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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Another Hilly Run

I met a very beat up Jake at Forbes Mill. He had fallen back on evil times and had run 5 days in a row. We did a warm up loop together and then I took off alone ran the Dammit course with some extra distance thrown in to make the total time of the run around 72 minutes. The dam was excruciating as was the backside of Jones Trail. But after hitting the summit it was mostly down hill all the way back into Los Gatos. Sections of the course was littered with stay at home moms with and without baby's. It seems to be a cult in down town Los Gatos.

Mid run, as crossed the dam I looked over at Lexington Reservoir. The water was way, WAY down and two sculling crews appeared to have had to clamber down a gradual bank of dried mud to launch their boats. The lake was about a low as I have seen it in years.

Jake ended up running two loops. He felt better once he got running but felt that out 24:44 pace for the first loop was too fast. I felt he was just tired from running too many days in a row. We had run in the 23's on several occasions in the past month and he had no problems at all.

As for me, I stayed at or under 70% even with the steep hills thrown in and my HR came down nicely once the course flattened out or went down hill. So I seem to be recovering.

Monday, October 29, 2007

4th day in a row

I ran again this morning. It was my 4th day is a row which was of course very unusual. I ran an easy 67 minutes including 8 big laps around the college track. The cross country coach was there working with one of his best runners. The guy was knocking off 400's in the mid 70's with a short rest. I stopped to chat briefly and went on running. My legs were mildly tired. I am looking forward to taking the day off on Tuesday and getting back to my schedule.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Hollister


I got up early and drove down to Hollister for the mile (except I was not running the race). My job was to pace Jake to a sub-6:40 (woe, have the mighty fallen). It is a strange race. Mostly, very young school age kids and master level adults. I jogged down to the start. Just before the gun went off I ran down around the corner and waited for the leaders to come by. I was unofficial and didn't really want to be anywhere around the start or finish lines.

As the runners began to come by, I picked up Jake about 200 meters out and ran off his shoulder. Jake was breathing very hard and it felt to me like we were jogging.

This isn't a 6:40 pace, I thought.

But it turned out to be almost exactly that. We were weaving our way past young kids who were beginning to die off and Jake, who was almost gagging, kept pressing and passing people. I dropped off with about 100 meters to go and jogged to the side of the road. With my lasik improved vision I peered at the clock and saw that Jake was just crossing the line. The readout clicked to 6:33. That give or take was his time. I jogged back with Jake to his truck afterwards. All together I may have gotten in 3 miles.

We went to the San Juan Oaks afterwards for breakfast.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

60 minute ordeal



Ken Napier (to the left) these days.....


I had a lovely 60 minute Saturday morning run over at WVC hanging out with Tom and Jake while the club ran a searing set of 800's. Of course we avoided the workout and just vegged at an easy pace. My HRM was rarely above 130 throughout the ordeal.

Ken Napier was down for tomorrows mile race in Hollister. He hopes to hit an 8:30 pace give or take a few seconds. This from the 1972 NorCal master's runner of the year. This from the guy who I chased for almost 5 years during the 1970's before I finally caught and beat him in a race.

My job tomorrow is to pace Jake and have a nice breakfast afterwards. Tough job.

Coffee Haze 4 miler

Friday was basically waiting around the new HDTV delivery man in the morning and running an easy untimed 4 miler in the mid afternoon. No HRM either. I just drifted up to the half way point on the RR trail and returned. I had consumed a frappucinno about an hour before the run so I was in a coffee haze.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Seventy-Six & Hills




I drove over to Forbes Mill to meet Jake. He showed up with a bad cold and decided to walk. I ran up the trail but cut left and followed the switchbacks on a rocky dirt trail that often was single track. Two girls were coming down towards me one laughing loudly as she slipped and slid. The one in the back saw that I was coming through and stepped aside with a friendly smile. I thanked her briefly ignoring the other one who was lost in her laughter. The trail kept going up and grew steeper eventually coming out into an open space where the trees dropped away. To the left was the quick way back down but I ignored it and allowed myself to be drawn up to the trail on the right. I could feel the angle of the ground and could hear my breathing border on ragged except that a glance at my monitor told me that I was still under 70%. There was a wooden gate up ahead, or maybe a portal and I passed through without a second thought following a path leading up to the Novitiate trail and then Jones trail. By the time I summited, I could look down on the Lexington Dam far below. Another runner came by going the other way. A woman. She was followed by several more. Women too. Were there no men out here? Oh, of course. They were all working so that the women could play.

It was a very clear, cool and sunny morning. I could see the cars backed up on highway 17 headed towards Los Gatos.

I followed Jones trail down to the road and then crossed the dam and headed back to Forbes on the usual route. A half dozen women runners going in the opposite direction. It never seemed to stop. I passed through the parking lot, didn't see Jake and kept going to the high school, ran once around the track and then headed back up for a normal loop. 76 minute all together.

