PC Load Letter.
3 trips to the garage, 1 box chocolate covered raisins, and 5 USB connections later, we've successfully installed all of our lovely new start-up hardware, and learned that no, the fax machine can't "talk" to the the line outside due to the phone system at our host company. I love my warm and fuzzy school related job... but IT problems make me feel like I'm on the set of "Office Space". If I were a character in the movie, I'd be that Indian guy.
Sunday 11/26: 12 miles, 1:45:xx easy with Ian in the arroyo, distance uncertain. Learned new arroyo entrance near Monterrey. Body still feels kind of out of sorts, like the running motion isn't smooth and easy, but didn't fixate on it.
Monday 11/27: 8 miles, botched attempt at 3 x 2 mile @ anaerobic threshold (AT). 2 miles jogging on grass as warm up, 13:15 (6:40, 6:35), 13:28 (6:44, 6:44) on 2 minutes of rest, 2 miles jogging in Nike Frees as cool down.
The ideal progression for my current level of fitness would have been: 13:30, 13:20, 13:10. Its really hard to hold back on the first one, especially because I haven't run fast in so many weeks and I'm just so frustrated. Key learning for today, strength and speed's okay, but endurance is shot. I cheated on the second one, ran the last lap ~8 seconds faster than the second to last lap, driving into oxygen debt which, ofcourse makes it not really an honest AT effort. Decided race week was not the time to gut out the third one. Will resolve to redeem myself next monday.
Tuesday 11/28: 7 miles, ~1 hour easy. Stayed up too late reading Enders Game, slept through morning running time. Turned out okay though, ran Huntington followed by laps on South field with Mark. I love talking about running.
Wednesday 11/29: 7 miles, Bailey Canyon to Connector trail--27:42 to camp, 45:47 to connector, 1:17:51 total. Felt loose and relaxed, but pushed hard up last 400m scramble to the sign post. Took the first 25 minutes in the beginning for breathing to settle down but felt pretty good. I love this run so much.
Thursday 11/30: 5.9 miles, 50:18 easy. Felt good, legs unusually fresh post-wednesday Hill Climb day. Unclear as to if this is an extended effect of 4 weeks away from serious training, or if the reduced Sunday/Monday mileage burden is allowing my body to recover more completely between training elements. Pending more research.
Friday 12/01: 4.4 miles, 38:30 pre-race. Jogged real easy through time trial loop B, a bit more coughing than ideal the past few days, but the 'system' feels good. Strangely I feel calm and prepared for tomorrow...
I've fought both my doubts and my instincts these past two weeks, but in the end I feel like I've finally made some rational decisions for the first time, possibly in my career as a runner. My weakened body would not have withstood 2 full strength training weeks, and trying to "make up for lost time" would only have delayed my recovery. By scaling back intelligently, I think I've put myself in the best possible position to cope with a race situation. It may not be pretty, but I still intend to win tomorrow.
Saturday 12/02: 6.2 miles, 43:37 Tiger Run, 10K. ~3 miles between nervous warm up and random cool down with the gang. Title defense, successful! Tactical error in 6:24 first mile, but other than that, felt like I ran a strategic race that allowed me to go hard in the last mile, instead of last year's dead legged shuffle. It was a good day, had fun. Great to have everyone there, seriously. SPHS kids cheered for me :)
My goals for this race have admittedly fallen, from 41:24 6 weeks ago (maybe this was just too unrealistic for this year and this course), to 42:45 after the hip injury, and then to "just any sort of sub-7 minute miles". I was really close to the last goal (7:02 pace). Uncharacteristically, I feel okay with this. There's already a part of me that's planning for next year, planning for next race. Every goal you don't meet is an opportunity to do better. For now, it just feels good to run fast again. The past 5 weeks of training haven't turned out the way that I wanted, but I feel excited and hopeful for track.
Target mileage: 45 miles
Week actual: 53 miles
Last week: 39.9 miles
One could view this as a potentially precipitous increase from last week, especially in light of 30 the week before and 15 three weeks ago. I never thought I'd struggle with keeping my mileage DOWN. The bulk of this week's mileage have been "easy" miles, though, so I'm not too worried. Proceed with caution.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Demons
"What do your demons make you do?"
"About sixteen, eighteen miles a day."
In the beginning, there was one thing: NEUROSIS
Miles, not enough. Pacing, sub-optimal. Terrain, too flat, too much concrete. What will I change tomorrow, what will I change next week, what will I change next season? Everything, absolutely everything matters. What you eat? When you sleep? How much stress? Which shoes? Orthotics? Frees? Vitamins? I'm a believer in "all in", you put a half-ass in, you get a half-ass out (Goldhammer, John. later works, circa. 2003). Some people think the neurosis is bad, but the reality is just that I like to think about it all, constantly, obsessively, like a crazy person.
Neurotic, never satisfied, always think I'm 1-2 minutes faster than I really am. The day that I cease to have this blind faith in my potential, will be the day that I cease to race, because no one else can believe for you. Demons. I don't have a plan for how it all ends. I'm not looking for times, or awards or accomplishments anymore. There are goals along the way, but I'm training for only one race. One race that I don't know when it will be, what distance, against whom or what the outcome will be... but it will be the race of my lifetime. When it comes, I will be ready.
