Fartleks
Another brisk morning, temps in the high 30's, clear and cool. Good running weather. I set out with Brian and Rich for our fartlek workout on the 7 mile loop on the trail, and we were positioned in last place, trailing a large pack that included Richard, Carrie, Frank, Marci and a host of others. The easy 20 minutes was actually easy, a little over two miles at 9:30/mile pace. Once we started the 2:00 acceleration / 1:00 recovery jog pattern at that point, the group got all jumbled up. The three of us moved through a good bit of the crowd ahead of us, and picked up Richard as we did so. We ended up trailing Frank and Marci by a little, and stayed ahead of the others. We were doing a good bit of talking as we ran along, as usual, and generally enjoyed the morning's run. We did not take any water breaks this morning, and ended up finishing the fast section just after the footbridge at the one mile marker. After that, we eased the throttle back, and did an easier cooldown run from there, just under a mile of that at 9:14 pace.
The pace for the fartlek section of the run was 8:07/mile. We covered almost exactly 4 miles during that time, and did 11 accelerations. Our mile splits during the faster running were 8:28, 8:16, 7:49, 7:53, which was some pretty good running. I felt pretty comfortable out there, and I'll take that as more good mental ammunition for Sunday's race.
After a few striders (3 x 100m), we joined the rest of the gang for Gilbert's balance drills. I had fun with those, and then it was time for the day's efforts to end. It was another good day of running, and so I headed to the gym for the split portion of my weight routine remaining from yesterday.
GymStuff
Today at the gym, I started off by doing the Roman chair leg and knee lifts that I skipped yesterday, and added the floor crunches that I'm supposed to do after every run while I was there. After that brief core workout, I did the full leg stretching regimen, since my legs were still a bit sore from the Meriden hillpeats on Monday. Then, I headed over for upper body weights. I managed to do my 2x10 reps of bench again at 95 lbs., so next time, I'll try the even 100 lb barrier. Everything else was as usual, but I did add a little more weight to the tricep extensions. While I was there at the gym, I saw another Gazelle, Brandon (he's primarily a really talented triathlete) and his girlfriend, Amy. The internal DJ in my iPod did an excellent job of programming during this workout, by the way.
Thursday will be a shorter recovery run, maybe 40-45 minutes, and then a reduced leg weight workout at the gym. Friday will be a short core/upper body weight workout and maybe some easy indoor cycling. Sort of a mini-taper for Decker...
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Chilly, but nice...
Met up with Frank, Thon and "new" Amy this morning for a nice easy recovery run. It was in the high 30's, crisp and clear. Really nice running weather. I much prefer cold weather running to hot, that's for sure. We took a couple of brief water stops along the way totalling about 3 minutes, but I just let the watch run on these sorts of runs. We ended up with 7.1 miles of running, about 9:43/mile pace. Frank and I did 5x100m striders afterwards, too. All in all, it felt pretty good out there. I did just a tiny bit of stretching after that, and headed up to Gold's Gym for essential exercises.
GymStuff
At the gym, I knocked out all of the usual core stuff except for the Roman Chair leg lifts. I'll do those tomorrow when I come back for upper body weights. After the core exercises, I did the full length leg weight workout. I added a little weight to seated calf raises, to an even 50 lbs, and other than that, just made sure to do the Butt Blaster machine that Gilbert prescribed for me along with all the other stuff I do on this workout. Except for skipping the post-workout stretching session, this was a very good workout.
Tomorrow is the fun pre-race fartlek tuneup workout with the Gazelles, and then it's just easy stuff from there until Decker and the hilly 20K there.
Met up with Frank, Thon and "new" Amy this morning for a nice easy recovery run. It was in the high 30's, crisp and clear. Really nice running weather. I much prefer cold weather running to hot, that's for sure. We took a couple of brief water stops along the way totalling about 3 minutes, but I just let the watch run on these sorts of runs. We ended up with 7.1 miles of running, about 9:43/mile pace. Frank and I did 5x100m striders afterwards, too. All in all, it felt pretty good out there. I did just a tiny bit of stretching after that, and headed up to Gold's Gym for essential exercises.
GymStuff
At the gym, I knocked out all of the usual core stuff except for the Roman Chair leg lifts. I'll do those tomorrow when I come back for upper body weights. After the core exercises, I did the full length leg weight workout. I added a little weight to seated calf raises, to an even 50 lbs, and other than that, just made sure to do the Butt Blaster machine that Gilbert prescribed for me along with all the other stuff I do on this workout. Except for skipping the post-workout stretching session, this was a very good workout.
Tomorrow is the fun pre-race fartlek tuneup workout with the Gazelles, and then it's just easy stuff from there until Decker and the hilly 20K there.
Monday, November 28, 2005
...And He Gets Up Off the Couch!!
After a couple of days of total lassitude over the Turkey Holidays, it was time to get running again today. I had intentions of going out for runs at home in Lufkin, but just couldn't overcome the inertia that pulled me back for extra sleep and/or snacks. Yes, I had planned on cutting back my mileage last week, but cutting it back to about 12 miles wasn't the plan. :-) Oh, well.
This morning, we met at RunTex for the very long warmup run to the Meriden 1000m hillpeats. Nice and cool, high 40's, and clear skies. Gilbert wanted us to have a 10 mile day, while avoiding the scheduled long pace run. Nice warmup run with Matt, Brian, and Rich, and I got the story on the Mt. Bonnell run on Saturday. We were done with drills by 6:30 or so, and it was time to get going on the repeats. I ditched my running vest, and lined up with Brian, Matt, and Rich for the work ahead. Gilbert called for 5 repeats, concentrating on form, with 90 seconds of rest between.
My little group of 4 knocked out 4 repeats, each faster than the one before, which was pretty cool. I felt fairly comfortable, with the usual spots on the first hill where you huff and puff a bit. After 4, we were getting ready to go on number 5, but Gilbert said that 4 was enough after all. So, we finished up with 5x150 meter uphill striders, going with high knees and all that stuff, and then did 2x120 meter backwards running uphill striders. I ran most of the striders with Marci, and we chatted about various things as we did that stuff. A few minutes of rest later, and a few cups of blue Powerade, and it was time to head back for the long cooldown run. We had some fun on the way back, laughing about a bunch of stuff, and it seemed to pass quickly that way.
Stats: Warmup/cooldown runs 3.1 miles each, about 9:20/mile pace for 6.2 miles. Repeats were 5:00, 4:57, 4:54, 4:50, average 4:55 again like last time. For the day, 9.85 miles, and a good day's running work.
I did the full stretching with Sean afterwards, enjoying the morning sun. All in all, it was a good running day, and I'm glad to get back out there and back to training.
After a couple of days of total lassitude over the Turkey Holidays, it was time to get running again today. I had intentions of going out for runs at home in Lufkin, but just couldn't overcome the inertia that pulled me back for extra sleep and/or snacks. Yes, I had planned on cutting back my mileage last week, but cutting it back to about 12 miles wasn't the plan. :-) Oh, well.
This morning, we met at RunTex for the very long warmup run to the Meriden 1000m hillpeats. Nice and cool, high 40's, and clear skies. Gilbert wanted us to have a 10 mile day, while avoiding the scheduled long pace run. Nice warmup run with Matt, Brian, and Rich, and I got the story on the Mt. Bonnell run on Saturday. We were done with drills by 6:30 or so, and it was time to get going on the repeats. I ditched my running vest, and lined up with Brian, Matt, and Rich for the work ahead. Gilbert called for 5 repeats, concentrating on form, with 90 seconds of rest between.
My little group of 4 knocked out 4 repeats, each faster than the one before, which was pretty cool. I felt fairly comfortable, with the usual spots on the first hill where you huff and puff a bit. After 4, we were getting ready to go on number 5, but Gilbert said that 4 was enough after all. So, we finished up with 5x150 meter uphill striders, going with high knees and all that stuff, and then did 2x120 meter backwards running uphill striders. I ran most of the striders with Marci, and we chatted about various things as we did that stuff. A few minutes of rest later, and a few cups of blue Powerade, and it was time to head back for the long cooldown run. We had some fun on the way back, laughing about a bunch of stuff, and it seemed to pass quickly that way.
Stats: Warmup/cooldown runs 3.1 miles each, about 9:20/mile pace for 6.2 miles. Repeats were 5:00, 4:57, 4:54, 4:50, average 4:55 again like last time. For the day, 9.85 miles, and a good day's running work.
I did the full stretching with Sean afterwards, enjoying the morning sun. All in all, it was a good running day, and I'm glad to get back out there and back to training.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Super Easy Recovery Running
This morning, another crisp and clear one, I met with Sean, Jan and Frank for a relaxed 7 mile loop. We ran clockwise on the trail, starting at 6:30 am, and generally had a good time. The conversation was lively throughout, and we managed to share some gossip, tell some tales, and solve many of the world's problems. Typical Tuesday morning fare. Two brief water stops along the way bulked up the finishing time a bit, so we ended up with just over 7 miles at 9:50/mile pace. Frank had to get going to work after that, but Sean, Jan and I stuck around for the full stretching routine. It was nice in the full morning sun, hanging out with my running friends, and chatting away.
Gilbert came up while we were finishing, and he had done the first 7 mile loop of his birthday running ritual. He runs a mile for each year of his life on his birthday. This year, he'll knock out 31 miles today. Three 7 mile runs, scattered throughout the day, and then a finishing 10 mile loop. That's a pretty cool thing, I think. The Governor finished up his run just after that, and he talked with us for a good while. Kind of cool that the Guv is just a normal runner guy, at least for a short period of time each day. We laughed about the Texas - Texas A&M football game coming up on Friday (the Governor is an A&M graduate), and he predicted that A&M would win, 7-0. He then admitted that his prediction skills aren't the best.
...And a Gym Visit, Too!
That was pretty much it for running, but I wasn't done yet! Jan told me that I should go to her gym for my Essential Exercises, so I accepted that invitation, and we went down to Gold's off of Hwy 71. Since Jan and I would be working out at the same time, I ditched the iPod for this workout. They've made some changes at that Gold's since I last visited, and it is a nice facility. This will be the only gym workout I'll be able to do this week, so I crammed in as much of the full routine as I could. Their back raise apparatus was covered by scaffolding, so I couldn't do those and the oblique raises as I normally would, but otherwise, I got in my core stuff as usual. I introduced Jan to the extended Plank series, and she laughed that she needed a little work on those to get them up to full timing. Karen from the Gazelles was there at the same time, and she came by to pick on us while we were "planking," too. After the core stuff, I knocked out all the leg stuff, including the Butt Blaster machine that Gilbert recommended that I add back into the routine. Finally, it was time for upper body, but Jan had had enough, and headed out while I was in the middle of bench press. I got up to 2x10 of bench at 95 lbs, which was pretty cool. One more time at that rep/weight combination, and I'll move up to the round 100 lb mark, which will be a long way from the 45 lbs I started benching back in the Spring.
A little bit more stretching after the upper body stuff, and I was done. It was a long morning of exercise, but now I'm ready for Turkey Day at least. I'm not really excited about a Tempo Run tomorrow, but that's the last hard workout for the week, so I'll try to gut it out.
This morning, another crisp and clear one, I met with Sean, Jan and Frank for a relaxed 7 mile loop. We ran clockwise on the trail, starting at 6:30 am, and generally had a good time. The conversation was lively throughout, and we managed to share some gossip, tell some tales, and solve many of the world's problems. Typical Tuesday morning fare. Two brief water stops along the way bulked up the finishing time a bit, so we ended up with just over 7 miles at 9:50/mile pace. Frank had to get going to work after that, but Sean, Jan and I stuck around for the full stretching routine. It was nice in the full morning sun, hanging out with my running friends, and chatting away.
Gilbert came up while we were finishing, and he had done the first 7 mile loop of his birthday running ritual. He runs a mile for each year of his life on his birthday. This year, he'll knock out 31 miles today. Three 7 mile runs, scattered throughout the day, and then a finishing 10 mile loop. That's a pretty cool thing, I think. The Governor finished up his run just after that, and he talked with us for a good while. Kind of cool that the Guv is just a normal runner guy, at least for a short period of time each day. We laughed about the Texas - Texas A&M football game coming up on Friday (the Governor is an A&M graduate), and he predicted that A&M would win, 7-0. He then admitted that his prediction skills aren't the best.
...And a Gym Visit, Too!
That was pretty much it for running, but I wasn't done yet! Jan told me that I should go to her gym for my Essential Exercises, so I accepted that invitation, and we went down to Gold's off of Hwy 71. Since Jan and I would be working out at the same time, I ditched the iPod for this workout. They've made some changes at that Gold's since I last visited, and it is a nice facility. This will be the only gym workout I'll be able to do this week, so I crammed in as much of the full routine as I could. Their back raise apparatus was covered by scaffolding, so I couldn't do those and the oblique raises as I normally would, but otherwise, I got in my core stuff as usual. I introduced Jan to the extended Plank series, and she laughed that she needed a little work on those to get them up to full timing. Karen from the Gazelles was there at the same time, and she came by to pick on us while we were "planking," too. After the core stuff, I knocked out all the leg stuff, including the Butt Blaster machine that Gilbert recommended that I add back into the routine. Finally, it was time for upper body, but Jan had had enough, and headed out while I was in the middle of bench press. I got up to 2x10 of bench at 95 lbs, which was pretty cool. One more time at that rep/weight combination, and I'll move up to the round 100 lb mark, which will be a long way from the 45 lbs I started benching back in the Spring.
A little bit more stretching after the upper body stuff, and I was done. It was a long morning of exercise, but now I'm ready for Turkey Day at least. I'm not really excited about a Tempo Run tomorrow, but that's the last hard workout for the week, so I'll try to gut it out.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Aggressive Recovery
We met at 5:45 am today for the "morning after" recovery work. Nice, crisp and cool, with temps in the high 30's. Most of us had raced at Motive yesterday, so there were some fairly tired people in attendance. Gilbert told the "advanced" runners to do the Congress Ave. loop really easy and then meet him at Auditorium Shores for circuit training. I started off at the very back of the pack, running super easy, hanging out with Sean, Alex, Richard and Matt. We cruised along pretty easily, and I was happy to note that I didn't have any trouble getting loose after yesterday's hard racing effort. After a couple of miles, I eased up to run with Sean, and we chatted away for the rest of the run about various stuff. Matt caught up to us in the last mile, and we finished together. Probably picked it up in those last couple of miles, but it ended up being about 5 miles and about 9:20/mile pace. Good one.
