2005 Tamalpa Challenge

First race with a cast. It was a short cast, but I had had only 11.5 days of healing before the race, so I was racing very carefully. Have you ever run with the awareness of trying not to fall on trails for 30 minutes? It makes you much slower AND unbearably sore the next several days too! It felt as though I hadn't been training! Where did all that cross training go on the elliptical the week before? Ouchie. A cool lady passed me at mile 3 (in the 4.25 mile race) and encouraged me, "Let's go get the SLUGS!" (There were UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs running the race). When I tried to catch back up to her and didn't within the half minute of silence, she pants, "Come on, already!"
I breathe back, "I'm trying! My legs won't move!" Eventually, I catch her on a hill and say, "Last hill...".
"Really?" she asks.
"I think so."
Unfortunately, she didn't stay with me and I beat her. I felt a little bad about finishing ahead after all that encouragement, but we did both beat at least one slug. =)

Yes, I really did talk that much at the end of the race. My lungs were totally fine; my legs were the slowing down factor.

Oopsie

So, in October, I broke my arm. It was the Monday night before Shoreline. Shoreline was significant to me because that was where I fell apart last year. I was SO looking forward to running, but the orthopedic doctor told me no. *sigh* I ran the next races and finished the season in a cast. I was 139 lbs. when I broke my arm.

2005 Folsom - another good race

This was a confidence boost and the first race that I ran fairly even splits. Nobody passed me after 1 mile. With that territory, (and assuming I wasn't dead last, which I wasn't) means that I passed a fair amount of runners the last 2.1 miles. My time, unfortunately, was a disappointment. The course changed from last year and we all assumed it would be faster, but I ran 7 seconds slower. 7 seconds doesn't seem like a lot, but it is a ton if you've been breaking times from last year by at least 30 seconds every race and you think that the new course is faster. That is like running 50 seconds slower than expected. Comparing the results of last year and this year, however, shows that the new course is slower anyway. Hooray! Plus, I finished even higher up in the top 50%. 22:05

Presidio 2005 - The hilliest race I've ever run

...and the longest 3.55 miles of my racing career. I raced at 7:50 pace apparently, but I raced fairly well, placing in the top 50%. I think my goals for this race was to break 8 minutes/mile, which I did. I hadn't ever raced this course before and looking at the previous year's times, I knew it was a SLOW course, so I couldn't really make any well-informed goals or plans. The best part was flying by people on the steep downhills and on the last steep uphill. I think I vowed to work harder at hills after this race.

2005 Jamba Juices

My first road race of the season was the San Francisco Jamba Juice 5k. The week following, I ran a second 5k with the Jamba Juice theme. Ya know. Gotta pack the good stuff close together and all. My goal for the first was to beat my time from 2004 and break 21 minutes. The second's goal was to beat my time from the week prior. The results were thus: 21:05 for the San Francisco version and 20:32 for the Chase in Paso Robles. Not bad. I was happy with the second race. It didn't hurt to come in 3rd to earn a year's supply of Jamba Juice either... =)

2005 Golden Gate Park Race

I got sick after Labor Day Weekend, and this race was the following weekend, so I was not feeling very peppy, but I did it anyway. I had a primary goal and a secondary goal. The primary goal was to beat my time from last year. The other goal was to break 30 minutes. Last year, I ran 31:08. This year, even though I was wanting to quit after 1 mile, with 3 to go, I ran 30:32. Nice! My goal at regionals is to beat that time by at least a minute. Pacewise, that is going from 7:40/mile to 7:25/mile, which should be way easy. I think I can even do 7:15s, giving me a 1:30 difference at around 29 minutes. This course does tend to be sneaky-hard though, and I heard that they add another big fat log for the runners to jump over at regionals.

I'm getting faster!

