Chaire Herodikos Selymbriaios!

On the elliptical. Fartlek.

Res 6 - 10 min warmup 130 s/m (HR 122)

Res 8 - 1.5 mi 185 s/m (HR 177), 5 min 100 s/m (HR 126), 5 x 80m strides (HR 173), 5 min sprintouts (HR 156)

Res 12 - 400m hill simulation (HR 189)

Res 8 - 1 min ~185 s/m (HR 184), 10 min cooldown 130 --> 100 s/m (HR 129).

Sleep: midnight to 7:30. Woke once or twice.

Food: 8:00 - Bowl of whole milk plain yogurt, whey protein, granola, bananas, glass of V-8. 10:00 - Cup of decaf coffee. 1:00 - Fish fillets, onions, brown rice. 6:00 - Pad Thai, 8 oz. watermelon, 8 oz. cherries. 10:00 - Burger, two Budweisers, 11:30 - spinach noodles with parmesan and pepper.

Pretty creaky today. First early AM run in a while, morning was very cool and damp. Had to stretch foot quite a bit, and never really got loose. Some shinsplint action in the left foot. Elliptical is low impact, but may have overdone it yesterday given reduced fitness.

Warmup mile at 9:30 (HR 134), two miles at 8:22 (HR 143) two at about 9:10 (HR 140), cooldown at 9:30 (135ish). Icing.

Sleep: 11:30-6:45, woke once.

Food: 8:00 - whole milk yogurt, whey protein, granola. 10:00 - decaf coffee. 2:30 - chicken in sherry and rosemary with onion and potatoes, large garden salad in O&V. 7:00 - 1 beer, sag aloo, mixed grill, lamb samosa (very full). Did not hydrate enough.

Forgot my headband as I left for the gym. Disaster. Spent an hour broadcasting sweat in a 1 ft radius around the machine--fortunately I was on the end and it was pretty empty, but too bad for the portly, middle-aged woman who sat down to my left at about minute 45. With a Baywatch rerun blaring above us, she drowned. Was able to jam through two Italian lessons (signorina! vorrebbe mangiare qualcosa da me?), at which rate I figure I can pick up two or three languages and maybe an Italian exchange student by the time the foot's completely healed.

Fairly low-stress workout. Resistance 6, started out at 170 s/m with HR around 135, crept upward (dehydration?) to the 150s, at which point I would ease up. By "mile 5.5" was somewhere around 150 s/m and 150 bpm. Took the last "600 meters" at 200 s/m which boosted HR to 184. After Friday's death march (above 179 for 7 minutes) felt relatively little stress. Didn't push it in the interests of getting actual work done this morning, but hopefully this signals improvement in my fitness.

Heel pretty sore this AM until stretching, at which point it was fine. I think that's because for once I didn't sleep with the sock.

Sleep: 1 AM- 7.

Food: 8:00 - whole milk yogurt, whey protein, granola. 2:00 - fish in soya and ginger, 2 bananas, large garden salad in O&V. 4:00 - 3 bananas and peanut butter, rice. 8:00 - rice, 1/2 watermelon, 2 bananas, 8 oz cherries. Got a little squirrely around 4:00 or so.

Off day.

Sleep: 11:30-7:30, woke 3 times.

Food: 8:00 - whole milk yogurt, whey protein, granola, 1 banana, 1:30 - turkey salad (excessive mayo, no dressing) on romaine, chicken soup, blueberries, 5:00 - whole (small) watermelon, 3 bananas, 8:30 - leftover indian over rice, green salad in O&V, 1/2 bottle of nice Venetian pinot grigio, top-notch blue cheese (multiple servings!).

Ran after work from the University to Greenlake, where I met Michael and we did once around. Body was really raring for a bit more speed than of late; took some willpower to keep it to 7:40 or so on the way over. Michael, fortunately, is kind of a candyass: 3 x 10 minute miles to finish up. Foot feels a little sore, but nothing special. The weather was spectacularly blue and dreamy. When I first started running again it was around Greenlake, about 20 months ago: I could barely make one circuit. This felt good.

Sleep: 11:00 to 5, with a long period of wakefulness at 2:30, apparently because I somnambulated and bashed my elbow (woke up bruised and facing the complete opposite direction on the bed).

Food: (Wed) 8:00 - whole milk yogurt, whey protein, granola. 12:00 - spinach salad with O&V. 2:00 chicken breast in sherry with yams, potatos and onions. 7:00 - chicken breast with rice. (Thurs) 5:30 - whole milk yogurt, whey protein, granola. 12:30 - beans, rice and yogurt. 7:45 grilled chicken caesar salad.

On the elliptical. Res 8, averaged around 8:00/miles (= ca. 175 s/m). Finished off with a 1:40 400. HR avg 151, topped off at 183. Another two Italian lessons. Very hot woman on the next machine. She asked if I was done with the Us magazine that somebody had piled on the floor. Told her I'd especially enjoyed the article about dressing like a celebrity mom-to-be and handed it over with my number. Nothing so far. We hope.

Sleep: 11:00-5:45, woke a few times.

Food: 6:00 - whole milk yogurt, whey protein, granola. 10:00 - 2 bananas. 1:00 tofu in sesame oil with chickpeas, onions and spinach. 3:00 - beans, rice and yogurt. 5:30 - 1 beer, strawberries.

PS: Godspeed to all Wasatchels! 

A doubly historic morning: my 36th birthday and Fastrunningblog's conquest of Washington State. Met up with David and ran down Stottlemeyer towards Port Gamble (well, *away* from Port Gamble at first, until it dawned on us we were holding the map upside down). Lovely weather: warm, slightly overcast, with rumors of sunbreaks every now and then. Agate Passage on the way over was glassy and self-satisfied. The official objective was to run a trail system David had heard about, which we finally found at about mile 6. Logging roads, maybe twenty or thirty years old. Some nice twisty single-track, too, which was fun, whipping past the brambles on either side. Took it nice and easy on the trails, and otherwise the pace seemed (from my point of view!) like a pretty good compromise between two rather different fitness levels: around 7:20 or so. Felt like I was pushing it a bit on the last hill, but within reason.

Iced the heel/ankle afterwards and stretched a bunch, and it feels a bit sore, but not too bad. Will try next week at around 42, with two back-to back days on the road and maybe stretching the long run to 10 or 11, and see where that leaves things.

Sleep: 12:15-5:00

Food: 8:00 - Roast beef, potatoes, spinach pasta in very winy tomato sauce, 9:00 - 1 beer, pretzels, 6:30 - power bar (blech).