Category: road running

Summary Nov 20-26

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Dum Assery, fitness, Hours, Life, Mountain Porn, road running, Running, Slogging, Snow, Stand Up Philosphy, SummaryLeave a comment

Monday Nov 20, REST

Usual scheduled rest day, did some walking around, standing desk working, light stretching, and tons of foam rolling/R8 abusing.. you know, the usual crap

Tues Nov 21, 10.3 Miles, 312′ 1h15m

Very controlled effort at the rez, keeping things consistent/autopilot-ish. Threw in 4x30s fast with 2min recovery in the last 3 miles, for a little extra stimulus.

Wed Nov 22, 11.3 Miles, 476′ 1h26m

Plan was for 4 miles easy, 12x1min fast, 1 min easy, and 4 miles back, so I decided to start the run from my front door and head towards the reservoir to hit the intervals on the cushy gravel before heading back to the house. Overall I was feeling pretty soggy out the door, but perked up when it came time to put in “the work.” Return trip was plagued by some mild heartburn, and some seriously waning motivation so I basically jogged it in, slowly removing some more rubber from the bottom of my shoes

Thurs Nov 23, 11 Miles, 1493′ 1h42m

Martha dropped me off at the TH for Sanitas so that I could out and back the swoop (lion’s lair) and run back home within the prescribed daily distance. Caught a dude on his deck near Wonderland Lake blasting “Alice’s Restaurant” so I had to join in for chorus while I passed. Overall things felt really controlled/easy, and definitely warmed up the oven for some Thanksgiving consumption.

Fri Nov 24, 6 Miles, 420′ 50m

Super casual out the front door jog on the Foothills trail. Kept things deliberately easy/ controlled before driving to Crested Butte for the weekend.

Sat Nov 25, 15.3 Miles, 2014′ 2h38m

Martha found what looked like a pretty chill trail out the front door of our Crested Butte rental, so that seemed like the best idea for some higher altitude trail running. I didn’t however plan for the terrain being either ice covered, or shoe-sucking mud for the entire route, so after knotting my fists for a while I decided that it would just have to be an adventure, and that I might as well enjoy the scenery while I’ve got it. After slogging through the day (and forgetting to eat the gel I carried) i was pleasantly surprised at the overall pace — it almost looks like running!

Sun Nov 26, 12 Miles, 2264′ 2h2m

Front Door>Wonderland Lake>Goat Trail>Red Rocks>Sanitas via Swoop>East Ridge>Goat>Dog Park>Home. Threw in 4x 30s uphill striders before leaving the Sanitas Valley and cruising back home. Legs are feeling pretty solid after a big week, and even the late-run strides felt pretty reasonable.

Summary: 66 Miles, 6978′ 9h55m

Overall a good week. My legs have felt really solid through the increased distance, and intervallic work. I’d like to get a bit more vert, but that was mostly a symptom of time/location, and I’m pretty confident that next week will be ripe for some more climbing, and speed-work while keeping the volume similar.

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Looking North (Sanitas)
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Crested Butte (Pic: Martha Scheler)
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More CB (Pic: Martha Scheler)
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Summary Dec 5-11

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Cold, Depletion, Dum Assery, fitness, Foam Rolling, hashers, Hours, Life, road running, Running, Running Partners, trail running, Ultrarunning, ViewsLeave a comment

Monday Dec 5, 6 Miles, 449′ 47m56s

Overslept the 4:30 wakeup call which meant leaving the house at 6:17 on a compressed schedule. Generally the legs felt okay but lacked any sort of snappiness as has been the norm since the Fallback 50K right before Thanksgiving. Fortunately my hip seems to have recovered better, and is substantially less sore.

