Doug's Running Thingy

Nothing yesterday due to too many hours working and not enough hours sleeping.  Got in 5-6 hrs sleep last night, so jumped out to the trails this morning for my weekly north loop time trial.  Once again sneaked under 5 minutes for the 0.8 mi loop (4:54).  Warm up and cool down mileage was between 8:30-8:45 pace.  Probably do 2-3 miles this evening if wifey wants to walk the trails after work... as long as I don't need to pull another all nighter here at the office.

Decided to make tomorrow the 5th Saturday in a row that I do a local race - 5K mix of road and trail, so I just ran a little 3-mile shakeout run this morning.  First mile easy (8:30), then pressed a little bit in the middle mile (7:17), and cruised on back to the house at 7:41 for the last mile.  I've never run tomorrow's course before, but it shapes up very similar to the one on which I ran 19:54 three weeks ago, so I'm thinking 19:49 is a good goal.

Tropical storm to our west sucked most of the heat and humidity away for the morning, so it was 69 and really nice for the race.  Not many folks showed up other than several JV-type XC boys (this was a fundraiser for a local high school's sports program) and only a handful decent locals - total of 110 runners.  There was more single track trail than I thought, and a finishing hill that was pretty nasty, so just breaking 20 minutes was perfectly fine for today.  Finished 9th overall and 1st old guy - of course, the one race ever that I snag 1st master, I had to leave right away before the awards ceremony - ah well. Its been a pretty fun five weekends of racing - might come to an end next week as we travel to Mobile to watch the boys first XC meet... hmmmm maybe there's an open division  :)

Figure 8 trail run plus north loop and new trail.  No issues with the black hole on this mid morning run - interesting.  Struggled a bit from 4.5 to 5.5 miles, but then finished strong in the new trail portion - I likes the single track twisty stuff.

Could only muster a half mile walk late in the day.  Spent the 12 hrs from 6am to 6pm either atop or afore the porcelain throne with some sort of truly nasty bug.  Finally feeling alive again at 11pm.  Hopefully sleep will come easily and last long.

walked a half mile this evening... very slowly

full mile walk this evening - wouldn't wish this episode on my worst enemy - another doctor visit tomorrow

So the digestive disease specialist says bacterial gastroenteritis - also known as really nasty stomach bug... either that, or ischemic colitis or ulcerative colitis or colon cancer - definitely my new favorite doctor.  She did say I could run tomorrow at least, as long as I have no pain.  I'm planning on having no pain and getting in a couple miles - this is ridiculous.

Best two mile run/walk I've ever had - heh.  I'm no high milage or streak runner kinda guy, but that 4 days of zeroes is the longest I've gone without running since blowing out my knee five years ago.  If I had eaten about half a bagel beforehand, I think I could have gone longer or thrown in less walking - actually felt pretty good.  Back at it.

Probably more than 1.5 total while photographing and encouraging runners between the two XC meets I attended today, but that'll work.  Lisa and I headed out early to attend the girls and JV boys meet in Marianna - they did well.  We then jumped back on I-10 to continue west to Mobile for the boys varsity meet in the evening.

Once again, to the shock of the team, coach was proven right in taking them to this out of town big time meet for some distraction and early good competition.  Travis had expressed concern that the boys, who have shown waning motivation as summer ended, would fold under pressure and come back with their tails 'tween their legs.  Quite to the contrary, they finished 3rd with a team average 17:31, top five all under 18 and a 1-5 split of 30 seconds - unheard of for our team over the last 4-5 years.  Trav was a little disappointed that he didn't get closer to 17 flat (ran 17:15, 21st overall and 1st on the squad), but was pleased with the team performance.  Coach told them he expected at least 40-60 seconds drop from each of them by State in mid Nov, and that they should start expecting more from themselves and should start practicing and racing more confidently. 

Felt pretty much back to normal on this easy short run this evening.  Actually dropped the middle mile down to 7:30ish and felt fine.  I think I will go ahead and just ramp straight back up to 25-28 miles for this week since my setback had nothing to do with physical injury or anything.  Will certainly pay attention to my bod and readjust as needed, but I'm psyched to get rolling again.

Good run this evening at the trails.  Did the figure 8 five miler with miles of 8:05, 7:57, 7:33, 7:33 and 7:43 - quite satisfactory.

Five miles at lunch on the bridle trails in the neighborhood.  Kept it right at 8 min pace .  Right calf and left quad a bit sore last 2 runs - interesting.  I kinda think it may have been all the squatting for shooting pics on Saturday - hmmmm.

