So you know its not good when you have about 1 week's worth of material to cover the entire month of January... but in the interest of not creating 4 ridiculous short separate posts, here's a summary. Assume all of the days in between were spent being a fat, depressed, blob of lameness...
... by which I mean that it's really hard to get up at 5 am and feel enough motivation to go ride in the pitch dark and 40 degree weather, knowing that the sun won't come up for another 2 hours. But I did do it once (ironically the very day that I was told I could no longer cycle), and it actually wasn't bad at all... which means that I'm still actually pretty lame for not having done it the other 17 days. Go figure.
Sunday 01/04: 18.6 miles, 1:13:40, A few easy RB laps with Peter before taking him to airport. Didn't get up early enough for a real ride, but it was nice... Felt pre-emptively unhappy about the end of vacation though... Went on my good bye run today as well, Huntington/Marengo in a slow 1:07:35, it was just supposed to be a few miles to make sure the right things hurt for the Dr's appt tomorrow, but it felt good to be out there... and I knew this was the last one for a really long time. So, I went... and it was a nice, peaceful run. The funny thing is, my foot is ironically feeling relatively calm these days.
Saturday 01/10: 2 hours, skate skiing with Peter in Colorado. My first day on skate skis--man was this hard. It took me a really long time to learn the basic motion of it, and I think I never quite learned how to not fall down frequently. It was also really tough with the 9,000 ft altitude, so I had to stop to huff and puff every 30 seconds. Once I got the hang of it towards the end, it was pretty fun!
Sunday 01/11: 2.5 hours, skate skiing at some different place in Colorado. It was pretty stormy and scary on the mountain roads today, but the skiing was actually really awesome. I felt 100% more proficient than yesterday, and probably covered 3 times as much distance than yesterday. Learned how to manage an uphill, and also to go without the poles for a little bit. The only part that I really hate is downhill. Most of my crashes were going downhill, which I suppose is some improvement over yesterday, where most of my crashes were on completely flat ground.
Saturday 01/17: 46.9 miles, 3:31:07, Couple of miles past Red Box on the 2 and back the same way. Life as a weekend warrior continues, due to lack of ability to manage the morning rides. Felt really cooped up, so hammered this ride from the get-go. Managed a respectable and much improved over the last trip pace through Clear Creek, then slowed down to make it the rest of the way. Legs actually felt great, I backed off of the pace because my HR was going crazy, but this felt like a really manageable, awesome ride. First time past Red Box on the 2, and saw some gorgeous panoramic views of the mountains beyond... Just felt really happy to be on the bike.
Sunday 01/18: 60.8 miles, 4:37:46, GMR back on EF/39 with KB. A sweet ride with an awesome gal. This ride actually felt really really good, probably due to a fantastic pancake breakfast beforehand. Took it really easy, felt a little huffy-puffy on the climb but it wasn't bad at all. The descent was scary but it was so great to be out that way again, and the kind of tired parts were not bad at all due to the good company. Felt pretty enthused and encouraged that I'm not in completely horrible cycling shape despite the large amounts of inactivity recently.
Wednesday 01/21: Really consterning ride of indeterminate length and some duration between 2 and 2.5 hours along River Trail in Denver. Took the vintage white bike out for a spin on a rare non below freezing day in Colorado. Had aspirations to find a nice road into the mountains, but got just horribly, horribly lost along the way. Bike paths are really confusing with no signs and lots of side trails and illogical turns. A nice man pointed me in the generally correct direction but I finally gave up and turned back without finding the road after I came upon one too many cryptic intersections and an icy tunnel filled with mounds of snow and deep water. Got lost twice trying to find my way back. Felt disgruntled bc of the directions and because I have absolutely no idea how far I went.
Wednesday 01/28: 46.6 miles, 2:49:17, Peter's (Short) Long River Trail Loop. A bittersweet victory, and my last training for a really really long time. On this morning, I did wake up, put on 4 layers, and embark into the darkness of a 40 degree morning on my bike. It was really surreal to be out there in the empty dark streets, but not in a bad way. It was calm and soothing and nice, though my eardrums were hurting from the cold for the first 30 minutes. Definitely felt like I was in worse shape than the weekend that I did Red Box and GMR, but I still felt decent. Rode hard, and kept up a good clip... but faded fairly signficantly on the stretch home on California. I guess, to be fair, a stiff headwind picked up once the sun came up towards the end. I felt really happy to have done this ride, and confident and excited that I could get up tomorrow and do it again... little did I know, I would not get that opportunity.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Week of 12/27/2008 - 01/02/2008 (Cross Training Week 1)
Home, Sweet Home...
On Sunday, I flew back from the freezing east coast, to clear blue skies and warm 70 degree sunshine. From my car, I could see the mountains, clearly with no smog. It was beautiful. How could anyone want to be anywhere else?
I can't really remember a day where I was so excited to go cycling. No matter that I'd slept probably all of 4 hours, or that I was stuck in traffic at... 3 pm on a Sunday, none of this mattered because I just could not wait to get home and get on my bike. Which I did, without unpacking, I just dumped everything on the floor and got out the door in record time. Maybe something about being indoors under 3 feet of snow for a week... makes a person a little bit nutso.
