Leaving Neverland

I could've guessed that today's run would go like it did. After having that post-20-miler feeling yesterday (laying on the couch, face feeling all warm and fuzzy, dehydrated and exhausted, taking an hour-long nap), I knew that those "fartlek intervals" took something out of me. Which made today's 5.5mi recovery run very, very tedious. I was about ready to be done at 3.5mi, but eh, I can push through 45min no matter what, right? Ugh, still sucked. Legs flat, body flat, bonking and tired.

Since I'm leaving town Thursday, I'm trying not to buy any food that'll just go bad... Which leaves me with kind of limited options. I don't think I ate enough yesterday. Must. Find. Sustenance.

Easy hour tomorrow.

Sounds like your body needs a rest

Nick - Some rest and some extra calories, I think.

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Kind of weird day yesterday. First class was canceled (apparently there's a 3-day flu going around?) so a few people came over before our next one. My last class was the final day of a 5-week course, so that was kind of bittersweet. It did, however, mean we had added cause for celebration. Plus the fact that I'm not here next Monday. So we had a sizable group at our local haunt - 8 or 9 of us rather than 3-5 - and ended the night later than usual. Good times. I topped off my evening by convincing my buddy (and DD) to go pick up some Oreos with me. Of course.

But hey, you know what? I think I've figured it out again. It seems my body just responds well to these little turbo boosts. Sure, I'm a bit slower to get up the next morning, but my running for 3-4 days after is awesome. So, I'm not really feeling badly about this one.

Anyway, had an easy hour/7.5mi on the docket today. My pace fell in nicely after the first mile, with progressive splits ranging from just above 8:00 to just above 7:30. Effort felt truly easy the entire way, too.

The left soleus is back and a bit whiny, but I think this is one that'll just stay with me until I ease off this uptempo work. I'll be stretching it a ton from now on just to keep it in line.

Got 24x 200m on/off tomorrow. My plan now is to run it progressively: start with 4x 45sec/55sec, then decrease the "on" by 1sec and increase the "off" by 1sec every 4 reps until my last 4 are 40/60. That'll be tough at the end of this workout (5:20 pace!) but I think I can hold on for it.

Rest day Thursday as I'm flying to DC!

Stress and recover. Hard and easy. It works!

And I bet those Oreos tasted extra good.

Mark - Yep! On both accounts.

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Looks like I started a little bit of a firestorm in the running forum. Not really my intention at all, to be honest - yes, I know I have a reputation for playing Devil's Advocate. That discussion did give me some clarity about recent issues with me and Aileen, though. Oh yes, we have issues. As always, right?

Anyway, had a speed workout today. The first faster-than-10k work on a track. About time! So I went out for those 200/200s, starting with 45/55 splits down to 40/60, increasing speed every 4. So 6mi continuous.

I don't have individual splits - that would've been tedious on the watch - but I do know that I nailed over half of the intervals on the nose, and was within 1sec either way for every one that wasn't on the nose (except the first and last: 43sec and 37sec, respectively). If I ran one a second slow, I'd run the next a second fast to make up for it. So each set of 4 averaged the intended split, and each mile was 6:40-6:41. Nice!

Didn't feel too tiring by the end, though the first 12 were mentally harder than the last 12.

Anyway, like I've said before, day off tomorrow as I'm flying to DC. I get to take off at 6am (yippee!) and have a nice little layover in Dallas.

I was looking forward to the cooler weather... but it doesn't look like it'll be much cooler there in the mornings. Oh well. Should be a fun visit!

I had a feeling you might have been trying your troll hat on for size...

Surprisingly not. I still love a good trolling, but I keep it reserved for more anonymous forums where there's not an actual community I'm involved in. I suppose my bottom line - that didn't ever get fleshed out - was that a personal value/belief/perspective cannot in itself be right or wrong. It simply is, and for me, that's enough of a justification for having it. I didn't feel like that idea was shared, and felt pretty harshly judged for my personal values. But since this is a running forum and not a philosophy one, I figured the topic had gone astray enough and it should be brought back to the original message. Shrug.

Just don't take your toys and leave as that is hopefully never what this forum is about. I think we should all agree to disagree as that is what is most healthy (and I think everyone would agree to that!). Have fun in DC.

