It's time to get serious! If I'm ever to race again, I can't spend the rest of my life doing 40 minute jogs. Something has to kick my ass to get it together enough to make the most of my 5 days a week that I CAN run, so I've decided to officially start a base phase, with some structure to motivate myself to get my act together.
For a significant amount of time, I'm going to be on the 5 day plan, due to the 2 x week allergy shots which prohibit exercise 4 hours before and afterwards. Since I get home from work late at night, it's fairly prohibitive towards getting up at 4 am to run sufficiently before the 9 am shot.
Anyways, the condition of my foot being what it is, I'm picking my battles so far as the 5 day week. I think at this point the ability to train 5 days without accumulating injuries is better than the ability to train 6-7 days a week slowly accumulating injuries... We'll see how this turns out.
Sunday 03/16: 1:06:04, Monterrey to RB and back on the other side. Something resembling a proper distance run. A fantastic day, with a nice breeze. Went a mellow pace, 33:36 out and 31:50 back plus jog to car. Felt really good. Longest run yet. A significant jump from last week's sunday run, but feet don't feel that bad. A little bit of tenderness between the big toe and the bad toe, but taping helps. Maybe a little bit stupid to go suddenly for a longer run, but here's the thing...
Sometimes when you run, nice and relaxed and without cardiovascular pain, you get to this place of existential peace and calm, where thoughts seem to move fluidly and resolve themselves, where one is at peace with one's life and one's existence. It's this phenomena that to me is the flip side of all of the competitive angst and striving for self betterment that running also represents to me. It's clarity and peace and calm that I only feel through running.
The past few weeks have come with a whole lot of changes, stress, conflict and its only recently that I've become really aware of the mental and physical toll its been taking on me. When the intended turnaround point came, I just wasn't ready to give up this healing sense of calm that I felt at that moment. So I kept going, past that one, then the next logical turnaround point too... until finally I came all the way to the RB and realized that sooner or later this run would end, like all other runs before it.
Monday 03/17: Off. Shot day. The best part about today is that my feet don't hurt despite the longer run yesterday :).
Tuesday 03/18: 43:21, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops, same deal as last week. 14:48, 11:59, 15:07 plus jog to car. Times did not improve, but HR was much better across all three loops... I suppose that is mildly encouraging. Lots of work to do today, not a lot of time to feel crotchety about this workout, so oh, well. Also, very very cold today... in the 40's... wore gloves, but legs still felt nice and frosty after the first loop, eesh.
Wednesday 03/19: 44:17, Monterrey to bridge loop. Oooooooooh boy... didn't feel particularly bad but clearly tired from yesterday. Had to park far away, but can't blame all 2 minutes of slowness on that. Apparently my short and longterm endurance is about -5 on a scale of "none" to "good", if 12 minutes of upper threshold running is enough to have consequences for the next day. Also, mildly turned my L ankle, which put this unpleasant torque on the bad toe, which has begun to feel worse and worse as the day has progressed (after about a week and a half of feeling really good) .... aaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhh.....
Thursday 03/20: 50:43, California to RB, to the top of Salvia Canyon until the trail ends. A new run! A bit longer than it was supposed to be, but I was really excited to go up the little side trail next to the bike turnoff to get to Mt. Wilson. It wasn't long, but really liked the uphill. Also, saw Feldman and Jesse going back to the Arroyo.
Toe still felt a little bit sore from yesterday's twisting, so wrapped them again. I'm trying to wean myself from this practice, but my feet feel significantly better in the hours after the run when they are wrapped during the run vs. not.
Friday 03/21: Off. Shot day. Peter gets in today! Made cookies instead of run early this morning.
Saturday 03/22: 44:17, Monterrey to bridge loop. Argh, woke up at 7 am by force of habit, but realized it was weekend, so went back to sleep. This was a really bad decision, because it was already 75 and sunny by the time I got up at 10 am, which is approximately 15 degrees hotter than running weather that I appreciate. I definitely prefer 15 degrees too cold (45) than 15 degrees too warm (75). Felt crappy, throat was dry and scratchy feeling... legs felt okay but just that internal overheating sensation was unpleasant. Felt better towards the end but wasn't enough to salvage the overall runtime. Bah, will make an effort to get up early for tomorrow's "long" run.
Target Training this week: 3 hour 30 minutes
Actual Training: 4:08:42
Consternation Index: Moderate
1 comment:
the proper term would be "consternment index", just so you know
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