Ronaldo Loops

Nike has two international sized soccer fields put end to end right in the middle of campus that are perfect for running intervals on. Hoss and I measured out a course and got to work. The plan called for 6x1k at 3:07 effort, 3 min recovery. There was a bit of snow out on the fields, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it was easier to see the cones marking the course. I guess the footing was good because I ran well in flats and it was dark. Jerry Schumacher, coach of the first non-African under 27:00 for 10k showed up and chatted a bit. The man is amazingly nice and super-talkitive. I thought I was going to have to tell him to be quiet so we could get running. Good thing this workout wasn't about the recovery.

Summary: 3:07/3:11/3:09/3:11/3:12/3:10 - can't complain.

Day/Week: 8/15

SnowCast - Chili

Well, it will if it gets any colder up here. After a quick email to Mom for some comfort food recepies, I hit the grocery store and stocked up. There's nothing quite like cooking chili while watching some snowflakes fall. The chili turned out delicious and freezes well, so I'm set for a few days. Then I can work on some gumbo, then later some taco soup. Yeah, I'm real committed to getting back down to college racing weight of 158lbs, real committed.

Ran the usual two Glendoveer loops, sans Nurse, plus some strides in John Luby park. Unfortunately, my blogs tend to get boring as I tend to run the same routes over and over and over and over again.

Day/Week: 7/7

Over The Creek.....

Through the woods for this edition of the SLR. Hoss was feeling under the weather and we chilled out and only ran about 11.5 miles. I would've liked to go longer, but I'm facing a long season of running through 2011, so I can remain somewhat restrained for the time being. We ran at the perfect time Sunday, as it soon turned cold and gray and started threatening snow. In actuality, it's the kind of weather I love running in and part of the reason I moved up to Oregon from Louisiana. Hopefully we do get some snow later on, mostly because it's fun to play in.

Day/Week: 11.5/54.5

Race Report - USATF NW Regional Champs

Out at Oregon City HS was a crit-style cross country race, featuring many, many loops. Well, it was only 5 loops, but I still lost count and was in danger of running an extra loop. This time we didn't even see the clock until 100m from the finish line, so it was probably the most pure cross country race I've ever run. I ran 27:39 for 11th place and grabbed the final spot on the BAC club team. This means I'm headed to Charlotte, courtesy of Nike, to do some more racing. I love this, it's like being back in college.

Results: http://www.redlizardrunning.com/xc/2010%20XC%20Race%205%20Results.htm

Day/Week: 9/44

Leaving The Hay

Went to Nike and met up with Hoss and we ran two laps of the chips, plus a bit, and stretched. It was cold and rainy and threatening snow - cross country weather. Well, XC weather if you're from New England, which neither of us are. But I like it because I feel like the weather is an equalizer when it comes to racing. Of course, I'm a track guy, then a road guy, then a cross guy, so poor weather and footing really doesn't play into my hands. Also, considering my relatively high body weight (for a runner) I tend to sink a bit deeper into the mud and muck. Cross can be rough for me, but I find it fun because it is so different from what I'm used to.

Day/Week: 4.5/35

Dawn Patrol!

But there's nowhere to surf in Portland? you ask. Well, this version of Dawn Patrol (DP for short), included a small Hawaiian person and a Wolf, running a loop around Portland. It was chilly and nice and relaxed and I came to the conclusion that I am shocked that I live in Portland. This city is amazing and I've been able to find nearly every opportunity I've wanted (and a few unexpected ones) in, or within a few hours, of Portland. I'm in heaven, but mostly because of the amazing people I've met here. I can't say enough about them, nor can I adequately put into words exactly what they mean to me either.

Day/Week: 5/29.5

Palpating Paladins

No, I have no idea what the title means. I was just looking for some kind of alliterative word to go along with palpating. Palpation lab is my first class of the morning on Wednesdays and we're steadily moving through the body. I feel reasonably confident in my ability to feel people up. In a few more years I'll be able to do it legally, which I can't wait for.

