Saturday, December 01, 2007
Storm of the Century
Ran around Isles with the Scholis and Sherm during what some have called the "Storm of the Century". Those folks tend to refer to most weather as the Storm of the Century, though, as Nick and I discussed. I do have nice new shoes which is probably what enabled me to complete this epic run. Thanks Matt.
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Dec 1: AM 50:11. I'll give it 8. It started snowing towards the end, but 'twas a generally uneventful trot along the roads near the top of Duluth. Quite nice, quite nice.
PM: 1:15:06. I'll give it 10. Down the hill, looped around Canal Park and up to Fitgers, then back up the hill. All of the snow. At least a foot on the ground and still snowing really hard. Shoulda brought my skis. . .them hills be freakin' steep with snow on them. . .
Nov 30
10 (1:13:53)--McKinley and Foraker--Tried a loop that climbs to the top of "michigan hill" which is what passes for a mountain around here and then back up east hill to Cornell. According to map my run it had 1200ft or so of elevation gain and loss, so that was fun. Likely was a bit longer than 10, but it's impossible to measure a route through Ithaca College's post-modern dump of a campus.
Dec 1
12 (1:14:06)--Dragons--Basically sprinted the last half of the loop because of oncoming bathroom issues and the lack of patches of woods in which to stop and take care of things. I suppose someone's front yard could have done the trick, but it's shotgun country out there and I wasn't about to test out their ability to hit a moving (or sitting for that matter) target.
As for the weather, we don't have the "storm of the century" in the forecast, but they do predict "ice pellets" this afternoon, which doesn't sound fun.
November 30
3 (20:30) Summit.
Easy. Felt fine.
December 1
8.5 (59:25) River.
Call it a "long run." Felt pretty good, but by the end the snow was starting to be more of an issue. There was a scant covering on the ground a little after 8, when I started. By the end of the run, it was probably closer to an inch, which was just making things slippery.
December 2
1.5 (11:55) Around.
Scoping the roads. After about a mile, I jogged back, deciding the footing was too crappy to run on any more. It's not worth re-injuring myself for a couple miles today. Only a couple streets are plowed, and no sidewalks are clear yet.
Week:
32 miles, 1 wkt, 8.5 LR.
Up 11 from last week, and it would have been more with a longer run planned today. Feel good about the week- obviously not a ton of mileage, but it's the closest I've come to actual training since the marathon. Ending the week feeling like I can continue to build doesn't hurt, either.
Dec. 2: AM 1:02:48. I'll give that one 9. The plowed roads lured me ever further from the shower only to coax me around a corner to an intersection that forced me off the main highway and into the steep and unplowed sideroads of Duluth. Slogged back uphill slowly, but with effort.
PM: 1:28:33 or 12. A zig-zag return from Reddy Rents where I left the truck impaled on the snowbank that doubles for their parking lot. Hope that works out for them in the morning. Was going to come up a bit short so I took to crossing and re-crossing the riverah until I felt it was going to be a long enough jaunt to satisfy me for the evening. No real long run or threshold workout this weekend, but the snow was plenty.
Week: 110 or its environs. Not bad considering the 6 mile day on Friday. Gonna pull the volume back a skosh this week, cut out a few of the doubles, and hopefully avoid getting too tight with all the snow that is being run in. It is certainly much more pleasant here in the cities with a plowed river road, plowed other roads, and some flattish sections of road, plowed or otherwise.
Dec. 3: Right-of-Way 8 55:53. Mixed footing. Not the best (read "no") snow cleared from the sidwalks down Stinson or Broadway, so it was kind of a pain-in-the-butt, but the rest of it was decent. The footing should only improve over the next few days, but the stage is now set for us to retain snowcover until spring--ground got good and frozen before it fell, it's a decent amount, and the storm was big and wide enough to cover the Dakotas which should keep our temps lower and encourage more snow. Perhaps more cross training on skis will be in order this winter than I had previously thought.
soooooo...mckinley & foraker are small hills. that clears up a lot of stuff i'd been worried about.
December 4:
A series of 20-30 miles weeks in the previous month. Woke up to 17 inches of snow on Monday morning (expecting the forecast 5) and spent the next two hours shoveling the driveway. Then it started raining... Wonderful! Even still, we too will have our base of snow for the winter. The plan is to keep running with similar efforts, but to ski a lot as well.
