Sunday, April 27, 2008
Week of 04/27/2008 - 05/03/2008 (Base Week 7)
Last week basically turned out to be more of just a week that lacked focus and direction more so than a week that was restful and regenerative. Despite that, I'm starting the third microcycle feeling stronger and slightly less despondent about my training. Let's just see if that lasts through Tempo Tuesday...
The mountains are also burning again :(. We could see the fires coming back from SCIACs and it was really, scarily close to where the Mt. Wilson trails are! eeeeeeeee.... There's also ash raining down on my house too... not good.
Sunday 04/27: 1:10:53, trail perimeter of RB to yellow gate at JPL, then back towards Arroyo to add up to 70 minutes. 4 x 100m striders, moderately high quality, followed by karaokes and quick steps, abysmally low quality. Mostly managed to get up on time, around 6:30 am, so only about the last 10 minutes or so were too hot. Loads better than yesterday, felt pretty good.
Monday 04/28: Off, shots. Hmmmmmmmm... my body really did not enjoy either striders or karaokes, because my entire lower body is sore, sore, sore. Had to concentrate not to walk funny/extremely slowly so as not to draw stares from confused co-workers... why am I so weak? Sad, sad, sad.
Tuesday 04/29: 44:01, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops, a.k.a. Why Do I Even Bother... (15:11, 11:56, 15:34) worst one yet. They say, when you've hit rock bottom, the only direction you can go is up--but actually, that's not true at all: you can also stay where you are forever, OR you can fall through the rocks into the molten core of the earth and get fried to a crisp. I'm just saying...
Basically, all of my other runs are trending upwards, but these tempo loop deals are at best, not improving... but more realistically dis-improving. Which is actually not desirable at all, since after all I'm training so that I can one day RACE again and not be completely abominable... not so that I can do base runs every day for the rest of my life... glaghalghalgha.
Wednesday 04/30: 45:16, Monterrey to bridge loop, you would think a recovery run couldn't possibly be the worst run of your life, but one would be surprised, let me tell you... Whole body felt heavy and dull and achey, and BOTH arches were cramping in the morning. Taped both feet very tightly but they still hurt during the run either despite or because of the taping. Yeah, I think this day deserves the ol' Steve Slattery quip 'Like 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag'.
Thursday 05/01: Off. Emergency extra off day. Woke up just feeling still dull and aching all over, especially around the hips. Not to mention that even after 8 hours of sleep I still felt like death. Worst of all, I just didn't even feel like running at all... Something's just gone horribly wrong with my body lately.
Friday 05/02: Off. Shots. Stopped by the Caltech bookstore to pick up an "MIT - Because not everyone can go to Caltech" shirt for a competition at work next week. I asked if they accepted credit cards, since it's been a while... and was told that they did, just not quarters. I was initially confused about why she would think I would attempt to pay with quarters... but then I remembered that I was back in the land of the incredibly smart folks who very often lack common sense. It's been a while...
Saturday 05/03: 33:31, California to RB. Woke up still feeling remarkably lousy despite TWO days off... and also without being able to shake this weird dry raspy cough. Basically this was an awful terrible run that had to be cut short because I just couldn't breathe. Felt light headed and woozy by the time I got up the one switchback to my car... something's just gone really horribly wrong with my body.
Target Training this week: 4 hours 15 minutes
Actual Training: 3:13:31
Maybe I should just stop making goals... g-damn...
Monday, April 21, 2008
Week of 04/20/2008 - 04/26/2008 (Base Week 6)
The second down week has arrived...
...and unfortunately, now I know that I need it. Basically, the goals for this week are as follows:
1) Heal bad L ankle
2) Not to have any days that feel like last Sunday and Thursday
Basically, nothing fancy. I really just want to make sure that I land on my feet (literally and figuratively) on the other side of this little rough patch. Every time I start to feel better physically and fitness wise, I just want to do so much more... but I guess I have to be careful, because sometimes that just leads to re-injury again.
