up and running

A Week in Review

2008-01-20T16:48:00.000-08:00

Monday, January 14: A delicious 10km evening jaunt. Felt good - relaxed with no foot pain.

Tuesday, January 15: 4:3opm, 20' warmup, 30' tempo (covering 4.75 miles according to gmap), 15 cooldown. 15-16 km total. Felt ok. Kinda tired from work and arch of right foot a little sore.

Wednesday, January 16: 12-13km easy. Run down to Ness's house, then 10km with her. Comfortable pace, felt good.

Thursday, January 17: workout with Mike. 5pm. 4 x 7' at 15k race pace, off 1'. 20' up, 15' down. 14km total. Money in the bank.

Friday, January 18: 6pm. 50' easy, Hans Solo, save pour le ipod. Musical accompaniment: David Gray and Led Zeppelin. Right arch hurt good. Stop running. Stretch plantar fascia and pain go. Keep running. Run home. 11km's richer.

Saturday, January 19th: 10am. Workout with Mike. 20 x 1' off of 1' rest. 16' up 15' down. 13km. Snowy, cold morning. No foot pain. Good.

Sunday, January 20th: 8:50am. Long run with Tristan from my house. Meet Mike and Paul 33' into run. Conversational looping around UBC and Spanish Banks and Balaclava Park. Total time = 100 minutes; total distance =~23km. Kinda tired and sleepy. Legs heavy. Good to be done.

Weekly total of ~100km. Total time~ 7.75 hours. Avg speed of ~4:39km. Range of 5:55/mile to 8:30/mile.

Good to be getting back in the swing of things. Happy with training. Just trying to build a foundation of aerobic fitness, so did not push workouts too hard. Biked to and from work everyday.

Need to stretch legs, with particular attention to calves. Ice foot. May run Steveston 8km next weekend. May not. Will decide by Thursday. Not worried about foot but rather fitness.

The wheel rolls on.

existential embrace

2008-01-08T21:42:00.000-08:00

God damn it. Sickness and injury abound. A cold then a sinus infection and now a lower back injury. Do things really happen in threes? And can I articulate a complete thought from my fragmented mind?

And so it is 2008. And eight. Wait. That second sentence makes sense in more ways than one. Still waiting to log my first run of the year. First half marathon coming up in a little over a month and I would like to PB. In fact, I actually PB everyday - unfortunately it goes on my toast in the form of peanut butter.

So what do you know? Why do I write this blog? Lately, the vanity of it has really gotten to me and "gotten" really is a real word. I like the idea of documenting my training but I don't actually seem to be doing that. That begs question, "what am I really doing?" Am I writing it because I am hoping that someone will read it? Am I hoping that someone other than myself will notice that I wrote $31 rather than $31 million? Is this ego masturbation? Why do I insist on writing only interrogative sentences?

I did manage to make a few New Year's resolutions. This would be an appropriate time and place to outline said resolutions. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen. I can't let that happen. Because, you see, you don't really deserve to hear those resolutions. I mean what have you, gentle but lazy and voyeuristic reader, actually ever done for me? Yes, it's true that I have been remiss in updating this blog and yes, it's true that a few of you will occasionally peruse these rambling, but the latter is the cause of the former and the latter simply is not good enough anymore. Nothing ever is for the consumer in us. The consumer of information that insatiably feeds on the electronic alphabet soup of cyberspace and leaves us in our desk chairs, our bodies pudgy and restless and our souls weary. I am you and you are me. And Jamie Lynn is pregnant.

Besides the obvious fact that you likely have no idea what I am talking (and neither do I) you are probably now wondering one of two things: 1) Has he lost his marbles? 2) What do I owe this quack anyways? To the first thought I can only say this: I am not quite sure that I ever had all of my marbles in the first place (and where does that stupid figure of speech come from anyway?). And to the second thought, I offer this: with readership, gentle reader, comes a certain responsibility and a kind of personal debt for the temporary keeping of the wanderlustful, inquisitive mind. As a reader, one must trust a writer, not unlike a guide, to take oneself on a journey of the mind and imagination and the debt that a reader owes is his/hers full attention and commitment to see the journey through to the end. Now, perhaps you are not looking for that kind of time here. Maybe you are just looking for the cold, hard facts. Julian ran 15km in 65 minutes at an average heart rate of 150 bpm. He felt tired and his calves were cramping. His mind was wondering. Well, maybe this ain't your cup of john (that's right "john"; it makes as much sense as "joe") then. If transparency and facts are what you are looking for maybe you should just pick up a copy of the Vancouver Sun and get your daily dose of the Facts. The Truth. You're not gonna find it here.