With the snow/rain/ice combo hitting here as well last night, decided it was time to hit up the ye olde indoor track for a workout. Warmed up 3 outside in the 30mph wind and then did a ladder of 200, 400, 800, 1000 with 200 jog between the shorter ones and 400 between the longer ones. Ran 31, 65, 2:17, 2:57, 3:00, 2:19, 66, 30. So everything except for the 800s were right on. Cooled down with another 2.5 for 10 on the day. Was quickly reminded of the differences between indoor and outdoor tracks (besides the roof and shorter length), namely the really tight turns and the dry air. So the right knee and lungs are hurting a bit at the moment. Fun stuff nonetheless.
Dec 4: AM CSED, A & W, 43:12. Pretty chill. Reasonable footing.
PM: LSCC + home. 1:16:02. Biked over to class at 6pm, which took 35 mins rather than 10-12. Run was probably 6 miles. Decided to leave the bike at school and run home, which took 29 mins rather than the typical 18-20. Not 17 inches, but enough. Also not 16 inches, but still enough. I'm thinking some covered bridge 400's might be the move tomorrow morning. Bedar.
Dec 5: AM 30 min up, 10 x covered bridge @ U w/1 min recovery, 30 min down. Odd ones are slightly downhill, they're all a bit short of 400. 65, 71, 67, 69, 67, 71, 67, 70, 69, 69. Felt pretty relaxed. I was a bit late getting down there so there were plenty of students in the way, but it was the only clear stretch of non-interstate pavement around, so I went for it. First one felt way too fast, then I settled in relatively well. If anything I was running a bit too fast, but it felt alright. Was coughin a bit this morning and my calves were real sore, but all that was before the repeats. More just the snow and the potential that I'm working up a cold, though hopefully just a reaction to the dry cold air.
PM: Duathlon. Ran to school via co-op, retrieved bicycle, rode to Sherman's, ran LSCC--Flanagan edition, ate dinner. Total run time was 1:24:19. If I were a counting man, I'd give both this morning and this evening 10 miles and call it a good day. No more doubles this week, and few if any next week. Time to focus in on getting some papers written, finals taken, and roads back and forth to Ohio driven. Everything else should take care of itself. Bedar.
Dec 6: 55 mins from the law school between lab and class. Last lab day, whoohoo! Ribs are pretty damn sore from where I landed on them last night. . .bit of a bicycle mishap. Picked up a decent bruise on my hip and side of my thigh as well. More annoying than anything else really, but breathing deeply has felt better other days. Oh well. Sauna at the rec center felt good though, which is nice. Bedar.
December 3-4
Days off.
First, the planned one, with class and all. Then the snow and homework one. Basically I could have run Tuesday, but it wouldn't have been fun.
December 5
6 (43:43) Lake St. Loop
Felt fine. Slow, and bad footing pretty much the whole way, but that's something to start getting used to for this whole "winter" thing.
December 6
8 (52:35) Hamline.
After class, headed to the treadmill for a workout. Selected the one available (which appears to be exactly the same as the other two) and started running. Eased the incline up to 1% just kind of because. Planned a 4 mile Rhythm Run, just to start easing into it: 6 min pace for 2 miles, then 5:50 pace for 2. Found out after the first two tempo miles that this treadmill does not go faster than 6:00 pace. The ones next to it do. So it turned into a 4 mile tempo run at 6 min pace, which got hard enough by the end. I think I scared some people next to me, too. Oops.
Dec 7: WF 20, 18:05. 12 hours of eating and working on a final paper followed by some packing and a quick shakeout--time to hit the road!
Dec 8: 25 min warump, unfortunately long race, 25 min cooldown.
Race Stats: 10k CC, all mud. 39:15, 3hundred and a lot place. On the surface, looks pretty crappy. At least what I'm telling myself is that I think that it despite the stats I'm in better shape at this time than last year. (32:58, 114th). Last year's course was pretty favorable for me--it had mud but a lot of firm ground as well, and nothing real slippery. I didn't bring spikes on account of my propensity to hurt my back, calves, or both when wearing them, and this was one of the few cc races I've ever run where I would say that spikes were actually required and not just helpful. So, in spite of never taking a firmly planted step for 10 kilometers, I felt wicked strong for the whole thing. I went out in 5:51 and even though I kept feeling stronger and moving further and further up through the field, the splits also slowed down. I tried to really pick it up but the footing with flats was so slick that by increasing m effort I actually lost ground on people. So I ran as fast as I could, I think I can run a faster 10k than that in different conditions, but so can everyone else out there. My legs certainly weren't fresh after a 26 hour day of writing and driving capped with a couple of hours napping in the car, but they felt way better than they should have. Last year I was pretty well tapered after being sidelined with my back issues, so I'll take it. Think what you will, but I'm pretty proud of cracking 40 mins on that course. For the record, it was much firmer for the master races and even the open women. There were a couple of inches of slushy snow that got pounded into the ground over the course of the day that turned it into what it was. There wasn't a hill in sight, so they did a pretty darn good job of creating resistance!