Sunday 04/20: 1:04:15, Monterrey to RB and back on the other side. Same long run as Week 1, but 2 minutes faster. Felt good. Ankle better than before but still some tweaks. Taped higher up on the metatarsals today, wasn't sure if it was any better than taping at the toes while I was running, but later on in the day, my feet felt a lot better than normal. Mostly a good run. Saw Jill! She's running Big Sur in a week, sounds pretty hard core.
Monday 04/21: Aaahhhhhhhhh! Baby chicks Baby chicks Baby chicks!!!!! SO INSANELY CUTE. Peter and I went to go see KB and Ian's newly hatched baby chicks, they were even cuter than I thought they would be! (Off. Shots, etc. ankle feeling a lot better)
Tuesday 04/22: 43:07, gahlghalghlaghahga... a terrible, awful run with no redeeming qualities. 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:41, 11:55, 15:10 plus jog back to car. Felt like death, a lot of huffing and puffing... kept looking at HR monitor expecting it to read 215 but it was really only 185 -9. Can't figure out why... felt like it was an all out effort, though HR did not show that. Everything just felt horrible, feet hurt, legs heavy, lungs asphyxiated, AND it was really really slow on top of that, wtf?
I really wasn't expecting this, there've been 2 good runs and a rest day leading up to today, so there really weren't any indications that everything would suddenly fall apart now. Allergies have been really bad the past few days, and haven't slept well but since that hasn't really seemed to affect the other runs, I didn't think it would affect this one so catastrophically. Sigh.... *frowny face*.
Wednesday 04/23: 43:51, Monterrey to bridge loop. Tired-ish, still having a lot of trouble waking up. Slow but not sloppy. L ankle really crunchy, you can hear all of this popping and crackling when I move it around... but not completely tweaked out like last week. Tendonitis between 1st and 2nd metatarsals a little sore since yesterday.
Thursday 04/24: 41:06, out and back along Seattle waterfront with Kevin! In town for conference today, met up in the AM before talk. Great overcast but not raining weather, nice area, felt good in the beginning, but tough to come back in the headwind, I don't think we were going very fast. First time in a few months on the pavement, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Easier on the ankles, harder on the metatarsals... no surprises here.
Friday 04/25: Off, shots. Hmmm.... legs kinda feel warm and achey, also bottoms of both feel feel sore.... I don't think my body liked the concrete yesterday. This does not bode well for hypothetical far away marathon.
Saturday 04/26: 41:32, Monterrey to bridge loop. Ran easy, with 6 x stride outs in the middle portion. Slept in until about 8:30, was already 80 degrees and sunny by the time I got out there... sucked. Hard to get the gears moving, but better towards the end. Felt troubled by the amount of out of breath I felt after each one. It really doesn't seem that the tempo loops are building any sort of proficiency at the higher ranges of exertion...
Target Training this week: 3 hours 15-45 minutes
Actual Training: 3:53:51
...and unfortunately, now I know that I need it. Basically, the goals for this week are as follows:
1) Heal bad L ankle
2) Not to have any days that feel like last Sunday and Thursday
Basically, nothing fancy. I really just want to make sure that I land on my feet (literally and figuratively) on the other side of this little rough patch. Every time I start to feel better physically and fitness wise, I just want to do so much more... but I guess I have to be careful, because sometimes that just leads to re-injury again.
Sunday 04/20: 1:04:15, Monterrey to RB and back on the other side. Same long run as Week 1, but 2 minutes faster. Felt good. Ankle better than before but still some tweaks. Taped higher up on the metatarsals today, wasn't sure if it was any better than taping at the toes while I was running, but later on in the day, my feet felt a lot better than normal. Mostly a good run. Saw Jill! She's running Big Sur in a week, sounds pretty hard core.
Monday 04/21: Aaahhhhhhhhh! Baby chicks Baby chicks Baby chicks!!!!! SO INSANELY CUTE. Peter and I went to go see KB and Ian's newly hatched baby chicks, they were even cuter than I thought they would be! (Off. Shots, etc. ankle feeling a lot better)
Tuesday 04/22: 43:07, gahlghalghlaghahga... a terrible, awful run with no redeeming qualities. 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:41, 11:55, 15:10 plus jog back to car. Felt like death, a lot of huffing and puffing... kept looking at HR monitor expecting it to read 215 but it was really only 185 -9. Can't figure out why... felt like it was an all out effort, though HR did not show that. Everything just felt horrible, feet hurt, legs heavy, lungs asphyxiated, AND it was really really slow on top of that, wtf?
