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thursday, february 04, 2010

Running Log/Trail Run

Distance: 5.62 miles
Time: 58:20

Comments: As part of the back-to-basics effort, Coach Dean wants me doing trail running again. The idea being that it will help strength; partially due to elevations and partly due to variation in how my feet hit the terrain.

I initially planned to get up real early and knock this one out but, when I woke up my right hip was very uncomfortable. I shelved the run till later... if I felt better.

But, by noon I felt alright and decided to make a stab at it and headed up to South Mountain. Of course by then folks out to enjoy the weekend had taken over the place but oh well...

I didn't do any preparation, I just headed out. I didn't intend on setting any speed records with this effort so doing the first mile at warm up pace wasn't going to matter.

Now I prepared for this by heading up to Sole Sports and asking the guru, Katie, what route to take. She suggested doing a loop of Mormon Trail with a return on National Trail - a route that put me downhill on the steepest part.

And of course I screwed it up. I headed out too fast then missed the turn off and found myself hitting a formidable ascent when I was barely ready. Not fun at all. I made sure to ask directions at the forks on the return.

I thought the crowd would be a hassle but folks were pretty nice. One guy saw my shirt and yelled "Roll Tide!" and I gave him one back. Then I ran past a girl in a UT Longhorns shirt but she didn't say anything at all for some reason.

A trio of biplanes flew over South Mountain as I headed down from the top. Pretty cool.

This wasn't a stellar effort but it was good enough for a first time back on trails. I now know the route and feel a bit more sure of my technique for the off-road running effort.

My legs felt pretty beat up afterward though and allied with the worrying aches in the hip I decided to give myself the ice bath treatment. This was agonizing as it usually tends to be but I felt tremendously better afterward.

Conditions:

Hour: 12:41 p.m.
Surface: dirt
Weather: partly cloudy
Temperature: 66 degrees
Humidity: 32 percent
Wind: calm
Location: National Trail & Mormon Trail, South Mountain Park, Phoenix, Arizona
Shoes: Pearl Izumi Cruise
Sin Musica

Injury update: The right hip was achy now and then in the run but downright painful afterward. The ice bath helped quite a bit though.

thursday, february 04, 2010

Running Log/Track Work

Distance: 4:17 miles
Time: 50:19

Comments: I've kept to the plan this week. Core work on Tuesay, off Wednesday and back at Corona del Sol tonight for another bout of speed/strength. I've been pretty sore the past few days but nothing in the hip like before.

In fact, I caught myself wincing out of reflex when I started the warmup mile and was kind of shocked to have not the slightest bit of resistance or discomfort as I pushed through the stride.

Last week's effort was sort of all over the place timewise so I wanted to have a much more consistent effort. I also wanted to put in eight of the sets if at all possible. I managed the former but decided to hold off on the latter.

My sets were pretty intense. I started the 400s shooting for a brisk but not overfast pace and ended up pushing it to finish. While I may not have been overjoyed in the exertion it required, I was very much encouraged I kept all them within a four-second window.

Strengthwise was the same tonight; scrunches, push ups, squat thrusts and bleachers. Dean had me alternate the bleachers with one of hitting every step as fast as possible and then one of ever other step with as much power as possible.

I really would have liked to try for the extra two sets but I felt I've put a lot on me these last two weeks trying to come back and it might be best to show a little caution. And, as I told Dean, I was pretty satisfied with the effort after six. Finishing on a high note is a nice change of pace for me.

Conditions:

Hour: 6:00 p.m.
Surface: track
Weather: clear
Temperature: 60 degrees
Humidity: 45percent
Wind: none
Location:Corona del Sol High School, Chandler, Arizona
Shoes: Pearl iZUMi Surge+
Sin Musica

Injury update: Achy but nothing severe.

monday, february 01, 2010

Running Log/Track Work

Distance: 4:17 miles
Time: 50:19

Comments: Speed strength workout. Been awhile.

I started off with a very hesitant at first warm up mile. To my almost inexpressible relief, there was no pain or discomfort whatsoever. Yet, anyway.

