Mileage Reporting 11th Week of 2013

[BFwillie_g]

week 11

Had a nice easy 25km adventure with my dog. We went up to the 'Magnusturm' (Magnus Tower), a medeival tower sitting atop a 3,000 year old Celtic ringwall.

There are many of these 'ring walls' in this area. They're really just huge piles of stone that the Celts built up and then put their settlements on. What I don't understand is why they essentially built small mountains, by hand, when there are so many natural hills in the area. It's a mystery (to me). When you look at the hills in this area, some of them stand out because they're flat on top. That's a sign of a possible Celtic settlement. And most of them are unexplored. And all of them are totally overgrown. But for a kid from New York it's like, wow! Three thousand freaking years old!

Anyway, 25k, 2:25 w/o break time, 500m of climb. Felt fine, no butt pain, lol. Doggie was drinking from puddles, a sign that spring is in the air.

Some photos:

A description of the site

The path leading up to the tower (you can see it through the trees). They didn't select these sites based on their easy accessibility.

Magnusturm

The 'door' leading in to the tower

The view from the top (the town is called 'Kasendorf', about 11km from my little village

Inside the tower. These things were built to last, lol

 

[Tristan]

Neat stuff Willie, thanks for sharing the pics.

This morning was the first time in '13 I got double digits... 10 miles today. 5 weeks out from a half marathon, think I'll be in good shape. I was worried for a bit, after the winter lull I was in. Feet are still not that tough though. 10k coming up next Sunday, will only be the second 10k I've done (and first one bfr). If I can get in the top 100 men I can get a beer mug so thats my goal!

 

[rickwhitelaw]

5 miles today. Once again I was just going to walk, but cold, muddy conditions forced me into an easy run to keep my toes warm. After a mile, I found some sandy soil and the run became very pleasant. Foot was sore yesterday, but activity seems to help. Just need to find the balance.

 

[Tristan]

Congrats rick on post 1111.

 

[Go Barefoot]

Nice pictures Willie!

No run today as we had a winter storm all day so rode stationary bike 10 miles and walked in gravel bucket for 30 minutes to continue building soles.

 

[happysongbird]

So is that a view of your village?

 

[happysongbird]

Have survived the monstrously long Sunday rewinding back into it on a airplane for hours. My ankles are swollen, so I'm spending the remainder of the day with them elevated. Feels good to be able to get up and walk a little whenever I want to though. In the past it has taken a couple of days for the legs to return to normal, but since I'm biking and swimming tomorrow, I don't think it will be a problem. The idea of running when they are like this is unappealing. If I never get on another airplane, I'd be fine with that. Rough landing in Japan, too. Home sweet home.

 

[RunningPirate]

Right, then.

So, been out of commission the past couple of weeks. It seems that after I fell of the snowboard and landed on my ass, something sort of went sideways on my right side: Started getting glute/hip soreness, then hip/[what I think is] sartorius and adductor muscle (basing that on the path that the soreness followed and what I can determine from Google images). After some rest and foam roller, I finally got out and did 4.69 mi today....but...well, as much as I hate to admit this, I wore my Invisible/Xero shoes. Still not boat anchors, but not S2G.

 

[Bare Lee]

Sunday afternoon
7.71 mi / 12.41 km running
8.3 mi / 13.36 km total
35 F / 1.66 C
22 F / -5.5 C windchill

It rained all Saturday night, but the forecast 1-2" accumulation of snow in the morning never came, so by the afternoon my back-n-forth route up in the fairgrounds was pretty dry, albeit with lots of broad run-off streams traversing the street. It was pretty windy too, so much so that there were little waves on the puddles on the sides of the street.

I don't know how many more back-n-forth runs I can take. After about four miles it starts to get really tedious, but I'm hesitant to try a bone fide out-n-back and risk coming across lots of puddle patches or slush stretches. It's still not quite warm enough to be able to deal with those for any length of time. I prefer the tedium of running back and forth bare to the joy of running an out-n-back shod. Today my feet felt fine the whole way. Cold, but the numbness was minimal. Wind requires a lot less bare fortitude than moisture.

I was supposed to do nine miles today, but just before the eight-mile mark, I started to feel some strain on my right ITB, by the knee, so I decided discretion is nine tenths of the law of valor and walked back to my car. Halfway there I got stubborn and tried to run again, but I felt the nascent strain soon after, and so called it a day for good. My body was talking and I listened to it. It felt kind of good to walk bare again. Spring is in the air . . . almost.

Not sure what to make of the (slight) strain. On Thursday's run I was actually picking up steam towards the end of the run and felt like I could've gone a good deal farther if not for the foot numbness. Sunday's run was the opposite. The feet felt fine but the legs tapped out.

I think the strain may be due to the fact that I didn't get in any micro runs after Thursday's run. I was also lax in stretching/massaging on the off-days. Or perhaps it was due to the fact that I was running the last miles almost a minute per mile slower than the first miles, and the overall pace of 10mm was about 15 seconds per mile slower than last week's runs. My legs may have been trying to tell me something a few miles before the ITB strain, as they began to feel heavier, but Sunday is my scheduled 'long run' so I kept going. Maybe I just needed to stop and stretch more.