I really wasn't expecting this, there've been 2 good runs and a rest day leading up to today, so there really weren't any indications that everything would suddenly fall apart now. Allergies have been really bad the past few days, and haven't slept well but since that hasn't really seemed to affect the other runs, I didn't think it would affect this one so catastrophically. Sigh.... *frowny face*
Thursday 04/24: 41:06, out and back along Seattle waterfront with Kevin! In town for conference today, met up in the AM before talk. Great overcast but not raining weather, nice area, felt good in the beginning, but tough to come back in the headwind, I don't think we were going very fast. First time in a few months on the pavement, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Easier on the ankles, harder on the metatarsals... no surprises here.
Friday 04/25: Off, shots. Hmmm.... legs kinda feel warm and achey, also bottoms of both feel feel sore.... I don't think my body liked the concrete yesterday. This does not bode well for hypothetical far away marathon.
Saturday 04/26: 41:32, Monterrey to bridge loop. Ran easy, with 6 x stride outs in the middle portion. Slept in until about 8:30, was already 80 degrees and sunny by the time I got out there... sucked. Hard to get the gears moving, but better towards the end. Felt troubled by the amount of out of breath I felt after each one. It really doesn't seem that the tempo loops are building any sort of proficiency at the higher ranges of exertion...
Target Training this week: 3 hours 15-45 minutes
Actual Training: 3:53:51
Monday, April 14, 2008
Week of 04/13/2008 - 04/19/2008 (Base Week 5)
Disgruntling:
A few years ago, I rescued a wall clock from a friend who was going to throw it away because it "ticked too loudly". Apparently the ticking of the second hand drove him crazy at night when he was trying to go to sleep. I don't really mind it. It's been living in my bedroom every since.
A few weeks ago, I was delighted to realize that the second ticks conveniently beat out the pattern of a 60 bpm HR. As I went to sleep I realized that my own heartbeats were just ever so slightly off-set from the ticking as to be just under 60 bpm. Since my resting HR creeps up to near 70 when I haven't been running for an extended period of time, I was happy to see that my body was slowly becoming closer to the athlete state.
On Sunday it was > 95 degrees, and distinctly uncomfortable even long past sundown... as I lay sleepless and blinking in the dark, trying not to move... I realized that my heart beats were racing egregiously faster than the clock. What the hell happened to "Spring"? Now that its basically not cold anymore, its scorching... summer training is going to be tough.
Sunday 04/13: 1:16:49, California to RB, once around the trail perimeter and back. I was really looking forward to this run, which is why it makes it all the more consterning that it somehow turned into a miserable disaster. SCIACs went horribly late on Saturday because they had to start the men's high jump at 11 pm... *shakes fist at Redlands*, ergo I did not get to bed until close to 1 am... I felt like ass when the alarm went off at 6 am to go running, and about the same at 7:30 am when I finally did get out of the house. It was a bearable temperature for about 12 minutes until I left the shade of the Arroyo...
In addition to the heat and the vague sleep deprivation headache, my quads were inexplicably sore... until it occurred to me that maybe this happened because a bunch of us were trying to do these gymnastics holds on the bars at the meet, and one of those endeavors ended with a very sharp pain in both quads. Everything just felt soooooo slow and heavy. Usually by the end of a longer run I feel itchy to pick up the pace, but not today... it kinda felt like all the gears other than "trundling" were smashed to pieces. Sucked.
To make matters worse, I typically put the bad days to rest in blissful ignorance of the distance covered... but unfortunately I do have some idea of how long this route is due to other people's gmaps. Ugly. Reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaal ugly. At least someone cleared out all of those damn weeds from the trail perimeter around the RB. Fewer allergies... good stuff.
