*RESTRUCTURING*
All of last week, I didn't even feel like running at all. It just felt like whatever I did, it just wasn't ever going to get better. The last few weeks I've been slowly getting sucked backwards, feeling more exhausted and running slower than the week before... Since I'm running at most 25 miles a week, I would have a hard time believing in overtraining, though some would say the symptoms are remarkably similar. I kept thinking it was just a little kink and a week taken easy would put me back on track, but clearly, that strategy is failing miserably--the comeback train has crashed and burned... just like my favorite trail... now that Mt. Wilson is burnt to a crisp.
On Saturday afternoon, lying on my back on the floor, the feeling of broken and defeated seemed like it was seeping out of every pore. I'm really really struggling and I don't know why... I'm the person who can get into PR shape in 6 weeks. I'm the person who used to swim for 80 minutes in the morning, then run for 80 minutes at night and still want to race the last 400m. Now, I'm a person who can't get through the day without a nap... who finds 6 miles of running to be exhausting... who periodically experiences a day where something closes up at the back of the throat and its just impossible to breathe properly. I used to think what was holding me back was my gimpy foot, but now its like... there's something bigger here, something systemic, something nebulous and bad and scary.
Today I've decided, enough is enough. Real athletes do NOT lie on their backs wanting to die. Real athletes get up and fight for what they want. If I want to be a good runner, I need to start acting like one.
On Monday, I will make an appointment with the Asthma doctor. Tuesdays for the time being will be striders (straightaways, jog turn rest x 10). Saturdays will be 3 x Arroyo Tempo loops, in a thirds progression format, with the last one being hard but below threshold. I think part of the problem is that I need to let the speed come, instead of forcing out 185 bpm effort level on a clearly taxed system. If I can get through a few weeks without consistently falling behind on the Saturday workouts, I will gradually re-instate threshold level intensity again on Tuesdays.
I will get through this. I will get through this. I will get through this.
Sunday 05/04: 1:06:08, Monterrey to RB with short detour. Given what happened on Saturday, I was concerned about even making it through a 60 minute run. This one was a struggle, but I felt like I won in the end. Emotionally, I needed to complete this run, and I needed for it not to be a disaster. I did, it wasn't. I can move on now. It was really hard in the beginning, I started to feel that tightness at the back of my throat all through the first 20 minutes, but I forced myself to focus and relax and as I got past the section with all of the little yellow flowers, I started to feel stronger and better. Stomach cramps toward the end, but made it through. Saw Jesse, in the Arroyo!
Did 4 x 100m striders and 2 sets of karaokes and quick steps at the Caltech track. Saw Coach Dow! I heart Coach Dow. He's one of those people who really makes me feel inspired to be not only a proficient athlete, but also to be a classy one, with good sportsmanship, hard work, integrity, etc. Since he's been checking up on me periodically throughout the past few years... starting from when I first started this whole "running" thing... I really wished that I could report back to him that I've accomplished something, that I've done something with all of this--but instead I had to tell him the truth, which is that I really haven't done much by the way of competing lately... but I'm trying.
Monday 05/05: Off. Shots. Both the allergy kind and the jello kind, for cinco de mayo. Threw the football around on the deck with the co-workers. Legs feel a little bit sore and tight, but not like that awful warm, dull, achey feeling that I felt all of last week.
Tuesday 05/06: 43:35, first session of striders. ~15 min warm up, 10 x 100m with jog turn rest, ~15 minutes of cooldown. Then quicksteps and karaokes on the track, stretched and left. Groggy feeling in the beginning, mentally and physically, but turned out pretty good in the end. Felt good to move quickly, legs felt strong, but still struggling some on the breathing end. L foot tendonitis actually pretty quiet today, despite the fact that I took a chance on not taping. If tomorrow isn't an exhausted disaster, I'm going to say I'm happy with this workout.
Wednesday 05/07: 43:15, Monterrey to bridge loop. Nice, overcast morning. A pretty neutral run. It wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't really good enough to make me excited and optimistic feeling. I guess that's okay for now. Just need to repair the damage at this point.
Also today, went to asthma doctor. Got some singulair for the coughing and shortness of breath. He said that if that helps, maybe I can be part of an experimental treatment for people with allergy induced asthma. I think I would have to think about that one... but let's hope this helps anyways.
Thursday 05/08: 48:37, California to Salvia Canyon Rd. Day 1 on Singulair tablets, admittedly I wasn't super hopeful, given the sheer number of medications I've been put on and then taken off of due to lack of effectiveness. However, preliminary results are promising! I woke up this morning and did NOT have the dry cough, nor the blood clots coming out of my nose.
Definitely noticed on the run that it was easier to breathe, it was almost like I didn't even know what to DO with all of this oxygen! Didn't go crazy though, bc the legs were actually feeling vaguely tired from a muscular standpoint. Ran a little bit harder towards the middle and coasted in the last 10 minutes. Still, a few minutes faster than a run like this would normally take. Felt extra motivated today, so did 4 striders and some drills at the Caltech track.
Friday 05/09: Off, shots, traveling. I wonder if walking to every terminal at LAX counts for anything. Stupid flight cancellations. Also, large welt at injection site today... I hope this doesn't adversely affect my progress towards being a less allergic person.
Saturday 05/10: 37:43, Attempted and failed to do a tempo run here in Colorado... I think there's like an axiomatic rule of the universe that says that a week shall not elapse without me having a run that makes me want to die. Seeing as my morale has survived the past 6 days, I suppose this week's had to be today.
About 45 degrees and windier than I've ever seen in my life. Was going to do a couple miles of progressive tempo running at a HS track, but this turned out to be a miserable failure due to wind and altitude. It was gusting almost continuously at about a 30 degree offset from the straightaway, so basically there was a crosswind or a headwind or both almost the entire way, was huffing and puffing and struggling on my warm up which was not a good sign, but that was the sheer amount of effort required to move forwards at all. I doubt that I managed considerably faster on the non warm up portion, basically you had to lean into the direction of the wind just to avoid being blown over. The only analogy that I think is even vaguely accurate to describe this situation is running around in circles against a strong current of glue.
Felt beyond terrible, wind cut through everything including shoes and socks, ear drums hurt badly from the cold and wind, felt like my head was freezing from the inside out. It was all I could do to make myself finish 2 miles, then couldn't make it through the whole cool down, bc I couldn't bring the hyperventilating under control still trying to move against the wind. Teeth were chattering for a good 30 minutes afterwards.
No Goals this week. Need to get my head back in the game, and that entails so much more than running X number of minutes in Y number of days.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Week of 04/27/2008 - 05/03/2008 (Base Week 7)
Last week basically turned out to be more of just a week that lacked focus and direction more so than a week that was restful and regenerative. Despite that, I'm starting the third microcycle feeling stronger and slightly less despondent about my training. Let's just see if that lasts through Tempo Tuesday...