Of course, then we had to do the circuit stuff. The drill today was to do the usual circuit exercises (step ups, pushups, situps, back raises, jumps and then lunges), with "diagonals" run between sets of exercises. Those are sort of 100m striders run, uh, diagonally, across the field there, with jogs along the straight ends, and then striding back on the other diagonal. I tried to use good striding form on these, just as further recovery tools. I scored 3 sets of circuits, and had done the diagonals for the fourth circuit, and stepups and pushups for that circuit, when Gilbert called us over for group pictures. While I waited for the pictures to be taken, I finished up the circuit exercises for circuit 4, a first for me.
Pictures were fun, and then it was time to get moving again. It was still just 41 degrees, and after stopping the exercises, we were getting chilled pretty quickly. There was more talk about how we did at Motive, and it seems that virtually everyone was very pleased with their races. It was just a relaxed and fun day at the running office. Despite my misgivings, Gilbert was correct about doing circuit the day after a race. Alex and I both agreed that we did feel much better after the workout than we did before.
I stuck around and did most of the stretching routine, but I was alone doing it. It was pretty chilly at that point when you're stationary. After that, I chatted with Gilbert for a few minutes, and he prescribed a new exercise to add to my gym work after seeing me late in the race yesterday. More glute stuff to balance things out. Okay, I can handle that. He's very happy about how we did as a group yesterday, especially all the big course PR's or overall PR's set.
By then, it was time to get in the truck and crank up the heated seats (I know, go ahead and sneer :-) ). Tomorrow is some easy running with some of the gang, and then a tempo run on Wednesday. I'll be on my own Thursday and Saturday, in Lufkin, which won't be terrible, I guess. I'll miss hanging out with my running friends, though.
My post-race massage today revealed little lasting soreness, but there were the usual spots in the calves and the left quad that had to be worked out. I guess all the hard work is showing up in the way I recover from hard efforts, too. That doesn't mean I need to do even more, just that what I'm doing seems to be the correct approach for me.
We met at 5:45 am today for the "morning after" recovery work. Nice, crisp and cool, with temps in the high 30's. Most of us had raced at Motive yesterday, so there were some fairly tired people in attendance. Gilbert told the "advanced" runners to do the Congress Ave. loop really easy and then meet him at Auditorium Shores for circuit training. I started off at the very back of the pack, running super easy, hanging out with Sean, Alex, Richard and Matt. We cruised along pretty easily, and I was happy to note that I didn't have any trouble getting loose after yesterday's hard racing effort. After a couple of miles, I eased up to run with Sean, and we chatted away for the rest of the run about various stuff. Matt caught up to us in the last mile, and we finished together. Probably picked it up in those last couple of miles, but it ended up being about 5 miles and about 9:20/mile pace. Good one.
Of course, then we had to do the circuit stuff. The drill today was to do the usual circuit exercises (step ups, pushups, situps, back raises, jumps and then lunges), with "diagonals" run between sets of exercises. Those are sort of 100m striders run, uh, diagonally, across the field there, with jogs along the straight ends, and then striding back on the other diagonal. I tried to use good striding form on these, just as further recovery tools. I scored 3 sets of circuits, and had done the diagonals for the fourth circuit, and stepups and pushups for that circuit, when Gilbert called us over for group pictures. While I waited for the pictures to be taken, I finished up the circuit exercises for circuit 4, a first for me.
Pictures were fun, and then it was time to get moving again. It was still just 41 degrees, and after stopping the exercises, we were getting chilled pretty quickly. There was more talk about how we did at Motive, and it seems that virtually everyone was very pleased with their races. It was just a relaxed and fun day at the running office. Despite my misgivings, Gilbert was correct about doing circuit the day after a race. Alex and I both agreed that we did feel much better after the workout than we did before.
I stuck around and did most of the stretching routine, but I was alone doing it. It was pretty chilly at that point when you're stationary. After that, I chatted with Gilbert for a few minutes, and he prescribed a new exercise to add to my gym work after seeing me late in the race yesterday. More glute stuff to balance things out. Okay, I can handle that. He's very happy about how we did as a group yesterday, especially all the big course PR's or overall PR's set.
By then, it was time to get in the truck and crank up the heated seats (I know, go ahead and sneer :-) ). Tomorrow is some easy running with some of the gang, and then a tempo run on Wednesday. I'll be on my own Thursday and Saturday, in Lufkin, which won't be terrible, I guess. I'll miss hanging out with my running friends, though.
My post-race massage today revealed little lasting soreness, but there were the usual spots in the calves and the left quad that had to be worked out. I guess all the hard work is showing up in the way I recover from hard efforts, too. That doesn't mean I need to do even more, just that what I'm doing seems to be the correct approach for me.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Motive Bison Run Half Marathon
I have steadfastly told anyone who asked that I believe this race course is easier than the Pervasive 10 Miler. Yeah, it has that long more or less continuous 2 mile hill in the middle, followed by a nasty little stretch exiting that neighborhood, but after that, it seems to be fairly level. Now that I've temporarily come to terms with Pervasive after this year's race back in October, it was time today for the other big hill race here in town, Motive. The race brought in some Kenyans this year to spice things up, and they both said this was the hardest half marathon they've ever run, so maybe I'm wrong about the course?
We met Gilbert at the finish line at 6:30 am for the ritual warmup and drills. Super easy running for 2 miles out and back, to and from the 12 mile marker brought us back for drills and all that fun stuff. I was feeling pretty good, nervous, but ready to run. Amy and I have made a fairly big deal about how we were going to race hard against each other today, after her narrow, but fair, win at Pervasive. Would this help or hurt? Pretty good weather this morning, too, low 50's throughout with bright sun. Sunglasses were a must.
After the stretching, I dashed back to the car, got my race garb on, downed a pre-race GU, and then visited the scrub forest near the finish for a hydration adjustment. Ready to run. I made my way into the starting corral, and Amy soon found her way to my spot. A taped National Anthem got us ready, and then the air horn sent us away. Amy and I eased through the early traffic, which was uneventful, but it was funny because Richard was there with us, and he was doing a play by play of the Amy/Jay "race" as we ran along. He was going to run nice and easy since he just ran NYC a couple of weeks ago, so we didn't hear him for too long. The first 3 or 4 miles are pretty boring, mostly a straight shot along Jollyville Road. Amy ran up to us during mile 2, and our little trio cruised along all the way to the bottom of the big downhill which kicks off the tough middle section of the course. Early on, I was running how I felt, but it was a little quicker than I had planned. Maybe I didn't plan aggressively enough? Took my first swig of Enervitene at the water stop at the base of the hill, and it was time to climb.
Splits miles 1-4: 8:54, 8:09, 8:04, 8:27 (backed off a little just to make sure I was ready to climb)
After that water stop at 4.5 miles, we commenced the 3 or 4-part climb. The first bit is steeper, but relatively short, then there's another longer, slightly shallower climb. By the second climb, Shannon and I had pulled away just a little from Amy. Again, I was running sort of within myself, but this was hard work. I saw Ron, my massage guy, cheering us on the side of the road. Lots of ghoulish interest among spectators on this stretch of the course. There was a bit of a false flat, and then another climb, followed by a short downhill stretch. That's where one of the aid stations was blasting (seriously...BLASTING) the Survivor song "Eye of the Tiger." Ugh. One ran faster there just to get away from the tune. Near the bottom of that little downhill, the usual girl was there playing the Rocky theme song on her cello. She wasn't playing as well this year...maybe it was the cooler temperatures? At that point, we turned a sharp right-hand corner, and slogged up the last, and cruelest, portion of the long climb at Motive. Pretty steep, and after everything else, it's just not much fun. Here's where I had serious thoughts of walking again, but knowing that Shannon was doing okay kept me pushing, and it levelled out just enough to deliver me from my mental demons. Another turn, and finally we got a tiny decline in the terrain, followed by the Harry Potter water stop between mile 7 and 8. Took another dose of Enervitene there, along with water and Gatorade, and we moved on. One last cruel uphill stretch coming out of that neighborhood, and we were finally at mile 8 and the onset of flatter finishing miles. So far, so good, ahead of schedule, could I hold it together from here?
Splits miles 5-8 (the hills): 8:14, 8:35, 8:37, 8:12. Whew!
Shannon had heard the tentative Gilbert plan to "Go!" at mile 8, and started ratcheting up the pace a little. I finally had to let her go during the last part of mile 9, crossing back under Hwy 183 and heading into the neighborhoods surrounding the Motive campus. My mile splits were fine, I just couldn't keep up with Shannon today. I was feeling tired, but I took more Enervitene at the water stop between mile 9 and 10, walking a few steps to make sure I got Gatorade and water, and that's when Amy caught up to me. I immediately caught back up with Amy, and we ran together for mile 10, and then I got a second wind and blasted a couple of good miles during 11 and 12. Rich passed me like I was walking during mile 11, and I just had to tell him to finish strong. I was giving it all I had. Every time I thought I was starting to drag down in pace, it turns out I was doing just fine. That's stuff the brain does to you when you're wearing down. I finished off my second Enervitene at the water stop around mile 11, and that was the last water stop of any sort that I visited. Pushing hard, I dragged through the evil little steady uphill chunk starting right before mile 12, and continuing all the way up to mile 13. Once again, the "go ahead and walk" demon spoke to me, but I fought that off. I knew I had a good shot at a PR by now, and just resolved to gut it out from there. I was passed by a surprising number of people in the last 3 miles, despite my splits, so I guess once you start moving up in the pack, you start seeing those faster people and better racers, huh? Turning the corner out of that last "U," I saw Patrick and Sean, and they yelled encouragement at me. They told me to kick it in, and I was just a little grumpy, since I was already at "kicked in." Still, that helped boost me for the short stretch between there and the final bit of the course. Liliana and Alex also screamed at me to push to the finish, and even Gilbert was jogging along, yelling at all his people. It was a lot of personal attention in the last 3 tenths of a mile of the race. I kept waiting to get caught by Amy, who was somewhere back behind me, but I never turned my head, for fear I'd see her on my shoulder. It was with great relief that I turned into the Motive parking lot and campus, and I saw the mile 13 marker. Anyone can run hard for a tenth of a mile, right? So, I threw it into as good a finishing gear as I could find, and turned the last corner for a short finishing chute. I heard Evel call my name, and I pushed across hard, trying for every last second. Done!
Splits miles 9-13.11: 8:03, 8:16, 7:50, 7:49, 8:12, 0:47 (7:07 "kick"). Final time 1:48:09, Masters PR, beating my time on the much flatter Indy 500 Half course in May by 1:27. I beat last year's Motive time by 4:45. Average pace 8:15/mile, almost what I ran at the Pervasive 10 miler. Big negative split, too. I think I ran a good race.
I got my nifty multi-colored finisher's medal, took a water and a Gatorade, along with my food bag, and shuffled through the finishing area. I chugged that Gatorade pretty quickly, but didn't get into the other stuff right away. Soon enough, I saw Frank, and then Shannon and Amy. Everyone had had a good day, and we had all run hard. Turns out that everyone had been yelling for Amy to "Go Catch Jay!," which I thankfully hadn't heard. Those Gazelles are a cruel bunch, huh?
Almost against my will, I joined Shannon and Amy (and later, Leslie) for the Gilbert-mandated 2 miles of easy cooldown running. It was nearly painful, mostly because I had chugged that Gatorade. That made for a better afternoon and reduced some of the post-run junk, but it's hard to do a real cooldown jog sometimes.
The post-race scene was lively, and it was good to see bunches of friends in the crowd. Live music was generally entertaining, and there was plenty of food and such if you were interested. I passed on the RunTex Beer Garden, knowing that I had a guitar gig this afternoon. If I had had a beer, I'm sure I would have been asleep, sitting in the chair on stage. :-)
The weather was so nice afterwards that it made it hard to get out of there. Soon enough, though, I walked with Frank back to the cars, and after a little more conversation, it was time to go. A good day at the races, for sure. A weird numerical oddity today in the standings was that I finished 494 out of 1963 runners. That's not too weird, but my race bib number was 494. Creepy, huh?
Monday is an easy 5 miles followed by some new circuit stuff that G has dreamed up. Should be interesting. Tuesday is another super easy run with Jan and Frank, and then a Tempo run / race is scheduled for Wednesday. Don't know how ready I'll be for that. Oh, yeah, tomorrow, I get the post-race junk out of my legs with a visit to the massage dude. My calves are already telling me it could be a bit tough at that appointment.
It was another big week of running, just over 43 miles, 5 runs, multiple gym workouts, and generally good exercise compliance. This coming week, I hope to cut the miles back to 30-35, just to get a little relief from the heavier mileage. Your body needs that from time to time. And, of course, the Decker 20K is in two weeks, so it would be nice to hit that race a little more rested than I was for this one!
I have steadfastly told anyone who asked that I believe this race course is easier than the Pervasive 10 Miler. Yeah, it has that long more or less continuous 2 mile hill in the middle, followed by a nasty little stretch exiting that neighborhood, but after that, it seems to be fairly level. Now that I've temporarily come to terms with Pervasive after this year's race back in October, it was time today for the other big hill race here in town, Motive. The race brought in some Kenyans this year to spice things up, and they both said this was the hardest half marathon they've ever run, so maybe I'm wrong about the course?
We met Gilbert at the finish line at 6:30 am for the ritual warmup and drills. Super easy running for 2 miles out and back, to and from the 12 mile marker brought us back for drills and all that fun stuff. I was feeling pretty good, nervous, but ready to run. Amy and I have made a fairly big deal about how we were going to race hard against each other today, after her narrow, but fair, win at Pervasive. Would this help or hurt? Pretty good weather this morning, too, low 50's throughout with bright sun. Sunglasses were a must.
After the stretching, I dashed back to the car, got my race garb on, downed a pre-race GU, and then visited the scrub forest near the finish for a hydration adjustment. Ready to run. I made my way into the starting corral, and Amy soon found her way to my spot. A taped National Anthem got us ready, and then the air horn sent us away. Amy and I eased through the early traffic, which was uneventful, but it was funny because Richard was there with us, and he was doing a play by play of the Amy/Jay "race" as we ran along. He was going to run nice and easy since he just ran NYC a couple of weeks ago, so we didn't hear him for too long. The first 3 or 4 miles are pretty boring, mostly a straight shot along Jollyville Road. Amy ran up to us during mile 2, and our little trio cruised along all the way to the bottom of the big downhill which kicks off the tough middle section of the course. Early on, I was running how I felt, but it was a little quicker than I had planned. Maybe I didn't plan aggressively enough? Took my first swig of Enervitene at the water stop at the base of the hill, and it was time to climb.