Sunday 12/27: 27.8 miles, 1:40:40, something like 7 laps around the Rose Bowl. HR was going crazy, something like 160 or 170, not sure if because I'm extremely out of shape, I'm extremely sleep deprived, or I'm extremely excited about riding today. Didn't breathe hard, but felt like I was working a lot harder than I'm used to. It was really fun though, and the lap times were not horrible. Wanted to do 10, but ran out of both warmth and daylight. Got home in the dark and my feet were frozen solid for an hour and a hot shower afterwards. Eventually they warmed up though, and expressed their immense displeasure at being frozen.
Monday 12/28: 57.4 miles, 3:54:07, River Trail to where it splits, and then back home the same way. Had Clear Creek planned for today, but as soon as I got on my bike my legs began complaining loudly, so aborted and headed out for a flat ride instead. Yikes this was a tough ride even so--first, my L IT band had seized up after yesterday's ride, and I had to keep stopping to stretch it out. It was okay after the first hour. Second, I was feeling pretty strong after that, so I ambitiously went a fair ways out, and then catastrophically ran out of energy at about mile 45. Ate a gu, felt better for about 20 minutes, and then felt terrible again. Seriously had to crawl home for the last 5 miles at like... 10 mph. Got home and could not stop eating food for about 3 hours afterwards. Man, my body is not used to exercise....
Tuesday 12/29: 44.7 miles, 3:21:45, Angeles Crest to Clear Creek + 3 or 4 laps of the RB. The good thing about cycling, is that you can beat the crap out of your body on one day, and it will still basically ride okay the next day. Started today a little bit worse for the wear after yesterday, but I was excited and determined to do my first day of climbing. It was... really really really slow... and my HR was off the charts around 175 (normally for this rather mellow climb it is like, 155, but oh well) but I made it, and that was a moral victory for today. Did some laps around the RB to raise my average speed for the trip, and realized that I actually wasn't super tired out, I was just really unused to climbing. Picked up Peter at the airport and informed him of my plans to ride 3 hours a day. He seemed unenthused and then fell asleep... something about jetlag.
Wednesday 12/30: 45.7 miles, 2:58:17, River Trail Loop (out the weird way, and back the usual way) with Peter. Had to drag the boy unit out of bed, but we made it on this shortened River Trail ride, and it was really great. Felt really good, kept a better pace throughout than the Monday disaster. I think I went pretty hard on that last stretch home, because this time I had the energy left, and I had to stamp out the memory of pathetically trudging home.
Thursday 12/31: 28.9 miles, 2:23:27, Verdugo/Chevy Chase plus some Art Center Loops with Peter. Felt awful, awful, awful. Got a late start, felt unmotivated, and just horribly tired. I think I had hoped for another shot at Clear Creek, before the good weather ran out... but I felt so terrible even on the flats that I decided to push that ride off until tomorrow and do a more local ride. This ride was just really hard... I couldn't climb competently at all, and I felt really bad. Peter showed me some new routes, but I was so tired and delirious at that point I don't really remember how to get there anymore.
Friday 01/01: Run (55:57)/Swim (~800m). It's weird.... but I have really bad luck with training on holidays or signficant days. Typically birthdays, Christmas, New Years... it just doesn't turn out well. Today I felt supremely unmotivated, no stores were open for breakfast, and I just felt like there was nothing as unappealing to do as go and exercise. I think most of this was because it wasn't sunny anymore. I don't think of myself as seasonally affected, but I really hate cold and dreary.
Anyways, I did not want to exercise, but I got guilted into exercising by the boy unit. So I ran Huntington/Virginia starting from the house and ending at the gym while he ate breakfast and did core strengthening. Run was pretty miserable. Running felt weird after all of this time off, my foot still vaguely hurt, and my legs felt heavy and unwieldy. I felt really sad. Swimming at the gym with Peter cheered me up a little bit. We didn't get too much quality exercise in, but he taught me how to do a flip turn, and I swam a little bit. Only managed 2 successful flip turns, and those were still pretty shaky on the distance and timing, but it was fun!
Saturday 01/02: 47.3 miles, 3:30:41, Big T back on Clear Creek. A really nice ride. I bundled up as much as possible to deal with the unappealing cloudy cold weather, but it turned out really well. Felt strong on the way out... but struggled a bit with the climbing again. I'm not sure why it's been so tough, when I first started riding, all I did was climb... and I hated the flats they tired me out. It was fun to do a ride I haven't done in a long time. Felt pretty decent all in all, maybe the day off helped.
Training this week: 251.8 miles, 17 hours 48.5 minutes. Not a bad week, now if only every week were vacation... and I had 3 hours a day to ride.
On Sunday, I flew back from the freezing east coast, to clear blue skies and warm 70 degree sunshine. From my car, I could see the mountains, clearly with no smog. It was beautiful. How could anyone want to be anywhere else?
