Stumbling & Mumbling

Easy run for 10mi, 5mi @ MP, CD

Easy run.

Treadmill belt broke. Runs outside for next 10 days or so.

WU, 3x2.1mi @ 1/2M pace, CD.

Off.

Loop around neighborhood lake (1.1mi loop).

Easy run at Arboretum.

Easy, TM belt still broken, didn't run for next few days (weather really bad).

Easy run.

Easy run at local fitness center.

Easy run.

Easy run with 1.5mi @ 10K pace.

WU, 5xmile @ 10K pace, 400m recoveries, CD.

Easy run.

Easy run on TM during UofI basketball game.

Long run.

WU, 6mi @ MP, CD

Easy TM run during UofI b-ball game.

Easy run with strides.

Long run.

WU, 5x2K @ 1/2M pace, 400m recoveries, CD.

Easy.

Easy with strides.

Missed day.

Easy with strides.

Weekly long run.

Easy, legs sore.

WU, then 5 x 2400m @ 1/2M pace, 400m recovery, CD

Easy, legs sore.

Easy run, last 3mi @ MP.

Missed run.

Easy run with 8x400m "hills" on TM.

Longest continuous run yet.

Easy, legs sore from Sunday.

WU, 8x800m @ 5K pace, 400m recovery, CD

Easy run.

Easy, medium-long run.

Easy run.

Easy run with strides.

10mi at easy pace, 5mi @ MP, 4mi easy.

Easy, legs sore.

WU, 3x2mi @ 1/2M pace, CD.

Easy run.

Easy run with 2mi @ MP.

Easy run.

WU, 8x800m "hills" on TM, CD

Longest run thus far.

Day off.

WU, 4x2mi @ 1/2M pace, 800m recov., CD

Easy run.

5x1200m @ 5K pace, 400m recovery, with WU & CD

Easy.

Did 6x800m "hills" on the TM; not sure how to log those between the four categories.

Shortened long run. Felt tired, it was already 12:30AM, shut it down.

Rest day

Schedule called for 6 MP miles (guesstimated MP is ~7:50 for now), did a couple more as I felt fine.

Ack. Legs dead, really slow.

Nada. Had to drive 6 hours to/from St. Louis to get son and bring him home for spring break.

2 runs, 6.5mi in AM, 10.5mi in PM.

Easy run in AM, legs sore.

Sasha & Steve: Thanks for the welcomes! Saw a link on Dunkin Larkin's site and followed it here. Thank you for offering this service!

Sasha: You very well might be right about my current MP, but for my first marathon (gonna try the Flying Pig on 5/7/06) I think I'm going to err on the cautious side. I'm running a half in St. Louis in a few weeks, so that'll be another data point.

Legs felt very tired, did only a little more than half of my planned 20 miler. (Wimpy and not the fast route to improvement, I know, but when my legs still feel tired after 5-6 miles, I'm always willing [maybe too willing] to not go as far as I'd planned.)

Ran outdoors for first time in months. Not sure why, as it's about 36 deg with 20-30 mph winds (stormy here in east-central IL; Springfield's about 60mi west of here and got trashed by 100+mph winds and tornadoes last night).

For some reason, an easy pace of around 8:05 on the roads feels like my standard easy pace of about 9:15 on the TM in my basement. I figured the TM was off, but not by about 1:10/mi.

Need to get on the roads more, as I have a half in about 4 weeks and first marathon 4 weeks after that.

Ack. Was going to do tempo run on TM, but TM putzed out on me unexpectedly. Seems like an electrical problem, trying to figure it out. Too late to get bundled up and run outside.

Ran on roads around neighborhood, too late (~9PM) to go anywhere else. Did the 1.1-mi loop around the lake. Two loops of warmup, then 4 loops at 1/2M pace, then 3 loops of cooldown.

Intended to do 6 loops (6.6mi) at 1/2 pace, but legs felt really beat up by the 4th loop, so I dialed it down to an easy pace. Comes from running on the TM all Winter -- getting back to roads seems to beat me up for a week or two. Better do it now than suffer in the half I have coming up on 4/9 (at least I hope I get enough roadwork in to avoid getting beat up in the race).

Hamstrings feel really sore, again I assume from unaccustomed roadwork. Left AT feels a bit twitchy.

BTW for Sasha: I "measured" my two neighborhood road loops in Google Earth today. The one I count as 1.1mi came out at 1.08mi in GE, while the little, 0.65mi loop registered as 0.63mi. So, a little short, I guess, but only a 2-3% rounding error.

