Thursday, December 31, 2009

A stopping point

well, with today in the books, i have run 9 days in a row. nothing to brag about, but that's the most consecutive days i've ever run in row. and i don't plan to get in that 10th day on this go around.

this morning i got in a relaxed 14 w/ the team...er...Muz. we took it pretty easy (737 pace) & were able to see the sun come up as we headed east (from barton hills to rogue). another sunrise on the roads as ken would say.

after a short nap, headed to soco gym to hit up the weights & shake em out. i managed get in 4 painful ones this afternoon. i'm so glad that is over with!

over the last 7 days, i've run 87 miles & got in two quality workouts. pretty good stuff & I could not be happier with where my fitness is currently. next sunday, a baseline will be set & we shall find out exactly where i'm at (when i hit up the runtex 10 miler).

tomorrow, i take a much deserved rest day (in my opinion). until next time...

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Uptempo Day

the plan was to run 5 one mile intervals at a 6 min pace (w/ 400 recovery) and conclude w/ a couple 200s to stretch the legs a little more. 2 mile warmup & I was feeling pretty lethargic. my legs were feeling pretty heavy after two sets, so i opted cut it short & only ran 4 of them: 600, 559, 558, 557. however, i decided to get in a couple extra 200s; the goal was to run them 'hard but under control'. i ran a 200, jogged 100, and then walked the back straight away so as to not stay all anaerobic (x 4): 34, 31, 31, 30. 2+ mile cool down & I called it a day -- about 10 miles total.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

7 in a row

14 miles this morning. we managed to get our run in before the huge cold/rain front. the weather conditions couldn't have been better: 41 degrees w/ no wind at all. 719 pace for the run. 10 minutes of ice bucket quality time afterward -- the foot has been doing much better, and i'm hoping to be able to cut out the icing routine in the next few days (if all goes well).

Monday, December 28, 2009

Shakin em out

with the holiday activities, i haven't been able to make a gym routine since last monday. today, i got back on track. grabbed an easy 8 along with the weight routine. 725 pace. my legs were just a little ragged from yesterday...actually, they were more tired during the run yesterday than today. truth be told, tired legs are not a bad thing -- having them just means i'm getting my base right (finally).

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Sun LR - Week end 8

18 miles w/ Dustin -- started at the apt & ran up to highland mall and back (with a few twists & turns along the way). 714 pace. 10 min in the ice bucket after the fact.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Easy Hr

Easy hr from the crib w/ Dustin. 61 minutes (not sure of the distance, but i know it was at least 8)

Friday, December 25, 2009

Repeatin

Silsbee TX (31 degrees): three mile warm-up to the HS track, 4 intervals w/ 100m recovery in between each mile, and a three mile cool down afterward. Miles were 556, 548, 549, 550. the first one was the hardest and the last one was hard not to close the last 600m. all went well.

foot acted up a little on the cool down. 10 minutes in the ice bucket afterward.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

A little more

MLR w/ the team. Well, a skeleton team. Muz, Mike, Mark, & I ran most of the way together. Then Muz & I (going 14) headed down our route. We missed a turn & ending up adding a little. I think it was like 14.35 (if I remember correctly).

The foot did good except for the last 10 minutes. My calf went damn near full retard w/ like 1.5 miles to go & then I started feeling the pull on the outside of my foot. Not pain like on Sun...just a pulling feel.

Wrapped the day w/ about 12 min w/ the trash can half full of ice and water to the top. Yessir!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Testing it out

After Sunday's run, I walking w/ a pretty severe limp. The outside of my left foot hurt like hell. So much so, i decided to skip the gym routine & head straight to the ice bucket. 'Fucking A' is what i was thinking. With this going on, i decided to rest on monday & maybe tues. So, i didn't exactly do that...

after doing some reading onlines, i realized that the foot pain (peroneal tendon attachment area) was more than likely related to my calf being tight. My left one is always the one that has issues when i add mileage. Having neglected it, i got out my pt stuff to see what i could find. i noticed the calf had several areas that were pretty tender, so i worked it over for several minutes. the next day (mon), the calf felt noticeably looser & the outside of my foot didn't feel too bad either. that afternoon, i went for an easy 2 miles to see how it felt. it did okay, but my calf was still cranky so decided at that point to let it rest on tues. and i did.

Wednesday, i went for an easy, easy 7 miles from my place. no foot issues during the run... but it was a little achy afterward. ice bucket for 10 min & called it a day.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Week end - 7

11.6 miles today (call it 7:30 pace avg) w/ Muz & Mike. We ran from Soco gym to the Montopolis bridge & back and found an awesomely flat stretch of road for recovery runs. I'm feeling a little banged up currently, and am contemplating using tomorrow as an off day. Matter of fact, I am taking tomorrow off. Done.

*** 67 miles for the week

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Automatic

Another good LR - we ran from RE heading northwest through DT, then UT, and up Shoal Creek to 183 & back. I was chilling on the way out & really wasn't feeling so snappy, but once we made the turn, things began to click. I guess that is to be expected when you are running net downhill. Still, by my watch, we ran 635-655 for the last 7. I was about to drop the hammer with 3 left, but my potna wasn't responding, so I just maintained: 20 miles at 710 avg.

Friday, December 18, 2009

I'm In

One registration down, one more to go (need additional clarification before I reg for the RunTex race).

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Dashing in a downpour

There was a light rain this morning, nothing too bad, so I decided to brave the harsh conditions. I did however decide to cut the run short, only 10 instead of a true MLR. About 12 others showed up for the run also...cold & wet tends to lead to a low turnout. For those of us that were there, it was a good run. 10 & some change at 7:17 pace.