The mountains are also burning again :(. We could see the fires coming back from SCIACs and it was really, scarily close to where the Mt. Wilson trails are! eeeeeeeee.... There's also ash raining down on my house too... not good.
Sunday 04/27: 1:10:53, trail perimeter of RB to yellow gate at JPL, then back towards Arroyo to add up to 70 minutes. 4 x 100m striders, moderately high quality, followed by karaokes and quick steps, abysmally low quality. Mostly managed to get up on time, around 6:30 am, so only about the last 10 minutes or so were too hot. Loads better than yesterday, felt pretty good.
Monday 04/28: Off, shots. Hmmmmmmmm... my body really did not enjoy either striders or karaokes, because my entire lower body is sore, sore, sore. Had to concentrate not to walk funny/extremely slowly so as not to draw stares from confused co-workers... why am I so weak? Sad, sad, sad.
Tuesday 04/29: 44:01, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops, a.k.a. Why Do I Even Bother... (15:11, 11:56, 15:34) worst one yet. They say, when you've hit rock bottom, the only direction you can go is up--but actually, that's not true at all: you can also stay where you are forever, OR you can fall through the rocks into the molten core of the earth and get fried to a crisp. I'm just saying...
Basically, all of my other runs are trending upwards, but these tempo loop deals are at best, not improving... but more realistically dis-improving. Which is actually not desirable at all, since after all I'm training so that I can one day RACE again and not be completely abominable... not so that I can do base runs every day for the rest of my life... glaghalghalgha.
Wednesday 04/30: 45:16, Monterrey to bridge loop, you would think a recovery run couldn't possibly be the worst run of your life, but one would be surprised, let me tell you... Whole body felt heavy and dull and achey, and BOTH arches were cramping in the morning. Taped both feet very tightly but they still hurt during the run either despite or because of the taping. Yeah, I think this day deserves the ol' Steve Slattery quip 'Like 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag'.
Thursday 05/01: Off. Emergency extra off day. Woke up just feeling still dull and aching all over, especially around the hips. Not to mention that even after 8 hours of sleep I still felt like death. Worst of all, I just didn't even feel like running at all... Something's just gone horribly wrong with my body lately.
Friday 05/02: Off. Shots. Stopped by the Caltech bookstore to pick up an "MIT - Because not everyone can go to Caltech" shirt for a competition at work next week. I asked if they accepted credit cards, since it's been a while... and was told that they did, just not quarters. I was initially confused about why she would think I would attempt to pay with quarters... but then I remembered that I was back in the land of the incredibly smart folks who very often lack common sense. It's been a while...
Saturday 05/03: 33:31, California to RB. Woke up still feeling remarkably lousy despite TWO days off... and also without being able to shake this weird dry raspy cough. Basically this was an awful terrible run that had to be cut short because I just couldn't breathe. Felt light headed and woozy by the time I got up the one switchback to my car... something's just gone really horribly wrong with my body.
Target Training this week: 4 hours 15 minutes
Actual Training: 3:13:31
Maybe I should just stop making goals... g-damn...
Monday, April 21, 2008
Week of 04/20/2008 - 04/26/2008 (Base Week 6)
The second down week has arrived...
...and unfortunately, now I know that I need it. Basically, the goals for this week are as follows:
1) Heal bad L ankle
2) Not to have any days that feel like last Sunday and Thursday
Basically, nothing fancy. I really just want to make sure that I land on my feet (literally and figuratively) on the other side of this little rough patch. Every time I start to feel better physically and fitness wise, I just want to do so much more... but I guess I have to be careful, because sometimes that just leads to re-injury again.
Sunday 04/20: 1:04:15, Monterrey to RB and back on the other side. Same long run as Week 1, but 2 minutes faster. Felt good. Ankle better than before but still some tweaks. Taped higher up on the metatarsals today, wasn't sure if it was any better than taping at the toes while I was running, but later on in the day, my feet felt a lot better than normal. Mostly a good run. Saw Jill! She's running Big Sur in a week, sounds pretty hard core.
Monday 04/21: Aaahhhhhhhhh! Baby chicks Baby chicks Baby chicks!!!!! SO INSANELY CUTE. Peter and I went to go see KB and Ian's newly hatched baby chicks, they were even cuter than I thought they would be! (Off. Shots, etc. ankle feeling a lot better)
Tuesday 04/22: 43:07, gahlghalghlaghahga... a terrible, awful run with no redeeming qualities. 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:41, 11:55, 15:10 plus jog back to car. Felt like death, a lot of huffing and puffing... kept looking at HR monitor expecting it to read 215 but it was really only 185 -9. Can't figure out why... felt like it was an all out effort, though HR did not show that. Everything just felt horrible, feet hurt, legs heavy, lungs asphyxiated, AND it was really really slow on top of that, wtf?
I really wasn't expecting this, there've been 2 good runs and a rest day leading up to today, so there really weren't any indications that everything would suddenly fall apart now. Allergies have been really bad the past few days, and haven't slept well but since that hasn't really seemed to affect the other runs, I didn't think it would affect this one so catastrophically. Sigh.... *frowny face*.
Wednesday 04/23: 43:51, Monterrey to bridge loop. Tired-ish, still having a lot of trouble waking up. Slow but not sloppy. L ankle really crunchy, you can hear all of this popping and crackling when I move it around... but not completely tweaked out like last week. Tendonitis between 1st and 2nd metatarsals a little sore since yesterday.
Thursday 04/24: 41:06, out and back along Seattle waterfront with Kevin! In town for conference today, met up in the AM before talk. Great overcast but not raining weather, nice area, felt good in the beginning, but tough to come back in the headwind, I don't think we were going very fast. First time in a few months on the pavement, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Easier on the ankles, harder on the metatarsals... no surprises here.
Friday 04/25: Off, shots. Hmmm.... legs kinda feel warm and achey, also bottoms of both feel feel sore.... I don't think my body liked the concrete yesterday. This does not bode well for hypothetical far away marathon.
Saturday 04/26: 41:32, Monterrey to bridge loop. Ran easy, with 6 x stride outs in the middle portion. Slept in until about 8:30, was already 80 degrees and sunny by the time I got out there... sucked. Hard to get the gears moving, but better towards the end. Felt troubled by the amount of out of breath I felt after each one. It really doesn't seem that the tempo loops are building any sort of proficiency at the higher ranges of exertion...
Target Training this week: 3 hours 15-45 minutes
Actual Training: 3:53:51
...and unfortunately, now I know that I need it. Basically, the goals for this week are as follows:
1) Heal bad L ankle
2) Not to have any days that feel like last Sunday and Thursday
Basically, nothing fancy. I really just want to make sure that I land on my feet (literally and figuratively) on the other side of this little rough patch. Every time I start to feel better physically and fitness wise, I just want to do so much more... but I guess I have to be careful, because sometimes that just leads to re-injury again.
