track fan

blog for today is on November 30th.

1:01:35.  Recovery run on the Yeatman trail.  Beautiful ... cold this morning (39F), but the trail is actually much colder because it goes through a valley that gets very little sun, and there is some sort of wind tunnel through there, it is always colder there.  So very pretty though!

Happy hump day bloggers!

AM: (13.5 miles - or thereabouts, 1:51:06). Stamina today. 3 x 3200 w/400 recovery (target : 7:20 pace --1/2 marathon pace, so shouldn't be that hard now should it?) + 31:32 wu, 30:03 cd. My splits were 7:19, 7:17 (3:07), 7:19, 7:18, (2:42), 7:14, 7:11. ~ 3.5 miles downhill to the track, a very painful uphill home. This pace is my sweet spot. I can find pace pretty easy and just stay there with little concentration; it is not an "easy" pace for me, but it is not "hard" either.  Very nice. I will be hating it when in a few weeks Greg has me doing this same workout at 10K pace (hard hard hard, I actually haven't ever been able to 3 x 2 miles before, we'll see if this will be the year!).   The run back home was not as bad as I had anticipated, it is uphill the whole way, but gradual for most of it ... as Dean warned me "you just can't be in a hurry" ;-).

 PM: (3.5 or maybe 4 miles, they will be very very easy).

Happy Thursday bloggers, I am in a very good mood today.

1:03:44.  Easy recovery run around the 'hood.  Legs a little sore today ... the hills were a bit hard.

I am so happy it is Friday!  I just found out that we will be hosting one of Gregs elite athletes next weekend, Andrew "Middle" is running the Tucson half-marathon, pretty sure he is going for the win.  GO ANDREW!

AM: (9 miles, 1:18:55).  Ran with Dean ... we went to the community college (where the track is) and ran on the trails there.  It is so nice - good amount of hills, for the most part the footing is good.  What a nice morning.  I do have to say, Dean is getting in shape pretty quickly.  He was injured for most of this year, but was able to run about 4 mile/day about 4-5 days/week.  Greg told me after my marathon that as long as you run 4-5 days/week you can "maintain" baseline fitness -- I think that our micro-experiment with Dean has born that out.  For the past month Dean has been building back to about 6 days/week - maybe 50 miles or so and I think the number of days we can run together is numbered.  Even though he was trying hard to keep it easy, it was still obvious that he was struggling to keep at my pace.  I am hopeful that maybe he can race sometime either late this summer or early fall  ...

PM: (3.5 miles easy).

We are on our way to Phoenix to see our ART therapist ... I am having some problems with my hip and hamstring ...I need to nip this in the bud!

Have a great day bloggers -- I hope you all had sucessful and fun races today  especially our Carolyn in Colorado!

1:56:08.  Confession time, today is the first day off (from work) that I have had in ages ... so, I did not start this run until nearly 12 noon!!  I am such a slacker!!  Great run.  Nice weather, one coyote sighting, and body feels good ... except the residual pain from the treatment yesterday (more on that later).  We were in Phoenix all day, between the 2 hour drive, the ART for both of us and the extra 2 hours for Dean's other therapy with a different person we left at 9AM and got home at 7PM.  I was able to work a little, and I got some errands run up in Phoenix, so it was all good.   I did make Dean pull over a little outside of the area know as "Burt's Hideaway" (aka Queen Creek) so I could get my PM run in.  I ran along side an irrigation canal -- very nice.  Pretty flat, essentially a dirt road in the middle of nowhere -- well, it was somewhere just nowhere to me -- and not to many people or houses, just a lot of plowed fields, birds, and some tumbleweeds.  Dr. John was in rare form yesterday, he found a big knot in my hamstring, it took him and his huge assistant about 5 minutes to work it out, my leg was so sore this morning that I could barely walk when I first got out of bed.  I felt it on my run, but it is worse when I am standing, or sitting still.  He also scrapped by back and did a number on my foot (my PF is coming back, hopefully not as bad as before).  I am sure I will be grateful to him in a couple of days, but right now I think of bad words when I move too quickly.

