Sunday, August 3, 2008
brief and typo laden
Moved into our new place in NY about a week ago but we don't have internet yet. My only connection is my new snazzy iPhone, which is not the most efficient means of typed communication. DSL may be on the way, but we're in a pretty rural area which means "the Google" is hard to come by. Training has so far consisted of loops around my land and a nice trail run with a couple of good friends. That was a bit longer than I planned on though, and it ended up being my longest run in a while (2.5 hours). Life is good. I've spent a lot of time clearing monstrous amounts of overgrowth in the yard. That has probably been my main source of fitness gain since getting through the trip and closing. Now it's on to getting back my trail running skills so that I can hold my own in an upcoming trail relay. I'll try to get a bit more consistent about posting as we get settled and connected. Happy running all!
Friday, July 18, 2008
2:06.2 and 57.5
So I've got a goal, and my times in the title at a local track meet yesterday are sufficiently close (and far) to make this realistic and challenging. I'm turning 30 next summer, and I want to shoot to beat my 17-18 year old shadow self (preferably the latter, of course). The times to beat are on the right. The 800m and mile are what I care about, since I think the 400m was in a relay. I think I might have to subtract .2 from the 800m PR though, since my HS coach said I ran 1:59.2 in an 880y race (they were just switching over to metric in high schools when I was running). So 1:58.5, here I come.
I was hoping for 2:10 yesterday, but it seems I had more in me that the recent 8x200m workouts I've been doing have indicated. Most of those were at 32-33 seconds, and they felt pretty darn hard. The race was a lot of fun, and it brought me back.
I started out easy, and took a slot at the back of a pack of high schoolers and local college guys, and sat on the shoulder of the guy in front of me, since I knew some guys would be slowing down soon. At 200m I had let a couple guys slip behind through the gap I had left by sitting on the shoulder, and on the downstretch I picked things up, and quickly got into a 3rd place position. At the bell lap, I was somewhere in the 61-62 second range, which was a surprise. It never feels as fast as it is that first lap. The guy in front of me I knew was a very fast guy just out for a fun jog, basically, but I worked on reeling him in anyway on the 3rd 200. This is the part of the race where things get interesting. I remember in high school starting to feel not so good at this point, after the first curve of the second lap, but there wasn't too much burn yet. I kept the turnover going, and was catching up, but when I hit 600m, I remembered how this race ends.
A mental panic sets in with 150m to go. You're suddenly convinced that you burned everything too soon, and you're going to basically be crawling past the finish line on your hands and knees, bleeding from the ears and with every organ failing. It's a real life dream sequence where you're being chased, but your legs won't move. You are convinced that the people behind you are strong and fast, their legs light and limber. They will pass you, feeling both triumph and pity simultaneously as they leave your mangled and twitching frame behind for the vultures.
It's not the way it usually works, unless your competing with Nick Symmonds. They're all feeling the same thing. I held on to my place, doing my best to hold form down the backstretch to the finish. I was a few seconds behind the leaders, and very jealous that they got to stop this insanity before I did. I crossed the line, got to the side, and did my best to take in the oxygen my body wanted so badly. A quick glance back at the finish as I crossed the line told me the remainder of my competition was about 10-15m away.
It was awesome.
For fun I joined the 400m race as well, which was about 20-30 minutes after the 800. I was barely recovered for it, but it only lasts a minute, so how bad could it be. I was passed very quickly by a bunch of guys after the first turn. A sprinter I am not. I had been talking during the meet with this guy named Willie Johnson, who was apparently a 45.x and 20.x guy in the 400m and 200m back in college...very very very fast. He's 48 now, and is in incredible shape. Still has the legs of a 400 guy, and the chest of a 20 year old. I hope I look anything within a hundred yards of that at that age. At the second curve, I could feel him behind me, and I caught his white singlet out of the corner of my eye with 100m to go. I held on, and apparently he burned out at that point. I crossed the line in 57.x, quite pleased. To be under 60 seconds is a good sign at this point. So I'll keep on working on my turnover, and putting in miles, and next month I'll start doing some tempo runs.
And hopefully I'll post a little more often after next week, when we'll be getting settled in our new house.
I was hoping for 2:10 yesterday, but it seems I had more in me that the recent 8x200m workouts I've been doing have indicated. Most of those were at 32-33 seconds, and they felt pretty darn hard. The race was a lot of fun, and it brought me back.
I started out easy, and took a slot at the back of a pack of high schoolers and local college guys, and sat on the shoulder of the guy in front of me, since I knew some guys would be slowing down soon. At 200m I had let a couple guys slip behind through the gap I had left by sitting on the shoulder, and on the downstretch I picked things up, and quickly got into a 3rd place position. At the bell lap, I was somewhere in the 61-62 second range, which was a surprise. It never feels as fast as it is that first lap. The guy in front of me I knew was a very fast guy just out for a fun jog, basically, but I worked on reeling him in anyway on the 3rd 200. This is the part of the race where things get interesting. I remember in high school starting to feel not so good at this point, after the first curve of the second lap, but there wasn't too much burn yet. I kept the turnover going, and was catching up, but when I hit 600m, I remembered how this race ends.
A mental panic sets in with 150m to go. You're suddenly convinced that you burned everything too soon, and you're going to basically be crawling past the finish line on your hands and knees, bleeding from the ears and with every organ failing. It's a real life dream sequence where you're being chased, but your legs won't move. You are convinced that the people behind you are strong and fast, their legs light and limber. They will pass you, feeling both triumph and pity simultaneously as they leave your mangled and twitching frame behind for the vultures.
It's not the way it usually works, unless your competing with Nick Symmonds. They're all feeling the same thing. I held on to my place, doing my best to hold form down the backstretch to the finish. I was a few seconds behind the leaders, and very jealous that they got to stop this insanity before I did. I crossed the line, got to the side, and did my best to take in the oxygen my body wanted so badly. A quick glance back at the finish as I crossed the line told me the remainder of my competition was about 10-15m away.
It was awesome.
For fun I joined the 400m race as well, which was about 20-30 minutes after the 800. I was barely recovered for it, but it only lasts a minute, so how bad could it be. I was passed very quickly by a bunch of guys after the first turn. A sprinter I am not. I had been talking during the meet with this guy named Willie Johnson, who was apparently a 45.x and 20.x guy in the 400m and 200m back in college...very very very fast. He's 48 now, and is in incredible shape. Still has the legs of a 400 guy, and the chest of a 20 year old. I hope I look anything within a hundred yards of that at that age. At the second curve, I could feel him behind me, and I caught his white singlet out of the corner of my eye with 100m to go. I held on, and apparently he burned out at that point. I crossed the line in 57.x, quite pleased. To be under 60 seconds is a good sign at this point. So I'll keep on working on my turnover, and putting in miles, and next month I'll start doing some tempo runs.
And hopefully I'll post a little more often after next week, when we'll be getting settled in our new house.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Big Ben, Parliament!
June 3rd was the 29th time that my body, confined to this planet, circled around the sun. If you got the title of this post, then you are a big dork. I've been working on this blog post off and on since then...
The birthday was good. Very good. It started out with a new Dama Bialetti espresso maker from my darling wife, which was immediately put to use in preparing mochas for me and the wife. Yummy. Also a couple of needed odds and ends. I also got to sleep in somewhat...I am normally in charge of the boy for the first hour or so of the day.
I went to work for a while, came back for a quick and uneventful checkup for the boy, went for a run, and then got all jazzed up for a night on the town. I need to put this night into writing somewhere, so it might as well be here. The dinner was something to remember. A very very good friend of ours decided we simply must experience this restaurant called Moto, and so my present was a dinner with the wife (she also baby-sat for us) at a this incredibly hip downtown establishment. The whole thing was a surprise for me...I had no idea where we were going, although I did know that it was all on our friend's tab.
When we arrived, the decor was simple, but elegant. Off-whites, modern but comfortable furniture, and soft lighting was the setting. The menus arrived, and it was clear this was going to be a whole lot of fun. The menu itself was printed on an apple wafer, served next to a piece of asparagus and asparagus puree, accompanied by lemon-truffle creme-fraiche, and a slice of black truffle. There are three choices...the 5 course, the 10 course, and what they call the GTM...we were also ordered by this friend to get the 10 course meal, with the accompanying wine progression. Eating the menu is the cue to the staff that you're ready to order, so we dug in. Immediately the waiter came, took our order (the wife got a single cocktail as she would be driving), and we were off and running.
Greek Salad:
The first course was the "Greek Salad" which was hard to see in the dish we got, but who the hell cares when you're served incredibly tender marinated north african octopus tentacles, accompanied by a puff type cracker made from puree of kalamata olives. It was served with pureed creamed parsley. The accompanying wine was a 2005 Torlesse Sauvignon Blanc from Waipara, New Zealand. It was clean and sweet, without much of palate cleansing acidity I've come to expect out of S.B.'s. Perfect with the dish.
