I am one with the levee and the levee with me

AM - Easy 8 to start out the week. Fairly routine run... mornings are still a bit nippy, but the weather has been wonderful the last couple months. Probably means the winds are about to begin....

PM - Added an easy 6 along the Columbia. Track has started so I'm expecting to be running on my own a lot more.

AM - Easy 4 along the river. Warmest morning so far.

PM - 8 mile tempo. Goal pace was 6:00 but I clocked 45:33 on an unofficial course. It's one I've run several times and believe it's only off by .1 in either direction, maybe as much as .2. Doesn't matter a whole lot to me, the point is that I felt fantastic. I felt fast tonight, and I haven't felt that way in awhile. I think cutting back to 2 workouts a week was a good idea. I don't know what exactly went right, but it feels like everything is coming together very well. It was aerobically easy and for once my legs felt strong. I usually feel weak in the legs, but tonight was great. Maybe it's hills from two weeks ago, maybe it's the lunges I've added the past two Saturdays. I don't know. It just felt good. Measured my HR at the end at 135.

Tonight also gave me a chance to try out my new Lunar Racers. My local running store gave me a pretty good deal on last year's model and I'm pretty excited about them. I liked my Filas, but these just feel better. I'll see how I like them for faster stuff next week.

12 easy miles from Kamiakin. Went to the track to give Anthony some moral support in his speed workout he missed.

AM - Easy 7 from my parents' place. Spectacular sunrise this morning.

PM - Easy 7 again from my parents'. Spectacular sunset this time. Kind of a book end day today.

Easy 10. Ran the course I did on Tuesday in 1:13:16. Pretty sure it's very close to 10 miles. That's very encouraging.

In Seattle tonight, getting ready for the 3k tomorrow at UW. 

Disappointing race for me today at Dempsey Indoor. It was such a nice day in Seattle I think my body was just depressed to run indoors. Or maybe I just ran dumb. One or the other.

I seeded myself at 8:33 which is a lie but I wanted to get into the fastest heat and figured 8:33 was reachable. I mean, I ran 8:45 two months ago on less mileage and half-way barefoot, you would think that would factor to right around 8:33.

But I didn't get into the fastest heat. UW placed 3 of their own guys in the fast heat, despite having slower seed times than me. And yes, this bothers me. Yeah, I see the irony, my seed was a lie... but they didn't know that. What's the point of a seed time if you're just going to slip people in wherever you feel like? It's like that Seinfeld episode.

The one complaint I have with Dempsey is that they give the #1 seed the worst start position - right up against the rail. The 3k starts at the end of a curve, so if you don't get out really fast, you get boxed. Which means when you get out fast enough to get clear, everyone else falls in behind you because, hey you're the #1 seed, you're supposed to be fast. And I was arrogant enough to think I could beat them from the front. At first I thought it was working because I couldn't hear anyone behind me. 69 first lap. 70 second. Oh wait, I hear footsteps. Pick up the pace. Is that fast enough? I'm not sure, I'm out front and this feels fast, there's another 70, that's odd I thought I picked it up. My legs are starting to get tight, how are these guys still with me, they should be hurting too!

At the mile (4:39) this guy tried to go around me and I decided I decided to keep the lead wire to wire if I could, so I surged to keep him from passing me and make him run in lane 2. He started crowding me and trying to force me to let him take it so I gave him a few elbows and shoved him out of my space a little. It really really bugs me when runners crowd me from the outside. If you're going to pass, pass. Don't cut me off. Dumb move on my part, I should have been happy to let someone else take the lead and rest. When he finally managed to get around, 8 other guys were right there behind him, one right after the other, and going from 1st to 10th completely broke me.

So I led through 2k in 5:50 and ran the last 1k in 3:04. Not so hot. I'm trying to be positive here and chalk it up to experience. Plenty of lessons to learn from this one.

My goal for the coming weeks is to take better care of my body. I haven't been eating or sleeping well enough, I think it's time to improve.

Usually I take today completely off but my bro wanted to go for an easy run around Green Lake so I went with him. I promised he'd go about 8:00 pace but he decided to push it around 7:00. Pretty impressive for a pole vaulter, in my opinion.

12 miles tonight at about 6:50 pace along the river. Legs are not as after previous races, probably means I didn't push myself hard enough.

AM - 3 miles easy from my apartment.

PM - 6 mile tempo. Meant to feel it out at about 5:40 pace but I felt really really good and finished in 32:33.  

Single 12 mile run. Ran the same course as yesterday in 1:29:30 compared to yesterday's total time of 1:14ish.

AM - Easy 3. Seeing lots of skunks lately. Threw a rock at one and it stuck its tail up at me.

PM - Easy 7. Very very tired tonight. Glad not to have to go more.

