the week of stupid

When I first started running, I thought that doing stupid things was kinda awesome.  10 hilly miles with no training? Super!  Back to back 15 milers?  Fantastic!  Throughout the years, it’s become apparent that my body no longer tolerates these indiscretions… but it’s still hard to shake the psychology that pain = gain, and that things have got to hurt once in a while if you’re working appropriate hard.

I was tired going into Patrician last week, then after hopping straight onto a red eye and pulling an all nighter, I felt absolutely destroyed.  But runs had been going so well the past few weeks, I didn’t want to back off.  I also didn’t want to admit defeat on this measly mileage total of 35 miles per week.  So I kept on trucking until I realized mid-week that it hurt to walk, and the muscles in my right hamstring had become so tight that I couldn’t touch my toes without sending sharp pain shooting all the way down to my knee.  Runs had slowed to a crawl… but I kept thinking one more day of jogging and things would feel better!  False, M, false.

After spending a day, sitting on my aching right buttock and contemplating whether or not I had managed to give myself some odd stress fracture of the pelvic structure… I was a little bit freaked out by the fact that I couldn’t really remember exactly when it had gone from good to bad.  Which was the day that put me over the line from acceptable fatigue to “you are headed for a serious injury”?  Looking back at my logs and spreadsheets, I can’t really tell.  I didn’t really start to slow down significantly until this week, but thinking back really honestly, the right hammy wasn’t okay dating back to Napa… I just didn’t really want to deal with it because I was busy and as long as I could crank out those 7:20 miles, it didn’t seem worth worrying too much about.

Anyways, it all goes to show that older is not always wiser.  Making good choices is a constant struggle and not just a one-time lesson.  I started stretching and doing my PT again every day since Wednesday, and my right leg feels tons better.  The weird pain in my L ankle is also stabilizing… I still feel sort of wiped out in general, and runs don’t feel peppy and strong as they did before, but I think I’m headed towards recovery.

Sunday 12/18/2011:  Off, traveling home.  Legs exhausted today, did some light jogging, 3 miles (total) to and from Dad’s apartment to deliver cookies and cakes, but I don’t think I’ll count this as mileage.  Uphill segment I timed at almost exactly 9 minute miles, the downhill segment was probably slower, turns out its slow going trying to run while holding delicious comestibles.

Monday 12/19/2011:  Second Smallest Charles River Loop (6.8 miles), 53:52 (7:55 pace).  Legs still feeling a bit heavy and dull, also mis-timed this run so ended up running the last stretch of crappy trail/pavement in darkness.  The sketchy footing probably made this already slow jog even slower.  Wasn’t super amused.

Tuesday 12/20/2011:  Fresh Pond from House (7 miles), 53:15 (7:36 pace).  This run felt terrible.  I felt like I was huffing and working hard, but in reality my HR was low and I was going really slow.  Though my right hamstring/glut/everything else in there felt like worlds of pain, I thought perhaps I just needed one more day to recover from Patrician…

Wednesday 12/21/2011:  JFK St. via Elliot Bridge (6.5 miles), 49:08 (7:34 pace).  The first thought I had when I woke up today was “gahhhhhh, my hamstring!”  My right upper leg had frozen overnight into a solid, useless block of pain.  In order to get the thing out of bed and moving forwards, I felt like I had to physically lift the whole leg up and then plunk it down slightly in front of where it used to be.  Refer back to the intro as to why I ran today… 

On the plus side, Mom was inspired to run today, so we went on an 18 minute jog around the golf course.  She did great!  I also don’t think I could have gone on my run without this jog to loosen up my R leg.  It was also pleasantly drizzly today.

Thursday 12/22/2011:  River St. via Elliot Bridge (8.0 miles), 1:01:30 (7:41 pace).  Warm up with Mom on golf course, followed by another slow jog.  R leg felt a little better after stretching and PT yesterday, so ofcourse I had to push my luck by going on another run… Less pain but so, so much fatigue.  Felt a little bit better on the uphill leg home.  

Friday 12/23/2011:  Off.  Finally, a good decision. Though to be fair I was contemplating jogging to Harvard Square and back (approximately 5 miles) to meet a friend.  Was saved from this horrible life choice by timing and a ride from Mom.  Got back and did the 18 minute golf course jog with her again (actually the same loop took us 19 minutes today… probably because I was slacking on my pacing duties).  Frankly, this was about as much exercise as I could handle.

Saturday 12/24/2011:  River St. via Elliot Bridge (8.0 miles), 1:00:55 (7:37 pace).  I think this was the first day that I woke up pain free and it didn’t hurt at all to walk, so I was hoping for a faster run, but I guess that might fall under “unreasonable expectations”.  Felt pretty good in the beginning, then deathly tired, then good again.  Weird.  Also day 4 for jogging with Mom, so proud that she's sticking with it!