Greek Salad, Again:
The second course was basically a shot of dressing. It was a palate cleansing bouquet of lemon, light oils, and some other crisp flavors that I couldn't quickly identify. It went by too fast to really describe it much better.
Nitro Pineapple:
This was a very good dish. It was two pieces of pineapple, with an allspice type of rub, freezer burned onto a "grill" that had been brought down to -320 degrees F with liquid nitrogen. This paired excellently with a glass of August Kessler Rheingau Riesling 2004, which was actually a bonus glass, according to the staff. Next to the cold grill was a plate containing a lightly fried piece of black sablefish (an atlantic catch) served in two sauces/purees that I couldn't identify by taste, but which were delicious. The slight crisp to the fish was amazing, and a good pairing with the buttery soft texture of the flesh. This was perfect with the pairing of the Sayuri Nigori sake (an unfiltered sake with a very floral bouquet). The sake was creamy in texture and taste from not being filtered, and was a good companion to the texture of the black sablefish.
Eggplant Parmigiano:
A "tomato" was fashioned from a sundried tomato gelatin outer, and inside was an eggplant puree with 15 year aged parmesean mixed in. The "leaves" of the tomato were made of basil, and it was suggested that we have a small piece of basil with every bite of the faux tomato. It was a good suggestion. On the far left corner of the plate was a dab of 100 year aged balsamic vinegar. Apparently there were only 3 bottles of it from some guy or distributor named Drake, and they got one of them. The staff suggested just tasting the balsamic on our finger a bit. It was intense. A well aged port kind of flavor dominated for me, and the staff told me there were hints of mediera [sic?] in it as well. At the end of the dinner they gave me a glass of the Mediera to taste, but I confess I couldn't make the tie-in with flavors such a long time after having the balsamic. There was a scattering of young arugula leaves on the plate, which had a nice bite to them, and it was all on top of a parmigiano type spice rub that wasn't rubbed. A pretzel stick cemented vertically to the plate with 15 year aged parmesean was delightful. This was the worst wine pairing in my mind, which is not to say it was bad at all. It was a 2006 Cote-De-Brouilly Beaujolais. It was very very good with the balsamic vinegar, but not as good with the other items in the dish.
BBQ pork and beans:
This dish was quite good, and marks the beginning of the main course type dishes. One of those morsels of meat that is incomprehensibly satisfying given its size. The kale was actually delicious! I say "actually," because I've never had good kale before. It was steeped in flavor, but I have no idea how it was cooked. It sort of informs me about kale though...the next time I cook it, I should maybe treat it like something that's supposed to absorb flavors, as it doesn't stand well on its own. The beans were tasty, but weren't as remarkable as the pork. They were good mixed with the meat. The wine was a pinot noir.
Pasta and Quail:
A high end play on the comfort food end. Moto's version of Mac and Cheese may well have been my favorite dish of the evening. On a small amount of denatured macaroni with 5 year aged greuere cheese, a delicious piece of crispy quail was served. I would describe quail as a light version of duck. The meat was incredibly tender, but not as fatty and thick as duck tends to be. Not a bad thing, that, but I just thought it the best way to describe it. A white truffle powder was sprinkled over the entire thing, and the dish was dominated by the flavor of the quail and of the truffle. The mac and cheese part were more of the canvas for the dish. I think this wine was my favorite as well. It was a granache wine (Betts and Scholl, Barossa Valley).
At this point, I was truly close to the peak of a gastronomic high. When I've been eating really good food, and getting a delightful buzz on from good wine, a smile starts to creep onto my face that I'm not really able to remove except by a strong exertion of will. I wasn't about to go and do that, so I was starting to grin like a damn goon at this time.
Braised Duck:
Roadkill platter! I find it great that such a good restaurant doesn't take itself seriously. I think that is part of making really good food. It's supposed to be fun. This was pulled duck meat "splattered" on the plate with beet puree making for a puddle of blood. The road lines were made with a yellow bean puree. Gin foam scattered on the "carcass" was the unfortunate creature's brains. Hawai'ian volcanic rock salt (by itself intensely delicious!) was the asphalt. I was almost starting to giggle now, I was so intoxicated with the meal. The dish was served with Muga Reserva, Rioja 2004. I remember it going quite well with the dish, but not much more detail than that.
Grapefruit:
A respite from the intensity of the main course. This was something like a jello shot, actually. Gin and tonic was encased in a grapefruit semi-solid gelatin, which was placed on a spoon. Underneath the spoon was a pile of grapefruit vesicles (seperated by hand!) next to a grapefruit foam served with a bit of sweet coconut candy.
Popcorn ball:
I kind of lost it on this one. This dish went by fast, but it was hilarious. There's these two balls of candy in front of you. A soft candy outer shell was encasing a very sweet sugary liquid that somehow managed to have a popcorn flavor (in a good way). The thing that made me start laughing a little insanely was that they managed to have the thing full of poprocks, so soon after eating one of these, my mouth was full of poppy crunching noises.
S'mores:
Dessert was great. A flourless chocolate cake was formed into a hollow ball which contained this graham cracker flavored syrup. The dessert was actually set into tiers, with the cake and syrup on the top level just next to a ledge. Underneath the ledge was a "pool area." The diner's job is to cut into the cake, letting the syrup drain into the waiting pool below, which was formed by a loose arrangement of marshmallow and graham cracker. The drinks served with dessert were a very young tasting port (Sutton Cellars, La Solera 2nd bottling) and a glass of mediera which I was supposed to compare with the 100 year aged balsamic that they served earlier in the dinner. I didn't honestly make the connection between the mediera and the vinegar, mostly because they were a bit too seperated. Too many flavors inbetween. The mediera was awesome though, and I was insanely intoxicated, both by the wine and the food.
A fantastic birthday present!
The birthday was good. Very good. It started out with a new Dama Bialetti espresso maker from my darling wife, which was immediately put to use in preparing mochas for me and the wife. Yummy. Also a couple of needed odds and ends. I also got to sleep in somewhat...I am normally in charge of the boy for the first hour or so of the day.
I went to work for a while, came back for a quick and uneventful checkup for the boy, went for a run, and then got all jazzed up for a night on the town. I need to put this night into writing somewhere, so it might as well be here. The dinner was something to remember. A very very good friend of ours decided we simply must experience this restaurant called Moto, and so my present was a dinner with the wife (she also baby-sat for us) at a this incredibly hip downtown establishment. The whole thing was a surprise for me...I had no idea where we were going, although I did know that it was all on our friend's tab.
When we arrived, the decor was simple, but elegant. Off-whites, modern but comfortable furniture, and soft lighting was the setting. The menus arrived, and it was clear this was going to be a whole lot of fun. The menu itself was printed on an apple wafer, served next to a piece of asparagus and asparagus puree, accompanied by lemon-truffle creme-fraiche, and a slice of black truffle. There are three choices...the 5 course, the 10 course, and what they call the GTM...we were also ordered by this friend to get the 10 course meal, with the accompanying wine progression. Eating the menu is the cue to the staff that you're ready to order, so we dug in. Immediately the waiter came, took our order (the wife got a single cocktail as she would be driving), and we were off and running.
Greek Salad:
The first course was the "Greek Salad" which was hard to see in the dish we got, but who the hell cares when you're served incredibly tender marinated north african octopus tentacles, accompanied by a puff type cracker made from puree of kalamata olives. It was served with pureed creamed parsley. The accompanying wine was a 2005 Torlesse Sauvignon Blanc from Waipara, New Zealand. It was clean and sweet, without much of palate cleansing acidity I've come to expect out of S.B.'s. Perfect with the dish.
Greek Salad, Again:
The second course was basically a shot of dressing. It was a palate cleansing bouquet of lemon, light oils, and some other crisp flavors that I couldn't quickly identify. It went by too fast to really describe it much better.
Nitro Pineapple:
This was a very good dish. It was two pieces of pineapple, with an allspice type of rub, freezer burned onto a "grill" that had been brought down to -320 degrees F with liquid nitrogen. This paired excellently with a glass of August Kessler Rheingau Riesling 2004, which was actually a bonus glass, according to the staff. Next to the cold grill was a plate containing a lightly fried piece of black sablefish (an atlantic catch) served in two sauces/purees that I couldn't identify by taste, but which were delicious. The slight crisp to the fish was amazing, and a good pairing with the buttery soft texture of the flesh. This was perfect with the pairing of the Sayuri Nigori sake (an unfiltered sake with a very floral bouquet). The sake was creamy in texture and taste from not being filtered, and was a good companion to the texture of the black sablefish.