Did the usual two laps around Glendoveer, solo, then added on 6 strides on some grass at the Portland Christian School. Their mascot is the Royals and their colors are purple and gold, so I like them by default. Hopefully running around in stuff that is of similar color will keep them from yelling at me when I attempt to take over their track in the springtime. Or, you  know, not being a jerk when I'm out there might help as well.

I ended up releasing the kraken, in close proximity to a backyard, prior to performing strides. I thought most Portland public parks had restrooms? Guess this one's not big enough for it. Anyway, the kraken trying to be released caused the run to be a little slower, 47:35, than normal.

Day/Week: 7/24.5

Berm Tempos

How two reasonably intelligent people misread a workout is beyond me, but it happened. The plan was supposed to be 3xberm with 2 min recovery at 5:30 effort (The Nike berm is 3200m around). Somehow this turned into 3 consecutive laps of the berm at 5:30 effort, with no recovery. The workout actually went pretty well for me and despite nearly plowing through the BAC youth team I managed to run quite well. I hit 11:45-11:30-11:15 for my 3 loops, coming out to 34:30 for the total time. I have to be pretty pleased with averaging 5:45s, at night, on wood chips, in cold weather, and steadily increasing the pace. I think this has to mean that good things are coming and probably coming this weekend when I race.

Day/Week: 9.5/17.5

Transverse Arch

The recepie is calling for a gradual increase in mileage, which tends to increase gradually. I've read that that makes the 2nd derivative of my mileage positive. But I've never taken Calc, so what do I know.

I headed out with Nurse and looped Glendoveer three times, then back to school. It was a beautiful day for running, but the pain in my transverse arch just kept dogging me. Good thing I get free treatments and have access to doctors. I declined the strides this afternoon because of my foot, opting to check my initial Gross Anatomy grade. The grade was pretty awful, but I'm not hugely surprised. I didn't focus my studying on the material that was actually on the test, probably because I actually focused on what the teacher said was going to be on the test. Apparently, that was a mistake. I also spent more time figuring out what a majority of the questions were supposed to mean before I could actually answer them. At the end of a couple of hours I was pretty mentally exhausted. The grade ended up getting changed, but it was still disconcerting to work so hard for such a poor grade. Though it just adds fuel to the fire and makes me wantt to work harder to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. At least the lab and lecture tests are weighted evenly so I know I can dominate half the class.

Day/Week: 8/8

SLR - But Not A Benz

The Sunday Long Run tradition continues........ One of my personal favorite sayings is, "God created the world in 6 days and on the 7th He did an easy 10." Sunday is generally a day for renewal and that's what the long run is for. It's a chance to run easy after a tough week or maybe it's a chance to catch up on a couple of miles missed during the week or maybe it's a chance to hammer and exorcise some demons. Regardless of the reason - Sunday is a chance to begin anew. Sunday ends my running week and it's always nice to end with a long run. They're usually relaxed and usually a lot of fun and usually involve breakfast with friends. Great food, great running, great company, decent coffee (we don't have Community up here, it gets mailed to me) - the SLR is the church I choose to worship in.

My weeks end, rather than begin, on Sunday because I like to have something to look forward to on Monday (other than two hours of Gross Anatomy lecture). It's also nice to know I can pick up a few miles if I have to because I generally have the most time on Sunday for running. This installment of the SLR featured Hoss, Ladd, and me going out and back on Leif Erikson Dr. It's a dirt/rock road through Forest Park and very popular spot on Sundays. The great thing is that is out and back, so if you run out you have to run back - it helps temper your resolve. We covered the 12 miles in a shade over 7 min pace and feasted on Kettleman Bagels (http://www.kettlemanbagels.com/) post run. Kettleman has a deal where you can add a 12-oz cup of coffee to a bagel for just $1.00. They also give free refills. So in typical grad student style I got a refill. It's hard to complain when you land 24-oz of Stumptown coffee (which is decent, but not Community good) for just $1.00.

After the joyousness that is Kettleman, I spent a couple hours holed up at school studying Gross Anatomy. My studying was punctuated by a trip to another Portland institution, BurgerVille (http://burgerville.com/), who was offering 10 cheeseburgers for $10 - a deal too good to miss. I loaded up and had plenty to eat for the rest of the day.

