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)
Monday, March 17, 2008
Week of 03/16/2008 - 03/22/2008 (Base Week 1)
It's time to get serious! If I'm ever to race again, I can't spend the rest of my life doing 40 minute jogs. Something has to kick my ass to get it together enough to make the most of my 5 days a week that I CAN run, so I've decided to officially start a base phase, with some structure to motivate myself to get my act together.
For a significant amount of time, I'm going to be on the 5 day plan, due to the 2 x week allergy shots which prohibit exercise 4 hours before and afterwards. Since I get home from work late at night, it's fairly prohibitive towards getting up at 4 am to run sufficiently before the 9 am shot.
Anyways, the condition of my foot being what it is, I'm picking my battles so far as the 5 day week. I think at this point the ability to train 5 days without accumulating injuries is better than the ability to train 6-7 days a week slowly accumulating injuries... We'll see how this turns out.
Sunday 03/16: 1:06:04, Monterrey to RB and back on the other side. Something resembling a proper distance run. A fantastic day, with a nice breeze. Went a mellow pace, 33:36 out and 31:50 back plus jog to car. Felt really good. Longest run yet. A significant jump from last week's sunday run, but feet don't feel that bad. A little bit of tenderness between the big toe and the bad toe, but taping helps. Maybe a little bit stupid to go suddenly for a longer run, but here's the thing...
Sometimes when you run, nice and relaxed and without cardiovascular pain, you get to this place of existential peace and calm, where thoughts seem to move fluidly and resolve themselves, where one is at peace with one's life and one's existence. It's this phenomena that to me is the flip side of all of the competitive angst and striving for self betterment that running also represents to me. It's clarity and peace and calm that I only feel through running.
The past few weeks have come with a whole lot of changes, stress, conflict and its only recently that I've become really aware of the mental and physical toll its been taking on me. When the intended turnaround point came, I just wasn't ready to give up this healing sense of calm that I felt at that moment. So I kept going, past that one, then the next logical turnaround point too... until finally I came all the way to the RB and realized that sooner or later this run would end, like all other runs before it.
Monday 03/17: Off. Shot day. The best part about today is that my feet don't hurt despite the longer run yesterday :).
Tuesday 03/18: 43:21, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops, same deal as last week. 14:48, 11:59, 15:07 plus jog to car. Times did not improve, but HR was much better across all three loops... I suppose that is mildly encouraging. Lots of work to do today, not a lot of time to feel crotchety about this workout, so oh, well. Also, very very cold today... in the 40's... wore gloves, but legs still felt nice and frosty after the first loop, eesh.
Wednesday 03/19: 44:17, Monterrey to bridge loop. Oooooooooh boy... didn't feel particularly bad but clearly tired from yesterday. Had to park far away, but can't blame all 2 minutes of slowness on that. Apparently my short and longterm endurance is about -5 on a scale of "none" to "good", if 12 minutes of upper threshold running is enough to have consequences for the next day. Also, mildly turned my L ankle, which put this unpleasant torque on the bad toe, which has begun to feel worse and worse as the day has progressed (after about a week and a half of feeling really good) .... aaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhh.....
Thursday 03/20: 50:43, California to RB, to the top of Salvia Canyon until the trail ends. A new run! A bit longer than it was supposed to be, but I was really excited to go up the little side trail next to the bike turnoff to get to Mt. Wilson. It wasn't long, but really liked the uphill. Also, saw Feldman and Jesse going back to the Arroyo.
Toe still felt a little bit sore from yesterday's twisting, so wrapped them again. I'm trying to wean myself from this practice, but my feet feel significantly better in the hours after the run when they are wrapped during the run vs. not.
Friday 03/21: Off. Shot day. Peter gets in today! Made cookies instead of run early this morning.
Saturday 03/22: 44:17, Monterrey to bridge loop. Argh, woke up at 7 am by force of habit, but realized it was weekend, so went back to sleep. This was a really bad decision, because it was already 75 and sunny by the time I got up at 10 am, which is approximately 15 degrees hotter than running weather that I appreciate. I definitely prefer 15 degrees too cold (45) than 15 degrees too warm (75). Felt crappy, throat was dry and scratchy feeling... legs felt okay but just that internal overheating sensation was unpleasant. Felt better towards the end but wasn't enough to salvage the overall runtime. Bah, will make an effort to get up early for tomorrow's "long" run.