Eggplant Parmigiano:
A "tomato" was fashioned from a sundried tomato gelatin outer, and inside was an eggplant puree with 15 year aged parmesean mixed in. The "leaves" of the tomato were made of basil, and it was suggested that we have a small piece of basil with every bite of the faux tomato. It was a good suggestion. On the far left corner of the plate was a dab of 100 year aged balsamic vinegar. Apparently there were only 3 bottles of it from some guy or distributor named Drake, and they got one of them. The staff suggested just tasting the balsamic on our finger a bit. It was intense. A well aged port kind of flavor dominated for me, and the staff told me there were hints of mediera [sic?] in it as well. At the end of the dinner they gave me a glass of the Mediera to taste, but I confess I couldn't make the tie-in with flavors such a long time after having the balsamic. There was a scattering of young arugula leaves on the plate, which had a nice bite to them, and it was all on top of a parmigiano type spice rub that wasn't rubbed. A pretzel stick cemented vertically to the plate with 15 year aged parmesean was delightful. This was the worst wine pairing in my mind, which is not to say it was bad at all. It was a 2006 Cote-De-Brouilly Beaujolais. It was very very good with the balsamic vinegar, but not as good with the other items in the dish.
BBQ pork and beans:
This dish was quite good, and marks the beginning of the main course type dishes. One of those morsels of meat that is incomprehensibly satisfying given its size. The kale was actually delicious! I say "actually," because I've never had good kale before. It was steeped in flavor, but I have no idea how it was cooked. It sort of informs me about kale though...the next time I cook it, I should maybe treat it like something that's supposed to absorb flavors, as it doesn't stand well on its own. The beans were tasty, but weren't as remarkable as the pork. They were good mixed with the meat. The wine was a pinot noir.
Pasta and Quail:
A high end play on the comfort food end. Moto's version of Mac and Cheese may well have been my favorite dish of the evening. On a small amount of denatured macaroni with 5 year aged greuere cheese, a delicious piece of crispy quail was served. I would describe quail as a light version of duck. The meat was incredibly tender, but not as fatty and thick as duck tends to be. Not a bad thing, that, but I just thought it the best way to describe it. A white truffle powder was sprinkled over the entire thing, and the dish was dominated by the flavor of the quail and of the truffle. The mac and cheese part were more of the canvas for the dish. I think this wine was my favorite as well. It was a granache wine (Betts and Scholl, Barossa Valley).
At this point, I was truly close to the peak of a gastronomic high. When I've been eating really good food, and getting a delightful buzz on from good wine, a smile starts to creep onto my face that I'm not really able to remove except by a strong exertion of will. I wasn't about to go and do that, so I was starting to grin like a damn goon at this time.
Braised Duck:
Roadkill platter! I find it great that such a good restaurant doesn't take itself seriously. I think that is part of making really good food. It's supposed to be fun. This was pulled duck meat "splattered" on the plate with beet puree making for a puddle of blood. The road lines were made with a yellow bean puree. Gin foam scattered on the "carcass" was the unfortunate creature's brains. Hawai'ian volcanic rock salt (by itself intensely delicious!) was the asphalt. I was almost starting to giggle now, I was so intoxicated with the meal. The dish was served with Muga Reserva, Rioja 2004. I remember it going quite well with the dish, but not much more detail than that.
Grapefruit:
A respite from the intensity of the main course. This was something like a jello shot, actually. Gin and tonic was encased in a grapefruit semi-solid gelatin, which was placed on a spoon. Underneath the spoon was a pile of grapefruit vesicles (seperated by hand!) next to a grapefruit foam served with a bit of sweet coconut candy.
Popcorn ball:
I kind of lost it on this one. This dish went by fast, but it was hilarious. There's these two balls of candy in front of you. A soft candy outer shell was encasing a very sweet sugary liquid that somehow managed to have a popcorn flavor (in a good way). The thing that made me start laughing a little insanely was that they managed to have the thing full of poprocks, so soon after eating one of these, my mouth was full of poppy crunching noises.
S'mores:
Dessert was great. A flourless chocolate cake was formed into a hollow ball which contained this graham cracker flavored syrup. The dessert was actually set into tiers, with the cake and syrup on the top level just next to a ledge. Underneath the ledge was a "pool area." The diner's job is to cut into the cake, letting the syrup drain into the waiting pool below, which was formed by a loose arrangement of marshmallow and graham cracker. The drinks served with dessert were a very young tasting port (Sutton Cellars, La Solera 2nd bottling) and a glass of mediera which I was supposed to compare with the 100 year aged balsamic that they served earlier in the dinner. I didn't honestly make the connection between the mediera and the vinegar, mostly because they were a bit too seperated. Too many flavors inbetween. The mediera was awesome though, and I was insanely intoxicated, both by the wine and the food.
A fantastic birthday present!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
42.4 Miles
This week. Lots of stuff going on, running still isn't at the forefront, but 40+ miles ain't bad, I suppose. The clock's now ticking towards closing on our house, which is a really sweet place. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing (else) goes wrong, and that the place will be our's (or our bank's) in a matter of weeks. We'll have our own private pond, 7+ acres (with a trail going around which I'll mark out 400m), and oodles of other great stuff.
In the meantime, I have a serious running goal looming in the future: The Triennial, a trail relay along the Fingerlakes Trail which is very close to where we'll be living. It's tough to train specifically for this at the moment, since there are no serious trails to speak of in Chicago, but some decent aerobic building should be good, and I'm going to try to be hitting the weight room from time to time. Technical trail running really is a significantly different sport in comparison with road racing. There are muscle groups that you never knew existed until after a good trail race. The stabilizers are heavily recruited. When we arrive in NY, I'll have some time to hit the trails and get some good tempo style backwoods running in.
I'm starting to look forward to my new job, too. Teaching is something I really need to get back to. It gives structure to the life of research, which is inherently unstructured, and stop and start so far as progress is concerned. It will be busy though, and it's going to take some time to find out how to "git 'er dun."
Anyhow, now that home buying stress should be leveling off, I want to try and get back to the grindstone so far as training is concerned. 60+ weeks would be nice. We'll see what I can manage.
In the meantime, I have a serious running goal looming in the future: The Triennial, a trail relay along the Fingerlakes Trail which is very close to where we'll be living. It's tough to train specifically for this at the moment, since there are no serious trails to speak of in Chicago, but some decent aerobic building should be good, and I'm going to try to be hitting the weight room from time to time. Technical trail running really is a significantly different sport in comparison with road racing. There are muscle groups that you never knew existed until after a good trail race. The stabilizers are heavily recruited. When we arrive in NY, I'll have some time to hit the trails and get some good tempo style backwoods running in.
I'm starting to look forward to my new job, too. Teaching is something I really need to get back to. It gives structure to the life of research, which is inherently unstructured, and stop and start so far as progress is concerned. It will be busy though, and it's going to take some time to find out how to "git 'er dun."
Anyhow, now that home buying stress should be leveling off, I want to try and get back to the grindstone so far as training is concerned. 60+ weeks would be nice. We'll see what I can manage.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
World Record!
So have I mentioned that I'll be working in the same department as a former world record holder?
I will be!
Indoor mile, female 45-49 age group. Pretty cool.
So I wasn't tagged, but I found this interesting. I really liked Tusca's. Here's my unsolicited "six word novel":
Walking feels wrong, so I run.
I could explain it, but it's fairly transparent. The thing I liked about these is the fact that there are usually lots of ways to interpret just six words, and these interpretations will likely vary from person to person based on experience.
Hemmingway's is pretty damn dark...copied from Tuscaloosa:
For Sale: Baby shoes. Never worn
Running is happening. I often have been skipping the watch, and I haven't been logging, but I'm keeping it up about 4-5 days a week. 30-40 miles, probably.
I will be!
Indoor mile, female 45-49 age group. Pretty cool.
So I wasn't tagged, but I found this interesting. I really liked Tusca's. Here's my unsolicited "six word novel":
Walking feels wrong, so I run.
I could explain it, but it's fairly transparent. The thing I liked about these is the fact that there are usually lots of ways to interpret just six words, and these interpretations will likely vary from person to person based on experience.
Hemmingway's is pretty damn dark...copied from Tuscaloosa:
For Sale: Baby shoes. Never worn
Running is happening. I often have been skipping the watch, and I haven't been logging, but I'm keeping it up about 4-5 days a week. 30-40 miles, probably.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Offer -- Counter-offer
Round one of home offer is complete, buyers losing. With a pretty reasonable opening bid, only a bit below what we know they paid for the place, these bastards counter-offered with a sum only negligibly below their asking price, which is over 10% more than what they paid only a few months ago. Good luck to them trying to find a complete sucker.
Unfortunately, we really like the place. We might not bother moving to another home. So we put our cards on the table, told them what we're willing to pay, take or leave. Hopefully they'll come to their senses.
I should run today, since I haven't the last two days. A little air will do me some good. More sleep would do me better, though. Getting the boy to sleep has been difficult these days.
Unfortunately, we really like the place. We might not bother moving to another home. So we put our cards on the table, told them what we're willing to pay, take or leave. Hopefully they'll come to their senses.
I should run today, since I haven't the last two days. A little air will do me some good. More sleep would do me better, though. Getting the boy to sleep has been difficult these days.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Identify Yourself
"I'm a physicist, a runner, and (most recently) a dad."
This is what I wrote to shortly and sweetly identify myself. The middle one is not really a very big part of the picture at the moment. That's not to say I'm not identifying myself as a runner any longer, but in life's ebbs and flows, running is in a cryogenic freeze these days.