I can't really remember a day where I was so excited to go cycling. No matter that I'd slept probably all of 4 hours, or that I was stuck in traffic at... 3 pm on a Sunday, none of this mattered because I just could not wait to get home and get on my bike. Which I did, without unpacking, I just dumped everything on the floor and got out the door in record time. Maybe something about being indoors under 3 feet of snow for a week... makes a person a little bit nutso.
Sunday 12/27: 27.8 miles, 1:40:40, something like 7 laps around the Rose Bowl. HR was going crazy, something like 160 or 170, not sure if because I'm extremely out of shape, I'm extremely sleep deprived, or I'm extremely excited about riding today. Didn't breathe hard, but felt like I was working a lot harder than I'm used to. It was really fun though, and the lap times were not horrible. Wanted to do 10, but ran out of both warmth and daylight. Got home in the dark and my feet were frozen solid for an hour and a hot shower afterwards. Eventually they warmed up though, and expressed their immense displeasure at being frozen.
Monday 12/28: 57.4 miles, 3:54:07, River Trail to where it splits, and then back home the same way. Had Clear Creek planned for today, but as soon as I got on my bike my legs began complaining loudly, so aborted and headed out for a flat ride instead. Yikes this was a tough ride even so--first, my L IT band had seized up after yesterday's ride, and I had to keep stopping to stretch it out. It was okay after the first hour. Second, I was feeling pretty strong after that, so I ambitiously went a fair ways out, and then catastrophically ran out of energy at about mile 45. Ate a gu, felt better for about 20 minutes, and then felt terrible again. Seriously had to crawl home for the last 5 miles at like... 10 mph. Got home and could not stop eating food for about 3 hours afterwards. Man, my body is not used to exercise....
Tuesday 12/29: 44.7 miles, 3:21:45, Angeles Crest to Clear Creek + 3 or 4 laps of the RB. The good thing about cycling, is that you can beat the crap out of your body on one day, and it will still basically ride okay the next day. Started today a little bit worse for the wear after yesterday, but I was excited and determined to do my first day of climbing. It was... really really really slow... and my HR was off the charts around 175 (normally for this rather mellow climb it is like, 155, but oh well) but I made it, and that was a moral victory for today. Did some laps around the RB to raise my average speed for the trip, and realized that I actually wasn't super tired out, I was just really unused to climbing. Picked up Peter at the airport and informed him of my plans to ride 3 hours a day. He seemed unenthused and then fell asleep... something about jetlag.
Wednesday 12/30: 45.7 miles, 2:58:17, River Trail Loop (out the weird way, and back the usual way) with Peter. Had to drag the boy unit out of bed, but we made it on this shortened River Trail ride, and it was really great. Felt really good, kept a better pace throughout than the Monday disaster. I think I went pretty hard on that last stretch home, because this time I had the energy left, and I had to stamp out the memory of pathetically trudging home.
Thursday 12/31: 28.9 miles, 2:23:27, Verdugo/Chevy Chase plus some Art Center Loops with Peter. Felt awful, awful, awful. Got a late start, felt unmotivated, and just horribly tired. I think I had hoped for another shot at Clear Creek, before the good weather ran out... but I felt so terrible even on the flats that I decided to push that ride off until tomorrow and do a more local ride. This ride was just really hard... I couldn't climb competently at all, and I felt really bad. Peter showed me some new routes, but I was so tired and delirious at that point I don't really remember how to get there anymore.
Friday 01/01: Run (55:57)/Swim (~800m). It's weird.... but I have really bad luck with training on holidays or signficant days. Typically birthdays, Christmas, New Years... it just doesn't turn out well. Today I felt supremely unmotivated, no stores were open for breakfast, and I just felt like there was nothing as unappealing to do as go and exercise. I think most of this was because it wasn't sunny anymore. I don't think of myself as seasonally affected, but I really hate cold and dreary.
Anyways, I did not want to exercise, but I got guilted into exercising by the boy unit. So I ran Huntington/Virginia starting from the house and ending at the gym while he ate breakfast and did core strengthening. Run was pretty miserable. Running felt weird after all of this time off, my foot still vaguely hurt, and my legs felt heavy and unwieldy. I felt really sad. Swimming at the gym with Peter cheered me up a little bit. We didn't get too much quality exercise in, but he taught me how to do a flip turn, and I swam a little bit. Only managed 2 successful flip turns, and those were still pretty shaky on the distance and timing, but it was fun!
Saturday 01/02: 47.3 miles, 3:30:41, Big T back on Clear Creek. A really nice ride. I bundled up as much as possible to deal with the unappealing cloudy cold weather, but it turned out really well. Felt strong on the way out... but struggled a bit with the climbing again. I'm not sure why it's been so tough, when I first started riding, all I did was climb... and I hated the flats they tired me out. It was fun to do a ride I haven't done in a long time. Felt pretty decent all in all, maybe the day off helped.
Training this week: 251.8 miles, 17 hours 48.5 minutes. Not a bad week, now if only every week were vacation... and I had 3 hours a day to ride.
