More track work...

If you live in New England, you know it's been ungodly hot and humid for the past few days.  So much so, I did a couple of runs in the air conditioned confines of the gym.  Friday, the temperatures peaked, with no hope in sight for the next day, either.  Of course, I had a timed run.  So, Saturday, I was up at 6, just to get a 2 hour run done before the sun came up.  Luckily, despite being in the high 70s, and super humid, I didn't also have to deal with the sun that day.

Of course, it was only about a week and a half ago where I was really enjoying the weather (after the last hot-spell).

Today, I was back at the track.  And you know what?  The heat broke.  It was over-cast.  I ran strong the entire time.  I haven't felt that good running in a while.

It was the usual interval workout: 10x200m on 45 seconds, with equal recovery jogging.  With the warm up and cool down, I did over 4 miles.  It was nice to not feel super hot for the first time in what felt like forever.

I'm really looking forward for those runs on vacation.  Views of the ocean, trails, and cool breezes.  Oh, yeah, and that Irish Pub Road Race.  Should be a good time.  Love the after-party.

On a side note, somewhere over the weekend, I went over 1000 miles on DailyMile, with my year-to-date total over 400 (408 as of today).  Last year, I ran all of 600 miles (even).  Feeling pretty awesome.

Looking back...Looking forward

It's Dec. 31, 2010, and I'm looking back on the year.  First of all, I thought I ran so much more.  However, in 2009, I logged a whopping 440 or so miles, which included a marathon.  I did not do much running, except in June, July, August, and September.  Add October, and those are the only months over 30 miles all of 2009.  Somehow, I swore I trained harder, and ran farther last year.  Yet, at the end of this year, I have logged over 600 miles, including workouts on the elliptical last winter.  The grand total was 600.23 miles, according to dailymile.com.  I would imagine that the only person over 25 that I know that logged that many miles would be my MinL.

Since February, every month was over 35 miles.  I remember last January being crazy, as usual, and using the elliptical because my hips hurt again.  Compared to last year, my peak months were, again, July and August.  In 2009, I ran 113 and 107 miles respectively in those two months, but just 82 and 83 in 2010.

Looking back on this year, I thought I had accomplished so much.  I still think I improved as a runner.  For instance, my MRR is a testament to that.  Also, I found myself racing a lot, but still running shorter distances.  I've been thinking a lot about resolutions.  Last year, I made a few resolutions and held to one.  Thankfully, I logged all my miles this year.  The crunches and push-up resolutions failed.

Over the past few weeks, my mind has been going back and forth about can I resolve to run 1000 miles this coming year.  That's an average of a little more than 19 miles a week.  This would seem doable, if I didn't live in New England, or have the upcoming outdoor track season to coach.  I can get mileage in, but averaging that over the course of 52 weeks is daunting.  I struggle to make that little bit of mileage during the average work week.  Adding in coaching could make it more difficult.  However, seeing the strides I made towards improving this year, I think a moderate resolution is in order.  I feel that it is well within my grasp to hit 750 miles over the course of 2011.

If there is anybody out there actually reading, I'm counting on some support.  No longer should you be anonymous.  Please, let me know.  I don't update regularly, and for that, I hope to have at least bi-weekly postings.  That's my second resolution: we're talking baby steps.

The weight didn't work out for me over the past year.  I've gained and lost and gained and lost and gained for 52 weeks.  We'll try again.  I'll try to do more crunches, as well.  I'm not setting myself up for anything, though.

With more cold weather gear and gear for running in darker conditions, I think this will be my best year yet.  My latest doctor's appointment was moderately successful.  Since June, I had lost weight, but not much (3.5 pounds).  However, I had dropped my cholesterol levels by many points.  I proceeded to pig out since Christmas.  So, that's the other resolution.  Get some self control.  I have it with running, so I'm going to apply it to the rest of my life.

Finally, with that, I hope your resolutions go well.  Best of luck to you this New Year.

Back in the groove...

