So I've got this new run. Harp-Cee-Dar. It involves Cedar Lake if you can believe it. It's about 50 minutes and has done a good job of getting me out the door consistently. Running is so much easier when you have established routes. I don't think I do that enough here in the city. I tend to just sorta run here and there. As it says in the good book, familiar routes are way easier mentally. Makes ya miss Northfield and the huge library of runs there.
Or maybe it's just tougher to get out the door these days because I'm lazy. Anyway, the past couple weeks have been as consistent as I've been in in long time.
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28 comments:
i agree. established routes are crucial, and perhaps most importantly they make possible a subtle (and so often graceful) new life through emendation, extension, reversal, and even truncation.
Who taught Matthew new words?
I'm sure Jill is pleased with your consistency. . .
Nov. 10: No mileaj accumulated, but did some running around the Stolaf course watching Regionals. Tough race for the women, but at least they had a fantastic day at Konference. The fellahs threw down as expected, placed 4th, and by all accounts ought to be getting their "Nationals" on next weekend! Nice freakin' race on their part.
Nov. 11: Skyline 9 51:28. Felt sooooo good! Legs felt good, weather was great, shorts and a t-shirt was the apparel of the day, and there was a good chunk of coffee consumed pre-run. Quads were still a little bit heavy, especially as the run went on, but much of that could be attributed to the significantly sub-6 min pace throughout the run. Never developed an urge or need to slow down though. Still gonna give it untik Thursday before calling it "training" again, but I'm really excited about how the recovery process has been going. Boo-yah!
Nov 12: A & W 40:26. Felt good, a little sluggish getting going but after getting warm I slipped into a pretty nice groove. Startin' to get antsy for some real trainaj.
Finished up week one of the taper on Sunday with 70 miles for the week. Started to feel sort of crappy toward the end of the week, likely in large part due to the fact that I had put over 700 miles on my shoes. Got in two decent workouts though: 8x800 in 2:27-2:29 on Wednesday, which felt pretty smooth and easy, and a 4 mile tempo in 20:32 on Saturday, which didn't feel as easy as I had hoped. Today was an easy 10. Will throw in my last little workout on Wed. Sometime shortly after that I should start to feel really antsy. Things are looking good for Sunday!
November 13
4 (24:59) Summit.
Ran. Haven't been too consistent, but this equals my longest run in about a month. Some combination of the new John Parker Jr. book, and not running much got my wheels going, and I just ran some fartlek. Took plenty of time in between, on account of being out of shape, but ran pretty fast. Included about a 2:40 half mile coming back up Summit racing a bike. It wasn't close, but it was fun. Feeling some stiffness in the hip flexor more than anything, but it was good for about 3 1/2 miles today, so we'll see what the effects of the fartlek are...
This will also be an indicator if I can run faster than easy pace for the high school Alumni Race, scheduled for the Friday after Thanksgiving.
November 14
4 (28:33) Summit.
Ran again. First back-to-back 4 milers in a long time. Felt really good today, saving the expected muscle soreness from yesterday's fartleks. No tightness in the hip flexor today, which may be a result of the few minutes of sprint drills I did before stepping out. Anyway, a very encouraging run.
Nov. 13: LSCC 44:26
Nov. 14: MTPO 1:12:32
Nov. 15: Retun to real training. 2 mi. warmup, 4 x loop on GC, 4:48, 45, 48, 46, w/2min recovery, 2 mi cooldown. I've been attempting to post for the last few days but blogspot appears to hate me. We'll see if it works this time. . .
Nov. 15 PM Lake St loop from law school, 47:53. Took the trail on both sides of the riverah--Gehring and Googlemaps are not correct about that distance. Against my better instincts I ran pretty quick--some undergrads moving at a decent clip were ahead of me at first and they were doing the same loop. So after I passed them going up the Franklin Hill it wasn't like I could let them catch up. . .felt good though and hit up the sauna afterwards. Nice day.
matthew gehring said...
I just report what the machine tells me:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1454385
But I'm now convinced of its incorrectness and would be happy to add a good (2 miles) x (probably 250 days of running this loop or an extended version) for my mileage in 2004, 2005, and 2006.
November 16
4 (28:02) Summit.
Felt good. No run yesterday, on account o' the class, but today's was good. Still no hip flexor issues- did brief sprint drills again beforehand.
November 17
3 (20:55) Summit.
Eh. More tighness in the groin area. Took some ibuprofen afterwards, but not great.
November 18
4ish (30:34) Hamline.
Yesterday I had a revelation that I could use the gym at Hamline, since I'm a student there. Why that took me so long to realize, I'm not sure. Anyway, the run over there is about 13 minutes, so I did that, biked for 35 minutes, jogged around on their elevated track, and ran home.
