Nov 3rd-Nov 9th: Gettin' Busy

I'm feeling pretty good about the week I was able to have. I started taking care of 'bidness' at my new job and still had fairly decent volume. 56ish miles isn't a lot by any means, but it still averages over 9 miles/day for the days I did workout. If anything, my intensity hiked up a bit this week as there were technically 2 races in a 7 day span and I had to take some fitness classes to orient to my new workplace. I'm pretty excited to get started with work; it's a great atmoshpere to be fit and get fitter. I've had to do some objective fitness measurements as a part of my on-boarding process, so I'm getting to know my body even better than 'running by feel'.

Here's what I know so far:
Wt. is still 150#, body fat 6.9%, Resting Metabolic Rate is 2481calories, 'Body age' fit assessment puts me at 18yrs, VO2 max 68.8, Anaerobic Threshold is somewhere north of 176bpm.

The race on Saturday was one of the tougher 10ks I've endured. The course was quite soggy and hilly but had more rhythm than the previous 8k. The weather was chilly, windy, and damp. Besides that, I just didn't feel like I was racing. My legs lack the strength and speed at this point to keep up with my heart & lungs. I guess things could be much worse; I could be injured, or burnt out, or fatter.

I'll gladly take this feeling over those. Training plans include maintaining current strategy while bumping up mileage and adding in a regular balance & strength endurance resistance program to my core work. I'm really eager to find out what I can do when I add pace-specific training. Here's the breakdown of the week:

11/3 Rest (first day without 'active recovery' in a while)

11/4 10 (1:06:40) River Rd/Summit loop w/ RnF

11/5 7 (49:09) Pleasant lake in the evening, felt pretty good. Also did a 45 min 'Strictly Strength' class @ Lifetime.

11/6 10 (1:11:26) Resneau loop in the rain. 'strictly sore' today

11/7 ~6? I had my VO2 max tested on the treadmill @ Lifetime (twice!-the machine wasn't working properly) So when I finally got a successful test, I was fatigued from a 4:30am wake-up and an hour plus of treadmill work w/ weights/bands. I coulnd't reach my true threshold due to the fatigue. Peak VO2 measured below threshold was 68.8. Guess I'm a little more aerobically fit than I thought at this point. Not sure how to measure total distance...

11/8 2.5 warm-up (17:59) HR max 155, Avg 144
10k race (36:03) Even split, HR max 172, Avg 165
3.5 cooldown (26:25) HR max 149, Avg 134

11/9 10 (1:06:47) Resneau loop, HR max 183?, Avg 140

Total ~56 miles in 6 sessions
Month to date mileage: 76 miles

Oct 27th - Nov 2nd: Strappin in on again

Here's how my week went down:

10/27 7.5 (52:10) Easy shakeout around Pleasant Lake trails. Hip flexors were a bit tight from the long run the previous day. HR 112

10/28 10 (1:05:58) River/Summitt loop in St.Paul w/ RnF guys

10/29 10 (1:08:04) Resneau loop, effort was up too high for that pace. HR 140 and legs felt flat. Full core/balance/active stretching circuit.

10/30 13 (1:30:06) Tamarack double loop from home. HR 142 Weather was so nice I didn't need a shirt for this one! 4x150m strides on grass w/ spikes on...can I still run fast???

10/31 7.5 (52:16) Pleasant Lake trails easy. HR 108.

11/1 9ish (56:27) 8 miler prior to MN State HS XC meet. Ran quite a bit during the races but the extra mile is from the cooldown I did with R.E. after a tough character test. Go cougars.

11/2 11 3 miles warm-up, 8k race, 3 mile cooldown. I didn't get splits on the watch but heard:
1 mile 5:22
4k 14:05
5k 17:11
finish 27:23 but the front-runners took the wrong finish loop that ended up to be 150-200m shorter than the correct course and of course I followed. I went in thinking sub 28 was reasonable and that's about where I likely would've ended up. The weather was warm if not perfect. I felt fine cardiovascularly but never quite felt like my legs were under me. Is that a good sign? Have I run all the speed out of my legs to the point where I can't coax it out anymore?

