track fan

1:30:52 (46:08/44:44). glad to be out today -- feels good to run more than 4 miles again ;-). Quad muscles were getting a little tight near the end of the run, but nothing a little stretching won't cure (I hope).

So, I am still not sure what marathon I am going to run ... I am discussing things with Greg now. February is going to be tough training-wise as I have two trips to DC I have to make (one is for a grant review, I have five grants I have to review in the next week), I have a book review due for a journal and I have to finish this paper I am working on by the end of the month. Whew, I am tired just thinking about it ;-). But, I have done it before I am sure I can do it again. Although my projected marathon time "should" be under 3:30 (based on my 1/2 marathon) since this is my first I will be happy with anything around 3:30 and it is my target right now. I guess we'll see how I adapt to 3-4 hour long runs.

Happy Sunday bloggers.

AM: (8.5+ miles 1:13:31 (37:39/35:51)). As you can see, I felt pretty good today. I didn't really mean to speed up after the turn-around, it just happened. I was glad, I was starting to worry that my legs were going to feel sluggish forever! I am going to run somewhere between 3-4 miles tonight.

I am looking for an April marathon. I thought it would be a May marathon, but Greg wants me to run one sooner - he says it should only take 6-8 weeks to get ready. I am a little apprehensive I have to admit.

PM: (4 miles, 36:53).  Regular run on the grass on the campus quad -- better than usual because I ran with Dean!

45:24.  Nice easy jog.  I went exploring for new trails and running places.  My main criteria: dirt or sand, prefer some hills, few major intersections.  Luckily, there are a lot of washes and dirt paths around my area.  Had a few starts and stops (the main wash ended as a feeder wash came in from the west, for instance) but it was fun.  I am trying to enjoy the "down-time"!

AM:(8.5 miles, 1:12:57 (37:21/35:35).  I felt great today, I couldn't help but push it a little bit -- it is harder to run easy when I don't have a hard workout looming!!  I was surprised how good I felt given I have been working until 8-9PM every night and not getting much sleep because I am so stressed out about my many deadlines.  And, I am so obsessed I am already trying to figure out how I can get my runs in next week when I am in DC and in meetings all day!  I think I have to let it go and just do what I can.

PM:(4 miles). 

45:12.  Extremely easy jog.  Felt pretty good today!

AM: (8.5 miles, 1:13:30 (37:39/35:50)).  It took me a little longer to warm up today - my legs just felt sort of non-responsive and "clunky" - but by about 3 miles I felt really good.

PM: (4 miles).  

I have to work all day, and probably some of the night ... tomorrow I get to run longer (1:45 or so), yea! 

1:47:55.  I felt pretty good today - I don't know exactly how long the run was, I just know that most of my miles on the way out were in the 9 minute range and most of my miles on the way back were in the 8:25-8:40 range.  Many interesting things today!

First, last week we had some days where the highs were in the 80's (I did not want to rub it in so I did not tell you about these ;) ) - this morning I woke up to snow on the mountaintops!  The high today is supposed to be in the high 50's.  Then, I was running on the river path and about 2 miles into my run I look over in the wash and there is WATER!  I have never seen water in the wash before.  I took a little detour from my usual run (it is a good time training-wise to explore) and ran on the south side of the trail for a little while.  It was fortuitous I did because I ran into a friend on that side!  Kelly Liljeblad and her sister are in town training for a couple of months.  Kelly is a professional runner we met in Flagstaff a few years ago - she  took the bronze at the USA 10 mile championship last October (won the Houston marathon in 2005 and was chosen for the world championship team) - she is a great runner and very nice person.  Her twin sister is a professional triathlete - her coach lives here in Tuscon which is why they are here.  I knew they were coming to town, but I had forgotten to ask her when they were coming, it was so cool to run into them - they were blazing down the trail!!  Lastly, I went through at least two ecosystems on my run today!  It was chilly (relatively) when I started so I was wearing shorts, short sleeve shirt and gloves.  I figured by the second mile I would warm up.  Well, I did, actually at about mile 4 I was wishing I was wearing a singlet!  Then after I hit the turn-around I was freezing - it was raining/sleeting and I was soaked.  Luckily, the sun came back out and by the time I finished my shorts and shirt were dry again! wow.

