Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Week of 03/18/2007 - 03/24/2007 (Revised Rest Week)

They say that distance running is an exercise in patience. I'm so screwed.

Sunday 03/18: ~7.25 miles, 1:10:03 jogging around the North Fields at 155 bpm. 4 x 100m striders, felt good. At night, slightly groggy at first, better as time went on. Got locked into the field, had to hop fence to get out, slightly scary, but didn't fall.

Margaritas with PAA boys at Amigos. Found out that there is an official term for people like me: "Fred" = a person for whom the value of their bike exceeds their talent as a rider...! meh.

Monday 03/19: 3.1 miles, 32:51 recovery jogging, 10 laps around North Fields at 140 bpm. Lap times have decreased from 3:30 per lap to 3:15-20 per lap at same HR. Felt good about that until I measured the North Field loop at exactly 500 meters!!! Eeeeeee....what is WRONG with my cardiovascular system?!?!?!?!

Tuesday 03/20: 7500m = lets just say 4.65 miles. 7 laps of North fields at 150-155 bpm, tried mostly in vain to learn how to do drills correctly (ofcourse, the Shapiro unit was cranking out perfect sets of them next to me, which didn't help :)) 10 x 100m striders, then 6 laps of North fields at 150 bpm. Tried to run with good form, hamstrings all the way up through lower back feels tired! Oh, dear... I certainly have a lot to work on...

Wednesday 03/21: 8K, 4 x 100m striders. 16 laps of North Fields at 165 bpm, 46:20, really sore. Definitely slowed down per lap at same HR. Feels like I'm learning to run all over again. Pace/HR ratio depressing. Although, mysteriously the arch is a lot less sore when I concentrate on keeping my hips under me. Striders felt really good.

Thursday 03/22: 6.25 Miles, Huntington up Oak Knoll at 165 bpm, 47:45, concentrating on shoulders relaxed and hips under center of mass... so exhausting. Was undesirably warm. Drills lite, then sushi buffet with Dr. Rossi ---> thinks I *might* a hopeless case :). Ate 7 cream puffs. Definitely losing the battle with obesity.

Friday 03/23: 5K, 10 laps of the North Fields at 145 bpm, then coordination drills and abs at the track with Matt and Ian. Still feeling moderately exhausted, sore and out of sorts. Who knew how hard it is to keep your hips under you. Tried to analyze my natural stride tendencies, unpleasantly reminded of Rosen's story about "this guy who ran like he was mashing cockroaches!"

Saturday 03/24: 6 miles, 20 minutes of jogging, 15 minutes of 185 bpm, 20 minutes of jogging around the South fields at night. I love the track at night without lights. Felt good to run fast, but wasn't really quite a tempo effort. I guess this is okay given how exhausted I feel this week. Soreness is starting to subside. Feeling kind of uneasy about impending race(s).

Target Mileage: 40 Miles
Week Actual: 35.35 Miles
Last Week: 38 Miles

I feel like, if the improvement I need to make is denoted by the variable "x", then my current rate of improvement is something like 0.001x per week... this is especially depressing because x is so large, that the weekly improvement seems like you ought to be getting somewhere...

1 comment:

Ryan said...

ugh - why are you doing drills? that reminds me of high school - what a waste of time. Jeff Nelson: In the 1980's the scientists took over. They got away from running. Instead, they were stretching . . . hopping down the the field. They weren't distance running any more. They were into aerobics and science.