Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 12 miles easy w/ Andrea, then added on a couple more.

PM - 3.6 miles shakeout. 

Another 2:03 marathon in Frankfurt today. Kenya is going to have to leave a 2:03 guy at home for the Olympics next summer... they have 4 now! Unbelievable. Inspiring to see this new generation of marathoners who simply attack the distance. This is exactly how I am approaching Philadelphia from a mental perspective... no fear, no limits.

AM - 7.5 miles up to work. I've run 425 miles in the last 3 weeks, so I'm starting my gradual taper now. I don't want to cut back too much this week, but there is also no point in running anymore big mileage weeks. I'll probably run ~100 miles w/ three workouts planned. Say a prayer for Andrea... when I run fewer miles I have lots of extra energy, and therefore I'm extra annoying :-)

PM - 10 miles. Shorter workout today. Ran 4.5 miles down to the track, then did a 5K Tempo in 16:22 (5:17, 5:15, 5:12, 39), jogged a lap, then 8 x 200m in 33.2 seconds. Jogged another lap and then called it a day. Andrea shot a bunch of slow-motion video of me running, so I'll get to see how my form looks.

Here's arguably the best Halloween costume I've ever made... this was 2007, obviously, since robot technology has improved so much since then...
 

AM - 2 miles. Just a quick shakeout before work. I needed to find a way to cut back my mileage this week, so taking the morning off seemed like a good idea when I woke up and the rain was pouring... just went back to sleep for an extra hour instead. Andrea shot some higher-speed video of me running last night, which is pretty cool, but now that I know our camera has this capability, it guarantees I will be spending a lot of time editing skiing footage this winter!

PM - 10 miles w/ Andrea. Legs felt good. Glad we waited until after work to do this run because it was a very pleasant evening. 

AM - 6.5 miles around campus. 

PM - 10 miles. Workout was a 3 mile marathon-pace tempo on the roads, then to the track for 1600-1200-800-400, and finishing with another mile @ MP. 

Splits were 15:57 (5:19, 5:21, 5:17), 4:49, 3:38, 2:26, 70, 5:15.

I was a little disappointed in the 12-8-4 portion of the workout... my stomach started acting up about halfway through the 1200, and if I had tried to run any faster on the 8/4, it might have been a disaster! I like doing these step-downs and hitting the last couple reps hard.... the legs were OK w/ that plan, but my stomach wasn't letting that happen today. No big deal... and on the bright side, I felt like I was jogging for the last 5:15 mile.

AM - 7.7 miles, JAJA run through Sugarhouse. 

PM - 6 miles easy. Nice recovery day. 

Yesterday I reached my goal of 20,000 perfect pushups for the year, with almost 2 months to spare!

Today is Andrea's birthday! I made a slideshow with some highlights from her 24th year. 

AM - 7.5 miles. Started with Andrea, then up to work. 

PM - 7.5 miles, retraced my path from this morning back home. Warm and windy. Got a big workout on tap for tomorrow, hoping the weather will partially cooperate. 

AM - 4 miles, shakeout in the snow. Nice morning for an easy run, but its not worth risking running a faster workout in these conditions. When fitness is near its peak, the biggest concern is some sort of freak injury. We'll re-evaluate this afternoon and either do it then, or modify the plan.

PM - 16.6 miles. 4-3-2-1 workout. Andrea and I met Emily B out at the frontage road around 2:15pm... the roads were dry and the weather was clear, although it was pretty windy. We made the right call by waiting until the afternoon. After a quick one mile warmup we got going with the workout. Splits were:

• 4 miles in 21:09 (5:14, 5:18, 5:20, 5:17). Major headwind the whole way. 
• 3 miles in 15:28 (5:10, 5:11, 5:08). Tailwind. Felt a lot easier!
• 2 miles in 10:16 (5:13, 5:03). Headwind for the first mile, 180 degree turn, nice tailwind coming back.
• 1 mile in 4:54. Cruising to the finish with the tailwind.

In between each effort was a half mile of running at about 6:40 pace. Cooled down a little over 4 miles, most of it with the girls once they finished up. Glad to get this one done. I wore my heavier shoes instead of my racing flats, because I thought the roads would be wet... so I am pretty happy with how this one went. Only one more harder workout left!

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If you read Chris McDougal's latest article in the NY Times this week, this response by Alex Hutchinson is worth a read. I'm all for minimalist running, good form, etc., but McDougal is so one-sided in his arguments that its pathetic (especially if you have a broader knowledge of the topics he is taking about / skewing). Alex does a nice job in his response of finding the middle ground, and calling out Chris for fabricating his anecdotes. I think Born to Run was an interesting book... and the fallout from it had some great benefits - the shoe companies started to think and innovate, which is awesome... I just don't really think he should be viewed as any type of authority on running, and I get the feeling he definitely looks at himself that way.