Doing What I Can

completely different weather today than yesterday...4 miles tonight where it was 30 degrees with 30 mph winds and gusts to 50, been crazy cold and windy overnight into today. as a result was pretty bundled up to get in my first run of 2012.

1- 7:23.4

2- 7:02.8

3- 6:52.3

4- 7:00.6

total-- 28:19, 7:05 avg pace

Been terribly sick the last 2 days...actually for about a week now ive been battling this infection that appeared to be in my ears and nasal area but according to the doctor, its all through my chest and head and its a virus so ive had to let it run its course. peaked the last 2 days in intensity so i had to forgo running. Today was better so I'm hoping all the rest and fluids are starting to take care of the situation. I went down to the gym to get a few miles in on the treadmill..actually tonight was my first ever run on a treadmill believe it or not...afterwards im here to report that it was probably one of my last, im not a fan, the thing totally changes your running form and it feels so unnatural to hold a steady pace that long, no one does that in real life, running is about eases and surges and running by feel, not being directed by a machine (now granted, when running outside, i find it awesome to hit metronome like paces because that is a manmade achievement). Anyways, thats my take on treadmills after having tried one. 4.25 in like 30:35, kept increasing the pace, started at 8 to get my bearings and make sure i wasnt gonna fall off, then ran most of it between 8.5-9.0mph (7:08-6:44 pace)

beautiful weather today, 65 degrees on January 5th, pretty sure the entire state broke records today. Im still recovering from my virus, and my lungs are on fire when i rung cuz im hacking up all the crap from the last few days. worst part about being sick is the lung hangover. sounds like i smoke a pack a day or something...haha

1- 6:52.7

2- 6:49.1

3- 6:57.9

4- 7:08.2

5- 7:04.0

6- 7:27.0 hill kicked my wheezin butt today

total-- 42:18, 7:03 avg pace

4 easy today, my lungs are just still full of crap and it takes everything i have just to breathe on these runs, will get back into the grind again soon im sure. 30:11, 7:33 avg pace

7.5 in 55:23, 7:23 avg pace on the dreadmill, not fun but had no time today so it hadda cut it. felt pretty good tho.

5 tonight after work in the full moon light, 33 degrees and no wind, felt decent. 35:56, 7:11 avg pace

4 then bear attack struck with full force, kind of unexpected, made the last 1.5 very uncomfortable..but i did make it back...barely. first 2 miles were both 7:05, pretty steady early..never got in a rhythm. 40:00 total for 7:16 avg pace, althought most of the last mile was interrupted with "don't crap your pants" stops for about 30 sec intervals.

5 mile slogfest this morning, weather wasnt actually too bad, just felt like i was running in wet cement cuz my legs were apparently tired. 37:54, 7:35 avg pace. strides after

 side note, since my sickness, ive hit 37.5 in the last 7 days for 5.4 a day, not too shabby as im trying to build, now i need to decide if i should take a day off this week..

swam a lot, felt good to get some cross training in, back at it tomorrow

weather is awful today, makes sense given all the good weather we've been blessed with lately. it was 10 degrees with wc's between -10 and 0 with 30mph winds, so definitely not a day i was gonna run outside. decided to hit the treadmill for a "long" run of 9 miles, the treadmill only runs for 60 minutes so i had to pause quickly to restart it near the end of the run. splits on my watch taken during each mile on the mill:

1- 7:15.3

2- 7:02.3

3- 6:58.4

4- 6:48.2

5- 6:50.1

6- 6:49.4

7- 6:37.6 really cranked the mill up here

8- 7:06.9

9- 7:08

total-- 1:02:37, 6:57 avg pace

felt pretty good overall today

cold run outside today, 20 degrees with wc in the 5-10 range, decent west wind, not near as bad as it has been though plus it was sunny and clear, so i figured id run outside. hit pretty good splits and felt pretty comfortable:

1- 6:52.5

2- 6:50.5

3- 6:54.3

4- 7:05.7

5- 7:02.8

6- 7:14.5 decent work on the hill today

total-- 42:00, 7:00 avg pace, nice even run, actually ran faster into the wind, prolly cuz i wanted to get it done

