track fan

1:36:57.  90 min thirds progression run - same hilly course as just before Christmas (splits then were 52:xx and 45:xx).  Today I ran the first loop 51:28; second loop 43:29!! Interesting.  It was still hard :-)  

Next weekend? The marathon long runs begin! 

Congrats to all of the bloggers who raced this weekend (big shout out to slowjoe who pr'd at the Houston half)!!! 

AM: (8 miles, 1:05:23).  15 x 1` w/1` recovery on the hills.

PM: easy 4.

This week is insanely busy for me ... many "balls in the air" at work!  I am getting ready to fly to San Francisco next week for the GI cancer conference, I am presenting some work that I have been doing at my new job to some collaborators from Australia and the Mayo Clinic! wow, how cool is that?  And, this Friday I am giving a web seminar to a different set of people in Zurich!  As you can imagine, I am going to be working on both of these talks up until the last minute, because that is how I roll ;-).  I love this part of my new job (because it looks just like my old job) ... the "other part" -- the manager stuff -- is hard.  too many meetings, and I am feeling pretty overwhelmed at the "directing the work of a bunch of other people".  

But, grateful to be running, have my health, and be living the dream! 

In a hurry ;-). 

I forgot to tell you -- so, it has been in the 17F in the AM this week, and highs in the 40Fs.  Apparently, this is a record -- since the 1890s when they started collecting records.  The doggy water bowls that are outside, have been frozen since last Saturday and yesterday I was driving and hit a patch of ice and slid down the street.  It freaked me out, because I did not see the ice, and certainly was not expecting it (I live in the freaking desert! ;-) ).

That said, it is all good, there is no snow, this freak weather pattern is an anomaly, and I like it much much better than 116F.  

Hope you are all doing well!! 

AM: (13.5 miles, 1:51:40).  27:54wu/23:48cd.  4 x 2000 w/2:30 recovery + 3 x 200 w/200 recovery.  Wind was gusting at 17 mph -- it was so hard, really hard.  

Target (based again on "new and improved" calculator) were 8:41/2000 -- actual: 8:47, 8:36, 8:46, 8:48 (200s were :49s).  This hurt bad, the 8:36 really wasn't smart - I was fighting the wind for about 200 meters every lap, and so this took waaaay too much out of me, and it shows in the final 2 k's.  The last one was probably the effort I should have been running all of them, yes, slower than "target" but actually the right effort for these.  I am not sure how I feel, they are what they are, and it isn't horrible ... but it was a little painful (I wanted to quit so bad 1/2 way through the 3rd one -- I guess the fact that I didn't is good ;-) ).  

Either the new calculator is too fast for me, or I am not in as good of shape as I was last year.   

PM: easy 4. 

Back to work .... yikes the day is almost over and I have so much to do!!

happy trails, bloggers! 

After working in the morning I took 4 hours paid time off and went up to Phoenix to see John Ball.  Both running, and surgery/radiation, issues are still problematic.  

it was quite a day for "famous runners" at John's -- two Olympians, Desi Davila (2012 Olympics, marathon) and David McNeill  (2010 NCAA 5K champion, 2012 Olympics, 5K), plus there were two very fit looking triathletes there (I assume they were triathletes, because they were skinny like runners, but with slightly larger upper bodies).  John is on an upper body exercise kick now, so all of us runners were doing some variety of the same upper body strength and flexibility exercises ... it was painfully obvious that all the distance runners had horrible upper back problems too, especially compared with some  of the other athletes that were there.  

Anyway, nice bonding drive with Dean, my hip felt much better on the ride home, and my shoulder was "unfrozen" again after some painful ART ...

AM: easy 8

PM: easy 4

First 18 mile run in a long time on the schedule for tomorrow!  looking forward to it!

Happy Saturday bloggers!