(By the way, I love Two Amy's pizza in DC - but it really isn't as easy to get to as I think you need. It is in the neighborhood above the National Cathedral, and when I first went there, we were staying near the zoo, so we walked there and cabbed it home.)

http://www.2amyspizza.com/

Michele - Not gonna disappear at all. Just from that thread - I'm pretty sure the goals of those involved are all very different.

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So, I got sick. Yeah. I don't get sick. Prior to running, I got sick once a year. Since, I haven't been. Truth. This is my first cold in like 2-3 years. And y'know what? I hate being sick. But history suggests I only get sick for 3 days.

It started Wednesday afternoon just before class - had a sneeze attack as I was leaving my house. Well, that progressed more and more until I was feeling really run-down by Wednesday night. Felt bad because I was staying at my buddy's and I wasn't much fun.

Was up at 4am to eat and head to the airport. I had a 2hr layover in Dallas, so the flights themselves were short. I was able to sleep a bit on both. Plus, I got paid $20 to switch seats with some guy (I'd agreed even before the money was offered; yay karmic rewards!). By the time I got off the Metro at Union Station and waited for the Gallaudet shuttle, though, I was pretty tired of traveling (going on 11hrs being awake...) and just wanted a nap.

My sense of smell and taste had disappeared by this point - this, more than anything, is why I hate, loathe, detest being sick - so dinner was just a jumble of textures and "ideas" of food. Oh, that tastes sort of like I can imagine pumpkin soup tasting. Fucking sinuses!

Anyway, Aileen and I were in bed at like 9:30 and I didn't get out of bed until 7:30 this morning. Sleep, however, was pretty meh, since we're sharing a twin bed and she's a sheet/bed hog. She punched me in the mouth and kicked my shins like 20x last night. Lucky I love her.

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So that left today. What should I do? Run? Sleep? My head was pretty stuffed up when I got up this morning, and my sense of taste was still iffy at best. Oh, this is sort of like what I think oatmeal tastes like. Yep, there's coffee in that cup. Etc.

But my body felt 100x better - I think my fever broke last night, since I woke up drenched at one point - so I decided to go out and see how it'd hold up. I had 7-8mi planned, so I wanted to make it to the Mall and run around there. Other than getting lost, the run went exactly as planned. I was able to make it to the Washington Monument, wrap around it, and head back through the ghetto (affectionately called that, of course) to Gallaudet.

7.62mi in 1hr exactly. Not bad for a very easy run coming off of a cold.

I've got 2 easy runs and Dave's suggested 20x 400m @5k over the next 3 days. I think I'll do them in that order. Then flying home Tuesday.

I love running on the mall and was down in DC two weeks ago and managed to squeeze in a run where the Washington Monument was the turn-back point. Awesome. Feel better!

I also plan to try that 20x440 soon, seems to be a popular workout. Glad you are getting better.

Bleah. Nothing like a head cold to screw up your week. I've found that, if I can make it out, the running does a great job of clearing the sinuses.

Here's hoping you didn't nail anybody shooting snot rockets all over the National Mall.

Feel better Mike. Just wanted you to know that my daughter elected to take ASL to fulfill her language requirement.

Michael - Yep, it's a great place to go. I loved when I was training for Boston last year and had a 10-12 miler on the docket so I could head down to the basin and back. So much variety in the scenery in just an hour and a half.

John - Gotta admit, I do my "mile" repeats as 1600m and my quarter-miles as 400m. I'm counting on race day adrenaline for that extra .5%.

Mark - You're right. I get angry about being sick, too. Fortunately, this was one of my standard 3-day things, so I'm feeling great today.

Michele - That is AWESOME! Be careful, if she loves it as much as 95% of ASL students do, she'll be signing to you when she comes home. Also, Aileen and I are making a day-trip out of Tuesday: National Zoo, National Cathedral, 2Amys. Thanks for the heads up on the restaurant!

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Planned something easy and short today, some of which would be with Aileen. She's kind of stopped training - between school, work, and being a TA, she has to "squeeze in" every run instead of having ample time to do it, so the stress of that is just killing the enjoyment for her - so I didn't want to push her the full 5-6 I had planned. Instead, we ran 4 together: started at GU, went to the Arboretum ("our place"), did a small loop, and headed back. I picked up the pace the last .5mi, building from 9+ to 8:30 to 8:00 to 7:30 to just sub-7 by the time we hit the GU track. Then I went for 2 laps @ 30k pace? I thought I was doing MP but I was at around 3:17 for the split. Then pushed it up a notch for a tempo lap of 1:35 and built to an all-out 100m sprint. Split was <16sec for that, which Garmin says is a sub-4 average. I'm not sure about that, but I did feel really good, really strong, and like I was flying. Then I slowed to a jog and my body said "whoa, we're still recovering from that cold, wtf was that?" Okay, body, I'm sorry.

