track fan

2:38:53.  Yippee!  It was awesome today.  I deliberated between driving to my hilly looped dirt road or my flat trails.   I decided on flat trails, mainly just because they are closer to  my house.  It was so nice not to be pounding concrete.  I don't mind traveling to San Francisco because at least there are places to run in the city ... but lots of concrete -- not asphalt mind you, but serious hard stuff.  So, being the delicate flower that I am, I much prefer nice soft dirt.  I felt awesome.  Since I had not run longer than 2 hours in two weeks (and much less than that last week) I wasn't sure how I would feel .... but, now that I have gotten rid of the two (or one??) nasty bugs that I have been carrying around for 6 weeks I feel fantastic.  And, my legs were fresh - which they usually aren't for my long run.  

I am excited to get back to work -- training that is ;-).  

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!! 

So, for my running geek friends.  I was so disappointed (and worried for Greg - thankfully no one has made stupid accusations about him) about Martin Fagan taking EPO.  Martin had been training with the McMillan Elite group for about 3 years, and been coached by Greg, until he left last year.   He was the guy that "set the pace" -- all the other guys counted on Martin to push them through workouts.  I am sure it hit all of them pretty hard, on the one hand, cheaters are cheaters and they are blight on the sport.  On the other hand, I am sure many of the other athletes who have made significant sacrifices to be a professional runner (putting careers on hold while live hand-to-mouth in houses with 5-6 other athletes) can understand the pressure that Martin felt - and he was (is?) their friend.  So, there was a very nice article written about these conflicting feelings. 

AM: (10.5 miles, 1:31:56). ~47 out and 45 and some change back.  

PM: 4 miles easy

Beautiful morning ... had to rush through the run because I had an early morning meeting in the lab on the other side of town.  Then I had a doctors appointment ... and another meeting this afternoon ... yikes what a day.

I hope you are all doing well, running fast and enjoying the winter ;-). 

1:04:59.  A balmy 37F today, a perfect temperature for a run!  Dean comes home tonight!  The animals and I have missed him a lot!

Happy Hump Day bloggers! 

By the way, I know my blog is boring right now ... did you get me confused with Burt?  There are reasons for the boredom ... in time all will be revealed. 

AM:(9 miles, 1:31:24).  26:57wu/28:00cd.  6 x 800 w/equal recoveries.  

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

Yes, I know they are slow, and I also know that my schedule called for 6-8 and I only did 6.  So, I guess I have to explain my reluctance to expound on my runs of late. Things are not going well, health-wise.  I don't know exactly what is wrong, but I am being poked and prodded a lot this week.  About 10 days ago now I got sick.  I thought it was food poisoning or a stomach virus.  I spent Martin Luther King day in bed.  I felt a little better the next day, but I still couldn't eat.  Well, it has been 10 days now and I have only been able to eat for the last day - and that is because I am taking anti-nausea meds.  I did feel good on Sunday, but then on Tuesday I realized that part of the reason I have felt good on runs is that I am about 15-20 sec/mile slower than usual (this is what happens when you run only by feel and don't have a garmin -- you don't know you are running super slow until you hit a "known" run and can gauge how fast you are relative to other times you have run that route).    I don't know if I felt like crap today because of nutrition issues (I have lost about 6 pounds over the past 10 days) or because of whatever is wrong ... but blood tests are in the works and ultrasounds are scheduled for next week.  I can't tell you how frustrating this all is.  And no, it is impossible that I am pregnant.

PM: easy 4.

I hope you are all warm, dry, and running well!!  Sorry for the depressing paragraph, I am pretty frustrated, did I say that already? 

Did not wear a watch.  Ran very very very very (very) slow.  Felt like crap (again).  Almost didn't run, but I felt like if I am going to feel horrible anyway I might as well run.

Have meetings this afternoon, otherwise I would likely try to work from home.  

I hope you are all feeling well -- and if you have ESPN2 at your house there will be some awesome indoor track on Sunday.  I would summarize the Dubai marathon, but JakeK beat me to it ;-) -- highlights: it was FAST!!!!

AM: (8 miles, 1:11:26).  easy 8 ... ran by Big Boy and CoCo, gave them some carrots (CoCo was especially "lovey" today, she kept rubbing against me, I think because she was soaking wet from her "bath").  Man, horses are BIG.  Dover (the draft horse) weights 1600 lbs!  Big Boy is probably in the 900 lb range, and CoCo, probably about 200 less.  

PM: easy 4.  

Excited about watching the track meet tomorrow on TV -- it used to be "The Millrose Games", now it is called "Madison Square Garden US Open" (lame!).  Mo Farah just opened up his indoor season with a 3:39 1500 in Glascow (about equivalent to a 3:36 outdoor -- not great for a miler, but pretty good for a 5 -10K guy!).