Week of 12/21/2008 - 12/27/2008
Christmas! (... but Santa doesn't bring me a new foot...)
Went home to Boston for the holidays. No training to report for the following reasons:
1) There's a lot of snow... a LOT of snow. The first day I shoveled snow for like, an hour... most of the difficulty was because there was already so much snow everywhere else, that we had already run out of places to PUT the new snow. All of the sidewalks and parking spaces were under 3 feet of snow, and all of the streets were full of displaced parked vehicles, and annoyed moving vehicles trying to get around said parked vehicles. It was crazy. My back hurt a whole lot the day after from hurling snow as high as it would go to make larger mountains of snow.
2) My L ankle hurt... from Saturday's run, for about 5 days. The first 3 were fairly excruciating, in so much that it affected my ability to walk... then after that it was just a dull ache and an occasional stabbing pain.
I guess the good news is that I was not as tempted to run as had their been less pain and less snow. I wished for a new L foot, as I do every time there's an occasion where gifts are given to me... but alas, I did not receive one (like all of the other times). But Merry Christmas nonetheless!
Went home to Boston for the holidays. No training to report for the following reasons:
1) There's a lot of snow... a LOT of snow. The first day I shoveled snow for like, an hour... most of the difficulty was because there was already so much snow everywhere else, that we had already run out of places to PUT the new snow. All of the sidewalks and parking spaces were under 3 feet of snow, and all of the streets were full of displaced parked vehicles, and annoyed moving vehicles trying to get around said parked vehicles. It was crazy. My back hurt a whole lot the day after from hurling snow as high as it would go to make larger mountains of snow.
2) My L ankle hurt... from Saturday's run, for about 5 days. The first 3 were fairly excruciating, in so much that it affected my ability to walk... then after that it was just a dull ache and an occasional stabbing pain.
I guess the good news is that I was not as tempted to run as had their been less pain and less snow. I wished for a new L foot, as I do every time there's an occasion where gifts are given to me... but alas, I did not receive one (like all of the other times). But Merry Christmas nonetheless!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Week of 12/14/2008 - 12/20/2008
Here Comes the Rain....
Maybe a more appropriate title is... "Here Comes the End". After teetering on the edge since November... its finally over. Appointment has been made to see the podiatrist, the self diagnosis: navicular stress fracture. Probably of the middle one, that doesn't heal. Meh.
Sunday 12/14: 1:14:02, CA to RB feeling slow and rickety. Felt better towards the end, but then felt depressed that so much effort was expended to run so slowly. Bad L ankle... did a lot of physical therapy afterwards, but with mixed results.
Monday 12/15: Off... still bad L ankle... determined that the problem seems to be that once my heel is on the ground, I can't push off the toe to complete one stride... which explains why I can run (as long as a toe-strike) long past when I stop being able to walk normally.
Tuesday 12/16: 1:08:14, Hungtington/Marengo from the apartment. Really slowly... tried to pretend that I wasn't favoring the bad leg... but I was. In addition, I felt really really worn out by the time I turned off of Huntington towards the end, which was really discouraging. It's been a while since a slow 7 or 8 mile run would cause fatigue.
Wednesday 12/17: 1:06:52, Same as yesterday, in the rain. Hedged my bets on getting a late start, and lost. It started raining almost as soon as I started my run.... bleh. I tried to make myself run normally even if it hurt my ankle, but that didn't seem to help the slowness very much. Still a better run overall than yesterday, despite the rain. On the plus side, I now remember that running in the rain isn't as bad as I usually imagine.
Thursday 12/18: Off, now L ankle really, really, really hurts. Ehhhh.... Work is also stressful. Trying to get everything done before the holidays. At least no coworkers have commented on my new brisk shuffle-walk, which is my attempt to have the least amount of contact between my L heel and the ground.
Friday 12/19: Off, shots. Depressed and sad. Felt awful, physically, emotionally etc. My department was the last to leave work... it was really stressful, I forgot a whole bunch of things I needed to do before I left because I was just focusing on making sure my minion got to go home at a reasonable hour.
Saturday 12/20: 48:45, Monterrey Recovery Loop. I've been riding my bike to the trails recently, but today I drove, because I was feeling so depressed and unmotivated that I knew I wouldn't go if I also had to overcome the inertia of leaving warm bed to go biking in the cold. Ankle hurt, breathing hurt, and got horrible cramping and gastrointestinal distress. Arghhhh... I guess this is the universe's way of telling me that running is over for a good long while.
Total Training this Week: 4:17:53
Maybe a more appropriate title is... "Here Comes the End". After teetering on the edge since November... its finally over. Appointment has been made to see the podiatrist, the self diagnosis: navicular stress fracture. Probably of the middle one, that doesn't heal. Meh.
Sunday 12/14: 1:14:02, CA to RB feeling slow and rickety. Felt better towards the end, but then felt depressed that so much effort was expended to run so slowly. Bad L ankle... did a lot of physical therapy afterwards, but with mixed results.
