A week in March

Friday AM - got in 8 with GW and MC over practice.  Kids had some work on the ditch trail by the middle school so I jumped on some of that.  Not so hot but it was some work.  

Saturday AM - started before Eagle practice and had a handful when I caught up to them.  One of the athletes had a workout so we headed up to the track.  I cleared the middle school track with GW on Thursday night.  It was still pretty icy on Thursday night but it was completely fine by Friday and great for this morning.  We have to use the middle school track because soccer plowed the field at the HS and proceeded to dump all the plowing into lane 1 on the straights.  This shit still drives me crazy.

Sunday AM - we drove all day yesterday and good chunk of today to AZ.  Got out for a jog with JZ and KZ mid day here.  This was absolutely wonderful for me.  KZ got sick of my shit talk and decided to throw down in the last mile, and was hitting sub six pace for a bit.  Holy hell.  Headed back out with JZ on a loop we found near Mesa Community College.  It was probably only 80 degrees but all of a sudden I felt like I was in plus 100.  I was fried later in the night,  combo of being in the car so long, etting dehydrated on the trip, and then running in the heat.  7.4 miles.   About 55 on the week.

I am supposed to be on vacation but I am an idiot and oversubscribed to some work stuff this week.  Got out mid afternoon and it seemed cooler than yesterday but I might just be used to it now.  10.2 miles (I got a little turned around so it was longer than expected).  First three with KZ and then the rest solo.  Got rolling pretty good for me these days at the end.

Tuesday - Arlene Piper died last month. I had the privilege of meeting her a few years back.  Inspirational.  She doesn't get the credit due to her like Bobbi Gibb or Katherine Switzer at Boston, even though she did the marathon over a had decade earlier.  

Got out late in the afternoon and it was significantly cooler (60s).  Headed east out towards the hills (but really didn't make it to them).  After a 4 and change warm up, did six by 2 minutes on, 90's off/active.  It was slightly downhill on the back so that helped.  Efforts were at some sort of 3k or threshold level - but nothing specific other than going quicker than I would normally run.  It was a good workout and at the end of it I had averaged the 8.4 miles under 7:30, with the last four being under 6:50 with the reps in there.  That sort of pace is something I have not seen in probably nine months.  

Wednesday AM - traipsed around some desert trails in the Usery Mountain Park.  Very cool.  8.4 miles, with 1200 plus of climbing, so I guess means I did a trail run.  Achilles is still in some serious disagreement with me, but whatever.

Beautiful to be in the desert for a bit.  

Thursday - sore from yesterday's effort.  Simply shows that I have not done that sort of work in a long time.  Probably more from the descent of the hill than the climb.  6.5 miles easy.

Back in Usery Mountain Park, this time with JZ.  6.1 miles. 

 

Saturday - day off, second one this year.  Got up early and drove back from AZ to Broomstock.  Probably 13 hours of driving but 14 hours all today.  

Sunday - dehydrated from not taking good care of myself on the ride yesterday.  7 miles that including heading over to Rails, catching up with Shad, JT and Donnie.  Good dudes.  But man, we getting old.  

Thursday 18MAR2021

AM - 8.6 miles, with a couple of handful of 100 yard strides.  

Midweek 17MAR2021

Tuesday afternoon - roads are still a mess.  Most are only plowed with one lane.  Completely understandable as there is a lot of snow but makes it tricky when cars come by.  And if there is melt, it makes for a splashback mess.  7.1 miles, moving pretty good for current status.

Wednesday AM - back with the Eagles.  8.1 miles.  Chilly.  Started really slow but opened up okay.  Roads still a chore, and there are no trails unless you wanna slog through the crunch.  Not for me right now.  

Caught up on all the NCAA XC and indoor distance action as most of it is on Youtube.  The Hocker double is amazing, and his kick is like something outta video game.  

Monday 15MAR2021

Monday mid day - typical big blue sky day that comes post the storms.  Lots of wet, slush, heavy snow.  Caught up with Greg and did 7 through the slop.  

Weekend 13, 14MAR2021

Saturday AM - beat the weather coming in and got in 8.1 with Greg on the Lac Amora loop.  Nice misty rain.  

Got rollin' a bit late with a few seeds.

Sunday  - typical ridiculous spring snow.  One of the storms where you shovel the driveway, and when you get to the end and look back at the top, it looks like you didn't shovel it.  And wet.  So therefore, very heavy.  And so with several hours of shoveling, and recognizing it was unnecessary to be the hero to run, I took my first day off from running in 2021.  And no problem with that.  

End of week stuff 12MAR2021

Thursday AM - over to practice and back in a gorgeous fog. 8.1 miles.

Friday AM - a bit of a workout - 4 x 600 2:13, down to 2:10 on 90 sec rest.  Definitely a different system for me right now getting under six pace.  Was fine through 300 on all of them but could feel the flop after that.  It is certainly different than last summer when I was rolling this pace for four mile runs, but that is where I am at.  Good work though to get at this.  In a weird way it is sort of fun to go from being out of shape to slowly getting back at it, even if that won't be what it was.  9.2 miles.

Apparently running will be a bit of a challenge over the next couple of days.  

Wednesday 10FEB2021

Monday - up in the mountains.  5.5 miles out on Mosquito Pass Road and back.  Phone crapped out after four years. Dealing with the ripple of that took a good part of the day.  

Tuesday - back in Broomstock.  4 x 250 on 150 rest and then 6 x 150 on 250 rest, building on the effort.  Haven't done anything that quick since at least July so it was different.  7.2 miles.  

Supposed to get pounded with the Fools Spring snow this weekend so it would seem miles are going to be curtailed a bit.  Given that I have been ramping them up and also edging in more quality, I will rationalize ahead of time my lack of discipline this weekend as a much needed break.  :-/

Wednesday - 6 miles easy with GW.

