Ok, climbing back on the posting trolley. It's been three weeks and the world is a much different place, mostly because I am close to four pounds lighter. Eight pounds lighter than I was back in March. Standards are skyrocketing.
May 12-18
Only ran four times, twice for 60min. Abs and groin were sore following my most recent attempt at the six-day standard. Fortunately, this phase of the rehab/training takes days off as needed. This phase and I are patient, hoping for a breakthrough, and trying to be more active about our core exercises.
May 19-25
Another four-day week with two 60min runs. Finally, though, the outdoor circuit workout debuted this week: sprint drills in the park, interrupted by pushups, situps and related exercises. I attempted two such circuits, which involved something like 120 pushups. That, my friends, is a rigorous standard.
May 26 - June 1
Five runs, one at 60min and one at 70min. I also raced a 5K, attended a yoga class and completed a post-run circuit workout. The day after I completed my longest run since September, Barack Obama announced that he would declare his primary victory in Minnesota...
June 2-4
...and then, he did. He did so on a day when I ran an honest 10mi and thereby raised the standard for all future runs. He did so the day after I'd completed yet another post-run circuit workout. He mentioned neither specifically, but he did say something about bringing new energy and ideas to the challenges we face. It sounded like he was talking about training for the TC 10mi, but it was hard to hear. So at the risk of recalling a long forgotten blog, let me defend Phil Schrader, who works at Target.
It was loud in there. There was a lot of standing and shouting and the constant decision whether to look down at the podium or up at the jumbotron. There were a lot of bright colors and they played some Bruce Springsteen as Obamas climbed on and off stage. There was a lot of Show, as Phil describes, but I don't think it was really for us. It's a good thing, too, because we had our work cut out for us being The Audience. If Obama was The Beatles, we were Phil Spector's wall of sound; if he was Jay-Z, we were the Kanye beat. To me, at least, we were participant enough in his performance that its component parts necessarily appeared less, um, transplendent. Presentation definitely matters, but it's harder to observe and evaluate when you're the one raising the standard.
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Thursday: MTPO into swing past le bike shop, rode home. 1:30 of rarnin' in le rain. Got some storm goin' on up in here. Which is sweet. Since Monday the week of runnin' has really fallen off, but the tradeoff of work and study-time has been well spent. Still fat though. . .
June 6: AM 20 min easy. Idea was to warm up, do something on the track, and cool down. Felt like ass, so just did the warmup.
Bike to work (70) ridiculous headwind. Bike home (50) it shifted to a crosswind, but the tuneup of my ride has made it go faster--I can shift onto the big ring now!
PM 4 min warmup to track, sprint drills, strides, 1000 "threshold" 3:23, 8 x 200 w/walk across field recovery, untimed but fast, 1000 "threshold" 3:23, 3 min jog home.
Quick 'n dirty. Still fat, still haven't gotten into a regular schedule with the result of being real hit or miss--mostly miss. Need to get my shit together and get back in a groove sometime soon here. I hate this feeling.
June 7: Run over to school, Lake St loop w/Gehring and Betsy, run home. 1:34:46. Had intended to get up at a reasonable time, get in a shakeout, and then use non-running transportation to meet up with those two. But the sleep went to 11. Oh well. 5k on the track tomorrow, should be fun. Starting Monday--return to reasonable training schedule.
Chris... I feel a certain obligation to call you on the 'fat' comments. Of course, I'm in no position to make a visual judgement of your thusly stated state of being, but I have a very hard time believing it.
No way that you are in any such state - given all of the running/biking about that you are doing - to be logging two consecutive self-pity posts and/or a third such dig about "reasonable" training.
Give your bod and your mind a break and cut 'em both at least a little slack. Not even two months ago you were running 100+ miles a figgin' week!!!!!
That which is thusly tortured needs a little pampering. Easy does it with the returns to hammerin' out the miles, and definitely don't be so hard on yourself!
Your ever lovin' former coach.
PS I'd love to work out a chance to see some of y'all when S, K, M and I are back in the cities vicinity June 27th-30th and July 3rd-6th. Pipe up if you are around and we can work something out in these posts or elsewhere.
Brooksie, fair 'nough. I have perhaps been using the "f" word as shorthand for a multitude of frustrations of late, that being one of the few which I feel like I can do anything about right now.
