Monday, February 22, 2010

2/21 Medium Run

Ran the route from Saturday, through Mill Creek, only counterclockwise. A touch warmer, and the same outfit. Interestingly, a different long sleeve shirt seemed to breathe differently, and work better.

Some hot spots yesterday, but that might have been from wearing Val's Balegas. A touch too small. Wore the Injinjis today, and no problems at all.

Lost the bottle twice this time. That's what I get for getting the cheap knockoff from Freddies.

I used to think this direction was easier. Now I'm not so sure. :) It's the 4.5 miles of uphill in the middle that gets to you. :)

Both of this weekend's runs took an awful lot out of me for 11 milers. Pretty glad I didn't go try to do the Woolley 50K on Saturday. That might have been ugly.

Almost as fast as Saturday's run, and 7 points down on the HR. Starting to get my legs back.

11.34 miles in 1:47:58 (9:31/mile) @ 156 bpm

2/20 Medium Run

Skipped out on running on Friday, just not up for it. Saturday was a nice Medium length run, clockwise through Mill Creek. Some hills, slowish pace. nothing spectacular.

Was able to sleep in till 6 since it was a shorter run, out and moving just before 7. Decent amount of other runners and walkers out. It was ~37 when I got up, so tights, ls shirt, and jacket. I felt like the jacket and shirt got really sweaty, especially in the forearms, which was frustrating.

Almost list the bottle from the single bottle holder once, and did have it pop out another time. I need to find the bottle retainer and sew it back on. Tightening it up caused some abdominal discomfort that felt like sore/strained abs for a but. Probably just pushing things around. Need to resolve the bottle issue or lose some weight. :)

Super high heart rate for the route and distance. 7 days off, and the cold that won't die, I suspect. When I ran this Sat and Sun a few weeks ago it was 153 bpm, then 149 bpm at essentially the same pace. Legs should come back on Sunday, I suspect.

11.33 miles in 1:47:06 (9:27/mile) @ 163 bpm

Thursday, February 18, 2010

2/16 Run

Started the day with another morning visit to the treadmill. Got a better spot near the air vent, and for a few minutes I was the only person n the room. I was right near the thermostat. It was comfortable at 66 degrees when I started. 70 or so when I finished.

Played with speed, and comfortable pace, and the only thing that wasn't particularly special was the extra sweat on my knee as the scab cracked. Boo....

~6 miles in 57:44 (9:37/mile) @ 161 bpm

Went back to SeaWorld, still great fun, and more interesting for Kaitlyn than the Animal Park. Which she enjoyed, but not as much as Penguins! and Flamingos! and SHAMU! :)

Played in the pool Wednesday morning, where I managed to get one o the worst charlie horses (muscle cramps) I've ever gotten playing with Kaitlyn. Left calf of course, the one I'd been babying for the last few weeks. Still feeling some twinges as I type this on Friday after 3 days off. We'll see how it feels Saturday morning. I had planned on running the Woolley 50K on Saturday, but decided that since it took till Wednesday to start really getting over the cold from last week, and the physical issues it probably wasn't a good idea.

A trip to Coronado and lunch at the Hotel del Coronado, and then a nap for K and a late flight home, and back into the deep end of the pool at work. :)

2/15 Run

We took a vacation to San Diego, leaving Friday after work. I was destroyed by a 1230 am arrival at the hotel, and all the work and running stuff so Saturday was nothing but hanging out, and a little bit of time with Kaitlyn at the pool (her first time! Yay! She did great!) So... no running on Saturday. :)

The unshakable cold decided me for Sunday, so I took it off too. We spent most of the day at SeaWorld. A lot of very warm fun. :)

Monday was quite enough of the no running. the condo was just off the freeway, and we weren't sure what the area was like, so I actually ran on the treadmill early, so we could go to the San Diego Zoo Animal Park (very fun. Strongly recommended). In a tiny overheated room. Bleah. But it got done.

Started shooting for 9 minutes a mile, did 3 miles of that, then had to duck out for a call of nature, then dropped it to 9:30, and then 10. Did a half mile at around 8, and then cooled down at 10 again. Sooooo hot!

~6 miles in 58:20 (9:43/mile) @ 165 bpm

2/7 - West Seattle Fat Ass 50K Mini Race Report

Meant to do this the day of but it didn't happen. Long race report for Pigtails Run and this race to appear soon. :)

No rain for a change. :) We had our doubts at the start, but it dried out nicely.

A double out and back around Alki Beach with amazing views of Seattle and fun, expensive West Seattle neighborhoods.

Pretty sure someone hired invisible gnomes to run beside me and beat my legs with sticks. Feeling beat a bit beat up.

A great run with friends made on the run that made it very enjoyable. Thanks Mike and Ken! Bruce hung around till the end to see me come in (he placed 2nd overall).

Got to chat with Betsy and Matt at the finish and watch some other people come in before I drove home.

Gotta love a fantastic free race.

5:13:34 for the 50K (10:04/mile) @ 151 bpm

Immune System FAIL! afterwards though... :( The cold I thought had gone away caught up with me a few hours after the race. I popped a 100.5 fever for a few hours. It went away quickly, but then my sinuses stopped up and stayed that way for a long time, I haven't completely kicked it now, almost 2 weeks later.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

2/6 Run

A short Saturday morning run to keep the mileage up for the week, and hopefully work out some kinks for the West Seattle Fat Ass 50K tomorrow. I've felt like I might have a cold coming on for the last two days, but the run seemed to help, and I didn't have any problems on the run, so I think I'm good to go.

