Tuesday Track Workout
The Workout:
jog to store from work (2 miles)
warm up to track (1 mile)
2 x 1200 w/ 400 recovery
4 x 300 w/ 100 recovery
2 x 1200 w/ 400 recovery
(All at faster than 5k pace)
jog to work (2 miles)
After a long Sunday effort, I had a sneaky suspicion that I should take an extra day off or just do an easy few miles. Throughout my life I have slowly gotten better at listening to my body and resting when I need it. Yesterday wasn't one of those days. On the jog over to the store, I just never got into a rhythm and had some pretty deep soreness in my calves, back and shoulders. I said to myself... "Self, you should take it easy at tonight's workout". Of course I got there and fell in with some fast runners and we burned up the track for the first 6 items. By the middle of the 300 items, I could feel my left knee starting to ache and my back and shoulders were talking to me. Two more 300s and both calves started talking to me. Nothing in particular hurt terribly bad but I just felt the kind of deep soreness that let me know I was on a one way train to injury town. I decided to sit out the last items and just jog easy back downtown.
As the group pulled away to finish the final two items, I felt a strange surge of guilt and a sudden desire to either catch up to the group or slink into a corner and disappear. I don't know if I was worried about being judged by my running peers or what but I definitely didn't want anyone to see me sitting out the remainder of the workout. I actually planned my departure from the track so that my group was on the back 100 and wouldn't see me leave. I started jogging back towards town and my body just flat out rejected the work. I could feel my legs tightening up further with each step so I succumbed to a brisk walk. Half way back, I saw a runner on the horizon heading my way. It was Gary Curran who had been out hashing out the harrier course. As soon as I identified him, I started jogging so he wouldn't see me walking. We stopped and chatted for a bit and then jogged off in our separate directions. As soon as he was out of sight, I resumed my walk. The whole experience was quite disconcerting. I have never cared what other's thought and am a very confident person in general. Suddenly I arrive back in middle school track practice and care what my peers think about my performance? Why do I care? My body and I are in this together and I was receiving the message loud and clear that running more was a bad idea. Why wasn't I listening? I'm certainly going to have to give this some more thought. As my penance, I'm taking off running until at least Friday and even then plan on just doing an easy 2 miles. Hopefully there is no permanent damage that will affect my shut-in run.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Making Stories
Elliston to Mcafee Knob
The Workout:
Bike from Elliston to Mcafee Knob parking lot (22 mi)
Hike to Knob and back. 7 mi, (1200vft)
Sunday, Lonnie cooked a big southern style big omelet breakfast with biscuits and sausage gravy. Jason and Lisa had to split so we ate at 7am. I got suited up and rode my mountain bike into town. 419 was hilly but predomintately downhill as it loosely followed the Roanoke River down to Salem.. The weather was good and the legs felt great. I hoped on Wildwood Rd. and wound around the foothills over to highway 311. Around mile 15, I stopped at a little convenience store and filled up on Gatorade and a few snacks and headed on out to Catawba Valley. With the exception of narrow margins and a couple of big 4x4s towing motorcycle trailers, the ride was peaceful. I made it to the base of Catawba ridge and cranked up the modest 700vft climb. Feeling pretty good, I rode over the top and down into New Castle. I made it back up to Mcafee parking lot around 11:30. Bethany wasn't due to pick me up until 12, so I stretched, relaxed, ate and took a nap. It was lovely. I woke up to a mock gruff voice saying "Hey You! You can't sleep here!" and Bethany laughing her head off from my expression as I jumped awake. (If I had been on the edge of something, I would have promptly fallen off). We walked up the fire road, through a tunnel of leaves in the peak of their transformation. There was a fairly even mix of radiant greens, yellows, oranges and reds with the kind of crisp bluebird sky that only comes in the fall as a backdrop. We took a bunch of pictures and chilled at the top for a while.
On the way back we got a nice surprise by coming across the biggest rattlesnake I have ever seen. He was about 4' long and cruising up the fire road in the track where I was walking. I jumped sideways and corralled Bethany off the side of the road. Bethany wasn't quite sure yet what "We" were scared of yet but she was hopping around with me on red alert. Finally I found the words and pointed BIG BIG BIG BIG RATTLE SNAKE!
We hung out with it for a while and watched it cruise happily on its way down the path not paying us any attention. The rest of the hike was uneventful but we were mostly enjoying the one on one time.
