since you've been gone...

well, actually, i guess it's more appropriately "since i've been gone..." but nevertheless...

last weekend with nowinski i ended up going 2.5 @ ugh!  it was stupid hot and humid.

mon: 4 with the johns @ just over 7:00 (around campus)
tues: 3 @ 7:00 (working my way down to 6:30 over the last mile (treadmill)

feeling good, but fat.  consistency is the key.

notable event of the day: i saw a girl at the gym with RIDICULOUS fake boobs.  like, walking-funny-because-she-could-hardly-stay-upright ridiculous.  the weird part was not the fake boobs (this is the university of texas, after all, it was that she looked totally pale and nerdy other than the boobs.  weird all around...

the end of summer

Yikes, it has been a while. Here's how last week finished up and this week started out. I figured I had better get caught up since I'll be gone to Pigeon Lake for a few days.
Thursday: 4 miles - I don't remember anything about this run, so it must have been fine.
Friday: 7 miles - this went pretty well, given that I didn't eat a very good dinner the night before. I was feeling it a little by the end of the run, but that could also just be that it was the first time in a long time that I had run 7 miles.
Saturday: 0, planned day off
Sunday: 5 this run started out awesome and ended up not so awesome. i was running late for a meeting with donna and the captains and decided to do the whole thing a little up-tempo. i was feeling good from the get-go, probably because i ran at 3 instead of 8 AM so my legs were more warmed up and ready to go. however, it was pretty hot and humid, so by about 1/2 way through the run the heat caught up to me and i found myself slowing without realizing it. i still averaged about 7:30 pace, but I'm guessing it started off more like 7:00 and ended more like 8:00+.

Weekly total: 26 miles, and my first week of running what I was supposed to each day! yay!

So far this week...
Monday: 4
Tuesday: 4 - planned to go farther, but legs felt shockingly fatigued. No idea what from, but I decided that I'd cut it short on the off-chance that I end up having time tomorrow to go for a run between our arrival at camp and the time trial. With preseason starting, my training this week could be awesome or terrible, it just depends on how camp transpires. We'll be back sometime Saturday, so I should be back on track by the weekend, if nothing else.

This Week

This week was better. I ran 15.5 miles total. Unfortunately, I still have only run as far as 5, and I need to be able to run 10 in a month. Hmmm...

I also did 20 minutes of yoga in the morning 4 days this week. It was actually a nice way to wake up my body. I'm going to try to keep doing it somewhat consistently.

lost in austin...

the title of this post is pretty descriptive of my plan to get in shape so far, but i took a couple big steps in the right direction this week.

wed: got a gym locker
thurs: off after a strenuous wednesday (joking...)
fri: 2 mi. @ 7:00 pace / .5 mi. @ 6:30 / .5 @ 7:00  - felt good, comfortable
sat: 2-3 with nowinski

fall?

first off, sorry steve, but it's beautiful here. it was 55 degrees when i woke up this morning! yay fall!
monday - 5 miles, easy in the arb. started off a little tight, but loosened up nicely over the course of the run.
tuesday - 0 miles, planned day off.
wednesday - 5 miles, easy in the arb. cool weather! legs felt good, but didn't feel especially peppy. felt like my stride was really short, but it got a little better over the course of the run.

Good Start

Well, last week seriously sucked. I worked a ton so I basically didn't run at all. Ran a little over 5 today, though, which is a good start to the week. It was uncomfortably close to feeling like a long run but at least I got it in.

first decent week in a while

with the exception of a slight moment of weakness on friday, this was a good week. wednesday was a planned day off; thursday i went 4 instead of 5 when my legs felt kind of crappy, expecting that i was going to go 6 on friday. that didn't happen, so i went 6 on saturday and it was awesome. today i went 4 and it was decidedly not awesome. it was only moderately hot, but it felt much worse than it was - maybe a little dehydrated.
Monday- 4
Tuesday- 5
Wednesday- 0
Thursday- 4
Friday- 0
Saturday- 6
Sunday- 4
Weekly total: 23
If all goes great this week, i'd like to hit around 25 or 26, but we'll see

blech...

2+ mi. with shawbee @ slow.

good news: foot felt fine
bad news: i am slow
solution: run more...

rollin'

Monday: arb 4 - new loop that starts in the upper arb and ventures a bit into the lower arb before heading home via the rec center and through campus. the old upper arb loop was good, but it was getting boring, plus this one is much easier to use as a "base loop" which can be extended into 5, 6, etc.
Tuesday: arb 5 - base loop, plus a mile extension.
both runs felt awesome - monday started off a little sluggish, but felt good by the end. today, my legs just felt a little peppier, which was a nice change.

i'm back....

