Mid-Year in Review 2010

Each week, there's a section in my log for weekly summary notes. Here they are:

1. Fuel: Was like “oh” when I saw the tracking – hope it helps and not hurts.
No intensity factor b/c my 1-hr pace is hard to say – will prob do later once I’m back to normal.
2. Fuel: focused more on protein this week, to support my strengthening, allowing me to run.
3. Worried by eating more lately, harder to feel full. Maybe mileage increase-related, hope. Lots of that from Kettlechips, though. About 7 hrs sleep/nite this week, but not restful. Immune system down? Maybe related.
Verdict’s still out about barefoot running.
4. Lower mileage, recovering from negative effects of barefoot still, but seems like I’m getting stronger muscularly. More mass/weight – probably why I was so tired and hungry this week.
5. Another week of tiredness. First month done! Ave 2.02 mi/day – est 740.6/yr at this pace. I’m happy. Expect to get stronger.
6. PT seems to actually speed up recovery post hard run? Ok.
Sore 2x this week. Strange but good?
Good training pattern emerged.
7. Start of the week was scary terrible. Seems okay now tho.
8. 2 months. Time to step it up.
9. Glad to have 2 long runs w/in a week. Used to 5’s and 8’s now? Back in old groove now – now base #2. Just have to get LR’s up to 13-15, get rid of butt issue. Good progress!
Good to play ulty again.
10. Recovering from a big last week still.
Need to be better about keeping up w/ PT – knees not great this week. Don’t blow it w/ injury.
11. Scary Tibialis Anterior under stuff episode – prob b/c all running forefoot focus this week. In future, maybe mix it up and ease into changes. Unexpected, tho.
Poor sleep this week but prob caught up over weekend. Good progress LT-wise.
Want to start working on V02!!! Next step. Good timing.
12. Going strong. Keep it up, risk mgmt til race.
13. Endurance probably all here. Besides maybe upping V02Max, just do nothing stupid.
14. Just need to get my knee better!
15. n/a
16. Numbness concerning, but otherwise should be okay.
Just need hammies to recover.
Eat well, taper, sleep well.
17. Great way to end the season! Glad to have less pressure now.
18. Need to get my rt knee back to normal, then maintain as much as I can during the hot summer. Not expecting much. Just maint, b/c it’ll be tough.
Maybe more xtrain to escape heat, give legs a break.
Races to keep motivation but don’t expect much.
19. Need to fix TA issue.
20. Boo butt… at least it’ll give my TA a break.
21. Hope to be ok to take advantage of Pton sports.
22. Amy says I shd rest to get the TA better, plus ice cup 3x/day and maybe Aspirin.
23. Mix of Pton rest, ice, stretch helping?
24. Acclimatization.
25. Wanna take better care of myself w/ icing and stretching. PT, too, I guess.
26. Decided to go for marathon in 2011. Gotta somehow build base w/o injury.

And now my high-level summary:

I highlighted week 17, since it was the Half Marathon week. There's a difference between my training before and after that. Before, I was more willing to push through possibly risky discomfort to try to be able to finish the race. I had a few 20+ weeks in there, and even the other weeks were decently high. After the race, it's been lower because there isn't that same fear/motivation to press my luck a little. Also, it's been hotter. Hard to tell how much of it is affected by heat.

I guess you can see in the 26th week's notes that I, in a moment of needing something to look forward to, and also in being inspired to set out to do this thing finally, decided to go for the marathon. It's been in the back of my mind for a while, but it was often unknown when I could fit it into my work schedule with its trips abroad, and moreso with what my body can build up to and handle overall. I think I can do 3:50 reasonably, and based on some race result estimators, I am just a tad too slow... I'm talking 1-2 minutes... to BQ (if you use my best half race), and with others, I can do it with a whole 10 minutes of cushion (if you use my 5k races). I clearly have more speed than endurance. That's something that can be changed, if I can stave off injury, but that's hard. I think a lot of it's in God's hands, in his timing, and it may not be something that he wants me to have. That's okay. I'm okay with it. I really want it, but it's still fun just to dream and to hope and to try.