Day/Week: 12/54

Race Report - USATF Oregon State Champs

Saturday morning I found myself in an interesting position - the starting line of a cross country race - an actual cross country race. The race was up in St. John's at Pier Park (http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?PropertyID=513&action=ViewPark), which is an amazing park to run. They also feature a disc golf course, so I was reminded of Highland Road Park in Baton Rouge. The race was a pure cross country race as it featured exactly zero mile markers. Just line up, fire a gun, and run hard to beat the guy next to you.

Because my training hasn't necessarily been geared toward running great cross country performances, I didn't have extraordinarily high expectations coming into the race. I figured 27:30 under good conditions on a fair course would be pretty solid and was willing to live with anything under 28:00. Well, the conditions were decent - drizzly and in the low 50s, but as it had been raining for a few days the course was pretty soggy. During my warm up I devised a strategy to surge where the footing was solid and bide my time where I sank. I got out well and enjoyed myself on the back hills where the footing was the best, before looping around the soccer and baseball fields where I practically sank into the mud. The course featured a shorter loop at the start (around the back hills), then two longer loops (around the perimeter of the park), so we hit the hills 3 times during the race. Fortunately we had good footing for the last mile or so (at least it felt like a mile-ish) of the race, so I was able to finish strong and even caught a couple people in the last quarter mile or so. I ended up running 27:43 and placing 11th overall (results: http://teamredlizard.com/xc/2010%20XC%20Race%204%20Results.htm).

Warming up and cooling down added about 5 miles total.

Day/Week: 10/42

Enjoy the Process

Fantastic Friday. Really freaking fantastic Friday. Typical Oregon wintry weather, plus an easy 4 miler, plus a short day of classes, plus a massage this afternoon. I tried to keep it easy, really made an effort to slow down and still averaged 6:30s. Maybe it was the coffee, maybe it was my amazing hair, maybe it was the weather. The reality is that the quality of the run is an equation with many, many variables. Part of the fun of running is figuring out which variable affects which aspect and working on each one. I love solving the puzzle of running. Adjusting pace and distance and effort, knowing when to hammer and when to back off and how much hammering you can get away with, and pushing the envelope. The process of training has taken over as the fun part. In the past I wasn't as enchanted with the training and just wanted to race and compete. I was slightly obsessed with beating people, which still remains quite a bit of fun. But the real allure of beating people iss the process of out-working them. Devising a plan, executing the plan, running the plan - that's what matters. The best part is that this idea is not solely limited to the distance running realm, unlike health insurance, it's portable. Virtually everything follows the same basic idea: Goal-Plan-Process-Perform-Analyze, rinse and repeat. Think about it for a second, you do this daily without thinking. What's to stop you from setting a goal a little higher.......?

USATF Oregon state championships tomorrow! Meet website is here: http://www.teamredlizard.com/xc/ I'm stoked for it!

Day/Week: 4/32

The Tale of the Taper

Seeing as how I'm racing this weekend, there is a slight taper and some adjustment of The Master Plan (which was cooked up by The Master Chef aka Cookie, the club coach). Today resulted in a scant 6 miles and stretching, with no strides. Again, it was cool, but not cold, and just incredible running weather. It's the weather I moved to Oregon for.

Lately I've been feeling amazing on my runs and just cruising along. As I've aged (gracefully?) I've come to believe more and more in the elusiveness of "muscle memory". The basic concept of muscle memory is that you do an action so much that it becomes second nature. The idea is that if you're forced into a long layoff, for whatever reason, it'll take a lot less time to learn that activity post-layoff than pre-layoff. Now, you may be wondering; running is a learned activity? Well, yes and no. There isn't a simple answer to this question. As children we all run without thinking about form or speed or distance, just because its fun. The older we get, the more other activities and obligations take our time, but you generally don't have to re-learn how to run. The same holds true for running fast or running far - they are learned skills. To run fast, you have to learn to run fast. To run far, you have to gradually increase distance. At this point in my career, it doesn't take as long to get into good shape as it used to. This is in part to a great base (or foundation) that supports the other aspects of training. With a good foundation you can build just about anything. It's a huge part of the reason why I ran some great times in events from the 1500m all the way up to the marathon in 2010. It's also pretty much THE REASON why it doesn't take long to get back to a point where I can start building again. Yet another aspect of running that keeps me at it - the alternative is worse.

