Fartlek tuneup run

Now that it's not so dark at 6:00, we got to do our normal fartlek pre-race tuneup workout on the trail today. We had a lot of guest runners with our normal pace group today, including the recuperating Alex, Boston-bound Gretchen, Ann and Margaret. It made for a spirited workout. We did a relaxed 15 minute warmup on the trail, then cranked it up for 10 x 1:00 Fartlek accelerations, with 1:00 easy running between. We were cracking it pretty good. Even after we finished with a mile cooldown to finish up at Auditorium Shores, we still had averaged 8:43/mile overall. The faster fartlek segment was at an overall 8:00/mile or faster, even with the slower jogging between accelerations. Good job. We took turns leading the pace parts, and that made the workout pretty fun. Finished off the day with 4 good long strides on the grass, and then Gilbert had us do a little of his balance drills.

When I got home, I did my crunches/extensions (4x30), pushups (2x15) and back raises (2x25), and stretched a bit. Tomorrow, I'm back in the gym, then Saturday is a relaxed 3-4 miles plus stretching. I need to figure out a goal time for the Capitol 10k, too, since it's on Sunday.

Gymnasium Work

After being delayed over an hour at the Chevy place as I dropped off my truck for its 30K checkup (car rental operation was sort of a fiasco), I headed off to the gym in the long bed white pickup that I'm sporting for the rest of the day. By being a patient consumer, I got the rental for half off, so it's okay in the end...

Gym workout started with 35 minutes on the cycle, spinning along while watching the text scroll go across the screens in front of me. The text typist for MSNBC made some hilarious choices as they tried to capture the interviews and news readers. The text person for CNBC was substantially better, and those words seemed to match what was happening on screen. The bike was a good warmup. A cool feature of the Precor equipment is that if you wear your Polar HR chest strap, the machine will pick up and display your HR. Pretty neat. Of course, I got tickled later as I noticed that one of the treadmills was displaying my HR while I was on a nearby leg exercise machine, some 5 feet away.

I exchanged some fitball crunches and oblique crunches for the machine formerly used for such exercise, and I liked the results of that change. Those straight leg lifts in the Roman Chair deal are getting pretty solid, by the way. It's not until the very last 2 or 3 during the second set of them that my form gets a little shaky. Did the full leg routine, as well. I cranked up the pounds again on bench press, and finally have reached a point that I need to stay for a while on that one. Still, it's nice to be able to avoid using the little 2.5 pounders on either side of the bar. 75 pounds is getting respectable for bench press, I guess. I've also built up to weights on the pulldowns and seated rows that are about all I can handle right now. I like the feeling of working my muscles in this way, and I can already see a little change in my muscle tone. Also, things like the post-run pushups are getting easier, which is very cool. I am committed to the process, so I look forward to a month or two down the road to see how this has helped my running.

A good gym day. Tomorrow is a fartlek run over the Capitol 10,000 course. I wonder if that's what Gilbert will have all of the groups do?

Hilly 1000m Repeats

On a 55 degree morning, we gathered for the Meriden 1000m hilly repeat circuit. The warmup is much shorter than usual on this workout, and after the drills, we were ready plenty early. The circuit is more or less 1000m, probably a little long if anything. It has two significant uphill climbs, including one right at the finish, and two matching downhill runs. The idea is to work on efficient running form both up- and downhill, while blasting away at something like 10k race pace. Gilbert said to do between 3 and 5 repeats, but he looked at me when my group toed the line and told me to do the full 5. Man, it's rugged when he puts the Look on you.

Anyway, I ran all 5 with Amy, with the rest of my gang either cutting the workout off at 4 repeats or going way slower (a couple did go faster). I was very consistent, with my times all within 2 seconds of 5:00. That works out to be something right at 8:00/mile pace on a tough course. I felt pretty strong, and decided to try and make up for skipping yesterday's run in my own mind today. After the 5 big repeats, we were asked to do shorter uphill striders, around 120 yards. I did 4 of those, and felt pretty strong there as well. Last, we were to do 3 backwards running uphill striders, which pretty well cooks the remaining strength out of your quads and glutes. I worked really hard on those last two backwards striders, but maintained a nice pace on all those extra bits.

The easy run back to the Lake Austin RunTex was just fine, and it was fun to talk with Sean for a change after he trained on his own last week. Alex was back today, too, and ran the repeats in a slow time (for him). He's feeling really good, so that's good to see. He's a man who really needs his running fix, after all.

Finished off the day with 4x30 crunches/leg extensions, and 2x25 back raises. Tomorrow is a 45-60 minute run, and then a gym workout. If I'm feeling great, I may turn it into a pace run. We'll see.

Quick Gym Workout & Basketball Viewing

I sneaked out to the gym today to get in a quick workout. Left out one ab exercise, and left out quad extensions / hamstring curls due to time constraints. 10:00 warmup on cycle before. Did full upper body workout, though, and improved another little bit on bench and lat pulldowns. It was good to get the work done. I need to figure out a different ab exercise to put in place of one of the ab machines at the gym, since it just doesn't feel like it's doing much. Time to do some research.

Anyway, after that, I scurried home, and met Frank at Scholz's Biergarten so that we could go to the NCAA Basketball regional final between Michigan State and Kentucky. Frank had an extra ticket, and was nice enough to invite me. It turned out to be a great game, going to double overtime, and we had a blast. It was interesting to see how different a sporting event is when you view it in person. It was a relief to just watch and be entertained without the endless commercials and replays of a TV broadcast.

All in all, a nice day, beautiful weather, all was right with the world.

Weekly Stats (3/21-27):

5 runs, 39 miles, my longest week since before Freescale. 2 full gym workouts. Did post-run exercises on most of the runs, too. A very good exercise week. Next week starts with a slightly longer pace run, then the hilly 1000m repeats, a fartlek workout, and a couple of easier recovery runs, finished off with a 10K race on Sunday. Gym workouts as well. After Tuesday, the workouts will be significantly easier, as we do a mini-taper for the Capitol 10,000. I'm curious to see where I am with that race. Should be fun.