Week #8 Total:  36.3 miles, all jogging, but still managed to hold training volume while healing the injuries, that’s gotta be worth something!

all i want for christmas is sleep

After an amazing week of running, now a tough one.  Its hard to take one's proverbial foot off of the gas pedal when things appear to be going well, but this week was about survival, not running fast.  The sleep deprivation was already getting pretty bad towards the end of last week, and I did not recuperate properly in Napa (maybe 7-8 hours a night, not enough to undo the damage of all nighters) then I got hit right off the bat with another all nighter upon my return.  Since then its just been touch and go... most days I got two naps instead of any consolidated sleep.  Most runs were done late a night after nap #1.

Needless to say, I am not feeling super well... and that has percolated into my running as well.  That said, I think it was still a win to get in some solid miles this week.  Everything was survived, now hoping to rest, recover, and do plenty of PT and core strengthening over break!

Sunday 12/11/2011:  Rose Villa / San Gabriel / Lombardy / Hill (4.65 miles), 37:43 (8:07 pace).  Did not get a chance to run again in Napa before we left.  Feeling totally wiped out and facing another all nighter, I elected to do a "better than nothing" jog, instead of the intended Sunday Long Run.  This route is rapidly becoming my recovery jog route.  This one was a lot slower than intended, but frankly, I just could not be bothered to go any faster today.

Monday 12/12/2011:  Completely off.  Honestly don't even remember what happened today, other than that I didn't get fired, despite the fact that the all nighter wasn't enough to completely finish my project.  I'm pretty sure I spent the entire day in a fog, and then had to take an emergency nap in the evening.  I think that's how I got started on the 2 naps a day / no consolidated sleep schedule, because then I had to get up and work late again, resulting in another short nap before getting up early in the morning.... wash, rinse, repeat until all deliverables are complete.

Tuesday 12/13/2011:  Rose Villa / Rosemead / California / Hill (7.0 miles), 50:10 (7:11 pace).  This one was really really late at night, so much so that I slightly feared for my safety but it turned out alright.  Feel like I've been hit by a bus.  Tuesday was supposed to be tempo... but kept a relaxing pace for most of it.  Tried to tempo a little bit on the way back and failed.  As in, I was breathing hard, but not going fast.  That's like the opposite of a tempo.  Fail!

Wednesday 12/14/2011: Huntington / Oak Knoll from Chester (7.6 miles), 56:54 (7:30 pace).  An easy late night jog.  Wanted to check out the Huntington median, brought head lamp.  Road debris was much improved... I guess this is a higher priority for San Marino than it is for Pasadena.  Grass section felt good... really made me miss trails, meh.  A nice run.

Thursday 12/15/2011:  Another completely off.  Was intending to go to swim practice, but didn't quite make it in time.  Decided instead to allocate the time to baking cookies for Swim Club Holiday Party tomorrow.  New recipe, woohoo!

Friday 12/16/2011:  2 x Rose Bowl Loop (Non-tempo 10K), 44:17 (7:08 pace).  Had to squeeze this in before the holiday party.  Allergy shots this morning, so I was feeling wheezy all day... but I secretly kinda hoped I could crank out a tempo... er, false, M, false.  Did the first lap pretty easy, feeling good, but was sort of horrified to see the 22:15 5K split and decided that it would not be productive to do a tempo today.  Then, I felt tired the entire second lap.  Its so weird how big of a psychological effect seeing that first lap split is for me.  Last week, I felt crappy, but saw the fast split and suddenly felt energized and awesome.  This week, I felt good, but saw the slow split and then suddenly it felt like lead bricks got added to my feet.  I know that I should just give myself a break.  I still haven't gotten a solid night of sleep, and its really starting to break me down physically... its clear why I can't tempo and why its not productive to try right now... but I can't help but feel like I'm losing fitness by skipping a week!

Saturday 12/17/2011:  Patrician (10 miles), 1:15:30 (7:33 pace).  Hills, hills, hills.  Patrician probably wasn’t the best way to ease into some longer runs, but I wanted to do a 10 miler, and this was the first thing that popped into my mind.  Honestly I had hoped it would be a little bit faster, but in retrospect I think I underestimated those hills.  Garmin says that I was positively crawling on that middle section of Patrician Way.  Legs actually felt decent, but the breathing was pretty choppy on the climbs.  I guess I just haven’t done a lot of hills recently.  But on the plus side, the longer distance felt totally manageable, didn’t feel particularly wiped out at the end.  Finished strong with a 6:40 last mile (slightly downhill, I think).

Week #7 Total:  35.45 miles, a little slow this week but still a solid week of training!

small breakthroughs, some niggles

Woah, this week was unreal.  First week over 30 miles per week in 2-ish years, and I hit it out of the ballpark.  Not that significant week over week increases are a particularly good idea for injury prone runners newly running a mostly pavement diet... but I'm so happy with this week, so happy.