The run over felt better than yesterday, but a little stiff. The bike was hard- I haven't really biked like that in a long time. Heart rate hit at least 180, and was in the mid-170s for a large part of it. Kept the RPMs over 100 the whole time. Then jogged for about 5 minutes to cool off, which worked surprisingly well, and ran home. The running after the bike felt awkward, of course, but better than before. Feels like a good discovery.
Also, big shout-out to Schuyler for debuting at Philadelphia today in 2:34. Awesome job. Now, let me beat you at the alumni race on Friday.
Nov. 16: AM Short Line
PM Harriet and Calhoun
Nov. 17: AM 1:16 something w/Schof @ Murphy
Midday--spectating some mad fellah throw-downaj at Nationals!
PM Iron 6 with more fellahs arbwise.
Nov. 18 Main Douzaine, descending pace, 1:15:46. Was pretty sore this morning--not enough sleep for a couple of nights then a long day of moving around yesterday led to some soreness. That and the mileaj + intensity increase. But, all good soreness, not weenie soreness. Started out wicked slow but by the last 2 miles (which are mostly downhill) was probably in the low 5 min range somewhere. Felt great for that portion. Overall, stoked.
Put the 'For Sale' sign up. Which is sweet. Should be listed on MLS tomorrow. There'll be a couple more pics to take and add next week, but when they're up I'll post the link for those who are curious (Mrs. Church).
Only problem right now is the absurd tendonitis in my wrist. A bit too much torque on the screwdriver while hanging the last of the blinds. Oops.
Nov. 19: Diagonal 8--there's now an official name of the right-of-way that got paved this summer, the Mpls Diagonal Trail. So I'm changin' the name of the run. 55:41. Eazy-peezy.
Nov. 19 PM A & W 38:38. Wore shorts. Looks like the last time in a long time. Only reason for going short was the lack of time, hence the faster than usual split for that route. Feelin' good.
Sunday, November 18--Philly Half Marathon--1:14:14
We can title this story, "The 11 mile long stomach cramp." The race started out uneventfully, if you don't count the 15 minute delay and their refusal to give us enough room to do strides and the cold and windy weather. For the first mile I was in the lead group with a bunch of Kenyans and some dude from eastern Europe. I think that mile passed in 5:23, which felt very, very easy. The next mile saw the Kenyans pushing the pace a little. As we neared the 2nd mile marker, one of the Kenyans inexplicably started sprinting. I guess that he was fed up with all of the slow running; I don't know. But that sprint, which most of the group responded to, took them through the second mile in under 5:00. I didn't respond, figuring I should run my own race instead and came through in 5:17. That's where the wheels started to fall off. Very quickly a massive stomach cramp came on and decided to not go away, no matter what I tried to do. First I thought I would just maintain pace and I would work through it. No luck. Then I tried to speed up. No dice. Then I slowed down; that worked, but only once I had fallen under 5:40 pace. So I stayed there for a while, thinking that maybe I could speed back up again later. No dice. Every time I tried to surge or anything, it would come back. So eventually I just more or less bagged it. At some point I dropped a 6:02, which more or less tells the whole story. So yeah, it was a major bummer. I had refrained from making any of my usual predictions before hand, but I felt like I was in really good shape, so I feel like I more or less lost a whole season of good training. I might try to find an indoor 5k in the next couple of weeks, but well see. Back to the drawing board I guess.
As a testament to how crappy the race was, I ran 10 miles yesterday and could hardly tell that I had run a "race" yesterday. So it goes.
November 20
4 (28:31) Summit.
Yep. Might have gone longer if parent conferences hadn't taken up most of the evening. Forgot to do drills beforehand, and felt the hip flexor tighten up around 3 miles. Did the drills then, and it helped some, but not enough to completely ease out. Probably won't get to run tomorrow either, unless there are treadmills on northwest airlines now.
Nov. 20: AM Short Line with some extra golf course ramblin', 34:58. A bit sore and worn out--haven't slept too well for a couple nights, but otherwise alright.
PM LSCC Lake St 58:36. Nice and chill, and also chilly. Messed up eating day, and also yesterday. Really need to get better at fitting all of that into more appropriate times of day. Bedar.
November 21
3 (20:08) Summit.
Quickly, before the flight. Got home a little early from work, so I was glad to squeeze this one in. Felt pretty good.
November 22
Off. Thanksgiving.
Planned to run today, but in the rush, I forgot my shoes in St. Paul. Fortunately, Sky broke me into his running store and let me buy some new ones. But then it was late and I was not going to run.
November 23
5.5 (37ish min) Alumni Race.
2.5 mi warmup, 5k race, no cooldown.
Cold enough out to make me warmup more than I had planned to, but felt fine. No hip problems. Then started this "race" where I realized immediately that I wasn't going to win. So I slowed down and ran for second at a pretty comfortable just-over 6 min pace for the first two miles. Then someone caught up with me, and I kicked it down to 5:40 for the last mile, which was plenty enough to garner 2nd place.
