Wed: 20 minutes around Central park with Will
Thu: 20 minutes North Field after work.
I might not run the next few days. I'll be in Maryland, where the ground is frequently frozen/snowy this time of year, and I don't want to run on roads.
Wed, Thu December 29/30, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010 (20 minutes)
Nice run around a park somewhere in San Marino with Will. Four laps took about 20 minutes, so it's a good-sized park. Shod, not completely trusting a strange environment with the bare soles of my feet in the dark.
Sunday, December 26, 2010 (20 minutes)
Another nice North Field run, slow and barefoot. Felt pretty good. The north field looks nice - it's very green, but I think the grass is kind of short and the ground is fairly hard underneath. It's still a pretty decent place to run when there are no bees on it.
Saturday, December 25, 2010 (20 minutes)
I snuck on to the North Field today. It seemed unlikely that anyone was going to object. 20 minutes felt good. I'm still a little worried about the bottom of my left foot, but I think that as long as I keep it on grass and stay very conservative, a little running should be okay.
I also ran with Will three or four times this week, and with Megumi once (20 striders in the mud). So overall, I'm feeling pretty good, although out of shape.
Weekly Summary: September 27 - October 3, 2010 (365 minutes)
I didn't do a tempo this week, which in retrospect I could easily have done. The bee sting on Saturday really pissed me off. On the other hand, I think this is the first week with six days of running, so that's a good sign.
For next week the goal is to hit a 4-lap arroyo tempo at some point, and increase total running a bit. Also avoid getting stung by a bee.
Sunday, October 3, 2010 (90 minutes)
Biked down California to start a long run in the arroyo. Around the far side of the arroyo, up to JPL, and back. Nice run, but felt a little sore on the ball of my left foot.
Fri - Sat
Friday: 60 easy, with 6 relaxed strides
Sat: 15 minutes. Stung by a bee on the North Field. This is maybe the eighth or so time I've been stung on the fields in the last couple of years. It seems like there's nowhere that's safe. I've been stung in Lacy and on the North and South fields, multiple times each. This has me pretty upset. It seems like the bees are only active during the day, and go into remission at night, so I can just try to avoid running at day time. The other options are to wear shoes, or to ask Caltech to remove the clover from the fields (seems unlikely).
Mon - Thu
Mon: 70
Tu: 60
Wed: off
Thu: 70
Nice progression run today - the sort where you don't even realize it's become a progression run until you've already done a good amount of progressing. Finished it up with four strides. I've definitely lost some speed, but I didn't want to jump in with a bunch of striders right away. They felt nice. Good vibes in general today.
Weekly Summary: September 20 - 26, 2010 (330 min, one tempo)
I took two days off again. I'd like to establish a pattern of waking up early to run, since working in he afternoon precludes that as a regular time. The options are to run after work or early, since it's way too hot right now to run during the day. The bad news is I slept from about 8am to 3pm today, then ran at 8pm. Maybe I'll just stay up all day and try to get on a normal schedule starting tomorrow.
In the broader picture, I have to realize that although I magically popped back into semi-decent shape after my long layoff for most of 2010, even running irregularly, I won't magically pop back into 15:30 shape, even by running regularly. That will take lots of patience and work. I'm willing to do it, though. So the goal for next week is 400 minutes and another tempo, hopefully a bit smoother than the one this week.
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Fri: off
Sat: 3xarroyo tempo with the team. 9:24, 8:56, 9:15.
I felt awful. I had a cramp on the last lap, but in general just felt cruddy and flat. And also fat.
Sun: 60 minutes
Felt much better than yesterday. To the south field, circles, and home.
Thursday, September 23, 2010 (85 min)
Around the Rose Bowl from the house. Ran into McGrail coming the opposite way, and this was around noon. There were a lot of stops for lights, pooping, etc.