Thus begins and completes what is officially my worst cc season ever.
i will vouch for the fact that that course was freaking obscene
December 7
6 (43ish) River.
Running. Fine.
December 8
10+ (1:13:45) River.
Added some on to the Franklin loop. Saw Tom. Was cold for a bit, but actually felt pretty good by the end. Longest run since the marathon. Ran quite slow, but the two miles I marked were both 7:15, so it was probably little more than 10.
December 9
6 (41ish) Lake St. Loop.
Felt good. Legs especially feeling good.
Week:
36 miles, 1 wkt, 10 LR.
Only 5 runs this week, so the 40 I was supposed to hit was only 36. Still feel good, though, and working towards 45 next week.
Dec. 9: 8 miles, 56 min w/Hools a la Mad-Town. Nice. Good company, reasonable excursion. Not as cold as anticipated, though less turf than intended. A fair exchange.
Dec. 10: 8 miles, 55 mins, 'round the neighborhood with a stop to obtain coffee beans. The same run as yesterday, but in a different town without a companion and with less warmth. Otherwise identical.
Dec. 11: 15 min up, 8 x stride, 15 min down. This whole rib thing from last week's bicycle incident has gotten somewhat out of hand. The combination of pounding and heavy breathing that accompanies me going faster (yes, I know, there shouldn't be so much pounding, but you see this has all thrown my stride and all way off) leads to pretty intense sharp pain in the couple ribs that bore the brunt of the impact with the ground. It's not that big a deal, I'm just not accustomed to being sore in that particular spot.
Dec. 12: MTPO 1:10:51 Felt alright, eventually. A bit out of sorts this week runnaj-wise. Have been intending to keep it pretty low-key and have succeeded, but it doesn't feel very good. I think I'd rather be doing much more. That should come soon enough however. Just two piddly exams left though, which is nice! Harbedar!
Dec. 3-9
10 miles of running last week, but 4 nice outings on the skis! Two of these involved helping Keeley get her own ski bearings for the snowy season... perhaps they really can't count as "workouts" but I was very happy to be gliding around nonetheless. More snow on the way later this week!
December 13
Plantations 10 (1:12:18)--Basically did loops around the Cornell Plantations since it's snowing hard and the plantations are closed to traffic. Turned out to be a very fun run as there really wasn't anyone else out there and the ground was finally getting covered in snow again. This past week I've run in sleet, rain, extreme wind, and now snow. I definitely prefer the latter to the former three. Only one more day of Ithaca weather though before three weeks on the west coast. Should be good to see the sun again.
Dec 13: Skied with my dad for a while at Wirth. Skated, don't know how far or for how long, but about 40 mins I would guess. Didn't use the poles much, lotta balance work. Really nice to get out on the boards. Probably good to avoid a bit of pounding too. Hope to get out and ski a little more over the weekend--got the box on my car this afternoon and it's loaded and ready to rock!
December 10
Off. Busy.
December 11
6 (43ish) River.
Felt ok, but a little sluggish.
December 12
6 (41ish) Lake St. Loop.
AKA "River, the other direction." Added a couple strides by St. Thomas, since they do have the best cleared sidewalks around.
December 13
9 (57:50) Hamline.
On the treadmill again. This time I got the one that will go fast enough. 5 mile RR--6:00, 6:00, 5:49, 5:49, 5:39. Felt pretty good, and quite strong for the first 4 miles, but the last mile was a little bit of a stretch. Then again, mile 5 this week felt better than mile 4 last week, and last week was all at 6 min pace. HR got up into the 180 range during the last mile, for whatever that's worth.
Added 10 minutes biking afterwards, before I got too thirsty and packed it in. I need a different water bottle to do this more often.
