A less ordinary Monday

This day is dedicated for rest, a passive one, which sets me free for any physical activity.

Ready to retire

A bad day, bad race - worst 10-miler ever. Why? I can't handle two pathetic races in a row?

This sucks (but I'm again back from my early retirement).

Easy days

Two easy days behind. Legs are still feeling bit tired, but there isn't so much to do right now. Instead of whining, I have to mention to great achievements from Zürich. Finnish Jukka Keskisalo improved the NR into 8.10,67. In addition, Dathan Ritzhein ran new AR, 12.56,27! Dude x 2!

Of course I missed both races, but luckily they are soon available at universalsports.

Workout Wednesday

Not really, but the topic sounds better this way.

In the morning we did with sweetie an easy 4+ miler, and in the evening I met again with guys to do a nice run on trails. That's the way how Wednesday should go. Tom was back, and his presence usually mean fast pace. However, Carlos was PRing during the first leg. He was flying. Still I managed to take over Mt. Nasty. To be honest that wasn't a race, but I just wanted to have a enough time for a short visit at the "Forest Administration". After that I was done. Again. The last part of the CCBC route - from Lost Lake to Swing Bridge - was bit unexpected painful experience with almost pedestrian pace, but that's life. Now it is time for easy days before Annapolis.

Workout Tuesday

6:30 AM, track, extreme cold (65F) added with a nice sunrise. Legs were stiffer than week ago, but I managed to run 5x1000m'400m with rather rendo (=relaxed) feeling. However, both hamstrings are pretty tight which means that once again I really have to stretch more. But it's so boring. I had scheduled a core workout for yesterday, but instead I found myself at the M&T Stadium among 60.000+ people watching Ravens vs. Jets. Maybe I do some core exercises today. Or maybe not.

In addition Nate Jenkins's after-the-marathon interview (he had pretty tough race), one other interesting interview was Matt Tegenkamp's where he shortly talks about the tv coverage of distance races here in the US. And I thought that the scarce visibility of distance running is only a problem in Finland. Teg is a professional athlete, who gets paid in his work and still he is worried about the future. All in all, US distance runners had a wide participation in Berlin, which as such already indicates the future potential embedded in their work.

Even if Finns have Jukka Keskisalo (8th in steeples in Berlin) and had Janne Holmén (he ended his great marathon running career two moths ago), we have clearly lost our competitive edge in general - even at the European level. We really respect those national top-level Finnish guys who put a lot of effort in their training, but in general I think that in Finland we are still watching too much backwards (1970s) without accepting the enourmous work load still laying ahead. Where is the much needed knowledge spillover to get more and more potential runners on the road and track? Old geezers are buzzing behind the corner, of course, but do they have any wisdom that could be provided to make distance running popular again... Many concentrate on blaiming other sports for taking away the potential runners, but that's not the solution. Blaiming others... To me the team-based approach - partly due to college running and very supportive pro-teams - has been one of the visible secrets enabling the current upswing in the US distance running. That kind of approach (excluding the college part) should also be applied in Finland, right? Most likely yes...

Ok. Now back to work.

Hangover

T&F World Championships are over. No more Tour de France either. I'm feeling empty.

This morning we ran to watch Iron Girl at Centennial Lake after the women's WC marathon's top ten list was shown. After that we hurried back home to watch men's 5000m and 800m and women's 1500m final. Then it was time for easy bike ride (33 miles). Next up... all you can eat buffet? Weekly mileage: 64.

Bagel Run

No bagel, but pretty good run. Guys (Mark, Stephen, Paul etc.) are still on the road to do their 20-miler, while I'm at home, happy and tired after a 16-miler (7.03/mile). Before the run I was able to follow the first half of men's World Champs marathon - things are not the same that they used to be. They started again hitting sub 3.00/km pace like nothing... now it's time for breakfast and some universalsports.com (I just only yesterday realized that Steve Ovett himself is their commentator).

Workout Friday

After watching men's 50km race walk for a moment I was ready for some tempo run. Again at 6:30 AM we were heading to the Bagel Run course for a 5-miler. This morning I felt pretty good, and accordingly I ran over a minute faster (27.57, 5.35/mile) than previously. Not so bad. Weather was of course better, but still the overall feeling was better as well. Next up.... some serious cheering during women's 1500m and men's 800m semis and of course for Finnish javelin throwers!!!

Beaten by Mt. Nasty, beaten by this weather

This weather sucks. Big time.

Morning shake out (6+ miles) was quite usual - not bad, nothing extraordinary. But in the evening I hated every single stride that I took on trails. Mt. Nasty took this round. Easily. Yesterday I felt quite good, but today.... today was really much about balancing those feelings (back to normal?). WC's 1500m was an insane race, really typical championship race one could say.

Workout Tuesday

It's only couple of hours until men's steeple final starts. Go Jukka!!!! [edit: Jukka was 8th with 8.14 - second best time ever in the fastest final ever... Ezekiel Kemboi 8.00,43]

Despite of that I found myself again on track at 6:30 AM. I planned to do 6x1000m ~3.15, but since I ran them slightly too fast (3.12-3.06) I did only five repeats - with rendo effort. The reason for not running the last repeat was that I wasn't willing to tweak my hamstrings. First, of course, I was suprised that am I really that wise that I'm thinking ahead. Then I was disappointed, but almost instantly remembered that Dieter Baumann also quitted his workouts "early" if he ran his repeats too fast. Well, he also had much more powerful toothpaste than I'm using...

