Apr 16

FIT:
40 min bike, progressively harder effort throughout.  10.5 mi, 14-19mph.  71 degrees. 

I had wanted to run to get in miles, but my knees were a bit bangy.  Dunno why.  Too bad.  Maybe I'll swim tomorrow.  I don't know why I can't handle much mileage these days.  Fastest times ever, but low mileage. 

The bike session felt really good, though.  My heart was working really hard throughout.

Mentally tough day today.  Can't shake it.

Apr 15

Yeah... Still trying to figure myself out.

FIT:
4.0 in 31:14, 7:49 ave.  Picked up the speed to make kinks in my muscles go away.  My lower legs felt a bit used again this morning.  Body's tired.

Splits> 8:23, 7:56, 7:40, (24:46 5k), 7:12.

Apr 12

Cried 3x at work today... small, stupid things, probably.

Long night ahead, but got in a run...

FIT:
6.5 in 52:35, 8:05 ave.

Treadmill for the first time in weeeeeks.  Wore 1225's, Oxysox.
Felt really good.  My lower legs had felt a bit banged up the past couple days, especially yesterday.  I went hiking on Sunday, just 6 miles, but my legs were tired from the previous day's race.  Today, they were all fine and ready to go, though.  I got a good workout.  Felt strong.  No issues.  Needed some physical stimulation today after work.

Splits> 8:31, 8:17, 8:11, 8:07, 8:02, 7:48, (50:28 10k), 3:35 for 0.5.

Whatever happens, all I can do is do my best for Jesus, in a manner that honors him and with an effort that pleases him.

RACE REPORT: Greer Earth Run 2011 - SC Half Marathon Championship

Build-up:

Not ideal... since the marathon in January, I've averaged maybe 12 mi/week.  Work's been pretty busy, including 3+ weeks abroad and working even longer hours, making finding time to run hard.  Good thing I decided not to try to squeeze in another Boston attempt before summer.

A couple of weeks ago, I PRed in a 5K, but since then, I gained a pound or two while traveling and not running (went 9 days without running at one point!).  I wasn't expecting much from the race and saw it as a training run.  I considered dressing up as a Spartan and running for fun while entertaining people.

The night before the race, though, I was looking at last year's results and figured that I had the potential to be fairly competitive, so I decided to go for it.  My Half PR from Spinx was 1:36:01, and that was at the very beginning of my marathon training.  It would be interesting to see how much better those long runs would make me.

Race Morning:

I'm tired from months of sleep deprivation, especially this past week.  I got 6-7 hrs last night, though.  I took my warm-up shower and had some decaf coffee.  I was still full from a big tofu dinner, so I didn't eat breakfast (Clif bar) until I got to the race.

I wore pretty new Saucony Vizpro Ignite shorts... orange and black, baby.  A new NB sports bra, all-black, too.  As I was exiting a porta potty, a little girl asked her mom, "Mommy, is she going swimming?"  "No honey, I don't think so."  It was hilarious.  It was going to be 62-66 degrees... warm.  I wear this even in sub-freezing temps.  I like it cold.

It was a 7:30 start.  Put on my visor, shades, Shuffle, UA calf sleeves, Kinvaras, Feetures socks.  I washed down the Clif bar with water and 2 Endurolyte tablets.  I had a Powerbar gel (double latte) in my back pocket.

The Race:

I started at the front, figuring I'd finish near the front.  The thought of going at 7:22/mi for 13 miles still seems inconceivable to me.  But I went out and hoped for the best.

I got passed by 2 girls within the first mile.

At about mile 3, I started getting a bit tired...

At about mile 4, I got passed by 2 blue shirted girls, and through mile 7, they remained about 0.1 miles ahead of me. 

At mile 6, ate most of the Gel.

At mile 7, one girl dropped off pace.  I saw my co-worker, too.

Still a ways to go...
I started wondering if I could hold the pace.  The watch seemed to be treating me well, though.  I was surprised... I felt like I wasn't going fast at all, but the splits were at faster-than-PR pace.

At mile 9, you know that you're getting close, but I had doubts about whether I could keep it up... hoped that I wouldn't fade.  Ate the rest of the gel at around this time.

We had water every 2 miles, which was good.  Towards the later miles, I'd grab 2 cups... they had Gatorade, too.

Just have to keep it up somehow.  My limiting factor was my quads, for lifting and driving my knee.  Would I make it, or would I crash?

At mile 11, you knew you were close, and you'd be okay after all.  Time to turn it on a bit.

Mile 12... the other blue girl is getting reeled in bit by bit.

Mile 13... I've just about caught up to her.  I know I have a good kick, so I'm not too nervous, although it is tough mentally.  Happy to say my mind was un-fuzzy enough to remember to take the tangents during the whole race.