Monday 04/14: Off. Shots. Quads feeling better today. Body still kinda feels dull. Bleh.
Tuesday 04/15: 42:45, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:39, 11:39, 15:04 plus jog back to car. Okay. So, back to the drawing board: I said last week that if things were still bad this week, I'd reassess, so I'm reassessing. Despite the fact that tempo loop mostly went back to normal, I'm considering this session poor for two reasons--the high HR profile on the jog laps, and the slowness of the third lap. Mostly I feel the same on all of those third laps, but the pace on the third lap is a good indicator of how taxing the tempo section was on that particular day.
Elevated resting HR, slowness of the easy days and this persistent dull feeling in my legs--I'd like to blame the heat and the sleeping poorly, but it probably also means that there's accumulated (vs. short-range, event specific) fatigue there. I think maybe for someone who's still struggling with endurance, the 50 - 65 - 75 min progression of long runs in about a month's time was not good... also going from 1 non-jogging day per week to about 3, feeling exhausted after Down Week #1.... all maybe risky choices.
Here are the changes that I will make in the next few weeks:
--This week's Thursday run will be changed from "moderate" to "easy". Saturday's fartlek will be replaced with 10 x 100m striders.
--Next week will still be Down Week #2, so long run will be scaled back to 60-65 minutes.
--For the microcycle beginning in Week 7, I will not increase the training load over this past cycle until I feel like my body is better able to recover in a sustainable manner.
I think I learned something valuable on this run though. I already had a feeling things weren't going to go well after Loop 1 was so slow and crappy feeling, so I just really tried to focus on being smooth, relaxed and efficient, keeping good form on the tempo lap. I think that really pulled me through pace-wise, vs. last week where I felt like I was just trying to fight the fatigue by expending more energy.
Wednesday 04/16: 43:15, Monterrey to bridge loop. A nice, placid run at ideal temperature (low 50's)... and thank goodness for that. Lately, the world is a conspiracy to keep me from sleeping at night--last night at 12:30 am, just after all of the local stores had closed but hours after I had gone to bed... I was awakened by an infernal beeping noise. As it turned out, my smoke detectors had chosen this moment to express their dissatisfaction with the amount of battery life remaining. Needless to say once I had managed to quell this particular problem, I felt like death when the alarm went off at 6 am, and even more like death when I finally got out to the trails at 7 am. Fortunately, I felt much improved after about 5 minutes of running.
Thursday 04/17: 52:31, California to Salvia Canyon. Glgaglhgalhgalhga... felt like basura, just like Sunday. Part of the badness can be attributed to bad L ankle... for some reason it really flared up today. Hard to walk afterwards, thank goodness tomorrow is mandatory rest.
Friday 04/18: Off. Shots. Still bad L ankle... hurts to walk, not a good sign. Tried to ice some of it away, but ended up freeze-burning some skin instead.
Saturday 04/19: 40:26, Monterrey to bridge loop. L ankle shaky but better than past few days... decided to wrap it pretty exhaustively and hope for the best. Couldn't do the strides in this state, so decided instead to do the moderate base run that I didn't do on Thursday. Felt pretty good, surprisingly. Mostly no pain during the run, and was pleased to see that I finished in the same amount of time as the Week 2 progression run. Definitely felt like a much lower effort level on this one.
Target Training this week: 4 hours 20 minutes
Actual Training: 4:15:46
Some weeks, you just don't achieve your goals...
A few years ago, I rescued a wall clock from a friend who was going to throw it away because it "ticked too loudly". Apparently the ticking of the second hand drove him crazy at night when he was trying to go to sleep. I don't really mind it. It's been living in my bedroom every since.
A few weeks ago, I was delighted to realize that the second ticks conveniently beat out the pattern of a 60 bpm HR. As I went to sleep I realized that my own heartbeats were just ever so slightly off-set from the ticking as to be just under 60 bpm. Since my resting HR creeps up to near 70 when I haven't been running for an extended period of time, I was happy to see that my body was slowly becoming closer to the athlete state.
