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.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
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!
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!
Monday, November 7, 2011
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!
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!
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