Week Recap (6 Apr 2008 - 12 Apr 2008) - 70 Miles

I managed to get the mileage back up to a decent number this week although the quality of my runs did take a hit. I had a good start to the week with a nice long run on Sunday but things went downhill after I attempted an AT run on Tuesday and ran a crappy workout. The next few days were pretty miserable. I was putting in the miles but struggled a lot and my runs were slow and painful. I had been feeling great since I returned from my injury and I guess I was bound to hit a downswing sooner or later. At least I finished the week on a positive note.

Saturday, April 12, 2008 [7M]

Alameda - Brittan. I was originally planning on having a workout either yesterday or today and hadn't ruled it out completely until I got up this morning. I got some good sleep last night and was feeling a lot more rested compared to the last few days but I still opted to skip the workout and just finish off the week with a short run. I was out around 1PM, which wasn't the best idea considering it was about 85 degrees out. I wouldn't ordinarily worry consider this too hot but I haven't run in the heat in a while and didn't have the time to adjust since the weather jumped 20 degrees in 2 days. I did a good job staying hydrated before the run and didn't really run that long to have any trouble. My legs were feeling decent today and I was moving at a good pace for most of the run. I even decided to push the last couple of miles a bit and probably got down in the low 6s . I averaged around 6:30 for the whole run, making this one of the best runs of the week.

Friday, April 11, 2008 [9M]

Hallmark Park. I came back home from work and didn't waste much time getting out, hitting the streets by 6PM. The weather got a lot warmer all of a sudden, probably still in the mid 70s during my run. I did the usual route through Water Dog Lake Park, went across Hallmark Park to Hallmark Dr and looped back to Water Dog Lake. At the beginning of the run I thought about staying on the streets in order to avoid hills, since my legs are still suffering, but I finally opted for running on soft surfaces. Once I hit the first hills I started having second thoughts about my decision but I had already committed myself to it. The climb up Lake Rd was pretty slow but once I got to the top I was feeling better and the way back was almost decent.

Thursday, April 10, 2008 [10M]

Redwood Shores. I was feeling tired all day and was expecting this to be another tough run. I don't know if I set myself up for a bad run that way but things went pretty much as expected. I didn't feel as bad as yesterday but still shuffling through at slower than 7:00 pace. I was planning to lift afterwards but didn't have the energy for it once I finished my run so I just stretched briefly and headed home.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008 [11M]

Coyote Point from PJCC. I left work early and was at PJCC by 4PM for my last physical therapy session. I was only there for about half an hour since there wasn't that much to go over. I did some basic stretching and strengthening with the trainer and then talked a bit about things I can do by myself from now on. I was out from PJCC around 4:30 and headed towards Coyote Point along the bay trail. I was feeling really tired today and this turned out to be a very slow and painful run. I was fighting a strong wind on the way out, making it even harder to move at a decent pace, and my legs kept feeling worse on the way back so I was dragging the whole way.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 [10M]

Anaerobic Threshold run. I decided to give one of Coach Taylor's new workouts a try since it seemed to fit what I'm doing right now. The goal of the workout is to run 40 seconds slower than mile PR for as long as you can but for my first one I wanted to be somewhat more conservative and was shooting to run 5:10-5:20 pace. I was back home from work and on my way to Carlmont High School by 7PM. I got pretty much right into it, starting out with a 78 for the first lap and continuing with 80s and 81s. It was windy again so I was content with running 5:20s. I didn't manage to hold on to that pace for too long, though, and after coming through the half in 2:45 with my legs feeling like trash I decided to stop after the second mile, which I finished in 5:31. I jogged a couple of laps and decided to add on 4 quarters to the workout. I know it doesn't make that much sense as a workout but I felt that 2 miles on the track would hardly qualify as a workout and wanted to put in something more. My legs were pretty tired and I wasn't putting that much effort into the quarters, just getting out reasonably fast and maintaining the pace. I ran 68, 70, 69 and 72, which is far from spectacular but not a complete loss cause given the circumstances. I jogged a few more laps on the infield afterwards and took the long route home to add on some slow mileage. After running another horrible workout I'm starting to wonder I would have been better off sticking to base mileage for another week or two before starting any hard efforts. It feels a bit strange, though, that I can comfortably clip 6:20s on long runs but I can't run a minute faster for more than two miles. It's actually sad if you consider that a couple of months ago I averaged 5:25s for a half marathon. I was planning to run another workout this week but I think I'll wait to see how I feel by the end of the week and play things by ear.