Recovery Run and Stretch-A-Thon

Last night, we had a monster storm come through, throwing golf-ball sized hail down at us in a very intense 30 minutes of big 60 mph wind, rain and lightning. It was a party, that's for sure. This morning, I noticed a fence had been totally shoved over by the wind in our neighborhood, and all the trees had a bunch of leaves and branches blown out of them. The fury of Nature.

Today, I eased down to Town Lake at 7:45 am for a nice and relaxed 30-40 minutes of recovery running. I was in pretty good shape as I rolled out of the car, just slightly stiff in the legs. The first mile was really easy, just letting my legs get loose, and then for the rest of the run, I ran purely by feel, without the HR monitor, enjoying the morning. I went about 3.25 miles, average pace 9:10/mile, and it felt really comfortable. The rest of the Gazelles had finished their longer runs when I arrived, and we did our striders (I did 4) as a loose group. Gilbert returned by then from his 18 mile jaunt, and led us in his balance drills and hops. I did those pretty well, and I don't even feel clumsy anymore when we do those.

The stretching session was fun, as usual, with lots of groaning on hamstring stretches in particular. There were some newer folks there today, and I heard one guy say that he had never stretched that much in his life. I guess so, but it's just the usual routine for the rest of us. My hamstrings were pretty tight, though, and Gilbert did some extra stretching torture with me after everyone had finished. I stayed behind, too, with Jan and Patrick, and did our post-run exercises together. I did 4x30 crunches/extensions, 2x15 pushups (stronger every day!), and 2x25 back raises. Gilbert showed us an evil ab exercise using the medicine ball, but I'll have to get stronger before I can try that one, I think.

It was a fun and relaxing day at the running office, one of those that you can really enjoy without thinking so much about how hard the workout is. Now, when can I get to the gym?

Early Start for Some Long Mileage

To accommodate our respective Easter weekend schedules, Frank and I arranged to run this morning, leaving at 5:30 am for a 13-14 mile journey. Since we were a little tired after yesterday's tempo run, and we were running long without the usual rest day before it, we decided to run on flatter terrain for a change, and headed out in the 65 degree pre-dawn on the Longhorn Dam loop around Town Lake.

Early on in the run, Frank mentioned the song "Children of the Sun," from our high school and/or college years. I remembered the song well, but we couldn't remember who did it. We thought "Billy [somebody]," but couldn't get the last name. It wasn't Billy Squier, who did "The Stroke," among other hits of that era, but someone else... Of course, that song, as well as "The Stroke," stuck in my head for the rest of the run. Eventually, as I ran through the song in my head, one of the vocal bits in COTS reminded me of a vocal riff in Earth, Wind and Fire's "Boogie Wonderland," so that song joined the other two. [Ed. Note: research on Amazon.com showed that Billy Thorpe did COTS]

The first 4 miles of the run went smoothly, and we made a brief 1 minute stop for hydration adjustments near the Holly power plant. Average pace early was 9:24/mile. After that first stop, we cruised along Town Lake until we reached the Mopac bridge, where we took our second water/GU stop. Again, it was brief, a little over a minute. Overall pace through 8 miles was 9:20/mile, as we started to pick it up a bit.

From there, we crossed the street and followed the trail/path underneath Mopac and along the creek there, heading up to Enfield. One of the tunnels was blocked at the far end by debris from the recent heavy rains, so we had to backtrack a bit, and pick our way through another tunnel. It was somewhat sluggish going as we headed uphill. Reaching Enfield, we cruised along the sidewalk there. It was just fine until Frank caught a shoetip on a crack in the sidewalk. He went down pretty hard, but managed to avoid breaking anything. He was sporting a couple of good knee scrapes, along with a matching strawberry on the elbow, but other than that was in good shape. I would have been a little more shaken than he was. At any rate, we resumed our journey, and the pace picked up for the rest of the run, as Frank's adrenaline rushed through his body after the crash.

We zoomed back by the Mopac bridge, and headed on the south trail to Auditorium Shores. We had some faster miles in there, and ran the last 5 miles or so in just under 9:00 average pace. Frank had to get going to relieve Carla at the house, so I did an extra bonus mile around Auditorium Shores and back to RunTex. It was a good run, even though my legs were a little tired throughout. Overall mileage was 14.25 at an average pace of 9:08/mile. Given the warmer temperatures and such, I score this one as a solid effort.

Afterwards, as I got my post-run clothing and Endurox out of the truck, I saw Amy Lemen and her friend Tiffany hanging out after their run. Amy is an ex-Gallowayer from my time as director there, and it was good to get caught up with her. I stretched a good bit, and headed home.

As always, it was good to have a running partner for this workout, and running with Frank is just that little bit more challenging than running alone or with my marathon gang. The pace is fine for half marathon training, but I'll have to figure out just where I fit in when Freescale 2006 training begins in September. Now, I get two rest days this weekend, which will be great. Tomorrow is a short and easy 30-45 minute recovery effort before the stretching session, and Sunday is a full day off. I'll probably go to the gym on Saturday as well, to get in that second gym workout for the week.

Time Trial ("Tempo Run")

This morning (overcast, 53 degrees) was all about one of Gilbert's Tempo Runs, which as I've said before are much closer to time trials with our group. Short warmup and drills were uneventful. I felt pretty tired and stiff still, so I figured I'd go out easier than usual, and just try and roll through this instead of trying to blast it, especially since Frank and I are going long tomorrow morning. I lined up near the back, by Joseph, Amy and Jan, and we were off. Jan took off and got about 50 yards ahead in the first half mile. Joseph also went ahead after a half mile. Amy and I ran together through mile 1 (8:03), and then she picked it up during mile 2 to pull some 50 yards ahead. I was slowly catching up with Jan through mile 2, but she still had 10-15 yards on me at the turnaround (7:40 / 15:43 for halfway). I felt okay, but fighting stiff or tired legs was getting me down a bit. Third mile, I held Amy in sight up ahead, but every time I'd close on Jan a little, she'd pick it up just enough to keep that gap on me. Mile 3 was 7:36. In the last mile, we passed another Gazelle, but that gap remained between Jan and me, and I crossed the line for a mile 4 of 7:52. I did do a negative split, as Gilbert expects, by 15 seconds. Overall, 31:10, my slowest time on this in a while, average pace a respectable 7:48. Jan finished about 3 seconds ahead of me, for a big "PR" on this workout for her.