Tues Dec 6, Warmup 1.5 Miles 59′ 12m, Workout –6.7 Mile, 174′ Tempo, 45m13s 

Pre-dawn solo Tempo Tuesday. Avg HR was 167 throughout the workout, and the first 3 miles felt exceptionally grueling, add to that a very dejecting 6:52 split for mile 3 made me rethink the idea of tempo runs in the cold-pre-dawn hours without a training partner around to push me. Final 3.7 miles felt better, but didn’t provide much more in the way of snappy splits despite the elevated HR effort. Afterwards my hip flared up a bit an felt tight for the remainder of the day — back to fire-hydrants and foam rolling. .49 Mile cool down 

Wed Dec 7, 8 Miles 745′ 59m59s

Forecast called for snow, so rather than doing pre-dawn battle with the snow-plow man I chose to sleep in and hit my run after work. Naturally no snow was on the ground when I got up, but conditions after work were ideal, so I can’t really complain. First two (downhill) miles out my front door were recklessly quick — especially relative to the “8 miles EZ” written in my plan for the day. Legs felt confidently snappy making for a very enjoyable outing

Thurs Dec 8, 7 Miles 338′ 51m

Negatives workout with JP. JP has been espousing his regular negative split workouts running from 8-830 pace down to a final all-out mile, so I finally got myself together and joined him for a 7 mile version. Mentally the need to consistently best your previous mile makes for an interesting workout from a pacing/effort calculation point of view, and the constant acceleration facilitates a sort of fatigue that for now feels more than a little unique. Splits were 8:29, 7:55, 7:27, 7:06, 6:54, 6:40, and 6:19.

1 Mile cool down (9m9s 39′) followed by 5 Mile Social run (44m43s 337′)

Fri Dec 9, 2.3 Miles, 259′ 19m56s 

Easy neighborhood shakeout. Generally fatigued throughout the day and wanted to take the chance to recover a bit before Saturday’s inevitable sufferfest.

Sat Dec 10, Warmup — 2.3 Miles, 180′ 18m3s, Workout — 13.1 Miles 1h27m33s

Typical Chatham loop Saturday course with Jay and Jeff. With Jay and I just starting our training blocks, and Jeff in between a PR and planning his next races no one was checking their watches until we hit mile five or six. Surprisingly we were only a few seconds faster than our agreed upon pace of “45-ish” although I still can’t seem to wrap my head around how much easier tempo runs seem to get after the first few miles. We finished the workout alternating 400m pace line pulls dropping the group down to a 5:59 final mile, and according to my watch, the last 10th got to 5:47 pace.

Sun Dec 11, 11 Miles 1578′ 1h52m1s Allamuchy TH>Overlook>White>Waving Willy>SBX>Cement Mixer>TH with Pack and Eric

Woke up feeling pretty stiff/fatigued from Saturday’s effort as well as ravenously hungry, with some disconcerted swelling in my necks lymph nodes. Overall effort was pretty relaxed on the mountain, and considering the vert over the course I’m actually quite pleased that low 10’s are possible with an avg HR of 135. Great day to get out with some friends and hit up some always stellar trails.

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Eric at the Overlook
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Pack’s first Allamuchy Ramble
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Mmm, Mate

 

Summary Oct 31 – Nov 6

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, fitness, Hours, Life, road running, Running, SummaryLeave a comment

Oct 31, 8 Miles, 764′ 1h2m

Standard out-the-front-door loop before starting the workday. I’ve been readjusting my schedule lately to further embrace my inherent morning-person-ness, and that includes trying to be out my front door prior to 6am. Unfortunately this also means that the majority of my runs are in complete darkness until the clocks turn. While I enjoy the solitude and quietness of the pre-dawn sessions, having the sun fail to rise before my return is definitely less-than ideal.. next week should be way cooler on that front.

Nov 1, 8 Miles, 846′ 1h1m

Modified version of my out-the-door 8 miler to cut out some of the flat and add ~100′ of vert to kickoff the annual Highlands Hashers King of the Mountains competition a.k.a. VertVember a.k.a. HurtVember.