On hotel treadmill (trip back East for see colleges for daughter).

Ran at Valley Forge Nat'l Park with Duncan Larkin (near-tempo for me, easy run for him).

At Valley Forge again, but by myself this time. Wrong turns changed a supposed 5-mile run into an 8+ mile run.

Hotel TM. Easy WU, then about an hour of intervals on a built-in program, then an easy CD.

Hotel TM in Washington DC.

Hotel TM on way home to IL.

Did a hilly trail loop (5mi) this morning. Closest thing we have to hills out here. Did 2 5-mile loops, each at slightly slower (5-10%) than MP, so I'm counting it as MP given the terrain. Faster than I wanted to run it, but I seem to have trouble pacing myself on terrain that's always going up and down.

Finally making myself run outdoors all the time now. Lovely 37-degree rain.

Was supposed to run about 18 miles, but didn't get started until 9:15PM and had spent two hours on my feet running concessions and scoreboard at my daughter's HS soccer game, so I wasn't up for it (try the long run on Weds.). Instead, I ran easy, except for 3x1000m, which I ran at sub-5K pace (5:30-6:00 per mile) with 1000m recoveries.

Goose egg today.

Sigh. Was going to try to get an 18-miler in tonight but failed. Weather cooperated (~50 degrees and very windy, but it felt cooling and pretty nice) but my left leg didn't. I'd gone to a PT for a few weeks to work on a sciatica-seeming issue (left hamstring going numb after 4-5 miles, then having to concentrate to make left foot land correctly, very odd) and thought it was on the mend, but it came back at about mile 5 last night. Quit at about 6.5 miles and slowly jogged a cooldown for another 2. Then did a lot of stretching.

Am trying sciatica-related stretches and ibu, but not sure what this means for my half next Sunday (4/9) or my first full a month later. If this problem kicks in at mile 5 of a half or full, I'll have a hard time even finishing. I'm hoping the hilly terrain for the St. Louis half will give me enough mechanical motion variety that the numbness doesn't strike. (It seems to occur most easily when I'm running the perfectly flat road routes around my neighborhood.) Sigh.

Cut run short due to unexpected cold (no gloves or hat, 20mph winds).

Went to run local trails but cut it way short when lightning storm came in. Meant to run later in day, but bad storms rolled through all day, culminating in 70-80mph winds and numerous tornado sightings and touchdowns. Bad day for running; good day for cowering in crawlspace.

Open to advice. Have a half coming up this Sunday and I've been having piriformis issues (left hamstring goes numb at around 4-5mi into a run, leg stiffens, and I sometimes have to concentrate to get my left foot to land correctly, very disconcerting).

I've had some bad weeks lately, and I know I can't catch up now (with 5 days to go) but I really want to see how I might do in the half, so I did some 1/2M-pace work today. Leg got some numbness at about 4mi, but I kept going and it seemed to go away slightly after a couple of miles, or at least it didn't get worse.

I've been taking ibu and doing the stretches that I know of that're said to help, but not sure what else to do. Not just worried about half on Sunday, but also about my first marathon four weeks later. Anyone ever had piriformis issues and have any thoughts? Thanks!

WU, then 4x1200m @ 1/2M pace, w/2min recovery, then CD. Had no piriformis issues, maybe due to changes in pace from reps to recovery.

Mini-taper for half on Sunday.

Mini-taper.

Resting for tomorrow's half.

2mi Wu, 13.1mi race (St. Louis half), 2mi CD. Did the race in 1:37:17 (7:26 pace), which was pretty good for me. A little more than 3 min faster than I ran here last year, when it was my first half. PR is 2.5min faster but the STL course isn't a PR-friendly place. All rolling hills, some pretty long. Piriformis bothered me for a few miles starting around mile 5, but it never got too bad. Maybe the stretching has been helping.

More detailed race report here:

http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum8/HTML/008413.shtml

Now I have to try to get ready for the Flying Pig (my first full) on 5/7/06.

Easy & slow, resting legs after race.

Took the day off; legs were sore.

Still sorta in recovery mode from the half. No soreness (and haven't since the race) but just some sluggishness. Am going to try to get a 10mi run in tonight (Friday, as I write this), with 4mi at tempo pace, assuming the weather cooperates. So we'll see how that goes.

