September 8 - 14
210min (~30mi), 5 runs. Felt like the allergies came roaring back in debilitating-enough fashion to render me runnless on Wednesday and Thursday. Some time in Grand Marais on the weekend helped matters.
September 15 - 21
260min (~38mi), 6 runs, 1 x workout. This week was chock full of high-points, but Monday's tempo was a base camp of sorts: 30min WU, 31+ min @ 6-min pace, 5min CD. I'd hoped to go 45min during the tempo portion but had to cut it short. Reached a nice ridgeline on Wednesday, circling Pike Island as well as logic with Phil. THEN, Paul Anderson got himself married and sent bunches of fellahs on some beautiful runs in New Hampshire. But all that pales next to Neko Case dedicating "Maybe Sparrow" to The Hold Steady on Thursday. Transcendent.
September 22 - 28
210min (~30mi), 5 runs, 1.1 x workout. Turned in my best hill workout in a long time on Tuesday. 7 on WRR in 2:58, :52, :55, :47, :46, :42, :38. Attempted another longer tempo run on Saturday, but only made it 5min before getting knocked over by a stitch. Kind of discouraging.
September 29 - October 5
185min (~27mi), 1 x workout, 1 x TC 10MI. Took it real easy this week, just a 15min tempo workout on Wednesday, some easy running and an ice bath. And it paid off. Managed a 59:49 in somewhat erratic fashion, and without any injury-related stomach or groin pain. Frankly, I hadn't really thought I'd be within two minutes of that time, so I'm feeling pretty excited about running again. Splits: 5:52, 6:15, 6:23, 5:42, 6:01, 6:08, 6:12, 5:54, 6:00, 5:18. That 5:18 must be my fastest mile in almost fifteen months. Slabbaj Shout Out to Slab City's finest, Ben, Ross and Paul, who turned in some great races in windy and rainy conditions. And a special Slabbaj Shout Out to the brodes on the bike for making sure I didn't quit on my race after mile 7 as Summit had me contemplating...
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Mon Sept 29: off. Long day at work & workshop, felt it would be good to let the legs rest a bit more from the long day.
Tues Sept 30: 1 hour in Boise, 20ish minutes of tempo along Greenbelt. Felt great, was hammering around 5 min pace by the end. Definitely in better shape than when I was here to take the bar.
Wed Oct 1: Easy 40 mins in hills above Boise. Watching for rattlesnakes.
Thurs Oct 2: Stateline 8, nice and easy. Took the afternoon off.
Fri Oct 3: "Easy" hour up Coal Creek, got into some darkness, but not too bad. Big damn hill.
Sat Oct 4: Untimed up Crystal Butte, calves were pretty worked by the end, then a 2 mile hammer across town just 'cause. Felt good.
Sun Oct 5: Whoops. 38ish miles. Ran across the sw quadrant of Yellowstone, from Old Faithful to Bechler w/Wray. One wrong turn early on added a 1/2 hour to the trip. Soaked in the hot springs at halfway for an hour and a half. Amazing, really. Saw two wolves, one of which was donkey sized. Beautiful trail, pretty chill, but it was snowing pretty heavily up high and raining a lot as well. But mostly snowing, especially during the three river fords that were necessary. Oh well. 9:50 total, but that includes soak time as well as water pumping, clothes changing, eating, etc. And I walked the last 3 miles. . .because I'm an idiot. Forgot my shoes in Jackson, and was faced with the option of abandoning the run or going ahead with it in Chacos. Got a couple nice cuts on the top of my feet from the straps, and one heel blister (there's pictures) but the big issue at the end was the grit underneath my toes and the balls of my feet. The last part of the trail was totally flat, but had this really sharp, nasty, sandy-rocky stuff that just hurt.
Legs feel great, feet hurt.
Congrats to all the TC racers this weekend--I'll keep avoiding that race so that all of you can have decent weather there for a change.
Good luck with the recovery Erik, bummer to hear that. I totally blame the soccer.
Hools, the Tuscon 1/2 in December. All downhill. (I'm a weenie).
Bedar.
Mon Oct 6: 2 mie easy jog warmup on track w/shoes, then 10 x 100 on grass barefoot. Called it a day. Didn't want to put the shoes back on. Sandal strap cuts = okay, but heel blister = painful. And they're all pretty deep, hoping to get them healed up quick.
Tues Oct 7: 3 miles on grass infield, sprint backstretch, jog the rest. Felt great! My feet are beat up just from not getting to run in shoes (though the barefoot is good for them) but felt really fast today with everything flowing pretty naturally. A couple speed days is probably just what I needed anyway.
