markers were screwed up as last year, so I went by Garmin.

6:28/179. Over the overpass and a little downhill (not as much as we went up). My heart rate is fine and I'm thinking "hell, I can do this." There aren't a lot of people in front of me.

6:34/184. This is a straight stretch of road with a constant gradual incline. I thought I was still in it. We turn offroad onto a bike path just before mile 3.

6:57/185. What the hell? The bike path gains a good bit of elevation via some rolling hills and is a bit twisty. When I see my split I think I just gave up.

6:43/184. I thought I picked it up, but I just must have settled in the effort. At the 5k split (I remember the marker on the map) I was ~20:50.

6:54/183. We rejoin the straight stretch of road and retrace our steps going down instead of up. I I've averaged higher hrs for half marathons, but I certainly didn't feel like I was jogging.

6:57/183, 1:36(6:17)/188. Just get home. I finished 17th out of like 600 (lots of walkers). A really slow race up front. I hang out long enough to find out they don't have 5 year age groups (I'd have been 2nd)

1.2 mile cdn.

I'm swearing off the Dash for Dad. Weather was much better than last year, but it was still 65 and 93% humidty (dew pt 63.0) at 8am. Any dew pt over 60 really hurts me. The course is also pretty tough for a 10k. I really wish I'd have switched to yesterday's race. It was about 10 degrees cooler (and drier) and the race is net downhill. The net downhill kept me from signing up as I couldn't in good conscious count it. You lose 100+ feet in the first 1.5 miles. Then you do an out and back on a rolling-but-not-terrible stretch.

week of 14 September

Scheduled MPW 50

Did 49.5 + 30' elliptical

Monday, Sept 14

Rest

Tuesday, Sept 15

6-7 mile easy to moderate run including Antelope Circuit 1 x thru

7.02 @ 9:16 + antelope circuit. I did drill, jog and stride back

Wednesday. Sept 16

8-10 mile total moderate run 10 x 30 sec @ 3k effort w/30 sec jog rests. 5 min jog rest then 2 miles @ 10k goal pace. 5 min jog rest then 10 x 30 sec @ 3k effort w/30 sec jog rests.

9.6 @ 8:19. I was bummed by the return of heat and humidity for my workout day. It was 67 deg and 100% humidity, but this went great. The 2 "miles" @ 10k (3200m) were 6:30/171 and

6:31/181 max 184 bpm.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

In St Louis. 30' on elliptical + weights. I didn't like the precor elliptical. I maxed the resistance and still couldn't get above about 115 bpm at 180 strides/sec.

Thursday, Sept 17

4-5 mile easy run

5 @ 9:26 on the old hotel treadmill.

Friday, Sept 18

7-9 mile easy run w/10 strides @ 5k effort

8.7@9:14 around the lake with strides on the way back.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

I didn't get this done -- forgot to pack any clothes for work.

Saturday, Sept 19

6-7 mile easy run

7.1 @ 9:18 out and back on the road.

Sunday, Sept 20

10-12 mile moderate run including 10 min @ LT effort, 5 min recovery then 4 x 800m @ 5k effort w/2 min jog rests then 1 mile @ 10k goal pace w/2 min jog rest then 3 x 200m @ mile effort w/1 min jog rests. Finish w/5 strides

12.0 @ 8:10. I didn't get much sleep and slept in. Too bad because it was 51 degrees overnight! It still wasn't bad as the humidity was very low -- 54% -- but it was 68 degrees in the middle of my intervals and I was in full sun.

I jogged to the track and there was a soccer game going on and they put their bench on the brand new $400K track! I was really looking forward to my new flats on the new track. Too bad. I headed to the elementary school that has a crushed gravel loop in the field that's about 0.25 miles The surface is bumpy and loose in some places.

I used the laps as a guide for the workout and they ended up agreeing very well with the garmin. Still I think the garmin is probably 5 sec/mile generous, but then again the surface sucked. Anyway, here's how it went (garmin paces)

LT -- 9:54 @ 6:35/168 avg/175 max -- Not bad!

4x800 in 6:15, 6:17, 6:12, 6:16 -- last 800 was 178 bpm avg, 185 max

1 @ 10k in 6:28, 181 bpm avg, 187 max

3x200 @ mile -- just did 3x45s hard. garmin pace unreliable for this

I was very pleasantly surprised with this. My avg hr splits from the 10k in June were 176, 185, 185, 187, 187, 190, 194.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

didn't do

week of 7 Sept

54.5 miles + 30' XT

Mo - rest

Tu - 6.98 @ 8:58 including Antelope Circuit 1 x thru

We - 10-12 mile total moderate run including SNW and 5 x 2k @ efforts below: 400m @ 5k effort then 400m @ 10k effort then 1200m @ LT effort. No rest between pace changes and 2 min jog rests between reps. Finish run w/3 x 200m cutdowns. I only did 4 x 2000m. First three in 95/96/5:04, 96/97/5:05, and 96/99/5:13. Then just did 2000 @LT (8:55) and bailed on the 5th. Basically I went out too fast.

