episode VI: a new hope

i signed up for a race and restarted training.

Wed March 24: 2 x 600, 400, 300, 200, 100 intervals w/SCTC @ Soquel High School Track. distance in meters. a few warmups laps. 34 pushups. stretching.

Friday March 26: hill sprints. 10x @ Henry Cowell Redwoods Park. Felton, CA. with Pascale. I'm teaching Pascale about technique, efficiency and other running lore. She sprained her knee a few months ago and has had consistent problems running flat, easy jogs since then. Hopefully a month of weekly hill sprint workouts will assist her in getting back into a running groove.

tomorrow is some kind of speed workout w/SCTC @ Soq High. Purportedly all of the folks who do this workout each week are capable of sub-five mile times. This should be amusing.....

aug 30th: 3.2miles

10:30am.

3.2 miles

westwood road to kingham ranch and back.

slight uphill out and downhill back.

70-80degrees. sunny. forest shade on most of run.

paved

15 weeks till CIM

I was noodling about in my head fantasizing about my next marathon and how I will shatter all galactic records and so on and so forth the other day. Then I started wondering how many weeks until the next CIM (aka Sacramento Marathon). Counting weeks in my head it seemed like I was inside the 16 week temporal boundary and therefore will once again be training using an abbreviated 18 week calendar.

2009 CIM: December 6th (Sunday)
Today: August 21st
weeks till race: 15 weeks and 1 day (unless I counted wrong which is always a possibility)

my proposed training regime is here

but I'm already planning to modify it using the following parameters:
1: i know I can do the distance
2: i want to run faster this year (2008 CIM was 3:14:47)
3: modify the training plan to concentrate on strength and speed (more hills, more sprints, more intervals)
4: use Yasso's to track my estimated race time at least twice during training

w/regard to #3 when I say "more" I mean "more than last year's training regime"

keeping in mind that last year when I trained for CIM I started late and skipped a lot of workouts.

so there you have it.

race goal: 3:00 or faster
training goal: no injuries due to overtraining

tangential goal before January 1, 2010: run a mile as close to 4:00 as I can manage. not sure whether to try this before or after the marathon (currently thinking to try it on December 30th or 31st)

more toes

brief 15:45 toe striking jog.

calves bitched a decent amount.

Madison, WI. 6am. cool and overcast.

we resume

25 minutes.

easy pace. running. practicing toe striking. left calf showed minor fatigue @ end of run.

location: Felton on Zayante Creek Road.

weather: overcast with very slight drizzle.

time: began just before noon

tuesday & wednesday

tuesday: skipped/missed 30 minute easy run. work day was busy and coached night time soccer game. by the time I got home at 9pm i was beat and decided to stretch and go to bed instead of running for 30 on the treadmill.

wednesday:

2 hours easy
richardson ocean park to scenic lookout north of the singing bridge
14.4 miles
8:16/mile
left leg had all sorts of things to say. ankle, knee, arch, hamstring above knee, gluteus were all chiming in with complaints at various points during the run. nothing seemed too serious, but i guess the left leg and lower back want more stretching. or more donuts.

Monday: ride easy

Easy bike rider. 60 minutes.

Watched a fine movie called Fido. It's about a boy and his pet zombie. B-movie all the way, but entertaining. Zombie boy scouts. That's all i'm sayin'

Saturday: run for 2:30

Richardson Ocean Park loop.

2hrs 30 minutes

got almost to the top of the gulch just past Honoli'i surf break. 16.4 miles. 9:09/mile

was quite slow and creaky at the start. did the first mile in 9:05 and seemed to keep that pace at least through mile 6. I got back to Richardson Ocean Park at 2:28:11 so I ran to the end of the road and back to do my full 2:30.

left knee bitching under kneecap a bit during the first few miles. Then shifted to IT band type knee pain.

will stretch tonight.

friday: run 30 minutes easy

Richardson Ocean Park loop run. Got just past Onekahakaha Park.

30 minutes
3.9 miles
7:42/mile if i recall correctly.

did the first mile in 7:22.

probably a bit too fast for an "easy" run.

thurs: 60minutes bike

spin say the instructions.

60 minutes. watched mediocre French noir anime.

right hip bitchy. it occurs to me that I should see if my third bike frame is smaller than my current training bike and switch frames if it is. this bike frame is at least a few centimeters trop grande pour moi.