Total 68 miles in 7 sessions
October Mileage 278 in 29 days of running

It's been a while since I've strapped on the XC spikes (Nov 2005?) and it showed today. To close out a decent week of training where I found myself feeling tired pretty often, I ran the 8k Rocky's Run on the UofM golf course this morning(results can be found here. It's a good thing I'm not expecting to see or feel big gains in fitness after just a few weeks of consistency, or today's effort would be disheartening. (Really, I just wanted to beat my former roommate and teammate Pat )Instead, I'm pleasantly surprised that I was able to feel pretty comfortable at much faster speeds than I've even been thinking about in this phase of training. A little improvement in pace over the TC10but felt much better physically even on a challenging course.

From an aerobic standpoint, I'm making progress as needed and I don't feel any physical injuries other than occasional soreness in my calves and IT bands. Flexibility and core strength are going to be my main focus in the next few weeks to ready my body for higher mileage and strength gains. I'm starting to work soon (finally!) and hope that it only inspires me to get workouts in regardless. I'll be building a business as a personal trainer and nutrition coach. Will I be good enough to be hard on myself? We'll see.

Solid Progress. Oct 20th to Oct 26

I witnessed my first MN snow flurries since early 2006 on my run today. Funny how they don't look so friendly when the wind is whipping them in your face at 30 mph for an hour straight. They were so distracting that I didn't even realize I had to run another hour back to where we started our Sunday long run. Yep, over 2 hours in the worst weather I've seen since moving back to MN, and it somehow felt great. This week was one of those I've been looking forward to since I started blogging my training last month. For the fist time since 2006 I've busted the 70mpw barrier and I don't plan on dipping much lower in the coming months. Here's how it went down:

10/20 10 (1:11:09) Nice even, easy run around Tamarack nature center. I was going to make it more like 12 miles but I noticed I was running in the middle of a 'special permit deer hunting day' in the park. I decided to head back home via the roads than do another loop on the trails.

10/21 AM 7.5 (55:28) HR 138 Legs felt good on the trails around Pleasant lake. Followed by hip mobility exercises and thorough stretching.
PM 10 (1:06:57) Loop around Lillydale/St. Paul w/ the RnF guys.

10/22 10 (1:10:10) Around Lake Resneau in the cool rain. Low back was a bit tight but legs felt good.

10/23 7 (52:32) Easy pace for shorter day. Legs feeling the miles a bit but this was a good re-charge day.

10/24 10 (1:06:33) Around Lake Resneau again but this time I picked up the tempo for miles 3-5-7. Here's how it went: 7:13, 7:00, 6:03, 6:44, 5:57, 6:43, 5:55, 7:00, 6:40, 7:13. Overall I felt very comfortable but can tell my legs are going to need some real strength work even to build up to regular tempo training. Good things will come. No need to rush it right now.

10/25 6 (43:45) Recovery run. Great weather...

10/26 18.5 (2:02:53) Chilly & windy out-n-back with some RnF guys on the LRT trail out of Hopkins. We went just under 64minutes for the "out" into the wind and came back a bit quicker but still at controlled pace.

Total 78.5 miles in 8 sessions.
Month to date 230.5 miles.

It feels good to know I can put in a solid 2 hour run after the mileage hikes of the past few weeks. I just hope the legs continue to hold up through the long base phase. I am planning on particpating in two cross country races in the next two weeks. I'm approaching them like I did the TC 10 miler; as fitness tests meant to be kept within the comfort zone of hard running. Better to just be in them for the mental sake of racing at this point in my training. Now on to another important tool of training...SLEEP!

Oct 13th - Oct 19th Running all over

This week was pretty busy with a trip to KS for a cousin's wedding but I feel like 'bidness' was taken care of. A few solid long-ish sessions and no bad training days made the week one for progress. Just what I needed to jump start a mileage hike heading into cool fall temps. Here's how it went down:

10/13 14.5 (1:42:51) Went around Bald Eagle Lake and got caught in a rainy cold front mid-way through the run. Temps dipped about 12 degrees and the rain picked up, and so did my pace. This made up for the missed long run from the day before...