Monday, April 7, 2008 [10M]

Foster City. I was out of Club O by 6 PM for the usual 10 mile loop on the neighboring peninsula. It was probably not the best choice for a run since it was a very windy day and running along the bay turned out to be rather frustrating. Things were better for the last half of the run, after I turned in on Foster City Blvd. It felt like I was running slow, mostly because I had a hard time running into the wind, but I wound up back at Club O after 67:45, which is under 6:40 pace for this loop, so not too shabby. I'm back to running strides on a daily basis, although I still don't feel very fast. Lifted afterwards before calling it a day.

Sunday, April 6, 2008 [13M]

Huddart to Wunderlich. I drove out to the corner of Purissima Creek Redwoods and Huddart Park around 2PM and went for an out and back on the trail to Wunderlich Park. I made it to Wunderlich in about 47 minutes, discovered that there's an entrance to El Corte de Madera Creek on the other side of Skyline Blvd and added a couple of minutes checking it out before heading back. I was a bit faster on the way back, getting back to the car in 45 minutes. I was feeling pretty good the whole way, just cruising and enjoying every minute of the run. It's definitely good to be back to long runs like this one.

Week Recap (30 Mar 2008 - 5 Apr 2008) - 58 Miles

I was shooting for around 60 miles this week and ended up pretty close, running only on the first 6 days. I thought about going for a short run on Saturday but opted to go for a bike ride instead. It was probably a good idea to give my legs some recovery time especially after the crappy workout on Friday. I think I'm on the right track as far as getting back to decent mileage and hopefully my legs will be able to handle some faster stuff soon.

Saturday, April 5, 2008 [0M]

20M bike ride. Since I was already close to my goal mileage for the week I thought I would benefit more from taking a day off running and doing some biking instead. This was my first long ride with my new bike and I looked more like a biker this time since I also invested in some bike shorts. I bought some bike shoes as well but I need to replace my pedals before I can use them so I was once again riding with my running shoes. I headed up Ralston Ave to Canada Rd, continued all the way to Woodside Rd and looped back down El Camino. I pretty much sucked at going uphill and the climb up Ralston was rather brutal. I'm still trying to figure out which gear to use for different inclines so I was shifting a lot and probably wasting a lot of energy. Once I got to flat surfaces on Canada Rd I got into a good rhythm and put in a good effort. There were a lot of other bikers along Canada and naturally I got competitive and was mostly kept passing people. It felt a bit strange though, since I couldn't just blow by people like I do when I'm running but had to work to get by and then had to make sure I wouldn't slow down after I was ahead. It was entertaining, though, especially since I looked a lot more amateurish compared to everyone else. I find it a bit strange that everyone riding a road bike is dressed up like a professional cyclist whereas I rarely see anyone running in running shorts. after having invested quite a bit of money to get a nice bike you might as well get all the necessary gear. I'm sure I have a lot more to learn about biking.

Friday, April 4, 2008 [10M]

4M decreasing pace. 5:51, 5:47, 5:38, 5:38.

