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A race day. The first since last May!
Running most of my runs in low temperatures (30-35F) was the best preparation for today. Today was easily the best on this Spring (70s). Awesome. What a wonderful day to start new season and at the same time run your first hard tempo run since last year's May!!! I even got the farmer's tan!
The run itself wasn't that fast (it was actually little slower than expected), but was a great reality check. The tempo run was 4.47 miles (@ 5.48) (which of course doesn't make Mark at all scared; maybe it makes him laughing aloud and then cry). Last week was 65 miles which was about 15 miles more than I have ran during the best weeks after the surgery. At the same time this was the first week in which I chose to run 7 days in a row (+ two bike rides). So I was pretty done already during the warm-up and my new buddy, sunshine, wasn't helping my physical state at all. After analyzing my legs today, I think that I'm eating too huge pile of... so I gotta reframe my act. Sooner, the better. I still have eight weeks to improve the base before the hell (marathon training) breaks loose. But THIS IS AWESOME!
I'm pretty much done. Ready to retire. The fire is fading. I'm in the middle of this miserable downward spiral.
Today incated my current state pretty well. Race pace is slowing down (week after week) and I just can't run hills since both glutes are totally tired and hamstring are ready for some violinist. That kinda hinders the whole idea of running fast. It has been my state for awhile, and I haven't have any enjoyable run since last Summer. If this continues, I won't be running too long anymore. I don't see any reason for continuing. But before making these less believable conclusions I have to do something to correct the current situation. I'm not willing to give up yet.
Tomorrow: a day off + massage.
I've been busy => no updates. On Wednesday I had time only for one run in the morning. The evening/night was spend at TVO's "End of days" festival. One decent rock/punk -music venue is closing down and they have a stream of concerts. I just couldn't miss Boomhauer's and Sweatmaster's performance. Accordingly Thursday was tough... no running at all but on the other hand I didn't have any extra time for that.
Yesterday I jogged something already in the morning, but the evening went at the work. It sucks. Today I joined triathletes' test run and did a 6.2 miles tempo run slower than I hoped for. At least I tried, right?
Thursday: No run. Didn't feel like it.
Friday: Morning jog 6 miles and then in the evening a 5M tempo run on the treadmill: 29.30. I accelerated from 6.28 to 5.29/mile with a rendo feeling (average pace 5.55). This was actually the first decent tempo run since Atlanta (11/20/09). It's good start. Or at least a good way to compensate yesterday's lazyness.
Oh. Did I ever tell you that getting old sucks? Because it does.
I had an extremely tired and partially painful 9 miler. Yesterday's core workout (especially the exercises killing your legs and hamstrings) was hampering my way. And the current running conditions do not help so much when you hit the wall during an EASY run. But I know that better is just around the corner.
Above the crawl, right?
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.
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.
The temperature changed almost dramatically from freezing to this annoying 30F. The annoying part is explained by the slippery snow and soon-to-be sleet and ice. Both of the latter suck and that's it. Yesterday I thought that I felt tired and so I ran only once. Today I was even more tired, and thus, I punished this body twice (with a core workout).
For tomorrow I have planned a tempo run, but after the micro-level climate change I'm not so willing to hit the slippery roads. Fortunately, there is always the treadmill (dislike), which also might might ease the hiding injury on my left achilles/ankle/heel.
Sunday's longish run (13 miles with Jukka and Markku) was followed by extremely exhausting (Nordic) skiing trip (1.5 hrs).
Now I'm quite tired, but luckily this evening I have a chance to watch Ravens' game live on TV. One of my running buddies, Mr. Z, has secretly developed an amazing interest and knowhow in American football. Now he has bought some channels which provide the pleasure to get involved with game day. On my way to his place I gotta visit "America Shelf" in a grocery store close by. Weekly mileage: 63.
It's already Friday. Running has been on/off -type of effort during this week. Yesterday morning the temperature was low 20s, and the scenery was frosty. It looked like snow!
We received keys to our home on Monday and after that we have been quite busy. Now the majority of our furniture is back home - like we are - but nothing is yet in the right place. It doesn't matter at all, since home is home. I thought that I would have time and energy to do at least one harder workout this week, but that turned out to be an illusion. I'll try it next week. Accordingly, all my runs have been easy at slow/pedestrian pace. My dad was transferred to other hospital and they started the long rehab. It will take months, but that is the only option.
Guys! Good luck with Metric Marathon on Sunday!
Thursday: Yet another 6.2 miler here and there close to my childhood home. Weather was quite similar to the one that I had to left behind in Maryland.
Friday: Morning run took place on a woodchip trail. Enjoyed so much that I even did some sort of fartlek. Trails was wet and heavy, but legs were excited and mind pretty calm. It was a good moment during the present period of time. I haven't slept too much lately.
After travelling around 13 hrs and then spending 5.5 hrs with my father in hospital I was pretty exhausted and didn't run at all. I was and am physically and mentally pretty exhausted in general. Today I ran the same 6.2 mile loop which I just to ran daily 15-20 years ago. It was a nice feeling. I also gave up my plans for training and will proceed after things are more stable.
Keep on running, guys!
We began our short road trip on Saturday morning after running in Baltimore - both ran the relay. My running sucked (no news), but it was compensated by Tom's, Carlos's and Izzy's efforts and we won the whole relay. After that we packed ourselves in the White Flame (Pontiac) and found ourselves running in Central Park, at the Niagara Falls and in Philadelphia. Now it's good to be back. Hamstrings told me so. At the moment running does not make me happy.
Today I had to sneak out for a "All you can eat" -buffet. What a brilliant idea! Really, it was. However, I paid the dues instantly when I joined HCS crew at the HCC this evening. I think that rest of crew is still running the Club Challenge course and I'm back home already. And only one to blame is me. In addition to starting too fast and too early after a half-marathon, my stomach also had some influence to notorious bad feeling during the run. Oh and something totally different happened today. In the afternoon I took a wrong turn and instead of driving to the National Cryptologic Museum I reached NSA's gate which is really wrong place to be for legal alien like me. My broken English blew our cover instantly, and we got under an investigation for 40-45 minutes. Our car was inspected as well. As a cherry on the top of the cake, I had forgotten in our trunk two Chinese flags, which we got in Philadelphia during some sort of Chinese celebration. They didn't look too great on our resume. Luckily, our short visit on wrong grounds didn't cause any more trouble and we were able to see the Enigma.
This day is dedicated for rest, a passive one, which sets me free for any physical activity.
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).
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.
This morning was brutal for runners. Even if this trend of "bad" weather has been going on for couple of weeks already, today was something else. Accordingly, I got beaten by the humidity and slow legs. And all of this happened during a 5 mile tempo run (5.49/mile). I can't even imagine what would happen during a 10-miler... But today's run is done and that is the best. In addition, universialsports.com will ease the pain with a live coverage from Stockholm, Sweden today.
Today's only run was 6.2 miles (6.50/mile). I felt pretty tired, and to be honest - I'm really glad to back home.
Yesterday's soccer game tired me out, even if I was only one spectator among 71.000. So today's long run was only 12.5 miles. Maybe I run another one tomorrow.Great news from Finland told me that we got a new NR. Steeplechaser Jukka Keskisalo (who I met in Flagstaff in March) ran 2000m in time 5:00.32. Not bad for forthcoming World Champs in Berlin.
