GZ

I was not on top of it, and I knew it from the start - but decided to make a go of it anyway. After a 2 mile warmup (>15), I did 3 miles with 3 minutes rest (at 5mph, so a quarter jog) at about 5:30 to 5:35. None were outright killer, but I did not feel strong. It may be the cold that I am fighting (fwiw, I was sweating like it was a GA summer in the basement). This brought me to 5.5 in 43:40, and so I finished it off with 7.5 in 55 for 13 in 98:40. Not stellar, but I was glad to push through it given my state.

got out in the afternoon with Lucho. From his place, we ran east through Anthem, and then back. I went a bit light on the clothes - I was dying to get into shorts after running with three or four layers all last week. Towards the end of the run (the last 35 minutes actually) I was starting to feel it - in fact, I am defrosting now in front of the fire. We finished the loop in 1:45 and change.

A bit tired today from the effort on Tuesday and the good run yesterday. Went easy the whole way to recover. 38 out, 40 back on the plowed sidewalks of Louisville.

AM - I did not sleep real well, mostly because I am blowing out this cold. I got out in the AM and was a lightly sore in the quads, and did an easy seven. The roads are a bit of a mess - a combination of packed ice, snow, slush and water. My street looks like the end of some melting glacier. Most of the sidewalks are clear though. I told my wife the streets are of the consistency of a half hour old margarita (am I showing a desire there?).

PM - My daughter was at a birthday party and so I ran from the Flatirons Mall (ick) out to 128 and south on Simms, scoping the new office route. Windy - there is a front blowing in. Easy 40 minutes, 5 miles. Looks like there will be some decent hills out there.

I wanted to get a tempo in today. As it was sloppy out (melting snow, but still lots of packed ice), and windy (comes with the warmer temps), I hit the treadmill. I have ambitions to get this workout back to the SBC trail. There I will head out (and slightly up) at a slightly slower than 10K pace for 3 or 4 miles, and then come back slightly faster then 10K pace for 3 or 4 miles. When I was doing this a few years ago, it was effective in teaching me to control the effort on the front end and push the effort on the backend. Unfortunately, as I get more fit, I have historically become better equipped to execute poorly. When I am out of shape (or less in shape) I am forced in executing to whatever I am capable of. When I am in better shape, I have this tendency to go out to fast.

I felt I had a fair week of training - one where I advanced fitness rather than maintaining or losing it. I wanted to get a longer effort in though and so landed on a 2 hour run today. I kept the whole thing easy. The mileage might be higher than 15, but there were a couple of stretches where I was clanking through snow or mud. I headed east, through Vista Ridge, around the landfill, out by the HS, back by the new Rec Center. I need to do more of these longer runs - making them a steady part of the training diet, simply because they are a bit of a weakness for ... maybe more in my head than anything else. I never struggled outright physically, but I find it to be a bit of work to run out there by myself for two hours. As I have said, "work to do." Again, it was a decent work for me: I'll give it a B. Mon - 3 miles in the cold in Fairplay Tues - 13 miles, with mile repeats Wed - 14 miles with Lucho Thurs - easy 10 miles Fri - 10 miles, with 3 miles tempo Sat - AM 7 miles, PM 5 miles Sun - 2 hours easy, 15 miles 77 miles on the week, 2 "fair" workouts, a 2 hour run, and a mid - longish run at a better clip. I guess the mileage is decent in light of the fact I had a three on Monday. Next week I will look to do a 5K test in the Oatmeal Fest. I want to get a check to see if fitness has advanced, and if so, by how much. I will look to balance the work with a speed workout earlier in the week. The plan calls for quarters, but I may adjust that to eights depending on the weather (and if I am forced to the mill). I have to do thinking about how I want to balance the rest of the week, and still get other good stuff in. I am toying with the idea of a daily food log. I think it would be interesting to put that out there, to write down what I am eating, see how it compares to what I want to eat, how it effects training, the entire caloric input thing. It just seems to damn tedious to write that all down.

75 minutes, 10 miles, easy. I thought I'd feel a little tired from the longer run yesterday but I bounced back fine. Once I was rolling, everything felt good. Started for about 17 minutes before hooking up with MK in Boulder (light snow falling), and we went for 38 minutes. Tacked on another 20 min to wrap it up.