Well, off to the salt mines - lot's of work again today.

Happy Sunday bloggers!
 

6+ 54:47.  I am pretty sure it is longer than 6 because I lost a glove and went back a ways to see if I could find it -- probably not much more than 1/4 of a mile long though.

I have to get all the grants reviewed by tonight so I can upload them to the NIH website.  It is taking much longer than I had estimated and it looks like its going to be a very long day/night.

Happy Monday bloggers. 

AM: ( 8.5 miles)...lost the time I had written down, but it was somewhere about 1:12.  It was a quick run because I was in a hurry to get to the airport!

PM:  (4 miles, 37 something).   It was about 9:00 before I got to the hotel, I hurried and put on my running clothes and hit the treadmill.  Honestly, if I had to run on a treadmill every day I might not run - I would find another sport.  It was so painfully boring.  I don't think the treadmill was calibrated but I set it at 2.0 incline and ran about 9:00 min pace (though it felt much slower).

So ... here starts my two days of not being in touch! 

1:11:36.  4 mile steady state run + 2.5 mile wu and 2 mile cd.  Got up at 5 to run (3 my time) because our meeting today started at 7 (we worked from 8 - 7 last night with a 30 min lunch break).  I am exhausted.  It takes us somewhere between 2-3 hours to review one grant.  These grants are huge (about 500 pages/grant) and worth a whole bunch of money.  It was dark and windy -- the Rock Creek Trail was about 2+ miles from my hotel, once I got on the trail it was even darker because there are no lights, but the moonlight came through the trees just enough for me to "mostly" see in front of me (I did run off the trail once into a mud puddle, almost fell!).  I was a little worried I was going to run off the trail and fall into the creek, but luckily that never happened ;-).   The worst part was that it was very windy and there were tree branches all over the trail - I could not see these until I was right on top of them so my legs are all cut up and bruised from being hit by them -- I kept wondering what would happen if I did a face plant and got knocked out -- it would take hours and hours before anyone would find me and they wouldn't know who I was because I did not have any id on me ... and the NIH group would be really mad!  

I am not sure I was actually running the exact pace I was supposed to, but the effort was solid, and I felt like I was able to get a solid run in.  

Unfortunately, there is no way I can run my evening run tonight ... 

1:21:20.  Great run this morning -- ran out and back on a different part of the Rock Creek Trail - it is a great place to train, slightly uphill on the way out (runs along the creek - you can barely feel the uphill, the splits are just about 5 secs/mile slower) and there are lots of rolling hills in it - none too steep, but enough to make you work at them.  There were some strange 1/4 - 1/2 mile markers on the trail (permanent markings, not painted) with arrows going in different directions.  I could not figure them  out - I guess it is like a "secret handshake" you have to belong to the Montgomery County Road Runners to get the key (ha ha ha this is a jab at mcdermo if he is still lurking on the blog).  

Anyway -- I have a very long trip home, I don't get into Tucson until 11PM tonight. It has been a long week! 

AM: (8.5 miles, 1:14:52).  Tried a little exploring -- not really a great route for more than 7 miles.  A few notes though: I saw a gaggle (?), flock (?) of roadrunners!  very cool.  I ran along a railroad track for a while -- it was pretty cool, especially when the train went by.  The novelty was a little tempered by the dead fox I saw laying on the tracks though :(.

PM: 4 miles at my favorite little park!

Can you believe it, I have to go to work.  Despite the fact I was working really hard this week, my "work" here at the university fell behind ... I am so tired too. 

1:48:47.  Very hilly run in the national park.  The first lap I added on almost a mile to ensure I got in the time - the second lap I ran faster than I have ever run this loop by almost a minute.  I was suprised because I really felt horrible the whole run.  My legs have been sore pretty much every run for the past week - they just seem to get tighter through the run. It is not a good sign since I haven't even begun really training yet. 

I hope you all had a good weekend!