Yesterday, I had an awesome workout. Please refer to this post as a reference for how awesome my workout was: crazy-nighthawk. Ok. I did 4x1600m with 1.25 laps jog between each repeat. I was supposed to do these at 10k race effort. So, I did the first one at a pace that I thought was fairly conservative. The result? 6:35. WHAT?! Holy cow! That's faster than my best 5k race pace this year, and it's even faster than my all-out mile in June. Yay! I only had three more efforts to go. The next two were both 6:43. I guess that is closer to 10k race pace, but I've never raced a 10k, so I don't really know how much slower it is than a 5k. The last 1600, I just wanted to see if I could do a 6:35 again. I was just messing around and I really shouldn't have. I should have stayed on the 10k pace, but I was too curious. It was fairly tough to run, but I accomplished it with a 6:30. =) Yippee!

On another note, the following should be added to the track etiquette list. There was a guy during one of my repeats walking in the lane I was in, in office-wear and talking on a cellphone! This boggles my mind. He wasn't paying an ounce of attention to anything that was going on around him. Dude.

Morning Weight: 138.5
Miles Today: 12
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 12, last week was 66

My second Team Camp

Every Labor Day weekend is planned for me until I decide not to associate myself with my running club, which will probably not happen. This was my second planned Labor Day, and I don't think I learned from the last one.

Lessons:
1) Take Friday off work. Traffic is horrendous all afternoon/evening Friday, so either leave in the early morning on Friday, or leave Thursday after work.
2) If you are planning to get anything done (like read a book) Labor Day weekend, forget it. It won't happen. All you will do is drink, socialize, sleep and run, in that order.
3) Make sure people your age are coming! All those old guys can get a little creepy sometimes.
4) Go to the meetings. They made me cross country captain for the women's open team while I was napping.
5) Bring chocolate and/or alcohol. Everyone will love you.

Actually, I'm really excited about number 4. If nothing else, it will keep me from quitting half-way through the season like I did last year.

Morning Weight: 143.5
Miles Today: 8
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 58.5

Banished to the Treadmill

Wow. So my hamstring finally felt better today. Yesterday, I was running to the track and it wasn't feeling good at all. So, I turned around grudgingly and got in the car, drove to the gym, and did the rest of my warm-up on the treadmill. The treadmill felt excellent, so I figured out how to program the equivalent of 2x(4x400) w/ equal time recovery and I was set! I did my second run on the treadmill too. That made all the difference to my hammy. Yay! I'm so glad I didn't have to do my workout on the elliptical. I really need to find an emergency pool I can go to that has a deep-end for injuries. My gym's pool doesn't get any deeper than 4 feet.

Camp is this weekend. I'm preparing to get left in the dust, drink a lot and try to avoid the sweets. I won't have the s'mores. Nope. Oh yeah. And run a lot too.

Morning Weight: 144.5
Miles Today: 8.5
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 48

7.5 times 4 is WHAT again?

I can multiply. 7:26 x 4 miles is 29:44, NOT 27:44. duh. The race today was good. I ran my goals of a faster pace than last week AND running well under 31 minutes. I was 5th for the team this time, but it is really hard to gauge since the racers change every race. We had 3 of the 5 from last week show, including me. My time was 29:06. If my calculations are correct, that makes my pace 7:16/mile and comes out to 22:25 for a 5k, which is OK.

My legs ache and my right upper hamstring is tight, my left big toe is bruised under the toenail and one of my toes decided to get itself rubbed raw and bleed all over my racing flat. SWEET! I love cross country season. =) I have to show my co-workers my bloody shoe. It looks awful, but I didn't feel anything. Gotta keep my hard-core reputation. ;)

This last week I ate horribly. I bought a big chocolate bar this weekend at Trader Joes and am limiting myself to one square a day. No other dessert. If I can manage to do that, I'll treat myself to one of my other favorite TJ delicacies the following week like Mochi, or merangues, or the chocolate chip cookie dough. My problem is that work provides dessert at lunch and I'm a sucker for the ice cream mixins on Wednesday and the cookies on Thursday. We also had too many parties last week that had cake or brownies or cheesecake or cheese-smothered-mexican-goodness-for-lunch. Actually, I think I'll do much better if I drink more water.

Morning Weight: 148
Miles Today: 11.5
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 50.5

Second Race of the Season

Tomorrow is my second race--4 miles, hilly. I don't have any strict time goals, once again; I may try to run the same pace as last week, or faster. I did 7:26's last week. For four miles, that's 27:44. Of course, I don't think I've ever run faster than 28 for 4 miles, so I guess my goal is to break 28. Last year I ran a 4ish mile race in 31:08; If I don't beat that, I'll be very pissed.