2.5 mile warm up over to Monarch track from the office. This was one of those days where I could feel I was a bit off, and was concerned with how the workout would go anyway. Mentally, I was focusing in on a problem at work, and it was gnawing at me in a way that I could feel that was making me edgy. Should I separate these efforts and thoughts? Yes. Do I have discipline to do that? Not totally. I still did the workout, but I could feel that I was a not fully in the game even in the warm-up. In fact, I think that is a bit reflective of how I have felt on some of these workouts for a bit: I am getting in there and doing something to advance or maintain fitness, but I am having issue in getting that break through, dig in, kill it type workout. Today it might have been work, or the long run on Sunday that caused it (but that was not so much the case over break I guess).




I started with 2 x 200 to open up the legs a bit (36s) and then did the 400s which all came in at 75-76, except the last was at 73 high. I then did 2 more 200s (3 minute rest after the 400s, and then 2 minutes after the first 200) in 34. I got to keep after this workout. I could write about what I used to do all day - I am here now and I can do something about it (and something will happen whether I choose to do something or not). I once had a little bit of speed. And I let it go. I can't make that mistake again. I used to be able to get this workout (8 x 400, 1 minute rest) with the 400s all under 70, and some of them even as low as 66 or 65. Not today. Ah, you reap what you sow. The good news is that there seems to be some improvement in the general speed since the 200-200-400 workout from last month




Warmed down for 3.5 miles. Total was nine on the day over the course of about 75 minutes.

I felt a bit sluggish - no surprise given the workout yesterday. Did an easy hour (8) on a gray, humid, cold Colorado day. I will look to do a workout tomorrow that taxes my cardiovascular system but does not kill my legs too much. I'd like to be able to bounce back well for the 5K on Saturday.

I ran Sanitas today, wanting a tempo effort, and something that would tax me cardiovascularly but not sap my legs. I want to come back and run the Oatmeal Fest 5K as a test to see where I have come (or gone) since Thanksgiving.

Sanitas is a nice little compact climb. 15-20 minute and you are done. I think I have done this in the 17s, but in referencing the log from last year, I can only find that I did it as quick as 18:38. Today, I went into it carefully, at a tempo mentality. When I saw where I was at when the watch hit 18, I figured I could make a go to break 20 and did with a 19:56. It was a little icy on the upper half, and this did cause some slipping. I got a good little burn in the end, but I have to say, this was one of the best workouts I have felt in a bit. It was controlled, but a solid push. I felt that I could dig in a bit. So all good. The downhill was a bit more of a trick - it actually took 15:17 to come down. I was not looking to fly down but I had to be careful with all that dang ice!

After all this, I ran into downtown and ran with MK for a chunk. As has come commonplace with my runs with MK - we shared great conversation. MK is my brother - we connect so easily. I can tell you a million things about MK - all you need to know is he my brother. Today's conversation was a mix of discussion on his high school coach (killed while running at the age of 39 by a car), our families, the caloric bank account, current training (this section is mostly about me because while MK runs right now, he will tell you himself - he is not training), blogs, the 'Rock, and workouts we used to do that seemed normal at the time that seem out of reach (but they ain't) now.
Round trip today was 90 minutes, 11 miles.

Short story: 17:44. Longer story ... This is about as local of a race as I can get. Yes, of course, there is the Eeire Erie but that is actually farther away than this race. I had contemplated jogging over to the race as a warm-up, but brought the car to have a place to stow gear.

1. We are all sitting at the start ready to go. Everyone has that nervous twitch. The announcer says it is going to be about two minutes to the start. So, everyone strides out. I jog over to my family to say hello. My son freaks out - "DAD! GO! THEY ARE ALL GOING!"



2. Jogging with Lucho after the race. Discussing stride cadence he says to me, "No offense but dude, your stride sucks." He has a point. His turnover goes around 190 a minute. Mine is nearer to 170. I am not sure this is a silver bullet in getting me a minute faster on the 5K, but I will definitely work it.



3. Lucho is definitely a student of the sport. He and I traded memory stories of various track and field world championships during the warm down.



4. JV located materials for a wobble board he wants to build while he ran with me during my warm up. And yes, he went and did Green when this was over.