Should have blogged sooner.  The past 3 weeks have been the first of summer vacation.  With that in mind, it's also been the first 3 weeks of my summer training.  While I am not getting ready for another marathon, I've got some goals to achieve.
For starters, I'm still carrying around that extra weight that never seems to go away.  To put it plainly, I'm not going to be ready to run Supernaturally at Nike's Bear Butte Running Camp any time soon.
Okay, after seeing Nick Symmonds, I'm never going to be ready for that.  Can't believe how much play this video has gotten, though.
The past three weeks have been 15+ miles each.  It's been pretty good going, as well, with a pretty consistent schedule: M 2-3, Tu 3-4, W 4-4.5, Th 2-3, Sa-"Long."  The first week, I did a little over 4, the past two I did 5.6 or so (though I thought I was getting 6 miles in this past week)...iMixes for the 3 Saturday runs are below.  Training has been a bit more tame this year, as the weekly schedule seems.  I've been trying to be sure to do 100 ball crunches each day of July, and I'm working on the push-ups portion of my year now.
On Monday runs, I've been trying something different.  Since it's short, I'm out without my iPod and without my watch.  The only clock I use is the one in my car right before I leave and as soon as I'm back to know how long I was out.  The rest of the time, it's just me, my footsteps, and my breathing.  In this weather, the breathing has been loud.
Also, I've made a new friend on my 4+ mile runs.  Going up the hill on Rt. 10, there's an opossum carcass (that's the best word to describe it).  All that's really left to verify it's species are the position it's lying in (playing opossum), a tail, and a skull which is perpetually grinning/growling at you as you run by it.  It's pretty disgusting (imagine this, but all decayed).  But seriously, I've seen numerous species of wild life along my mileage thus far this summer.  Several bunnies of all colors, a red fox, a few awesome hawks, several deer, and a fisher cat (they're freaking hideous at this time of year, after shedding their thick coats).   The wild-life has been the highlight of the runs, so far (unless you can count when I get out really early, and people's sprinkler systems are on, and I get misted every few houses).
Finally, I turned 30 yesterday.  That meant...not so much.  But, this morning I did something I haven't tried to do in the 6 years since I got married. Today, I got up early, ran my two miles, showered, and then headed over to school to lift with the kids.  The fitness/agility/flexibility portion of the day was probably the most excruciating. Speed development, an ab-circuit, dot drill, agility ladders, and hurdle flexibility-nothing better to say "Hey, old fat-ass, you're even further out of shape than you thought."  Then we went into the weight room.  I had an A day, which meant it was squat driven (6x6...I chose to do mine with 135 as I've got nothing to prove), followed by a paired incline/bent row combo, pull-ups/shoulder press pair, and then y's and dips.  I did everything to success except the pull-ups (got nothing to prove there, either), and actually thought the pace was a little slow (kids still get a thousand water breaks, and lifting is so much more focused and short than the old days).  Then we went outside, ran 10 40s, and the football kids had football agility work to do (figure 8s, M and W drills (change of direction), and such).  That was my cue to start stretching.  I was really happy, mostly because I didn't feel awful at the end.  Of course, life hits on Wednesday, when we won't have daycare until 8 or 8:15, and lifting starts at 8.  Guess I'll miss the abs, dots, etc.  Friday is 30 mins of power stations, we'll see how I feel that day.
Wish that I was dedicated to blogging more...mostly addicted to DailyMile, though.

Done at 5:45-6:45 AM, this was the best of the bunch. Some seriously good tunes to get you going.

Best songs to run to this summer: Check Yes Juliet (We the Kings), Flathead (the Fratellis), This Too Shall Pass (OK Go [2 great videos for this song, btw]), Ramble On (Zeppelin), Handlebars (Flobots),  and my favorite to run to at any time, All These Things That I've Done (the Killers).

ShamRock & Roll

Today was the first race of the year.  A nice out-and-back 5k through New Haven sponsored by WPLR.  There's certainly an eerie feeling when you start a race near a cemetery.  We started this one across the street from the historic Grove Street Cemetery, down by Yale's Woolsey Hall.  To make a long story short, I finished in 28:20 (my watch), which is at the very least, 10 seconds/mile slower than I had hoped to pace myself.  Still, it was much better than the Finally Spring 5k I started with last year.  Plus, the temperature was well above freezing this year, and it was all on pavement.


What else made this one better?  There were a LOT of people there that I knew.  Plenty of kids from school were running, which is helpful.  They were all much faster than I was.  Plus, there was one of the other coaches.  The course was pretty smooth, with one hill that was pretty long, but not a killer.  It was actually the shorter, steeper hill that sucked.  Running up that, and I hadn't regained my stride until I was already down the other hill.  However, the last quarter mile or so, I really had a nice extra gear that I haven't seen in over a year (marathon training killed what little speed I've had).


There wasn't much schwag from this event, but I got a decent St. Patrick's day tshirt, a MyoPlex shake at the finish, and a free beer and plenty of food inside of the World Famous Toad's Place.