6x40m  strides after

a little sore this morning, but inspired by the olympic trials, what a strong team! 20s and light snow the entire run..big ole fluffy flakes. splits:

1- 7:20.2

2- 7:20.45

half mile split of 3:50ish

3.5- 7:20.45 same split to the hundredths of my last full mile

4.5- 7:44.6 hill

TOTAL--33:38, 7:29 avg pace

pretty sore tonight during the run, my stride feels off..im not sure whats up..i doubt the treadmill screwed me up this bad, so im guessing just the increase in mileage has got me tight. pretty nice night, ran in shorts and long sleeves, mid40s with light winds splits:

1- 7:13.6

2- 7:13.1

3- 7:17.9

4- 7:03.6

5- 7:05.6

6- 7:06.6

7- 7:06.9

total-- 50:07, 7:09.5 avg pace, pretty steady overall, settled in a little the last 4 miles and was able to stride it out some, tried to run out the soreness

4x50 strides then cold tub

5 after work, started in the twilight ended in the darkness, threw a surge in halfway through to get some GHMP miles in, banged out a 12:16 but that felt tough in the cold and wind, first effort at anything faster than slow MP since this training cycle started, will slowly incorporate more speed and continue to increase mileage. splits:

1- 7:00.3

2- 6:57.5

3- 6:07.6

4- 6:08.7 (12:16, 6:08 avg pace)

5- 7:12.6

TOTAL-- 33:26, 6:41 avg pace

i dont know how "easy" todays miles actually were..full-fledged blizzard conditions outside with a few inches of snow underfoot and below zero windchills with 20-30mph winds hammering me the whole run. needless to say i didnt take splits today, just got a total time of 31:14, 7:49 avg pace, which given the conditions was definitely a win! barely any traction the entire run, slippin and sliding, bundled up big time, today was the mental equivalent of 10 miles.

In other news, signed up for the Prague Marathon officially last night. registration is in and on may 13, 2012, i will make that dream a reality! goal is sub 3!

thought about taking a rest day as i was a little tired, but figured 3 was better than nothing. cold morning, windchills in the single digits. lots of snow still on the ground, footing was awful. 3 with no splits, 22:38, 7:33 avg pace

about as cold of run as ive had in a while, temps were around 8 degrees with windchill between -5 and 0. at least the winds had calmed and it was sunny, apparently the wc was -15 overnight. i battled with myself over whether to do this run on the treadmill as i knew the windchill was going to be below 0, but i decided to tough it out and build some mental strength. 10.5 miles in the bitter cold..i felt surprisingly good throughout the run however, that was a nice sign. very bundled up, splits:

1- 6:49.1

2- 6:54.8

3- 7:04.2

4- 7:08.9

5- 7:15.5 uphill (35:12, 7:02 pace)

6- 6:55.6 downhill

7- 7:08.8

8- 7:12.2

9- 7:01.5

10- 7:17.9 big hill (1:10:48, 7:05 pace)

last .5- 3:33

TOTAL-- 1:14:22, 7:05 avg pace

overall, very happy with this run as i am getting my mileage up and i still felt good given the awful conditions to run in

negative windchills for the 2nd straight day forced me onto the dreadmill, 5.5 in very easy fashion, 40:30 for 5.5, 7:22 mill pace.

really good run today, weather was still cold, 22 degrees with wc of 10, but the wind was down and at my back for most of the tempo portion of the run, wanted to get out and hit ghmp or 6:00 per mile, actually ended up hitting way better than that, hit a warmup mile then went straight into the tempo splits were:

1- 5:52.5

2- 5:54.4 (11:47)

3- 5:47.1

TOTAL-- 3 mile tempo, 17:34, 5:51 avg pace

cooled down with 3, overall it was a 7 mile run total for 47:01. nice little tempo to throw in the middle of the run today. probably taking tomorrow off, then getting back after it next week

day off from running, i hit the pool to swim some laps instead. got in about 1100-1200 meters total, swimming is such a good cardio workout, its been very helpful crosstraining on my off days..specially cuz its no impact on the legs which is obviously beneficial to runners. back on the roads tomorrow.

horrible day for running, it wasnt too terribly cold, 28 with wc in the teens, but there was a thick coating of ice on everything. needless to say running on an ice sheet is difficult. still managed a decent 6 miles though.