5. PM had a Geico Caveman visor.
   


6. Lucho saying, "I won today more for third place then I did for 13th at Kona." I don't care who you are, that is jacked up.

Results are up.

Oh yeah ... diet for today ...
AM breakfast - bananna, 2 cups of coffee w/ milk and no cal sweetner
Post race -some juice (about 16oz), and an Odwalla bar
Lunch - about 4 small handfuls of almonds, a small salad w/advocado and it. dressing. Cup of tea.  I guess I could skour the internet"s" to find out how many cals that is but ... it is tedious.

I agreed to meet Lucho this AM. He was doing 20 something (22 I think) and I wanted to build up my long run (15 last week) - so we agreed to share some miles. I think I get a bit more of benefit out of this run than he does - as it pushes me to run 5-15 seconds a mile faster than I normally would, and it helps me through the miles. We met on 287 and headed north as the sun rose. It was cold - there were icicles on Lucho's beard.

Lucho did not hesistate to "get in my face" this AM. He immediately was asking me about my half tights (in 20 degrees), and my water. Within half a mile of running together he was asking me why I carrying water, what fuel, and essentially - what the hell I was thinking.

He is right. I do a lot of stuff without thinking it through. And some of that I think is okay. Just run damn it. And I think in my 20s and for 10Ks I probably could away with that to some degree. But I am now doing a marathon, and by some definitions an ultra. Hydration is important. Nutrition is important. Thinking is important. Sure, maybe running in half tights is okay but I probably need to carry more water on these runs (and hence a camel back even it feels stupid). All said, I am getting more benefit out of these runs than I think TL is from me. I appreciate his questioning of what I am doing - because I need to consider and reconsider what I am doing so that I drive to maximum efficiency.

I slowed up on the second half of the run, as my heart rate climbed (lack of water perhaps Zack?!). But it was a good effort of 17 miles (or so) over 2:08. I felt pretty good throughout, just slightly tired in the last half an hour.

It was a good week. I will give it a B.
Mon - 10 miles easy
Tues - 9 miles with 2 x 200, 8 x 400, 2 X 200
Wed - easy 8 miles
Thurs - 11 miles - 20 minute tempo on Sanitas
Fri - easy 7 miles
Sat - 12 miles, 5K Oatmeal Fest - 17:44
Sun - 17 miles - long run
74 miles on the week, with 4 fair workouts. On whole I think fitness progressed.

Mid day I got out with co-worker DB and did an easy seven (55 minutes). At the close of the day I got out for an other five (36:40). Purpose of these runs was a.) to recover and go easy, b.) play with my stride rate. I did a few stride rate counts and they all came in around 88 strides a minute (single leg). And this was with me thinking about it, meaning it was up. I would occasionally let it slip to what I was more atuned to and comfortable with and that was much slower. The pace on whole would not change (I think) but the stride length would open up. I am going to keep on working on getting the legs turned over. I think TL mentioned it should be north of 90 strides a minute. It does not physically hurt to increase the cadence, but it feels different. It is funny, SE mentioned to me about a year ago that I needed to not have such a loping stride. We did Lindens and I remember matching my stride to his to work on this but then I let it go. I guess I respond better to feedback like Lucho's: "dude, no offense but your stride SUCKS." Yeah, I am a little dense. I felt a little flat today, but overall good, particularly in light of the fact I raced Saturday, and then went long yesterday. I am hoping to jump the track tomorrow to get 200-200-400 workout in - as snow is expected on Wednesday. Quote of the day came from co-worker PM today, "....after about 7 or 8 hours out there on course...everything is stripped away...there's nothing to hide behide any more, no ego, no cockyness, no pride, no work problems, or relationship things...it's all gone and all that is left is you. It's scary, too scary for a lot of folks. But that's also the reward. You experience every emotion out there." There is a lot of things I love about endurance sports: the training, the race, the competition, but ultimately what I love most is the rawness of the humanity it presents. As William Wallace says, "we all die. few of us live."

Ah yes. Write up about motivation on Monday ... you are certain to give yourself the whammy on Tuesday. It was one of those days where I felt a bit off from the bell. I woke up and this snot was coming out of my head. My stomach hurt a bit, and my head felt thick. In the old days, I'd call this a hangover. Unfortunately, I did not engage in any activity Monday night that would give me such an excuse.

