Mileage Reporting 46th Week of 2012

[theshortwhiteguy]

Ran 5.76 miles @ 9am this morning. Gawd I hate going out that early! Anywho, after the last two weeks (26.25 & 19.22 miles), I wrapped up this week with 25.15 miles.

Looking at the last 16 weeks, I have been averaging 30.48 miles per week (without nagging injuries).

 

[Bare Lee]

Did my Top ST workout yesterday. Felt a little sore in my shoulders and lats this morning. One way to take care of that: go run.

I was going to try my first day of cruise intervals today, running my Como Lake route, but after running my first 8-minute mile two days ago, setting my goal pace, I decided it was time to take another shot at 10 miles. Last time I tried 10 miles, three months ago, I got TOFP-induced ITBS, not from TMTS, but by neglecting my Trigger Point Massaging. That is, TOFP>ITBS, ∼TMTS ∴ TPM. I knew it was kind of foolish to try 10 miles again so soon after giving my knee a clean bill of health, but I was feeling it. I also felt a need to establish the extremes of my extremes to target program.

I got this idea from Steve Magness, who calls it "extremes to specificity" although I think that it's a pretty standard training protocol. The idea is to set a target pace and distance and then work the extremes of that, in terms of pace and distance. My short term goal is to run an hour at 8mm pace, which is 7.5 miles, which is roughly the distance of my Como Lake route. So, in terms of pace, on my shortest intervals, the 440, I want to be able to run 7mm pace fairly soon. That would be my 'extreme' pace for the time being. It's one minute per mile faster than my target 8mm pace. Eventually it would be nice to get the 440s down to 6 mm pace. At the other extreme, the one of distance, I think 10 miles would be a nice length to start with. That's 2.5 miles longer than my target distance. Eventually it would be nice to get that up in the 15-20 mile range.

Extremes: 7 mm pace / 10 miles distance

Meanwhile I want to increase the distance at which I can run 8mm pace (currently one mile), and increase the pace at which I can run 7.5 miles (currently 9:25 pace), until at some point they meet and I can run 7.5 miles at 8mm in one hour. Does that make sense?

Target pace: 8 mm pace
Increase: 1 mile --> 7.5 miles

Target distance: 7.5 miles
Increase: 9.25 mm pace --> 8 mm pace

Anyway, back to today's run. I actually felt a little nervous heading out the door. I don't know if I was worried about the knee or afraid I would have to bail mid-run. Very strange to get butterflies before a recreational run. Inspired by an exchange of music over at the Pub yesterday, I decided to allow myself to listen to music to help me relax and take my mind off things. I loaded up my MP3 player with some early UB40, The Rebirth of Cool, Steel Pulse's Hansworth Revolution, and Curtis Mayfield's Superfly to bring me home on the final stretch.

Oh, superfly
You're gonna make your fortune by and by
But if you lose, don't ask no questions why
The only game you know is do or die

Superfly superfly
Superfly superfly
Tryin' to get over
Tryin' to get over
Tryin' to get over

I had already planned on taking several stretching/walking breaks, but I ended up taking a few more than planned, and walked a bit more than expected, so I didn't quite make it 10 miles running.

Final result: 9.39 mi / 15.11 km, 10:25 mm pace; 10.18 miles total with .79 mi walked.

Oh well, I got close. The legs were really asking me to stop for the last mile or two. The temps started out at 35 F, 25 F windchill, but by the time I was finished I think it was 37 windchill, so that took a bit of the edge off.

This run was probably a couple of weeks premature, but I'm glad I tried it. Together with this week's tempo run and intervals, I've more or less reestablished all the basic run types and paces in my repertoire, except for the cruise intervals, which I'll introduce next week:

Su: Mixed Run (Intervals, Skips, Backwards, Hills, & Stairs), 5-6 miles total
Tu: One-mile Cruise Intervals over 5-7 miles at 9mm pace or better, one-minute walking breaks in between each mile
Th: Tempo Run at close to 9mm pace over 4-5 miles
Sa: LSD Run for 10 miles

My legs feel nice and tired right now. I hope I'm up for my Mixed Run tomorrow. In any case, I no longer feel any soreness in my lats and shoulders from yesterday's workout.