The Workout:
Bike from Elliston to Mcafee Knob parking lot (22 mi)
Hike to Knob and back. 7 mi, (1200vft)
Sunday, Lonnie cooked a big southern style big omelet breakfast with biscuits and sausage gravy. Jason and Lisa had to split so we ate at 7am. I got suited up and rode my mountain bike into town. 419 was hilly but predomintately downhill as it loosely followed the Roanoke River down to Salem.. The weather was good and the legs felt great. I hoped on Wildwood Rd. and wound around the foothills over to highway 311. Around mile 15, I stopped at a little convenience store and filled up on Gatorade and a few snacks and headed on out to Catawba Valley. With the exception of narrow margins and a couple of big 4x4s towing motorcycle trailers, the ride was peaceful. I made it to the base of Catawba ridge and cranked up the modest 700vft climb. Feeling pretty good, I rode over the top and down into New Castle. I made it back up to Mcafee parking lot around 11:30. Bethany wasn't due to pick me up until 12, so I stretched, relaxed, ate and took a nap. It was lovely. I woke up to a mock gruff voice saying "Hey You! You can't sleep here!" and Bethany laughing her head off from my expression as I jumped awake. (If I had been on the edge of something, I would have promptly fallen off). We walked up the fire road, through a tunnel of leaves in the peak of their transformation. There was a fairly even mix of radiant greens, yellows, oranges and reds with the kind of crisp bluebird sky that only comes in the fall as a backdrop. We took a bunch of pictures and chilled at the top for a while.
On the way back we got a nice surprise by coming across the biggest rattlesnake I have ever seen. He was about 4' long and cruising up the fire road in the track where I was walking. I jumped sideways and corralled Bethany off the side of the road. Bethany wasn't quite sure yet what "We" were scared of yet but she was hopping around with me on red alert. Finally I found the words and pointed BIG BIG BIG BIG RATTLE SNAKE!
We hung out with it for a while and watched it cruise happily on its way down the path not paying us any attention. The rest of the hike was uneventful but we were mostly enjoying the one on one time.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Hash Run Recon
Thursday Hash Run Recon - Lunch Time Jog
The Workout:
Easy jog around Montford - 60 minutes
Yesterday, I jogged around Montford along the proposed Harrier Trail Gary and I sorted out last week. I firmed up the course a bit and found several cool alleys and cut-throughs that few if any of the runners should know about. On the run, I happened by Tim's house and he flagged me down. He is planning on doing a fire pit for his beer stop and turned me on to an unmarked alley behind his house that winds around between Tacoma Cr. aand WestOver Dr. I am very satisfied with the course, though we should probably extend it a bit in the beginning to get above the 4 mile mark.
I noticed that I'm still a bit sore from Tuesday's effort. It was good to work it out with a slower run.
The Workout:
Easy jog around Montford - 60 minutes
Yesterday, I jogged around Montford along the proposed Harrier Trail Gary and I sorted out last week. I firmed up the course a bit and found several cool alleys and cut-throughs that few if any of the runners should know about. On the run, I happened by Tim's house and he flagged me down. He is planning on doing a fire pit for his beer stop and turned me on to an unmarked alley behind his house that winds around between Tacoma Cr. aand WestOver Dr. I am very satisfied with the course, though we should probably extend it a bit in the beginning to get above the 4 mile mark.
I noticed that I'm still a bit sore from Tuesday's effort. It was good to work it out with a slower run.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Tuesday Track Workout
Tuesday Maggots Track Workout w/ Asheville Track Club
The Workout:
2 x 1000 w/ 400 jogs
4 x 400 w/ 200 jogs
2 x 1000 w/ 400 jogs
Brandon and I were running late getting back from the MSDN event in Greenville so I parked up at the UNCA track around 6:45pm. I brought my Inov8 Roc-Lite shoes but somehow forgot my socks at home. The Roc-Lites aren't the best thing to run on pavement with but I wanted to get my feet well accustomed to them before Shut-In.
The Maggots should have just been finishing their warm up from Norm's store, Jus' Running. None of them were there so I assumed they already took off for the evening's hill workout somewhere around campus.
I saw a couple of people I know doing the Team in Training workout so I decided to just stick around and do a track workout instead of hunting for the Maggots.
