I was a little hampered this week by a small pain in my left leg where the hamstring and glutes connect. I had been feeling a little soreness there going into Friday. My plan was to ignore it, so I did 100 minutes, jumping in with Jason and Miles on some 200's at the end. They weren't very fast, but still I was significantly more sore the next day. I ran through it on Saturday, figuring it was most likely a little niggling thing that would get better as long as I didn't aggravate it with workouts. On Sunday, though, it started to bother me enough that I cut the NFTC run short.
My tempo was pretty good this week, but I didn't get in the steady state that I would have done on Saturday or Sunday.
The plan for next week is to take Monday off, then run just as much as feels totally comfortable. I promised Ryan I'd do the Providian relay next weekend, so I need to do everything I can to be healthy going into that.
Weekly Summary: April 20-26, 2009 (550 minutes, 1 tempo workout)
April 23 - 25
Saturday April 25 (60 am, 45 pm)
There's a slight pain or soreness in my left leg, right where my hamstrings come up and attach to my butt. I kept it easy, and I guess I'll keep doing so until this particular little thing passes.
Friday April 24 (100 minutes)
Ran on the south field, jumping in for a couple 200's with Jason and Miles right at the end.
Thursday April 23 (30 am)
Skipped the afternoon run, and so just got in a little recovery jog.
April 14-22
My computer finally came back from the shop today. Technically, they shouldn't even have repaired it, since I decidedly caused the malfunction by pouring water all over the keyboard. (Don't ask me why, okay? I was just curious.) But when I called tech support, as I just kept saying, "I don't know, man, it just, like, won't turn on or something. There's this one little light thingy here, what should I do about that?" And, since I spilled water, not pomegranate juice, there was no real way to distinguish the damage from a genuine part failure.
So, in the time span since the last update, I've forgotten what I did, exactly. I'll work backwards and see how much that jogs my memory.
Wed April 22 (2x3200m tempo, 10:52, 10:32)
Original goal was 2x3200 in 11:00, 10:40. When I got to the track, the heat, along with a long day yesterday and a mediocre workout earlier this week, got me rethinking and aiming for 11:00, 11:00. I thought it was better to shoot a little low, especially now that I'm just resuming workouts and building up some fitness.
I hit the first lap in 79 and the first mile in 5:23, and so decided to consciously slow down, since I had another repeat to go. I ran the second mile in 5:28, feeling pretty relaxed, for 10:52. The nice thing was that two miles felt short, and the one lap recovery jog was luxurious.
I went out too fast on the second one, doing about a 78 on the first lap, then coming through one mile in 5:17. Briefly, I thought I should slow down to run the originally-intended pace. But then it occurred to me, "what the fuck is wrong with you?" I felt fine, and was half way through already. I might as well finish the run up strongly. The final mile was the toughest, but not absolutely brutal. I hit 5:15 for a 10:32 3200.
Nice workout. It felt disciplined. I was choppy at times, but always got my composure back and stayed focused. AM swim/aquajog with Julie
Tuesday April 21
100 minutes on the infield, a bit with Kangway. Kept the pace easy, but still wound up pretty beat by the end of it all. AM swim/aquajog with Julie.
Monday April 20
30 am, 70 pm
Sunday April 19 (4xarroyo tempo)
Planned on an arroyo tempo in which I didn't worry about the times I was running. I hit laps of 9:28 || 9:10 || 9:22 || 9:43, or something like that. I felt pretty bad, really. I never got into any sort of the rhythm, and the second lap was already uncomfortable. I got a cramp on the last one and had to work hard just to finish it off. Not a bit psychological booster, but nonetheless I was glad to get out on the trail and put some sort of work in, anyway. It was also very hot out that day, which may have contributed to the general cruddiness. PM 30 min jog NFTC.
Saturday April 18
Don't recall. Shit, I don't have any idea at all what I did this day. There was no meet. I must have just masturbated a whole lot.
Friday April 17
I really should have updated closer to the fact. Probably I was just running some minutes, but I don't know quite what.
Thursday April 16
Same as Friday
Wednesday April 15
Same as Thursday. Basically, I know I ran twice most of these days, and when I didn't run twice I ran at least 90 minutes. So there's a good chunk of volume in here, and no workouts.
