Good Start to 2009

Saturday, Jan 3, 2009:

St Croix Runners regular five-mile Saturday run. Dave, Dave, Tom, Luke, & Paul. Everyone finished ahead of me but Paul, who is about my speed right now. But I did well enough considering other recent runs and today’s conditions, which were slippery with some loose snow. Also, I had some unexpected soreness in the quads from Thursday's 200 m race. Who'da thunk? Time 44:24, pace 8:53.

No pains of any kind. Nike miler shoes.


Thursday, Jan 1, 2009, New Years Day:

Another Charities Challenge event at Bethel University . Last month I ran the 400 m race once and then didn’t run any races at all in the second event. This time I ran the 200 m, in 36.7 seconds, which is only about 2 seconds behind my PR from last year. Not bad! I’m very happy with that result.

Slight pain in the right knee as I ran around the indoor track for the remainder of six miles. And a little No other pains until the next day :-)


Tuesday, Dec 30, 2008:

I had a coach once who said a runner should never let more than 48 hours pass between runs. He believed that muscles would atrophy or freeze up after that amount of time. By that measure, today’s 6-mile run at the club was a day late, more than 72 hours after last Saturday’s run.

But this was a good run, with no evidence that the extra delay caused any harm. I started out at a pace that felt natural, and finished the first mile a little more quickly than usual. The miles after that were also quicker than usual, with an overall pace of 8:36, the best I’ve done for a six-mile run in a while.

Breathing was four footfalls per full breath for the first five miles, with an occasional increase to three footfalls in the last mile. Slight pain in the right hip flexors toward the end - wish that would go away. I’m trying a new stretch to see if that helps. Slight pain in the right knee after the run was over.

Splits: 8:53, 8:34, 8:31, 8:34, 8:39, 8:26, total 51:37, pace 8:36.



Bison Burger Dinner: Everything is organic.

Slip-Sliding Along

This morning the temperature was 30, which meant that the overnight drizzle had frozen here and there to paved surfaces. In some places it was just wet, but in others it was ice. That kind of spotty black ice is hard to see, especially just before dawn. Both Tom and Luke had shoes with studs of some kind, but Paul and I just had regular running shoes.

We’re slower anyway, so we hung back and walked in a few places where it seemed dangerous, finishing long after Tom & Luke. Even so, we each had a close call or two. Though I did get away with it, I might have been smarter to go run indoors somewhere today. Enjoyable to run with Paul, though. Time 48:54, pace 9:47.

Maybe I need a pair of Yak-Trax. Or drive some screws into the sole of the shoes, as Luke had done, so the screw heads can act as studs.



Dinner: Organic chicken, roasted organic sweet potatoes, organic nectarine, organic catsup.

Merry Christmas Run

Steve, Dave, and I met at the usual St Croix Valley Runners’ location, the Northland Tennis Courts, and took off into the minus-5 degree weather for the usual five-mile run. According to Dave, in fact, his thermometer said minus-11. Whatever, it was cold. All three of us were dressed for the cold, and no one complained.

I wore a ski mask, and contact lenses because regular glasses fog up and freeze over when the face is covered. Five layers of clothing above the belt, and two below including my pajama bottoms. Plus foam rubber knee protectors. I was a little worried about my feet, where I wore just a single pair of heavy, long Wright Sox inside the Nike Miler shoes. Indeed my feet did get a little cold, and I’m glad it wasn’t a ten-mile run, but my feet were never really at risk.

How come lungs don’t simply freeze solid in this weather, when a runner is breathing so hard? I recall another runner explaining, as we huffed along in a frigid race, that by the time air is inhaled through the mouth, throat, and bronchial tubes, it is warmed almost to body temperature. Hence the lungs are protected. I suppose that has to be the answer. But it doesn’t explain why those other parts (bronchia, etc.) don’t freeze. Perhaps they have an abundant blood supply. Anyway they don’t freeze, so we can run in virtually any temperature if we manage to keep the rest of the body warm.

Today’s time was 45:38, for a pace of 9:08. About two minutes slower than last Saturday, and perhaps 25 degrees colder. Last run of the week, 24 miles completed.



Breakfast after this Christmas morning run: Trader Joe's gluten-free granola, organic walnuts, blueberries, banana, organic nonfat milk, Dove dark chocolate. Not shown: Two eggs pan-fried in a little coconut oil.

Eight Miles

North St Paul Community Center. Today the idea was to run 8 miles at a nine-minute pace. I wasn’t sure that I could do it, but it was no problem and I was even able to ramp up the last mile. This was my longest run in a month or two. Breathing was four footfalls per full breath throughout except the last half mile, when it went to three. That’s good - four footfalls is a sustainable pace short of a race pace. Perhaps next I’ll try 10 miles.

Slight pain in the right knee after the run was finished, in the middle of the knee at the bottom of the kneecap. It went away in 15 minutes or so, shortly after stretches were completed. I hope it doesn’t become a problem. It didn’t bother during the run.