Felt sluggish and almost didn't run. Then decided to run some easy miles and bag the tempo run portion. After about 2mi, I decided to do a 4.4mi tempo anyway. The first loop (1.1mi) came in a little slow, at about MP, but the other 3 loop were quicker, between 10K and 1/2M pace.

Easy run, recovering from last night's tempo run and getting ready for tomorrow's long run.

18-mile long run early in the morning. Ended up doing it midway between easy pace and MP, so I counted it 50-50 for each pace category. Ran on grass trails and had no piriformis twinges, oddly enough.

Easy run on sore legs from Sunday.

Letting legs rest for planned med-long run on Weds. with some MP miles.

WU, 10mi @ my expected MP (plan on sticking with 3:30 pace group for first marathon, on 5/7, so anticipated MP is 8:01). Did the 10mi at 7:54, which is close enough. Piriformis started bothering me at mile 8, but seemed to ease up after a mile or two.

Marathon plan is to stick with the 3:30 group up to the 20-mile mark (assuming no piriformis or other issues crop up to bite me) and then try to pick up the pace (ideally with some like-minded folk) for the last 10K. I'm mostly looking to get my BQ, which is 3:30:59 for my age group. If I can stay at that pace for 20 miles, I'm thinking (perhaps with inexperienced optimism) that I can try to pick up the pace for the last 6 miles. We'll see. It's a plan but maybe not the best one.

Rest day

Easy miles. Have a 10K tomorrow but am running it as more of a longer tempo run, so no taper.

10K "race" with WU & CD at easy pace. I pretty much followed my plan to do the race as a tempo run, averaging 7:06 per mile. The 1/2 marathon 2 weeks ago was at 7:26 pace, so this pace was between 1/2M and 10K race paces. Felt pretty comfortable until the last mile or so when I started going faster to finish.

Long run on hilly grass & dirt trail about 15 minutes from home. Last long run before the Flying Pig on 5/7. I usually have a hard time keeping my pace down on this trail, for some reason, often running it at MP, but today I held to 9:00 pace (about a minute over my proposed MP [haven't run a marathon yet so just guessing]) and was able to get 19 miles in. I usually can't get more than 15mi, but I think the slower pace helped.

Tried out some gels at the end of each 5-mile loop of the trail. Discovered I detest HammerGels so I'll stick with PowerGel and GU, which taste a lot better to me, for the marathon.

Rest day.

Just some easy miles around the neighborhood. Temps dropped today to the mid-30s from yesterday's high 70s.

Played ultimate frisbee with a bunch of kids from work (most of them are 15-25 years younger than me). To put it in running terms, it was 30-50 x 50m strides, with lots of jogging in between. Total of 1.5 hours of movement overall. No ankle injuries, which is always a concern in these games for me.

Tapering for Flying Pig in ~10 days.

Rested yesterday and went out for an easy run this evening. Turned into something of a tempo run for about 5.5 miles.

Wanted to do a 12-miler (tapering) but wet and high winds made me cut it short.

Tapering.

More tapering.

Still tapering but got some MP stuff in. Four days until Flying Pig.

Prepping for marathon tomorrow. Read an article about form of carbo-loading. Day before the marathon, warm up, then run hard for 3 minutes, then carb up. I tried it for tomorrow's Flying Pig, my first marathon.

