Masters Weekend Races and Runs

I'm still sidelined as well but it will get better. Went through a battery of tests last week and have more this week. I am able to swim and ride now though so that will keep me occupied.

Keep thinking positive and positive things will happen.

good luck to you both (skinnbones and OMBTS) with rehab. Hang in there.

ok week for me with hills on wednesday. 4 weeks till my goal race (8k), but the week before that will be my annual try at the mile. I finished an 8 mile run yesterday with 4 X 200 [200 jog] at guesstimated mile pace. I felt as though I could do quite a few more at same pace as long as I kept taking those recovery jogs, but stringing together 4 full laps in a row seems doubtful.

I know this is not a novel insight, but training is so specific. I've found in the past that being able to run 20+-miles at a decent clip doesn't make playing fullcourt basketball easy, and now I'm (re)learning that 5k pace intevals and tempo runs and long runs don't make mile pace easy either.

have a great week.

Good luck to all rehab-ers. I suspect every poster has been there and done that. I know I have.

Mr. & Ms. T-lover leave for Eugene and the big show Thursday, staying throughout. A dream vacation for both of us! Does anybody need tickets?! I've got a buddy who suddenly can't go, has 2 tickets in South stands, near the track, right next to me. Email me if you are interested. Or, if you are going and want to do something with us, dinner, jog on the Pre trail, etc., also .. please email before Thursday.

Thursday night Raced 400: felt a little flat and unfocused. Held back too much early and had too much left at the end. 59.5. I'll get it just right one of these attempts at the All American 57.5. This night was just not it. Also did the 200 for dessert, 27.4. Similar flat unfocused state of being. A great evening however, warm, calm, clear.

Friday morning: 600 target time trial, with intent to hit 400 in 68, then either kick or hang on for dear life. Hit the 68, then finished with little kick 33, for 1:41 total. Not bad after rest of only 12 hours.

Saturday was birthday #52. Feel really lucky to be able to run fast enough so what little hair I have left is blown back!

Have a great first week of Summer.

Good morning,

Out the door soon, so very short (visitors from Portland and San Diego). Great week of training. Pushed it with three quality workouts hitting different speeds.

65 miles with no races.

Mon 8 x 200 @ 800 pace

Wed 4 x 1000 @ 3k pace, with 4 x 1 min Hill

Sat 3 x 800 @ Mile pace with 2 mile tempo

Sun Easy 14 miler

Eat, Drink and be Merry!

tOnY

Greetings. A tough week to train, one day in Seattle, one in Portland, two in Denver area. I did get two great runs in Parker, CO along a very nice bike path. The path is 20+ miles and decently used by the populace. The altitude killed me though.

Managed to string three days in a row.

Of importance is working on core strength as I build this body back to form. Anyone tried the balance board? Half ball with a board on top. It is bloody hard! However, it is supposedly great for assisting in the development of core strength.

Have a good week and those going to the trials - have a great time and hope you meet some contenders while out running in Eugene. I picked up a 'Trials' hat at the PDX Nike store. Looks good.

Tony- it looks like you are ready to roll in Eugene. Give 'em hell! BTW Congrats on your mile WR, and on Mack's great season.I saw Chris Charles running with a weiner dog at Green Lake this morning. With his long loping stride, it was a pretty comical sight.

northwest master wrote:

Good morning,

Out the door soon, so very short (visitors from Portland and San Diego). Great week of training. Pushed it with three quality workouts hitting different speeds.

65 miles with no races.

