Doug's Running Thingy

Yesterday was a washout, literally because of rain all day, but more because I let time get away from me.  Made it to the track today for 2.5 miles warmup and then a little pyramid that turned into an even littler ladder - 100, 200, 300, 400.  Ran the 300 (49) and 400 (67) a little harder than anticipated, so bagged the back side of the pyramid.  Didn't feel too bad or strain too much on them, but definitely felt it in the quads and calves in the last 50 of the 400.  Was too nice a day to run smart... wanted to run a little bit fast.  Finished up with 2 laps and some stretching while watching a woman put her german shepherd through some obedience drills - very cool.

Have to fit my run around jury duty tomorrow - maybe I will get out early. 

30 minutes of plyometrics early and then 2 miles hard mid-day.

Very humid and 55 degrees this morning, so popped over to the trails -wooo.  Ran 2 miles easy to the start of the North Loop trail (0.8 miles of twisty, rooty single track), then worked that about as hard as I was able to - 5:18.  I've run it in 4:26.  Then an easy mile and a quarter back to the trailhead.  I plan to use this as a once-per-week gauge of my fitness over the next couple months leading into outdoor track.  The distance is certainly longer than what I will race (200, 400 and 800), but its a trail I've run many many times over the years and it is just flat out fun to run fast when I'm fit.  I was thinking I'd be closer to 5 flat today, but its been a long time since I've run the trail hard, and it was still a little dark this morning - sub 5 next week... as long as temps stay moderate.

Morning track workout today - nice to get it out of the way.  Ran 1.75 mile warmup from Maclay Gardens trailhead to the track.  Did 6 X 200 with 90 second jog/walk between the first 4, and then about 3 minutes each before the last 2.  Wanted to take the first 4 down from 35 to 32, and went 36, 35, 33, 32, so not too bad.  Last 2 I wanted to go 30 and 29, and I hit them at 30.25 and 30.10 - worked the turn on the penultimate and felt real strong, worked the straight on the last one and felt a bit rough.  All-in-all, I nearly felt like a sprinter.  Had to run the 1.75 return to the car a bit faster than I would have liked, since I had an 0830 conference call at the office.

Oh - I can report that the moon appears to have recovered nicely following the trauma of the other night.  It was 3/4 of the way to setting in the West this morning, and seems to be waning properly. 

Ravine trail plus north loop from the track (3 miles).  Then 2 400s and a half mile cool down.  The 400s were at 70 and 68.  I did the first and fourth of Travis' 4X400.  He wants to do this workout 2 or 3 times per week until he races the 1600 indoor in Gainesville at the end of January.  He's wanting to go sub-4:40, so he's doing four 400s at 70 or better to lock in the pace.  He did 70, 70, 71, 68 with about 30 seconds between - not bad.  He was satisfied, and he was duly impressed with the old man's effort.