Wrapping up 2007

The year is coming to end, as all good things do. My training was good this year, but not great. I definitely broke through to another level after last winter's high mileage experiment, and something changed with that training that I don't think I've lost, despite the setbacks I went through over the summer, and the life change this fall that hampered training, but could in no way be called a "setback."

My son was born, and life is quite different as a result. The ups and downs of being a parent are exhilarating. When things are good like in the picture from my last post, life is awesome...when he was sick soon after he was born, I don't remember ever being so down. Intense stuff, this life.

My 8k in the spring was a full 1:42 faster than the same race in 2006. I set a ~20s PR in the 5k on a very windy day on a track, on a training run, running solo with my wife timing me.

By Dec 31st, I will have logged a little more than 2200 miles. Almost 500 less than last year, but not terrible given the circumstances of this year. I'll probably put together a "data" post after the new year, so I'll refrain from giving more stats at the moment.

Today's run was pretty darn good. I ran on the asphalt for a change, on the lakefront. Pretty soon I found myself hitting 6:30's, and I stuck with it.

Run:
13.1 with 10 miles in 1:05:20 (6:32 pace)
lakefront (asphalt) 23 deg windy from west
total time 1:27:30
I kept to a 3-3 breathing pattern, resorting to 3-2 from time to time in the last couple miles (where I was running more like 6:15's). I'll note that in fall 2004, I raced 10 miles in 1:05:11, and that was a decent race for me at the time. Neato.

Since Christmas:
12/26 10.4 on grass aerobic
12/27 8.4 on grass aerobic
12/28 10.2 on grass slow recovery

Merry Happy Day

My son's first Christmas was today. Loads of fun. He made it through about 3 presents before he got fussy, so he's napping now with the wife after we had champagne mimosas while opening gifts. Maybe he'll get to the rest of them this afternoon.

Hope everyone's having a good day. I made it out for an early am run on the grass along the lakefront.

Run:
28deg 15mph wind sunny lakefront path
8.4 miles 59:30 (7:05)

2 Week Streak

I was recently reading about streak running. No, not this kind...more like this kind. Mark Covert is the current leader, having run every day since July 23rd, 1968. That man has been running every day since almost 11 years before the beginning of my existence. This ESPN article is mainly about a guy named Kraft, but it also mentions Covert in a paragraph. Not only has he been running every day for more than 14,000 days, he's also been averaging 9.7 miles a day while he's at it. Unbelievable. He also finished 7th behind Frank Shorter in the 1972 Olympic Trials Marathon...a rather special year.

I'm not worthy. I've been running every day since Dec 11, 2007.

Run:
~25 deg and a little windy on the lakefront
10.7 miles 1:16:00 (7:07)
almost all on grass

The lake was completely calm as the wind was out of the West. It was almost eerie. Not Erie though. God that sucked.

Coolrunning is Back

So I've been checking in on the Coolrunning message boards this week, in the hope that order will be restored, and it looks like things are coming together again. AndyHass is back posting, Nobby is still there, and all of the old threads are back (with full search functionality).

While the look of the active pages leaves much to be desired, the part of the CR community that I engaged with seems to still be there.

Today I was hoping to go to the university gym for a treadmill run (17 deg and 40mph winds driving sparse snow was what I saw out my window), but alas there are no students left to swipe my card, and so I headed out into the wasteland. It wasn't actually bad at all. The wind was biting when it hit my face, but I dressed in a full winter running suit I was lucky enough to receive a couple of years ago for x-mas. I wore my old XC Championship gloves from my old team in Ithaca new York..."Upstate NY XC / The Provin' Grounds" screened on the knitting. Good memories. The snow was all gone from the 53 degree weather we had just yesterday.

Run:
cold and windy ... slow on grass
7.9 miles 1:01:45 (7:48)

Week in review:
57.3 miles 7.1 hours 7:26 avg pace

Christmas Crunch

Procrastinators unite! Okay, so we're trying to do all gifts, send out Christmas cards, and simultaneously clean the apartment up from its current dismal state. The Christmas cards that I picked out without my wife present are apparently hideous beyond all rational possibility, and so we had to go out and buy new ones.

Last night, after the fake tree that I bought made my dear wife cry, I went out and bought the real deal. I'm much happier with the result anyway. The smell of a Christmas tree is just too ingrained in my happier childhood moments to be satisfied completely with the plastic. It's a little tree, but a really full one. It's actually our first Christmas as a family unit. In previous years, we've always traveled to either of our places of origin. Somehow the prospect of airline travel this year just didn't appeal.

Running has been reasonable.

Today:
45! deg wind from south Lakefront Path
10.1 in 1:11:00 (7:01)
Felt kind of crappy on the way in. Probably dehydrated.

Friday:
35 deg no wind
7.75 through snow 1:03:00
Nice run on the snow. Not really anything hardcore. A lot of it was melted already, but there were a few spots with deep drifts to wade through.

Not Much

to report. Calf is feeling good, I'm behind on x-mas cards and gifts, and a tad hung-over from a party at a friends house last night.

Run was uneventful except for a mid-course pit stop. Trudged about a half mile through the snow on the golf course to see how it was before getting back on the lakefront path. I might do an easy run through the snow sometime soon. I have a very talented Russian master's running friend who swears by deep snow running for improving efficiency. Once upon a time this guy ran 10 marathons in 10 days, all right around 3 hours. I was impressed.