AS usual, the workout was to run a 400 in or around 5K time then go immediately to a regimen of sit ups, push ups, squat thrusts and leg squats (ten each). Lather, rinse, repeat.

Dean tweaked the speed strength effort to include a bout of stadium stairs instead of the squads. The idea is to focus on building power from the very start. The target number of laps was six but I was hoping to shoot for eight. I was overly optimistic.

I made a very concerted effort to run the first one consistent but not over fast. The ideal is 5K pace or about 1:35 a quarter.

The first one was too slow and the next one way too fast. After that the fatigue was the primary factor to contend with and I was battling just to keep it under 1:40 for the running portion.

The upshot of my recent core conditioning work is that I was able to get through the exercises without cutting back. The downside is that I was battling the red line the whole way.

Conditions:

Hour: 6:00 p.m.
Surface: track
Weather: clear
Temperature: 62 degrees
Humidity: 42 percent
Wind: none
Location:Corona del Sol High School, Chandler, Arizona
Shoes: Pearl iZUMi Surge+
Sin Musica

Injury update: Nada, thank God.

saturday, january 30, 2010

Training Conference

After battling the hip pain for at least six weeks I finally just decided to throw in the towel. It didn't make any sense at all to keep pounding away at this, enduring this much pain for no real goal whatsoever.

As a result I didn't run at all for three weeks and let myself recover from whatever the hell I had messed up. To compensate somewhat, I hauled out the thrice damned roman chair a week ago and started hitting it every other day.

I talked with Coach Dean this morning and we decided to just go back to speed strength and start pretty much from scratch. Hopefully, since I just took three weeks off instead of the usual three months, it won't be completely from scratch.

Goalwise we have decided on the Portland Marathon scheduled for October 10. The idea being this. For the next six to eight weeks I'll work exclusively on building strength (at the expense of any sort of distance at all) and, after that, we'll have a sense of where I am physically. That will put us at the end of March.

To run Portland I'll have to start formal training sometime in early July. So between April and June I'll begin ramping up my distance efforts incrementally and try to gauge where I am physically. The idea is that by going slower and more methodically through this phase I'll be less likely to come down with some sort of nagging injury that pops up when I get into that 35-miles-per-week range.

If, come July, I'm behind schedule we'll have the opportunity to target a marathon later in the year. In fact, there's pretty much a four-month window between Portland and the Arizona Marathon in February 2011 to choose from. Thus we can account for breaks in training due to work, injury or whatever.

So, for now, I am back on the speed strength train. Racing of any type is out of the question until April at the earliest. I'm also going to refocus on core training for two very key reasons. The first is to augment my overall strength for running and, possibly more importantly, to keep a consistent aspect of training from here on out.

Too often when I've had to curtail runs due to whatever reason I've become lax in my training focus. This will give me something every week to keep me on target even if I'm not lacing up the shoes for some given reason.

So that's the plan. I'll post an update when we get to gang aft agly.

monday, january 11, 2010

Running Log/Track Work

Distance: 5:05 miles
Time: 46:32

Comments:The run on the concrete last week seemed to really mess me up. I was pretty sore right afterward and for several days on as well. I spoke with coach and he thought it was likely a mix of both the surface and the intensity. Things didn't bode well for this evening either. I felt pretty yukky today for some reason. Not sick or injured or anything, just tired and drained. Very BLAH.

The workout was a full ladder starting at 100 meters and increasing to 600 meters before going back down - a collection of relatively short but very intense efforts. Coach wanted me hitting at least mile pace for the shorter distances and no worse than 5K for the longer ones. The break between each effort was to be no longer than the time of the preceding run.

As usual, I burst out way too fast. By the time I got up to a full lap I could feel the effort take it's toll. As a result, the middle three runs were pretty rough. A good part of these were just holding together to finish rather than continuous control. As the distances shortened, I was able to bring the pace back up. The last 100m and 200m were about the same as the first ones.