I haven't done an 8 mile run in the same 2 year period, and this week I did THREE (3!).  I also did two runs that I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I did two runs that vastly exceeded expectations pace-wise.  I actually feel like a real runner for the first time in long time, and I'm just so excited to get out for each run.  Its scary though, like I'm walking a very fine line.  It all just seems too good to last.  I feel like an injury or some inexplicable slowdown must just be around the corner...

I've had some niggles develop this week.  My L anterior tibial tendon has been flaring a little bit lately, which makes me favor the L leg, which makes my R hamstring inordinately sore... and all of this could be fixed pretty easily by doing my ankle exercises... but time has been in short supply lately, and like I said... I'm treading a very fine line right now.  Need to really work on this over break and banish the ankle pain!

Sunday 12/04/2011:  Art Center Bike Loop (8.5 miles), 59:25 (7:02 pace).  The crazy apocalypse state of road in Pasadena has provided the push I needed to finally implement this run that I've been wanting to do for years now.  I did the easy Art Center Bike Loop going up Highland and coming back on Berkshire on foot!  Love love loved the uphill parts, felt really good and strong, but the downhills felt really long and onerous.  I was so glad for that last little hill that I hate so much coming back from the AC on the bike.  Felt really good at the end!  I got back to the Rose Bowl where I parked and was blown away that the Garmin said 59:25... starting out, I figured this would be maybe a 64 minute run.  Amazeballs.

Monday 12/05/2011:  Somehow made it to swim practice again for the first time in 2 weeks.  3650 yards, man this one was tough!  Things didn't seem that bad in the beginning, but my arms were completely and utterly dead before we even hit the pulling.  Needless to say that it was ugly.  I was pleased that I didn't feel wheezy and out of breath as per the other times that I've taken some time off from swimming. 

Tuesday 12/06/2011:  10K tempo at the Rose Bowl (2 laps), 42:05 (6:46 pace).  This run falls into the category of 'complete surprises'.  I felt tired... legs felt tired, everything felt tired... and I really really did not want to do a tempo run.  But I knew that I was not likely to get much sleep for the rest of the week, so it seemed prudent to get this out of the way now.  So I headed to the Rose Bowl, again for the reason that it had the least amount of debris so far as I could tell.  (Goodbye for now, Arroyo Tempo Loop!)  When I started, I still wasn't sure whether I really wanted to do tempo today, but I told myself to just do one lap comfortable and see if I could pick it up for the second loop.  Honestly wasn't feeling that great, but I was really encouraged to see 21:32 as a split for the first 5K, so I figured I had it in me to pick it up a little bit.  Second lap felt like a good effort, but still completely under control, a perfect tempo effort.  Felt so good, I threw in a little sprint for the last 400m or so!  Second 5K I guess was 20:33, not too bad at all. 

It felt like a mental breakthrough for me to be able to just get out there and run sub-7 minute miles.  Typically, I've always felt like I needed the flatness and regularity of the track to run these paces.  To balance out the awesome-nesss of this run, apparently the powers that be decided to send my car battery to Car Battery Heaven after this run, which resulted in me being stranded at the Rose Bowl for an hour in rapidly falling temperatures.  Would have completely frozen if not for my compression socks that I love so much!  I guess the universe has this way of returning you to the same places sometimes.  Not sure why transportation issues + Rose Bowl + really really cold is some sort of energy minimum state for me...

Wednesday 12/07/2011:  Rose Villa / San Gabriel / Lombardy / Hill (4.7 miles), 37:30 (7:59 pace).  This run was hard and sort of unpleasant.  My body felt "off" in a way that I haven't felt in a long time but which felt so vaguely familiar... then it hit me:  Oooooohhh, well hello there fatigue, not so nice to run into you again...  This is how I used to feel on days after track workouts and Bailey Canyon climbs.  So nostalgic and yet so unpleasant.  I guess I've already logged some pretty quick runs already this week = body needs a break.

Thursday 12/08/2011:  Cordova / Orange Grove / Mission / Los Robles (8.1 miles), 1:01:48 (7:38 pace).  A really nice super late at night jog around some of the old South Pas routes.  The sleep deprivation is hitting me pretty hard now.  All nighter yesterday... feel like I've been hit by a bus.  Had to take a nap after dinner, woke up discombobulated at 10 pm, but the first thought that popped into my head was that I wanted to go on a run.  So I bundled up and headed out, just nice and easy.  It turned out to be a nice run.  First run over an hour too.

Friday 12/09/2011:  Off, travel to Napa with the gang!  There was no way a run was happening today.  So, so tired and so, so stressed.  Basically only got three 3 hour naps in the past 72 hours.  I honestly don't remember Caltech being this bad.  Good thing I got that tempo run out of the way before this hit.