As far as reasonableness in training, I'm less annoyed at myself for the limited amounts of running of late and more annoyed at myself for the time schedule I've been training on. I got into a pattern of being up late, making it impossible to get out of bed and run before work which left the run to the afternoon when I was all tuckered out from the day and grumpy from going all day without a run, the run then feeling awful, but being unable to fall asleep any earlier, and so on.
That pattern also doesn't do much for the metabolism, which has left me currently as "thick" as I've been since high school. Anyway, I finally got to bed at a reasonable time last night and didn't roll over for a couple hours after my alarm went off, so there's been a run already today!!!
So I apologize for the gloomy whiny postings. I remain a bit frustrated with where I'm at right now and am having trouble deciding whether to run the 1/2 in two weeks or not. I'm not sure if I'll feel worse about yet another embarrassing race in Duluth or being too wimpy to even take a crack at it. Overall though, things are going pretty well. The back and hip pain has gone away and studying for the bar is way more pleasant than thinking about studying for the bar. I hope to have some good news to report about future employment soon which should make getting focused on goals for the next few months a bit easier. Depending on all of that, I may or may not be around when the Brooks family hits town, but it sure would be nice. Bedar.
Week before last:
33 miles/ 6 days. No workouts, just trying not to hurt myself.
Last week:
45 miles/ 6 days. 1 race. Still trying not to hurt myself. So far so good.
The 5k was better than I expected. I thought a great race would be about 17 flat, so I have to be pleased. Ran very even splits of 80/81 with a couple of 82s in the middle. My miles were 5:26, 5:29, 5:22, then a 32 sec last 200. I passed a Collegeville guy with 300 to go, but didn't want to sprint. So I didn't. Full stride, but not all out sprinting put about 5 seconds on him. 16:49 officially, which, while nothing to get excited about, is encouraging enough for me. I'll take it.
Oh yeah, the running part.
5k yesterday. 'nuff said.
June 9: MTP) 1:13:00. It's truly amazing how much better the morning run is for the mind than the afternoon. Had hoped to squeeze in a jog around the community meeting this evening but got a bit sidetracked on the way home.
Bike stories for the day: 1. A blk from work, way the hell down on 82nd st in Bloomington, I'm crossing 35W, check behind me, and swing into the left lane, 'cause I'm about to make a left-hand turn. Nobody in sight behind me. For some reason, the guy driving towards me from the opposite direction in his BMW becomes uncontrollably offended by my presence in the middle of the left lane and proceeds to glare and flip the most aggressive bird I have ever seen. Seriously. I wouldn't have expected that much emotion if I had just torched his home. Is the bicycle really that offensive a mode of transportation? Did I fail to get that memo? 2. On my way home, patiently waiting my turn to make a left onto Nicollet from 82nd (maybe it's that street's fault. . .) I engage in proper left-hand signalaj just when this freaky gust of wind comes along, catching my front tire and handlebars and blowing the bike out from underneath me. I land in a heap in the middle of the intersection as the light changes. Talk about awkward. Anyway, I stopped for a sandwich on the way home to let that one clear and as a result ran out of time to get in another run.
Somehow I feel much better right now than I have in a while.
This morning:
8.5 (62 min) River.
Got a "go slab city!" from an unidentified passing biker. Really the only reason for this post. Also, if you wrote the "quack" in the new concrete on the river road, you have my congratulations.
Though, as Tom and I discussed, I would be even more pleased to learn it was an Ole who forgot what it was they were supposed to yell...
Chris, those are some unpleasant bike stories, to say the least. I hope it improves. Cycling seems to be full contact these days!
Ok, so in brief - last week I ran around 75 miles. Mostly pretty miserable. I'm in the adjustment period to summer heat. Seems like it's coming around, though.
This week I'm scheduled for 90. We'll see. I'm trying to do one longer run in the morning (~10-12) and a shorter run (6-8) in the evening so that the heat doesn't wear me down too much.
Last week I tried 2 workouts - second was supposed to be 2 x 2.5 miles at tempo. I made the mistake of looking at my watch - tempo was slower than MP from the Trials, and I couldn't even make it through any of the workout (wound up being 1.5, 800, 800).
Decided to give it another go today, but not look at my watch except at the miles and really to go by feel - allowing for the slowing down that accompanies my marathoning as well as the heat. Splits were slower than MP again, but at least within ~5 seconds of MP, and it was manageable.
You'd think by now (I've run 11 marathons) I would have learned not to try and get back to where I was at the peak heading into the marathon as soon as I resume training, but every time I think that I shouldn't be so far behind and wonder how on earth I can get faster for the next one if I've taken 10 steps back.