I came back home work this afternoon and headed out to Carlmont High School around 6PM. The track is right around 2 miles away from my place, which is perfect for the pre-workout warm-up. Once I got to the track and started getting ready for my workout I realized to my surprise that the track is only about 390m per lap. I only ran here once before and it was at night so I didn't realize that the track is short. I would estimate that the 5M tempo I ran was about 7-9 seconds slower than I thought per mile, which makes it far less impressive but still not a bad workout I guess. The plan today was to run another decreasing pace 5-miler, starting at 6:00 and dropping 15 seconds per mile. As a sidenote I'll mention that I asked the MIT guys last week why they call this workout the "Kenyan" but I didn't get any compelling arguments so I'll stick to my less creative but accurate name. To make up for the short track I ran the workout in lane 3, which was 402-403m per lap, so a second or two slower per 1600. I got out a bit too fast on the first one, coming through the first lap in 85. I slowed down a bit for the rest of the mile but I was still 1-2 seconds faster than goal pace on each lap. I didn't have to pick it up too much for the second mile and was almost right on. Going into the 3rd mile things started looking bad. Aerobically I wasn't working hard at all but my legs were feeling heavy. I didn't put the effort needed to increase the pace, expecting the transition to 5:30 pace to be easy. I was 3-4 seconds slow on the first lap, brought it down a bit for the next couple of laps but still slower than goal pace. By the end of the 3rd mile my legs were dead and couldn't move any faster. Coming through the half for the 4th mile in 2:50 I decided that adding a 5th mile wasn't worth it. I added a couple of laps around the track and ran a pretty slow cool-down to get back home. This definitely wasn't the workout I was expecting, I thought I would at least be able to get down to 5:15 somewhat easily but I couldn't even break 5:30. I want look into this too much, though, the first workout after coming back from an injury is always tough. Mentally I wasn't into it at all and even though I think I have the aerobic fitness, my legs still need some more miles before I can start running fast again.

Thursday, April 3, 2008 [10M]

Out and back to Bair Island. I left the office before 6 PM, which hasn't happened in a long time, with the exception of days I was going for physical therapy. This is one of my least frequent runs since the route to Bair Island is rather boring, pretty much 4 miles along 101. To make things even worse, Bair Island has been closed for a few months now, which takes away of the option of adding a few miles on soft surfaces. It is at least a break from the usual routes so I don't mind throwing it in every now and then. The run actually turned out to be a pretty good, I was in the mid 6:30s on the way out and cruising in the mid 6:20s on the way back.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008 [9M]

Foster City. I was out of Club O by 6:45 this afternoon, which seemed early since there's still so much daylight at that time. I was planning to go for 8 miles but once I crossed over to Foster City I realized that I didn't have a standard 8 mile route around there. I tried for a while to come up with a new route but eventually I decided to go for my standard 9 mile one. It felt like I was running a bit slow at first but I was probably faster than I thought since I averaged around 6:35-6:40 pace. I split 7:00 for one of the miles along the bay trail but that mile always seems to be about 10 seconds long and I was running into a strong headwind. I was down to 6:27 along Marina lagoon without a noticeable increase in effort so there probably wasn't too much variation in my pace. I ran some decent strides outside Club O afterwards and added some lifting. I mostly did a lower body workout, doing lunges, leg curls and calf raises. I skipped the bench and did one set of pull-ups but couldn't motivate myself to do any more. In unrelated news, I have to mention seeing a guy running with the full winter gear, pants, gloves, hat and a wind breaker. I don't even know how many layers he was wearing underneath but he seemed pretty buffed up. I could at least justify this during the winter, even though I made it through without having to wear anything more than shorts and a short sleeve T-shirt, but today was in the mid 50s and sunny so seeing someone with so much clothing was completely ridiculous.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008 [9M]

Hallmark Park. I opted to run from home this afternoon and I was out by 6:45 PM. It's definitely nice to have the option of getting a run on trails on a weekday. I made my way to Hallmark through Water Dog Lake Park, taking it easy on the way up Lake Rd. I didn't add any extra mileage in Hallmark park, beyond the standard route to Hallmark Dr, and just headed back going through Water Dog Lake again. Wound up home in 58:44, which might be a bit short but I think it can be rounded up.

Monday, March 31, 2008 [10M]

Redwood Shores. I wasn't very excited about getting back to work today after an almost 4 day long vacation. I called it a day by 6PM and headed out from Club O shortly after. Easy 10-miler without anything exciting to report.