Conditions:

Hour: 6:00 p.m.
Surface: track
Weather: clear
Temperature: 50 degrees
Humidity: 30 percent
Wind: none
Location:Corona del Sol High School, Chandler, Arizona
Shoes: Pearl iZUMi Surge+
Sin Musica

Injury update: Hip extra achy today.

thursday, january 07, 2010

Running Log/Tempo Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 28:00

Comments: With my beloved Crimson Tide playing in the BCS National Championship game in the evening, a workout with the group wasn't about to happen. But I wanted to get some kind of workout in - if for no other reason than to burn off the anxiety.

So I settled on a kind of fartlek/interval workout hybrid. I set out to do a mile at a good pace, accelerate over the next two and do the last flat out. That was the plan, anyway.

The first mile came in at 7:15 and was really uneven pace-wise throughout. I rested three or four minutes and set off. In the second mile felt a lot stronger and more consistent and hit 6:49. On the third I started very fast and flagged considerably on the back side, the last portion was guts alone. 6:30 flat.

But shaving 20 seconds off the last one wasn't going to happen so I just tried to keep it under marathon pace and put it at 7:21. Overall, an interesting experiment but we'll see what Coach says.

Conditions:

Hour: 3:00 p.m.
Surface: concrete/asphalt
Weather: sunny
Temperature: 68 degrees
Humidity: 21 percent
Wind: calm
Location: Chandler, Arizona
Shoes: Pearl iZUMi Surge+
Con Musica

Injury update: The hip didn't like this one bit. It was achy the whole way and damned unhappy afterward.

monday, january 04, 2010

Running Log/Track Work

Distance: 6:74 miles
Time: 46:43

Comments:The New Year's Eve workout didn't happen and so its been a week since I've been out running. As a result I was a little apprehensive heading to the track tonight but didn't feel physically bad in any way.

And I was very happily surprised to start my warm up and have no discomfort in the left hip to speak of. I took the first step gingerly as I've gotten in the habit of doing but pushed through it with no resistance whatsoever. Maybe the week off was a good idea.

Coach had some of the other runners doing a speed/strength effort but I really wanted to get more of my shorter and faster work in. I think I've made some progress and I want to build on that.

The solution was a Ladder workout, or to be more precise, half of a Ladder workout. Six laps at 10K pace, four laps at 5K pace, two laps at 5K pace or better and one lap with whatever was left. No full recovery between any of them.

The first one went pretty well. I wavered on my consistency from lap to lap but my control seemed there the whole way. The 1:44 average 400m pace was dead on Coach's prescription.

The mile was a lot more consistent but with a lot less control. On a couple occasions my mind wandered a bit and I slacked off the pace noticeably. As a result, I felt I was forcing myself to accelerate every lap just to keep it on pace. Still, the average pace was about right.

The half mile and final 400m both were very strong and felt good. With the shorter distance I didn't worry about consistency as much and tried to focus completely on concentration and control the whole way.

Since I showed up a little later than most of the folks tonight I ran the tail end of my workout solo. But Maria got in late as well and was just starting her recommended weekly dose of 400s courtesy Coach Dean.

Having run a few workouts solo on this dark track I know its tough to keep motivated to finish the workout so I hopped on to help pace her through her efforts.

She was shooting for 1:45 or better which was about right for me as a post-hard-workout regimen. And, since I had gone a week off I didn't figure the extra couple of miles at 10K pace would exactly be detrimental, either.

It actually worked out very well for me. Talking to Maria to help encourage her to push her pace better I was able to kind of sort out my thoughts on my own workout earlier in the evening. The last three laps were very solid and consistent for both of us, not to mention pretty quick as well.

Conditions:

Hour: 6:00 p.m.
Surface: track
Weather: cloudy
Temperature: 68 degrees
Humidity: 20 percent
Wind: none
Location:Corona del Sol High School, Chandler, Arizona
Shoes: Pearl iZUMi Surge+
Sin Musica

Injury update: Nothing really substantial. The hip never materialized into a major problem and my tightness/weakness in my left quad was quiescent as well.

monday, december 28, 2009

Running Log/Track Work

Distance: 4:33 miles
Time: 33:53

Comments: The three-day layoff proved to be a bit of a double-edge sword. I felt completely recovered in terms of strength and energy but my muscles were still unhappy.