In any case, it's probably time to start doing some tempo runs or fartleks or something. I may have taken the LSD base-building / distance-increasing as far it can go without supplementing it with some variation / faster stuff. The back-n-forth street is almost a mile long so maybe I'll try 5 or 7 one-mile cruise intervals at 9mm pace or so on Tuesday's run. Should be possible if the weather cooperates.

Still, I'm amazed at how good my form has become (feels) in the 10-11 mm range. It used to feel so plodding above 10mm pace. Now my gait feels very solid and settled, and the footfalls just right--all 'midfoot' striking.

@Willie--nice pics! I'm very envious of your running routes.

@ HBS, glad to have you back Stateside! Sounds like you had a great trip overall.

@ RP, I thought you were lost at sea. Any bouldering lately? Or was that a 2012 sort of thing?

Where the heck is Dama?

 

[Antonio Madriñán]

this week if I have run very little, a total of 27 kilometers, a bout of flu left me ko

 

[BFwillie_g]

this week if I have run very little, a total of 27 kilometers, a bout of flu left me ko

Antonio, I think you are the kind of man who gets well quickly!

@Happysongbird - no, that's a small town called 'Kasendorf', I work in that big silvery-industrial complex. It's a heat pump manufacturer caled Alpha-Innotec. I can see the tower from my classroom I added captions to the images.

My village consists of a few houses, one farm, one Guest House/Restaurant, one tiny Fire House and of course a football field -For the kind of football that's played with the feet

 

[Antonio Madriñán]

Antonio, I think you are the kind of man who gets well quickly!

@Happysongbird - no, that's a small town called 'Kasendorf', I work in that big silvery-industrial complex. It's a heat pump manufacturer caled Alpha-Innotec. I can see the tower from my classroom

My village consists of a few houses, one farm, one Guest House/Restaurant, one tiny Fire House and of course a football field -For the kind of football that's played with the feet

thank you very much, if I recover faster.
From the description it seems that you live in a nice place

 

[BFwillie_g]

thank you very much, if I recover faster.
From the description it seems that you live in a nice place

you, too!

 

[RunningPirate]

@ RP, I thought you were lost at sea. Any bouldering lately? Or was that a 2012 sort of thing?

Naw, not lost at sea; just injured on shore

No bouldering, but that's more of a schedule thing: At the beginning of the year, I was focusing on weights, spent Feb offline, now I have to get back in to running and I have a ride coming up (37 mi, not too bad, but I haven't been on a bike much this year) that I need to work on. Also, since the weather is nicer out here I've been on the motorcycle, more. This is not even counting the kayak and the Hobie Cat that will be broken out later on. Mix this in with some nice laziness, and it creates an activity conflict: Doing one activity usually comes at the expense of the others. Not a bad problem to have, but inconvenient, at times. Ultimately, I get to them all, though. So I can foresee some bouldering later on (if nothing else, a buddy wants to go climbing; he's on a shortish schedule because his wife is pregnant and after a certain point he won't have much time for a bit).

 

[scedastic]

sunday: at the pool an hour and a half, maybe 1hr-1:15 was swimming, none of it strenuously, as the cooties are getting to me. Kids had fun though

monday: 4.5 mi, was up coughing and sneezing and feeling generally rhinovirus miserable, so why not. worst part: feet are torn up. They've been dry and thin-skinned with all the swimming, then running in the 40s rain w/ wet feet on sandals apparently did the trick.

debating about lunch swim. very tired need rest but the swim always makes me feel good, at least for a while.

 

[scedastic]

Have survived the monstrously long Sunday rewinding back into it on a airplane for hours. My ankles are swollen, so I'm spending the remainder of the day with them elevated. Feels good to be able to get up and walk a little whenever I want to though. In the past it has taken a couple of days for the legs to return to normal, but since I'm biking and swimming tomorrow, I don't think it will be a problem. The idea of running when they are like this is unappealing. If I never get on another airplane, I'd be fine with that. Rough landing in Japan, too. Home sweet home.

It's nice to visit places, but the getting there, a challenge. And nothing like one's own bed to return to.
Glad you made it back ok.

 

[happysongbird]

very tired need rest but the swim always makes me feel good, at least for a while.

I know I've seen you tell others that rest is good.... take care of yourself!

 

[theshortwhiteguy]

Ran 7.22 miles with my "run spouse" earlier this morning. Damn, was I tired! It didn't help that I woke up at 6:25, made lunch for my oldest, then went back to sleep until 8:55, when I should have been taking my two youngest to school.

 

[NickW]

1 hour of the pyramiding intervals on the bike again. Wow that whips my butt. I've been home for 20 minutes and I am still sweating profusely.

 

[jldeleon]

2 miles yesterday. Muddy trails totally barefoot! Put on a fancy dress to go out afterwards, and looked down to see dried mud still squished between my toes. Did my husband a favor and actually wiped my feet off. Tee-hee!