Nov 2, 8 Miles, 804′ 1h3m

Decidedly less spunky legs this morning, most likely the result of a few longer-than-standard office days with interspersed desk-dweller XT exercises.

Nov 3, 12.7 Miles, 1335′ 1h46m

Split this up as multiple efforts on Strava to avoid the 10 min BS session in the parking lot before heading out with the HH guys, but basically it was 2x Hillcrest + 1x Hillcrest taking the most direct route from the lot to the top of the hill. Descending on the first effort also included one of the more rad sunsets I’ve seen from the top of the hill in quite sometime making me more than a little bummed that I had left my camera back at the house.

Nov 4, 3.6 Miles 755′ 35m

Low-energy, low leg-pop repeats of the hill leading up to my house. Remarkably low heart-rate considering the general lethargy as well as the not totally embarrassing pace.

Nov 5, 13.4 Miles, 5,016′ 3h19m

4x Tammany with Eric. One of the main upsides of the HurtVember competition is the likelihood that one of my buddies will come out for a totally absurd adventure such as running up Tammany until you get either bored, tired, or run out of daylight. We were decidedly unambitious about pace, but averaging <50mins for a lap is nothing to scoff at.. (my logbook indicates a March 2012 4xTammany in 2:45, which I now feel compelled to try to best..)

Summary: 57.6 Miles, 10,223′ 9h25m

Overall a pretty good week considering that I’m ambitiously training for nothing at the moment. I had been flirting with pacing at Philadelphia, but previous social commitments have eliminated that as a possibility, so I’m back to the drawing board for this months adventure… I’m sure something cool will come up

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Gearing up at the #tonkamotel
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Tammany sure is nice in Autumn
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Allamuchy never gets old

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Summary, Aug 29 – Sept 4

On By siegmunaIn fitness, hashers, Hours, Life, road running, Running, Running Partners, Slogging, Summary, UltrarunningLeave a comment

Monday Aug 29, 6 Miles, 404′ 53:57

Exhausted post-work grind on a usual neighborhood loop. Sunday’s Marathon Pace Tempo really did a number on my system, leaving me basically useless for the remainder of the day,  and even running easy on Monday it was still obvious that my body hadn’t had the proper time to sort itself back out.

Tuesday Aug 30, 6.1 Miles, 459′ 48:37

Feeling a lot more spry today. May have been the early morning start (as they’re usually my best efforts) or more likely the increased recovery. Added an extra 10th of pure running to make it back to a meeting on time (rather than walking it in as a cool-down).

PM 4 Miles, 312′ 31:59

Kittatinny State Park with Steve, Stat and Zack from the Salt Shakers group. Tried to keep things as non-aggressive as possible due to the moderate amount of funk still hanging out in my legs This led to the group slowly pulling away from me during the last mile as I tried to keep my HR under 150.

Wednesday Aug 31, 1.5 Miles 138’14:21

Early morning Shakeout — Legs have been feeling crappy all week, combined with actually having to commute into the office led to a particularly short day.

Thursday Sept 1, 8 Miles 768′ 1h7m

Ascending HR run, still trying to stay under 155 (151 avg HR). Utilized the downhills for HR recovery which kept the average pretty low, but the final climb into my apartment is so steep that without actually hammering the last 1/2 mile it will inevitably sink the average pace for the day.

PM 10 Miles, 734′ 1h19m

Double BSL with Mark then Dave. Last few miles felt unusually good, and was one of the fleeting moments where I entered the space wherein time stops, and nothing matters but the rhythm of your breath, feet and heart.

Friday Sept 2, 1.5 Miles, 148′ 13:50

Another light shakeout.

Saturday Sept 3, 18.2 Miles, 1480′ 2h34m

Scouting run with Steve and Zach through Allamuchy and Kittatinny. First time I’ve ever run my usual Allamuchy trails in reverse as we were scouting to determine the viability of a course I’ve dreamt up. Overall the legs felt good, and even found the opportunity to slide back into the flow state for the final 5 or 6 miles, which is unusual.. typically if I get there once a week that’s a great week, but this week I’ve found myself entirely lost within my run twice, and frankly couldn’t be happier about it.

