turkey day!

given the holiday and travel situation, last week was okay.
monday was the aforementioned 7 mile out and back past the wind turbine
tuesday was a surprise day off after a last second decision to drive home a day early
wednesday: 7 miles at 7:00 pace - awesome, awesome run
thursday: 5 easy miles pre-turkey
friday: OFF, post-turkey
saturday: OFF, too much pie
sunday: OFF, drive home


Monday: off, lazy and bad timing. time to get back on my horse tomorrow.

also, i did my second 100-pushups workout last sunday before i left and i think i tore something because my pecs hurt like nobody's business for the rest of the week. i think i can finally do them again tonight or tomorrow, but wow...

Cold days in the 'Ville

I feel like I finally have some momentum going -- four consecutive morning runs (disclaimers: they were all short, and before noon qualifies as 'morning' when you're on vacation). I'm going to be in Madison for the next two weeks, which should make it easier to stay on track. Today, we're heading out to run for an hour or so, which will be our second week in a row with a longish run. To get a head of myself a bit -- below is a log plus a plan for this week and the next couple days, which will make this my first 20 mile week in a while (I'm not sure what emoticon goes with that statement...but I'm feeling happy about it right now, so I'm going with :)).

Monday - off
Tuesday - 3
Wednesday - 3
Thursday - 3
Friday - 2.5
Saturday - 6-7?
Sunday - 3?

long run / workout...

monday: lazy/off.  booo...

tuesday: 4 mi. easy

wednesday: 7 mi!
2 mi. warm-up
3 mi. tempo (5:30/6:00/5:30)
2 mi. cool-down

i tried to drop the last mile of the tempo down to 5:00 after the first 1/2 mi. but that wasn't happening, so i was back up at 5:30 for the last 400...  all in all great!  it was my longest run yet, and my best workout yet - all in one!

wind turbine give away

just finished a lovely 7.25 mile run in 57:44 (just under 8:00 pace). legs felt a tinge sore during the day today as a result of the long run yesterday, but then they felt amazing for the first half of this out-and-back run on wall street. i should have realized though, that the wind was kind of strongly (15mph) at my back. i began to suspect something fishy when i ran past the wind turbine facing the direction i had just come from and it sounded like a jet engine. when i turned around, i realized immediately why i had felt so great on the way out. i didn't look at my watch at the turn around because i didn't want to feel any pressure to try to hit a certain pace since this was supposed to be a recovery day.

i stretched when i got home and then i may or may not have ordered a gyro pizza from basils.

hint: i did.

made it...

made it to 30 this week with an easy 4 mi. tonight...

4 mi. @ 7:00-ish...

Nice Work! Time for a New Plan

Cassie and Steve - You are kicking our asses - nice work!

It felt good to get out for a 10k loop this Saturday morning - I have been getting short (3 mile-ish) runs in every couple-few days, but nothing much longer than that.... and the side stitches I got when I raced a 5k a couple weeks ago tell me that hasn't been enough. After flirting with it for a long time, I have finally reached the point that I recognize I need to commit to morning workouts. With a deep breath and soon-to-be-bloodshot eyes, I'm going to commit to morning workouts Tuesday-Friday this week to get it going. I'll plan on at least 3-4 morning workouts each week for the rest of the calendar year to give myself a fighting chance to make this a habit. Here goes...

good week

this was the first great week i've had in a while. i capped it off with a wonderful 10 miler with laura roach this morning. i thought we were kind of lolly-gagging, chatting away, but it turns out that we ran the 10.34 miles in about 78 minutes (7:32 pace).
Monday: 6 miles with a bit of threshold mixed in
Tuesday: 7 easy miles
Wednesday: 6 mile pr course
Thursday: 5 easy miles with Alison and Simone
Friday: 5 miles on the nationals course
Saturday: OFF, but ran 1 mile during warmup that I am counting so that the mileage hits 40
Sunday: 10 mile long run - felt slow and easy, but turned out to be a great run.
Total: 40 miles

also, i've been a lot better about stretching this week, which i have to stay on top of.

