Week of 12/16/2007 - 12/22/2007 (Pre-Base Week 6)

Death by cold.

Room mate has contracted the plague, which means that it could only be a matter of time... Have been afflicted by a headache-y malaise starting Saturday evening, so prognosis is not looking good. Really want to make it to the 4 training hours this week though, before the respiratory symptoms commence.

If by some miracle, I manage to escape the plague, it will be on to a cold of different nature, as the prodigal child returns home to the frigid artic wasteland that is the east coast in the wintertime. 2 pairs of base layer tights are being delivered to my home as we speak, but one knows all too well, that when it snows and sleets until you're drenched down to the very core, ain't nothing gonna keep you warm at that point...

Sunday 12/16: 43:52, leisurely 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops (14:08, 14:11, 14:04) plus jog back to car. Felt dull and head-achey all day, but managed to drag myself out to the Arroyo before the daylight ran out. Run was surprisingly comfortable, took it real easy and felt better all around afterwards. Apparently 9:15 pace is here to stay, judging from the recent longer runs. I guess that's okay for now, 40 minutes doesn't seem so long now, and I think 8:45 is just around the corner. Core strengthening afterwards at the gym. These are getting easier too, felt under control today, major concern right now is some tweaks in the L ankle, likely resulting from the sprain last week. They were bothering me during the first loop today, but resolved themselves... really hoping that's on the mend.

Monday 12/17: 34:07, Monterrey to rock. A short run... going to have to modify this route again to make it 2-4 minutes longer. I think I'm okay to graduate the sub 35 minute runs at this point. Felt that faint soreness of the post-core strengthening day again, but it doens't affect my running that much anymore. Vague headache and not sleeping well continues... perhaps the two are at a causal effect to eachother, but not really sure how to exit the cycle.

Tuesday 12/18: Off. Rain... ugh. Was planning to run in the morning, but the rain started earlier than weather.com claimed it would. *shakes fist*. I really do not enjoy the rain. Plus, it kinda packs down all of the dirt in the Arroyo, basically taking away all of the feet-not-killing effect of soft surface training. Disgruntling...

Wednesday 12/19: 46:06, Huntington back via Virginia in the PM. I'm not really a patient person... sometimes its a wonder that I'm still enrolled in the Meinhold School of Running for Kids who need to Chill the hell out, with its promise of injury prevention and extolling the virtues of delayed gratification... *sigh* sometimes being slow just gets old! I was really hoping for some... non negligible improvement over last week, like there really is NO reason why it should take more than 45 minutes to complete this run... oh, the horror!

Thankfully it wasn't super cold this week, but it was unpleasantly damp, and that dampness seemed to turn into a positively suffocating steam when I went indoors for core strengthening. Felt discouraged and grouchy today. At least my feet felt mostly okay this time.

Thursday 12/20: 42:18, many, many laps around lane 6 on the track. Started to drizzle at the end... did not enjoy that. I guess the rain days are good consistent low HR training days though, bc I end up going to the track. Feet felt relatively okay for the second consecutive day of non trail running. I think 40 minutes is about manageable these days. Woo hoo! L ankle still a bit unsteady. That's really the worst injury concern right now, for better or for worse. I've got two training days left in Pasadena this year, and I've already picked out which two runs I want. Now the only thing left is... Weather, I command you to cooperate!

Friday 12/21: 42:29, Monterrey to bridge loop. GLAHGHAALHGHG... the curse of the parking spot continues! I am very particular about the necessity to park in the third spot from the end of Monterrey next to the little tree. For the most part, there aren't many takers for parking in this area, but every now and again, someone's wayward vehicle finds its way inauspiciously into MY parking space. At first it was merely the convenience of a standardized starting and ending point for every run, but over time I've come to believe that the third parking spot affords some magical protection from injury and consternation, ensuring a pleasant and productive training experience. Every time I do NOT park in this space, something disgruntling always occurs.

Today, a car was parked annoyingly in 3/4 of the third parking space, so I had to park 3/4 in the fourth parking space, and about 3/4 of the way through my run, I rolled my bad ankle again! GAH! It wasn't a bad sprain, but given the amount of damage already done to this ankle from the last sprain (also on a bad parking day) I can't express how consterning this turn of events is. I felt ironically as if today was the first day that the weird pains that percolated from the last sprain were starting to subside... calamity of the world!

Saturday 12/22: 41:44, one trail perimeter of Rose Bowl in the dark. Maybe not the best idea, given the nature of the terrain... had to go slow to pick through the semi-dark obstacles, almost turned my ankle numerous times, but I really wanted to do this one for the last Pasadena run of the year. Cold, cold, cold... but fun. Had to squeeze this in before going to the airport to go home to Boston. Little did I know the horrors that lay in wait...

Got in a good solid training week this week. So much so that my legs were actually feeling less than fresh. Did not do the requisite 3x per week core strengthening... nuts. This is a big increase from the previous week, given the trajectory of the past training cycle, so considering taking an early down week for the 3 week microcycle instead of the 4 week microcycle. We'll see how arctic wasteland goes.


Target training time: 4 hours 5 minutes
Actual training: 4:10:36