Dec. 14: A & W 41:56. Felt better afterwards. I've definitely gotten out of any sort of rhythm this week and so everything feels just not quite right. I'll take the weekend and do kinda whatever then saddle up Monday morning. At least at this rate I won't have to worry about getting too fit too soon.
good jarb. come to ct!
December 14
6 (42ish) River.
Don't remember anything interesting.
December 15
12 (1:25ish) River.
Longest run in a while. Felt pretty good. I was starting to get pretty stiff in the hip area, but after about 5 miles started to loosen up and run more "normal" pace (7:00 or so) and felt much better. To make it 12, I added a Franklin Hill, for a total of two of them. The footing wasn't great, and the effort was relatively minimal, but I did purposely pick it up going up both times. They were both around 3 minutes.
December 16
Day Off. Unplanned. Switched with tomorrow.
Week:
39 miles, 1 wkt, 12 LR.
Ok week. Looks shorter than it was, since the day off was supposed to be Monday, rather than Sunday. So, while it will look like the next two weeks are 39 and then 55 miles, it will be closer to 45 and 50 in terms of effort.
December 17
6 (41:28) River.
Still working on last week. Feeling groovy.
December 18
8.5 (59:21) River.
Still feeling good. Warmer weather (25 degrees) has led to the river road becoming much more clear of snow, which is nice.
Dec 15: early afternoon, Swan Lake Surprise. Out and back 8 miles on Swan Lake Rd. 57 mins. Not really surprising.
Early evening, 30 mins classic ski @ Snowflake. Fantastic. Great trails, nice chalet.
Dec 15: 20 min classic, 15 min skate, 5 min warmup, 8 x stride, 5 min cooldown, all continuous at Lester Park. Very nice workout. Strides were done on a slight incline. The uphill ones actually felt much better than the downhills. Ski times are approximate, they might have been a bit longer, but I'm not sure.
Dec 16: 2 x MTPO continuous. 2:15:10 for the total. 1:09:39, 1:05:31 were the splits. Pretty stoked to feel as good as I did the morning after the Wu-Tang concert. Held back on the first loop, but slowly picked it up. Kept increasing the pace over the second loop. Felt awesome through 17, then the lack of water and calories started to become an issue. Continued to increase the pace until the last mile or so, but only slowed down to about the pace of the first loop. Overall, a good place to start the Boston training from.
Dec 17: AM A & W 43:04. Gloriously slow.
PM Stone Arch to Broadway 58:03. Typically an 8 miler, but added an out-and-back from the river road to the Dunn Bros over by Betsy and Sherman's. Milio started a gastrointestinal revolt that led to a couple blocks of walking through downtown. It passed. I'll still call it 8 since there was a break in the middle of it.
Dec 19: AM A & W 40:59. Gloriously slow once again.
PM Main Douzaine 1:17 w/Hools. Lovely.
Dec 20: AM A & W 36:33 + some strides and sprint drills, also w/hdln. A good thing.
Dec 20: PM 1 mi warmup, 4 x Fillmore Water Fountain hill, mostly bounding, 1 mi cooldown. 31 mins. I'll give it 4 miles. A reasonable use of a small amount of running over the course of the day. Bedar.
Dec. 10-16
Really excited about the skiing last week so I got in 2 runs for a total of 12 miles and skied 6 days for about 8 hours of total ski time - including a lovely but foolhardy 30k classic ski on Sunday AM. Where did such nordic enthusiasm get me? Sick with a stomach flu on Sunday afternoon, delerious for about 8hrs after, and unable to walk normally (due to screaming hip flexors) until yesterday afternoon.
So goes the life.
Happy Holidays!
Dec 21: Skyline 9. Felt good, nice day, reasonable footing. 58:24.
Dec 22: Thru dwntn, across Loring Park, and a partial loop of Isles, 1:38:36. Footing wasn't the best--slushy. Had been raining then it changed over into a soupy mess. Luckily I got out the door before it started to freeze.
PM: 1 x ER. Managed to bite into my tongue while attempting to crush the life out of a piece of pizza. Wound up with some stitches in my tongue and an empty belly for my efforts. I would recommend to anyone who intends to bite real deep into their tongue to do so at the end of the meal rather than the beginning. On the plus side, got to watch the Wizard of Oz in the waiting room, which was nice.
