1:01:11 at lunch in the rain/cold/windy. I was soaked and frozen by the time it was all over. Not prepared to deal with the rain.

Anyway did 5x1:00(2:00), 5:00 easy, 1x1.5mi in 9:19 (6:17 pace), 5:00 easy, 3x1:00(2:00 rest).

By the end of the run felt like I had one foot in the grave. Left knee a little sore on the outer top. Never really had pain there.

That 1.5mi pace is not what I was looking for. Started off the first ½ at 3:00 pace and I guess gradually slowed. Hopefully the rain, headwind and temps had a lot to do with that. Plan on doing this again next week.

1:00:58 at lunch. Felt slow, but the pace was good overall.
Did 8min steady, 1min rest, 1min hard, 3min rest, 5min steady, 1min rest, 1min hard, 3min rest, 3min steady, 1min rest, 1min hard.
Just kind of cruised the longer efforts, trying to keep it close to 6min pace. Felt like that was fast enough today.
Weather was bad overnight so there were some ice patches to deal with along the route today.

WEEKLY LOG

2/19/08- 1:02 at lunch. Did 3x5:00 w/ 5:00 rest. Into the wind most of the way. Felt old, slow, stiff, sore, no turnover, slow to recover, no lift, no mental edge.

2/21/08- 1:01:05 at lunch. Did 1:00 surges each 10 minutes for the first 30 minutes. Then did 1:00 surges each 5 minutes, three times. Then finished up with 1:00 surges the next 3 minutes twice. So ended up being 3x1min (10min rest) 3x1min (5min rest), 2x1min (3min rest). This really seemed to make the run go by faster. Not sure what the physical gains would be.

2/23/08- Run for Bob 5-k- Great time. Ran with a couple people I haven’t seen in years. Got to say hi to Bob and his spirits seemed to be soaring on cloud nine. I haven’t seen an official number of participants or how much money was raised. But I was very happy with the amount of local support. Even saw a number of runner’s from O-town which was also cool. Ran the 5k then the 1-miler with son. Total time of running was about 30:00.

Working out in place

25:00 elliptical machine. Haven't been on this machine for awhile, and the quads could tell. Wanted 30min but could only fight the boredom so long.

Will the weather break????????

1:01:05 at lunch. Did 1:00 surges each 10 minutes for the first 30 minutes. Then did 1:00 surges each 5 minutes, three times. Then finished up with 1:00 surges the next 3 minutes twice. So ended up being 3x1min (10min rest) 3x1min (5min rest), 2x1min (3min rest). This really seemed to make the run go by faster. Not sure what the physical gains would be.2/19/08- 1:02 at lunch. Did 3x5:00 w/ 5:00 rest. Into the wind most of the way. Felt old, slow, stiff, sore, no turnover, slow to recover, no lift, no mental edge.

Tuesday- 1:02 at lunch. Did 3x5:00 w/ 5:00 rest. Into the wind most of the way. Felt old, slow, stiff, sore, no turnover, slow to recover, no lift, no mental edge.

made it out for a workout (of sorts) this afternoon. wanted to get out for about 1 hour again, but the council meeting at church lasted about 2 hours, so it kind of ate up my afternoon.

anyway the wind was still blowing and it was still pretty cool out. i headed to the cemetary to try to get out of the wind. ended up running 34:06 w/ basically 3x1-loop in 2:45, 2:42, and 2:42. took 2 loops recovers (~6:20). Went with the long rest to try to "ease" into the speed work.

it went pretty good as the pace of these felt good, and the effort was less than i expected for this pace.

Blowin' in the Wind

this run can be summed up by....windblown and icy
1:04:40 run with the first 35-40min into reported 35-40mph winds and icy pathes from earlier freezing rain! thats not to say it was all bad, the last part of the run and wind was at my back, or over or shoulder, and the path seemed to clear up some. so with prevailing winds and clear footing it was more or less clear sailing the last part.
pace was comfortable the whole run and i think i managed to get through it without pulling anything due to slipping and slidding on the ice.
got in some pushups last night. 1x20 and 1x15. gotta start somewhere.