Finished in 18:30, which was reasonably easy. 6+ min pace felt slow, but the 5:40 pace definitely was hard. I can tell I'm out of shape. But no problems with the hip indicate a potential return to fitness in the near future. Fingers crossed.
Nov. 21: 20 min up, 6 x 2 loops of football field w/1min recovery, 18 min down. Nice relaxed threshold repeats, a bit short of 800 on grass. 2:36, 34, 33, 33, 34, 33. Got into a nice rhythm, could have done more, but went into it only wanting to do 6, so that's what I did. Warmup felt terrible and first one was definitely the hardest. Legs certainly fatigued from the doubles of late, but not in a bad way. Afternoon run was optional, and I skipped it in favor of taking care of some other business.
Nov. 22: AM Theo Wirth, 1:11:56. A tad long of 10, but a beautiful snowy day to roll through the trails. Made sure that there were a lotta hills and some reasonable effort to make up for the slow spots where the footing wasn't great with the snow and leaves.
PM: Stone Arch and such, 51:26. A tad short of 8 perhaps, but between the two of the runs today I'd call it a healthy 18. Not bad for Turkey Day!
Nov. 23: AM: Silver Lake 10 1:13:24. A bit sluggish and sore. Certainly could have moved faster, but was more in the mood for a slowish run.
PM: A & W 36:29. Made up for the morning. A relief. Easiest run of the week, legs felt great, and everything was just smooth. It's nice to have that sort of run occasionally. Hopefully it indicates some level of adaptation to the training. In any case, it felt great!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
Nov. 24: Mark Twain, 1:36:15. Combined trips on this one--plan was to get a good chunk of threshold running and also descend the pace. Took it out pretty slar but by three miles was moving pretty quick. Got in approximately 45 mins of real solid threshold running, but then at about 12.5 cut it off and jogged in. A bit overdressed and as I was heading up the hill over the rr tracks I went from running real fast and easy to struggling. Figured it was better not to overdo things and force the pace the rest of the way. I think I'll skip the optional pm run and rehydrate instead. Really though, can't complain. The body is doing a pretty solid job of handling the recent jump in mileaj thus far. Now I just have to write this paper. . .
Nov. 25: AM Threat Level 8 52:14. Nice and chill, felt alright. There was some wind that was gettin' all up in my face. I didn't fight it, rather, chose to just feel it. Beautiful morning though. Like whoa.
PM A & W 39:40. Made my way onto the golf course to use the facilities. Initially determined that there was adequate moon and other ambient light to run across the golf course in the dark. Shortly thereafter retracted that determination, but was too stubborn to retrace my steps and continued plunging through the darkness in a Shermanesque state. Followed the run with some tasty soup avec Shermdizzle himeself, Gehring, and even Tom Church. Thanks to their valiant efforts I was able to avoid the disgrace of leftovers.
Good week. 97 miles without even thinking about trying to run a lot. A bit fatigued, but not overly so. Legs feel good and some of the softness is starting to recede from the edges of my figure. Am excited for the upcoming week, got some nice workouts planned. It's too bad I have to go to school sometimes too. . .whatevs. Bedar.
Nov. 26: AM Diagonal 8 56:03. A bit on the sluggish side, considered cutting it short but decided that as long as I was running, I might as well keep doing that.
PM A & W Ext. 45:54. No real reason to extend it (which adds, like, 7-8 mins) other than the same one noted above. I mean, once you're going, why not keep it up, for a while? In any case, I would have to consider this to have been a good day.
November 24
4.5 (33:05) The Res.
Ran with Lawrence, nice and easy. Excellent run.
November 25
4 (28:52) Summit.
Fine. Kinda chilly. Overdressed as usual.
November 26
Day off.
November 27
6 (40:02) River.
Felt good. A little hip soreness/stiffness around 3 miles, but it eased off, and I started feeling really good about a mile later. Then I had to stop for all the lights going up Summit, but definitely happy to get in 6 today.
Nov. 27: AM 22 min up, 4 x Main St 30 sec rest, 22 min down. 8:06, 7:46, 8:03, 7:41. Headwind on the first and third ones, tailwind for the other two. Thought I was being super wimpy since the overnight low was supposed to be in the 20's. Arrived at school having packed normal running gear for the afternoon and learned that during the morning workout it had been 7 degrees with a -15 windchill. Oops.
PM: LSCC 59:08. Lake St reverse and over the 10th Ave Bridge. Maybe a tad longer, maybe not. Was pretty wind sheltered and not as cold as expected, but yeah, it's been warmer. The bike commute has been better. Oh well. I mean, it ain't Duluth. . .
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