So, my run today was good, I ran my "flat loop" (it isn't really flat, it is just flatter than the alternatives) and then added on at the end.  I ran the last 20` hard -- by my estimates I ran the last 25` @ at least 8:00 effort.  Feeling pretty good today.  I forgot to tell you last week about my "run in" with the jumping cholla that are all over the trail.  They have really long spine and tiny barbs so if they get on you they are really hard to get out -- especially because they are covered in spines -- so if you try to grab them out with, just by way of example, your fingers, they will embed in your finger ... basically what happens (if you don't carry industrial strength tweezers with you - which I don't) is you end up transfering them from leg, to finger, to finger to finger to thumb ... and so on ... and they hurt!!  Anyway, I got a couple of them stuck in my calf last week (well they got stuck on my shoe, which brushed against my inner leg, and then my finger, and then .... it wasn't pretty -- I had a long line of what looked like a rash from the barbs)  this week I saw a bunch of them, but managed not to pick a single one up ... yea!

Happy Sunday bloggers!

AM: (10 miles, 1:26:47).  9 hilly miles with 8 x 100m strides.  I am feeling a little sick to my stomach today.  I accidently drank an expired Odwalla smoothie yesterday, I don't know if that is it or something else, but I feel a little woozy.  Did not really affect my running, except for the hills and the strides it was a pretty easy day today.  I also lost my ear band this morning ... bummer, I hope I can find it tomorrow, I think I lost it at my VPB ...

PM: (4 miles, easy).

Have a great day bloggers!

1:02:54. Recovery run.  I back-tracked some of my run from yesterday in the hopes of finding my ear band - and sure enough it was right where I thought it would be. There was a county "guy" measuring something in the wash along the side of the road, I am sure he thought I was a freek wandering around in there ... if only he knew that he was measuring my bathroom ;-).

Have a good day, stay warm everyone!

AM: (11.5 miles, 1:29:33).  Cruise interval workout 6 x 800 @ 10k effort w/200 recovery.  31:02 wu/31:58 cd +strides.  My "target" was 3:27-3:31 (6:54-7:02 pace) my splits were: 3:36 (1:10) 3:27 (1:08) 3:28 (1:10) 3:28 (1:12) 3:25 (1:10) 3:20 -- Greg had told me not to try to hit any "target" but work on going by effort; the last time I did these I ended up going way too fast, so I decided to do it on the track and keep it within my calculated range.  I had a hard time finding "pace" -- I ran the first 200 m on my first one WAY too fast, and then overcompensated by slowing down too much.  By the third one I knew what the pace was supposed to feel like, but by then it was becoming to take a little work ... I did not look at my watch for the last two, I was surprised they were the fastest, I was started to get a little fatigued, especially since the recovery was on the short side.

The idea for this workout (and the last 4-5 weeks of my training) is to work on stamina, so long intervals at 10k-1/2 marathon pace with short recovery.  It is my understanding that going too slow on these is better than going too fast, these workouts are supposed to increase the efficiency of the "lactic acid shuttle" - your ability to transport lactic acid when you run on your top end speeds (which will be coming up soon ...).  This is what I was thinking about during this run ... interesting.  I was thinking about this stuff in part because I just read some things by Lydiard again, Dean and I were talking about training and racing this morning and there has been an interesting discussion of late on LetsRun on replication of training by Rojo. 

Dean and I were thinking that it is not only the training that is hard to replicate, after you have a great racing cycle, but everything else ... meaning, the not getting sick, not having work/home crises, etc. that makes it hard to replicate the "perfect" training.  However, after my initial "pr every time I ran" the first two years back to running, my best 'stimulus' seem to have come in the year(s) after I ended up having difficult down time from running.  When you are unable to run for a few months and you come back to it, it is both humbling and inspiring.  It is not quite like you are starting all over, but it is a long slow process to get back what you had, and during this time you really reflect on how the important thing is being ABLE to run, not necessarily how you run (although the competitive aspect of running is also important).  For me, I really focused on the long term aspects of my training after my hiatus - rather than the short-term "rewards" of each race and it has made all the difference, both in my enjoyment of training, and my overall improvements as a runner. 