Splits miles 1-4: 8:54, 8:09, 8:04, 8:27 (backed off a little just to make sure I was ready to climb)
After that water stop at 4.5 miles, we commenced the 3 or 4-part climb. The first bit is steeper, but relatively short, then there's another longer, slightly shallower climb. By the second climb, Shannon and I had pulled away just a little from Amy. Again, I was running sort of within myself, but this was hard work. I saw Ron, my massage guy, cheering us on the side of the road. Lots of ghoulish interest among spectators on this stretch of the course. There was a bit of a false flat, and then another climb, followed by a short downhill stretch. That's where one of the aid stations was blasting (seriously...BLASTING) the Survivor song "Eye of the Tiger." Ugh. One ran faster there just to get away from the tune. Near the bottom of that little downhill, the usual girl was there playing the Rocky theme song on her cello. She wasn't playing as well this year...maybe it was the cooler temperatures? At that point, we turned a sharp right-hand corner, and slogged up the last, and cruelest, portion of the long climb at Motive. Pretty steep, and after everything else, it's just not much fun. Here's where I had serious thoughts of walking again, but knowing that Shannon was doing okay kept me pushing, and it levelled out just enough to deliver me from my mental demons. Another turn, and finally we got a tiny decline in the terrain, followed by the Harry Potter water stop between mile 7 and 8. Took another dose of Enervitene there, along with water and Gatorade, and we moved on. One last cruel uphill stretch coming out of that neighborhood, and we were finally at mile 8 and the onset of flatter finishing miles. So far, so good, ahead of schedule, could I hold it together from here?
Splits miles 5-8 (the hills): 8:14, 8:35, 8:37, 8:12. Whew!
Shannon had heard the tentative Gilbert plan to "Go!" at mile 8, and started ratcheting up the pace a little. I finally had to let her go during the last part of mile 9, crossing back under Hwy 183 and heading into the neighborhoods surrounding the Motive campus. My mile splits were fine, I just couldn't keep up with Shannon today. I was feeling tired, but I took more Enervitene at the water stop between mile 9 and 10, walking a few steps to make sure I got Gatorade and water, and that's when Amy caught up to me. I immediately caught back up with Amy, and we ran together for mile 10, and then I got a second wind and blasted a couple of good miles during 11 and 12. Rich passed me like I was walking during mile 11, and I just had to tell him to finish strong. I was giving it all I had. Every time I thought I was starting to drag down in pace, it turns out I was doing just fine. That's stuff the brain does to you when you're wearing down. I finished off my second Enervitene at the water stop around mile 11, and that was the last water stop of any sort that I visited. Pushing hard, I dragged through the evil little steady uphill chunk starting right before mile 12, and continuing all the way up to mile 13. Once again, the "go ahead and walk" demon spoke to me, but I fought that off. I knew I had a good shot at a PR by now, and just resolved to gut it out from there. I was passed by a surprising number of people in the last 3 miles, despite my splits, so I guess once you start moving up in the pack, you start seeing those faster people and better racers, huh? Turning the corner out of that last "U," I saw Patrick and Sean, and they yelled encouragement at me. They told me to kick it in, and I was just a little grumpy, since I was already at "kicked in." Still, that helped boost me for the short stretch between there and the final bit of the course. Liliana and Alex also screamed at me to push to the finish, and even Gilbert was jogging along, yelling at all his people. It was a lot of personal attention in the last 3 tenths of a mile of the race. I kept waiting to get caught by Amy, who was somewhere back behind me, but I never turned my head, for fear I'd see her on my shoulder. It was with great relief that I turned into the Motive parking lot and campus, and I saw the mile 13 marker. Anyone can run hard for a tenth of a mile, right? So, I threw it into as good a finishing gear as I could find, and turned the last corner for a short finishing chute. I heard Evel call my name, and I pushed across hard, trying for every last second. Done!
Splits miles 9-13.11: 8:03, 8:16, 7:50, 7:49, 8:12, 0:47 (7:07 "kick"). Final time 1:48:09, Masters PR, beating my time on the much flatter Indy 500 Half course in May by 1:27. I beat last year's Motive time by 4:45. Average pace 8:15/mile, almost what I ran at the Pervasive 10 miler. Big negative split, too. I think I ran a good race.
I got my nifty multi-colored finisher's medal, took a water and a Gatorade, along with my food bag, and shuffled through the finishing area. I chugged that Gatorade pretty quickly, but didn't get into the other stuff right away. Soon enough, I saw Frank, and then Shannon and Amy. Everyone had had a good day, and we had all run hard. Turns out that everyone had been yelling for Amy to "Go Catch Jay!," which I thankfully hadn't heard. Those Gazelles are a cruel bunch, huh?
Almost against my will, I joined Shannon and Amy (and later, Leslie) for the Gilbert-mandated 2 miles of easy cooldown running. It was nearly painful, mostly because I had chugged that Gatorade. That made for a better afternoon and reduced some of the post-run junk, but it's hard to do a real cooldown jog sometimes.
The post-race scene was lively, and it was good to see bunches of friends in the crowd. Live music was generally entertaining, and there was plenty of food and such if you were interested. I passed on the RunTex Beer Garden, knowing that I had a guitar gig this afternoon. If I had had a beer, I'm sure I would have been asleep, sitting in the chair on stage. :-)
The weather was so nice afterwards that it made it hard to get out of there. Soon enough, though, I walked with Frank back to the cars, and after a little more conversation, it was time to go. A good day at the races, for sure. A weird numerical oddity today in the standings was that I finished 494 out of 1963 runners. That's not too weird, but my race bib number was 494. Creepy, huh?
Monday is an easy 5 miles followed by some new circuit stuff that G has dreamed up. Should be interesting. Tuesday is another super easy run with Jan and Frank, and then a Tempo run / race is scheduled for Wednesday. Don't know how ready I'll be for that. Oh, yeah, tomorrow, I get the post-race junk out of my legs with a visit to the massage dude. My calves are already telling me it could be a bit tough at that appointment.
It was another big week of running, just over 43 miles, 5 runs, multiple gym workouts, and generally good exercise compliance. This coming week, I hope to cut the miles back to 30-35, just to get a little relief from the heavier mileage. Your body needs that from time to time. And, of course, the Decker 20K is in two weeks, so it would be nice to hit that race a little more rested than I was for this one!
Saturday, November 19, 2005
How Easy Can We Run?
This morning, we got to sleep in and meet at 7:30am for our pre-race Saturday ritual. A happy mob of Gazelles hit the trail for 4 easy miles of jogging under overcast skies and cool temperatures. If race day is like this, it'll be just fine. Lots of us were dressed warmer than we will be tomorrow, but for this sort of easy run, it makes sense. I moved from group to group, checking out the conversation amongst the different folks. It was a really fun run, relaxed and good for the legs to do some comfortable jogging. Ended up with 4.1 miles at 9:51/mile pace. After that, we did 5x100m striders, which felt just fine. No aches or pains to report.
Stretching was fun, of course, and a lot of folks just couldn't stop laughing. Gilbert circled among us, picking people to do extra stretching with to ensure that they were doing it right. Except for some minor tightness in my right calf and quad, I seem to be issue-free with my legs.
Some last-minute race advice from Gilbert was offered, and we started finalizing our race plans based on that. I'm hopeful that I can get a PR, even with the hilly course, based on my Pervasive race time and other data. For sure, I'll beat last year's Motive time. My plan is basically the same as last year, just a little quicker: (1) Go relaxed to the bottom of the big hill segment, covering the first 4.5 miles in the 8:30/mile range. (2) "Run How I Feel" through the hilly chunk of the course, to the 8 mile mark. (3) Pick it up a bit at 8 miles, and then pick it up again at 10 miles, trying to have some of my best miles late.
It should be a fun day of racing, especially once the 8 mile mark is reached. Now, the rest of the day is to rest and hydrate/eat properly.
This morning, we got to sleep in and meet at 7:30am for our pre-race Saturday ritual. A happy mob of Gazelles hit the trail for 4 easy miles of jogging under overcast skies and cool temperatures. If race day is like this, it'll be just fine. Lots of us were dressed warmer than we will be tomorrow, but for this sort of easy run, it makes sense. I moved from group to group, checking out the conversation amongst the different folks. It was a really fun run, relaxed and good for the legs to do some comfortable jogging. Ended up with 4.1 miles at 9:51/mile pace. After that, we did 5x100m striders, which felt just fine. No aches or pains to report.
Stretching was fun, of course, and a lot of folks just couldn't stop laughing. Gilbert circled among us, picking people to do extra stretching with to ensure that they were doing it right. Except for some minor tightness in my right calf and quad, I seem to be issue-free with my legs.
Some last-minute race advice from Gilbert was offered, and we started finalizing our race plans based on that. I'm hopeful that I can get a PR, even with the hilly course, based on my Pervasive race time and other data. For sure, I'll beat last year's Motive time. My plan is basically the same as last year, just a little quicker: (1) Go relaxed to the bottom of the big hill segment, covering the first 4.5 miles in the 8:30/mile range. (2) "Run How I Feel" through the hilly chunk of the course, to the 8 mile mark. (3) Pick it up a bit at 8 miles, and then pick it up again at 10 miles, trying to have some of my best miles late.
It should be a fun day of racing, especially once the 8 mile mark is reached. Now, the rest of the day is to rest and hydrate/eat properly.
Friday, November 18, 2005
Last Gym for the Week
Today was the normal Friday gym visit, knocking out the core and upper body stuff. I started with some cycling today, 20 minutes of spinning to work the legs gently. After that, some good stretching finished off the leg work for the day.
There were a couple of women who were wearing the workout pants with the waistbands flipped down, which is always amusing. They wear stuff like that, constantly fussing with the pants, trying to keep them on while they do elliptical trainer, and then they're forever checking out who is noticing them, so they can pretend to wonder why someone would stare. I need to consult my psychologist friends to find out what the deal is there. :-)
Anyway, core stuff was the usual bits of groaning, and then it was time for upper body work. I finally bumped up to 95 lbs on bench, and did 2x8 reps of that new weight. It was a huge psychological boost to put those 25 lb wheels on either end of the bar instead of a combination of various smaller weights. 5 lbs isn't that big a deal, but aesthetically, it was way cooler to me. After incline dumbbell presses and lat pulldowns, I changed from the tricep extensions with a single dumbbell to the tricep extension pulldowns using the rope handles and the weight machines instead. Had to bump up the weight a good bit to get the same effect, but now I think I'll continue with that method of doing tricep work. I was getting concerned about larger and larger dumbbells being held over my head as I progressed. Working out is not worth whacking your head with a large weight, right? :-)
So, a good day of gym work, and now it's chill time until Sunday and the Motive half. I drove the last 4 miles of the race course this afternoon, to make sure I knew all the weird little corners and small uphill bumps in the last bit of the race. There's a long subtle uphill stretch during the 13th mile that will be a challenge, for instance. Tomorrow, we get to sleep in and meet at 7:30 am for our super easy jog and stretching. That'll be nice.
Today was the normal Friday gym visit, knocking out the core and upper body stuff. I started with some cycling today, 20 minutes of spinning to work the legs gently. After that, some good stretching finished off the leg work for the day.
There were a couple of women who were wearing the workout pants with the waistbands flipped down, which is always amusing. They wear stuff like that, constantly fussing with the pants, trying to keep them on while they do elliptical trainer, and then they're forever checking out who is noticing them, so they can pretend to wonder why someone would stare. I need to consult my psychologist friends to find out what the deal is there. :-)
Anyway, core stuff was the usual bits of groaning, and then it was time for upper body work. I finally bumped up to 95 lbs on bench, and did 2x8 reps of that new weight. It was a huge psychological boost to put those 25 lb wheels on either end of the bar instead of a combination of various smaller weights. 5 lbs isn't that big a deal, but aesthetically, it was way cooler to me. After incline dumbbell presses and lat pulldowns, I changed from the tricep extensions with a single dumbbell to the tricep extension pulldowns using the rope handles and the weight machines instead. Had to bump up the weight a good bit to get the same effect, but now I think I'll continue with that method of doing tricep work. I was getting concerned about larger and larger dumbbells being held over my head as I progressed. Working out is not worth whacking your head with a large weight, right? :-)
So, a good day of gym work, and now it's chill time until Sunday and the Motive half. I drove the last 4 miles of the race course this afternoon, to make sure I knew all the weird little corners and small uphill bumps in the last bit of the race. There's a long subtle uphill stretch during the 13th mile that will be a challenge, for instance. Tomorrow, we get to sleep in and meet at 7:30 am for our super easy jog and stretching. That'll be nice.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Leg Weights
The Legs Only weight workout followed the fartlek running, and it felt great. No aches or pains, and I did some good work. Added some reps to the calf raises, both types, and moved up to 160 lbs on leg press, which wasn't that tough of a step. All in all, I think I felt like I was supposed to on this workout, and I'll have two full days for any residual soreness to fade before Motive on Sunday. No cooldown cycling today, but I did do the full stretching regimen afterwards, and that really made my legs and hips feel great. I was amused after I finished my leg press work when a big weight-lifting type guy asked if he could use the apparatus for his workout. I told him I was done, and moved on to calf raises. After I was done, I checked out what he was doing, and he had the leg press machine fully loaded with 45 lb plates. 7 or 8 per side, with no spare bar length extending beyond the weight stack. Must have been over 600 lbs on that thing! Different needs for different playas, but man, that was a lot of iron!
I have stopped the daily report on funny iPod shuffle song selections, but today there was a pretty good one. It went from Jim Croce "Photographs and Memories" to Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know." Two quite different takes on reflecting on a relationship that has ended, don't you think? :-)
The Legs Only weight workout followed the fartlek running, and it felt great. No aches or pains, and I did some good work. Added some reps to the calf raises, both types, and moved up to 160 lbs on leg press, which wasn't that tough of a step. All in all, I think I felt like I was supposed to on this workout, and I'll have two full days for any residual soreness to fade before Motive on Sunday. No cooldown cycling today, but I did do the full stretching regimen afterwards, and that really made my legs and hips feel great. I was amused after I finished my leg press work when a big weight-lifting type guy asked if he could use the apparatus for his workout. I told him I was done, and moved on to calf raises. After I was done, I checked out what he was doing, and he had the leg press machine fully loaded with 45 lb plates. 7 or 8 per side, with no spare bar length extending beyond the weight stack. Must have been over 600 lbs on that thing! Different needs for different playas, but man, that was a lot of iron!
