Core

Evening was the Boulder Running Company run. Once again I tried on a different pair of shoes because they were free to try. These were Innov8s. Wasn’t bad as a flat but I need a little bit more of heel for now.

7 miles

The past 2 days have put a lot of emphasis on my lack of calf strength. I need to start doing calf raises. I had a bit of a revelation today that running is basically like plank for my calves. I need to actually strengthen them by doing calf raises which as akin to crunches. This will help them get all-around stronger (though maybe bigger too… which isn’t ideal). Oh well, I’m still going to try it.

Would have tried to get in some aquajogging or swimming but had some work to do and don’t really have an available pool.

Went out for an evening run and stayed flat, which turned out to be the ticket. Ran down to the track and focused maintaining good form for 4 miles around the track dropping down in pace. Not taxing, but very good practice for my form.

1.5 miles to track
4 miles (6:12, 5:58, 5:47, 5:41)
Drills
1.5 miles home
Balancing

Ankle thing is nothing to worry about. Just being overly cautious.

Highlight of the day wasn’t even on the track. The woman’s Soccer team continues to provide the best drama, excitement, and ultimate elation. Love it!

First training session in over 48 hours this evening.

7 miles. Easy 48min with Minen.

Finally felt a bit more energetic. Groin abductors were strangely sore and tight but not unmanageable while running. Hopefully better tomorrow…

Kirani James is the man.

We ran it at a decent effort but the pace only ended up being like 6:50s. Pretty high up I guess… And we were definitely tired from the traveling

7 miles. 48 minutes.

More importantly, I’ll be dropping updates from Headwaters this weekend.

This gives you a great idea of a the locale. (courtesy http://anodynerunning.blogspot.com/)

Met up with the group not feeling too good about what was about to go down, but after a 10min warmup to the trailhead (at 6000ft), I was feeling significantly better. The idea was 15min out and then try to negative split coming back. 30min tempo all together.

1 mile warmup uphill. 5 mile undulating tempo. 1 mile cooldown.

Put simple, it went well. I got that competitive fire going and after about a half mile it was just me and the two trail studs. We had an elastic relationship where they’d tear downhill on what I’m going to call Davitian’s nightmare (ankle biter, fist-sized rocks everywhere), gap me, and then I’d catch up on the more runner-friendly sections.

After 12 minutes, we made it to the last leg of the “out” tempo which was a steep uphill gravel road. I’d estimate an average 15% grade (based on the fact that I grew up on a 19% grade in NH). It was short fast steps for me, but as I finally pulled up next to the leader, a fellow named Ben, he said, “Go get that tower.” (The objective of the tempo was to reach a radio tower in 15min at which point you’re said to “win” the run). I couldn’t exactly back down from that challenge so I picked it up past him and up the hill. It was a putting a pretty brutal hurt on me by the time I made it to the tower. Unfortunately, neither Ben, Johannas, or myself carried a watch so there was no way to know if we’d hit it in the 15min time limit but regardless, we turned around and rolled back home.

10 min cooldown. Iced in Boulder Creek afterward with Bret and two crazy WXC ’13s who somehow completed a 50mile race 48 hours earlier. They were in shockingly good shape (read: could walk) considering they just ran for 9 and a half hours 2 days ago. Psychos…

Got down to business today though. 40 pushups. 20 pullups. Drills. Stretching. Then went out for 20min to the WXC house via Chataqua Park. Kicked it over there for 20min. Rehydrated and stretched a very little amount. Caught the end of the tour and a little tennis before hitting the trails again back to Auburn Street. On the way back, I took a bit longer but much better path. 32min. The entire first 15 were steady uphill though and I was nearly gasping by the time it mellowed out. That said, I was feeling quite good and recovered after a few minutes on the flat and I cruised downhill.

7 miles. 52 minutes.

It was 82 degrees and 41% humidity, but even with the altitude and the relatively hot conditions, I still felt better than mid-80s and 70% humidity in Ohio…

With some cooler mid-70s days coming up, I expect to be feeling quite good.

Time for a sandwich.

The other pleasant oddity is that there is not a single sore muscle or knot on my body, potentially due to the fact that I took yesterday off from athletic activity, though I usually feel horrible after travelling, especially this far. That’s all the justification I need to beat myself up a bit!