4 striders on the grass there afterwards. Then, we did 15 minutes or so of Gilbert's balance and form drills. I chatted with Frank a bit afterwards, did a little stretching, and headed back to the house. It was an average day at the running office, but still acceptable.

Return To The Gym

After a week away from home, it was good to get back to the gym today. I only did 10 minutes on the cycle to warm up my legs a bit, since they were pretty tired after Monday and Tuesday's efforts. Then, it was off the to the Routine. I was pleasantly surprised that I was right where I left off, and I raised the weight and/or reps on most of the upper body stuff today. Increased the reps on a few of the ab exercises, too, so those post-run crunches must be paying off! Even the leg stuff felt all right, and I think it worked out a lot of the stiffness and soreness that I had going into the gym. My arms are still a bit wobbly even after getting home and resting a bit, so I know I worked them hard today. Now, it's off for a tuneup massage with Ron. A good day at the gym.

Intervals At Zilker

Way too early, after last night's pace run, I met my running group at 6:00 am for a trip to Zilker Park and some 1000m intervals. It was nice and cool, about 51 degrees and clear skies. My legs were a bit stiff just 12 hours after the pace run, but that settled out during the 1.3 miles to Zilker. About 9:45 pace for the warmup. It was great to see my tribe again, and we laughed about the near chaos at the stretching session last Saturday without me there to do the leading. After drills, we gathered at the head of the Zilker course around the soccer fields for our 1000m intervals. Gilbert told us to go easier on the first interval, and to make the last one the fastest, striving for consistency in between. He did not assign exact times to shoot for, but suggested something around 10k pace, whatever that may be for me nowadays. Between repeats, we were to jog gently across the grass fields to the head of the course. The schedule called for 3-6 repeats, but this morning, he just said to do 6. Okey dokey.

I matched up with Amy and Joseph for our pace pod. Jan ran off a little faster on the first interval with a guy from her out-of-town office who was guesting with us, and stayed faster, so we just kept it a trio for our work this morning. We did a very good job on pacing. The first 5 repeats were done while we chatted a bit during the intervals, and those times were 4:35, 4:38, 4:39, 4:36, and 4:35. On the last one, Amy blasted out ahead, and Joseph and I knocked out number 6 at 4:21, nicely accelerated even though I thought we were about the same pace.

The return run was with a bunch of people, including Margaret, Frank, Kelly, Alex (who got to do 4 repeats, slightly slower than normal for him), Henry and me. My total run day was right at 8 miles, and the 6K of intervals were at an average mile pace of 7:21/mile, which was surprising to me.

I stayed and stretched afterwards, and then did 4x30 crunches/extensions and 2x12 pushups. It was a good day at the running office, but my legs are tired now after the last two days of workouts. Tomorrow's day off of running will be nice, even though I'll be in the gym.

Back On The Road Again

Well, I tried to not do today's scheduled progressive pace run. This morning, big and bad storms were coming in and bombed us at the time I had planned to go run at Town Lake. After that, it warmed up, and I lost focus about the run. I had almost talked myself out of running, already figuring out some weird compromised schedule for the week that would get the progressive run done... But then I had a short talk with myself, and got my butt out there this evening in my neighborhood for a progressive run, 7 mile variety. It was clear, but much warmer than last week's nice chill, at 72 degrees, dusk.

I decided on a 2 mile warmup, then 5 miles at progressive tempo, "run as I feel," and then after that, cooldown jogging to get me back to the house, depending on where I was after 7 miles. That would be the same as the I-35 Town Lake loop in distance, although my course would be tougher due to rolling hills. The 2 warmup miles were comfortable, at an average 9:27. Then, I started pushing. My intent was to slowly turn up the heat, finishing with my fastest mile, running at a pace that I thought I could hold for longer than the 5 miles I'd be running. My splits, on a rolling street course, were 8:18, 8:14, 8:04, 8:03, 7:58. Excellent pacing job. I was pushing a bit at the end, but that's the idea. After that, there were .3 miles to the house, which I jogged at around 10:30 pace, letting the body come down easy. I stretched when I got home, and did 4x30 crunches/extensions, 2x12 pushups, and 2x25 back raises.

Overall, the 5 mile pace section was at an average of 8:07/mile, and the overall run was 7.3 miles at 8:37 average pace. This was a good run on a day that I had motivation issues. It seems that on days like this, the hardest thing about the run is getting out the door with my running gear on. Once I get out the door, I usually do the workout just fine, and I almost always enjoy the run. Go figure. I can't wait to see the Gazelles tomorrow morning, so that I can workout with my running pals and feel the excitement of the group again. It's been a week, and I miss that support.

Now, I can proceed with my scheduled week as I had anticipated yesterday, instead of trying to shoehorn in a progressive run on Wednesday between two speedwork sessions. That would have been a recipe for disaster.

Weekly stats (3/14-20):

After the long two day drive back to Austin, I just didn't feel like doing the proposed 10 mile medium long run this weekend. I feel a bit bad about missing that run, but it'll be just fine. I had a good 4 run week, totalling 27.5 miles, including a high quality pace run on Monday and a solid tempo interval workout on Thursday. I did a fair amount of the core exercises, and am ready for this week's exercise labours.

Monday is a longer pace run, 2 miles easy and 8 miles progressively paced after that, down at Town Lake. Possibly will hit the gym that afternoon for just the ab and upper body stuff. Tuesday is 1000m intervals on the road. Wednesday is probably going to be a cycle warmup and gym day. Thursday is another 3-5 mile time trial run, and Friday will be a 13-15 mile long run with Frank. I'll do another gym workout on Saturday instead of Friday. It'll be a full week, with the toughest runs on Monday and Friday. Hopefully, Frank and I will take the long run fairly relaxed. We'll probably do an easier course than last week's Mount Bonnell run. I might do an easy 45 minute run on Sunday, if I'm looking for extra credit.

