Does anyone NOT feel like they didn't make the most of their Caltech education??? Actually, let's not answer that.
1) Accept that you are responsible for where you are... or... aren't
2) Stop running away from weaknesses
3) .....
Damn, this sucks. Usually how running is going affects everything else in my life. Lately, it seems like the "everything else" part is affecting my running.
Sunday 05/18: 1:10:13, RB to JPL and back. Started 1 hour earlier than yesterday so only 93 degrees this time. While I may not be improving on the metric of "getting lazy ass out of bed at a reasonable hour", to my credit I am learning the basics of running in the heat. In the past most runs in the 85+ degree range have resulted in one of two outcomes: 1) uncontrollable wheezing and exhaustion resulting in the need to walk back or 2) lying in bed the whole rest of the day with heatstroke. As a result, I go to great lengths to avoid running when it's hot--waiting until it's past midnight, running indoors on a treadmill, judicious swapping of off days, etc. In the spirit of confronting one's weaknesses though, I decided that this is not good for my development as a runner, and that the ability to deal with adverse race conditions is something I should strive to cultivate.
Basically, the rules of the game are: drink much much more than you think you need, and start at a pace that feels slow (cuz in 10 minutes that pace will feel really crappy). I had to make a detour to run around looking for the water fountain at JPL that Ryan showed me, and I felt really, really, painfully dehydrated within 10 minutes of that anyways... but I made it. 35 minutes out, 35 back. No asthma attacks and even pacing. I'll call that a victory.
Monday 05/19: Off, shots. Feeling extra bummed today :(
Tuesday 05/20: 56:14, warm up, 12 x 200m with 200 jog rest, cool down -- not the sprinter work out, this is the "out of shape distance runner" workout. I remembered that I did this early on in the year in 2007 and didn't feel like I got much out of it, so I went back and asked Peter what the purpose of this was, and he said it was basically like a "practice" tempo run, like a stepping stone between striders and long intervals/steady state tempos. It's the whole idea that its beneficial to move one's legs at faster paces even if you don't yet have the cardiovascular capacity to sustain it.
That said, I decided to aim for threshold tempo run "goal pace" and focus on keeping the jog rest part still like running instead of like that shuffling as slowly as you can until you're totally 100% recovered jog. Had no idea how I'd feel, so I went in with the goal of running 50's (~6:40 pace) and having it feel sustainable and good. Ended up: 49, 49, 48, 49, 47, 47.5, 48, 47, 46, 47, 46, 43 on about 2:00 - 2: 10 per lap cycles.
48's and 49's felt perfect, didn't breathe hard, felt like I could do tons and tons of these, which is how I would want to feel about 200m of tempo pace. Supposedly the next session is 20 x 200m, so I figure I should make more of an effort to run 50's for the first 10 of these.
Wednesday 05/21: 44:24, Monterrey to bridge. Couldn't get out of bed this morning, felt awful. Legs felt much more tired that I would have liked. Sloppy and slow. Not a great run.
Thursday 05/22: 53:08, Huntington/Oak Knoll. Tried by sheer force of will to make this a good run, and failed. Today, legs were okay but the rest of me felt barfy and bad. I couldn't figure out what it felt like exactly, it mostly felt like all of the parts of my running "system" just weren't working harmoniously to move me forwards. Towards the end it just felt like my legs were moving on their own and the rest of me was just getting dragged along, flopping around awkwardly in the wind.
Felt pretty dejected... so complained to Markkimarkonnen about how I wasted my undergraduate career instead of doing my striders and quick steps. Bleh. Gotta snap out of this.
Friday 05/23: Off, shots, traveling. L ankle, ball of foot unhappy after yesterday.
Saturday 05/24: 55:09, random hilly trail up to Griggs Road in Colorado. Same one I did a few months ago here, but with less ice. It was tough in the altitude but it was a nice, peaceful, enjoyable run. I'm glad I chose this one instead of trying to do something tempo-y.
Training this week: 4 hours 39 minutes
I didn't realize it was that much because I haven't been keeping track lately. Maybe I should cut myself some slack for feeling tired-er than usual...
Goals: to not go crazy...
2 comments:
Don't worry man - you're doing great! You gotta keep things in perspective. You're in a way better place running-wise right now than you've been in a while in terms of feet problems etc. I'm really proud of you for sticking to your guns all this time.
yeah, i can't really think of a bigger waste of time than talking to me.
by the way, i waste a lot of my own time this way
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