Next time I do a race, I will do more to taper. I got scared and did a LR a week before the race... not the best idea, but it had been so long since my last LR and I needed the confidence boost. Confidence boosts really do help, although maybe it was offset by the lack of full recovery. Also, I want to do some speed sharpening next time. I wasn't strong enough for it last season... or maybe w/ the higher mileage, I just couldn't do it w/o risking injury. In any case, ideally, I'll have a sharpening period next time to increase speed,V02max, and running economy. But I'm really happy with how it went. And oh yes, just to be able to run 13 again is more than I could've hoped for a year ago. I still haven't run 13 since then, and that's my longest run so far, so I'm still far away, but I just have to try to take care of myself and heal up. Maybe it'd be better to take a total break for a while to get my butt/hip/knee and all that connected stuff healed up, but there's no guarantee that it would fix whatever's wrong, and who knows how long that self-healing would take. I'm impatient. And I need the daily stress relief, so I'm just going to keep going.

I think I'll go for a January marathon, maybe the Myrtle Beach or the Disney. All the cool marathons (MCM, Chicago, Niagara Falls International) that are on my to-do list are unfortunately in the early fall. Why? It's right after that slow summer season, so you don't get a chance to get some decent training in. I wish they were in the winter, with fast times on race day and after a good season of longer runs and good training. Oh well. We'll see.

So this half year, I averaged 2.08 mi/day. At that pace, I'll reach 760.2. Not the 1K I was hoping for, but I'll take it. And maybe things will get better. Although with about a month of travel abroad planned, likely without a treadmill or safe places to run, running plans may be thwarted a bit, but we'll see. It was one of my dreams to be able to travel for work and get to run and explore places, but that's an ideal world, where every place is safe.

Jun 28

FIT:
Running is so nice. I couldn't wait to finish strong with a good amount of work and then go home to get in a run. I hoped for a long run and managed 7 in 57:36, 8:14 ave. I didn't turn on the 1 degree incline until 0.6 mi in, though, b/c I forgot... too excited. Sweat a lot, stung my eyes. Had a 1/2 concentrate Cytomax with me, but with its rigid wide mouth, I had no way of drinking without getting most of it on me instead of in me. My right hip flexor, near the very very top, had some issues, but it was manageable.

Splits were inconsistent b/c it was a hard pace for the heat or my level of recovery or something. It was hard to breathe in the first few miles, dunno why. Seemed to get better, though, since I didn't notice it the rest of the time. Splits> 8:15, 8:18, 8:31, (25:54 5k), 8:24, 8:18, 8:13, (51:37 10k), 7:34. Listened to an mp3 player I'm borrowing from my dad til I get an iPod touch. Good to have Phedip again, to keep your mind off running, yet on running.

Jun 27

FIT:
A nice, relaxing time at home... sleep and World Cup mania. Refreshed for another week of work!

Today, after speeding home, I stopped by the grocery store to get some fresh food (ended up being chips and fruit) for the week. I realized that my left leg being I headed out for the treadmill. I discovered that propping up my left leg on the dashboard while driving for a couple of hours can put some pressure on your knees, as I started walking again. It was fine by the time I left the store, though.

After dropping off my stuff, went out to the treadmill. The bike session on Thursday ended up taking a loooong time to recover from. My TA's were soooo sore yesterday, but they were better today. Didn't have any issues running, although I could feel that my tummy had a lot of blood diverted to it for digestion, since I just had a Skinny Cow ice cream bar and pasta salad right before the run. Without that, I think I could've gone longer, but given the discomfort, 3.1 in 24:42 was okay, and I'm still fresh for a hopefully good week of running next week. I was glad just to not have issues today in this first run in 4 days.

So that was 3.1 in 24:42, 7:58 ave. 82 degrees, in a cotton tee (ventilated, b/c it's an XL or something that I cut up), sox. Iced afterwards, while catching up w/ a friend on the phone. Splits:... boring...7:59, 8:00, 7:59, 0:43. I was surprised to be able to hit 7.5mph from the start, considering the time it's been since my last run and the TA soreness yesterday.

Jun 24

FIT:
Biked today b/c felt decent, though a bit too banged up for a run. 21.5 mi in 90min, 715 Cal. Drank about 2/3 of a regular-strength Cytomax. Interestingly, it didn't taste overly sweet this time. It would've tasted better cold, though. I sweat so much. Felt really good and relaxing. Read Runner's World and watched NBC. It was a fun evening. I've worked soooo much this week, not stopping for lunch all week. Going home for the weekend, though, I think!

FAITH: Aslan

On my drives back home to visit my family, I'd listen to the Chronicles of Narnia on CD. It's the BBC version, and the voices and music and sound effects, plus the bits of backstory that bookend each tale are so well done. Those books have really touched me to the core, though. I had read the series for the first time maybe 4 or so years ago, and it's interesting how they kind of hit you in different ways in different times of your life. New things you didn't notice before. It's so much more than childrens' books; it's incredible.

