How Much Discomfort Can I Tolerate?!

Weather - 20 degrees, sunny. Ran 4 miles to the Zendo this morning, meditated for 70 minutes, then ran 3 miles back into town and stopped at Cardinal to do my 2nd weekly bike workout. I brought a small piece of paper with me which outlined the workout, and I placed it on the bike controls to help me remember the interval times and wheel tension settings. I ended up doing 12 intervals of varying lengths, from 30-60 seconds, with about a 1 minute recovery between each. I ended up with 40 minutes of biking time. Afterward I stretched, and did 5 sets of strength exercises, and 15 minute walk home. 

To celebrate my 100th consecutive day of running, I ate a piece of chocolate cake which I bought at the Austrian bakery in Chicago yesterday. I was in Chicago to see the Edward Hopper painting exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.

#100

 z.m. - #14

Weather - 36 degrees, clouds. After yesterdays 7 mile run and bike intervals, I thought I would be feeling wiped out today. When I started my run, however, my legs felt special, not only the legs, but everything, the breath, the arms and shoulders, the heart, even the spirit. I guess a day like today makes all the hard work worthwhile, meaningful. It wasn't a race, no time or body to beat, rather, the pure feeling of motion uninhibited by gravity or sickness. It is when the sun looks down and seems to smile upon a little blip in the universe who is trying hard to do something. Today I was a small shimmer of light angling across the land, a bird coasting in the wind, all that sky ahead and behind, above and below. I felt free. 

#101

z.m. - #15 

Weather - 28 degrees, clouds, snowing.

Ran an easy 8 miles in more fresh snow. The first 2 miles were against a stiff wind, and since I was not warmed up I felt weak and sluggish. When I got to the golf course at mile 2 I felt better, and I ran a few accelerations on the fairways. As I went from fairway to fairway I practiced lifting my knees high, and then, began to bound. I have never tried bounding before, one reason being I felt I didn't have the leg strength for it. With the knee-ups I have been doing the past 3 weeks, and the new bike intervals, I feel I have found a piece of the puzzle to running faster - leg strength. Hitherto I have felt that running should be enough to build sufficient leg power, but perhaps certain muscles need extra work through other means. As I attempted to bound through the snow, an image of a black and white photograph of Zatopek bounding in snow came into my mind. Soon after I discovered the correct technique, and as I bounded joyously through the snow - the peculiar pause in the elongated steps, the swinging of the arms in a new rhythm, the toes pushing the body up and forward - a wide grin came over my face. It felt like learning to ride a bike, and once the skill is learned, it is there for good.

I ended the run at Cardinal and did 5 sets of strength exercises, stretching, and 15 minute walk home.

Tomorrow a hard session, hill repeats. I will concentrate not so much on speed up the hill, but rather on a form which will allow my legs to strengthen further.

#102

z.m. - #16

Weather - 25 degrees, sunny, windy.

Today I began moving out of my winter phase. Before running the hill repeats I decided to run a mile at 5k pace. The track at Urbana HS was covered in snow, so I decided to run the mile on the pedestrian/bicycle path that runs North/South on Race street. I labored with my breathing in the first 400 meters, but I then recovered my form and ran ok for the remainder of the distance, which I covered in 7:02. As I walked the mile back to the start, I decided to run it again, as I felt the reason I was sluggish was because I did not have enough of a warm-up (I ran 2 miles to the path, then stretched, I probably needed to do a few strides to get my lungs ready for the faster than normal pace). The thought of running another mile at 5K pace was a bit daunting because I have been mostly running at an easy pace for about 3 months, and have not run a 5K in 7 months. And the fast running I have been doing has been between 1-3 minutes in duration. Doubling that time while running on the edge I knew was going to be a big hurt to the system. The second mile went much better, I started smoothly and remained calm and controlled for the entire distance, which I ran in 6:51. I then jogged to the arboretum and did 8 hill repeats, in which I bounded up the hill instead of sprinting.