I had hoped to engage in the 200-200-400 workout today to get good turnover. I wanted to get it done today, well, to get it done and because we are expecting snow tomorrow. As is often the case, however, before our Front Range snow storms we get a day of warmer temps (50s) and a stiff wind. From my desk, I could see trees bending in the wind. The wind gnawed at my motivation. The woozy feeling in my head gnawed at my motivation. This becomes a bit of a downward spiral typically. To not worry about my upcoming run, I try to focus on my work, but then I let my work become my event and suddenly I am too busy to run and then that further gnaws at my motivation. I don't feel good. It is really windy out. You have a lot of work to do.

After seeing big pieces of trash roll by in the lot across the street from the office, I decided that I would run on the treadmill. At least there I'd not have the wind for an excuse. But even after getting home it took me a bit to get to it ... check email, long time to lace up the shoes, check email again (I do have a lot of work to do you see), take a phone call, feed the dog ... all avoiding getting on the dang T5i.

I had a good chat with a co-worker (TWK), including some conversation about his running. I am really enjoying digging into what other folks are doing for running. I am trying to take special care in listening to what they are doing simply because a.) typically as a runner you are thinking a lot about what you are doing and b.) while I think a lot about what I am doing I really don't know what the hell I am doing and I probably can learn something from listening rather than telling folks what I am doing. It was this conversation and the entire thought that the three folks (well, okay 2) that read this blog would have some possible interest in how this workout went. And I did not want to write that I felt like and called it all off. So the blog, at least today, helped.

But even once on the mill, I delayed. I took a longer warm-up (3 miles, 21 minutes, first mile in 7:30, last mile with some striders to get HR up and used to the faster pace) - delaying the workout itself. I was not dreading working hard, as much as I was dreading results of working hard and not getting through it well. I decided to do half mile repeats. I can't really do 200s or 400s at the pace I want to on the mill, so I decided I do halves at 5 minutes per mile pace (2:30 for the half) and take a real easy quarter rest. In the spirit of focusing on the turnover, I decided to worry more about the repeat and not push the interval of rest (taking there whatever I needed).

I did 8 of the 800s - all at 5 minute pace (2:30) with the rest being anywhere from 2:00 minutes (8 m/mile) to 3 minutes (12 m/mile). HR for the latter repeats was near 175. None of these felt particularly hard or strained - I felt in control and on top of the workout the entire top - which suprised me considering how negative my attitude was coming in! I feel I could have rolled more with anyone interval or even done a couple more. The effort was solid. I know it is a treadmill and that is not the same thing as doing it on the track but it was good nonetheless. Things are coming through. I did some cadence counts during the repeats, and then later my daughter did some. They came in at 88-90. The higher cadence felt much more natural in the repeat on the treadmill than it did on the easy run yesterday. I finished out the run in 68 minutes and decided it was okay to reward myself with a glass of Merlot with dinner.

So, not the workout I wanted to do ... but a good effort in light of how I felt, and the weather.

Went easy in the cold (teens, and yes I wore pants) ... 8 miles, 63 minutes up on the Davidson Mesa.

12 easy miles. 90 minutes. It is cold. And a bit windy. And the wind has a good bite. I have mixed thoughts while running on days like these. There are the thoughts of, "mighst all critey ... it is cold and windy out here. This stinks. I rather be sitting next to a fire having a beer." And then there are thoughts of "7 months to go. And at least I am out here. There are folks that who want to be and can't."

I have felt a bit behind the eight ball the last two days. Behind in my running, behind in my thinking, behind in my sleep, behind in my hydration, behind in my eating (which means I am probably ahead), just behind ... I am not really. But in a regard I am.

We went to the National Western Stock Show last night and we caught the bull riding show. All I can say is that folks who think running up Pikes is stupid must think these folks are truly whackey. And crazy tough. And I complain about running being tough? Hardly.

I wanted to get my long run done and so did it today rather than waiting until tomorrow. I started outside - mostly to get the dogs out. After 8.5 outside, easy, (64 minutes), I came in, quickly changed and hit the mill. I had the mill all set to go - even with several water bottles (with a little lemonade mix in it) and tried to build into this effort. The thought here was to have a good long run, and build slightly, in effort and speed towards the end. I did 8.6 (I wanted to be sure I had 17) in just over an hour (total time 2:04:39). I was not flying at the end obviously, but pushing enough to get my HR up over 160 (and was under sevens).

