Doug's Running Thingy

14 miles on the mountain bike today.  Rode up to the trail course that I raced yesterday.  The "approximately 4 miles" turned out to be 4.1 per the cycloputer and 4.13 per Garmin - cool.  Looking at the gps track, the third mile wasn't actually as consistently uphill as it seemed - interesting - was only from about 2.0-2.25 that was uphill.  I guess that section just wiped me out mentally.  Was a good ride today for a little cross training.

Finally got out to the track for a morning workout today.  Cooler, fewer folks on the track, and more pep in my step than evening workouts.  Ran 2 and a quarter miles warm-up at about 7:15 pace, then did three 200s and three 300s, alternating between the distances.  Pretty much full recovery - about 3 minutes.  Did the 200s in 34, 32, 31, and the 300s in 54, 52, 49.  Finished up with two barefoot laps around the infield.  Paying close attention to food intake, and doing more consistently intense workouts - already down 2 lbs since Thurs - 'bout 6-8 more to go.

Hill work this morning in the neighborhood.  Bit of a rainstorm last night made things coolish but muggy this morning - could be worse.  Ran 2.2 miles warm-up and then 4X200 meter hills (45, 43, 42, 38 - yep, felt pretty feisty on the last one) with about 500 meters recovery jog in between.  Finished up with a half mile around the neighborhood.  Lower abs soreness never really abated today like it usually does after a mile or so.  Will take tomorrow off before racing the 200 meter on Thurs evening.

Real easy run on the trails to loosen up the legs and lower abs - mostly worked.  Ran between 8:15-8:30 per mile in the 90 degree, 90% humidity evening - ahhhhh.

Might have to admit that the self-diagnosed sportsman's hernia is affecting me more than I thought.  Wholly unsatisfying effort at the track meet this evening.  Did a 2.2 mile jog and felt I was warmed up enough for the 200, but never really got into a strong sprint - weird.  Ran 27.42 when I fully expected low 26 - hmph.  Jumped right back on the track after that and cruised through a 2:32 800 and then immediately into a 14:04 2-mile after the 800.  So, if nothing else, it was a pretty good workout at least.  Gonna drop my Doc an email this evening and just pick his brain on the self-diagnosis - he's a runner and we discussed it a bit last year about this time when it flared up - he's not a big believer in the whole sportsman's hernia phenomenon in general.  

Nothing but dumbbell workout yesterday, and no running today either.  Did 15 miles on the mountain bike - right at 80 minutes - good workout with no strain on the lower abs.  Probably do 20 miles on the road bike tomorrow and some light stretching/yoga.  Feels quite a bit better today, so maybe by Monday I can test it out with a little 4-miler or something.  Will baby it through Thursday so I can try to race the 400, then I will totally back off the track work and just go with base mileage for the rest of the summer and set my sights on a couple little 5 Ks in the fall.  I'll finish out the summer track series... 800, mile, 2-mile, 5K, but no more sprinting for a while - thus is life.