Baby Rabbit and Wormhole?
Once upon a time in a field near Denver, lived a large population of rabbits that roamed the plains and also the yards of folk who lived nearby. Now that spring has come, the rabbits produced baby rabbits, and when I came to visit Peter, I fell in love with them instantly.
In our excursions to spot the tiny baby rabbits, we often noticed them clamber through a hole cut out in a brick wall to allow rain water to drain out of a patio. Strangely enough, however, whenever the rabbits would climb through the hole, we could never ever find them on the other side. Even when one of us stood on the outside to witness the rabbit go through, and the other stood inside the patio waiting for it to appear...
The mystery continued for 2 days, I inspected the passageway, but found the sides of the hole to be solid... strange indeed. Sadly enough however, before I could alert the theoretical physicists that a worm hole had opened up that allowed the passage of baby rabbits into distant parts of the universe... Peter examined the hole in the wall again and declared that there was a secret passageway directly UP from the opening, and somehow the rabbits were climbing into the wall itself. I suppose I will have to find some other way to be remembered in the annals of scientific discovery than to be the first person to find a real functional wormhole...
Sunday 05/25: 1:18:39, River path to end of golf course. First Colorado solo driving... I think I angered many fellow drivers with my inept bungling through construction, poorly marked lanes, and bad eyesight combined with small unreadable street signs. Path was nice and placid except for the occasional road crossing, and golf cart route crossing. Went real easy about 42 minutes out and back mostly the same way. Gently rolling terrain, since nothing is really truly ever flat out here. I think I unintentionally scared about 20 rabbits on my way.
Monday 05/26: 50:18, Wildcat Trail out by Peter's house. Trails out here are so strange, and oddly situated around housing complexes, highways and other such non nature-like things. This one was pretty nice, if one could get over the creepy crackling of overhead power lines. Terrain was neat and hilly though and seemed to go on for a long time. I'm starting to think that ALL runs out here have the property of seeming to be mostly uphill in BOTH directions.
Tuesday 05/27: Off, shots, traveling. A lot of work and not a lot of sleep. Stressed and bummed out feeling. Meh.
Wednesday 05/28: 42:45, Monterrey to bridge loop at 6:30 am after a little less than 5 hours of sleep (and 3 hours the day before). Hard to get up but I felt motivated to do this run today. Usually I feel really tired and awful after a travel day, so decided to do the easy run today, and tempo tomorrow. L foot/ankle feeling a bit balky today, but otherwise a pleasant run.
Thursday 05/29: 55:59, warm up, 3 mile steady state on track, cool down. 3 miles in 21:35 (7:11.5, 7:08.6, 7:14.7) slooooooooow, but you know, all told I'm okay with it. Definitely way faster than anything I've done this year, and running faster than a trundle feels good. It feels unfamiliar, for sure, but good.
I still get really excited and nervous when I get on the track, ran a surprisingly fast first lap, freaked out about the split, then forced myself to settle down on the second, but after that the 7:10-ish pace felt really even, controlled and easy for the first 2 miles. I think my body just quit after 2 miles though, because that last mile felt pretty awful even if the slowdown factor doesn't look that bad on paper--I wondered if its because the only uptempo running I've been doing for the past year or so is 1 Arroyo Tempo loop, which takes 11-12 minutes. So after 2 miles, my body was just like screw this, I'm done. Or, maybe there's no reason and this is just where I am right now, and I just have to focus on expanding my cardiovascular endurance, because I know my legs are strong, and they felt good today.
Friday 05/30: Off, shots. Tired. Delicious curry noodles.
Saturday 05/31: 1:10:39, JPL to waterfall. Today was supposed to be 40-50 minutes moderate... but I woke up in the morning and the first thing that popped into my head was that I would really like to run at JPL today. I haven't been out there in some 2-3 years, but for whatever reason that was the inspiration of the day. Apparently things have changed, like the first bridge has collapsed and there seemed to be tons more water crossings that I ever imagined, but I still did remember Super Scary Bridge and Giant Flat Rock. Ran real easy and had to stop often to fall inadvertently into the river on my way across, so hopefully I can still do my "long" run tomorrow.
Goals: To get in one good faster paced day. I'm happy with the amount of training time out in Colorado, but its basically set up to be really slow, with the hills and the altitude.
Training this week: 4:58:20 volume PR thanks to JPL adventure... logged a lot of minutes, got in a tempo, got to see some new scenery. A good week.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Week of 05/18/2008 - 05/24/2008 (Base Week 10)
Does anyone NOT feel like they didn't make the most of their Caltech education??? Actually, let's not answer that.