Back Online

I'll go back later and update all the workouts from Tuesday through Thursday, but I had a really good training week while in between Lufkin and central Mississippi. I did all the scheduled workouts, even though I had to improvise a bit on the circuit workout (Tuesday) and the interval ladder workout (Thursday), because I didn't have a track. The weather was bleak in Mississippi, if you hoped to enjoy the out of doors, but great temperatures if you were running. I got some trail running experience, I was chased by farm dogs, and I even got to tromp through the mud a bit. It was fun. Tomorrow (Saturday), I'll get to do another Tour d'Lufkin, at an easier long run pace, for about 10 miles. I'll try and remember to push the last couple of miles, per Gilbert's suggestion, this time at 10k race pace. Yikes! I missed the gym workouts, but that's okay for one week. Maybe I'll sneak off to the gym on Sunday, instead.

Tempo Workout in Mississippi (Entry done on 3/20)

Gilbert's schedule called for an interval ladder workout on the track today: 2000m, jog 400m, 3 x 1000m, 2:00 rest jog between, and 3 x 400m, 1:00 rest between, all at 10k pace. Again, without a track, I substituted a workout of 20 minute warmup, 9:00 pace, 3:00 jog, 3 x 4:30 pace, 2:00 jog between each, and 3 x 1:40 pace, 1:00 jog between, followed by 20 minute cooldown. The way I'd be doing it would be a bit tougher than on the track, since my course was rolling country roads instead of flat track, and I'd be running to a time standard instead of a distance standard. I based the tempo interval times on my approximate pace for those intervals on past workouts.

It was even colder this morning, 41 degrees, still humid and breezy. I headed out and slogged through the wet and sticky gravel/clay road out to the county road, and the 20 minute warmup was 2.2 miles again, about 9:25 pace. I felt great, and started up the longest pace interval. That 9:00 interval took me up and down some rolling terrain, past two different packs of farm dogs that chased me, and past a bunch of houses and trailers along the road. It was pretty quiet except for the dogs, who helped me crank up my pace, I'm sure. The 9:00 covered 1.15 miles at about 7:55/mile pace. 3:00 of jogging later, I was off on the 4:30 intervals. They averaged about .6 miles each, pace varying between 7:40 and 7:50/mile, with 2:00 jogging between. I was headed back by now, and the 1:40 intervals were all at about 7:30 pace, with 1:00 jogging between. I was pretty tired by then, and gratefully headed back onto the property for the cooldown. I headed back into the fields for that, enjoying the mud and muck as I took in the beauty of the landscape. The 2 miles of cooldown were more like 10:00 pace, as I needed the slower pace to let things settle down.

For the day, total mileage was 9 miles, more or less. Tempo bits were averaging 7:45/mile. I like this workout when it's on the track, and I enjoyed it almost the same doing it this way on the roads. This was the first 4 in a row workout week I've had since Freescale. I feel really good. I stretched afterwards and did 4 x 30 crunches/extensions, 2 x 12 pushups and 2 x 25 back raises as usual.

Rest of the day was spent with my brother, David, who was visiting from Vicksburg. We got to burn some brush piles, which is always fun, and finished up more furniture moving for Mom. It was a fun family day, and the sun even came out in the afternoon for a warmer time.

Recovery Run (Entry done on 3/20)

Wednesday, I had a fun little recovery run, with the HR monitor set to limit my enthusiasm. I ran up and back on the country road leading to the property, exploring south on the road. It was a comfortable run on a cooler 44 degree morning, still overcast and humid. Knocked out 4.1 miles at an average pace of 9:37/mile, and stayed in recovery HR range pretty easily, except on a couple of inclines. Recovered fast from those HR blips.

Did 4x30 crunches/leg extensions, 2 x 25 back raises, and 2 x 12 pushups afterwards, plus stretching. Another good day at the running office. Rest of the day spent moving a little more furniture around and moving Dad's shop stuff from the old shop so that the garage could be torn down for replacement. In the rain. Where is the beautiful afternoon sunshine, anyway?

Kaywood Circuit Workout (Entry done on 3/20/05)

While visiting my mother's ancestral homeplace in Mississippi on Spring Break week, I had to improvise my workouts a little to get them in. Without a 400m track, I just had to make up a 1200m sort of loop to run between circuits. No big deal. The hardest thing was doing the Superman jumps while my family may have been peeking out the window of the house. They sure look funny when you're doing them by yourself. :)

Anyway, on a crisp, overcast morning, temperature 51 degrees, I headed out and ran a nice 2.2 mile warmup on grass, gravel roads, and finally a clearcut area of the property. It was really great to be able to run in totally quiet farm country, on such a forgiving running surface. The warmup was at around 9:30/mile pace. Once I got back to the house, I did the first "circuit," doing the usual exercises, but doing 20 x crunches instead of 10, and 15 x back raises instead of 10. Next, I went out and back, for .83 miles at around 9:00 pace, and then did Circuit #2, same exercise and numbers as before. Then, I did .92 miles at 9:15 pace, and Circuit #3, same as before. I drank down some Accelerade, then headed out for a nice 2.2 mile cooldown at about 9:15 pace, and finished it all off with "bonus" crunches and leg extensions, 25 of each.

Did a little stretching, and then spent the rest of the day helping move stuff around the property as we tried to get stuff out of the way of the renovation squad working on the big house.

Altogether, 5.8 miles for the day.

Pace Tour d'Lufkin

Sunday was a full day off of running, etc., and was spent helping pack up stuff in Mary Anne's old room back in Lufkin. We still actually had a few wedding gifts from 20 years ago that were stored there! They were nice gifts, too, like silver trays and stuff, but we don't exactly host a lot of elegant dinner parties. I don't think silver trays are necessary or even proper when serving chicken fajitas, chips and hot sauce. :)

Anyway, this morning, I followed the schedule and set out in Lufkin to do my first pace run since Freescale. These pace runs will be aimed at the Indy half marathon. I headed out the door at 7:00 am, and started with 20 minutes of easy running to warmup, per Gilbert's instructions. Those 2.1 miles were something like 9:30/mile pace. Nice and easy on a really great running day. It was about 42 degrees, crisp and clear. By the end of the warmup time, I was turning off of Southwood, going towards the old tennis courts.