Weekend

didn't do much over the past 2 weeks... a 3-miler here and there. yesterday, nathan and i decided that we have been slacking too much so we dragged ourselves out of bed to go to the fleet feet run. did the 10k loop of the arb slowly, but got it done. i am definitely sore today from the hills. did 45 min. of yoga to try and stretch myself out.

quick-druple...

went out for an easy 4 mi., but once i got out there it felt like my breakfast tacos caught up with me...  while that may have been part of the problem, the other part was that i was inadvertantly running 6:10 pace...

4 mi. quick!

it's toooooo eaaaaaaarly... [biz's impression of the twins...]

4 mi. eaaaaaarly this morning with hooley...

felt good.

easy day...

chilled for 4 easy today...  achilles followed the reverse trend of yesterday: it started out a little sore and got better as i went...

easy day and future modifications

today i went an easy 5 with simone and alison. it was lovely and for the second day in a row, i totally overestimated (underestimated?) the weather and wore way too many layers. oh well; better too warm than too cold, i supposed.
on a side note, i realized that my pr course of 6 miles is too long. it's long enough that when i do it, i'm running the same pace as my long tempo/marathon pace workouts, which are actually shorter in length than that run. this tells me two things. 1) my long tempo workouts can be 6 miles instead of 4. 2) my pr course should be shorter so that i go faster. dave's recommendation was to have two different ones - one that is 4-4.5 miles (which is perfect since i already have that one that goes through suburbia) and one that is around 2 miles. i think that one will be kind of fun, once i get a course figured out. he also recommended that i do the shorter one a couple of times before i do the longer one and alternate them that way. i think that will be a much better workout. it's also pretty likely that i'll replace that workout with stuff on the track occasionally during the track season.

behind again...

ok - catching up again...

saturday: great day!  i went up to the ncaa south central cross country regional meet in waco with holdwick and nowinski!  ran about a mile (maybe more) around the course during the races.  also ran 6.5-ish mi. with nowinski in waco on an awesome river trail that had a twigonometry and an arb!  reliving the glory days all around.

total for the day: 7.5-ish

sunday: off.

total for the week: 31 mi. in 6 days!  woohoo - my first legit week.

monday: 6 mi. 2-1-1-1-1
2 mi. @ 7:00
1 mi. @ 5:00
1 mi. @ 7:00
1 mi. @ 6:00
1 mi. @ 7:00

i was hoping to do both of the "on" segments at 5:00, but i was tired and hungry, so 6:00 felt hard enough.  also, my right achilles started to get sore at the end.

tuesday: off (sort of accidntally, but later post-rationalized as on account of the achilles...)

wednesday:  5.5 mi. with the johns at 6:40-ish pace...  we thought it was 6 mi., but when i got back my watch said 35:59...  it's only 5.5. 

then when i got back to the gym, noah was there doing a crazy 400s workout on the treadmill, so i might have accidentally done that with him as well.  (hint: i did...)  8x400 @ 75 sec with 3 min. walking recovery 1/2 mi. cool-down after the final walking recovery.  not surprisingly, my achilles was a little bit sore again when i finished, but it feels better now.

total for the day: 8 mi.!

cemetary 6

today was my second try at my new 6 mile pr course. i decided not to look at the time i ran last time, since it was quite a while ago. it went okay, but my legs felt pretty dead from the get-go. not terrible, just like i was having a hard time getting my knees up so my stride felt really short and wimpy. i vaguely wanted to run faster than 42:00, but as i was finishing up and my legs felt very "meh" i decided i'd be okay with under 43:00. i was pumped to find out that i'd run 42:05 until i looked back and saw that last time i did this, i actually ran 42:01. bummer. next time, i definitely need to break 42.
still, 5.9, or whatever the mileage actually is, in 42:05 is not bad. last time i said that i ran 7:07 pace, so this was probably around 7:08.
since i've already gotten my two workouts in for the week and it's only wednesday...unheard of for me... my plan is to go easy milage for the rest of the week and to prioritize getting in my long run since it has been a couple of weeks since i have done one. maybe i can even do that on friday to make sure it gets done before we leave for nationals.