10/14 10 (1:03:54?) Winding route around St. Paul w/ RnF guys. Little quick but good company.

10/15 7 (49:51) Nice re-charge run.

10/16 10.5 (1:16:00) Afternoon run around Faribault to some nature center.

10/17 7 (51:30) AM run before hitting the road to Topeka.

10/18 12.5 (1:26:31) Shunga trail and around KS capital. Good run despite the celebratory mood of the weekend. Felt really good.

10/19 5 (35:00) Shakeout run after a loooooong car ride home to MN.

Total 66.5 in 7 runs
Month to date 152

Hoping for another week like this before building up with a longer long run and a few more miles on my 'down' days. My left calf soreness is gone thanks to a lot of good stretching. Legs are feeling strong but I don't want to test that in race-pace efforts yet. Base, Base, Base...

Back to training? Oct 6th-12th

After the TC 10 mile effort I knew I'd require some careful decision-making regarding training for both recovery and building up mileage. The last thing I need at this point is an injury or setback from reckless training. Yeah, I know the 10miler could've been run harder and left me more taxed, but it didn't, or at least I thought I was fine.

10/6 7.5 (52:33)
Monday after the effort I went conservative; slept in and settled for an easy 7.5 miler on mostly gravel trails around Pleasant Lake. The legs felt a bit heavy to start but loosened up and the miles went by rather effortlessly.

10/7 10 (1:06:54)
Tuesdays I've started running with a group from the RnF shop to get some company and keep my motivation up. I've decided I hate running in the evenings (most of my runs are in the am's lately) but the chance to run with this group is worth it. Typically we tick off about 10 miles around St.Paul at about 6:40 pace. It's a little faster than I usually feel like going but for now this day serves as my 'up-tempo' day. It will be a great chance to recover and get some strength once I start bumping up the volume on Sunday long runs.

10/8 10 (1:12:39) end HR (140)
Wednesdays are a good day for slow recovery and I like doing these on the trails at Tamarack Nature Center, especially while the leaves are changing color. Anything to get my mind off task or minor aches/pains is good to have mid-week. My left calf/Achilles is still a bit bothersome but it doesn't tend to feel any worse if I take it easy on the grass trails.

10/9 10 (1:09:34) end HR (132)
Thursday I went to an old stand-by route that was always noted as a 9 miler in previous logs with times around 64-65 min(although mile splits always were around 6:25-6:35). I re-measured it finally with a dependable cycle odometer and found it's actually 9.96miles(oops). Obviously my legs were recovered as I was holding back and running around 6:50 for most of the run.

10/10 10.5 (1:15:59)
Friday I waited until late afternoon to run because I knew I'd be down in Northfield where I could run the nice grass and gravel trails on the St. Olaf campus. I felt like shit for some reason and struggled through just over two loops of the 8k collegiate course thinking I'd be going long on Sunday...

10/11 0 miles
Saturday I was lazy and tired; couldn't drag my ass out of my sister's house in Faribault to plod out even 4 miles. What a waste of a training day...

10/12 0 miles
Same feeling as Saturday. Two late nights of a few beers and eating like junk will do that. I gotta start using my head and set myself up to get my runs in now. Mistakes are great tools for learning...

Total 48 miles in 5 sessions
Goal for this week is 60-65 miles in singles. I have a wedding to attend in KS on Saturday but will try to get the runs in regardless.

Good week 9/29-10/5

Theme of the week is efforts. I can't bring myself to call it work while in my head comparing it to the work that needs to be done to meet my goals for the next 12-24 months. Monday I went to afternoon practice at the ol' high school, a move I thought I'd regret on Sunday. The HS workout was "The Beast"; a workout perhaps pushing most high schoolers past the point of quality race-pace sessions into junk training territory. 23 minutes of continuous race-pace 800m repeats around a loop rich in 90-degree corners. Rest between intervals is alternating push-ups/sit-ups, so under 30 seconds for most. It may have been worse when I was there 8 years ago when we did 30 minutes of 800's inducing more than a handfull of school lunch 'returns'. I was surprised the kids were doing this workout on a Monday after a hard, hilly fartlek session the previous Saturday and a race coming up Wednesday! I hung with the teams' 2-3 runner because frankly I don't have any speed or leg strength to stay with the top guy right now(16 flat-ish 5ker).