Saturday 12/10/2011:  KB Cabin to School Building (8.5 miles), 1:02:42 (7:25 pace).  Beautiful run across pleasantly undulating terrain.  Love, love, love.  I had to check the Garmin map and gmaps twice to confirm the distance, because I certainly did not feel like I was going that fast.  This was the first day that I really noticed the anterior tibial tendon issue.  It made it really tough to run on the banked road, and I just couldn't land / push off with full force on the L foot.  R hammy was just insanely insanely sore afterwards as a result.  Amazing dinner in Sonoma and stretching a bit in the hot tub helped.

Week #6 Total:  35.9 miles.  Woah, just woah.  The comeback train is rolling on through!

dude, where's my compression under pants???

I've gotta hand it to people who do sports that require sprinting and coordination... and side-to-side movements.  It's been two days since the run in with 2 hours of tennis, and I am still flat on my back.  It hurts to stand up, it hurts to swing my arms, it hurts to take steps forward.  Yikes.  Its sort of like a whole body smackdown.  But the worst of all for running is the intense pain in my glutes.  I've got on my thigh high compression socks, but geez, where's the compression underpants when you need them???

I think I'm going to turn this week into an "off week".   That wasn't the plan, I had wanted to start off December right with 30 miles of quality training... but you've got to adapt.  There are two jogging days in here, so I'll call that a good down week, even if the mileage is about the same as last week.


Sunday 11/27/2011:  Smallest Charles River Loop from house (5.3 miles), 40:17 (7:36 pace)  I haven't taken two days off in a row since I started, and I wasn't going to start today, ass pain be damned!  All I can say about this run is that I gutted it out.  For about 20 minutes, it felt like being swiftly kicked in the behind with every step I took.  Try to ignore the pain, and keep moving... I told myself.  Eventually it became more of a moderate ache instead of a sharp stabbing pain and then the run was moderately tolerable.  My only goal for this run, other than not keeling over, was not to run any > 8 minute miles.  Against all odds, I succeeded.

Monday 11/28/2011:  Off, some brief core exercises with Mom.  The ass pain is much improved since yesterday, but I still feel pretty rickety even today.

Tuesday 11/29/2011:  Rose Villa / Rosemead / California / Hill (7.0 miles), 50:52 (7:18 pace)  This run was like an amazing and unexpected gift.  I felt horrible, after getting 2 hours of sleep, traveling back on 2 flights and 2 delays, almost missing a Biology quiz, catastrophe at work... but I wanted to just get a short easy run in as a shake out after a long day.  Headed out after dark, not particularly feeling great in the first few miles, but then, it all started to click and I felt so great I decided to extend the run out to Rosemead.  Coming back on the uphill felt unreal.  Just so smooth, easy, fast, powerful.  I don't think I've ever felt so great on a run before.  Got back and was totally not expecting it to be so speedy because I didn't feel like I was working hard at any point.  Wow, like these are the runs that you live for.

Wednesday 11/30/2011:  Off, starting to feel slothful... was trying to get out of lab early enough to run in the Arroyo, but got home pretty close to sundown, and then some work related catastrophes had to be addressed ASAP.  Decided I should just get some errands done and run tomorrow instead.

Thursday 12/01/2011:  A 1 hour jog/walk interspersed with a large proportion of bushwhacking from Monterrey to Rose Bowl... back on surface streets (7.2 miles) ... yikes.  If I had known that this was about to happen, perhaps I might have made a bigger effort to run in the Arroyo yesterday.  This entire city looks like the apocalypse just came through... including a lot of big trees collapsed in the Arroyo.  First bridge is impassable, the stretch between Monterrey and second bridge is particularly bad on both sides.  Sad to see all of the trees :(.  Jogged into a heavy headwind to the RB, then exited on California and headed back on surface streets to avoid repeating the bushwhacking in darkness.  Felt kind of awful in addition to the conditions, Garmin says I was going ~8 minute miles when I was moving, though I didn't bother to stop it while I navigated the obstacles.  Sidewalks weren't great either, hard to gain much momentum with all of the debris.  Swim practice canceled due to the winds.

Friday 12/02/2011:  Off again.  This week has been terrible for exercise.  Also, feeling sleep deprived and awful lately.  Probably should have run at night anyways, but instead elected to eat and get a decent night of sleep for the first time this week.

Saturday 12/03/2011:  Huntington / Oak Knoll (6.1 miles), 48:35 (7:58 pace) Skipped swim practice to sleep in and go on a morning jog with Clara and some folks from the team.  Street debris was manageable, though I could foresee this being bad after dark.  I still wasn't feeling super... not sure why since I felt so awesome on Tuesday.  Perhaps it is the cumulative effects of sleep deprivation. 

Week #5 Total:  25.5 miles, a lot of super duper snailing this week.  Ugh, gotta nip this in the bud!  Next week = time to get serious!

gobble, gobble, here comes trouble

It's that time of year again, when free holiday goodies get left in the workplace kitchen... when family force feeds you delicious feasts... when egg nog and pumpkin pie and holiday cheer abound.  A good time to gain 5 pounds, unless, ofcourse you've already gained them prior to the holidays, well... this is going to be trouble!

