home
about
racing
blog
photos
sponsors
links
|
home |
about |
racing |
blog |
photos |
sponsors |
links |
|
Back at school Tuesday, September 6, 2005 Finally! I'm back at school and reasonably settled in, after a crazy couple of days getting organized and running all sorts of errands. I just got a two-bike holder set up so my babies are off the ground and not in each others' grills, and now all that's left is to cover the walls with maps, posters, etc. I managed to stay in reasonable shape over the summer, even while on-duty 24 hours a day at summer camp. I've got a couple duathlons coming up soon, and then perhaps some running races to round out the year (budget permitting). None of these races are high-priority though... I just want to have some fun, and every race is an opportunity to learn something new.
I think this space will be my new daily training blog. I have one over at Triathlonlife.com, but I like this setup a bit better. I'll start the daily blogging tomorrow.
Creaky bikes and ankles I took the day off from running today, because my left achilles has been complaining since yesterday, and because tomorrow will include at least one run. The middle school cross country season is starting tomorrow, and I'm one of two coaches for what I've been told is a huge team (~100 kids). I'm really looking forward to it though... I coached track at the same school this past spring, so I know a lot of the kids, and this will be great experience for when I have my own team in the future.
I did get out on the bike for a little while today, spinning for about 75 minutes and enjoying the warm weather. I'd enjoy it more if my stupid drivetrain wasn't making such a racket, but I don't have the means to replace everything at the moment. I'll probably take a close look at it tonight to see if there's anything I can do to it without buying new parts. I guess I could ride more on my TT bike, too.
The Triple Pulled my first triple-workout day today. I ran early before breakfast, cruising for about 5 miles. After work and class, I got my second workout in by running to the middle school where I'm coaching XC, running with the kids, and running back home - another 5 miles, and not that much slower than the morning run. I got home from that and saw an e-mail announcing a cycling club ride leaving at 5, so even though I had already taken my second shower of the day, I threw on my gear and headed out the door to spin with them to the tune of about 20 miles. I hadn't intended to ride, figuring two runs would be fine considering the crazy weekend I expect to have, but it was fun enough to make up for having to take a third shower.
The XC team is awesome: there are about 50 kids total, boys and girls from 6th-8th grade. We have some good talent, including a 6th grader with a supposed 5:17 mile PR ( !), and the kids are all a ton of fun to hang out with. I'm going to enjoy coaching a lot, and it means additional run workouts on Wednesdays and Thursdays, too... double bonus!
Fried Circuits I did a pretty good job of frying myself today. Before I left for my ride, I checked the weather, and noted in passing that the humidity was below 30% this afternoon. I rode for 90 minutes, which wasn't too bad. Once I got back, I debated whether or not to run, because I was feeling kind of tired from yesterday's triple. My mind prevailed, and a few minutes later, I was out the door and I hit the pavement running.
About halfway through the run, I suddenly started to feel disconnected from my body, like it wasn't there or I didn't have control. I was also getting dizzy, and it was getting tough to see straight. As fried as my brain was at that point, I realized I was getting pretty severely dehydrated. I managed to get home without falling over, and took care of rehydrating as soon as I could. Kind of a scary situation, and I didn't really think the low humidity would be a problem at all. Live and learn, I guess.
Beautiful Morning
Cruised one of my 5 mile loops this morning. It was 70 and sunny, absolutely perfect conditions. Fall hasn't quite hit yet (although we're close), so there were plenty of leaves on the trees to provide shade. I though I was going to be more tired and sore than I was, having pulled a triple-double in the past two days, but my legs felt fine once I got started.
IMWI-inspired workouts I can't deny it: I get real fired up on Ironman race days. I love following the coverage, watching as athletes leave everything they've got out on the course. While the leaders were out on the bike, I hopped on my race bike and smoked one of my local loops, enjoying the feeling of really hauling without having to work too hard. I also ran while the lead men were in the second half of their marathon and imagined I was there (which wasn't too hard, since it was also 90 degrees in Michigan this afternoon). Aside from a slightly sore achilles, I felt smooth and strong.
I've been wishy-washy about racing next weekend. This particular race director is ok, but his races aren't incredible, and they are pretty expensive considering what one gets out of it. However, I think I should throw my team colors on once more this season and try to net another good result for my sponsors. I'll make the call sometime this week. If I don't race, I'll have to wait until the end of October before racing again, and that will only be a 5K cross country run. I'm not sure if I want my duathlon season to be over yet or not. Decisions, decisions...
Day off? Syke! I was going to take a day off today, being one of the many hellish Mondays I will have to endure between now and the end of the semester, but I got out of lab early and decided to book it over to the middle school to coach for about half an hour. There are close to 75 kids on the team now, so having a second adult around is going to be critical - my co-coach looked a bit frazzled today! I don't blame her. There are a lot of kids doing XC right now who are attempting to be five-seaon athletes, and I suppose they think they can just get away with walking. I guess the joke's on them... we will kick them off without regrets if they don't get with the program, cause we don't have time for nonsense with 40-50 kids who do want to run and improve. *steps off soapbox*
Anyway, to make a long story short, I got about three miles of running, going round-trip to and from the school, and I felt surprisingly fine. My left achilles has been nagging me for the past week, but it was (suspiciously) quiet today, so I will guardedly celebrate and hope that it stays that way when I hop on the track tomorrow. It'll be my first track workout since May, so it should be interesting, if nothing else.
Unplanned Day Off I really need to stop being such a wimp in the mornings. It's not even any semblance of cold out, and I can't get myself out the door onto my bike to ride. I need to go to group therapy: "Hello, my name is Alex, and I really hate mornings." I felt bad about that all day, because it was nice this morning and really hot all afternoon. I was not terribly jazzed for running 2000s on the track in 90 degree heat, but I got myself there only to find that a) my training partner had to bail on me because of his job and other real-life stuff that I don't have to worry about yet, and b) the high school where I run is resurfacing their track, so it's closed. *sigh* (For the record, I don't run on the U of M track because they gate off the first 5 lanes, and I refuse to run in lane 6. This is why wozzy and I are upset at the stupid athletics & club sports departments.)
I probably won't fall too far behind where I want to be, even with an impromptu day off, but I might have to get a track workout in on Thursday evening at the other high school in town, which would mean I'd be tripling up again. Could be interesting. Or I'll hit the track Friday evening, when nobody will be there anyway, and just run twice on the roads Thursday. Oh, the possibilities.
A ridiculous day Today was destined to be weird. I woke up at 8 AM thinking - or perhaps subconsciously hoping - it was Thursday, and my first thought was "Better go get some food so I can get on my bike at 9." While I knew I had to go get food, I then realized that I couldn't ride in the morning because of my lecture at 8:30. I think that really disappointed me, because I was in a semi-bad mood for a while this morning. I slogged through my 4.5 hours of class today, including a quick lunch stop at the hot dog cart for a dog and soda (what a wonderful lunch, eh?), and headed out to coach. I got to run with the fast kids for a little while, and talked with a couple of them, and helped get our kids across the major intersections. We have about 75 kids running cross country right now, which is a lot even for two people. Before we started running, I left my key cards - one for my meals and building access, one for my room - in a backpack, thinking it belonged to the other coach. Wrong. I forgot to get my key cards at the end of practice until after all the kids had left, and it was then that I discovered that the backpack I had put my cards in wasn't the other coach's. I sprinted to the bus to see if any of those kids had it, but whoever took it home must have been on one of the buses that left early. What did that mean? I had to run back to campus and get a new building ID card made, which was free (thank you, amnesty period), and then get a temporary room key at my dorm's front desk. My building card didn't activate for a while, so I had to sneak in like a thief, and then I found out that my room key didn't give me access to the bathrooms. So, I made another trip up to the frint desk to get it recoded, which they normally don't do, in the hopes that I will get my real room key back tomorrow at practice and be able to return the temp key without paying for it. Then I had a bike ride, a fast dinner, and a club meeting, and now I need to find the motivation to start working on my student teacher application that is due Friday. And there are probably six or eight other things I need to do tonight too.
I really want tomorrow to be less insane.
Triple Thursday It's my version of "Thirsty Thursday", except without the drinking! My first run was early in the morning for about 6 miles. Felt reasonably good, but I remembered how much I dislike running before breakfast. On the upside, the orange juice tasted all that much better. I ran again in the afternoon with the middle school cross country team. Today was a time trial day, and our fastest guy ran the 1.6 mile course with me in just under 10 minutes. Not too bad for an 8th grader! We have some other fast kids, too, with our top five finishing under 12 minutes. I was definitely not that fast when I was in middle school! After practice, I threw on my riding gear and went out for a ride with some of the cycling club folks. We didn't go very fast, so I didn't suffer too much and the 27 mile loop we rode was tons of fun. I was pretty tired, but I managed to rehydrate fairly well and the weather was very pleasant: 70 degrees and cloudy, with a cool breeze.
It's getting hard to stay awake now (at 9:15), but having finished my student teaching application a little while ago, I can now just relax, get a snack, and go to bed early.
Frustrating Friday I guess things could be worse, but... I woke up to chilly temps and steady rain, which was not very exciting at 8 AM. I was pretty beat from yesterday, so getting through my morning classes was difficult, especially because the hot drink machines in one of the big academic buildings wasn't working. Boo that. I had a PE Club meeting, and then decided to take on the Financial Aid office. A little history: This is my seventh year as an undergraduate, and as such, this school doesn't seem to know what to do with me, because I have about 160 credits right now. I have been declared inelligible for financial aid for more than a year now, because of some "satisfactory academic progress" rule. I could understand this under some circumstances - like if I sucked at life and was really dumb - but I am where I am because of transfers, and so being in school this long is not entirely my fault. I can't help it that transferring into a teaching program means extra time in school because Latin 1 doesn't get me anywhere in a Physical Education program. Right now, the Financial Aid office is telling me that I cannot borrow enough money to pay for school through a private source (I haven't been able to borrow federal aid for a couple years now). What is ridiculous about this situation is that for the past two or three semesters, I have taken out private loans without any issues. Apparently they chose this semester to be the one where they push me to the edge of lunacy, and if they go any further, I may show up in their office with a bat and start breaking people. I'm fed up with jumping through their hoops and filling out their paperwork. For as much as this school costs as an out-of-state student (get this, almost 44 grand this year), you'd think they could get their act together a bit more. The end result of today's battle royale was filling out an appeals form that will be taken to some committee on Monday, who will probably sit around a table and yap at each other for a couple hours and then decide to screw me over just for fun. I have no idea how I will pay for school if they decide to be jerks about this whole process, so I'm trying not to think too much about that possibility. Fortunately for the world, I hadn't yet gotten to training today, so I had a chance to blow off some steam by putting together a decent brick workout. It stopped raining in the early afternoon, so it was mercifully dry for my workouts, and the temperature was almost perfect at 63 degrees. My legs weren't really tired from yesterday, so I managed to work pretty hard on the bike for about 90 minutes, and then cranked out a smooth half-hour run. More importantly, by the end, I had forgotten about my frustrations.
