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.
Sunday, September 5, 2010 (80 minutes)
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?