I've been struggling with getting my weight down since the last few weeks of the running layoff, and I'm just THIS close to throwing in the towel and embracing the rotundity... but all told, I want to have made SOME progress this year.  On January 1st, 2012, I want to run faster and weigh less than I did on January 1st 2011.  I'm pretty sure there is a zero percent chance that I will swim faster on 1/1/2012, but I think I've come to terms with that already... at the end of the day, you win some, you lose some. 

Sunday 11/20/2011:  Monterrey to Rose Bowl (7.1 miles), 52:34 (7:24 pace), an awesome run in the drizzle then rain!  I never want to run in the rain, but when I get out there, I usually end up enjoying it.  Saw a fair number of other runners out there too, which was cool!  Clothes got very, very, saturated and heavy though... had to keep pulling pants up.  There is no jogging in the rain, you sort of just have to embrace the blurry vision and the soggy shoes and the adversity.  Felt pretty okay, fatigue was minimal.  Glad to see how well I held up on the longest run yet.  Delicious burger and fries afterwards.

Monday 11/21/2011:  3800 yards in the pool.  Holy macaroni the pool was cold today.  It was kind of okay if you kept moving, but between sets and kicking/pulling, it got to be pretty frigid.  Freestyle still feels like death (just super tired), but the other strokes felt like they were improving.  People must think I've gone nuts because I take every opportunity to mix up the strokes, which I usually never, ever do.

Tuesday 11/22/2011:  Rose Villa/San Gabriel/Lombardy/Hill (4.7 miles), 34:55 (7:26 pace), what a busy and odd day.  Swim practice got canceled because of pool temperature.... oh boy.  I guess it turned out okay because I had to work late anyways.  Wanted to do something tempo-ish, but I forgot to stretch on Sunday and ended up with some weird calf soreness/shin splint-like pain that hasn't quite resolved yet.  Instead, went on a nice, leisurely run around the neighborhood to take it easy on the calf.  Felt really really good this run, HR was back down to normal-ish parameters too.  I love running at night and I love running in my Newtons!  Running on pavement still feels like a novelty to me.  Its so much easier than running on the trails...

Wednesday 11/23/2011:  Huntington/Virginia from Chester (6.45 miles), 47:42 (7:24 pace), started my break from swimming a little bit early.  The crazy busy-ness and after dark pavement run continues... Grossly underestimated the mileage on this one, making it my second longest run so far.  Route had a little bit more by the way of hills than the runs I've been doing lately.  Glad to see that the pace was still decent and the legs felt strong, though the breathing left a little to be desired.  HR still pretty low though, which is encouraging.

Thursday 11/24/2011:  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  On the plane almost all day, no exercise.  Non-traditional thanksgiving meal afterwards.  Pretty tasty, did not overeat too much. 

Friday 11/25/2011:  Fresh Pond from Home (7 miles), 51:02 (7:17 pace), this run was hard... perhaps even "unpleasant"... but when I got home and saw 51 minutes on the Garmin, I felt a lot better.  Maybe it was the combination of long flight, big dinner and two cats, but I was just feeling a bit off today.  Then, I fell head first into a giant mud pit on the dirt section of the Fresh Pond path... ugh, that is how you can ruin a $155 pair of shoes... this section of trail was an amazing disaster... I never realized before because its usually frozen over when I am here.  Anyways, this was one of those days where I felt like a rhinoceros having an asthma attack and every segment of road was uphill... but it turns out I was actually keeping a solid 7 minute mile pace until the last extended uphill.  I think I'll count this as my tempo segment for this week even though it was not particularly speedy, because the effort was there.  Then played ~2 hours of tennis with the dad, it was pretty fun but I think this totally did me in.  Completely wiped out from head to toe afterwards.

Saturday 11/26/2011:  Off again, so, so, so sore.  I don't really think I've felt this sore... ever.  In fact, I could not sleep well yesterday because it hurt too much to even turn over in bed.  Whole body hurts, eeeee!  Tried to see if things would loosen up towards the end of the day, but I still felt like I've been hit by a bus.  Figured week #4 was not the time to push the limits.  Ooof.

Week #4 Total:  25.3 miles, hmmmm, looks like I am not doing so great with my goals... but this week is still decent, and I'm keeping a pretty steady pace.

curse you, can of pumpkin puree...!

Arghhhhhh... toe still feels like a truck ran over it, when in reality it was only a can of pumpkin puree.  Perhaps the pumpkin puree is being wrongly maligned, maybe I need to change the title to "curse you, careless Trader Joe's employee who did not stack the pumpkin puree can display properly"...

In other news, I think I'm going to start having "goals" again in some unstructured manner.  For the rest of November, the goal is to get to ~30 miles per week of running, while maintaining quality and one day per week with some tempo-ish component.  The more ambitious goal is to do my core strengthening exercises at least 2 x week.  We'll see how that one turns out.