On a side note, I've decided that if I manage to qualify for a pro duathlete card by the end of 2006, I am going to need a coach.
Just do it With all due respect to Nike (only cause it's a copyrighted phrase), "just do it" has become my mantra lately. It's been getting increasingly hard some days to find enthusiasm for training. This is not to say that I hate doing it, because once I am out the door, I'm fine and enjoying whatever workout session I'm engaged in. It's getting out the door that can be difficult, and I think it's mostly a factor of how tired I am all the time. I slept in a bit this morning, which was wonderful, and after lunch, headed out for a 2 hour ride. I was supposed to meet someone for some hill repeats shortly after finishing my ride, but he never showed up, so I just cruised around for about half an hour instead.
My running has been going really well lately, which kind of surprises me. I've been running more mileage than I usually do, because I'm trying to lift myself up to a higher level of running. Normally when I increase my mileage, I'm wracked with soreness and assorted minor injuries, but (knock on wood) so far my legs have been holding up quite well. I'm going to hold myself to this particular volume of running for a while, perhaps most of the fall, and maybe try to increase it a bit more after the winter holidays. If I can run a couple more times a week than I do right now, that would be fantastic.
Double Run Sunday I couldn't sleep last night for a while - probably had to do with the cafe mocha I had in the evening while reading Stephen King. I turned in at midnight only to wake up at 1:30 and not be able to fall alseep until after 5 AM. Fortunately, I didn't feel bad when my alarm went off at 9. I'm not entirely sure why, but at the end of last week, I scheduled two runs for today. I decided I wanted to run long, so I headed out for an hour (long for me these days) and hit some of my favorite trails. It was in the low 60s and sunny, almost perfect conditions for a long run. I kind of made up the 9-mile route as I went, and fortunately I was able to plan a couple water fountains in, because I had neglected to use my Fuel Belt. After I finished, I figured I might be done for the day, but elected to wait and see how I felt closer to dinner. After chilling out for most of the afternoon, I decided I'd see what I could handle on a second run after all. I wound my way through a neighborhood I don't normally cruise through, and put in about 4 miles by the time I got back to the dorm. My legs are feeling pretty tired, but not unreasonably so. The real litmus test will be how they feel tomorrow when I'm coaching at the middle school, since I run to get there and back on top of what I run with the kids.
Unknowingly, I hit the 40-mile mark for the week today. I haven't run that much in a week since my freshman year in college when I ran XC for Kenyon (six years ago). I was surprised to find that out, but also pleased because my legs have been holding up quite well lately. I'm not going to consciously try to hit 40 miles a week from now on, but my hope is to keep myself in the 35-40 range for a while and see how my body adapts. (My average for the past couple of years has been in the 25 mile per week range.)
A case of the Mondays OK, I admit that today could have been a lot worse, so I didn't really have a case of the Mondays. It wasn't really all that bad. Maybe I should have saved the title for later in the semester. *shrug* Being bogged down with classes, I'm forced to take it easy on Mondays, so the only training I manage to fit in is in conjunction with my coaching job. Today we did about 2.5 miles with the kids, and I ran most of the way with our phenom 6th grader Kevin. Neither of us were feeling great today - I was pretty tight and fatigued from yesterday's runs, and Kevin was recovering from a trail 5K he ran yesterday (he broke 21 minutes, so I can imagine he was sore too!) - but we managed to pick up the pace at the end and pass most of the 8th graders in front of us. It's crazy how good going faster can feel sometimes.
Other than that, I've been running around trying to get reading assignments done, getting audited so I can graduate in April, and starting a few preliminary job searches. I have no idea how soon people will start posting teaching positions for next school year, but I figure it can't hurt to keep my ear to the ground for now - I might run across something early and be set by the time I graduate.
So tired "Do you live in Michigan?" asks another student. "No," I reply. "Where are you from?" he inquires. "The State of Exhaustion." *awkward pause* Well, that's what it would be like if I didn't actually answer Pennsylvania. I haven't had dead legs like these in a long time, and I'm loving it. I guess there's some perverse pleasure in knowing that I'm pushing against my limits, treading that thin line. It'll probably bite me in the rear once I start having to do lots of schoolwork - the work load so far has been laughable - but until then, bring on the misery. I rode for an hour this morning, trying to keep my legs spinning. I really want to get a compact crankset for my road bike, so I can really spin on easy days and take it easy. I miss the days, two or three years ago, when I used to ride a ton, and half of them would be what my riding partner and I called "140 rides": we didn't let our heart rates go above 140, about 70% max for each of us. We would end up in some really low gear like 39x21 for most of it, and we'd go out for two or three hours at that pace. So much fun to totally relax in the saddle, shoot the breeze and enjoy life. I need to teach someone else how to do that so I have someone to share that with again.
I had class until almost 6 PM, and once I got out of lab, I forced myself into my running shorts and shoes, and kicked myself out of my room. It took a while before I warmed up, and I had to concentrate the whole way to hold good running form, but about halfway through the 6-mile cruise I started to feel OK. It's catching up with me now though, so I'll be turning in really early tonight to get some extra sleep.
Tired like woah I am completely shelled. Ran with the middle school xc team this afternoon, following a morning full of classes. It was pretty hot and dry out, so we were all feeling it today. We ended up just finishing up a bit early so kids could cool off and weren't being overstressed.
Shortly after that, I jumped on my bike and rode with the cycling club group ride. We rode some really sweet dirt roads that I had never ventured onto before, and it was a ton fo fun. No traffic, only the occasional nasty washboard section, and tons of shade. It was a lot more tolerable than being out on the pavement, and it was a nice change of pace. The sprint finish was a change of pace, but more painful than nice.
I'm noticing a trend... I've been dropping hints to myself for the past few days: take a rest week, idiot. Being tired all the time ought to be obvious enough... Today was actually really low-key. It was raining and I felt like roadkill this morning, so I didn't ride before class. I got some running in with the middle schoolers, but had to bag the track workout because of thunderstorms. All in all, not much considering it was supposed to be a Triple Thursday, but I'm flexible. Tomorrow will probably absorb those missed workouts, because all I have planned is a ride in the afternoon anyway. I can probably squeeze in a run before classes start in the morning, and then run again between classes and my ride.
I really need to sit down and put together a plan for this fall. I'm not exactly going about my training willy-nilly, but I need to plan out my rest weeks, long workouts, etc. I've been slacking on that because of how tired I've been, but my goal for the past three or four weeks is to just get myself going, and now that I know about how much I can handle, it's time to organize things a bit better. I'll work on that this weekend.
Feeling better I was kind of tired all day, but my 5-mile run and 35-mile ride felt a lot better than I expected. My shins are feeling a little tender when I run, but I didn't have to work to hold form today, and I just cruised at whatever pace felt comfortable, trying to avoid pushing the pace at all.
I felt a lot better on the bike, riding with the cycling club. I pulled for most of the ride, trying to keep our no-drop ride at a reasonable pace (otherwise we ould have dropped one of the freshmen), and we explored a couple new roads that are a modification of one of my favorite loops. It was great weather too, mid-60s and sunny, and I donned arm warmers once the sun got near the horizon. I couldn't ask for a nicer ride.
Triple the pleasure, triple the fun... Triplemint gum? Nah, just another day at the office. Ran in the morning, cruising for about five miles. I was hoping to do an early ride/run brick with some of my Cadence Cycle teammates, but nobody RSVPed and I chose to get an extra couple hours of sleep instead. I'm starting to feel little aches and pains in my legs, and once I get through tomorrow, I'll take it pretty easy for a week to let my body recover.
I decided to move my brick to the afternoon, and it ended up being 90 minutes on the bike followed by a fast 4-miler immediately thereafter. My legs were sore on the bike, but felt better on the run - especially when I lost feeling in most of my body near the end. That was interesting.
Ready for some rest It's been a really long week of training, and I'm finally staring a rest week in the face. I put in about 5 miles this morning, slogging through a sudden wave of extreme humidity (it was gross) before the current rainy system hit. I managed to run right around my typical average pace these days (6:30s, give or take :10/mile), but I thought I was going a lot slower because of how tight and sore I felt. I've now managed four 35+ mile running weeks in a row, including 12 days in a row of running going back to early last week - I'm impressed that my legs have not fallen apart. Some of the muscles on my inner right shin are nagging me right now, but the achilles tenderness I had a few weeks ago is gone, and my knees have given me no grief at all. This is a really good sign for future training, since this is the first time as a self-coached athlete that I've logged mileage like this, and it can only benefit me to continue to build a base at this level. If I can keep it up through the winter, I will be able to boost my mileage a bit more as I begin preparations for the next racing season, and who knows how much faster I'll be able to run. This might be what does it for me, what pushes me up to the next level of competition that I've been striving for.
Knock on wood, of course. I'll have to be really careful and smart about how I build my training schedule, because I've been injury-prone throughout my entire 11 years of running. The past year has been one of progress - as opposed to several previous years of frustration - so I will take what I have learned about my body and mind and put that knowledge towards the pursuit of blowing people's doors off in the spring.
Go me! So much for starting off my easy week on a good note: I stayed up way past my usual bedtime to read a book I should have been reading all of last week (yeah, it's totally my fault, and totally avoidable, but I'm an undergrad ), and I was out of sorts all morning because of it. *sigh* Way to go me. I tripped and fell while running today. I was not apying attention, and I stubbed my left foot on a section of uneven sidewalk and went flying, Superman-style. I'm not badly hurt - I scraped up my knee, which bled nicely all of practice (the middle schoolers were duly concerned), and bruised my ego - but it was embarassing when a minivan turned around on the road so the driver could ask me if I was alright. I've put in 900 miles of running this year, trip-free, and then *bam*. I guess either it's similar to how all cyclists fall eventually, or I'm just a clutz. *sigh* Way to go me.
At least I didn't make any other bonehead moves today. And I have a new compact crankset on the way for my road bike, whose cranks are really worn out (9000+ miles on them now), and I also asked for 36-tooth small rings so that I'm not completely spinning out. I like to spin, but 34x23 is a bit ridiculous. I think the new crankset/bottom bracket - a Mega-Exo system from FSA - will solve the creaking/clicking problems I've been having, and will allow me to finally enjoy riding my road bike again.