I have stopped the daily report on funny iPod shuffle song selections, but today there was a pretty good one. It went from Jim Croce "Photographs and Memories" to Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know." Two quite different takes on reflecting on a relationship that has ended, don't you think? :-)
Fartleks Without the Gang
Today, after taking a day off of running yesterday, I went out on my own and did the fartlek tuneup workout. Did it mostly on the streets in the 'Hood, but I did start out by doing most of the warmup portion going down the water tower trail, and then had to start the fast intervals coming back up that hill. I think I do the fartlek accelerations a little quicker when I do this workout alone, and it's not nearly as much fun as doing it with the group. I had to wage some inner battles with myself to keep from cutting the workout short, but I managed to do just fine after all was done. Surprisingly quick on the fartlek section, 3.94 miles at 7:41/mile average pace, 10 cycles done at 2 minutes faster, 1 minute easy throughout. The warmup and cooldown bits totalled 2.38 miles at 9:12/mile average pace. (I did cut the cooldown portion down just a bit). Total for the day was 6.32 miles, 8:15/mile overall average pace. Pretty good day at the running office.
Oh, yeah, the weather was spectacular! At noon, it was bright sunshine and 57 degrees, just a glorious day to get out and run. Finally!
Today, after taking a day off of running yesterday, I went out on my own and did the fartlek tuneup workout. Did it mostly on the streets in the 'Hood, but I did start out by doing most of the warmup portion going down the water tower trail, and then had to start the fast intervals coming back up that hill. I think I do the fartlek accelerations a little quicker when I do this workout alone, and it's not nearly as much fun as doing it with the group. I had to wage some inner battles with myself to keep from cutting the workout short, but I managed to do just fine after all was done. Surprisingly quick on the fartlek section, 3.94 miles at 7:41/mile average pace, 10 cycles done at 2 minutes faster, 1 minute easy throughout. The warmup and cooldown bits totalled 2.38 miles at 9:12/mile average pace. (I did cut the cooldown portion down just a bit). Total for the day was 6.32 miles, 8:15/mile overall average pace. Pretty good day at the running office.
Oh, yeah, the weather was spectacular! At noon, it was bright sunshine and 57 degrees, just a glorious day to get out and run. Finally!
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Tote that Barge, Lift that Bale!
Today was the "other" weight exercises left over from Tuesday. The core stuff was tough in the usual spots, namely the Roman Chair leg lifts and the bookend planks at the other end of the workout portion. It's all for a good reason, but man, some of that stuff just isn't very fun. The upper body stuff went well, and I managed to grind out 2x10 bench press at 90 lbs. Next time, it'll be time to step up to 95 lbs and the long-awaited 25 lb wheels on each end of the bar. Cool.
The gym is under some serious rehabilitation while it remains open, so today I noticed that they've replaced a large swath of vinyl tiles with stone tile. An improvement? Don't know. No cycle warmup or cooldown today, since I plan on running later on this evening. Might take a day off of running, though, as a mini-taper for Motive this weekend. We'll see. Either today or tomorrow, I need to do the fartlek workout, and then it's easy street until Sunday morning.
Today was the "other" weight exercises left over from Tuesday. The core stuff was tough in the usual spots, namely the Roman Chair leg lifts and the bookend planks at the other end of the workout portion. It's all for a good reason, but man, some of that stuff just isn't very fun. The upper body stuff went well, and I managed to grind out 2x10 bench press at 90 lbs. Next time, it'll be time to step up to 95 lbs and the long-awaited 25 lb wheels on each end of the bar. Cool.
The gym is under some serious rehabilitation while it remains open, so today I noticed that they've replaced a large swath of vinyl tiles with stone tile. An improvement? Don't know. No cycle warmup or cooldown today, since I plan on running later on this evening. Might take a day off of running, though, as a mini-taper for Motive this weekend. We'll see. Either today or tomorrow, I need to do the fartlek workout, and then it's easy street until Sunday morning.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
EZ Running & Leg Weights
On this morning that gave us some early bits of wind and bluster, a harbinger of the cold front rolling through today, I met Jan down at Town Lake for a nice and easy recovery run. It was a nice little run, with a couple of quick stops for drinks of water, and we finished pretty comfortably. It was really humid, but I suspect this is the last ugly morning of warm humidity for quite a while. It ended up being 7 miles in 1:07 or so, 9:37/mile pace. I felt great, with no aches or pains, and after yesterday's mile repeats, I was happy that was the case. Stayed around and did the full stretching routine as various other Gazelles made their way to the end of their workouts. It was good to see Pete, especially, as he was doing an easy 5 miler following his very fine NYC marathon a week ago.
After that, it was time to hit the gym for The Leg Weights. These aren't that stressful, when taken in isolation like this. I like the way that I feel when I've done the recovery run / leg weight double header. Next time, I'll add a little weight to leg press, but other than that, things are going pretty well.
Good exercise day. Now, I get to spend some quality time this afternoon building a new fence gate after Ranger blasted his way through some old rotten wood there. The new gate shall not have any viewing ports for the Ranger dog, to try and keep him from getting so excited when people do provocative things like walk by on the sidewalk.
On this morning that gave us some early bits of wind and bluster, a harbinger of the cold front rolling through today, I met Jan down at Town Lake for a nice and easy recovery run. It was a nice little run, with a couple of quick stops for drinks of water, and we finished pretty comfortably. It was really humid, but I suspect this is the last ugly morning of warm humidity for quite a while. It ended up being 7 miles in 1:07 or so, 9:37/mile pace. I felt great, with no aches or pains, and after yesterday's mile repeats, I was happy that was the case. Stayed around and did the full stretching routine as various other Gazelles made their way to the end of their workouts. It was good to see Pete, especially, as he was doing an easy 5 miler following his very fine NYC marathon a week ago.
After that, it was time to hit the gym for The Leg Weights. These aren't that stressful, when taken in isolation like this. I like the way that I feel when I've done the recovery run / leg weight double header. Next time, I'll add a little weight to leg press, but other than that, things are going pretty well.
Good exercise day. Now, I get to spend some quality time this afternoon building a new fence gate after Ranger blasted his way through some old rotten wood there. The new gate shall not have any viewing ports for the Ranger dog, to try and keep him from getting so excited when people do provocative things like walk by on the sidewalk.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Mile, Repeat, Mile, Repeat, Etc.
This morning was slightly cooler, but still very humid. In the car, waiting to get going, I felt a strong urge to just curl up and take a nap. However, out I went, and joined the gang for the warmup run to Zilker Park. I was in the last group on the warmup run, and we ran gently indeed. By the time we got there, most of the folks had started their drills, so we sort of formed our own little group and drilled away. I missed Gilbert's pre-game talk, but I figured 4-5 repeats would be about right. He did say that for today, a true 80% effort on the repeats would be correct. My group was pretty much the usual, with Charlene, Brian, Rich, Jennifer and Carrie as a a guest runner. Rest between repeats was a short 2 minutes of "active rest," or walk/jogging.
The first mile was intentionally a bit slow, and then we started finding the pace range. We took turns setting the pace. I never felt totally comfortable, but the pace never felt that awful. I was surprised to hit the fourth repeat as we did. At that point, I thought I was done, but Gilbert told us that 5 was the minimum. So, I set out on repeat number 5, intending to run it nice and easy. Of course, once I was 200 yards into it, I was already tracking down Charlene. That last repeat felt pretty darned easy most of the way around, until the last sharp little hill. I was really surprised to see that the 5th repeat was actually right on target. Good for me, I guess.
Splits: 7:33, 7:15, 7:09, 7:03, 7:16. Average 7:15/mile, which is actually pretty good.
A cup or two of blue Gatorade, and we were off on the cooldown run. It took us a hundred yards or so before our inertia got us going at something more than a walk, but soon enough, Charlene , Brian and I were moving along pretty well. Gilbert passed us on the trail as he did his warmup run over to RunTex, and Charlene got picked up in his slipstream. Brian and I finished up the cooldown run, but it was a little quicker than usual.
For the day, 8.6 miles, with 5 miles of repeats in the middle. I finished things off with the full stretching regimen with Sean there at RunTex. We had a good talk, as usual. It turned out to be a good day at the running office, and that was a welcome change after a couple of shaky runs last week. I think the source of my difficulties last week was a nutritional deficit. With the heavy mileage that's starting to pile up, I need more calories per day than I'm used to having. I was slow to figure this out, of course. So, this week, I'll try to boost my caloric intake to see if that helps the way I feel before and after workouts.
This week is mostly easy stuff after today, aiming at the Motive Half Marathon on Sunday. I'm looking forward to Motive, as it's usually one of my favorite races, despite the big monster uphill in it from mile 4 to mile 7.
This morning was slightly cooler, but still very humid. In the car, waiting to get going, I felt a strong urge to just curl up and take a nap. However, out I went, and joined the gang for the warmup run to Zilker Park. I was in the last group on the warmup run, and we ran gently indeed. By the time we got there, most of the folks had started their drills, so we sort of formed our own little group and drilled away. I missed Gilbert's pre-game talk, but I figured 4-5 repeats would be about right. He did say that for today, a true 80% effort on the repeats would be correct. My group was pretty much the usual, with Charlene, Brian, Rich, Jennifer and Carrie as a a guest runner. Rest between repeats was a short 2 minutes of "active rest," or walk/jogging.
The first mile was intentionally a bit slow, and then we started finding the pace range. We took turns setting the pace. I never felt totally comfortable, but the pace never felt that awful. I was surprised to hit the fourth repeat as we did. At that point, I thought I was done, but Gilbert told us that 5 was the minimum. So, I set out on repeat number 5, intending to run it nice and easy. Of course, once I was 200 yards into it, I was already tracking down Charlene. That last repeat felt pretty darned easy most of the way around, until the last sharp little hill. I was really surprised to see that the 5th repeat was actually right on target. Good for me, I guess.
Splits: 7:33, 7:15, 7:09, 7:03, 7:16. Average 7:15/mile, which is actually pretty good.
A cup or two of blue Gatorade, and we were off on the cooldown run. It took us a hundred yards or so before our inertia got us going at something more than a walk, but soon enough, Charlene , Brian and I were moving along pretty well. Gilbert passed us on the trail as he did his warmup run over to RunTex, and Charlene got picked up in his slipstream. Brian and I finished up the cooldown run, but it was a little quicker than usual.
For the day, 8.6 miles, with 5 miles of repeats in the middle. I finished things off with the full stretching regimen with Sean there at RunTex. We had a good talk, as usual. It turned out to be a good day at the running office, and that was a welcome change after a couple of shaky runs last week. I think the source of my difficulties last week was a nutritional deficit. With the heavy mileage that's starting to pile up, I need more calories per day than I'm used to having. I was slow to figure this out, of course. So, this week, I'll try to boost my caloric intake to see if that helps the way I feel before and after workouts.
This week is mostly easy stuff after today, aiming at the Motive Half Marathon on Sunday. I'm looking forward to Motive, as it's usually one of my favorite races, despite the big monster uphill in it from mile 4 to mile 7.
Saturday, November 12, 2005
It Is...A Puzzlement (Mt. Bonnell, Ch. 12)
This is normally a longer run that I really enjoy, the assault up Mt. Bonnell. In the past, I've climbed with some verve, and usually I'm the first up the hill in my group. And, I've usually finished these long runs with some nice fast miles at the end. This is so much the case, that Charlene and Rich, among others, kept looking around, figuring that I'd be right on their heels. Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, though, and losing the element of dramatic surprise?
After I dropped off the Bonnell cooler on the way down to the start of the run (today, I had green Gatorade in there, because I used the rest of my blue Gatorade and had to use some yellow Gatorade mix to produce enough for everyone), I met up with the very large gang at RunTex. There were way more people than usual this morning, which was good to see. Jan actually fell in with my group as we made our way through the first couple of miles on the trail. Our group for the day was Brian, Rich, Bob, Jennifer, Amy, Charlene, Matt, Karen Harvey and Jan. Karen is still finding her way back after dealing with foot injuries, but it was nice to have a Guest Runner with us, along with Jan. We did one faster mile heading to the first Powerade stop, but by and large, we were adequately within pace rules to that point. So far, so good. I felt okay, but not really up to leading the pack as usual. Took first GU at the water stop, too.
Splits Miles 1-4: 10:05, 9:22, 9:33, .71 miles at 8:52/mile pace. Overall, 9:31/mile pace. A little slow, but given the warm and humid conditions, it made good sense.
The miles through the Scenic loop were a bit frisky, as we got pulled along (I think) by Karen's faster natural pace. We thought we were moving a little quicker than normal, but I was too busy trying to get comfortable on the run to do any calculations. Turning towards Mt. Bonnell, I was still hopeful that I'd feel pretty good going up the hill. We hit the bottom of Bonnell, and then it was time to climb. Charlene and Rich immediately left me behind as we turned the first corner, and eventually, Karen passed me as well. I fought off two very distinct urges to walk on the hill, both of them passing as the hill slightly levelled out at times. I felt quite a bit more beaten up than usual on this portion of the run. Still, we were more than halfway finished, and the green Gatorade mix did the trick to boost our energy a bit. I took my last GU here, too.
Splits miles 5-Bonnell: 8:32, 8:21, 8:43, .41 at 9:55/mile (Bonnell proper). Way too quick through Scenic, and noticeably slow going up Bonnell for me. Overall pace to 9:07.
Karen walked up the steps and made her way down the exit path to join us as we headed to Balcones Woods and the descent. Later, I realized that I didn't turn my GPS back on as we exited the mountain, but I was able to recreate the data from my regular watch. Going down Balcones Woods felt just fine, and I was at least in the lead pack going up the nasty little hill on 35th Street. I struggled a bit going down Exposition, feeling heavy-legged and more than a little out of sorts. Charlene and Rich again led the way, and got a pretty good gap on me. I was sort of tooling along between them and Amy and the rest of the gang. We saw Frank's group pass us a couple of different times through here, and Gilbert's group of super fast people also got us on 35th Street. I was glad to see the O. Henry Powerade stop.
Splits, Bonnell - O. Henry: 3.23 miles, 9:06 average pace. I was now feeling the result of those fast miles on Scenic. Individual mile splits not available here, due to incompetence by GPS operator (me). :-) Overall pace a still respectable 9:07, it just didn't pick up as normal for me on this stretch.
After taking a little extra time at that Powerade stop for an extra cup or two of blue stuff, I started trying to chase down the entire mob. Almost immediately, I found that I just didn't have a lot of acceleration to give. My first mile split was just fine, but once I reached Mopac and the trail, I just crashed and burned. I suppose I "bonked," but I'm not sure exactly why that was today. I sort of crawled in the last two miles, getting caught and passed by seemingly every training group in Austin on the way. (Pity Party Alert) Finally, I hit Auditorium Shores, and two bicycle cops passed me, cutting right in front of me at a pretty slow pace. I joked with them that I needed an escort to the Zero Marker, and they picked up the pace to a point that I was able to distract myself and push to the finish a little. I don't know if I've ever looked so forward to the end of a run. There would be no extra cooldown lap of Auditorium Shores today!