<> This was my first marathon, first race longer than a half, so I had no real clue what to expect. I was hoping for a sub-3:30 (a BQ for my AG is 3:30:59) but I hadn't had any long runs over 18 miles for the last two months, so again, no idea what would happen. Summary: 3:31:45, missed a BQ by 46 seconds 478 / 4172 overall; 62 / 322 in 45-49AG I think this was the most painful experience of my life, except for childbirth. And childbirth wouldn't have been so bad if my wife hadn't insisted on squeezing my hand very, very hard with each contraction. (And she called me some hurtful names too, but that caused mostly emotional damage with little physical trauma.) Wonderful weather, as mentioned by others. In the 40s, cloud cover, nice and cool. The race was really well organized, very supportive volunteers, lots of support on the course, very enthusiastic citizen support, a top-notch effort by the organizers and city of Cincinnati. The course was overall very nice--lots of interesting neighborhoods to run through and lots of people out on their front lawns cheering. Kinda a boring section from about miles 18-22 or so, but very nice course otherwise. The grab bag for runners at the expo was pretty nice -- a short-sleeved technical shirt (for the full, halfers got a cotton shirt), a nice poster, and a cool sports bag with a flying pig emblem and little flying pigs on the zipper pulls. And pig noses and other assorted junk. I decided to take 4 Powergels with me and struggled to figure out how to carry them. I don't really like stuff bouncing on my butt for any length of time. (One guy in the 3:30 group had race-ready shorts on and must have had a box of Tic-Tacs or something in there, as he jangled with every step. I was ready to kill him after a mile and had to move to another part of the pack.) I took a friend's advice and put one in each glove (I decided to wear gloves to keep my hands warm, but wore a sleeveless shirt and shorts as I figured I'd overheat). The other two I came up with a potentially unique solution by rubber-banding one to each forearm. I'd never seen anyone doing this in a race and I guessed there was probably a pretty good reason but I did it anyway. Actually worked like a charm, barely noticed they were there and they never moved. Funny to see if any race pics show me with them on. I used the forearm gels at mile 6 and 12 and the other two at miles 18ish and 22ish. Start was 6AM. Parked about a mile from the start and walked, leaving my wife in the car in a parking garage at street level. Neither of us realized that the race would go right by the garage at about mile 4. She was snoozing in the car and heard cheering and looked up to see hundreds of runners going by, with a continual stream (so to speak) of them popping into the parking garage to urinate. She popped her head back down and didn't come back up until the bad men and women all went away. It was dark when the race started and theoretically stayed that way until sunrise at about 6:35 or so. I never knew when the sun rose, as it struck me at some point around 7:00 or 7:30 that it was cloudy out I hadn't noticed any dawn-like transition. I glommed onto the 3:30 pace group, led by Talkative Pacer George and his assistant Silent Pacer Bill. I wanted to hit 3:30 (~8:00 pace) as my goal and these guys seemed to be going my way. I surmised (correctly as it turns out) that when the going got tough, my only hope of hitting 3:30 was to be in a group and have it drag me along. Pacer George had us frighteningly close to the start line. I was astonished at how easy it was to move around in the start area. I could have gotten within a few feet of the start line if I'd wanted to. I got right up to the 3:30 group with no trouble. No chance of doing anything like that in the STL marathon/half, which had about the same size field (about 9,000, IIRC). Cannon boomed to announce the start, killing several of the elite runners. We all cheered as this moved us up several slots in the final standings. At about mile 1, we went around Great America ballpark where some baseball team plays and headed across the first bridge, over the Ohio River and into Kentucky. Then over another bridge across some tributary, then back up and over yet another bridge back into Ohio. The bridges weren't that bad, the third one seemed to be the steepest. But they used to be at the end of the race, which I imagine would have made them more troublesome. We took another turn and -- we're right where we were at mile 1! I think we were all following the same dude, who got lost. They finally got him straightened out and we headed out of downtown Cincy and into urban and exurban neighborhoods. Miles 5 - 8 were all uphill (one single hill that we gradually climbed), but it wasn't that bad. From what I could tell on the elevation map, the gain was about 100 feet per mile. You could tell you were going uphill and at times it was a strain, but it wasn't that bad. The pacers probably slowed down a bit but not more than a few seconds a mile. There was a huge crowd around mile 7 as that was the first relay exchange point (lots of relay people in this race, as there were two separate relay competitions). My main problem going up the hill was the first appearance (of three) of the piriformis problem I've been having with my left leg. It hit around mile 6, where it usually hits. The back of my upper left leg (hammie) went numb and I had some trouble planting my left foot (had to concentrate to get it to land straight). I knew from other runs and races over the last few months that I just had to wait it out and it'd go away. It did, after a mile or so. I think going uphill made it worse. What I wasn't sure about was whether it would recur in the next 20 miles and what would happen if it did, as I hadn't gone far enough before to tempt a recurrence. At about mile 8, we finally topped the hill and