2007-08-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

All Doped Out:
Thoughts on the Plight of the War on Doping in Sports

With the recent hum and ha of the doping scandals of the Tour de France (TdF), it is difficult to not feel more than slightly discouraged about the current state of doping in professional sports. Surely it is unprecedented to have three riders expelled from the TdF in three days with either positive tests or doping suspicions, but the masses should know that this is only the tip of the iceberg of the drug problem in professional sports.

A positive test and another scapegoat, a rotten apple for the sport in the arena of public opinion. Fingers are pointed, names are called and the war on doping is applauded for having caught another senseless cheater. The war wears on. However, something is missed. A lack of understanding prevails.

Most people simply cannot fathom the life of a professional athlete, a life where 20+ hour training weeks, isolation from family and friends, chronic fatigue and self inflicted pain and suffering are the norms—a life where daily caloric expenditures can reach upwards of 10,000 kilocalories resembling a sedentary counterpart’s weekly expenditure. The happy pigs cannot identify with the discontented Socrates.

The war on doping has much in common with the United States war on terrorism. Not only are they futile endeavors but both breed the same kind of “us or them” mentality. You are either with us or against us, Bush once said.

As long as there is sport, there will be ergogenic (performance enhancing) aids. Athletes have always found ways to gain competitive edge whether it has been the modern use and abuse of testosterone and EPO in endurance sports or the Ancient Romans fondness of goats’ blood, and pig testicles, which were thought to be rich in testosterone. The current reality is that very few people in the lay public the pervasiveness of drug abuse in sport, particularly in sports which have lower testing.

Now in the wake of this year’s TdF doping scandals, anti-doping federations of various countries are promising to tighten laws and improve testing protocols. The chairman of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), which alone has spent more than $31 on doping research, Richard W. Pound maintains that WADA has made significant strides in the global campaign on doping and that the gap on cheaters is closing. The adoption of the WADA code in 2003 by nearly all international Olympic federations and national Olympic committees was a unified world movement against doping in sports. A previous problem had been coordination between various governing bodies on testing protocol, criteria and methods.

A fundamental problem with anti-doping measures is the very nature doping control: new doping methods must precede new doping tests. Athletes and drug doctors will always be at least a full stride ahead of the WADA stakeholders. This vicious cycle is the reason why only a small percentage of dopers are caught.

While legalizing doping would level the playing field, the ethical implications would be far reaching. The most obvious is the message that we would be giving to young athletes: it is ok to cheat. In which case the first step would be to redefine exactly what constitutes “cheating.” Can we not educate young athletes on the dangerous side effects of PEDs and allow them to make informed decisions? Do the risks outweigh the benefits?

Regardless of the approach we take to doping in sports, an underlying question will remain: where are our values? If the war on doping is to succeed the approach must not be focused on catching the cheaters but changing the cheaters. We must recognize the drug doping dilemma as a part of a larger problem: we live in a society that is so fixated on success and power that individuals are willing to risk their lives in order to gain material wealth.

Who ate all the humble pie?

2007-07-18T23:44:00.000-07:00

It was a larger bite out of the humble pie than I would have liked, but last week’s 1500m race taught me an important lesson: train your weak points. I only wish the Australian national cricket team had been there to share the pie with.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting too much from myself in just my third attempt at contesting the metric mile. Leading up to the race, I hadn’t done very much 1500m specific training, my training had been in a bit of lull and I simply was not mentally prepared for such a short race. Any other excuses? Did I mention it was only my third 1500m race?

Despite my lack of preparation (and abundance of excuses) I had at least hoped for decent effort and a time that reflected that. A sub 4:20 performance was at the top of my race wish list.

The funny thing about running is that you never know what kind of day you’re gonna have until you actually start running. Even warm-ups can be misleading. I’ve had some of my best workouts and races after whimpering through warm-ups I thought would never end.

“I think I feel pretty good,” I thought to myself on the ride out to the race.

