Yeah yeah yeah

I had a nice Friday on sofa. I had cold and as usual I "lost" my lungs. So I did nothing but rest. Yesterday I gave xc skiing a chance but I felt too sick to do any decent workout. I skied only half a mile and returned to car.

Today I, however, went running and had a nice grispy morning jog. Oh, running felt so heavy and good at same time. I really had work a lot to back home even if I ran only 8 miles (@ pedestrian pace, 7.50s). Still, it was my longest run since last May.

Currently, legs and the rest of the body are not at all adjusted for running. It means a long, but enjoyable road ahead.

At last

After winning a 5 day long but uneven battle with sore throat and cold I returned to the more or less continuous streak of core training. In order to keep things interesting, I walked with Lil' D and sweetie for 45 minutes on Wed and on Thu I repeated that and added 15 minutes.

But today I walked to the indoor track, changed my shoes and gear and RAN. Well, I ran and walked, but still this is the start. I did 200, 400, 800, 400, 400 and 200 meters (@ extremely easy pace and smile on my face) with walking rest of 200 meters. Achilles is darn stiff but it's not hurting. In order to get some sweat going I spent 20 minutes on Concept2 (a rowing machine). Now I gotta remember the baby steps. Luckily, the stiffness will keep me alert (I hope). I'm still far from decent running streak, but it's a start.

What a fun morning! 

Marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon, marathon and Grapevine!

Bagel Run

Hmmm.... I think that today was our second last Bagel Run. It's sad. BUT today's run was pretty nice. We had a big crew (Stephen - yeah he's back, Tom, Seth, Kent - yeah he's back too, Mark, Pam and Jason) running in front, and the pace was - again - decent mainly because of Pam. I did around 14.5 miles (@6.35/mile) with Jason and Kent, and ended up at the Bagel Bin drinking Diet Pepsi (thanks Jason). To be honest, this is one of the best ways to start your Saturday/weekend!

Extremely short XC season

In the US everybody is running XC in Fall. So I had to do it as well. A race called Run Through the Grapevine was on our schedule last year and that experience was so unique that there was no chance to skip it this year. Yesterday's race provided us a muddy, slippery and ridiciously hilly circumstances. And lots of eating. Again it's better for me to pay less attention in the time/pace and just enjoy the nice feeling of the shortest XC season ever. It lasted for one day. Week was 63 miles and October was only 174 miles.

Today I have time only for one run and luckily it's already done. And then the quote: “Americans are like everybody,” Robert K. Cheruiyot said. “It’s not like before. They are now very strong. So I knew that Meb and all the Americans out there, they are very strong.”

Bagel Run

I like this. I like the feeling when your legs are more and more co-operative, and when the amount of pure pain does not wear your body down when running easy runs. This morning we ran another Bagel Run without bagels. I ran with Tom, Andy, Mark, Tim and Lady X (name unknown) for the first 7 miles after which I continued with Andy. I ran 13 miler (@ average pace of 6.25) and did not feeling a thing.

In other words, I negatively assisted tomorrow's XC race by running too fast today. You get this smart only through years of experience.

Fartlek

Smelly Friday? No. I challenged myself to run @ faster pace the first time since Bmore marathon relay. Well, someone could also claim that my pace there wasn't so fast, and I wouldn't have anything to say about that. But the reality was and is what you see. Today I felt just fine doing 5x3 min. with 2 min rest jog. Afterwards I even noticed that the pace (5.40-5.13) was a little faster than I expected. So I can already now cite O'Shea Jackson a.k.a. Ice Cube: "Today was a Good Day".

It is snowing back home....

Time flies

After all, I did two runs yesterday which was pretty nice. In the morning I sneaked out for an easy 3 miler + 5x100m strides. Then I did my now-usual gym workout before I left to spend my valueable hours on Capitol Beltway. In the evening I met with guys for a normal Wednesday group run. It felt just great. No remarkable pain => nothing to complain! Our bodies are - after all - build for distance! Good read.

Today I ran 5 miler and hope that I have enough time for another one in the evening. Tomorrow I'll do some fartlek. I'm really excited about Sunday's NYC marathon. If it is really going to be Sell's last major marathon, I should consider driving to NYC to watch the race...

My brain hurts

After couple easy days I chose to continue with an easy day. Sweetie and I ran 6.2 miler (51.20) and then I continued with some exercises in order to get this aging body in some order. It's tough work with uncertain outcomes... Oh, if anybody knows any time machines available with reasonable price, please let me know.

No. It's just talk. After missing 3-4 years of the "active years" due injuries I just gotta be happy with current circumstances no matter the amount of pain involved. Running Times magazine had a good article on aging. I think that it's the first time when I have paid any attention to this subject. Am I too late?

Fortunately, the brain hurting thingy is more work- than running-related...

The afternoon jog (5 miles, ~6.57/mile) felt much better than the one in the morning. I even started to invent new Finnish XC Series purely because I envy XC's popularity here.

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).