2 mi. with shaw!  it's nice to run with someone after spending 8 months running by myself (when i actually went, that is).

slow but nice...

Mileage this week

10.5 for me... ugh

end of the weak

plan for saturday:
farmer's market; putting together the documents needed to change my name, running, lunch, various other tasks.
actual saturday:
farmer's market; 7 unsuccessful hours spent looking for my passport and birth certificate, grocery shopping, dinner. no run and not even a birth certificate or passport to show for it. suck.
sunday: 5 mile run. odd thing that happened during my run- i was gaining hard on this woman in the lower arb, and just as i was about 10 meters behind her, worried i was going to scare the shit out of her as i passed her, she started making these bizarre noises - somewhere between hurting and worried about pooping. i was so caught off guard, i stopped and stretched for a bit to give her some space. i passed her on the way out of the arb as she was stretching (i think) and all seemed okay.
weekly summary: a whopping 10 miles.

woof

Yikes. It's been a rough week. So, last week, we went to the Grand Canyon on Saturday and Sunday, which meant no running those days because I am a weenie. We did walk/hike at least 5 miles on Sunday, so that's something, I guess. Something like 11 or so miles that week.
I hoped to get back on my horse when we got back to Phoenix, but I got lazy and it got hot. 0 miles Mon-Thursday. I did get up and go 5 this morning, which was slow as balls, but my legs didn't feel too bad over 5 miles. We'll see how tomorrow goes, but I'm hoping to switch from 4 miles as my basic run to 5 and start going 5-4-5 on my 3 day cycles. After a bit of consistency there, the plan is to add in another day. At this point, my short-term goal is to build on the days in a row, rather than the miles/day. Maybe even start getting in some "long runs"? Now wouldn't that be crazy?

taking the arb and moderate temps for granted

so far this week has been sort of a mixed bag. monday was a planned day off; tuesday was an unplanned day off. to make up for that, i went 5 on wednesday, including a mini hill "workout". i ran to the 4-way intersection in the lower arb and did that hill 5x. nothing crazy, but it was good to get in a slightly longer run and to do something other than easy running. thursday was a short easy 3, plus a 3+ hour flight to phoenix with an additional 1+ hour spent sitting in the plane at the terminal while they fixed the latch on the cargo door. today i had planned to do an easy 5 in phoenix, but i think i waited a little too long and the heat got the better of me. i turned it into an easy 3 and ran through a crazy-nice neighborhood, mostly on sidewalks, with a little bit of dirt path.

8.2 0
8.3 0
8.4 5 miles, including 5x short (30secs) hill
8.5 3 easy
8.6 3 slow, but not easy

Airborne SNAC attack!

Potentially the first of our posts from a plane...I'm on my way back home from San Diego. I managed some training this week --Sunday - hot 5, Monday bike 15, Tuesday hilly 3...Wednesday & Thursday bust. I'm still unsure and bothered by the neck business...I broke down and let Alison schedule a chiropractor appointment for me next week. Still need to schedule something with the real sports medicine and PT folks.

high-fives and -heart rates...

rough day at the office paved the way for a rough day on everybody's favorite 2 mi. of phoenix sidewalks.  while the run was rough, it wasn't all bad.  i started out feeling like doms was punching me in the right hamstring, but its stopped after about a mile, and the rest was good.  the mile back was much faster than the mile out.

2 mi. @ increasing pace (overall faster than moderate)

notable: saw jp at the 3/4 mi. mark - he was on his way back and i was on my way out.  we high-fived.

- incidentally, "high-fives and -heart rates" would have made a good training blog name...

As of today, I have agreed to pace one of my co-workers in a 5k on Labor Day weekend. (Cassie - this is the race I originally had you write me the workouts for.) She is 37 and really wants to place in her age group. We think this will take about a 23:00 5k, so it shouldn't be that hard, but now I'm super worried I won't be able to do it! Today was hella hot, so I decided to do a "workout." I ran one mile out really hard, walked around for a couple of minutes, then ran a mile really hard back.

week summary

7.31 arb short 4
8.1 short 3...really more like 2.5. i meant to go 3, but miscalculated and ended up only running for 20 minutes. oops.

weekly total (mon-sun):
around 17 miles in 5 days.

nothing earth-shattering, but i'm up to 3 days in a row and feeling good about it. i'm going to do that cycle again next week and then try to bump up to 4 in a row. i may try to start going a little longer one day/cycle, depending on how it goes. i'll be in phoenix at the end of this week and the first part of next week, so that will inevitably make it harder to get the runs in. we plan to go to the grand canyon next weekend, so i'll probably substitute several-hour-long hikes for my 30 minute runs. seems like an okay trade.