Week ending 07FEB2021

Friday AM - 8.8 miles, jogging.  Tripped me over 400 miles on the year according to Strava.  

Coyotes were active (if you look closely you will actually see there are two in this shot).

Saturday - back down to Heritage HS for some Eagles doing a track meet.  Went great.  Got in 8.7 with warm ups and a run on the Liberty Bell XC course post.  Felt pretty good but the Achilles was barking pretty hard later in the day.

Started reading Finn's The Way of the Runner:  A Journey Into the Fabled World of Japanese Running.  It is an easy read.  I say this because I found I can read it and was 40 pages in on my first sit with it.    Yeah, I know that is a bit self deprecating but I have truly become a poor reader of books the last score of years.  I am good with technical material and articles, but I am less disciplined with other reading - and like most have come too ready to just read 288 character clips.  The writing in this book is simple, and obviously I am drawn to the content.  I was drawn to it given the recent Lake Biwa results and the ridiculous depth of Japanese outcome there.  

Sunday AM - did some jogging with TZ and then headed over to the track to meet GW and EC.  She had a cutdown/progression run over 3 miles.  I decided I'd hop in for a half, wait a quarter - all while being very careful and evaluating things.  It went well - 3:20 down to 3:10 over the four I did.  I could definitely feel the Achilles being pissed but no more than usual.  Aerobically I felt pretty good (of course, 100 second recoveries help that a lot) and these felt easy in that regard.

Week was 59.8 miles.  That was a little dumb but I can rationalize that most of it is really slow stuff.  That said, I need to not be greedy.

Midweek 03-04FEB2021

Wednesday AM - 8 miles.  Jogged over to the track, did stuff there while some Eagles did work and then back home.

Thursday AM - 8.1 miles on Ridgeview with GW.  Felt really sluggish today but moved alright once we got going.  

Yesterday's practice:

Still trying to meditate even though I dropped Headspace.   I have recently been considering how I choose to react to anything.  When I consider that, it makes me consider how often I fly on auto-pilot.  Like an actual auto-pilot, it is often not bad, because it seems to navigate me pretty well. But many times it is not great.  The response to certain situations is unintentional, and, that ain't great.  Or that in that in unintentionality, the auto-pilot of it actually makes it pretty predictable.  But seeing that fog, or trying to see it, is a good start I guess.   

Lot of yapping about those new shoes.  Yeah, they have an impact and I am seeing it even with some of the HS kids I work with.  It is a real impact.  The genie is sort of out of that bottle though.  I don't discount it, but I am not sure there is any benefit in banning it.  

Tuesday 02MAR2021 and actually ... a workout of sorts

Tuesday AM - the Eagles had some shorter hills and I decided I'd give a few of them a try.  I ended up doing 8 of them.  6.7 miles.  I managed to keep the Achilles ok, and actually my bigger issue was just general fitness.  It felt good to blow the rust out a bit, but it was also a basic reminder of laws of fitness.  That said, I need to be careful and not get overly greedy.  

I am totally digging the "Renegades" podcast with Obama and Springsteen.  It is beautiful story telling.  Very American.  Let me know what you think of it.  

Some of last night's practice.  

Was thinking this AM how I can't think of anyone I know that is not dealing with something.  Anxiety.  Depression.  Alcoholism.  Drugs.  Eating too much.  Not eating enough.  Divorce.  Relationships.  Angry about the election.  Too tied into social media.  COVID.  Cancer.  Taxes.  Racism.  Sexual assault.  Been betrayed.  Disappointed by friends or family.  Disappointed by themselves.  Emotional and mental disorders.  Loss of health and fitness.  Getting old.  Loss of loved ones.  Aging parents.  Too much of this, too little of that.  A victim of something.  Pain.  Demons.  And that ain't a comprehensive list.  It is all suffering.  It is real.  

I was also thinking about how I have told running athletes in competition that it is not how they feel in a race, but how they feel about how they feel.  This often gets me a confused look from high schoolers.  The point is that of course when you are racing at your best, 2/3 of the way into the race ought not to feel like a Sunday brunch.  It is going to hurt, and you chose that suffering.  And, if it is a fair race, the folks around you probably feel that way too.  So everyone is hurting.  How you then chose to feel about that can have a dramatic impact on how you respond to that pain.  If you feel that is horrible, and are overwhelmed by it, and mentally cave to it, you will almost certainly also physically cave.  But if you chose to embrace it and be with it, then maybe you can ride it out well.  

It is an analogy and so of course, it doesn't perfectly model how to address all types of sufferings.  But, well, this writing is more for me than for anyone reading it.  How I chose to chose to be and how to see, or how I craft the story ... that can often have more bearing on what is than what it actually is.  Not always of course, but a lot more than in the moment I wish to admit.  

And with that, we should, as much as we can look to create "lollipop moments" for as many as we can with each other.  To lift each other up, and help us be equipped to deal when the suffering comes.  I have also observed that it seems most of us are more likely to do this for strangers than those closest to us.  There is no real cost or baggage in doing it with an unknown.  But with the ones we are connected with, we create the suffering story of chess over checkers.  It is just another story.  

Nothing definitive to close this. This is not meant to be a dissertation.  It is more just babbling as I sort through this thinking.  

Monday 01MAR2021

Monday - wore shorts but it was probably too chilly for that.  Jogged over to the HS, then a half dozen with GW, and then the jog home.  8.3 miles.  Lac Amora was iced in pretty good so I was surprised at the average pace (8:13).  Helped to get dragged by some of those Eagles I guess.  Or maybe the shorts.