A Giant's Foray

40 minutes on the treadmill. Felt good enough that I think I'm going to see what an hour feels like tomorrow. Off to the library for the next ten hours... finals is fun!

Treadmill for 65 minutes, including a little warmdown. Heart rate was great, felt as good as possible on that device. Foam rolled my legs in every way possible, and it definitely helps; did some additional stretches as well. Knee was a little sore, but it was dull, and probably just getting some junk out, as I haven't for that long in a month. Going to keep it up; sticking with the treadmill for the time being, to preserve my calves (and get rid of the light PF that's there), probably going to hit the road a couple times this week.

No 5k on Saturday (no time), which is a bummer, but going to do the Beat the Bridge the next week. Chip-timed, certified race for only $18?!? Sign me up! I'd like to break 31, and MAYBE 30, based on my 5k result, but we'll see. 

Treadmill, 45-ish minutes. 

63 minutes on the treadmill, though I had to stop and tie my shoes at one point (with only 6 minutes left! AH!) 

 Felt really, really, really good. Heart rate didn't really start climbing past aerobic until 40 minutes, before I slowed the treadmill down. I was getting the nice air conditioning from where I was it, though, so that probably had something to do with it. Almost a minute faster to get to 8 miles, with a lower HR, and feeling much better than last time. 

Just bought a marginally used Cervelo P2SL on eBay, and am probably going to enter my first triathlon at the end of the month! Gets me really excited... so much so that I need to remind myself that I've got finals right now. Oh well, back to outlining Contracts. 

Easy treadmill, took like 31.5 minutes. Feeling good enough that I'm going to try something a fair bit longer tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. 

 One more week of school! 

Wow, great long run. Left the HR strap at home on purpose, and just went with it. Felt blissful at the end... 

 Ran 2 outer rings of Green Lake, and then 2 inner rings. Splits were something like 25:26 and 25:30 for the outside, and then 22:06 and 21:47 for the inside, and a minute give or take for the run to get from outer to inner. Very relaxed and controlled, started getting the usual aches and pains that have been plaguing me, one by one, but after a mile or so, each pain would disappear. Only thing that stuck with me until the end was the chafing I started to feel at mile 9... ouch! 

Treadmill today. Very, very stiff, though I'm actually much better right now. Should be expected from the long run yesterday, I'll have to make sure that I do my stretches to avoid PF, as the calves were particularly tight.  Used the foam roller like a beast. 

 Going to do 8ish tomorrow, along with 20 minutes of rowing. Got my bike today! Don't have pedals yet, but did that intentionally, because I don't want to end up riding all day in this beautiful weather when I have finals to do.   

Good stuff, can't complain. Legs feel much better than they did yesterday after the shorter run, feet are on the verge of soreness again, but I've got short runs for the next couple days. Felt pretty gross during the run, but I haven't really been sleeping. I blame property law... too many conveyances of Cyanacre, etc. 

Five on the treadmill. Don't know if it was doing well on the property final, or it being the first workout of the day, or actually getting a good night's rest, or whatever, but I felt like I wasn't even trying. Heart rate told me confirmed I was, and I used my favorite treadmill at the same speed I always do, but this just felt good. Good omen. Feet were a little sore, but they're recovering fine, and I should be alright with another short run before I go longer again. Race on Saturday, Beat the Bridge 8k... going to aim for sub-31 as an A goal, will be satisfied with sub-32. Let's see how it goes!

Treadmill run, feet are a little sore, going to take tomorrow off. No worries though, just precaution. 

Treadmill run, 63 minutes, felt great. I'm *&(*ing DONE with 1L year... had a beer to celebrate, but I'm going to sleep. Bad history of getting sick right after finals.

Simple run, slightly less than 40 minutes. Beat the Bridge on Sunday... very excited. 

Treadmill, 40 minutes. 

So I ran the Beat the Bridge 8k in Seattle this morning, and did better than I thought I would, but in a manner that pisses me off.

Going into the day, I felt like crap. I’ve been having hydration issues, and haven’t been able to keep fluids, and have lost 6 lbs in the last few week, none of it mass. I got no sleep, and for this particular race, am still feeling the finals burn from school (no sleep there either). Legs were stiff, and I did a run and erg on Saturday, as this was just a fitness gauge.

Race started at 8:30, got to the course and checked in at ~8:15, and quickly did some striders to get the blood flowing; felt a sharp twinge in my hip, but thankfully, did not deal with it during the race proper. Beat the Bridge is divided into three waves: sub-7:00/mile pace, 7:00-8:00/mile pace, and 8:00+/mile pace, and gets its name from the University Bridge raising at 20 minutes after the start of the last wave. I nestled myself up near the start line of the first (dark blue) wave, maybe 7-8 rows back, and waited for the gun. Had planned on trying for 30:00, but given how I was feeling, was content to aim for 31:00, or even 31:30.