had a great view of the Ohio River valley, Cincinnati, and KY across the river. That was nice. At that support station, we had water that another guy and I decided they must have been dipping out of the duck pond nearby. Yech. At about this time, it occurred to me that I'd likely been drinking too much. I'd been taking both gatorade and water at every water station as I usually sweat like crazy and need it. But with the cool temp and overcast sky, it finally dawned on me that I wasn't sweating as much as I usually do. I started alternating gatorade and water, taking only one at each mile station, but the damage had been done. At about mile 9, the halfers split off from the fullers. Big cheering crowd here. Most of the people in the 3:30 group were doing the full, so it didn't get suddenly lonely. I think the full and half are about equal in size at the Flying Pig, so there was none of the empty feeling that people talk about at other races after the halfers leave. Around mile 12, I scooted into a portapotty to rid myself of excess internal moisture. When I popped out, the 3:30 group was about a minute ahead of me. I kept the 3:30 balloons in sight, just trying to very slowly gain on them, and I finally caught back up around mile 15. Just in time to have my second bout of left leg numbness. This one went away after a mile or so too, and didn't cost me any time, though maybe a little physical and mental energy, as I stayed with the group. Huge crowds in the neighborhood at the easternmost end of the race (Mariemount?) in miles 14-16. Lots of enthusiastic cheering. There was kind of a mile-long loop at the end and then we headed back west but on a different road that veered to southwest and back toward the river. The course got a little grim after this area, as the next 4 miles or so were on a highway and some other non-neighborhoody roads. Somewhere in here, around mile 20, was the last relay exchange station and just huge crowds. Funniest thing that I saw around mile 18 was some young guy came up alongside me and started running on the curb. Not on the sidewalk or the street, on the 4-inch-wide curb. As expected, he made a misstep and went flying into the grass between the street and sidewalk. Unfortunately for him, the patch of grass he chose to fall into had a pile of aluminum siding lying on it, ripped off the house by the homeowner and awaiting trashday. Loud, loud crash. But he popped back up again, saying that he was OK. The guy on the other side of me looked at me and we both rolled our eyes. My overall impression of miles 20 - 24 were kinda grim. This was partly the landscape and partly my mood. I was feeling really leg tired. I was still with the 3:30 group, and the pacers still had us a minute under pace (i.e., aiming to come in around 3:29) but I knew that if I dropped off the group I was done for. So I grimly held on for about two miles and then had my third bout of leg numbness. This time, my left leg went numb and almost immediately my left calf cramped and seized up. I had to stop and hobble over to a pole and stretch it out. I got back onto the road but the 3:30 group was about 45-60 seconds ahead of me and I knew I'd never catch them. I'd probably dropped down to 8:30 pace. My right calf cramped about a mile later. I hobbled along on it and it eased up after about 15 seconds. Both calves felt on the verge of cramping. I tried to change my stride to heel striking and that seemed to help somehow. I think it was just plain exhaustion that was causing the cramping. I'd never run over 21 miles before and hadn't gotten any runs in over 18 miles in the last two months, so this was bound to happen, I think. So the last 4 miles or so were just a nasty grind. Where most people have determination and courage to see them through spots like this, I had nothing but a strong aversion to humiliation. I'd passed a guy in a Superman costume somewhere around mile 23-24 and I did not want to get passed by him. So I kept going. Around mile 24 I passed three guys in identical singlets, one of each side of the third, urging him up a small hill as he struggled grimly and gasped. Also in that 24th mile was a guy who made me renew my vow not to put my name on my shirt, bib, arms, whatever. Some guy wrote "Sam" or "Sam I Am" on his shirt and people were shouting out to him as he ran/walked, obviously in lots of distress. I passed him but could still hear people shouting out to him for a while behind me. That sort of thing would irritate the heck out of me, even though the spectators' intentions are good. I got some "go guy with the yellow shoes" calls but I couldn't help that (Brooks changed the design of their Racer STs and now they're fluorescent yellow). The last 1.5 miles picked up, as the sidewalks got more crowded. The final mile was timed, as a last burst of sadism on the organizers' part. I stopped worrying about cramping up and picked up the pace a bit, doing around 7:15 for the final mile. I was trying to figure out what pace I slogged along after dropping off the pace group at mile 22. The pacers kept the 3:30 group within 2-3 seconds of 8:00 pace over virtually every mile. We were at 3:29 pace through 22 miles, where I dropped off. Assuming they ended up around 3:29 and given that I ended up at 3:31:45, I lost 2:45 to the pace group over the last 4.2 miles. Since I gained 45 seconds over the final mile (7:15 vs. 8:00 ave pace for a 3:30 time), I guess I lost 3.5 minutes over the 3.2mi from 22mi to 25.2mi. So I was probably around 9:05 or so for those miles. So my splits would look something like this: Miles 1-22: 7:57 Miles 22-25.2: 9:05 Mile 25.2-26.2: 7:15 Anyway, an interesting yet painful experience. I'll train better for several months, get in longer runs, and try another one in the Fall. Kudos to the Flying Pig organizers, the city of Cincinnati, and the 3:30 pacers (George and Bill) for a great job!