AM: (9+ miles, 1:18:07).  Probably a little longer than 9.  Fartlek workout 15 x 1` w/ 1` recovery @ 3K-5K effort.  Felt really good to run faster today!  I had some deep myofacial work done on Sunday and though I am still really sore from the work my muscles are not nearly as sore when I run. 

PM: (4 miles, 37:48).   Faster than usual, though I felt like I was dragging while I was running.

Have a good day bloggers!

1:05:20 (33:27/31:35).  Felt pretty yucky on the way out but somehow finished pretty strong (even though the last 2 miles are uphill).  No sleep last night, I think the stress of work is catching up with me.

happy Wednesday bloggers.

AM: (11 miles, 1:34:55). 23:58 wu, 5 x 5`@ 5-10K effort w/3` recovery, 30:24.  I would guess the faster bits were about 7:08-7:15, I went farther every one so it was a good workout -- I could tell I was in the right pace/effort because by the last 2 I needed to concentrate on holding pace.

I knew from the start that today was going to be a good running day.  It was the first time since the race (over 3 weeks ago) that I was was motivated (both mentally and physically) to run!  My landmarks were about 10 seconds faster than usual (which meant I had to slow myself down on my warm-up).  I was starting to worry that I would not have the desire/ability to train for this marathon ... I hope I can maintain this now ;-).

PM: (4 miles).

1:07:15.  Easy recovery jog.  The overall time includes laying in the dirt ... I have to "jump" (I usually step) over a little wire fence that surrounds a park that the dirt road I run parallels.  Well, I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later -- I somehow did not get my back leg over and ended up falling ... I am just glad that somehow my body managed to twist so I did not break my leg (it could have been snapped by the wire which is probably about 3-4 inches in diameter) -- and I did not rebreak my wrist! yea!  I found my missing glove this morning too, so I would consider the whole run to be a success!

Happy Friday bloggers.

AM: (8.5 miles, 1:15:34).  Felt better today than I have in a while ... there are a few things going on.  First, I had an Egoscue appointment yesterday ... Egoscue is basically a technique that incorporates Pilates, yoga and stretching exercises to increase your alignment (particularly with respect to hips, shoulders and spine).  The thought is (my naive interpretation of it anyway) is that this alignment increases biomechanical efficiency.  For runners, this biomechnical efficiency helps increase speed and reduce overuse injuries.  Basically, I believe that rather than trying to force a particular efficient stride, you need to ensure your body is in proper alignment and then the most efficient stride for you will come naturally.  I don't know if this is exactly the way things work, but I do believe that many times when start to have "aches and pains" it is remedied by changing some of these exercises.  Right now I go once a month and they give me a new set of exercises to do -- and then in between visits I can email them if things are "working" and they will give me some alternate ones to try.  It adds about 30-40mins on to my workout every day -- but I think it helps.  The second thing is that I am just not recoverying very well between runs right now (which is a problem since I am not actually training very hard yet!).  So, I have started taking an amino acid supplement to see if that helps any.  Trial and error ... so far it may be in my head but I think it may be helping.  From the looks of it, Greg has me alternating my "long run days" between shorter but more intense runs and increased distance (next week I will be running 18 miles) -- as we progress through cycles it will morph more and more into both higher mileage and some higher intensity. 

PM:(4.5 miles in my favorite park).

Off to work!  Happy weekend bloggers!

1:30:07.  It was a little longer than 11 miles, but not quite 11.5.  Thirds progression run.  The idea was to run 30 mins easy (8:45-9:00 pace), 30 mins medium (8:15 - 8:30 pace) and 30 mins medium-hard (7:35 - 7:55 pace).  Well, every segment was a little faster than what I had planned -- 8:45 for the first 3 miles (9:00, 8:33, 8:45) dropping down to 8:05 (8:29 and 7:52 for the two miles that I had mile markers I would guess the other 2 were in the 8:00 range - whoops) for the next ~ 4 miles and the remaining miles were 7:51-7:53.  Basically the last 5.5 miles were in the 7:50-7:52 pace range.  It was actually really hard to find these paces, I am just not really used to it yet.  I need to get used to 7:50 pace since this is "supposed" to be my marathon pace (based on my 1/2 marathon). 