On Sunday it was > 95 degrees, and distinctly uncomfortable even long past sundown... as I lay sleepless and blinking in the dark, trying not to move... I realized that my heart beats were racing egregiously faster than the clock. What the hell happened to "Spring"? Now that its basically not cold anymore, its scorching... summer training is going to be tough.
Sunday 04/13: 1:16:49, California to RB, once around the trail perimeter and back. I was really looking forward to this run, which is why it makes it all the more consterning that it somehow turned into a miserable disaster. SCIACs went horribly late on Saturday because they had to start the men's high jump at 11 pm... *shakes fist at Redlands*, ergo I did not get to bed until close to 1 am... I felt like ass when the alarm went off at 6 am to go running, and about the same at 7:30 am when I finally did get out of the house. It was a bearable temperature for about 12 minutes until I left the shade of the Arroyo...
In addition to the heat and the vague sleep deprivation headache, my quads were inexplicably sore... until it occurred to me that maybe this happened because a bunch of us were trying to do these gymnastics holds on the bars at the meet, and one of those endeavors ended with a very sharp pain in both quads. Everything just felt soooooo slow and heavy. Usually by the end of a longer run I feel itchy to pick up the pace, but not today... it kinda felt like all the gears other than "trundling" were smashed to pieces. Sucked.
To make matters worse, I typically put the bad days to rest in blissful ignorance of the distance covered... but unfortunately I do have some idea of how long this route is due to other people's gmaps. Ugly. Reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaal ugly. At least someone cleared out all of those damn weeds from the trail perimeter around the RB. Fewer allergies... good stuff.
Monday 04/14: Off. Shots. Quads feeling better today. Body still kinda feels dull. Bleh.
Tuesday 04/15: 42:45, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:39, 11:39, 15:04 plus jog back to car. Okay. So, back to the drawing board: I said last week that if things were still bad this week, I'd reassess, so I'm reassessing. Despite the fact that tempo loop mostly went back to normal, I'm considering this session poor for two reasons--the high HR profile on the jog laps, and the slowness of the third lap. Mostly I feel the same on all of those third laps, but the pace on the third lap is a good indicator of how taxing the tempo section was on that particular day.
Elevated resting HR, slowness of the easy days and this persistent dull feeling in my legs--I'd like to blame the heat and the sleeping poorly, but it probably also means that there's accumulated (vs. short-range, event specific) fatigue there. I think maybe for someone who's still struggling with endurance, the 50 - 65 - 75 min progression of long runs in about a month's time was not good... also going from 1 non-jogging day per week to about 3, feeling exhausted after Down Week #1.... all maybe risky choices.
Here are the changes that I will make in the next few weeks:
--This week's Thursday run will be changed from "moderate" to "easy". Saturday's fartlek will be replaced with 10 x 100m striders.
--Next week will still be Down Week #2, so long run will be scaled back to 60-65 minutes.
--For the microcycle beginning in Week 7, I will not increase the training load over this past cycle until I feel like my body is better able to recover in a sustainable manner.
I think I learned something valuable on this run though. I already had a feeling things weren't going to go well after Loop 1 was so slow and crappy feeling, so I just really tried to focus on being smooth, relaxed and efficient, keeping good form on the tempo lap. I think that really pulled me through pace-wise, vs. last week where I felt like I was just trying to fight the fatigue by expending more energy.
Wednesday 04/16: 43:15, Monterrey to bridge loop. A nice, placid run at ideal temperature (low 50's)... and thank goodness for that. Lately, the world is a conspiracy to keep me from sleeping at night--last night at 12:30 am, just after all of the local stores had closed but hours after I had gone to bed... I was awakened by an infernal beeping noise. As it turned out, my smoke detectors had chosen this moment to express their dissatisfaction with the amount of battery life remaining. Needless to say once I had managed to quell this particular problem, I felt like death when the alarm went off at 6 am, and even more like death when I finally got out to the trails at 7 am. Fortunately, I felt much improved after about 5 minutes of running.
Thursday 04/17: 52:31, California to Salvia Canyon. Glgaglhgalhgalhga... felt like basura, just like Sunday. Part of the badness can be attributed to bad L ankle... for some reason it really flared up today. Hard to walk afterwards, thank goodness tomorrow is mandatory rest.