Basically a few miles of brisk walking. Quads are sore, I guess from the downhill sections of the Flying Pig. Calves are sore too, likely from the cramping episodes.

Recovery.

Ran a 5K alongside daughter, doing it in about 30min, so it qualifies as an easy run.

Staying on the slow road to marathon recovery.

Some easy miles with 6 x (400m@MP, 400m easy) in the middle.

Still on the recovery trail...

Still in marathon recovery, apparently. Or so my legs seem to be telling me.

Easy run, legs sore.

Still just easy running. Left piriformis trouble kicked in at the usual 5-6 mile point but faded away after another mile. Will try 1/2mi @10K pace on Sunday (PeteP marathon book suggestion). If it feels OK, I'll end my recovery period and resume normal training.

Very easy miles. Played basketball at lunch (vs. a 5th grader I'm mentoring and a buddy of his, 1 v 2) and made some muscles sore that I guess I haven't used in a while.

Longest run since marathon, felt pretty good. Went to what we call the Buffalo Trails through hilly woods about 15 minutes away. Did two of the five-mile loops, picking up the pace for about two miles in the middle. I think I'm basically recovered from the marathon and ready to resume normal training.

Will be looking to do a little speedwork to try to get into shape for some 5Ks and 10Ks this summer, maybe a couple of halfs in the Fall, then the Chicaog marathon on 10/22, where I sure hope I can beat the 3:31:45 that I stumbled through in Cincinnati.

Rare track appearance. Decided to see if I was recovered enough to do some faster stuff. Did a 2-mi WU, then 8x200m @ faster than mile race pace (36-40s per 200, 4:48-5:20 pace) with 200m jog between. Then a cooldown. Got up into the mid-90s today, with humidity ~ 80%, so it was fairly hot even at 8AM. Felt pretty good, but didn't feel inclined to do more than 8 of them. Guess I'm back to regular training.

WU for 3mi, 2.2mi @ between 5K and 10K pace, then CD.

I really need to work on sustained hard runs, as that's a huge weakness. And endurance too, as evidenced by by half and full marathon performances. So, endurance and sustained hard efforts (tempos of various lengths and paces) are the watchwords for my Summer, I hope.

Some easy stuff in prep for a harder weekend of training coming up. Seem to be over with the recovery; I've had a short interval workout and a short tempo run this week with only a little lingering soreness. Looking at about 10mi on Sat, with 3-6 of that at MP, and then a 12-15mi "long" run on Sunday. See if it happens.

On local college track. Mostly empty; one other runner, two walkers. 2mi WU, 6mi at MP, 3mi CD. Piriformis started acting up at around mile 5. Took a brief break every 1.5mi of the MP portion and changed directions on the track. Seemed to help a bit.

Wrangled out a bunch of old railroad ties that were serving as steps up a little rise in our backyard but have been past their prime for a few years now. Bought a bunch of landscpae timbers, got them home, cut them to size, and wrangled them into the back yard and that was about it for me. Then went on a paddleboat ride with my wife, then a bike ride, then a walk with wife and dog. By the time I got out the door to run, it was 10PM and I wasn't up to a long run, so I did what I could.

Went to local college track this morning, warmed up, ran 4x1000m (with 600m jog recovery), then cooled down. The intervals were done in 4:01, 3:46, 3:44, and 3:44 (6:24, 6:00, 6:00, 6:00 paces), which is probably around my current 5K pace on average (6:24 is above, 6:00 is below).

For anyone who reads this:

* Is 600m too long a recovery jog? I was trying to make even miles (1000m + 600m) so I'd start each rep out at the same point.

* Does 5K pace or slightly below count as threshold or VO2Max? I'd guess somewhere between but I'm not sure. Thanks!

Easy run in the AM. Sore from yesterday's track WO. Might get more miles in this evening playing Ultimate Frisbee with a group from work.

Went to the track again. Warmed up, then did a ladder of 200/400/600/400/200m at ~my mile pace, with 200m recovery jogs (400m after the 600 rep). The 600m rep felt pretty hard and I lost the pace by a few seconds. The others were pretty much on-pace.

Easy run around the neighborhood to rest legs. If it doesn't rain much in the next 24 hours, I'll be doing a trail race tomorrow morning. If it does rain a decent amount, that trail will be a mess, with incredibly slippery steep ups and downs in 11 ravines (small feeder streams into the lake the race goes around). Fairly high risk of injury when wet, so I'll pass if so.

Shut down when piriformis really kicked in.