Ok, now back to work.

PM: (4 miles easy).

Have a wonderful day bloggers!  Stay warm!

1:06:04 ... probably a little more than 7, I was running slowly, but not that slowly!  Beautiful "recovery" run up Yeatman trail.  There was frost on the cacti ... pretty neat looking.  No wildlife sightings ... probably because I was so busy watching the trail that I couldn't really look around.  I was getting so good at rock jumping and obstacle avoiding that when I finally got to the flatish part of the trail again I almost tripped! 

Lots to do today -- work is crazy, it is finals week for the students but it is bureaucratic &*ll for us faculty and there are two big grants that are due in February that we have to get finished by next week so the external review committee can look them over in January.  I finally got my reviews back from my grant (from long ago last May) -- it looks like I will be resubmitting in March, and I need to get two papers that are half-finished on my next done by the time I resubmit.  The holidays are going to be very busy this year.

Enjoy your Friday bloggers, I hope you are all thawing out!

AM: (9 miles, 1:19:52).  Hilly run, easy pace + 8 x 100m strides.  Beautiful day -- maybe everyday is like this at 11AM, but the weather was perfectomundo.

PM: (4 miles).  Have to finish unpacking the guest bedroom for the hopeful winner of the Tucson half-marathon !!!

Happy weekend bloggers

1:50:49 (56:55/55:08) ... ok, maybe I have been running faster than I knew of late.  Today we ran in our old neighborhood (because it was closer the marathon/half-marathon finish), it was nice to have mile markers again.  I am very surprised to have averaged 7:54 pace today, my last 3 miles were much faster than I had anticipated 7:17, 7:21, 7:03, but man I had no idea I was running 8 min pace on the way out and sub 8 for the other miles.  wow.  I am sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that it is not 100F out - it is much easier to run hard when it is cool. 

Andrew won the Tucson 1/2 today in 1:05:30 off of base!  His key race is the 3M 1/2 in Austin in February and with 6 more weeks of training and some competition in the race (the second person in this race ran 1:10 - the field will be much deeper in Austin) it is likely he can run a 1:03 there ... it will be an interesting Spring with many of the McMillan elite team racing in marathons and 1/2 marathons.  Good times.  I am very excited about the upcoming Olympics, with the Oregon group, the Mammoth group and strong developmental programs (Zap, Hansons, McMillan) bearing fruit, I am hoping USA distance will be much more competititve than have been for years!

I hope you are having a restful Sunday bloggers!

AM:(12 miles, 1:37:43).  32:05 wu  + strides/27:22 cd (ugh all uphill!).  3 x 2400 @ 1/2 marathon effort w/3` recovery.  This was my last stamina workout and Greg wanted it to be a marker workout, compare it with the same workout about a month ago now.  Since this is effort based I did not try to hit a specified time, but I did try to keep the first 800 meters at 7:20 pace to make sure I did not start out too fast.  My splits were 10:47 (7:11), 3:01, 10:40 (7:06), 2:59, 10:46 (7:10).  Compared to November 12th: 7:12, 7:16, 7:20.  Pretty cool.  This is a great training pace for me, I will probably have a little more difficulty with my next phase of training ... but I a little excited to see how it goes.

Ok -- now I can write the COOLEST thing:  I saw a BOBCAT today!!  about 50 meters away!! It was so cool, "if I'm lyen` I'm dyen".  He/she looked just like my cat except it was about the size of my hound dog (~45-50 lbs).  At first I thought it was a dog, then I realized it was a "cat" -- but I thought it was so big it must be a mountain lion (and it was a color between asphalt and concrete -- it wasn't until I got a little closer that I realized it had spots and a bobtail).  WOWOW!!