1) Accept that you are responsible for where you are... or... aren't
2) Stop running away from weaknesses
3) .....
Damn, this sucks. Usually how running is going affects everything else in my life. Lately, it seems like the "everything else" part is affecting my running.
Sunday 05/18: 1:10:13, RB to JPL and back. Started 1 hour earlier than yesterday so only 93 degrees this time. While I may not be improving on the metric of "getting lazy ass out of bed at a reasonable hour", to my credit I am learning the basics of running in the heat. In the past most runs in the 85+ degree range have resulted in one of two outcomes: 1) uncontrollable wheezing and exhaustion resulting in the need to walk back or 2) lying in bed the whole rest of the day with heatstroke. As a result, I go to great lengths to avoid running when it's hot--waiting until it's past midnight, running indoors on a treadmill, judicious swapping of off days, etc. In the spirit of confronting one's weaknesses though, I decided that this is not good for my development as a runner, and that the ability to deal with adverse race conditions is something I should strive to cultivate.
Basically, the rules of the game are: drink much much more than you think you need, and start at a pace that feels slow (cuz in 10 minutes that pace will feel really crappy). I had to make a detour to run around looking for the water fountain at JPL that Ryan showed me, and I felt really, really, painfully dehydrated within 10 minutes of that anyways... but I made it. 35 minutes out, 35 back. No asthma attacks and even pacing. I'll call that a victory.
Monday 05/19: Off, shots. Feeling extra bummed today :(
Tuesday 05/20: 56:14, warm up, 12 x 200m with 200 jog rest, cool down -- not the sprinter work out, this is the "out of shape distance runner" workout. I remembered that I did this early on in the year in 2007 and didn't feel like I got much out of it, so I went back and asked Peter what the purpose of this was, and he said it was basically like a "practice" tempo run, like a stepping stone between striders and long intervals/steady state tempos. It's the whole idea that its beneficial to move one's legs at faster paces even if you don't yet have the cardiovascular capacity to sustain it.
That said, I decided to aim for threshold tempo run "goal pace" and focus on keeping the jog rest part still like running instead of like that shuffling as slowly as you can until you're totally 100% recovered jog. Had no idea how I'd feel, so I went in with the goal of running 50's (~6:40 pace) and having it feel sustainable and good. Ended up: 49, 49, 48, 49, 47, 47.5, 48, 47, 46, 47, 46, 43 on about 2:00 - 2: 10 per lap cycles.
48's and 49's felt perfect, didn't breathe hard, felt like I could do tons and tons of these, which is how I would want to feel about 200m of tempo pace. Supposedly the next session is 20 x 200m, so I figure I should make more of an effort to run 50's for the first 10 of these.
Wednesday 05/21: 44:24, Monterrey to bridge. Couldn't get out of bed this morning, felt awful. Legs felt much more tired that I would have liked. Sloppy and slow. Not a great run.
Thursday 05/22: 53:08, Huntington/Oak Knoll. Tried by sheer force of will to make this a good run, and failed. Today, legs were okay but the rest of me felt barfy and bad. I couldn't figure out what it felt like exactly, it mostly felt like all of the parts of my running "system" just weren't working harmoniously to move me forwards. Towards the end it just felt like my legs were moving on their own and the rest of me was just getting dragged along, flopping around awkwardly in the wind.
Felt pretty dejected... so complained to Markkimarkonnen about how I wasted my undergraduate career instead of doing my striders and quick steps. Bleh. Gotta snap out of this.
Friday 05/23: Off, shots, traveling. L ankle, ball of foot unhappy after yesterday.
Saturday 05/24: 55:09, random hilly trail up to Griggs Road in Colorado. Same one I did a few months ago here, but with less ice. It was tough in the altitude but it was a nice, peaceful, enjoyable run. I'm glad I chose this one instead of trying to do something tempo-y.
Training this week: 4 hours 39 minutes
I didn't realize it was that much because I haven't been keeping track lately. Maybe I should cut myself some slack for feeling tired-er than usual...
Goals: to not go crazy...
1) Accept that you are responsible for where you are... or... aren't
2) Stop running away from weaknesses
3) .....
Damn, this sucks. Usually how running is going affects everything else in my life. Lately, it seems like the "everything else" part is affecting my running.