Sunday 11/13/2011:  Monterrey to Third Bridge (5.2 miles), 39:34 (7:37 pace), snailing.  This run would have been okay except for that I was feeling incredibly, uncomfortably full for the first two miles and slogging painfully along.  Felt a lot better after a minor barfing incident.  Though I have long logged this route as 5.3 miles, the Garmin has persistently been saying 5.2, and since it matches my gmaps distances for all of the other permutations of the "Monterrey to X" routes...  I've decided to concede the point on this one.

Monday 11/14/2011:  Return to swim practice, feeling mentally a little bit better today.  3850 yards, a light day but there was a bunch of butterfly and IM pulling in there.  Eeesh, the toe was killing me though, and it kept throbbing even after I got out of the pool!

Tuesday 11/15/2011:  2 x Arroyo 3-mile Loops, (6 miles), 42:37 (7:06 pace), an unexpectedly encouraging run.  Did the first loop at a comfortable pace (21:57), then picked it up to a tempo-ish effort on the second loop (20:40).  This is the fastest I've run both one and two of these loops, and I felt really strong and good at the end.  Pleasantly surprised!  Honestly felt sort of worn out when I started and was expecting the tempo portion to become a painful slog but it wasn't at all.  4200 yards in the pool afterwards, if I squint and look sideways maybe the snailing is improving a little bit?

Wednesday 11/16/2011:  Both PF a little sore today.  4500 yards in the pool, this started out decently, but good golly I was completely and totally destroyed by the end.  I don't think I've ever swam so slow as during that last set... at least the toe didn't hurt as much today.

Thursday 11/17/2011:  California to Salvia Canyon, (5 miles), 37:27 (7:30 pace), snailing along.  Feeling antsy, legs wanted to pick it up, but the cardiovascular system wasn't having any of it today.  Usually I like to hammer the downhill return leg, but forced myself to chill out instead.  I feel like I'm just in such an odd place with running right now, not really sure how to proceed.  Swim practice had to scrapped in favor of frantically cleaning the apartment for Peter's arrival tomorrow.

Friday 11/18/2011:  Rose Villa/Madre/California/Hill (5.95 miles), 43:50 (7:23 pace), pavement/Newtons day!  Another pleasant after-dark run around the neighborhood.  Felt a little bit tired in the middle, but then energized again on that last stretch coming back on California, which is odd because its slightly uphill.  A lot of the time these days, it just feels like my legs have a mind of their own, and the rest of my body and my poor cardiovascular capacity is just holding them back.

Saturday 11/19/2011:  3800 yards in the pool, on a cold and gloomy morning.  Tired, but glad that I went, because almost all of the old crew showed up today!  Great to swim with these folks again.  Feeling kind of nostalgic about earlier this year, when my swimming was faster and I was more excited about going to practice...

Week #3 Total:  22.15 miles, still going strong!

house of cards

Week two blues... historically, the second week is the hardest, because you're no longer "well rested" but you haven't appreciably gained fitness.  This feels different though, physically I actually feel pretty strong, at least pertaining to running.  Running every other day more or less preserves the "well rested" feeling, I guess.  I think this week, the general life funk that I'm feeling is just bleeding over into my running. 

Though in reality, this feeling that everything is on the verge of crashing to the ground in one fell swoop is something I legitimately still need to worry about with running (among... other things).  These first few runs have felt good, but my feet still feel much more rickety than I'd like, and I'm not convinced of a solidly upward trend quite yet.

Sunday 11/06/2011:  1 x Washington Park Loop (3.6 miles, Denver), 27:10 (7:33 pace), this run was all sorts of disaster... Ran the first 8 minutes or so at an uncomfortable pace in order to warn Peter of the toilet overflow disaster... then snailed along the rest of the way.  Since I forgot the Garmin on this trip, it is not clear exactly what happened, but all I know is that I much prefer the feeling of negative split runs.  Oh, well.

Monday 11/07/2011:  AM:  travel home, had to fly in steerage for the first time in several years!  PM:  4450 yards in the pool.  Wish I could figure out how to fix the snailing... but maybe the 3 days off did me good, because at least my shoulders didn't feel quite so achey. PF felt great yesterday but a little sore today... not sure if something is wrong, or if it is because I overdid the golf ball arch rolling, per Andre's warning... meh.

Tuesday 11/08/2011:  Monterrey to Second Bridge (4.6 miles), 33:01 (7:11 pace), this was actually a solid "put a smile on your face" sort of a great run!  Enjoying the extra oxygen here, feeling strong and smooth.  It got pretty dark at the end though, so the footing was a bit sketchy in the last stretch, but no complaints here.  A nice lady in the Arroyo told me I was speedy and my form looked great, which I actually really really appreciated, especially after the mess that's been the past 2 months.  4100 yards in the pool afterwards, low-ish yardage day but there was some hard stuff in there.

