Describe Your Running Today, Part II

This is inferiority complex and racist copout which really is the #1 reason why we "whities" are so far behind. We DO stand a chance if we start doing what is required - #1 being that we see ourselves as equals.

PS: No run today after 5 days on. Busy day, a bit stale....look forward to a blast 4x300m tomorrow. I want blood on the track. I'm going to GET TOUGH!

Gimmelwald, elevation 4,593.

Run cut short by blustery squall of pelting rain.

I had in 4.2 miles including a trail loop repeat done :02 faster than anything I'd been able to muster last year.

Hey Driske way back in 85 I ran from the Gimmelwald hostel to the revolving restaurant on the Schilthorn (featured in an early Bond movie)in 1h 45m. I even got the guy to print a time marked receipt to verify it back at the hostel.

Yesterday a light 60mins to and around the golf course and home. Also a 20min windtrainer spin.

Not that thrilled with today's run. I have an 8k xc tomorow so had intended to do either a 3k or 1500m forest race today. The numbers were low for the 6.5k handicap so I decided to run it instead. I ran alone for the first lap and subconciously was saving myself for tomorrows race. Picked it up once the 2 backmarkers caught me in the 2d 1/2 but it just wasn't a satisfying run. I like to race all out but today I finished feeling quite fresh. Hopefully tomorrow will be more pleasing.

Gimmewald 2011, -714.

The background info is starting to get fascinating. Going to post this on the GOAL thread! By Summer 2011 Gimmewald will be the place to be running.

yesterday: 1hr apertif run with my vet in villa pamphili. real easy. then dinner with our families plus some extra kids. just really laid back. sometimes i sense that doctors used to "understanding" animals, can read humans without being distracted by verbal communication...

today: 8am, jogged some 800s in an international relay team event part of a "sport against violence" initiative at the Caracalla track with runners coming from all 5 continents. Best part was when a tourist from south korea who was visiting the Terme di Caracalla archeo site, wondered in asking if he could participate. He quickly did a couple of warm up laps and then ran his 800 with contained pride... just real low key, low profile gig, maybe too much so, but all in all very pleasant... Some great initiatives become so loud, it's a shame you lose some of the meaning with the intensity...

Then went to Paolo Rosi track and it was kids athletics. Played "clock": on the tartan off the high jump, one of us held a rope steady in the center while i ran holding the extremity close to the ground in the widest circle possible. Kids either stood still or ran the opposite way and jumped over the rope each time it swiped by. Eventually they got it and it was fun... and sorta tiring to do, running around in circles like a two-legged ferret without a wheel.

Then it was end of school class party for my 5-y-old back on this side of town.

Then it was nap time.

TPCB,

Commendable sense of play.

More on (GIM-mehl-valdt) to come.

7 mixed miles this AM.60'sF, no new calves

Today I did 20min grass jog + 4x100m strides + 5x300m with 3min recovery + 10min grass jog, in WARM weather, with spikes on for everything but the 20mins.

Diane was there (as well as Heather and Matthew), and Lindsey, Doc and Keith came too - the Old Boys did the 300s together. It's funny - for over 15 years in Cougars I was nearly always the oldest. Today I was the youngest, hahaha.

My warmup felt a bit zombie-ish: Lot's of grass cutting beforehand, a bad sleep..... The strides felt meh in 24-20-18-17. I did the 300s in 52-51-50-49-48. I led 1 and 2, Doc led 3 and 4, and Lindsey led 5.

It was a good session for me - I was tight at first, but I warmed up to a decent pace. The only thing that marred it was, on 5, chasing Lindsey through 150m, I got a right calf twinge. Was I pushing the envelope? I ran in fear the rest of the way, and my form suffered, because I was favouring it. (I think Lindsey did about 46 on that one.) The cooldown jog was also slightly ugly because of this. Perhaps I'm not used to this heat, and, I'm DEFINITELY not used to workouts like this, hahahaha. I'm fine afterwards though.

Thanks everyone. That was a blast. (Diane did a 17.71sec 100m towards the end of her session, a Canadian Record, unofficially of course.)

6 miles easy today through the park. I thought I'd be out there in the rain but it stopped right before I went out. Really nice going through the park after it rains.

I'm very happy to have something real to report here, since my marathon on Sunday I've been running only a couple miles at a time every other day but it seems that I'm recovering now. Been doing some mountain biking on my off days.

Next Saturday I'd love to do another "800m pace" (or slightly faster) session again. Any ideas?

I think 4x400m with 4mins rest might be a good 'un. An old staple for me. It's a lot of rest, but I'm very early days in this hard track session cycle, and, I do want some fast runs. If 1500m was the main focus I'd shorten up the recoveries and slow down a little, but 800m is my thing right now. I might aim for 70-68-66-64.

Any ideas? Yes, I have a few. But in order to keeps things civil around here, I'll keep them to myself thank you. Ha, ha!

What a beautiful day for a run! Finally a reward for those tough winter runs (my apologies to our southern hemisphere posters). Still kept things on the short side with only 40', but I have an ambitious schedule to get me back to near 60' within the fortnight. We'll see.

And let me offer my congratulations to all of our fabulours DYRT posters -- and the troll, ha, ha -- for surpassing the 3K post marker. What a fabulous achievement! This truly is the best thread on letsrun and I am happy to have played a small part in its success.

Keep up the good work, all!

Great day! Yes, it's suddenly gotten hot here in the UK - 25c in London today whereas it was mid-teens last week. So went out for 90min today with heart rate hovering around 80%.