The middle of the week was spent just putting in miles and nursing a deep soreness in my left calf that developed about a week prior. Ice, stretching, mild massage, and NSAIDs were in order anytime I wasn't on my feet. So far the pain hasn't spread or gotten worse and I've completed my highest mileage week since starting this blog.

The week was capped off with TC10 yesterday in a good effort in good weather with a good result. While I could have trained smarter this week, I don't think I could have approached my race plan much smarter. I started with a conservative goal that I felt was realistic but marked decent progress at this point. I was pleased with what my body did for me, and I felt strong mentally throughout the race as well.

Race conditions were nearly ideal with temps hovering around 50F with overcast skies and damp roads. For the first 2 miles I was trying to stay conservative as the course is mostly downhill at this point. I went through 2 miles in 11:45 and followed that with a 6:06 mile up and over the Franklin Ave. bridge on the way to the next two miles. A 5:28 felt good on the flat part of East River Rd. but I made myself back off to conserve for the climbing ahead. Mile 5 was a 5:51 (29:11 halfway split) before turning up onto Summit Ave. and its miles of gradual uphill (& into the wind). The second half of the race actually felt better than the first. Summit proved as difficult as remembered and anticipated but passing people one-by-one is what kept my tempo up and I don't think I got passed after mile 1. Mile 6 was 5:57 as I neared Macalaster college, then I really felt the wind and struggled through a 6:05 before finding more rhythm. Miles 8 & 9 were pretty constant at 5:41 and 5:51. I was laboring pretty heavily by this point but just pushed harder and smoother through the downhill finishing mile which eneded up being 5:09(where did that come from). I passed two more people in the final mile including one of the elite women (they started 8 minutes in front of us)to finish in 57:55, just under my goal of 58 minutes.

Here's the week summary:

9/29 10 (1:09:31) 23 min of 800's with 6 mile cooldown
9/30 10 (1:05:03 with RnF team
10/1 7.5 (53:18) HR 130 @ finish of Pleasant Lake loop
10/2 9ish (1:06) Tamarack nature center from home
10/3 4 (27:27) 1 tempo mile @6 min pace before backing off due to sore L achilles
10/4 5.5 (38:45) on the grass at Tamarack with Richie
10/5 12 TC 10 with short warmup and cooldown

Total 58 miles

More of the same volume over the next two weeks before jumping up again in mileage...

A setback not requiring a comeback

After a good week of focusing on my task of building up mileage to lay the groundwork for fitness, I spent a few days on the couch with a nasty head cold. It didn't help that I stayed up too late and drank too much beer while we had visitors from out of town for vikes game last weekend. My planned two days off from training stretched into 5 days off. I'm still spitting lugies and coughing up stuff but it's been easier to sleep the last few nights.

Finally on Thursday of this week I was able to hit the roads, and I was able to salvage 4 days from this week. It was rejuvenating to trot around at the Griak invite yesterday and see some familiar faces from my running past (and also some unfamiliar ladies with great legs!). The meet was a perfect opportunity to get a long run in on some great terrain as well as some cruise-type intervals while darting around the course watching all the races.

I didn't realize how much I miss cross country, as I turned into more of a track trotter in my college days. Run hard, turn left...over and over again. Yesterday confirmed that fall in MN is definitely my favorite season; cool mornings that stretch all afternoon while you're running around a golf course so long you miss lunch. The course is just another opponent you have to read while your body is screaming for you to stop. Lately, I've been hearing those screams at much slower paces and much lower mileage than I'm used to hearing them. It's got me wondering if I'm really durable enough to withstand the long haul ahead. We'll see...