After an abbreviated warm-up of10 minuters of jogging, a quick bathroom break, and a couple of rushed strides I was getting ready to toe the line.

Jamie, a running friend who came to watch the race (who, with sub 30 minute 10,000m to his name, is no slouch), informed me that there was a pacemaker in the field. Apparently a high school boy was being paced to run 4:04. Looking at the start list, I could see many predicted sub 4:10 performances. After calculating the pace per 400m required to run sub 4:10 (~66 seconds) in my head and remembering what I had averaged for 6 x 400m off of 3 minutes recovery in my last interval session ( 68 seconds, in case you were wondering), I decided not to try sticking with the lead group.

I remember looking at the other athletes on the start line, seeing faces of determination and focus and feeling an odd sense of detachment. I took comfort in the fact that the race would be over soon - in less than 4 minutes and 20 seconds if all went well.

The gun finally went and the field accelerated from the line. Less than 100m in I knew that it wasn’t going to be a good one. My breathing was too labored, my legs were too heavy and my mind was too weak to handle the pain that lay ahead.

“61…62…63…64…65…66,” I heard the starter’s splits as we came through 400m.

“Shit,” I thought to myself as I watched the pacemaker go through in 62 with the last man of the lead group in 64.

I came through in 66 and started crying or if I didn’t I at least wanted to. From that point on, it was survival mode.

800m in 2:16-2:17 (pb)

1200m in 3:41.

Line at 4:27.

I collapsed on the infield and lay there for awhile, bathed in my own sweat, struggling to catch my breath. I looked around at the other athletes sprawled out on the infield.

Several athletes in the race had PB’d. Kapil ran an impressive 4:17, while Tik ran with the lead group to power home in 4:08 – very solid performances by both.

Tik, running strong (left); Me, in a world of pain (middle); Kapil, motoring home (right)

Looking around at the other competitors I felt overcome by an odd mixture of emotions: disappointment, embarrassment and, somehow, hope. I knew I could run better than I did. Seeing the looks “PB elation” on other competitors faces reminded me why I decided to race and why I will continue to race.

Starting the cooldown jog, I was already thinking about all the weak point training I was going to do in preparation for my next attempt at the metric mile. Sub 4:20, I swear…

The Call Out

2007-06-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

I would like to call out the three people that read this blog on a computer related query. My hope is to get some constructive discussion going on in the comments section of this page.

I feel that introductions are in order. Adam, Henry, and Matt: thanks for reading this. Adam, meet Henry and Matt. Matt, meet Henry and Adam. Henry, meet Adam and Matt.

Okay, now that the intro's are done the query. First, it would be prudent to preface the query with a brief story.

Here goes. Back in Oct. 2006 I turned 25. In lieu of birthday gifts, I requested monetary donations to fund a laptop computer from members of my immediate family. I had been eyeing the Dell 640M. However, at the time I did not have enough of my own money to facilitate the purchase. I therefore waited. And waited.

Now, removed from academia with several months of full time work behind, I have the money and I am ready to make the purchase. This is where the query comes in:

What kind of laptop should I buy? Are Macs the way of the future? What are some basic requirements I should look?

I am looking to spend roughly $1000. I would use the computer for Microsoft Office programs and internet for noble ventures such as this and retrieving scholarly articles (no others!). I would like something that is light weight and portable (I guess in a way all laptops are). Also, I would like the computer to have decent speed (good processor + good RAM = good speed?)
I understand that when it comes to processors, Intel Core Duo are the way to go? My whole life I have had to put up with a slow neural processor--I do not want to deal with a slow computer!

Anyways, the reason I have called you three out (aside from the fact that you are the only people who read this at least once in a blue moon) is that I consider you all to be computer savvy. By computer savvy, I mean that you know a buttload more about computers than I do. I keep meaning to go to Chapters to pick up the computers for dummies book...

I appreciate whatever comments and suggestions you can offer!

Out of hiding

2007-06-09T16:23:00.000-07:00

I'm slowly creeping back into shape here. It always good to have a fresh supply of motivation. So if you're looking for some, look no further than this video.

The Adventures of Kenya and Bronco

2007-02-21T18:28:00.000-08:00

Somehow, dogs have become a recent theme in my life. Or perhaps motif is the appropriate word. Maybe it's because I am dog-sitting for my brother's dog, Bronco. Or maybe it's because I am as sick as one.

