"The farther you go outside, the farther you go inside." (Unknown)
Welcome to a new week, friends ~
Rest day for running, but did an hour of core and upper body strength training.
I believe the Wilsonater is the spawn of the devil himself. He started in at 2:30 wanting under the covers, but I'm already having night sweats without adding his hot little body to the mix. He drove me crazy all night. "Why don't you lock in another room?" you ask. Because he would scratch the crap out of the door and howl all night like someone was yanking out his toenails. . . . . and he's spoiled rotten. I'm thinking a well-placed squirt bottle might do the trick. Hmmm . . . .
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
Sally McCrae-Choose Strong
Bare Performance
jfa
Quirt away Leslie. Geesh, sometimes I think having pets is almost as bad as having kids. Until it comes time to send them to college. Yea, stick with the cats.
Good going on your race Jim.
Nice job dealing with the heat Arla. I do believe I am becoming somewhat accustomed to it now. At least it's only been in the 80's around here lately.
Hi to Ev and Stumpy and anyone else around.
All of 18 miles run last week, but that's ok. I agree with you Arla, it may actually help me. Felt good on my long run yesterday.
16 miles in 2:36.
Good week all!
Great pace, Joe. When's your next marathon?
6 miles this a.m. with hill work. Coach Gary wants me to add more hill work into my regular runs (besides the weekend trail runs), so we'll see how much this takes out of me. He did give me some good pointers re chi running up and down hill, and I'm finding it works pretty good, but I have to concentrate.
Too often, I find myself "charging" up a hill, trying to maintain a certain pace, and, quite frankly, it doesn't work. Surprise, surprise, right? He told me to concentrate on little steps, leaning forward at the ankles, and maintaining an even cadence as opposed to pace. Of course, the last two items I know already, right? Then why does all that fly out the window when it's time to climb a hill? I worked all three this morning, adding in a better arm swing, and climbing my four little hills went a lot easier than normal. I'm looking forward to working harder on this aspect of my running come my trail runs this weekend, as well as my overall "I can run at this pace all day" pace.
4 miles this a.m. with bathroom issues at the end. This may be TMI, but too bad. The whole bathroom thing is becoming a real problem. It never fails that I get about 1-2 miles from being home and it hits with a vengeance and there is nowhere to go. The lone grocery store closes their bathrooms between 5:00 and 7:00 for cleaning. I'm either going to have to make one mile loops around my house (ugh!) or take Imodium before going out because this absolutely sucks. . . . . . on the other hand, if I could some up with Runners' Depends . . . hmmmmm . . . . . . .
Talking to myself . . . .
I didn't get to sleep until well after midnight last night, so no up and at 'em at 4:30. Will do my 5 miles with speed work after work.
[Rant On]
It's been an freaking hectic morning for me (not the ranting part), including dealing with a cranky guy who is purchasing a vehicle from an estate we're handling. The guy looked like he was in a lot of pain with his back, and I think he was at the end of his rope with our client, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. However, I felt like telling him that since we live and work in California, it is not my job to know what Oregon will require to transfer a vehicle out an estate in California. Instead, I called the Oregon DMV as he basically demanded and got what information I could for him. Long story sort of short, he left after talking to our client on the phone, my boss, and with directions to the local DMV, and after shooting me daggers from his eyes and declaring to his wife in our lobby where we could all hear that neither "the attorney or her assistant know what they're doing." Maybe a pain pill and muscle relaxer would help set him in a better frame of mind.
[Rant Off]
Later, friends ~
Still Talking to Self . . . .
I am happy to report that my 5 miles after work didn't include a single moment of with regard to the intestines. It did, however, include a butt load of traffic, which reminds me, yet again, why (1) I don't like to run on roads and (2) I don't like to run after work.
I am also happy to report, however, that Mile #3, my first tempo mile, came in at 9:02 and included quite a bit of incline. Not necessarily steep, but incline nonetheless. Unfortunately, as soon as I turned around, my Garmin lost the satellite, which I didn't know until halfway through the mile. So I'm guessing that since Mile #4, my second tempo mile, included some slightly downhill, the pace would've been a bit better. I really concentrated on form and arm swing, and it helped a lot, but it didn't take much for me to lose that concentration. Need to work on it.
Okay - Off to do transcription ~
Queen of 3rd Place
Leslie - your coach wants you to do MORE hill work? It already seems like you do a lot of hill running! Nice tempo runs, too. I read in Jack Daniels that your tempo runs should sometimes be on a track or a treadmill so you can nail your target tempo pace in ideal conditions. The trick is to then remember what that pace feels like, and then try to replicate that feeling in less than ideal conditions, hilly routes etc.
And re Angry Back Guy, hey at least you're not his wife!
Joe - pretty sure your 80s feel as hot as our 90s or 100s. Our humidity has been something like 12 - 15% in the afternoons, very very dry.