I just saw the team results today from last week's race. Our team was 3rd! That means the team gets $25, so if individual payments are made, I get $5! Sweet! I'm halfway to meeting my take-in from last year. ;)

It looks like next week is going to be stressful at work. The next three weeks will probably be crazy, but I have confirmation that next week definitely will be. I just need to chill, let my running calm me, and make sure that I get up at 6 every morning. None of this 6:30/7/8 hitting-my-snooze. Even if I go to bed late, my goal is to get up at 6. My top priorities will have to be running and work. I can't let any extra-cirriculars prevent me from doing my runs, swims or weights. That isn't to say I can't have any fun--I just have to put it lower on the totem pole. For example: if I don't get a chance to do my second run or weights at lunch, I'll do them after work. If I have something fun after work, I'll just have to be late or skip it. I probably won't agree to any lunch meetings, especially on Monday and Wednesday. *Deep breath*

Morning Weight: 147
Miles Today: 0
Other Exercise: 1/2 mile swim
Total Miles this Week: 39

More Perspective

They just posted the individual results from the XC race from the weekend, and now I'm feeling even better about my "poor" time. Our fastest woman of the day, who ran under 19 minutes for a road race 5k this summer, came in at 21:02. That is pretty slow. I was only 2 minutes behind our first woman, and 1:30 behind our second. This means that I can probably run a low-21/high-20 for a road race, which is better than last year at this time. I only ran one 5k at that pace last year, and that was in October. Plus, I came in 34th out of 55, which is also better than last year. Last year, I was easily in the last 25% of the race, and now I'm beating 38% of the field. Even if I remove the last 3 runners (who were high school students and were just dragged to the race by their coach, who happened to be the very same first woman on my team...), then I am still in the middle 1/3rd portion of the race! That's a nice boost. My time didn't change, but my attitude did and sometimes that makes all the difference. I've been rejuvenated!

Swam a mile today and felt good after. I'm going to buy a few swimming books for some workouts and to improve my form and flip-turn technique.

Morning Weight: 145.5
Miles Today: 6
Other Exercise: 1 mile swim
Total Miles this Week: 25.5

Stress is Draining

Man, I am working so hard at work right now, it zapped all my energy. Ugh. I had to be on my toes all day. Busy busy busy. No wonder I fell apart last year when work got stressful. It takes a ton of energy to think and communicate and solve problems quickly. I just need to make sure that I go to sleep on time and run in the mornings. I almost didn't run after work tonight because I was so exhausted. I'm going to try to do my second run on Wednesday at lunch. I didn't today because I had a bunch of stuff to do between a meeting that ended at 11am and another of the same type at 1pm and lunch is only served from 12-1:30.

Morning Weight: 144.5
Miles Today: 8.5
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 19.5

First Race of 2005

I finished it. I felt a little sluggish in the race, but that was expected. THERE WERE TONS OF HILLS! Holy Cow Patties! So I ran a 23:02. Not so hot of a time, but if you compare my time with the elite women in the front who usually run 17s or faster, I looked a lot better. The fastest woman was in the 19s at about a 6:1- pace which is SLOW. I'm just glad I got a really great hill workout in, and since only 5 women showed up for my team, I scored! Totally cool.

Next week is an off week, so I'll be running 15-20% fewer miles than this week, making my mileage for next week somewhere around 55. I may take Friday off from running and do an extra long swim instead.

Morning Weight: 146.5
Miles Today: 11.25
Other Exercise: Motorcycling
Total Miles this Week: 67

Never Stop Doing Lunge Drills

Wow. I've been busy. I did get more sleep last week and this week too. I've been heading to bed around 9:30 and leaving at 6. I did abs three days in a row this week, weights and swimming on Tuesday this week, and haven't done much except running since. Work has been piled high. On this week's Monday, I decided to do drills after my strides, and add on a few lunges at the end. I am STILL sore from Monday, although I think I'll be recovered tomorrow. Oh man, I really need to do drills and lunges consistently, so I don't get these awful sore sessions where for a half week I waddle around and get stiff if I sit for more than 10 minutes.