... various thoughts and commentary ...

• I think having the hydration readily available for the second half was helpful. I worked through two 16 ounce bottles pretty quickly, as I had made it an objective to take some drink every five minutes whether I wanted it or not. I felt good throughout this effort. My legs are not super springy, in fact - I can feel that they are a bit worked but I am not "under my training."
• I think I ought to be able to get my mileage to near 80 this week. Over the last seven days, it is now 87 (the bookend long runs help). This is good - I want this level of consistency with mileage, but I need to be careful not to chase mileage for mileage sake. The importance is in the workouts, particularly the long run ...
• Once I get re-acclimated to the length of time of the long run, I want these efforts to be building, and pushing towards the end. Reference this McMillan article regarding this. I will look for help on some of these efforts ... running the first hour easy, and then enlisting help to get a good long push for the second hour plus, as the spring progresses.
• I was thinking on my run today that a good deal of this blog may come across as "complaining" about training. I have certainly been complaining about the cold. And then I complain about having to run on the mill. Really - when it comes down to it, I know that I am blessed that I can engage on this journey. I have a gift to move significant distances under my own power, and I will look to exploit that gift to its greatest depths. I love that I can do that.
• Many religions teach, you must walk your own path. The principles in the faith are the same, but it is your path to find your way. Running has principles, each of us has to find our own path to whatever we want to accomplish with that. It is your path to determine to what lengths you will sacrifice, what goals you will set, what talents you have, what balance you acheive ... worrying about that this person runs 8 minutes per mile when training versus 6 minutes per mile ... well, there may be a place for that, but only if it is something you put in your path.
• The greater mileage and slight more attention to detail regarding my diet are having an effect. I am down at least 10 pounds since returning from Hawaii. Of course, I gained nine pounds when I was there! I am not going to worry too much about my weight, but instead take a focus on fitness, health, and smart consideration of how those are factors in weight and its effect on performance.
• I played with MapMyRun a bit this AM. The bad news is my seven mile loop from work is about .05 short. The good news is my eleven mile out and back is about .9 long. My 3 mile out and back is .04 short. Give a little, get a little. I am actually surprised I was as close in guessing as I thought. Very cool tool.
• I am also cross posting my training to georgezack.fastrunningblog.com. Not sure if I will continue to use this, but I am a technology geek, so love playing with this sort of stuff.
• Props to TWK - who nailed a good long run today.
• Good luck to PM who is racing tomorrow.

Catching up on training logs from "one year ago today ..." It is pretty clear I was definitely more hill focused. That was not bad. I just think that being less hill focused for me right now (not excluding hills though) is better this year. It is also clear that January is historically a cold month. :-)

Sunday January 14, 2007 13.3 miles (will count as 13) in 2:34 (hit 13 in 2:32). Cold and snowy out so got on the mill and watched “House of the Flying Daggers.” Set it at 11.5% (miles 1 and 8 were at 12 percent, last two miles were at 11%) Splits were 12:59, 12:58, 12:21, 12:01, 13:03, 12:01, 11:48, 10:51, 11:46, 11:27, 10:40, 10:13, 9:47 (and then 2:00 for the last .3). Felt easy, nice slow burn throughout but no straining. This also represents over 7800 feet of climbing in a run.

Comment from today - interesting! I was thinking about this very workout. It is an emulation workout that I do - emulating Pikes! I altered this workout later in the year to be more like Pikes in that I altered the grades at different points to be more Pikes like. I do want to do this workout again - but not at this time. It is a dang good workout, but, as you can see, it does not promote speed. It promotes hill climbing. I want the speed and will combine that with the hill climbing as the spring progresses.