 

[NickW]

Good job Lee. Glad to hear you're doing so well.

 

[Bare Lee]

Good job Lee. Glad to hear you're doing so well.

Likewise my BFR brother. I haven't heard anything about your knee or PF for a while. I hope that means it's behind you, and not that you're just sucking it up. Hopefully in another six months you'll be running stroller-free as well.

 

[Abide]

Ran a tough 2:30 trail run, the goal was to run up the entire way. Coming back down was rough.

 

[happysongbird]

Speed interval workout today with my hubby and a daughter. So good to have them along. Half mile warm up, about 3 miles of intervals, then half mile cool down. Started in the Moc3s, with socks though, because lack of socks was giving me blisters. Then ended up doing a little more than the last half of the distance barefoot.
After a snack, spent 35 minutes working on my crawl stroke in the pool.

 

[Spiderweb62]

Just finished my week, here is a recap

Tue: 10km slow pace (about 5'40"/km)
Thu: 7.8km interval (4x800m @ 4'30"/km)
Sat: 10.3km steady (5'30"/km)
Sun: 10.6km light trail (5'23"/km)

So thats 38km this week (around 23mi)

Trail is been painful, my feet hurt a lot, also fell and scratched my knee (only skin, so nothing too dramatic), funnily enough, not on the trail, but crossing a road !!

 

[NickW]

Likewise my BFR brother. I haven't heard anything about your knee or PF for a while. I hope that means it's behind you, and not that you're just sucking it up. Hopefully in another six months you'll be running stroller-free as well.

You know, I'm doing relatively ok. My knee still occasionally gets a minor niggle, but nothing very bad or anything that lasts very long. It seems like it is getting better. As far as the PF, it's very minor and as long as I do my pre-run and post-run routine I seem to do pretty well. I roll my legs out pre-run along with some minor stretching, and then after the run I will do those same minor stretches again, if needed I will use the stick and massage out my shins and calves. Stroller runs, well, who knows when those will stop exactly...

 

[Barefooting Bob]

Just under 9 miles this morning 'right in the middle of the spike' (right Bare Lee). 6 miles with the KSO's for the real slushy and loose snow stuff and 3 miles on the smooth like frozen bu-tt-er roads. Yes sir, officer I know I am running with no shoes on my feet, really its ok, they are right here in my hands, see..........

 

[rickwhitelaw]

Ran a tough 2:30 trail run, the goal was to run up the entire way. Coming back down was rough.

That hill and trail looks like the one near my house, which is why I started thinking about Altra Superiors (which I got today). I can do trails like that in sandals but the feet do take a beating.

 

[rickwhitelaw]

Got the half marathon done. It was a nice group of about 40, no timing, no shirt, only one aid station, and a nice finishers metal. I really want to support this "Underground Runner" group, a way to get my race fix without all the big fees. The road was rough, broken up asphalt so I ran in Unshoes. The section through the small town I ran barefoot, but got tired of switching back and forth, so the last part of the race I kept the sandals on. Out and back course with the first section being downhill. I ran a negative split going back uphill. Love uphill. See, I get a GPS and now I using all these fancy terms.

Weekly mileage of over 53. Going to back off a little and try to maintain about 35-40 per week and add in some harder miles (hills and tempos).

 

[Sid]

Thurs 11/15 Slow 6mi, some TOFP. I thought I was done with TOFP?! Must have been from the 13 miles on Monday.

Sat 11/17 Even slower 6mi this morning due to end of week carb depletion, keeping the form. Slight TOFP, wore minshoes just to be safe. Now this evening, TOFP pretty much gone. Carbed up today. So that means strength training Sunday, then run on Monday.