I noticed that although my hip pretty much feels good while running, it hurts if I roll on it while sleeping. It can also be aggravated while running if I turn a sharp corner or go up a steep hill and shove hard off my left leg. There's no bruising, though, so whatever I did to it when I fell of the bike, it must be pretty deep down. Right now it isn't bothering me much, so I think I'll just ignore it for a while and see how that goes.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010 (65 minutes)
Pretty much the same run as yesterday, but it was cool today. I felt good.
Monday, September 20, 2010 (70 min)
Apartment to Lacy, circles there, and back. Felt good today, and my hip didn't bother me.
Weekly Summary: September 13 - 19, 2010 (285 min)
I took three days off, all unplanned. Sunday my hip was bruised from rolling on the concrete, but Wednesday and Thursday I just flaked. I slept in late, and didn't want to run in the heat, so I planned to run after work, but after working I didn't want to go running.
I think this is a clear indicator I'm not yet as into it and serious about training as I used to be, but on the other hand it may be keeping me from ramping up too quickly.
9/15 - 9/19
Wed 9/15: off
Thu 9/16: off
Fri 9/17: 85 min around the Rose Bowl from the east side, up to the foot of the hill to the dam, and back on the west side
Sat 9/18: 80 min on the north field. Then in the afternoon I had a small bike accident. A car in front of me was turning right, then stopped suddenly when another bicyclist went in front of the car. When the car stopped I ran into the back of it and fell off the bike. I needed a new wheel, but otherwise the damage to me and the bike was minimal.
Sun 9/19: Off. My left hip hurt after the accident yesterday, so I took off.
Monday, Tuesday
Mon: 60 on the North Field. My legs were feeling stiff and tired.
Tu: 60 on the North Field. Legs felt much better, but it was hot out and I felt a bit strained and depleted.
Weekly Summary: September 6 - 12, 2010 (350 minutes)
A solid week of running. Nothing too adventurous, but the long run on Saturday was more than I bargained for.
I took two days off, which I want to reduce to one next week, and increase my volume to about 400 minutes, and start throwing in a few strides here and there. If I feel so inclined I may even do a tempo run.
Sat, Sun
Saturday: 110 minutes. I went from the apartment to the arroyo and started up the trail. I had no particular goal, but after a while I decided that JPL was a good place to go. I had run JPL not too long before. But last time I rode my bike down California and back. Also, I started at 6:30 and it got dark before I even got past the dam after turning around. I had a difficult time navigating the trail by the golf course. There was some big event at the Rose Bowl, so there was mostly good artificial lighting all the way back to the tempo loop.
All told it was a long run. I felt fine metabolically, but I could feel some strain in my knees and feet. There were no real ill-effects the next day, though, so I suppose I got away with it.
Sunday: 60 minutes. North field in the evening. Felt good. Last half with Dennis, and we picked up the pace a few times.
Monday, September 6, 2010 (60 minutes)
The gym was closed, which I interpreted as an opportunity to sneak on to the north field. Actually, it was closed but the trainers were still there so the teams could practice, and I made it 21 minutes into my run before someone yapped at me to get off.
I finished up on the south field, and it was fine. I started feeling a little tired about 50 minutes in, but I have no pains or injuries at the moment.
Sunday, September 5, 2010 (80 minutes)
Biked to the bottom of California and ran to the gate at JPL and back.
On the way back I first got stuck behind a horse on the narrow stretch of trail by the golf course. I should have turned around and run the other way for a few minutes or gone around the Rose Bowl on the other side, but instead I kind of slowly walked from a respectful distance back, waiting for it to get out of the way. The woman riding it was obviously not in very good control, though, and it took a while.
Next, running back by the Rose Bowl I saw John Mering coming the other way. I saw a head and a stride that looked like they belonged to him from a way off, but I didn't think it was likely that he'd be running around the Rose Bowl. It turns out that he lives in Pasadena now and is working as a geologist. He was out running with his roommate and stated that his goal was to run 3:45 this year, so good luck to him! I don't think I'll be much help as a training partner for a 3:45 guy, but I do feel good about getting in a decent semi-long run.