PM 1 - Easy 4 after work. I'll finish up later tonight. The weather is turning nastier, had a windy afternoon followed by some rain. I don't expect to have another calm workout for the next 3 months.

PM 2 - 8 miles in 55:40. 

AM - First HS track meet of the year was today at Richland High so I had to go to the local middle school for my workout. My words last night proved almost prophetic, and I got to fight a 10 mph cross wind the whole time. 10mph isn't awful (I don't consider the workout blown out till it's gusting to 20mph), but it's definitely noticeable. And somehow it was blowing at such an angle that it was in my face on 3 sides of the track. Don't know how that works, but it was there.

My plan was 5x1000m in 2:55, 2:55, 2:50, 2:50, 2:50 with 3:00 rests. I wanted 3k pace at 5k volume with slightly longer rests to compensate. So in reality I ran the first 4 in 2:56 and the last one in 2:58. Not as fast as I wanted but I think it's in the ballpark, factoring in the wind. Finished the workout with 6x100m strides between 14.5 and 15.5 secs.

Afterwards I watched the 3200m and 1600m at Richland High. Some really good performances to start out the season. In fact, I can't think of a single negative... seems like everyone had good races. Our very own philerooski doubled with a 10:16/4:54. Also had a 9:42/4:40, 4:25/2:01, 4:33, and a few other sub-5s. I didn't catch the 800m, but it looks like we've got lots of good things to come this year.

PM - Finished out the week with an easy 8 miler. This is my fourth or fifth week at 80 miles and my body seems to be holding up just fine. I'm spending a lot more time stretching and icing and scraping than ever before, I'm sure this is making the difference.

There's nothing like a dose of reality to bring me back to earth. I measured out a couple miles on the river trail with a wheel and discovered that my easy pace is a lot easier than I thought. Like 20 seconds slower. So the 10 mile runs I've been doing out here are like 9.6 miles. At least, assuming I maintained the same pace once I reached the end of my 2-mile course. 

So anyway, 13 miles today... felt like it took forever. Focused on maintaining 7:00 pace out so that I could get an idea where my mile markers are and then returned in about 7:15 pace. Felt like a long time on my feet. 

AM - Easy 6 

PM - 4 mile tempo, testing out my new course. I marked off every quarter (following the tangents as best I could) and it seemed pretty accurate. The weather was beautiful all day long until I started my run, go figure, and then the wind picked up. The river trail is a little more sheltered than the rest of town, so 20mph winds in town were like 10 on the trail. It blew as a cross wind and rarely felt favorable either direction, although more so on the way back.

So headed out I hit splits of 5:15 and 5:19 for 10:34. The last half-mile runs up to the top of the dike and the wind was much more in my face, I believe I only managed 2:40 on that half. Paused at the turnaround for about 10 seconds to regroup and started back into it. That half-mile back along the dike was just as bad as coming, only managed 2:44 that direction.

Once I got down close to the river, though, things picked up. 2:41 next half for 5:25, then 2:40 and 2:32 to close it out for a 10:37 return trip. 21:11 for the overall time which I'm pleased with, all things considered.

Cooled down and added 6x15sec strides and about 30 lunges. I'm very happy with today's work. 

Found out today that my entry was accepted to the Oregon Preview. Looks like I'll be headed to Eugene this weekend! 

It's my birthday so I took today off. And I'm getting sick. Not a good birthday at all.

12 miles all at once, can you believe that? All at one time.

6 miles easy. Felt like poo. Tight chest, stuffy head. Bleh.

I submitted my entry to this meet a few weeks ago thinking it would be cool to go to a high level meet like this, not fully expecting to get in, but just that it would be cool. I managed to squeak in, but I got sick this week and had second thoughts about it. I felt like poop on my run yesterday. Literally. If you closed your eyes and felt me and then felt some poop, you couldn't tell the difference. It was that bad. 

But one of my goals this year is to take advantage of my healthy legs as much as possible and get some experience, so I sucked it up and made the drive down to Eugene last night after work. The drive was excruciating. It took half a gallon of Mt. Dew and 3/4 lb of M&Ms to keep me awake. This is what I call carbo loading. It didn't help that my CD player broke and I was forced to hum whatever songs I could remember to myself. (How did "Genie in a Bottle" get stuck in my head?! Dang you, American Idol!)

In my opinion, Eugene lives up to its hype of being a great place for track. Oregon really knows how to put on a meet, and they've got some amazing fans. I've never been to a meet where people just show up to watch. For no other reason than that they genuinely love track and field. It was awesome. There was this 60-something year old lady sitting next to me in the grand stands - all by herself - that knew runner's names and cheered and was more into it than my own parents have ever been into track. And I know this sounds like a little thing, but my name was printed on my bib instead of a number. Makes you feel kinda special.