This week has been The Adventures of Kenya and Bronco at the house here. They both enjoyed a well-behaved trip to the park today. Their favourite activities include the following:

Begging for food together
Eating together
Napping on couches and beds together
Play-fighting together
And trips to the park together

The dogs compliment each other quite nicely. Bronco's laid-back, lackadaisical attitude meshes well with Kenny's intense in-your-face, attention-demanding behaviour. They are both currently napping (Kenya in the living room and Bronco in the kitchen), no doubt recovering from their trip to the park.

As for me, I am recovering from a nasty head cold that has recently afflicted me. Too tired to leave the house (save for trips to the park), I am forced to spend my days indoors, perched on my desk chair before the computer screen, watching letters become words and words become sentences, gradually filling up the white space on the page until there is nothing left to write...

Hereditarily speaking...

2007-02-08T21:06:00.000-08:00

Research has shown that VO2 max can be improved by as much 20-30% depending on initial fitness level. Thus, the expression "great athletes are born not made" was born (or made). Some may call this a defeatist attitude others may plainly deny what the research supports. Does the role that heredity plays in determining who succeeds in physical pursuits only leave the floundering athlete to blame his/her parents? And what the hell does this have to do with my VO2 Max test results?

Here are the results:

VO2 Max: 66.7ml/kg/min.
HR Max: 193 bpm
HR AT (anaerobic threshold) 164-169bpm
VO2AT: 51.8ml/kg/min (78% of max)

My VO2 Max may best be referred to as a "peak VO2" since my oxygen consumption had not plauteaued at cessation of the test. In other words, I may have been able to squeeze out an extra couple of mls.

According to Nieman, one in six people have the genetic ability to reach V02 Max values of 67ml/kg/min. One in 40,000 (with training) may reach scores in the 80s. So how should I interpret the results?

Of course, the relative importance of VO2 Max in aerobic performance is now well understood. A much better predictor of performance is lactate threshold or what some have referred to as lactate threshold velocity (the velocity one can run at just before blood lactate levels increase exponentially).

VO2 Max values have become something of a pissing contest in endurance circles. 66.7ml/kg/min. What does that tell me? What would be interesting would be to compare multiple VO2 Max test values to performance in key races (for example the first half marathon) and determine what correlation exists between the test values and performance (as indicated by the point system).

Prefontaine, when you get the chance, please either send me the pictures or post them yourself.

VO2 to the Max:

2007-02-08T10:57:00.000-08:00

Today is the day of my treadmill VO2 Max test in the Buchanan Exercise Science Lab. It will be interesting to compare the results to my two bike VO2 Max tests (62.2 and 56.1 mL/kg/min). Hopefully the results will help to guide my training over the next few months. I will update with results and possibly pictures.

Mud bath

2007-02-04T23:39:00.000-08:00

A 50 minute tempo run through the muddy trails of the endowment lands in the pouring rain claimed a once white pair of my socks and nearly left me hypothermic today.

I split 10km in the tempo in 38:40, about a minute slower than where I wanted to be. No worries though; I can write this one off due to weather.

First Half Marathon in a week. The plan: go out at 6'/mile and hopefully up the pace after halfway. See if I can run the last 10km in 35'. Probably not, but who knows what could happen with those bright orange shoes. The field is absolutely loaded with elites, so regardless of running the last 10km in 35' , a top 20 finish is improbable. What is more likely is that I will be an eye-sore in my orange shoes and end up so much sucking so much wind that I am unable to exert enough expiratory force and resultantly spit on my face every 30 seconds of the race. Enough negative self talk. Good night.

Adistar Competition FW05

2007-01-22T19:55:00.000-08:00

They're mine. All mine. Weighing less than 8oz the Adistar Competition FW05 will surely allow me to maintain faster average velocities over distances ranging from 5km to half marathon.

I will test drive them tomorrow with a workout of 4 x7'. The real test will come Sunday at the Steveston Icebreaker 8K and then again on Sunday, February 11 at the First Half Marathon.

Live From Belize It's...

2007-01-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

30 degrees, endless beaches of white sand and crystal clear water, and a soft, background reggae beat--this is life in the Caribbean.

