Monday, July 25, 2011

Who Touched the Theromstat?

So America got hit with a pretty nasty heat wave yesterday. I think except for Seattle and its environs, the entire continental US of A was a furnace for most of last week. I'm told that New England, with real temperatures "only" in the mid to hi-90s and dew points in the 70s, got off easy. I mean, fair enough, but during runs this week, I wasn't thinking "theoretically, this could be worse." I was thinking "AAhhhhhhh! My brain is bubbling out of my ears!"

The horrible wet heat aside, I had a decent week of training. I set a personal record for "latest start of run" at 11:30PM. I saw Captain America (I have a weakness for superhero movies). I finished 3rd place at a mini-golf night (of 3 people total). I got a two-week gig teaching summer school in the middle of August. I think that's about it.

Le Log:

Monday 7/18: 1PM- 4mi easy in my new trainers (Asics Hyperspeed IIIs, if anyone is curious). I didn't wear socks and got a big blister, but I still love the shoes.
7:30PM- 3.5 up, 12x32 seconds barefoot on a turf soccer field at Harvard with an 88 second recovery run at a steady pace. After the 4th and 8th reps I took 5min total total. Cool down to 11mi. This was the day the humidity set in, so I was drenched 10min into the warmup.

Tuesday 7/19: AM- Had to get a bunch of work done, no time to run, boo. 7PM- With James and Rob to JP, 6:10-6:25s the last 7 miles or so, started very easy.

Wednesday 7/20: 11AM- 5mi at a snail's pace, 94 deg out but dry. No morning class! 7PM- To Fresh Pond and around (16:17) with Peter and James, add-on at Harvard plus 5x120y strides with jogback. 11 total, felt pretty good, 6:20-6:30 pace.

Thursday 7/21: AM- Two midterms today, studied all morning. Shoulda got up earlier. 9PM- Still 88deg with a 74 dew point. Holy ballsack. 3 and a third up, 4x3min hard, 2min easy + another 1:47 hard at the end to finish 4mi in 21:47, 3 and a third down. The weather was so gross that I decided to do something easy and really baby the 2min easy sections. At least I got something in. I think I counted this as 10 in the log, but it was closer to 11.

Friday 7/22: 4PM- I was up at like 9AM today (no class on Fridays) but spent the whole morning and early afternoon cleaning, organizing, throwing stuff out, making a list of books I'll sell and books I'll keep, etc. Since it was 103 out (109 heat index) I went over to the track and ran 35min indoors for an easy 5mi. 11:30PM- Rob, James, and I headed out for an easy 10 miles around the waterfront and back through Quincy Market. It was still like 93 when we started, and I wasn't sure I'd make it back with like 3mi to go. Yech.

Saturday 7/23: 9PM- 10mi real easy, no watch. Totally fried all day. However, James and I finally got an apartment for next year, so at least I won't be homeless.

Sunday 7/24: 7:30PM- The heat broke! It was about 78 and breezy for this run. I ran about 10mi easy with James, going from about 7:20 for the first 3mi down to 6:20 or so by the time we split, then added on 6mi at about 6:15/mile including an 800 on the track in 2:26 to finish things up. Felt. . meh. It would have been an awful run if the weather wasn't perfect, so I'm thankful that the weather was, in fact, perfect.

92 miles, 10 runs

Oh yeah, I did core most days after the longer run, too (ladies).

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Karma

Things had gone too well for too long. After my long run last Sunday, I experienced an interesting injury. You ever get a charlie horse? You know, when your calf just suddenly CRAMPS and turns into a ball of pain and stiffness for like a minute? I experienced, over the course of several hours, a slow-motion charlie horse. Very slowly, over about two hours, my left calf clenched up and stayed clenched/cramped/whatever until bed. Since I was all limpy the next day, I got into the trainer's office and them show me some stretchin' techniques. I ended up talking two days off: one because I was limpy, and the other because it felt mostly better, but it's the summer and I have the luxury of time and used it to nip this in the bud. Other than a little achilles tightness today, I'm fine, and when my new shoes come in tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll be even finer.

Anyway. . .

Wednesday July 13: 10mi easy, 65min, with Peter. Felt good, but a little weird from the double days off.

Thursday July 14: 11mi hard solo, felt too good out the door to take it easy. I knew I'd pay for this later in the week, but I just wailed on this one the last 7 miles. Kinda makes me wish I had run with a watch today. . .

Friday July 15: 1PM- A real crack a'dawn morning run, 4mi slow. 7PM- 10mi easy, last 5mi moving along petty good.

Saturday July 16: 4PM- 7mi easy with Rob and an incoming freshman who was in town for orientation. It was HOT out, but we had fun taking our new teammate down to the Boston Common. 9PM- Hadn't planned on running again today because I was so bushed, but Matt was running an easy 3mi and I decided to join him.

