Saturday 033112

I seemed to have luckily combat the to be expected jet lag on this trip.  This afternoon will be the true proving ground on that.

What I did this time was stay up as late as I could on the flight from JFK over the ocean.  I watched several movies – including Moneyball.    I found this very good.  Yes, I know most folks saw this last year, but I don’t get out to the bijou much.

In fact, as cheesey as it sounds, I find I have liked most Brad Pitt flicks that I have seen.  Legends of the Fall? Check.  Snatch?  Check.  A River Runs Through It?  Check.  12 Monkeys?  Check.  Fight Club?  Check.  Meet Joe Black?   Check.

Anyway, I stayed up late, maybe until midnight, Colorado time and then snoozed a bit on the bird.  I got a less than great 3 or 4 hours, but it was a little something.  But I think the key was it was not much.  I was tired when we arrived (2 in the afternoon Tel Aviv time, 5AM Colorado time) and then stayed up until 9PM here.  I took a melatonin then and got a solid 8 or 9 hours.  Typically I wake up at 3AM and wonder what the hell I am going to do.

Nonetheless, I still felt a bit heavy legged so I decided to turn today’s run into a bit of an opportunity to take some pix (14 miles).  Here are things you can expect to find on Shabbat on the Tayalet in Tel Aviv.

Old guys beating the crap out of each other in paddle ball …

Teenagers drinking beer and playing music in the park

Big dance parties.

Running could be really open and easy, or you could hit crowds of people … walkers of all ages, kids in strollers, folks on bikes, scooters, dogs, everything and come to a complete halt.



The paths continue along the beach or up the HaYarkon (I think) River to several parks, a zoo, etc.  There were literally tens of thousands of people out walking, eating, playing …
  
Bike rentals via the city.
 
Sailboats on the Med.
 
Old guys fishing
 
I am going to see if KZ or JZ can play this when I get home.
 
The commercial district on the shore known as Tel Aviv Port.
  
From beaches to forests in the city back to the city.
 
 

Last day in March so … Annual stats at end of March:  952 miles, 136.7 hours, 54685  feet climbed, 6 days off, 19  treadmill runs, 5 20 milers, 22 days of quality, and zero days at high altitude.  Zilcho racing.  11 FR Peaks.
Monthly stats at end of March:  337 miles, 52.7  hours, 36530 feet climbed, 1 days off, 2 treadmill runs, 1 20 miler, 3 days of quality, and zero days at high altitude.  Zilcho racing.  10 FR Peaks

From the Incline Club FAQ page … (which is Matt)

Thursday Workouts

1) Tempo run from Hydro Street to No Name Creek (aka French Creek) or 30 minutes — whichever comes first. This is an anaerobic threshold workout requiring attention to pacing so that the pace is constant for the entire 30 minutes. As the graph shows I maintained a relatively even pace but did drop my heartrate on both the flat section leading to the rock arch and the downhill section just before No Name Creek. The first 10 minutes should almost feel easy with a gradual build up of the effort required to maintain the SAME pace. There should not be MUCH build-up because it is a tempo run but non-the-less the effort does increase and usually the last five minutes or so one should be a tad uncomfortable but NOT racing!!! Progress is marked by how far up the trail you get in the 30 minutes with the goal being that the SAME effort over time gets you farther up the trail. This will help increase the pace that a given effort will produce or, as they say, raise our lactic acid threshold pace.

2) 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy for 30 minutes starting at Hydro Street and running up the Barr Trail. This is a very demanding workout and unfortunately it is also very hard to master! What is important is to keep the hard minutes the same quality by learning to adjust your easy minutes. Because there are 15 hard minutes pacing is very important! The first hard minutes are not all out. However, by the 10th or so the effort seems to take effect earlier and earlier into each one with the last ones feeling like they are all out even though you are running the same pace as the first ones. As the graph shows I was able to get very close to the same effort pulse and recovery pulse all 15 times. More common — until you learn your body — is that as the minutes pass you will have to do the easy minutes easier and easier in order to keep up the quality on the hard minutes. Further, in the early season the easy minutes may have to be done as a walk. However, over the months as fitness is gained there may be an almost imperceptible difference between the pace of a hard minute and an easy minute and the easy minutes will not deteriorate over the course of the workout. Again looking at the graph you can see the very narrow range — 10 beats — so I am not slowing much for my recoveries. Generally, a runner will come within 1 to 5 minutes of the spot where they get on their tempo run. It just depends on how much the runner has to slow down on the recoveries. However, by definition you should NOT get to the same spot. Doing so would indicate that the runner 1) is not having enough of a variation between the hard minutes and easy minutes or 2) the runner is going out too hard on their tempo run and has to slow down toward the end — as in dying. Usually it is a combination of both and they get further up the trail in the 1 on 1 off workout because they get recoveries to make up for their lack of pacing skills. You can see using this graph and the graph above that I was 55 seconds off my tempo run to No Name Creek. In both cases my split at the top of the W’s was just under 60% of my time to No Name Creek (59.37% to 59.23%) — again pacing is everything. The purpose of this workout is to gain speed on a hill and to learn our body by going in and out of oxygen debt.

Obviously I won’t be doing these workouts as I don’t live in the Springs, but I will look to emulate them over the summer with the following modifications.

1.)  I will look to do a hill workout once a week and a flat workout once a week.  Many of the Incline Club folk do this already with Tuesday being their fast and furious and the Thursdays being hilly and hellacious. 
2.)  I need to take the training that is given to me!  This week is a good example of that – I had several days where I could get after the hills and the vertical, so I took that – as I knew I would have little of it later in the week (being on the Med!).
3.)  I think my favorite routes for the hill stuff will be the middle route up Green, or the Simms hill near my work.  I might also look to incorporate some of the north facing hills on the south side of Superior as those are close as well.