Dec 23: 9 mile warmup, 4 x 1000 on indoor track w/ 2min recovery, 3.5 mile cooldown. 3:20, 19, 19, 20. Disturbingly difficult. Took extra recovery to have time to stretch in between to avoid some of the inevitable aches and pains of the indoor track. Pretty nasty weather outside--it's snowing pretty hard with a rippin' wind and an inch or more of wind-polished ice underneath. Only fell once which made me feel accomplished.
Week 1: 100 miles. Less quality work than I had hoped for, but the weather had a subsantial say in that. Next week will be a bit tougher.
Dec 24: Night Plow Route 2:06:06. Over to Chap's place to move some car with a minor add-on through Prospect Park to make it a full 17. Pretty chilly, especially into the wind on the way home, and the footing was wack. Otherwise, it was nice.
Dec 25: AM A & W 44:13. Lotta freakin' snow and ice on the ground.
Midday: 30 min classic ski @ Wirth. Felt pretty good, grooming wasn't so hot, but I fully support the park staff taking a couple of days off here.
PM: MTPO untimed, but with a few more inches of the fluffy stuff. Lotta work to get through this stuff. Tonight's run was significantly more intense but probably slower per mile than I've run in quite a while. Perhaps there'll be some plowaj tomorrow?
Dec 26: AM 15ish, 1:44:46. Made my way over to the riverah in a meandering fashion, then rolled up to Lake St and came back home up 10th. Did what I will refer to as a "footing fartlek." Ran my freakin' ass off on the stretches of pavement where I could get traction and recovered where the footing sucked. Was probably somewhere in the vicinity of half and half. If nothing else, it felt like I'd worked pretty hard by the end of things.
PM: Easy 4ish mile shakeout in 34:46. None of that footing was good at all.
Dec 27: NE-->SW From Polk St down around Lake Harriet and back. 22 miles, 2:48:28. Uff-dah. Was feelin' a bit out of it from the get-go. Did a less than superb job of refueling after yesterday's run which apparently took more out of me than I thought. Just felt rough all the way through today. Eating solids is getting easier all the time though so that should make the nutritional thing a bit easier to manage here. Crapola.
Recently
Last week was kind of a wash. After 20+ miles in the first 3 days, I got myself a pretty wicked cough, and didn't put in another run. So this week was planned to be what last week was supposed to be. We'll see about that.
December 24
7 (48ish) WH Tour.
Ran with Sky and Brendan around and about. Snow will keep the res pretty useless for this trip.
December 25
4 (27:25) Salt Block.
And lucky to get that.
December 26
Day Off. Lazy.
December 27
10.5 (1:10ish) Cem. Wkt.
Planned a 6 mile RR, but still feeling the effects of the cold. So 6 miles continuous turned into 3x mile with a mile of recovery. I was working way too hard on the repeats, but hit the times. 5:53. 5:50. 5:45. They felt a whole lot more like 5:20s than 5:50s though, which I attribute to not being able to breathe very well. Whatever.
December 28
8.5 (1:00:00) WH Tour.
Ran around with Sky. Ran into Ahmed, but he was running much faster than we were. After about a block he left us for faster pastures. Lots of black ice on the pavement to start, but close to 40 degrees by the end. Gorgeous.
December 29
Day off. Plane. And lazy.
December 30
15 (1:47:13) Washington-Ford.
Ok, so the loop is probably more like 14, but I've never run it before today. The footing was bad enough that it took a while, and I'm calling the effort 15. Felt pretty solid, for the longest I've gone in a long time.
Week:
45 miles, 5 runs. Part of 1 wkt, 15 LR.
Decent week if you don't look at the two off days where I was just lazy. Need to focus on getting out the door 6-7 days to get the miles up where they should be. Definitely happy with the LR, though.
Dec 28: AM A & W 43:46. Crappy crappy footing.
PM 8 miles, Lakes, 59:55. Harriet and Calhoun with an extra mile tacked onto Calhoun taking advantage of the fact that the road was closed to cars for some 5k that was going on.
Dec 29: AM Diagonal 8 1:00:56. We keep getting these 1/2"-1" lil' things of snow that do nothing but make the ground slippery. It can be a bit frustrating.
Midday: 20 min classic ski @ Hyland
PM: MTPO Rev. 1:18:32. Legs getting pretty beat up by the snow, but the ski helped quite a bit as far as stretching and all of that.