I ran 61.25 miles last week, and I'm on track for 67 this week. That number was aided by a 15 mile run on Sunday, which is 2 miles longer than I had ever run before! It was a great run too. Very few stoplights, lots of friendly bicyclists, cool air and rolling hills were awesome bonuses. I think I'll keep at 65 for the bulk of the season, until we are supposed to start tapering.

My first 5k race is this weekend. I'm not expecting anything spectacular, as I am pretty run down from my lifetime highest mileage week. I would like to do 21:something, but I'll more likely be in the 22s. I know that if I keep training through this, I'll be low 20s at least by the end of the season. Then, I can build on that for track(read steeple chase training or 3ks) season and then Cross Country again, where I hope to be in the low 19s.

I talked to a bunch of people about swimming training, looked at the local Masters Swimming websites and decided to buy a bunch of swimming books instead of joining. My reasoning is that my pool is free at work, I already have a pretty good stroke that I just need to tweak, and I think these books will work for giving me workouts to do. If not, I can join a swim club for a month or so and get some feedback. I'm just not willing to pay $600+ for the year to use another pool and have workouts made for me. I'm liking my $50 route for right now.

This week I've tried to recruit co-workers to join me in Epee training in November. I have a few nibbles, but no sure volunteers. I haven't asked Matt yet. *evil grin*

Morning Weight: 146
Miles Today: 4
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 55.75

Modern Pentathlon Intro

So last week, I finally ran 60 miles! Yay! It wasn't overly difficult either -- I'm planning to run another 60+ this week as well. The only thing I flaked on was weights and abs, but I did swim and that was a killer arm workout, and I did most of the CORE class on Friday. This week, my main goal is to sleep at least 8 hours a night (from tonight through the end of the week at least -- I couldn't fall asleep last night). In addition, I hope to swim three times, lift weights twice, and do abs as much as I can.

Last night, I talked to Katherine, my runner friend who lives in Maryland now, and found out she's training for Triathlons again AND a new "event": Modern Pentathlon. I looked it up, and Modern Pentathlons consist of shooting, swimming, fencing, horseback riding and running. I don't do Triathlongs because I stink at biking. However, I feel that I'm good at running and swimming, and I like to think that I'm good at aiming, and I've jumped a horse before, and my boyfriend fences... I don't know... This Modern Pentathlon thing is stuck in my head and it won't leave and it makes me really excited, because I think I can do really well... I told myself that I wouldn't get sucked into fencing, but every time I watch it, I think, "I want to try that," or "hmmm. This is my kind of sport... it seems to be a lot about form and technique." So I may just have an excuse to try fencing with this Modern Pentathlon thing. I'm so glad the blade is Epee. Foil reminds me too much of Chess. I don't want to have to think that hard. ;) Seeing as it is XC season soon, I probably won't start until after. The regional championships are the first weekend in November. I'm half sad that the season is so short this year, but the other half is eager to take some intro fencing lessons. The only thing that I am worried about at this point is that I won't have enough time to do all the sports. Fencing takes up a TON of time, I've noticed, and so does running. Add swimming 4-5 times a week, weights, abs, shooting practice, riding lessons, and working 50 hours a week with potential crunch periods and Saturday workdays, and I'll have a breakdown. At least I think I'll fall apart and drop everything. =( As long as work is OK, I'll be OK, but it isn't looking good from November until April...

Just focus on running and some swimming cross training... The first event that is in the US is in December, and I can only do the Swim/Run races at that meet anyway.

Morning Weight: 148.5
Miles Today: 10.5
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 22.5

Track Etiquette

Monday night, I headed over to the local Stanford track to do some strides. Who do I see on the track, but a friend and fellow teammate, Vanessa. She was running strides with another girl. I said hey and she introduced me to Stephanie and told me she was running for a different team now. I'm a bit bummed, but it seems like a good choice for her since she focuses on the track. She and Stephanie were about to run a workout of 200s. Amazingly enough, the Stanford track had the inside lanes open, which I've only seen at track invitationals there. Wow. So Vanessa and Stephanie were using Lane 1, I was out on Lane 5/6 and there were a bunch of joggers running on the outside lanes of the track as well. Part way into their workout, some dude started jogging with headphones on in the first lane. As the pair of ladies rush by me, I scream "TRACK!" at the guy and he looks around and gets off the track too late. They had to run around him. About a quarter of a lap later, he is still jogging in Lane 1 with his headphones on. I double back, "Excuse me, sir. Can you please jog in the outside lanes? Usually, there are barriers up, but since they are doing a workout..."