Sunday 04/20: 1:04:15, Monterrey to RB and back on the other side. Same long run as Week 1, but 2 minutes faster. Felt good. Ankle better than before but still some tweaks. Taped higher up on the metatarsals today, wasn't sure if it was any better than taping at the toes while I was running, but later on in the day, my feet felt a lot better than normal. Mostly a good run. Saw Jill! She's running Big Sur in a week, sounds pretty hard core.
Monday 04/21: Aaahhhhhhhhh! Baby chicks Baby chicks Baby chicks!!!!! SO INSANELY CUTE. Peter and I went to go see KB and Ian's newly hatched baby chicks, they were even cuter than I thought they would be! (Off. Shots, etc. ankle feeling a lot better)
Tuesday 04/22: 43:07, gahlghalghlaghahga... a terrible, awful run with no redeeming qualities. 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:41, 11:55, 15:10 plus jog back to car. Felt like death, a lot of huffing and puffing... kept looking at HR monitor expecting it to read 215 but it was really only 185 -9. Can't figure out why... felt like it was an all out effort, though HR did not show that. Everything just felt horrible, feet hurt, legs heavy, lungs asphyxiated, AND it was really really slow on top of that, wtf?
I really wasn't expecting this, there've been 2 good runs and a rest day leading up to today, so there really weren't any indications that everything would suddenly fall apart now. Allergies have been really bad the past few days, and haven't slept well but since that hasn't really seemed to affect the other runs, I didn't think it would affect this one so catastrophically. Sigh.... *frowny face*
Thursday 04/24: 41:06, out and back along Seattle waterfront with Kevin! In town for conference today, met up in the AM before talk. Great overcast but not raining weather, nice area, felt good in the beginning, but tough to come back in the headwind, I don't think we were going very fast. First time in a few months on the pavement, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Easier on the ankles, harder on the metatarsals... no surprises here.
Friday 04/25: Off, shots. Hmmm.... legs kinda feel warm and achey, also bottoms of both feel feel sore.... I don't think my body liked the concrete yesterday. This does not bode well for hypothetical far away marathon.
Saturday 04/26: 41:32, Monterrey to bridge loop. Ran easy, with 6 x stride outs in the middle portion. Slept in until about 8:30, was already 80 degrees and sunny by the time I got out there... sucked. Hard to get the gears moving, but better towards the end. Felt troubled by the amount of out of breath I felt after each one. It really doesn't seem that the tempo loops are building any sort of proficiency at the higher ranges of exertion...
Target Training this week: 3 hours 15-45 minutes
Actual Training: 3:53:51
Monday, April 14, 2008
Week of 04/13/2008 - 04/19/2008 (Base Week 5)
Disgruntling:
A few years ago, I rescued a wall clock from a friend who was going to throw it away because it "ticked too loudly". Apparently the ticking of the second hand drove him crazy at night when he was trying to go to sleep. I don't really mind it. It's been living in my bedroom every since.
A few weeks ago, I was delighted to realize that the second ticks conveniently beat out the pattern of a 60 bpm HR. As I went to sleep I realized that my own heartbeats were just ever so slightly off-set from the ticking as to be just under 60 bpm. Since my resting HR creeps up to near 70 when I haven't been running for an extended period of time, I was happy to see that my body was slowly becoming closer to the athlete state.
On Sunday it was > 95 degrees, and distinctly uncomfortable even long past sundown... as I lay sleepless and blinking in the dark, trying not to move... I realized that my heart beats were racing egregiously faster than the clock. What the hell happened to "Spring"? Now that its basically not cold anymore, its scorching... summer training is going to be tough.
Sunday 04/13: 1:16:49, California to RB, once around the trail perimeter and back. I was really looking forward to this run, which is why it makes it all the more consterning that it somehow turned into a miserable disaster. SCIACs went horribly late on Saturday because they had to start the men's high jump at 11 pm... *shakes fist at Redlands*, ergo I did not get to bed until close to 1 am... I felt like ass when the alarm went off at 6 am to go running, and about the same at 7:30 am when I finally did get out of the house. It was a bearable temperature for about 12 minutes until I left the shade of the Arroyo...
In addition to the heat and the vague sleep deprivation headache, my quads were inexplicably sore... until it occurred to me that maybe this happened because a bunch of us were trying to do these gymnastics holds on the bars at the meet, and one of those endeavors ended with a very sharp pain in both quads. Everything just felt soooooo slow and heavy. Usually by the end of a longer run I feel itchy to pick up the pace, but not today... it kinda felt like all the gears other than "trundling" were smashed to pieces. Sucked.
To make matters worse, I typically put the bad days to rest in blissful ignorance of the distance covered... but unfortunately I do have some idea of how long this route is due to other people's gmaps. Ugly. Reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaal ugly. At least someone cleared out all of those damn weeds from the trail perimeter around the RB. Fewer allergies... good stuff.
Monday 04/14: Off. Shots. Quads feeling better today. Body still kinda feels dull. Bleh.
Tuesday 04/15: 42:45, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:39, 11:39, 15:04 plus jog back to car. Okay. So, back to the drawing board: I said last week that if things were still bad this week, I'd reassess, so I'm reassessing. Despite the fact that tempo loop mostly went back to normal, I'm considering this session poor for two reasons--the high HR profile on the jog laps, and the slowness of the third lap. Mostly I feel the same on all of those third laps, but the pace on the third lap is a good indicator of how taxing the tempo section was on that particular day.
Elevated resting HR, slowness of the easy days and this persistent dull feeling in my legs--I'd like to blame the heat and the sleeping poorly, but it probably also means that there's accumulated (vs. short-range, event specific) fatigue there. I think maybe for someone who's still struggling with endurance, the 50 - 65 - 75 min progression of long runs in about a month's time was not good... also going from 1 non-jogging day per week to about 3, feeling exhausted after Down Week #1.... all maybe risky choices.
Here are the changes that I will make in the next few weeks:
--This week's Thursday run will be changed from "moderate" to "easy". Saturday's fartlek will be replaced with 10 x 100m striders.
--Next week will still be Down Week #2, so long run will be scaled back to 60-65 minutes.
--For the microcycle beginning in Week 7, I will not increase the training load over this past cycle until I feel like my body is better able to recover in a sustainable manner.
I think I learned something valuable on this run though. I already had a feeling things weren't going to go well after Loop 1 was so slow and crappy feeling, so I just really tried to focus on being smooth, relaxed and efficient, keeping good form on the tempo lap. I think that really pulled me through pace-wise, vs. last week where I felt like I was just trying to fight the fatigue by expending more energy.
