My photo
Jacksonville, FL, United States
In Life as well as in running the secret is Pace.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Another trail running report

Running thru the woods today I saw a 3 ft snake... Mama always said that wild animals are more aftraid of us than we are of them.... lemme tell ya... that snake was scared! When I came back thru later I made sure to make a lot of noise... I wouldn't want to scare *him* again.

Friday, April 24, 2009

160

I guess that's my anaerobic threshold (AT)...

Out doing my tempo run today.. it was supposed to be 7 mi with 5 @ ~7:45

Summer has arrived in North Florida. Right at 90F today.

The heat... and the fact that I hadn't run a tempo run like this in a few weeks did not buoy my confidence.

After a nice warm-up mile I cranked up the pace and knocked out 2 in a row right on pace. The third mile was right on pace as well but I could feel that I was laboring a bit.

I was also really thirsty... not a good sign...

On Mile 4 I started to get stomach cramps... a couple of minutes later my heart was really pounding and I was not feeling so well. I slowed to a walk for about 30 seconds or so and when my heart rate came down I felt much better. I decided to just skip the last mile and head home.

When I started running again I felt okay and by the end of mile 5 I was close to being back on pace. So I changed my mind again and finished my workout although the last two miles were 30 seconds or so off pace.

Looking back over my training data from today... and my logs... I see the number 160 and it being a heart rate above which I cannot run for more than a couple of minutes. That's where I was at 4.5 miles today... and once I backed off... things were better.


Tip: I don't recommend letting your barber put hair gel on your head an hour or so befor you run in the heat. When I slowed for my cool down mile the gel ran into my eyes... ouch!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Walter Mitty of Trail Running



Ironic that Layne would recommend trail running to me today to help with my Ankle Flexibility


I have been exploring the office park and surrounding woods in an attempt to find some good "off road" running routes...


Today, with Layne's advice ringing in my ears I set out on a journey through the "woods" and through my own mind...


As I started... no HR monitor... no plan for how far or how fast... I pretended to be Joe B.... a guy who is fast and never trains with any sort of device... just running fast w/o any external feedback... even wished I'd left the iPod...



As I cross a Sluice - about 4 inches wide I envision that I am barreling through the woods at the Mt Penn Mudfest... I even look around for the Margaritas...



Later I'm running up a grassy bank... I picture myself as my British Friend Joel racing the a British Army flag guy up the hill.... I beat him... he yells at me and uses the word "bloody"... I smile even though I'm not sure if he is mad or inspired by me. I decide to go with inspired.



I come to a four wheeler trail... As I duck under some branches and hurdle some roots... I become Kurt from OK running on the single-track... knowing the mythical LMS had twisted her ankle and *only* managed 5th OA at some 50 miler in the Mid-West...


I come to a big pile of dirt where they have leveled a lot... it looks like a small sand dune... so I run around and over it a few times...pretending that I am Ian or Neill other friends of mine who competed in the Marathon De Sables... my shoes fill up with sand, my hands get dirty from grabbing handholds... and running uphill in loose sand is hard so I move on.


Later I'm running around another "lake" (manmade pond really)... and as I'm starting to get tired... I picture myself as Mr. Gatens... A Principal I know from Jersey running in that 50 miler later this summer... with nothing but a pocket full of Quench Gum (http://www.quenchgum.com/) and a hand drawn map on a sheet of wide ruled notebook paper.


I think I'll get a backpack... a tent and a sleeping bag... not to actually go camping... just for props to use for my off-road imagination.


Oh... and my ankles... floppy as Kermit the Frog this afternoon.


Katie Ride






We did the Katie ride on saturday. 104 miles of two wheeled fun. kinda eeirie in that the ride was an out and back and due to a flat in the early miles we were the last two riders on the road for a while.... only three dozen or so did the century. We finished strong... midpack by the end. Avg 17.3 mph.

Team Winn-Dixie:

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Speed

It’s speedwork day… 5 ½ mile intervals @ 3:15 .25 mi recovery

I did not feel very good from the start. Headache all morning…

Warm-up 1.4 miles

#1 – 3:14
Nice recovery jog
#2 – 3:10
I knew my goose was getting close to being cooked. I contemplated shortening my workout… Decided to do one more.
#3 – 3:28 – had trouble getting up to speed
Afterwards I thought about bagging it and heading back to work. I was only a mile from “home”. I took a right instead and decided to try another one…
#4 – 3:24
I was committed but spent…. Figured one more wouldn’t kill me and ergo only make me stronger
#5 – 3:28 ugly and painful

Cooldown 1 mile

Sometimes I can complete my speed workout.. Sometimes it kicks my …

I try and keep it right on the edge of doable for that reason…. I’ll never find the edge if I don’t look for it.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Bike Month

For the past 6 months I ahve had a complete focus on running... Marathon training and the persuit of a few PRs.

Most of my goals were attained with PRs in the following:

10k - 45:59
10 mile 1:23:24
1/2 Marathon 1:47:06
15k - 1:17:16

Still some unfinished business with the Marathon but....

It's springtime in Florida (i.e. early summer) and running season bleeds to triathlon season.

Towards that end... April has been deemed Bike Month... working on building the milage towards the early summer sprint triathlons and the late summer longer races.

Sat 4 April:

did the 2 western loops of this course:

http://www.suwanneebike.org/images/maps/WSpgs_3-Loop100_L5.jpg

Tuesday 7 April did an out and back on the hillier side of this course - basically rode to the letter "C" and back:

http://www.greatfloridian.com/Portals/1/Images/maps/112%20MILE%20BIKE%20EASTERN%20LOOP.pdf

Sat 11 April back to Durbin crossing (4 mi brick after):
http://www.nfbc.us/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=OW5VslV168o%3d&tabid=109&mid=503

Thursday, April 2, 2009

speedwork

.75 with 3x1600 @ 7:00 pace (7:03, 7:01, 6:55) w/ 800 jogs… I think I saw Elvis on the last one… and I composed most of the below on my cooldown mile.

Ode to the Garmin


O Garmin gods
Up in the sky
Mind my progress
As I go by

Tack my footfalls
Calculate my pace
Enumerate my heartbeat
Put the info in my face

'ere I pin a number
Upon my chest
Take the day off
Have a good rest

I ignore the numbers
And embrace the pain
I’ll never race
With a Garmin again

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

March Totals

March totals:
s: 00 m
b: 260 mi
r: 112 mi

2114 minutes

Goal for April 2500 minutes total.

Followers