Mon 8 x 200 @ 800 pace

Wed 4 x 1000 @ 3k pace, with 4 x 1 min Hill

Sat 3 x 800 @ Mile pace with 2 mile tempo

Sun Easy 14 miler

Eat, Drink and be Merry!

tOnY

Just back in from an 11 mile slog (slow jog)just south of Mendocino County where countless fires rage and so the sky is filled with smoke for more than 100 miles...may have done more damage than good by breathing that stuff...and yes, I did inhale;}

Off to Eugene (via Bandon Dunes golf) for 10 days this Thursday. We have a group of nearly 60 (thanks Joe Rubio)sitting at the 1500 meter start line.Will look forward to seeing our faster MWR&R posters race that 3000 and hopefully connecting with some of you for a pre/post meet beer at Villard St Pub where we'll be headquartering many of our meet activities such as:

http://www.pcsportswear.com/2008_tracktown_trials.html

As usual, I'm MCing a number of free coaching clinics and this one should be pretty great:

Olympic Coach Joe Vigil Heads List of

Excellent Distance Speakers for Saucony Distance Clinic

On Sat. July 5th from 8:15 - 10:30am Saucony presents an excellent group of distance-oriented speakers led by Coach Joe Vigil. On the ticket will also be Jordan Hasay's Coach Armando Siguerios, Luis Quintana from Arizona State., and Gary Towne from Chico State. All of these coaches have extremely varied backgrounds and coaching experiences at ALL LEVELS & the Presentation/Open-Ended Q & A format assures all of your questions will be addressed. Absolutely free with Saucony product and other sponsor products given away in the raffles.

OMBTS, skin, KP, get better...fast! See some of you @ Hayward Field for the best track and field meet on the planet.

MF

Tracklover - I had a similar experience in a road mile I ran on Thursday. I didn't treat this as a race, but thought I would have been closer to 5:00 than 5:10. I suppose I could post a list of excuses, but the bottom line is that I didn't have my ducks in a row for a strong race. I feel much stronger after taking Friday as a rest day. Yesterday, I ran a solid 10k progressive paced tempo workout - first 5k in 18:30, second 5k in 17:25. My track workout last week was 5x800 with 200 recovery, average split was 2:37. This week, our ever expanding training group will do 12x200 as 4 person relay teams. That should be fun!

At the beach this week and last. Lots of green bikinis and one more lost pair of sunglasses! The ocean has worked a miracle on my back and I finally feel nearly normal after 6 months' worth of injury! I ran a bunch of miles this week.

Went to NON to watch my 2-miler run. He had his first-ever bad race at the wrong time! But my daughter and I got to witness German's record run of 8:34 for 2 miles. I'll tell you: that was something else! Ties with Todd Williams' 27:31 10K for my favorite race I've ever witnessed in person.

Still trying to run on an osteoartritic left knee against my doctor's advice and common sense. The knee actually doesn't hurt much at all, but my stride is so misaligned that my left leg cramps badly after 10 minutes or so. I keep thinking the muscles will strengthen and adjust, but it hasn't happened yet. I managed to hobble about 10 miles this week. If this is the best it ever gets I'll take it. At least I'm jogging. I hate biking.

A typical "getting back into it" week. No speed work. I thought about running a tempo run at the local fun run, but it has finally gotten warmer and I'm not used to it yet. I jogged with the friend instead. Friday, I cut my run short as I felt dizzy and light-headed. I'm not sure why (under-fueled or dehydrated were my thoughts -- a friend suggested "pregnant", which thankfully I am not!! =;-0 )

Today I met a friend and teammate to start a long run. She's in great shape, having set an AG record recently, so I "slowed" her down to a reasonable pace -- although it seemed fairly brisk to me! ;-D Nevertheless, it was really nice to run with her. We split after 6 miles -- she continued on the gravel road for an out & back, while I tackled the hillier trail route. Since she got me out to a good start, I ran well all the way back and I was quite pleased with it.

I haven't thought about going to the trials, even though they are less than 2 hours away because I will be taking my daughter to Nashville, TN for her national competition July 4-8. I had wanted to see the 7/4 events -- plus I've always wanted to run Butte to Butte -- but I'll be on the plane. Now, I'm re-thinking that - maybe I can figure out a way to go down for a day earlier in the week.

There seems to be a few tickets around on craigslist -- and at prices much cheaper than they were in May.

Good afternoon,

I've kept up with this thread most of the past year. You all have inspired me to race track again after almost 30 years hiatus(M47). I never was fast, but I sure had fun. I'm pleased to find it fun still (but I'm still not fast).

Anyway, thank you for helping get me back on track, and here's my report for this past week.