So what's been happening that I might let this blog fall off? The three weeks in Santa Barbara were extremely productive physics-wise. I've got a really cool new project that I'm working on now because of it. I also "learned" to surf (I at least managed to stand up and ride a wave as far as it would take me). Then I had family visiting as soon as I got back. The next weekend was this most recent one, where the whole fam went on a house hunting/interviewing/job settling trip. My wife interviewed for a job (and got it! She rocks!) We found a house we love, and are now trying to put together an offer that will chain us to a hefty mortgage. A couple of decisions remain, but the paths are narrowed down to all the most promising ones, and everything is looking sunny, to our great delight.
I ran with some old friends, and had dinner with some others. Very good fun. Realizing we're really sick of Chicago has been an important step.
So why the title? We've been struggling to identify ourselves these days. What kind of place do we want to call home? Are we the type of people who want to live in a little friendly neighborhood? I don't think we are, in the end. I'd rather live on 7 acres, build a trail-style track around my land, swim in my pond, and chop wood than get together with "the guys" for poker on thursday nights or whatever. I guess for some of the same reasons that I chose a rather solitary pursuit as a hobby, I'd rather keep the neighbors at a decent arms-length.
So to wrap things up:
Sorry for disappearing so suddenly.
I'm still running a bit (a nice 4x800m 2:42 - 2:37 -2:35 - 2:37 yesterday).
Shit's still crazy, but it's all good shit.
Hopefully I'll post again sooner rather than later.
This is what I wrote to shortly and sweetly identify myself. The middle one is not really a very big part of the picture at the moment. That's not to say I'm not identifying myself as a runner any longer, but in life's ebbs and flows, running is in a cryogenic freeze these days.
So what's been happening that I might let this blog fall off? The three weeks in Santa Barbara were extremely productive physics-wise. I've got a really cool new project that I'm working on now because of it. I also "learned" to surf (I at least managed to stand up and ride a wave as far as it would take me). Then I had family visiting as soon as I got back. The next weekend was this most recent one, where the whole fam went on a house hunting/interviewing/job settling trip. My wife interviewed for a job (and got it! She rocks!) We found a house we love, and are now trying to put together an offer that will chain us to a hefty mortgage. A couple of decisions remain, but the paths are narrowed down to all the most promising ones, and everything is looking sunny, to our great delight.
I ran with some old friends, and had dinner with some others. Very good fun. Realizing we're really sick of Chicago has been an important step.
So why the title? We've been struggling to identify ourselves these days. What kind of place do we want to call home? Are we the type of people who want to live in a little friendly neighborhood? I don't think we are, in the end. I'd rather live on 7 acres, build a trail-style track around my land, swim in my pond, and chop wood than get together with "the guys" for poker on thursday nights or whatever. I guess for some of the same reasons that I chose a rather solitary pursuit as a hobby, I'd rather keep the neighbors at a decent arms-length.
So to wrap things up:
Sorry for disappearing so suddenly.
I'm still running a bit (a nice 4x800m 2:42 - 2:37 -2:35 - 2:37 yesterday).
Shit's still crazy, but it's all good shit.
Hopefully I'll post again sooner rather than later.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Still Alive
Yo.
Things are nuts. I've got a job offer from those interviews last month, so I've been on a crash course about faculty negotiations, and I've been trying like all hell to finish a long overdue publication. The bigger negotiation, however, is the one involving the family. Do we move? Does my wife stop her current program? It's hard not to feel like a dick, dragging her around the country like has been happening over the past 8 years.
I've been running a bit. I miss a day here and there, but 50 miles a week isn't terrible.
This week I got back to something resembling what Will had me doing before I hurt my back, got sick, and traveled afar for the interviews. I think today was the first day I felt like I was really getting back into things. I ran too fast though.
It was supposed to be WU 1600 in 5:40 1600 jog 4x(1600 400rest) cutdowns from 6:10 to 5:55. The first two "hard" miles were spot on, but I was running into the wind, and on a slight incline. The remaining two hard miles (I'll get to the lost #5 in a moment) were then 5:40 and 5:35. I didn't feel like I was pushing it though...3-2 breathing and pretty smooth. Then I unfortunately had an "emergency" and had to find a private spot in a very public area. Bloody hell. I couldn't bring myself to resume the workout, and, full of shame, I jogged back home.
Thursday was also right on, the 200-400-600-400-200 workout all at 4:48 pace. My pacing was just about exactly on for those, and it didn't feel tough at any point.
Tuesday's workout didn't happen...in an emotional rut due to all the stress lately...I ran it on wed instead. It was okay....8 miles at 85%. Very windy conditions, 6:30-6:40 into it, 6:00-6:10 with it behind me. Not that great.
Looks like the Shamrock shuffle won't happen for me, which is a bummer, since it's been my big spring race for the last two years. Oh well.
I head to Santa Barbara, CA in a week. Fun in the sun, here I come! I'm gonna miss my wife and kid like hell.
Things are nuts. I've got a job offer from those interviews last month, so I've been on a crash course about faculty negotiations, and I've been trying like all hell to finish a long overdue publication. The bigger negotiation, however, is the one involving the family. Do we move? Does my wife stop her current program? It's hard not to feel like a dick, dragging her around the country like has been happening over the past 8 years.
I've been running a bit. I miss a day here and there, but 50 miles a week isn't terrible.
This week I got back to something resembling what Will had me doing before I hurt my back, got sick, and traveled afar for the interviews. I think today was the first day I felt like I was really getting back into things. I ran too fast though.
It was supposed to be WU 1600 in 5:40 1600 jog 4x(1600 400rest) cutdowns from 6:10 to 5:55. The first two "hard" miles were spot on, but I was running into the wind, and on a slight incline. The remaining two hard miles (I'll get to the lost #5 in a moment) were then 5:40 and 5:35. I didn't feel like I was pushing it though...3-2 breathing and pretty smooth. Then I unfortunately had an "emergency" and had to find a private spot in a very public area. Bloody hell. I couldn't bring myself to resume the workout, and, full of shame, I jogged back home.
Thursday was also right on, the 200-400-600-400-200 workout all at 4:48 pace. My pacing was just about exactly on for those, and it didn't feel tough at any point.
Tuesday's workout didn't happen...in an emotional rut due to all the stress lately...I ran it on wed instead. It was okay....8 miles at 85%. Very windy conditions, 6:30-6:40 into it, 6:00-6:10 with it behind me. Not that great.
Looks like the Shamrock shuffle won't happen for me, which is a bummer, since it's been my big spring race for the last two years. Oh well.
I head to Santa Barbara, CA in a week. Fun in the sun, here I come! I'm gonna miss my wife and kid like hell.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Crawling Back
Hola Amigos. It's been a while since I rapped at 'ya.
And if you don't know Jim Anchower, that made no sense to you at all. It's been a couple weeks of insanity, and very little running. I was sick as anything for my first interview, and still recovering through the second, but I managed to get in about 24 miles this week. The first two runs were rough, since my lungs still hadn't completely healed, but this weekend I got through a couple 8 mile runs lung-pain-free. My weight is still really low. Part of this is surely lower plasma volume due to de-training, but a large part of it is probably also bad diet during my travels, and poor appetite due to illness. I'll probably rebound soon.
7.5 minute miles feels kind of tough after 5 of them (at least tougher than it should), but I'm sure I'll be fine again after a week or so of training. My hope is to get back on the 3 week cycles after this coming week. My plan is to just do 50 or so miles of easy running, and then hop on to a maybe slightly modified program.
The storm is mostly over at this point, so hopefully there won't be any major setbacks for a while. It's tough to keep up the running when there are so many other things going on.
Week:
Wed 4 easy - pretty lousy, but felt a little better mentally afterwards
Thu 4 easy - still not great, but better then Wed
Sat 8 easy - felt okay, but was tired after 5 miles
Sun 8 easy - felt okay, but same as Sat...
And if you don't know Jim Anchower, that made no sense to you at all. It's been a couple weeks of insanity, and very little running. I was sick as anything for my first interview, and still recovering through the second, but I managed to get in about 24 miles this week. The first two runs were rough, since my lungs still hadn't completely healed, but this weekend I got through a couple 8 mile runs lung-pain-free. My weight is still really low. Part of this is surely lower plasma volume due to de-training, but a large part of it is probably also bad diet during my travels, and poor appetite due to illness. I'll probably rebound soon.
7.5 minute miles feels kind of tough after 5 of them (at least tougher than it should), but I'm sure I'll be fine again after a week or so of training. My hope is to get back on the 3 week cycles after this coming week. My plan is to just do 50 or so miles of easy running, and then hop on to a maybe slightly modified program.
The storm is mostly over at this point, so hopefully there won't be any major setbacks for a while. It's tough to keep up the running when there are so many other things going on.
Week:
Wed 4 easy - pretty lousy, but felt a little better mentally afterwards
Thu 4 easy - still not great, but better then Wed
Sat 8 easy - felt okay, but was tired after 5 miles
Sun 8 easy - felt okay, but same as Sat...