The racing season begins next week for me, so I believe now is the time to begin the faster runs and tougher training sessions. Considering that I have not run a mile at a fast pace since last July, I actually feel good about my times today. One reason is because I was wearing 2 pair of long underwear, sweatpants, 2 tshirts and a heavy sweatshirt, a jacket, hat, gloves, and facemask. That added 3-4 pounds to my body, and it restricts my range of motion in the arms and legs (during the second mile one of the pairs of long underwear was slipping down my hips, and I had to pull them up a few times while running hard). When I can finally lose the winter clothing and the air is warmer, I should be able to move my 5k mile time down to 6:15-6:25 per mile without too much work. Moving it down to 6:00-6:05 will be the challenge.

I checked the long range weather for next Saturday, it looks like it will be in the 30's, which means I won't be running comfortably. I was hoping to run 21:30 without much of a struggle, but after today's mile runs I think 22:00 is a more accurate estimate.

#103

z.m. - #17

Weather - 28 degrees, clouds.

Eventful running day. In the early afternoon I went to Body N Sole to buy some new running shoes. I recently realized that my current pair of Asics Kayano is way past the expiration date, they probably have 700 miles or more of wear. Also, they have always seemed too clunky, heavy, and without enough cushion. Why I did not replace them months ago shows how stubborn and illogical (stupid) I can be. I ended up buying two pair of shoes today , Nike Structure Triax 11 and Asics 2120. I wore the Nike on my run today, I could not believe how good they felt, the cushion put a smile on my face, and I may have just solved my achilles tendonitis problem. For the past 2 months my achilles has felt tight at the beginning of each run, and only loosens after 1-2 miles. I am not sure why I did not think the shoe was causing the problem, my guess was that it was because I was running everyday, and it was a weak link that had to be tolerated. On my run today the achilles loosened within the first 10 steps, and felt healthy throughout the run. It is hard to believe changing shoes can have that big of an impact, but the Kayanos may have been the cause of the problem. I won't know for sure until I take more runs in the Nike shoes. It would be a relief if the cure was this easy.

For my run I jogged 3.5 miles to Michelle's apartment and then we went to her exercise room which has 3 treadmills. I have never run on a treadmill before, so I thought I would give it a try. Michelle taught me the basic functions, and then we started running. I found it to be easier than normal running, so I cranked it to 10 level and according to the controls I was running 6:00 minutes per mile. I laughed at that, there is no way I can currently hold a 6:00 pace. I then decided that if I put some elevation into the run it would make it more challenging. I cranked it to grade 12 and watched the machine lift, by the time it stopped moving I felt like I was running up the side of a mountain, so I lowered it to grade 9, and set the speed at 8, and this caused me to sweat. I eventually settled in at grade 2 with 8.5 speed, this seemed to equate my normal running effort. After 4 miles we stopped and chatted as we did a cool down walk.

#104

z.m. - #18

Weather - 38 degrees, sun/clouds.

A little warmer today, though still a lot of snow on the ground, so I headed to the golf course to get some snow running in. I did a loop of the course doing hard fartlek, and then I did a second loop at an easier pace. I contemplated wearing heavy boots for this workout, but since I knew I was going at least 90 minutes, I did not think it wise to try my first boot workout for that quantity of time.

My hip muscles are a bit sore from all the bounding I have been doing this week, that is a good thing, so today I did no bounding or high knee lifts, or, at least not very much.

This coming week I will cut back on my mileage, will probably drop to about 30 (from the low 50's), but a lot of the running this week will be hard, fast stuff. I plan on doing fartlek, 200-400m repeats, and lots of strides.

Today I accomplished my goal of achieving a solid season of winter training. Considering this was the first time I have trained consistently throughout the winter, I am curious to see if it is really true that a lot of slowish, consistent mileage, followed by 6-8 weeks of speed work, can lead to fast racing times.

At runs end I stopped at Cardinal and did 5 sets of strength exercises, stretching, and 15 minute walk home.

#105

z.m. - #19

Weather - 34 degrees, cloudy.

Ran 4 miles to the Zendo, meditated for 1 hour, then ran 3 miles back to town. Wore the Nike shoes and my feet felt comfortable and healthy.

Tomorrow will be the 3rd session of bike intervals, I am looking forward to it.

#106

z.m. - 20