Thu, Fri, Sat September 2 - 4, 2010
Thursday: 60 minutes. I jogged to the gym and ran shod on the south field. I felt a little soreness in my knees, which is actually something I remember happening regularly when I ran in shoes on grass. I'm still looking for a good solution to the shoes/no shoes grass/dirt/roads problem. The North Field should open up again soon, so that might help.
Fri: Off
Sat: Alumni Meet. 27:07 for 3 Ian Tempo Loops (9:00, 9:00, 9:07)
I started feeling tired on the last one, but was okay to get through it. I've got a lot of work to do, but at least I'm in good enough shape to run workouts if I choose. Unfortunately this time put me more than a minute ahead of everyone on the team. Alums were me, Matt, Steve, Goose, Masha, which is a decent turnout but not enough to have an actual alumni team. About 7 miles total including warmup and cooldown.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010 (60 minutes)
I jogged from Alpine to Lacy this morning and started on some barefoot laps there. After about ten minutes, I got a sharp localized pain on the bottom of the second toe of my left foot. I checked to see if it was a barb or a bee sting, but I didn't see anything, so I kept running. After a minute it was still hurting, so I checked again and this time found a little pink patch that looked like it had been bitten by an insect in an obscure nook on that toe.
I was already worried about being stung by bees on the south field, since I've been stung there running barefoot many times before. I guess this wasn't a bee sting, but it was still severe enough that I didn't want to run barefoot any more. I finished the run in shoes, running for just over an hour with a couple of short breaks for the restroom, changing shoes, and examining my foot.
I felt okay. I would prefer to run in the evening when it gets cool around 6:30 PM, but I just took a part time job at a tutoring center that keeps me working at that hour during the week.
My options are to get up early and run or to run when it's hot. I'm not sure which I dislike more - the heat or getting up early. Getting up early would also let me run with the cross country team, but I'm not sure whether I want to do that just now, either, since I don't want to run workouts until I've done a solid, 400-minute training week without feeling strained, and I want to stay off sidewalks (the route from Alpine to Lacy can be done with at least half grass-on-the-side-of-the-road running, which I'm running in lieu of biking to the destination, since it saves time and I'm just jogging then anyway, but I might consider switching to always biking to grass in the future.)
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 (one hour)
I forgot to bring a watch or even to check the time before I began running, so I don't know precisely how long I ran. I ran barefoot laps on the south field until I began to feel my feet getting significantly chewed up.
The north field will be closed for another week, so I may have to start going to Lacy instead.
I did a little lifting afterwards, but nothing very significant.
Monday, August 9, 2010 (45 minutes)
Barefoot on the north field. The patch of invisible pointy sticky things in the southeast corner seems to be gone, so that's good. My foot felt good, and I felt good in general except that I had to dodge the softball players.
1500m: 4:23
Last Thursday I went to the Los Gatos All-Comers with JR and entered the 1500.
I haven't been running much, but I figured I could do a 5-minute mile without killing myself. My legs felt really empty right before we started, but I guess they always feel like that before a race. Once they fired the gun I just ran a normal race, abandoning plans to hold back.
70, 69, 71, 53 = 4:23
Being out of shape, what I found was that when I got to half way, I felt like I should feel if I'm going to run a significant negative split. At around 800m I was 20m back of the leaders, and they announced over the loudspeaker that the winner of the race would get a free pair of Mizuno shoes. For a second I thought I could actually bust out a big finish and win. But being out of shape, when I went to dig and go faster, I found my legs wouldn't respond. I could just barely hold pace. I was 6th or so.
I felt really pumped afterward. My lungs were burning for a good ten minutes, though. Also, I wore new DS trainers for the race, and I think the unbroken-in shoes bothered my foot some. It doesn't feel really bad now, but it feels like it's regressed some. I think this would have happened without the race because I noticed the different feeling in my foot before racing. I'll wear the shoes around walking for a while to break them in while still running in the old pair.
