Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Week of 07/27/2008 - 08/02/2008 (Base Week 20)

Call me crazy, but I really think the hellmouth really has opened up. Sinkhole in the 110, big ass earthquake, plague of boils (... er, hives)... I'd like to say I'm not superstitious... but none of this really bodes well.

I think as cross season approaches, I'm feeling more and more out of sorts. I'm really starting to hate this feeling that I have so often these days of thinking back on things I used to be able to do with amazement, like that it seems close to impossible I could ever do those things again. Like 90 mile bike rides in the mountains. The run/bike doubles this weekend were really tough. I felt tired and sore all of Monday. I'm starting to feel a little bit stronger on my runs, but realize that I still have a really tough time sustaining any sort of intensity. Then I get slammed by the realization that races are actually coming up real soon and that everyone around me is doing 2 x or 3 x the mileage that I'm doing.

It just feels like such a letdown. I feel like I've spent this whole year trying to prepare for the fall, and now fall is almost here and on a relative scale, I'm doing a lot lot better.... but on an absolute scale, my foot is still fucked and my immune system is still fucked and I'm still chronically fatigued. It sucks. I wish it weren't like this. Or, I wish I could know that it will go back to the way it was before ... some day.


Sunday 07/27: 1:05:20, Monterrey to RB and back in the PM, after Chantry in the AM with Peter, KB and Ian. Bike ride was really fun, but I felt moderately crappy about being the one person in the group who was clearly much, much worse than the rest. Thankfully KB kept me company while I crawled up the hill feeling like my legs would imminently implode. Sadly the breakfast place was closed on our way home, Peter was disgruntled.

Felt tired and achey by evening, so cut back my long run. The first 15 minutes or so felt like death... my stride felt stilted and gastrointestinal system was complaining loudly, but somehow it worked itself out and the rest of the run was fine. I was happy that it really didn't seem to have been affected that much by the morning bike ride. It was actually breezy and cool as well which helped a lot.

Monday 07/28: Off, shots. Still felt strangely dehydrated and headachey from the weekend but it got better. Had delicious delicious cornbread at dinner with Julie and Vikas.

Tuesday 07/29: 47:45, Monterrey to third bridge loop. I've permanently expanded this route to go to the end of the Arroyo Tempo Loop and feel like it's a good distance. Woke up late, but actually felt good this morning, it was nice and cool and I met Jolly Walks Lots of Dogs Man again. You see a lot of the same characters in the Arroyo in the morning. In hindsight I should have gotten up earlier and done my tempo today while it was cloudy and cool, but I guess I was trying to be conservative by allowing an extra easy day given that my legs felt pretty beat all of yesterday from the weekend. In other news.... EARTHQUAAAAAAKE!!!! aaaaahhhh!

Wednesday 07/30: 1:10:03, warm up, 3 mile track tempo, cool down plus an extra lap or two with KB, Ian, Kangway at the end. Really glad that the North Fields were open again, and was nice and cool and remained overcast for the duration of my running time. Tempo was interesting in 20:54 (6:51, 6:52, 7:11), definitely some improvement, but I'm kind of baffled and concerned that it's been a lot of weeks now and it just isn't getting any easier to get through that last mile... In order to combat this phenomenon, I ran the first 6 laps breathing only out of my nose and kept the exertion level down, so I feel like I can't REALLY be accused of going out too hard.... It feels more like something just turns off after 2 miles.

Thursday 07/31: 50:37, California to Salvia Canyon and back. Nice and cloudy and cool, got a little bit earlier start... but felt a little off today. It wasn't painful, just slow, and my L foot is feeling a bit tweaked out. Some idiots were screaming and yelling and screeching their cars outside my window at 3 am, so I felt really awful when the alarm went off in the morning. I guess my legs are also kinda tired. Couldn't shake this feeling of dissatisfaction--I just feel like I should have more to show for 6 months of training... I wish someone would just figure out how to fix my body already.

Friday 08/01: Off, shots. So far so good. Ate an entire delicious CPK pizza for lunch... and plotted with co-workers about how to quasi-legally supplement our meager non profit salaries.

Saturday 08/02: 1:22 - 1:25 ish, Bailey Canyon to the connector for the first time in over a year. Convinced KB, Stephanie, Heather and Sedona to come, was excited! KB totally rocked this run. Ate breakfast at Lucky's afterwards. Fun! We made pretty good time up (48:15-ish) but it was really painful, like a lot more painful than I had remembered. It felt good to be up there again, but I also felt kind of troubled because I saw the same pattern with this that happens with the tempo runs... I feel good, good, good, and then suddenly it goes from fine to horrible, awful dying within the span of like a minute. There's no gradual tiring process, its just like a sudden "game over". It feels weird and unnatural. It really bugs me...


Training this week: Let's just say 5 hours 15 minutes running and 2:36 biking--didn't really do a good job keeping time on Saturday's run

Goals: Figure out what I'm doing

No comments: