My back feels about the same today as yesterday. This must be some old injury that I occasionally tweak, but I've felt the same pain in the same place several times before. I normally just go easy a while and it heals on its own, but this one seems to have gotten worse over the last couple of days (it began last Thursday on a tempo run). It's to the point where I can feel it just moving my arm enough to signal on the bike, and even breathing can set it off. I'd like to take total rest, but unfortunately I still need to get to work, and the only transportation I know of is bicycle. I'll keep monitoring it closely, and hope to see some clear improvement in the next few days.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 (30am, 30pm)
Jogged it out in the morning. I was planning on about 70 in the evening, maybe with some fartlek. But once I started running, I realized that the pain in my back muscle was worse today than it had been yesterday, and running was likely the culprit. I stopped after half an hour, and am thinking I should rest it until I see clear improvement.
Monday, January 19, 2009 (70am, 20pm)
Hit up the arroyo with Ian in the morning, and then a short shakeout in the evening on the North Field.
Weekly Summary: 1/12/09 - 1/18/09 (535 minutes, steady state)
Last Week
There's a lot of overlap with Ian's Week in here.
A second consecutive good week of training. The steady state on Thursday was encouraging. The mountain adventure on Saturday was deeply satisfying, and on top of those I got in four more runs of >=70 minutes.
I haven't been doing much speed, because it's a bit tougher on my body, and I feel like I'm taking close to as much load as is prudent right now. My left foot, left hip, right knee, right achilles tendon, and left upper back muscle all have, at various times, given me just slight hints that they would not be amused by bashing out two hard workouts and a fast long run each week, which is what my lungs and leg muscles might be interested in. I didn't do much core this week, but that was mostly because my back was hurting already, and crunches and bridges and whatnot seemed to stand a good chance of aggravating it further.
For next week, I'm continuing to focus on aerobic stuff and large but comfortable volume. My plan is roughly:
Mon: AM jog, PM easy running, strides, core
Tu: maybe some fartlek
Wed: AM jog, PM easy running, strides, core
Thu: AM jog, easy running, maybe some 200s, 300s, or even a 400 at relaxed pace, long recovery
Fri: steady state with Ian
Sat: recovery, easy, core
Sun: longer run, maybe 1:45
The idea with the fartlek and short intervals isn't to put in strenuous workouts. The training stress here should be from milage and the steady state. Instead, it's more of a freshness and pace-feeling thing. I want to be familiar with faster training paces when it's time actually to train hard at those paces. I'd rather not hit the track for mile repeats at sub-5 pace having not run 800m at that pace in months. I also don't want my legs to get too used to trodding between 6:30 and 8:00 pace all the time. Somewhere in there should be some bits of speed to keep me capable of striding out and turning over when I need it.
Sunday, January 18, 2009 (80 minutes)
The North field was feeling really nice, so I just kept going for a while. I'm feeling pretty good after taking Friday off, except that I have a persistent soreness in a muscle in my back. That developed on Thursday's steady state, but has been a problem I've run into every few months over the past two or three years. It normally just takes a few days, or even two weeks, before I feel fully recovered. I don't think it's critical, since it gets worse overnight and loosens up over the day, and is not among the most relevant body parts for running.
Then Dennis took me to Sizzler, and my stomach is only just recovering.
Saturday, January 17, 2009 (mountain adventure)
Some day, I need to see a fight between a Siberian Tiger and a Sloth Bear. Wikipedia says it happens, but fails to cite a youtube video.
As far as running, Ian led me on a reprisal of his long Brown Mountain circuit (Sunday of the linked week), which took a few second less than two hours. I was pretty scared of the bears, and Ian kept abandoning me on downhills to handle getting stabbed in the eye by a tree alone. Also I fell in a river and almost crapped myself (unrelated, mostly). But it was pretty awesome. I took off yesterday to rest up for this one. The trail down the back side of the mountain (you don't go all the way up, and the ascent past the saddle is fairly mild) was runnable to the bold-spirited, and easily hikable to all others.
There was also a particularly fine stand of white pine.
Thursday, January 15, 2009 (5 x arroyo tempo)
Ian and I continued our steady-state campaign, upping the ante from four loops last week to five today. Last week, we passed Danny Martinez (blew past, actually) heading north along the arroyo early in our run. This week I told Ian he missed it when Martinez came back south after a week in hibernation at the aquatic center, recognized me, and waved, but he (Ian) appeared to see right through my ruse. You're right, Ian. I definitely did not see Danny Martinez in the arroyo today. (PS - for people other than Ian (I'll write this in code so he can't read it) !aHaHaH .flesym ot lla tnemom cigam taht peek ot teg I won tub ,mih ees did I seY)
The run was good. I do not have a feeling of strong aerobic fitness like I sometimes had in the past - the feeling that my lungs and legs are simply churning in perfect synchrony and I can purr along at high performance for an hour unstressed - but nonetheless my actual times are progressing well. The laps went
8:55
17:44 (8:49)
26:35 (8:51)
36:21ish (8:46ish)
44:04 (8:43ish)
5 loops, 8:49 avg.