1.8 Miles — cool down 16:52

Drop the bottle, lose the shirt, kick-start the ultra-shuffle.

Sunday Sept 4, 10 Miles 302′ 1h35m

Total jog/slogfest. Nothing particular was bad, but absolutely nothing in my body was feeling good either. Lack of sleep and general malaise.

 

Totals:67.6 Miles, 4787’9h36m

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Have truck, will chill
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Steve and Zack Apres
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El Nido is all set for the runbum life
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Who’s got some Heady Topper!?
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Allamuchy Obligatory

Summary Nov 10-16

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, BioSkins, Buff Headwear, Depletion, Dum Assery, fitness, Hours, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Life, Mountain Porn, Oakleys, Random, road running, Running, Running Partners, trail running, WinterLeave a comment
Monday November 10, AM 3 Miles, 151′ 23m16s
Short shake-out type thing. Legs haven’t fully recovered from the previous Saturday’s abuse… I might still be able to grind out a 4+ hour run, but recovering from it is another story.
PM Bike, 47m34s
Local neighborhood bike ride, figured I’d take ‘Zilla out for what is probably the last ride of the season.

Tuesday November 11, AM 7 Miles, 663′ 55m46s
Overall a really desultory local road loop out my front door. I’d been foolishly hoping that a couple of days of light running/XT would give my legs ample opportunity to recover, but the reality is that the ability to grind day in and day out is probably my biggest indicator of fitness, and is sorely missing right now.
PM Climbing 2.5hrs
Headed over to the rock gym with Zach. Spent most of the time bouldering and learning better ways to do a sport that I’m admittedly pretty terrible at (perhaps why I’m so intrigued by it right now).

Wed Nov 12, 10 Miles, 879′ 1h21m
Another grindtastic day. First time in recent memory that I can recall seriously considering walking some road uphills. Suffering from a really general lack of strength, and inability to climb in any way becoming of a runner.

Thurs Nov 13 AM, 10 Miles, 896′ 1h15m
Lunch-time run with Jay. Surprisingly peppy after a few days of grind, especially when I think about how I walked down the stairs in the morning. Sometimes you just need a bit of companionship to get the pop back into your legs.
PM 3.1 Miles, 148′ 27m49s
Shakeout-like modified broken-shin loop with the highlands hashers.

Fri Nov 14, AM 3.5 Miles, 568′ 32m17s
Figured I’d hit up the power-lines with the fresh inch or so of powder on the ground. Awful time gaining purchase on the inclines combined with the shitty legs I’ve had all week made for a much slower than anticipated outing.
PM Climbing 1 Hour

Saturday Nov 15, 13.5 Miles, 3120′ 2h33m
DunCreek TH>Tammany Via Red dot>Sunfish>DunCreek>Tammany>TH. Very mercurial outing at the Water Gap. Legs were a lot less peppy than I would have liked, and the fresh coating of snow made for a lot of questionable footing.

Sunday Nov 16, 3 Miles, 161′ 21m42s
Another shake-out run… I felt really good out the door, but I was reminded of the latent fatigue in my legs within a mile or so… Ugh, failing to recover any sort of leg peppiness is getting tiresome.
PM Climbing 1 Hour

Totals 53 Miles, 6585′ 7h50m

Overall not a bad week. It’s remarkably comforting to be back in the “regular” grind of things, and while there’s still a lot of miles ahead of me, it’s nice to feel like I’m finally able to put some behind as well. I may have been a little over-exuberant in last weekends efforts, at least relative to my body’s ability to recover, an ability whose diminution I’m acutely aware of….