Dec 30: AM Diagonal 8 55:56. Footing was somewhat better today. No more snow fell in the last 24 hours which at least allowed some of the stuff to get packed down or shoveled away. Did three strides along a cleared section of road north of the golf course.
Midday: 1:40 classic ski @ Wirth. Great ski, nice and relaxed. My Dad was skating so the pace was reasonable. Really nice to stretch out and glide for a while. Lower back was a bit tight early on but became accustomed to what was happening and I think it is actually a good way to make that stronger, as long as I don't overdo things. Which never happens.
PM: A & W 42:23. Put the final polish on this year's PPHC preparations. Like a finely tuned motorhome I'm ready to do everything in my power to block faster and better vehicles from reaching the summit before me.
Week: 120 miles, plus 2 hours on classic skis. Feel pretty good for being out of shape and running on a greasy ice-rink day-in and day-out. This next week is gonna get a bit tougher yet remain eminently reasonable in my estimation.
Dec 31: 6 mi warmup, PPHC 12:31, 2nd place, ding. 2 mi cooldown. Breakfast, 11 mile trot home. All but the race and the last mile of the trot done with a light pack containing dry clothes. 21 miles on the day. Actually felt pretty good. Took it out pretty reasonably and just maintained effort all the way through. The last bit through the snowy park to get to the Witch's Hat proper made me breathe a bit harder but up until that point I felt pretty strong. Not fast though. Not even a little bit fast. I think it was faster than my strides the other day. Uff-dah. But, opened and closed the year with pr's, which ain't bad.
Happy New Year!!!
Jan 1, 2008: AM Mark Twain Feeftain 1:50:36. Nice crisp morning. The sudden temp drop below zero made the footing significantly better than it has been. Would have been a faster run except there appears to be no plan to plow the northern stretch of the North Mississippi Regional Park. Ever. Good to know before trying to use this route to do a long tempo or something. In any case, a very pleasant run.
PM: LSCC from Polk St, A & W. I messed up my watch so I don't know how long it took. Good company. All around nice run. Set the bar pretty high for the rest of the year. Bedar.
Jan 2: AM MTPO 1:17:24 Real slow, real cold. For some reason the temperature was -4 when I started out and then -7 when I finished. We don't talk about windchill.
PM: A & W + 43:20--slipped over to the co-op on my way in which added a couple minutes. It's amazing how warm 6 degrees can feel.
Jan 3: AM MTPO into Diagonal--15 total. 1:43:24. Cold again and really windy--from the south this time. So, less cold, but cold enough. Was overdressed when heading north, stymied by the wind while heading south, and a mixture of the two while traveling in the other directions. Double pants over the last couple days have made running more difficult to do at a reasonable pace. Oh well.
PM: A & W 40:01. Best run of the year? Gotta set the bar low to begin with. New shoes, new pants, new windbrief, all thanks to Matt Mascioli's salesmanship. The shoes were fun, but we'll see if they end up being distance worthy. The pants were good and warm, and the windbrief was spectacular! Overall, it felt pretty good.
Jan 4: AM MTPO 1:17:10. Used the new shoes again, and think that it's going to take some time to rotate them in. Not a whole ton of stiffness or cushion, which I like and enjoy, but it's just going to take a little bit for me to build the strength the be able to run long in that sort of shoe without getting uber sore from it. I still like 'em though. And there are two pair of my regular ones on the way. Phew.
Jan 4: Luniz 36:00. If they put out another blockbuster hit while I'm still running routes from this joint I'll give it a more descriptive name, but for now it should be clear that this run has 5 miles on it.
Pooped from the "week" (3 days) of work. Going to engage in some righteous sleeping and prodigious eating over the course of the weekend. Bedar.
December 31
10.5 (1:13ish) PPHC.
Thanks to Hools for signing everyone up, then skipping the "race." Huge turnout resulted in some major new records. I was fifth, and I'm not talking about the time it took. I blame the snow.
January 1
6 (45ish) River.
Slow. Easy.
January 2
Off. Class and work. Stupid class and work.
January 3
11 (1:16:15) River.
Couple up, couple down, with almost 7 miles of "uptempo" running in the middle. It's in quotes because of the footing, which restricted the pace. But a reasonable effort for over 43 minutes, which is probably good. Felt good, too. Only worked hard going up the hills by Washington Ave and then under Franklin on the West Bank. Warmer out again.