Wednesday 11/09/2011:  Unexpected completely off day.  I've been feeling really terrible with respect to swimming for the past few weeks, but the plan was to try to hang on until I got a little bit of a break when I went home for Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, I realized I just wouldn't make it 2 more weeks when I found myself unable to pay attention in class today because my arms and shoulders were so painful.  Like not the sore, "good" tired... but like a warm, inflamed, aching feeling.  Ugh, I don't know.

Thursday 11/10/2011:  Monterrey to Second Bridge (4.6 miles), 33:41 (7:19 pace), hungry, dehydrated and grumpy today.  Legs just felt really weak.  Also, strange pain in L ankle didn't work itself out for the first mile... that didn't help either.  I guess not every run can be a good run...  Also, felt cold and tired.  Took a nap afterward instead of swim practice.

Friday 11/11/2011:  Rose Villa/San Gabriel/Lombardy (4.65 miles), 35:20 (7:36 pace), a nice, relaxed semi-dark run around the neighborhood.  I so heart my Newtons.  Both PF a little sore, but this was a pleasant run.  Day off from work due to Veteran's Day.  It would have been a really nice day except for that a poorly stacked display of pumpkin puree cans fell on my foot, and the casualty was my right big toe.  At first it looked completely fine, but then 5 minutes later I looked down and there was just blood everywhere!  Ugh.... blood has still been oozing out from the periphery of the nail all day, but I patched it up with some gauze for the run.  Fortunately it doesn't hurt on the bottom of the toe, so it didn't affect my run... but I'm moderately concerned about the potential for infection.   Bah, humbug!

Saturday 11/12/2011:   Ah, the sign of failure... completely off day #2... :(  Decided to keep the Franken-toe out of the pool as a public service, and to be prudent in not running 3 days in a row at this juncture.  So, on my ass I do sit.  It's been weeks now since the secondaries have been submitted, but I still feel as though I've been hit by a bus.  I wish at some point I could stop feeling like I need 15 hours of sleep per day. 

Week #2 Total:  17.45 miles, still of decent quality.  At least the mileage ramp so far is going faster than before, and I've gained the ability to run on pavement.  Two things to be encouraged by!

return of the curse of the training log!

Ugh, so here I am, two months later... having just logged my first "real" run in... two months. 

For the past few years, I've been plagued by the curse of the training log.  Every time I post something here, I get horribly injured, without fail.  That is the curse of the training log.  It is real people, and it is powerful.  Just after my last entry in August, I tore the edge of my left plantar fascia, just under the cuboid.  &#%$.  I was thinking at first maybe it was just a locked cuboid, or maybe it was just a petty little strain... but in the end, it claimed 6 weeks... basically the same as a stress fracture.  $%@#!  I've been jogging 3 x a week for the past 2 weeks on the treadmill and finally got the go ahead to run outside.  

So, here we go again.  It is time to retire the curse of the training log, I will not be cowed by this irrational coincidence!

Sunday 10/30/2011:  Arroyo 3 mile loop, 21:03 (7:01 pace), PF felt a little tight in the morning, so I wasn't sure about this run, but it warmed up very nicely throughout the day, and there was no pain during the run.  Wore old racing flats, orange/white Brooks in which I set most of my PRs 6 years ago (ouch!).  Felt kind of cathartic to just blast through all of the rocky parts, after a year of having to tip toe carefully around them in the Vibrams.  Anyways, so maybe I started out a bit too fast (Garmin says 6:42 for the first mile) and there was maybe a bit too much huffing and puffing, but on the whole I am pleased with this run, as I think it means that I am not completely devoid of fitness, even after 2 months!  Yay?

Monday 10/31/2011:  Happy Halloween!  Woke up with no PF pain, what a relief... AM:  PT with Andre, core strengthening stuff, drills and the like.  PM:  4000 yards swimming.  Still snailing along in the pool, not really sure why... but somehow rallied to log some non awful 200y intervals at the end.

Tuesday 11/01/2011:  Arroyo 3 mile loop, 20:54 (6:58 pace), woke up and arghhhh... the outsides of my feet were sort of sore... can't imagine why... but it worked itself out nicely by the time the evening rolled around, so went for my next scheduled run.  Really, really thought that I did a good job of dialing it back today, but apparently I failed!  It just feels so good to run fast...  I guess I will just have to try harder to snail along on Thursday.  Then jumped in the pool for 4550 yards swimming.  It still feels exhausting and bad, but I think I felt inspired to snail a little less today.  Not a bad day for exercise.

Wednesday 11/02/2011:  4600 yards in the pool.  Feeling sort of beat up, shoulders are sort of accumulating this dull fatigued ache... plus the outsides of BOTH feet are still sore.  Argh.  Don't think its PF related, maybe the shoes?