Summary February 24 – March 2

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Cold, fitness, Hours, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Life, road running, Running Partners, WinterLeave a comment
Monday February 24, 6 Miles 299′ 45m14s
Supposedly a recovery run, but in reality a pseudo-justified day to lay off of the residual fatigue that’s been accruing in my legs for a few weeks. Overall kind of a lackluster effort considering the light 7 miles I put in the previous day.

Tuesday Feb 25, 11 Miles, 521′ 1h22m
First run of the day, this time with a little more pop in my legs (relatively speaking) I figured I’d reroute a local 10 mile course to grab the extra mile since I was planning to help my brother move into his new condo in the afternoon, and time was a bit of a factor here.
PM 3 Miles, 194′ 21m22s
Post-moving shakeout thing. Still feeling kind of dead in the legs, but noticing that on secondary runs I seem to be able to push a little bit more even when things feel bad (most likely a result of simply trying to get things over with/generate body heat over a short distance).

Wed Feb 26, 4 Miles, 246′ 31m
Unusually tired in between jobs today, generally a combination of fatigue and under-motivation led to an uncharacteristically light day.

Thurs Feb 27, 21 Miles, 1086′ 2h38m
Long run with Dave. Left from Dave’s house to loop out Snake-Hill Road, skirt around Picatinny, and drop back in through White Meadow Lake. Usually Dave and I try to get together for ambitious slightly insane mountain outings, but with the current snow-pack it just seemed ridiculous to slog it out in the woods for several hours, especially considering that both of our upcoming race goals include entirely runnable courses. Overall I felt pretty good, even with a pretty good dip in energy at the courses high point.

Fri Feb 28, 7 Miles, 459′ 52m26s
Primarily a leg-test/shakeout before the usual Saturday grind. My legs felt pretty raw, but energy levels were consistent, and considering the previous days effort, things felt pretty smooth. Residual fatigue is certainly becoming a factor in daily training, but that’s been the plan all along, so now it’s primarily a matter of staying healthy, and increasing daily/weekly/monthly volume.

Sat March 1, 18 Miles, 1500′ 2h10m
Chester>Long Valley>Chester. Another one of the patented “Yea, I’m aware of an elevation chart when I map out a course, but I usually ignore the Y axis…” course designed by Jay. Super-scenic as far as road running is concerned, causing me to remember how nice and agrarian greater Long Valley/Califon/Pottersville really is. Group-wise, a surprisingly low-energy day, most likely a combination of people having “off-days” while trying to keep up with Jay feeling extraordinarily good. I could definitely notice Thursday’s outing in my legs, especially in the teens, but surprisingly grinding through it didn’t take an unusual amount of grit/gumption, but rather just seemed like the obvious necessity, and well within bounds.

Sun March 2, 1 Mile 7m37s
Unusually jam-packed work day combined with general fatigue, cold weather, and a sensation that I should probably let myself rest.

Totals: 71 Miles, 8h47m 4374′
Overall not a bad week, this marks two consecutive 70+ mile weeks, and a general upward trend in my mileage throughout the year (week to week). The weather is of course frustratingly keeping me resigned to regular daily pavement sessions, which are generally not the kinds of runs that I find inspiring, or particularly motivating.In spite of this, I’ve been able to manage some serious consistency (a fringe benefit of pavement sessions seems to be the general equivalence in effort required mile to mile) in the past 6 or so weeks, which is having a rather noticeable effect on my aerobic capacity, in spite of my general lack of vert/techy shit. Ideally things will clear out soon, otherwise I’m going to need to begin to follow in Dave’s footsteps and start doing some sisyphean hill repeats on the pavement (I’d sore prefer to do them on a mountain).

No Pictures in a while, so instead, enjoy some tasty notes from Grace Potter

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/jt5rKGsMKyM&source=uds

Summary June 17-23

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Depletion, Dum Assery, fitness, Hours, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Life, Motivation, road running, Running, Running Partners, Summary, trail running, ViewsLeave a comment
Monday June 17 AM 7 Miles, 940′ 49m10s Typical run through the neighborhood. I’ve been trying to dial in a more consistent road pace in the past several weeks, mostly because lingering MCL problems were keeping me on the roads, but also out of an inkling desire to hit the road for a “quick” marathon in the fall, which obviously is going to require some more consistent pavement sessions.
PM 3.1 Miles, 21m30s Short little shakeout 5k in the evening. Nothing particularly special, and definitely at a shakeout-pace.