Ended up with 5.46mi in 46:00 even (39:12 for 4.4 with Aileen).

Another easy one tomorrow then the 400s while Aileen's in class on Monday.

Here's the short of it, for you parents who worry every time I post about a long night:

Went to a gay club with Aileen and some fabulous friends last night. Didn't get in bed until 4am.

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Only slept a solid 5hr and then laid in bed for another one this hour before getting up and heading out on my run. Aileen was still asleep, so I got in my 5.5mi in a nice cool drizzle and was back to wake her up. Man, legs were just shot today. The whole body, really. A 3-day head cold then not much sleep and lots of delicious food and booze? Yeah, way to go there, Mike.

These 400s should be fun tomorrow. If they're really that awful and I'm slipping early, I may have to delay them. Or cut it short. That's okay; I've got a 6-7 weeks left and am enjoying my last real "vacation" before I buckle down and bang out this training and race.

Worried? Nah. Enjoy your youth while you've still got it, Mike. Just don't do anything, you know, too stupid.

Mark - The worry was more for Michele, with her new college student. But to be honest, if her daughter hooks up with the type of people I went out with Saturday night, she's in great hands. Very liberal hands, but great hands.

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Anyway, yesterday was a considerably more "normal" day here at Gallaudet than Saturday. After my run, we headed to the cafeteria for a 2hr brunch (between eating 4 plates of food and chatting, 2-3hr is the normal "meal time" here for us) complete with French Toast, a waffle, muffins, a croissant, a biscuit, eggs, some delicata squash, beans, and a mushroom salad. Oh, and coffee.

Then we headed to a little coffeehouse called Sova. Unfortunately, they'd just run out of soy, so I was stuck with a double (a very skimpy one, at that) espresso. Not the most enjoyable of experiences at coffeeshops, but Aileen loves the place so I didn't complain. We headed to H&Pizza on the way home. Got one loaded with every vegetable they had, vegan cheese (score!), tomato/hummus sauce, shrimp, and an egg. Very tasty dinner, even though I was STILL pretty full from lunch.

And sleep at a reasonable hour? Yes, it's true. Aileen passed out on me during our movie (always), so we were asleep by 10:30. Much needed.

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Which meant that I was primed for a better run today. Good thing, too, considering what was on the schedule. The warm-up miles weren't great, but they weren't bad. Running sub-8 pace was a lot easier today than yesterday, but I wasn't feeling spectacular during my pre-interval strides. Oh well, better just go for it.

I'm getting a lot better at pacing myself for 6:00/mi, but still not perfect. The first 200m of interval #1 were done in about 42-43sec, so I really eased off the gas for the second half and came in right around 1:28-1:29. From here on out, I'll just keep it to splits (approx.) and occasional commentary:

1:28, 1:29, 1:28, 1:28
Uh, this is super easy. What?
1:28, 1:27, 1:24, 1:27
Still pretty easy... Kind of boring.
1:25, 1:27, 1:26, 1:26
Okay, now I'm starting to wonder how much more I can shave off this time...
1:24, 1:26, 1:24, 1:25
Four more, let's hammer these out.
1:23, 1:19, 1:16, 1:17 (damn)
By this point, someone had shown up with a camera (why does this always happen?) and was taking shots of me during the final 100m. For the last 4 laps, I decided to do the following (respectively): run the last 100m on my toes as a sprint, run the straightaways on my toes, run the curves and last straightaway on my toes, run it all on my toes. The third one was the fastest and felt the strongest, and I started the 4th already wanting to be done and possibly vomit. Still, the fastest MINUTE of the whole workout was the last minute, averaging a 4:57/mi pace. So I just started that last lap weak.

Anyway, I got the kid's e-mail address and asked if he could send me any of the photos he liked (I'm vain). Here's the one he sent:

...I need to work on that pain face. It's really ugly.

Day off/fly home tomorrow. Not looking forward to it. We've really come a long way this week, and I don't want it to end.