Planned to do 6 in the neighborhood at about 8 min pace, but at one mile in I really felt no energy and no motivation to be on the roads.  I bagged the distance and pace, and circled the neighborhood at about 9 min pace - live to fight another day.  Will do my weekly trail time trial tomorrow morning - always good for a lift.

Terribly lovely morning on the trails - a bit dark to start, so I did the first mile back and forth on the power line easement.  Once it was light enough, I did another mile up to the start of the north loop and then did my time trial.  Felt really good, but didn't press particularly hard, so just under 5 minutes was fine (4:58).  Finished up another two miles easy back to the jeep.  Legs and energy level much better today.

Mid morning start to Travis' cross country race, so I went out early to the course and ran it plus a bit before the teams hit it.  Compared with the last couple years, they really dumbed it down - no single track portion and lots of asphalt to go with now having to run the big half-mile uphill section twice.  I felt totally back to normal today for the first time in a week - whew.

This was another race that coach told Trav and the team to run for place and not worry about time at all.  Worked out well for them as they won the team title by 4 points, even without their #2 runner.  Not as impressive team average or top 5 split as last week, but they all raced well.  Travis ran really well for 2nd overall at 17:06.  Definitely a pleasant surprise considering this course was tougher than last week, and the temp was starting to crank up as the gun fired at 10:45.  Most importantly, he reported that he had fun and felt great for the first time in quite a while. 

Couldn't fit in a run yesterday, but the yardwork and housework and napping was surely beneficial to my training.  Out the door this morning as the sun rose to a lovely 65 degrees.  Ran 5 miles in the neighborhood with the three middle miles down around 7:40 and the others at 8 minutes.  Nice steady run for me.

Had to break out the headlamp to hit the trails this morning - ran the figure 8 plus north loop.  Darkness made for a very tentative first couple miles, but there was enough light by the time I hit the upper loop to move a little faster.  First two miles at 8:30, and the next four steadily dropped from 8 to 7:30 pace.  Nice run.

Well the wife wouldn't let me run yesterday after my colonoscopy, but I got out there this morning in a nice light rain.  Did the north loop time trial thang and actually went a couple seconds faster than last week (4:56).  Easy 2 miles before and easy 2 miles after.  Good to have all this GI bidness behind me now - onward!

Basic figure 8 trail this evening.  First and last miles easy and the middle miles steady 7:30 pace.  Huge race for the boy child in the morning - FSU Invite on the course he first broke 17 minutes on.  He's looking to go 16:30ish - we'll see about that - I expect 16:48.

Got in at least 1 mile of fartlek work this morning at Travis' XC meet, and then ran 4 in the neighborhood steambath this evening - nice steady negative split down to 7:18 for last mile.

Travis continued his progression for the season with a decent 16:56 on a steamier than hoped for morning.  That is the exact same time he ran at this meet last year, but the meet was 3 weeks later in the season and 10-12 degrees cooler.  All-in-all a good effort pointing to nice improvement as we go through the season.  The rest of the squad really struggled for some reason, so that was Trav's biggest concern.  They have a couple weeks to regroup before next meet.  

The brief flirtation with fall last week has given way to another week of summer.  Heat index over 80 this morning before 7am for my 6-miler around the neighborhood.  Luckily, at about 4.5 miles, a light rain showed up and made things a bit more bearable.  Circuit training this evening - must get back to that and core work on a regular basis!

Threw on the headlamp (with fresh batteries - made a difference compared with last week) and hit the trails before sun-up today for a nice trip around the figure 8.  Tentative first couple miles so I didn't break an ankle, but then pressed the pace on down to 7:48, 7:46, 7:28.

Started my weekly north loop time trial run at the track this morning so I could do the first 10-12 minutes on the track before the sun was up.  Bonus was that I got to hear about Travis' morning workout... they started a bit before 6am!  Today was 3x1,600 with 90 seconds rest - 2 weeks ago he went 5:15, 5:35, 5:18 on this workout - today he did 5:16, 5:15, 5:04.  Trav and coach were both quite pleased - coach did admit giving him 30 extra seconds before the last one.

Trav inspired me to go under 5 minutes again on the 0.8 mile north loop - 4:56, same as last week.  Added a couple miles cool down to bring the total to almost 5. 

Hilly 5 miler in the neighborhood this morning - one of my "go to" runs for two-a-days when I was playing around with marathon training - ahhh, the good old days. Pretty sure I'll take tomorrow off, and then hit the track on Saturday - no XC race this weekend.