Tuesday June 18 AM 10 Miles 3460′ 1h19m Ran on the power line trails before going into work. Ended up negatively splitting pretty hard (~3:30 over 5 mile loops) which was mostly a result of the obnoxiously long amount of time it takes for my legs to feel loose in the morning.
PM 3.4 Miles, 880′ 34m Quick little loop through the Tourne with Brian. TH is exceptionally close to my summer job, so I should probably get to learn the trails a little better by the end of the season.
PM 2, 2 Miles, 14m52s Little evening shakeout to keep the legs loose.

Wed June 19 AM 7 Miles, 940′ 49m Quick run through the neighborhood before I hit the road for the afternoon’s adventures.
PM 6.6 Miles, 4880′ 1h21m Double-summit of Mt. Tammany, I think I PR’ed on the first ascent in ~18:30ish, but unfortunately I haven’t been keeping good logs of my splits, something I’m going to try to remedy this summer.

Thurs June 20 AM 12 Miles 4950′ 1h51m TH>Summit(Tammany)>TH>Sunfish Pond>TH Crashed in my tent up at campsite number 2, then hiked back down first thing in the morning before running through the area. I probably could have run harder, but my legs were still feeling a little banged up from the previous nights run and subsequent hike. The final leg from the pond to the TH was in a blistering 31mins, complete with whooping and hollering at the sheer excitement of having 4-ish miles of clear technical downhilling.
PM 5 Miles 720′ 38m35s Broken Shin Loop with Bob and Mike, wasn’t expecting to run with any semblance of pep, so keeping it under 8/mile was kind of nice, and felt surprisingly good.

Fri June 21 AM 11.6 Miles 3000′ 1h50m Allamuchy, TH>Summit>Far Lot>Summit>Cranberry Lake>TH. Awkward combination of feeling great, and feeling kind of run down. Ascent legs were in great shape, even running portions that are usually steep enough to warrant some sort of hike, but flat-land legs were shot. Unintentionally ended up racing a mountain biker for the final 40ish minutes, and besting him by ~4 mins, which always feels good, bu overall kind of a mediocre time on the course.
PM 2 Miles 14m45s Quick little shakeout, really dead legs.

Sat June 22 AM 5 Miles 1480′ 40m47s Really dead-legged power line loop. Whole run felt like a pretty serious slog, no pep going up, no confidence going down.
PM 8 Miles, 2000′ 1:19 Semi-bushwhack, semi-trail run with Sean, Dave, and Jeff. Legs felt surprisingly poppy especially after the mornings deadness. Also took a pretty good digger on some embarrassingly wheelchair accessible trails.

Sun June 23 PM 7 Miles, 940′ 55m Wicked hot run, battling a sour stomach and generally dead legs (and maybe a bit of a gnarly hangover)

Totals: 89.7 Miles, 24,190′

First real week of trail running since Bear Mountain, and generally a mercurial one at that. On one hand it feels great to be back on the trails, reasonably fit, and able to move well, but after every layoff, no matter how small, there’s always that inkling about how fit you would be if you didn’t have to miss those days, or spend those weeks running exclusively on the pavement. Spending some time in the country has definitely been therapeutic, especially the 2 days up at the Water Gap with some tent-living in between. Hopefully my schedule will allow for some more overnight trips to areas beyond my usual stomping grounds as well as the chance to really dial in that Tammany ascent.

Campsite

Someone left a few prayers trailside…
Tammany on Thurs Morning

Crooked Allamuchy ascent

Injury(ish?)