PM: (4 miles easy).

Probably longer than 7 ... don't have a time today, my watch did not engage and I did not notice until way into the run.  Just ran a nice easy pace on the Yeatman trail ... beautiful day, beautiful scenery.  I am a lucky gal!

Take it easy bloggers!

AM: (10.5, 1:31:40).  9.5 miles + 8 x 100m strides.  Well, it has been a long time since I have run on my "ham hocks" -- my legs just felt huge, heavy, and slow.  I have put on 3 lbs in the past couple of weeks, it felt more like 10 today ... I have a month to get this extra weight off before the race or I won't even be close to my desired 10K race weight ... it is the extra serving I have been allowing myself at dinner I am sure because I have not been splurging on holiday treats at all.  Drat.  Anyway, nice run even though it was not the snappiest.

PM: (4 or 4.5 miles easy).

I hope I can make my grant deadline this week, I really don't want to work all weekend ...

Happy trails bloggers!

1:06:22.  Probably a little longer than 7.  Yeatman trail again today.  I was sort of uninspired to run this morning -- none of the routes seemed good.  But, as usual, once I got started I was so happy to be out and running.  This run is so great -- it is quite a climb (easy by hiking standards, harder by running standards), and a little trecherous in spots -- but not bad by any means.  The best thing about this trail is that once you get through the valley and climb up the next mountain the views are just stunning!  It is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  It was interesting today, I saw a bow hunter (bows are allowed in this park for a month every winter for javelina and deer only). I said good morning but did not tell him that the big largest "group" of javelina were all in my backyard ;-).  I also ran into a lost hiker and gave him directions back to the resort on the other side of the mountain range ... pretty ironic really, me giving directions ... the only reason I knew how to go was because I have gotten lost twice and ended up where he wanted to go. 

I hope you all have a great Friday bloggers!

AM: (1:21:45, 9+ miles).  I ran a little over 8 miles and then did 8 x 100m strides.  Feeling really good today.  Nice weather, nice sleep last night.  I was a little tired yesterday, most likely due to the fact that I worked late on Thursday night and was out at the park at 8:45 PM finishing my second run -- it wasn't that bad, but a little late at night, even for me.  Anyway, after a bunch of meetings yesterday, Dean and I went to our Egoscue clinic visit and then dressed in the bathrooms there for a work holiday party.  We got home pretty early (about 10PM) and just fell into bed .... this morning we slept in until 7:30AM  -- can I hear an AMEN!!  Tonight is *my* work Christmas party -- and then tomorrow is ART and rest up for the short workweek.  We are heading to Gulf Shores, Alabama next week - all of Dean's brothers, his Mom and all the kids will be there (it will be uncontrolled chaos I have to tell you).  Luckily, this fun-and-games will only last 4 days and then we can come home and recouperate ;-).

PM (4 easy miles).

Have a great weekend!!

1:55:18.   What a perfect day.  It was one of those days that had I been racing I would have had a great day.  You know those days, when everything aligns perfectly, the weather, your legs, your lungs ... it was beautiful, warm but not sunny, I felt rested, free, and just like I could run forever.  After last finding out last weekend that I have been running faster than I had thought I was, I tried really hard to run easy until the last 3 miles.  I am not sure how successful I was, I pretty much ran the same pace as the last time I ran this route, but I felt awesome so it doesn't really matter.  AHHHH.  Our ART therapist came down to Tucson to meet with some people (I think about some sort of school in Somalia), he is going to come over to our house tonight and give us a little treatment -- what a nice guy!!

Happy Sunday bloggers!