Wed Oct 8: off. A little pissed at myself and getting to sleep was almost impossible. My feet weren't feeling up to any more barefoot action, but when I got up in the morning I just couldn't bring myself to run in shoes either. By afternoon I could have talked myself into it, but essentially went from work to a county commissioner candidate town hall meeting and didn't get home until after 9. Add in some phone calls and dinner and it just wasn't going to happen.
Thurs Oct 9: Stateline 8 untimed. Felt pretty good, blister improved markedly overnight and didn't seem bothered too much by running. Not the week of training that I had envisioned, but given the last two weekends it's probably not a bad thing. Snowstorm in the hills right now, moving into the valleys. Could have up to a foot of snow on the ground by race time Saturday, should be interesting.
Come on, Chris! You used to be tough... hobbled by a little blister after running 9 hours in your sandles? The Palinator - along with every other hockey mom in America - does that kind of thing for fun. AND they bag/dress a moose mid-run.
Say hello to Minnesota for us!
ah! for the days i used to be mad at myself for taking a day off.
also, only brooksie would have the guts to throw the palinator right down biz's gullet like that. whew! the wild west is right.
Sheeit. Up in Wasilla they only do long runs after they've field dressed the moose and are hauling the 100+ lbs of meat on their back. Us sad-sacks of moose nuggets over in Anchorage never could compete...
As for my own running, when not felled by spasms of illness brought on by my home state's governor, I've been doing all right. I was out for a week with a deep-knee bruise caused by a collision with a tree root a while back, but I ran an 11.3 mile leg of a trail relay the other weekend and had a lot of fun. Not quite W2W, but I can't complain. Now I am gearing up for the heavy competition at the fellah's reunion, followed by the Mayor's Cup in Boston.
See you all soon...
Congrats the the TC racers. Sounds like a tough weekend.
Last couple of months have been a little rough. I've been coaching a lot, and I don't think that I ever appreciated how beneficial the easy tempos were, until I stopped doing them. I used to do a lot of doubles, with my second run often being a 6 miler at about 6:10 pace. I always just recorded it as an easy run, so my logs didn't look that different from last year at this time. Turns out, 6 miles at 6 minute pace is, in fact, better for you than 6 miles at 8:30 pace with a bunch of high school girls. I guess that explains why I'm one minute slower over 8k than I was last year.
I'm jumping back into tempos with a vengeance, now. Hopefully it's not too late to take a crack at sub 26 in another month.
90 miles this week. Sick for the first half, so I just slogged out the miles. 2xworkout. 5x800 in 2:20, one lap recovery; 3.5 mile tempo at 5:25 pace.
Fri Oct 10: off. Heel was workin' up a whole lotta pus and goo and hurt like hell. Put on a pair of shoes after work and started out, then thought better of it. Stupid.
Sat Oct 11: Easy warmup, then Jon Colter 1/2 mar in Driggs. 1:29 something, 3rd. Legs felt like total crap on the way out (uphill) so I held back, hoping for a good second half. Dropped the pace pretty well on the way home and was gaining pretty hard, but just wasn't able to really crank it up. Much of it I'll attribute to being out of shape, but two consecutive weekends of 10 hour excursions could have played a role. Legs tightened up with the headwind in the last 2.5 miles and I just jogged it in from there. Felt good about the structure, just wicked slow. Frustrating.
Sun Oct 12: Easy 1:25 through the snow in the park. Looped up around Phelps lake and back on the Boulder Ridge trail. 4-6 inches of fresh snarbedar on the ground, beautiful sunny skies, and perfect rolling trails! Hope to get in some long 20-30 minute repeats there in two weeks if this snow melts off and nothing more shows up.
Came across a moose family: bull, cow, and baby all hanging out together. That never happens. Likely an awkward chance encounter between the adults about a year after a one-night stand. . .dude needs to learn not to go strolling through the woods on Sunday afternoon like that, even if his team has a bye that week. . .
Bedar.
Slightly easy week. 83 miles.
Tuesday: 10x400, avg 67, starting on 2 minutes. Stopped while still feeling strong; these workouts have a way of coming back to haunt me.
Sunday: 16:16 at Santa Monica 5000, 25th place. Better than I expected on the uphill point to point. I guess the tempos are starting to pay off. 6 mile "cooldown" and another 6 miles tonight.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/10/19/
nail_in_heel_had_plucky_hawk_running_on_his_toes/
i bet this dude is thanking his lucky stars that he didn't have a BLISTER! on his foot.