Saturday January 13 2007 It is freaking cold out – zero. In the AM got out with Lucy for 30 and then tacked on another 45. Kept the pace upbeat to assure this was 10 over 75.
Friday January 12 2007 AM, 28 minutes, 4 miles on the mill. Pretty cold out.
PM cold enough to freeze my beard. Did 35 minutes solo and then 45 minutes with MK in Boulder real easy. 81 minutes but calling it only 10 because of conditions.
Thursday January 11, 2007 early PM, very cold out so I stuck to the mill. Did a 1.5 mile warm up in 10 minutes then 3 x 1 mile with increases in pace on the minutes in the miles with a 3 minute/ .25 mile rest in between. Warmed down with 2.25 miles for 7 total in 50 minutes.
Wednesday January 10 2007 – 88 minutes, 8 miles. Got out with JV up Bear via Shannahan Ridge and Fern trail. Lots of sloppy snow towards the bottom. It hardened up near the top but then the wind was really blowing above the saddle. The top was gorgeous all encrusted in snow and like a stairway to heaven. 55 minutes up and 33 minutes down (although I kept falling down and I took the longer route down towards the end!)
Tuesday January 9 2007 After a lousy night sleep and a long day in the office with out of town visitors, got on to the mill. Did a two mile warm up in 13:30 with four striders to loosen up. Then did 5 x 3 min on with a 2 min break. Started at 10.8mph on the first and would up it a tenth every minute, and also start at the next higher (10.9 for example) on the next one. Rests were real slow (12 m/mi). So these started at 5:33, and got down to 5:10 towards the end. On the fifth I upped the pace every 30 seconds versus every minute. Warmed down with 1.5 miles at the end to get a total of seven in 49 minutes Mileage is a bit behind this week (only 12) but I am okay with that. I need a bit of rest and a bit of turn over and weeks where I do that a bit more than just miles and climbing have be okay in my head.

Not suprisingly, I felt stale this AM. I did an easy 10 (80 minutes). And yup, it is cold enough that the facial hair (it is not a beard, it ain't a mustache) was frosted over. I tried to focus a bit on turnover ... still coming in at 88.

I had visions of doing Green today as a good easy effort. I know it sounds a bit contradictory to say that a 2500 foot climb to 8000 feet is easy, but they can be. Just gear back and grind a long slow climb. But the snow and the cold (teens) chased the idea out of my head.

I landed on doing something on the mill. I did not feel ready for a strong interval effort and geared into the idea of a longer run where I just upped the ante of my pace. I'd hesitate to call this a tempo (although by some definitions it might be ... as my heart rate stuck in the 160-170 for the latter portions of it) - rather this run was just a mid distance run where I wanted to run a stead state, and push the pace a bit to become more comfortable in that range. After a bit of a warmup for 3 miles (7:26, 7:15 {14:41}, 6:55 {21:36}), I began to gear down a bit to see how it felt. 6:03 {27:40}, 6:17 {33:56}, 6:15 {40:12}, 6:07 {46:20}, 6:09 {52:28}, 5:57 {58:25}, and 5:53 {64:18}. The effort felt all controlled - never was I anywhere near redlining, all just somewhere about comfort pace.

I realize this ain't much, but it represents some progress to me - and I will take it. I'd like to generally see the overall pace of my runs increase. I need to be careful to balance these sorts of efforts between easy days and hard days (as this is a bit of tweener). I am walking away from this one though thinking I am fully capable of coming back hard tomorrow. We'll see!

Props to PM for his 10 miler yesterday. Good work man - you are progressing. Tough conditions and it is January!

I felt off today. And this sort of ticked me off. I wanted to feel good. I did not want to feel off because that might mean that I was off because of the effort yesterday. Really, I did not want to have a "tweener" workout yesterday that in turn compromised my effort today. This is a bit of a trap I need to be careful of ... instead of keeping easy days, easy - and hard days hard, the trap is to run all the days in between ... and hard days are not so hard and easy days are not so easy. That does not lend to getting better. And so, I knew in part that my effort was not super hard yesterday and it was not super easy. So I had compromised what I could do today. But I did not want to admit it. Nonetheless, I was hesistant to get out because I knew I'd have to face this reality that I was off because I pushed yesterday but not enough.

But I felt off in other ways, not just from the run. I am dealing with a stomach muscle pain that is slowing me down. I slept like crud. It was cold out. And windy. So I had the excuses lined up in addition to my tactical error from yesterday. I hit the mill again in the afternoon. This too played into my mental state. I did not want to run on the mill again.

