I am one with the levee and the levee with me

12 easy after a long day of packing.

12 easy up around Baker Lake

I ran my first meet with the Western team today. It's a pretty laid back deal, but it's my first XC win. The race is set up as a 4 lap relay, each runner does 2.6 miles, and my time ended up the fastest for the day. 

I started with the first leg and paced off the leaders for the first half, which is flat and on a dirt path. First mile in 5:00, then it headed up into the hills. On the hills I pulled away without using any extra effort, which was very nice. Ended up winning by about a second. I felt like I could cut a bit of time off if I'd been pushed.

Cooled down with the team. Great start to the season.

First day of XC camp. Drove up to the cabin on Whidbey Island, then did an easy 7 out on the trails.

AM - 10 easy out on the trails. This is a runner's paradise... miles and miles of dirt trails through the woods.

PM - 4 easy

5x2000m workout out at one of the state parks. It's crazy how the weather is so different from one side of the island to the other. It was sunny and warm at the cabin, foggy and windy at the park. The course was half on grass, half on dirt path. I didn't like the grass -- very bumpy terrain. I ended up leading the group each rep except the last in 6:45, 6:31, 6:22, 6:18, and 6:16. We jumped in the Sound afterwards for an ice bath. I wasn't sure what to expect out of the workout, the first couple were a little slow. I think cutting the first two to 6:25s would be a bit better.

AM - 10 super easy on the trails. Definitely feeling the workout.

PM - 5 easy near Port Townsend. We took the ferry out here for some team games.

AM - 12 easy on the island.

PM - 4 easy from my apartment.

6 mile tempo in 33:54 in Bellingham. Out in 17:11, back in 16:43. Lighter load to make sure the recovery is sufficient.

10.1 easy on the Urb

10 easy on the Urb

AM - 4 easy from my apt

PM - 10 easy with the team. Drills.

10k workout at Lake Padden. 

3k - 10:18 / 3:00 rest

2k - 6:17 / 2:00 rest

1k - 3:05 / 2:00 rest

1k - 3:03 / 2:00 rest

1k - 3:10 (uphill) / 2:00 rest

2k - 6:08

Felt very, very good throughout this workout. I still think the first rep needs to be faster.

New shoes. Camping at Mt Baker, easy 12 on nearby forest service road. Fishing for pinks this afternoon was fantastic. Drills/stomach/pushups.

12 on same forest service road. 10x60s hill sprints w/ 60s rests. 5:00 pace effort. Lunges.

8 easy in Seattle. Feel well recovered.

I raced at Sundodger today in the men's open race. Coaches put us in the open so we understand this meet doesn't matter, it's more of a tune-up. Most of the top guys didn't race, just tempoed, but I used it to gauge where my fitness is. I haven't raced much in the last year or so, so I felt this would be a good chance to break some of the rust loose.

The start was crazy, lots of bodies everywhere. I went through the mile in about 60th in 5:00, and had to fight to protect my space. I hate having to do that, but oh well. I focused on maintaining pace and quickly started to pick people off. Lead group was within sight here and there, I wondered if I could make up the ground.

Second mile in 5:00 as well, people were starting to come back. I felt good. I zoned out and the 3rd mile came by in 5:04, I was in about 20th and there was a large pack about 30 yards ahead. I focused on catching them. I caught the leader of that pack before mile 4, he tried to hang with me so I surged on a slight downhill and he dropped. Reached 4 miles in 20:10, a personal best, meaning a 5:06 for that mile.

That pack was my last contact with any other runners, the leaders were out of sight. Monitoring myself, I was shocked at how good I felt. I knew I could hold pace at least through 10k and probably further, but without any targets in sight, I just focused on maintaining pace and not letting the guys behind me think they could come back on me. Ran the last .97 in 4:59, crossing the line in 25:09.

This is a blazing fast course, but I was shocked at how good I felt, kinda like I was tempoing. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to how things go the rest of the season.

Easy 8 from my apt, still haven't found any good trails this side of town. Lunges.

AM - Easy 4.

PM - 10 easy with the team. Drills.

6x1600m workout at Cornwall Park. Course has a nice steep hill just after the 1/4 mile, then some rollers from there to 3/4 mile, then steep downhill and back to the start the last 1/4. Challenging course. 3:00 rests.

Splits went like this:

5:03

5:00

4:57 

4:53 (Dak came up and led me on this one, helped out a lot)

4:54

4:51 (Big group came up on my shoulder and helped out the last half)

Tough workout, but I finally feel like I pushed the limits of my current fitness. Aerobically, I was doing fine -- measured the HR at 160 right after the last repeat. My legs, however, felt fatigued and wanted to give out on me several times over the last 2 reps. This is a new sensation for this season, and I chalk it up to biking to campus this morning. I haven't been on a bike in awhile, and the climb up to campus made my legs burn. The team also had an amazing workout as I had 7 or 8 guys right on my heels the whole way. Exciting things to come.