"What are the outside lanes?" he asks.
"Lanes 4 and up."
"Oh ok. There wasn't any sign saying that."
"It is just a common track...thing," I said. I wanted to say "It's common track courtesy," but I felt that would be too rude. But DUDE! JOGGING in Lane 1? Most tracks say "Joggers to the outside lanes" It is just rude to block someones shortest-distance path when they are hauling.

For those that don't know Track Etiquette. A quick lesson:

1. When someone yells, "TRACK!" get out of their way. Either jump onto the field or go to an outer lane.
   
2. Don't listen to music on a crowded track where people are doing workouts, strides, drills, or anything else where it looks like they are moving fast. You need to be fully alert on a track. This is for your own safety as well as the safety of the speed demons. It isn't very much fun to be smacked into at the smackers top speed.
   
3. Joggers and walkers belong in the outside lanes. (aka Slow traffic keep right)
   
4. Look both ways before crossing the track (or a lane). Some people run strides (sprints) and drills up and down one straight-away.
   
5. If you are at a less crowded track that isn't rubber-coated, running on the inside lane is fine. But if you see someone starting to run fast in the first lane, kindly move to another lane.
   
6. If you are doing a workout in the first lane, and someone is doing a faster workout, move to Lane 2 to allow them to pass. Then you can move back to Lane 1.
   
7. If you are doing a workout in the first lane, jog all your recovery in an outer lane.
   

I guess this boils down to "Fast Traffic Has the Right-of-Way" and "Don't wear down the first lane unnecessarily" and "Be aware of your surroundings". Hope that enlightened somebody.

Morning Weight: 146.5
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: Biked to work, situps
Total Miles this Week: 29

Almost

Erm. I was all poised to run 60 miles last week. I had 51 on Friday, and was ready to kick butt Saturday. But on Saturday morning, I had a horrible intestine-ache and could barely walk. So, instead of running, I slept a lot and read. Bum. My other goal of only driving once to work last week failed on Friday because my legs were exhasted. I went swimming instead. =) I did feel better on Sunday, so I did 12 miles again. Here is my rough outline plan for this week's mileage:

Su: 12
M: 3.5 6
Tu: 7.5 weights
W: 7.5 3.5
Th: 6 weights
F: 4 (2)
Sa: 7 3
Est. Total: 60

Morning Weight: 147
Miles Today: 9.5
Other Exercise: Swam 1 mile
Total Miles this Week: 21.5

Achy Legs

Owie. My legs ache. I'm just happy I don't have to run until tomorrow morning. Only 22 more miles to go in the 3 days left of the week. That is a little over 7 miles per day, but since I'm planning to do a double day on Thursday and Saturday, that is about 4.5 miles per run. If I do 6, 3, 4, 7, 3, that gives me 23 miles. If I actually do run 60 miles this week, that will be a month earlier than I had planned. I'll start adding more speed work to my weeks next month. Right now, I'm just holding on. *grimace*

Morning Weight: 148.5
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: Biked Home
Total Miles this Week: 38

Lost it at the gym Competition Results

So the results are in. E-mail from the organizer:
++++++++++++++++
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to tell you that the results are FINALLY in –
You were a group of 22 (people who did both weigh ins, we started with 33 in the group!)
These 22 people lost an average of 3.5 pounds in six weeks and a TOTAL of 77.1 pounds!!!
You all did AWESOME!!!
So I know the question on your mind...WHO GOT THE I-POD???
Well we have 2 I-pod shuffles for the 2 biggest losers and they are...drum roll please...
K-- B----- and Sam----- ------! Way to go girls!!
++++++++++++++++
Oh oh oh! That's me! That's me! I can't believe it! I've always wanted an ipod shuffle. Holy cow... Now I just need music to put on the thing. wheee! Whoa. How did someone who probably has the least to lose, win that thing? Looking at the average, it looks like a lot of people didn't lose anything because I lost 12.5 pounds and 1/7th of the total weight and I'm assuming K-- did the same or better than I did. Hm. Whoa.