I took the next couple of days off to rest my foot.
Monday, August 2, 2010 (60 minutes)
First hour+ run since a long time! My legs were actually feeling pretty empty, but I think it's because I'm tired of cafeteria food and ate salad and bread all day.
New DS Trainers finally arrived in the mail today. I think I'll take tomorrow off before taking them for a spin.
Sunday, August 1, 2010 (70 minutes)
Very easy group run at a sports store in Sunnyvale. Shelley seemed to enjoy the group run, so hopefully she'll go back and have people to run with regularly. It was too much asphalt for me. They said we were running 1.5 miles to a trail, but the trail was an asphalt bike path with no dirt shoulder. I did 8 total with a Darcy, who had run for Santa Clara as an undergrad.
Saturday, July 31, 2010 (50 minutes)
Nice easy run, still dodging the cars parked on the wood chip trail for the tennis match. When will people learn that tennis is an extremely boring sport that should only be played on a Wii?
Friday, July 30, 2010 (55 minutes)
I must be doing something right because the foam under my right armpit is back.
Friday, July 20, 2010 (45 minutes)
Longest run in a while. Feeling good. My pace seems to vary widely, but it depends on my train of thought. I can still hit a good clip easily, but I can't maintain it like I used to, at least not without lots of effort, so I wind up speeding up when I'm thinking about something, then slowing down when reality settles in again.
Monday, July 19, 2010 (36 minutes)
Nice run around the grove. I keep saying I need new shoes and then not getting them. This has to end. I guess I'll just stop saying it.
Tuesday July 14, 2010 (30 minutes)
Woodchip trail for 30 minutes. Actually about 29 minutes for five laps.
I took an extended rest because I smacked my knee hard against a wall while rock climbing just after my last update. It never looked bruised or swollen, but still took a big chunk of time to heal. Now it feels pretty much better, but I definitely need new shoes.
Saturday, July 3 2010 (40 minutes)
Good 40 minute run around campus in the morning. The dirt trail along Stanford avenue has been improved out of existence, though.
In the afternoon I went climbing and banged my knee. It continued hurting enough on the 4th to keep me from running.
Friday, July 2, 2010 (20 minutes barefoot)
Yesterday afternoon, after running in the morning, I was assigned to lead the track activity with the campers. I would up running 4x200 at a decent clip (old mile pace), and was sore this morning, but the good kind of sore.
Since I did my longest run yet yesterday morning and a bonus workout in the afternoon, I decided to take it easy today with a 20-minute barefoot jog on the grass at Wilbur field. It felt good and my foot held up.
June 30 and July 1, 2010 (5 and 6 x grove)
I've moved up my run length gradually over the past week. Doing six laps actually felt fine this morning. That translates into a 35 minute run at about 7:00/mile, or maybe a little slower.
I think it will be a while before I truly feel comfortable running again, but I'm at least able to do it.
I've been running in shoes on a wood chip trail, and this seems to be working well for my foot. Going barefoot seems to be harder on it. My current pair of shoes is a little old, so I guess I need some new ones.
Also, I have to run with my work cell phone when I'm on duty. It naturally has a clock, so I was using that to see how much time has elapsed, and hence not lose track of how many laps I've run. I ran in the dark. To see the time, I opened up the phone and looked at the clock. When I closed the phone, the time was still displayed on the outside.
Later on, I hit a button on the outside of the phone accidentally and the time popped up again. So ten minutes (or so) later, I wanted the time. I figured it would be easier to hit the button on the outside of the phone than to open it, so I hit a button on the outside. Instead of the time, a little picture of a bell popped. I kept pressing buttons, trying to get the bell to go away and the time to pop up. Then I ran into a pole.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010 (5xgrove)
Longest run since starting some jogging two weeks ago. It's hot out, so I should try to get up earlier. Unfortunately, that will mean passing on crowding into one of the counselor's rooms after lights out to play Wii Baseball while whispering to avoid disturbing the sleeping students.