Day off (completely)
I amazed myself by resisting the temptation to train at all today. I spent a good deal of the day in class, which helped, and then after classes (which ended just ebfore 6 for me today), I ate dinner and sat down to a 5-hour marathon of Macromedia Flash - I'm working on a new website, as if I didn't have enough of them already, and I made a really sweet Flash intro movie for it. I wish I knew how to make those little "loading" scripts that appear as the computer downloads the file, because that would be the icing on the cake. Alas, I'm a mere novice at such things, so I'll either have to do some research about it tomorrow, or not worry about it at all (or if anyone knows how to make them and will share the info, I will love them forever!).
Easy Squeezy Nothing strenuous today, at least not on the training front. I got a handful of miles in running to the middle school and back to coach, and rode for an hour shortly thereafter. It was windy, but I didn't work too hard. I did still feel some soreness in my legs, which means I'd better get some good sleep in the next few days.
The hardcore stuff happened this evening, as I taught myself some neat tricks in Flash. My website project is crawling along, but I'm satisfied with my Flash intro now, so I can move back to coding the rest of the pages. I've now spent about 9 hours in the last two days on this Flash project - it's a darn good thing it's awesome.
Caffeine and spikes We had a cycling club meeting/dinner cookout/party this evening, and I drank four cans of Coke. I love the stuff, but I really should not have had that much (or any) caffeine. I just hope I can get to sleep tonight. The middle school XC team has a meet tomorrow (I'm probably more excited than they are about it!), so we had the kids who got school spikes bring them to the race course today. I also brought mine, since it's been a long time since I last spiked up. We did a run-through of the race, including running the course all the way through - 2 loops, which supposedly equals 1.8 miles, but I think it's closer to 1.6. I couldn't help myself, and started out hard with the front runners and just kept blazing from there. I set a fast pace for our number one guy (ok, I dropped him), and he ended up running a really fast time because I was ahead of him. Too bad he's probably the fastest kid in the city right now, so he may not have anyone to really push him tomorrow.
So far, the rest week has been pretty restful, aside from losing a little sleep most nights for one reason or another. I think it may even be too restful because I haven't put in much time running or cycling at all, but the next couple days will make up for that a bit.
I love cross country! My middle schoolers had their first of two XC meets today, and I think I was more excited than they were. I've missed cross country so much since I left Kenyon (I ran varsity there for two years), and it is so much fun being a coach! I shouted myself hoarse during the race, and our boys did absolutely amazing! They run on a 1.6 mile course, and our top guy won the meet going away, with a time of 9:11. Not too shabby for an eighth grader! The rest of our top seven, including two sixth graders, also stepped it up, and I think they were all in before the 11:00 mark. The next four guys down were hot on number seven's heels, and I'm sure they displaced some of the top seven runners from other schools. Huge amounts of fun, but I'll be happy not having to deal with replacing spikes in kids' shoes for a while. This week has been really chill - I've been logging pretty low mileage with the XC team, and I've been on the bike twice since Monday. Today was more of the same, except our group ride ended up being INSANE. Before long, I was looking down and seeing 23s, 24s and 25s on my computer. We started out at 5:45, and we ended up finishing after the sun set. Not wanting to be caught out when it got really dark (non of us had lights), we ended up really cranking hard for most of the ride. Not exactly an easy workout for a rest week, but I'll survive. It'll be nice to get my compact crankset (which I'll have in the next 4 or 5 days, when my sponsor returns from Interbike) because I really dislike riding on a 53-tooth big ring.
September Stats:
My legs don't like me Yesterday's ride really wasted my legs, so when I got on the bike this morning for a ride with my training partner Matt West, I felt pretty bad. We took it pretty easy on the way out of town, stopped for hot cider and doughnuts at a cider mill, and felt good enough to pick up the pace on the return trip. We transitioned quickly into a run, but Matt had to turn around early because of a nagging calf problem. I ended up running one of my favorite 5-mile routes and loved it (excpet for the cider-induced cramp near the end).
I'm going to need some good sleep tonight, especially because tomorrow I will be headed out to marshall the cycling club's mountain bike race and take photos for the club. I might get to run late in the day, but I expect it'll be pretty chill.
Back to the grind
Today was the last day of my rest week before another cycle of hard training. I spent most of the day at the Michigan Cycling Club's mountain bike race. I was up at 5:45 this morning to get there, and I got back a little after 6 PM. It was a LONG day. I had dinner on the road, so I went out for a run at 7 to get the legs moving and dump some endorphins in my system. I'm gonna need them... I have a decent amount of wrok to do, and precious little energy with which to do it.
And for my next trick...
... my legs will now fall completely off of my body and walk away in anger. I guess I'm paying the price for 5 hours of sleep Saturday night, because I felt like a** all day. I ran out to coach and I just never felt like I got warmed up: my legs were tight the entire time, and I felt sluggish. I'm going to put in a solid night of sleep tonight and hope that does the trick.
Small coincidences I'm still recovering from my really long day on short sleep Sunday, but my legs are feeling more normal today. I rode for an hour in the morning without straining too hard - although it was pretty hot for October around here - and ran 5 miles this afternoon just before dinner. Small coincidences: As I neared the end of my run, I saw a couple guys I used to run with and stopped to shoot the breeze for a bit. Turns out they've taken the running club and changed a lot of things, so I might have to join up with them and see what's new. It would be nice to have fast people to run with once in a while. I spent more time talking to them than I intended, so I trucked the rest of the way home so I wouldn't miss the dining hall serving hours. As I round the corner into the courtyard of my building, I am greeted by none other than Nick Willis, one of the fastest varsity runners in school history. We don't know each other, and the encounter doesn't really mean much of anything, but it was cool that he said "what's up" as I walked past. After showering, I went to the dining hall and ended up eating with people, which doesn't happen often for me (my schedule is just weird like that). I got to relax and talk at dinner, which is one of my favorite things to do. Kinda cool how sometimes random choices lead us to certain chains of events.
And now I'm going to sleep for as long as I can.
Group rides = pain My legs don't work properly this evening. I ran with my middle schoolers in this last day (I hope) of extreme heat, and then hopped on my bike about an hour after practice ended to go on a 30-mile group ride. Well, it turned out to be three of us, all of whom are pretty fast, and we pushed the pace the whole time. AND we sprinted, several times. AND I pulled most of the ride. Ouch.
I almost fell down some steps a little while ago because my muscles refused to do any work. It was kind of scary. And painful (in the sore muscles sense, not the faceplanting sense, since I stayed upright).
Catching up with technology Slowly but surely, I am clawing my way up from behind the technological curve. I bought a jumpdrive today, so I can take some website files with me over the weekend and work on them on my dad's laptop while I'm out of town. The jumpdrive is pretty sweet (although small... this one's 128 megs), and now I can carry school files around if I need to, instead of trying to e-mail them to myself or whatever. Still don't have an mp3 player of any kind though, so no music on rides yet. Maybe I'll ask for one for Christmas. Ran twice today, and I'm not nearly as sore as I thought I would be after yesterday's painful ride. Recoverite is doing its job, apparently. We took the middle schoolers over to the xc course and ran it in reverse. The other coach originally told them we were running it backwards, so all the kids thought we were literally running facing backwards. That would have been both hilarious and pretty scary at the same time, knowing some of our kids!
We finally got a key for the outdoor track (see Kelly's blog), so we got to run in lane 1 tonight. This was my first track workout since late May or early June when I was keying up for Nationals, so I had no idea how it would go. I ran my 1200s on 4:15 - a hair faster than my planned 5:44/mile pace - and felt great. It was wonderful slipping into my flats and logging a few turns around the track again.
Double Run Sunday #2 I drove out to my grandparents' summer house in the middle of Ohio on Friday, to help my parents take the boat and dock out of the lake. Weather was really unpleasant yesterday though, so not only did we not get any of that done, I also stayed indoors and took a full day off. I felt kind of bad about that, but I did get intimate with my drivetrain (had to reset my front derailleur, clean my rear derailleur, and take a couple links out of my chain because of the conversion to a compact crankset).
I ran early this morning, getting about half an hour in, and then we did get to work. After a tough morning of labor, we managed to finish everything up, ate lunch, and then I drove back to school. I got a good hard 5 miles in once I returned the rental car, so the weekend was not a total waste. I'll need to get more riding in this week, though.
Easy does it
My left leg feels completely out of alignment today - in several places, it feels like a tendon or muscle is not in the right spot, and it hurts. I'm able to run on it, but walking has been painful all day. Hopefully it'll be better tomorrow.
Legs = not happy
I think my legs are mad at me. They were pretty tired, tight and sore today, and my run was not very confortable. It's probably leftover soreness from Sunday. I managed to slog through five miles, so the day wasn't a complete write-off, but I was too tired to ride this morning - I would have probably fallen off my bike had I tried. My Mondays and Tuesdays are awful, and I really can't wait for the semester to end.
I think my legs just fell off Let me check the floor... wait... yeah, there they are. They just crawled under the desk, whimpering with pain. Not sure why they are as sore as they are, but today was a real struggle. I ran with the middle schoolers - we only have two more practices before their last meet - and I was distracted enough to ignore my legs while I was with them, but on the way home from practice, I started really hurting. I had a run-bike brick scheduled, so I climbed into my riding gear and took off for almost two hours. My legs proceeded to tell me (in no uncertain terms) that they were very displeased with me, and they promptly fell off after I got out of the shower. That's kinda bad, because I need them in order to get to dinner.
C'mere, you two...
Addicted to track You'd think I would learn to slow down or take it easy sometimes, but I never do. As a consequence, I hurt. I ran out to the middle school this afternoon, and I wanted to just lay down and die. I can't remember many times when I've felt that sore, and it was a real struggle to keep from just stopping. I decided to pace our 6th grade phenom today instead of our really fast 8th grader, which gave me a bit of a break. Running back to my dorm was not pretty, though.
I did some hard-core recovery once I got back, determined to at least make it to the track tonight. Between dinner and a good protion of recovery drink, I felt better on the run to the track, and our 4 x 1200 threshold intervals felt a lot better than I expected. The first one hurt, but as I warmed up and got into the groove, everything started clicking again. I'm tired and a little sore now, but not as bad as I was this morning.
Everything is orange It must be fall, because there's a lot more orange around. Aside from some of the amazing maples doing their fall color thing, as I sit here the last rays of sun are a nice orange on the horizon, the streetlights are glowing orange(ish) and my lava lamp's goo is orange (in purple fluid... see below). I was not as sore today as I was yesterday, but I was pretty tired. I did a run-bike brick (yes, run-bike... it's a duathlete thing) - 5 miles followed by a hard hour of riding with the cycling club. Our average would have been better if we hadn't dropped anyone, but I was in the big ring most of the time and working fairly hard. I hope I can get more of those kinds of bricks in, because they simulate how duathlons feel.
I take my state teacher certification tests tomorrow. Don't think I will get any training in, since testing is an all-day affair, but I could use a day off anyway.