Friday 04/18: Off. Shots. Still bad L ankle... hurts to walk, not a good sign. Tried to ice some of it away, but ended up freeze-burning some skin instead.
Saturday 04/19: 40:26, Monterrey to bridge loop. L ankle shaky but better than past few days... decided to wrap it pretty exhaustively and hope for the best. Couldn't do the strides in this state, so decided instead to do the moderate base run that I didn't do on Thursday. Felt pretty good, surprisingly. Mostly no pain during the run, and was pleased to see that I finished in the same amount of time as the Week 2 progression run. Definitely felt like a much lower effort level on this one.
Target Training this week: 4 hours 20 minutes
Actual Training: 4:15:46
Some weeks, you just don't achieve your goals...
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Week of 04/06/2008 - 04/12/2008 (Base Week 4)
Argh! So, as it turns out, my down week wasn't very restful at all... but onwards we go.
I'm feeling a little bit of everything this week. I'm cautiously optimistic, a little frustrated, a lot stircrazy. Just have to remember to make good decisions for my above averagely fragile feet.
FYI, after much investigation, I have deemed Rite Aid brand foot wrap to be the best, over ACE, Johnson & Johnson, and Walgreens brand. The key is that it is supportive with the right degree of give, and its also very thin, which means that it doesn't change the way my foot settles into the shoe.
Sunday 04/06: 1:18:04, Out and back along a little river in Colorado with Peter (on bike). Mostly it was this hard packed driveable dirt road which was a lot more impact than the squishy trails that I'm used to, but it was okay after some getting used to. Between the altitude, and the skiing, I felt really sore and beat for the first 30 minutes, but it gradually worked itself out. Felt pretty good after 30 minutes, so kept on going a bit ambitiously for about 40, then turned back. A lot faster and smoother on the way back. Picked it up a little bit at the end, but finished feeling loads better than when I started.
Longest run yet. Feet have actually held up remarkably well through the ski boots and the long run. Felt really encouraged by the fact that 78 minutes didn't feel bad at all. It's possible that's because I was going like 12 minute miles... but I guess I'll never know. Surprised to feel sore and tired through the hips and quads from skiing. Long run helped work out some of that, but still don't feel fantastic.
Monday 04/07: Off. Shots, traveling. Got up at 3 am CA time to get on plane back home. Took Metro to work straight from the airport. Didn't feel as terrible as expected, but was tough.
Tuesday 04/08: 43:24, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:52, 12:03, 15:07 plus jog back to car. *BIG SIGH*... well fuck then, we're back to square one. Aaaarrrghhhh... I was mostly expecting this disaster, but it's still not a good feeling. I vaguely considered re-shuffling this week to give myself an extra day before Tempo Day, but in the morning I talked myself into the fact that I could somehow will myself to do well today despite some counter-indications.
Maybe it's that my body did not enjoy being awake for 20 hours yesterday, or that my legs are still trashed from my adventures in Colorado, I'm not quite sure... but HR was high and erratic this morning, and then it was unusually low on the uptempo lap, but I just didn't feel like I could pick it up, which is also unusual. Will would say that's classic indications for being tired, which may be true. I knew I was in trouble bc the first jog lap was so slow, so I already started telling myself, its about the effort level, the training value is about the effort level... in a month it will only matter that I ran this lap at a HR of 185, and not that the lap was not accomplished in an acceptable amount of minutes and seconds. I'm so far away from my next date of competition, that it doesn't matter, I just have to get through the bad days...
I'm really trying to make running a more positive thing in my life this time around, so I mostly reasoned myself out of a sour mood by mid-day. The week will go on, I will try to get sleep and keep it together, and if NEXT week is still similarly bad, then I'll have to think about whether I need to make an adjustment to my training.