Saturday, February 23, 2008
A Few Moments of Calm
Running has not existed since last Sunday for me, and that run was probably not a good idea. I've been extremely sick for the past week, and the two of those days were spent in the psychologically grueling experience of an interview for a university faculty position. I woke up Thursday morning feeling the worst I have in a long long time. I have a feeling, though, that this was more from overdosing myself on various cold medicines to get myself through the interview process than anything else. I also stepped on the scale this afternoon, which read an eye-popping 142.6 pounds. This is at least 5 pounds below my normal low end fluctuation in weight.
Hopefully I'll be back to running soon. The sickness is clearing out now, although my tubes are still pretty scratchy. If any of you have Riccola stock, you might want to sell now though, and buy back once it stabilizes again after my candy sucking spree.
I actually slept (off and on) until 1-2 pm today. That was pretty awesome. The whole family was all napping for the whole morning. We're gonna have to make that a Saturday tradition until R grows out of it.
So running....last run was Sunday, weather was really nice (which is why I went out against better judgement). It was about 4 miles, and I didn't even bring the watch.
It's gonna be a little while before I'm back up to speed, especially since I've got another interview this next week, but hopefully I'll at least be healthy by the end of that.
Hopefully I'll be back to running soon. The sickness is clearing out now, although my tubes are still pretty scratchy. If any of you have Riccola stock, you might want to sell now though, and buy back once it stabilizes again after my candy sucking spree.
I actually slept (off and on) until 1-2 pm today. That was pretty awesome. The whole family was all napping for the whole morning. We're gonna have to make that a Saturday tradition until R grows out of it.
So running....last run was Sunday, weather was really nice (which is why I went out against better judgement). It was about 4 miles, and I didn't even bring the watch.
It's gonna be a little while before I'm back up to speed, especially since I've got another interview this next week, but hopefully I'll at least be healthy by the end of that.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Thank you kindly for the bum-rub
So yesterday I cashed in on an old gift card for Spa Nordstrom that my wife gave me for our anniversary some 6 months ago. An hour of full-body deep-tissue massage seemed appropriate given my recent meltdown. It was an interesting experience at the spa...a little too frilly beforehand. I didn't feel 100% right being the only male in the pre-massage room sitting on a bunch of oversoft chairs with my feet soaking in some herbal tea or some crap like that, but in truth it was very relaxing, and I didn't care. The massage itself was just awesome. The masseuse spent a little extra time on my calves (which have been giving me trouble in recent months), and on my stabilizers (read "my ass"). My IT band also had an up-close-and-personal with the woman's knuckles. No surprise to me, my upper back was also pretty tight from doing mind-numbing calculations and editing my presentation 12 hours a day. I was a little sore in a couple spots afterwards, but nothing too bad. I could definitely feel the scar tissue in my left calf for about 40 minutes after, so that still needs some work.
I ventured out for a run this morning, and it went pretty well. I didn't keep it super easy, but I didn't run hard either. 6 miles at 6:50-7:00 pace. I really needed a generic run to get my mood up again, and this did the trick. I probably should have been running 8 minute pace, but my brain needed a recharge. My back didn't feel bad at all, so hopefully I'm just about over this little setback.
So thank you, stranger who rubbed my bum, and thank you, wife, for the great present that I put off using for far too long.
I ventured out for a run this morning, and it went pretty well. I didn't keep it super easy, but I didn't run hard either. 6 miles at 6:50-7:00 pace. I really needed a generic run to get my mood up again, and this did the trick. I probably should have been running 8 minute pace, but my brain needed a recharge. My back didn't feel bad at all, so hopefully I'm just about over this little setback.
So thank you, stranger who rubbed my bum, and thank you, wife, for the great present that I put off using for far too long.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
A Perfect S*** Storm
So I'm out of the running picture this weekend, and next week will probably be fairly laid back. After a speed workout last Thursday, I pinched a nerve, or something, in my upper back. An attempt at jogging on Friday resulted in pretty severe spasming and pain. Ibuprofen has done a good job of helping with the pain, and presumably the swelling and inflammation. Hopefully I'll be good enough to jog tomorrow.
This is in the middle of the wife and son both being sick. His fever was terrible for us to go through, especially since he had an infection when he was 10 days old, and the hospital experience was *NOT* a fun one. He's also old enough now to get very scared in hospitals. Thankfully the fever faded pretty quickly, but now it's replaced by the less stressful, but still very non-fun stuffed up baby. The biggest issue is that the little guy needs his nose to breathe while he eats. Most of you guys have kids, so I'm sure you're familiar with all this. So we've had the humidifier going full blast all week.
It's also in the middle of me trying to finish a project and get this job interview together. Tough stuff this week.
So this week has really sucked runningwise. I've only run on Tuesday and Thursday, and the little 3 miler jog on Friday.
Oh well. Time to get back to work.
This is in the middle of the wife and son both being sick. His fever was terrible for us to go through, especially since he had an infection when he was 10 days old, and the hospital experience was *NOT* a fun one. He's also old enough now to get very scared in hospitals. Thankfully the fever faded pretty quickly, but now it's replaced by the less stressful, but still very non-fun stuffed up baby. The biggest issue is that the little guy needs his nose to breathe while he eats. Most of you guys have kids, so I'm sure you're familiar with all this. So we've had the humidifier going full blast all week.
It's also in the middle of me trying to finish a project and get this job interview together. Tough stuff this week.
So this week has really sucked runningwise. I've only run on Tuesday and Thursday, and the little 3 miler jog on Friday.
Oh well. Time to get back to work.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Stop...Nanny Time
even more awesome than Hammer Time. We had a new nanny start this week to help out so my wife can actually work on her Ph.D. She seems absolutely great. Like night and day compared to our last nanny. Now we have to make sure we can keep her. Boy's sleeping habits have been adjusted slightly, just in time for the nanny to be able to put him to sleep for naps. Phew.
Yesterday we woke up to another 5 inches or so of snow on the ground. Ugh. It's a big sloppy mess in my neighborhood right now, and nobody seems to be interested in plowing our street (it's been two days, and still nothing). I've been doing too much running on the indoor oval and treadmill, so my Saturday aerobic intervals were done on the lakefront path, despite there being a cm layer of snow everywhere, making it pretty slippery. I was extremely surprised to find myself hitting the prescribed paces, and even a little faster.
2m WU
1600m (5:28) 1600m rest
3x(2000m on 600 rest) with the 1st mile of each 2000 at 6:11, 6:08, and 5:54
20 min CD
HR averages were 167 - 164 - 170 - 172 for the timed miles.
The other workouts this week were pretty decent.
Thursday saw a 4x(300m fast, 300m rest) 49s-49s-50s-51s
Tuesday saw a 10 miler at 80% (6:32 pace)
The other days were recovery / strides.
Tomorrow will add a 15 mile long run to the week, putting the total precisely where it has been for the last 4 weeks...60.X miles. I've been a little disconnected from the other posts this week. Getting to be crunch time for these talks I have to prepare.
Yesterday we woke up to another 5 inches or so of snow on the ground. Ugh. It's a big sloppy mess in my neighborhood right now, and nobody seems to be interested in plowing our street (it's been two days, and still nothing). I've been doing too much running on the indoor oval and treadmill, so my Saturday aerobic intervals were done on the lakefront path, despite there being a cm layer of snow everywhere, making it pretty slippery. I was extremely surprised to find myself hitting the prescribed paces, and even a little faster.
2m WU
1600m (5:28) 1600m rest
3x(2000m on 600 rest) with the 1st mile of each 2000 at 6:11, 6:08, and 5:54
20 min CD
HR averages were 167 - 164 - 170 - 172 for the timed miles.
The other workouts this week were pretty decent.
Thursday saw a 4x(300m fast, 300m rest) 49s-49s-50s-51s
Tuesday saw a 10 miler at 80% (6:32 pace)
The other days were recovery / strides.
Tomorrow will add a 15 mile long run to the week, putting the total precisely where it has been for the last 4 weeks...60.X miles. I've been a little disconnected from the other posts this week. Getting to be crunch time for these talks I have to prepare.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
I got yo' Hadd test right heeeah!
Bizzizzatch!
I was pretty psyched on my long run today to find that my pace at 65-75% has dropped dramatically. 131bpm put me at 8:10-8:20 pace, 140 put me at low 7:40's, and 151 put me under 7. This is compared to 9min pace, 8:10 pace, and 7:30 pace, respectively, 2 weeks ago. For reference, my max HR is probably about 203 (taking a measurement from 3 years ago and subtracting 3). It just happened...just like that...all of a sudden. It's interesting to note that I'm now the "magic" 6 weeks into training again. Daniels and others have said that 6 weeks is the time it takes the body to adapt to a given training load. 3 weeks of that have been under Will's instruction, and the 3 weeks before that were 60-70 miles a week of aerobic running. We'll see what happens after another 3 weeks. My resting HR has plunged as well. I'm back under 40bpm again, for the first time since last winter.