Thursday 11/03/2011:  Arroyo 3 mile loop, 21:04 (7:01 pace), feet significantly less sore today, but lost the battle against coffee... didn't feel all that great, but oddly enough, ran about the same!  Legs kinda just seem to do their own thing, like they have their own rhythm... I'm pleased at how strong and good they feel, maybe there's something to all of those weird PT exercises.  3600 yards swimming afterwards.  There was above average amount of dawdling today, so the yardage suffered, but given the amount of soreness in my shoulders, maybe this was for the best.

Friday 11/04/2011:  Completely off.  Allergy shots, travel, so on so forth.  Free food abounds!  Not a good combo, though managed to stick with going cold turkey on candy, chocolate and desserts.  Word on the street was that the free desserts were super delicious... :'(

Saturday 11/05/2011:  1 x Washington Park Loop (3.6 miles, Denver), 26:46 (7:26 pace), Hmmmm, I don't know about this one guys.  The altitude sort of makes you feel like you're running through molasses... it felt like I was going super slow, but finished the loop in 19 minutes, which is unusually fast.  Saw some other fellow Newton-ites :)  I think I've lost the ability to snail... maybe tomorrow.

Week #1 Total:  12.6 miles, but all of high quality.

evolution / non sequitor...

In this year 2011, after many years of being kicked around the running/track scene, I learned something new about myself as a runner.  But upon further reflection, I decided that it was less that I discovered something new about myself, and more that I have evolved both physically and mentally as a runner.  

As of this year, I, of "how can anyone be so slow over 400m???" fame (see below), actually enjoy running fast.  To be clear, by "fast" I mean, 6-7 minute miles, not sprinting or racing fast, and by "enjoy" I literally mean, I enjoy the physical process of doing, rather than "its sucky while I'm doing it, but I feel so good afterwards".  

How to tell if you're not a sprinter:  What, what???  Me run 66.93, yeah, when pigs fly... I ran 76.93 that day, and someone took it upon themselves to manually correct the fully automatic timing system results... because, well who could possibly, possibly be so slow?  Note:  the subtraction of 10 seconds still makes me last.  Sad :(

It probably all started with the whole barefoot running dealio... which naturally forces one to land on ones forefoot, thus transforming my running style from a "cockroach mashing" midfoot strike to a spritely toe-strike.  For the first time, I started hearing people say "wow your form is so amazing!" instead of "wow, its... so loud every time your feet land!"  Anyways, there is something about my new stride that makes running faster feel like the way running was meant to be.

Suddenly, picking up the pace has gone from stressful and taxing, to satisfying and delightful.  I so love the sound of even breathing, the pumping of arms, the picking up of knees and a smooth, quick, kick-back.  It feels like freedom and joy...  something sublime that I don't really remember being there in the endless hours of my past training.  Part of the reason why its taken me so long to increase my running mileage is because I've been loathe to add volume if it meant decreasing speed.  The logs from January to August of this year can be found here:

2011 Lukas Verzbicas inspired Swim/Run Injury Prevention Training

Some quick notes:

• I was super lazy about running in December, which accounts for some of the slow runs in January
• Footware are mostly vibrams, G = green bikilas, R = red sprints, S = normal shoe (lightweight trainer from 2004), N = Newtons!
• "Washington Park" indicates Peter's place in Denver, at altitude --> slow, and "Bailey Canyon" is a significant, steep hill climb --> even slower!

The comments are not always useful, but hey, this is a direct upload from my own personal log.  I won't be updating this google docs in the future, as I greatly prefer the additional functionality of my Excel file... mostly its just out there to cover the January - August time frame so I don't have to write specific posts about that :).

oh, hi there bloggity blog!

Its been some time, hasn't it?

On one hand, I really no longer have time to chronicle my athletic pursuits (or lack thereof), but then I was thinking about it the other day and I've kept this training log since 2006... so it seems a shame to lose a record of some of the more physiologically interesting (if not competitively fruitful) training  that I've had in the year or so that I've been away.  So, I will make a renewed attempt to post... some stuff... sometimes.  Deal?  Deal.

Okay, well lets start with the reallllly old stuff.  After femoral neck stress fracture (diagnosed May 2010), I lolled around in my misery for a while until I went, kicking and screaming to the pool around July.  Started running in Vibrams on grass with 385m of infield every other day sometime towards the end of August.  Both of these enterprises can be seen chronicled through the end of 2010 here:

2010 Injury Training Log

I was actually just perusing this file with some amusement a few days ago.  Quick thoughts:

• Running:  Hey, actually I was kind of a trooper to stick to those paces despite my extreme lack of fitness and extreme abundance of mass. (Pats self on back).
• Swimming:  Some of those earlier entries are so adorably slow!  Its kind of a good feeling to be new at something and hence still have the ability to improve rapidly.

Alrighty, onwards and upwards (or whatever the "-wards" derivative of "more speedily" is).