524mi total since I got the GPS watch on 5/25. (426 bare)

So for those who track running/strength workouts, I've been trying to alternate workouts and fit in some longer runs and a leg workout somewhere:
11/4 Back, 11/5 6mi, 11/6 Chest, 11/7 6mi, 11/8 Shoulders, 11/9 6mi, 11/10 rest (carb up)

11/11 Back, 11/12 13mi, 11/13 Legs (didn't feel up to running or upper body workout, but legs felt ready for some work), 11/14 Chest, 11/15 6 miles (legs/gluts still a bit sore), 11/16 Shoulders, 11/17 6 miles (carb up)

tentative: 11/18 back, 11/19 6mi, 11/20 6mi, 11/21 chest, 11/22 6mi (carb up?), 11/23 should, 11/24 13mi?, 11/25 legs (carb up?), 11/26 back, 11/27 6mi

 

[Abide]

That hill and trail looks like the one near my house, which is why I started thinking about Altra Superiors (which I got today). I can do trails like that in sandals but the feet do take a beating.

Yeah same here I've actually run this trail in my worn down KSO's but my feet were destroyed for a couple of days after that. Did you get yours yet?

 

[scedastic]

1 mile or so bf with my girl (also bf) and son (not bf---he tried it and said ooooo it's cold mommy) at dusk. ACHINGLY close to the bf winter challenge at 43-2 degrees as the darkness was upon us. Last year I couldn't go under 50 degrees on a sunny evening. This time 43 degrees felt ok. Wouldn't have wanted to keep going and make it, say 5 miles into the dark night, but I could've dealt out another mile or two.

just before that 2.5 in huaraches on a route with mostly dirt/gravel road w/ hard packed dirt and too many pointy rocks.
The consolation prize: loud hooting barred owl.
The downside: last 0.4 mile had a husky in the road, ran after me from some old lady's yard. She was frantic and had a hearing aid (threatened to call animal control a few times until i realized she had no clue what I was saying) and her dog didn't even begin to listen to her. The dog wasn't mean; it was just undisciplined, and kept jumping on me, circling me, running back and forth in the road (where there were several oncoming cars going around 55 mph). The dog would not leave me alone and wanted to run with me (but kept knocking into my legs and criss crossing me excitedly). After stops starts, and a few minutes of trying to run/walk away, I decided the dog would listen to me better than the owner and I called and ran with it all the way back to its house. It sat for me and let me take its paw. The lady had to hold it with all her strength and shooed me away. I offered to get the dog into the house for her, but she wasn't into that. Poor thing.
At least it wasn't a snarly mean bitey dog. Would make a good running partner with the proper training, maybe. Didn't seem that old, either. Healthy. Poor dog---not a good environment for it.

 

[scedastic]

Thurs 11/15 Slow 6mi, some TOFP. I thought I was done with TOFP?! Must have been from the 13 miles on Monday.

Sat 11/17 Even slower 6mi this morning due to end of week carb depletion, keeping the form. Slight TOFP, wore minshoes just to be safe. Now this evening, TOFP pretty much gone. Carbed up today. So that means strength training Sunday, then run on Monday.

524mi total since I got the GPS watch on 5/25. (426 bare)

So for those who track running/strength workouts, I've been trying to alternate workouts and fit in some longer runs and a leg workout somewhere:
11/4 Back, 11/5 6mi, 11/6 Chest, 11/7 6mi, 11/8 Shoulders, 11/9 6mi, 11/10 rest (carb up)

11/11 Back, 11/12 13mi, 11/13 Legs (didn't feel up to running or upper body workout, but legs felt ready for some work), 11/14 Chest, 11/15 6 miles (legs/gluts still a bit sore), 11/16 Shoulders, 11/17 6 miles (carb up)

tentative: 11/18 back, 11/19 6mi, 11/20 6mi, 11/21 chest, 11/22 6mi (carb up?), 11/23 should, 11/24 13mi?, 11/25 legs (carb up?), 11/26 back, 11/27 6mi

Nice mileage, Sid.

 

[ThomDavid]

Ugh. Just an awful, awful week on every level. I contemplated not posting a thing here because a) I have so little to report, and b) it's disheartening to be in this position, but I guess this is the way things work out sometimes.

M0nday 11/13 5 miles, on a treadmill at the gym, and I HAD to wear shoes (Brooks Pure Cadence). It wasn't that the run was unpleasant; a friend of mine walked up as said "Nice form, Thom!" because I WAS running with better, midfoot strike form and faster cadence that I used to when running exclusively shod. And my pace was faster than normal, around 7:15-7:30mm. But I could feel the blisters starting to form, and sure enough, they did.