Last week: pretty weak-sauce. Thursday got in an easy 12 from home, then there was the Carleton Invite on Saturday. Ran super-slarbedar. Got a nice combo of leg fatigue from the long-long and superb undertraining with respect to any sort of intense effort. Postcard on Sunday with the fellahs was nice though.
Mon Oct 20: South Leigh 10: Up to Stateline then right to the creek, back through Wild Horse. Nice run.
Tues Oct 21: AM Up Old Pass Rd from Wilson, 60 minute uphill, on the way down added 10 x springing/bounding uphill on the steeper sections. 1:48 total. Mini-blizzard on the way down. Fortunately, wore shorts and a t-shirt.
PM: Stateline 8 nice and easy.
Wed Oct 22: AM Kaufman 12, 1:24. Down Stateline to Kaufman's place & back.
PM: Coal Creek Divide w/ Wray, 1:10. Calves were yellin' by the end of the uphill, but otherwise felt much stronger than the last time up this trail.
Thurs Oct 23: AM Stateline 8 53:24. One of the best feeling runs since I've been out here. Felt pretty good and threw down for the last mile. Getting back into a good training rhythm, finally. Bedar.
Oct 23 PM: Planned an easy run, then Wray called and wanted to head to the track. I foolishly agreed thinking it was sunny and warm out. It got chilly, and the 8 x 400 was pretty pathetic on my end of things. Hoped to run 80's, maybe a bit faster later on, and do somewhere between 12-20 reps. Turns out 200 jog was not enough recovery for my slow ass, went 81, 82, 87, 93, took a longer recovery and tried to get back into it by going to a 400 jog. Went 82, 83, 82, 78. Had to work awful hard for that last one. Followed up with some barefoot jogging around the infield, which was also chilly. Knew I was flying too close to the sun by trying to run a workout, but don't think I did much harm, just ran slow.
Oct 24: Kaufman 12, 1:22:56. Real sluggish on the way out, actually ran pretty reasonably over the second half. Taking the afternoon off for some recovery. I think the first five days of the week are approximately equal to my highest weekly mileaj since I've been out here, and I've got two more days to work with! Feelin' good. . .
About 30 miles a week over the last 21 days. A medium distance run (of about 2hrs) on trail in each week as well. Three weekends ago, my brother-in-law and I slogged through 6-10 inches of snow up and over Cutthroat pass. The high country days are numbered... Thanks for the MN reunionaj reports!
Oct 25: South Leigh 10, ran pretty relaxed for the first 8 then hammered the last 2 miles--which felt good.
Oct 26: Up Snow King, down Leeks, up & over High School Butte, and some loopin' through Jackson for 1:50 total. Pretty solid run, I was ready to be finished by the end.
About 102 for the week. Finally back in a reasonable groove, and it feels real good.
Oct 27: AM up Saddle Butte, 'bout 5 nice and relaxed.
PM: Easy 9 miles on the Aspen trail after work--pushing the definition of daylight. I need to get out of the office earlier. Quads feelin' a little tender, but nothing awful.
Oct 28: AM Up Table Mt. to the trail junction w/ Wray. Used poles for the steep sections on the way up, then dropped them for the moderate grades. Quads = burned. Right calf was pretty tight on the way up, then the quads called it quits for the day with a few miles left to go. Oh well. A reasonable amount of snow up high and a fabulous sunrise so I can't complain.
Had a good week post reunion. Totaled 71 with a down day for travel. Got in a couple of workouts, one decent, the other not so. The first was 6x800 at 2:27-2:29 with 2:00 jog recovery followed by 3x300 at 1:00 with 1:00 jog recovery. The other was 2x2000 in the wind at 5:20 pace. That was way harder than it should have been. Then on Sunday we drove over to Boston for the Mayor's Cup. Got my official cross-country pr, as pathetic as it is, at 26:58. First pr at any distance in over 2 years, so I suppose that is something.
First couple days of this week have been more or less uneventful. Ran through a very cold rain with 30 mph winds today. That sucked, but the weather is supposed to turn nice sometime soon. Maybe we'll get some real snow sometime soon?
Sub 27 just sounds so much better, though.
I'd kill for a little snow now. It hit 95 today in Pasadena. I'm actually getting angry and then frustrated because there's nobody to blame.
95 miles last week. This will be a slightly lower one, since I'm going to race again on Sunday. Yesterday I did 2x1 mile at 5 minute pace, 3 minutes jogging after the first, 10 after the second, then 12x400 with a 100 jog, 68 avg, last one in 63, with a little somethin' left in the tank. Never done a workout like that before. I smell a PR in the next couple of weeks.
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