Other than the preposterous heat, I felt good. About 4 miles.
Monday, June 28, 2010 (4xgrove)
Easy run around the grove. Foot still not too bad. I don't feel any distinct pain, just slightly different sensation in my left foot than in my right. I think I'll hold off on making an appointment with the podiatrist.
I got about 1300m for this loop, meaning I did about a 3 mile run.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3841976
Saturday, June 26 2010 (24 minutes)
Four grove loops. I didn't get the actual time because I got a call on the last loop telling me I had to go look for some missing kids, and was too distracted to notice the exact time on my watch when I stopped running.
Foot felt good.
Friday, June 25 2010 (17 minutes)
Three laps of the grove in the morning. I started up with a ten minute run a week and a half ago and have built up to this. I'm still unsure what to make of my foot, but it doesn't seem to be noticeably worsening, so I'm going to hold off on the podiatrist for now.
My runs feel awkward because I'm used to being in much better shape, but I'm still enjoying them.
Day 6: Oceano to Pasadena
After a very long day, I'm done the trip and am just about to fall asleep on the couch at Alpine.
Day 5: San Simeon to Oceano
begnning this mrning, there was a profusiin of bug seemingly inten on ying into my eyeballs, or, from their poit of view, intent on not getting out of the way as my eyeballs smacked into them. Consequetnly, I stopped at Cayucas, 220 miles from LA byroute 1, for some sunglasses, food, water, and pooping. They were all quite satiafactory. The woman who soldme the sunglasses asked where I was going, then wanted to know if I would make it to LA before dark.
I followed the guidebook's suggested route today. It worked well, and I had a nice, easy ride. The wind was mostly at my back. I occassionally saw riders coming the other way, looking like they were working hard, just because the wi d was blasting into them on flat road.
The scenery was pretty dull compared to what I've been trough so far, but I was happy not to be exhAusted all day. Tomorrow is longer And hillier, but it marks a milestone in that it goesover the place where I crashed on my previous attempt to bike the coast. Assuming I survive, I'll have biked the entire way from SF to LA, just not all at once.
I'm staying at a hiker/biker campground tonight, and plan to get an early start tomorrow morning.
Day 4: Somewhere south of Big Sur to San Simeon
It's been rough again since my last, semi-euphoric update. After leaving Carmel, I went looking for a campsite 30 miles south. I never found it, and wasn't ready for the long hills in that section of road. I wound up riding maybe 40 miles before stopping because it was too dark to continue safely. I slept on a dirt trail by the side of the road. It was uncomfortable, and I only got a little sleep.
The next morning I was feeling down again. I had a rough 40 miles on the hills still ahead of me. Fortunately I got started early in the morning and there wasn't much traffic, which was especially important since there was a lot of road work going on.
The ride was pretty uneventful. The scenery was nice for the first 40 miles. The remainder of the ride into San Simeon was preety easy riding. I'm very saddle sore again, though, and my lower back is starting to bother me. My legs are pretty much fried. The motel roomseemed to improve my attitude a bunch last time, so I got another one tonight.
I'm matched right up with the guidebook now, and it's directions are easy to follow since there are mile markers by the side of the road and the. Book indicates what mile marker each stop is at. If I simply follow the book from here on out, I'd be at Leo carillo campground, not fAr from LA, in four days. It looks like there is only one more day with the rough hills I've had over the last 24 hours. Tomorrow is an easy day, so after that ill see how I feel and think about a schedule for the rest of the trip.
Day 3: Watsonville to Dr. Shapiro's hummingbird camp
I'm writing today's post preemptively because I don't expect there to be an electrical outlet at the secret campsite Ian told me about by email earlier today. In fact, at the moment I'm enduring the crappiest coffee shop in all of Carmel because was the only place I found a socket.
