Movement 042912

7 miles, actually felt a bit better today.  The Achilles was moaning a bit but it seemed to subside.  That is sort of what it does:  comes and goes.  Was screwing around for the first five (like 8:20 average) and then picked it up a bit to get sub 8 pace (average), and then sub 7:50 average.  Felt good to be moving again.

A bit of a mess on the week with travel and not getting to the gym as much … and just feeling like crud. Not really feeling up for blogging.  Sort of want to check out from that for a bit, but I do think there is a value in keeping some longer term record. Had a conversation with TZ today to give a clue as to where my head is at.  The problem is that it is summer, that I have expectations about Pikes, that I want to help Tim L out, and I hate being out of shape.  If I didn’t have Pikes, and I begged off my commitment from Tim, then I’d probably be a bit pissed that I should or could take three months off, but that would probably be a good thing. 

Right now though, it is all up in the air.  If I had more days like today, it could be good.  If they were like the tail of the work week, forget it.  I will volunteer for races, but I won’t run em.

Had a great day though in the yard with the family doing sprinklers and stuff. 

Exercise 042812

3 miles in the evening with the dogs.  Felt horrible.

Exercise 042712

Green Mountain out of Chautauqua.  Gregory.  At the Ranger Cabin I felt enterprising and decided to take Long Canyon.  I felt ridiculously weak the entire time.  Came down the front side and saw JV pushing it on the up (probably going up faster than I was going down – no exaggeration)
Felt so jacked today – and not even with the heel, it was one of those days where I had the thoughts bubble up of “what the hell am I doing?”  As odd as it sounds, at the very same time it was wonderful to be outdoors.

Training 042612

Afternoon, back in CO.  7 miles.  Actually a little sore from … running!  as I had not done that in a bit before a couple of days ago.  About an hour.  Immediately post 50 push ups, squats10 x 95, 10 x 115, 6 x 135; calf raises 2 x 40 x 80, deadlifts 2 x 12 x 95, 10 x 95, leg presses 10 x 170, 10 x 180, 8 x 190.  Doing leg work after running is very different than doing it when you have not run.  Could have kept running but just evaluating.

Wednesday night various

All this stuff comes from over at Ultra Runner Podcast:  WS entrants, Kenyan Olympic Marathon team announced, Light weights and heavy weights, and you choose to lose.  I didn’t know it but apparently I am also known as G-Zizzle. 

Justin shared this pic from the Godzone race.   Apparently there are some that have uglier toes than me.

Maffetone gets a lot of play on Lucho’s podcast (as he has gone dark on the blog), but apparently he is also a musician and he is coming to Colorado.

NACAC team announced.

I felt super motivated to run yesterday and today – and so I did, but decided to only do a few miles with Tim and a few this AM.  The Achilles feels goofy but, heck everything feels a bit out of whack after ten days off.  I figure there is no need for me to kill myself with a 20 miler out of the gate.  Instead, I will do a slow wading into the training waters to evaluate where I am at.  Anyway, I am not sure if the Achilles is right, if I am over analyzing it, if I am screwing it up more, if I just need to suck it up … I will evaluate day to day.  

I often advise folks in my job about checklists.  Create checklists.  Formalize them.  Make them part of your business.  For where they make sense.  I was wondering I’d benefit from a checklist for my runs.    It could be something like this:  What is the purpose of this run?  And if the answer was run long (versus say run fast or run hills), then there would be subsequent checklist questions like:  Are you hydrated?  Do you have food?  Will this be a hill run or a flat run or a combination?  What would success for this workout be?  How will you recover after this run?  What criteria will you use to pull the plug on this workout?  Is this workout appropriate today?  In other words, layout a checklist that has me stop for a moment and consider how this run or workout is contributing to overall fitness, enjoyment, etc.  If it does not add up, or make sense – it could be a run worth scraping and doing something else.

Back to blessed CO tomorrow.  Thinking I might do a little jogging for a third day in a row to continue to evaluate.  I am thinking I might jog some grass fields barefoot to see if that has any sort of bearing on the Achilles.  Normally I would think that is insane, but I am walking around in the AM indoors without any Achilles issues.  Curious to see if there is a similar thing outdoors.  Also will look to gym some too.

Training 042512

AM, 5 miles through SF China Town down to Fort Mason and back.  43 minutes.  Still evaluating left Achilles.  Can’t tell if I am being a wimp on it or if I am thinking about it too much or if it actually still hurts some.

Wednesday 042512 – More SFO

AM jog – 5 miles easy.  Wanted to assess how things felt post a run with Tim last night.     

Tuesday … reconnecting

Met up with Footfeathers.  Had not seen him since last summer, before Pb.  Good to connect with a like minded soul. 

   
              

Not sure what the big deal is about running here.  ;)  

Oh yeah, I ran.  Might have been six miles.  I really did not care about the distance.  I was less concerned about that and was more about enjoying the experience tonight.  And it was great.

Superest awesome to see Tim. 

Training 042412

6 miles easy in the Marin Headlands with Footfeathers.  About 900’ and change of climb over 50 minutes

Training 042412

45 minutes on the bike.  Felt tired.  Went back to hotel room and did a modified myrtle routine, adding push ups, leg lift cycles, sit ups, lunges, squats  (most of the reps were 20 rather than what Jay said, but in some cases – depending on the exercise – as many as 50).

Tuesday blah blah blah

According to this, Max King did the R2R2R yesterday in 7:39.  He is obviously washed up.

Looking to check out the beer mile WR video when I get a break today.

More to come.

Some pix from the day.  This first set is from a visit to the corporate HQ.  The museum had some stuff from way back in our earlier days.  These pix are irrelevant to probably anyone who does not work in the same company as me.  Sorry.  Well, not really.

Monday 042312 San Fran

Most of the day was in meetings but got of and got a couple shots over lunch and dinner.  I have never been here before and it is a pretty amazing city. 

Really really looking forward to running with Tim L tonight.  Achilles be damned.  I am not sure if it is better or not but … whatever.  I have not run in at least 10 days (well, I did run up California street last night after dinner just to do that, and it was fine.

 

Training 042312

1 hour on the stat bike with 15 x 2 minutes on, 1 minute off.  Sitting in a hotel gym with no windows post travel to SFO.

Various

This is what my hotel room walls look like.  It is a bit maddening.


Latest ATU.  Was cracking up at the kids in the background.

According to this, Max King is considering an FKT at the Grand Canyon.  

I find these posts (Ayers, Gambetta) to be sort of within the camp of my thinking regarding barefoot minimalism.

I enjoy this post from Sean.

Interesting … some advert recruiting for the USMRT for the juniors.  I am always surprised at how shallow tough grades look in video.  They look comically easy.  Then you get out there and realize how flipping hard they actually are.

More evidence that my job is killing me.  As an alternative, consider why you don’t achieve your goals.

Some initial shots of the hood I am in this week.  More to come.