Legs felt strong. My HR stayed down around 140 most of the early part of the run and then after coming down the dam I kept it constantly in the 140-150 range.

Slight soreness above the right knee. Have to watch that.

Monday, October 22, 2007

65 minutes and why the hell....

Racked up an easy 65 minute run this morning. I ran over the college and ran a series big loops around the track going clockwise to balance things out. Nice cool morning but the word is out that the weather is going to heat up some over the next few days. I thought I would go back out in the afternoon again for another 3-4 miles but in the end "why the hell would you do that" won out over "you need to do that".

My legs felt decent throughout the run. I kept my HR in the 130's and 140's. I should be nice and fresh for Wednesday at Forbes Mill.

The probable plan is to run the 2.75 miler on November 3rd at AT (85-90%) and see where I am. Then go from there. The longer term plan is simple. 3 times a week I am going to run an easy 60-80 minutes and one day I will go 30-50 minutes. Every 3-4 weeks I will do an AT run. Every week I will try to do at least one 70-75% run to see if I can chart some progress. If the 75% run comes down and the 90% run drops than I am progressing. Everything else will be at 70% or less.

I admit that the two weapons I am adding are less work stress (as in less work) and hopefully better sleep.

Over time, if I feel stronger I will go up towards 80 minutes on my runs. otherwise, I will stay down lower and focus on being rested and recovered.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

60 plus minutes, steady

Got up late(for me), had coffee, relaxed and then headed over to the Saturday workout. I would guess NOT doing the Wednesday hard made a huge difference because I felt rested and proceeded to reel off 60 plus minutes of steady running. I ran a good deal of it on the track watching Jake and Dimitri do their respective interval workouts. Jake was still tired from Wednesday (no big surprise there).

I didn't miss having to do a specific workout.

It was nice just to show up.

I am in my letting the speed come to me phase.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Easy Run

I ran an easy 5 miles this morning. Over to the college, around the track 4 times doing the big loop (including the par course) and then back home. I kept my HR in the 130's and low 140's.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Sterling Run

Back to Forbes Mill this morning with Jake. We ran an easy warm up loop and then I took off and ran the second loop at 70-75% of max hitting the top in 11 flat and coming across the finish in 21 flat. Jake was 15 seconds behind me. I then jogged the last loop as a warm down starting early. Jake caught me on the way up and blew by me on the way down. He said that he had reached the top in 10:36. By the time I got back to the parking lot Jake was in recovery mode. He had finally broken 20 with a sterling 19:56 so he was very happy.

The weather condition were decent. Cool, some wind and a threat of rain.

We celebrated by having breakfast.

Monday, October 15, 2007

80 slow minutes to heck

I ran 80 slow minutes this morning. The rain is coming later today but the sun was still out when I was doing my workout. I ran over to the track and just did big loops including the par course hill. I was following that little spike of a girl who I have seen now and then. Her loop consists of running the stadium steps so it takes her longer to get around.

I am trying to get back my slow mojo. I have been feeling beat up lately. I am sure it is a combination of those Wednesday runs with Jake and some work related stress. I eliminated the extra stress by dropping out of the start up I was involved (unhappily) in. It was one of those million dollar job. Pay me a million dollars (grossed up) and I will do it for a year.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

65 minutes While The Club Did Something Else

It took me two days totally off to recover from Wednesday's progression run. I ran for 65 minutes Saturday morning while the club did yet another track workout. I felt OK but not great. Luckily it was cool and clear so the conditions were alright. I just don't recover very well from that harder runs plus this is not getting me any closer to breaking 13 minutes for 3200 meters. I told Dimitri that once he has run the Hollister Mile at the end of the month, we'll get back at it. I will back off on the Wednesday runs and keep them at the 70% level for the most part with a now and then 75% test effort.

I have to keep reminding myself that I need to get faster at the slower stuff to be faster at the quicker runs.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Progressive Run

I met Jake at Forbes Mill. It had rained during the night but the trail was firm even though there were some low lying puddles here and there. We ended up doing a progressive 8 miler with the first loop in 23:38, the second in 22:22 and the last in 20:57. Very Kenyan of us. No question that the second half of the last loop was an AT level run.

Afterwards we went for breakfast and then went up the running store to congratulate Christine Kennedy on her gutsy 3:02:04 marathon at Chicago. It was 85-90 degrees with heavy humidity during the race. She won her division and was second masters overall. She was happy to see us but was disappointed that she didn't run 2:47 which is the "B" standard for making the women's trials. She will probably go to Tuscon or Boston and try again.

Monday, October 08, 2007

1 + 1 = 90

I moped around Sunday, not feeling very good. Mostly I was tired and slightly wrung out. I played it low key all day and began to feel better in the late afternoon.