The pace portion began there, and the intent was to do 5 pace miles, to simulate the 7 mile loop in Austin. I had a great time running up past friend's houses, my grandfather's old house, and all the way to my father's office, where I turned around and retraced my steps. Only in a small town could I be running down First Street during what is technically rush hour, and not worry at all about traffic. I ran using my HR monitor to beep at me if I cranked it up too much past hard long run pace, and that worked really well. My pace miles were 8:28, 8:00, 8:08, 7:48 and 1.25 miles to finish at 7:47 pace. It was a solid run, and faster than I had expected. I backed off at that point, per the plan, and jogged in from there, 1.2 miles at around 9:50/mile. I felt really great today, and fast portion of the day felt exactly right.

Total day around 8.6 miles, average 8:30 pace. Once I got home, I did 4x25 crunches, 2x10 pushups, and 2x20 back raises, and stretched. A good running day. Now, I get to go and finish packing up Mary Anne's stuff to transport back to Austin, and then we're off to Mississippi. Next 3 runs will be out in the country.

Weekly stats: 3/7-3/12

33.5 miles, 4 runs. 2 full gym workouts. Good compliance with daily situp/pushup/back raise prescription, too. A great week. Next week, I'm focusing on merely doing all the workouts, nothing more than that.

Mt. Bonnell Run

Off we go, into the wild blue yonder! Frank and I met at 6:00 am for a return visit to Mt. Bonnell. It's a hilly track even before we get to the main event, and then it's a serious vertical climb over a half mile to the top of Bonnell. We had a great time running together, even though Frank right now is a little quicker than me. We took only two quick water/Accelerade/GU stops, one at the boat docks at mile 4, and one at the top of Bonnell, where I had stashed a cooler with Accelerade in it. That's where we did the GU, too. It was a nice cool sunny day, temperatures around 50 by the time we finished. Since we don't normally do our long runs together, this was a chance to chat about any number of things, and it was a fun time. We huffed and puffed up Bonnell, and after that, the hills of the rest of the Scenic loop weren't nearly as bad. Finished it off with quicker miles starting 5 miles from the finish, and my last mile was 8:17. We were clicking off the early miles in 9:15 range, and finished with 13.63 miles at 8:58 pace.

After we finished, we did 4 striders, and then joined the rest of the Gazelles for Gilbert's balance drills (the Tsch Tsch drills I've mentioned previously). Then, we gathered for the long stretching routine and had fun there, too, listening to everyone groan, especially on the hamstring stretches. I stopped into RunTex after that to pick up my newest pair of Mizuno Creations, in the new spring color featuring orange as the accent, as well as some more Wright Sox Cool Mesh. Can't ever have enough socks, can you? As I came out of RunTex, I saw Jan and Patrick working on their crunches, so I went over and did my 4x25 crunches, 2x10 pushups, and 2x20 back raises. It was a good day at the running office.

I'll have to do the next 4 or 5 workouts on my own, since I'll be unable to attend the regular group gatherings. That won't be as fun, but I hope to be a good runner and get them all in.

Gym Stuff

Today's gym visit was just fine and dandy. I cut back on the leg exercises just a bit, since I'm planning on a 13-14 miler tomorrow up and over Mt. Bonnell. Didn't do lunges, for instance, and cut the reps on quad extensions, cut the weight on hamstring curls, etc. On the other hand, the ab stuff went well, and I increased weight and/or reps on all the upper body exercises. The Incredible Hulk, I am not, but it's really cool now to do bench press and use weights on each end of the bar that don't resemble tiddly winks. I did 20 minutes on the indoor cycle this time to warm up, due to a modest time crunch. It was a good day at the old gym.

I did see a few amusing things while I was there, including the lady who was snacking away while slowly strolling on the treadmill. Then, there were some huge guys doing massive weights...not amusing, I guess, but I sure don't know why they want to be that big unless they're police officers or firemen. Last, I was wearing my Freescale Marathon Finisher's shirt, and a girl stopped me to ask if I had run Freescale. I paused. Then, I thought about stealing from Bill Engvall, the comedian, and saying something like, "Nope, I just like vintage race clothing as a fashion statement...here's your sign." After that thought passed, I politely said yes, and congratulated her on finishing her first marathon at Freescale. I moved on. Sometimes we are saved by our internal conversation filters, right?

Cross Mow Training

This afternoon, I even got in an hour of further cross training, mowing the yard now that it's dried out after all the rains last weekend. There was some jungle type growth in the backyard, but now it's all nice and neat. I've always joked that I ought to wear my HR monitor one of these mowing times to see what the aerobic benefits are, if any, to a good old-fashioned yard mow. Maybe next time.

New Repeats (600m / 400m, and repeat...)

It was simply a perfect morning for running today. Just perfect. Crisp, clear, maybe 42 degrees when we started, and warming all the way to 45 degrees by the time I got back to RunTex. Wow.

Some of my normal group weren't there this morning, but enough were there to make it fun. Frank is out in California for a couple of days, on business, Henry is off to Florida for a fun weekend, and Amy was gone, too. The run over to Austin High School went smoothly, with most of us discussing our various aches and pains resulting from Wilkie's hills on Tuesday. Drills were drills, puffing smoke in the cold air, and it was even light enough by 6:30 for us to see our watches clearly.