Wednesday 04/09: 44:27, Monterrey to bridge loop. Didn't particularly feel bad, but reallllllly slow. Crap, maybe two bad days in a row doesn't constitute a trend, but it bugs me because I can't figure out where I went wrong. What's really upsetting is that I feel like the skiing and the slightly-longer-than-supposed-to-long run are like things that are just part of the variation of life... and its really discouraging to realize that one's body is so fragile as to not be able to accommodate such things. I don't know if this is a ME thing, or if this is a generalized "not used to daily exertion" thing.
Thursday 04/10: 48:26, California to Salvia Canyon. Finally, a good run! Broke out a new pair of shoes and socks, both were excellent. Felt good, so ran a bit harder than usual, legs felt ready for a whole lot more, but decided to restrain myself due to intensive ingraining of low HR training philosophy... Faster than last week, and I didn't even cut off that extra loop on the other side of the bridge this time. Was really, really tempted to gmaps this route to figure out the actual pace... but I have resisted.
Friday 04/11: Off. Shots. Baked cookies for the brats tomorrow.
Saturday 04/12: 39:52, Jogged from Monterrey to first bridge, then 8 x 1 minute pick ups, then jogged the remainder back to car. Kind of a mixed bag on this one... the original plan (per suggestion of The Brain) was to jog 10 minutes, then do 10 x 1 on, 1 off, then jog 10 minutes = 40 minutes which is about the length of the route. The fatal flaw turned out to be that the 1 off was just untenable to be recovered in time for the next segment, so it kinda degenerated into 60-80 second pick ups on 3 minute cycles.
After about 6, I started feeling that soreness between the first 3 extensor tendons on the bad foot... so I decided to cut it at 8 and leave myself 6 minutes of cooldown instead of 2. The last one was almost 2 minutes at high intensity, felt it in my legs for the first time in about a year.
Body definitely freaked out by even short excursions into above-threshold territory--that was not a surprise to me, but I also realized that I may not be as badly off as it feels, if that makes any sense. There were a lot of strollers out in the Arroyo today, so a greeting generally had to be dispensed during each of the pick ups. Every time I opened my mouth to say something I realized that I actually had a lot more breath to spare than it felt like...
Really had a lot of trouble finding the right pace and effort level. Mainly focused on having high turnover and good form, the point of this exercise being to move my legs at a racing gait instead of a trundling gait. From a bodily perspective it wasn't bad, felt good about the range of higher paces, even though most of them didn't feel like they would be supported by my current cardiovascular capacity... if you kinda tuned out the "hard to breathe" part, I felt like I was relaxed, smooth and that legs shifted pretty easily to higher gears. Felt really good afterwards, like I could go on another run.
Target Training this week: 4 hours 15 minutes
Actual Training: 4:14:13
I'm feeling a little bit of everything this week. I'm cautiously optimistic, a little frustrated, a lot stircrazy. Just have to remember to make good decisions for my above averagely fragile feet.
FYI, after much investigation, I have deemed Rite Aid brand foot wrap to be the best, over ACE, Johnson & Johnson, and Walgreens brand. The key is that it is supportive with the right degree of give, and its also very thin, which means that it doesn't change the way my foot settles into the shoe.
Sunday 04/06: 1:18:04, Out and back along a little river in Colorado with Peter (on bike). Mostly it was this hard packed driveable dirt road which was a lot more impact than the squishy trails that I'm used to, but it was okay after some getting used to. Between the altitude, and the skiing, I felt really sore and beat for the first 30 minutes, but it gradually worked itself out. Felt pretty good after 30 minutes, so kept on going a bit ambitiously for about 40, then turned back. A lot faster and smoother on the way back. Picked it up a little bit at the end, but finished feeling loads better than when I started.
Longest run yet. Feet have actually held up remarkably well through the ski boots and the long run. Felt really encouraged by the fact that 78 minutes didn't feel bad at all. It's possible that's because I was going like 12 minute miles... but I guess I'll never know. Surprised to feel sore and tired through the hips and quads from skiing. Long run helped work out some of that, but still don't feel fantastic.
Monday 04/07: Off. Shots, traveling. Got up at 3 am CA time to get on plane back home. Took Metro to work straight from the airport. Didn't feel as terrible as expected, but was tough.
