It's been about a year of blogging

This morning I took my heart rate for the second time in about a year. It was 46. Awesome! I'd love it if I could remember to do that every morning, so I could determine if I need to rest and load up on Vitamin C for fighting something that doesn't have any other symptoms yet besides an elevated heart rate.

Looking through the past year of posts, I watched my weight go down and back up, my speed follow the same path, and my confidence steadily increase. I'm glad that my weight is 10 pounds less than a year ago today, my resting heart rate is 5bpm lower, and I'm running faster. That is encouraging. It also reminds me that I haven't reached my goals. I still have about 12 pounds to go to hit 130, a couple minutes to slice off my 5k time, and I have yet to run a track season or in the Bay to Breakers Centipede yet. In the next year, I'm setting out to accomplish these goals. I'd love to run a steeplechase race again and be fast enough that I'm routinely in the top 33% of elite races. But, one baby step at a time. My most immediate goals are to break 21 at the Pozo 5k on the 4th of July (I'd really like to break 20, but Pozo is usually slower for me for some reason), break 6 minutes at the Davis Mile race, and break 90 minutes at the SLO Triathlon where I'll be ~136lbs.

Morning Weight: 140.5
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: Bike from work, swim 1800yrds
Total Miles this Week: 30

Oops, I did it again

So Dave and I ran the dish loop again, and we talked pretty much the whole way while maintaining a tempo pace and not pushing overly hard. I was less sore this week than last and my hill strength and speed has improved dramatically. I am slightly sore from running downhill in Rancho San Antonio on Sunday, but it didn't affect the uphills at all and that is where you get your most speed improvements. Anyway, we ran another new record, and we weren't even trying to! Sweet! 26:34. My goal of breaking 26 is looking very attainable now. Maybe we can even break 25 by the end of August, but we'll see.

Morning Weight: 141.5
Miles Today: 6.5
Other Exercise: Spinning Class (moderate), swimming workout 1800yrds
Total Miles this Week: 22.5

And I thought 35 minutes was a lofty goal

Considering that I had run 7:18s for a 10k 4 weeks ago, and the fact that I hadn't run a 5k under 7s yet this year, I figured that breaking 35 minutes in an 8k was a long shot. I thought it was going to be the toughest race so far in 2006. I had no idea how to run an 8k, so I went out fairly conservatively the first mile. When I looked at my watch, it said 6:51! I said to myself, "If you want to continue to break 7s you are going to have to pick it up, because you know the 2nd mile is always slower than the first." So, I increased my pace and went through the 2nd mile in 13:35! Whoa! A few more miles and a 20:25 and 27:14 later, I was on track to break 34, not 35. I don't know where any of this sudden return of speed came from, or where it went between November and June for that matter. I was so relieved at mile 4, since I had to run a 7:45 or better to achieve my goal, that I let up a little and a few people passed me. A little voice in my head said, "If you really push it, you can break 34..." and I returned, "Maybe, but it will hurt a lot and I already made my goal... so nah, I'll pass, but keep running strong and stay with the ladies in front of me." After a little less than a half mile, my body and mind realized that we didn't have much farther to go and picked it up a little. There was a "400 meters to go" sign and upon seeing that in the distance, I let my turnover and push-off increase. Looking at my watch a bit after the sign, I calculated that I would have to run a 94 to break 34 minutes, which seemed like a hard thing to do, but I decided to try anyway. At the 100m mark, I looked at the finish-line clock, and I had 30 more seconds! "Oh! I guess I'm going to beat my goal time by more than a minute!," I said in my head. Pushing the last bit, I finished in 33:52 (33:50 by my watch). I am so proud of myself.

Morning Weight: 142
Miles Today: 6
Other Exercise: biking to work
Total Miles this Week: 16

New Dish Loop Record

Yesterday David and I ran the Dish Loop as fast as I could again. We broke the time from before by 51 seconds, coming through at 26:56. My hammy's were tight for some reason, but we kicked our previous butts, so YAY! My goal for the summer is to be able to break 26. Then, at lunch I did a spinning workout. I'm hoping all this cross training I'm doing will reflect in my race this weekend. My goal is to break 35 minutes for the 8k (or faster than 7 min/miles). The weather is supposed to be an almost record high in Sacramento though, so it may be too hot to run fast, but we'll see. I'm going to take it easy the next two days, with doing some quick strides tomorrow on my run with an easy lunch spin session (maybe), and only running 3-4 miles on Friday and no cross-training.

Morning Weight: 143.25
Miles Today: 5.5
Other Exercise: Commuting to/from work on bike, swimming 900yrds
Total Miles this Week: 28.25

Food and Weight Logs

I've gone outside the blog world and signed up for a couple of sites that work better at tracking what and how much I eat each day, and that chart my weight. The links are now in the Linkspeed section on the right. Enjoy! Holly pointed me to them. Thanks Holly!

Morning Weight: 142.5
Miles Today: 6.75
Other Exercise: Spinning Class
Total Miles this Week: 23.5

8 x 400 cutdowns

On Saturday, I ran to the middle school track in Los Osos and was going to run 2x(4x440 )at 3k pace with 220 recovery and a lap jog between sets. After the first one in 99, I decided that 3k effort would be a better way to go because the track is eroded and the grass is growing into lane 1, so it ends up being a fairly sandy > 1/4 mile. Anyway, I guess I got used to being on a track again, because these were my times: (99,97,98,96,96,95,93,88). Whee! What's that, a 12:45 or so 2 mile?

After breakfast, I rode 40k into SLO on LOVR and back on 1. That's 25 miles and I averaged 27kph. Note to self: change CatEye to MILES next time you ride Mom's bike.

Morning Weight: 144.5
Miles Today: 10.5
Other Exercise: Spinning class at gym, 1 hour
Total Miles this Week: 10.5

Cross Training Galore

I've been cycling about 5x per week, running 6x, and swimming 1 (hopefully 3x in the future), and I feel really strong and energized. It's awesome... and totally weird. I work out 2-3 times a day, but my easy runs don't feel like a chore and I don't waddle around the office from soreness and achey legs. Instead of doing 3 running workouts a week, I'm doing 2 running and 1 biking. Maybe my energy can be attributed to running workouts that aren't as strenuous. My last two workouts were 4x5min fartlek with 2-5min rest at easy day pace today, and a 1600m time trial on Saturday. I'm mad at myself concerning the time trial. It was 6:07. Grrrcicle. (88,92,95,92) And the weird part was my lungs were the threshold and not my legs. I'm doing a mile road race in a month and my goal is to break 6 minutes. Hopefully by then, I'll have broken 140lbs. as well.

My food goal is to eat only when I'm hungry the next 4 days. I think I'm doing well so far. I'm glad I have plenty of snacks at my desk like apple rings and rice cakes. mmmm!

Morning Weight: 145.5
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: Lift Weights/Abs
Total Miles this Week: 22.5 running, 30 biking, .5 swimming