Wednesday 04/16: 43:15, Monterrey to bridge loop. A nice, placid run at ideal temperature (low 50's)... and thank goodness for that. Lately, the world is a conspiracy to keep me from sleeping at night--last night at 12:30 am, just after all of the local stores had closed but hours after I had gone to bed... I was awakened by an infernal beeping noise. As it turned out, my smoke detectors had chosen this moment to express their dissatisfaction with the amount of battery life remaining. Needless to say once I had managed to quell this particular problem, I felt like death when the alarm went off at 6 am, and even more like death when I finally got out to the trails at 7 am. Fortunately, I felt much improved after about 5 minutes of running.
Thursday 04/17: 52:31, California to Salvia Canyon. Glgaglhgalhgalhga... felt like basura, just like Sunday. Part of the badness can be attributed to bad L ankle... for some reason it really flared up today. Hard to walk afterwards, thank goodness tomorrow is mandatory rest.
Friday 04/18: Off. Shots. Still bad L ankle... hurts to walk, not a good sign. Tried to ice some of it away, but ended up freeze-burning some skin instead.
Saturday 04/19: 40:26, Monterrey to bridge loop. L ankle shaky but better than past few days... decided to wrap it pretty exhaustively and hope for the best. Couldn't do the strides in this state, so decided instead to do the moderate base run that I didn't do on Thursday. Felt pretty good, surprisingly. Mostly no pain during the run, and was pleased to see that I finished in the same amount of time as the Week 2 progression run. Definitely felt like a much lower effort level on this one.
Target Training this week: 4 hours 20 minutes
Actual Training: 4:15:46
Some weeks, you just don't achieve your goals...
A few years ago, I rescued a wall clock from a friend who was going to throw it away because it "ticked too loudly". Apparently the ticking of the second hand drove him crazy at night when he was trying to go to sleep. I don't really mind it. It's been living in my bedroom every since.
A few weeks ago, I was delighted to realize that the second ticks conveniently beat out the pattern of a 60 bpm HR. As I went to sleep I realized that my own heartbeats were just ever so slightly off-set from the ticking as to be just under 60 bpm. Since my resting HR creeps up to near 70 when I haven't been running for an extended period of time, I was happy to see that my body was slowly becoming closer to the athlete state.
On Sunday it was > 95 degrees, and distinctly uncomfortable even long past sundown... as I lay sleepless and blinking in the dark, trying not to move... I realized that my heart beats were racing egregiously faster than the clock. What the hell happened to "Spring"? Now that its basically not cold anymore, its scorching... summer training is going to be tough.
Sunday 04/13: 1:16:49, California to RB, once around the trail perimeter and back. I was really looking forward to this run, which is why it makes it all the more consterning that it somehow turned into a miserable disaster. SCIACs went horribly late on Saturday because they had to start the men's high jump at 11 pm... *shakes fist at Redlands*, ergo I did not get to bed until close to 1 am... I felt like ass when the alarm went off at 6 am to go running, and about the same at 7:30 am when I finally did get out of the house. It was a bearable temperature for about 12 minutes until I left the shade of the Arroyo...
In addition to the heat and the vague sleep deprivation headache, my quads were inexplicably sore... until it occurred to me that maybe this happened because a bunch of us were trying to do these gymnastics holds on the bars at the meet, and one of those endeavors ended with a very sharp pain in both quads. Everything just felt soooooo slow and heavy. Usually by the end of a longer run I feel itchy to pick up the pace, but not today... it kinda felt like all the gears other than "trundling" were smashed to pieces. Sucked.
To make matters worse, I typically put the bad days to rest in blissful ignorance of the distance covered... but unfortunately I do have some idea of how long this route is due to other people's gmaps. Ugly. Reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaal ugly. At least someone cleared out all of those damn weeds from the trail perimeter around the RB. Fewer allergies... good stuff.
Monday 04/14: Off. Shots. Quads feeling better today. Body still kinda feels dull. Bleh.
Tuesday 04/15: 42:45, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:39, 11:39, 15:04 plus jog back to car. Okay. So, back to the drawing board: I said last week that if things were still bad this week, I'd reassess, so I'm reassessing. Despite the fact that tempo loop mostly went back to normal, I'm considering this session poor for two reasons--the high HR profile on the jog laps, and the slowness of the third lap. Mostly I feel the same on all of those third laps, but the pace on the third lap is a good indicator of how taxing the tempo section was on that particular day.
Elevated resting HR, slowness of the easy days and this persistent dull feeling in my legs--I'd like to blame the heat and the sleeping poorly, but it probably also means that there's accumulated (vs. short-range, event specific) fatigue there. I think maybe for someone who's still struggling with endurance, the 50 - 65 - 75 min progression of long runs in about a month's time was not good... also going from 1 non-jogging day per week to about 3, feeling exhausted after Down Week #1.... all maybe risky choices.
Here are the changes that I will make in the next few weeks:
--This week's Thursday run will be changed from "moderate" to "easy". Saturday's fartlek will be replaced with 10 x 100m striders.
--Next week will still be Down Week #2, so long run will be scaled back to 60-65 minutes.
--For the microcycle beginning in Week 7, I will not increase the training load over this past cycle until I feel like my body is better able to recover in a sustainable manner.
I think I learned something valuable on this run though. I already had a feeling things weren't going to go well after Loop 1 was so slow and crappy feeling, so I just really tried to focus on being smooth, relaxed and efficient, keeping good form on the tempo lap. I think that really pulled me through pace-wise, vs. last week where I felt like I was just trying to fight the fatigue by expending more energy.
Wednesday 04/16: 43:15, Monterrey to bridge loop. A nice, placid run at ideal temperature (low 50's)... and thank goodness for that. Lately, the world is a conspiracy to keep me from sleeping at night--last night at 12:30 am, just after all of the local stores had closed but hours after I had gone to bed... I was awakened by an infernal beeping noise. As it turned out, my smoke detectors had chosen this moment to express their dissatisfaction with the amount of battery life remaining. Needless to say once I had managed to quell this particular problem, I felt like death when the alarm went off at 6 am, and even more like death when I finally got out to the trails at 7 am. Fortunately, I felt much improved after about 5 minutes of running.
Thursday 04/17: 52:31, California to Salvia Canyon. Glgaglhgalhgalhga... felt like basura, just like Sunday. Part of the badness can be attributed to bad L ankle... for some reason it really flared up today. Hard to walk afterwards, thank goodness tomorrow is mandatory rest.
Friday 04/18: Off. Shots. Still bad L ankle... hurts to walk, not a good sign. Tried to ice some of it away, but ended up freeze-burning some skin instead.
Saturday 04/19: 40:26, Monterrey to bridge loop. L ankle shaky but better than past few days... decided to wrap it pretty exhaustively and hope for the best. Couldn't do the strides in this state, so decided instead to do the moderate base run that I didn't do on Thursday. Felt pretty good, surprisingly. Mostly no pain during the run, and was pleased to see that I finished in the same amount of time as the Week 2 progression run. Definitely felt like a much lower effort level on this one.