Piriformis didn't really lick in until about 6.5mi into the run, later than it has in the past. Perhaps the exercises I'm doing for it are working; too early to tell yet.

Went to the Parkland College track this morning (becoming a regular here, about twice a week). Warmed up, then ran 3x400m (~3K race pace) with 200m jog recoveries, then 2x1200m (@10K pace).

I had run last night, ending at about 11PM, and I felt sore and tired from the start of this morning's WO. The 400s were off were they should have been. I was supposed to hit 1:25 per and instead ended up at 1:40, 1:30, and 1:27. Got closer as I went along, but just couldn't seem to get there. The 1200s went a lot better; I think the slower pace per 400m segment was just within my reach. I was supposed to hit 1:38/400m for the 1200s and averaged 1:39 for the first and 1:37 for the second.

I was glad when that WO ended. I crawled my way to a 1-mile cooldown and that was about all I could do. Pretty sore now.

Mostly easy running around the neighborhood, with 5x1:30 @ 10K pace thrown in.

Went to nearby college and ran around campus for an hour or so.

Easy run on hilly dirt/grass trails about 15 minutes from my house. Did 8x100m strides during the run, but not very fast. Right calf is now hurting after this run. I'm limping around for Father's Day.

BTW, Happy Father's Day to all relevant parties.

Seem to have a minor right calf pull, so I'm taking it easy for the next couple of days.

WU, then 5.5mi @ 7:35 pace, which is around my half-M pace (PR pace is 7:15, other halfs have been in the 7:30-7:40 range). Was going to do about 8mi at that pace, but my left piriformis and right calf started acting up and I went into my cooldown.

Went to local track at 7AM this morning. It was already 78 deg, 96% humidity, and the sun was out. Wanted to do 8-12 x 400m (at around 3K race pace) but couldn't make myself do more than 4. Jogged a couple of miles and I was done.

Just easy running around the neighborhood this morning. For some reason, even though it was sprinkling out, the humidity was only 87%, compared to yesterday's 96% with no rain.

Getting used to doing my runs in the morning. Takes me a while to get ready, but I like having my evenings freer.

Went to the local college track. WU, then 3xmile, 3:30 recovery, CD. Mile reps were supposed to be at 6:10-6:15, but I couldn't get them down below 6:35. I'm either still adjusting to the warmer/more humid weather or the marathon sucked all my fitness away. I think I'm going to avoid racing until Fall, as my inability to run faster stuff would make 5Ks and 10Ks kinda depressing.

Missed my Sunday long run due to storms and family travel, so I ran a little longer than a normal easy run today.

Just an easy jog around the neighborhood.

WU, then 5.5mi @ ~MP (pace in my first marathon was 8:02, this was at 7:42 pace), then CD. Piriformis started bothering me about 5mi into the MP-paced portion, so I stretched and went into a cooldown.

Just an easy run around the neighborhood. I'm trying to kick this piriformis thing while getting and keeping my mileage into the 45-60mpw range, so I'm scaling back my easy days, keeping them to 45 min or so of running. That way, I can recover more and concentrate on making my harder days count more. I hope.

Medium-long run on grass & dirt on U. of Ill. campus. Piriformis never seems to act up on grass/dirt...impact-related?

WU, then Ultimate Frisbee for 1.5 hours, CD

Short progression run, down to a little faster than MP.

Hadn't run in 4 days (tired from making steps in backyard + thunderstorms)

Sort of a long run, broken up with stretching for piriformis every two miles or so.

Did a scheduled tempo run (4.4mi @ 7:22 pace) with WU & CD in the morning. Then went to club's fun run in the evening (I hardly ever do) and it turned into another tempo for me (3mi @ 7:30 pace). Sore now.

Have had a bad summer of "training" and have dropped out of my reporting duties. I'm going to try to catch back up, filling in all the old entries, but it'll take me a while. Nothing really worthwhile to report anyway.

Progression run down to MP.

Ran on the beach in Hull, MA. Half sand, half concrete. 20-25mph wind. My daughter and I stayed at my sister's condo, on our way up to Maine (after flying in to Logan) for her to do overnights at two colleges, then go to Philly to do one at a college there.

Ran at Valley Forge Nat'l Park, after dropping off daughter for overnight at Haverford College. Saw hundreds of totally unafraid deer browsing all over the park, large herds of 20-30. Lots of people walking and running.

Mostly easy with 12x30sec fast strides (sub-mile to sub-5K pace).