Vanessa and I are now in a town called San Pedro on a Ambergris Caye. The Northern tip of the Caye borders Mexico, and there is a noticeable Mexico influence in San Pedro. We had chicken fajitas last night by the beach. I guess, in a way, everything is by the beach here.

We are finding things to be a little expensive here in San Pedro. At least compared to Caye Caulker, the tiny 0.7 mile wide 2 mile long Caye we previously inhabited for four days. We have decided to stop dining out and instead purchase provisions from the "local" supermarket which we can enjoy either in the comfort of our resort or on the beach, picnic style.

Today I will run and Vanessa will bike along the beach into town. The sea breeze and the comfortable running pace should help to prevent heat exhaustion. Let's hope...

We move inland on Friday to San Ignacio, where we will explore the Mayan ruins and foray into a popular tourist activity: cave tubing.

Updates to follow.

Cheers,

Julian

Storm over

2006-12-12T22:53:00.000-08:00

Wrote the last exam today. Didn't go as well as I would have liked but that's that. I'm happy to be done.

Hope to start posting here more, not just about running but life in general. Which brings up the topic of name change: I'm thinking of changing the name of the blog. Prefontaine, I would appreciate your thoughts and comments as to what you think would be a suitable name. Please refrain from the self indulgent quotes.

And running...after a two week break, I'm starting to run again. Just easy runs. I will be hitting the weights over the break. That is, until I am whisked away to Belize!

I did a 55 minute cruise. Probably around 12-13 km. Today. Tonight, rather. Felt good, save for the hard pavement sending ground reaction forces approximately two to three times my mass up my legs. Right ITB tight after run.

Chocolate almonds in the evening with a glass milk.

2006-11-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

The week of Oct. 23-29 will be omitted, largely due to the fact that I trained a mere two days that week. I was experiencing some very strange big toe pain localized around the IP joint in my right foot that cleared up after 5 days. Now it appears that after taking a week break (the pain, not me), the pain has returned and is progressing into my first MTP joint. Here are last week's training details:

Monday, October 30: 60 minutes easy

Tuesday, October 31: 1pm, V02 Max on the bike, 10' treadmill cooldown.
8pm, treadmill, 10' warmup, 15' steady (@ 10mph), 15' cooldown)

Wednesday, November 1: 60' easy down to Science World with Henry.

Thursday, November 2: No run. Gladiator event!

Friday, November 3: 6pm, 45' easy. Very sore and stiff from Gladiator.

Saturday, November 4: 11am, treadmill, 2 mile warmup, 35' @ 10mph, 15' cooldown

Sunday, November 5: 9:30am, 90' easy solo in Endowment lands down to Spanish Banks.

Planned Plans

2006-10-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

Alright, finallyI have the chance to update. Here it is!

Monday, Oct. 16: 4:00pm 50' easy in Endowment lands
-legs a stiff and sore after Richmond

Tuesday, Oct. 17: 5:00pm, UBC Workout, 15' warmup, 15' steady state, 4 x 1200m (3:52, 3:45, 3:52, 3:50) , 20' cooldown

Wednesday, Oct. 18: 6:30pm, 10km easy at FRC, 45'

Thursday, Oct. 19: 5:30pm, 16' warmup, 6 x 1' with 2' recovery jog, 10 cooldown
-Rushed workout on route to Granville Island (45' total).

Friday, Oct. 20: 20' easy with strides.
-decided not to go to Victoria for BCXC.

Saturday, Oct. 21: 4:00pm, 23' warmup, 4 x 4' Spanish Banks hill climb with 4' recovery jog back down to the start, 22' cooldown.
-Ran with Tristan and Paul. Tough workout. Happy about decision not to go to Vic.

Sunday, Oct. 22: 8:00am, 90' easy.

-92km week

-Disappointed about not doing the BCXC as planned, but that's life. Simply could not afford to spend a whole day in transit. I would like to run the James Cunningham seawall race but am currently experiencing mysterious big toe pain that will likely prevent me from doing so.

The Sands of...

2006-10-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

Obviously, I've been busy and time has not permitted me to update as regularly as I would like. I should perhaps start with the missing week first (Oct. 9-16). If I can remember.

Monday, Oct. 9: Can't really remember...50' easy probably.

Tuesday, Oct. 10: I won't soon forget this shitty workout. 9:30am, 20' w.u., 4 X 10' at threshold, 15' c.d.
-dropped out after 3rd interval. Nothing in the legs. Pace too fast. Very frustrating...