Sunday 05/18: 1:10:13, RB to JPL and back. Started 1 hour earlier than yesterday so only 93 degrees this time. While I may not be improving on the metric of "getting lazy ass out of bed at a reasonable hour", to my credit I am learning the basics of running in the heat. In the past most runs in the 85+ degree range have resulted in one of two outcomes: 1) uncontrollable wheezing and exhaustion resulting in the need to walk back or 2) lying in bed the whole rest of the day with heatstroke. As a result, I go to great lengths to avoid running when it's hot--waiting until it's past midnight, running indoors on a treadmill, judicious swapping of off days, etc. In the spirit of confronting one's weaknesses though, I decided that this is not good for my development as a runner, and that the ability to deal with adverse race conditions is something I should strive to cultivate.
Basically, the rules of the game are: drink much much more than you think you need, and start at a pace that feels slow (cuz in 10 minutes that pace will feel really crappy). I had to make a detour to run around looking for the water fountain at JPL that Ryan showed me, and I felt really, really, painfully dehydrated within 10 minutes of that anyways... but I made it. 35 minutes out, 35 back. No asthma attacks and even pacing. I'll call that a victory.
Monday 05/19: Off, shots. Feeling extra bummed today :(
Tuesday 05/20: 56:14, warm up, 12 x 200m with 200 jog rest, cool down -- not the sprinter work out, this is the "out of shape distance runner" workout. I remembered that I did this early on in the year in 2007 and didn't feel like I got much out of it, so I went back and asked Peter what the purpose of this was, and he said it was basically like a "practice" tempo run, like a stepping stone between striders and long intervals/steady state tempos. It's the whole idea that its beneficial to move one's legs at faster paces even if you don't yet have the cardiovascular capacity to sustain it.
That said, I decided to aim for threshold tempo run "goal pace" and focus on keeping the jog rest part still like running instead of like that shuffling as slowly as you can until you're totally 100% recovered jog. Had no idea how I'd feel, so I went in with the goal of running 50's (~6:40 pace) and having it feel sustainable and good. Ended up: 49, 49, 48, 49, 47, 47.5, 48, 47, 46, 47, 46, 43 on about 2:00 - 2: 10 per lap cycles.
48's and 49's felt perfect, didn't breathe hard, felt like I could do tons and tons of these, which is how I would want to feel about 200m of tempo pace. Supposedly the next session is 20 x 200m, so I figure I should make more of an effort to run 50's for the first 10 of these.
Wednesday 05/21: 44:24, Monterrey to bridge. Couldn't get out of bed this morning, felt awful. Legs felt much more tired that I would have liked. Sloppy and slow. Not a great run.
Thursday 05/22: 53:08, Huntington/Oak Knoll. Tried by sheer force of will to make this a good run, and failed. Today, legs were okay but the rest of me felt barfy and bad. I couldn't figure out what it felt like exactly, it mostly felt like all of the parts of my running "system" just weren't working harmoniously to move me forwards. Towards the end it just felt like my legs were moving on their own and the rest of me was just getting dragged along, flopping around awkwardly in the wind.
Felt pretty dejected... so complained to Markkimarkonnen about how I wasted my undergraduate career instead of doing my striders and quick steps. Bleh. Gotta snap out of this.
Friday 05/23: Off, shots, traveling. L ankle, ball of foot unhappy after yesterday.
Saturday 05/24: 55:09, random hilly trail up to Griggs Road in Colorado. Same one I did a few months ago here, but with less ice. It was tough in the altitude but it was a nice, peaceful, enjoyable run. I'm glad I chose this one instead of trying to do something tempo-y.
Training this week: 4 hours 39 minutes
I didn't realize it was that much because I haven't been keeping track lately. Maybe I should cut myself some slack for feeling tired-er than usual...
Goals: to not go crazy...
Monday, May 12, 2008
Week of 05/11/2008 - 05/17/2008 (Base Week 9)
Hanging in there...
I've resisted all of the office chocolate for a whole week now. I'm eating healthy. I could do better with getting regular amounts of sleep, but I'm working on it. Overall these are good signs, bc it means I still feel hope for my athletic future. When that starts to fade, I go into binge candy eating, wallowing in self pity mode. Not going to do that anymore. Now, if only I could be as disciplined about taking steps towards a career path that I want... *big sigh*
Sunday 05/11: 1:14:34, Foothills of El Dorado - A Running Adventure. Peter found some trails of "moderate" difficulty for my long run near Boulder, but ofcourse he didn't bring the book, and so when I got to the trail head, there were 3 different choices to get to the "rolling" hills part... little did I know at that point that one was moderately hard, one was hard and one was... kind of like rock climbing. Naturally I selected the steepest one, but after about 6 minutes of steep climbing, I decided that stopping to pick one's way over large rocks every 2 feet wasn't exactly good cardio. Turned back and then selected the second steepest route, which was still plenty challenging. It was really tough to climb in altitude, but since I'd already passed about 25 hikers, I absolutely couldn't turn back for the easiest route and be a huge loser.