My watch switches over from mm:ss:1/100 to hh:mm:ss at 30 minutes, so it's hard to catch the lap 4 split with accuracy.
The average pace was a little faster than last week.
I think the key now will be not to push too hard on these in a vain effort to get faster every single week. This was a good run. I'll take it and be happy. I'll do another next week, but I'll need to keep the attitude that allowed me to run well today - simply focusing on today, running based on what I'm feeling.
Also, Ian probably won't admit it on the internet, but he's in some pretty killer shape, and if he runs track races this year, we could see the same sort of times that got posted in the men's locker room all those years ago.
No pressure, though.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 (75 minutes)
I felt tired, but probably just depleted throughout the run, but still seemed to be able to click off a good pace at the end without difficulty. I was also planning on running in the morning, but slept too much. I slept in until 8:40 and it felt horrendously late - which is a good sign since I used to wake up ten minutes before I had to leave for work. Now it's two minutes after I have to leave for class.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009 (90 minutes, strides)
Ran with the kids, going down to Lacy for some strides and a fairly long detour through Pasadena on the way back. I felt kind of clumsy, although partially because the Frees were slipping on the wet grass. Also, Ian was running some fartlek at Lacy, and I wanted to yell something clever, but I realized I just about used up all my creativity back in junior year. I spent the next couple years recycling that material as much as I could, but eventually people caught on. For example, I've given this speech five times already. And that's in the last two weeks.
Monday, January 12, 2009 (30am, 70 pm)
I'm not even 100% sure this is what I did on Monday. I think it is, though. Dammit. Now I feel like that one guy, you know, who couldn't remember shit, what was his name again?
Weekly Summary: 1/5/09 - 1/11/09 (510 minutes, steady state)
An excellent week of running. I felt like I was doing exactly what I needed to do each day to build the aerobic fitness I want before track. The steady state was good, the long runs were good, and in general I felt healthy. Since it's now Thursday, the thing I need to improve on is timely blogging.
Sunday, January 11, 2009 (60 minutes)
Slept through NFTC and jogged it out very slowly at night, from the house to the south field and back. I made a short detour to crap in Ruddock (specifically the toilets there), and Kangway tried to give me bagels.
Saturday, January 10, 2009 (Brown Mountain)
Ian, Kangway, and I went up to JPL in the morning. Kway and I saw three baby billygoats while Ian was peeing on his foot. Also, we went to Millard and back, although we're not totally sure on either the distance or duration. No problems with my feet and whatnot. There are a lots of miles in my legs, though.
Friday, January 9, 2009 (20am 90pm)
Jogged it out in the morning, then hit up practice in the afternoon since I got off work early. It was a pretty huge number of minutes for the day, but I didn't feel especially worn down from it. I do need to resist the urge to jump in with the sprinters whenever they happen to be starting an interval as I got by. That habit had me run 3x300 today. Not very fast (52, 49, 47 or so), but doing it barefoot was enough to tear the skin off the bottoms of certain of my toes, and also I need to be more careful of the thing with the bottom of my left foot.
Afterwards I hit up a little weight room and a little bullshitting, which is always nice.
Thursday, January 8, 2009 (steady state)
Ian's comments on this run
I think I've done a pretty good job, over six years of working on it, of no longer comparing myself with other runners. At least, the comparisons I do are more leaning more towards objective feedback than ego-stroking (or ego-self-flagellating (is "self" redundant when used in hyphenation along with "ego"?)). I've also been making progress on not comparing myself with my own arbitrarily-imposed standards. That means understanding the difference between a goal that keeps you motivated, and a standard you must meet, or else feel insufficient and worthless. Now I think I need to understand how to approach comparing my current self to my past self. Ideally, understanding where I am now in comparison to where I used to be should provide a guideline for what kind of training I should do next, based on where I am and where I want to be. It should also be helpful in setting reasonable goals. Instead, my comparison with my past performances is mostly an anxious litany of, "am I there yet? can I PR yet? Have I ever done that before? Am I fitter this time around? Am I working harder now than before?" Which is not the only set of questions I should be asking. Further, when I find that the only honest answer is "no", I swing between renewed, feverish resolve to force myself to new heights as quickly as possible, and defeatist acknowledgment that anything I previously achieved was a fluke, and is unlikely to ever be repeated.