Sunday, March 30, 2008 [10M]

Balboa Park. I was up around 9 this morning, somewhat more leisurely than the last couple of days. We were on the road back to San Francisco by 9:30, making a stop at Balboa park along the way to get the run out of the way. I ran with Rachel for most of the run, which kept me from running too fast. We were still running at a decent pace, more or less what I would be running on a casual Sunday. We started near the natural history museum and wandered near by at first without finding any good places to run. After a while we found some trails east of the park and spent some time there before heading back. I dropped Rachel off after 58 minutes and added on another couple of miles to make it 10. It turned out to be a rather enjoyable run overall, to a great extend thanks to having someone to run with. It was good thing we got the run out of the way so I didn't have to run after what turned out to be a really long trip.

Week Recap (23 Mar 2008 - 29 Mar 2008) - 50 Miles

Another good week, continuing the gradual mileage build up. The mileage increase from last week wasn't anything spectacular but I only ran 6 days so all my runs were decently long. What I'm most excited about is how good I've been feeling on all my runs. It feels more like I've tapered and not so much like I'm coming back from an injury. All my runs were comfortable aerobically, even the ones which were somewhat fast. My legs are easily handling this mileage and I only felt some soreness after some of my hillier runs. I was thinking of waiting another week or two before starting any workouts but since I've been feeling good I might do something this coming week to test my fitness a bit.

Saturday, March 29, 2008 [8M]

Point Loma Nazarene. Started the day with a big breakfast with Alisha's parents then went over to Point Loma Nazarene University to watch the track meet. Jake and I headed out for a run some time during the meet. We ran out of the campus, ended up near the ocean after wondering around for a while and ran along the coast back to the campus. We had to climb a steep hill to get back to the track but that was the only part where I had to put some effort into the run. The rest of the run was pretty casual, we were chatting the whole time and enjoying the nice view along the coast. We finished with some strides on the track, watched the rest of the meet and spent the evening hanging out with the team.

Friday, March 28, 2008 [10M]

Claremont. I was up around 7:30 AM so that I could join the team for their 8:30 practice at Claremont McKenna College. I started with everyone in the mid-distance/distance group, running around somewhat familiar areas since we came here for the spring trip 3 years ago. Everyone was doing a meet warm-up so I was with most of the group for the first 3 miles, continued with Jacokes to 5 and added another 5 by myself. I was feeling surprisingly good for a run this early in the morning, which I'll attribute to having someone to run with, even for part of the run. The pace wasn't very fast but decent while running with the guys, then I picked things up a bit the rest of the way. I was back at the track in 65 minutes and added a lap around the track to make rounding up to 10 more justifiable. I was running 6:00 pace for that lap and it wasn't much faster than what I had been running for most of the run so this was definitely a solid 10. I even ran some strides on the infield, which felt decently fast despite not having run any for almost 2 months. As much as I hate running in the mornings, I have to admit that getting the run out of the way early was very satisfying and allowed me to enjoy the rest of my vacation day. Rachel and I drove down to Coronado after practice and met Jake for a Mexican feast. We spent a few hours at the beach afterwards, dared to take a quick dip in the cold-whirlpool-like ocean and chilled in Coronado before going back to Jake's place for dinner with the rest of the team.

Thursday, March 27, 2008 [0M]

I tried to get up at 7AM to go for a run, since I knew this would be a long day, but like many other times that didn't happen. I had an appointment with Dr Oloff at 9 and after hitting snooze for an hour I gave up on the morning run. I was supposed to get an evaluation for custom made orthotics today but after a brief discussion Dr Oloff opted against it. I haven't had any problems since I started running and figured that I shouldn't changed my biomechanics unless something starts hurting again. I went back home after my appointment and did some work before heading to the city to meet Rachel. We drove down to LA to join the MIT track team on their annual spring trip. It took a while longer than I expected to get there, thanks to the LA traffic, and we didn't get to Claremont until 8PM. We went straight to dinner with the team and decided at that point to forgo the run, since I wasn't in the mood for a late night run. I don't like coming up with excuses for not running but at least I can argue that a day off wasn't a big deal, since I haven't had one in the last 10 days and I'm still building up the mileage.