track fan

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