After about 23 minutes of uphill slogging, the path became the promised rolling terrain in the scenic foothills. Really beautiful, I'd forgotten how extremely awesome it is to run somewhere for the first time and not know what happens next. I just really wished that I could go as far as I felt like, and not have to stop at the "and then after this I think my foot will start hurting" point. Ran a little over 40 minutes out to a nice crooked pine tree surrounded by wildflowers, then back, taking the easiest way back down, which turned out to be great bc it provided me with 12-15 minutes of uninterrupted practice in running downhill fast on a soft gravelly surface. Felt like flying, was happy that I had quick turnover even after all of that uphill. Overall, felt like a strong run, the difficulty was mostly in the altitude, I was happy with the way my legs responded to the variety of terrain.
Monday 05/12: Off, shots, traveling. Woke up with cramping and soreness in L quad. Crikey, I guess I've gotten all de-conditioned to handle those mountain hill climbs. Also had adverse reaction to last set of shots, due to high pollen count. Feeling crappy even with the half dosage. Man, this is all very bad news bears.
Tuesday 05/13: 45:03, 10 x 100m striders, karoakes, quicksteps. Same as last week, except slower and worse. Soreness is less than yesterday but just couldn't get any quick turnover bc legs were just dead and heavy still. In hindsight I should have switched the tuesday and wednesday workouts, but I guess I'm never quite ready to accept how tired my legs are until I'm actually trying to run fast and its not working.
Wednesday 05/14: 46:22, Monterrey to bridge... Oooof. Upper L leg was really really tight and crampy this morning. Jogged real slow the whole way trying to warm and loosen up the muscles. Was not fun. Also crew removing trees along the trail, made it hard to get through. Also lots of dust and stuff in the air. Allergies really bad this week. Hopefully this was all worth it to get my leg to gradually loosen up... feels alright now, I guess we'll see tomorrow!
Thursday 05/15: 36:11, Yikes... cut a run short due to exhaustion, foot and knee pain and allergy badness. I swear that the thing I am singly most allergic to are those damn little yellow flowers that grow by the gazillions right by the California entrance to the Arroyo and all along the Arroyo Tempo Loop. You can SMELL the pollen in the air. And trust me, I smell very few things as it is. As soon as I enter this area, I can almost feel my throat closing up, its just horrible, horrible, horrible. I've noticed though, that every so often the city workers come and mow down all of the weeds along the trails, getting rid of the flowers and leaving this nice soft hay instead... I think I'm going to wait for them to come to this area of the Arroyo before I do any more tempo loops.
Friday 05/16: Off, shots. Iced and stretched R knee a lot. For some reason I feel extra exhausted and bad this week, more systemically than anything in particular. Like how I can't get out of bed even after 8 hours of sleep, and how it constantly feels like my head is stuffed full of cotton balls.
Saturday 05/17: 40:35, a cautionary tale: the punishment for eating too many pieces of greasy chicken yesterday was a horrible stomachache that kept me up most of the night, and the punishment for not waking up at 6 am due to resulting sleep deprivation was to do my nascent steady state run in the 90+ degree heat. So kids, the moral of the story is, make good choices for your body.
It was 93 when I started and 96 when I finished, but I held it together and survived. Jogged a little at the track, did a 2 mile sort of mini-steady state run (7:33, 7:27) and then jogged some more. I love the track so much. Not even the heat, or the painful sensation of hot dry air passing over a cracking and raspy throat could take away the pure, simple, focused joy of running around the track at a pace faster than trundling. While the air felt kind of like sandpaper on each inhale, and I really wasn't going very fast at all... I felt good about this run, if only because I felt that I forced myself to deal with the heat (which I usually go to great lengths to avoid), and didn't completely fall apart.
No goals again this week... I don't think I'm going to set capacity goals until I establish a baseline of what I can productively handle.