Super Sunday Today went pretty well. I know this because I am a) really tired, but b) not frustrated at life and everything. I took the day off yesterday because of my teacher certification tests. I took the Basic Skills test, needed so I can student teach, and the Physical Education subject test. I came out of both test sessions feeling really good about how they went. I won't find out my scores until the middle of next month (by which time I will have forgotten about the tests, I'm sure), but I expect I passed with flying colors. It's a big relief to not have them hanging over me, and to know that as long as I pass my student teaching, I'll get my state certification next spring. I woke up early this morning to train with Matt West , who just got back from a business trip to Florida. We bundled up and put in 90 minutes on the bike, fighting a cold & nasty headwind for the second half of the ride, and then transitioned into a track workout of three threshold (5:44/mile) miles. My legs were not terribly amused by running reasonably hard after getting off the bike, but I really feel that this type of workout will benefit me if I keep doing them. I need to teach my legs how to run hard off of the bike, and this will certainly do it. Our plan is to make the bike-track brick a weekly thing, so I'll have two track workouts a week from now on. After lunch, I went to the Michigan hockey game with my friend Christian, and we watched them dismantle Merrimack. They scored 6 goals in the first period, and when we left with 7 minutes to go in the third, the score was 9-2. Definitely a good time. I threw on my shoes again once the hockey game was over and logged some more time on the road. I put in another 5 miles, and my legs held up fairly well. I'm excited about this week coming up, because I don't have class tomorrow or Tuesday (yay fall "study" break!) and I'll have lots of time to train on days when I would normally spend way too much time in class.
I'm thinking very hard about initiating Operation Five-Oh. I've run four 40-mile weeks in the past five weeks (with a rest week thrown in), and my legs have held up admirably, considering I used to have real problems running close to this much in the past. I'd like to bump my running up a notch and ease my way up to 50 miles a week, but I'm not quite 100% confident that now is the time. I might try to hold at 40 for another cycle or two (this is the end of week 2 out of a 3 hard-1 easy cycle) and then see where I stand. I want to be running 50-mile weeks consistently by the end of the calendar year at the latest. I think I will push closer to 45 this next week since there is a rest week coming after it, and I'll see how my legs feel at this time next week.
Takin' it easy Today was the last practice for my middle school xc team. We have a meet on Wendesday, a pizza party after that, and then the season is over. Time sure flies when you're having fun. It's been crazy with 85 of them, but nobody's dead and everyone seems ot have had fun.
I decided to scrap my ride today, since it was raining when I got back from practice, my calves are pretty tender, and I'm a wimp about being cold and wet. The biggest factor was my calves, but I will admit to being a wimp now and then. Had my legs felt good, however, I would have ridden. (Really, honest I would!)
And now I'm shelled Well, back to being tired, I guess. Rode for two hours in a fairly unpleasant wind, and then transitioned into a 35-minute run, which hurt like the dickens. I was surprised (and pleased) at the pace I managed to hold, considering how nasty it felt. I'll be sleeping well tonight, that's for sure.
Maintenance came to replace one of my burned-out bulbs and to spray my door hinges with WD-40. It feels like I'm living in a different room. Now if only they would properly clean the bathroom...
Coaching and calves My xc team had their last meet today. They all wound up and ran amazing races... I would be willing to bet that all 85 of them ran personal bests out there today. It was absolutely phenomenal. They are so much fun to work with, too. I can't wait to get out in the real world and have my own team (although preferably with less than 85 kids).
I knew I wasn't going to run after the meet, because we had a pizza party for the kids, so I extended my run to get there so that I got about 5 miles in. My calves are still a little sore, but I've gotten to the point where I'm ignoring them, unless they start to hurt like I've got an oncoming injury. Next week will be an easy week, so they can recover then. As long as I don't wake up in the morning to find them sitting at my computer trying to buy train tickets out of town, I'll be ok.
Sprite and Peanut M&Ms I don't eat much junk food, but I really have a hard time resisting Sprite and Peanut M&Ms. Sooooo tasty. Good thing I train a lot, or else I'd feel guilty for eating them all the time.
Today was another triple, so once again it felt like I was working out all day long. I ran 5 in the morning before breakfast, then biked to work and back (about 6 miles round trip), went to class, rode for an hour after class, ate dinner, did a bit of reading, and then hit the track. Legs are tired but fine beyond that... I'm going to sleep really well tonight!
Let's play pretend! Today I am pretending I'm a lot less insane than I really am. I had a bike ride scheduled for this afternoon (I'd have just started a little while ago), but I decided that I'd better take a full rest day. I tripled yesterday, and I've got 5 or 6 workouts over the next two days (one is optional), so I think that my legs will appreciate the rest. If not, there might be trouble.
I guess this will give me time to catch up on some reading for classes, work on my training plan, and keep working on my race schedule for next season. I'm starting to get really excited about racing, even though it's a long way off: my running has been going very well, and it's going to be fun to see how much I can improve with a real base of serious mileage.
Back in business Another long day at the office. Rode early this morning (ok, it's was 9:30, which is only early for college students) and nearly froze my fingers off. I neglected to bring along my heavy gloves, and only barely managed to avoid serious discomfort/frostbite in my fingertips. Dumb rookie mistake, and I'm definitely not a rookie. I ended up sticking my pinky and ring fingers together in one finger of my cotton gloves, which took the edge off of the cold a bit. Stopping for hot cider and donuts also helped. I was going to make that a ride-run brick, since it was my intention to run twice today regardless of other workouts, but I got back only a little while before the Michigan game was to start, so I had to nix the run and hit up a tailgate party at my friend's house. It was definitely worth it - not so much because Michigan won, but because it was fun hanging out with everyone.
After the game ended, I threw on my running gear and dragged myself out the door for a long run. I managed to make it a little over 9 miles in an hour, and my legs didn't fall apart (although they felt like they might for a while).
Another triple Yeah, that's two triples this week. I don't have much of a choice, though... if I want to get in the kind of training I need with the schedule that I have, I'm forced to triple. *sigh* I ran early this morning to the tune of 5 miles - what's funny is that I can barely remember any of that run. I think I was either still mostly asleep, or that's an indicator that this day is way too long. I do recall it being fairly chilly, but pleasant. This afternoon was my weekly bike-track brick with my training partner Matt. We rode for about 75 minutes, stopping for hot apple cider halfway through, and then ran down to the track for 2 x [3 x 800 w/ 30 second recovery] at threshold pace. While I never quite felt "on" for the entire brick, we did hit our times for the 800s within a second or two, so it definitely went well. I've unofficially hit my highest running mileage week ever, at a hair over 46 miles. We ran 45s at Kenyon (well, I did until I got injured, which didn't take long) back in 1999, and it feels good to be back at that level again. This time, my legs are holding together pretty well. This also marks the first time I've put three 40+ weeks together in a row, which is a more significant indicator of how far I have come in my training since high school.
I'm running four week cycles - three weeks "high" mileage, one recovery - and my goal for my next cycle is to hit 50 miles in the third week. That'll be close to the end of November, since I'm going into this cycle's easy week tomorrow. Ultimately, I want to be running 55 a week as the winter starts to end, which will really give me a solid foundation for racing. That's not really very high compared to other elites, but it will probably be all that my schedule and legs can handle, and because it's more than I've managed to run in the past, it'll be enough.
Day off I forced myself to take another day off today, so that I can rest my legs after a long weekend of training. My legs are thanking me by only hurting a little bit, instead of a lot. I suppose that's better than nothing... I have been watching my weight lately, and I've noticed a general downward trend that I'm not sure I'm terribly happy with. I typically average around 150 pounds, but lately I've been closer to 146 or 147, and I've been as low as 141 after workouts. I know that last number is due to water loss, but that's still a good 3 or 4 pounds lighter than I have been after workouts since my senior year in high school. I am eating like a starving wolf, but I've still lost weight. I'll keep an eye on it as the winter progresses... this may just be my body finding a new optimal weight as my level of training increases. Speaking of weight, I took the wheels off of my TT bike today, and just for the heck of it, I very unscientifically measured the weight of the frame and components with the help of my digital scale. Turns out it's about 14 pounds (I'm 159.5 lbs holding the frame, 145.5 without), so if I can get a nice lightweight set of wheels on there (read: Zipps), I'm going to have a very aero and light bike. Very cool. On a completely related note, I finally finished work on the toppleball site. The flash intro is decent, and everything else rocks too. The link is in my profile, for those of you who are interested. No joke, it really is the next big thing. Give it ten years. I have plans... And now for something completely different... I know someone is going to make fun of me for doing this. Probably multiple people, and at least one of them will be Kelly. And I will probably hear about this not just once, not just twice, but for the rest of my life. Or at least until I graduate or quit using AIM. Now that I've got the preamble out of the way, I've decided to try to grow a full beard. I've got a goatee right now, of which I am reasonably proud. I think it looks kinda badass (see below). I like being able to grow facial hair, and I think I look way too young without my goatee. It's distinctive, and for some really inexplicable reason, my goatee hair is very noticeably red, while the rest of my hair is very noticeably brown. I don't know why this is, and just about every person I have ever met has told me that my goatee is a different color than the rest of my hair (thanks, I had no idea). At least it's a conversation piece - better than people not talking to me at all. There isn't really a good reason why I am growing, or attempting to grow, a full beard. My dad's had one since he graduated from college, so I suppose I could chalk it up to family tradition. I really don't like shaving all the time either, and my current level of growth necessitates shaving my face once every two or three days. When I don't, which is most of the time, my neck starts to itch and I look like I don't care about how I look, which is mostly true. By growing a full beard (aside from on my neck, which I will continue to trim or shave), I won't have to shave my face all the time, and it might keep me warmer in the winter, too. If this fails, however, I will probably look foolish and unkempt in an I'm-trying-too-hard-to-grow-a-beard sort of way, and I will be ruthlessly laughed at until I do shave. Or people will just give me funny looks and surreptitiously tell me I should go back to the goatee. Regardless of how the beard looks, I will probably ditch it at the end of the winter at the latest. I don't think I'd be able to reconcile racing with shaved legs and arms and a beard, and it would probably be too hot anyway.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. And now back to your regularly-scheduled programming...
TGIT It's Tuesday, which means that it's almost Wednesday, which means that the week is almost half over, which means that we're closer to the weekend... This is my normal, daily train of thought. I count down the days and hours until I'm free for the weekend. I abhor weekdays right now, and I don't think that will end until December 15th, which is the day of my LAST FINAL EVER as an undergraduate. I hate classes, I hate school, and I hate not making money. I'm tired of being a college student, and I want to get on with my life.
This week is a recovery training week, so I took the day off yesterday and just ran today. It was cold and really windy, but it felt good to get out there and run. My legs are not 100% at the moment, so I will have to be careful.