one hundred push-up challenge

monday - 6 miles with alison (smyth, not traff) with 3x4 min threshold mixed in. followed by 5 fast 50m strides, which felt awesome.
tuesday - easy 7. probably the slowest run i've had in a while pacewise, but it was a recovery day and i didn't really care about the pace too much. it was a really beautiful evening.

on a side note, i'm challenging my distance runners to follow the 100 push-up challenge over the 6 week winter break. http://hundredpushups.com/ by the end of 6 weeks, i should be able to do 100 consecutive push-ups if i follow the plan. actually, it should only take me 4 weeks since i get to start on week 3. step 1 is the initial test; you do as many as you can and then adopt a training plan depending on how many you were able to do. i did 27 and they recommend that anything over 20 start on week 3. we'll see how that goes, though; i'm terrible at push-ups. you guys should do it too, and when we see each other at christmas, we can bust out 100 push-ups in a row and impress the bystanders.

end of the week wrap-up

i ended up with no concrete idea of how much i ran. i did 4ish with the team on thursday and friday and then did their warm-up and ran around the course on saturday. all in all, not a great week, but the end of the season is always a bit weird. i guess i should make more of an effort to get in a real run on those days, not being sure how much i'll end up doing with the team.

workout in the rain...

on the trail...

1.6 mi. warm-up
3 mi. @ 6:00-ish
1.6 mi. cool-down

6+ mi. total (and balancing out that 5.75 mi. day from wednesday)

i guess i am a week behind...

 end of last week: nothing after thurdsay...  bummer 20 mi. in 4 days on the week.

this week so far:

mon: 4 mi. easy
tues: 6 mi. - 2 mi. warm-up / 3 mi. @ 6:00 / 1 mi. cool-down
wed: 5.75 mi. @ 6:30-ish with nowinski
thurs: 4 mi. pretty chill - 1 mi. @ 7:00 / 1 mi. @ 6:45 / .5 mi. @ 6:00 / .5 mi. @ 5:00 / 1 mi. @ 7:00

tomorrow: tempo workout with nowinski (3 mi. at tempo)
saturday: ncaa regional cross country meet at baylor!  (also long run of about 7 - fingers crossed)
sunday: off

woof

well, i did a workout today, but it wasn't as good as i had hoped.
5.5 miles total
1 mile up, 1 mile down
7 x 400m cemetary hills
92, 95, 94, 92, 93, 95, 94

i was hoping to do 8 or hoping to do them all faster, but i was feeling pretty crummy by the last one and decided to stop at 8.

november...off to a whimper

the past two weeks have been pretty mediocre. i finished up last week with a 6 mile run on thursday and nothing else. friday-sunday were days spent in austin, and they were lovely, but not very running-ful. monday was spent traveling and working before it got dark. eventually, i may have to become a treadmill runner for these days when i don't get it in when it's light out. for now, i'm thankful for daylight savings.
today, i was tempted, like most tuesdays to skip the run, but i got myself out the door and i'm glad i did. my legs (knees especially) were pretty stiff off the bat, but other than that, i felt pretty darn good after my 1/2 week off. ended up doing an easy 6 miles and calling it a day. i decided to reward myself for getting out the door by ordering basil's for dinner. i'm pretty sure the 600 calories i burned on the run will offset it, right? i'm hoping to do some push-ups, calf raises, core, etc later this evening post-pizza.

Well, it's November...

... man, the fall is flying by. This week was ok. Not great but I did manage to be active pretty much every day.

