Friday, June 30, 2006

Built A Fire On Main Street

June 30

4mi, 27:32 (6:53/mi): Shortcut. Best legs have felt, this was more like mile 12-ish. Also made some dynamite focaccia tonight, discovering en route that while Schrader may swear by "The Wreck of the Ed. Fitz." or "November Rain", "Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again" is a strong candidate for Best Kneading Song.

In The Summertime, When The Weather Is Fine...

June 29

4mi, 28:01 (7:00/mi): Shortcut. Again, more effort than it should have been, but whereas Monday's 4mi felt like I was running miles 18-19 of the marathon, Wednesday's and Thursday's felt more like miles 15-16. So we're moving in the right direction.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Back in the Saddle?

Most of you have probably been assuming that since I sometimes hang out with Biz I must have a strict "No Days Off, Ever" rule. Wrong. Legs are recovering much more quickly than they did after Twin Cities, but I did zero running and only one or two short bike rides last week. On Sunday I made the unfortunate decision to play Frisbee with some of the other jokers who post on this thing, and I woke up Monday morning feeling more or less crippled...The plan now is to train for the Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving, and then maybe to parlay that training into a winter or spring marathon. Circuit races on the way, and maybe a brief taper for the TC 10miler. Mostly, though, I want to do some patient as opposed to head-exploding training over the next several months.

June 26

4mi, 27:31 (6:53/mi): Shortcut (is this what I named this run? I can't remember...). Felt horrible. Dehydrated and stiff from the Frisbee, and scared for the second half that I was missing a meeting at work so I couldn't stop to stretch...

June 27

Day Off. Hoss Day (observed).

June 28

4mi, 26:04 (6:31): Down Franklin to LP Apt. Legs much better but the marathon or the Frisbee is still banging around in the muscles. Fortunately, slow and low is the tempo.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

"Why Couldn't Phidippides Have Died Here?"

June 17

27mi, Grandma's Marathon, 2:58:28 chip time. Well, the thing about second marathons is that you have to run them in order to get to the third, fourth or fifth marathon. This isn't one of those "I-just-won't-write-a-9th-symphony" deals. So my second marathon is completed, and as second marathons go, it was pretty much what should be expected unless you happen to be Paul Anderson. And if you are Paul Anderson you've spent your whole life being the exception that proves the rule, so why should anything change just because you're competing in an event that has the audacity to describe itself as a race?

All things considered, even the running was pretty fun. No problems getting right up front and finding Schrades and Biz at the start. Schrades and I (and Mark Rapacz) ran about 6min pace together for the first 13mi, but slowly and surely the legs had started to feel not as legs should. Heat and humidity caught up with me by mile 19 and it was clear I would not PR...so there were substantial walking breaks from 19 on in. Ran with Schrades from 19-22. Had a brief reunion with that bridesmaid around mile 22.5. Almost collapsed at 26 when Hools yelled "Rejoice! I am Victorious!" Was sort of hoping to cross the line in Solidarity with Phil, but we missed eachother by about a minute. Congrats to Gehring on a 5min PR in some poor conditions. And kudos to Jill McKiernan on finishing her first marathon despite having to listen to "Honkey-Tonk Badonkadonk" during her last 200m. Most of all, thanks to Andrew Schroeder for keeping me motivated to train as much as I did and then for pulling me through some tough miles towards the end. CC Slab, baby. CC Slab.

June 16

3ish. Slowish. Pre-Meet. Legs felt good, not even normal-taper-stale...

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Do You Wanna Roll?

June 14

3ish. Didn't take very long 'cause I didn't run very far. Didn't go very fast 'cause it's getting close to marathon-o-clock. Iced after. And sat around.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Bum, Ba-Bum Bum Ba Bummmm, Bummmm...

June 13

4+, 26:58 (6:35/mi): Shortcut. Easy run with 1.6 (according to gmaps...) at MP. Ran the first 1.5 or so with a certain John Shaw before he declined my invitation for a faster jaunt down the west side of the river. Weak, Shaw, weak. But not as weak as Julian Tavarez's 12th inning. Dude probably didn't even run today...Taper feels like it's starting to take effect, but some of that may have been the coffee injection this morning. It's also nice that my race distances have increased proportionate to the length of my classes, from 5K/10K and 50-70minute classes to the Marathon and 3hr classes...26.2 miles of notebook splits...

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Yup, blog is more or less accurate on my running as of late

10 with Biz. Base 10 in fact. Evidently there is a race up in Duluth next weekend.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Nachos, Tacos, Burritos, Who Knows?

June 10

3mi, 19:30 (6:30/mi): Modified Riley Run. Ran in the morning, but not early enough. Legs felt stiff and itchy, I suspect mostly because of the morning running but also because of the days off. So I'll get out for another shake-out tomorrow and see if that helps. Loosened up and felt decent by the end, and learned that I almost certainly can't break 70 for the quarter during some accels afterwards. I saw no antelopers, just inerlopers. Lots and lots of interlopers, as far as the eye can see...

June 9

For some reason a run didn't happen today. I'm tapering...

Thursday, June 08, 2006

I Thought Muggy Was Going To Be Here...

June 8

7mi, 43+ (wkout): 1up, 4.7mi@MP(27:51, 5:55/mi), 1+down. Good easy effort but legs still heavy. Some of the added effort came from the pre-run Doritos and cookies, the rest came from those 18mi on Sunday. It would also be a good idea to start running before 5pm at some point...like tomorrow...

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

University of Illinois

June 6

5.5mi, 39:14 (taper pace): Stone Arch Loop from LPDB avec los Fellahs. Then 2 for 1 Margaritas over at some Asian restaurant that Collin insisted was open but actually doesn't exist.

Mientiewicz & Pierzynski Make Mielswetski!

June 5

1hr Bike (Bike/hr): To the sandwich place, then to the Rumpus, then back. I'm afraid that nothing will ever convince me that Lake Calhoun is not Lake Harriet. Also, Guacamole is as easy to make as Josh Beckett is to hit.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

On Payday We Tear The Place Down

June 4

18mi, 2:02:46 (6:49/mi): Northern Industrial 12. Sometimes, the place tears us down. Phil was there. He was the one talking about how it was Belfast. I agreed. Then we kept on running because that's what you do when you're running forever and ever and forever again. Don't wake me til the 17th. Unless it's to drink coffee (!!!!!) and work for the state (!!!!!!).

Week: 47mi. And I still need to recover.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Don't Call It A Comeback

June 3

5mi, 33:36 (6:43/mi): West Side Five. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Minneapolis.

And They Were Siiizzzzzzzzlin'

June 2

9.5mi, 1:03:12 (6:38/mi): Base 10 w/Biz. Virtually no shin pain, which is nice. T'was hot, but manageable. Wasn't like I was cooking on the outdoor grill or anything. Then to Shermdawg's on a mission from God before helping Biz wait for that brother character...pending...

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Aerobic Animal Tribute

June 1

Made it about two miles with fairly acute shin pain, so cut it. Not particularly happy, and still moving for some reason...

Slabbaj Shout Out: To who else but the Aerobic Animal, Andrew Schroeder. Biked 147.5mi today from Lacrosse, WI to Madison, WI (142mi to the city limits, another 5.5 to his parent's house). Total time on the bike: 7h 50min. Total trip time: 9h 5min. Average speed: 18.8mph. 50mi Split: 2:37:30. 100mi Split: 5:11:45. Bananas Eaten: 7. Chocolate Malt Consumed: 1 liter. Total Beverage Consumed: 10 liters.

May 31

No running. Moving.