Target Training this week: 4 hours 20 minutes
Actual Training: 4:15:46
Some weeks, you just don't achieve your goals...
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Week of 04/06/2008 - 04/12/2008 (Base Week 4)
Argh! So, as it turns out, my down week wasn't very restful at all... but onwards we go.
I'm feeling a little bit of everything this week. I'm cautiously optimistic, a little frustrated, a lot stircrazy. Just have to remember to make good decisions for my above averagely fragile feet.
FYI, after much investigation, I have deemed Rite Aid brand foot wrap to be the best, over ACE, Johnson & Johnson, and Walgreens brand. The key is that it is supportive with the right degree of give, and its also very thin, which means that it doesn't change the way my foot settles into the shoe.
Sunday 04/06: 1:18:04, Out and back along a little river in Colorado with Peter (on bike). Mostly it was this hard packed driveable dirt road which was a lot more impact than the squishy trails that I'm used to, but it was okay after some getting used to. Between the altitude, and the skiing, I felt really sore and beat for the first 30 minutes, but it gradually worked itself out. Felt pretty good after 30 minutes, so kept on going a bit ambitiously for about 40, then turned back. A lot faster and smoother on the way back. Picked it up a little bit at the end, but finished feeling loads better than when I started.
Longest run yet. Feet have actually held up remarkably well through the ski boots and the long run. Felt really encouraged by the fact that 78 minutes didn't feel bad at all. It's possible that's because I was going like 12 minute miles... but I guess I'll never know. Surprised to feel sore and tired through the hips and quads from skiing. Long run helped work out some of that, but still don't feel fantastic.
Monday 04/07: Off. Shots, traveling. Got up at 3 am CA time to get on plane back home. Took Metro to work straight from the airport. Didn't feel as terrible as expected, but was tough.
Tuesday 04/08: 43:24, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:52, 12:03, 15:07 plus jog back to car. *BIG SIGH*... well fuck then, we're back to square one. Aaaarrrghhhh... I was mostly expecting this disaster, but it's still not a good feeling. I vaguely considered re-shuffling this week to give myself an extra day before Tempo Day, but in the morning I talked myself into the fact that I could somehow will myself to do well today despite some counter-indications.
Maybe it's that my body did not enjoy being awake for 20 hours yesterday, or that my legs are still trashed from my adventures in Colorado, I'm not quite sure... but HR was high and erratic this morning, and then it was unusually low on the uptempo lap, but I just didn't feel like I could pick it up, which is also unusual. Will would say that's classic indications for being tired, which may be true. I knew I was in trouble bc the first jog lap was so slow, so I already started telling myself, its about the effort level, the training value is about the effort level... in a month it will only matter that I ran this lap at a HR of 185, and not that the lap was not accomplished in an acceptable amount of minutes and seconds. I'm so far away from my next date of competition, that it doesn't matter, I just have to get through the bad days...
I'm really trying to make running a more positive thing in my life this time around, so I mostly reasoned myself out of a sour mood by mid-day. The week will go on, I will try to get sleep and keep it together, and if NEXT week is still similarly bad, then I'll have to think about whether I need to make an adjustment to my training.
Wednesday 04/09: 44:27, Monterrey to bridge loop. Didn't particularly feel bad, but reallllllly slow. Crap, maybe two bad days in a row doesn't constitute a trend, but it bugs me because I can't figure out where I went wrong. What's really upsetting is that I feel like the skiing and the slightly-longer-than-supposed-to-long run are like things that are just part of the variation of life... and its really discouraging to realize that one's body is so fragile as to not be able to accommodate such things. I don't know if this is a ME thing, or if this is a generalized "not used to daily exertion" thing.
Thursday 04/10: 48:26, California to Salvia Canyon. Finally, a good run! Broke out a new pair of shoes and socks, both were excellent. Felt good, so ran a bit harder than usual, legs felt ready for a whole lot more, but decided to restrain myself due to intensive ingraining of low HR training philosophy... Faster than last week, and I didn't even cut off that extra loop on the other side of the bridge this time. Was really, really tempted to gmaps this route to figure out the actual pace... but I have resisted.
Friday 04/11: Off. Shots. Baked cookies for the brats tomorrow.
Saturday 04/12: 39:52, Jogged from Monterrey to first bridge, then 8 x 1 minute pick ups, then jogged the remainder back to car. Kind of a mixed bag on this one... the original plan (per suggestion of The Brain) was to jog 10 minutes, then do 10 x 1 on, 1 off, then jog 10 minutes = 40 minutes which is about the length of the route. The fatal flaw turned out to be that the 1 off was just untenable to be recovered in time for the next segment, so it kinda degenerated into 60-80 second pick ups on 3 minute cycles.
After about 6, I started feeling that soreness between the first 3 extensor tendons on the bad foot... so I decided to cut it at 8 and leave myself 6 minutes of cooldown instead of 2. The last one was almost 2 minutes at high intensity, felt it in my legs for the first time in about a year.
Body definitely freaked out by even short excursions into above-threshold territory--that was not a surprise to me, but I also realized that I may not be as badly off as it feels, if that makes any sense. There were a lot of strollers out in the Arroyo today, so a greeting generally had to be dispensed during each of the pick ups. Every time I opened my mouth to say something I realized that I actually had a lot more breath to spare than it felt like...
Really had a lot of trouble finding the right pace and effort level. Mainly focused on having high turnover and good form, the point of this exercise being to move my legs at a racing gait instead of a trundling gait. From a bodily perspective it wasn't bad, felt good about the range of higher paces, even though most of them didn't feel like they would be supported by my current cardiovascular capacity... if you kinda tuned out the "hard to breathe" part, I felt like I was relaxed, smooth and that legs shifted pretty easily to higher gears. Felt really good afterwards, like I could go on another run.
Target Training this week: 4 hours 15 minutes
Actual Training: 4:14:13
I'm feeling a little bit of everything this week. I'm cautiously optimistic, a little frustrated, a lot stircrazy. Just have to remember to make good decisions for my above averagely fragile feet.
FYI, after much investigation, I have deemed Rite Aid brand foot wrap to be the best, over ACE, Johnson & Johnson, and Walgreens brand. The key is that it is supportive with the right degree of give, and its also very thin, which means that it doesn't change the way my foot settles into the shoe.
Sunday 04/06: 1:18:04, Out and back along a little river in Colorado with Peter (on bike). Mostly it was this hard packed driveable dirt road which was a lot more impact than the squishy trails that I'm used to, but it was okay after some getting used to. Between the altitude, and the skiing, I felt really sore and beat for the first 30 minutes, but it gradually worked itself out. Felt pretty good after 30 minutes, so kept on going a bit ambitiously for about 40, then turned back. A lot faster and smoother on the way back. Picked it up a little bit at the end, but finished feeling loads better than when I started.