Today Ian and I did 4 arroyo tempo loops, going
8:48
8:49
8:50
9:10 = 35:27
Ian pulled ahead on the last one, but I simply wasn't feeling the juice to go with him. That's largely because he's in great shape. The workout felt like I was getting just the right stimulus. Ideally, I want to be able to take that 8:50 pace and stretch it out to six laps by the end of February, which will indicate I'm at the sort of fitness level that will let me throw down some intense track workouts, and stay strong at the end of races.
One thing I want to improve this year as compared to last is the last 25% of my races. A couple of times last year my final lap of the 5000 was actually slower than my average pace. When I ran the 1500, I took the lead with a lap to go, but found I didn't have nearly as much a kick in my as I had thought. Having super speed is great for a kick. However, if you're running your last 200 in 37, and your 200 capability when fresh is 25, it's pretty clear that you're not being limited by your raw speed. Instead, it's frequently the most aerobically fit runners who can run the last 200 at a high percentage of their max speed. (I won't pretend to know the reason for this, but there's some empirical evidence.) It's a combination of raw speed and aerobic fitness that gives a big kick. So long runs and steady states, with a bit of tempo and a little faster stuff so my legs won't forget, are the order of the moment.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 (30 minutes)
Just a morning jog. I think I was planning on running in the afternoon as well, but then again, I was also planning on not soiling my pants during tutoring. So it goes.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 (80 minutes)
Went to practice for the first time, but realized I'm not especially useful there, since I don't run with the distance guys as long as they're on the roads. Basically I'm just the one lone distance runner doing perpetual laps on the infield, starting before everyone else finishes drills and finishing after they've gone home. Which makes me wonder what exactly the benefit of being at practice is, anyway. Of course, once the team starts doing workouts, I can then do those workouts, which aren't my schedule, at a pace that will not give me anyone to run with. So that's an improvement. At least I'm keeping a positive outlook on things.
Monday, January 5, 2008 (45 AM, 30 PM)
I think I'll simply swear off running in the Free's altogether for a while, since my foot started bothering me a little even on the field today. I got in a longish morning jog, and was going for an hour in the evening before I stopped. I threw in some gym work afterwards, though, so the day was somewhat redeemed.
Also, I watched the last bit of the men's basketball game, since they appeared to be on the verge of winning. And they did. They play by some strange rules where you get free throws all the time, even if no one was taking a shot when the foul was made. Caltech took like eight free throws in the last minute of clock time, with no shots from the floor or field or court or whatever you're supposed to call it.
Weekly Summary: 12/29/08 - 1/4/08 (475 minutes)
I have to watch out. I did a pretty hefty amount of running this week, and it's taking a toll on my body. My left foot has felt a few twitches of pain, especially when I where the Free's. I've been lax about the balance pad, which I think helps strengthen my feet.
My achilles have been fine, but there was some residual pain in my left hip left over from my week on the roads over break. That seems to have mostly subsided now. My right knee began bothering me a little just today. It's fine when I run, but feels stiff around the back side of it. I haven't been foam rolling or doing core as much as I ought, and so all these things could conspire to cause me some grief if I'm not careful.
Next week I want basically more of the same, but with better habits. More of that annoying stuff that you have to do to keep healthy while raping your body for eight hours a week.
Sunday, January 4, 2008 (long)
Apartment - JPL (and, by necessity, back). I shouldn't wear the Free's for this, since my left foot started hurting a bit on some of the plantar fascia type areas on the return.
Saturday, January 3, 2008 (30 minutes)
I was so engrossed in whatever it was I was doing in the afternoon that I didn't run beyond the morning shakeout. I wonder what that was that was so interesting, anyway.
Friday, January 2, 2008 (70 minutes)
South field, dark. Too cold for bare feet. Never too cold for bare butts. I was too modest, though.
Thursday, January 1, 2008 (Brown Mountain AM, 20 PM)
Went up Brown Mountain with Goose. The most difficult part proved to be navigating our way through Pasadena on Jan. 1, but eventually we managed to get away from all those stupid happy people.
Jogged a bit in the afternoon.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 (95 minutes)
I was thoroughly confused this morning when, running by the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, I saw a stream of seven or eight consecutive buses pulling into the parking lot.
"Damn," I thought. "A lot of people really want to go swimming."
i've never been in Pasadena on New Year's Day since coming to Caltech (although I went to the parade one year when I was in high school, since my sister went to school at UCSB, so the family went out to CA for the holidays that year).
I did the apartment - arroyo - Rose Bowl loop Ian ripped off from the Oxy guys, with an extra ten minutes of prancing up and down Alpine before getting started (it was cold, and I was waiting for Goose, who I apparently just barely missed).
Regardless, tomorrow we're heading up Brown mountain to "start the year off on a high note." (A low note in terms of puns.) That's actually just a few hours from now, and it's now that very same new year. Let's get high.
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