We grouped up, and were instructed to do at least 3 sets of 600m, 200m jog, 400m, 2:00 active rest (walk/jog). The 600 and 400m repeats were to be at the same pace, 10k race pace. Gilbert told me to do 5 since I'm aiming at the half marathon in May. I arbitrarily chose a 10k race pace of 7:40-7:45, which is faster than my current masters PR (8:00 pace), but is possibly in line with what I'm capable of on a flat course nowadays. Our group was pretty big, about 8 of us, and at the "go," Jan, Joseph, Margaret and some others blasted away from me. I ran with Shannon and Susan, with some new folks trailing behind us. I thought for a bit that we might be going too slowly, but we were right on at 200m, so I kept the metronome going, and we clicked off our first 600m in a near perfect 2:55 (7:49 mile pace), jogged the 200m in a fairly brisk 10:00 pace, and then knocked off the 400m at 1:55 (7:43 mile pace). Then, we got to walk up and back, with a slow jog, before starting up again. Shannon, Susan and I talked a little during the intervals, which was a good sign. By repeat number 3, I noticed that some other folks were walking between the 600 and 400, but my little group of 3 did a good job of maintaining a nice jog between the faster bits. Susan stayed with us until the 4th 600m, and then she had to go to work. Shannon finished off that 4th repeat with me, and then she had to go, too. I did the 5th repeat alone, and speeded up, of course. My last 600 was at 2:42 (7:14 pace), and last 400 was at 1:40 (6:42 mile pace), as I picked it up. Gilbert was watching my form on those, since I was the last guy out on the track, and I worked hard to incorporate his suggestions as I zoomed around the track. I need to concentrate on keeping my chin down and leaning a bit forward at the waist, instead of collapsing backwards and sticking my chin in the air a bit as I get tired.

Overall, I averaged 7:37 mile pace on the 5000m of intervals, which made me feel really good. I felt strong throughout the workout. Running back to RunTex alone was really different, and as a result, I was a little quick going back (9:04 pace). Total running day was 8.5 miles.

I had to get home to put out the trash (I forgot to do it when I left at 5:30), so I waited until I got home to do stretching and to do the 4 x 25 crunches, 2 x 20 back raises, and 2 x 10 pushups.

Am I Turning Into Alex?

Today, I exchanged a nice little outdoor recovery run for the usual indoor cycle warmup at the gym. I ran 3.8 miles in the 'Hood, 9:39 pace, keeping the HR under the recovery range beeper. Everything felt just great, and I'm glad to have that nagging hamstring tightness gone. After yesterday's Wilkie hills, I felt really good. I ran at high noon, more or less, to start acclimating to the spring time heat. It was really bright and sunny, very windy, and maybe 70 degrees. It felt good to get out there and start running on consecutive days for the first time since Freescale. After running, I changed clothes, and dashed over to the gym in the car.

At the gym, I made some very nice strides in improving my numbers on all the arm/upper body exercises, which was very gratifying. It was a little odd doing lunges in the freeweight area with a barbell over my shoulders, but I found a circuitous path that allowed me to get 5 lunges on each leg before I had to turn around to finish each 10 lunge set. Adding the lunges wasn't that big of a deal, after all. And on tricep extensions, I did some basic math, and if I do those holding onto one 15 pound dumbbell, I don't feel like such a wimp doing that exercise. It was a good gym session, a good run, and a great day altogether. It's just spectacular out there this afternoon. A great day to live in Austin!

W-W-W-Wilkie!!

Today was my least favorite workout in the Gazelles repertoire, the steep hill repeats at Wilkie. I've come to terms with it, at least, but I still fret about it for a week ahead of time. Since Gilbert told me that it's all about form and high knees, and not necessarily about speed, the workout is much more tolerable, but it is still a lung-scorching event.

Frank convinced me to run from RunTex to the Wilkie hill, which is longer than most of the folks ran. Sean pointed out that he ran from there because of Gilbert's comment that "advanced runners" should leave from RunTex. :) I like the longer warmup and cooldown, especially when the weather is nice like today. Nice and crisp, temps around 52 degrees. Perfect running weather. Frank, Margaret, Caitlin, Jan and I ran from RunTex, and covered the 2.75 miles at around 9:41 pace, comfortably. Drills were drilled, and then we gathered for the Word. Gilbert suggested between 7 and 10 repeats. Okay.

I concentrated on form and ignored the pace of those around me, and the first 3 or 4 repeats went pretty well. I was gasping at the top of the long hill, but I didn't hate life too much up there, either. During repeat 5, I was starting to feel it, and after repeat number 6, I'd had enough. My form held together through all 6 repeats, but I was really working hard at the end of that one, and it was time to end that portion of the festivities. During repeats 5 and 6, I was passing some people going up the hill, so that made me feel better about myself.

After the straight repeats, we did 2 backwards running repeats up the last 2/3 of the hill, the steeper bit, and those felt like you're towing your car up the hill after the other repeats. I really struggled on the second one, and right when I was going to quit, Gilbert jumped in and ran with me to force me to push over that last hump. It was a relief to be done with those. After the two backwards repeats, my quads were so used up that I wobbled going down the hill.

I thought we were done at that point, and went on down the hill to get Powerade. Once I was at the bottom, I noticed some runners doing something extra up at the top of the hill, but I couldn't figure out what that was. Suddenly, I heard Gilbert yelling from the top of the hill, "I didn't see Jay Clement doing these!" Shamed into it, I trudged up the hill to the last bit of the hill, where Gilbert had us doing a seriously exaggerated high knee form sprint just for maybe 20-30 yards, concentrating on all the form stuff we're supposed to use on hills. Those weren't that bad, and I did the requisite 3 repeats of those.

Sean, Frank and I ran back to RunTex (others in our group either ran back earlier or hitched a ride with folks who had parked halfway to Wilke), and had a fun conversation. That return trip was a bit slower after all the hill stuff, at about 9:52 pace.

I saw Alex at RunTex, waiting on his PT appointment next door, and we talked about his trials and tribulations on the path to return to running. I'm rooting for him to get better, because I can tell he really misses being out there with us.

Once Alex left, I did some stretching and then did the post-run exercises, 4 x 25 crunches, 2 x 20 back raises, and 2 x 10 pushups. Those are getting a little easier, but there's still some grunting and groaning on the last 5 reps of the ab stuff and on most of the second set of pushups.