So a stretch of 5 days off is a setback, but there really isn't a feeling that I've lost ground at this point in the game. There's a lot of time and hard work I plan on putting in before expecting real, measurable progress. Plans are getting back on track in the later days this week so I'll be able to run with some rhythm at next week's TC10 miler. The weather outlook is good with start temps in the mid 50's and virtually no chance of inclement weather or wind. The course will be challenging enough itself; after all, it follows the last 7 miles of the marathon course where I fell apart in 2005. I imagine that the hills in the closing miles will make this feel more like a half marathon or 25k than a 10 miler. Tentative race plans have miles 1&2 around 6:00-6:10 pace before settling in at about 5:45 pace. I would love to scoot just under 58 minutes and feel comfortable like tempo training. With that said, here's how the last two weeks of running has gone:

9/15 7.5 (51:25)
9/16 10 (1:06:26) Ran with the RnF Team around St. Paul
9/17 10 (1:11:35) recovery run
9/18 5 (36:02)
9/19 14.5 (1:42:28) Long run around Bald Eagle lake from home
9/20 rest
9/21 rest (vikings game, probably the only win of the season)

Total 47 miles in 5 sessions

9/22 sick, tired, didn't run
9/23 sick again
9/24 sick again, headache, sinus problems, lugies everywhere
9/25 6 (43:27) felt sluggish and couldn't breath through my nose at all...
9/26 10 (1:12:43) easy longer run to nearby nature center loop
9/27 13+ (over 90-100 minutes) solid 70 minutes running the griak course before warming up with former teammate, then did a fair amount of darting around the course watching the races. Felt pretty good but the hills may have caused some mild left calf tenderness that I've been icing, massaging, and stretching a few times a day.
9/28 5.5 (42:12) EASY loops at the nature center, nice soft grass trails

Total 35-ish miles in 4 days. Still getting over this head cold thing.
Month to date total 167 miles

Taking inventory and setting sights...

Another productive week on the roads and it feels pretty good. Aside from some slight fatigue a few mornings and mild tenderness in my left inner shin, I feel like I'm making some progress. My heart rate monitor was fixed and functioning briefly but no longer fits thanks to a worn out elastic band(am I losing a bit of baby fat?). I checked my pulse manually at the end of a few runs and felt comfortable with the readings in this phase of training, but I would have liked to have my info from the 5k I ran yesterday. The chest strap of my Polar HR monitor slid down to my waist & I ended up finishing with the damn thing in my hand. My goal was to hit 45+ miles this week without going over 80minutes for a single run. Just keeping within what I think are conservative limits while setting up for everyday training for the months ahead. Here's the shakedown:

9/8 6 miles (41:57) HR 130
9/9 10.5 miles(1:13:46)
9/10 5 miles (36:37)
9/11 8-ish miles (59:29), Rain felt great
9/12 am 5 miles (35:49) HR 136
pm 4 miles (28:46) HR avg 127
9/13 2 mi w/u 5k race (17:23) 3 mi c/d for a total of 8 miles
9/14 5 miles (35:58)

Total ~51 miles in 8 sessions

The 5k was put on by the local YMCA and was around a familiar 2 mile loop of Golden Lake where we used to do VO2 max workouts in HS. The road was torn up and a bit muddy from the overnight rain showers so the course was a bit soft. I had to dodge a frickin cement truck about a half mile in but still managed 5:34 for the first mile. I settled in at this pace and went through the 2 mile in 11:12 (5:38). The last 1.1 miles were an out and back loop on a gravel trail that unfortunately had parents and kids taking part in the 'family fun run mile' which isn't the full cause of my slowing in the last mile but definitely played a role. Overall, I wanted to see if I could hold a comfortable tempo around 5:40 pace without building up lactic acid. Mission accomplished.

More good news came this week too. Thanks to my good buddy P-a-t-r-ick, I successfully got accepted into the elite field at TC 10 mile in 3 weeks. I'll be treating that as a similar tempo-type measure of fitness with little preparation besides maybe a couple runs between 12-14 miles in the weeks ahead. At most I may throw in a few cruise intervals. I'm looking at TC10 as a control test. I know I'll feel like running faster in that situation, but it would be foolish to do so because it wouldn't really benefit me to race myself into fatigue or injury before ramping up mileage this winter.