Longest run yet. Feet have actually held up remarkably well through the ski boots and the long run. Felt really encouraged by the fact that 78 minutes didn't feel bad at all. It's possible that's because I was going like 12 minute miles... but I guess I'll never know. Surprised to feel sore and tired through the hips and quads from skiing. Long run helped work out some of that, but still don't feel fantastic.
Monday 04/07: Off. Shots, traveling. Got up at 3 am CA time to get on plane back home. Took Metro to work straight from the airport. Didn't feel as terrible as expected, but was tough.
Tuesday 04/08: 43:24, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:52, 12:03, 15:07 plus jog back to car. *BIG SIGH*... well fuck then, we're back to square one. Aaaarrrghhhh... I was mostly expecting this disaster, but it's still not a good feeling. I vaguely considered re-shuffling this week to give myself an extra day before Tempo Day, but in the morning I talked myself into the fact that I could somehow will myself to do well today despite some counter-indications.
Maybe it's that my body did not enjoy being awake for 20 hours yesterday, or that my legs are still trashed from my adventures in Colorado, I'm not quite sure... but HR was high and erratic this morning, and then it was unusually low on the uptempo lap, but I just didn't feel like I could pick it up, which is also unusual. Will would say that's classic indications for being tired, which may be true. I knew I was in trouble bc the first jog lap was so slow, so I already started telling myself, its about the effort level, the training value is about the effort level... in a month it will only matter that I ran this lap at a HR of 185, and not that the lap was not accomplished in an acceptable amount of minutes and seconds. I'm so far away from my next date of competition, that it doesn't matter, I just have to get through the bad days...
I'm really trying to make running a more positive thing in my life this time around, so I mostly reasoned myself out of a sour mood by mid-day. The week will go on, I will try to get sleep and keep it together, and if NEXT week is still similarly bad, then I'll have to think about whether I need to make an adjustment to my training.
Wednesday 04/09: 44:27, Monterrey to bridge loop. Didn't particularly feel bad, but reallllllly slow. Crap, maybe two bad days in a row doesn't constitute a trend, but it bugs me because I can't figure out where I went wrong. What's really upsetting is that I feel like the skiing and the slightly-longer-than-supposed-to-long run are like things that are just part of the variation of life... and its really discouraging to realize that one's body is so fragile as to not be able to accommodate such things. I don't know if this is a ME thing, or if this is a generalized "not used to daily exertion" thing.
Thursday 04/10: 48:26, California to Salvia Canyon. Finally, a good run! Broke out a new pair of shoes and socks, both were excellent. Felt good, so ran a bit harder than usual, legs felt ready for a whole lot more, but decided to restrain myself due to intensive ingraining of low HR training philosophy... Faster than last week, and I didn't even cut off that extra loop on the other side of the bridge this time. Was really, really tempted to gmaps this route to figure out the actual pace... but I have resisted.
Friday 04/11: Off. Shots. Baked cookies for the brats tomorrow.
Saturday 04/12: 39:52, Jogged from Monterrey to first bridge, then 8 x 1 minute pick ups, then jogged the remainder back to car. Kind of a mixed bag on this one... the original plan (per suggestion of The Brain) was to jog 10 minutes, then do 10 x 1 on, 1 off, then jog 10 minutes = 40 minutes which is about the length of the route. The fatal flaw turned out to be that the 1 off was just untenable to be recovered in time for the next segment, so it kinda degenerated into 60-80 second pick ups on 3 minute cycles.
After about 6, I started feeling that soreness between the first 3 extensor tendons on the bad foot... so I decided to cut it at 8 and leave myself 6 minutes of cooldown instead of 2. The last one was almost 2 minutes at high intensity, felt it in my legs for the first time in about a year.
Body definitely freaked out by even short excursions into above-threshold territory--that was not a surprise to me, but I also realized that I may not be as badly off as it feels, if that makes any sense. There were a lot of strollers out in the Arroyo today, so a greeting generally had to be dispensed during each of the pick ups. Every time I opened my mouth to say something I realized that I actually had a lot more breath to spare than it felt like...
Really had a lot of trouble finding the right pace and effort level. Mainly focused on having high turnover and good form, the point of this exercise being to move my legs at a racing gait instead of a trundling gait. From a bodily perspective it wasn't bad, felt good about the range of higher paces, even though most of them didn't feel like they would be supported by my current cardiovascular capacity... if you kinda tuned out the "hard to breathe" part, I felt like I was relaxed, smooth and that legs shifted pretty easily to higher gears. Felt really good afterwards, like I could go on another run.
Target Training this week: 4 hours 15 minutes
Actual Training: 4:14:13
Monday, March 31, 2008
Week of 03/30/2008 - 04/05/2008 (Base Week 3)
Week 2 has safely passed and overall I feel pretty good about how it went. Didn't increase training minutes, but the Thursday/Saturday runs felt a lot more solid than Week 1. Good to have a bit more variety in pace, even if its like pulling teeth.
To be conservative and mindful of my abysmal endurance levels, I'm starting off with a few 3 week microcycles, so every 3 weeks there's a down week. So far, not doing a great job of this first down week, but anticipating Saturday to be lost to skiing, so the total training minutes should be pretty low this week. Just gotta keep my fingers crossed for no ugly crashes...
Sunday 03/30: 1:00:12, some trundling around the Arroyo/RB. Was supposed to be a 50-55 min scaled back long run, but couldn't find a good route, so after some faulty mental math and mish-mashings of various loops, I ended up with a 60 minute run, oh, well. Felt increasingly better towards the end. Always go through this weird thing with longer runs where the first 20-30 min kind of feels like a drag, and then it clears up and its quicker and easier towards the end. This is why I prefer my long runs to be 90+ minutes so that the good-feeling part is larger proportion of the whole.
Monday 03/31: Off. Shot day. Not enough sleep, bad way to start off the week. L ankle not feeling so hot...
Tuesday 04/01: 41:33, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:12, 11:37, 14:25 plus jog to car. Waiting for that tempo section to converge to acceptable pacing is like watching grass grow. Actually, I guess I should be thankful that progress IS being made at all. At this rate, I may even be at target pace in just over a month. I'm always afraid that this week will be the week where something blows up and I get slower than last week. But, so far so good.