But, as things are, as I dug into the mill and the run a bit I stopped feeling sorry for myself and decided to make something of it. I knew I was not fully able to attack this run, but I was not going to just run easy. Maybe this was a tactical mistake too - but mentally, I needed to do something to keep driving progress in my head. So after a four mile warm up (7:15s), I jumped into a classic Carpenter interval workout - 1 minute on, 1 minute off. I did 15 of these at 5 minute per mile pace (I really need to determine how I can crank the mill into kilometer paces) and the rests at 8 minute per mile. The initial intervals brought my HR up to about 160 and then the rest would teeter down to 147. Towards the end, the HR would climb to 168, and then the rest would come in at 150-155. I did not feel strained on any of these, but I knew I was not on top of my game. I did some pace counts for 30 second on the repeats, and these came in at 45-46 (or 90-92 on the minute).

I finished the 10 with a mile cool down, for total time in 66:40.

This is certainly not as good as the workout I did last week with the 800s at 5 minute pace, but it was something. And it worked the turn over a bit. Tommorow I will rest (easy mileage) to get back into a smarter groove.

Went real easy up and down Green today. It was a bit chilly, but not as cold as it has been for the past couple of days. Round trip is seven miles. I went real slow, just enjoying being out. The snow - ice - crunchy - slippery conditions kept me slow as well. It was fun getting out ... in the woods, on the hill ... unfortunately there was that big old brown cloud to look at when I got to the summit. I am a bit concerned about this abdominal pain I have been having. Not sure what it is, but am hoping it disapates in the next day or two. Definitely felt it more on the way down today.

From the next day ... There were a couple of other thoughts I had on my easy run yesterday that I wanted to get down ... in my charting this experiment of one.

First, on this easy run, with significant climbing, my stride rate went way down (like 75). I am less concerned about my stride rate on my easy easy runs but I can see how this sort of work makes that a habit - it contributes to a lower stride rate all the time if I do this alot. I will want to make sure that when I go after this run hard that I keep the rate quick. It is funny how dense I have been on this topic. Hill climbing specialist SE tried to tell me this while doing Lindens last year. Master miler PH has often told me that I need "to get them down." Mentally I thought about this a little. It was not until Lucho said, "dude, your stride sucks!" that I actually took the concept to heart.

Second, I am not sure what strained my abdominal - but I am pretty nervous about it: is it a hernia?! It seems a little better today but I need to keep an eye (?!) on that.

Finally, it was good to get off the mill yesterday. The mill is a good tool but it is a drill on my head. When I am on it, I am consistently playing the game of upping the speed, and then downing it. This is good on some accounts (7:20s feel hard? crank the pace to 6:00 for a bit, then bring it back to 7:08 and that feels good), but when you run nowhere (literally), it is a bit like water boarding. Kerrie told me I need to get outside after my workout on Tuesday ... she was right.

I got out early with Lucy and got in an easy six (46). The winds were pretty strong still. Later in the evening, I got onto the mill and did an easy five (36:30).

It looks like the winds have passed now. That being the case, I will look to do a long run tomorrow. I have been playing with the thought of doing a good portion of it on the mill so that I can keep the hydration under control. If I get the opportunity, however, I will head outside and do loops that let me get to water periodically. Ideally, I will build the pace through the run.

In Boulder today, there was a pretty good race, particularly when you consider the nuttiness of the wind. It was good to see Lucho do pretty well against that field. Several of the FF guys (Pliska, Ames, Funke) ran well in the masters division. Props to TWK for a good long run today too.

This interesting list (top 1000+ marathon times in 2007, US, Men) were posted today.

AM - real easy four miles with Lucy. Just a little shakeout, wake up, get the dog out.

PM - pressed for time after work, and before heading out ... wanted to get a workout in, and it was pretty windy out again today (30 mph gusts). Hit the mill. I did not feel great, so I decided to tempo it, and the thought that bubbled up was 7 in 45 with the warm up. I hit the first in 7, three in 20, four in 26:0x, five in 32:0x, and then seven in 43:40. Again, I can get into the mill a bit easier than I can outdoors right now, but I can't seem to tap in as deep to make myself hurt there. In some regards, this was good for not feeling great ... I hit the last four under 23:40, when four on the mill was a struggle a few weeks ago. Here's the trick - crank the mill to faster speeds (5:20 for example) for like a minute and then back it off. The overall pace, obviously, is better, and then you can manage the slower pace (at least initially) more effectively.

Easy tomorrow, long on Thursday is the plan.