I've made a decision in the last few days... training for short stuff just doesn't do it for me. When I was 19/20, I cared about slicing a few seconds off 5 or 10k's. Now, I run because it feels good. I was reading about how Ann Trason, the ultra runner, 'relaxes' into a 30miler. It's true...running long is, ridiculous as it sounds, relaxing.

So, after a 3 year absence from ultra running, I'm going back! There are too many damn fine 100mile trail races in the US that are calling to me :-)

110 minute ling run yesterday. eased it at something like 85 degrees and the sun burning down around noon, but could not make time any other time.

WIll only do a short 5 miler today. easy pace.

Decided to join in on this thread. I ran in college, but lost motivation to train on my own for about 2 years. Spend the first half of this year on and off, but have been getting in some decent runs lately. So, here's to a new start. My goal is the Santa Barbara Marathon in December. Today was the start of my training for this race.

Ran a solid 9.2 miles in Griffith Park, 66 minutes. 63 degrees and overcast made for a lovely run. Enjoy the rest of your day everyone.

cheers SoCal, and best wishes for your re-start and marathon.

today: family day was supposed to be, and family day it was. went to visit friends who rented a beach house just north of Civitavecchia. Beach very nice but view is poiled by a huge electric power plant nearby. in anycase far away enough away from the home to make for an acceptable bike ride. my buddy Luigi had no patience to run after his son francesco (6) who is finally taking off the little wheels off the bike and learning to go solo. so i got a pretty goood workout as support crew for the little guy, who was pretty accomplished by the end of the afternoon. in the meantime i was thinking how both my kids learned on those wooden pedal-less bikes (some of the best money ever spent) and it took them maybe an hour to learn to pedal properly practically by themselves. Actually they would probably be great to learn how to toe off properly when running. The only problem is those things dont have brakes so it was a pretty acrobatic learning process...

Only 713 days to GiveMeWald 2011. mopak, driske: what's capacity like on location? BTW, how did the 8k go? How about getting the Bride to work on those calves?

Today I did a 60min gentle, therapeutic, recovery jog about Qualicum Beach trails, grass, roads. It was a lovely run. Shirtless.

Even if I was available for OMRS tomorrow, I'd jog it. I need 2 days recovery after those 300s yesterday, hahaha....

Looking forward to 3x1600m with 4min recovery on the old dirt track on Tuesday or Wednesday.

TPCB,

Gimmelwald is small, the book describes it as a good staging point for activities in the surrounding area. I'll read a bit more tonight and see what sort of total room tally it encompasses. Apparently it sits in an avalanche zone and so has been passed over by commercial type development.

SoCal runner , welcome on board. Keep us posted on your comeback chronicles.

RD, C.V.R.R., gentle jousting is good for a few chuckles.

C.V.R.R. Racing workouts may net you sore calves. But not a sore as the young Angus calves who have had an eartag and castrator band applied. And TPCB, the Bride does not participate in this aspect of our farm operation. Both daughters do, however. Enough BS for this post.

6 miles on Green Bays Fox River trail.51 minutes, bro-in-law Bill and new kid "Ross" in tow. AM resting pulse 40. Things are coming together.

Re Gimmelwald capacity. 20 years ago we would have had 30 or so people staying in the village for most of the 2 weeks I was there. There is the mountain hostel- dorm style accom.,I don't think it has changed. Plus there were a couple of other places inc 2 hotels. There are a number of other nearby options such as mountain huts and small mountain hotels. Lauterbrunnen, down in the valley, and Murren, up above Gimmelwald, have plenty of accom. as well.

The beauty of the village was it's lack of tourist development. I t also has no cars. One of my favourite runs/hikes took me under the Sprutz waterfall. Another lovely run was a 17km run to the beautiful Oberhornsee via Tanzbodeli(the dance floor).

Yeaterday's run. 4k warmup, then an undulating 8k interclub trail handicap race. Started too quickly, unusual for me. I felt great so decided to just go with the fast pace and see what happened.

Nearing the 1/2 way I could see I had made up a lot of ground on the front markers and was a big chance to win the race. I made a big charge on a long downhill at 5k and by 6k I had ran into 2d spot although still 70-80m behind the leader George. Between 6 and 7 the early pace came back to bite me me on the bum and right at the 7k mark 3 backmarkers caught me. I hung tough through the last km but got picked off late by a few more backmarkers.

I never did catch George!!

Finished 8th across the line. Pleasingly I was OUR club's 4th fastest runner.

Time wise it was a bit slow, 32.19 but it is a slow course. Fastest time was a slow 27.50 from a 90s Commonwealth Games silver medallist -nice to know even the elite slow with age.

I was happy with the way I ran as I put it all on the line.

Most of my recent races have been negative splits, it was good to just tear off and risk it . Didn't quite come off but it was fun.

some lingering effects from the cold (pnd).....but had to get out.....kept it short after about 10 days away......about 30'.....first 5' felt good, then got a bit leg weary, then better.....probably could have gone longer, but erred on the side of caution....we'll see what today brings.....

O2, always best to make sure those viruses are well out of the system with a few light days.

Today was just very much a light recovery day. I did a 4km ski-pole hike up on the McIvor Range -in the dark, testing out a little head lamp. Then did 35mins spinning on the windtrainer and an easy 25min jog in misty rain, in the forest, in the dark -spooky!! Gotta watch out for Bunyips and Drop-Bears.