A Lean and Hungry Look

Happy New Year!  Temperature is still frigid, so I bundled up and enjoyed a gorgeous, sunny morning.  Did the fire station to Shoreline loop.  The uphill sections and the snow-packed sections were tough, but it was great to be out after an unproductive Christmas break.  We've had family in town and have been getting to bed late every night, and it's been a struggle to stay on top of things at work and church, let alone take time for myself.  Time for a break from Christmas vacation.

Ran home from the office, took the long way (through Memory Grove, up to 11th Ave, across U campus and home).  Stopped at my car to grab a hat, which added a bit to the mileage.  Didn't wear my Garmin, so mileage is an educated guess.  I pushed the first and last miles and had a decent clip going by the end.

Gotta love that January inversion.

Since I left my car at work last night, I had to run in this morning.  (Stranding myself is sometimes a handy substitute for self-discipline.)  Other than hitting every red light between 700 East and my office on Main, it was a decent outing.  Plenty cold, but I had dressed appropriately, so no issues there.

I managed to sneak in a short workout between work and my dad's 60th b-day party.  Parked at Murray Park and ran around the outer loop (along part of the old XC course) a couple of times.  It was plenty cold, but the effort was just enough to be invigorating.

Given my schedule these days and the fact that Brooke and I are going to Boston together, I've decided to run the race with her (not just at the same time).  We've never done that, and I think we'll both enjoy the vacation a lot more if I'm not in pre-race stress mode in the weeks leading up to it. 

Since our treadmill at home will only work for Brooke (it's getting old and needs about $1200 worth of upgrades to bring it back up to speed), I'm looking into joining a health club for a couple of months in order to have an alternative for speed work and bad-air days.  As a result, I checked out the new Anytime Fitness franchise on 23rd East and ran there after work.  3 x 1 mile with quarter-mile recovery jogs in between.  First 2 were at 6:00, last one was 5:30.  I can tell I've packed on a few pounds since I last did speed work in the lead-up to SG 2009, but the effort felt better than I expected.  The biggest problem was that my feet kept heating up, and I finished with a blister or two.  It was nice to stretch the legs out, though.

I bought a 90-day membership at Steiner to get me through the inversion season, so I stopped on my way home from work to sneak in a workout.  I was going to do some tempo today, so I warmed up with an easy mile, then did the following:

Mile 2: 6:18 pace, 0.5% grade

Mile 3: 6:00 pace, 0% grade

Mile 4: 6:00 pace, 0% grade

Mile 5 6:00 pace, 1% grade until 5.5, then moved grade to 0% and increased speed by 0.1 mph every .05 until 5.9, then finished with final 0.1 at 5:00 pace.

Although the treadmill clearly doesn't mimic the road and the pace is unrealistically fast (probably by 30 seconds per mile), I like the fact that it forces me to use a little turnover and am hoping that by doing speed on the treadmill for a couple of months, I'll be ready to move outdoors when the roads and air are safer. 

Although the temperature was downright balmy today (low 40s), it was another red air quality day.  As a result, I retreated to Steiner for a dreaded treadmill-bound long run.  My mind feels numb after that fine experience, which I hope not to repeat anytime soon.  I listened to the worst This American Life episode I've ever heard (called "Say Anything"), and that didn't help matters.  The only thing that kept me from dying right there on the 2nd floor was the fact that I could watch the youth hockey game going on down below.  Even that was a snoozer, though--4-0 (and it wasn't that close).  I switched treadmills after 7 miles in hopes of breaking the monotony a little.  That helped, but only slightly.

That is all.

Between kids, work, and church obligations, this has been a tough week for running.  As a result, I resorted to stranding myself again by bringing my gear to Extra Space and running home, which forces me to run back there tomorrow.  After last Saturday's 13-miler on the treadmill, which felt like an ultra in terms of the mind-numbing boredom of running in place for an hour and a half, tonight's run home felt like a dream.  The sun was shining, the temperature was probably in the mid-30s, and each step took me forward, with something different to look at.  It made me remember why I normally run outside through the winter, no matter the weather.

I noticed soreness in my calves about halfway home, and I wonder if it's because I haven't been doing much with grade on the treadmill, or simply because running on real surfaces uses different muscles. 

Ran back to Extra Space pursuant to my stranding strategy.  The run wasn't quite as enjoyable as last night's, and I felt a little fatigued, but it was a great way to start my Friday and left me feeling slightly less guilty about the horrible week I've had in terms of getting my workouts in.