Splits O. Henry to the end: 8:22, 9:16, 9:26. Overall pace 9:06 for 13.55 miles. Everyone except Jennifer and Brian had finished ahead of me, some of them way ahead. As previously mentioned, at least they thought I'd be coming up behind them on the trail. Moral victory and all that. With the substantial water stop time, overall pace for the day drifted to 9:48/mile, still within all statistical realms relating to my projected Freescale pace(s).
Nevertheless, I was more than a little bummed at my total fade today. I always tell the new marathoners that everyone has at least one training run that just bites, but it didn't make it easier for me to deal with when it happened to me. I thought I had prepared properly, and maybe I did, but it just didn't work out for me today as usual.
Stretching afterwards was fun, except that I got a little dizzy leading it. I think some nutritional analysis is in order! Some fun chatting with the folks after the stretching, and then it was time to get out of there. Picked up the newest Gazelles shirt, a long-sleeved beauty featuring our new slogan, "Get Off Me!" on the back.
All things considered, this was an adequate training run, but certainly a large step backwards from the usual for me. I may take some extra rest this coming week in preparation for Motive as a result. Mile repeats on Monday will be, uh, interesting. Hopefully, we'll have cooler conditions for those.
For the week, 45.39 miles, a new record. Gee, I wonder if the heavy mileage has something to do with today? Did everything on the schedule except for one upper body/core workout on Wednesday. Next week, will try to dial down the weekly mileage just a tad to help my body recover from the last two long weeks.
This is normally a longer run that I really enjoy, the assault up Mt. Bonnell. In the past, I've climbed with some verve, and usually I'm the first up the hill in my group. And, I've usually finished these long runs with some nice fast miles at the end. This is so much the case, that Charlene and Rich, among others, kept looking around, figuring that I'd be right on their heels. Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, though, and losing the element of dramatic surprise?
After I dropped off the Bonnell cooler on the way down to the start of the run (today, I had green Gatorade in there, because I used the rest of my blue Gatorade and had to use some yellow Gatorade mix to produce enough for everyone), I met up with the very large gang at RunTex. There were way more people than usual this morning, which was good to see. Jan actually fell in with my group as we made our way through the first couple of miles on the trail. Our group for the day was Brian, Rich, Bob, Jennifer, Amy, Charlene, Matt, Karen Harvey and Jan. Karen is still finding her way back after dealing with foot injuries, but it was nice to have a Guest Runner with us, along with Jan. We did one faster mile heading to the first Powerade stop, but by and large, we were adequately within pace rules to that point. So far, so good. I felt okay, but not really up to leading the pack as usual. Took first GU at the water stop, too.
Splits Miles 1-4: 10:05, 9:22, 9:33, .71 miles at 8:52/mile pace. Overall, 9:31/mile pace. A little slow, but given the warm and humid conditions, it made good sense.
The miles through the Scenic loop were a bit frisky, as we got pulled along (I think) by Karen's faster natural pace. We thought we were moving a little quicker than normal, but I was too busy trying to get comfortable on the run to do any calculations. Turning towards Mt. Bonnell, I was still hopeful that I'd feel pretty good going up the hill. We hit the bottom of Bonnell, and then it was time to climb. Charlene and Rich immediately left me behind as we turned the first corner, and eventually, Karen passed me as well. I fought off two very distinct urges to walk on the hill, both of them passing as the hill slightly levelled out at times. I felt quite a bit more beaten up than usual on this portion of the run. Still, we were more than halfway finished, and the green Gatorade mix did the trick to boost our energy a bit. I took my last GU here, too.
Splits miles 5-Bonnell: 8:32, 8:21, 8:43, .41 at 9:55/mile (Bonnell proper). Way too quick through Scenic, and noticeably slow going up Bonnell for me. Overall pace to 9:07.
Karen walked up the steps and made her way down the exit path to join us as we headed to Balcones Woods and the descent. Later, I realized that I didn't turn my GPS back on as we exited the mountain, but I was able to recreate the data from my regular watch. Going down Balcones Woods felt just fine, and I was at least in the lead pack going up the nasty little hill on 35th Street. I struggled a bit going down Exposition, feeling heavy-legged and more than a little out of sorts. Charlene and Rich again led the way, and got a pretty good gap on me. I was sort of tooling along between them and Amy and the rest of the gang. We saw Frank's group pass us a couple of different times through here, and Gilbert's group of super fast people also got us on 35th Street. I was glad to see the O. Henry Powerade stop.
Splits, Bonnell - O. Henry: 3.23 miles, 9:06 average pace. I was now feeling the result of those fast miles on Scenic. Individual mile splits not available here, due to incompetence by GPS operator (me). :-) Overall pace a still respectable 9:07, it just didn't pick up as normal for me on this stretch.
After taking a little extra time at that Powerade stop for an extra cup or two of blue stuff, I started trying to chase down the entire mob. Almost immediately, I found that I just didn't have a lot of acceleration to give. My first mile split was just fine, but once I reached Mopac and the trail, I just crashed and burned. I suppose I "bonked," but I'm not sure exactly why that was today. I sort of crawled in the last two miles, getting caught and passed by seemingly every training group in Austin on the way. (Pity Party Alert) Finally, I hit Auditorium Shores, and two bicycle cops passed me, cutting right in front of me at a pretty slow pace. I joked with them that I needed an escort to the Zero Marker, and they picked up the pace to a point that I was able to distract myself and push to the finish a little. I don't know if I've ever looked so forward to the end of a run. There would be no extra cooldown lap of Auditorium Shores today!
Splits O. Henry to the end: 8:22, 9:16, 9:26. Overall pace 9:06 for 13.55 miles. Everyone except Jennifer and Brian had finished ahead of me, some of them way ahead. As previously mentioned, at least they thought I'd be coming up behind them on the trail. Moral victory and all that. With the substantial water stop time, overall pace for the day drifted to 9:48/mile, still within all statistical realms relating to my projected Freescale pace(s).
Nevertheless, I was more than a little bummed at my total fade today. I always tell the new marathoners that everyone has at least one training run that just bites, but it didn't make it easier for me to deal with when it happened to me. I thought I had prepared properly, and maybe I did, but it just didn't work out for me today as usual.
Stretching afterwards was fun, except that I got a little dizzy leading it. I think some nutritional analysis is in order! Some fun chatting with the folks after the stretching, and then it was time to get out of there. Picked up the newest Gazelles shirt, a long-sleeved beauty featuring our new slogan, "Get Off Me!" on the back.
All things considered, this was an adequate training run, but certainly a large step backwards from the usual for me. I may take some extra rest this coming week in preparation for Motive as a result. Mile repeats on Monday will be, uh, interesting. Hopefully, we'll have cooler conditions for those.
For the week, 45.39 miles, a new record. Gee, I wonder if the heavy mileage has something to do with today? Did everything on the schedule except for one upper body/core workout on Wednesday. Next week, will try to dial down the weekly mileage just a tad to help my body recover from the last two long weeks.
Friday, November 11, 2005
GymStuff
Ah, yes. A day off of running. Although I feel just fine, and my legs feel rested, it's nice to have these planned days off during the running week. As Robert Ludlum wrote in his Bourne Identity books, "Rest is a weapon."
I did get to the gym today, and did my core/upper body portion of the routine. It went well. No big improvements in anything, but I'm slowly working my way upward and onward. By next week, I hope to move up to 95 lbs on bench press, which will mean putting a fairly large wheel of iron on each side of the bar. Aesthetically speaking, that will be a cool thing.
No cycling today, just because it just didn't sound too fun. I did get down to RunTex and I snagged a new pair of Mizuno Creations right off the loading pallet. Yes, I paid for them. With larger sized shoes, you sometimes have to get there right when the shipment arrives to guarantee your fit. Chatted with Gilbert for a bit while I was there, but he was busy with a lady who was trying at least 7 different shoe models on to find her fit.
Time to carbo-load just a bit for Mt. Bonnell tomorrow.
Ah, yes. A day off of running. Although I feel just fine, and my legs feel rested, it's nice to have these planned days off during the running week. As Robert Ludlum wrote in his Bourne Identity books, "Rest is a weapon."
I did get to the gym today, and did my core/upper body portion of the routine. It went well. No big improvements in anything, but I'm slowly working my way upward and onward. By next week, I hope to move up to 95 lbs on bench press, which will mean putting a fairly large wheel of iron on each side of the bar. Aesthetically speaking, that will be a cool thing.
No cycling today, just because it just didn't sound too fun. I did get down to RunTex and I snagged a new pair of Mizuno Creations right off the loading pallet. Yes, I paid for them. With larger sized shoes, you sometimes have to get there right when the shipment arrives to guarantee your fit. Chatted with Gilbert for a bit while I was there, but he was busy with a lady who was trying at least 7 different shoe models on to find her fit.
Time to carbo-load just a bit for Mt. Bonnell tomorrow.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
"Essential Leg Exercises"
After the run this morning, I sauntered over to the gym (well, okay, I drove, but you get the idea) for the leg weight regimen. Nothing earth shattering to report, except that it felt remarkably good to work the legs in this manner following the easy run. This phenomenon has previously been noted in this blog, I think, but it's interesting to me. It would seem that leg weight work after a run would just make you more tired. That doesn't seem to be the case for the most part. I wouldn't do a double workout like this any closer to a long run, but it makes for a nice end to the bulk of the running week. The standing calf raises are burners (2 sets of 10 reps, 3 foot positions each set), but everything else is either nice and easy (hamstring curls and quad extensions), peripheral muscles (4-way hip machine), or slow and steady reps with larger weight (leg press). Seated calf raises are sometimes a challenge late in each set, too. Finished off the workout with 10 minutes on the cycle to spin things down, and then I did the stretching routine.
Tomorrow is the "other" gym workout and some cycling, and that's all. We've got Mt. Bonnell on Saturday morning, which is usually a pretty fun run. I hope it stays fairly cool through Saturday morning at least!
After the run this morning, I sauntered over to the gym (well, okay, I drove, but you get the idea) for the leg weight regimen. Nothing earth shattering to report, except that it felt remarkably good to work the legs in this manner following the easy run. This phenomenon has previously been noted in this blog, I think, but it's interesting to me. It would seem that leg weight work after a run would just make you more tired. That doesn't seem to be the case for the most part. I wouldn't do a double workout like this any closer to a long run, but it makes for a nice end to the bulk of the running week. The standing calf raises are burners (2 sets of 10 reps, 3 foot positions each set), but everything else is either nice and easy (hamstring curls and quad extensions), peripheral muscles (4-way hip machine), or slow and steady reps with larger weight (leg press). Seated calf raises are sometimes a challenge late in each set, too. Finished off the workout with 10 minutes on the cycle to spin things down, and then I did the stretching routine.
Tomorrow is the "other" gym workout and some cycling, and that's all. We've got Mt. Bonnell on Saturday morning, which is usually a pretty fun run. I hope it stays fairly cool through Saturday morning at least!
Hour Run
This morning, I went in for my weekly massage tuneup. I was dreading it a little, due to my sore hamstring from the last couple of days. In truth, though, by this morning when I woke up, I think I was largely over whatever was ailing it. At any rate, it was good to get the legs flushed out a bit, and good to find that I haven't messed up anything.
When I got back home, it was time for the Thursday recovery run, the version in the 'Hood, where I go for about an hour. Today, it was bright sunshine, but cool enough that it wasn't awful to run. Definitely singlet weather, though. I did two of my 'Hood/Water trail loops, for 6.5 miles, just under an hour, 9:05/mile average pace. It was maybe a little quicker than it should have been, but it felt easy enough. I'll go later today for leg weights at the gym, and tomorrow it's just a gym day.
This morning, I went in for my weekly massage tuneup. I was dreading it a little, due to my sore hamstring from the last couple of days. In truth, though, by this morning when I woke up, I think I was largely over whatever was ailing it. At any rate, it was good to get the legs flushed out a bit, and good to find that I haven't messed up anything.
When I got back home, it was time for the Thursday recovery run, the version in the 'Hood, where I go for about an hour. Today, it was bright sunshine, but cool enough that it wasn't awful to run. Definitely singlet weather, though. I did two of my 'Hood/Water trail loops, for 6.5 miles, just under an hour, 9:05/mile average pace. It was maybe a little quicker than it should have been, but it felt easy enough. I'll go later today for leg weights at the gym, and tomorrow it's just a gym day.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Longer 1000m Intervals
This morning, it was time to do 1000m intervals on the track, for a change. We've done 1000's on a road course at Zilker Park a couple of times in the last few months, but not the track. It's both harder and easier when you're doing long intervals on the track...easier because you have lots of points to check time and pace, harder because you have to go around the first corner 3 times. Something about that last 200m makes it seem like much farther than 800's.
I was really stiff this morning, especially in my left hamstring, and took it really easy on the warmup run over to Austin High School. After drills, it felt better, but I was still a little concerned about how it would do under the pressure of higher-speed running. My group was pretty huge today, with Rich, Matt, Brian, Charlene, Jennifer, Jerry, Jan and a couple of other folks who either didn't last long, or I don't remember them just now, or I just don't know them yet. A big tribe to get around the track, that's for sure. G assigned us a goal time of 4:30 or so, then he mumbled something about 4:28. I figured we'd shoot for 4:30, since it was easy to check pace at that number, and we'd probably end up a bit fast on the last ones. Gilbert emphasized that this is more of a strength workout as we headed out.
We were way slow on the first 400 of the first 1000, and then I overcompensated for the last 600, and we ended up under 4:30 for our opening lap. After that, we settled down, and we were nice and consistent to the finish. After 5 repeats, most of the folks wanted to stop, but then Gilbert announced to us that 6 repeats was the "minimum." So, it turns out that I had a lot of company for the 6th repeat after all. :-) Everyone did pretty well, it seems, but they were glad the running was over.
Splits: 4:27, 4:29, 4:29, 4:25, 4:26, 4:27. Average 4:27, 7:10/mile pace. An improvement of some 5 seconds per interval over my last attempt at this workout. I think this probably was somewhere around an 80% effort for me, but without my HR monitor (still away getting repaired), I'm guessing based on how I felt.
I did my 3x200m striders with Brian and Rich, and then we settled in for Gilbert's requested crunches. These are the real kind, with your feet right up against your butt. Last time we did these, several weeks ago, I couldn't do very many, despite all the core work I had been doing. Gilbert recommended an additional exercise at that point, the plank exercises, and that hard work made a big difference today. I knocked out 3x25 of them, at which point we ran out of time.