One of the high points of the day was when I woke up and squeezed my butt cheeks together. The were mch less sore than they had been ten hours ago as I went to sleep. I was able to join up with the path suggested by "Bicycling the Pacific Coast" early on. That was good to know that route I was on should actually work. Right now I'm navigating by switching between the guide book and Google maps, both on the iPhone. The Kindle version of the guidebook as okay as long as you are simply progressing serially, but flipping back and forth is slow, and the electronic book has 3000 pages, making jumping around difficult. Overall, this is much better than a compass and Rand McNally road map.
Today's ride has been much better than yesterday. I'm still saddle sore, but my legs feel much better and I'm enjoying the trip more. When I saw a sign on the beach that said, "Clean up after dog", I thought, "but it's not even my dog!" and laughed at how funny I am for the next two miles, whereas yesterday I would just have ignored it.
I took a scenic route through Monterey because the guide book said to, but it was a very beautiful ride along the coast with beaches, se lions, waves crashing dramatically against the rocks, etc.
The ride has been undulating, but nothing like the hill yesterday.
Day 2: Sunnyvale to Watsonville
I headed out around 9am, going south to Los Gatos, then cutting east towards the 101 in hopes of finding a way around the daunting hills ahead of me.
I eventually went over the hills on Hecker Pass, a single climb to 1300 feet. Coming down from there I arrived in Watsonville and got a motel room.
I'm feeling sore and exhausted. I was already feeling irritated and unmotivated by 11:30 this morning, when I stopped to buy some cherries by the side of the road. An hour-long break and some food improved me significantly. I think I have not been eating enough so far
my lower back is okay, but my butt is viciously sore, and my quads are sore, too. I regret not bothering to get into better shape before beginning. I thnk the thing to do now is to take my time, traveling shorter distances for the next few days.
I road 60 or 65 miles today due to my roundabout route, but according to Google maps it is only 90 miles from here to Berkeley. If I try to ride 70 or 80 miles a day for the rest of he trip, I think I could manage, but I'd be thinking just about how tired I am and how far I have to go the entire time. Hopefully with a coupleof shorter days I can adapt to the exerciseand enjoy the trip some more.
Today wasn't especially scenic. Most of the land I passed through was agriultural. I did go through the wine country Shelley tells me was featured in Sideways. I would have stopped at a couple wineries if I were in a better mood. I haven't been to one before. That's the sort of thin I'm talking about with slowing down and enjoying myself some more.
I'm typing these posts out from my iPhone, so there will doubtless be some mistakes I will not bother to correct, and they will be briefer than if I had a keyboard.
Day One: Berkeley to Sunnyvale
I spent the morning packing intermittently between playing with little strips of paper. In the afternoon I took a hike with Shelley, so I only got started riding around 5:30. I had an uneventful ride to Sunnyvale. There was lots of traffic, stop lights, wind, and a fence in the way. Other than that it was good, but I haven't been riding much and am not in good shape. About fifty miles total, taking about four hours all told.
Tomorrow I planon going down to the beach, hopefully avoiding large mountains. Small mountains are not an issue because small mountains are an oxymoron and do not exist.
May 15, 16, 2010 (Pac 10 Champs)
I've been sick for the last week or so, but got back to exercising some this weekend. I did 1 hour on the stationary each day.
This weekend I watched the Pac-10 champs at Cal. I missed the marquee event (men's 1500), but the rest of the meet was very good.
The best story of meet was actually the men's long jump. I was standing right in front of it, but not knowing much about long jump I wasn't paying much attention until they announced that Ashton Eaton was passing his jump, and was currently in the lead. Then a USC jumper got a few inches past his mark on the next round, and Eaton had a sloppy-looking jump that did not improve his mark. In the last round there were no improvements until the last jump, and it was Eaton. Now I stopped to really pay attention, since one of the best athletes in track and field at the moment was standing right across the track from me trying to win the event on his last jump. He ran down and had a really big-looking jump, but I heard one of the Oregon coaches (I had unintentionally picked a spot right next to where Oregon was hanging out) say it was 7.75, an improvement, but too short to beat the 7.80 that was leading. Eaton himself was staring anxiously over the official's shoulder as he measured the jump. There was a moment of tension, and then Eaton leaped up in the air pumping his fist, and they announced 7.81. Even I broke into a smile seeing that.