I wish I were like Jon and Walter (with lots of blog followers ;-) ) because I wanted to share this with the fastrunningblog group.  Dean and I got a housecall from our doctor last night, John Ball, Chiropractor (ART and Graston therapist) was in town from Phoenix and came by to give us a treatment at home!  Not only is he a great guy for this, but he was in town to meet with his friend Patrick Nduwimana (1:42.81 800 meter runner) who has started an international project to help bring renewable engery to developing countries.  The Green Athlete Project is really interesting and I am trying to spread the word.  As one of their first projects they installed solar panels in a school in Burundi in June of 2009 - this was after the school burnt down because a student was studying by candle-light and fell asleep.  They now have electricity in their study halls.

 Look for David Krummenacker to rabbit some fast races this Winter/Spring sporting a Green Athlete Project jersey ...

AM: (~12.5 miles, 1:46:30).  16 x 400 @10K>5K pace w/200 recovery + 31:07 wu/29:20 cd (the long uphill home was painful).  My range should be 1:41-1:45 (6:44-7:00 pace).  This was my first "speed" workout in 2 or so years, I was a little nervous last night and this morning.  I ran down to the track with Dean and he was giving me a hard time about how slowly I was running "downhill" - he said, "my heartrate is 112" - I think I made smarty pants remark like "well, I am racing better than ever so I am not going to second guess my training now" -- but what I really meant was "yea, but I am nervous about this workout".  He knew ... and if he thought the jog to the track was slow he should have waited around for the jog home ;-).  It was windy today -- wind and 400s do not mix well!!

Anyway, it went pretty well.  I had a little "surge" in the second set -- which made the last 4 harder than they should have been, but all and all I was happy with how it went.  It was just long ... the first few felt pretty easy and by the 12th one they were hard.  Greg had said to do 12-16, I really wanted to 16 but after 12, I thought maybe I should do 14 (a compromise), but I did not slow down, so I thought I could do 2 more ... and I did. I recovered pretty quickly, so I am now glad I stuck with doing 16.

1st 1600: 1:43, 1:44, 1:43, 1:42 (6:52) (recovery averaged 1:14)

2nd 1600 : 1:42, 1:39, 1:35, 1:39 (6:35)  (recovery averaged 1:15)

3rd 1600: 1:42, 1:43, 1:42, 1:42 (6:49) (recovery averaged 1:15)

4th 1600: 1:42, 1:43, 1:43, 1:41 (6:49) (recovery averaged 1:11) - the 3rd one I had to go into lane 2 because of the zamboni (well, it was a track sweeper, but I like to say "zamboni")

PM: (easier than easy 3.5)

Have a happy day bloggers!

1:00:22 ... nice very early morning run on the Yeatman trail.  We are hurrying off to the airport.  I may or may not be blogging for the next few days, rest assured I will be running ... hopefully the same as usual ;-)

Merry Christmas bloggers, may you all have a wonderful time with friends and family.  Stay warm, eat well, be of good cheer! 

AM: (10 miles, 1:29:08)  8 x 100m strides. A little long, but not quite 11 miles. ... I ran with Dean for about 30 mins and then he turned around and I ran on a trail for a while.  It was so windy here today - actually right in front of Deans Mom's condo the wind is probably blowing about 40 mph -- because she is right on the beach -- but once you get to the main road it was much less (though still really windy).  Despite the fact that Dean gives me a hard time about running slow but there were mile markers on the road and I was going about 8:10 pace on the way back (with a tailwind) - I would estimate we were running about 845-8:50 on the way out (which is fast for me). 

When I got out into the trail I just knew that I was going to lose a leg to a 'gator -- there are a bunch of them (though I did not see any today).  Weird being back in the south -- I missed the accents more than I thought.

PM: (easy 4 - maybe on the treadmill if I don't feel like braving the wind again).

Ok ... have to go get ready for hours of Eucher (those of you from the midwest know what I am talking about!).

Happy Christmas Eve Bloggers

1:04:32 ... we survived the storm!  This morning was still windy, quite a bit colder than yesterday too.  The water looks beautiful though and the sun is out. 

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas!

