The artificial surface field right next to the physics building is pretty convenient for sneaking out for a run. December, and it's still not cold.
After a couple minutes of running, I noticed that my lungs were hurting, and I wasn't sure why. I'm not in top shape, but I'm fit enough to go for a run. Then, a minute later, I realized my lungs weren't really hurting at all. I've just moved to the coast that has seasons.
I ran three times in this window, I think. I've been trying to go easy on my ankle. The side-effect is that I feel very good on all my runs, since I'm perpetually well-rested.
Did my now-standard run from the apartment to the practice field (about 7 minutes), laps on the practice field, and back.
I wore shoes to give my ankle a little support. It's still tender. It didn't bother me running, but I think I'll take tomorrow off to be on the safe side.
My body's not doing so great. I woke up with a mild crick in my neck and a pain in my left hamstring. Once I started running, I realized my right ankle was bothering me, too. Finally, the ball of my left foot doesn't hurt or bother me, but it still feels slightly different than the right foot. I think I'll try to cross-train tomorrow.
I ran on the artificial practice field both Friday and Saturday. It wasn't easy! On Friday, I looked up on the athletic department website what time the field was listed as "open recreation". I went during that time, but it was closed, locked, and vacant. I went in the gym, where the person at the desk tried to tell me that I couldn't run on the field during "open recreation". That just meant that I could reserve the field if I had an entire club that wanted to use it. As I began to indicate that I didn't believe this was a very viable interpretation of the term "open recreation", I was referred to an office. In the office, the person I talked to apologized for having the field locked, but expressed surprise because "no one had ever really wanted to use it during this time before." So they sent someone out to unlock it, but he didn't have a key. At this time it started to rain, so I stood around in the rain waiting for him to walk all the way back, and someone else to come with a key. It was finally unlocked - all so I could run half an hour barefoot in the rain.
From the apartment, I found a mostly-grassy out-and-back that takes just about half an hour. Nothing equivalent to an arroyo tempo loop, though.
I figured out that there's a pretty grassy path from my house up the median on Charles street to the baseball field, and I also successfully had my first time getting kicked off the baseball field by a self-righteous bitch who did not even want to run on it herself; she only wanted to use it to stand around in a polo shirt holding a clipboard.
Snuck onto the baseball field. I'm not sure how serious they are about not letting anyone use it, but no one bothered me for half an hour, at least.
Did the usual run around the neighborhood. This was pretty disappointing, because I wasn't really expecting to do a run today so much as a canoe trip. Thanks for the letdown, Irene. Worst. Disaster. Ever.
On Thursday, someone broke into my parents' car (which I was using) to steal the GPS. I found out when I was leaving school, and spent the rest of the day dealing with it. That set me behind for studying for my prelim on Saturday, so Friday I spent all day freaking out and trying to figure out all of EM. Then, Saturday, I took the anticlimactic test (it was pretty easy), but then didn't run because there was a hurricane.
I felt really drained today after dealing with administrative things at school. I also got so wrapped up in them that I didn't eat lunch and was pretty depleted by running time. Consequently, I just tried to get through this run. I took my now-typical route from my parents' house.
I took today off, except for walking through sketchy sections of Baltimore because I was carpooling into the city with my dad, then the bus wouldn't stop for me.
Repeated yesterday's run.
Today was pretty much an endless stream of failures. I was late to the first day of school because there was lots of traffic. Then I couldn't find any parking, and when I did it was $15. Then I got lost. No problem. I foresaw this difficulty the night before and loaded a map onto my Kindle. But in the morning, the Kindle wouldn't turn on. I showed up to grad school orientation an hour late and mumbled something about getting stuck in a forest, and everyone laughed at me. Then I couldn't get the keys to my office or the building because I didn't have enough cash for the key security deposit. I couldn't find my graduate student mentor, so I ate lunch alone in a corner. My victory for the day came when, during lab TA orientation, I correctly identified the probability of rolling either a 1 or a 2 with a die, but I quavered on the expected number of 1's or 2's in ten rolls. Then I couldn't figure out how to use Excel to make histograms. Then I got really bored and tried to make an arch out of 20 dice, but failed. Then we all got locked out of the building, and I was the only one who didn't have a key. Then I got lost again trying to find my way back to the $15 dollar parking, where the machine wouldn't accept my credit card and I got trapped in the garage before sitting in traffic for another hour.
So yeah, after that I went for a run. It was pretty cool.
I've moved to Baltimore, where I plan to stay for quite some time. I guess that makes it a decent time to take a crack at starting up this blog again.
30 minutes starting and ending at my parents house, staying on grass medians.
gmaps pedometer
I felt fine. Warmed up easily and kept steady and unstrained.
It was wet and hot following an impressive afternoon thunderstorm. I don't think I ran quickly at all, although gmaps pedometer + imprecise reading from the stove clock suggests sub-7:00 average pace. If that calculation has any meaningful implications, I'm just going to ignore them like you do the nutritional information at McDonalds.
Thu: 35 minutes on the south field, pretty easy
Fri: 2x1600m on the track in flats.