On come the shoes and off I go with a vague recollection of the direction of what I’m calling “southie beach/boardwalk”, 3 miles on my mind (cause I have no idea how I’ll hold up). The run, however, turned into a pleasantly smooth and introspective 50 minute jog.

7miles. 50min

So “introspective”, that’s an interesting word choice… Well here’s the story: A mile or two in, I was jogging through a small park, nothing special, and all of a sudden I smelled something that triggered that mysterious part of the medulla oblongata where odor and memory dance together. The odor was nothing specific. Seemed to be just a combination of flora. Maybe the grass/foliage is different here? I don’t know. I’m no botanist. But something was triggering a fairly intense emotional memory of my growing years. 16 in New Hampshire. 4 at Williams. Vacations in Maine. Frolicking all over New England. What the heck? Where is this coming from? Here I am, convinced that the Cali Coast is god’s gift to man; a place I’m intent on ending up with some day and suddenly I’m smelling my ex’s perfume and holy crap, I feel homesick.

Don’t get me wrong, many other parts of the run reminded me why I hate Boston, but New England… New England might have something going for it again. History. I have innumerable memories here, good and bad, and for whatever reason I almost feel guilty I’m so in love with California. (I’m sure a therapist would have a field day with this…)

Well I’m showered now, and fed, and significantly more tired. I’ll probably sleep a while on the car ride to Williams but damn am I excited to visit right now!

Oh yeah, running’s going pretty well too. I’ll talk recent workouts on Sunday, the first day of the new regime. I solumnly swear to post at least the day’s run and to start easing back into using this blog for its intended purpose again — to keep me focused, regulated, and accountable for my training.

1.5 miles warmup. Flats on. Leg swings

6000m tempo (4:48, 4:51, 4:41, 4:39)

2 mile cooldown

The first two were pretty relaxed. If anything my body just wasn’t used to that sustained slow effort. I felt like going faster but I’m glad I didn’t. When I finally released myself on the 3rd one it felt good… for about a minute. Then I started to realize the effort wasn’t super sustainable and by the time I had one lap to go I was falling off the pace a bit. The last lap was only faster because I really poured on the anaerobic speed towards the end. Wiped afterwards. I guess the miles would be something like (5:10, 5:12, 5:03, 5:01). Decent for on dirt but I’m definitely not in 5k shape.

Been a while since I gave that sustained effort without it just being a warmup so it was good to feel that horrible burn again.

Excellent recovery BBQ at Clay’s afterwards

It turned out to be a good idea. We started at 6:15 pace and picked it up as we progressed, ending around 5:30 effort.

7 miles (6:15 -> 5:30 effort)

I didn’t do too much extra stuff. Hopefully I’ll find some time for that tomorrow and really get back into a good routine.

7 miles

Got roped into one session by a frustrating day of work (which has also kept me from updating my log promptly). Oh well…

Pretty nice night after a torrid day. The weather breaking after a thunderstorm at 7PM. I hit the track after that rolled through at 8:15. Finished just as it was getting really dark. Oh, and Donnie, who ran his workout this morning, came out to help give me splits. Much love for that.

1.5 mile warmup. Leg swings and drills. Spiked up for this one.

800 (73, 72). Felt kinda tough actually. But did the trick of loosening me up.
3min rest

600 (31, 33, 28.6). Felt kinda of hard to get moving that quickly and hold it. Definitely winded.
5 min rest [with 400m jog right after the rep]
600 (32, 33, 27.6). Better. Still want that 2nd 200 to be a little faster though.
5 min
600 (33, 32, 27.4). I ran this one the right way.
5 min
600 (32, 32, 26.4). Bingo!

1 mile cooldown

I’m calling this workout a huge success. I wasn’t sure how’d I’d be able to handle it after the first one but 5 min is a long time and I was recovering fine. I closed each successive 600 faster than the last with no more perceived effort (except for the last one) and when I hit that 200 to go mark I felt really good getting over my toes and turning on the power. If I feel like that in the prelims, I like my chances.

7 miles

I felt pretty awesome once I got moving. However, my lower abs (I have erroneously been labeling it the “abductor” previously. I just Googled it and realized thats not really a muscle, but a type of muscle. Doodling in 10th grade bio comes back to bite me… Oh well.), while starting off not that bad, got steadily worse as I went. I kept wanting to double over to relieve it and I certainly didn’t want to allow good hip flexor extension. Ugh. Don’t know what to do about it. The good news is that it’s slowly getting better. Bad news is it’s SLOWLY getting better.