Monday 12/15: Off... still bad L ankle... determined that the problem seems to be that once my heel is on the ground, I can't push off the toe to complete one stride... which explains why I can run (as long as a toe-strike) long past when I stop being able to walk normally.
Tuesday 12/16: 1:08:14, Hungtington/Marengo from the apartment. Really slowly... tried to pretend that I wasn't favoring the bad leg... but I was. In addition, I felt really really worn out by the time I turned off of Huntington towards the end, which was really discouraging. It's been a while since a slow 7 or 8 mile run would cause fatigue.
Wednesday 12/17: 1:06:52, Same as yesterday, in the rain. Hedged my bets on getting a late start, and lost. It started raining almost as soon as I started my run.... bleh. I tried to make myself run normally even if it hurt my ankle, but that didn't seem to help the slowness very much. Still a better run overall than yesterday, despite the rain. On the plus side, I now remember that running in the rain isn't as bad as I usually imagine.
Thursday 12/18: Off, now L ankle really, really, really hurts. Ehhhh.... Work is also stressful. Trying to get everything done before the holidays. At least no coworkers have commented on my new brisk shuffle-walk, which is my attempt to have the least amount of contact between my L heel and the ground.
Friday 12/19: Off, shots. Depressed and sad. Felt awful, physically, emotionally etc. My department was the last to leave work... it was really stressful, I forgot a whole bunch of things I needed to do before I left because I was just focusing on making sure my minion got to go home at a reasonable hour.
Saturday 12/20: 48:45, Monterrey Recovery Loop. I've been riding my bike to the trails recently, but today I drove, because I was feeling so depressed and unmotivated that I knew I wouldn't go if I also had to overcome the inertia of leaving warm bed to go biking in the cold. Ankle hurt, breathing hurt, and got horrible cramping and gastrointestinal distress. Arghhhh... I guess this is the universe's way of telling me that running is over for a good long while.
Total Training this Week: 4:17:53
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Week of 12/07/2008 - 12/13/2008
The Stupid
Whether it was the shirking of physical therapy, the sudden week of concrete running, or my suddenly inspired burst of relative speed... maybe we'll never know. On Sunday, all I know was that I was not running... or ... walking. Man. One small step leads to one giant leap backwards.
And here I find myself... staring down the end of the year thinking... once upon a time I thought I'd race the 2008 cross season... then it was the 2009 track season... and now, it's looking like the 2009 cross season. Maybe there comes a point where it becomes so pathetic that it's painful to watch. Someone really needs to come and tape a big DNR on my racing career's chest.
Every time I take 4-6 days off, it gets harder... it gets harder to believe that things ever get better. It gets harder to shove down all the crazy and make good decisions. Towards the end of the week, I wasn't sure if the days off were due to my foot still hurting or just because I was too depressed to get out of bed.
On Saturday I dragged my hopeless and morose self out to the Arroyo to do the shortest of all of my runs, just so that one week would not have passed with zero runs. Honestly, it felt horrible. The last two times I took time off in the past few months, it actually did feel physically regenerative, with not too much loss of fitness, but this time, I think I over-expended my fitness bank account... or maybe it was because it was 3 pm and I had yet to eat or drink anything. Who knows.
45:51 for Monterrey Recovery Loop, which is a lot slower than the effort felt like, and when I got back to my bike, I felt extremely dizzy, followed by slightly nauseous, and then this overpowering feeling that I've never been so thirsty in all of my life. I waited for all of those sensations to pass before biking home. Like I said... it was horrible. The intention was that I didn't want the entire week to pass by without a single run, and that I felt like if I managed to run today, psychologically it would make it more likely that I would run tomorrow... but I think I felt even more demoralized after this run than before, if that is humanly possible.
Whether it was the shirking of physical therapy, the sudden week of concrete running, or my suddenly inspired burst of relative speed... maybe we'll never know. On Sunday, all I know was that I was not running... or ... walking. Man. One small step leads to one giant leap backwards.
And here I find myself... staring down the end of the year thinking... once upon a time I thought I'd race the 2008 cross season... then it was the 2009 track season... and now, it's looking like the 2009 cross season. Maybe there comes a point where it becomes so pathetic that it's painful to watch. Someone really needs to come and tape a big DNR on my racing career's chest.
Every time I take 4-6 days off, it gets harder... it gets harder to believe that things ever get better. It gets harder to shove down all the crazy and make good decisions. Towards the end of the week, I wasn't sure if the days off were due to my foot still hurting or just because I was too depressed to get out of bed.
On Saturday I dragged my hopeless and morose self out to the Arroyo to do the shortest of all of my runs, just so that one week would not have passed with zero runs. Honestly, it felt horrible. The last two times I took time off in the past few months, it actually did feel physically regenerative, with not too much loss of fitness, but this time, I think I over-expended my fitness bank account... or maybe it was because it was 3 pm and I had yet to eat or drink anything. Who knows.