Thus ends the first 3 week training cycle.
I'm fairly used the pattern now:
Mon easy running with strides at 5k-10k race pace
Tue hard aerobic run (8-10 miles 85% or 80% respectively)
Wed recovery
Thu mini-workout - mile race pace intervals 200m-600m in length + easy running
Fri recovery
Sat focus workout - tempo/speed/10k drill
Sun long run - 15 miles starting at 65, slowly building to 75%, 12 if 10k drill on sat
The 10k drills are the major workouts. I had my first one yesterday, and it went fairly well. Yesterday was 400m at goal 10k pace, 400 float (6-7min pace). Every 3 week microcycle, the length of the on parts increases, so in 3 weeks I have 800 on 400 float. Eventually, this gets all the way to 1600 on, 400 float! This will be sometime after the Shamrock Shuffle in late March.
Food is the topic of the week it seems. Part of being an athlete seems to be an obsession with food. What do I eat to be healthier? What about to be faster? I've come to the conclusion that nutritional science is too young and complex of a field to take much of the recommendations seriously. I do my best to stay as far away from foods born from recommendations made by the diet industry
I'm kind of tired of hearing people say "Calories in = calories out! It's so simple!" While the first part is true, in principle, the "simple" part is complete bull. Metabolism and appetite are extremely complicated things. People understand some parts of it, but the complex interaction of different food products with the human body seems very poorly understood. For now, I'll stick to "real" foods, stuff that great-grandma would recognize as food, and try to get a good share of veggies. I think that's good enough.
Have a great week everyone!
I was pretty psyched on my long run today to find that my pace at 65-75% has dropped dramatically. 131bpm put me at 8:10-8:20 pace, 140 put me at low 7:40's, and 151 put me under 7. This is compared to 9min pace, 8:10 pace, and 7:30 pace, respectively, 2 weeks ago. For reference, my max HR is probably about 203 (taking a measurement from 3 years ago and subtracting 3). It just happened...just like that...all of a sudden. It's interesting to note that I'm now the "magic" 6 weeks into training again. Daniels and others have said that 6 weeks is the time it takes the body to adapt to a given training load. 3 weeks of that have been under Will's instruction, and the 3 weeks before that were 60-70 miles a week of aerobic running. We'll see what happens after another 3 weeks. My resting HR has plunged as well. I'm back under 40bpm again, for the first time since last winter.
Thus ends the first 3 week training cycle.
I'm fairly used the pattern now:
Mon easy running with strides at 5k-10k race pace
Tue hard aerobic run (8-10 miles 85% or 80% respectively)
Wed recovery
Thu mini-workout - mile race pace intervals 200m-600m in length + easy running
Fri recovery
Sat focus workout - tempo/speed/10k drill
Sun long run - 15 miles starting at 65, slowly building to 75%, 12 if 10k drill on sat
The 10k drills are the major workouts. I had my first one yesterday, and it went fairly well. Yesterday was 400m at goal 10k pace, 400 float (6-7min pace). Every 3 week microcycle, the length of the on parts increases, so in 3 weeks I have 800 on 400 float. Eventually, this gets all the way to 1600 on, 400 float! This will be sometime after the Shamrock Shuffle in late March.
Food is the topic of the week it seems. Part of being an athlete seems to be an obsession with food. What do I eat to be healthier? What about to be faster? I've come to the conclusion that nutritional science is too young and complex of a field to take much of the recommendations seriously. I do my best to stay as far away from foods born from recommendations made by the diet industry
I'm kind of tired of hearing people say "Calories in = calories out! It's so simple!" While the first part is true, in principle, the "simple" part is complete bull. Metabolism and appetite are extremely complicated things. People understand some parts of it, but the complex interaction of different food products with the human body seems very poorly understood. For now, I'll stick to "real" foods, stuff that great-grandma would recognize as food, and try to get a good share of veggies. I think that's good enough.
Have a great week everyone!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
The White Stuff
Just keeps coming. The temps were real low the second half of this week, and there was a good hard snow on Monday night. I ended up running on Tuesday for 10 miles at a pretty hard effort, running over a minute slower a mile than I would have on flat, non-snow-covered ground. Thursday's mini workout was 6x200m with 200m float inbetween. That was run at a temp of about 3 deg F. Yuck. Wed and Fri were recovery, and today was the Saturday bear workout.
I wanted to head to the indoor track again, but varsity softball girls were practicing...so back to the damn TM for a hard workout. 6 miles of 400 on (1:20) 400 float (1:40 avg). This was tougher than last week's workout, but not gut-busting until I took the float parts faster (1:37) in the last couple miles of intervals. Having a friend running next to me helped, but conversation was somewhat limited as I got to the later stages of the run.
I've managed to complete destroy my Leopard installation on my new mac (I'm used to linux as a primary OS, and there it's pretty damn hard to do something that will not allow your computer to boot). By attempting to downgrade Quicktime to an older version that could handle flash, the system was completely hosed, so far as I can tell. This is the best way to learn how to do things with a computer though...kill it and fix it...kill it again, fix it again. Very time consuming though.
How do you folks put your kids to sleep? Our boy is 5 months now, and we're trying to wean him from needing to fall asleep while feeding. There doesn't seem to be any other way that he'll go to sleep except crying himself out of consciousness, and this is exceedingly painful for all involved. Any ideas?
I wanted to head to the indoor track again, but varsity softball girls were practicing...so back to the damn TM for a hard workout. 6 miles of 400 on (1:20) 400 float (1:40 avg). This was tougher than last week's workout, but not gut-busting until I took the float parts faster (1:37) in the last couple miles of intervals. Having a friend running next to me helped, but conversation was somewhat limited as I got to the later stages of the run.
I've managed to complete destroy my Leopard installation on my new mac (I'm used to linux as a primary OS, and there it's pretty damn hard to do something that will not allow your computer to boot). By attempting to downgrade Quicktime to an older version that could handle flash, the system was completely hosed, so far as I can tell. This is the best way to learn how to do things with a computer though...kill it and fix it...kill it again, fix it again. Very time consuming though.
How do you folks put your kids to sleep? Our boy is 5 months now, and we're trying to wean him from needing to fall asleep while feeding. There doesn't seem to be any other way that he'll go to sleep except crying himself out of consciousness, and this is exceedingly painful for all involved. Any ideas?
Monday, January 21, 2008
Third Time's the Charm?
It was cold again on Sunday. 4 deg F when I eventually left the house, -12 or so with windchill. 2 hours out in the cold was on the agenda. I dressed up, and hit the road, where dressing up involved wearing wool socks. At about halfway through my 15 miles, my middle toe on my right foot started throbbing a little. Uh oh. This is the toenail that I've lost twice already, once after a 20 miler in racing flats that were a tad too small, and the second time on a very humid day when I raced a half marathon. Every time it comes back, it's just a little bit uglier.
Maybe this time it's just going to decide that enough is enough, and not bother growing back. Not like I would deserve any better, the hell I've put that little guy through.
The cold wasn't actually that bad. A few times the wind was on my face, and it was annoying, but otherwise I was dressed plenty warm enough. The toe is still pretty unhappy, and will probably be splitsville in a couple weeks. Hope I didn't ruin anyone's dinner.
Today:
6.5 miles or so, mostly on grass with 4x200m strides on the Jackson Park track (41-40-39-38). Pretty nice progression down in time as I loosened up.
Sun:
15 miles starting at 65%, working up to 75%. Kind of tired by the last 4 miles.
Maybe this time it's just going to decide that enough is enough, and not bother growing back. Not like I would deserve any better, the hell I've put that little guy through.
The cold wasn't actually that bad. A few times the wind was on my face, and it was annoying, but otherwise I was dressed plenty warm enough. The toe is still pretty unhappy, and will probably be splitsville in a couple weeks. Hope I didn't ruin anyone's dinner.
Today:
6.5 miles or so, mostly on grass with 4x200m strides on the Jackson Park track (41-40-39-38). Pretty nice progression down in time as I loosened up.
Sun:
15 miles starting at 65%, working up to 75%. Kind of tired by the last 4 miles.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Running Fast, Going Nowhere
Weather said "3 deg F, -15 with wind chill," and I replied, "&*^% you very much!"
I was going to do todays pre-10k drill workout on the indoor track, but an invitational was happening, so no go...headed to the treadmill to do an equivalent workout. Will said 6x(800m (2:48) 200m rest 300m (57) 300m rest), and I said, that's just fine. I felt pretty good today, and I didn't even get bored on the TM, what with the pace switching up so much. I started the .5 mile repeats at 5:36 pace (1.5% grade), and eventually took the pace down to 5:27, since I was feeling good. The "300"'s started at 5:07 (probably should have started a little faster...57s is 5:04 pace), and I did the last couple repeats with 5:00 pace. I just sandwiched the 300's on at the .6 mark of every mile, and kept it up for 1:00 at pace.
The other workouts this week were pretty chill.