Ran back to RunTex with Rich, and as usual, had fun conversation. Once I was back at RunTex, I settled in at the Stretching Platform with Sean, and we did most of the stretching routine. I felt pretty good after the workout today, so maybe whatever malady has been in my system is going away?
For the day, 7.8 miles, with 6000m of repeats in the middle.
This morning, it was time to do 1000m intervals on the track, for a change. We've done 1000's on a road course at Zilker Park a couple of times in the last few months, but not the track. It's both harder and easier when you're doing long intervals on the track...easier because you have lots of points to check time and pace, harder because you have to go around the first corner 3 times. Something about that last 200m makes it seem like much farther than 800's.
I was really stiff this morning, especially in my left hamstring, and took it really easy on the warmup run over to Austin High School. After drills, it felt better, but I was still a little concerned about how it would do under the pressure of higher-speed running. My group was pretty huge today, with Rich, Matt, Brian, Charlene, Jennifer, Jerry, Jan and a couple of other folks who either didn't last long, or I don't remember them just now, or I just don't know them yet. A big tribe to get around the track, that's for sure. G assigned us a goal time of 4:30 or so, then he mumbled something about 4:28. I figured we'd shoot for 4:30, since it was easy to check pace at that number, and we'd probably end up a bit fast on the last ones. Gilbert emphasized that this is more of a strength workout as we headed out.
We were way slow on the first 400 of the first 1000, and then I overcompensated for the last 600, and we ended up under 4:30 for our opening lap. After that, we settled down, and we were nice and consistent to the finish. After 5 repeats, most of the folks wanted to stop, but then Gilbert announced to us that 6 repeats was the "minimum." So, it turns out that I had a lot of company for the 6th repeat after all. :-) Everyone did pretty well, it seems, but they were glad the running was over.
Splits: 4:27, 4:29, 4:29, 4:25, 4:26, 4:27. Average 4:27, 7:10/mile pace. An improvement of some 5 seconds per interval over my last attempt at this workout. I think this probably was somewhere around an 80% effort for me, but without my HR monitor (still away getting repaired), I'm guessing based on how I felt.
I did my 3x200m striders with Brian and Rich, and then we settled in for Gilbert's requested crunches. These are the real kind, with your feet right up against your butt. Last time we did these, several weeks ago, I couldn't do very many, despite all the core work I had been doing. Gilbert recommended an additional exercise at that point, the plank exercises, and that hard work made a big difference today. I knocked out 3x25 of them, at which point we ran out of time.
Ran back to RunTex with Rich, and as usual, had fun conversation. Once I was back at RunTex, I settled in at the Stretching Platform with Sean, and we did most of the stretching routine. I felt pretty good after the workout today, so maybe whatever malady has been in my system is going away?
For the day, 7.8 miles, with 6000m of repeats in the middle.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
"Essential Leg Exercises"
Continuing my plundering of Alex's Book on Exercise, I followed up the easy 7 miler this morning with a visit to Gold's Gym for leg exercises. I wasn't feeling totally up to the full body workout, so I figured doing just the leg weights would be the right amount of extra work. I did the easy quad extensions and hamstring curls, just to help flush out the legs. Then, seated calf raises. The 4-way hip machine wasn't too bad, except when I whacked my knee on the handles as I did one side of the hip flexor raise. Ouch. Only one "whack," but it stung. Then, I went into the Big Boy workout room with the big plates, and did leg presses and then standing calf raises. Legs felt fine throughout, although I can tell my hamstrings are still a little stiff.
Followed all that up with 10 minutes on the cycle to warmdown, and then did the stretching again, at least the hip stuff and hamstring stretches. Can't hurt, right?
That was enough for the day. I'll do the core/upper body exercises tomorrow after the 1000m repeats.
Continuing my plundering of Alex's Book on Exercise, I followed up the easy 7 miler this morning with a visit to Gold's Gym for leg exercises. I wasn't feeling totally up to the full body workout, so I figured doing just the leg weights would be the right amount of extra work. I did the easy quad extensions and hamstring curls, just to help flush out the legs. Then, seated calf raises. The 4-way hip machine wasn't too bad, except when I whacked my knee on the handles as I did one side of the hip flexor raise. Ouch. Only one "whack," but it stung. Then, I went into the Big Boy workout room with the big plates, and did leg presses and then standing calf raises. Legs felt fine throughout, although I can tell my hamstrings are still a little stiff.
Followed all that up with 10 minutes on the cycle to warmdown, and then did the stretching again, at least the hip stuff and hamstring stretches. Can't hurt, right?
That was enough for the day. I'll do the core/upper body exercises tomorrow after the 1000m repeats.
Easy Running
I was able to go down to Town Lake this morning and go for a 7 mile recovery run with Jan and Frank today. Like last week, we ran really easy, but unlike last week, it was warm and soupy out there. They say Thursday will be nice again. They say...
I was a little worried that I'd have problems again with the conditions, but today I felt much better. I'm not completely over my bout with the shakes and such from yesterday, and I'm sore all over from the shivering, but the run today felt just fine. We stopped for two quick water stops on the run, and that helped to top off the tanks, so to speak. It's fun to run like that, nice and easy, with two good friends. The conversation wandered amongst topics great and small, and those world issues that we didn't solve on this run were tabled until next time. :-)
Alex ran with us the first mile or so, and then he headed off for his appointment with Wilke's hill repeats. We saw him afterwards, and he had a great time on that very difficult workout, as usual.
I did the full stretching regimen with Jan afterwards, and it was a good end to the running day. Tomorrow is 1000m repeats on the track, always a challenge to get right.
For the day, 7.1 miles, 1:09:44, 9:49/mile pace. My sore legs felt better after the run, as usual.
I was able to go down to Town Lake this morning and go for a 7 mile recovery run with Jan and Frank today. Like last week, we ran really easy, but unlike last week, it was warm and soupy out there. They say Thursday will be nice again. They say...
I was a little worried that I'd have problems again with the conditions, but today I felt much better. I'm not completely over my bout with the shakes and such from yesterday, and I'm sore all over from the shivering, but the run today felt just fine. We stopped for two quick water stops on the run, and that helped to top off the tanks, so to speak. It's fun to run like that, nice and easy, with two good friends. The conversation wandered amongst topics great and small, and those world issues that we didn't solve on this run were tabled until next time. :-)
Alex ran with us the first mile or so, and then he headed off for his appointment with Wilke's hill repeats. We saw him afterwards, and he had a great time on that very difficult workout, as usual.
I did the full stretching regimen with Jan afterwards, and it was a good end to the running day. Tomorrow is 1000m repeats on the track, always a challenge to get right.
For the day, 7.1 miles, 1:09:44, 9:49/mile pace. My sore legs felt better after the run, as usual.
Monday, November 07, 2005
I'm So Dizzy, My Head is Spinning...
Well, it was an interesting day at the running office today. On the schedule was a pace run, going 5 easy miles and then the last 5 at a faster pace. We'd do the Longhorn Dam loop, kicking it into high gear after passing under I-35 on the way back. It was substantially warmer than last week, and high humidity as well. I was dressed appropriately for the weather, though, and was ready to run, I thought. I did feel a touch of allergy or something like that, but nothing terrible. Still a little sore from Saturday's 16 mile romp, I soldiered on.
We took the early easy pace to heart, and were pretty good about the first 5 miles. It was a nice-sized group, with most of my pace pals present this morning. We had Amy, Brian, Jennifer, Jan, Rich, Matt, Shannon, Charlene and me. We sort of took turns leading the pace, and finally took a brief water stop at the fountain behind Holly Power Plant. Conversation was good, and we seemed to be in good shape for the accelerated finish. Finally, we crossed under I-35, and it was time to pick up the pace. Gilbert wanted at least a 3 minute difference between the first 5 miles and last 5 miles, preferably even more of a difference. We'd see.
Easy miles: 9:47, 9:34, 9:19, 9:13 (0.85 miles to water fountain), 9:14, and 9:14 (.37 miles). Average for easy miles was 9:25, right about where we should be.
I picked it up at that point to a pace that felt faster, but still reasonable. At first, I was alone out front, but within a half mile, Charlene and then Rich reeled me in, and we went along for a couple of miles together, to the Mopac bridge. I was starting to feel out of sorts, and Charlene and Rich pulled ahead at that point, eventually finishing about 30 seconds ahead of me. It turns out that my pace stayed pretty consistent, but it sure felt like I was either slowing down or working a lot harder to maintain what I had. I fought off the urge to stop and walk, and soon enough, I was at Auditorium Shores and the finish. Thank God for that! As soon as I finished, I had to try to find a way to recover, because I was feeling pretty dizzy at that point. I got a drink of water, and went over to where Gilbert was leading folks in some strides. I had to sit down there on the low stone wall, trying to gather myself.
Fast miles were pretty good, though: 8:05, 7:59, 8:12, 8:12, 8:13. Pace miles average 8:08. Splits were first 5.2 in 48:58, last 4.96 miles in 40:21, so I accomplished what Gilbert had asked. Overall pace for 10.16 miles was 8:47/mile. Good running.
I did the first strider at a walking pace, doing the balance drills to loosen my legs as I continued to try to recover. Eventually, I felt good enough to do 4 striders, but I just wasn't right, even 5-10 minutes after the pace run was complete.
After walking back over to RunTex and getting my dry clothes and post-run drink, I found myself shivering and shaking a bit as I sat with Shannon and Alex on the stretching deck. I guess I was suffering from some fairly extensive dehydration for some reason that I cannot explain. It was uncomfortable, and I think it scared my friends a little. Eventually, I felt a little better, and I never got leg cramps or anything. Two full bottles of fluids didn't make much of a dent in my hydration deficit, I guess. I did just a tiny bit of stretching, but had to stop eventually because I just didn't feel very good.
Once I got home and put on a couple of sweatshirts, I settled down a little more, and more and more fluids finally seemed to do the trick by mid-afternoon to bring me back to feeling normal. That was pretty weird this morning, but I can only hope it was a fluke occurrence. The weather report promises nice morning cool temperatures by Thursday or Friday, which I'm looking forward to!
Well, it was an interesting day at the running office today. On the schedule was a pace run, going 5 easy miles and then the last 5 at a faster pace. We'd do the Longhorn Dam loop, kicking it into high gear after passing under I-35 on the way back. It was substantially warmer than last week, and high humidity as well. I was dressed appropriately for the weather, though, and was ready to run, I thought. I did feel a touch of allergy or something like that, but nothing terrible. Still a little sore from Saturday's 16 mile romp, I soldiered on.
We took the early easy pace to heart, and were pretty good about the first 5 miles. It was a nice-sized group, with most of my pace pals present this morning. We had Amy, Brian, Jennifer, Jan, Rich, Matt, Shannon, Charlene and me. We sort of took turns leading the pace, and finally took a brief water stop at the fountain behind Holly Power Plant. Conversation was good, and we seemed to be in good shape for the accelerated finish. Finally, we crossed under I-35, and it was time to pick up the pace. Gilbert wanted at least a 3 minute difference between the first 5 miles and last 5 miles, preferably even more of a difference. We'd see.
Easy miles: 9:47, 9:34, 9:19, 9:13 (0.85 miles to water fountain), 9:14, and 9:14 (.37 miles). Average for easy miles was 9:25, right about where we should be.
I picked it up at that point to a pace that felt faster, but still reasonable. At first, I was alone out front, but within a half mile, Charlene and then Rich reeled me in, and we went along for a couple of miles together, to the Mopac bridge. I was starting to feel out of sorts, and Charlene and Rich pulled ahead at that point, eventually finishing about 30 seconds ahead of me. It turns out that my pace stayed pretty consistent, but it sure felt like I was either slowing down or working a lot harder to maintain what I had. I fought off the urge to stop and walk, and soon enough, I was at Auditorium Shores and the finish. Thank God for that! As soon as I finished, I had to try to find a way to recover, because I was feeling pretty dizzy at that point. I got a drink of water, and went over to where Gilbert was leading folks in some strides. I had to sit down there on the low stone wall, trying to gather myself.
Fast miles were pretty good, though: 8:05, 7:59, 8:12, 8:12, 8:13. Pace miles average 8:08. Splits were first 5.2 in 48:58, last 4.96 miles in 40:21, so I accomplished what Gilbert had asked. Overall pace for 10.16 miles was 8:47/mile. Good running.
I did the first strider at a walking pace, doing the balance drills to loosen my legs as I continued to try to recover. Eventually, I felt good enough to do 4 striders, but I just wasn't right, even 5-10 minutes after the pace run was complete.
After walking back over to RunTex and getting my dry clothes and post-run drink, I found myself shivering and shaking a bit as I sat with Shannon and Alex on the stretching deck. I guess I was suffering from some fairly extensive dehydration for some reason that I cannot explain. It was uncomfortable, and I think it scared my friends a little. Eventually, I felt a little better, and I never got leg cramps or anything. Two full bottles of fluids didn't make much of a dent in my hydration deficit, I guess. I did just a tiny bit of stretching, but had to stop eventually because I just didn't feel very good.
Once I got home and put on a couple of sweatshirts, I settled down a little more, and more and more fluids finally seemed to do the trick by mid-afternoon to bring me back to feeling normal. That was pretty weird this morning, but I can only hope it was a fluke occurrence. The weather report promises nice morning cool temperatures by Thursday or Friday, which I'm looking forward to!
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Testing the New Freescale Course (16 Miles)
This morning, Gilbert chose for us to explore the new Freescale Marathon course, or at least 15+ miles of it, starting at about the 7 mile mark and exiting the course at the 22 mile mark, give or take a few tenths. It would be a welcome break after many weeks of hilly running on the weekends. After carpooling up to the starting point, we grouped up for the day's exertions. It was a bigger crowd than usual, as more Chicago folks rejoin the fun. Frank, Jan, Sean, and many others were there today for the Tour d'Freescale. We got going on time, right after 6:00am, and soon drifted into our respective bunches. Jan ran ahead with faster folks, as did Joseph and Volel. Our group was Sean, Brian, Jennifer, Rich, Charlene, Julie, Bob, and Amy. We would gather more people along the way, but I digress...
The weather wasn't as wonderful as it has been the last several weeks, but it was a tolerable 70-72 degrees throughout. The sun came out about halfway through, but it never got really bad.
We ran comfortably early on, and negotiated the initial miles as a big group. I felt fine, and there was a lot of talking today. Sooner than expected, we reached Gilbert and the first Powerade stop. Most of us took a GU (or our favorite carb booster), as well. Due to the size of our pace group, it took a while to get finished, but finally after 2:45, we were running again. So far, it felt pretty casual.
Splits miles 1-5.38: 9:48, 9:13, 9:17, 8:44, 8:55, (.38 miles) @ 9:10 pace. Overall, 9:11/mile average.
