track fan

AM: (11 miles, 1:27:13)  27:43wu/30:17cd  4 mile Steady State run (target range 7:16-7:28); actual: 7:28, 7:18, 7:16, 7:06.  Felt a little sluggish the first mile, but then I felt pretty good and really felt good the last two, sweet!  I was working until about 9 last night, but somehow I slept really good for the 6 hours I slept, so I felt pretty good today.

Things are so tough today.  I am going to NIH for grant review, first I was going through Chicago, so yesterday I changed my flight through Dallas. Hmm, they have cancelled on flight already and rescheduled me (again), I get into DC at 2AM!!  The reviews start at 7AM (eastern - 2 hours a head of my time) ... it takes at least an hour to get to the hotel from the airport ... sigh.  It is going to be a l-o-n-g day tomorrow.  I will be very luck to even get a 5 mile run in tomorrow ... oh well, sometimes life gets in the way.  I guess I am surprised that this is the first time my running schedule is being affected from my crazy work life right now.  Some times are just like that.   

I am going to DC tomorrow (hopefully) instead. 

I have to finish 2 more reviews by tonight ... and I have to pack.

PM :  many cancelled flights later I got to run 4 miles easy 

Have a wonderful week bloggers, I am not sure how much time I will have to blog.  Stay warm, dry and safe! 

1:04:17.  High today in the desert is 40F ... about 21F this morning. BEAUTIFUL!  I won't be as lucky come tomorrow!  I am going to give the airport a try again today ... maybe this time I will at least get out of Arizona? Texas anyone?

Have a great day bloggers! 

Got into town about 11:30 last night, got to my hotel, got my clothes ironed, and got to bed by 1AM.  Funny, the heater in my room makes a sound similar to an alarm buzzer (hard to explain but that sound than a digital clock makes ...) when it starts up.  So, about every hour or so I would jump up to turn off the alarm  .... ;-).  

I got up and ran in the dark.  The latest storm missed DC, but the one last week has left the bike path basically an inch of ice (seriously no pavement at all). So, I ran on some neighborhood roads, found some nice hilly routes, enjoyed myself immensely, even though the roads were just icy and slick everywhere.  Then ... dedum dedum (think jaws) dedum dedum ... one minute I am cruising along, the next minute I am slowly but with great force hitting the ground ... whump ... my hand, my arm, my hip ... MY HEAD went SMACK against the curb ... I got up (this happened near a busy intersection and I had to refrain from being run over -- and my ego was bruised).  Things really hurt, but I needed to get back to the hotel.  I got up in my room and WOWSER I had an egg sized bump right over my right eye.  I have been sitting in the meeting trying to ice to get the swelling to go down ... and it kind of has, but now my whole eye socket is swollen and I have a beautiful black eye ... it is beautiful!  

I was going to try to run again tonight (on the treadmill) -- but now I am not sure, I am little nauseated and I think I want to see how this plays out.  

Here is my beautiful black eye ... 

I hope you are all doing well, be careful out there! 

Ran on the treadmill  in the early morning before the meeting (~6 miles) and then I am going to go back before I check out this afternoon and do another 30 mins (~3 miles).  

This was per Dean's suggestion, to wait and see how I felt before I ran a lot.  I can see ok (I woke up and couldn't see very well because my eye was swollen ... not quite shut but enough that I couldn't really open my eye all the way.  Here is my updated picture, the clinicians here in the meeting say that it probably has progressed about as far as it is going to around the eye.

Another long day of travel, hopefully I will be home by 10-11PM tonight, I can't wait to see Dean, the dogs, the mean cat and my own bed. 

Happy Friday bloggers! 

AM: (8 miles, 1:09:43). 

PM: easy 4.

HOME AGAIN HOME AGAIN JIGGEDY JIG !

Slept well last night ... a little lightheaded with pretty severe headache today -- I can't tell if it is just the stress and lack of sleep and eating over the past few weeks or my head ...

Day 3 eye here. 

Today is a great running/racing day -- first off, there is the USATF Cross-Country Championships!  And tomorrow -- track on TV - tomorrow afternoon ESPN2: New Balance Indoor Grand Prix (2PM EST).  

2:12:00.

Beautiful day, about 50F and sunny.  Ran on the trails, saw one cyclist and one horse and rider.

Actually took yesterday off from work - yea, first day off since Thanksgiving.  Now I have to work a lot today to make up for it.  But it was super sweet yesterday.

Have a happy Sunday bloggers!

 Day 4 eye.

Yesterday's cross-country races were AWESOME!  Brent Vaughn (husband of one of Nan's teammates, Sara Vaughn)  won the men's race with Bumbi (runner from Nashville that we knew from when he was the high school star, he then went to Georgetown) coming in second - we were screaming at the end of the race!  On the women's side Shalane Flanagan won her second national XC title dominating right from the gun -- she beat Molly Huddle (current American record holder in the 5K).  On the master's side, Nan's other teammate, Colleen De Reuck  just ran away with it and almost 50 year old Pete Magill won the mens race handily.  Great racing.  The New Balance indoor games was yesterday, but it was televised today, so I have not looked at the results yet (we taped it and will watch later tonight).

