track fan

1:46:37. Wow. My first desert trail run. It was really hard. We went to the Catalina State Park - our plan was to do a 6+ mile loop twice. Well, it was really steep, rocky, and sandy (what?) -- it was much longer than 6 or 7 miles too - I don't know if it was because we missed a turn-off (very possible as we were supposed to run on 3 different trails and I think we only ran on 2) or what ... but Dean ran it in 1:36/1:37. The last 5 miles or so were much easier (trail was more like a trail) except for the last mile which was essentially ankle deep soft sand! No water until about about 1:32 into the run -- which was not the plan, since it was pretty hot today. Luckily, we are pretty acclimated to running in the heat (since we start our long runs so late in the summer) - so 86F wasn't really too bad. I was glad to get some water - though I probably could have held out the the end of the run.

Next weekend we need to get up to Mt. Lemmon before it snows!

Happy Sunday bloggers. Tomorrow is our first day at our new jobs ...

You know, I really don't like to talk about weight - but, since this month is the end of 7 months of a self-imposed restructuring of my diet I thought I would mention that I am actually back to my "normal" pre-surgery/pre-40 year old weight.  I have lost 15 lbs and feel much more like my "old-younger-self" again.  I think it is helping my running, but regardless, I feel much better and that is what counts.  Even after being a vegetarian for 16 years I still managed to put on weight in my 40's and now it is gone again and I am happy.

AM: (1:21:33, 9.5 miles).  Modified fartlek workout.  I wanted to do 4 x 2000m tempo intervals, but I kept  missing some of the 200m markings (and the ones I did see I was pretty skeptical about the pace they set me as going).  So, I modified it to approximately 8` on with 3-4` recovery (I say approximately because I was trying hard to get an idea of my pace so I was trying to use the mile markers instead -- again I did not believe them!).  So, I ran 8:15, 8:47, 8:00 and 8:11 on with ~ 4`.  I finally was able to get an accurate mile reading the final one, HOLY COW, my original splits were right - I was running 7:00 - 7:05 pace!  I really really really did not think I was running that fast.  Actually, I was not supposed to be running that fast (tempo interval pace is about 7:15-7:25 for me).  I need to get to a track - and I need to get up to Mt Lemmon (8000 ft) so I can retain some of this altitude training benefit.  I am really shocked.   I am hoping, if I can stay healthy between now and Thanksgiving to be pleasantly suprised at my race time -- although cross-country courses are actually not really the best race to use for "time" - if I can break 22:30 for a xc 5K I would be happy at this point.  Next week -- tempo run (grrrrrr!).

PM: (3.5 miles).

Happy Election Day bloggers.

1:04:02. Very slow recovery run -- my legs are tired today!  I saw a baby hawk sitting on a fence - I stood about 5 feet from it and it did not budge -- very cool, but I am worried that he/she might be sick or something.  It was tagged with a metal band ...

Happy mid-week!

AM: (9.5, 1:16:34). 25` wu/cd 6 x 3` @ slightly faster than 10K effort w/2` recovery. Felt pretty good. My legs are still a little tired from Tuesday, but the faster stuff felt good. One thing about fartlek runs are that as you do the faster bits the slower bits get faster! So my cd was a little faster than my wu ...

PM: (3.5 - or more?). I am going to try to meet up with the BPR group tonight for my second run. Whoops ... did not make it. I wanted to meet up with LaurenO and Laszlo, but I was installing software on my work computer and just couldn't get out in time. Instead it was the same run as Tuesday (I am getting bad about blogging my 2nd run) - run on the soft dirt around Reid park, in the dark.

1:02:02.  Weird, I felt pretty bad today -- unmotivated actually (wrt running).  My legs felt bad, then they felt good, then they felt ok, and so on.  It was a strange multimodal feeling.  However, in the end, I went much faster than usual - unintentionally.  Also went a bit further than usual so either my 7's have been short, or this run was long -- but not by an amount worth counting!

Happy Friday bloggers. 

AM: (7.5 miles, 1:04:19). Felt pretty good today, probably because I had some work (cross-friction type of therapy) on my legs yesterday -- it hurt so bad that at one point I jumped off the table! But, today my legs felt much better - my foot hurt pretty bad for the first 10 mins but felt fine after that. I have been wearing an arch support band that really helps - but I seem to have misplaced it yesterday. I tried hard to get an early start this morning so I would have a couple more hours between runs, it gets dark so early here in the evening that 5:00 is the latest I can get out safely.

PM: (4 miles, 36:24).  Ran on some really cool trails about 15 mins from our house (driving).  There had been some sort of cross-country or mountain bike race there and there were arrows telling you where to go.  Sweet!  And, we got to see the sunset during the run -- if you haven't seen a desert sunset it is something to put on your "to do" list, it is beautiful.

Tomorrow we are going to do our long run on a fire road that goes up to Mt. Lemmon - this is the highest peak in the Santa Catalina Mountains (9,157 ft). The road is about 20 miles and is described by mountain bikers as "rolling". I am supposed to run for 2 hours, so depending on how tough the run us it will be 14-16 miles.