Week of 04/27/2008 - 05/03/2008 (Base Week 7)

Last week basically turned out to be more of just a week that lacked focus and direction more so than a week that was restful and regenerative. Despite that, I'm starting the third microcycle feeling stronger and slightly less despondent about my training. Let's just see if that lasts through Tempo Tuesday...

The mountains are also burning again :(. We could see the fires coming back from SCIACs and it was really, scarily close to where the Mt. Wilson trails are! eeeeeeeee.... There's also ash raining down on my house too... not good.


Sunday 04/27: 1:10:53, trail perimeter of RB to yellow gate at JPL, then back towards Arroyo to add up to 70 minutes. 4 x 100m striders, moderately high quality, followed by karaokes and quick steps, abysmally low quality. Mostly managed to get up on time, around 6:30 am, so only about the last 10 minutes or so were too hot. Loads better than yesterday, felt pretty good.

Monday 04/28: Off, shots. Hmmmmmmmm... my body really did not enjoy either striders or karaokes, because my entire lower body is sore, sore, sore. Had to concentrate not to walk funny/extremely slowly so as not to draw stares from confused co-workers... why am I so weak? Sad, sad, sad.

Tuesday 04/29: 44:01, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops, a.k.a. Why Do I Even Bother... (15:11, 11:56, 15:34) worst one yet. They say, when you've hit rock bottom, the only direction you can go is up--but actually, that's not true at all: you can also stay where you are forever, OR you can fall through the rocks into the molten core of the earth and get fried to a crisp. I'm just saying...

Basically, all of my other runs are trending upwards, but these tempo loop deals are at best, not improving... but more realistically dis-improving. Which is actually not desirable at all, since after all I'm training so that I can one day RACE again and not be completely abominable... not so that I can do base runs every day for the rest of my life... glaghalghalgha.

Wednesday 04/30: 45:16, Monterrey to bridge loop, you would think a recovery run couldn't possibly be the worst run of your life, but one would be surprised, let me tell you... Whole body felt heavy and dull and achey, and BOTH arches were cramping in the morning. Taped both feet very tightly but they still hurt during the run either despite or because of the taping. Yeah, I think this day deserves the ol' Steve Slattery quip 'Like 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag'.

Thursday 05/01: Off. Emergency extra off day. Woke up just feeling still dull and aching all over, especially around the hips. Not to mention that even after 8 hours of sleep I still felt like death. Worst of all, I just didn't even feel like running at all... Something's just gone horribly wrong with my body lately.

Friday 05/02: Off. Shots. Stopped by the Caltech bookstore to pick up an "MIT - Because not everyone can go to Caltech" shirt for a competition at work next week. I asked if they accepted credit cards, since it's been a while... and was told that they did, just not quarters. I was initially confused about why she would think I would attempt to pay with quarters... but then I remembered that I was back in the land of the incredibly smart folks who very often lack common sense. It's been a while...

Saturday 05/03: 33:31, California to RB. Woke up still feeling remarkably lousy despite TWO days off... and also without being able to shake this weird dry raspy cough. Basically this was an awful terrible run that had to be cut short because I just couldn't breathe. Felt light headed and woozy by the time I got up the one switchback to my car... something's just gone really horribly wrong with my body.


Target Training this week: 4 hours 15 minutes
Actual Training: 3:13:31

Maybe I should just stop making goals... g-damn...