June 10: Diagonal 8 54:37. Felt pretty crappy, but it coulda been worse. Been workin' from home today which means no biking. Oh well. Got rid of a couple bookshelves which was awesome. Also had some nice outbursts of abwork scattered throughout the day. Bedar.
Well, I'm putting this track season to rest, and good riddance. It's time to get back to summer miles. I'm tired of trying to sharpen something that isn't there.
The last 1500 of the season was pretty poor. I tried to kick with 200 to go, but I didn't really have a top gear. Should've gone hard from 500 out.
Other than mandatory races for the club, I don't have any racing plans for the next 6 months. I'm definitely going for longer stuff though. Maybe club nats, if I can get some guys to commit. Maybe give the TC 10 miler a shot.
I can definitely relate to the need to adapt to summer weather. I've had a few of those moments when I inexplicably find it impossible to go under 6:30 pace. Maybe waking up before 7 would help.
Monday AM: 7 mile progression
Monday PM: 6 mile crazy hills,
my new strength/core/stretching routine (can't even carry groceries today)
Tuesday AM: 7.5 miles easy
Tuesday PM: 2.25 up/3.25 down, 2 mile fartlek (10 minutes, felt surprisingly easy). 7.5
Wednesday AM: 10 miles easy. Strides, drills, plyos.
June 11: AM MTPO 1:10:27. Improvement, plus the weather was a bit cooler, which was nice. Another bonus of getting the tookus outta the sack at a reasonable time of morning.
Gambled a bit on the weather on my way to work. Decided that the risk of getting caught in the rain was worth the second cup of coffee, particularly when compared with the prospect of an hour on a bike without sufficient caffeine. Got completely drenched in the last 10 minutes of the ride. Fortunately the AC is already cranking full bore in our building. Staving off hypothermia as I typed away in sopping clothes was a victory in and of itself.
Rode home, grabbed some brats, rode over to Jill's, ran 5 miles worth of LSCC, returned to find that the beer in which the brats had been soaking was now marinating my sweatshirt, jacket, and backpack. Oh well. They still tasted pretty good off the grill. Rode home. Lightning. Beautiful.
Today was an improvement. Felt a bit better, not quite peppy, but not entirely dead either. Now for some shuteye and see if tomorrow feels better yet. Bedar.
June 12: Diagonal 8 54:31 Nuthin' special, just kept it relaxed. Got held up with this and that which led to skipping the bike ride today. Thought about an afternoon run, didn't do it.
haven't written anything in a while. mainly because i've been sick (twice) and generally just feeling crappy. since w2w i've tried to workout a bunch of times, only really 'succeeded' in doing so once. And that was with heavy quotes on the word succeed (it was something like 2 x 3 x mile; 1st set at 448, 2nd i stopped trying to push and hit 455s).
right now, about a week from gramma's and we'll see if my fitness has survived these past two weeks. after mid-MO stops flooding this morning, i'm going to go out and try to run some half marathon pace.
Some of you may know about this year's TVR, others do not. In any case...
You and yours are invited to participate in the Tenth Annual
TITUS VAN RIJN INVITATIONAL ONE-HOUR DISTANCE CLASSIC
WHAT: A one-hour footrace
WHERE: Your local track
WHEN: Anytime between June 1st-30th, 2008
RULES
* Your performance must take place on a standard 400 meter/440 yard
track. Include partial laps in your final total; estimate distances
as accurately as possible within reason.
* Send results to: andyleeroth@gmail.com by midnight, 30 June 2008.
In your results, please note name, total distance completed (in meters
or yards), age, date, and location. We encourage you to include a
brief report of your experience for the official race report.
* You may run the event more than once if desired, but only submit
your best mark.
* You are encouraged to invite others to participate in the event. In
many cases, our address list of past participants is incomplete, so we
especially appreciate your forwarding this invitation to past runners
not included in the original mailing.
* Complete results and race report will be sent to all participants.
* 'And you can dance…for inspiration' -- http://youtube.com/watch?v=e5fgejdS4gQ
TRADITION
World champions in football and baseball celebrate with champagne; the
victor at the Indy 500 gets a bottle of milk. At Titus Van Rijn, the
celebratory beverage of choice for all participants is black cherry
soda. We encourage you to maintain the tradition.