Morning Weight: 149.5
Miles Today: 11
Other Exercise: Biked to Work
Total Miles this Week: 30.5

Crumbling and Going the Distance

Oh man. I totally fell apart last week. I didn't do any double days, only ran 5 out of 7 days and ate a ton of bad food. My total mileage was 37.75. I'm blaming it on Harry Potter #6, too many fun activities in the evening, and HOT HOT days.

This is only the coolest tool ever. http://www.sueandpaul.com/gmapPedometer/ Now I know how long my runs are to the .05 of a mile! (I don't trust it to be any more precise than that). Awesome awesome awesome.

According to my superb running estimating skills and confirming with this tool, I ran 12 miles yesterday! Go me! We will see how far I can run this week. My main goal is to only commute to work once by car this week, max.

The weight is a little high because I stuffed myself silly last night at Fresh Choice. After my 12 mile run, I was 144, and after I drank a bunch of water, I was 147.
Morning Weight: 150
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: Bike Home
Total Miles this Week: 19.5

I lost it at the gym : results

So I weighed in on Monday and got a reading of 143.3 (which is totally not accurate, only relatively so), so that means I lost 12.5 pounds from start to finish. Not bad. That is exactly where I wanted to be (losing more than 2 lbs/week is bad anyway).

I didn't run Sunday, so I lost out on my LSD day, but I'm going to try to do 50 again this week anyway. Oh! I ran 51 miles last week! sweeeeet. I'm going to try for a double day on Thursday and Saturday.

Morning Weight: 150.5 after oatmeal
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 22.5

Better

I'm just really glad that every day I run, I feel less icky and bonk less drastically. Yesterday, I even ran twice! And, my second run had a hill in it! (Well, I was half-drunk, so maybe I was just numb to the pain. It worked though =) ) I put down 5 miles for today, but I actually haven't run yet. I guess I'm going to have to now...

My gym's "Lose It At The Gym" program ends Monday. 6 weeks ago, I weighed in at ~155 on their scale, which I think is wrong because I weighed myself immediately after on a balance scale at 158. Hopefully, their scale is just as off. I've lost 10 lbs in 6 weeks... not bad... =) I want to weigh in at 143/144 on Monday, but we'll see. The biggest loser gets an ipod shuffle, and I know it can't be me because I'm sure some people lost more than 2 lbs/week, even though it is unheathly to do so. Too bad. I really want one of those. At least the organizer said that if you lose anything you get some sore of prize. =)

Morning Weight: 147.5
Miles Today: 5
Other Exercise: Biked to work
Total Miles this Week: 44

H2O Factor

Note to self: stay hydrated. don't run in the middle of the day for your long run.

I didn't drink any water on Saturday. Dumb. I didn't run either, but that is ok. I still ran 40 miles last week in 6 days. I think I'm pushing myself too hard anyway. This week I want to run as many miles as I feel like going, and I'm not going to worry about what my coach has down on paper. I'm not ready for that, and I almost crumbled this weekend with the pressure I was putting on myself.

On Sunday, I didn't get out of my place until almost 11. I felt great... for the first 3 miles. At that point I had to run up a slight hill and that started taking a toll on me. Plus, it was hot and I started sweating a lot. I was so tired after 4 miles, that I was wondering if I'd even be able to do the dish loop. When I arrived at the gate to the loop, I had to stop and recover a bit. My breathing was heavier when I stopped than during my run! I ran to the top of the first hill and then took an alternate route to Alpine Rd. I was so tired when I got to Alpine Rd, that I stopped an walked. Oh brother. I walked/ran most the rest of the way home. And I got sunburned again on Sunday! Grrr.

Yesterday wasn't much better, although I didn't stop and walk, and I thought I was way more hydrated too. I'm drinking 2 liters of water today. My run today was better, but I was running shorter. Tomorrow will be the test.