Not the best of runs though... woke up feeling really drained and crappy after wasting 4 of 8 hours of sleep on nightmares. Almost did not get out of bed, noticed HR was a tick higher than last week, then got attacked by 3 loose dogs about 3 minutes into the tempo loop, and just never really regained composure... I was in the *perfect* stride/effort level until the dogs, then everything got all messed up, kinda didn't settle back down. ARGH. CURB YOUR EFF-ING DOG(S) PEOPLE!!!!! *shakes fist*
Wednesday 04/02: 36:20, Parked at Monterrey and ran out 18 or so minutes in the Arroyo and came back. Feeling pretty good! First time that body isn't trashed after tempo day. Also feeling kind of tormented about the whole down week. I really don't LIKE it. I don't have enough minutes to really have room to cut any! Not that I've cut significantly yet, but today and tomorrow are going to be 5-10 minutes shorter each, then Saturday is an additional off day, so overall its a large drop in training minutes.
Thursday 04/03: 42:13, Monterrey to bridge loop. Felt alright, definitely out of that rough patch where this run was taking an inordinate amount of time. Ran into the same lady walking her dog a couple of times, on the last one, she said "wow, you're fast!". I'm not, but it was nice of her anyways.
Friday 04/04: Off. Shot day, plus traveling. Got into Denver late, but so happy to see Peter!
Saturday 04/05: Skiing! A great day. Having barely squeaked over the 3 hours of training mark, went off to play hooky with a moderately clear conscience. It's been about 10 years since the last time I skied with any frequency, so it was a little bit harrowing at first... but was really fun as I started to remember how it works. Had some nasty spills, but nothing affecting my running parts, so was pleased. Fell on my face though, wasn't so good.
Target Training this week: 3 - 3.5 hours
Actual Training: 3:00:18
NEW! courtesy of Tech Staff--Consternment Index: Medium-Low
To be conservative and mindful of my abysmal endurance levels, I'm starting off with a few 3 week microcycles, so every 3 weeks there's a down week. So far, not doing a great job of this first down week, but anticipating Saturday to be lost to skiing, so the total training minutes should be pretty low this week. Just gotta keep my fingers crossed for no ugly crashes...
Sunday 03/30: 1:00:12, some trundling around the Arroyo/RB. Was supposed to be a 50-55 min scaled back long run, but couldn't find a good route, so after some faulty mental math and mish-mashings of various loops, I ended up with a 60 minute run, oh, well. Felt increasingly better towards the end. Always go through this weird thing with longer runs where the first 20-30 min kind of feels like a drag, and then it clears up and its quicker and easier towards the end. This is why I prefer my long runs to be 90+ minutes so that the good-feeling part is larger proportion of the whole.
Monday 03/31: Off. Shot day. Not enough sleep, bad way to start off the week. L ankle not feeling so hot...
Tuesday 04/01: 41:33, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:12, 11:37, 14:25 plus jog to car. Waiting for that tempo section to converge to acceptable pacing is like watching grass grow. Actually, I guess I should be thankful that progress IS being made at all. At this rate, I may even be at target pace in just over a month. I'm always afraid that this week will be the week where something blows up and I get slower than last week. But, so far so good.
Not the best of runs though... woke up feeling really drained and crappy after wasting 4 of 8 hours of sleep on nightmares. Almost did not get out of bed, noticed HR was a tick higher than last week, then got attacked by 3 loose dogs about 3 minutes into the tempo loop, and just never really regained composure... I was in the *perfect* stride/effort level until the dogs, then everything got all messed up, kinda didn't settle back down. ARGH. CURB YOUR EFF-ING DOG(S) PEOPLE!!!!! *shakes fist*
Wednesday 04/02: 36:20, Parked at Monterrey and ran out 18 or so minutes in the Arroyo and came back. Feeling pretty good! First time that body isn't trashed after tempo day. Also feeling kind of tormented about the whole down week. I really don't LIKE it. I don't have enough minutes to really have room to cut any! Not that I've cut significantly yet, but today and tomorrow are going to be 5-10 minutes shorter each, then Saturday is an additional off day, so overall its a large drop in training minutes.
Thursday 04/03: 42:13, Monterrey to bridge loop. Felt alright, definitely out of that rough patch where this run was taking an inordinate amount of time. Ran into the same lady walking her dog a couple of times, on the last one, she said "wow, you're fast!". I'm not, but it was nice of her anyways.
Friday 04/04: Off. Shot day, plus traveling. Got into Denver late, but so happy to see Peter!
Saturday 04/05: Skiing! A great day. Having barely squeaked over the 3 hours of training mark, went off to play hooky with a moderately clear conscience. It's been about 10 years since the last time I skied with any frequency, so it was a little bit harrowing at first... but was really fun as I started to remember how it works. Had some nasty spills, but nothing affecting my running parts, so was pleased. Fell on my face though, wasn't so good.
Target Training this week: 3 - 3.5 hours
Actual Training: 3:00:18
NEW! courtesy of Tech Staff--Consternment Index: Medium-Low
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Week of 03/23/2008 - 03/29/2008 (Base Week 2)
The first week of somewhat structured training has come and gone, and while I feel a bit worse for the wear, I'm thinking that running semi-regularly makes me a happier person.
Tentatively, each week will follow an adaptation of the Meinhold TP for the Chronically Injured format:
Sunday - Long run (currently starting at 65-ish minutes, hopefully building to 90 before XC 2008)
Monday - Off. Shots.
Tuesday - Upper threshold tempo (currently 1 x Arroyo Tempo Loop, hopefully build to 3 or 4)
Wednesday - Recovery jog
Thursday - Moderate base run
Friday - Off. Shots.
Saturday - Currently random base run, eventually lower threshold steady state.
My biggest quibble about how this is set up is the Saturday workout. I'm operating on the hypothesis that the weekly long run should be at an easy but not slovenly pace, meaning that the 3 training elements are concentrated within Sat - Tues, and then you have 3 nondescript days in a row Wed-Fri. I considered swapping Saturday and Thursday, but Peter says that you get the most out of your uptempo days if they are the days immediately following the rest days. I guess this will be a matter for further investigation...
Sunday 03/23: 1:04:35, RB to Devil's gate, then to yellow gate at JPL, then back around the other side of the RB. I really like that ~1 mile stretch before you get to the yellow gate. Woke up at 8 am, but was still warmer than I would have liked. Felt weak and dehydrated for the first 20 minutes, and struggled up that hill to get past Devil's gate. Started feeling better over the next 20 minutes, and then much better in the last 20 minutes, so I was able to pick it up a little bit towards the end. Definitely cognisant of the accumulated fatigue from the past week, did not feel fresh and easy like last Sunday.
Monday 03/24: Off. Shot day. Felt inordinately sore. Unclear why, but it started Sunday afternoon and has persisted. Argh.
Tuesday 03/25: 42:15, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loop, per usual in 14:36, 11:48, 14:30 plus jog back to car. Slowly chipping away at those lap times... felt really good today, from a musculature standpoint. Mystery soreness was completely gone this morning, leaving fresh and happy legs. HR is down to desirable levels (145-155 for the jog laps and 185 for the tempo lap). Breathing is still the weakest link.
