Ah, perfection. It comes pretty naturally to me. Through 4 weeks, I haven’t missed a single training run! I owe most of that to you, my dear reader, for holding me accountable. On more than one occasion I found myself on the “skip today’s run” side of the fence, but knowing you would heckle me to no end, I hopped the fence (with only a few minor injuries, mind you) and got myself out there.
Now we’re really getting into this training thing. It’s week 3 and I’ve upgraded to 5 days per week. The 40 39.93-miles-per-week boat has also set sail.
I see a theme developing with the Monday runs: uneventful, middle-distance, snooze-fest. I have a feeling the updates for these are going to be brief and uninspiring. Or nonexistent.
Tuesday: more boring, lack-of-update update. It’s early in this Weekly Recap thing, but I definitely think it’ll evolve into brief, heart-warming snippets, rather than forced, lackluster summaries. Like this one. Sigh.
We ran to work again on Wednesday. This time I held my own a little better. I felt like I was running with the group instead of just trying to keep up. It turned out to be Tim’s last run to work before he relocates to Malaysia. The skeptic in me thinks I was brought in as a replacement, but I’m ok with that.
Friday showed me exactly how close I can get to skipping a run but still pull myself out of bed. So close, in fact, that while I was taking the dog on her pre-run walk, I was scheming how I could go back to bed and run later in the day. To be honest, this very post is what gave me the final kick out from under the covers. I didn’t want to have to explain why I didn’t run to you all …you.
And finally Saturday. Oh Saturday, you hurt me good. Tempo run? Hill workout? Long run? Check. Check. Check. Running with this group of guys is proving intense! We headed out for 14 miles (per my request) and, as most of the routes done with the group, I was unfamiliar with where we were going. I should have known Mount Bonnell wasn’t going to be a party, unless your idea of a party is running up a steep hill, followed by a steeper hill, followed by stairs to the moon… all after having already run 8 miles. Woo. Needless to say, I was spent after that. Good stuff.
Actual Stairs
As you know, a founding principle of this blog is to innovate. That actually doesn’t sound right, but let’s go with it. I’ve linked each day of the week in the table to provide an onslaught of data at your disposal. It will even show a map of where I went, though none will be as amazing as this one. Just click the day of the week and hold on with all you got. Week 4 here I come!
| Distance | Time | Pace | Heart Rate | |
| Monday | 8.17 Miles | 1:07:55 | 8:17 min/mi | 155 bpm |
| Tuesday | 4.00 Miles | 38:51 | 9:42 min/mi | 137 bpm |
| Wednesday | 9.70 Miles | 1:17:01 | 7:56 min/mi | 158 bpm |
| Friday | 4.03 Miles | 38:31 | 9:34 min/mi | 141 bpm |
| Saturday | 14.03 Miles | 1:48:20 | 7:43 min/mi | 164 bpm |
| Total | 39.93 Miles | 5:30:38 | 8:16 min/mi | 155 bpm |
As all you long-time readers of this highly-touted, world-class, well-distinguished, generic running blog well know, I have a vendetta against running in the heat. Sure, if it’s hot out and I’m supposed to run, then I’ll run. But I do everything in my power to complain avoid the heat. Anyway, it’s high time I have another poll to see if I should run an upcoming race.
In 2 weeks Dallas is holding its self-proclaimed “Hottest Half Marathon“. The race starts at 7:30am in the middle of August in Texas. Sounds like a pretty good recipe for pain. I’m slated to run 16 miles that day anyway though, so it fits pretty well into my schedule.
Acting as a bit of an enabler, I’ve been slowly adopting a “why not?” attitude again, as in why not sign up for it? Because it’s a change from my normal routine? That excuse is holding less and less water in my book, water that I’ll need should I run this race. It’s not terribly expensive, it’s 3.5 hours away in Dallas, and there’s a finisher’s medal. If you couldn’t tell, I’m leaning towards running it. Let me know what you think!
This poll is brought to you courtesy of ex-coworker and current friend Brent, who goaded me into creating a poll for him to ruin. I fully expect him to vote at least a dozen times. Probably some hidden agenda of his or something. Now VOTE!