Day/Week: 6/28

Cross Weather!

Today was fantastic from a running perspective. After nailing my Palpation mid-term I headed out for two Glendoveer loops plus some strides. I really, really enjoyed this run. I got a nice 7 miles in 46:20 plus some great strides. I definitely startled an elderly gentleman walking in the park. He kind of stared me down as I was coming in from a stride. I didn't try to run over him and he didn't have to move quickly to get out of my way, I think he was just curious. Oh well, it's hard to care what people think when you're feeling good and moving well.

One of the great things I enjoy about doing a build up for any distance or race is the gradual feeling of control you gain over the weeks. There were points last spring where running 12 miles really didn't take anything out of me. I'd do a 12-miler, averaging 6:30/mile, then go boulder for a couple of hours afterward. It was such an awesome feeling to be in total control of pace and distance, like you could just run forever. It's days like those that keep me running day after day, week after week, and year after year. After a decade and a half of running I've realized that there more of these awesome days than there are of the bad days and it's always worth it to head out, regardless of how crappy you feel. Always.

Day/Week: 7/22

Tempo Tuesday

Today's document called for a 4-mile tempo run at 5:32 effort. I say effort because some of the tempo was run off the track, around the berm at Nike, making it nearly impossible to accurately check pace. Now tempo runs are the source of some controversy in the running community. Not that they are an excellent training tool, that much is widely agreed upon, but exactly how far and how fast to do them seems to be the source of the controversy. In my opinion (and remember, I'm 1/24 of a doctor), the point of a tempo run is to callous your mind and body to the rigors of racing extended distances. I mean, if your race is going to require you to run hard for 30 minutes then it might be a good idea to run hard for 30 minutes, every once in a while as a way to acclimatize to the rigors of racing. This concept is the basis for any tempo run. The real challenge is zeroing in on the pace and distance of the run. Like everything in running there is no "secret" that will see you improve by leaps and bounds. For this reason tempos pretty much always vary in pace and distance. To break things down simply (which I am a fan of), I offer some advice that I read on the message board at http://www.letsrun.com/. The topic was workouts that would indicate if you were in 67-minute half marathon shape. The advice was along the lines of, "Running a 67 minute half requires two things; 1) running 5:07 pace and 2) running hard for 67 minutes. So practice running faster than 5:07 pace and practice running hard for 67 minutes." To me, this sums up the point of a tempo run quite nicely.

I met up with Hoss at Nike for this effort. We ran a mile on the track, then a lap of the berm (wood chips), then another mile on the track. Our pace was supposed to be 5:32 on the track, then keep that same effort on the berm. We hit our first mile in 5:31, then departed the friendly, well-marked oval for the unknown of the berm. I felt like the effort was kept pretty even, but it was dark and there were no markers, which I think made it more fun. After a lap, we finished up with another 4 laps around and I timed those in 5:16. In reality the last mile was probably a little slower than that as we didn't start right at the starting line. Though our last 3 laps were slightly under 5:20 pace. I definitely started racing at the end, which is generally frowned up in workouts, but on the up side, it was nice to know there's still some turnover in them there legs.

Overall, we were 23:12 for 4 miles, going 5:31-12:22-5:16 (roughly). The great thing is that we got a good effort and felt like 5:30 pace was manageable on the grass. In cross country times matter little and it's the place that really counts. I'm glad I was a little competitive, hopefully it'll stick around through Saturday.