Brrr
Anyway, rode for an hour in some unpleasant cold wind, and then ran for just under 30 minutes right after. My legs are feeling a little better today - I was worried after yesterday that this run would be painful, so I purposely shortened my route just in case. It turns out I didn't have much to worry about, so I should be fine to run regular mileage on the track tomorrow.
Get lost No, nobody has said that to me in a long time, but I did anyway. There's a series of trails nearby in Bluffs Park, a little piece of land on the side of a hill that's tucked between major roads and housing developments. It's all very narrow singletrack, and is a really great place to run, as long as you pay attention both to where you are putting your feet and what is about to hit you in the face. These trails are very windy, there are a lot of them, and it's very densely wooded... so it's very easy to get lost on the trails and have no idea where you are or in which direction you are facing. I managed to get myself so lost on those trails today that I spent probably a good mile or so trying to figure out if the trails I was choosing were going to end anywhere. I finally found one that dropped me out pretty close to the main trailhead for another park, but not before running across and startling a big red fox in the woods. That was easily the coolest wildlife sighting I've had in months.
I also bit the bullet today and threw down the money for a Zipp 404 tubular front wheel. I've been saving money to buy this wheel for a long time, and I wanted to make sure I bought something with my sponsorship deal before it runs out in a month. Now I will need to start saving again for a rear wheel (either a 404 or a disc... probably a disc).
Just another day I skipped two of my three classes today: I have zero motivation to go to any more classes, and only the thought of failing something and not being able to graduate on time is keeping me going. This is really bad, I know, but I've also been an undergraduate for 6+ years, so screw it. John Edwards (the former Senator) came to campus to speak about poverty today. It was interesting, I guess. First time I had ever been to a rally or to see a speaker on the Diag. He's a pretty charismatic guy, if nothing else.
Jumped on my bike this afternoon for an hour, and ended up cranking pretty hard. I hadn't intended to ride hard, but I felt really good, and I was a little underdressed. That shouldn't affect my race tomorrow too much; it's a 5K XC race, so having taken the day off from running today, I will be fresh. I can't wait to blow someone's doors off. I really hope someone fast shows up - I want a challenge.
The Season in Review: 2005 Now that my last race is out of the way, it's time to sit down and take a look at the year, my pre-season goals, and how the two stack up against each other. Before I get to my goals, I have to say that this was truly a year of discovery. First, I discovered my true passion: duathlons. I hated swimming in every single triathlon I did in 2004, which gave me a deeper appreciation for running and cycling. It seemed natural, then, to focus on those disciplines in which I am already competent, rather than to attempt the probably impossible feat of trying to improve my swim to match my cycling and running levels. My successes racing duathlons this year have convinced me that this sport should be my specialty from now on. Another discovery I made, towards the end of the season, is that I can run higher mileage than I thought without injury. I started to get a sense of this in January and February, when I was logging 30+ miles a week, but it wasn't until recently that I was able to log multiple 40+ mile weeks. For me, this is huge: I have always been afraid of running that much, because I got injured every time I did in the past. Having the confidence to attempt higher mileage training is going to lead to a better running base in 2006 than I have ever had before, and can only benefit my racing.
Racing Goals 2005 If anything, my biggest success this year was in improving my transitions. Being able to go from running to cycling and vice versa was one of the major facotrs in my win at the Dooby Du duathlon, and I had some of the fastest transitions in the entire field at Duathlon Nationals. Flying mounts and dismountsmade this possible. The most glaring failures were my swimming goals, which I made before I realized I didn't want to have anything to do with swimming this year. I'm ok with that. My other Oly goals can only be viewed in light of the fact that I raced once at those distances in a duathlon in 2005. I was very close to my running goal, and I realized even before that race that going sub-1:00:00 on the bike was not realistic due to inadequate training. I think that the one failure that has bothered me at all has been my bid at a stand-alone 5K PR. I really wanted to break 16:00 again, and I thought with the speed work I was doing in the early months of 2005, that I was on track to do so. However, I could never quite put it together. In retrospect, I can pin that failure on not having a good aerobic running base. My mileage was pretty low all through the spring, and I think that is what kept me from cracking that barrier, rather than any kind of mental block.
Training Goals 2005 For the record, I decided not to list my swimming goals. That's an exercise of futility. I let my bike training really fall through the cracks this year. That's a big problem, because not only do I enjoy cycling, but I know that I need to work hard at it to really take advantage of my time trialing. Because I didn't work very hard at it, I didn't have many really good bike legs during races - I usually felt crummy and I didn't achieve the average speeds that I should have. Run training was better: I ran on the track quite often, usually twice a week. I didn't, however, manage to fit hills into my training. Fortunately, I didn't encounter any hilly races this year, but even so, hill training could have made me stronger.
Conclusions
Good way to end the season I ran in the Ann Arbor Track Club's Open XC Meet this morning. I went there without any expectations or goals, except to have fun and see what my body can handle. It was at a city park with wide open spaces and some rolling terrain, and it was COLD this morning. When I left my room to walk there, it was 21 degrees F, and it was maybe 30 degrees F at race time. I warmed up with one of my middle schoolers who was there to race in the 3K (I was in the 5K), and soon after that, we were off. The gun sounded, and as we rushed away from the line, I could tell it was going to be a pretty good race. I went fairly hard and nobody hung with me. It was a really small field - maybe 15 people - so that was to be expected, I guess. The only time split I saw was at mile 1.1 when I passed the finish chute, and the clock said 5:30. I settled into a good tempo after that as I floated over the frosted grass. The only time I didn't feel smooth was right after mile 2, when the course rolled uphill for half a mile. There weren't serious grades at all, but enough that they were noticeable, and I got a small side stitch. Cramping notwithstanding, I finished hard, trying to net a good time, and I crossed the line way out in front in 16:15. This result bodes well for me: I've only been running base mileage for the past couple months, with a little threshold running as well - no real speedwork at all - so it's apparent that I'm already building a solid aerobic base. Once I get through the winter and have a chance to hone my speed some more, I think I may finally be able to challenge my stand-alone 5K PR of 15:58. All this running will also really help my duathlon racing, which is the ultimate goal.
The only downside of the day is that my right achilles is pretty sore. My right leg is almost never injured at all, so this is doubly weird, since I felt fine most of the week. I'll have to aggressively treat it and hope it doesn't get worse, since I'm rolling back into big mileage on Monday.
Brickalicious
Matt and I headed out this afternoon, in wonderful 60-degree weather, for a 30 mile ride, followed by a 4 mile run. We just cruised, trying to avoid serious efforts. Aside from some tense moments on a dirt road (washboard terrain + broken water bottle cage = slightly worrying), it was a lot of fun. We both decided to replace the usual Sunday track workout with an easy run, because we're both nursing slightly sore legs, and that turned out to be a really good idea.
Arb cruise Ran through the Arboretum, right down by the river, today. It's one of my standard 5+ mile loops that I can vary in many ways, so it keeps things interesting. That's one of my favorite places to run, aside from having to climb up the hill by the hospital on the way home. Gotta love the nurses who cross the street from the hospital and smoke their cancer sticks by the pack... apparently going to medical school entails picking up deadly habits just so you can get through all those years of learning how to treat dealy habits. That's something I will never understand. Fantastic weather today for the end of October - it hit 63 here, and it was sunny for most of the day. Zero complaints from me. I've been doing some preliminary job searching, and I really hope some physical education jobs open up in the Boulder/Colorado Springs areas. I'm pretty much convinced that Colorado is where I want to be after I graduate, assuming I'm not stuck at home for a while to make paying off loans easier.
October Stats:
October, and other assorted fun Last month's training went really well. I topped out at 170 miles running, more than I have put together in any other month (ever) by at least 35 miles. What's more, my legs aren't a complete mess, so I'm still running well and am even more enthusiastic about training. I've also been on the bike a reasonable amount. Hours-wise, I matched cycling and running last month as about 18 each. I should be on the bike more, but I'm still trying to give my legs a chance to adjust to this higher mileage. I will probably slowly ramp up my cycling mileage over the next month or so. For the time being, I am slightly limited in what I can do by my schedule, as well. Just cruised around today, to the tune of 5 miles, through my favorite neighborhood in town. I got out of lab at 5, and by the time I was running, it was starting to get dark and the sun had already set. That was really weird. However, it kind of made it fun... it's definitely different running a route in broad daylight versus at twilight. The novelty will probably wear off pretty quickly, but I'll enjoy it for now.
I got my Zipp 404 front wheel today. Ye gods it's light. And it spins absolutely forever. And it's gorgeous. And now I'm really poor.
Quick brick
I skipped a couple classes today to take care of some student-teaching business to prepare myself for next semester, and got done pretty early. Decided I'd head out for a brick, and got in an hour on the bike followed by 5 miles of running. My legs felt super-sluggish on the run today, which was strange because I felt fine on the bike. I think this is a function of having eaten lunch at 10:30 instead of 12:30.
The white line, and other goodies And no, I don't mean illegal drugs, so stop thinking it right now. Sheesh. Today was our first indoor track workout, and my legs reminded me why I was glad to run on outdoor tracks last spring. The turns are pretty brutal right now, and the track's essentially concrete with a covering. I'm fairly certain my legs will be quite sore tomorrow morning. We ran 3 x 1600 at threshold pace, and in the end, it was a lot of fun. I also rode earlier in the afternoon for an hour, and had some fun on some of the local dirt roads. Those are always great rides.
The past 24 hours have been pretty exciting, for several reasons. One, I am going to interview for another coaching job, this time with the Ann Arbor Track Club's youth program. This would be for indoor track, and would last until March or so. Pretty cool. Two, I set up my middle school student teaching placement, at the school where I coached XC, and I will probably end up coaching 6th grade boys and girls volleyball there too. Very cool. Three, I'm getting a Zipp disc as an early xmas gift from my parents (thanks Art!). Ridiculously cool. And fast.
Indian summer It was super-warm here today - it hit 71 this afternoon, and was absolutely beautiful out. Had it not been windy, it would have been perfect. I didn't let that stop me though: I ran this morning and got a ride in this afternoon. The ride did some damage to some tendon or other on the medial rear part of my knee though, so it wasn't all roses out there on the bike. It's pretty sore right now, and I didn't have a chance to ice it at all this evening. I'll see how it is tomorrow morning - if it's not too bad, I should be able to run on it (since I'm scheduled for two runs, that would be great).
In completely unrelated news, I've made progress with certain ventures that I have undertaken recently. Evidence is attached.