Full disclosure: I cannot ride my bike with no handlebars. It just so happens to be the name of the song by Flobots that I’m listening to right now while trying to think of a title for this post. Good thing I started when I did or else this post could be called “Killing in the Name” or “Mayday!!!”, either of which would have been concerning.
Notwithstanding, it was a good song choice, since I rode my bike (with handlebars) to work today. A bit risky since I only just attached the front wheel to the frame for the first time last night since moving to Austin. I also wasn’t quite sure how to get there. I mean yes, I could have hopped on the highway and gone my normal way, but I wanted to keep things legal. Instead I looked at the route we ran yesterday, decided I could remember half of it, and then settled on taking a main road the rest of the way.
The first half was pleasant and relatively flat, but for all the running I do, I sure felt like my legs were working hard on the slightest inclines. I departed the smooth, biked-path-ed Shoal Creek Road and entered the overdriven, underloved Burnet Road. There was surprisingly sparse traffic the whole way up, which was nice, though it was clearly not a bike-friendly street. After getting to work a coworker’s eyes popped out of her head when she heard I rode on Burnet. I told her I karate chopped all the cars in the face it was no big deal and traffic was light.
Overall a good experience! I’ll be giving it another go for sure, and who knows.. maybe it’ll become a weekly thing!
It’s that time again. Keeping with the theme of summarizing “Mike’s Week in Running” I present to you Week 2 of the San Antonio training plan. Since two is greater than one, week two was better than week one, and it brought some new trials and tribulations*.
Monday started out in much of the same fashion as the first Monday, but without all of the difficulty. A little sluggish at first, I was able to gradually speed up throughout the run and finished comfortably. Boring, I know.
New tribulation #1 was on Wednesday when I met up with some coworkers way before sunrise and we ran to work. It took some planning ahead to leave clothes and other necessities at work the day before, and meeting between 5:42am and 5:43am was not part of the original plan. Chris, Tim, and I met at a central point, all arriving within 3 seconds of each other and not needing to break stride. Pretty impressive if you ask me anyone. Along the way we picked up Erik at his house and meandered our way (“meander” may not be the right word considering the pace that these guys hold. More on this later.) through neighborhoods and across busy streets until we arrived at work. My total distance was a half mile shy of the training plan, a fact that wasn’t lost on me, more on that later, too. Overall it was great to run with the group, but they sure are fleet of foot**.
Friday didn’t have much in the way of excitement. I did go at a glacial pace for my recovery, so that deserves a big thumbs up. The schedule said 5 miles, so what did I do? 5.4. Clearly I needed to do something about that missing half mile from Wednesday, so why not add it to the recovery run, am I right? And… breathe, all is right in the world again.
Saturday offered the second trial by fire that pushed me to the limit. From last week’s late start-related heat issue, I sucked it up to get up very early on very Saturday to run with the group at 6:30. Seven of us launched onto a pretty technical trail at an insane speed. Immediately I was at the back of the pack and losing ground fast, and I couldn’t help but think of getting lost in the forest and being found by a group of shoeless hippies… so I turned around after a couple miles and finished up the run at my own pace on my own path. The rest of the run was the bee’s knees***.
All in all it was a good second week of training. Next week is the first 5-days-a-week week, so we’ll see how the cookie crumbles****.
| Distance | Time | Pace | Heart Rate | |
| Monday | 8.11 Miles | 1:09:02 | 8:31 min/mi | 158 bpm |
| Wednesday | 9.51 Miles | 1:16:42 | 8:04 min/mi | 163bpm |
| Friday | 5.42 Miles | 52:46 | 9:43 min/mi | 146 bpm |
| Saturday | 13.15 Miles | 1:47:10 | 8:09 min/mi | 160 bpm |
| Total | 36.19 Miles | 5:05:40 | 8:27 min/mi | 158 bpm |
*Trials and Tribulations is, in fact, a real idiom, for any skeptics out there that think I’m making stuff up again.