Total day running was around 8.5 miles, a good full day. I'm thinking that it would be a good idea to do a nice easy 30-45 minute run tomorrow before I go to the gym, instead of doing the indoor cycle thing. We'll see how that plan goes.

Blah...

Sunday, I spent the morning cleaning up the house, and then headed down to San Antonio, in the constant drizzle and rain, for a guitar gig. We played well, but it was a long way to go to play 30 minutes. Once I got home, I did get out the fitball and the dumbbells, and did a whole slew of core exercises and such. It felt good to do some physical activity after being either in a car or seated in a chair on stage for most of the day.

Today, Monday, I was scheduled to do my first tempo run of the post-marathon season. Unfortunately, I let the steady rain and occasional lightning this morning keep me in the house. Then, with the kids home for a teachers work day, I just never got out on the road to do the run. I'm disappointed in myself for slacking off today, but I guess I'll get over it. I did do situps, pushups and back raises, though, to keep those exercises going. Just nothing aerobic.

Tuesday is Wilke, the dreaded monster hill repeat workout. Wednesday is back to the gym for cycling and weights, Thursday is some sort of track workout, Friday is weights and cycling, and Saturday is a long run in the 13-14 mile range. Maybe a Mt. Bonnell run? After that run, I'll hurry home and we're heading out for a spring break trip with the kids. I'll be out in the countryside during that trip, so I'll have a chance to do some nice runs on dirt roads and very lightly trafficked farm roads. It should be nice.

Stretching Out The Long(er) Run...

This morning was a bit grey and humid, but the temperature was a nice 55 degrees at 6:30 am. I met up with Henry, Jan, Patrick, Diana, and Laurie at RunTex for a scheduled 10+ miler. We planned to do the Scenic loop, a rolling course that is a favorite among the local running crowd. Laurie tried to keep up, but once we got moving at about mile 2, she fell back and ran her own pace for the rest of the day. The rest of us picked things up from 10:58 to 10:07 to 9:53 to 9:48 as we got loose. At the boat docks, we stopped briefly for a quick drink of water (very fine 1:03 stop!), and moved into the Scenic course proper. Once the terrain became more difficult, we actually started speeding up, knocking out 4 or 5 miles at 9:15 pace, more or less. We had a good time, chatting when the course featured downhills and flats, and were a little quieter on the steeper bits. Another running group of some sort was running by us a few times, but they turned before we reached 35th Street, so Patrick didn't have to go and race them.

On Exposition, I noticed a gas station with unleaded at $1.88, almost 15 cents more than the gas stations near my house. I guess the residents in fashionable West Austin don't mind paying a little more?

Our last stop was a brief 2 minutes at O. Henry Middle School, where Gilbert had put out Powerade and water for us. Just for fun, we took a GU there as well. At that point, with some 3 miles to go, Diana maintained that 9:15 sort of pace since she had to run more like 20 miles today since she's training for Boston. (I saw her later, and even though she got off course a little, she knocked out plenty of miles. Go, girl!) Henry stayed with her for the rest of the 11 miles, and the rest of us pushed the pace a bit for a traditional Gazelles "Fast Finish" long run. Patrick and Jan got a quick start, and it took me over a mile to catch Jan on the trail. Patrick was long gone by then. In a sign that we have run too many miles together, Jan knew that I was coming up behind her on the trail based solely on the sound of my footfalls. Those folks on CSI don't have anything on a runner's deductive powers, huh? I pushed on ahead, as I was rolling pretty well by then. My last 3 miles were around 8:05/mile pace, and I finished pretty strong. It was an excellent run.

11.44 miles, average pace 9:16/mile, total running time 1:45:58. Jan finished pretty soon after me, and we went and did 4 striders on the grass.

Following that, we gathered for the usual Saturday stretching, and it was good to see Alex there. He had another successful rehab run/walk outing, so he was happier than I've seen him in a while. There was a huge crowd there for stretching this morning. Lots of non-Gazelles people, I think. After the stretching, Jan, Patrick, Alex and I did our situps (4 x 25), back raises (2 x 20) and pushups (2 x 10). It was a full day at the running office.

Tomorrow is pretty much a full off day, except that I'll do some core exercise stuff here at the house in the morning. I have to go to San Antonio tomorrow for a guitar concert, so if I don't do the exercise early, there's a large chance I won't do it at all. One must know one's own limitations, right?

Take It To The Gym...

Another Friday, another cross training adventure in the gym. I went to a different Gold's Gym today because of a time issue, and found that they were missing one machine that I normally use. Oh, well. After 30 minutes on a Precor stationary cycle (it is far superior to the Lifecycle, very smooth), I did a good stretching routine, and then hit the circuit. Again, I added reps and/or weights to many of the exercises, and I felt pretty good all the way through. There was some gasping on some of the ab exercises, but that's normal. After bench press, I tried to find barbells sufficiently light to do tricep extensions, but the only ones light enough were the plastic color coded 5 pounders, so I wimped out and did those once I got home. How embarrassing! This gym uses a different freeweight bar, weighing 45 pounds instead of 22.5 pounds, so for my bench press at 55 pounds, I had little 5 pounders on each end of the bar. I cranked out my 3 sets, but it will be nice when I move up a little in weight on those. Altogether, a good workout. Sunday, I'll do some core stuff at home, but I'll skip the gym then to give myself a better "off" day of rest after tomorrow's 10 miler.

Random Musings...

I don't know about you, but my internal radio station (the one that starts inexplicably playing something like "The Night Chicago Died" over and over...) sends me about every other day into my CD collection, looking for something to cure the particular musical "Jones" that has popped into my brain. For some reason, the last few days I've been enjoying the Collected Discography of Van Halen. There is no substitute, no matter what you think of that group of metallic musicians. I think I may be almost over that, but already I fear that the musical pendulum is swinging way the other way, and next up in the car CD changer will probably be Lucinda Williams or others of her ilk. Sometimes you just gotta go with your mind and see where it takes you. Since I'm a musical omnivore, there's just no telling where I'll lean next, but that makes it a lot more fun.