Sunday July 17 7PM- 14mi moderate, really hot out. I felt like crap today, yech. I'm not too upset with this week, though, because the calf thing could have been ugly and instead all I did was miss two measly days.

Now, if you'll excuse me, internet, I have to finish up some Spanish homework and go to Shawes to buy some dinner.

59mi, 5 days, 6 runs. Take it easy, everybody.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

AAwwww yeah double update STEEZ

Things I really should do right now:

1) Put away my leftovers so I have lunch tomorrow
2) Study for my Spanish exam

Things I'm going to do right now instead:

1) Update this blog
2) Watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on ABC Family
3) Eat my leftovers
4) ???
5) Profit.

Here's what happened during the week that went from 7/4-7/10

7/4, America's Birfday: 7AM- Roll off the air mattress I crashed on last night, stumble to bathroom, cripple jog to downtown Keene, register for 4 on the 4th, cripple jog another 2 miles. 4mi race in 20:03, splits 5:01, 5:01, 5:00, 5:01, 5th place. The thing about racing in the Keene area is that even for the rinkiest of dink races, there's a damn good field. I got dropped like a pregnant lady's cigarette habit after the mile and ran the last 3 miles alone, other than two stragglers I picked off. Still, I wasn't displeased with the effort. 30min cooldown with a big group. 3PM- 5mi easy with Trethewey before we started barbecuing.

7/5: AM- travel back to Fitchburg then Boston, didn't have time for a run before my Int'l Finance class. PM- 11mi easy with James, felt good, ran slow.

7/6: AM- 4mi easy, didn't feel like running today and let some school stuff distract me. I'm such a good student. . . unless I feel like running.

7/7: AM- 4mi easy, felt good. PM- With a big group of BU teammates to Fresh Pond and back from the TTC, started easy but ran most of the back half around 6:20 pace or so. After I added on with a few people to get a solid 75min and 11+ on the evening.

7/8: 1PM- 3mi easy, I hit snooze a bunch of times this morning and waited til after my first class to run. 7PM- 3mi w/u with Sean, my gainfully employed and retired from competitive running roommate, then on the track for a long, solo workout. I decided to do mile repeats with a steady 800 run again and just figured I'd stop at some point after I did 4 of them. I felt so good I didn't call it quits until after 7 of them, which, when you add in the 6 preceding half-mile recovery runs, adds up to 10 miles on the track. While the miles and the jogs (and thus the overall pace of the 10mi) was fast, what was really awesome about this workout was how easy it was. I didn't really feel like I was working until after the 5th hard mile. I only cooled down a mile, though, because 14mi on the afternoon and 17 on the day was quite sufficient.
Mile (800 run)

5:02.9, 3:04.3
5:06.6, 2:59.6
5:05.4, 3:01.9
5:06.1, 3:01.7
5:04.9, 3:01.3
5:03.2, 3:01.6
5:01.8, (53:40 at 16k, 100m in 22.0 seconds to make 16k a real 10miles) in 54:02.8

Avg: 5:04.5, 3:01.4 and 5:24.4 per mile overall.

Saturday 7/9: Noon- 4mi super slow, no watch. I didn't feel as bad as I thought I would, but that's probably because I kept it REALLY easy. 6:30PM- 10mi easy solo on the river, kept it really easy again, over 7:00 pace for the splits I checked. I got rolled up by a friendly but competitive pair of gentlemen who informed me they had been on my trail for over a half-mile. As I told them, it's good to get rolled up every so often. Keeps the old ego in check, y'know?

Sunday 7/10: 6:30PM- 17mi starting easy but the last 11 miles were definitely on the steady side of things.

Total- 94 miles with a 4mi day, not bad, not bad.

Ahora- Yo tengo que estudiar para una prueba en Espanol.

Very Overdue Update. . . and there'll be another one this evening!

When I'm a day with the blog, I go "hmm," I should do that. After three days, I tend to think "meh, might as well just do a two-weeker in a few days." After nearly a month with no updates, I think "I have a blog?!" with mild indignation. Anyway, the longer I put this off, the longer the update will be, and the greater the likelihood that I write a Teal Deer post.

It's been a fun, busy, and at times frustrating couple weeks. My first session of summer classes ended, and I missed a B+/A- in my Economic Policy class by like 2 points (there were only 13 in the class, so the curve was murder). I went to Long Island with one of my roommates and took a sweet tour of Theodore Roosevelt's mansion, Sagamore Hill. Hmm, what else. I didn't manage to procure a short term job, so until mid-August, I will be surviving off savings and whatever odd jobs I can find helping people move furniture or whatever. It's not the end of the world, but not an ideal situation either.