The goal for this workout was to go for two or three 1600m in 5:20, depending on how I felt, and not to overdo it. On each repeat, I started out a little too slow, then sped up a little too much. After a ten-minute warm up, I ran the first one in 5:15, coming through the half in 2:35 and deliberately slowing down to avoid working too hard before I got deep into the workout. The first 200 was a tad slower than 40, though, so I had a hard time locking into pace.
On the second one, I started out slow again, running 41 for 200, then speeding up too much to run 5:11 for the whole thing. After that, my legs felt drained and I had to poop, so I stopped before doing a third. I think I should have had some breakfast. It was 1:00PM and I hadn't eaten yet, and I think that's part of the reason my legs were pooped. Also, I'm out of shape and don't run more than 35 minutes consecutively.
Finished with 2x200 in 30, 28. Also managed to tell some prefrosh to go to Harvey Mudd.
35 minutes on the South Field, then a little core work and an hour of stationary bike. I'd like to train more, but I feel like 35 minutes is all my body can take right now. I'm not sure if the stationary bike is really worth the time.
The North Field has jumped the shark. The southeast corner of the field is completely filled with pointy feet-jabbing things. I haven't figured out where they're coming from, but until I do I'm stuck with the south field.
I ran just before work, and then did a little gym work after work.
I am still a little worried about the pad on my left foot. It seemed to be pretty much improved earlier this year, but regular running is taking a little toll on it. It's not really bothering me per se, but I do feel like I need to continue to monitor it.
I did 35 minutes on the south field, then a little core/gym work. After thinking there lots of hot chicks running around at the meet the other day, I looked out the gym window this afternoon and the women's water polo team was taking their team photo, and it seemed to be fully of hotties, too. So maybe it's not track. Maybe I'm become increasingly horny due to recent low internet connectivity.
69 - 69 - 67 - 51 ish
I am getting to be very predictable when I run.
Just as with every track race I run, I went out in the very back. I was in the slow heat of the 1500, and there were 30 people in the race. This means I had to work my way up past a lot of runners.
On the first lap, I was pretty doubtful that I was going to be up near the front by the end of the race, as I had expected to be based on seeds (I seeded myself at 4:20, and this was tied for the top seed in the heat). There was a big clump of people in front of me going too fast for me to catch up.
I continued passing people the whole time, running pretty much steady. I would sit on someone only for a short while before moving up. I had the strange feeling that I wasn't doing very well and wasn't going very fast, but I was moving up towards the front of the race nonetheless.
Around 900 in I could finally see where the front of the race was. Everyone must had simply slowed down considerably. There was a guy in orange with a good jump on everyone and a pack of five or six chasing him. I caught the pack on the homestretch going into the bell lap, but one runner had broken away from the pack and caught the orange guy.
I passed the orange guy on the curve to move into second place, and began thinking about how hard to move to catch the last guy in front. It turned out to be a moot point. He had a lot left and I didn't gain a step on him, but I did hold off everyone behind me to finish second in the heat. My arms were heavy and I felt like I couldn't kick at the end, but considering my recent training I'm very pleased with this race.
The other Caltech runners had up-and-down performances. Stephanie and Sylvia both ran well in the final heat of girls. Will Livingston also had a nice race behind me in the same heat (well, the first 200m were in front of me). He held off Nolan Shaheed by one second, running a PR 4:31. Shaheed set a new master's record running about 4:32. That's pretty awesome for a guy who's 61 years old!
I went back in the mid-day shuttle that was picking up long distance runners, so I didn't watch the 5000, but it was fun to spend a day at a good, mid-size track meet. There's an incredibly high proportion of hot people at these things.
I was just about to write an entry about how I saw the flags up on the south field, started thinking about people racing, and decided to do a 5000m time trial that wound up going 5:12 / 5:01 / 4:51 / 31 = 15:35, but I just wasn't into it. So, does this mean I'm too old for April Fools jokes now?
Mon, Tu: 35 minutes each, with some "pre-tempo"
Wed: My right foot was a little sore yesterday, so I'm taking today off.
I didn't realize I forgot to update the blog for almost an entire week. I did 30 minutes each day until the weekend, then 35 each on Saturday and Sunday.
Tu: 30 minutes on the south field. Felt fine
Wed: another 30 minute run. Pretty slow, but felt okay.
I just signed up for the PP Invite on April 9, and seeded myself at 4:20 for the 1500m.
Fri: off
Sat: north field 30 minutes. It was late. I had to sneak on, and it was cold so I had to wear shoes. Otherwise, a nice run.
Sun: off
Mon: 30 minutes south field, including assisting the incompetent track coaches with getting the water off the high jump mats (hint: stand on them).
North field. I did just a hint of pre-tempo towards the end of this run. I've been feeling better these last two weeks than the two weeks before them.
South field - the north field was locked. There were some kids have a kid track meet but any time our paths were about to cross they figured out who was boss fast enough.
