Ladder Workout

Got him out of his shirt in the first five minutes. Easy street!

I got up at 4:20 this morning (surely Jamoosh was ready for lunch by then) to make the drive out to East valley and met Adam for a track workout. We like to meet up a few times per year to run, drink coffee, and look through back issues of GQ sniffing the cologne samples. We met at a middle school track and he basically did his workout while I did mine.

We embraced, played a quick game of pattycake, and set off for some 5K pace work. I had the idea to run 400/800/1200/1600 and then back down again with 400 rest laps in between. Adam talked me out of the 1200s and that was fine with me. I know there are no rules in running, but the suggestion is to run the back side of the ladder a bit faster than the front side. Hmmmmm. Here are the numbers:
400 8:34
800 8:29
1600 9:34
800 8:52
400 7:54



I also wore the HR monitor and was surprised at how low my HR stayed despite the heaving lungs and inability to talk. My overall average was 154 bpm and my average on the run splits was 164 bpm. That's not outrageous for me. Two years ago, when I wore the monitor all the time, I was getting up to about 180 bpm. It was very hot and humid this morning, which may have had the impact of making it feel like a tougher run than it really was --whatever the eff that means! Hmmmmm again.

You can't just 'help yourself' to mommy's weed!

We chatted a bit about discipline. I know that I don't run according to a plan and have trouble adhering to a schedule, and that may be a big opportunity for me. I'd like to start planning pace and distance and sticking to the plan to build improvement. I'm a head case when it comes to running and I really believe the recorded paces tell the tale. That mile was definitely tough, but what was my plan? At the start, Adam asked about 5K times and suggested that I run the splits at about 9:15 based on that. Well you can see what I thought about that! Is that why I ran the mile at a full minute/mile slower? And what about that "I'm almost finished" final 400? I think it's possible that if I trained according to plan, instead of throwing myself around the route willy-nilly, I may see improved overall running. I have today to use as a baseline, and will be able to establish a plan for the next workout, so that is the silver lining.

This was a tough workout. I'm not really sore muscularly, but I know I got some cardio work done and that feels good. We also talked about getting some S. Mountain hill work in on the weekends. I'm down for that!

Post-Swimming lesson Einsteins with daddy!

I Went a Little Bit Longer Today

Twss I know I know. Got out a bit late this morning with running partner Suzanne. We had a front yard conference to discuss distance, pace, and future plans for races. We are pretty well committed to completing our long runs on Saturday mornings, and we are in agreement to keep the pace on the slower side: aerobic, conversational, train your body to burn fat, blah blah blah. So the long run pace for "Break 4:30" is 11:00ish, and we wanted to stay between 10:30 and 11:00. We finished at an overall 10:32 for 8 miles. Nice target shooting. The miles went by pretty effortlessly until about mile 6 when my calf started to really bother me. It tends to cramp in one particular spot deep in the outside gastroc. muscle. I've been wearing calf compression sleeves and running low mileages. The pain site was giving me warning signs at about mile 5, but I decided to see what 'running through it' would do. Is it not possible that not ALL Sports medicine doctors are right??

This jackass has two right legs.

I got to mile 6 and thought I would have to stop, but kept going and amazingly, I ran through the pain and the muscle relaxed again. Love my CEP compression sleeves! So at this point, Suzanne was giving me subtle reminders to keep the pace 'on pace' through the last mile, because I was starting to speed up. Part of our plan for long slow runs is to keep the pace steady throughout the run. Not happening. Not with this ego. Healthy finish and a couple of cold Coconut waters later, the workout was complete and another happy longish run is in the books.

That's us toward the back on the left. Love Changs!!

We got together with Adam and his wife and baby and Lauren last night for an almost free dinner at PF Chang's in Scottsdale. We had been trying to arrange a blogger meet-up for a few weeks, and even though some of us had to cancel, we still were able to make it and had a great time catching up and nerding our heads off about running. Sorry Tiffany! And Hayden unabashedly crunched his cyanide molar and slept through the whole thing. It looks a lot like I will be trying some trail running this spring. There are several good locations around town and I'm looking forward to the scenery, getting my dog Norman some exercise, and adding variety to my runs.

Suzanne brought me a Choc/Mint Gu to try and I may have a new favorite. Outstanding flavor, and no crappy aftertaste. I'm a big fan of Gu, and I can easily live with 4 of their flavors, unlike some of the other brands where I'm limited to one or maybe two flavors. Go Gu, you are the best!

Anyone got ideas about what the F is going on with my calf(s)? I'd sure like to know. Thanks for reading!