Mile 13.1... kicked super-hard and had a really fast sprint to the finish in maybe the last 0.1 miles.

 

 My watch time is 1:36:00... a PR by one second?

It's hard to say, because the official time at Spinx was wrong, period, and I didn't have an exact watch time.  So it may be a PR... probably a PR, at least by the records on Fit360.  

1:36:00, 7:20 ave.

4th overall.

1st in the 20-24 age group.

Sweet.

Splits>

1: 7:06

2: 7:07 (average for 1-2)

3: 7:10

4: 7:39

5: 7:10

6: 7:19

7: 7:20 (average for 6-7)

8: 7:38

9: 7:34

10: 7:32

11: 7:40

12: 6:59

13: 6:59 (average for 12-13)

I started a bit too fast, paid for it a little bit in the middle, but finished really strong.

Next time, I think I can do better.  I'll drop the extra pound I gained in Argentina (just because it's excess, not because I think I need to lose any weight... if it happens naturally, great, but I won't do anything intentional to make it go away), get a haircut, actually train, sleep better, run in cooler weather.  The weather will play a big role, and the pound will also give me a 1% faster time.  Looking forward to more PRs to come!  I want to be top 3 next year.  The twenty miles I ran last weekend (total) were probably okay, so I won't be afraid to do that much next time. 

Apr 6

FIT:

Running is amazing. 

Before the run, I was soooooooooooooo tired.  I’ve been very tired this week… the months and months of having long hours at work, topped off by the BA trip have left me really tired.  I guess I was tired in the past, too.  I’ve been like this before, having to force myself out of a nap to get to the gym to squeeze in a run before it closes.  Painful getting out the door.  The running part is easy and totally transforms you.

Before the run, it’s utterly painful just to force yourself out of bed.  After the run, you’re awake and energized.  Before the run, you just want to stuff yourself with junk food to stay awake.  After the run, the thing you crave most is quality, nutrient-packed food… I wanted carrots more than anything else.  My body craved power-packed vitamins.  Power food.

Today, I needed to get a bit of speed, since it’s been a looong time since my last intervals session.  Couldn’t do too much, though, because the race is 3 days away, and I need time to recover/adapt from it.  I switched up my routine a bit.  I did shorter intervals and cut down on the number of reps to 2/3 of the usual, but the ratio of fast:slow running was about the same. 

Workout: 1 mi warmup @ 7mph, 4 x [0.3 @ 9mph, 0.2 @ 7.5mph], 0.5 mi cooldown @ 7.5mph + 0.5 @ 8mph.  Had a lot left in me, but saving it!  No body issues, happy to say.

4.0 in 30:41, 7:40 ave… not bad.

Apr 3

 FUEL:

I love stocking my fridge with high-quality fuel, food that gives your body the nutrients it needs to fight disease, perform optimally, give you energy and focus, and just make you feel good and satisfied.  Go for lots of color and a good balance of different vitamins and minerals.

Since I need to stay away from empty calories this week, I stayed away from processed foods as much as I could (still had to get my whole grain… really half grain… Goldfish fix). 

Grocery list:

Green & Red bell peppers

Bananas

Collard Greens

Carrots

Onion

Tangerines

Spring Mix

Whole Wheat Flour

Skim Milk

Chili Powder

Blackberries

Fat Free Feta

Doesn’t that sound good and make you feel powerful just reading it?  Plus, it’s not expensive, either.  I spend less than $6/day on food, Goldfish included.   For protein, I have dairy, tofu, tuna, beans, nuts (I don’t consider that high protein, especially compared to the [healthy] fat content, but some people count it), and sometimes chicken.  For grains, I have oatmeal, whole grain bread, tortilla chips, cereal, and sometimes whole grain pasta.  For fats, I eat lots of PB/peanuts and chocolate, haha.  I also love tea and decaf coffee – a satisfying treat that adds additional nutrients for free.  I can have any meal at any time of day – salad at breakfast, cereal at dinner… don’t care, because it always tastes good.  I go for 3 servings of dairy per day to get calcium, and I also have glucosamine chondroiton 2x/day and fish oil 3x/day, to keep my joints smooth (I think it does make a difference… on one trip when I didn’t take any, my joints were creaky, and then I realized that I hadn’t had my pills in a week), and the oil to help my heart, fight inflammation, and keep my mind strong.  I get sick once/2-3 years, and even then, it lasts maybe 1 day and isn’t necessarily bad enough to be called truly “sick”, either, thanks to a combo of good fueling and good exercise.  Another big facet of my nutrition is also the timing… I eat often, and it doesn’t take too much to make me satisfied, as long as I eat often.  I like salt… a lot.  Maybe I need it, though… that’s what I’ll tell myself, haha.  When I eat Goldfish or chips or peanuts, I look for the saltiest looking ones and pick those first.  I drink lots of water. 