Target Training this week: 3 hour 30 minutes
Actual Training: 4:08:42
Consternation Index: Moderate
For a significant amount of time, I'm going to be on the 5 day plan, due to the 2 x week allergy shots which prohibit exercise 4 hours before and afterwards. Since I get home from work late at night, it's fairly prohibitive towards getting up at 4 am to run sufficiently before the 9 am shot.
Anyways, the condition of my foot being what it is, I'm picking my battles so far as the 5 day week. I think at this point the ability to train 5 days without accumulating injuries is better than the ability to train 6-7 days a week slowly accumulating injuries... We'll see how this turns out.
Sunday 03/16: 1:06:04, Monterrey to RB and back on the other side. Something resembling a proper distance run. A fantastic day, with a nice breeze. Went a mellow pace, 33:36 out and 31:50 back plus jog to car. Felt really good. Longest run yet. A significant jump from last week's sunday run, but feet don't feel that bad. A little bit of tenderness between the big toe and the bad toe, but taping helps. Maybe a little bit stupid to go suddenly for a longer run, but here's the thing...
Sometimes when you run, nice and relaxed and without cardiovascular pain, you get to this place of existential peace and calm, where thoughts seem to move fluidly and resolve themselves, where one is at peace with one's life and one's existence. It's this phenomena that to me is the flip side of all of the competitive angst and striving for self betterment that running also represents to me. It's clarity and peace and calm that I only feel through running.
The past few weeks have come with a whole lot of changes, stress, conflict and its only recently that I've become really aware of the mental and physical toll its been taking on me. When the intended turnaround point came, I just wasn't ready to give up this healing sense of calm that I felt at that moment. So I kept going, past that one, then the next logical turnaround point too... until finally I came all the way to the RB and realized that sooner or later this run would end, like all other runs before it.
Monday 03/17: Off. Shot day. The best part about today is that my feet don't hurt despite the longer run yesterday :).
Tuesday 03/18: 43:21, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops, same deal as last week. 14:48, 11:59, 15:07 plus jog to car. Times did not improve, but HR was much better across all three loops... I suppose that is mildly encouraging. Lots of work to do today, not a lot of time to feel crotchety about this workout, so oh, well. Also, very very cold today... in the 40's... wore gloves, but legs still felt nice and frosty after the first loop, eesh.
Wednesday 03/19: 44:17, Monterrey to bridge loop. Oooooooooh boy... didn't feel particularly bad but clearly tired from yesterday. Had to park far away, but can't blame all 2 minutes of slowness on that. Apparently my short and longterm endurance is about -5 on a scale of "none" to "good", if 12 minutes of upper threshold running is enough to have consequences for the next day. Also, mildly turned my L ankle, which put this unpleasant torque on the bad toe, which has begun to feel worse and worse as the day has progressed (after about a week and a half of feeling really good) .... aaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhh.....
Thursday 03/20: 50:43, California to RB, to the top of Salvia Canyon until the trail ends. A new run! A bit longer than it was supposed to be, but I was really excited to go up the little side trail next to the bike turnoff to get to Mt. Wilson. It wasn't long, but really liked the uphill. Also, saw Feldman and Jesse going back to the Arroyo.
Toe still felt a little bit sore from yesterday's twisting, so wrapped them again. I'm trying to wean myself from this practice, but my feet feel significantly better in the hours after the run when they are wrapped during the run vs. not.
Friday 03/21: Off. Shot day. Peter gets in today! Made cookies instead of run early this morning.
Saturday 03/22: 44:17, Monterrey to bridge loop. Argh, woke up at 7 am by force of habit, but realized it was weekend, so went back to sleep. This was a really bad decision, because it was already 75 and sunny by the time I got up at 10 am, which is approximately 15 degrees hotter than running weather that I appreciate. I definitely prefer 15 degrees too cold (45) than 15 degrees too warm (75). Felt crappy, throat was dry and scratchy feeling... legs felt okay but just that internal overheating sensation was unpleasant. Felt better towards the end but wasn't enough to salvage the overall runtime. Bah, will make an effort to get up early for tomorrow's "long" run.
Target Training this week: 3 hour 30 minutes
Actual Training: 4:08:42
Consternation Index: Moderate
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