Also, L shoe has begun to rub unpleasantly across the end of my metatarsals, kind of aggravating the general area around the bad toe. This was happening a little bit towards the end of Sunday's run, but was getting really bad on the third lap. Very consterning, probably will try different shoes tomorrow :(.
Wednesday 03/26: 44:34, Monterrey to bridge loop. Gah, I'm really feeling averse to this route lately. Also, today's was the third one in a row where the pace has been unsatisfactory, even for a recovery run... starting to piss me off.
On another note, breaking out the last pair of Saucony Triumph 3's solved the foot irritation problem. Unfortunately, I discovered that I actually really liked the Gel Nimbus, save for the feature where it rubs over the top of my foot. Aasics are just way too narrow for my feet, seeing as the pair I have are already the wide versions. Ugh. But they're really comfortable and minimalist with not a lot of bulk to the shoe, which I really like. The old Triumphs felt stiff and bulky in comparison, but part of that is probably just that they haven't been broken in. I'm going to have to revisit this whole shoe buying thing this weekend.
Thursday 03/27: 50:09, California to Salvia Canyon like last week. Really enjoy this route. Thursday mornings also seem to be this perfect temperature where one is a bit too cold for the first 5 minutes, and then just right. Felt pretty good, faster towards the end.
Friday 03/28: Off, shot day. Felt pretty crappy due to having stayed up late to do taxes before the TurboTax rates went up... booo taxes.
Saturday 03/29: 40:23, Monterrey to bridge. Woke up late, but fortunately it was cloudy out so it hadn't already become 80 degrees out. Still felt too warm, but this week I felt well enough to do a moderate progression run. It's really like pulling teeth these days to run outside of the comfort zone. I can't tell if it's because I'm really sold on the low HR training thing, or if it's because my body can't remember any other paces.
I started with about 10 minutes of comfortable running, then picked up the pace over the next 15 minutes, and then finished with 15 minutes at a few ticks under tempo pace. The middle segment felt the worst, due to slight uphill. Legs felt pretty good, so tried to focus on keeping good form and even effort, but mind kept wandering to how this state just did not feel as good as the easy runs, and if this indicates extremely poor fitness and whether I was taxing my balky body inordinately with this second uptempo run. At any rate, all was survived to wrap up this second week.
Target Training this week: 4 hours
Actual Training: 4:01:56
Consternation Index: Moderate
(Markkimarkkonen, "Consternment" is not a word, according to dictionary.com)
Tentatively, each week will follow an adaptation of the Meinhold TP for the Chronically Injured format:
Sunday - Long run (currently starting at 65-ish minutes, hopefully building to 90 before XC 2008)
Monday - Off. Shots.
Tuesday - Upper threshold tempo (currently 1 x Arroyo Tempo Loop, hopefully build to 3 or 4)
Wednesday - Recovery jog
Thursday - Moderate base run
Friday - Off. Shots.
Saturday - Currently random base run, eventually lower threshold steady state.
My biggest quibble about how this is set up is the Saturday workout. I'm operating on the hypothesis that the weekly long run should be at an easy but not slovenly pace, meaning that the 3 training elements are concentrated within Sat - Tues, and then you have 3 nondescript days in a row Wed-Fri. I considered swapping Saturday and Thursday, but Peter says that you get the most out of your uptempo days if they are the days immediately following the rest days. I guess this will be a matter for further investigation...
Sunday 03/23: 1:04:35, RB to Devil's gate, then to yellow gate at JPL, then back around the other side of the RB. I really like that ~1 mile stretch before you get to the yellow gate. Woke up at 8 am, but was still warmer than I would have liked. Felt weak and dehydrated for the first 20 minutes, and struggled up that hill to get past Devil's gate. Started feeling better over the next 20 minutes, and then much better in the last 20 minutes, so I was able to pick it up a little bit towards the end. Definitely cognisant of the accumulated fatigue from the past week, did not feel fresh and easy like last Sunday.
Monday 03/24: Off. Shot day. Felt inordinately sore. Unclear why, but it started Sunday afternoon and has persisted. Argh.
Tuesday 03/25: 42:15, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loop, per usual in 14:36, 11:48, 14:30 plus jog back to car. Slowly chipping away at those lap times... felt really good today, from a musculature standpoint. Mystery soreness was completely gone this morning, leaving fresh and happy legs. HR is down to desirable levels (145-155 for the jog laps and 185 for the tempo lap). Breathing is still the weakest link.
Also, L shoe has begun to rub unpleasantly across the end of my metatarsals, kind of aggravating the general area around the bad toe. This was happening a little bit towards the end of Sunday's run, but was getting really bad on the third lap. Very consterning, probably will try different shoes tomorrow :(.
Wednesday 03/26: 44:34, Monterrey to bridge loop. Gah, I'm really feeling averse to this route lately. Also, today's was the third one in a row where the pace has been unsatisfactory, even for a recovery run... starting to piss me off.
On another note, breaking out the last pair of Saucony Triumph 3's solved the foot irritation problem. Unfortunately, I discovered that I actually really liked the Gel Nimbus, save for the feature where it rubs over the top of my foot. Aasics are just way too narrow for my feet, seeing as the pair I have are already the wide versions. Ugh. But they're really comfortable and minimalist with not a lot of bulk to the shoe, which I really like. The old Triumphs felt stiff and bulky in comparison, but part of that is probably just that they haven't been broken in. I'm going to have to revisit this whole shoe buying thing this weekend.
Thursday 03/27: 50:09, California to Salvia Canyon like last week. Really enjoy this route. Thursday mornings also seem to be this perfect temperature where one is a bit too cold for the first 5 minutes, and then just right. Felt pretty good, faster towards the end.
Friday 03/28: Off, shot day. Felt pretty crappy due to having stayed up late to do taxes before the TurboTax rates went up... booo taxes.
Saturday 03/29: 40:23, Monterrey to bridge. Woke up late, but fortunately it was cloudy out so it hadn't already become 80 degrees out. Still felt too warm, but this week I felt well enough to do a moderate progression run. It's really like pulling teeth these days to run outside of the comfort zone. I can't tell if it's because I'm really sold on the low HR training thing, or if it's because my body can't remember any other paces.
I started with about 10 minutes of comfortable running, then picked up the pace over the next 15 minutes, and then finished with 15 minutes at a few ticks under tempo pace. The middle segment felt the worst, due to slight uphill. Legs felt pretty good, so tried to focus on keeping good form and even effort, but mind kept wandering to how this state just did not feel as good as the easy runs, and if this indicates extremely poor fitness and whether I was taxing my balky body inordinately with this second uptempo run. At any rate, all was survived to wrap up this second week.
Target Training this week: 4 hours
Actual Training: 4:01:56
Consternation Index: Moderate
(Markkimarkkonen, "Consternment" is not a word, according to dictionary.com)
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