Although it wasn't high volume this was a little harder run that it was supposed to be ... I think it will just take some practice to find "medium" effort pace!

Happy Sunday bloggers!

AM: (10 miles, 1:20:39).  45` Steady State run (a little shy of 6 miles),  14:27 wu, 7:18 and the 5 miles I could monitor were 7:49, 7:43, 7:22, 7:25, 7:23 -- the first 2 + miles were slightly uphill (inperceptible in general)  into a headwind, the last three slightly downhill with a tailwind.  My "new" SS pace is 7:23-7:36 ... it takes some getting used to, and I think that I won't feel bad if they are on the slower side for a while (and my speed workouts too).  I have learned that I train much more efficiently if I err on the side of slower than too fast.  So, I would consider this to be an ok workout.  The idea is to get used to running a little faster again - next week I will be hitting the track again.

PM: (4+ miles, 37:27).  Ran in Reid Park -- I was kind of bad though, there were so many runners out it was hard not to be the tiniest bit competative ... I ran a little harder than I was supposed to ...

Have a good day bloggers!

1:07:32.  Recovery run, very easy.  I was a little tired from yesterday, but felt a lot better by the time I warmed up (unfortunately this took about 5 miles!).

AM: (9.5 miles, 1:22:11).  10 x 2`  w/1` recovery.  It doesn't look like much but this was a tough workout - it is one of those workouts that you really start feeling by the end (especially if you take the few couple too fast).  I would guess the 2` were a little short (maybe 25m) of 500m with about 200m recovery.  I don't know the exact pace because this was more of a fartlek run, but it felt like 7:00 and sometimes a little faster (but slower than 6:50 for sure) - which is probably a little slower than it should have been, but since I know that speed is an issue (e.g., I just don't have the 3K-5K speed with all this 1/2 marathon training) it is ok. I know it was on the right pace because by the last one I was getting significant lactic acid buildup in my legs by the end.  whew, this is much harder than an 18 mile run (I don't know if it is harder than a 20 mile run because I haven't done one yet! ;-) ).

PM: (4 miles). I am sure it won't be hard to keep this one slow tonight!

1:08:11. Ok, I am a ditz.  My legs felt good at the beginning of the run, in part because I felt like I was running with pillows on my feet - I wore my Mizuno Elixir's (which while not a cushion shoe compared with the Nike Free's I wore on my PM run and the Asics DS Trainers I wore in the AM are cushy indeed).  So ... I am running along with a soft and fluffy ride, thinking about a grant I am writing -- I am talking to the program officer at NIH on Monday so I need to get a good summary written today.  I really was making a lot of progress while I was running.  Then I turned around and realized that I my legs were starting to get a little tired -- and I thought, "wow, I really don't feel like running for 75 mins today" -- then I realized, I actually am not supposed to run 75 mins today - I was supposed to run 60-65 mins (I know 10 mins is not that big of a deal, but I usually am pretty good about following directions in these things - that is why I have a coach, so I don't have to think about it ;-) ).  Anyway, I was able to modify the run so I was on schedule, but it was just so funny - I usually don't disassociate from my running (meaning when I am running I am thinking about the run) -- but the few times I do, I either get lost or forget what I am supposed to be doing!!

I am pretty sure I ran much faster than 7:00 pace yesterday - I know what 7:00 feels like the next day - the way I felt today indicated was much faster than that, it will be interesting to get back on the track in a week and see where things are ...

Happy Friday bloggers!

AM: (8.5+, 1:17:39).  Different route than last week, it might have been a little longer than 8.5.  I was going pretty easy, I am still in "recovery" from Thursday and getting ready for a pretty hard run tomorrow (a little more mileage and very hilly).  I guess my body is starting getting used to the 'stress'-'recovery' repeat cycle again ... instead of the 'enjoy the run don't think about pace' ;-).

PM: (4.5).  My favorite run of the week (no matter how tired I am).