Run:
34 deg Lakefront South light breeze
Aerobic 7.4 miles 54:00 (7:12) Avg HR 158

Philosophy of Science

“Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds,” said Richard Feynman. I just read this good NY Times article about this bad one among other things. While it is certainly fun to wax philosophical about the implications of some of the equations that seem to describe the universe pretty darn well, it isn't productive scientifically. If it can't be tested, it ain't science. That's the basic litmus test anyway.

The calf felt pretty good today, and the butt soreness I've had from doing the one-legged squats is happily gone.

Run:
Lakefront Path North 28 deg slight breeze
8.3 miles, 57:30 (6:55)

Slow Road to Recovery

So I felt good yesterday...this means that I didn't feel that good today. I was feeling peppy, and like I was past this calf injury thing, so when I hit the indoor track for what was going to be an easy run, I decided to pick things up for a mile. That mile went by in 5:47, and felt pretty good. The rest of the workout also felt good. Well, except for the fact that I forgot socks to wear, and so I went sans...a couple of hotspots afterwards, but nothing major.

Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning, the calf was tight and sore again. Hence a recovery run this am...mostly 8 min miles.

Today's run:
28F 10mph wind
7.3 in 57 minutes (7:48)

Yesterday:
Indoor track
~8.5 with 1 fast mile (5:47)
mostly around 6:50's otherwise

Cross Training

= Shoveling 6 inches of snow. Someone was supposed to come and clear up the condo building where I live, but they apparently had an injured foot. I helped out for a while after a morning trip to the gym. Today was a day for the treadmill, I decided, since it snowed pretty heavily last night. It looked like fun to play in, but I decided not to risk injury with a trudge through the winter wonderland.

I don't know what it is with this new neighborhood we live in, but it seems the city really doesn't care about us. The plows have not come by even once on our road, or most of the adjoining roads. Frustration...

Wife is out shopping while I watch the boy. This is a first, actually. She's been really nervous about leaving him. It's really good that she's getting out though. Don't want to make the wife crazy by being cooped up all winter like good old Jack!

Run:
7.5 on the treadmill at the gym. 52 minutes.
Core + weights afterwards, and then about 30 minutes of snow-shoveling.

Slow in Snow

So I'm starting to compile a list of running map links. This will make things much easier since now I won't have to copy over my bookmark list for every computer that I use (and there are quite a few).

We got a dusting last night, and so today's jog was very slippery. I stayed on grassy areas, since the roads were much worse for traction. It was about as uneventful as a run can be. Lonely windy and slippery, I seemed to be the only fool out there. With the Jackson Park Lagoon frozen over, and golfing an impossibility, there's pretty much nobody who wants to be in the park.

I took one little spill on some ice that was underneath the half inch of snow we got, but it wasn't a bad one.

I'm surprised I don't see other runners on the golf course in general (even when the weather's perfect). It's a lot nicer than the lakefront path, both scenery-wise and weather-wise.

Run:
7.4 miles slow on snow (HR avg 145)
1:00:45

The boy is doing great these days. There's been a recent phase transition, it seems. Suddenly he's realized that there are objects around, and that he can explore them. So he's been needing toys just in time for the holidays! It seems like his learning curve just got really steep all of a sudden, since he's interacting so much more with his environment. I'm sure all you folks with experience in this department already know all of this, but perhaps you remember how cool it was to see it happening for the first time in your first kid.

Hats On to Winter

Today was the first day I felt like I had to wear a hat. 25 F, -4 C. My butt is a little sore from the weights yesterday morning, but not too bad. Another sign that winter is here is that it is a lot more lonely on the morning runs. There are the couple brave souls that I see out there every day I make it out for a run, but not much more. I just read about this guy. 12,000 miles in one year is *damn* impressive.

Run:
5.5 easy HR avg 155
6:50's

Easy Days

Well, the day after my last post, my calf was really sore again. Too much too soon, probably. So I took the weekend off, missed monday because it's hard for me to get back in the rhythm again, and have been running easy since Tuesday. I've got to get this thing healed.

On a sad note, a completely out of reach goal has been put even further out of reach. To qualify for the 2012 Olympic Trials, one now must qualify with a 2:19 or better. A 2:19 is quite a bit faster than 2:22.

Runs:
Today:
5.5 easy...running 6:40's or so
weights and core afterwards

Wed
5.5 easy about 6:50's

Tue
5.5 easy about 7:10's

Back Again

I've been out of the 'sphere lately...mainly due to injury and work. After Thanksgiving, a tempo run strained my calf (the same one I strained a couple of months ago), and I had to take some time off for it to heal. It's just about back to normal now, although it still creeps in during some runs. I'm also feeling a little under the weather at the moment, so I'm keeping this one short.

Run:
7 miles with a 4 mile tempo-lite thrown in
1.5 WU 6:23 (with hill), 6:07, 6:05, 5:57 1.5CD
Felt pretty relaxed and strong.

I've been doing some good strength training in the gym lately. Lots of core, and some weights. I think it's helping, but we'll see. There's snow on the outdoor track now, so I'll probably be heading to the indoor track once a week to get my "running economy" workout in.