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Dum Assery, Expletive, Falling, fitness, getting hurt, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Races, Racing, road running, Running Partners, trail running, WhiningLeave a comment
They always star out the same way: just a little niggle on a shakeout run, nothing to really worry about, you say to yourself “well, I’ll see how it feels tomorrow, no need to do anything yet” or some other trivial affirmation in an attempt to avoid the inevitable. It’s still there the next day, and the day after that, and before you know it, that approach of “meh, it’ll feel better in a day or two” has only exacerbated your little niggle into something more serious. So now you start testing it going down the stairs, kicking a soccer ball with the dog, and running across the street to avoid being the victim of vehicular homicide. Those days turn into a week, and before you know it, that slight discomfort is now something you’re really concerned about, something that might even convince you to *gasp* take a day off.

After the Bear Mountain race, I started this very familiar sequence of convincing myself that I wasn’t hurt, when in reality I was. I had taken a few diggers over the course, and one of those involved my left knee doing battle with an oak tree, which inevitably it lost. Of course during the first few days after the race, nothing seemed unusual, mostly because I was spending all of my time either sleeping, or on the couch, so it was pretty hard to really tell what was going on with my legs… I mean I just ran 50 miles, everything did (and should) hurt. But when I started moving again, there was that familiar niggle, this time on the medial side of my left knee… nothing to worry about yet, but that’s always a slippery slope.

You see like every stubborn runner, I’ve always been afraid to actually admit that I’m hurt… and this is obviously counter-productive. It’s probably a result of some misguided machismo, and fear. Lots of fear. Fear that if I’m actually hurt, then my fitness is inevitably going to recede, and as everyone knows, it’s a hell of a lot easier to stay fit than it is to get fit. Foolishly however, it seems that when we take time off for that minor discomfort it will heal, wherein when we continue to do the same thing we always do, which is to say run, on a RUNNING injury, it’s likely to get worse, forcing an even longer layoff, and the actualization of those fears we were trying to avoid.

Last year, if anyone cares to remember, I had some pretty gnarly IT band problems as a result of over-training, and then racing 50 miles. This cost me the majority of the summer as far as running is concerned, seeing as I didn’t feel reasonably healthy until roughly August, and even then, I had lost several months of maintenance-training, nevermind opportunities to improve. So, with this knowledge, I decided that this time, I’d seek professional help at the onset of my discomfort, and try to salvage my running season as best as I could. (there might have been some help from my mother)

After a visit to a physical therapist, it was concluded that I have sprained my MCL, but fortunately it’s basically healed right now (although still tender). This is good news, since in spite of my lack of posting in recent weeks, I’ve been pretty regular about running (albeit at significantly reduced volume). Unfortunately means that I’m going to have to withdraw my entrance to the Cayuga Trails 50 next week, because even if I’m healthy enough to run it, my lack of mileage in the past 3 or so weeks compounded with my lack of complete trust in my left leg really only means that running the race will either result in a DNF, or worse, an injury, neither of which am I really willing to drive 8 hours round trip to deal with. While disappointed about missing what looks to be a tremendous race, I’m much more concerned with salvaging a summer’s worth of running, and not losing several months of training as a result of hubris.

This means that for the present, I’m relegating myself to dealing primarily with road-running since lateral movements are still a bit iffy, and with a little bit of luck (and ice, lots of ice) I should be able to pretty quickly resume high-volume training, and get back onto the racing scene. In the meantime, maybe I’ll go hiking, that sounds like a good idea… and I guess I should kick that ball around with my dog more, since for once, I seem to have more energy than her.

Summary Feb 4-10

On By siegmunaIn Dum Assery, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, road running, Running, Running Partners, Summary, Views, WinterLeave a comment
Monday Feb 4, 4 Miles, 350′ :28 Short run through the neighborhood before rehearsals, feeling pretty okay.

Tuesday Feb 5, 10 Miles 2960′ 1:23 Power Line trails double-loop. Usually I positive split pretty heavily on the course (mostly out of over-exuberance, and generally bad planning) but I ran the second loop faster than the first.