Splits: 9:03,8:55, 8:55, 8:56, 8:56, 8:55, 8:57, 8:17, total 1:10:55, pace 8:52.



Dinner: Organic chicken, organic carrots roasted with the chicken, organic strawberries.

Woofed

Six nice miles at the Challenge Courage races on the Bethel University indoor track, followed by an solid hour and a half of snow shoveling. I’m tired. But the driveway is clear.

When I visit Mayo every month the doctor always asks if I get unusually tired. Well, I’m mighty tired tonight but I have a good excuse, so I won’t bother the doctor with it.

This time I didn’t run any races at all, just enjoyed the ambiance and watched others race while I ran my six miles at about a nine-minute pace.


Breakfast: Gluten-free oatmeal, blueberries, organic strawberries, organic walnuts, organic low-fat milk, Dove dark chocolate. Oh yeah.


Salad: Organic romaine salad, cucumber, avocado, organic grapes, organic strawberries, macadamia nuts, organic red wine vinegar.

Three More Runs

Saturday, Dec 20:

St Croix Valley Runners, five miles. Lots of snow on the route today, which makes the run more difficult, like running uphill the whole way. "New Mike" ran with us for the first time. I hope he comes again - he’s a good guy. He’s "new Mike" only because there is already a Mike, who is now "old Mike." New Mike is pretty fast, though we didn’t really test him today.

The group stuck together much of the way, and then Mike & Luke took off. Roy was visiting from Chicago, and Dave (old Dave) & Paul ran too. Nice group. I finished with Dave in 43:48, which is plenty good considering. Pace 8:46. Nike Miler shoes did well; they have an aggressive tread and little ventilation.

It’s pretty dark at 7:00 am these days - we run the first mile in the dark, reflective clothing advised. In fact the solstice is tomorrow, the shortest day. The latest sunrise will be a couple of weeks later, for reasons that I have never quite comprehended. Believe it or not sunSET is already getting later, and after tomorrow it will be getting later faster than sunrise is getting later. This offset varies by latitude, apparently, though I’m sure I’d need to set up a model of the sun and the earth to understand it.

Gosh the "blizzard" just hit here. As we watch, and as I write in this journal, the easterly breeze which carries the snow has suddenly snapped over to the northwest and become a gale. The change is dramatic and intimidating. Yikes. Time to put another log on the fire.

Thursday, Dec 18:

North St Paul Community Center indoor track, five miles. I wanted to do a little speed work at the end, but this was not the day for much of it. I was happy to be able to push a little in the last three laps. The very last lap was 32 seconds, which corresponds to a pace of about 7:12. That’s probably about as fast as I ought to try to go on that short, banked track.

As always I did my stretches after the run. After that, my right knee hurt a little, just walking along. For the previous day or two I had noticed pain in that knee as I got up from a chair or turned on that leg. The running and stretches made it a little worse, though there had been no pain during the run. But the pain went away within a few minutes. I’ve had this "trick knee" symptom before and it went away. Maybe a floating piece of garbage in there? Anyway I have the name of an excellent orthopedist if I need to go there. Hope not.

Splits: 8:59, 8:35, 8:45, 8:52, 8:33, total 43:42, pace 8:44.

Tuesday, Dec 16:

North St Paul Community Center indoor track, five miles, no problems. I was a little tired, so I didn’t push much. Splits: 8:59, 8:41, 8:46, 17:45, total 44:12, pace 8:50.



Dinner: Grass-fed bison potroast (crockpot) with parsnips, organic mixed vegetables, shredded parmesan cheese, organic grapes. No doubt this was complemented by a hearty porter or perhaps a brown ale.

Bethel University Track

Gary held a racewalking training event today at the Bethel University indoor 200m track, and invited runners to come and enjoy the facility too during that time. We three are not racewalkers, but we do enjoy running on that lovely track. My sweeties ran 6k, and I ran five timed miles and then fooled around for another mile. I’d like to improve my sprint speed, so I did a sprint and some other track work.

To be honest, though, after running five "fast" miles today on top of six last night, I didn’t have a lot left for sprints. Perhaps next time I’ll do most of the track work first. Also, I found myself running too a little too fast today in the timed miles, I can’t explain why. The rubbery track surface makes me feel like I’m going slow even when my breathing says I’m going too fast. Experience on the track will help.

I ran in lane 6 of the track, the outer lane, counting seven laps per mile. That is actually about 83 feet longer than a mile, which amounts to about 10 seconds at my 9-minute pace.

Splits for five timed miles: 9:13, 8:43, 8:35, 8:43, 8:58. Take about ten seconds off each one to get the time for a real mile.


NOT OATMEAL! For a change, this is a gluten-free granola from Trader Joe's. Yummy stuff, and good fer ya too. Add blueberries, strawberries, organic milk, and a nice little Dove chocolate.