AM: (9 miles, 1:17:49).  8 miles + 8 x 100m strides.  Nice day ... cloudy and chilly -- just perfect for a run.  Everyone (the other two families) left yesterday so just Dean and I and his Mom today ... it is pretty quiet now ;-)

PM: (4 miles easy)

I hope you all are recovered from your holidays!

1:50:36.  Last run in Gulf Shores.  Dean and I ran on a bike path we had seen.  It rained the first 20 mins and the last 20 mins.  So I was wet the whole run ... felt good while I was running, but my lips turned blue by the time I got home to shower (probably about 40-45F).  I meant to run 14 miles, but the trail ended at 5.5 - I ran an extra 800-1200 meters, checking to see if it picked back up, and then I ran up a road toward the ocean for a few minutes.  I must have miscalculated how long I was going to run on the road, although I know I ran the last 1/2 of the run faster - it was only about 1 min faster (until the last 20 mins when I dropped down to about 1/2 marathon pace).  Doesn't really matter though.  I felt good on the run and was cruising pretty good at the end.  We had to get going, we only had an hour to finish packing and drive the 2 hours to the airport.

Long day of travel,  good to be home!  Snow at 4500 ft tonight (maybe in our mountains?).

AM: (a little more than 10 miles, 1:30:10).  Hilly 9+ mile run with 8 x100m strides.  Nice day, 50F, cloudy, and clear as a bell.  Felt pretty good, I know I was faster than usual because I ran much further before my watch said to turn around today.  I debated on doing my track workout today, but I decided to give myself a couple more days of recovery from Christmas/travel before doing a hard workout.  So, Thursday it will be!  Today we are off, and are planning to run some errands (buy my Christmas camera) and hopefully put up some curtains.  Tomorrow is back to the grind ...

PM: (4 miles easy).

I hope you all have a wonderful day, enjoy the last days of 2009! 

1:04:41.  Awesome run on the Yeatman trail.  I was a little overdressed, but it was 45F and windy this morning.  The house was very cold and so I wore tights (I generally don't wear tights until it gets down to the mid-30s) ... it was fine though, the canyon was cold and I was running slow so I did not feel horribly uncomfortable.  Beautiful run, as always this run pep'd me right up!

I finally bought a camera yesterday - although I ended up buying it online - I couldn't find the one I wanted at Costco (though I was able to find a bunch of other stuff that I may or may not need).

I hope you all have a wonderful next to the last day of the year!  It looks  like I will hit 3186 miles for the year - I feel so grateful that I have been able to run consistently, stay healthy, and have had such a wonderful year.  My goal in the new year is to find more ways to pass along my good fortune to others, and to make sure I reaffirm and recognize how lucky I am daily. 

AM: (13 miles, 1:52:13).  5 x 1 mile @ 10K pace (~7:00 min pace) w/800 recovery + 31:13 wu ~30 cd (my watch did not start  for my run home from the track).  splits: 6:53 (3:02), 7:01 (4:03), 7:06 (4:30), 7:00 (4:09), 7:00.  It was windy, and I ran the first mile too fast.  I don't know what happened at mile 3, my watch was messed up - the split time was showing as the big number and my lap times were small ... and, since I started on the mile line I couldn't see my 100m/200m splits for the first lap, it kind of threw me off.   I did not take 800 recovery, instead I just ran up and down the track - mainly because of the wind, but also because there were two really fast guys on the track (one was cheering for his friend - he is one of the fastest guys in town - he came in 9th in the USA 10 mile championships a few months ago, he is a 13:xx min 5K guy -- really fast).  I always get a little intimidated when there are fast people on the track when I am working out.  Anyway - I did not exactly bomb the workout but I was a little disappointed with my 3rd mile.  I am happy I was able to rally for the last two though and will count this as a mediocre workout, not the best, but certainly not the worst ... not a bad way to end the year.

It was a very long uphill run home.
 

PM: (4 miles easier than easy). 

Happy New Year bloggers!!