Today though, today is 45:47 (Bailey Canyon to the Wilson Connector, 3-4 miles, 2000 ft elevation gain). Not a bad start to El Comeback Tour, Take 2, Week 2. Despite the illness and the injuries, I'm not too far off of my PR here a month ago, 45:09 courtesy of The Brain himself. Not even a twinge of knee pain on the slow shuffle back down--I can't remember the last time that happened.
The air was cold and crystalline like December in New England, and higher on up were patches of unmelted snowflakes. The woods had turned to winter for sure, leaves and branches frozen into a finely tuned tension that would have shattered to pieces with an errant poke. It reminded me of icicles hanging from the roof at home, a long long time ago. When the mountain cleared away on both sides at the very end, the city of LA emerged with unusual brightness and clarity-- little clusters of buildings like toy cities. Downtown where I work, Century city where I used to work... and smaller, farther clusters keeping the 101 company, winding up the coast and disappearing under distant cloud cover.
*PLOT SUMMARY* (for our new viewers)
This is Day One, in some frame of relativity. I am starting again, though not from scratch. I've been running since fall of 2003, and running for Caltech that first year was rough. I showed some early promise in XC 2004 and Track 20005 on my own as an unattached runner following that, but both of my seasons were cut short by injury just as I was making what felt like a breakthrough. Driven almost to insanity by my own perception of unrealized potential, I made a series of critical training errors that made both XC 2005 and Track 2006 into demoralizing disasters, that left me slower than the previous year and crushed and broken, both physically (ask KB about the toe :)) and mentally.
Armed with new research, new training ideas, a comprehensive new plan and a renewed passion for running, I started XC 2006 with a fresh new start. For a while it seemed that my new plan too, was failing, but I had a breakthrough in my last race at UC Riverside, and have been making steady progress. After handling a minor hip injury, I was back on the ball until I was felled yet again, this time by el virus unit, The Cold. Despite 84 zinc lozenges, it was to be a particularly long and severe illness, that finally left me with only 2 weeks to train for the South Pasadena Tiger Run 10K, which was to be the crowning achievement of my shortened fall season--the event about which I had dreamed every dream for every day that has passed since late August when I began my comeback. This log begins in the second of those two weeks, the week of my race.
"About sixteen, eighteen miles a day."
In the beginning, there was one thing: NEUROSIS
Miles, not enough. Pacing, sub-optimal. Terrain, too flat, too much concrete. What will I change tomorrow, what will I change next week, what will I change next season? Everything, absolutely everything matters. What you eat? When you sleep? How much stress? Which shoes? Orthotics? Frees? Vitamins? I'm a believer in "all in", you put a half-ass in, you get a half-ass out (Goldhammer, John. later works, circa. 2003). Some people think the neurosis is bad, but the reality is just that I like to think about it all, constantly, obsessively, like a crazy person.
Neurotic, never satisfied, always think I'm 1-2 minutes faster than I really am. The day that I cease to have this blind faith in my potential, will be the day that I cease to race, because no one else can believe for you. Demons. I don't have a plan for how it all ends. I'm not looking for times, or awards or accomplishments anymore. There are goals along the way, but I'm training for only one race. One race that I don't know when it will be, what distance, against whom or what the outcome will be... but it will be the race of my lifetime. When it comes, I will be ready.
Today though, today is 45:47 (Bailey Canyon to the Wilson Connector, 3-4 miles, 2000 ft elevation gain). Not a bad start to El Comeback Tour, Take 2, Week 2. Despite the illness and the injuries, I'm not too far off of my PR here a month ago, 45:09 courtesy of The Brain himself. Not even a twinge of knee pain on the slow shuffle back down--I can't remember the last time that happened.
The air was cold and crystalline like December in New England, and higher on up were patches of unmelted snowflakes. The woods had turned to winter for sure, leaves and branches frozen into a finely tuned tension that would have shattered to pieces with an errant poke. It reminded me of icicles hanging from the roof at home, a long long time ago. When the mountain cleared away on both sides at the very end, the city of LA emerged with unusual brightness and clarity-- little clusters of buildings like toy cities. Downtown where I work, Century city where I used to work... and smaller, farther clusters keeping the 101 company, winding up the coast and disappearing under distant cloud cover.
*PLOT SUMMARY* (for our new viewers)
This is Day One, in some frame of relativity. I am starting again, though not from scratch. I've been running since fall of 2003, and running for Caltech that first year was rough. I showed some early promise in XC 2004 and Track 20005 on my own as an unattached runner following that, but both of my seasons were cut short by injury just as I was making what felt like a breakthrough. Driven almost to insanity by my own perception of unrealized potential, I made a series of critical training errors that made both XC 2005 and Track 2006 into demoralizing disasters, that left me slower than the previous year and crushed and broken, both physically (ask KB about the toe :)) and mentally.
Armed with new research, new training ideas, a comprehensive new plan and a renewed passion for running, I started XC 2006 with a fresh new start. For a while it seemed that my new plan too, was failing, but I had a breakthrough in my last race at UC Riverside, and have been making steady progress. After handling a minor hip injury, I was back on the ball until I was felled yet again, this time by el virus unit, The Cold. Despite 84 zinc lozenges, it was to be a particularly long and severe illness, that finally left me with only 2 weeks to train for the South Pasadena Tiger Run 10K, which was to be the crowning achievement of my shortened fall season--the event about which I had dreamed every dream for every day that has passed since late August when I began my comeback. This log begins in the second of those two weeks, the week of my race.
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