45:51 for Monterrey Recovery Loop, which is a lot slower than the effort felt like, and when I got back to my bike, I felt extremely dizzy, followed by slightly nauseous, and then this overpowering feeling that I've never been so thirsty in all of my life. I waited for all of those sensations to pass before biking home. Like I said... it was horrible. The intention was that I didn't want the entire week to pass by without a single run, and that I felt like if I managed to run today, psychologically it would make it more likely that I would run tomorrow... but I think I felt even more demoralized after this run than before, if that is humanly possible.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Week of 11/30/2008 - 12/06/2008
The Perma-Jogger
Last week on our last day in Boston, Peter mentioned that my stride was short and I don't pick up my feet. Like I was perpetually running up a mountain or something. I guess one could say that... but then it hit me... actually there is NOT anything wrong with my stride. What's wrong with me is that I've become.... Perma-Jogger. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time that I've actually run, save for a tempo here and there.
Slow, safe, low impact running is basically a nice, shuffle-jog. On a good day, I'll shuffle a little faster, on a bad day, a little slower... but the basic idea is the same. Shuffle-shuffle, shuffle-shuffle. No wonder it seemed impossible to GO much faster. One actually doesn't if one doesn't pick up one's feet! Arghh.... what an effing disaster.
Sunday 11/30: 44:49, Monterrey recovery loop. Felt kind of tired from yesterday, but biked down to the Arroyo and just kind of focused on picking up my feet. An lo and behold, I ran faster than I ever have on this route.
Monday 12/01: 1:09:49, California to RB. Still feeling kind of worn out. Honestly don't remember all that much else about this run. I think it was pleasantly cool this morning.
Tuesday 12/02: Off, shots. Probably not such a bad thing. I think my legs are still trying to adjust to real running.
Wednesday 12/03: Off, unintended. If I had to point to something as a bad omen of things to come, it would probably be this day. I really don't know what happened, other than that 6 am came and went, and I did NOT get out of bed. It was NOT an off day. I had a run already picked out. It was just not good.
Thursday 12/04: 1:28:44, Patrician from the apt (11 miles). Woke up super motivated to stamp out the memory of yesterday and did the run that I was supposed to do. This run was as fantastic as it was unwise for my health. This was one of the first runs that I did as a distance runner, and still one of my favorites today. The hills aren't really very daunting anymore, and the scenery isn't a surprise, but it's still wonderful. I guess it's also a lot of concrete, but I felt like my feet did okay with all the pavement in Boston, so I thought I'd give this a try.
Mostly I was really excited to run free--as in, with little concern for keeping a low HR or overloading mileage. I mapped it when I got home, and realized that it was very nearly 8 minute miles, which is not fast by any means, but given the topology, it's definitely respectable... and it means if I pick up my feet and run, I'm NOT completely useless!
Friday 12/05: 1:03:09, Monterrey to the RB and back. I probably should have taken it easy after my first real run in a very very long time... but I was so excited, I elongated my recovery loop. In hindsight this was the beginning of the end. The top of my L foot and ankle was already giving me trouble at this point, but I was just so elated to have run a good solid run, that I just wanted to do more, I just wanted to run so, so badly. The part of me that felt that way about running had been kept closely muzzled over the past year or so, but yesterday's run had unleashed it again. Little did I know, I would pay for this... yes, yes I would.
Saturday 12/06: 46:21, 2 x Washington Park Loops in Denver. L foot hurt so badly, I probably should have not run on this day. But, what's 5 miles here and there...? I thought. So I embarked, and I actually felt okay despite the altitude, but about 15 minutes in, I felt this acute pain in my L ankle... so terrible that I thought I would have to stop and walk home... but eventually I ran it off, and stupid completed the rest of the run, albeit extremely slowly and cautiously.
Training this week: 5:12:52, of real, bonafide running.
Last week on our last day in Boston, Peter mentioned that my stride was short and I don't pick up my feet. Like I was perpetually running up a mountain or something. I guess one could say that... but then it hit me... actually there is NOT anything wrong with my stride. What's wrong with me is that I've become.... Perma-Jogger. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time that I've actually run, save for a tempo here and there.
Slow, safe, low impact running is basically a nice, shuffle-jog. On a good day, I'll shuffle a little faster, on a bad day, a little slower... but the basic idea is the same. Shuffle-shuffle, shuffle-shuffle. No wonder it seemed impossible to GO much faster. One actually doesn't if one doesn't pick up one's feet! Arghh.... what an effing disaster.
Sunday 11/30: 44:49, Monterrey recovery loop. Felt kind of tired from yesterday, but biked down to the Arroyo and just kind of focused on picking up my feet. An lo and behold, I ran faster than I ever have on this route.
Monday 12/01: 1:09:49, California to RB. Still feeling kind of worn out. Honestly don't remember all that much else about this run. I think it was pleasantly cool this morning.
Tuesday 12/02: Off, shots. Probably not such a bad thing. I think my legs are still trying to adjust to real running.
Wednesday 12/03: Off, unintended. If I had to point to something as a bad omen of things to come, it would probably be this day. I really don't know what happened, other than that 6 am came and went, and I did NOT get out of bed. It was NOT an off day. I had a run already picked out. It was just not good.