Day/Week: 8/15

Oregon Rain

Today perhaps marked the first day of official Oregon winter training. It was cold (around 47ish), windy, and rainy. But being that this is Pacific Northwest (PNW), it really wasn't that bad. The conditions were no worse than any I've run in Baton Rouge. Just that in the BR they don't crop up until January-ish and won't stick around until March (or later in some cases). But if you try hard and are flexible you can nearly always find time to run when the weather isn't all that bad. The problem I have is that it's hard to be flexible when you're stuck in a windowless room learning things that are important to your future career. In search of company, I waited until 1:30 to run with Nurse (the same one from yesterday), because running with people is always more fun. We ran from school, two Glendoveer loops, and I added on around John Luby Park. Last time I did some strides down this great wood chip path, that's not quite 100yds, but it's great for prepping for cross country. Today, then end of the path was blocked by some City of Portland (the City That Works!) employees. They didn't seem to be working all that hard. I found a new little path that once housed some BMX jumps to stride down and felt like it was adequate preparation for cross country. Though given the weather it was probably a good day to pull off some barefoot strides down a fairway considering there weren't any golfers out there.

Seeing the BMX jumps (or what remained) made me wax nostalgic over the BMX jumps I helped build when I was just a wee tot and BMX riding was getting kind of big. A group of us neighborhood boys all got together and built some pretty good size jumps on some land behind my neighborhood. I think the land was privately owned (Rumors swirled that it was where Billy Cannon buried his counterfeit money), but the owners never seemed to mind or never made it back that far to see what was going on. Considering it was a bunch of pre-teen and teenage boys and we were performing manual labor, they probably had no idea what was going on. Trying some of the jumps made me realize that while I'll try just about anything once, I wasn't cut out for BMX. Thank goodness or I might have actually hurt myself and not been able to run.

Day/Week: 7/7

Long but Good

This morning I met up with Ladd and Nurse to help pace Ladd through a half marathon simulation that he was running to prep for a marathon at the end of the month. Since I'm racing the USATF Oregon open state cross country championships Saturday, I felt it prudent to run a good effort Sunday and I'll do another workout Tuesday. The Plan called for 7 miles at marathon pace. Right now MP is supposed to be 5:49, but the day was nice and I was feeling good, so I went a little quicker. After warming up about 3.25 miles (22:30 or so), the three of us got down to business.

Ladd wanted to hit 5:45s through the first half and then try to pick it up from there and I was content to be a metronome of pacing for him, a skill I developed quite well at LSU. Nurse and I both agreed that we'd go out too fast, so we were content to follow Ladd through the first mile, which we ran too fast in 5:32. Of course. After that I settled in and ran the next 6 miles between 5:41-5:44. My total time for the workout ended up being 39:45 for 7 miles, which is just over 5:40/mile. I'd say it was a pretty solid workout overall. Of course the time change really helped out.

My splits were:
5:32-5:41(11:13)-5:44(16:57)-5:42(22:39)-5:42(28:21)-5:41(34:02)-5:43(39:45). I warmed up about 3.25 miles and cooled down about 4.75 miles, making my total for the day 15 miles in 96:35, which is a 6:26 avg.

Speaking of the time change, it was awesome to have some extra sleep and have the sun come up closer to 7 than 8, but when it was dark at 5:15 that kind of sucked. Oh well, at least the short days only get shorter until Dec 21st, at which point I'll be back in Baton Rouge anyway. I think I'll find it easier to get more sleep now that it's darker earlier, which may or may not cut into my studying. It all depends on how much I let it.

Day/Week: 15/46.9

Getting The Car

Friday night was a little crazy and resulted in me leaving my car downtown. I employed this strategy a few times in college, which forced me to get up and run in the morning, when I might be hurting a little bit. I was definitely having flashbacks to LSU as I tooled along at 7 min/mile pace. I was in kind of a hurry because I wanted to pick up my car before they started issuing tickets at 10AM. I also wanted some food in preparation for the certain stress that was sure to make up a huge chunk of the LSU - 'Bama game. I ran from my house, north to the Hawthorne Bridge, past Mill Ends Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Ends_Park), then up Taylor to 1st to get my car. The run was shorter than I anticipated, just shy of 3.5 miles.