Long run The back of my left knee was pretty swolen last night, a tendon or something having been injured on yesterday's ride. I feared the worst when I woke up, but a solid night's sleep really helped it out, and it wasn't too sore this morning. I decided to run once instead of twice, so that I could get to brunch first and get some ice for an intensive ice/heat treatment. I headed out the door not sure how the tendon would respond to running, so I was pleasantly surprised when it didn't really hurt at all. A couple miles into my run I decided to go long, mostly so I didn't miss any mileage, and hit up my favorite trails and roads. It ended up being a great 10-miler, and right now there's only a little tenderness to the tendon. I'm going to lower my seat a bit tonight and take it easy on tomorrow's ride. Hopefully two nights of sleep and a couple ice/heat sessions will have done the trick by the time I ride in the afternoon. I've started setting my race schedule for next year. Since I don't know where I'll be in the summer (camp? home?), I haven't chosen any races past the end of May, but I have enough to choose from that I's simply a matter of plugging them in once I know where I'll be. I also don't know the schedule of local running races, so my early season isn't clear yet either. All in good time, I suppose.
On an unrelated note, I went to watch the Michigan women's volleyball team play tonight to get an idea of what really good volleyball looks like. It was really exciting, and I'm really looking forward to coaching volleyball next spring. I also realized how much I have to learn about the sport - I know basic rules, sort of, and basic skills, but I'm going to need to know them like the back of my hand before coaching. I don't want to look like I'm clueless. I'm going to have to find out a lot about the kids' competitions, too... I have tons of questions I need to get answered before the season starts!
What's up wind
Today's weather has been ridiculous. Wind has been holding steady at 25 mph, with gusts above 50 mph, all day, and it's supposed to keep this up until later tonight. I bagged my ride, since I don't really feel like getting blown off the road (and I don't yet feel like getting on the trainer), and Matt and I just ran an easy 5 miles instead of trying to pound out intervals on the track. Our run ended up being pretty slow because of the headwind we had for the first half of the run, but that's ok... I think my legs are grateful.
New tubulars = pain My fingers are really sore now. I got my Zipp disc (woot!) and tires from Art, and in my excitement to play with my new toys, decided I would just take the day off from training since I didn't get one last week. One of the tires in the box had been mounted before, so it went on my front wheel without much complaint. The other tire, however, was brand-spanking new and not stretched at all. I wrestled with it for a good 15 minutes, 10 of which I was thinking to myself "I'm doing something wrong and I'm making no progress, and there must be a better way to do this." Once the tire finally started to stretch a bit, the going got a bit easier, but wow was it hard to get on the rim. I'll let that tire sit on the rim for a few days before I do anything with it. I doubt I will glue them on before the spring though... not much sense in risking having the glue get old and crusty on me.
The photo isn't great, but I'm pretty far back on the technological curve and don't own a digital camera yet (this was taken with my camera phone). I do plan on having a good photo shoot done before next race season, possibly in the early spring when the 2006 Cadence Cycle uniform arrives.
Tuesdays are not fun I really dislike my front-end-of-the-week schedule this semester. After a long long day every Monday, I have to be up at 7:15 (yeah, yeah, wait till I start student-teaching next semester, I hear everyone saying) to go help out with an adapted physical education class at a local high school. I'm usually dead to the world after that and have to take a nap until it's time for me to go to work, and then I get back and go directly to 4.5 hours of class in a row (do not pass go, do not collect $200). I decided I really couldn't bear the thought of going to lab today, so I skipped that and was done at 3:30 with all of my obligations. Having worthless classes is really tough on the motivation, I'm not gonna lie... I got a solid 5-miler in right before dinner, and my legs feel pretty decent after a day off. There are a few aches and pains in isolated tendons in the ankles and knees, but nothing that isn't manageable. I also interviewed for another coaching job tonight, this time with the Ann Arbor Track Club's youth indoor track program. I start that in a couple weeks, which will be lots of fun.
Time to study for my 8:30 AM exam tomorrow, for which I have done zero work so far. Way to go me.
Colorado on my mind My mother and I had a long conversation by phone tonight, some of which was devoted to where the heck I'm going to find a teaching job after I graduate next April. I was surprised at how open she was to the option of Colorado, because at the moment, that's my number one choice, general-location-wise. Being cycling- & running-friendly aside, I've read that it's not a terribly expensive place to live (I guess that depends on where in Colorado, too). I'd love to end up in the Boulder or Colorado Springs areas... anyone have any good info on how pricey it is out that way? (I know some of you on the forum live out that way... ) Scouting reports on general weather trends would be welcome info too, in case anyone gets really bored at work and wants to e-mail me. Colorado and mild sore throats aside (which I have been fighting off for a few days), today was a lot more low-key than I wanted it to be. It was another one of our classic "let's turn the wind speed up to ridiculous levels" days - when I got out of class in the afternoon, it was holding steady near 30 mph and gusting up to 50. That's not wind I really feel like fighting on the bike, so I once again bagged my ride. I'm annoyed because I haven't ridden in five days now, although I don't think I can bear the thought of hooking up the trainer yet. I could ride that way, I suppose, but that's just depressing when it's still in the 50s outside.
I got hired for the AATC's coaching opening, and I went down to one of their XC practices tonight to start to learn kids' names and meet the other coaches. We ran for a while, fought the wind and the rapidly dropping temperature, and had some fun. It was a good time, and I got seven miles out of the deal. Same thing tomorrow, right before my track workout, so I'm going to be shelled tomorrow evening, especially if I do manage to hop on the bike.
Ups and downs Today was just one of those days. It started out on kind of a bad note. I work as a recess supervisor at a local school, and generally I really enjoy being around the kids. They're a fun bunch, and I have a mini fan club among the fifth graders. Those same kids also enjoy attacking me and trying to steal my phone, keys, and glasses, and I usually let them after a little while (they can't do any harm to any of those things, or so I thought). For wahtever reason, I decided to resist, and of course that just made them try harder. Somewhere in the scrum, my glasses got snatched, and one of the arms broke. This was pretty annoying, seeing as I not only really love my Rudys, but kind of depend on them when I'm riding to/from work and when it's sunny out. The kids chilled out after that (even though I refrained from yelling at them, they could tell I was pretty mad), and they felt bad about it, especially when I told them how expensive the glasses were. What they don't know is that I ordered a replacement arm for something like five bucks after I ot home, so it's a real cheap fix... but I'm happy letting them feel bad about it for a while. Better that they learn that now than think that breaking things isn't a big deal if you have money enough to replace it. As if that wasn't enough, every single one of the K-3rd graders in the second recess decided today would be a great day to go insane. It was a really long half hour. Things got better once I got home and found out my glasses could be fixed for almost nothing, and I was able to relax cause I skipped my lecture this afternoon (for shame, I know). I couldn't bear the thought of going, though. I ran with the track club kids in the evening, tacking on some more mileage after practice was over, so I guess that counts as the high point of the day. Oh, and I found out from Art that the tubular that took me 15 minutes to mount onto a rim was actually pre-stretched. I'm scared to know what a really brand-new tire is like.
Tomorrow's gonna be another long one. No rest for the weary. *sigh*
Finally on the bike This week has just been miserable for training. I've managed to squeeze in most of the running that I needed to do (I'll be playing catchup a bit tomorrow and Sunday though), but I hadn't been on the bike since last Friday. That's just ridiculous, and it was really starting to get to me. I feel better now that I managed to crank out some miles. I will probably end up tripling both days this weekend just to get myself back into the groove for cycling. That's obnoxious, but I guess it has to be done.
I think I'm also going to start mentally preparing myself to start using the trainer. I don't want to, but if my days keep becoming insane, I won't have a choice because I won't ahve time to ride until well after sunset. I guess I should head down to the video store soon and start scoping out the new titles.
Long day Today was... interesting. I slept in until 11:00 - having originally intended to get up at 9:00 to run - because I was up late and kept resetting the alarm when it went off. My friend Marcus convinced me to ride at 1:30, even though I wasn't going to, and we set off into some wicked wind. We got about 11 miles out of town when all of a sudden Marcus' right pedal axle decided it had had enough of life and snapped. Fortunately, he didn't fall off the bike and got a ride home from his girlfriend. I kept going after he had been picked up, throwing in some single-leg drills once I was out of the wind. Poor timing/route choice of the week: as I rolled into town, I found myself riding on Stadium Boulevard, which does indeed go right past Michigan Stadium. Not only was I on Stadium, but I was there on a football Saturday, and to top it all off, the game had just ended. I sat at the intersection right next to the Big House for about five minutes, waiting until the cops had let tons of people corss and restarted traffic. I should have known better. Once I managed to dodge enough pedestrians and cars to get back to my dorm, I transitioned into a long run that was the make-up for the two runs I had planned to do. I ended up feeling pretty good while I was out there (the warm weather helped considerably) and aside from some chafage, got back in once piece after almost 10 miles. I felt human again once I had a chance to destroy an entire pizza by myself.
More of the same tomorrow. I wonder if I'll have any time for schoolwork...
We're not in Kansas anymore The wind we've been getting in Michigan lately has been ridiculous. It was holding steady over 30 mph this afternoon, for the second time in less than a week. It kept me from riding outside, but didn't stop me from running twice, netting about 9 miles all told. I finally managed to break the seal on trainer rides for the winter, spinning indoors for an hour in the evening. Random thoughts: Watching a rivalry football game (my hometown Steelers against the loathsome Browns) is a great way to stay pumped for the trainer. Watching those guys beat up on each other and play their hearts out is so exciting (for me, anyway). Sometimes I'm pretty brainless. For the life of me, I could not figure out why I was hearing a clicking noise once every revolution when I spun my new Zipp disc. I really thought there was something wrong with the rim. While I was on the trainer tonight, I randomly spun the wheel and watched it spin... and even over the noise of the TV and trainer, I located the source of the clicking. It was the open presta valve closing as the valve reached the bottom of the wheel's rotation. Duh. My training partner is a beast. He finished 3rd in the pro field at the MiamiMan half-ironman today, 10th overall in 4:38. I might as well give up trying to do schoolwork on the weekends. Yesterday I was a waste of space, and I managed to get everything done that I wanted except schoolwork today. Yes, I was productive, but boy is this week gonna hurt. New running socks are severely underrated. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches are great post-ride recovery snacks, especially two at a time. And especially in combination with a Sprite.
Three workouts in one day still hurts, but it hurts so good.
Discombobulated My entire day has been thrown off by a dream I had shortly before waking up. It wasn't a really bad dream, and it wasn't a really good dream... just one that put me on the edge of a mental collapse.
I rode for an hour today (outside, thankfully) but that didn't seem to really help much. Class was not much of a distraction either. I hope I can just sleep this off and be better tomorrow, because there's no way I will survive this week if I'm not.