Wed
~50 min easy (65-70%)
Thu
2m WU, (400m - 400 rest - 600m - 400 rest - 400m - 400 rest - 200m) (70.1s - 1:52.3 *ugh* - 71.2s - 35.1s) - 30min jog
Weather was terrible. Rain and snow during the day froze about 200m into the first 400m due to a sharp drop in temps. Track ended up pretty slippery. Wind was 19mph or so. Workout wasn't so bad considering.
Fri
~50 min easy (65-70%)
I finally received a computer on order for work, so my productivity will be increasing, which means I'm gonna be busy as hell the next couple weeks. Publication deadline, and a few major talks in the next month to prepare. My first colloquium...that should be fun.
I was going to do todays pre-10k drill workout on the indoor track, but an invitational was happening, so no go...headed to the treadmill to do an equivalent workout. Will said 6x(800m (2:48) 200m rest 300m (57) 300m rest), and I said, that's just fine. I felt pretty good today, and I didn't even get bored on the TM, what with the pace switching up so much. I started the .5 mile repeats at 5:36 pace (1.5% grade), and eventually took the pace down to 5:27, since I was feeling good. The "300"'s started at 5:07 (probably should have started a little faster...57s is 5:04 pace), and I did the last couple repeats with 5:00 pace. I just sandwiched the 300's on at the .6 mark of every mile, and kept it up for 1:00 at pace.
The other workouts this week were pretty chill.
Wed
~50 min easy (65-70%)
Thu
2m WU, (400m - 400 rest - 600m - 400 rest - 400m - 400 rest - 200m) (70.1s - 1:52.3 *ugh* - 71.2s - 35.1s) - 30min jog
Weather was terrible. Rain and snow during the day froze about 200m into the first 400m due to a sharp drop in temps. Track ended up pretty slippery. Wind was 19mph or so. Workout wasn't so bad considering.
Fri
~50 min easy (65-70%)
I finally received a computer on order for work, so my productivity will be increasing, which means I'm gonna be busy as hell the next couple weeks. Publication deadline, and a few major talks in the next month to prepare. My first colloquium...that should be fun.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Just in Time
Saturday's workout was pretty tough. The times Will lay out for me were 2 wu, 1600 in 5:36, 1600 jog and then a slower set of cutback 1600's with 400 rest, ending with a 6:00 final 1600. Then 20 minutes of jogging afterwards. I was feeling a lot too frisky at the starting line of the first 1600, and blew out a 37.5 sec. 200...nope...I'm not gonna make a 5:00 mile happen on this one, time to slow it down a bit. I ended up hitting 5:32, so the rest was more or less on pace.
Then 6:24, 6:10, 6:04, and 5:57. Not too bad. I was happy with the workout, but I was feeling pretty flat by the end. Another 2-3 miles later put me at home. Later that night I felt the soreness creeping on, and by the next morning, I was stiff as hell. The Sun long run went okay...I ran the first 4.5 miles at 9 minute pace, but I could really feel my hamstrings. There was a lot of microtearing in them, especially on the right side. I slowly picked things up from 65 to 75 percent MHR over the course of 15 miles, and was running 7:0X by the end, although there were definitely some twinges.
I relayed my slight worry about the tightness to Will, and he calmly asserted (if one can assert in any way but calmly in an email without using all caps) that with the Mon easy run + light strides, I'd be 95% by Mon night, and ready to rip out a good Tuesday workout the next morning, just in time. Sure enough, the pain was light by Mon. night, and completely unnoticable when I hit the indoor track this morning for 8 miles at 85%. The weather was cold, and there was a slick layer of snow on the ground. A scan of the treadmills at the gym showed that I had too many undergraduate girls to compete with for space. I headed over to the indoor track, despite the wear and tear that 128 turns in 8 miles can inflict.
Again, I was too big for myself in the beginning of the workout. The first 1600 went by in 5:42...yikes. I put on the brakes a bit, ran 5:57, 6:00, 6:06, and then took things back under 6:00 for the remainder. 47:36 for 7.95 miles = 8*(1600m). The lactic burn settled in at around 5-6 miles, but my body learned to love and accept it, and I loosened up again a bit later. A lactic acid stomacache over breakfast was my body reminding me that I shouldn't be so rough on it. Overall, it was a really nice workout. My legs feel fine 12 hours later, and tomorrow's a nice relaxing easy jog. Tremendous hills, deep deep valleys... Thanks Will.
Then 6:24, 6:10, 6:04, and 5:57. Not too bad. I was happy with the workout, but I was feeling pretty flat by the end. Another 2-3 miles later put me at home. Later that night I felt the soreness creeping on, and by the next morning, I was stiff as hell. The Sun long run went okay...I ran the first 4.5 miles at 9 minute pace, but I could really feel my hamstrings. There was a lot of microtearing in them, especially on the right side. I slowly picked things up from 65 to 75 percent MHR over the course of 15 miles, and was running 7:0X by the end, although there were definitely some twinges.
I relayed my slight worry about the tightness to Will, and he calmly asserted (if one can assert in any way but calmly in an email without using all caps) that with the Mon easy run + light strides, I'd be 95% by Mon night, and ready to rip out a good Tuesday workout the next morning, just in time. Sure enough, the pain was light by Mon. night, and completely unnoticable when I hit the indoor track this morning for 8 miles at 85%. The weather was cold, and there was a slick layer of snow on the ground. A scan of the treadmills at the gym showed that I had too many undergraduate girls to compete with for space. I headed over to the indoor track, despite the wear and tear that 128 turns in 8 miles can inflict.
Again, I was too big for myself in the beginning of the workout. The first 1600 went by in 5:42...yikes. I put on the brakes a bit, ran 5:57, 6:00, 6:06, and then took things back under 6:00 for the remainder. 47:36 for 7.95 miles = 8*(1600m). The lactic burn settled in at around 5-6 miles, but my body learned to love and accept it, and I loosened up again a bit later. A lactic acid stomacache over breakfast was my body reminding me that I shouldn't be so rough on it. Overall, it was a really nice workout. My legs feel fine 12 hours later, and tomorrow's a nice relaxing easy jog. Tremendous hills, deep deep valleys... Thanks Will.
Friday, January 11, 2008
How to Run Easy Days?
This has been the hardest part of the schedule so far. My body just doesn't feel right when I try to run at 65-70% HR. Too much clunking around, and I never get to hit a stride. It's fine, since I get lots of opportunities to run fast in this schedule, but I just thought it was interesting. It could be that I just need practice, though, and I'll become more economical at these efforts. My pace literally varies by a factor of 2 between the fast reps and the beginnings of easy runs.
Yesterday was pretty easy, with some 300m repeats thrown in, and today was a slow jog on the treadmill to get ready for tomorrow's somewhat tough workout.
Runs:
1/9/08
Very easy 49 min jog, a lot of it on grass. Kept HR around 135.
1/10/08
2m wu with a couple 100m strides to get loose, then 4x300m with 300m-400m rest (50.9 - 52.0 - 50.8 - 49.8) and then an easy 30 or so minutes, keeping HR below 150.
( Will's been reading the blog, and pointed out that only the Monday workouts are supposed to be scaled back a bit, hence the 1500m pace stuff again ).
1/11/08
Jog to gym, jog 4 on treadmill (since it was well after dark, and my neighborhood isn't so nice in the later hours) and then jog back home.
Yesterday was pretty easy, with some 300m repeats thrown in, and today was a slow jog on the treadmill to get ready for tomorrow's somewhat tough workout.
Runs:
1/9/08
Very easy 49 min jog, a lot of it on grass. Kept HR around 135.
1/10/08
2m wu with a couple 100m strides to get loose, then 4x300m with 300m-400m rest (50.9 - 52.0 - 50.8 - 49.8) and then an easy 30 or so minutes, keeping HR below 150.
( Will's been reading the blog, and pointed out that only the Monday workouts are supposed to be scaled back a bit, hence the 1500m pace stuff again ).
1/11/08
Jog to gym, jog 4 on treadmill (since it was well after dark, and my neighborhood isn't so nice in the later hours) and then jog back home.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Steady State
Not too much time to blow...just the basics for now. Will has already pulled back on the reins a bit, and told me to go easier on the 200m - 400m repeats on Mondays and Thursdays to make sure I'm not zapped for the more serious Tuesday and Saturday workouts.
So today was "serious." Unfortunately, I packed everything except the transmitter for my heart rate monitor when I prepared to run from work later in the day, so no technical feedback. I went by feel, and probably went a little too hard, based on the numbers I ripped off (intended 80%MHR). On the Waterfall Glen course (see side-bar on right), I ran 6:22 average for 9.5 miles on rolling terrain, some of the few hills we have in the Chicago area. I kept a 3-3 breathing pattern for everything except for the longer uphills, so I probably wasn't doing too bad. In the last mile or two, my stabilizers were feeling a little sore, probably since the path was pretty rutted due to the recent thaw.
I'm going to appreciate tomorrow's easy day.