Going to run a marathon on Sunday in Santa Rosa, it's a flat, shady, double out-and-back with a weather forecast of 50 at the start and low 60s by mid-morning. Just for the unlikely chance that I can hit sub-4:00 again and requalify for Boston. Haven't been all that consistent what with vacations and heat and some work issues. But sure would like to do Boston again sometime when it's not extraordinarily hot!
Ex runner
Good luck with the marathon this weekend, Arla! Running in cooler temps will probably do wonders for you.
Re tempo work - I don't have access to a track, and I don't belong to a gym. I think I did a pretty good job keeping things consistent, but I definitely would see the benefit of a treadmill. Keeps you honest!
Re hill work - I'd have to say hill climbing is one of the weakest links in my running chain. I have a very hard time keeping a consistent pace and succumb too easily to the torture of climbing. If I can improve in this area, my trail running overall would improve considerably.
Cranky Guy's wife was just as cranky as he was!
Okay - I'm pooped. Was gonna get up and do some Core/ST in the morning, but last night's non-sleeping and all the transcription I've been doing has gotten to me. Plus, we're participating in our church's neighborhood clean up on Saturday, so I see a lot of weed pulling, etc., in my future. This is the long way of saying I'm wussing out and sleeping in the a.m. Nite!!
Good Luck Arla!
Leslie- what kind of stride are you using on the uphills? I have found that a very high, aggressive arm swing really helps reduce the fatigue in my legs while running uphill..
Speaking of fatigue, plenty of it on yesterdays run. I have once again defied the rules and had my weekly mileage go from 0 to 18m and this week somewhere around 50-55. I have done this before. It's really tiring the first week, but then I should be right back in the groove.
It's Friday!!!
Leslie - instead of a track, maybe just a flat loop? I use a 2 mi loop in my neighborhood sometimes for timed or distance intervals, it works almost as well as the track except for having to use the Garmin. It's not very flat where you are, is it? Cranky Guy and Cranky Wife: match made in hell.
Joe - I've done that before, it seems to work out ok. Glad I'm not the only idiot one that does that. Probably because 50+ mile weeks aren't entirely new territory.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Trails are hard!
Have a great race Sunday, Arla. With the temps that you've been running in, you'll be shivering at the start. Seems perfect to go fast. And I think you will.
Need a fast half for late fall. Then I need to actually train for it.
Rest day. It felt good to sleep in.
Joe - As Coach Gary told me, there's an exception to every rule.
Hey, Stumpy!
Arla - Over by the zoo, there's a basically flat square that's about .95 in total distance. I had planned on running that yesterday, but didn't account for the amount of traffic at the end of the day, plus the school was having a back-to-school BBQ. Between the cars and the people, it was craziness and I was forced to go a different route. It's not one you would think has much incline to speak of . . . unless you're running it at tempo. I just need to get my butt out of bed in the morning for speed work days and the zoo loop will work out fine.
flatland mountaineer
Have a great race Arla and hoping for a BQ!!
The whole world said I shoulda used red but it looked good to Charlene in John Deere Green!!
Support Ethanol, drink the best, burn the rest.
Run for fun? What the hell kind of recreation is that? quote from Back to the Fut III
Good luck tomorrow, Arla!! BQ! BQ!
"Clean Up the Neighborhood" day with our church. Lots of folks showed up and, starting at the far end of the street, in groups we made our way up cleaning gutters, sidewalks, and helping folks with their front yards if they wanted. We also gave out boxes of homemade cookies, and one person in each work group was the designated person to knock on the door, ask the person who answered if we could do anything for them in their yard, and give them a box of cookies. In our group of 3 guys and 1 gal, guess who got to do the door-knocking. It was a lot of fun, though, and although not many of our designated houses needed yard work, we did a lot of gutter and sidewalk cleaning. With the number of folks who showed up, we were able to get the entire street cleaned. One lady had a yard that was totally out of control and was so happy we were there to assist, she started crying. So even though only a certain amount of work was suppose to be done at each house, a number of guys, including Shorty were delegated to attack the whole yard with the mowers and string trimmers. Looked real nice when the got done.
Only had one person I offered cookies to say no, and everyone else who answered the door was surprised and pleased. It was cool. I'm glad we signed up to participate, and I'll definitely do this next year.
After, I ran 8 out at the McKay Tract that went okay, and now I'm waiting to go to church services. Tomorrow will be 14 out at the McKay with Karen and Chris, the young man I met at Mt. Hood.
The young man I met at Mt. Hood ran with Karen and me today. I'm a little bit faster than Karen and he's a little bit faster than me, so it was an interesting trio. She split off from us after 10 miles as she only had 12 to do and we had 14. After the split, Chris had me pushing things a little more than I would have by myself, but it felt good. Because of the difference in our speed, Karen isn't too keen on running with me anymore, unfortunately. Hopefully, Chris will be interested in running together once in awhile. I think his being a bit faster than me could help me increase my speed somewhat. We'll see.
So 15 miles of trails on a stunningly beautiful day. Now I get to do transcription ~