I think the bigger issue is going to be the 4 hours of painting and trim work as Val and I tried to get Kaitlyn's new room put together.

Did essentially the same route I did on Tuesday, just reversed the bigger loop so I didn't have a mile long uphill grade, just a short intense hill and then done. Not sure if that was the best decision I've ever made, but I survived. :)

A bit chilly in the morning, nothing like the east coast, but jacket and gloves. jacket stayed on, and gloves were on and off depending on the wind.

6.33 miles in 59:51 (9:27/mile) @ 152 bpm

Friday, February 5, 2010

2/4 Run

Thursdays weather was beautiful. Mid 50s, clear and warm. The run itself wasn't all that great. Slow, but not slow enough to keep my HR down as low as I'd like, and not fast enough to be fun. :)

I left for the run when I felt my jaw and teeth clenching. Much better after the run :)

6.47 miles in 1:01:16 (9:28/mile) @ 150 bpm

2/3 Run

Wednesday I decided to go for a run at lunch despite time constraints when I realized I was seriously considering clubbing someone like a baby seal. Time to run. :)

Not the ideal day for a run, mid 40s and rainy, but it turned into a good hard frustration expending tempo run. As fast as my 10K PR, at a lower HR for 6.5ish. Doesn't leave a lot of room for anything byt burning it all out. Of course, an hour after I got back into the building the sun came out and it was gorgeous, till I had to walk to the bus, when it started to pour again. :) Went out way too fast, and the last mile or so was a lot of work to keep some kind of speed together.

Only bad part to the run was walking back into the garage. I slipped and fell on a section of algae coated concrete (cleaned after my notification of facilities). Road rash on my hip and calf, and a silver dollar sized patch of missing skin under my knee. And 2 days later my left tricep, which must have caught me, feels like a horse kicked it. Ah, well.

6.49 miles in 49:50 (7:41/mile) @ 169 bpm

2/2 Run

Tuesday was an evening run. Work has been insane as we work on migrating to our new network, and then Val had a treat and dropped by for lunch (with 3 Pigs BBQ!) and Frost doughnuts for the team. I was even controlled and didn't have too many extra. :)

It was a chilly 50degrees, for a hilly run that I don't do normally, cutting through the back roads off 116th, back to Seattle Hill road, back to the start (~4.8 miles), and then back through a hilly residential area for another mile or so.

My calves were still jangly, either form last week in the Mizunos, or from spending the weekend in old shoes, and didn't finally warm up till like 4.5 miles in.

Oddly, I had a lot of times in this run where running FASTER lowered my HR, probably related to the calves and my form at lower speeds I suspect. I don't think I'll actually see this in the HR/Pace data, but I swear it happened. :)

6.33 miles in 58:44 (9:17/mile) @ 153 bpm

1/31 Medium Long Run

Another birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, which I haven't been to in decades, on Sunday. No energy to run during Kaitlyn's nap, I wanted to hang out with Val instead. This meant a late night run. The "plan" called for ~20. Not happening at 9pm on a Sunday night, so I just went out for the same loop I did on Saturday.

Not entirely unexpectedly, this run was slightly faster, and at a lower heart rate than Saturday's run. I haven't looked back at the log to confirm it, but I'm pretty dang sure this happens a LOT during my double weekends. It makes me start considering doing a run the day before races. Which I'll get a chance to try Super Bowl Sunday, since the plan is to do 6 on Saturday, and then the West Seattle Fat Ass 50K on Sunday.

Only thing that was bad about this run was the feel of my gorge most of the run, Apparently 2 1/2 hours isn't enough time for pizza to clear the system. :)

This run finishes out January, and this January is the highest mileage of the last 3 years. 148.22 miles for the month. 100.71 miles last January. A nice improvement. :)

11.31 miles in 1:48:13 (9:34/miles) @ 149 bpm

1/30 Medium Long Run

Saturday's run was a nice early one. A busy day ahead, and no way to move it around. Up at 5, and a slow start finally got me out the door at 6. Apparently Kaitlyn was up at 6:30 like last week, so I lucked out. :)

Low 40s, so jacket and gloves so I had no excuses. Gloves came off quickly as usual, but the jacket stayed on the entire run. I think I'm just finally getting used to wearing it.

A bizarre amount of other runners out, almost all of them in the first 1.5 miles as I headed down 35th into Mill Creek. 2 pairs, and 2 singles in 5 minutes or less. Maybe a running club/group? Hmmm...

The run itself was nothing spectacular. I zoned out through most of it. Pandora was treating me well and dishing out some good music, and I wasn't thinking about anything much at all.

My mom showed up for her visit a bit after I got back, and then we headed to Little Gym. Then a lunch, a short nap for K and then off to our neighbors birthday party at Jump Planet. Jump Planet has a big warehouse spaceful of the inflatable bouncy houses. And the adults get to play too! I think I played as hard as K did. Maybe harder. :) Lots of fun!

11.24 miles in 1:49:28 (9:44/mile) @ 153 bpm