On the XM radio, I've been hanging out at "Ngoma," Channel 102, the African music channel (real Africa African music, mind you, all hand percussion and snaky guitar lines with large choruses of vocals...wonderful!), "The Village" folk channel (channel 15), and the Reggae channel "The Joint" (subtle, huh?), Channel 101. A great invention, that satellite radio. My strategy is to surf, find a new channel, and just hang out there for a week or two. I've found some great music that I otherwise would have totally been ignorant of had I stayed on Sports Talk and Top Hits. Sunday afternoons, of course, are reserved for the NASCAR network and the radio broadcast of that week's race, but that's another story entirely.

"Tempo" Run...

This morning was in the mid-50's and overcast. Conditions that we'd love to have into May, but not likely. Anyway, I felt pretty good this morning, with only a slight twitch in my left hamstring still present. I felt a little heavy-legged after the weights yesterday, but I was game for the workout. We did an easy 1.2 mile warmup and then the drills. Frank was in Arizona, celebrating his birthday, so I hung out with Jan, Amy and Joseph. The workout today was the 4 mile tempo run, which is basically a time trial event. Gilbert keeps track of our times, and uses this as a gauge of our current fitness. Still calls it a tempo run, but it is far from that!

I intended to run it pretty relaxed, to push it but not to do it all out, since I'm still just less than 3 weeks since the marathon. Famous last words. At the gun, the crowd was off like greyhounds at the track. I was dead last going off the line. By the one mile mark, I had reeled in 4 or 5 people, had Jan with me, and kept Amy, Joseph and Shannon in sight ahead of me. First mile was 7:55, so I was doing what I thought I would do. Going out to the turnaround, Jan dropped back, and I was running in an open space in the pack. Second mile was 7:37. I was working pretty hard, but still not all out, I think. Right after the turnaround, Amy, Joseph and Shannon pushed the pace a bit, and suddenly, I was about 20 yards further back from them. I set a task of catching at least one of them over the last 2 miles, just to give myself something to do. I caught Shannon at the footbridge at the 3 mile mark, a split of 7:31. I had a good shot at a negative split. Running alongside Shannon, we just couldn't catch Amy or Joseph, and I crossed the finish with her for a final mile of 7:47. Total time 30:50, pace 7:43. My "PR" for this course is 30:20, so I was about 7 seconds/mile slower today. Not bad.

We did 4 striders after we finished, and then we did a session of Gilbert's form/balance drills. Those were a series of hopping and skipping and rhythmic form drills. Hard to explain, but they are known as the "TSCH, TSCH" drills with us, because of the sounds we're supposed to make in time with the drills. I actually did them pretty well today. My quads were dead after them, however, so I guess I was either doing them exactly right or I'm really tired, one or the other. Afterwards, I stretched with Jan, and we did 100 situps (4 sets of 25), 2x10 pushups, and 2 x 20 back raises, along with the standard stretching. Tomorrow, another cycle/weights session and then 10 miles on Saturday.

Gym Stuff...

Finally officially joined Gold's Gym. And today, I didn't feel so weird going to workout there. I guess it's a habit now, and I know I'm in better shape than a lot of folks there.

Started with 25:00 on the Lifecycle, this time on Manual setting, 10 minutes easier to warmup, then 10 minutes at a higher level, then back down for last 5:00. Next time, I'll move up to 30 minutes. Worked up a sweat, too. Only problem is the televisions by the Lifecycles were all set on either soap operas or "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire." Groan. Maybe I would get some use out of an mp3 player?

After a good stretch (my left leg is still a little stiff), I cranked through the workout. I was able to add some reps and some pounds to some of the exercises again, which makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something. I substituted dumbbell curls for the biceps instead of that curl machine, and all of a sudden, I was lifting more than the machine said I could lift. Go figure. On some of the leg stuff, I backed off on the amount of weight and concentrated on form (fast up, slow down), and got a satisfying burn at the end of each set. Added seated rows to the upper body stuff this time. I'll add tricep extensions with dumbbells next time, and that's probably enough for a while for the arms.

It will be interesting to see how much, if any, my body changes as a result of this new regimen. Something to keep track of, that's for sure.

Oh, yeah, February totals were 91.7 miles, not bad with taper weeks before the marathon and slow uptick on the other side of it.

Back in the Herd...

After taking yesterday off, for precautionary reasons, the left hamstring felt much better. I stretched gently and did some ice and heat treatments here at home, and I think that was what I needed to do.

So, this morning, I rolled out and met the Gazelles at 6:00 am on a gloriously cool and crisp morning in the mid to high 40's for mile repeats. Our 1.5 mile warmup was about 10:00 pace, nice and comfortable, and the drills were as usual. After that, we grouped up for mile repeats on a road course. Amy was ready to run, so she ended up being a group of one. Joseph, Jan and I were a group behind her. Gilbert told me to do 4 repeats. I had planned on only doing 2, so I asked him if he was sure, and he said yes. Oh, well. I intended to run the repeats fairly relaxed, not trying to blast each one. Now, setting out to do 4 of them, I tried to go out easy.

The first repeat was 7:41, and it felt pretty easy. I huffed and puffed on the last incline, but other than that, I was controlled. We went the other way on the course for repeat #2, after 2 minutes jog/walk rest. That way has us running up the steepest hill on the course, but I think overall it's easier that direction. That one was 7:32. The third one was in 7:33, and for the fourth repeat, it was just Joseph and me. We knocked that one out in a surprising 7:24. I thought we were slowing down on that one! At any rate, it was a really good set of mile repeats, and my legs felt just fine. Last time I did this workout, I did 4 repeats averaging 7:18, and today was 4 at an average of 7:32. Not bad, considering I'm only a couple of weeks post-Freescale.

The jog back to RunTex was a little quicker, 9:30 pace, with Frank, Joseph, Jan and me. Once we got there, Frank and Jan and I did stretching and 100 crunches (various sets of two different crunches), along with 20 back raises. It was a good day at the running office.

Once I got home, I iced down the hamstring, just in case. Wednesday is a gym day, cycle and weights. Thursday is a tempo run of 4 miles, and again, I intend to run that a little easier than normal, but that may change.