AM: (10 miles, 1:24:40).  27:05wu/38:05cd + 3 sets of 300, 200, 100 w/200 recovery and 400 recovery between sets.  Pace (1:09, :45, :23/1:09, :46, :23/1:07, :43, :22).  hmmmm.  I have to say those 300s were pretty much vomit inducing - if it had been 400 I would have for sure thrown up.  Then again, it would have been the fastest 400s I had ever run if I would have been able to hold the pace another 100 meters.  Pretty fun I have to admit.

PM: 4 miles easy. 

Happy Tuesday bloggers!!  I hope you are all warm, dry and safe. 

1:05:49.  Ran up the mountain.  It was a beautiful day.

I am too busy and did not have time to prepare adequately for class today ... I feel like I confused them more than they already were ... sigh.

Have a good day bloggers.

AM: (12 miles, 1:40:37) 27:27wu/23:36cd (same distance for wu and cd!).

3 x 2 miles @ SS pace w/3` recovery (goal pace: 7:16-7:28 -- really, I wanted to hit ~7:20s); actual: 7:21,7:14, 7:17, 7:14, 7:17, 7:01.  The last one was faster because the soccer team (men) were on the track and they kept waiting until just when I passed them and then they would sprint and try to pass me, they would run for about 300-350 meters and then stand around and wait for me to come around again and do it again.  I shouldn't have run so hard on this one, but I couldn't help it. A few of them caught me on my very last lap -- but it was only 200 meters for them and it was my *last* meters ... I felt like saying to them, "good job - now lets run the 3 miles uphill home!"  ... I am glad they did not do it on my first ones, I really enjoyed working on getting into my "zone".

PM: 4 miles easy.

Finally, I might be able to take another day off this weekend!! yippee. 

1:05:14.  Recovery run up the mountain -- beautiful day, felt pretty good, though my legs are tired.  I am also feeling a little tibial stress (my injury from last year) ... I am trying to nip this sucker in the bud this time ... time to start rolling on the ball, doing my calf exercises and maybe a trip up the John-of-the-ART is in order.

So, I thought I was going to be able to take a day off from work this weekend, well, that is not going to be happening.  It is OK though, and totally worth it, I found out last night that my manuscript that I submitted a couple of weeks ago has been accepted with minor revisions ... yea.  So, I have to make those revisions this weekend.  This was an invited paper - the editors asked me to write a paper for a special issue on colon cancer that they are putting together in March -- which is colon cancer awareness month.  cool beans.

Have a great Friday bloggers! 

AM: (8 miles, 1:10:03).  Beautiful day today ... truly beautiful.  Ran my usual Saturday route, stopped to feed Big Boy and CoCo their weekly fix of carrots.  

PM: easy 4.

Still a little tired, and my shin is sore, but it does not seem to be getting worse.  I think that I made a big mistake in trying a new pair of shoes, Asics  Speedstar, I love them a lot, but I am not sure they agree with me (and my orthotics).  We'll see if things get better if I don't wear them for a while.   If the pain continues I might have to replace my second runs with pool running for a week or two.  Anyway ... I can't think much about it, I have mucho work to do today.

Have a wonderful weekend bloggers! 

2:02:49 ... so, I guess I have been running longer than 15 miles the past 2 Sundays.  I was pretty sure that this was 14.  I went down to the same trails I have been running my long runs the past few weekends, but because I have so much work to do, and because my legs are tired from two awesome workouts this week, I decided to stick to a 2 hour run.  

It was *81F* degrees today!!  holy moly it was beautiful!  Dare I say even a little warm the last couple of miles.

Now I have to finish my answer key for the homework for my class tomorrow (it is a tough assignment so it will even take me some time to finish it) and finish an analysis for one of my collaborators from Vanderbilt.  From the looks of it, I will have 6 manuscripts published in the first 4 months of 2011 ... sweet, makes me look ever so productive ;-)

Have a wonderful Sunday bloggers! 

AM: (9.5 miles, 1:21:31). 28:32wu/29:30cd  15 x :30 w/1` recovery.

PM: easy 4.

Beautiful week so far, in the mid-70s for the high yesterday, ahhhh.  By Thursday winter will be back, but it is lovely right now.  We had some really bad weather while I was in DC.  It got so cold that the gas company had some pipes burst and there were about 30,000 people without gas for 3-4 day, because these people did not have heat many/most of the them had burst water pipes as well.  This did not affect us (we live in the boonies and don't  have gas - and we had actually sort of prepared for the weather a head of it (things that you know how to do when you have lived in areas that have cold winters) --- however, what did happen was that a couple of our more beautiful/exotic cactus got frostbite and I am not sure they are going to survive.  It is kind of sad to see ...

I hope you are all enjoying your "springlike" week!! 

BUSY day, I was so lucky to squeeze in a 6 mile run.  I had a meeting at 8AM that went until class time, then after class I had back-to-back meetings until 5:00 and then Dean and I had to take a visiting faculty person (who gave a seminar in our department) out to dinner.  I got home about 10:30 PM.  seriously, I am too old for these long days with no breaks!