Mon: off

Tues: 30 Day Shred - Level 2

Wed: ran 2 with Nathan and then we walked a mile home... neither of us was feeling particularly great so we just called it and had a leisurely walk

Thurs: 30 Day Shred - Level 2

Fri: 20 min. of yoga

Sat: Didn't run but walked the 2 miles each way to and and from the Farmer's Market. It was lovely

Sun: Ran the Turkey Trot 5k. My time was about 25:30. I was slightly disappointed b/c I really felt like I should be able to go under 8:00 pace. However, this is a cross-country race and is therefore pretty hilly (not to mention the footing of running in grass w/o spikes) so I guess I'll cut myself some slack.

Going to San Francisco for 3 days next week so we'll see if I do anything...

surprise workout

got to work today and donna asked if i could run with one of the regionals team during practice. they were doing lactate threshold 2ks, so i was pretty sure i could. workout went great and i'm pretty sure that i was going around the right pace for myself as well as her, which was nice.
1.5 mile warm-up
2x2k at 8:05 and 8:14 (6:28-35 mile pace)
1.5 mile cool-down
good stretching

two notes - i felt a little badly since she was supposed to be running more like 8:35 pace...oops. whatevs. she was supposed to be the one setting the pace, not me. second- i'm trying to be more diligent about stretching better. my flexibility is atrocious. i'm going to get hurt if i'm not more careful.

weather...

the last couple of days have been the first trace of actual weather in austin in a while.  it feels good to run in the wind/rain/cool/etc...

4 mi. with the johns @ medium pace

can't wait for daylight savings

monday: 6 miles easy with karhu team
tuesday: 12 episodes of 30 rock. yikes.
wednesday: ? going to work. hopefully running later.

i don't really care much for running in the dark. maybe i haven't done it enough so i'm not comfortable doing it, but i feel like i have to pay more attention to what i'm doing, so i never really have that "lost in my own thoughts" feeling that allows time to pass by quickly on a solo run. everything feels longer and harder to me in the dark. i'm pretty pumped about daylight savings time coming up soon so that i can get back to running before work. right now, there just isn't quite enough time to get in the run, shower, breakfast before heading over.
i'm hopeful that i'll get in a run or two while i'm in texas this weekend, but we'll see. inevitably this will be a shorter week for me, too, so i probably should have made sure i got out the door yesterday. oh well. i had to get caught up on last season of 30 rock so that i could watch the first episode of this season before it got taken off hulu. modern times are hard times.

hmm...

3 mi. threshold

2 mi. warm-up
3 mi. @ 6:00
1 mi. cool-down

this was not easy for me but i made through.  at the end, however, my right achilles was a little sore.  not sure why, but i stretched it afterward and it seemed to help a little - more stretching to come...

6 mi. total - 12 on the week.  it looks like this is inevitably going to be a short week, so i am only counting on getting in 25-ish through friday...

several days...

saturday: 6 mi. long run with nowinski - felt great!
sunday: off (semi-unintentionally)

total for the week: 26 mi

monday: 6 mi. with nowinski - it felt pretty fast, but after consulting gmaps-pedometer, it turns out that it was just under 7:00 pace.  bummer...

overall an okay week

it seemed like i either had awesome days or crappy days. I ended up not running on Thursday, mostly out of laziness, but justified by the fact that I tend to take Tuesdays off, so I was already ahead of schedule and probably in need of a day off. Friday, I got out for a quick 5 miles, as previously blogged. Saturday I fell asleep in the morning before conference instead of going for a run. I did end up sprinting around the course, so it wasn't a total loss. Sunday was just a totally lazy, pitiful day. I didn't run, but I didn't really do much of anything else either. Long runs have been going well and are going to have to keep going well as they get longer. It will also be tempting to skip these in the winter when it is cold and snowy, and I will be better about getting them in each week.
overall: something like 25 miles in 4 (or 5 if you count saturday) days