My quads were brutally sore the two days after the last track effort and I wasn't exactly perky yesterday as well. I approached it like I would during my distance training - by staying off my feet - but that wasn't the correct answer.

Arriving at the track my warmup lap was a bit of a challenge. My quads were excruciatingly stiff and it took three laps to be running anywhere close to normal. The upshot is it was clearly stiffness, not any type of sharp sensations that would indicate actual injury.

The menu for the evening was a 1200m run with the first lap at 10K pace, the second at 5K pace and the last at mile pace. Then three 300m at hard effort with 100m jog between.

The idea being keep the leg muscles working and loose, rather than letting them rest and tighten up. As a result, the goal was keeping the 300m efforts under 70 seconds rather than push the one minute mark.

The 1200 started rough with my quads rebelling for a full straightaway and turn. Pushing through it pushed my pace and so I ended up doing the first two laps at 5K pace. Overall, though, a solid effort.

The start of the 300m series was similar but proceeded well enough after that. As I closed in on the halfway mark I could tell my performance was starting to drag so I gave myself a full recover after the fifth one.

Starting the second series, then, was excruciating. Legs not happy at all. I kept the pace consistent on the first three and then tried to up it a bit on the penultimate 300 and then push it with whatever I had left on the last one.

So, the quad soreness is not pleasant and limited my performance but my overall effort was quite satisfying. I never had the sensation of just holding on to make it to the finish line. Each run was under control the whole way and with full intensity.

Conditions:

Hour: 6:15 p.m.
Surface: track
Weather: clear
Temperature: 54 degrees
Humidity: 36 percent
Wind: none
Location:Corona del Sol High School, Chandler, Arizona
Shoes: Pearl iZUMi Surge+
Sin Musica

Injury update: Hip was stiff starting out but not nearly as much as the quads. I was favoring it the first few strides but it evened out by the 100m mark.

thursday, december 24, 2009

Running Log/Track Work

Distance: 3.98 miles
Time: 30:17

Comments: My first time running in a week and a pretty major re-adjustment to my training. The schedule called for a 16-miler last Saturday and not only was I busy and unmotivated, my hip wasn't cooperating either.

I finally got out the door on Tuesday but got started and immediately stopped since the hip pain had me limping grievously from the get go. That about tore it for me; what's the use of putting in these workouts when they are only serving to cripple me? This race ain't that important.

It is important, of course, but to achieve my goal means pushing myself harder over these last seven weeks - more distance, more intensity, more workouts. That can only result in wiping me completely out with no assurance I'll make my BQ goal or injuring myself for real.

And, to be honest, I'm simply unmotivated. Running is a chore for me right now and I'm finding myself avoiding it at all costs. That's the wrong mental state for excellence and I know it.

So the plan for now is to cut back on workouts and dump distance. The goal is to keep up conditioning but not worry overmuch about endurance. My track workouts are going to be the focus of my training - and they will be fast and hard.

Today was a rare treat for this time of year a the track - a day run. Since it was Christmas Eve, we had the workout at 4:30 p.m. when there was still sunlight out. I got in early and did a warmup then chatted with Dean about our new approach.

The workout he recommended was 10 X 300m as close to mile pace as possible with a 100m walk to recover. We guestimated :60 was about right for a target time (no slower than :65).

I knocked out the first one pretty well and was surprised to see I got it right at the one-minute mark. The next few were a touch faster (although I screwed up timing one on my Garmin). I also found myself running on my toes for the first half of a few of them - not something I've done for quite some time.

The second half of the workout got rough. What control I felt I had on the first few went out the window. It became a fast run for the first 200m and then whatever I could muster to get through the last 100m. Nothing fancy about it at all.

Overall a tough hard workout. I'll see how the hip reacts over the weekend and go with it from there.