Wed Feb 6, 7 Miles, 940′ :47 Local roads. I’m starting to really enjoy the mile-ish incline in the second mile (I use the same road on a 10 mile course as well). Rather than taking it easy on the uphills I’m trying diligently to really crank the HR on the ups, which I think is starting to pay off.

Thurs Feb 7, AM 5 Miles, 1480′ :38 Pre-class jaunt on the power line trails, really getting this loop dialed in, and much earlier than last year.

PM 5 Miles 720′ :39 Broken Shin Loop with the guys, unintentionally turned into a pseudo-fartlek mostly because I felt like running faster, but didn’t want to be anti-social, causing me to run ahead, and then slow to snails pace until everyone caught up.

Fri Feb 8, 1 Mile :08 Went out in the snowstorm for a quick mile, feeling kind of run down, and generally tired. Thankful for the unanticipated day off from class.

Sat Feb 9, 1800′ 6.5 Miles, 1:50 Post-holing with Jason. I don’t think I’ve ever worked this hard to go this slowly. The whole effort was a heart-in-your-throat heavy breathing nearly vomit-inducing effort for nearly 2 hours straight.

Sun Feb 10, 940′ 7 Miles, :47 Another neighborhood run, feeling pretty tired/beat up from the previous day, but my legs are moving well.

Totals: 45.5 Miles, 10,990′ 

 
 

Summary Jan 21- Feb 3

On By siegmunaIn barely coherent rambling, Dum Assery, Hours, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Life, road running, Running, Running Partners, Summary, WinterLeave a comment
Monday Jan 21, 11.7 Miles, 3000′ 1:54 Allamuchy with Jason, relatively relaxed pace, probably should have brought spikes for the last 4 or 5 miles, it was pretty slippery.

Tues Jan 22, 7 Miles, 1:04 Treadmill. Trying to use the ‘mill for some sustained uphill climbing, since you can’t really do that in New Jersey. Breakdown as follows:
20 mins @ 7:30 pace for a
10 mins @ 10% incline
10 mins @ 7% incline
5 mins @ 15% incline
18 mins @ 8 minute pace, flat, to shake out

PM 1 mile :9 Shakeout

Wed Jan 23, 4 Miles, 350′ :30 Way too cold outside (~7 degrees)

Thurs Jan 24, 8 Miles, 1:00 Another day on the dreadmill, these freezing temps and wind are really annoying.

Fri Jan 25, 7 Miles, 940′ :47 Usual neighborhood jaunt

Sat Jan 26, 7 Miles, 940′ :48 Rinse and repeat

Sun Jan 27, 1 Mile :8

Mon Jan 28, 5 Miles 1480′ :41 Pedestrian effort on the power line trails

PM 1 Mile :8 ‘Mill mile before leg workout

Tues Jan 29, AM 10 Miles, 1100′ 1:15 Tempo-ish road run
PM 1 Mile :8 ‘Mill miles again, decent shakeout

Wed Jan 30, 10 Miles, 1100′ 1:15 Solid back to back with the same pace, even on softer legs. Pretty excited about this, really.

Thurs Jan 31, 5 Miles, 360′ :42 Broken shin loop with Bob and Dave, eventually Jason showed up at the bar post-run.

Fri Feb 1, 1 Mile, 7:30 Long day, not much time for running

Sat Feb 2, 14.5 Miles, 960′ Ran with Dave and both of the Bob’s at the functional ass-crack of dawn, in spite of the low teens for temps, it was a good run, with a nice pickup at the end.

Sun Feb 3, 5 Miles, 1480′ :41 Satisfying jaunt through the power line trails.

Overall a lot of road… actually, a shit-ton of road. Starting to get back on the trails as my schedule becomes a bit more consistent, so we’ll see what the upcoming weeks look like.

Jan Totals: 217 Miles, 35,960′