Brooke and I had carpool duties for Jacob's 6th-grade ski group today, and there were enough boys going that both of us had to drive.  Since the air quality wasn't great in the valley, we decided to drop the boys off at The Canyons, then go for a run together in Park City.  Unfortunately, the conditions up there weren't ideal for a 15-mile run--blowing snow and very few areas where you could run without being in the middle of the road or on unevenly packed trails (the Rail Trail was gorgeous, but 15 miles of trudging through semi-packed snow would have killed us).  We eventually decided to start at the Newpark rec center and ran east along the frontage road, Highland Drive), which has no shoulder and is heavily traveled.  After a mile of that, we decided to turn off onto Old Ranch Road, which was part of the marathon course when I did it in '06.  That was much better, and we enjoyed the next 4 miles, except for a stretch of 1-2 miles where we were running into a stiff headwind.  Since we were running together, though, the pace was slow and I had Brooke drafting behind me.  We could see a snowstorm up at the resort, from which direction the wind was blowing, so I knew we had a little trouble headed our way and decided to turn around at 5 miles instead of 7.5.  I did not realize how bad it was going to be, though.  Shortly after we turned around (we finished with a quarter mile or so on the equestrian trail that eventually makes its way to the Big White Barn), the snow started flying.  It got steadily worse until we were in a full-blown blizzard, with the snow flying horizontally from the left side and freezing our faces off.  The wind was blowing so hard and the snow was coming down so fast that the road was quickly covered, and we had to step off the road when the few cars on the road came by in hopes of not getting run over.  That lasted for about 2 miles, and it was pretty miserable.  As we turned back toward the north on Old Ranch Road, though, it started to let up a little.  With about 2 miles to go, the snow had stopped almost entirely, and by the time we made it back to the frontage road, the sun was shining.  The effort felt more like a 13-14 miler, but we were just grateful to have made it back safely.

Bad news: my achilles tendinitis is back with a vengeance.  After a couple of months of minimal mileage, I am paying for my back-to-back-to-back semi-long runs at the end of last week.  I started feeling AT pain in the first few miles of Thursday's 9.5-mile run home from Extra Space, so I made sure to stretch it more over the ensuing few days.  It felt better the next day (most of the run was slightly downhill, so that would make sense), but it bugged me throughout Saturday's run and was pretty sore in the final couple of miles.  As a result, I took Monday off and thought I'd be fine by today.  Not so.  I went to Steiner, warmed up with 1.5 or so at an easy pace, then planned to do 3 1-mile repeats with about 1/4 mile active recovery in between.  The first mile was at 5:27 pace and felt hard but not bad, except for pretty noticeable AT pain.  I stretched it a few times, jogged a bit, then went to try a second repeat.  The pain was bad enough that I knew it was time to call it quits.  In hopes of salvaging something, I went over to the elliptical and did a hard interval workout for 20 minutes.  I don't think the HR monitor was working right, because it kept putting me in the 140 range, which is where I am on a light jog.  The AT was bugging me the entire time, but I figured that the minimal impact from the elliptical wasn't going to exacerbate any damage.

When I stepped off the elliptical, I could barely walk.  I stretched for a while, then hobbled down to the shower, back to my car, then started icing it as soon as I got home.  I also took 3 prednisone tablets (left over from my last bout of AT) and iced it 3-4 more times before bed.

I've been over 2 years without any AT trouble, but it looks like I might be headed right back into the thick of it.  I'll wait a few days before doing anything active, then I'll start trying the eccentric loading exercises.  In the meantime, I'll try doing some weight training and stretching, and possibly some work on the stationary bike.

Good thing I'm not training to run Boston for myself.  It may be the perfect year to run it with Brooke.

Okay, I didn't run 15 today.  My left AT is still in pretty bad shape, so I haven't been able to run since Tuesday.  However, I'm now 5 days into my prednisone prescription and able to walk without pain most of the time, so I decided to try going to the gym to see what I could handle.  I ended up spending 30 minutes on a stationary bike (around 12 miles) and 90 minutes on 2 different elliptical machines (I needed a change of scenery to keep from becoming suicidal due to boredom).  I'm calling the effort the very rough equivalent of 15 miles.  After 30 minutes on the bike, I was starting to chafe (left the biker shorts at home), so I decided to try the elliptical to see if the AT could hack it.  I didn't feel any pain, so I kept going.  I realize that 90 minutes on a elliptical is not the same as running for 90 minutes on the road, or even on a treadmill, but that's about as close as I'm going to get for a little while.  I tried to keep an honest turnover going (between 175-225 strides per minute, depending on the tension), but I don't think my HR ever stayed much about 155 bpm (the machine I spent the last 60 minutes on kept wigging out and showing me at 235 bpm, then 100 bpm, then everything in between, so I really have no idea).

At least I have the elliptical as an option for a while.