ONE-HOUR TRACK RECORDS
World, women: 18,340 meters (~11.4 miles)
Tegla Loroupe (Ken), Borgholshausen, Ger 8/7/98
World, men: 21,285m (~13.2 miles)
Haile Gebrselassie (Eth), Ostrava, Czech Republic 6/27/07
U.S., women: 17,273m (~10.7 miles)
Nancy Conz, Amherst, MA 6/25/81
U.S., men: 20,547m (~12.8 miles)
Bill Rodgers (GBTC), Boston, MA 8/9/77
TVR, women: 12,800m (~7.96 miles)
Kate Jennings (WA), Winthrop, WA 6/2/2007
TVR, men: 18,115 (~11.25 miles)
Greg Crowther (WA), Seattle, WA 5/27/2006
Since 1999, 69 competitors in 4 nations and 9 US
states have amassed a total of over 1.73 million meters. Join the
fun!
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS? AN ALL TIME TVR PERFORMANCE LIST?
Please contact Andy Roth: andyleeroth@gmail.com or Mike Persick: mpersick@comcast.net, TVR Race Directors.
workout went ok today. a step in the right direction, at least. still i feel like i'm running at about 90%. Hopefully a week of rest will help.
3 x [2k, 1k, 1k]. 200 jog between intervals, 800 jog between sets. aiming for 6:05, 3:00, 3:00 (though i never checked my watch in the middle of an interval).
5:59, 2:57, 2:54
6:05, 2:52, 2:51
6:04, 2:57, 2:54
Lucky Day: MTPO 1:08:56
Continued improvement, but felt real crappy afterwards, which led to another nixed bike ride. Mostly I'm a weenie. Anyway, had a pretty solid day otherwise. Got some rest to catch up on this weekend as well as some studying, but nothing unmanageable. Thinkin' I might head up and run that half afterall, with some significantly reduced expectations. Bedar.
Erik: new women's WR this weekend: 18,517m, Dire Tune.
Yesterday, I ran 13, 676 meters (approximately, 8.5 miles) in an hour. On the river. Just like always
June 14: 1:20ish at Hyland with Dad, brother, Scottie, and ran into Zach. Nice and easy, but made 'em do 5 mins of 30 sec fast/30 sec jog towards the end. Feel pretty good today.
Followed it up with a load of lumber to the dump, then 1 x job offer and acceptance. I'm officially moving to Driggs, ID and working for an environmental non-profit. It's going to be AWESOME!
Chris, Huge congratulations on the new job! Sounds fantastic! What will you be doing and when do you start?
Matt, I hope that the down week does you right. Looks like your workout yesterday was very successful - a little bit ahead of plan, and consistent without looking at your watch means good things, I think. I'll be thinking of y'all next weekend - Grandmas is one of my very favorite races, if not my favorite. Wish I were coming out.
I'm not sure why I haven't been posting. I've been running, and this week is going better than last. After I get off my touchas and get out there for today's run, I should be a touch over 90 miles for the week. Yesterday I did a long run of around 18, structured something like 5 miles easy, 3 miles at MP feel (all well slower than I just ran the marathon), 6 miles easy, 1 mile at MP and 2 at tempo (tempo was around MP for the marathon), jog home. Slower than I might wish, but I'm moving in the right direction. MP segments were around what the tempo segments had been earlier in the week, and tempo a touch quicker, so it's progress. And the good news is that it felt good. My legs were shot on Thursday, so I was a little apprehensive heading out.
Biz, I'll be expecting you back for the remainder of the circuit. Quitter. Yeah, and blah blah congratulations blah.
This week:
55ish miles, 1 wkt, 12 LR. Today was the 12, and it felt fine. Longest I've been out in a while, which is a bit sad, but it was ok. Need to hydrate better. The good news is that I don't think I've hurt myself in the last 2 weeks, which is a step in the right direction.
June 15: 1:10 w/ Annie Mills. Actually, well over 9, and reasonably close to 10. We weren't exactly draggin' ass out there. Biked over there and back as well, then spent the day pulling weeds, mowing the lawn, etc. Legs feel pretty good. It's gonna be an interesting week of trying to get all my shit together, working, trying to study at least a little, "racing" in Duluth, and kickin' it in Northfield.
Heather, I'm the new Communication & Education Associate for a group that pushes for socially responsible land use planning and development on the western slope of the Tetons. There's quite a bit of variety to the day-to-day of what I do, which I'll be able to articulate better once I start doing it. But the tentative plan is to start on the 24th, which means getting my ass outta Dodge Sunday night or Monday morning.