The distance on the day was Chris Derrick and Luke Puskedra in the 10,000. The whole field ran 71/72 until Derrick took the lead and started pushing it with 6 to go. It quickly went down to 5 guys, then to 4 with a mile to go. Puskedra was following behind three Stanford guys (Derrick, Elliot Heath, Jake Riley). With 400 to go Puskedra moved to the front, but it wasn't a very serious challenge and Derrick passed him back easily on the back stretch, as did Heath. Riley came past him with 200 to go, and when the Stanford guys realized they were clear for 1-2-3 they pretty much cross together in 29:10 with Puskedra a few seconds back. The women's race wasn't very interesting - Blood waited behind the other top runners until 2 to go and won easily.
The second day I watched with Ryan. Eaton won the high hurdles easy before taking second in the 100. An Oregon woman ran sub 51 in the 400, and the men's 400H was very fast (2 under 49, I think). The 800 was a fairly easy win for Wheating, who started moving up on the back stretch of the second lap, but didn't take the lead until 100 to go, but moved away from the field pretty strongly on the homestretch. The women's 5000 was a really tight race. The early pace was not fast, but they started flying in the second half. Blood stayed at the back of the lead pack, and didn't cover every move immediately. Going into the last lap she was about 7m back of the leader (whose name I forget), who was still looking good in front. Blood made it up to come up on her shoulder entering homestretch, but they battled all the way to the line before Blood narrowly won. The men's 5000 was pretty much a repeat of the 10,000, except AJ Acosta and Michael Coe were in there. When the same 3 Stanford guys moved in the same way, Acosta hung on to take third in a hard, fast race, beating out Riley, and Puskedra again faded (low 13:40's for Derrick to win, and everyone was doubling).
The men's 4x400 was good too, until the USC stud anchor came from behind to win it over Arizona State.
Definitely fun to watch some good track again.
Thursday, May 6, 2010 (60 minutes stationary)
I was intending an AM/PM workout, but I wound up working until 12:30 AM. Did 60 minutes on the bike in the morning.
Saturday May 1, 2010 (60 minutes bike)
Up Claremont to Grizzly Peak. On the way up, I decided that the first reasonable "you're there" landmark would be where I turned around, but for some reason I don't understand at all, when I got to Grizzly Peak I turned left and kept going up a ways longer (to the stables).
My heart rate was in the high 180s the last few minutes approaching Grizzly Peak. I don't think Will's can even get that high.
PM - 15 min core, 15 min lifting, 30 min easy stationary bike
Saturday, April 24, 2010 (50 minutes stationary)
I'm going to try to walk as little as possible, the opposite strategy to what I've been using recently. I've been walking the two miles to work (and back) each day in hopes of exercising my foot, but since I get a dull pain after about half a mile of walking, I'm thinking it's more likely that I'm just keeping myself from healing efficiently.
I'll have to fix my bike, though. One of the spokes is basically tearing out of the wheel's frame - the frame itself actually has a tear in the metal. It's also rough and bumpy everywhere, and I get flats at a ridiculous rate.
Today I did some core, a little lifting, and 50 minutes on the stationary. My heart rate got up to 170, which I take to be more a sign of how out of shape I am than how hard I was working.
Friday, April 23, 2010 (1 X Bolota Asmerom)
I got a call from Ogliore claiming there was a quality track meet going on 400m from my apartment. Turns out he was right. I went to the track the way I usually do, through the gym. It turned out this was the athletes' area, so I jogged through it trying to look like a track star and fortunately no one asked any questions. Ryan and I proceeded to mock all the fast people for a good while.