So far, the course was pretty much like the old course, with a few changes in the industrial park just north of 183. The next chunk featured a large chunk that was just like it's always been, all the way down to Shoal Creek. We ran into another training group doing repeated loops around that neighborhood, encompassing a lot of the IBM 10K course from this year. While we were running along between that group, we picked it up a bit, but finally broke out from them by the time we reached Shoal Creek. There was a group ahead of us with Diana, Gretchen and one other woman who I don't know, and they kept stopping trying to figure out where the course went, so we kept catching up to them. At Hancock, we turned east, and entered the first really new part of the course, going across North Loop towards Duval. This bit featured some mild hills, but they turned out to be a little easier than they looked from the car when I drove the course the other day. They'll be challenging during mile 16-17 of the marathon in February, but just because of where they are. We reached the second Powerade stop having absorbed Diana's group, and they ran with us the rest of the way. The second stop was the one set up by Amy, since it's just down the street from her house. Gilbert was there as well, to cheer us on. I still felt really comfortable, and we were well over halfway done. Cool.
Splits miles 6-9.28: 9:09, 9:12, 8:58, 9:04. Average pace 9:09. Most everybody did their second GU here as well. Another fairly long stop.
After that stop, we continued on North Loop, then it changed names to 53rd Street, and finally it turned south on Duval for a long stretch. My GPS did some weird things on this bit, in the heavy trees losing synch, but catching up when we'd have to wait for a bit at a street to cross traffic. The running was nice and easy still, as we enjoyed the gentle downhill grade for most of Duval and all the way through the UT campus. I was regretting my lack of sunglasses on this run, but other than that, everything was just fine. Dodging around and through some street repairs and street line painting at MLK and San Jacinto, we finally ended up at Gilbert's last Powerade stop about halfway up the nasty little hill right before the Capitol. I had already started going faster once we exited the UT campus, doing the "fast finish" that Gilbert asks us to try. It was time to get going for the last little bit. A last GU with the Powerade, and another 2:45 type stop, and it was time for the finish.
Miles 10-13.6: 8:52, 8:53, 9:01 (primarily downhill miles), 8:35 (includes some faster paced running as I crossed MLK). Overall pace 9:03.
From that water stop, I got cracking, and pushed quickly up the rest of that hill and into the Capitol grounds, which will be a nice change to the course, circling the Capitol building and then flying down the steep drive and down Congress. I thought that no one wanted to go fast at the end, but on Congress, Charlene and another woman caught up with me, and we roared down Congress. Pretty cool. Once we reached 2nd Street, and cut behind City Hall, I pulled away again, feeling really strong, and crossed Cesar Chavez and then the 1st Street bridge in good form. When I got to the stopping point at Auditorium Shores, I saw Gilbert out there with a lot of the faster Gazelles and some of those who didn't do 15 this morning, doing his balance drills. I cut back on the pace a little when I got there (15.5 miles), and did a cooldown lap of sorts around Auditorium Shores. Turns out, I didn't slow up that much, but it seemed a lot slower. It was a great run.
Miles 14-16: 7:25, 7:25, then 8:21 pace for .9 miles. Total mileage 16.4, 8:49 overall running pace. With all the traffic crossing time and water stop time included, overall actual pace for the morning was 9:26/mile.
I was happy with how well I did on the "fast finish," and I felt good out there. I really think all of the hard work is starting to show up in the long runs, and that's very gratifying.
I jogged back to RunTex, and grabbed my post-run gear out of Jan's car, and joined up with the stretching posse about 10 minutes into their routine. Patrick was nice enough to lead the group in my absence. It was a nice morning to stretch, and we had some fun out there. Jan drove Diana, Sean and I up to our cars at the top of the course, and it was a day complete.
I'm looking forward to the full day off on Sunday, as well as my virtual spectating of the NYC marathon in the morning. The weather looks to be a little warm for NYC, which is too bad, but that's just the kind of thing you can't control.
For the week, just over 43 miles running, complete compliance with gym workouts, and 5 days running. Nice. Next week starts with our first pace run in a while, the 5 EZ, 5 Pace variety. I might try the split weight routine on Monday/Tuesday, as well, doing the leg stuff after the pace run. Maybe. It would be nice to get an extra bit of rest on Tuesday before the speedwork on Wednesday. We'll see.
This morning, Gilbert chose for us to explore the new Freescale Marathon course, or at least 15+ miles of it, starting at about the 7 mile mark and exiting the course at the 22 mile mark, give or take a few tenths. It would be a welcome break after many weeks of hilly running on the weekends. After carpooling up to the starting point, we grouped up for the day's exertions. It was a bigger crowd than usual, as more Chicago folks rejoin the fun. Frank, Jan, Sean, and many others were there today for the Tour d'Freescale. We got going on time, right after 6:00am, and soon drifted into our respective bunches. Jan ran ahead with faster folks, as did Joseph and Volel. Our group was Sean, Brian, Jennifer, Rich, Charlene, Julie, Bob, and Amy. We would gather more people along the way, but I digress...
The weather wasn't as wonderful as it has been the last several weeks, but it was a tolerable 70-72 degrees throughout. The sun came out about halfway through, but it never got really bad.
We ran comfortably early on, and negotiated the initial miles as a big group. I felt fine, and there was a lot of talking today. Sooner than expected, we reached Gilbert and the first Powerade stop. Most of us took a GU (or our favorite carb booster), as well. Due to the size of our pace group, it took a while to get finished, but finally after 2:45, we were running again. So far, it felt pretty casual.
Splits miles 1-5.38: 9:48, 9:13, 9:17, 8:44, 8:55, (.38 miles) @ 9:10 pace. Overall, 9:11/mile average.
So far, the course was pretty much like the old course, with a few changes in the industrial park just north of 183. The next chunk featured a large chunk that was just like it's always been, all the way down to Shoal Creek. We ran into another training group doing repeated loops around that neighborhood, encompassing a lot of the IBM 10K course from this year. While we were running along between that group, we picked it up a bit, but finally broke out from them by the time we reached Shoal Creek. There was a group ahead of us with Diana, Gretchen and one other woman who I don't know, and they kept stopping trying to figure out where the course went, so we kept catching up to them. At Hancock, we turned east, and entered the first really new part of the course, going across North Loop towards Duval. This bit featured some mild hills, but they turned out to be a little easier than they looked from the car when I drove the course the other day. They'll be challenging during mile 16-17 of the marathon in February, but just because of where they are. We reached the second Powerade stop having absorbed Diana's group, and they ran with us the rest of the way. The second stop was the one set up by Amy, since it's just down the street from her house. Gilbert was there as well, to cheer us on. I still felt really comfortable, and we were well over halfway done. Cool.
Splits miles 6-9.28: 9:09, 9:12, 8:58, 9:04. Average pace 9:09. Most everybody did their second GU here as well. Another fairly long stop.
After that stop, we continued on North Loop, then it changed names to 53rd Street, and finally it turned south on Duval for a long stretch. My GPS did some weird things on this bit, in the heavy trees losing synch, but catching up when we'd have to wait for a bit at a street to cross traffic. The running was nice and easy still, as we enjoyed the gentle downhill grade for most of Duval and all the way through the UT campus. I was regretting my lack of sunglasses on this run, but other than that, everything was just fine. Dodging around and through some street repairs and street line painting at MLK and San Jacinto, we finally ended up at Gilbert's last Powerade stop about halfway up the nasty little hill right before the Capitol. I had already started going faster once we exited the UT campus, doing the "fast finish" that Gilbert asks us to try. It was time to get going for the last little bit. A last GU with the Powerade, and another 2:45 type stop, and it was time for the finish.
Miles 10-13.6: 8:52, 8:53, 9:01 (primarily downhill miles), 8:35 (includes some faster paced running as I crossed MLK). Overall pace 9:03.
From that water stop, I got cracking, and pushed quickly up the rest of that hill and into the Capitol grounds, which will be a nice change to the course, circling the Capitol building and then flying down the steep drive and down Congress. I thought that no one wanted to go fast at the end, but on Congress, Charlene and another woman caught up with me, and we roared down Congress. Pretty cool. Once we reached 2nd Street, and cut behind City Hall, I pulled away again, feeling really strong, and crossed Cesar Chavez and then the 1st Street bridge in good form. When I got to the stopping point at Auditorium Shores, I saw Gilbert out there with a lot of the faster Gazelles and some of those who didn't do 15 this morning, doing his balance drills. I cut back on the pace a little when I got there (15.5 miles), and did a cooldown lap of sorts around Auditorium Shores. Turns out, I didn't slow up that much, but it seemed a lot slower. It was a great run.
Miles 14-16: 7:25, 7:25, then 8:21 pace for .9 miles. Total mileage 16.4, 8:49 overall running pace. With all the traffic crossing time and water stop time included, overall actual pace for the morning was 9:26/mile.
I was happy with how well I did on the "fast finish," and I felt good out there. I really think all of the hard work is starting to show up in the long runs, and that's very gratifying.
I jogged back to RunTex, and grabbed my post-run gear out of Jan's car, and joined up with the stretching posse about 10 minutes into their routine. Patrick was nice enough to lead the group in my absence. It was a nice morning to stretch, and we had some fun out there. Jan drove Diana, Sean and I up to our cars at the top of the course, and it was a day complete.
I'm looking forward to the full day off on Sunday, as well as my virtual spectating of the NYC marathon in the morning. The weather looks to be a little warm for NYC, which is too bad, but that's just the kind of thing you can't control.
For the week, just over 43 miles running, complete compliance with gym workouts, and 5 days running. Nice. Next week starts with our first pace run in a while, the 5 EZ, 5 Pace variety. I might try the split weight routine on Monday/Tuesday, as well, doing the leg stuff after the pace run. Maybe. It would be nice to get an extra bit of rest on Tuesday before the speedwork on Wednesday. We'll see.
Friday, November 04, 2005
More GymStuff
I'm starting to sound sort of like Alex, but today was another gym visit. Yesterday's leg exercise extravaganza didn't leave me with too much excessive soreness or stiffness, so that was a good sign. Today was all the other stuff, but no leg exercise. I did start with 20 minutes on the good cycle, and that served its purpose. Core stuff was fun, in that occasionally grimacing way. Did everything this time. I need to make sure and do a minimal core workout a couple more times a week, after a run, like just the crunches and maybe pushups and back raises. We'll see if I can manage to remember that. On upper body stuff, I've turned up the weight on several exercises, so it was lower reps today as I get used to the greater loads. If I had had a spotter for bench, I might have gotten the full 2x10 reps, but when doing those alone, I get a little worried if I'm working really hard on rep number 8 in the last set. I don't want to end up trapped under the bar or anything. :-) Anyway, after all that, I did the full stretching regimen, and even did some AI stretches for calves and hamstrings, to help them along.
It wasn't nearly as fun as running with the peeps or alone on the trail, but I know this stuff is helping me become a better and stronger runner. Onward and upward! Tomorrow, we get to tour the middle chunk of the new Freescale course. Should be fun to explore the new route. More and more of the Chicago people are coming back for this one, too, so we should have a pretty full house. I plan on trying for 17-18 miles, which will require a little extra cooldown type running on the trail once we get back to Auditorium Shores.
I went to RunTex today to try and get my next pair of Mizunos, but they did not have my size in stock. I'll check back next week. While there, I saw Deb and her daughter, Lu (I may have misspelled that, sorry!). We were both chatting with Gilbert. I picked up some Enervitene for use at Motive and races beyond while there. GU is great for training runs, but I like the higher octane stuff for racing.
I'm starting to sound sort of like Alex, but today was another gym visit. Yesterday's leg exercise extravaganza didn't leave me with too much excessive soreness or stiffness, so that was a good sign. Today was all the other stuff, but no leg exercise. I did start with 20 minutes on the good cycle, and that served its purpose. Core stuff was fun, in that occasionally grimacing way. Did everything this time. I need to make sure and do a minimal core workout a couple more times a week, after a run, like just the crunches and maybe pushups and back raises. We'll see if I can manage to remember that. On upper body stuff, I've turned up the weight on several exercises, so it was lower reps today as I get used to the greater loads. If I had had a spotter for bench, I might have gotten the full 2x10 reps, but when doing those alone, I get a little worried if I'm working really hard on rep number 8 in the last set. I don't want to end up trapped under the bar or anything. :-) Anyway, after all that, I did the full stretching regimen, and even did some AI stretches for calves and hamstrings, to help them along.
It wasn't nearly as fun as running with the peeps or alone on the trail, but I know this stuff is helping me become a better and stronger runner. Onward and upward! Tomorrow, we get to tour the middle chunk of the new Freescale course. Should be fun to explore the new route. More and more of the Chicago people are coming back for this one, too, so we should have a pretty full house. I plan on trying for 17-18 miles, which will require a little extra cooldown type running on the trail once we get back to Auditorium Shores.
I went to RunTex today to try and get my next pair of Mizunos, but they did not have my size in stock. I'll check back next week. While there, I saw Deb and her daughter, Lu (I may have misspelled that, sorry!). We were both chatting with Gilbert. I picked up some Enervitene for use at Motive and races beyond while there. GU is great for training runs, but I like the higher octane stuff for racing.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Legs And Only Legs (A GymAdventure)
For workout #2 today, I ventured up to Gold's after the morning hour run for a weight workout only for the legs. I'm experimenting with splitting the weight workout that is normally on Friday, dropping the leg weight work to Thursdays to allow more concentrated effort while giving myself an extra day for more rest before the long runs. Core and upper body will still be on Friday.
Anyway, it was pretty strange going in for less than the full workout, but it was a good one. Started off with the regular exercises, and I got the 4-way hip machine in today, too. Added weight to the seated calf raises, to 45 lbs. Then, I moved to the scary monster freeweight room for the other leg exercises. First, standing calf raises on the purpose-built machine/sled for those. Started with a set at 80 lbs, then a set at 60 lbs. Then, I finished things off with the leg press sled in which your legs are above your body, unlike Tuesday. I started today with two sets of 10 at 140 lbs, to get the feel of the machine and exercise. I did not press all the way down, keeping my knee angle to something less acute than 90 degrees. I'll carefully adjust weight on both of those exercises until they're properly set. It was actually a pretty fun workout, and my legs felt fine before and after.
I got on the only properly functioning Precor cycle at that point, and spun away for 10 minutes to help cooldown and flush out the legs. Not bad. Then, I did the full stretching regimen, to finish off the job. Another good day at the gym, despite the construction going on at Gold's. They're remodeling the locker rooms, and had a couple of banks of lockers bolted temporarily out in the gym because of that. Shower facilities are in another building. Yee haw, and all that.