Th - 6.16 @ 9:28

Fr - 9-10 mile moderate run including 10 x 30 sec hills @ 5k effort w/45 sec jog rests
9.84 @ 8:24. Great wx and great run, but I tweaked my left hamstring on the 2nd hill and just did 5. PM: weights and 30' elliptical.

Sa - 8.61 @ 9:20. Tired. Very, very easy run around lake. Knee crummy.

Su - 13-15 mile total moderate run including SNW and 10 x 2 min @ 5k effort w/2min jog rests. Finish w/ 3 x 200m cutdowns. Run over rolling hills (if prefer to run on a track run 10 x 500m @ 5k effort w/2 min jog rests). 13.04 @ 9:17. Very tired. Wanted to quit after two miles from just being tired. My knee was worse too. I did 5x2min @ 5k and didn't feel like more.

week of 31 August

training - week of 2009.08.31

Hills 9

Foam Roller Exercises 1-2 x this week

Weights – 2 x week

Core 100 1-2 x week – 100 total reps of ab/back exercises

3 weeks to goal 10k

MPW 60

Week total: 59.1 miles + 90 min XT

Monday, Aug 31

rest

Tuesday, Sept 1

6-8 mile easy run including 10 x 100m increasing effort strides w/1 min jog rests. Run the first stride @ 5k effort and the last stride @ mile effort.

8.0 @ 8:48. 61 degrees and dry! Wore my new racing flats (Mizuno Ronins). Loved them. Checked out the high school track. Still being resurfaced and under plastic netting so I did my 10x100m strides in the parking lot. Wondering if it will be open to the public when it's done. My HR/pace wasn't as good as I expected with the good weather

PM: went to chiro again

Wednesday. Sept 2

10-12 mile total moderate run including SNW and 12-15x 300m @ 3k effort w/1 min jog rests. Full recovery then 3 x 150m cutdowns.

Glorious weather again. 58 degrees!

Did 16 x 300m in 68, 71, 70, 69, 69, 68, 70, 68, 68, 69, 69, 69, 67, 69, 70, 68 w/ 200m rests in 66-71 secs. I was shooting for ~70 (6:15 pace), but ended up with most at 68 (6:05) or 69 (6:10). This wasn't hard at all. Max HR on the last interval was 185. I never felt stressed.

I did the 150m cutdowns and checked the time at 100m - 20, 19, 19. I thought that was pretty fast, but this (M90 100m in 17.8) makes me feel pretty pitiful.

Body feeling pretty good.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

did the weights and 30' on elliptical

Thursday, Sept 3

5-6 mile jog

Still great weather. 62 degrees. Ran to the lake and back. 6.2 @ 9:32

Friday, Sept 4

8-10 mile moderate run including Antelope Circuit 1 x thru and run 2 min @ 3k effort up a hill if possible

AM: Nice again. I did my usual 9.3 mile work route @ 8:26 (although accidentally pause Mr. Garmin for 0.4 miles). I did 2' up a nice steep hill. Did the Antelope circuit but used a not-too-steep hill instead of bleacher.

Lunch: chiro yet again. Prescibed Myrtle Hip Girdle Routine (progress by adding reps) and Lunge Matrix, to help with my hip extension. She ran out of time and couldn't get to my knees.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

Did core 100 and 30' on the elliptical.

Saturday, Sept 5

7-9 mile easy run

AM: My right leg was suddenly unshackled after the appt on Friday. It was crazy. I felt like I could swing my leg straight forward and back for the first time in forever. I'm still duck-footed though.

PM: I did the Myrtle Hip Girdle routine and Lunge Matrix suggested by the chiro.

Sunday, Sept 6

13-15 mile moderate run including 10 min progression run beginning at moderate effort and running the last few minutes @ 10k effort. 2-5 min recovery then run 4 x 4 min hills @ 5k effort w/2 min jog rests. Full recovery then 8 x 45 sec @ 3k effort w/1 min jog rests

15.0 @ 9:10. I did this on the treadmill because 1) 4 x 4 min hill w/2 min jog means I need a 10-minute hill, which I don't have and 2) it was 75 by the time I got going and would have been in the 80s by the end of my run. For the progression I stepped from 8:00 to 6:40 pace in 2 min increments. Hills were 6.8 mph at a 7 degree incline. I only did 9 mph for 3k. I initially hit the 10 mph "one touch" button and felt like I'd get thrown off the back end. My knee didn't do that great. It's definitely regressing. I need the chiro to do that magic thing again.

PM: 30 min XT moderate

30 minutes of breaststroke at the pool. I can't get myself to go to the elliptical at work on a weekend. Not a lot of time (~2.5 hours) between run and swim, but no problem.