Dallen

10 easy miles today. The workout consisted of running to pick up my trophy from the recent race. It's a gargoyle pencilholder, and it's a beaury. Much better the a plastic runner. I had left the race quickly because I didn't think that I was close to being in the top 3 of my age group. They used 10 year groups which made it even less likely. Anyway, I apparently got 3rd place. The official results are still not out, but the sent me an e-mail telling me to come get my hardware. Sadly this will probably be the only trophy I get this year.

Christmas came early this year. The running store that I I run for decided to geve me some winter runnig gear. I went to the store expecting to get a couple chesp shirts. I ended up with 3 nice shirts, three jackets, and 3 pairs of running pants. All high quality stuff courtesy of my friends at Fleet Feet Chicago and Nike. (Shameless plug...I owe them). This stuff was probably worth $300-$400. I will be well stocked this winter.

As for my running, I did 10 easy miles this morning. I say easy because I ran slow. Actual, it was hard to maintian even a slow pace this morning. Cardiovascularly I was fine, but my legs were not in the mood to cooperate. I am happy to say that I was able to pull myself from the happy confines of my bed to run before work 3 times this week. Not bad.

10 miles on the treadmill in 62:45. I really had no reason not to run outside, but for some reason I just fult like going on the treadmill.  Played a lot with the controls and ended up doing a couple 2 mile stretches in under 6:00 average pace. Felt good.

10 easy miles in the morning. I was feeling a little sore from yesterday's run on the treadmill. For some reason any time I do hard running on the treadmill it makes me much more sore than the equivalent workout outside. Not sure why.

6 easy miles before work.  I was planning on doing some more running this evening, but then I discovered that  I am on call this evening. I will see what I can fit in.

PM: 4 miles on the treadmill at 6:20-6:30 pace.

4x400 on the track. It was dark and cold and windy. I thought that I was running fast, but I was not. 77, 77, 79, ?.  I did the last on off of the track.

I really need to develop some more speed. This was pathetic. Cardiovascularly it was not that hard, but I felt like I was going full speed.

For various reasons I stopped at 7 miles. I will try to make up my 10 mile a day quota tomorrow.

6 easy miles. I am falling behind on my miles. I will do better. I did manage to add a photo, but clearly the quality is pretty bad.

8 easy miles before work. My body is not enjoying the recent increase in mileage after meny weeks of low mileage during the taper and recovery. I am fairly sure that I over tapered.

Frisbee day. 4 miles to the field, 2 hours playing and 4 miles back. Exhausted. I'm never really sure how much mileage to count when it's a frisbee day. Maybe I will try wearing the garmin next time.

10 easy mils this morning. I was feeling pretty beat up after spending over three hours running/frisbee yesterday. Considered quitting in the first few minutes, but kept going. Felt better after a while.  I should be able to put in some good mileage this week due to a fairly easy work schedule.

8 miles. This run doubled as a trip to pick up my car from the mechanic.

Tried to do some speedwork today. Planned for 4x400 on the track.

I have the luxury of living across the street from a track, which might not be a big deal in Utah, but there are not that many tracks in non-suburb Chicago. The downside is that the neighborhood is not the best, so it is not the brightest idea to run there when it is dark.

My first 400 was in a pitifully slow 82 seconds. It felt very clunky. I almost called the workout off, but decided to try another. 81 seconds. I decided to continue. 78 seconds, 77 seconds. For unknown reasons I decided to try another, 79 seconds.

Right now it is very frustrating for me to be running intervals. I feel like I shuld be able to run them faster than I can. This better improve with time.

PM: Added another 6 easy miles.

AM: 4 easy miles.

PM: 8 miles at a average pace of 6:30. Considering the 20+ MPH winds this was a pretty good workout.

If you would like a good read I would recommend you take a look at Duncan's blog. He is currently writing about his 5 day 100 mile stage race in the Himalayas. It is by far the best bit ofwriting that I have ever seen on a blog. He is about 6-8 installments in so you will have to scroll down a bit to start from the beginning. (As a warning, he does not always use family-friendly language.)

Half outside, half on the treadmill. 2 miles at 5:44 pace. Felt pretty good.

14 miles this morning including some frisbee.

10 easy miles this morning. I am glad to see that the days of frisbee are not taking as much out of me as they used to. I felt rather good today. I think all of the sprinting is making my legs a little stronger.

10 miles today. All easy. I got a haircut in the middle of the run. For whatever reason my legs were really tired.

A week or so ago Sasha recommended that I do 10 x 100 to see what happens. I have no idea what he wanted to see, but for a good semi-scientific test I suppose it is better that I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing it for. Sasha, you will have to let me know what you were thinking.

I ran the straights of the track and jogged the corners. The first 8 were at almost full speed, that last 2 were as fast as I could go. 17.9, 17.6, 17.3, 17.1, 16.4, 16.4, 16.7, 16.7, 15.7, 15.4.

I thought about addong on some quarters, but after a 80 second trial I realized that I was rather worn out from the 100's.

10 miles in the cold, wind and rain. The first couple miles were very, very unenjoyable. Once I warmed up it became fun. These kinds of runs build mental toughness. At least that is what I was trying to convince myself when I was out there in the freezing horizontal rain.

I was probably the only person not to run a turkey trot. I just didn't fel like doing one this year.

The thanksgiving weekend hurt my mileage. I went out of town to visit the in-laws. I could claim that the trip was the problem, but honestly I was just lazy and did not feel lijke doing much running. I am not adjusting very well to the cold weather. Thankfully, I have gotten back into the pattern with 2 consecutive days of 10 miles.

AM: 4 easy miles

PM: 6 miles on the treadmill with 2 at 5:45 pace. This workout was amazingly easy compared to any other recent attempt at running hard. Maybe I am getting back into good shape after the taper/recovery.

AM: 5 easy miles

4x400 meters on the treadmill at top speed (12 MPH = 75 seconds.) People are not supposed to run on the treadmill this fast. It got awfully clunky. At the end of the 4th repeat it shut down. Oops. I am going to have to call the maintainance people and let them know that I broke one of the two thredmills in the gym. I am glad no one else was in there to see who broke it. I already get some funny looks when I go fast on tthe treadmills.