FIT:

Eager to get back into my running routine.  Did 11.9 yesterday, and I did 8.1 to round it off to a nice 20 for the weekend.  Rolled my left ankle 3x today!  That technical trail part of the loop is downhill and uneven, so I really just need to slow down during that part.  Seems okay for now.  It was a nice run.  I debated whether I wanted to go out to the Swamp Rabbit Trail, or do the treadmill and save gas (but maybe hurt my joints a little bit because it’ll force me to not use my natural gait), or go to the more uneven East Riverside Park.  Went to the park, since drive-wise it’s the middle ground, and it lets me be outside and not on the treadmill.  Listened to my iPod and enjoyed working hard.  6pm, wore Brooks Trance 8’s w/ stability insoles, sox.  Still haven’t showered from yesterday, haha.  So tired… sleep and eat.  And run.  No time to shower, haha.

8.1 in 1:08:15, 8:25 ave. 

Splits> 6:28, 6:23, 6:13, 6:14, 6:19, 6:09, 6:08, 6:08, 6:08, 6:04, 5:56

Legs were sore yesterday and today from yesterday’s run, since I hadn’t run in 9 days before that.  While I was at the plant last week, on the last day, I was running late for lunch, so I decided to run to the cafeteria.  It felt incredible, just to speed across the campus for a short quarter or so.  My legs had missed the feeling.  It was exhilarating, even though I was in jeans, a collared shirt, and steel-toed shoes, haha.  Strangely, earlier in the week, my calves were sore… maybe that’s the feeling of breaking down, since I feel it after workouts sometimes… it’s possible.  In this case, it was probably pure atrophy, while normally, it’s the weak muscle fibers getting broken down so that stronger ones can be laid down.

Been thinking… maybe I will go for a PR at the race.  It may be hard to PR, but I could put up a decent time, probably.  I’ve adjusted my thinking because yesterday’s run was pretty good, and I remembered that I didn’t really taper for Spinx, either.  We’ll see.

Apr 2

Back from BA.  The project is just about over.  It feels strange, after having that as such a big part of my life for the past 7 months, and having spent a lot of time with my team for our on-site trips.  Some of them will continue to be part of the next phase of the project, for Mexico, starting next month.  Others, though, I will greatly miss.  It made me sad to think about it.  It won’t be the same without them.  I had a nice long run to just think about everything, though.  I brought my Shuffle, but I didn’t turn it on until the last 30 minutes or so.  I wanted time to think. 

FIT:

I didn’t run at all in the past 9 days!  Going from a 5K PR to no running… phew.  Working 12 hr days for a straight 7 days makes it hard to get the run in.  Physically possible, but you gotta be fresh for work.  This was the final sprint of the project… all my energies were going there.  Also wanted to be able to spend more time with the team.  Like I mentioned in previous posts, this project has given me the feeling of being on a team that I’ve missed since graduating and not being in team sports anymore.  Now that the team is dissolved, it’s sad.  I still know and will get to work with some of them in other projects from time to time, but this team for this purpose is no more.  Perhaps with a little time and perspective, I’ll realize that it’s not a big deal.  For now, though, after the run, I printed pictures, which I’ll put up in my fairly bare office.  At work, I like to be 100% focused on work.  No distractions, and then I can relax when I go home.  I keep things segregated.  Although I need to do it sometimes, I’d prefer not to have to work some more after going home. 

So the run… started fast, since my legs were fresh.  All I got in last week was a 30 min bike ride.  Slowed down, but overall, I did okay, I guess.  I have a half marathon next weekend, and it will DEFINITELY not be a PR.  It’s said that a week of not running will make you lose 10% of your fitness.  I’m thinking about dressing up as a Spartan for the run, just for fun and to entertain others, since I’m not going to be competitive anyway. 

Wore the n1224s with Oxysox and the arches. 

11.9 in 1:35:30, 8:03 ave… pretty nice, I guess.  983 cal.  Oh yeah, I gained about a pound or two while I was in BA, probably because of the lack of exercise, less control over the timing and portions of my meals, and less sleep.  Not a big deal... my equilibrium will naturally come back once I get back into normal life. 

Splits> 7:11 b, 5:32 ps, 6:44 c, 6:56 p, 6:50 bl, 5:41 ps, 6:58 c, 7:10 p, 6:58 bl, 5:48 ps, 7:05 c, 7:09 p, 7:05 bl, 8:16 car.