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.
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