Mike MacLellan wrote:Mark - The worry was more for Michele, with her new college student. But to be honest, if her daughter hooks up with the type of people I went out with Saturday night, she's in great hands. Very liberal hands, but great hands.

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I just try and ignore and remember the days when I was a student even if the memories are quite fuzzy

If I'm reading this right, that makes 20 400m splits? Damn. While I've been busy slacking off you've been busy getting into killer shape! Keep it up, love the picture.

Michele - I remember most of my days. Actually, I'd say every single one of them but 1. And even that one was only a 2-hr stretch. In Italy. So it doesn't count, right? How's your daughter liking sign?!

Neil - Yep, 20x 400m w/ 1min standing rest. Really not that bad, but some definite DOMS the next day. Still, during the run, I think my last fartlek was harder.

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Let's see, where'd I leave off? Right, Sunday afternoon/night. We headed out to Rasika (thanks Chris!!!) for a de-lish-ous (sic) dinner. Aileen has a picture of us that I took and titled "The difference between men and women." I'll post it when I get it from her.

Anyway, we ruined our one and only chance at looking fancy with a nice dinner by grabbing a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts (half of them pumpkin spice... yum) and some chocolate soymilk and settling into her dorm floor's "living room" to continue eating and watch 21 Jump Street.

...The whole novel I just typed up about our last day together just got deleted. Ugh. Anyway, the highlights: National Zoo (Amazonia Room!), National Cathedral, 2Amys (thanks Michele!) with wine, a walk through Cleveland Heights (and a future dream home picked out), and a near engagement. Then a short goodbye and a long way home.

I'm not stoked to be back, but my buddy and his wife picking me up definitely helped on that front. His wife got me a box of Halloween Oreos, which were presented to me with a jar of peanut butter. Gotta say, it's nice to have friends who not only accept, but enable my sweet tooth. I told them to keep the goods there and I'd just munch when I came over, then headed home. Got here around 1 in the morning. Suddenly not tired. Of course.

Sleep.

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4 easy miles on the docket today. Apparently, it became fall during the week I was gone. Highs in the mid-70s, gas prices through the roof (WTF?), my roommate making chili downstairs. I can dig. The motorcycle gets 50-65mpg anyway.

haha that's pretty good you remember most days. Most of my days spent in Chico I think are somewhat foggy but still with me! Happy to be in the space I'm in now but darn those old days are always good memories.

All I will say in my defense is that I was legal in college - that is all.

Sounds like you had a great weekend and I'm glad you enjoyed 2Amys. As for ASL, she does not start until next semester.

Nice! Glad you hit both Rasika and 2Amys. Both are awesome.

I have to find a time to do the 20x400m as well, it's the 'in' thing to do, it seems.

Schuey - Ha! Foggy memories = good ones? Are you sure they're even real?

Michele - No judgments here.

Chris - Yeah man, I'm still thinking about Rasika!

John - It's a fun workout once you get into it. The fatigue kind of sneaks up on you.

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So the great 5k TT was today. And I'm not sure what to think about it.

I'll preface it with my excuses:
-I could barely stay awake in class yesterday, and I didn't at all feel rested this morning.
-I was really hungry at around 5am today and didn't feel like my breakfast satisfied me very much.
-It's 2 days after I got back, which is typically an awful run for me (anyone remember that 16-miler I had back in February? I do...).

And the time:
18:20.

I don't know what to make of this one. Physically, I feel like I had a little more to give, but mentally, nada. I was fighting the devil on my shoulder from the first 200m, and it never really got conquered. Tons of negative self-talk, which gave me some really inconsistent splits (1:26, 1:30, 1:28, 1:30, etc.)... I don't know. I'm more disappointed in that than my physical performance. I just didn't have any sort of race mentality today. And I don't really know how to summon it.

Anyway, my splits were 5:55, 5:52, 5:53, and :40. That last 200m is why I think I had more to give, because it was my fastest 200m by far. But like I said, I couldn't summon the courage to lay it all out there.

According to the 10k=2*5k+1min formula, that's a 37:40 predictor. According to McMillan, it's just over 38:00. I'm going to use the former and say that I'm right where I should be right now.

Either way, that's the end of my 3 weeks of speed. Now into the stamina portion of my training, which I hope will help me hang on for miles 5-6 of the race.