Only high 60's-70 on the week, but seeing as how there's a race next weekend which will be followed by a month of altitude acclimation, I guess it's alright.
Happy Father's Day to Brooksie and any other proud papahs out there that read this thing.
heather, thanks.
got out a couple times yesterday. feeling much better. easy today and some quartahs tomorrow.
biz. you don't answer phone. why is this?
The new Chuck Norris:
http://www.slate.com/?id=2193798
In other news, a continued lack of running, but lots of walking back and forth across the tundra harassing godwits. Meanwhile I live vicariously through Kate's running as she is gearing up for the reunion 5k. Watch out Churchie.
June 16: Luniz 36:45 Felt like butt. Back was kinda screwed up from the lifting and hauling over the weekend. Also not enough of the shut-eye. Oh well. Bike to work and back, then over to Jessica's and back. Fantastic dinner, yum!!!
June 17: Was up too late so let myself sleep in. Needed to get shoes at Marathon so drove to work. Was hoping to get a run in and to a meeting by 7, didn't leave work until after 6:30, so I got the shoes and ran a couple lakes instead. 43:50 for Harriet and Calhoun after starting slow. Wasn't feeling fantastic, 'specially since it was afternoon, but it wasn't awful. Saturday's gonna be interesting though, yikes.
Sporadic running continues. A 30ish mile week and then a 50ish -- which seems like prefereable preparation for any longer type of running. I have put in 86 miles in the last 7 days however. Feeling good and strong about that especially after yesterday's 4.5 hour 22miles in the mountains. A rest day today and then some tapering down towards Afton.
So the polar bears have been gone for a couple of weeks and thus I was finally given the go ahead from the staff here to go on a run today. I was pretty psyched and had a great 5 mile run. Hopefully the furry white things will stay away for the next 6 weeks to let me get back into the running, because while I am walking 10+ a day, I am definitely not in running shape. Anyway...it made for a good day.
Great work today at Grandma's, fellahs! I look forward to hearing all about it. I expect full reports.
Week of 6/16-6/22
56.5 miles, 1 wkt, 13 LR.
Not quite what I had hoped for, mileage-wise, but not too far off. The workout went well, though- 5 miles tempo in 29:32. Probably a day off coming this week, and then back to increasing the miles.
There's been some running for the past little bit here. There was that 1/2, but there really isn't anything to say about that. Yuck. Great to see folks though and say goodbye.
I've landed out here in the Tetons and simply could not be happier! Last night up in the canyon was the best sleep I've had in a long time. Still workin' on finding a place to live--there's a joint that would be awesome, but it's not ready until Aug. 1. Hopefully I can find somewhere else for the month in between, 'cause that would be perfect.
Had a great drive out, beautiful weather. I even stopped to sleep for a few hours. Who does that? Anyway, I'm headed out for another lovely evening under the stars--the weather is absolutely perfect out here right now. I'm gonna be tough to talk myseld into sleeping indoors even after I get a place. . .
Two great runs in the canyon--last night was 31:50 out and back on the local trail. This morning went for 37:41 up and back on Mill Ck. There's still a huge amout of snow up high and the cricks are running really high (and cold). Gonna head over to the Big Holes tonight and see what condiions are like over there.
Couldn't get the bike onto my rack on account of the ski box, so I'm a bit car dependent, which kinda stinks, but I'll get over it. I should be able to come pick it up in August though, so that's cool. Bedar.
Congrats to you folks on some really solid running this month.
I'm feeling pretty solid now after finally getting back into the swing of doubles and high(ish) mileage. I'm thinking about leaving the group I train with now, because I'd rather do a longer buildup, rather than having to be ready to race 8k starting in August. Been running a lot with Hesch lately. Fortunately, he takes it easy on his easy days, and is coming back from injury. He's planning on running a 1 mile road race in the Twin Cities in a few weeks.
I'm in the Bay Area at the moment, running some trails with a few friends up here. Just stopped for a few days on my way to the Trials tomorrow. Got a call from one of my buddies, and apparently he's caravaning to Eugene with the Flotrack guys. If any of you have seen the video, he's "Fake Bob (Kennedy)."
- Jeff
p.s. I didn't realize Annie Mills was in that kind of shape. You guys seriously need to get her racing.
p.p.s. I'll be in the Cities from July 15th to the 22nd. Let me know if any of you are up for running.
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