Course started near the Montlake Bridge, and we were to cross it. Gun went off, and as usual, people went out way, way, way too hard. After a tenth of a mile, I checked my Garmin and almost fainted when it said I was running 5:25/mile. Slowed down to a “comfortable” pace, and almost tripped on a little kid trying to cross the course. I can only imagine how my 79 inch frame affected his innocent pscyhe. After growling at him, and moving around, I crossed the Montlake bridge, and took a right parallel to 520. Crossed Mile 1 in 5:51, and was already feeling bad, as I learned quickly that not every course is as flat as Green Lake.

I actually drive on the road that is parallel to the water and 520 every morning (or did) to get to school, but I don’t know what its named. Being a gas cheapo who likes to cruise in neutral, I know the elevation change all too well on this street, so that thankfully helped me. At about 1.75, I passed the only wheelchair racer… unfortunate for her, as two were required for prizes to be given. I looked at my watch, and my heart rate alarmed me, but I was already suffering pace-wise, so I removed the HR monitor so it wouldn’t be distracting. There were some rolling hills here, and by the time I took a right on Boyer and onto the University Bridge, I crossed the two-mile mark, this one in 5:59.

To this point I had been running solo literally the entire time, mainly because everybody who I started with went out way too fast, and the only people I caught in with were people who had blown themselves up running 5:40 first miles when they clearly couldn’t hold that. I moved up from group to group, and probably passed 40-50 people from 1.5-2.5 miles. Kept my pace steady, but I was definitely dying, which wasn’t helped by a large hill in the last quarter of mile 3. Mile 3 split was 6:16, swiftly killing any leeway I had under 6:00/mile avg. pace.

Mile 4 was flat-out awful. I had already resigned myself to not hitting 30:00, and my splits were suffering because of it. We got onto Montlake Blvd. at about 3.3 or 3.4 miles into the race, and from there it was a straight shot to 24th, just before U-Village. Groups started to pass me, and I tried holding onto them, but consistently lost them. Finally, at about 3.9 miles into the race, I found somebody to run with. We made the turn at the end of the course, and I crossed the 4-mile mark, in 6:25.

Having somebody to run with really helped. My pace picked up, and we started passing groups that had passed me a half-mile earlier. Entering the last .95 miles, my watch told me I was back to running 6:00 miles, and at this point I realized that despite giving up on my primary goal earlier, a hard effort could get me there. I started picking it up, passed my partner in crime, and caught a couple of girls who had just passed me. We ran together for a while, and soon we descended into the Husky Parking Lot, past the IMA. I probably pushed it too hard, really picking it up in the last .75 miles, and hit 5:20 going down the hill. By the time I was parallel with the stadium I had nothing left, and another sharp turn around killed my momentum.

Got onto the finishing stretch and saw I had 13 seconds to run 100 meters, and knew right there the gig was up. Limped into the finishing line with everything I had left, getting passed by one of the girls in the process. Final split for last .95 was 5:28, 5:46 pace.

All-in-all, I cannot complain. I felt terrible to start the day, and still have not incorporated any speedwork into running. I probably left 10-15 seconds on the course by nature of me not wanting to run hard, despite still having a chance to reach my goal. In the end, another run, another PR (and this one a course not pancake flat, like Green Lake is), and if nothing else, validation of the fact that I can hold 6-minute miles for long distances. Next up, triathlon in Elma?

Time: 30:02

Overall 70/5427; 6/206 AG (20-24)

 PM: Three easy miles on the treadmill.  

Did a run/row/run/row/run brick, ended up going 7.5 miles running and 40 minutes on the rowing machine (didn't check my meters, but I think I went ~10600 or 10700). Felt great, sunny outside, interesting way to break up the running. My legs appreciated it, as the rowing was a nice counterbalance to the running. 

Treadmill, heart rate was very much under control, felt awesome. 

BOOM. 

Boom.

Twice around Green Lake. 

Long run, two outers, two inners at Green Lake. 1:34ish. Had some GI distress, unfortunately. Bushes probably hate me. 

Recovery run, from the apt. to Green Lake, outer, and back. 

Treadmill. Fell over on my bike today, so my hip was sore for the first mile or so, but felt fine after that. 

3 ez miles, 2 tempo (6:09, 6:01). Tempos felt incredible. Nice to get a little bit of zip. 

Basic run. Felt good. 1:34:22.

5 at home, 88-100th loop x 4. Maybe 39 minutes?

Did some Green Lake running.