Describe Your Running Today, Part II

Ran from couch to fridge during lap 5 of men's 5K. Good out of the blocks, flip flops made it more difficult.

Today was a tough little 6.5km trail race in Mandurang, 3 km warmup and 4km cooldown, tomorrow is another tough 6.5km trail race about a km from where today's started.

Yesterday was a day off.

Thursday a solid hour on the mtn bike on tough terrain also about 2km jog to the supermarket.

Hmmm...it appears letsrun's connection to my comp is working again. Very Odd.

1 hour run this AM.

I quit burpees and weights altogether, I have no dumbells nor any weights in the house, after several months of borderline insomnia, and lost 11 lbs. Go figure

Gonzo is back! And what news...

-701 running days to Gimmelwald 2011: possibly the Mother of all Running Gatherings to be.

Have been spending the last couple of days at a Fitness Festival sharing ideas about barefoot/minimalist running with the Vibram folks, hence the treadmill running. Beyond the science-based research, it is quite educational to confront my 10000 hours with wanna-knowers. I have always found case studies engrossing, if anything for their stimuls to focus. It's almost relaxing.

The other interesting quickfind was seeing different frameworks - Fitness-based and Running-based - approach a similiar problem, i.e. a cycling machine and treadmill duathlon: 7 minutes on each, with a brief rest in between; highest aggregate mileage wins.

Strictly from observation, the Fitness competitor seemed totally comfortable for example with trying to crank the treadmill speed as high as possible while holding onto the armrests, not considering this to be "cheating" or unfair to the Runners who ran on the treadmill - just like they would on the track or road -, a conventional progression emulating a typical negative-split race.

Just a superficial impression. Fitness: how can i get the most out of the machine? Runner: how can i get the most out of myself?

I can see how some people get really motivated/obsessed with numbers possibly losing touch with reality.

A hearty welcome back, Gonzo. It is good to hear from you again.

This is the first Saturday in many weeks that I did not have some sort of commitment....other than household chores. Ha, ha! So, first thing done today was a run. I followed much of the same route as the other day, but did an extended trail portion. The total was slightly in excess of 8K. Pace was nothing to brag about, but the length was the longest in the last 2+ weeks, so I feel good about it.

Keep up the good work, all!

guys, hr123 is rd.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=3057371&thread=3057268

After a 5k warmup I ran a 6.5k trail race in Mandurang, a little hamlet just out of Bendigo -very hilly course similar to yesterdays race. First few k were ordinary but motored home okay -26.32 (last 3k 11.50). Yesterday was 27.12 (last 1500m 5.50). I finished about 30-40 secs behind some guys I normally mix it with, same yesterday. Finished with an easy 2k jog.

Legs are a bit flat, probably due to the 2 wednesday long runs last 2 weeks. Needed them though.

Gonzo! A rousing welcome back. You had me worried there.

If you can tip your hand a bit, I'd love to know how to shed a few pounds too.

Bellin 10K. A Runner's/ Walkers Gathering of 16,746. The vast majority being Cheese Heads, with a few Yoopers, Internationals, and elites to spice up the mix.

Joan Benoit-Samuelson lowered the age group course record she set last year with a 37 something. That classy lady still Rocks. Bill Rodgers posted a 45 something.

The hat I was wearing today contained a fat fuzzy rabbit, quite unlike the sleek fast one I was hoping to find. Oh, well. 41:12 on fairly even splits. Like it or not, that must be LT for the moment. One remarkable thing about getting older is how damn slow you can run, and still find your way to the podium. Todays age group 3rd brings to 3 the string for this race.

Got in 4 miles at recovery pace this PM. Overall, a fine day in the neighborhood.

Echoing the point could Be, Gonzo it is exceeingly good to have you back on board.

Driske, a 2minute improvement over 10k from the last run - any progress is success for us more mature runners.

Good to see some of the greats of the sport are still enjoying it.

Glad to have you back on board Gonzo.

I started warming up this morning on the way to a 10k race, but had to make the decision not to go through with it because my Achilles started to give out very quickly. I had hoped that 3 days of full rest and ice would be enough but it looks like I might need the rest of the week at least. I have an appointment with the sports doc tomorrow morning. Even my coach has advised me to just cross-train all of next week. I hope the doc has good news for me.

While I'm up early though, I think I'll go for another long bikeride, maybe 30-35k through the trails.

I'm humbled by the kind words from everyone.

Wow. Thanks very much.

At any rate several bad things happened on top of each other: the most relevant to LETSRUN being a virus (inflicted from another locale) which wiped out my hard drive, simultaneous with my club's website being hacked from a site in LATVIA which was found to be Russian mafia linked. No lie. One of our club members is an IT maven and ex-USAF, knows his stuff, & did some tracking. He was the one who figured it out.

I didn't surf for quite some time once the comp was fixed, and now only use it maybe 1/3 of the time as I did formerly. I don't do online business anymore...NONE.

After I switched to Verizon FIOS I was unable to get into LETSRUN at all. VERY strange.

Deep breath.