Thursday 12/04: 1:28:44, Patrician from the apt (11 miles). Woke up super motivated to stamp out the memory of yesterday and did the run that I was supposed to do. This run was as fantastic as it was unwise for my health. This was one of the first runs that I did as a distance runner, and still one of my favorites today. The hills aren't really very daunting anymore, and the scenery isn't a surprise, but it's still wonderful. I guess it's also a lot of concrete, but I felt like my feet did okay with all the pavement in Boston, so I thought I'd give this a try.
Mostly I was really excited to run free--as in, with little concern for keeping a low HR or overloading mileage. I mapped it when I got home, and realized that it was very nearly 8 minute miles, which is not fast by any means, but given the topology, it's definitely respectable... and it means if I pick up my feet and run, I'm NOT completely useless!
Friday 12/05: 1:03:09, Monterrey to the RB and back. I probably should have taken it easy after my first real run in a very very long time... but I was so excited, I elongated my recovery loop. In hindsight this was the beginning of the end. The top of my L foot and ankle was already giving me trouble at this point, but I was just so elated to have run a good solid run, that I just wanted to do more, I just wanted to run so, so badly. The part of me that felt that way about running had been kept closely muzzled over the past year or so, but yesterday's run had unleashed it again. Little did I know, I would pay for this... yes, yes I would.
Saturday 12/06: 46:21, 2 x Washington Park Loops in Denver. L foot hurt so badly, I probably should have not run on this day. But, what's 5 miles here and there...? I thought. So I embarked, and I actually felt okay despite the altitude, but about 15 minutes in, I felt this acute pain in my L ankle... so terrible that I thought I would have to stop and walk home... but eventually I ran it off, and stupid completed the rest of the run, albeit extremely slowly and cautiously.
Training this week: 5:12:52, of real, bonafide running.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Week of 11/23/2008 - 11/29/2008 (Thanksgiving - Boston)
Thanksgiving Week
I'm not usually one for warm and fuzzy sentiments... but I really do love Thanksgiving. Went home for the week to Boston, and had plenty to be thankful about. I still don't WANT to be slow forever more... but I do realize that there are more important things.
Monday was my mom's birthday, and then Peter came for Thanksgiving. My mom had friends over too, so we ended up having WWII Villians Thanksgiving (with 2 German people and 4 Japanese people). I felt relaxed and happy and did not have nightmares for the first time in months. Cooked a big turkey, enjoyed some long, slow, (hopefully regenerative) not on a schedule runs. It actually felt somewhat de-stressing (but also a little bit stressing) to just run in a non structured way for a little bit. I just did what I could when I felt like it.
Sunday 11/23: Off, all daylight hours were consumed by flying/time zone change. Woke up at 4 am, and felt completely wiped out when I arrived so went to bed at 8 pm Boston time, which is 5 pm LA time.
Monday 11/24: 1:24:20, River path to Eliot Bridge. Decided that 40 degrees is still acceptable running weather. Once you warm up, its not half bad. Saw one other crazy person who was wearing shorts like me. Took it real easy and thought this was a nice relaxing run until I got home to my map of River Loop distances and saw that I only ran 9.3 miles... which makes this run kind of on the ridiculously slow side... bah. But today is my mom's birthday, so I did not waste any of it on being disgruntled about the slowness.
Tuesday 11/25: Off, torrential downpour. Also stuffed myself silly with scones upon getting up in the morning and felt barfy, which did not really make it any easier to want to run. Then I dug up some old running logs and remembered that in winter of 2005 I ran 11 miles a day rain or shine in the 35 degree weather when I was at home in Boston. One of those days was really rainy and miserable, and I still ran 11 miles... at sub-8 minute mile pace. Who would have thought that in 3 years I'd be all lazy and slow... lame, totally lame.
Wednesday 11/26: 1:34:31, River Path to JFK bridge (10.9 miles). Felt motivated to get out there after spending yesterday feeling grouchy. This run was better, found some nice dirt paths that I'd never ventured to try in years past. Also, had enough energy left to push the pace a little bit for the last 2.5 miles. Felt good to get going, and made it up Big Hill in record time. (We now live at the top of a half mile long, somewhat steep hill which is inevitable to get to the river path)
Thursday 11/27: 1:15:30, Shorter River Path plus detour to gas station (8.9 miles). We picked up Peter from the airport yesterday, and he came with me on my run (on bike) this morning after we patched up my old mountain bike and pumped up the tires at the gas station. It was really nice, but I realized that I was being grinchy to him, because I didn't want him to see me be this slow. I know that this is wholly irrational, because 1) numerous discussions over the years have revealed that not everyone has speed goggles to the same degree that I apparently do and 2) me at my very very best would still be woefully underwhelming to a former national champion/professional triathlete anyways... so, I should really get over this--but it's harder than you think. There's still this side of me that wants to be a badass in front of her man. When I race (er, IF I ever race again...) I want Peter to be able to say "See the one kicking everyone's butt? That's MY girl." Anyways, I suppose I can ruminate on this problem another time.