**So is Fleet of Foot
***Just threw this one in here for good measure
****And this one too 😛
Today sunk. It sunk before things ever got started. I’ve been looking to get in the pool for awhile now, mainly for some crosstraining, but with triathlons on the far, far away horizon. I did a great job of coming up with excuses why I couldn’t, like “I won’t have enough time” [false], “I am a bad swimmer” [true], “There are tigers in the pool” [unverified], and other lame reasons for not getting myself in the water.
Well today was set to bust down all those mental walls and step up my training with some legit swimming magic. Observing my irrational and debilitating fear uncertainty, Ev said she would join me on the endeavor. We got up before the sun rose in order to arrive at the pool right when it opened at 7am. Fully clad in our swimming gear (below) we pulled up to the pool ready to hop into the deep end.
As you may have surmised at this point (based on all my grandstanding and back story explanation with no real substance, this parenthesis notwithstanding), no swimming actually took place. As we pulled up to the pool we found each lane chock full of Michael Phelps types. Assessing the situation independently, we were in silent agreement to just keep driving, turn at the end of the block, and head home. Sigh… One more reason not to swim: intimidation. When we got home, pride defeated and floaties deflated, we took advantage of the earliness of the situation and got back in bed. To swim, perchance to dream. Maybe next time.
I’m going to try a new approach to keeping you, my lone reader, up to date on something more boring than watching paint dry on growing grass in a not-yet-boiling pot of water. During my training for my upcoming race in November I’ll try to write up a “week in training” that gives a run down (pun? of course) of how things went. So fasten your seatbelts, it’s gonna get a little bumpy.
This week kicked off training for San Antonio. The short version: it was hard. At least so far. Leading up to this week I flat out hadn’t run enough. I think I needed a pre-training training plan. Without any structure I ran without any regularity or motivation. It became too easy to say “I’ll just run tomorrow” and sleep in. I justified not running by distributing my activity to racquetball and some weight lifting. But it simply boils down to not running enough in preparation, and so this week began a bit shaky.
I’m sticking with the same training plan that got me through Chicago successfully. That means a fairly aggressive first day of 8 miles, four of which were at half marathon race pace (read: 7:15 min/mile). Well, that wasn’t happening. Between the humidity, hills, and out-of-running-shapeness, it was a painful day 1. But a bad first day means things can only go up, right?
Let’s not mince words. The second scheduled run was brutal. Certainly worse than the first day (which really doesn’t seem fair). Due to an irregular work schedule this week, the morning was unavailable for 9 miles. The alternative? Running after work. July + Texas = Insane Not Ideal. At 96 degrees and a small water bottle, the stars (and by “stars” I mean “the sun“) aligned for a difficult run. I got through it.. barely. But it didn’t kill me, so I guess it made me stronger, or at least I think that’s what they say.
Friday was a gift. A 4 mile recovery run is about all I’d be physically capable of want to do, and that’s exactly what was prescribed. Even better, I was scheduled to get to work late, so I got to take my time with this one. I actually tried to go as slow as reasonably possible, and I tell you this: it was nice. For all my upcoming recovery runs I’m going to make an effort to exert no effort and run easy. I need you to hold me to it.
The long run on Saturday said “Mike, you are going to run 12 miles.” Who am I to argue? Remember what I said earlier (for all the goldfish reading this: July + Texas = Insane Not Ideal.), and Saturday was certainly still July in Texas. I went through two full water bottles on this one, and probably would have had a third if I had enough hands (damn you evolution!). One thing I learned is that starting at 8:30am is too late for anything over 6 miles. I have a feeling this training plan is going to see an underlying theme of good Mike vs. evil heat.
Overall it was a rough week of training, but looking back I didn’t exactly put myself in the best situation to succeed. We’ll see how next week goes with more miles and more heat.
| Distance | Time | Pace | Heart Rate | |
| Monday | 8.11 Miles | 1:05:59 | 8:08 min/mi | 165 bpm |
| Wednesday | 9.00 Miles | 1:16:00 | 8:26 min/mi | 167 bpm |
| Friday | 4.02 Miles | 38:30 | 9:35 min/mi | 145 bpm |
| Saturday | 12.06 Miles | 1:44:42 | 8:41 min/mi | 163 bpm |
| Total | 33.19 Miles | 4:45:12 | 8:35 min/mi | 162 bpm |
What is the worst enemy to running? Bad weather? Over training? 6am? Nice try. The real nemesis to running is:
Vampires
That’s right. Vampires. Let me start off by saying this is NOT a post trying to ride the coattails of Twilight’s success. If it were, I’d throw in some search buzz words like “Edward”, “Jacob”, “Eclipse”, or “OMG Taylor Lautner Shirtless*“. Actually there is a much more altruistic reason why vampires are bad news for runners.