1- 7:15.8

2- 7:10.0

3- 7:19.2

4- 7:12.7

5- 7:10.0 same mile as number 2...odd that i ran it both ways equally

6- 7:29.8 ice hill

total-- 43:37, 7:16 avg pace

ice bowl part 2, temp was better today, 30 degrees with almost no wind, sun was shining and felt ok there, however the trail was probably worse today cuz the thin layer of snow had melted and it was an ice sheet today with almost nowhere to get traction. slowed me down quite a bit. splits:

1- 7:15.2

2- 7:06.8

3- 6:55.4

4- 6:50.8

5- 6:54.9

6- 7:20.6

7- 7:35.1 hill

total--49:58, 7:08 avg pace, slipped quite a bit after 5, the 3-5 mile splits were relatively better footing than the other 4 which were the same miles given the out and back, decided to slow down and make sure i didnt fall the last 2

strides after

new shoes are always something to write about! nice evening for a run, no wind, decent temps near 40. splits:

1- 6:58.3

2- 7:04.2

3- 7:11.6

4- 7:08.5

5- 7:02.4

6- 6:49.9

TOTAL-- 42:15, 7:02.5 avg pace, 14 second negative split the 2nd half btw

long run today. definitely ran it way too fast..need to work on slowing it down on the longer training runs. pretty sore and crampy as i sit here later this evening writing this. the weather was pretty decent..i do think i was over-dressed though. 

1- 6:47.1

2- 6:49.5

3- 6:58.7

4- 7:08.1

5- 7:27.6 uphill and quite icy for some reason only on this mile

6- 6:30.3 downhill

7- 6:59.0

8- 7:07.2

9- 6:52.4

10- 7:07.1 (10 miles in 1:09:37, 6:58 pace) on the bright side, really attacked the daily hill

11- 7:11.7

12- 6:48.7

total-- 1:23:37, 6:58 avg pace, felt about as sporadic as my splits

5 easy today, my legs were sore so i tried to consciously slow down. 36:44 for the run, 7:21 avg pace. minor concern was that my left knee was hurting, not where the IT-band is but rather above and behind the kneecap, will ice and see how it feels in the am. may opt for the soft surface of a treadmill tomorrow.

treadmill today for a cushioned and controlled run in case my knee acted up, dropped it down to 6:00 pace from mile 2- mile 4.25, then eased off, felt winded cuz it was 73 in the gym and im used to training in the 20s outside. cooled down on the mill til 6, was gonna try to get 7 but my knee started aching ever so slightly, so i decided not to press it. listen to your body!

42 miles this week, same total as last week, except i ran 1 less day this week, so higher mileage per day avg. cutback week approaching, will shoot for 30-33 while taking wednesday off as a travel day as my wife and i move to germany for 4 months.

5 easy this afternoon, pretty nice day outside, upper 30s, light winds. felt pretty good, knee tightened up again near the end, but its prolly cuz i was wearing shorts and my knee was getting a little cold.splits:

1- 6:55.7

2- 7:02.5

3- 7:14.0

4- 7:06.3

5- 7:17.6 hill

TOTAL-- 35:36, 7:07 avg pace

record high temps today in iowa, 62 degrees!! absolutely gorgeous outside. got in a nice 6...felt nice to not have to wear a hat and gloves in january. splits:

1- 6:59.5

2- 6:54.3

3- 6:59.6

4- 6:58.8

5- 6:51.8

6- 7:09.3 hill

total-- 41:53, 6:59 avg pace

pre-flight 4, last run in iowa for 4 months! we leave for germany this afternoon! very nice day as a parting gift, already mid to upper 40s, felt great out there. splits:

1- 7:14.3

2- 7:14.6

3- 6:59.2

4- 7:05.7

total-- 28:33, 7:08 avg pace, started to loosen up towards the end