Morning Weight: 149 yesterday, 146.5 today
Miles Today: 5
Other Exercise: Biked to work
Total Miles this Week: 21.5

51

No. That's not how many miles I've done this week. I wish. That was my heart rate when I woke up this morning. =) 51 bpm.

Morning Weight: 153
Miles Today: 3.75
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 40

Morro Bay XC's Training Secret

Oh man. I should have put emphasis on the word "should" in the last sentence of my last post because I've felt like a slug since that day. Well, yesterday evening wasn't too bad. I ran the "longer" way from work and did it about 10 minutes faster than the last time I ran that way, so I was pleased, but I still felt pretty icky.

Probably the main reason why I am still stiff and tired from Thursday is I figured out why MBHS' Cross Country team is so darn good at hills. Everyone already knows the obvious reasons like how their coach is amazing and they run hill repeats once a week. What they don't know is there are no possible non-boring runs in Morro Bay or Los Osos that are flat! Holy cow! And where was I this holiday weekend? Oh, at my parents' in Los Osos. I already knew this secret deep down, but after running mostly flat runs the last few months with one or two hilly runs a week, and after running that crazy hill-packed run on Thursday, every little incline was icky this weekend! My dad thinks that the 5.5 mile loop we do is fairly flat, but I count 5 hills on that sucker. And there pretty much is one every mile. I vow to run more where there are hills. This means that my easy days are probably going to be out and back on Sand Hill instead of a loop around Stanford.

This week's goals:
48 miles
147/8 lbs.

I think that I'm just going to focus on mileage right now and then speed workouts. So I'll try to do the speed workouts my coach wrote when I'm feeling good, but I won't stress them.

Morning Weight: 150.5
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 31

Balancing Passions

What I am doing for the next 3 weeks. I hope I can balance that and work and running. I guess I'll have to look at the schedule. Tomorrow it starts on at 5:30am. Yesterday I did two Dish Loops! Negative splits too! One guy asked, "Is this your second?" I nodded and he said, "Holy Cow!" =) I passed people and nobody passed me. I felt like a runner again. The last time I felt like that was over a month ago and before that was probably October. This feeling should come more frequently as I go further in training.

Morning Weight: --
Miles Today: 3.5
Other Exercise: 4 min. situps
Total Miles this Week: 34.5

Resting Heart Rate

Since I eliminated the running streak stat (I sufficiently accomplished that), I think my new statistic for the side bar will be my heart rate when I wake up... if I can remember. Which reminds me, I need to buy a battery for my overly expensive heart rate monitor watch, not that I am going to wear that sleeping or anything, but it's on my to-do list. ;)

Morning Weight: 151.5
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: Bike Home
Total Miles this Week: 24.75

Tuesday = Friday

Today is Friday right? No? Oh well, I swapped my plans for Friday with Tuesday because my legs were dead. Biking this morning was a little uncomfortable. I managed to do 5 minutes of abs, albeit slowly, but I wasn't completely burning afterward! Yay! I'll try that again Friday anyway. I made it 15 days in a row though! That's the best I've done all year (previous best was 6 days the week prior). =)

I was very bad tonight eating-wise because I was depressed. I was good all day until I walked to Trader Joes and bought Mochi. Why? Damn. Now I'm mad at myself.

Morning Weight: 150
Miles Today: 0
Other Exercise: Biked to work, Weights, and 5 continuous minutes of abs
Total Miles this Week: 17.25

Week goals of June 26 - July 2, 2005

Three goals for this week... #1. I want to see 149.5 on the scale this week (or lower). That means nothing more bad than one piece of chocolate a day, lots of veggies (yum!) and running, biking and lifting. #2. 40 miles. I can take Friday off and still do it, I just need to run 5 miles on my easy days. #3. 5 minutes of continuous abs on Friday. I think I'm ready. I didn't really get that sore from the CORE workout, which was pretty weird. I was so totally wiped after/during, I couldn't even think straight.

Morning Weight: 152.5
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 17.25

And so it begins...