Wednesday, Oct. 11: 48' easy in evening

Thursday, Oct. 12: No time! Missed scheduled workou and instead did a 36' run with 10' up-pace running.

Friday, Oct. 13: quarter century crisis (QCC). Amidst the craziness, managed a 50' easy run

Saturday, Oct. 14: no run scheduled, no run taken. It's a good thing, still feeling the after-effects from the QCC.

Sunday, Oct. 15: Richmond Flatlands 10K
15' warmup, 10K in 35:37, 20' cooldown.
splits: 3:24, 7:02, 10:23, 13:56, 17:30, 21:00, 24:44, 28:29, 32:12, 35:37.
-Mildly pleased with result. Wasn't expecting much after QCC. 2nd half of the race was into a pretty strong headwind, hence the 7:30 2k split between 6-8km. Free hat for age category. Yay!
-approx 70-75km week.
-Turned out to be a bit of a down week. I guess I needed one anyways. Time is increasingly becoming a limiting factor and will continue to do so as the semester progresses. I will update with this past week tomorrow (hopefully).

A good week for me, a bad one for the rest of the world

2006-10-09T23:33:00.000-07:00

Finally a good week of training! I had three solid workouts this week and it finally feels like I am getting fitter. On negative and slightly less solipsistic note, North Korea, despite condemnations by the rest of the developed world, has apparently tested a nuclear bomb. It remains to be seen exactly what kind of ramnifications this will have. WW3?

Monday, October 2: 5:30pm, 60' easy,
-Ran with Kenya in the endowment lands for 40' and then solo-tripped over to Balaclava for a few slow laps. Felt good. (13km)

Tuesday, October 3: 5:00pm, UBC Workout: 20' warmup, 10' tempo, 4 x 1 mile on grass (wore spikes for three reps), 20' cooldown.
-miles in 5:28, 5:27, 5:16, 5:14 with a little bit of abdominal cramping on the last one. (17km)

Wednesday, October 4: 6:30pm, Fall Run Club, 10' easy, 8 x (1' on, 1' off), 17' easy. (9km)
-Ran a loop on the grass. Stretched out after. Biked 15 km (to and fro the Y).

Thursday, October 5: 11:30am, Roads&RunnersRacing workout, 20' warmup, 8 x (2' on 2' off), 15' cooldown. (14km)
-Ran on the track. 400m splits between 77''-72''. Tough workout...but good.

Friday, October 6: 11:00am, 60' easy in Endowment lands feeling good. (13km)

Saturday, October 7: 8:00am 20' warmup, 6 x 3' hill climb with 3' descent between, 15' cooldown. (16km)
-Felt good, went faster on the last one.

Sunday, October 8: 100' easy with Mike. (24km)
-Tight left calve, cramped up in first 20'. Stopped and stretched and it got better.

total: 107km (again!)

Comments:
I will run the Richmond Flatlands next Sunday and then the BC XC Championships the following Saturday. I was actually hoping that this week's mileage (or kilometreage-haha) would have been around 115-120km, but it turned out to be another week between 100-110km. I don't know where I can find the extra time to build the mileage and then recover from the additional workload. School-wise, the next couple of weeks are going to be hectic so hopefully I can keep up with the training. I'll let you know...how about that!

The Wheel Rolls On...

2006-10-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

I'll keep this short...

Monday, Sept 25: 5pm, 60' easy in the Endowment lands. Felt okay. (13km)

Tuesday, Sept. 26: 5pm workout: 10' warmup, 10' tempo, 4 x 1200m (3:57, 3:51, 3:51, 3:47). Wore spikes for the last three. 20' cooldown (13km)

Wednesday, Sept 27: 6:30pm, Run Club, 60' easy with Kapil. Stretch-out after. (13km)

Thursday, Sept. 28: 5:30pm, 20' warmup, 15 x 30'' with 60'' recovery. 20' cooldown. (15km)

Friday, Sept. 29: 11:00am, 60' easy run in Endowment lands. Nice and slow... (13km)

Saturday: 10:30am, 8K XC Race--Bear Creek. <10' warmup, ran 28:58, 15' cooldown.
-ran hard but disappointed with result. Faded towards the end [got beat by Mike! (Just kidding, Mike!)]. (14km)

8:30pm, a very easy 20' treadmill run to flush the legs out...(4km)

Sunday, Oct. 1: 10am, 96' long run. Started slow but gradually picked up. (22km)

Total: 107km

More (or less) training:

2006-09-25T23:21:00.000-07:00

Week of September 18-24

The goal for this week was to continue to build volume. I had planned to run between 115-120km and as it turned out these plans were overly-ambitious.