AM: (11 miles, 1:43:09).  28:45wu/43:58cd  6 x 800 w/2` recovery @ 5k pace.  

3:23, 3:22, 3:19, 3:21, 3:18 3:18

This is probably my least favorite workout, and the only thing I don't like more than this workout is this workout into a strong headwind on the backstretch!!!  But, I can't complain, it is much faster than when I did this workout 5 weeks ago (3:22, 3:22, 3:24, 3:23, 3:22, 3:24) and I had a longer recovery then -- 400 meters vs slightly longer than 200 today!  Hmmm. I am always amazed to watch progression of pace over a training cycle.

I actually was only planning on running 10.5 or so this morning, but there were a group of runners on the track (many of them were in my way during my workout) and one of them talked to me during my cool down.  She had to run a mile time trial - so I decided I would run with her and keep her occupied, she was very nice.  She probably ran a 12-13 min/mile pace - but it was nice to keep her motivated.  She had 7 kids and  homeschooled!!!  her "break" was this class she was taking.  She had lost 100 lbs over the course of this year and the class was part of a training program for personal trainers. 

PM easy 4. 

Recovery run up Yeatman Trail (1:07:01).  Storm is blowing in ... but it is perfect running weather.

Busy day ... Have a great Friday bloggers. 

AM: (8 miles, 1:11:33).  Warm ... but wow, from weather.com: "winds SSW 22 mph with gusts up to 42 mph".  Unfortunately, it was a headwind uphill all the way home.  Good thing I wasn't in a hurry or trying run a workout, slow and steady wins the race today.

I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend.  I am finishing my paper and writing a final, all and all one of the most relaxing weekends I have had in over 2 months.

PM: 4 miles easy. 

My coach posted an awesome read today on FB.  After reading it I laughed because I can tell that  these guys (e.g.,  my coach and Nic) are Lydiard followers, though the details are a little different, they all follow the same principles.  It took me a long time to figure out how to do workouts that were "controlled", and how to run totally by feel (never over-reach pace, and embrace long slow distances) my race times have come down significantly.  This stuff really works. 

2:13:30.  Ran from home today, which meant I was going to be running a very very hilly run.  It was almost nearly perfect for a long run ... cloudy, 55F, the only bad thing was the wind -- it was super windy.  But, wind is tolerable when running slow (not nearly as bad as on the track).  Felt super good today.  Finished really strong and I was very pleased.

I have a lot of work to finish today ... too bad, I would really love a nap, but duty calls.  

Have a wonderful Sunday bloggers. 

AM: (13.5 miles, 1:21:52).  29:04wu/30:30cd.  Fartlek workout: 2 x 3` 2` 1` w/2` recovery.  A little harder than it looks on paper -- especially if you go out too hard on the first one ;-).

PM: 4 miles easy.

Happy Tuesday bloggers!!  I hope you are all doing well.  I am still in overdrive ... 

Yeatman trail ... 

AM: (7.5 miles, 1:06:45).  I was supposed to do a tempo run today, but I am having problems with my hamstrings and after running down to the track, and having the pain not go away with warm-up, I decided to not to make things worse.  I had a massage yesterday, it was definitely inflammed along the whole hamstrings - lower all the way up to the insertion point.   It feels a little better today, so if it feels better by Sunday I will do a fast finish long run which will be about the same training stimulus.  

PM: 4 miles easy.

I am trying to figure out how to get up to Phoenix to see John this weekend.  It is tricky because I am supposed to attend a "retreat" at work Saturday from 8-1, I have 45 midterms to grade, 2 grants to work on, and prepare for Monday's lecture ... sigh.  I might play hooky from the retreat if I can get in to see John ... but it still means no naps and no rest (for a very weary Bonnie).  

I hope you are all doing well bloggers -- run well, run happy, run safe! 

easy run -- plus strides (to see how the hamstring feels as the day progresses).

AM: (8 miles, 1:11:23).  Felt better this morning ... leg still hurt but not as much as two days ago.  Went up to Phoenix to see John (the fix-it guy).  Ouch.  He said it is my hip, the pain is moving around because I keep trying to compensate ...  the actual "root" of the problem though is in my lumbar spine.  He gave me some exercises to do ... I think I need to go back more regularly.

PM: 4 miles easy in the 30-40 mph winds. yikes. 

1:57:52 (1:01:29/56:23) Fast finish progression run (8:25AP 8:47 out/ 8:03 back,  4 miles @ 8:09 average with the last 3 miles at 7:49, 7:32, 7:06).  My hamstring hurt like heck at the end, but not too bad while I was running - which is ok, I think.

It was a great mental run today.  I ran in a "wintery mix" -- it rained, it sleeted, and finally it snowed.  By the time I hit the turn-around I was soaking wet, and then, much to my chagrin, the entire final 7 miles was into a very cold blustery wind.  My legs were blue/red by the end of the run, but I felt very studly and happy to get into some warm (and dry) clothes!

On my way to finish grading mid-terms - hopefully I will have time this afternoon to make some popcorn and watch some USATF indoor championships on TV (ESPN 2:30 mountain time)