So today was "serious." Unfortunately, I packed everything except the transmitter for my heart rate monitor when I prepared to run from work later in the day, so no technical feedback. I went by feel, and probably went a little too hard, based on the numbers I ripped off (intended 80%MHR). On the Waterfall Glen course (see side-bar on right), I ran 6:22 average for 9.5 miles on rolling terrain, some of the few hills we have in the Chicago area. I kept a 3-3 breathing pattern for everything except for the longer uphills, so I probably wasn't doing too bad. In the last mile or two, my stabilizers were feeling a little sore, probably since the path was pretty rutted due to the recent thaw.
I'm going to appreciate tomorrow's easy day.
Monday, January 7, 2008
One Down, 83 to Go
Workouts that is, in my 12 week plan leading up to my mid-season race, the Shamrock Shuffle 8k.
Today's workout was great, with the insanely high temps we've had the last couple days. The thermometer read 66 deg F when I went out the door to head to the track for a fartlek with 4-6x200m at 1500m race pace thrown in. I did 3 on + 1 lap rec + 2 on + rest of lap rec + 1 on + rolr, and then got into the 200's. 34.6 - 35.9 - 32.7 - 34.6 - 33.5, and after a couple more minutes of jogging, another 3 on. "On" started at around 5:50 pace, at the beginning of the workout and came down to about 5:35 pace by the end. Total of about 6.25 miles. The 200's are oscillating because of a pretty strong wind from the South, probably the same wind that brought the near 70 deg heat wave our way.
Tomorrow sees me running at 80% MHR for 10 miles. We'll see how the legs feel tomorrow (and the foot after dropping a pot lid on it while cooking tonight's oven baked risotto).
I really love food, by the way. I'm definitely not a run-to-eat guy, just a runner who happens to really like food.
Today's workout was great, with the insanely high temps we've had the last couple days. The thermometer read 66 deg F when I went out the door to head to the track for a fartlek with 4-6x200m at 1500m race pace thrown in. I did 3 on + 1 lap rec + 2 on + rest of lap rec + 1 on + rolr, and then got into the 200's. 34.6 - 35.9 - 32.7 - 34.6 - 33.5, and after a couple more minutes of jogging, another 3 on. "On" started at around 5:50 pace, at the beginning of the workout and came down to about 5:35 pace by the end. Total of about 6.25 miles. The 200's are oscillating because of a pretty strong wind from the South, probably the same wind that brought the near 70 deg heat wave our way.
Tomorrow sees me running at 80% MHR for 10 miles. We'll see how the legs feel tomorrow (and the foot after dropping a pot lid on it while cooking tonight's oven baked risotto).
I really love food, by the way. I'm definitely not a run-to-eat guy, just a runner who happens to really like food.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
"This may look pretty intimidating..."
are the words Will used in his email before laying down my next 3 months of training. I have a feeling this is not what Tom has in front of him, since we likely have different strengths to play off of, even if our PR's are scarily similar. The schedule does look intimidating, to say the least. This is how it starts off:
Monday 7-Jan 45-60 fartlek w/ 4-6 x 200m strides at 1500m pace with 400 jog
Tuesday 8-Jan 10 @ 80% (or marathon pace)
Wednesday 9-Jan 45-75 easy (65-70% max)
Thursday 10-Jan 2wu + 4 x 300 (51) w/ 300 jog + 30-40 easy
Friday 11-Jan 30-60 easy (65-70% max)
Saturday 12-Jan 2wu + 1600 (5:36) w/ 1600 jog + 4 x 1600 (6:00) cut downs w/ 400 jog + 20 warmdown
Sunday 13-Jan 15 miles (start at 65% build to 75%)
and it does not get much easier. This looks like 60-75 miles a week of volume, with a lot of rather high intensity running. This is a very small window, of course, into the training plan, and it is open to change. Will is working under the assumption that I'm like other "middle distance" type folks, and I am able to recover fairly quickly from the fast paced work (the liberal scattering of 68-70 second 400's throughout the schedule for example), and so I have a large number of workouts with mile-5k race pace intervals.
This actually looks a lot like a "grown-up" version of what I was doing in high school, sans the snowball fights and tree climbing when we should have been doing recovery runs.
There are some things to be ironed out, but a season is manifesting itself. It will be interesting to see how my body responds to this experiment. I have a feeling it will hurt pretty bad the first week as I'll be recruiting some different muscle groups to do the fast stuff, but that it will become business as usual after 3 weeks. We'll see!
Runs:
Today
1/5 9 miles easy (141 HR avg, 7:33 pace)
1/4 8 easy through snow (145 HR avg 8:30 pace)
1/3 6 easy (7:27 pace)
I've been doing some extra stretching to prepare myself for the faster stuff. It requires a much larger range of motion, which is why I think I get so sore after doing it for the first time in a while. Maybe it'll help.
Monday 7-Jan 45-60 fartlek w/ 4-6 x 200m strides at 1500m pace with 400 jog
Tuesday 8-Jan 10 @ 80% (or marathon pace)
Wednesday 9-Jan 45-75 easy (65-70% max)
Thursday 10-Jan 2wu + 4 x 300 (51) w/ 300 jog + 30-40 easy
Friday 11-Jan 30-60 easy (65-70% max)
Saturday 12-Jan 2wu + 1600 (5:36) w/ 1600 jog + 4 x 1600 (6:00) cut downs w/ 400 jog + 20 warmdown
Sunday 13-Jan 15 miles (start at 65% build to 75%)
and it does not get much easier. This looks like 60-75 miles a week of volume, with a lot of rather high intensity running. This is a very small window, of course, into the training plan, and it is open to change. Will is working under the assumption that I'm like other "middle distance" type folks, and I am able to recover fairly quickly from the fast paced work (the liberal scattering of 68-70 second 400's throughout the schedule for example), and so I have a large number of workouts with mile-5k race pace intervals.
This actually looks a lot like a "grown-up" version of what I was doing in high school, sans the snowball fights and tree climbing when we should have been doing recovery runs.
There are some things to be ironed out, but a season is manifesting itself. It will be interesting to see how my body responds to this experiment. I have a feeling it will hurt pretty bad the first week as I'll be recruiting some different muscle groups to do the fast stuff, but that it will become business as usual after 3 weeks. We'll see!
Runs:
Today
1/5 9 miles easy (141 HR avg, 7:33 pace)
1/4 8 easy through snow (145 HR avg 8:30 pace)
1/3 6 easy (7:27 pace)
I've been doing some extra stretching to prepare myself for the faster stuff. It requires a much larger range of motion, which is why I think I get so sore after doing it for the first time in a while. Maybe it'll help.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Waiting with 'bated Breath
for my workout schedule from Will Steele, (also Tuscaloosa's coach) who is seemingly becoming the "bloggers coach." I sent him an email on New Years Eve, had a 10 message long email exchange, discussing what just the hell I thought I was doing with the training I was doing, and now we're working together on coming up with a plan for 'aught-eight that starts on Monday.
The good news is that I have very good foot speed, so it looks as if I have a long way to go before my aerobic capacity meets my HS 400m PR of 52 seconds. I hope it works like that.
The best part of this so far is that I feel like I have a direction for the first time in a while. Going at this on my own was becoming a bit of drudgery, even though I enjoyed my workouts. I just wasn't up to the challenge of sitting down, getting an idea of the big picture, and coming up with a plan that involved races. Also, I'm certain that while what I had in mind would have worked to some extent, that there is a better experiment to do, based on knowledge that I don't have about what has worked in best in the past for people with my running background.
Anyway, things are off and running well so far. I started a new job today also. New beginnings.
So what happened training-wise in 2007? I missed 140 days of running, and ran a total of 2210 miles. On the days that I ran, this is an average of 9.8 miles. 35 days were double days, so 260 total workouts. Each workout was an avg of 8.5 miles then.
A straight average yields 6.05 miles a day, or 42.4 miles a week.
Last few runs:
1/2 8
1/1 8
12/31 10.3
12/30 8.6
The most recent two were through slow snowy conditions.
The good news is that I have very good foot speed, so it looks as if I have a long way to go before my aerobic capacity meets my HS 400m PR of 52 seconds. I hope it works like that.
The best part of this so far is that I feel like I have a direction for the first time in a while. Going at this on my own was becoming a bit of drudgery, even though I enjoyed my workouts. I just wasn't up to the challenge of sitting down, getting an idea of the big picture, and coming up with a plan that involved races. Also, I'm certain that while what I had in mind would have worked to some extent, that there is a better experiment to do, based on knowledge that I don't have about what has worked in best in the past for people with my running background.
Anyway, things are off and running well so far. I started a new job today also. New beginnings.
So what happened training-wise in 2007? I missed 140 days of running, and ran a total of 2210 miles. On the days that I ran, this is an average of 9.8 miles. 35 days were double days, so 260 total workouts. Each workout was an avg of 8.5 miles then.
A straight average yields 6.05 miles a day, or 42.4 miles a week.
Last few runs:
1/2 8
1/1 8
12/31 10.3
12/30 8.6
The most recent two were through slow snowy conditions.
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