The Unbearable Lightness...

I did my today's duty already and I'm pretty happy about. It was only easy 6-miler (6.43/mile) under somewhat bearable weather conditions. But then I just received an email from my sponsor. I've seem to forgot to send my annual report. That gives you a ruff picture what is on my schedule today. In addition to World Champs of course...

Yesterday we drove to Rock Creek Park (I've seen many praise related to that park on GRC's page) and ran a longish run here and there starting from "the line". After that we continued southward and hit the Mt. Vernon Trail (shorth version from RR Airport) by bike. After getting back to the car at least I was quite exhausted. Weather was over 95s the whole time and that's too much for a Finn. Last week was around 60 miles.

The Beach

On Thursday evening we decided that it's finally time to go to the beach. So on Friday we found ourselves in a long, slowly moving line of cars heading to the resorts in Delaware. Conveniently we chose to drive to Dewey Beach since there was an opportunity to race on Saturday morning. This sounded so great beforehand.

However, during the actual race (which turned out to be a tempo run with declining pace) in a humid and pretty warm weather I regretted the whole decision to even take my racing flats with me. I crashed totally already after 2k which wasn't so uplifting. Fortunately, the rest of the day compensated that feeling quite effectively.

Workout Wednesday and ez Thursday

I got back from Chicago in time Tuesday. AOM meeting was again an interesting event. Yesterday we ran an easy 4+ miler and in the evening I met guys on trail. I think that I PRed on both hills (Mt. Slayer and Nasty). However, during the last couple miles both calves were really sore, and later in the evening I was barely able to use my right leg. That's bad news because it has been my main support while running due to the problems with left achilles. So, the next run will be interesting...

This morning included a core workout. In addition to that, I'll run something easy later, since we decided to run 10k at the Dewey Beach on Saturday. It will be interesting to see how damaged I am currently. More interesting fact is that WCs are around the corner. Already on Saturday we will know who is the Nr. 1 woman of 10000m for the next two years.

Another morning in Chicago

This morning I felt pretty sore and tired, but luckily I had time only for a 6-miler. Legs felt amazingly sore during the first half of the run, but on my way back I kept the pace at 6.30s, and then I felt fine. Another funny thing is that even in Chicago, in the Windy City with couple of million inhabitants, you may still run across with runners from Columbia, MD.

Tempo reps in Chicago

Oh yes. Morning run (5x1000m with 2 min. rest jog, 3.21-3.16) on the Lakeshore trail in Chicago. Sun was rising, many recreational runners (including me, that's my category) around, some triathletes doing their swim in Lake Michigan. Life's good!

No race

No 5k for me. Damn it. CTA's Brown Line metro was late by 30 minutes and after taking Red Line, I got lost in the "Northern" Chicago, but found my way to the starting line only 5 minutes late (registation was closed 35 minutes earlier). Winner ran 15.17 and third place ($100) was around 15.55.

Instant punishment (12 miles) is completed. I'm exhausted.

Chicago

Chicago is warm and humid. I've heard stories about this and now I know that they are true. Tomorrow morning I'm most likely running that 5k race, if I find where it is, and if this weather is not getting crazier. Luckily, I was able to run around 9 miles in the morning under way better conditions.

Now I'm watching the lights of Trump Tower across the river. I normally dislike heights, but I find 19th floor as an entertaining alternative for the normal 4th floor. Oh, and this evening's Entrepreneurship Social meeting was fun and nutritive.

Easy Friday

I had to change my plans. I ran this morning the normal 7.5 miler, but I will skip this evening's XC race. I planned to run it as a moderate tempo run, but after Sunday's bike "crash" my right ankle has been slightly out-of-order. In addition, Tuesday's track workout is still around... I might have an opportunity to run a faster 5k in Chicago on Sunday morning, so that's enough effort for rest of this week.

Same ol' Thursday

Alan Webb moves to Oregon, the number of scientific articles is still growing fast, Paula Abdul left the building, and interest rates decline. But every Thursday I feel the same - tired, sore and filled with some kind of pain which is probably related to aging. Today I enjoyed these feelings for 7.5 miles (7.05/mile).

The usual Wednesday medley

In the morning I ran an easy jog with sweetie. I included some short steep hill sprints which felt pretty heavy. It meant that afternoon's trail run was going to be heavy as well. And it was. Even if we decided to run the normal loop backwards, I still got my ass kicked. Weather was again enough humid. After all, it was a good day.

Workout Tuesday

Sunday was a day off and instead of running we drove down to WV and mountainbiked for 2.5 hours - in muddy and wet conditions. But nice views they have over there... Yesterday legs were still hurting from Saturday's long run, and accordingly, easy 6+ miler was pure (good) pain.

Today I found myself on track already at 6:45 AM. Weather was much more pleasant than it has been during the last couple of weeks, and maybe that was the reason for extremely rendo feeling during the workout. I did 10x400m with 300m jog at faster pace (73.3-67.9) than 1.5 weeks ago. Nice!

Long run

Today has been a good day and I'm sure that it will continue as such. 21 miles of running (6.49/mile) with Bob, Paul, Mark and Stephen, and now soon sweetie and I are heading for a hike or mountain biking somewhere in WV. Oh, and last month was around 300 miles. I'm actually feeling pretty good now.