Small steps toward insanity I really might not make it to Christmas at this rate. Today was rainy. Really rainy. It sucked. It was rainy when I got up way earlier than I wanted because of another dream, which already meant that the day had two strikes working against it. It was rainy when I went back to sleep a few hours later. It was rainy when I woke up again to go to work, which meant I had to take the bus instead of bike. Naturally, the bus was 5 minutes late, and it's cutting it razor-thin in the first place to get to work on time. I was, inevitably, late. And I left my cellphone in my room to keep it from getting heisted by the kids, so I couldn't call in to tell them where i was. And the bus stop is several blocks from the school, so I had to run, in the rain, to get there. It was raining when I got done with work. Naturally, the bus was 5 minutes later - again - so I got wet standing in the rain waiting for it. It was raining when I went to my two labs today that I really didn't want ot go to, and didn't enjoy at all. It was raining hard when I got out of my second lab at 5:30, wanting to go run. I got soaked on the way back from lab. It was raining when I changed into my running clothes and headed out the door, thinking to myself "This is gonna suck." It did. It rained for the entire run, and it was below 50 degrees, so my hands were nearly nonfunctional when I returned 5 miles later. My room still smells like wet running shoe. It was raining when I went to study with a classmate for the exam that I forgot I had tomorrow until about 5:00 this evening. This meant that I didn't get any work done on the essay I have due next week, that I have not yet started. I was planning to start it this evening.
Today was brought to you by the word "miserable."
Surprise, it's winter We got hit with a cold air system today, and temps dropped from in the 40s early on to 30 degrees by midday. The kickin' wind made it feel like 15 degrees or so. Oh, and it snowed too. FIrst snow of the season. Boy, I can't wait to not live in Michigan anymore. I ran this afternoon, a little over 6 miles, and nearly froze myself in the process. I didn't take the wind chill into account, and was underdressed. My core was fine, and my legs survived, but my arms and hands bore the brunt of it. I was unable to do much with them until after a long hot shower.
I ran again, a couple hours later, with the track club kids. We did sprints, for which I was not prepared. My legs are now angry at me, and might fall off before tomorrow.
And my legs just fell off My legs and stomach have not been pleased with me lately. I ran sprints yesterday with the track kids, and so my legs have been sore all day. That made tonight's track workout pretty painful, even at just threshold pace. I've also been eating on an odd schedule, and I seem to always be starving. I swear my stomach was digesting part of something else internally last night before dinner. I got on the trainer this afternoon as well, putting in an hour while I watched The Incredibles. I actually found that I didn't mind being on the bike once I got started up. This is unusual, because I typically despise the thought of riding indoors. Maybe I have turned the corner and the after-effects of being burned-out on the trainer from early 2003 have finally gone away. I'd like that, since I need to be on my bike pretty consistently now. Even if it's just an hour at a time, and not very fast, I'll take it. I only averaged 15.5 mph today, but it was confortable and I got done with the workout without feeling like I thrashed myself to hold a high average. Not pressuring myself to go fast indoors might be the key to surviving this winter. Random thoughts: Having clean clothes is nice. Especially if your running shorts were able to go run on their own. It got way too cold, way too fast. The public transportation in Ann Arbor is absolutely awful. The only bus that goes down near where I work on Tuesday and Thursday runs once every 30 minutes (it goes to a major mall, too) and is ALWAYS late, by at least 5 minutes. This bus cuts it close anyway, so by the time it gets near the school, I'm late for work, and that sucks. And then I'm late getting back to campus, and therefore late to class. The buses in Pittsburgh, a major metro area, run more frequently to popular places and are on time almost all the time. (*growl*) At this rate, I'm never going to get all my schoolwork done. I'm doomed.
The beard is filling in nicely. Kelly said she'd be the judge of that, so she'll have to weigh in at some point, but I think it's doing pretty well. I'll get a photo over thanksgiving weekend with my family and post it next weekend.
Mental shutdown A sign of impeding trouble: I was determined to get work done tonight on my five-pager that's due Wednesday. Instead, I managed to squander an entire evening without doing anything I can even pretend was productive. I didn't even get a trainer ride in. This is really bad, and I'm really mad at myself. I can't afford to slack off so much, because half of me really wants to bring my GPA up past 3.0 so that I have a chance in some of the school districts I've been looking at. The other half of me, of course, has a severe case of senioritis and couldn't care less, and that's the part that usually takes over when I get tired. Stupid, stupid, stupid. *smacks forehead* I WILL get work done tomorrow. I don't care what happens with the football games (in case you don't have a pulse, that's Michigan-Ohio State and Michigan State-Penn State). I don't care if Michigan gets the BCS berth. Darnit, I'm going to be productive. After I'm done training, anyway. Gotta keep that priority straight.
Before the slacking off started, I managed to get in a quick 6 miles this afternoon. It's been gray and cold, but it wasn't too bad in the end. I ran on one of the river trails - probably one of the last times I see that trail until spring - and just kept the pace reasonable, trying to avoid pushing the pace at all. My legs are still sore from the past couple days, but I think they'll be better tomorrow.
Another long Saturday My legs are still sore, and that certainly doesn't help make my workouts feel any easier. I got up later than I wanted (a recurring theme on Saturdays, I've noticed) and jumped right into a 5-miler to get things started. I hooked up the bike and rode indoors at the start of the Michigan-Ohio State game, and got off right at halftime to go run another 4 miles. Being on the bike was ok, other than my legs being sore, and the second run felt fine. I just have to ignore the deep muscle soreness every time I train, and hope that it goes away eventually.
Finally made a little progress on this dumb paper I have to write by Wednesday. I'll spend some more time tomorrow printing/photocopying resources and figuring out the structure, and then the actual writing should go quickly. It's supposed ot be a five-pager, but I usually ignore page requirements if they're not a maximum number because I write very consicely (for academics, anyway). As long as I get my point across, fine. I'm ok with getting a B on this paper. I nearly aced the first exam, so I've got a cushion.
10 AM and I'm already shelled My Sundays from now until the rest of my life just got much longer. *sigh* Matt and I have scheduled spin-run bricks for 7 AM every Sunday morning, so that we can get our workouts in before the day starts, and so that we can make use of the indoor track for our second interval session of the week. They only hve it open from 7-10 AM on weekends, so that means early training sessions. I went to bed last night a little past 10, since I was tired anyway, in hopes that I would get a good night's sleep before training. Wrong. It took me almost an hour to fall asleep in the first place, probably cause i wasn't as tired as I thought and I'm not used to turning in that early. On top of that, we had a fire drill at 2:45 AM, and didn't get back into the building until 3:15. I was quite displeased with that. I managed to drag myself out of bed and got the lounge set up for our spin. Matt brought his portable DVD player, but since we couldn't get it hooked up to the huge TV in the lounge (it's a piece of junk), we had to watch the movie on the tiny screen. "The movie" was Napoleon Dynamite, normally a funny movie, but not entertaining enough for me when I'm on the trainer, much less on the trainer at 7 AM. We're watching something with lots of explosions and car chases next week. We moseyed on down to the track and put in our time, running two 10-minute threshold intervals (~2800 m each). It was resonably challenging, but went well. I feel more mentally prepared to tackle some of the longer threshold workouts now - we build to 40 minutes at that pace with no rest by February. Fun.
So now it's 10 AM and I'm completely shelled. The good news is that I met my run mileage for the week, so I don't need to go run this afternoon. The bad news is that I still have that paper looming over my head. I'm going to work on it after brunch and a nap.
About that... Awkward first day of coaching at the indoor track. I felt totally unprepared when I was handed more than half the kids, most of whom I didn't know. Probably my own fault... I ought to just roll with it and make it fun, but I was at a loss today. I fully expected to end up coaching with the other coach, so it was kind of a surprise when we all split up. I also felt like nobody was having much fun, and that's probably my fault too. Maybe it's just a "being new to that group" thing, but honestly for a while I think I forgot how to be fun around kids. The other coach was talking about how he makes it fun for them, and he was running with them and all... maybe I need to do that too. I dunno, I just don't want to look like I'm clueless about life, or be the coach nobody wants to work with.
Rode today for about 30 miles. It was pretty cold and nasty, but I enjoyed getting outside for once. That was probably the only highlight of the day.
Thank goodness that's over with I decided it would be in my best interest to switch my day off to today, so that I could finish a paper I have due tomorrow without staying up all night. Mission accomplished. (The paper is about how to include kids with Asperger's syndrome into physical education. Simmer down, I know it's exciting.)
This means I will have to squeeze in a run on Thanksgiving. I guess I can fit that in before we have our big dinner... it'll give me more of an appetite. Rawr.
Snow fun We got our first accumulation of snow today. I'm not sure I can remember ever seeing snow on the ground before Thanksgiving. I guess I will from now on. I decided to go frolic in the snow for a bit (i.e. go for a run) and ended up feeling pretty miserable. I was a little underdressed, forgetting that when wet snow hits a warm body, it melts. Duh. So that was a little chilly, plus my stomach got really mad at me cause it was hungry, and my left ankle decided it would join in on the fun and start yelling at me too. I told it to shut up, lest it find itself sleeping outside tonight while the rest of me stayed warm in bed. It was quiet after that. Got a second, shorter run in with the kids in the track club. Coaching went a lot more smoothly tonight, as I am getting to know some of the kids and there wasn't a huge group today because of the weather and the holiday.
I'm heading into the wilds of Ohio tomorrow morning, so I'll blog again on Saturday when I return to Ann Arbor for more training and paper-writing (oh joy of joys).
The Case of the Knuckleheaded Runner ... or, why I ran twice today. I drove back from Ohio this morning, got myself unpacked, returned the rental and had lunch. After bumming around, I decided I wanted to go for a run at 2:30. Nothing too hard, just a standard 5-miler to get the legs loosened up a bit. Halfway through, I had a revelation. Well, it was more like I just remembered I was supposed to meet someone to run hills at 4. Naturally, I figured this out at the far corner of my run, meaning I had to just finish the darn thing and recover as best as possible for the hills. That second run was pretty brutal. We have a short cul-de-sac in town called Harvard Place, which is pretty steep and gets steeper as you get closer to the top. It's wicked, and it did me in.
Lessons learned: a) check e-mail before doing anything; and b) run more hills and quit being such a wimp.
Discretion, valor, and a whole lot of hurt Matt and I spun on the trainer early this morning. We watched Hostage, and got an hour and a half of spinning in. I was actually feeling pretty good by the end, and probably could have gone for 2 hours. I got my spare rear wheel from my folks over the holiday, so I was able to set up and ride my TT bike on the trainer for the first time. Matt took some video for me to analyze (some vid captures are below), and I will do the same for him next weekend when he brings his TT bike. We're going to start doing all our spinning on our TT bikes and tweak our setups a bit for next season. As I sauntered down to the indoor track, I felt all sorts of unpleasant pain in my left leg, which was really annoying. I didn't have to ignore it though, because the track was closed (grr). I ambled back to my room instead. I was going to run this afternoon, in order to work up to my weekly mileage goal, but decided not to because: my legs (quads especially) are really tired from the trainer ride in a new position; this is a recovery week; and it's probably better to save my legs for the weeks to come, since I'm jumping right back into a new training cycle tomorrow. Since discretion is the better part of valor, or recovery, or whatever, I've just chilled for the rest of the day.
