Revenge

Sunday's extremely nice but exhausting bike ride has now its revenge. The "muscular system" around my right hamstring/buttock area is paying the dues for being that happy. That's a good add to the problems on my left leg/butt. But I don't care about that - mind is still happy!

Anyway I sneaked out for a short run (4 miles) today just to keep myself updated where I'm at right now. Dont' worry, I'm not doing this every or every other day like in the old days. Last time when I ran was in Iceland 1,5 weeks ago. But back to today: The current situation is not worse which is nice. Maybe that's why I did 3 hill repeats. Funny thing is that left butt does not hurt when I run uphill.

But being this desperate usually creates bad ideas. This time is not different: I've been thinking about aqua jogging. In 2004 after I did the 6 hrs really unofficial Finnish national (nowadays ex-) record (the longest aqua run) I have totally disliked the feeling of pool water on my skin. If I would dip myself in a pool, I would vomit for sure. Instantly.

By the time of NR I was in a middle of 7 months break off running due to more serious injury. Currently I'm only fighting the demons (and sprained muscle) so why bother. I still have my bike, sore butt and a conference in Lausanne (SUI) to attend.

Oh and today NCAA's finals start in Eugene, OR. Among other interesting events I'm rooting for Joonas Harjamäki (a Finn) in men's steeple. Go and dominate!

Back on the road

First workout after the recovery from flue! I headed to a hill which was FREE from snow and ice. So today was the first time since early December when these two annoying buddies were not covering my way. This is great!

The workout (6*450m'450m) itself was tougher than I expected. I thought that if I do only 6 reps it is enough for my aiching body and I would have decent reserves of energy to use for 4 miles CD. After getting back home I realized that I wasn't too careful.

Workout Wednesday

Despite the yesterday's destructing feeling I woke up and soon found myself running hill workout (6x500m w/ 500m jog rest). After the workout I noticed the WRR's 2009 Runner Rankings. Even if I sucked pretty badly in Annapolis and Bmore 10-milers I was ranked 8th in my age group and 52nd among men. That being said, I'm sure the Mr. Wardian will rule this age group for the next couple years. He's a machine/animal. In a good way...

The Karikko trail located in our backyard was again well-maintained (ice was now UNDER the gravel and sand) which made the workout more enjoyable than I originally expected. Additionally, I was able to kick my own ass today. How about you?

Intermission

Wednesday morning: 4 pretty easy miles. I felt really tired, so it was easy to concentrate on Winter Olympics (go P2!!!) in the evening instead of running.

Today I repeated my Thursday routine comprising an early hill workout. I was happy with 6x500m repeats. In the afternoon I gotta run to get our car from the garage.

It's getting closer

Friday's morning jaunt was an easy 6 miler with sweetie. In the afternoon I didn't have any time for running due to work/family/friends-related activities. I don't worry about that too much now. This is building time before I will start my preparation for XC Nats and Berlin Marathon.

Today I did again the same 3x2000m (6.55, 6.44, 6.36) in indoors. Today's feeling wasn't that good, and I think that the reason for this was Thursday morning's hill workout (8x500m). Tomorrow it's time for a long run. Now it is time for some serious candy eating.

A good day

Today morning (around 6:00AM) I started a WU for hill workout. The weather was nice and crispy (~4-6 F). No wonder the workout felt fine (8x500m'500m). Maybe that's why I managed to solve a problem related one of manuscripts under construction. Not bad!

Tallinn-bound

Wednesday was a busy one, and I had time only for one jog. This has been pretty familiar tune during the last weeks. This morning I woke up at 5:45 AM and found myself running a hill workout 20 minutes later. Now I feel lucky that I did that since now I'm "stuck" in Tallinn, Estonia, where the running conditions are less optimal. Tomorrow I have to wake up little earlier to have time at least for one run. Afternoon and evening are already booked for something else. Now I wish that I won't fall too many times tomorrow. Maybe that why this evening's soundtrack is provided by Rob Zombie.

Phase II

Morning run was around 8.5 miles (7.30/mile). I decided to do hills in the evening after when arrive from campus. Just to get more mileage. The results of re-planning produced new weekly schedule. Next phase includes on Monday fartlek/intervals, on Wednesdays morning hills / evening HCC, and on Fridays steady/accelerating tempo 6-9 miles. Other days are the same.

In the evening I had to compensate yesterday by couple of hills. I did 5*730m w/ rest jog. Pace was moderate (6.00-5.35/mile), and the whole workout was pure pleasure. Day's total was ~17 miles.

I'm ecxited about that Miika Takala, last years Finnish distance running comet (14:28, 30:09, 2:23:19), is coming to visit us tomorrow. It's a real pity that his potential effort in Houston marathon remains unknown due to stomach flu.

Friday Hills

I did some hills (725m) on Ten Mills Road. Because of more or less long absence of hill workouts, I started this period with 5 repeats with rest jog. That felt a pretty fine solution for this morning, so suprisingly I have nothing to complain about. HHhhmmm... why I did only five repeats. What a wuss I am!

In the evening we did an easy 6-miler which felt really nice. Such a joy.

To Do or Not To

Prediction Run: We missed 11.00 AM by twenty seconds. But then I compensated this huge disappointment with two donuts. Yammy.

This morning darling was undecisive between tempo (rendo) and no tempo. So we ran an easy 6-miler after which we decided to do a half-cut hill workout - 5*80 seconds with jog rest. That was mentally relaxing, physically not so much.

2*Morning Run and then some Thanksgiving

Today I had a double morning. First, I did an easy tempo (3M 18.01) and some hills (5*80sec'350m) around 7.00 AM. Then had some breakfast, and started to gear up for Turkey Trott Prediction run. That's a 10k without a watch, only with a sense of time. The one who finishes closest to 11.00 AM wins that race. And the one ain't gonna be me...

Turkey Trott 10k 39.48. Again, I was late which has been the case in all runs during this week. Luckily, I saw Jason coming for his warm up (a 15k run...) and so we started together. I was originally hoping for a really easy run, but we had to start a bit faster in order to catch Mark and Joe, and to take care of finishing enough close to 11. After catching and running a couple of k's with M&J I think that we lost our gut feeling and increased the pace again. It was also partly due to listening to Phil. Hah. So we finished at 10.58,57, wayyy of the goal. But Mark was "4th" by missing the 11.00 by only less than 1.5 seconds... In all that was a fun race. Today with nice distance running was all together ~15 miles.

And happy thanksgiving!

Ez Tempo + Hills

I gotta try some "new" tricks. This morning I did a new combination (for me that is). Easy tempo, 5k (~6.00/miles) and then some hills (75-80 sec). In all this workout was 9+ miles, which makes it a satisfying morning workout. At least for this time of year with brakes on. I just heard that they got 4 inches of snow in Finland.

Tuesday hills

This morning I did only a half of the planned workout. Just to keep it cool. It was a time for hills and I did 5*1min. After the cool down I rolled some strides (5*100m). Honestly, it's been awhile since I've done any faster pace... In addition, running was painless. Even if I expect that to be temporary, I enjoyed it a lot. Total 6.2 miles (7.39 pace).

Slippin' back to reality

I did some easy hills just to enjoy this crispy morning. Repeats were 5*1 min with jogging rest. Not pushing, just running slightly faster pace. Felt just ok, expect during the cooldown both legs started to feel tired. No wonder... Total 7 miles.