Monday Sept. 18: 5:30pm, 57' easy.
-Lots of stop and go as I literally ran a few errands.
-12km total

Tuesday, Sept. 19: 5pm, 20' warmup, 15' tempo, 6 x 800m (on grass), 20' cooldown. -800's were between 2:40-2:50, but the route was long by about 50m.
-15km total.

Wednesday, Sept. 20: 6:30pm, 60' easy on the treadmill
-ran between 8.4-8.5 mph
-(round up to) 14km total

Thursday, Sept. 21: 12:30pm, 18' warmup, 5K Milk Run, 20' cooldown.
-1st place in 17:19. Very informal, friendly race. According to race maps, the route was supposed to be 5.1km.
http://runthere.com/routeview.php?rtnum=3804
-Ran hard, got lost and had to pause for a moment. Pleased with the effort.
-14km total
9pm, 23' easy on treadmill. (5km total)

Friday, Sept. 22: sick with cold, felt like crap.
7pm, 30' easy
-Had to do it.
-6km total.

Saturday, Sept. 23: No run and the 20 day streak is broken! Library day...

Sunday, Sept. 24: 12:00pm, 70' easy
-Lots of stopping and stretching with very tight calves and heel cords.
-15-16km

Weekly total: 82km

All in all, I'm pretty disappointed with how this week went and I am frustrated that this head cold persists. Is my body trying to tell me something? I will try to listen to whatever message that may be. I hope to be able to put in solid week and get back up to 100km with a potential XC race on Saturday.

Below is a(n) (ridiculous) idea I came up with last week during an easy run.

Gum-Chewable Easy

Many runners make the mistake of running too hard on their easy days. I have certainly committed this fatal error before. While on an easy run last week I came up with an idea, a method of ensuring easy pace on easy days. And I'm not talking about HR monitors or Ratings of Perceived Exertion. I'm talking about something much simpler: chewing gum! I have actually done this many times before without realizing what I was doing. At easy pace, I can chew gum quite comfortably. If pace rises a tad over easy pace, I notice a marked difficulty in my gum chewing capabilities. Chewing gum while running helps to prevent clenched teeth and tight face muscles, keeping the jaw relaxed and fluid. And if you are chewing Trident (recommended by 9 out of 10 dentists)you may even be helping to fight cavities. Thus, by ensuring a gum-chewable pace, and by chewing Trident, a runner is allowing him/herself to recover and, at the same time, helping to keep the dentist drill at bay. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me. See if it works for you!

Training as of late

2006-09-18T22:33:00.000-07:00

Week of September 11-17

Monday, Sept. 11: 5pm, 50' easy stroll in the Endowment lands (11km)
Tuesday, Sept. 12: 5pm workout: 20' warmup, 10' tempo, 5 x 1 mile (5:37-5:35/mile) 20' cooldown. (19-20km)
Wednesday, Sept. 13: 1:30pm, 40' easy run in the Endowment lands (9km)
7:00pm, 57' very easy and slow with Run Group (9km)
Thursday, Sept. 14: 9:30am, 18' warmup 10 x 200m (in 35-34''), with 200m recovery (in 60-70''), 15' cooldown.
Friday, Sept. 15: 3pm, 40' easy in Endowment lands (same route as Monday = 9km)
Saturday, Sept 16: 9:30am, 28' warmup 10 x 300m hill (in 75-68''), with 300m downhill jog (in 90'') 30' cooldown. (18km)
Sunday, September 16: 10am, 90' at 7-7.5'/mile progressing to 6:50/mile pace for last 20'. (21km)

Weekly total: 107km

The Run

2006-09-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

The Thursday workout looms. 10 x 1' with 1' off. Should hurt pretty good. I'm ready for it. Had a relaxing day: food, coffee, internet, and lounging--just trying to enjoy the down time while I can. And brace for the storm...