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