Entered my first race in five months yesterday, an 8-mile trail race. I wanted a low-key race in which to slither my way back into racing and this seemed good. It was about 1.5 hours from Champaign, in E. Peoria, IL, around the Farmdale Reservoir. There were about 50 people in the 8mi race and about 35-40 in the 33-miler. I had no real goals except to finish in good shape; I knew I wasn't going to push myself, except maybe at the end--I just wasn't up for a taxing experience. It was fairly cold, maybe around 30 degrees with a 5-10mph wind at the start (8AM).

The course was pretty challenging, almost all single-track trails through the woods in the reservoir park. Lots of narrow, very twisty/turny/loopy trails, lots of places where you had to grab tree trunks to help swing you around the tight corners or you'd end up off the track. At one point I was within 5 meters of a guy who must have been about 1/4mi ahead of me, the trails looped back and forth so much. Lots of up and down too. There were two long, grindy hills 1/4-1/2 mi long, and several sections of 5-foot-tall moguls where you did sharp ups and downs that were really jarring. Even the part where we ran across the top of the reservoir dam was slightly uphill, oddly. I saw quite a few people even in the 8miler walking up the hills, which was unusual. Only one foot-wetting shallow water crossing and a couple of small rock-hopping ones.

The forks in the trails were generally well marked, with a few places where you had to stop and look both ways before figuring out which way to go. No mile markers, which made the whole thing a big, questionable exercise. I was in a loose pack of five for the latter half of the race. When we had a consensus guess that we were about a mile from the finish, I picked up the pace a bit. A couple of them dropped off fairly quickly but the other two held on a few yards back. I finally saw the finish line from about 300m away and did my impression of a sprint and dropped the last two guys.

I finished in about 1:11:40, in 14th place (out of 47). The pace was just under 9:00, which was fine for me, considering all the twists, ups and downs, and my general fitness level or lack thereof. Probably at MP-level effort, given that it wasn't on roads. The 8-miler was won in 55 minutes, with 2nd place coming in a little over 6 minutes after that; the 33-miler was won in 5:32 or so. The three other folks from my running club who made it out here all ran the 33-miler and came in between 5:40 and 8:05.

No awards except to the male and female winners of each race, who received, well, rocks. They each got a 10-pound polished rock with the race name and date on it. Would have been funnier if they'd attached a looped ribbon to them and pretended they were medallions, but that's JMO. First year for this race; maybe next year they'll have mile markers.

Legs kinda sore after yesterday's race, so this was very slow.

Another cold, wet, windy night here in IL, so did a 4-mi tempo run on the TM, with a WU and CD.

Easy miles on TM, following a hill-based program.

12x1:00 @ ~5K pace, 1:00 recovery.

2x5mi loops on hilly trails, plus a CD. Second run, very slow, in evening.

WU, then 10x400m @ faster-than-5K-pace, with 400m recovery, CD.

5 x mile @ MP, just trying to get some feel for MP again.

4x1200m @ ~ 5K pace + 15sec/mi, 800m recovery.

Very easy, legs very sore for some reason.

Just found out my entry to Boston was accepted. I missed my AG cutoff by 46 seconds, so I wondered if they'd let me in, but they did. Now I just have to train for it....

WU, 3xmile @ 1/2M pace, CD.

Hill WO on treadmill, 2min hill (3-12% grade, up 1% each rep, then 3-6% grade), 2min flat, easy pace.

Longest run since Flying Pig on 5/7.

WU, then 4x1200@5K pace w/400m recovery, CD.

WU, 2x1.5mi@half-M pace, 800m recovery, CD

Longish run, slow.

5x1200 @ ~10K pace, 1-1.5min rec, WU & CD

Did 8x100m and 2mi @ MP in a 10-mile run.

WU, 4x1000m@5K pace + 1x500m@5K pace, 400m recovery, CD

Hiking, lugging rocks and tree trunks for makeshift bridge across creek during annual T-Day campout.

Progression run, ending with a few miles at MP.

Easy run with 10x100m strides tossed in.

WU, then 6x800m@5K pace w/2min recovery, CD.

Easy longish run.

WU, then 3 sets of 4 x 1:00, with first interval in each set ~5K pace, 2nd & 3rd ~3K pace, 4th ~mile pace; 1min rec between intervals, 4-5 min rec between sets, CD

Tempo run.

Played inddor soccer in AM (lots of sprinting), easy run on TM in evening.