It's been a lonely time recently, but the way those books describe Aslan as always being there, even though we can't see him, captures the idea more than real-life lessons or words do. The books also capture all the different ways people relate to him. It's not all rosy. It's real. There's fear, shame, but always love, from me to him, that I relate strongly to. On the other side, there's acceptance, not treating me as I deserve but grace and the lifting of my head, and love from him.

What struck me most 4 years ago was how much the characters made me love and want to strive for righteousness (in a good way, for its own sake). Now, I guess I'm more drawn to Aslan himself. Before, I thought the last book was kind of boring, anticlimactic, and a bit gloomy. But now, I'm wondering how I could've ever thought that. Farther in and farther up, every place even more wonderful than the last on into infinity, the incredible things of the old world just a shadow of the real thing that really IS, the great reunions, being with Aslan and seeing him face to face. Frightening but wonderful.

Jun 23

FIT:
Was going to nap since I was tired after a looooong day at work, but my legs felt decent. They were still a bit tight from two days ago's run, plus last night's strength session, so no LR or even a decent base run. Just squeezed out a speed session.

Brooks Trance 8's w/ arches. 81 degrees, plus whatever humidity adds. 1 degree treadmill. 3.1 in 23:44, 7:39 ave. Aaah, to think I need to drop that down another 0:40/mi. Let's see... heat adjusted... oh yeah, I was thinking after the run, that the heat adjustment factor of 1% per degree over 60 degrees may not apply as much in shorter distances where the body doesn't have as much time to heat up from ambient temps, at least in the extreme cases of sprints, so maybe by extension shorter distances as well.

Sooo... what I did...
0.5 mi warmup, 4:17.
0.25 mi @ 10mph, 1:29... mile race pace.
0.25 mi interval, 2:10
0.25 mi @ 10mph, 1:30... mile race pace.
0.25 mi interval, 2:11
0.25 mi @ 9.5mph, 1:34... due to pending muscle/connective tissue damage more than tiredness
0.25 mi interval, 2:10
0.25 mi @ 9.5mph, 1:34... as before
0.25 mi interval, 2:08
0.6 mi cooldown w/ speedup, 4:38.

Last time I did quarters was the epic 20 quarters run, where I averaged 1:30. It was rainy, cold, and glorious, but I did complete stops of like 45s after each rep and didn't have asymmetric injuries.

I'm happy for today, though, and since it was so short, I think I may be able to recover quickly. We'll see. Left achilles a bit strained, but it's not a chronic thing, so I think it'll pass.

After the run, you always wonder "how could I have wanted to sleep before this?" because you feel so energized and happy afterwards.

Jun 21

FIT:
A strange night. Could't sleep, my mind was going strange places. Second night in a row, up til 5. Surprisingly, not that tired today... even less tired than normal. I was probably up because of the long naps I took during the day. I need sleep, but apparently not that much, or not in nap form.

During my sleepless night, my body had kinks in it, but somehow, the 2.5 hours or so that I got made it all go away, and today, I felt really good and so ready for either a LR or a good sprint session. I set out for a LR, figuring that long stretches of free treadmill were rarer, and that if I could, I'd take advantage of it. I optimistically wanted 10, which wouldn't be that smart, since I haven't run more than 7 since late April. I did 6.2 instead. Not bad. It was a rigorous workout. My right leg wasn't pushing off smoothly, but I came through with minimal damages, it seems.

6.2 in 51:46, 8:21 ave. I realized when it was 6.1 that I probably thought 6.1 was a 10k many times this year. Oh well, I did it right this tme. Splits> 8:27, 8:30, 8:29, 8:22, 8:24, 8:07, 1:23.

Wore n3's w/ arches, sox. Had a shot blok before and about 3/4 a bottle of water throughout. Drinking was a little easier this time. Instead of dumping into my mouth, I squeezed the bottle as if it was a bike bottle, and it was quicker and less splashy.

Since my shuffle died again, I've been listening to podcasts as I fall asleep from my cell phone's music player, and I've been watching tv as I run. My favorite running tv is discovery channel / natl geographic type shows, and not dramas or clip-types (funny videos, competitions with many different contestants) or sports. Sports are probably second, but for some reason that I haven't figured out, scientific documentary types are the most consuming.