Setting my sights right now on Fargo Marathon as the most likely spring 'thon to focus my efforts on. My half there in 2006 (1:14:36) lead me to like the mix of great competition and a potentially fast course for me if I run with brains and keep fit. After TC10, I'll be out of racing until perhaps another fitness test in January (winter carnival half marathon?) from which I'd base more precise marathon goals. Today, I'd throw out a goal of 2:35 on a moderate course in favorable conditions. This matches up more closely with where my fitness was this past June when I went 1:13:59 at Kona half.


I had a goal of 2:40 in my mind for my first marathon, Twin Cities 2005, but didn't use my head and went out much faster than planned. I paid the price around 21 miles, just as the course bears its teeth down Summit ave. I was on pace for a 2:35-ish finish, but blew up and limped across the line in 2:46:01. Though I was pleased I beat the time of 48 year old woman J-B-Samuelson I was frustrated that my race plan was never in writing. That was a mistake that I almost couldn't recover from; it took a solid 4-5 months before I felt strong on a run again. Now my hindsight is 20/20 and I don't wanna go back there. This blog is a tool I may need as a crutch at times to keep up training to safely reach my goals. Hopefully I'll get some helpful feedback as well...

Working out the kinks

I was expecting to feel a bit like the tin man this week as I awaken old movement patterns and workloads that have somehow become foreign to me again. The old familiar feelings of re-starting training after a hiatus were all there, plus a few new observations. My calves and achilles were continually sore despite NSAIDS and icing along with my aggressive return to stretching. My rhythm is still missing. I have terrible posture (as I could tell from looking at my shadow). My hips need to be popped before I start running and then stretched like gumby afterwards. The new developments include: a tightness in my upper back only relieved with neck cracking, and I am requiring an enormous amount of sleep. I feel like 9 hours is enough, but my body doesn't want to get out of bed until I've been out for 10 hours! That's probably the only good part about still being unemployed...

The weather has turned to fall, which makes it beautiful for running. Temps have dipped into the 60's and 70's and even one morning run in the 50's! Sure beats humid and 80's. Towards the end of the week I was starting to feel my body turn too, towards that fluidity I'm seeking. Still, I had to keep it to 5 days of running totalling just 34 miles. Here's the breakdown:

9/1 Rest
9/2 7 miles (49:16)
9/3 6 miles (42:49)
9/4 5 miles (36:18) legs felt pretty heavy...
9/5 9.5 miles (1:07.23) longest run since starting up again!
9/6 6.5 miles (47:12)
9/7 Rest

Now the task is to gradually build over the next few weeks to 50-60mpw by mid-late October while staying healthy. If all goes as planned, I should hit my highest mileage week ever in mid-December (85) and keep on clicking off the miles from there.

So far this week I've been feeling pretty decent with only 2 runs under my belt but I'm feeling more rhythm and the times are showing it. I passed a lady on a bike while circling White Bear Lake this morning. She said it was 'humiliating' and I laughed.

9/8 6 miles (41:57)
9/9 10.5 miles (1:13.46) felt pretty good although only planned to do 6-8.

Weekend Test

Small test but a test indeed for me. I've been traveling all summer long and have shrugged off many runs citing 'I'm on vacation'. I went to northern MN with my family. They are great about tolerating my running but are more the golf/boat/bocce/beer all day, gin & tonics in the evening types. Well I guess I'm one those too, so I have to will my way through and get business done in the mornings. The first of many tests for my training is a little victory for me. Here's how it went:

8/30 5 miles (35:28)

Early morning run before heading up north to Lake Ada for the weekend. I felt pretty good throughout the run and felt better at the end. It was one of those mornings that runners can never really explain to non-runners. “You got up at what time and ran how far? The sun wasn’t too bright when it came up…I just rolled over in bed so it wasn’t shining in my face!” It was a beautiful morning complete with orange dawn and fog over the marshes.

8/31 8 miles (56:45)

I debated with myself (and the few too many beers from yesterday that I couldn’t sleep off) whether or not I should turn around at 20 minutes and settle for 5.5 miles, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it while I had a seemingly endless stretch of dirt road all to myself. So I ended up going 8 with the second half getting away from me (came back 3 minutes faster). Another nice morning run although it was starting to heat up pretty quickly. The headwind felt great on the way back.