I think my seat angle is not steep enough, but there is not really anything I can do about that, given the characteristics of the frame. My front end looks pretty good, and I like how low I am. I think I may not have to do much adjusting at all, because I felt reasonably comfortable even on my first ride in this aero position.
I'm in trouble This week and next are probably going to be the death of me. I've got six or seven separate assignments due by the 12th, I've still got to manage to get to class once in a while, I'm coaching several times in the next 14 days, plus squeeze in a heavy dose of training. The logical thing to do would be to cut back on training. Good thing I'm not logical.
I swapped class for hanging out with a friend that I don't get to see much, and will pay for that later, but decided my sanity was at risk and that was more valuable to me. I subsequently went out for a run this afternoon, in the rain and 64 degree temps we had today (can this weather be more ridiculous?), and just got done spinning for an hour after my evening seminar. I'm watching Monday Night Football, cheering on my Steelers in a tough game, and not getting work done that I need to get done. Looks like it's going to be a long night.
On the brink I'm on the edge of the precipice now. One false move and I go down hard. I really did not do myself any favors tonight by going to the basketball game, but it was free and I can now say that I was there to see Michigan demolish the University of Miami. I've got a plan. It's not long-range, because I can't really handle time increments longer than 24 hours right now, but I am going to get a lot of things done tomorrow. I'm going to start with some solid sleep, which I did not get last night, and I am going to probably skip the classes I can get notes for in favor of really buckling down and finishing some of the things on my huge list of assignments due in the next two weeks. Part of me really doesn't like missing these classes, because they tend to be pretty fun, but there's a big part of me that is so burned out on classes and school that I mostly just don't care anymore. I am also going to triple tomorrow, and hope my ankle holds together. I only got one workout in today, three threshold mile intervals on the track, and I'm kind of mad that I skipped spinning. I must, above all else, stay on track with my training. If I let that slip at all, I'm in big trouble, because I know it'll be hard to right the ship once it capsizes.
Things are grim right now, but I haven't given up yet.
Progress Today was pretty brutal, but I did manage to be productive for a good protion of it. I completed two assignments, start to finish, that are due next week, which will free me up to work on the bigger projects that I have coming up. There are some smaller things in the mix as well, but today was a good start. It was nice to actually cross things off of my to-do list. Amazingly, I also got in some quality training time too. I spun for an hour this afternoon, and ran this evening with the track club kids - all told, about 2 hours of time.
November Stats: I'm not happy with logging more run time than bike time, since I'd like to be at least even, if not spending a little more time riding. However, it's been a rough month, both school- and weather-wise, so being outside didn't really happen much and I wasn't really mentally prepared to hop on the trainer yet. I've been indoors on my TT bike for three of the last four days though, so I've started to gain momentum for winter indoor riding and I think I'll be able to continue that next month. Running is going well. I've ran through a host of potential injuries without any of them becoming full-blown problems (thanks to careful planning and lots of sleep and recovery), and I've met my mileage goals almost perfectly. This kind of consistency is what I need.
Next week is my last full week of classes as a undergrad, ever. I'm pretty excited about that.
Ups and downs Seems like a recurring theme. I should do something about that. I had a fit of rare indulgence last night, and had a bottle of Coke when I went to my group project meeting. This turned out to be one of the worst ideas I've had in a long time. I was completely dehydrated this morning - I literally had a Coke hangover (that's really sad) - and couldn't get out of bed until just before I had to go to work. Work was fun - the kids were crazy as usual, and they jumped all over me. They know I'm done after next week, so I guess they're trying to attack me as much as possible until then. It's pretty cute. After that, I went to a boring and pretty much pointless class, and then home to try to motivate myself to do something. I ended up not working out this afternoon like I had planned. I was still dry and hurting from the after-effects of the caffeine, and I wasn't in the mood to run in the snowstorm we had. I ended up just sitting around for a while, returned my video rentals and got new ones, and went to dinner. I finally managed to get on the bike this evening while watching The Bourne Supremacy. I'm glad I did, because I think I can feel my legs starting to adjust and adapt to riding 77 degrees instead of 73, and I want to keep working on that. I'm also getting more and more comfortable in my aero position, which is considerably more aggressive than it was for most of this past season. I'm not spinning very fast right now, but I figure that'll improve over time as my muscles adapt further.
I also managed to be as unproductive today as I was productive yesterday. I'm going to have to buckle down again tomorrow and really get some stuff done. The countdown is on: 22 more class meetings until I'm done for good. I just hope I can make it that far.
Progress, slacking, and everything in between Whereas Wednesday was very productive, and yesterday was anything but, today was a mix of both. I actually went to classes today (surprise) and even took notes in some of them. I managed to fit in a run, and stopped by the track building at the end of it to check out the intrasquad meet today (random sighting: Tyrone Wheatley, of NFL fame, who is now the hurdles coach here). That was kind of cool, especially seeing Mike Woods torch everyone in the 1200. I've gotten a bit of schoolwork done - not as mucha s I wanted - and spun for an hour this evening. I'm probably going to turn in early and get up for an early start tomorrow to get a jump on schoolwork. This is going to be a brutal weekend with lots of work to do, and as usual, I've backed myself into a corner and need to get lots of training done as well. It never fails that I get to the weekend and still have at least 20 miles of running left undone in my schedule. I need to be better about that, methinks, or I'm going to have a tough time doing more than my current 45 mpw. On the other hand, I've been remarkably good about getting on the trainer, especially for this time of year. Hopefully I can continue that as well. Ugh. 30 more minutes of work, then bed.
Edit: I've also changed my mind about where I want to be next fall. I think I'd like to work and live somewhere in western North Carolina, someplace reasonably close to the mountains but still on flat land. It's warmer than Michigan, better training environment (I think), and a bit closer to home than Colorado. So we'll see.
This weekend = not fun So far this weekend, I have had just about no fun. I spent almost all of today doing schoolwork, because I've got six trillion huge assignments coming up in the next three days, and free time is simply a commodity that I don't have any more. I'm not sure which is more exciting, looking at graphs about federal offshore gulf crude oil production, or writing about it.
I did manage to get a long run in today though, which makes up for doing work all day so far. As usual, I had backed myself into a corner and needed to come up with some pretty big mileage this weekend to meet my goal, so being pressed for time, I decided to just run once today and go long. I haven't gone above 10 miles in one run in a long time, and although I didn't go much above that (11.5 for the day), it felt good to know I can survive and feel good after that kind of distance. I definitely got my endorphin fix, so I should be able to buckle down and crank out some good work tonight.
Death, dying, and hip flexors Today has been very long. The title will make sense eventually. I started the day with a wicked workout. Matt and I spun for an hour, and then ripped off 2 x 800, 2 x 1200, 1 x 1600 threshold on the track. Each interval seemed interminable, and it felt amazing to get finished. I guess I wasn't as recovered from my long run yesterday as I thought I would be (or hoped I would be, anyway). After brunch, I crashed out on my bed for an hour and a half. I was totally shelled, and I am thankful now that I took that nap. I was still really tired when I got up, but I felt somewhat more human. I got up around 12:30 and got some research done for the first of three group project meetings I had today. This first one was to put together a PowerPoint presentation on including children with disabilities in regular physical education. Fortunately, my partner and I have taken lots of classes about this subject, so the only things holding us back from getting done quickly were our tendency to start talking and stop formatting slides, and our tendency to check on the Steelers game every five minutes (we're both big Steeler fans, and both crushed at the defeat). When I got back from that meeting, I threw on the running clothes and went out for a neighborhood spin to hit my mileage for the week and loosen up the legs from the track workout earlier. It snowed last night, and since we're in Michigan, nothing was plowed (funny how that works). THe streets I was on were pretty slippery, mostly covered in loosely-packed snow that some cars had driven over, which for those of you who run in snow regularly is a great quad workout. My hip flexors in particular did not seem to be particularly enthusiastic about what I was putting them through, and I heard complaints from them for the entire run. I got back, showered, ate, and headed to the library for a marathon session in that awful building. People here that know me know that I despise even setting foot in there, and I found myself faced with the prospect of hours of reading and two group meetings there this evening. Needless to say, I was not enjoying myself at all from 6:00 until 11:00. I had an entire book to read (my fault, for not having read it earlier), which I got done in between and after my meetings. The first meeting was pretty depressing: my discussion group for developmental psychology is responsible for material on death and dying. We're all stressed out, so the meeting was actually pretty funny at times, and we managed to get our timeline and cheat sheet done, and decide how to run our presentation. The second group meeting was for one of my geology classes, and lasted for only a few minutes because one of the group members was sick and not there. My head feels like it is going to explode now, having spent more time tonight in the library that I have in the past couple of years combined. I still have a paper to write tonight (a short one, thankfully), so I bought the unhealthiest food I could find - Wendy's - to help distract me from today.
The semester ends in 11 days. Those 11 days cannot go fast enough.
Getting closer & a new route I am now 10 days and 15 classes away from finishing my last semester of classes as an undergrad. The countdown begins.
Today was really busy, so all I got in was a run. I decided I wanted to come up with a new "standard" route (standard for me meaning between 5 and 6 miles long, which is the distance I like to run if I'm not going long or I'm not on the track) because I'm getting slightly tired with my seven current standard routes. I cobbled together parts of other runs I've done in the past and came up with something manageable. Part of it is off-road, which is a bit sketchy when there's snow on the ground, but half of my other standard routes include trails too, so I guess I'll have to suck it up. I think I will try to create one or two more standard routes, so that I don't end up repeating every single route each week. That would be nice.
Rest day My legs were begging me for a day off this morning, and the rest of my body was making a strong case for it as well, what with some congestion and a wave of what almost felt like a sinus infection earlier today. As such, I humored my body and scratched both a ride and a run. I haven't figured out when I'll get those workouts in, but I'll manage somehow.
9 days and no more labs.
Slacking Ever since my super-productive weekend, I've been a real slacker. I will attribute part of that to being almost sick - I've been waking up congested and I felt pretty crummy for most of yesterday - and the rest of it to being lazy. I'm going to need to buckle down and get the rest of my work done by the end of Saturday though. I'm so close, I can't afford to let up now. I haven't been on my bike since Sunday (bad) but I blame the video store for today. I went to rent some videos today and their credit card machine was down, and I didn't have enough cash. I guess I could have gone to get some, but that would have required extra walking in the cold. I did at least get a run in, and I enjoyed it too. I think, running-wise, I'm acclimating to the cold now. That makes it a bit easier to get out the door. |