Speaking of the game, who can believe that LSU is really 8-1. For all of Les Miles's supposed faults the man wins quite a few games. I have stopped doubting his coaching ability as of this game. For him to beat some quality teams and play Auburn pretty close without much of an offense is pretty amazing. I used to think that LSU was winning despite the coaching. Now I'm thinking that the coaching is what is keeping the offense afloat with two mediocre quarterbacks who have a penchant for throwing as many TDs for the opponents as they do for LSU. The level the offense performed at late in the game was pretty amazing as well. I've come to expect the defense to take care of business, but this time the offense actually picked up their end of the bargain as well. Hopefully Georgia and 'Bama can cap their seasons by winning out, putting LSU in the SEC title game. Though a very small part of me wants Auburn to win out and take on (hopefully) Oregon for the BCS title. Should that happen LSU will probably get a BCS berth as well (assuming they take care of business). However the rest of the CFB season plays out, it will certainly be exciting.

The only bummer surrounding the finish of this year's season is that school is only increasing in intensity. At least I know I can budget about 3 hours every Saturday to pay attention in some small way.

Day/Week: 3.4/31.9

Oops

I didn't mean to, but today was an off day. I figured I'd be able to run in the afternoon with some people, but then my car battery died and I found out I was working at 5:45PM. So I ended up taking the day off. Oh well, it happens you know.

Day/Week: 0/28.5

Dawn Patrol

At the end of the school day yesterday one of my clubmates asked me if I was interested in running 6 or 7 easy miles at 5AM with him. Sure, I replied. I mean, why wouldn't I want to wake up 4:30AM to run around Portland in the dark. Well, when you need your fix, you need your fix. Plus, Thursdays are my full day at school, going from 7:30AM to 5:40PM with just an hour for lunch. Generally, I stick around for some time in the open anatomy lab as well. I think it's vital that a chiropractor have a good handle on anatomy and I'm betting most of my future patients will also think that.

The run itself was pretty glorious all things considered. We settled into a nice 7:30 min/mile pace and cruised around the Willamette waterfront. The most exciting part of the run was when we had to race the Steel Bridge before it started to go up. The route took us from NW Portland, down the westside of the waterfront, across the 100 year old Hawthorne Bridge, up the eastbank esplanade, across the Steel Bridge, and back to NW Portland. It's a pretty solid loop all thing considered. Considering the early hour and not too much on the horizon I'll take it. All things considered, it was a pretty refreshing run. The weather was nice, the company was nearly as nice, and the running was nearly effortless. This run was actually the slowest I've run in quite some time. Probably because I was tired. For some reason I couldn't sleep last night. I was like a kid before Christmas in that I was tossing and turning and really exicted about something. You'd think with upcoming tests I'd have plenty to keep my mind occupied, but NOOOOOOOO. Silly subconscious, always acting up.

Later in the day I sat (technically stood) through 6 hours of lecture, including Biochemistry, Gross Anatomy, Biomechanics, and Cell Biology, then managed to put in 4 hours in the Gross Anatomy lab - wrists deep in my cadaver's forearm. I scored a minor victory by tracing the Radial N from the wrist all the way back up the armpit where it deviates from the Posterior cord of the Brachial Plexus. I also ripped off an amazing amount of fascia. Take a minute to look at your forearm, there is a metric buttload of connective tissue in there and fat in places that most people wouldn't believer there's fat. It's amazing and wonderous all at the same time.

Day/Week: 6.5/28.5

Volcano Ratings

Back when I first started running for the BAC, one of the more intrepid members introduced me to a system for rating the quality of the sunny day, which signaled the birth of the Volcano Rating System. See, Portland is in an area that was pretty volcanically active until, say, 1980 or so. Thusly, all the mountains you see from Portland are really volcanoes in disguise, hiding underneath snow, waiting to blow. (Feel free to use that line in any poetry you may be inspired to write). Most sunny days during the summer you can easily see Mt. Hood (OR's high point) and Mt. St. Helens. On a good day, you can see down the gorge to Mt. Adams. And on a really good day you can see Mt. Rainier peeking out near Mt. St. Helens. Well, today ranked as a good day on the VRS. From campus at UWS I was able to watch the sun rise from behind Mt. Hood and as the day brightened was eventually able to see St. Helens and Rainier in addition to Hood. I'm willing to bet if I try hard I can find Adams as well. So I'll have to give this one a 3-Volcano rating (out of 4).