No pm run today, because I got in my gym routine & shakeout last night. Next week will prolly be the same w/ teh Christmas.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Day 5

Managed get in a Wed run for the first time in several weeks. Eight in the morning and two in the evening.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Concrete Repeats

I had been meaning to begin some uptempo work for about one week & a half. Cuz I sure as hell need to do something to ensure i don't make a fool out of myself when I lace em up for the races in Jan. Unable to attend to the AM team run due to a previous commitment, I found the perfect opportunity today. Actually, I decided to do some mile repeats about 1 hour before I left work, cuz running easy just seemed too freaking boring.

There's this stretch driveway around a building complex behind our office that makes about 1.5 mile loop, so I decided to run there (mainly due to convenience). It certainly wasn't because it was some awesome surface...about half the loop was good ole fashioned (don't give a bit) concrete. Anyways, I was thinking four or maybe three mile repeats, with the hope to keep them no slower than 6 per mile and not too damn fast either. I wanted to stay relaxed & in control...or at least as in control as one can be when they haven't done "quality work" in 10 weeks.

Before I bore myself to death, here's how they went. Wait, I didn't do repeats...they were intervals -- quarter mile recovery jog in between reps (no walking):
556
549
552

I thought i was going die after the first one, and at that point, decided to only do three. Surprisingly, they got easier as I went. Prolly wasn't really warmed up cuz i only did a 1 mile warmup. 1.5 mile cool down and I called it a day.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Lunch Run

I had some free time over the lunch hour and decided to get in my run while the running was good. The out in & back stretched down to Riverside via St. Eds/Eastside Dr; on the way back there were some gradual hills to face. Bumps in the road compared to Sat. 9 miles at 7:37 pace

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Enda #6

I was feeling the effects of the Sat LR run that same evening. Texted Kamran that night and was able to get him to agree to drop Sunday's run down to 8. Thank goodness, cuz I was hella ragged on Sunday morning. Left calf had no mamma at all. Anyways, it loosened up some on the run and will be fine in couple days. Just some regular ole muscle soreness from a hard day's work on Saturday.

47 miles for the week. I had planned drop my mileage some this week, but not quite that much. Still, I'm not disappointed, because I'm in a good place w/ my training right now. Onward through the fog!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Working the Hills

Pretty serious LR today -- we ran through the hills of NW Austin, think north of 2222 and west of Mopac. The group I started off w/ took it very easy in the beginning cuz we all knew what we were up against: Mt Climber, Cat mountain, Mt Bonnell, Dry Creek, & Ladera Norte. The serious hills were in the first 11 miles, though, there were regular climbs the rest of the way too. The paced dropped after 11 and we ran something like low 7s to high 6s from 12 on. Surprisingly, there were about 7-9 people w/ us at 18. At the finish, though, there were like 2-3. 22.5 miles for the run at a 7:27 pace.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

1 turned to 2 turned to 3

i had planned to drop my mileage this week. in doing so, i was going to take monday off. did that, but apparently the off day was contagious, and i ended up not running on tues or wed either. it was nice to get the extra sleep three days in a row, but was no good for my training obviously.

i picked up today with what i previously planned: 12 in the AM and 4 in the PM. the PM run actually felt better than the one in the AM. Can one be too rested for a run?

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Week End -- 5

Saturday it was pretty cold for us Texans, 26 degrees when I checked around 5am. I was a little worried about the temp and was unsure about how warm I should dress. Not wanting to get too hot, I opted for tights, long sleeve (snug fit shirt), short sleeve, shorts, gloves, and ear warmers. It turned about to be a good combo. We started out w/ a large group (about 10-15), but that dwindled fast. I ran the whole way w/ Andrew, Jim, & Ken. We were moving pretty good the whole time, but I felt like I stayed aerobic the whole time...well, except for maybe one mile ;-) Still, even then I was relaxed & wasn't pressing. 20 miles at a 703 avg.

Today, is was cold & drizzly. Fortunately, I was already on the way to my car before I noticed, so I never thought about not running. Kamran & I ran 10.2 miles. The pace was 718 avg. We wrapped the day up w/ about 45 minutes of light weight/resistance exercises.

71.5 miles for the week. Not too bad.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

On the Move

What a day...it's about 10pm & I've been home for an hour. Full day of work w/ runs before and after -- the day started w/ a 14 mile MLR. Due to time constraints, I had to get 2 of the 14 in ahead of time. Getting up a little early wasn't too bad. I don't have my watch in front of me, but believe the pace was like 7:25 overall. After work, I headed to the gym. Got in my warm up routine & headed out. It was freaking cold. It felt like it was colder than in the morning, but I doubt it was. I ran real easy (like 815 pace avg) and the run turned out to be breeze (6 miles in the PM). Got in the weight routine & called it a day. 20 miles for the day

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Daddy's Back

This morning we were graced w/ the presence of a Rogue legend. The one & only Kenneth Fries joined us for our team run. In case you didn't know, Ken completed the 2009 Leadville 100 mile trail race on like 6 weeks of training. Baller.

Anywho, we had a pretty good size crew for today's run. I must admit, the runs are exponentially more entertaining when Ken & Mike show up. The banter/shit talk is second to none. The run? It was solid; I opted for the "Hello Kitty" 12 mile option, because 14 miles is just too far for me. Seriously, constraints at the workplace are requiring me to be at the office at 8am sharp, so 12 is all I have time to do on Tues/Thurs. Which will have to suffice! The pace I ran was pretty even, without any huge speed increase at the end. 7:11 avg for the run. Good stuff!