Tuesday 04/08: 43:24, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops in 14:52, 12:03, 15:07 plus jog back to car. *BIG SIGH*... well fuck then, we're back to square one. Aaaarrrghhhh... I was mostly expecting this disaster, but it's still not a good feeling. I vaguely considered re-shuffling this week to give myself an extra day before Tempo Day, but in the morning I talked myself into the fact that I could somehow will myself to do well today despite some counter-indications.
Maybe it's that my body did not enjoy being awake for 20 hours yesterday, or that my legs are still trashed from my adventures in Colorado, I'm not quite sure... but HR was high and erratic this morning, and then it was unusually low on the uptempo lap, but I just didn't feel like I could pick it up, which is also unusual. Will would say that's classic indications for being tired, which may be true. I knew I was in trouble bc the first jog lap was so slow, so I already started telling myself, its about the effort level, the training value is about the effort level... in a month it will only matter that I ran this lap at a HR of 185, and not that the lap was not accomplished in an acceptable amount of minutes and seconds. I'm so far away from my next date of competition, that it doesn't matter, I just have to get through the bad days...
I'm really trying to make running a more positive thing in my life this time around, so I mostly reasoned myself out of a sour mood by mid-day. The week will go on, I will try to get sleep and keep it together, and if NEXT week is still similarly bad, then I'll have to think about whether I need to make an adjustment to my training.
Wednesday 04/09: 44:27, Monterrey to bridge loop. Didn't particularly feel bad, but reallllllly slow. Crap, maybe two bad days in a row doesn't constitute a trend, but it bugs me because I can't figure out where I went wrong. What's really upsetting is that I feel like the skiing and the slightly-longer-than-supposed-to-long run are like things that are just part of the variation of life... and its really discouraging to realize that one's body is so fragile as to not be able to accommodate such things. I don't know if this is a ME thing, or if this is a generalized "not used to daily exertion" thing.
Thursday 04/10: 48:26, California to Salvia Canyon. Finally, a good run! Broke out a new pair of shoes and socks, both were excellent. Felt good, so ran a bit harder than usual, legs felt ready for a whole lot more, but decided to restrain myself due to intensive ingraining of low HR training philosophy... Faster than last week, and I didn't even cut off that extra loop on the other side of the bridge this time. Was really, really tempted to gmaps this route to figure out the actual pace... but I have resisted.
Friday 04/11: Off. Shots. Baked cookies for the brats tomorrow.
Saturday 04/12: 39:52, Jogged from Monterrey to first bridge, then 8 x 1 minute pick ups, then jogged the remainder back to car. Kind of a mixed bag on this one... the original plan (per suggestion of The Brain) was to jog 10 minutes, then do 10 x 1 on, 1 off, then jog 10 minutes = 40 minutes which is about the length of the route. The fatal flaw turned out to be that the 1 off was just untenable to be recovered in time for the next segment, so it kinda degenerated into 60-80 second pick ups on 3 minute cycles.
After about 6, I started feeling that soreness between the first 3 extensor tendons on the bad foot... so I decided to cut it at 8 and leave myself 6 minutes of cooldown instead of 2. The last one was almost 2 minutes at high intensity, felt it in my legs for the first time in about a year.
Body definitely freaked out by even short excursions into above-threshold territory--that was not a surprise to me, but I also realized that I may not be as badly off as it feels, if that makes any sense. There were a lot of strollers out in the Arroyo today, so a greeting generally had to be dispensed during each of the pick ups. Every time I opened my mouth to say something I realized that I actually had a lot more breath to spare than it felt like...
Really had a lot of trouble finding the right pace and effort level. Mainly focused on having high turnover and good form, the point of this exercise being to move my legs at a racing gait instead of a trundling gait. From a bodily perspective it wasn't bad, felt good about the range of higher paces, even though most of them didn't feel like they would be supported by my current cardiovascular capacity... if you kinda tuned out the "hard to breathe" part, I felt like I was relaxed, smooth and that legs shifted pretty easily to higher gears. Felt really good afterwards, like I could go on another run.
Target Training this week: 4 hours 15 minutes
Actual Training: 4:14:13
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