I have really high energy levels right now and I’d love to be running a lot more. So the idea of taking another day off is kind of revolting. We’ll see.

Vig and the UVA boys had bartered a deal with the local Monticello HS AD to let us all use the track after their HS sports teams were finished with their friday night games, under the lights. Oh, I think I mentioned it in passing a week ago, but once again: the UVA track has been demolished. The site of the once blue surface is now a crater filled with loud, rusty, yellow excavators, backhoes, graters and other such Tonka equipment I can’t remember from my childhood. Without that resource, we’ve been striking out across town to find a nice 400m surface to run on. The Monticello track wasn’t awesome (hard surface and tight turns) but it still beat out the C’ville High track, on which Donnie swears you run at least 1sec slower per lap.

The workout for me today was simple. Run my 200m speed for 400m.

I’ve done a ton of 200s up til now at the end of workouts and such that usually range between 26 and 28s. After then 800 I ran, I think that’s been a mistake. I want to get my body used to the idea that it will have to run that pace and maintain it for up to 800m. So the workout I chose today comes out of Donnie’s old college coach’s playbook. 600-400-400-600-300-300-300-200-200-200. Full rest in between. The first 600 is slower to get you into it (like 1:36) and then you’re trying to hit 55s pace. Let’s see how it went…

600 (1:31) Felt smooth. Taxing. Yet manageable.
3:30 rest. I felt fully recovered after this.
400 (54.3) Wooo! I was really striding this out. The legs started feeling fatigued right after the 200m mark (duh). But I finished strong.
4:30 rest. Once again I was feeling pretty fully recovered.
400 (54.8) Ugh. All went well through 200 but after 200 the legs started to fail. Each stride became a compensation for the last.
5:30 rest. Not really feeling recovered but starting to feel tight. I won’t be able to handle a 600…
400 (54.5) Completely straining to finish.

6min rest. Breathing hard the whole time but jogged a good 600m total.

300 (40.5) Surprisingly didn’t feel too bad, but I’m starting to feel a headache coming on.
2min rest. I really don’t know why I took such a relatively short rest… force of habit from all the other workouts I guess and I wasn’t getting too much oxygen to my brain. 2min was like the longest rest I got.
300 (41.3) HORRIBLE. Felt awful. Don’t even think I was breathing the last 50m. hands to knees for at least a minute after finishing. There was no way I could do another for a while.

6min rest. I just jogged for this time and thought about what I was going to do for the rest of this workout… I could feel my muscles knotting already, my breathing was still strained, and my head was distinctly throbbing now. So I just decided to pull the plug. Live to sprint again next week.

I’m now really glad I ended it there. It was a solid first stab at speed work and I’m really not sure when my body will be ready to run that fast again… But it will definitely be sooner than if I had gritted through another 300 or two.

Cooldown was super slow. Barefoot with the UVA guys. Then I did some hip drills and dynamic stretching to make sure the muscle tightening wouldn’t be too extreme tonight.

Oh, one side note that was pretty fun — we actually had a dozen or so high-schoolers out watching us workout and cheering at points. I definitely got a solid cheer for my first 300. Unfortunately, you can never really tell if it’s genuine or derisive with that age but I’m going to choose to remember it as genuine.

Donnie and I swung by Cara’s for some dinner. HUGE thank you to her for cooking up some great (and healthy) dinner dishes for us after the workout. I wouldn’t have been able to muster anything but a bowl of cereal on my own. #Lifesaver

Mt Sac 1500m – 3:41!!! – but 8th place, 4 guys within a second…

US Road Mile – 4th place!!! – but 4th place is not on the (very real) podium…

If you had told me at the beginning of the year I’d be running like this, I’d have been thrilled. But I can’t help but realize that I’ve been inches from making a splash; tenths of a second from doing something noticeable. I’m fully devoting these next 6 weeks to changing that. I know there are two seconds to be had in my legs and a layer of aggression to be uncovered in my mind. Now is not the time to look for more base. Now is the time to find that speed.