Tuesday-Fri 11/14-16 Bupkiss. Nada. Circumstances were that I not only couldn't get a run in (or any other exercise for that matter), but I had to wear hard dress shoes all f---ing week. On Tuesday, the blisters formed the day before flared, new ones appeared, by lunchtime of the first day I HAD to remove my shoes, but the damage was done. Apparently in a very very short period of time, my feet have widened just enough that none of my shoes fit my feet at all, and it was four days of agony. At night I had to peel off my shoes and socks so gingerly, only to find what I can only describe as ground meat instead of feet. I admit, the second night, I cried.

Today, I got to a yoga class, and it was miserable. Afterward, I just had to run home, about two and a half miles. My soles felt pretty good, but my calves hurt and I felt like I'd lost months of conditioning in a few short days.

The worst part is that the coming week will likely be exactly the same.

I'm sorry for whining. I'm just at a low point.

 

[rickwhitelaw]

Hey Thom. I was just going to ask "Where's Thom". Don't let a bad day or week get you down. It will get better. I had a major setback last year (frost bite). I was so embarrassed that I wanted to drop off the forum for a month. We all have setbacks. I can't even imagine a pace of 7:15 on a treadmill, I think that would give anyone blisters. I think it is good that people post their bad moments, it makes us more human.

 

[rickwhitelaw]

Yeah same here I've actually run this trail in my worn down KSO's but my feet were destroyed for a couple of days after that. Did you get yours yet?

Got them today. I like the fit better without the insoles and rock plate. I'll break them in for a while with them out. Love how the tongue is just a thin strip of leather. One of my complains of the Sampson is the tongue.

 

[scedastic]

I think it is good that people post their bad moments, it makes us more human.

What Rick Said.

 

[scedastic]

Ugh. Just an awful, awful week on every level. I contemplated not posting a thing here because a) I have so little to report, and b) it's disheartening to be in this position, but I guess this is the way things work out sometimes.
.......
Today, I got to a yoga class, and it was miserable. Afterward, I just had to run home, about two and a half miles. My soles felt pretty good, but my calves hurt and I felt like I'd lost months of conditioning in a few short days.

The worst part is that the coming week will likely be exactly the same.

I'm sorry for whining. I'm just at a low point.

It's easy to get too intense on the exercise bit. I swear that I'm now totally out of shape, flabby, overweight, a slob, and unworthy of anythign since I gave up 40+ mpw running + cross training by weights/fun times w/ kids/biking/hiking/ several exercise forms per day and currently for at least up to christmas I won't be able to get in but a few lame-oh runs/cross training per week. I swear it's worse if I skip a single day. And I swear I'm falling apart at the seams. But it's really not that bad.
Looks like you were training pretty hard for a while and feeling fit every day. Not easy to come off of that. You worry that you may never get back (I do).

Talk yourself off the ledge. Your body works in the long term and short term. Short term is unpleasant, but your body is different from what you do differently in the long term, past, present and future. A few weeks won't destroy that.

That said, yes, your feet have begun the process of trying to grow out the deformations shoes have given you. It happens fast. Your feet are desperate not to be squished.
My friend tells me I now have mutant hobbit feet. I say my feet are trying desperately to grow back to being normal after decades of being deformed by badly shaped shoes.
I have 2 pairs of merrell minimals that were huge on my feet last year. They are PAINFULLY tight now.
I have a pair of nb minimus that up to last month were tolerable and plenty wide for my feet, if a bit overly cushioned.
Now, after 10 minutes at the gym (where I have to wear 'regular' looking shoes), my arches are on fire and I can barely walk. Even after just getting on the elliptical with them. They squeeze my feet when only a few months ago they were hardly that close to my midfoot.

Oh and dress, shoes, poor guy. I can't even imagine, as I haven't worn 'nice' shoes in many many months. Looks like you are going to have to find some stealthy minimal shoes that can pass for dressy.
Whine away.