I woke up feeling pretty decent on Monday morning. I decided to divide my workouts up instead of doing one monster run. I went out around 9 AM and ran 48 minutes slow and easy. I then went back out again in the mid afternoon and ran another 42 minutes also very easy. My total was 90 minutes of slow stuff.

Jake sent me an email. He did do the monster workout today on the dam trail. He ran it 5 times (about 13.5 miles total) with each up and back loop faster than the prior one. He said he felt sick and exhausted afterwards. I sent him an email in response saying that I was really glad that I did not run this workout with him.

He should be really fun to run with on Wednesday.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

75 minutes

I slept in an extra 15 minutes, had a cup of coffee (buffered by Tums) and still made it over to the club workout to run around the campus and track for 75 minutes while the rest of the runners were doing the "step up, step down" track workout. I finally felt decent again. It was a cool, clear morning and my HR stayed low while I motored along at a comfortable pace. When I pushed it, my HR went up around 140 but when I let off, it dropped down into the low 130's.

The Cubs lost to the Rockies tonight and were swept out the playoffs, keeping my 62 year hex alive. They have not been to the series since losing to Detroit the year I was born which was 1945. They haven't won a world series in 99 years (1908).

Friday, October 05, 2007

4 miles and the wind in my face


I ran 4 miles this morning and felt ok. There was a good wind in my face on the way back but outside of that not any real residual soreness. Still tired. Napped for the third straight afternoon. I plan to take it easy until the energy level comes back.

Marion Jones has fallen from grace. The web and the news is full of it. She admits to lying about using performance enhancing drugs so she will more than likely go to jail. She is broke (or so they say). I would say that she is still young and can do the time and rebuild if she is smart. The world loves redemption. She just has to figure the path back to self repect and stop being a victim.

I chose this reproduction of a painting done of her naked with her head turned away because it best represents her current state. Stripped naked, by her own confession, for the world to see and her head turned away in shame or maybe she is looking back at what could have been.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Maintenance

I went up to Bill Tarr's to get an adjustment this morning. After that I walked down the hall to his wife's "office" and she gave me the penultimate massage. It was a bit like car maintenance. I just felt better when I walked out the door. My legs could move and the soreness was pretty much gone. This and yesterday's ice bath are making me feel like I can run again. I realize, going forward, that I am going to have get a massage whenever I get that creaky feeling. Bill is keeping me aligned so that is working out very well. I plan to add in the ice baths as often as I need them. I have been doing them after my hard runs but I realize that soreness is cumulative so I may have to do them more often.

One has to pay a big price to be the "Last Runner Standing".

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Hoka Hey!

Last night on my way home from a client, I took a sharp right turn, banged my tire against the curve and heard a loud POP sound. I pulled over and took a look at my right front tire which was a dead flat (or flat dead). It took me about 15 minutes to change it. Luckily I was on a side street and out of major traffic but it was still tough to get the flat off and get the spare on. It's not the doing it but the tugging, lifting and pulling that beat me up. Sue and I were supposed to go out to dinner but she took pity on me and went out and picked up a pizza. So I came home, bloody (I scraped arms up), dirty and sweaty but ready to go out but we ended up staying in and watching TV having dinner on the bed.

When I woke up this morning I felt like I had played a tough, hard hitting game of soccer. My legs and arms were just plain sore. Jake and I were scheduled fora trial run so we warmed up 2.7 and then came back to our starting point. I stood there for 30 seconds while Jake got a head start. Then I went. I could tell within a quarter mile that things were not right. I felt like I was dragging my body along instead of running for a fast time. It took a long time to catch Jake. I went by him and hit the turnaround at 10:17 which was around 17 seconds behind goal. I did a short run in place as Jake came up and I paced him back in. I ran 20:10 and Jake was in the 20:40's.

Neither of us hit our goals. Jake did not break 20 minutes and I failed to break 19. We both admitted afterwards that it had not been a good day to die. Hoka Hey! We staggered through the warm down and went for breakfast.

I went home and soaked for 10 minutes in an ice bath. I get a massage and chiro on Thursday. It won't be too soon.

Monday, October 01, 2007

79 minutes

I was felt dragged out Saturday and Sunday. Not sure why. I certainly didn't burn up the roads last week while training.

I got out just before 9 AM this morning. It was cool and overcast and I ran easily, feeling much better overall. I did have to come back by the house to visit the "john" but then was out again running the railroad tracks down to Sunnyvale-Saratoga and then back by way of Prospect and Stelling to De Anza College and then home. 79 minutes total running time.

Al Oerter died today at age 71. He won the gold medal in the discus at the 56-60-64 and 68 Olympics and set a record each time he won. In 1980 he came back and just missed qualifying for the team again at age 44. He set his personal best that year. Anyway, 71. Life is getting shorter.