Afterward I went for a jog on the baseball field. Even though my foot felt good in Pasadena, it felt bad again tonight. Actually the area of pain increased, so I may have to go see someone. On the plus side, after I ran two laps Bolota Asmerom walked out. I ran past, looked back, stopped, and said, brilliantly, "Are you Bolota?" (I have no idea whether I pronounced it correctly.) He chatted with me for a few minutes as I helped him set up some hurdles to do drills. He personally recommended the Vibram shoes to me. Then I ran a couple more laps and stopped because my body hates me.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
30 minutes or so of core, 30 minutes on the exercise bike, lunges.
This is a very modest workout, but it was enough that I felt good leaving the gym. Kevin Dick came by and chatted for a while, too, so that was nice.
Saturday, March 6, 2009 (10 minutes)
I haven't yet resolved my foot problems, and after today I feel like I have not even made any significant progress.
After ten minutes of running, it's still difficult for me to say just what it is a feel in my left foot. It's not really pain, but it's decidedly strange. It feels like stuff is stuck on the bottom of it, so that I'm stepping on a clump of mud stuck to the ball of my foot with each stride. When I check, there's nothing there. That's just the way my foot feels at the moment.
Currently, I can walk about a mile before my foot starts to get sore. I frequently walk further because the soreness is not very significant.
If my foot doesn't improve in another month, I'll probably feel like it's time to go see a doctor, but in the mean time I don't believe they'd have anything substantial to say.
I noticed recently that when I sit at my computer I tend to put a lot of weight on the ball of my left foot because I sit on an pilates ball, and it's too big, so that I can't put both my feet square on the ground at the same time and sit on top the ball. I wind up putting my left foot out in front of my pushed up against the wall, and that might be contributing, because it feels like a lot of pressure. So I'll get a smaller ball.
My weight is 160 pounds now after a relatively long period of relative inactivity, and that extra impact can't be helpful. So the other part of my recovery has to be to go to the gym and do some regular cross training, and at least feel that I'm physically fit, even if I'm not going to be running 90-minute long runs in the near future.
Foot problems
The bottom of my left foot is swollen. After running just one mile tonight, I stopped because my left foot was feeling strange. The feeling was as if a clod of grass or mud had gotten stuck on the bottom of my foot, but there was nothing there causing it. When I stopped a little longer and looked at both my feet, I could see how different my left was from my right. When I pressed against the ball of my right foot, I could feel the fatty pad, muscle underneath, etc. On my left foot I could feel basically no structure at all. The texture of the skin was different, and it was difficult to curl my toes on my left foot.
I'm not sure what all this means. I would go to a doctor, but I'm not ready for that yet because I suspect they'll have nothing useful to say. For the time being, I'm going to wait it out a little longer and see if this persists. I don't know whether the foot swelled in response to some other damage, or whether the swelling itself is the problem.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
I walked maybe six miles to get to my MCAT class today (teaching, not taking). Even that bothered my foot enough for me to be worried about it. I'll hit up the pool before physics class tomorrow (taking, not teaching).
Fri/Sat Jan 22/23
I got about 10 minutes in on Friday before the ball of my foot started to hurt, so I stopped short. Saturday I did some good gym work, but nothing else.
Tbursday, January 21, 2010
I hurt my foot when I went home. There was a foot of snow on the ground, so I ran shod on the road. I felt fine while I was there, but the first day I came back to California the pad on my foot hurt. So I've taken some time off. I wasn't running much or vigorously in Maryland, either, and my fitness is very poor now.
I did another 25-minute multi-pace tempo with the Strawberry Canyon Track Club today. Feldman came out, too, which was nice. I was also glad I showed up on the first day he came out to run with the group, since I haven't been to SCTC since December.
It was raining and cold, and I felt pretty horrible running. But I did get through a 25 minute tempo without pain or (it seems) reinjuring myself, so some good did come of it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)