Friday 11/28: Off, bleh. Being lazy again. I think the laziness is correlated with it raining. I didn't feel too horrible though, because I have a big day planned for tomorrow :).
Saturday 11/29: 2:06:18, give or take a couple of minutes, the first ever Run-Bike Boston Tour of Megumi's Childhood Relics. Took Peter around town (me on foot, him on bike) to see where I grew up. I had an elaborate route planned out, but the farthest landmark had to be foregone due to time constraints (we had to catch our flights home). It still mapped out to ~14.5 miles though, so I wasn't going as ridiculously slowly as I thought I was. Anyways, it was fun. Felt a little groggy and sore after this + 5 1/2 hours of sitting on a plane.
Training this week: 6:20:39 (43.6 miles*) a big week on 4 days.
*This is the first time in over a year that I've run a 40 mile week. Feet and ankles are holding steady. I also did not feel catastrophically awful this week for the first time in about a month. That's something to be thankful for!
I'm not usually one for warm and fuzzy sentiments... but I really do love Thanksgiving. Went home for the week to Boston, and had plenty to be thankful about. I still don't WANT to be slow forever more... but I do realize that there are more important things.
Monday was my mom's birthday, and then Peter came for Thanksgiving. My mom had friends over too, so we ended up having WWII Villians Thanksgiving (with 2 German people and 4 Japanese people). I felt relaxed and happy and did not have nightmares for the first time in months. Cooked a big turkey, enjoyed some long, slow, (hopefully regenerative) not on a schedule runs. It actually felt somewhat de-stressing (but also a little bit stressing) to just run in a non structured way for a little bit. I just did what I could when I felt like it.
Sunday 11/23: Off, all daylight hours were consumed by flying/time zone change. Woke up at 4 am, and felt completely wiped out when I arrived so went to bed at 8 pm Boston time, which is 5 pm LA time.
Monday 11/24: 1:24:20, River path to Eliot Bridge. Decided that 40 degrees is still acceptable running weather. Once you warm up, its not half bad. Saw one other crazy person who was wearing shorts like me. Took it real easy and thought this was a nice relaxing run until I got home to my map of River Loop distances and saw that I only ran 9.3 miles... which makes this run kind of on the ridiculously slow side... bah. But today is my mom's birthday, so I did not waste any of it on being disgruntled about the slowness.
Tuesday 11/25: Off, torrential downpour. Also stuffed myself silly with scones upon getting up in the morning and felt barfy, which did not really make it any easier to want to run. Then I dug up some old running logs and remembered that in winter of 2005 I ran 11 miles a day rain or shine in the 35 degree weather when I was at home in Boston. One of those days was really rainy and miserable, and I still ran 11 miles... at sub-8 minute mile pace. Who would have thought that in 3 years I'd be all lazy and slow... lame, totally lame.
Wednesday 11/26: 1:34:31, River Path to JFK bridge (10.9 miles). Felt motivated to get out there after spending yesterday feeling grouchy. This run was better, found some nice dirt paths that I'd never ventured to try in years past. Also, had enough energy left to push the pace a little bit for the last 2.5 miles. Felt good to get going, and made it up Big Hill in record time. (We now live at the top of a half mile long, somewhat steep hill which is inevitable to get to the river path)
Thursday 11/27: 1:15:30, Shorter River Path plus detour to gas station (8.9 miles). We picked up Peter from the airport yesterday, and he came with me on my run (on bike) this morning after we patched up my old mountain bike and pumped up the tires at the gas station. It was really nice, but I realized that I was being grinchy to him, because I didn't want him to see me be this slow. I know that this is wholly irrational, because 1) numerous discussions over the years have revealed that not everyone has speed goggles to the same degree that I apparently do and 2) me at my very very best would still be woefully underwhelming to a former national champion/professional triathlete anyways... so, I should really get over this--but it's harder than you think. There's still this side of me that wants to be a badass in front of her man. When I race (er, IF I ever race again...) I want Peter to be able to say "See the one kicking everyone's butt? That's MY girl." Anyways, I suppose I can ruminate on this problem another time.
Friday 11/28: Off, bleh. Being lazy again. I think the laziness is correlated with it raining. I didn't feel too horrible though, because I have a big day planned for tomorrow :).
Saturday 11/29: 2:06:18, give or take a couple of minutes, the first ever Run-Bike Boston Tour of Megumi's Childhood Relics. Took Peter around town (me on foot, him on bike) to see where I grew up. I had an elaborate route planned out, but the farthest landmark had to be foregone due to time constraints (we had to catch our flights home). It still mapped out to ~14.5 miles though, so I wasn't going as ridiculously slowly as I thought I was. Anyways, it was fun. Felt a little groggy and sore after this + 5 1/2 hours of sitting on a plane.
Training this week: 6:20:39 (43.6 miles*) a big week on 4 days.
*This is the first time in over a year that I've run a 40 mile week. Feet and ankles are holding steady. I also did not feel catastrophically awful this week for the first time in about a month. That's something to be thankful for!
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