Week total: 43 miles. Overall a good first full week back.

Still can't decide if I want to drag my but out the door yet today...I went 7 consecutive for my first whole week back in the shoes.

Initial attemps at training...

I've had a few initial attempts at training properly for a decent marathon in the past year and a half. All of them have ended in the midst of busy work and travel schedules or even my love of enjoying a nice cold beer after work. Well, now I don't own a car nor do I have a job to speak of, but I do have 3 pairs of perfectly good training shoes. The weather is right, the time is right, the motivation feels right. Presto change-o...bring on the decent marathon! Riiiiight. I said properly train for a decent marathon. That means a decent ramp-up to a big winter base training stint. Well, actually more than a stint, the term marathon comes to mind.

Now I'm not the first person to run nor am I the first person to challenge himself like this and write about it. I give credit to those that have inspired me to do this, especially Sundog, Richie-a-new, and PR. Here's my initial post about training. Bear with me while I continue to set up this site.

8/20 5.5 miles (42:37)

This felt like it would have been easier running on my hands. Talk about havin’ the rhythm of a white guy! This run brought back memories of taking way too much time off between track and summer training. To be expected since my last real ‘training session’ was about two months before, in prep for the June 29th Kona half (1:13:59).

8/21 4 miles (29:15)

Quick…er…not-so-quick four miler. Gotta ease back into it. Starting back with a sub 20 mile week so I don’t blow up in 8 weeks.

8/22 5 miles (36:11)

Went to summit brewery in the afternoon yesterday and could feel it every bit of the way. Not that I was expecting any rhythm to return after trashing an afternoon and evening getting familiar again with the local brews. I remain pleasantly optimistic that my body will remember how to respond in the near future Rode in the car all day helping my cousin move back to school (UND, Grand Forks) and ran to check out campus and saw my old coach. Makes me want to blow my old times out of the water…

8/23 OFF. Partied too hard last night. Although I did run from party to party!
8/24 OFF. See previous day’s comment. Ugh!

8/25 6 miles (45:49)

Another bad run although this one was shared with an old teammate who kicks ass (Richie). I was suffering from what I call ‘Football Liver’ where my liver is the size and density of a kicking football. It’s hard to get a full breath and have decent posture with this syndrome. Too many days drinking in GF; this will change soon I tell myself. Hey, at least my legs aren’t getting sore anymore! Must be the Deek’s Pizza and Red Pepper Grinders working magic on the recovery.

8/26 6.5 miles (48:?)

Ran w/ Richie again and one of the UND cross/800m guys. By today I’m feeling a flicker of hope that I can still hang with these guys in a few more months. At least I ended up in GF for the best weather days of summer. The nights were pretty nice too!

8/27 6 miles (48:07)

Back in the cities thanks to the overnight Amtrak ride from GF. Not good sleep at all. Went for an afternooner and felt sleepy but not too physically fatigued. Progress is mounting.

8/28 7.5 miles (52:56)

Slept 11 plus hours last night and had a good session thanks to it. Started my hip/pelvis range of motion plan and did some abs afterward too. I’m starting to feel better at the end of my runs which is a good feeling. I finally sketched a rough plan for the next two weeks and will re-evaluate my distance spread after I feel out these two weeks.

8/29 4 miles (29:07)

Morning run that felt pretty good, but my left heel is asking for a break or better warm-up. It’s time to get serious about stretching before these snakes in my legs get wound too tightly. Looking for a car and a job so I’ll be able to a) get to and b) afford the upcoming community yoga classes. Possibly the best strength/flexibility training I’ve had luck with in the past.

I’ll be heading up to northern MN for a few days this weekend and have every intention to run both days to round out a 43 mile week with 7 consecutive days of running. I’ve been pushing water all week but feel a bit thirsty all the time anyway. It has been pretty warm this week, and coming from Hawaii, even I’m not used to this kind of humidity! Overall this week has turned out to be productive running-wise. Now if I can only find employment and transportation I’ll be set. Goals will be reviewed in writing on this blog soon. Stay tuned…