Last 10 minutes were at a good clip. I felt good enough that I might want to try a real but modest tempo soon. "Real" here simply means there's a measured distance and a stopwatch involved, not that there's some particular standard to attain.
30 minutes on the north field, with three deliberately fast laps at the end. I went pretty hard on those last three laps, because once I started picking up the pace, I figured I might as well push through hard since I'd only be running fast for a few minutes. I'll think of this sort of thing as pre-tempo. By the time my feet, ankles, achilles tendons, knees, IT bands, sore lower back, spasming upper back, sinus infection, and receding hairline finally decide it's okay to train for real, I'll hopefully have enough fitness that on the first tempo run my lungs don't just give up, saying that they never got the memo on this and simply aren't going to participate in heinous abuse.
Then I had a long talk with Julie and did a little weight room stuff.
I did a jog on the north field, feeling pretty good. Afterwards, I did a little core, then decided it wouldn't kill me to run faster a little bit on the track. I did 4x200 going 34, 32, 30, 29. None of it felt good, but I guess it really shouldn't considering I haven't done this in a long time. I enjoy the knowledge that I got to use a couple of different gears, even if they were rusty ones.
I've been running 30-40 minutes most days, but I don't feel like I'm getting very far. My feet semi-complain when I do more, and in general my body doesn't seem to be up for hard training. Still, I feel at least reasonably physically fit - sometimes there's a fast 10-minute segment in there that's keeping just a modicum of fitness around. I'm going to see if I can start stretching out the runs to be a little bit more serious in the next few weeks.
Easy run around the north field. Felt fine, but my ankles are still a little sore.
I've been feeling really up and down lately. My sinus infection still isn't completely gone. My ankles have been a bit sore, I guess from running on trails and streets with Will and Matt.
I really love the social side of running, especially since I'm not in college surrounded by peers any more, but most people don't want to run thirty laps on the infield just for the pleasure of my company while they do so.
All my tutoring was canceled today, so I went to track practice and gave some tips to the javelin throwers. The 40-minute run felt fine. The last 5 were quick, and aside from some soreness in my ankles, nothing complained very much.
Thu 3: stopped after 7 minutes. My right achilles was tender.
Fri 4: stopped after 10 minutes for the same reason. The achilles seemed stronger than yesterday, but I didn't want to push my luck. I did the eccentric calf exercises. In general I have been feeling a bit messed up since being sick last weekend. I still have lingering sinus trouble and am just feeling off. Maybe I'll take this weekend to rest.
Sat 29 - 40 minutes
Sun 30 - off, sick
Mon 31 - off, sick
Tue 1 - 20 min
Wed 2 - 30 min
Hopefully it's residual from being sick, but I felt tight and sore today, and decided to stop after half an hour. Metabolically I felt fine, but my lower back was very sore while I was sick, and my knees and legs were sore, too. Now that mostly feels better, but I was generally tight, and my right achilles tendon ached some, and the bottom of my left foot had some dull pain.
The nice thing about the South Field is they've put some money into the athletic department recently, and this includes a large digital clock hanging over the pool. It displays the time to the second and is visible from the track, so it's okay that I lost my watch, and I don't have to try to squint through the glare at the analog clock that mostly hidden behind some trailer thing.
The bad thing is that it's raping my toes. I've put bandaids on two toes, but by the end of the run today several more toes had a surface layer of skin scraped off, I suppose by the nasty bits of grass.
Other than that, this run was fine. I did a few little pickups in the middle because I felt like I was jogging a little too much. There was a little soreness on the outside of my right knee, so I did some foam roller and IT band stretches afterward.
Mon Jan 24: 45 minutes around the Rose Bowl with John
Tue Jan 25: 40 minutes on the South field
Wed Jan 26: 30 minutes North field
Thu Jan 27: 40 minutes South field
I've increased the distance slightly, from 35 to 40 minutes for a "normal" run. Still feeling pretty good, but I'm unambitious at the moment.
Also, some time last weekend I ran a 6:38 beer mile.
I've been pretty consistent with the 35 minutes. It's feeling good, so maybe I can run a little longer, as long as I'm careful about it.
I hit up the north/south field each day. I've mostly been feeling good, but on Saturday I felt tired and depleted.
I forgot my watch, so I ran barefoot on the north field until it felt like I was done. Maybe half a hour. Felt fine.
I ran on the track, mostly because there were still signs saying the south field was closed, and there were a bunch of guys there working on it. As I left, though, I saw that the north field has finally been reopened, so I'll move there for tomorrow.
The run felt fine. My back is still a little tender, but it didn't bother me while running, and when I timed one lap near the end of the run I was going about 6-minute pace.
Through the arroyo with Megumi. I hurt my back a little on Friday, somehow tweaking some muscles in the middle of my upper back. Despite some residual soreness, I felt good on this run, and my back isn't bothering me any more.
There's a good, pretty-much continuous, mostly non-frozen strip of grass along the sidewalks at my parents' new house, so I did an easy 20 minutes this morning. I didn't bring any running shorts with me, so I ran in khakis, then went to Target afterwards.