46 miles total ... Race: 1 mile in 5:33

Q1 = 3x1000 (VO2 max)/3min jogs

Q2= 2x[400m mile pace with 400m jogs] + 3x[300m mile pace -1 sec with 300 m jogs] + 5 x [200m 800m pace with 200m jogs]

Long = 11

Good job ! , keep posting with us. I'd take a 5;33 right now.

Had a nice week here in northern IN...The temps were in the 70's & the humidity was low, making it a great week for running. Hit the track on Wednesday for a very windy 5x800 session. Avg'd 2:30.7. Ran a low key 5k yesterday. Did ok hitting 16:40. I probably went out a bit too fast with a 5:02 first mile. Legs felt like lead and I was breathing way too hard! A couple of long gradual uphills made the course deceivingly slow.

This is going to be a tough week with 4x1200 scheduled for Tues & 4xMile on Thursday.

See you on the roads,

Dave

I'm checking in from Lenox, Mass. It's the home of Tanglewood, and I ran by the location toda.

After taking most of the week off, got in 25 minutes yesterday. Today, up here in western Mass., it rained pretty heavily, but then cleared up (albeit with decent humidity). I took a run from the B&B outside of town, but I stopped briefly on a long uphill into town and then towards the top of a very tough hill. I tend to run too hard after a lay-off and blowing up. It takes me a few days to calm down and relax in my runs. I'll be up here for a few more days, so I'm hoping to be OK by then.

I saw a number of frequent contributors here on the two recent Masters threads, the one that told us to slow down and the one that asked SoCalPete how he does it.

Rebounded from the bug last week and hit 61 miles. Ran an all comers meet for a workout and was pleased to clock 4:30 for 1500 and 9:48 for the 3k. Did 15:00 of :30 on/off on Thursday and 8 x 300 in an average of :49. Right achilles and heel are a bit tight, but otherwise I'm OK. I look forward to my last week of training and then heading out to Eugene to run the 3k and be a part of all the festivities. It's finally getting warm and humid in GA. Stay cool everyone!

Second week in a row of no running whatsoever! And I gotta tell you, I'm feeling great! It's a cliche, but mental burnout IS the first sign of physical burnout.

And for most of May, I just wasn't enjoying my training or racing. I was fighting new ticky-tack injuries every week. Was dreading races. Losing my cool.

But I guess that's why I insist on taking June off every year. Because I know that my mind will try to trick me into thinking I can train and race just a little bit longer ... and then maybe a little bit longer after that ... and then.... But if I force myself to stop cold turkey, then that little voice that rationalizes never taking a break is silenced.

It's funny. I went for a little morning run a couple weeks ago, and when I was done, I said, "Okay, that's it until July." And almost immediately all the aches and fatigue I'd been repressing and ignoring just exploded. It's like I got run over by a car while sitting in front of my TV set, taking off my shoes. All I could think was, "Good God, what the hell have I been doing to myself?!"

But after a week, my legs actually felt like, well, my legs again. And as of this week, I'm starting to get the first little internal urges to get back on the trails. And I figure in another week, I'll be going nuts to get back in the groove.

Okay, hope everyone's enjoying their summer training! Have a great week!

The Pacific Association T&F Champs were today. My teammates and I drove to Los Gatos and had a great meet. My first race was the 80 meter hurdles and my goal this season was to break 13 seconds. Fellow masters, I ran 12.87 and I am very happy.

However I got some sad news. My father passed away about 10:00 this morning and I got the call from my brother about a half hour before the 100 meters was to be run. My brother asked if I had any more races that day and I said I did and I didn't know if I could run them. He then said, "Dad always loved to watch you run. I think you should run it for him." So I did. The 100 meters wasn't quite a PR but it was a solid effort, and I shut it down for the day after that. I'm so lucky to have had the opportunity to visit my father two weeks ago and spend time with him before his passing.

Hope everyone has a great week ahead. I'll skip next Sunday's thread, but will check in the following weekend. Best wishes to all.

Spikez wrote:

However I got some sad news. My father passed away about 10:00 this morning .

My thoughts are with you.