Last Friday my company hosted a blood drive. Being the giver that I am, I went down after lunch to donate with a fancy apheresis machine (basically means I give twice as many red blood cells). Ok, enough blood talk.
After less-than-moderate activity over the weekend, I went for a run on Monday morning. After 2 miles I felt like I was running in sand with a parachute on my back in a hurricane with a weight vest on. My energy was just zapped. I struggled through it for a little more than 6 miles, but it was unpleasant to say the least.
Anyone have experience running after giving blood? I waited 2 days and still felt terrible. How long does it take to get back to 100%? I’ll be giving it another try (obviously) so we’ll see how I feel.
Details:
| Distance | 6.34 miles |
| Time | 54:02 |
| Pace | 8:31 min/mile |
| Average HR | 162 bpm |
*You deserve that for clicking the link.
No need for me to remind you, but just in case, on the smallest off chance,
if your phone alarm, calendar alert, backup phone alarm, and personal assistant all failed you: today is National Running Day. And what does that mean exactly? Well, I’m not quite sure. What I do know is that I saved some cash registering for a race. I just signed up for the San Antonio Marathon (11/14/10) using a coupon code (RUNDAY) to save $15! It’s only valid today though, so don’t wait.
After some research I learned that National Running Day is an effort to make people more active in the name of health and fitness. That sounds good on paper,
but I’m not sure that we have any health and fitness issues. I mean, I can come up with examples (here and here) of how fit our country really is! Honestly, running 4 miles (burn about 500 calories) and eating a dozen donuts (about 2,400 calories) is a sure-fire way to drop the LBs. Just thinking about it is making me tired and hungry. And come on, with ad campaigns like this, who needs a National Running Day?
For those curious few: yes, I did go for a run on today’s fine National Running Day. An average 5 miles in 120% humidity.
| Distance | 5 Miles |
| Time | 42:18 |
| Pace | 8:28 min/mile |
| Average HR | 154 bpm |
Saturday was one of those days where I couldn’t really feel sorry for myself. Actually, it’s more accurate to say I feel sorry for everyone who is not me. No offense. Friday, Ev and I flew into San Francisco and drove to Calistoga (think Napa Valley) to meet up with the family for my cousin’s wedding. To set the scene, we stayed at the Solage Resort and Spa in our own bungalow in which you ride bikes around the property to get around. I woke up “early*” Saturday morning to hit the pavement. Here’s where I start feeling sorry for not-me (aka, you). It was about 55 degrees, perfectly clear skies, and sunny. To save us both 1000 words, see below.
I headed out of the resort and traveled down the main road safely in a wonderful bike lane. I ran about 5.5 miles out, and then ran back. In those 5.5 miles I passed 9 vineyards. Yes, that’s right, 1.636 vineyards per mile! Between the
perfect weather, amazing physique (yes, that’s me**), and breathtaking scenery, I can’t really complain. I literally can’t think of a thing to say to make you feel bad for me.
All told, it was a shade under 11 miles of pure, unadulterated running in an indescribable place. To add to the jealousy you’re feeling, the rest of the day included pancakes, laying by the pool, wine tastings, and a wedding reception. Overall not a bad day. Next on the docket, hopefully running on, over, or at least near the Golden Gate Bridge. Stay tuned!
The Details:
| Distance | 10.67 miles |
| Time | 1:23:19 |
| Pace | 7:48 min/mi |
| Average HR | 154 bpm |
*7am Pacific = 9am Central. It’s funny how much “the time change” was blamed for basically everything. “I woke up at 5am and couldn’t sleep, musta been the time change”; “I got so hungry at 4pm and totally ready for dinner… stupid time change”; “Ugh, Global Warming is the worst. I hate you, time change.”
**That’s not me.