At any rate, other stuff happened involving family & ex-coworker deaths, money issues and things you all deal with in your own lives, so I'll let that go for now. I'm looking forward to the END of 2009. This has been a rough year so far...(cringe) and we have six more months to go.

I hope you Aussies who were endangered by those awful fires are all OK. THAT is serious stuff.

As far as the weight loss, driske, it was related to a full evaluation of my finances and...well...let's say the insomnia was self-inflicted, on top of some serious loss of appetite. A ton of lessons have been learned since I last posted. Thanks Dave Ramsey.

All my runs are by time, not mileage now, by the way and the only alternative exercises I do are pushups and situps. I don't know if that is advice or a warning & I can only surmise that eliminating weight training may have been a parallel contributing factor.

G-

Ha, Ha! wrote:

guys, hr123 is rd.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=3057371&thread=3057268

What exactly is it about "Shut up Skuj, HR123 isn't RD" that you don't understand?

Sigh....

Meanwhile, no running today. The left calf was slightly tight during yesterday's jaunt and then I was on my feet much of the day doing yard work. I self-massaged the afflicted area last night. So this morning I awaken with a tigh calf....the RIGHT one! Ha, ha! Go figure.

HR123, I think you made the right decision to abort. Good luck with the recovery.

Gonzo, a tough few months for sure. May your return to DYRT mark the start of better burpee-free times.

Keep up the good work, all!

Marathon Training Week 1 summary:

sun 10.00

mon 7.03

tues 8.22

wed 5.83

thurs 8.64

fri 8.52

sat 4.49

total: 52.73

Felt pretty good. Going for my long run (11 miles) at some point today, although it's 9:16 and I am still in bed. Looks like a late run for me.

Incidentally, this was my first 50 mile and consecutive 7 days of running week in almost two years.

Congratulations SoCal Runner!

I hit my first 50 mile week a couple months ago...stringed together 4 50+ weeks and haven't run once since. So listen to your body and build up slowly...esp when it comes to the length of your long runs. I also wish I had thought of taking an easier week after 3 weeks at the new higher mileage.

Good call HR -doing the achilles would be a real long term sideliner, some never really get it back. Let it come right.

SoCal, well on the way to good times come December. What's the running environment like where you are? I see you are running through downtown LA, it is a place I know only through TV and movies, I'd imagine my impressions are out of whack with the reality.

Gonzo, lets hope there are much better days of 2009 ahead for you. Thanks for your thoughts on the fires. It was a devastating time here for so very many. It strikes a chord when it is so close and so familiar. Much different to just watching such disasters on the news. I have been through some parts of the fire damaged area but have deliberately avoided certain familiar spots that I know were the scene of great tragedy. Hopefully lessons will be learned from the investigations and such disaster won't occur again.

I have today off thanks to a mix up with my boss. The plan is a nice mtn bike ride through those trails behind my home.

With a nice sharp frost this morning I will wait until the sun does it's work. I may even measure the figure 8 shape circuit that I fancy running tomorrow. It features several very solid climbs, most rides up there average only 12-14km per hour -it is a tough slog on the bike.

Dammit, today was one of those days. The 20min warmup jog felt good. 4x100m strides in 21, 19, 17 and 16 felt good. The first 200m of the 800m race in Duncan felt good. (33). But, around 300m, I got tight. At 400m I was tighter, sorer, and slowing big time. (69). At 500m I stopped. I've had this tightness/soreness in the very upper right hamstring for weeks, but usually it's not a bother once I'm warmed up. Doc says it may be periformis (sp? I'm unfamiliar with this one). But the 10min cooldown jog was fine.

Meh. I'll take tomorrow off, then try to finish an event this week...Chemainus 5k on Tuesday. Then I'll have to see Dean soon.

You know....I just haven't got it together this year. I am NOT going to score 4:42 on 5th St, that is plainly obvious.

Mopak, the training environment in Downtown LA is far from ideal. I go to USC, so my options are limited during the week (driving to Santa Monica or Griffith Park every day is out of the question when you are working full time and are on a limited budget). What I've been doing is running from Exposition Park/USC (basically the campus area, a few miles south of downtown), north on Figueroa (a main street) to 1st street (actual downtown, near Walt Disney Concert Hall), and back. Depending on how far north I run, I can get in anywhere from 6-13 miles on this route. Unfortunately, it is all on sidewalks, and the street lights at intersections can be a pain at times. I'm sort of worried about developing a stress fracture, but I seem to be holding up so far.

In reality, most of LA is a crappy training environment. If you can get to a park or to the shore and run along the beaches it can take a load off your legs. I usually try to get my long run and one other run on a softer surface every week.

Have to head down to San Diego early tomorrow morning, so I'm calling it a night. Take care guys

ran the San Diego Blood Bank 5K a couple years back.

It was different having the street people cheer for us instead of asking for spare change. The venue was down around Embarcadero Park. 4 star weather and the Marine Corps Band played prior to the event. They were excellent.

30 min. this AM at a good clip. Apparently the effort of a brisk 10K yesterday blew out some of the proverbial carbon.