Uh oh.... News from my coach:

Conditioning Period (8 weeks 7/3-8/27):
Weekly Training Schedule
Sun: Easier long run (20-25% of weekly mileage)
Mon: Easy Recovery run + 6-8 x 100 strides at current 1500 effort.
Optional second run of 20-40 min easy.
Tues: Maintenance run
Optional second run of 20-40 min easy.
Wed: Short intervals or hill reps
Second run of 20-40 min easy
Thur: Hilly longer run at strong pace on up-hills and final stages of run. (12-15% of weekly mileage)
Fri: Easy recovery day of 30-40 min easy or day off.
Optional second run of 20-40 min easy.
Sat: Longer, moderate tempo run (ie 6-8 miles at MP + 15-20 sec/mile working down to MP by end of period) or fartlek with hard section in a controlled tempo effort – NO FASTER!!!
Optional second run of 20-40 min easy.
Substitute race for workout if desired. Races during this stage should be CONTROLLED!

Hm... Well, right now, my Mondays and Wednesday's are longer easy runs, Tuesday seems equivalent to the Friday above, Thursday is a nice run with Dev. Too bad my running commute doesn't have hills. Hm. At least I have one week to think about it. The goal is to fit a negative split day, a hill repeat or short spurt day, and a hilly run day in my week. I guess I could make Monday my negative split day, either Thursday or Friday my hilly run since Dev kicks my rear on hills, and I could probably just fit in a short spurt on any of my other runs. I'll probably do drills and strides at the end of some other run. Why does it seem like I have fewer days in my week than my coach? It always seems that way.

Next week is a nice easy week of I'm guessing 40 miles. I'm going to take Tuesday or Friday off. At least this is in the training outline as well: "Easy weeks: 7/24-7/30 & 8/21-8/27", so that's good. I want to be able to run 60 miles in a week by the end of this period: August 27th. I need to remember that it is OK to miss some of these goals. That is what got me into trouble last year. For the next 9 weeks I will be listening to my body and adding miles when it feels good to. Fortunately, being at 45 miles a week right now feels nicer than I thought. I only have to do 4 tomorrow and I'm there! I think 60 will be a breeze.

Today, I went to the lunchtime CORE(abs) class at my gym and almost passed out. It was painful and sweat reaping. I could barely move toward the end. My head was in a fog until half-way through my run in the evening. Tomorrow and Sunday will be VERY BAD. I'll be walking around like a stick figure.

Crazy Nighthawk

Wednesday night I had the extreme urge to run a hard mile. It started at 6pm and hadn't gone away by 10. I had already run 7.5 miles that morning, but I ran it anyway. 6:36. Not bad, but I'd really like to slice a minute off my time by the end of the year. Splits: 96, 98, 102, 100. Thanks goes to a sweet boy who indulged me and recorded my splits in the inky darkness. I think I'm going to try to run the Stanford Dish Loop tonight. Twice. I'm also going to try to incorporate a speed workout into my schedule once a week in addition to my one stride day, one hilly run, and one long day I already do.

8 days

So I met my goals! I ran 35.5 miles last week. My official "week" is from Sunday through Saturday. If I count from Monday to Sunday of the past week I ran 45 miles! As of today, I've run 8 days in a row. That's a record for the year. As a reward, I'm buying myself sunglasses this week. My legs are shot. Today, my run took me the longest it has ever taken for me to get home: 72 minutes. But that's okay; it was a different route. I was totally shuffling though. I was bonked as soon as I started. Not a good sign for 7.5+ miles. Maybe I'll take tomorrow off. I'll see in the morning.

As for my other goals, I was 153.5 lbs Sunday morning and 151.5 this morning, albeit I was a little dehydrated. When I got home from running today, my scale said 141! Um. So I moved it, and it came to it's senses with a 151. Time for water.

Running Start

Running is my life. Into this blog will go my running activities, weight goals, cross training and runner geek drool puddles.

Last week I ran 41 miles! In 6 days! That's the farthest I've run since.... um... since... probably the beginning of November/end of October 2004. I weighed 145 then too. Now I'm closer to 155. I was 138 in August 2004. 160 last month. My racing weight is probably 130. Hopefully, writing this all down will help me to head that direction.

Today I ran to work in record time. 59:35

This week's goals: 35 miles. 153 lbs.
Next week's goals: 45 miles. 151 lbs.