Sorry, focusing on the if-onlys is a Debbie Downer way to open this up but it’s honestly the first thing on my mind looking back and the number one thing driving me moving forward.

That being said, I’m pumped I ran this race and thrilled at my result! I just see exponentially new heights of achievement mere meters in front of me. Here’s how it went down…

The race itself was exceptionally administrated. It felt so professional that it was actually causing me quite a bit of anxiety on race day. We had a very professional and personalized itinerary that included pre-race interviews with each athletes, a press conference (whaaaa?!), a technical briefing session, and a course tour (I opted not to go on that as I was feeling pretty tired around 2PM. All I wanted to do was cater to that urge to nap). My interview was the first pre-race one I’ve ever had and unfortunately it was decided that it would happen in the morning… Now many have you have tried to talk to me in the morning and have already cringed upon reading this. Bottom line is, I didn’t have any pre-existing responses to draw from, and very little brain power from which to formulate and voice them. So the interview was wordy, rambling, and pretty forgettable. But I did get better as it went along and, like anything, the second draft will be far better. I almost wanted to ask if I could do it again… But now I suppose I just have another thing to practice.

However, the other side affect of the interview was just having to voice my goals out loud. This also caused me to feel more pressure than I would have otherwise (none) and combined with the unfamiliar pre-race build up, I actually decided to go on a day-of shakeout, something I rarely ever do.

But I got out at 3PM and ran for 10min along the course, reassuring myself of the gameplan. This definitely helped and I think i’ll continue this tradition in the future, at least for evening races. Otherwise the full day of waiting just gets kind of unbearable.

at 6:50 I was able to watch the first heats of the mile go by (the family mile) and by the time 7:20 rolled around I had everything together and I stepped into the cold night air. Weather was 53 and misty with a bit of a breeze that would be at our backs for the race. Pretty nice conditions (at least for racing). I warmed up with Tommy Schmitz for about 2 miles and felt pretty confident with the way strides and drills felt. I knew I was ready to race.

The horn blew at 8:03 and we were off. It’s sooo much easier to get a good start when you can time the countdown (they went 10-9-8-7-6-5… on-your-marks… *horn*)

The first 400 was the most unknown part of the race for me. I wasn’t sure how I would react to the slight uphill. However, we came through in 61 (with Ryan Hall leading in fact) and I felt solid. This was going to be good. I just tried to tuck in the side and stay agile as we weaved along the slightly twisty road. I knew there was going to be a move sometime before the downhill that marked the start of the final quarter. I even picked out the spot where I would make it if feeling confident.

The move did come, but not from me. It actually from my roommate, Craig Miller, at the exact spot I picked, with about 600 to go. In the race I remember seeing it string out on the right side of the field (I was on the left) but I took a few seconds to decide to react and that was the difference of 10 meters plus the 5 meter jump they had before I recognized the move. If this had been a regular flat track mile it might have been the right decision to not cover the move, but in this case, there was a significant downhill on the last quarter mile which would allow you to be more in debt that you might otherwise feel with 400 to go. Despite the sound reasoning in my mind, my body’s signals still caused me to hesitate and not really start pushing until we got to that downhill. Once on it, I flew by the 4 guys I was with and set my sights on the breakaway pack of three. I honestly think I recovered a bit on that downhill and really felt good once it leveled off with 200 to go. However, my kick was once again pathetic and I went from comfortable to rig in 150m, struggling to close out the last 50 or so (It’s going to be sweet once I get that sustained kick). However, I sincerly believe that last 200 would have been about the same even if I had pushed earlier with those guys before the downhill. The consequence of not going with them will be that I have to settle for 4th.

On the one hand, 4th is awesome! I won $800 and beat a lot of really good guys. But at the same time I didn’t give myself an opportunity to win, and in a race like this, with nothing but maybe a little cash on the line, this is the opportunity to throw yourself at the competition, assert your confidence in your fitness, and really give the other guy your best shot. I don’t feel like I did that today and that has me melancholic (Yes it’s a word. I looked it up).

Post race was fun though. I got in a good 4 mile cooldown with a guy named John Ricardi and my Furman roommate, Matt Elliot. Followed that up with some dinner and beers out downtown.

The whole trip was a solid decision. I’m definitely hoping to come back next year. Sights set on Torrence. It will at least come down to the last 100m.

Full Results