I rolled out of bed around 10 and went for a light half-hour shakeout. I should've planned it out a little better since this wasn't exactly the most scenic tour of Eugene (I ran past all the waste management facilities... which somehow smelled like toast - it made me hungry) but it told me that my mix of drugs were doing their job to lessen my symptoms. My sinuses were relatively clear and the tightness in my chest wasn't as bad. It wasn't great, but I figured I could run a decent race.

My race plan was simple: run even 70s for as along as possible. My breathing felt like my limiting factor and I didn't want to kill myself early with a silly fast first lap. They ran all 30 of us in one heat, so that was a possibility if I got carried away.

They started us in a two-tiered waterfall, and somehow I had the good fortune of being on the inside of the second stagger. It meant I had a short route (as opposed to starting in lane 10, which some did) without having to fight everybody for position. And I ended up on the outside of the pack instead of trapped on the inside rail. There are perks to being seeded 23rd. 

The rest of the race is kind of a blur, but basically my plan worked as intended. A 70s opening lap left me near last place but kept me fresh enough to maintain right about 70 sec pace the rest of the way. I had plenty of people to pass (looking back I get a chuckle.... there were two or three guys I'd pass and then they passed me back and then I'd pass them... by the time I finished I felt like I'd passed everyone in the field) and I just focused on trying to hit straight 70s. I wasn't perfect but was close, coming through 1k in 2:56 and 2k in 5:54 (I think. My one complaint with the meet is the guy giving splits. He looked closer to pushing daisies than another birthday... it was very difficult to hear him). And somewhere along the way I passed a guy in an Oregon uni - what a great feeling that was.

I remember seeing the clock at 7:41 when I hit the bell lap and thinking I could dip under 8:50 with a good last lap. At first I was a little peeved with myself for not hitting a better final lap (there were plenty of runners to pick off, too), but my memory tells me I really gave it all I had. My chest was burning and I was fading fast. 70 seconds, not my most spectacular finish.

So 8:51. 18th place. 5 spots ahead of my seed, I can't be too upset with that, right? The funny thing is, the kid who won the race, Jordan McNamara, I beat him the last time we raced. He's a year younger than me, and he came to my hometown with his team in high school for a road 5k for whatever reason just after I graduated, and I beat him by 3 seconds. Now he's running 7:53 3ks... it just makes me wonder. All in all, I'm glad I went. It was a great experience and I'm pleased with running a decent race while less-than-healthy. And it was great seeing some of the races - watching Sally Kipyego run 4:10 wire-to-wire was epic. Cool stuff. 

AM - 6 easy

PM - 8 easy. 

AM - Easy 8.

PM - Easy 6. Switched it up today.

I've had a little twinge in my calf where I used to have problems since the meet. I've slapped some ice on it and it seems to be doing better. Think I'll hold off on my usual Tuesday workout. 

Big fat 0. I'm trying to think long-term and took the day off to let the ankle rest. 

Today started out looking like it would be a pretty beastly run. The weather reports were saying 15-20mph winds with 30mph gusts and it sure felt like it. Had to do some work out at my parents' so I ran from their house. If the river trail by my apartment is the most sheltered part of town, this is the least sheltered. I felt like I had the full force in my face for the first 3 miles, and then the wind died down a little bit to a level that normally irritates me but felt comfortable in comparison. 51 minutes out, 49:13 back for 1:40:13 total time. Ankle feels 100%. 

AM - 8 easy. Still breezy

PM - Late night run, 7 easy. Moon out, wind is gone... it was beautiful. 

I headed to the Richland High track after work for a 4x1600m workout. I was hoping to average sub-4:50 on these but fell a little short. With 3:00 rests, I hit 4:54, 4:49.9 (had to get under on at least one), 4:51, and 4:52. 

I need to start doing a full lap around the track before I start my workouts as I got halfway around before realizing someone had left some hurdles in lane 1. Who puts hurdles in lane 1 on the curve anyway? Ridiculous. So I stopped and moved them and started up again but it completely threw me off. I couldn't get out of a 74 s/lap groove till the last lap. Oh well. The workout was very taxing and should be a good indicator of what kind of 5k shape I'm currently in. I'm a little surprised, to be honest, I figured 4:50s would feel easier... I felt tight and sluggish the whole way. Something felt a little off. 

After the workout I hit the river trail for a 10-mile cool-down. I felt completely exhausted and halfway into it a lay down on the WSU campus and just stared up at the sky. It felt sooo good I almost fell asleep. Had some beautiful weather today after a crummy few days. 

As an afterthought... I was just looking at my profile pic and thinking about how my calves look disproportionately large. They look as big around as my quads... what's the deal? No wonder I kick myself when I run.....