3/4 of the way into my mile warmup, the Maggots showed after all. I rolled through my last lap, finishing with an average 7:00 min/mile pace.
Norm advised to run faster than 5k pace. I haven't run a 5k since high school so I estimated that meant around a 6 minute/mile pace. Luckily, Chris was there and pulled me through the first 2/3rds of the workout at a pretty good clip.
1st 1000 - 3:22 (5:25 min/mile)
2nd 1000 - 3:22 (5:25 min/mile)
1st 400 in - 81 seconds (5:28 min/mile)
2nd 400 - 79 seconds (5:16 min/mile)
3rd 400 - 77 seconds (5:08 min/mile)
4th 400 - 76 seconds (5:04 min/mile)
3rd 1000 - 3:27 (5:31 min/mile)
4th 1000 - 3:36 (5:46 min/mile)
The no socks thing caught up to me right away and I started to form blisters in a few places. By the middle of the 400 items, the writing was on the wall and I knew I was either going to have to stop or just accept the fact that I would bleed in my shoe. Things were much worse for the little toes on my right foot and I attribute that to the constant left turn provided by the track. After the 400s, I stopped and quickly checked my right foot and shoe for debris and retied it really tight. I hauled it across the field to catch Chris in time to start the final 1000s. After the first 400, Chris lost the wind in his sail and we slowed down quite a bit. I realized what happened and passed him, pulling us the rest of the way. To his credit, he rallied and sprinted to catch up to me in the final 100. I know I could have run that last item faster because I still felt pretty good during the 400 recovery. I just sort of pansied out of it for some reason but didn't linger long on that thought because it felt soooo good to get my shoes off and jog around on the soccer field.
All in all it was a good workout and I'm surprised to say that it felt good to get back on the track to regain some foot speed. The last 6 weeks have been hill workouts that make you strong but not necessarily fast.
The Workout:
2 x 1000 w/ 400 jogs
4 x 400 w/ 200 jogs
2 x 1000 w/ 400 jogs
Brandon and I were running late getting back from the MSDN event in Greenville so I parked up at the UNCA track around 6:45pm. I brought my Inov8 Roc-Lite shoes but somehow forgot my socks at home. The Roc-Lites aren't the best thing to run on pavement with but I wanted to get my feet well accustomed to them before Shut-In.
The Maggots should have just been finishing their warm up from Norm's store, Jus' Running. None of them were there so I assumed they already took off for the evening's hill workout somewhere around campus.
I saw a couple of people I know doing the Team in Training workout so I decided to just stick around and do a track workout instead of hunting for the Maggots.
3/4 of the way into my mile warmup, the Maggots showed after all. I rolled through my last lap, finishing with an average 7:00 min/mile pace.
Norm advised to run faster than 5k pace. I haven't run a 5k since high school so I estimated that meant around a 6 minute/mile pace. Luckily, Chris was there and pulled me through the first 2/3rds of the workout at a pretty good clip.
1st 1000 - 3:22 (5:25 min/mile)
2nd 1000 - 3:22 (5:25 min/mile)
1st 400 in - 81 seconds (5:28 min/mile)
2nd 400 - 79 seconds (5:16 min/mile)
3rd 400 - 77 seconds (5:08 min/mile)
4th 400 - 76 seconds (5:04 min/mile)
3rd 1000 - 3:27 (5:31 min/mile)
4th 1000 - 3:36 (5:46 min/mile)
The no socks thing caught up to me right away and I started to form blisters in a few places. By the middle of the 400 items, the writing was on the wall and I knew I was either going to have to stop or just accept the fact that I would bleed in my shoe. Things were much worse for the little toes on my right foot and I attribute that to the constant left turn provided by the track. After the 400s, I stopped and quickly checked my right foot and shoe for debris and retied it really tight. I hauled it across the field to catch Chris in time to start the final 1000s. After the first 400, Chris lost the wind in his sail and we slowed down quite a bit. I realized what happened and passed him, pulling us the rest of the way. To his credit, he rallied and sprinted to catch up to me in the final 100. I know I could have run that last item faster because I still felt pretty good during the 400 recovery. I just sort of pansied out of it for some reason but didn't linger long on that thought because it felt soooo good to get my shoes off and jog around on the soccer field.
All in all it was a good workout and I'm surprised to say that it felt good to get back on the track to regain some foot speed. The last 6 weeks have been hill workouts that make you strong but not necessarily fast.
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