AM - 4 easy from the apt. I finally found a trail that cuts right through my neighborhood. Somehow I've been running blindly by it each morning. My legs felt surprisingly good, and I didn't have any of the muscle fatigue I was expecting after yesterday's workout.

PM - Muscle fatigue showed up this afternoon, probably due to all the hills around campus. 10 miles super easy (8:00ish) to Whatcom Falls. 

Medium 5-mile loop called Rollercoaster, most of it at around 6:00 pace with surging on the hills. I hate saying this, but there was nothing I enjoyed about this run besides the fact I can run and am not injured. I'm not recovered from Tuesday yet, and the last thing my legs wanted to do was push some hills and tempo, even at 6:00 pace. But oh well, I'll get time to rest and recover. 

Halfway through the run I was thinking, "I should be loving this. Where's that positive attitude I've had, where's the fresh legs I've been getting?" But I realized that some days are just going to be like this. It's okay to not feel good, to want to take it easy, to not enjoy every single run. It's part of the daily grind.

At the same time, I am surprised at how heavy my legs feel. The last two workouts, I've felt ready to go the next day, but this week has been different. I did push this workout a bit more, but I'm also worried about iron levels. I got my blood checked a few weeks ago, and I'm lower than I'd like to be despite taking large doses of iron for the last few months. If I'm still feeling fatigued this time next week, I may need to make some changes.

Well it seems the running gods smote me today for saying that last week's race was so easy. Today's race pretty much hurt start to finish. 

We raced at 11:30, and by then the sun was beating down on us and the course had heated up to close to 90 degrees. Blazing hot for Spokane. At the start line, I was surprised to see one of my former runners from Kamiakin right next to me. It was really cool to be lining up next to him, and we wished each other good luck. I almost went down in the first 100m -- I got lost in the crowd of 250 runners and didn't notice the hill that rose up right past the start line. Duh. Somehow I stayed on my feet.

They only had the mile and 4k marked, and I'm pretty sure neither was accurate. I reached the mile mark in 5:11 in about 80th place and started to work my way up. The nice thing about not having distance markers is it forced me to pay more attention to the people around me. I just focused on rolling up all the guys who had gone out too fast. You'd think by college people would figure out pacing.

By what must have been two miles into the race, my legs were aching and I was thinking I might be in trouble. I caught up to one of my teammates right after the 4k mark (12:20, like I said, probably not accurate), and on the long downhill I finally started to feel good. I tried to pull him along with me, but just focused on reaching the next pack ahead of me.

The good feeling didn't last long. As I came into where mile 4 should've been, I had a large pack about 30-50m ahead. I was still feeling good and I thought I could catch them. But as I went up the next rise, I felt a tremendous burn in my legs. I stumbled and felt like my legs might go out. As I crested, I tried to put in a little surge to get the momentum back, but I couldn't quite get up to speed. The pack was still coming back, but much more slowly now. My legs continued to buckle, and I started to think that just getting to the finish would be great. I glanced at my watch, figured I had about 3:00 left, and tried to throw in another surge.

I caught one more guy, and had to work hard rounding the final turn to keep him behind me. I was so happy to cross the line on my feet and without losing a spot.

Considering how hard this week has been, I'm really happy with how the race went. Despite being so tired, I still had a kick and was nearly able to run as fast as the Sundodger course. This course is pretty flat, but the grass is deep and there are all kinds of little rises and twists and turns that prevent you from getting into a good rhythm. Should be a great course for nationals.

10 easy. Turns out that trail near my place is only about 1/2 mile long. What's even the point? I wandered around Bellingham trying to find trails, but it seems there's nothing good around my apt. Grrr. But anyway, I enjoyed this run despite the wind and rain. Felt good to just roll along at an easy 7:30-8:00 pace.

12 easy on the Urb

Interval workout today. Kind of a strange setup, 5 sets of 1200m + 600m with 200m jog between reps and 400m jog between sets. By my watch that was typically 1:30 between reps and 2:30 between sets.

3:55 (uphill) 1:48 (down)

3:48 (up) 1:52 (up and down)

3:35 (down) 1:48 (up)

3:33 (down) 1:48 (up)

3:27 (down) 1:44 (up)

This workout felt refreshing compared to last week's workouts. A little less volume, a little more speed. But I think the LunarRacers have worn out completely, I was feeling rocks very sharply in the ball of my right foot. Time to get new ones.

10 easy around Lake Paddend

Easy 90 minutes on the Urb. Meant to get up this morning to split things up, but I was still sooo sleepy. 8hrs a night doesn't seem to be enough.

Cleater Challenge today. 3 mile warmup, then 2 mile tempo to the base of Cleater, then 3.3 miles of basically straight incline. I ran as fast as I could and only managed 26:04 from bottom to top and wanted to die when I got there.