I've resisted all of the office chocolate for a whole week now. I'm eating healthy. I could do better with getting regular amounts of sleep, but I'm working on it. Overall these are good signs, bc it means I still feel hope for my athletic future. When that starts to fade, I go into binge candy eating, wallowing in self pity mode. Not going to do that anymore. Now, if only I could be as disciplined about taking steps towards a career path that I want... *big sigh*
Sunday 05/11: 1:14:34, Foothills of El Dorado - A Running Adventure. Peter found some trails of "moderate" difficulty for my long run near Boulder, but ofcourse he didn't bring the book, and so when I got to the trail head, there were 3 different choices to get to the "rolling" hills part... little did I know at that point that one was moderately hard, one was hard and one was... kind of like rock climbing. Naturally I selected the steepest one, but after about 6 minutes of steep climbing, I decided that stopping to pick one's way over large rocks every 2 feet wasn't exactly good cardio. Turned back and then selected the second steepest route, which was still plenty challenging. It was really tough to climb in altitude, but since I'd already passed about 25 hikers, I absolutely couldn't turn back for the easiest route and be a huge loser.
After about 23 minutes of uphill slogging, the path became the promised rolling terrain in the scenic foothills. Really beautiful, I'd forgotten how extremely awesome it is to run somewhere for the first time and not know what happens next. I just really wished that I could go as far as I felt like, and not have to stop at the "and then after this I think my foot will start hurting" point. Ran a little over 40 minutes out to a nice crooked pine tree surrounded by wildflowers, then back, taking the easiest way back down, which turned out to be great bc it provided me with 12-15 minutes of uninterrupted practice in running downhill fast on a soft gravelly surface. Felt like flying, was happy that I had quick turnover even after all of that uphill. Overall, felt like a strong run, the difficulty was mostly in the altitude, I was happy with the way my legs responded to the variety of terrain.
Monday 05/12: Off, shots, traveling. Woke up with cramping and soreness in L quad. Crikey, I guess I've gotten all de-conditioned to handle those mountain hill climbs. Also had adverse reaction to last set of shots, due to high pollen count. Feeling crappy even with the half dosage. Man, this is all very bad news bears.
Tuesday 05/13: 45:03, 10 x 100m striders, karoakes, quicksteps. Same as last week, except slower and worse. Soreness is less than yesterday but just couldn't get any quick turnover bc legs were just dead and heavy still. In hindsight I should have switched the tuesday and wednesday workouts, but I guess I'm never quite ready to accept how tired my legs are until I'm actually trying to run fast and its not working.
Wednesday 05/14: 46:22, Monterrey to bridge... Oooof. Upper L leg was really really tight and crampy this morning. Jogged real slow the whole way trying to warm and loosen up the muscles. Was not fun. Also crew removing trees along the trail, made it hard to get through. Also lots of dust and stuff in the air. Allergies really bad this week. Hopefully this was all worth it to get my leg to gradually loosen up... feels alright now, I guess we'll see tomorrow!
Thursday 05/15: 36:11, Yikes... cut a run short due to exhaustion, foot and knee pain and allergy badness. I swear that the thing I am singly most allergic to are those damn little yellow flowers that grow by the gazillions right by the California entrance to the Arroyo and all along the Arroyo Tempo Loop. You can SMELL the pollen in the air. And trust me, I smell very few things as it is. As soon as I enter this area, I can almost feel my throat closing up, its just horrible, horrible, horrible. I've noticed though, that every so often the city workers come and mow down all of the weeds along the trails, getting rid of the flowers and leaving this nice soft hay instead... I think I'm going to wait for them to come to this area of the Arroyo before I do any more tempo loops.
Friday 05/16: Off, shots. Iced and stretched R knee a lot. For some reason I feel extra exhausted and bad this week, more systemically than anything in particular. Like how I can't get out of bed even after 8 hours of sleep, and how it constantly feels like my head is stuffed full of cotton balls.
Saturday 05/17: 40:35, a cautionary tale: the punishment for eating too many pieces of greasy chicken yesterday was a horrible stomachache that kept me up most of the night, and the punishment for not waking up at 6 am due to resulting sleep deprivation was to do my nascent steady state run in the 90+ degree heat. So kids, the moral of the story is, make good choices for your body.
It was 93 when I started and 96 when I finished, but I held it together and survived. Jogged a little at the track, did a 2 mile sort of mini-steady state run (7:33, 7:27) and then jogged some more. I love the track so much. Not even the heat, or the painful sensation of hot dry air passing over a cracking and raspy throat could take away the pure, simple, focused joy of running around the track at a pace faster than trundling. While the air felt kind of like sandpaper on each inhale, and I really wasn't going very fast at all... I felt good about this run, if only because I felt that I forced myself to deal with the heat (which I usually go to great lengths to avoid), and didn't completely fall apart.
No goals again this week... I don't think I'm going to set capacity goals until I establish a baseline of what I can productively handle.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Week of 05/04/2008 - 05/10/2008 (Base Week 8)
*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.
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, 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...
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