The run was equally as good. I ducked out of my Palpation lab early in order to squeeze my 7 miles + strides in while the weather was still good and I wasn't in a hurry. I was joined by a classmate for a bit of the run, but he was feeling the hurt and dropped off. It was probably for the best because I was really cruising, running the two Gledoveer loops in 13:00, then 12:45, which was a bit faster than what I was expecting. I'm blaming the coffee and the excess of Vitamin D experienced in November in the Pacific Northwest.

I ended up running a loop around John Luby Park near school and found a great wood chip segment that is nice for strides, especially in preparation for cross country racing. I think I scalded a couple dogs on my 4 strides, which felt great as well. Overall, a fantastic day running.

Day/Week: 7/22

Dodgy

It's a good thing that my ACL and MCL are in good shape because I definitely used my lateral cutting ability whilst running quickly around Glendoveer Golf Course (http://www.metro-region.org/index.cfm/go/by.web/id/158). It's a pretty popular spot in deep NE Portland with a two mile wood chip running path. I love it because it's a great soft surface with some texture (Wolf-speak for hills) and some nice flats where you can really crank. But above all, it's S-O-F-T, which makes it perfect for cross country training. It also happens to be located about a mile from school, making running an even number of miles pretty easy.

Speaking of cross country, today was my first workout geared toward club nats and the first sustained "hard" running I've done since Chicago (10/10/10). The master plan called for a 4 mile tempo run and, technically, another easy week. But I was feeling itchy and armed with the knowledge that I could get away with not "counting" the workout decided to run hard anyway. I decided I'd do one loop, then maintain that pace for the next loop or try to pick it up, depending on how I felt. The first loop was 11:37, which I maintained for the second loop in 11:39. A two second difference over the course of two miles is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Also, considering the surface, I'd say this run is worth 30 - 60s faster had I run on the roads or the track (On a side note, last year I ran a 4 mile tempo on the track for my first workout back and ran 34s faster, I know my body!). I warmed up and cooled down going to and from the course, plus a little on the course as well. All told the mileage for the day was 8 miles at 6:16 pace. 4 miles of tempo effort in 23:16 and 4 miles of warming up and cooling down (which is pretty standard for me) in about 27 min.

Day/Week: 8/15

I can't complain so far.

The Inspiration

I was told once that it was a good idea to record your runs. Distance, time, route, feel, height, weight, number of birds you saw, etc. These were all variables to be analyzed which would have an effect on future performances or, at the very least, comparing yourself to yourself last year.

This seemed like a great idea and several times I really tried very hard to log my runs. I'd keep it up for a season, maybe two, but then take a break from running and my natural and ebullient free-spiritedness would get in the way and I'd just run for running's sake and not log the runs. The end result is that I have absolutely no way to compare my times across the years (that was sarcasm by the way, get used to it, I love it).

Recently, the month changed from October to November, which was fortuitous for a few reasons: 1) I am just starting to build up for Club Cross Country Nationals, 2) I just ran the Chicago marathon, and 3) I just started chiropractic school and need a way to procrastinate.

Plus, my friend at this blog: http://ondirtandrock.blogspot.com/ told me I should do this and I'm a sucker for peer pressure.

Eleventy-One

Today is an infamous date - it is one year to Eleventy-One (11/1/11), which I just made up as significant. It's all ones and 11/11/11 will be taken up with a much more important holiday, Veteran's Day.

Today marked the first day of training for the USATF Club XC Nationals, which I may or may not go to, depending on who from the BAC (http://www.bowermanac.com/, my club team) decides to run. Whether I go or not really isn't that important to me. I've always enjoyed being part of team more than running cross country and my motivation for training is because I'd get to run as part of a team. Which, when you run for a Nike-sponsored team usually means you get some swag to go with the event. Being a poor grad student with a penchant for plowing through running shoes, this is a good thing.

My first day of training was relatively inauspicious and went the way of many a first day of training. 7 miles in 46:00 even, with 4 strides added on. Average pace was 6:34/mi, it was drizzly and not too cold. The amateur meteorologist in me thinks it was in the 50s. The strides felt awesome, just a release of speed itching to get out. I did them on camps at UWS (http://www.uws.edu/), where I'm in school. I may have startled some classmates.

Day/Week: 7/7