For workout #2 today, I ventured up to Gold's after the morning hour run for a weight workout only for the legs. I'm experimenting with splitting the weight workout that is normally on Friday, dropping the leg weight work to Thursdays to allow more concentrated effort while giving myself an extra day for more rest before the long runs. Core and upper body will still be on Friday.
Anyway, it was pretty strange going in for less than the full workout, but it was a good one. Started off with the regular exercises, and I got the 4-way hip machine in today, too. Added weight to the seated calf raises, to 45 lbs. Then, I moved to the scary monster freeweight room for the other leg exercises. First, standing calf raises on the purpose-built machine/sled for those. Started with a set at 80 lbs, then a set at 60 lbs. Then, I finished things off with the leg press sled in which your legs are above your body, unlike Tuesday. I started today with two sets of 10 at 140 lbs, to get the feel of the machine and exercise. I did not press all the way down, keeping my knee angle to something less acute than 90 degrees. I'll carefully adjust weight on both of those exercises until they're properly set. It was actually a pretty fun workout, and my legs felt fine before and after.
I got on the only properly functioning Precor cycle at that point, and spun away for 10 minutes to help cooldown and flush out the legs. Not bad. Then, I did the full stretching regimen, to finish off the job. Another good day at the gym, despite the construction going on at Gold's. They're remodeling the locker rooms, and had a couple of banks of lockers bolted temporarily out in the gym because of that. Shower facilities are in another building. Yee haw, and all that.
Running in the 'Hood
For Phase One of today's exercise extravaganza, I headed out in the 'Hood about 8:00am, when it was bright and sunny, maybe 60 degrees. I planned on doing the usual 60 minute type run, choosing the course as it happened. My HR monitor ran out of power, so I'll have to send it in for a battery replacement, which is a drag. Lasted one year only on a battery, which doesn't seem like very long to me. Oh, well. I'll have to rely on "run how I feel" for these recovery type runs for a while.
I did two of my 'Hood/Water Tower Trail loops, enjoying the extra time on the trail this morning. Without the warning numbers from the HR watch, it was a faster run than usual, but I stayed within normal limits, I think. Ended up with 6.86 miles, 1:02:16, 9:03/mile pace. It never felt like I was blasting away out there, so I think this was just fine. My legs felt way better today than yesterday morning, so the massage yesterday must have done its magic. On the homestretch of today's run, I did some short striders, but did not do any striders after I finished. I did the balance drills after I got done, though, which really helped to finish loosening up my hamstrings. I didn't have any issues with my quads, but the hammies were a little stiff high in the muscle.
Having worked that out and done some good stretching inside, it was time to head for the gym for my experimental leg workout (experimental in the sense that I'm splitting it off from the core and upper body stuff, which I'll do tomorrow). So far, so good today!
For Phase One of today's exercise extravaganza, I headed out in the 'Hood about 8:00am, when it was bright and sunny, maybe 60 degrees. I planned on doing the usual 60 minute type run, choosing the course as it happened. My HR monitor ran out of power, so I'll have to send it in for a battery replacement, which is a drag. Lasted one year only on a battery, which doesn't seem like very long to me. Oh, well. I'll have to rely on "run how I feel" for these recovery type runs for a while.
I did two of my 'Hood/Water Tower Trail loops, enjoying the extra time on the trail this morning. Without the warning numbers from the HR watch, it was a faster run than usual, but I stayed within normal limits, I think. Ended up with 6.86 miles, 1:02:16, 9:03/mile pace. It never felt like I was blasting away out there, so I think this was just fine. My legs felt way better today than yesterday morning, so the massage yesterday must have done its magic. On the homestretch of today's run, I did some short striders, but did not do any striders after I finished. I did the balance drills after I got done, though, which really helped to finish loosening up my hamstrings. I didn't have any issues with my quads, but the hammies were a little stiff high in the muscle.
Having worked that out and done some good stretching inside, it was time to head for the gym for my experimental leg workout (experimental in the sense that I'm splitting it off from the core and upper body stuff, which I'll do tomorrow). So far, so good today!
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Fast Running, 400m at a time
It was another picture perfect running morning today, temps in the mid-40's during the workout, crisp and clear. While I was waiting to start the warmup run to AHS, I saw Richard strolling up. It seems he was looking for his last Words of Running Wisdom from Gilbert, always a good thing. I wished him luck at NYC, and the rest of us sauntered off to the track for the 400Fest. It was the usual comfortable jog over there, with Amy and Jennifer. Enough to warm up and to loosen up my hamstrings, and not much else. I was pretty stiff this morning, due to the back-to-back Circuit workout on Monday and the 7 miler/gym workout yesterday. Some gentle stretching and the warmup and drills worked out most of it, so I felt ready to go as Gilbert gathered us up.
My group was the second one called to the start line, and we had Charlene, Jennifer, Rich, and a new girl or two. We were assigned to do between 10 and 15 x 400m, trying for something around 1:42 for an average, with 1:00 rest between. I figured we'd try to hit between 1:40 and 1:45 for the first 5 repeats, and then dial in the pace for the remainder of the morning. I planned on doing all 15 repeats, since I had done 12 the last time this workout rolled around. Some of the other folks had not done so many the last time, or had not done 400's before with Gazelles, so they would choose other final numbers. We'd see.
Off we went. This morning, we could actually see our watches, so it was easy work to stay on pace. I took turns leading the first 4 or 5 laps with one of the newer peeps, and finally ended up leading most of the rest of them. We got into a pretty good groove, and did a good job of keeping the laps within a second or two of 1:40 as the laps rolled on. At 10 repeats, only Rich and I decided to continue. Everyone else had had enough. Rich said he'd do 11 or 12, and I told him if he was going to do 11, he ought to do 12 for an even number. Off we went into the last 5 repeats. I finally started sounding like I was working hard on about lap 12, and Rich laughed that he was glad to hear those noises coming from me. Before that, he wasn't sure I was even breathing. :-) We paced each other around, and on the 15th lap, pushed a little on the last corner for a nice finish. Excellent set of repeats, and my overall pace was a click faster than the last time I did this workout.
Splits: 1:43, 1:42, 1:39, 1:40, 1:41, 1:39, 1:42, 1:41, 1:39, 1:39, 1:39, 1:40, 1:37, 1:38, 1:34. Overall lap average 1:40, average mile pace 6:40/mile. Fast stuff...
Gilbert was happy with our times, and after a cup or two of Powerade, we were back on the trail to RunTex. Amy had done circuit training today, and had waited for us, which was nice. The three of us had a nice chatty run back to RunTex, and that was it for the day. Mileage 7.43 for the day, with lots of fast 400's in the middle of it all.
We stood around and laughed a while with Gilbert and Deb, especially when Deb and Amy realized that they had been members of competing women's adventure race teams in the summer who wore the same costumes (Wonder Woman). Even after all this time, they didn't realize it because without the costumes, they're totally different people obviously. Talked with Sean a while, too, who had had another nice run this morning with Frank and Anne.
It was a great day, that's for sure. Just fun to be out in the nice morning weather.
After coming home and getting cleaned up, I went back down south for my weekly massage tuneup with Ron. This time, he found lots of really sore spots in my hamstrings, which is unusual for me. It was pretty brutal work getting all that stuff worked out, but I know I'll feel a lot better by Friday.
Tomorrow is an easy hour run and leg work at the gym. Yee haw! The long run on Saturday is on the new Freescale course, which will be cool. I drove the new middle section of the course today, just for fun, and it'll be interesting to have that new cross-town route on North Loop. A couple of significant uphill bits between miles 16 and 18, with downhill running between.
It was another picture perfect running morning today, temps in the mid-40's during the workout, crisp and clear. While I was waiting to start the warmup run to AHS, I saw Richard strolling up. It seems he was looking for his last Words of Running Wisdom from Gilbert, always a good thing. I wished him luck at NYC, and the rest of us sauntered off to the track for the 400Fest. It was the usual comfortable jog over there, with Amy and Jennifer. Enough to warm up and to loosen up my hamstrings, and not much else. I was pretty stiff this morning, due to the back-to-back Circuit workout on Monday and the 7 miler/gym workout yesterday. Some gentle stretching and the warmup and drills worked out most of it, so I felt ready to go as Gilbert gathered us up.
My group was the second one called to the start line, and we had Charlene, Jennifer, Rich, and a new girl or two. We were assigned to do between 10 and 15 x 400m, trying for something around 1:42 for an average, with 1:00 rest between. I figured we'd try to hit between 1:40 and 1:45 for the first 5 repeats, and then dial in the pace for the remainder of the morning. I planned on doing all 15 repeats, since I had done 12 the last time this workout rolled around. Some of the other folks had not done so many the last time, or had not done 400's before with Gazelles, so they would choose other final numbers. We'd see.
Off we went. This morning, we could actually see our watches, so it was easy work to stay on pace. I took turns leading the first 4 or 5 laps with one of the newer peeps, and finally ended up leading most of the rest of them. We got into a pretty good groove, and did a good job of keeping the laps within a second or two of 1:40 as the laps rolled on. At 10 repeats, only Rich and I decided to continue. Everyone else had had enough. Rich said he'd do 11 or 12, and I told him if he was going to do 11, he ought to do 12 for an even number. Off we went into the last 5 repeats. I finally started sounding like I was working hard on about lap 12, and Rich laughed that he was glad to hear those noises coming from me. Before that, he wasn't sure I was even breathing. :-) We paced each other around, and on the 15th lap, pushed a little on the last corner for a nice finish. Excellent set of repeats, and my overall pace was a click faster than the last time I did this workout.
Splits: 1:43, 1:42, 1:39, 1:40, 1:41, 1:39, 1:42, 1:41, 1:39, 1:39, 1:39, 1:40, 1:37, 1:38, 1:34. Overall lap average 1:40, average mile pace 6:40/mile. Fast stuff...
Gilbert was happy with our times, and after a cup or two of Powerade, we were back on the trail to RunTex. Amy had done circuit training today, and had waited for us, which was nice. The three of us had a nice chatty run back to RunTex, and that was it for the day. Mileage 7.43 for the day, with lots of fast 400's in the middle of it all.
We stood around and laughed a while with Gilbert and Deb, especially when Deb and Amy realized that they had been members of competing women's adventure race teams in the summer who wore the same costumes (Wonder Woman). Even after all this time, they didn't realize it because without the costumes, they're totally different people obviously. Talked with Sean a while, too, who had had another nice run this morning with Frank and Anne.
It was a great day, that's for sure. Just fun to be out in the nice morning weather.
After coming home and getting cleaned up, I went back down south for my weekly massage tuneup with Ron. This time, he found lots of really sore spots in my hamstrings, which is unusual for me. It was pretty brutal work getting all that stuff worked out, but I know I'll feel a lot better by Friday.
Tomorrow is an easy hour run and leg work at the gym. Yee haw! The long run on Saturday is on the new Freescale course, which will be cool. I drove the new middle section of the course today, just for fun, and it'll be interesting to have that new cross-town route on North Loop. A couple of significant uphill bits between miles 16 and 18, with downhill running between.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
GymWork
This morning, following Alex's example, I dashed up to Gold's for my Tuesday weight workout after the 7 miler. It was a pretty good one. Already warmed up after the run, I went right to the weights. Core stuff was the complete set, except I skipped the Roman Chair exercises today because the Chair was occupied when I wanted to start, and I just never got inspired to tackle it once I started the other exercises. I added leg presses to the routine, along with some straight-legged calf raises. It'll be interesting to see how these affect my running tomorrow. I used the leg press sled where your body weight is part of the exercise. Next time, I'll try the one where you are only pressing weight up with your legs instead. Upper body stuff saw the first try at 60 lbs on bicep curl bar, and I cranked out 2x8 of those. Did well on the other upper body stuff, too. All in all, a quality gym visit.
Wednesday is 12-16 x 400m, Thursday is an easy one hour run + a gym visit just for the leg exercises (another experiment with the schedule), Friday is a gym visit for just cycle warmup and then core/upper body workouts.
This morning, following Alex's example, I dashed up to Gold's for my Tuesday weight workout after the 7 miler. It was a pretty good one. Already warmed up after the run, I went right to the weights. Core stuff was the complete set, except I skipped the Roman Chair exercises today because the Chair was occupied when I wanted to start, and I just never got inspired to tackle it once I started the other exercises. I added leg presses to the routine, along with some straight-legged calf raises. It'll be interesting to see how these affect my running tomorrow. I used the leg press sled where your body weight is part of the exercise. Next time, I'll try the one where you are only pressing weight up with your legs instead. Upper body stuff saw the first try at 60 lbs on bicep curl bar, and I cranked out 2x8 of those. Did well on the other upper body stuff, too. All in all, a quality gym visit.
Wednesday is 12-16 x 400m, Thursday is an easy one hour run + a gym visit just for the leg exercises (another experiment with the schedule), Friday is a gym visit for just cycle warmup and then core/upper body workouts.
Fun Run At Town Lake
My schedule has changed, and I was able to meet up with Frank and Jan this morning, bright and early, for a relaxed 7 mile loop. We took it easy, and my HR never got high at all. In fact, it was lower than it usually gets to when I've done recovery runs on my own here in the 'Hood. Probably should do more running like this. It was a pretty morning, clear and cool, and we had a great time talking about a hundred topics great and small as we cruised around the lake.
We saw Sean going the opposite direction when we reached the I-35 bridge, and stopped for a brief chat with him before finishing up the run. About 7 miles, 1:08:34, 9:48/mile. I felt good when we finished, and that's what was supposed to happen.
Stuck around after bundling back up in warm clothes, and did almost all of the stretching routine there, enjoying the morning sun. Shannon and Alex were there after having finished their circuit workout earlier, and Sean joined us later, too.
After a while longer, it was time to get going to the gym for Phase Two of the morning's workouts. So far, so good.
My schedule has changed, and I was able to meet up with Frank and Jan this morning, bright and early, for a relaxed 7 mile loop. We took it easy, and my HR never got high at all. In fact, it was lower than it usually gets to when I've done recovery runs on my own here in the 'Hood. Probably should do more running like this. It was a pretty morning, clear and cool, and we had a great time talking about a hundred topics great and small as we cruised around the lake.
We saw Sean going the opposite direction when we reached the I-35 bridge, and stopped for a brief chat with him before finishing up the run. About 7 miles, 1:08:34, 9:48/mile. I felt good when we finished, and that's what was supposed to happen.
Stuck around after bundling back up in warm clothes, and did almost all of the stretching routine there, enjoying the morning sun. Shannon and Alex were there after having finished their circuit workout earlier, and Sean joined us later, too.
After a while longer, it was time to get going to the gym for Phase Two of the morning's workouts. So far, so good.
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