Feeling Good

i'm a little surprised the legs feel as good as they do today. since yesterdays run was over 1min quicker than the prior week i thought they'd be about as sore. but just a little tenderness in the lower quad area.
although, my upper body, especially biceps, were very tired last night. i was playing with gannon and could feel the fatigue. to combat this in the future im going to start doing some push ups on days i dont run. we'll see how many i can do (no doubt it will be less vs more) as i am built like the typical distance runner!

February 12, 2008

well it was a chilly one out there today. add the wind in and it was -1d. so that made the first 40:00 or so a little dicy. anyway the run went well in 1:03:38 which is about 1:20 faster than last week. i'll take it. was running out of steam a little in the last 10:00 so tried to pick it up a little to get out of the rut. seemed to work. thats one problem with doing this at lunch, i dont really eat between breakfast and running so the energy is a little low. maybe need to get some powebars and snack on them or something around 10:30am or so. we'll see what happens. would like to get another 1:00:00 run in on thursday. i think the only thing that will stop that is if i have to see the tax man that day. looks like the weather is going to warm up a little, can't wait for tha.

Week of February 4, 2008

the plan:


tuesday 5m
thursday 10m
saturday 5m
sunday 5m


reality:


tuesday- 0- snow stormed dumped 3-5". took an extra 25min to get home from mile's school


thursday- 9.75 in 1:04:59 (6:40). this really couldn't have gone better considering this is my longest run in at least 4-5 months. had a little pain in righ calf, which worked up to tight hamstring. but all in all it was a non factor. the first 20min or so the route i chose had snow plowed onto it from the street. so i was in snow that covered shoe up to mid calf for a while. so add that unplanned resistance and the time is even better. quads were tired at the end, but since my avg run has been 3-4mi that was expected. and in reality, within 20mins of finishing i they were basically recovered. i was starving, so i plowed down my burrito, and amp drink and then started on the fulfill post drink. going to make a real effort to drink a recovery drink after each longer workout. glad to get this first longer run, need to keep it a weekly occurence!

friday- 30:00 recovery run at lunch. quads were thrashed, as i expected, from yesterdays longish effort. felt pretty good running, just sore when before and after. ran 15:00 on the bike path, then stretched quads a little, and ran back to work. unseasonably nice weather (pushing 40d), felt overdressed. *note* this weekend is looking pretty hectic, so have to see what happens.

well the weekend was two full days of parenting (some of the parenting I even did right!). really didnt have time to run on saturday and sunday the weather turned miserable. so not a great excuse but didn't run a step.

Day 1 of the transformation...

hi all. i'm trying to get back into running after years and years of competively being at the top in 5k-half marathon road racing. after several injuries and 5 yrs of "sort of" trying to get back to a peak, i have decided it just isn't for me anymore. so where does that leave me? i'm goal oriented, so i needed to find another goal. i still like running a lot, just not pounding around all day every day in the attempt to shave 1 second/mile of my most recent 5k. so my goal is still running oriented. i've done a marathon on a whim a number of years ago, so the allure to that is not strong. i've competed in some local trail races in the NE and KS area and enjoyed them. and there's the ultra. this interests me, but it's a bit paradoxal. i don't want to mindlessly run miles anymore, but the idea of doing the longest race of my life does? so my goal is to do the bohemian alps 50k in september. that's my major goal this year. some other races i'd like to do are some local trail races. a back end goal of the year may be to jump into a 50-mile race in late october (but that's a ways off).
so what do i want this blog to represent? well i think i just want to chronicle what type of running i do. there may be some comparison to what i've done in the past with running, maybe not though.
a little running background. prs of 14.45 5k/ 31.02 10k / 1.06 half marathon / roughly 49.oo 15k. i would say my best races were 15k to half marathon. i enjoyed that pace, and the type of training it took. any pr is at least 7 years old. and in the last 5 years i've probably gotten over 45 mi/week 3-4 times. so to think i could get back into pr shape would be a huge effort. it would take at least 1 yr just to regain some base that would provide the necessary strength to approach any of those times. that is just to daunting, honestly. my life has changed, for the better, and i know longer have the desire that is required for that effort. i greatly admire those that can pound it out day in day out. and balance that with the rest of their life, but that's not form e anymore.
so here's to some trail running and a short ultra in the fall.
ciao