4 x hills

hill workout!

4 x hills. Akalina Farm gate to Enlightened Ones paperbark trees

1st uphill felt sluggish
2-4 felt more energetic
warmed up on the treadmill for 10 minutes before going out on the road.

minor bitching from left knee interior upper

while running the downhills I wondered, "How am I supposed to actually train for Boston's hills?" If I do an uphill hills workout that sort of precludes doing a full pace dowhill at the same time because the downhills are supposed to be recovery neh? At this point I'm not blisteringly worried about it, but my brain likes to ask me these kinds of questions when things are slow.

3 miles easy

3 miles from Richardson Ocean Park to the usual turnaround.

24:39 elapsed time

nothing noteworthy in terms of aches, pains, blisters, etc etc.

weather was mixed clouds and moderate temperatures.

8 miles easy

today's workout was supposed to be 8 miles easy pace, but seeing as how I bagged yesterday's 6 mile pace run at the 4 mile mark I decided to add an extra 0.8 miles to today's workout.

Richardson Ocean Park to Liliokalani Park in Hilo, HI.

8.8 miles
1:12:32
8:14/mile pace

no significant pain today. i felt kind of low energy and loopy at around the 2.5 mile mark. I chalked this up to sleeping poorly and not really eating breakfast. I did the first mile in 8:14 and hit the halfway at 36:32. This suggests that I held a nice steady pace the entire way. Weather was partly overcast and not terribly warm.

4miles pace

this was supposed to be 6 miles at race pace. i wasn't really feeling it. As it was a treadmill workout I stopped early.

4miles @ 6:58/mile.
1mile warmup @ 10/mile
1/4 mile cooldown @ walking pace

3 miles easy

treadmill 3 miles

30 minutes

minor pain under left kneecap at abt 1.5 miles. removed lift from right heel and knee pain dissipated. need to keep an eye on that. might need to remove lifts when running on treadmill.

have Dr Nancy check leg lengths on next visit.

skip a day. then 4x800

Sunday's run had my left foot arch bitching a little (in addition to all the other leg bitching) led me to skip Monday's 3 miles.

Tuesday:
4x800
1st 800: 6:00/mile pace
2nd 800: 6:18/mile pace
3rd 800: 6:15/mile pace
4th 800: 6:11/mile pace

overall 5.5 miles and 48 minutes of running (includes warmup and cooldown)

during the warmup and the interstitial cooldowns I noticed my right foot wasn't striking properly on the outside edge. Worked on that during the entire session. Right ball of foot sort of .... something... as a result of stride modification efforts.

Sunday 12

Was supposed to do 11 today, but whilst planning my route on google maps i laid out a 12 mile route. oops.

12 miles
1:40:14
8:20/mile

slightly bitchy IT band on the left. and the gluteus on the left. right upper calf at the knee (outside) also minor bitchy. am pleased to have kept an 8:20 pace.

end of rain and Xmas: 5 miles

5 miles in 41:56
wasn't really feeling motivated. possibly due to all the grey weather and rain we've had since mid-day on Xmas. possibly due to not getting my ass up to do my Thursday pace run.

ran after eating tacos (1.5hrs). minor amounts of bitching from the body regarding scheduling the food before the running, but my first trip towards Richardsons Beach Park was met with a super slow driving old fart and a rain squall. So I diverted to fish tacos (fried Mahi-mahi from Aloha Luigis) and waiting a bit and the weather turned the corner to sunny and nice. Had a brief swim after. Worked very briefly on arm stroke (4 times 25-30 meters).

hills, registration confirmed for Boston

3 x hill workout. for whatever reason that was a tough workout.

akalina farm gate to enlightened ones driveway.

Received confirmation from the Boston Athletic Association regarding my entry into the 113th Boston Marathon. So it looks pretty darn official. Time to start figuring out how to mesh marathon and triathlon training regimes together because Honu Half Ironman is about 6 weeks after Boston.

3 miles easy

the usual route starting from and returning to Richardson Beach Park.

3 miles
23:00
7:40/mile

first run since the marathon (not counting minor amounts of running around while coaching soccer). felt good. minor amount of IT band bitching from left knee area. interesting muscle tightness on interior quads (both legs). obviously it's time to resume stretching as well.