Tuesday April 14
Same as Wednesday.
My guess is that for the week of 4/13/09 - 4/19/09 I wound up with a 550 or 600 minutes, and one really nice workout (8000m tempo in 27:38 on Monday) and one workout that I just barely got through (4xarroyo tempo on Sunday).
Monday, April 13, 2009 (8000m tempo 27:38)
I ran into Kangway in the locker room, so we ran together. I did a five mile tempo on the track, planning on hitting 5:40 pace, although I wasn't completely sure I'd be able to do that without overextending. The recent race at PP sapped my confidence. As it turned out, 85's felt very easy, and I wound up average closer to 5:30 pace. It felt great, really. It wasn't an easy workout - I had to work hard to keep my concentration up over the last 2400 or so, but it stayed in the tempo range the whole time, and I did not feel drained afterwards. Having Kway there for miles 1, 3, and 5 helped a lot as well. Jason and John happened to be working out at the same time, so we did a 300 together at the end. It was going great untilnwe went into the last 100 and Jason magically accelerated away from me, and then Kangway came past on my outside and blew me away as well. Thy both ran 42, so a barefoot 43 is not so bad.
Weekly Summary 4/5 - 4/11/09 (540 minutes)
After a bad week last week, this one was okay. I want to start with some light workouts next week, mostly tempo. I think that if I can start to see indisuptable evidence that my finess is improving, there will be a positive feedback effect on my attitude towards training. Today (sunday) I did 80 minutes, with the last 15 or so pretty quick. I have a sort of dull pain on the outside of my right foot to watch out for, brought on by lots of running on stones and stuff yesterday.
For next week, the training elements I want to get in are:
A relaxed tempo, maybe 4-5 miles at 5:40 pace on the track.
A steady state, maybe 4 Ian tempo loops at whatever pace comes
A long run of 95-100 minutes
Total volume a little higher than last week.
Friday and Saturday, April 10, 11 2009
Friday: 30 minutes jogging in the morning
Sat: 90 minutes in the hills behind Whittier. When I got on top the second hill, I could see out over the next valley. By thrusting my arms out before me, it was as if I held the entire world in my hands. And then I took it and squeezed, crushing that depraved world in disdain. But an epiphany! I realized then that no, I hadn't crushed the world. In fact, I had never been truly holding it - it was mere illusion, or delusion, resulting from the way I had been concentrating so hard I had one eye closed, and therefore lacked the depth perception to recognize that the houses and streets and things were way, way further away than my palms, and were not super-dooper tiny. Damn. Bad for me, good for the thousands of miniature people whose livelihoods were narrowly spared obliteration in my unrelenting grasp.
Then I tacked on an extra 30 with Matt and John M., mostly because I was invited and wanted to seem cool.
Up to Thursday, April 9, 2009
My computer's broken, and I haven't been bothering to go into the library regularly to update, so here it is in chunks - at least what I remember.
Sunday my hip was hurting too much to walk with a normal gate. Kangway went apeshit on me after drinking way too many beers Saturday night. Poor form, Kangway. Poor form.
Monday I did 90 with Jasper and Phyllis.
Tuesday my hip was still hurting a bit, and I took off.
Wednesday I did 30 am, 90 pm.
Thursday 30am, 70 pm. I'm actually feeling very good, except that my hip still hurts some, and there's a dull pain under the ball of my left foot (that's a new one). I think it's making me toe/midfoot strike more than usual.
Saturday, April4, 2009 (5000m 16:50)
I don't really feel like writing a long analysis. After coming through the mile in 5:03 I felt okay, but shortly after that I starting hurting and shut down. I'm just not in shape for sustained fast stuff right now.
Thursday, April 2, 2009 (10x200 30s)
My computer is broken, making it inconvenient to update. But Thursday I worked out with the Caltech team, and they happened to be on the track. I felt kind of sluggish, but I did manage to run 10 200's between 29 and 31 on a slow jog-back recovery, which is objectively a pretty good workout for me.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 (90 minutes)
It was pretty hot, bringing out the old armpit foam. I picked up the pace a bit over the last 25, but I never really got rolling the way I sometimes do at the end of these. I think there may have been some residual fatigue in my legs, and, as I said, it was hot. But I didn't feel those things in particular. I just felt kind of tired.