9/3/07 - 9/9/07 Leaving My "Mark" (360 minutes, 1 tempo run, 1 interval workout)

Sunday, 9/9/07 (3xarroyo tempo)
3 lap arroyo tempo: 8:57, 8:50, 8:33 = 26:20

I planned six laps, but on the second lap I started pushing too hard, just because I was worried that the numbers on my watch were too slow. If a great workout is one where you get the numbers on your watch right, then a great performance of Barber's "Adagio for Strings" is here. The notes are right, the dynamics are correct, the tempo is just as written in the score, and all the rhythms are technically exactly spot-on. But of course, the music itself is so awful, it can't even be criticized as a serious performance - only laughed at.

A workout is not something copied out of a book and run just according to a schedule. It's a definitively human endeavor, requiring human interpretation on the spot to achieve its goals. The value of a great workout is in the subtleties of the runner's sense of pace, his mental attitude, his form and rhythm and effort. The goals times and sets and reps are only as much of a guide to the athlete as the notes in a musical score are to the conductor.

I know all this, but why don't I practice it when it comes to me actually getting down and doing the physical workout? Why, when I lace up my shoes, do I become I an idiotic automaton, forgetting everything I know about running and obsessing over something as small and trivial as an LCD riding along on my wrist?

BTW, you can find a recording of the adagio here. Maybe not the best recording ever, but free, and at least played by human beings.

Saturday, 9/8/07 (50 minutes)
Observing the UCI Invite (women). Jogged the grass field barefoot. My legs felt oddly tired, but in light of the excitement of seeing the team race for the first time, I didn't mind. Matt and Anton both ran excellent races (Matt 10th and Anton 16th SCIAC finishers, with Occidental, Cal Lu, LaVerne, and Redlands present).
The girls looked even better than the guys, with Sam, Katherine, Perrin, and Masha all running competitively in the pack.
Both teams are a little short on depth right now, but I'm looking for improvement as the season progresses.

Friday, 9/7/07 (40 minutes, 4 strides)
North field barefoot laps and long diagonal strides. IT band seems somewhat improved.

Thursday, 9/6/07 (30 minutes, 3 strides)
North field barefoot laps and long diagonal strides.

Wednesday, 9/5/07 (45 minutes)
I'm sure now that the last few days of public wanton soft-tissue raping have resulted in mild nascent ITBS in my left knee.
Humans are really put together rather poorly for running. Some people might try to tell you that humans are made for running, but don't believe them. We maybe started to be made for running, but really we only had three million years to work on it. These things can't be rushed, you know. Here are some things you can get and the appropriate time scale you will have to wait for them:

• muon to decay: 1.56 microseconds (own rest frame)


• udnerstnad tihs snetcene: 1 scenod


• land on Free Parking and get $500 (fake money): 23 minutes


• the next episode of The Simpsons to air (but you download it 3 hours beforehand): 1/2 week


• understand what was meant by that practical joke involving a pin: 9 months


• your parents to die and leave you all their money: 8 years


• world peace: Stardate 42501.3 conference on Vulcan 4


• go back in time and kill your grandfather: -73 years


• evolution of intelligent life forms: 4 billion years (highly disputed)


• end of universe: highly dependent on the will of Cthulhu

Tuesday, 9/4/07 (Shenandoahs)
Watch this video (starting about 4 minutes in) of decathlete Paul Terek in a distance race on the Japanese game show "Muscular Athlete Championship!" It's not clear to me what the rules are, exactly, but it's at least pretty clear that Terek put the smack down.



Terek isn't even a strong 1500m runner, as decathletes go. He ran 4:37 in Osaka (although to be fair his best is 4:24). His best event is pole vault. But that's really irrelevant. The real reason they put him on the show is that standing next to those Japanese guys, Terek is a monster. At 6'2" 190, it's not even fair. Apparently kids in Japan, recognizing him from TV, would swarm around Terek demanding he take off his shirt to show them his muscles.

Did 5xShenandoah in the morning, going 4:08, 4:04, 4:00, 3:58, 3:54. Faster than I last ran them in 2005. Not as fast as Ian once ran them, but on the other hand, he had McGrail there that day. I was running in the vicinity of Kiesz, but basically alone. Also, Ian can apparently run these 12 seconds slower and hit a faster race time (27:15 at Westmont 2006 vs 27:27 at Riverside 2004).

The workout felt pretty good. The first couple were on cruise control. On the fourth one I started having to push a little, although the fact that Matt was running fast recoveries and starting out in front of me probably spurred me on a bit more than I would have spurred myself (naked cowgirl chicks spurring themselves would be an awesome porn idea. all yippe-kie-yay and lassoes and tall leather boots and blood everywhere.)

I had a little cramp going in to the last one, but shit like that doesn't get in my way.
After finishing I went back down for a bonus round. Fuck yeah.


Monday, 9/3/07 (70 minutes mountain style)
We ran at some park or other. It had a name, and I think it was pretty happy in an I-love-nature-by-which-I-mean-the-Nature-Channel sort of way, like Bouncing Deer Falls or Squirrel Frolic Nutchomping Park. Anyway after a warmup that involved lots of high-fives, I ran 25 minutes up to the handicap-accessible bathroom conveniently placed 2/3 the way up a mountain fire road, in case you break your legs falling off a cliff, and then while you're waiting for the paramedics you really have to take a crap, so you build your own wheelchair out of twigs, acorns, and human hair, and roll yourself over to the john. Then I turned around and dodged the legions of bikers I had passed on foot coming up, and upon returning enjoyed Katherine's (water)melons.