Anyway, I have a Spanish exam to study for and I still haven't done my long run yet (waiting for it to cool down a little) so I gotta get caught up on this thing before I do this week's entry after my run.

From where I left off:

Monday 6/20: I woke up today with a fever, so I guess it wasn't just allergies that messed up my long run the day before. I decided to run through it, did a 6.5 mile morning run, then decided running through it was a dumb idea and slept through my afternoon run. Class today SUCCCCKED.

Tuesday 6/21: 11AM- 4mi pretty quick between classes. 5PM- 10+ miles, 66min or so, with a group of BU folk. We were moving along well, which is always nice.

Wednesday 6/22: 11AM- 6.5mi easy between classes, gross day out- it was really warm and humid with that half-assed warm rain that feels like a camel drooling on you. Felt slimy the whole time, yuck. 9PM- 3 up barefoot, 2x(5x200)avg 31 with 200 jog between reps, 14:20 for 4k total, 4ish down. It was downpouring out the whole time and I had basically zero fun, despite spiking up.

Thursday 6/23: 3:30PM- 9mi easy with James, to Mayor's Park in Cambridge. Didn't feel like going out that night and running again.

Friday 6/24: AM- 8.5 miles, one lap of Fresh Pond from Ashford. Drive to Long Island with James, got stuck in traffic and was trapped in the car for 7hrs. PM- 7mi with James in Long Island with some 30 second easy surges near the end to get the car out of my legs.

Saturday 6/25: AM- 3mi easy around the Roosevelt Estate. I highly recommend the tour (it's like 5 bucks) if you're ever in the area. PM- 10 miles moderate with James and Billy on Billy's trails in East Sachem, truly delightful.

Sunday 6/26: 11 miles moderate, with the last 4mi especially moderate (ha!). Allergies pretty bad today, must be all the rain.

Tot- 84.5mi

6/27-7/3

Monday 6/27: AM- Economics Presentation. My topic was on the possibly damaging effects the imposition of a minimum wage COULD have on the people it's supposed to help. I think the whole class got a B, so that was a little irritating. 4:30PM- 4mi quick before work, 6:15s after the mile or so. 9PM- 3+ up, 4mi tempo on the river in 20:49 (5:12, 5:16, 5:12, 5:09), 3+ down. I was kinda crampy and tired on the warmup, so I was satisfied with this workout.

Tuesday 6/28: 9PM- Between finishing up the paper that was the basis for my presentation, work, allergy shots, and Spanish, this was the first hour I had to run. 10mi steady/moderate on the river, 63min, but I was about 8min at the mile and 15 at 2, so the last 8mi were pretty solid.

Wednesday 6/29: 3PM- 7mi easy, up to the BC Res, around twice, and home. It was warm out and I felt like craap. 9:30PM- 8.5 easy on the river, full of pizza (boss's last day at work).

Thursday 6/30: 3PM- 9 easy, not sure if it was hot out or what, but I had planned 12-13 easy and felt too shitty to finish it out. 9PM- Hadn't planned on doubling, but I was pissed off about earlier and decided to belt out 4 miles without no watch. Ran mostly barefoot on the infield of the track.

Friday 7/1: 4.5 up, 8xKeene 400s, 2.5 down. Warmed up and cooled down with Peter and James. Keene Quarters, which Nate Jenkins mistakenly calls "Aussie 400s" just because the Australians invented them first, are when you run a 400 somewhere between 2-mile and 5k pace, then run a 200 around 6min pace for recovery. The whole session is 4800m/3mi and you want to average something in the realm of a hard 4-6mi tempo run pace for the 3miles. Target: 71-73 for the 400s, 45-46 for the 200s. I started too fast and the session ended up being ~15-20 seconds faster than I wanted. Oh well.

69.0, 45.0
69.2, 46.8
70.4, 45.7
70.9, 48.0
70.1, 47.0
70.9, 47.6
71.5, 46.8,
70.7, 45.1

15:34.0 total, just about 5:12/mile. It wasn't so bad, but I would have preferred to be a little slower on the 400s and a little quicker on the 200s. Good workout, though.

Saturday 7/2: I kinda forgot what I did today- my log indicates I did two runs of 6.5mi and 9 miles each. Good to know.

Sunday 7/3: AM- 4mi easy before I took the train from Cambridge to Fitchburg, where Trethewey picked me up. PM- 5mi easy with Trethewey in Keene, couldn't be bothered to run more.

Tot- 87.5

That's it for now, but after I go running, I'll update this week's training. I raced a 4-miler on Monday, but for those of you who aren't good with The Google, you'll have to check back to see how I did!