**Note to Biz: Run after work. It's warmer.**
January 4
8.5 (1:00ish) River.
Easy and slow, but lost track of time somewhere in the middle. Felt fine.
i just didn't want the embarrassment of you n biz whooping my ass on the last day of 2007. in french we call that: good strateegery, chape. and sometimes: good strateegerie
Since the end of classes/school/work in mid-December I've been on the road. Took the first week off while Kate and I backpacked through Joshua Tree and Anza-Borrego in eastern California. Then kicked back into running with a 62 mile week while staying in sunny, warm, and wonderful Del Mar, CA. Even ran some of the loops we did way back when on that spring break trip. Started the new year out right with a little workout/race. Ran 4.5 uptempo, then surreptitiously jumped in a 5k that was taking place along the river trails in Eugene and ran 16:10, and then cooled down back to Kate's parents' place. Since then runs have been marred by rain and wind, but I've muddled through. About to head back to Ithaca for a few days before taking off to Chile for the rest of January. Looking forward to some more sunny warm weather down south.
January 5
17.5 (2:03:14) River + Nokomis.
Felt pretty good, actually. Running was slow because of the footing, but none of it was absurd. Hip tightened up around an hour in, but loosened up a couple miles later. Around 90 minutes in I was really starting to rev up, but with crappy footing I couldn't really do anything about it, so a few miles were more like 6:45 or 6:50, rather than the 7:05-7:10 I had been running.
January 6
6.5 (45ish) River.
Easy and slow. Slower, even than the time indicates, since that was just for 6 of the miles, and then I added some strides. 4 of them, pretty relaxed, with a little jogging in between. Roads/ paths much clearer today, but my legs were pretty tired from yesterday.
Week:
60 miles/6 days, 2 wkts, 17.5 LR.
Solid week. Especially pleased with the three harder days, even if the two "workouts" were easy enough to merit quotation marks. Hopefully seven days next week...
Jan 6: AM 11 miles, Duluth, 1:17:00. Ran into Katie Koski who kicked my ass at the Fitz, ran with her for a couple miles which was nice. Felt real good--it was warm and the pavement was clear. It's amazing what that'll do for a guy.
PM: 5 miles, 34:13. One stride in the middle, otherwise just some solid rarnin'. Not a bad jaunt after hiking up the Gooseberry River and then going sledding at Chester Bowl.
Jan 6: 30 miles, 3:20:54. Nice run. Good clear pavement, nice and warm. Definitely was feelin' the distance as the run wore on, but generally speaking was pretty solid for the longest run I've done in quite a while. I think it's been since my first year of law school that I've gone that far in a single shot. Finished it up real strong, which made me happy. Had a couple of bathroom stops of different varieties and after 22 I popped into a gas station to purchase and chug 32 ozs of gatorade. Other'n that, just continuous rarnin'. Comning back up the hills from the lake after two and a half hours was a bit tough, but not as hard as it could have been. All in all, a good run.
Week: 140 miles. Most running miles since winter break of my senior year at Carleton. Biggest volume period since winter break of my first year of law school. It feels great to be back on track!
time to switch to supers, biz.
Dec. 31-Jan 6
8 miles running (two runs). 10hrs of xc skiing spread out between 5 different outings. Still owning up to running "more" this winter since my first run of 2007 was in late January.
Speaking of which, I tallied 1530 miles last year. Far and away the most since Keeley was born. Perhaps a solid number to shoot for in '08.
Happy New Year!
Jan 7: Main Douzaine 1:16:26. Felt fabulous. Footing was good, temps were in the mid 30's, and my legs felt great. Unfortunately, I didn't get my butt out the door until the afternoon and didn't have time to get in a second run. Oh well.
Jan 8: AM MTPO 1:13:58. Less good on the footing--lotta slippery frozen stuff that was water yesterday. Even so, felt alright, was moving a bit quicker by the end but kept it pretty easy.
PM: Mark Twain Feeftain 1:44:11. Again with the slippery. Much of it was better than the morning, but it was still slick out there. Developed some tightness in my lower left leg on the outside from slippin' around. Hopefully that feels a bit better in the morning. Other than that, the only place that's sore is my lower abs, which makes sense given the long run on sunday. It's the muscles that keep my hips in line with all of the pounding, so it's good that they're getting some work in and doing their job so far. Harbedar. Bedar.
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