Conditions:

Hour: 4:30 p.m.
Surface: track
Weather: clear
Temperature: 57 degrees
Humidity: 33 percent
Wind: none
Location:Corona del Sol High School, Chandler, Arizona
Shoes: Pearl iZUMi Surge+
Sin Musica

Injury update: Hip was stiff but not jabby or making me limp. Through the second half of the workout I had a soreness the outside of my right quad up toward the hip. Not the IT band but the muscle beside it.

thursday, december 17, 2009

Running Log/Track Work

Distance: 6.17 miles
Time: 43:12

Comments: After my "recovery run" on Monday I was pretty much shot until today. Just physically run out and not a happy camper at all. So while I felt a lot better when I showed up at the track, I was also a bit apprehensive. Coach Dean decided to take a conservative approach to the workout and play it by ear.

So instead of "mile" repeats we sliced the first one into "half mile" repeats to see how my legs/hip responded. The first one was kind of uneven and odd and the second one only slightly less so. But the hip didn't come flaring up and my legs didn't feel like they were ready to give way. So I took a stab at the mile and it didn't completely suck.

Roughly, it worked out to a normal mile repeat workout - 3 mi @ 10K pace, 2 mi @ 5K pace - but with the faster miles split into 800s. And mixed up a bit more than usual. Effort-wise it was a pretty nice workout. Consistency-wise, I need to improve.

Conditions:

Hour: 6:00 p.m.
Surface: track
Weather: clear
Temperature: 60 degrees
Humidity: 31 percent
Wind: none
Location:Corona del Sol High School, Chandler, Arizona
Shoes: Pearl iZUMi Surge+
Sin Musica

Injury update: Hip started rough but eased off as I got warmed up.

monday, december 14, 2009

Running Log/Recovery Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 38:24

Comments: This one may have been a recovery run but there was nothing about it that was easy. I woke up feeling very much like I ran a hard 13 miles yesterday and it took a lot of discipline to get out the door at all.

The first part of the run were damn rough. This wasn't the usual ginger step from the sore hip but an outright limp. It took a full mile to be able to run normally. And the effort was brutal in addition to that specific pain.

It wasn't till the final mile I felt I was actually running and, needless to say, there was nothing spectacular about the pace either - 9:36 average overall. I think tomorrow is going to be a rest day.

Conditions:

Hour: 9:30 a.m.
Surface: concrete/asphalt
Weather: evening
Temperature: 54 degrees
Humidity: 41 percent
Wind: calm
Location: Chandler, Arizona
Shoes: Pearl iZUMi Surge+
Con Musica

Injury update: See above.

sunday, december 13, 2009

Running Log/Long Run

Distance: 13 miles
Time: 1:39:00

Comments: Once again my schedule got screwy and running went onto the back burner. I was slammed busy Saturday and then went down to Tucson on Sunday so see the guys not finishing their marathon.

So today was the long run. Since I skipped the race, the goal was crank out 13 miles at or near goal pace. I wasn't able to meet that particular goal but I bargained myself into a fartlek-style effort over the same distance.

I took off at quite a bit better than goal pace and held up until about mile four when I could really start to feel the effort. I gutted it out another mile and stopped at the 5 mile mark with an average of 7:16 per mi up to that point.

I rested about four minutes and then took off at recovery pace - shooting to hold my pace no slower than a minute over marathon goal pace. I reeled off five miles at 7:53 min/mi average pace. Then gave myself another four minutes to recover.

My intention was to run the final three miles straight through at goal but I was really lagging pretty hard by that point. So I settled for making them more of an interval effort; running the mile hard and resting three minutes before starting again. I finshed them in 7:20, 7:23 and 7:24.

Overall, even with the watered down version I wound up doing, this was a pretty grueling effort - more than I expected it to be.

Conditions:

Hour: 9:40 a.m.
Surface: asphalt/concrete/dirt
Weather: clear
Temperature: 54 degrees
Humidity: 67 percent
Wind: none
Location: Chandler, Arizona
Shoes: Pearl iZUMi Surge+
Sin Musica

Injury update: The hip soreness was certainly present this whole run but never in a critical degree.