Sunday long run

On my eighth consecutive day of running, I did a 9-miler. I was trying to run very slow and easy. Most of the miles were in the 11:30 range.

That got me to 23.76 miles for the week, which is by far my biggest week since the marathon.

Vacation running

I'm on vacation in CA, running every day. Because of very cold water (60F), my swim party skipped the pier-to-pier. It was so cold that the race organizers decided to allow wetsuits, but we didn't know about it.

Anyway, I have now run five consecutive days. Saturday I did some intervals and sprints at the track for about 3.5 miles. Monday was only 2.17 miles, but included a big hill. Tuesday I did two miles of "trail" running. All hills and uneven ground in my Five Fingers. Wednesday another 2.57 including some of the same trail running, but in running shoes. And finally today was 4.80 miles of intervals on the track.

Long swim

I did the longest continuous swim that I've ever done in a pool last night. I went 2 miles. (141 lengths) It took about an hour, but I didn't note exactly when I started so I'm not sure just how long it was. No repeat of the hand cramping/failure of the week before, so I think I'm good to go for the pier-to-pier.

Decathlon

I started a "decathlon" with the other developers at work, and I have completed all the events except one. These are the events:

200m dash - I did this this morning after my mile, and ran a 36.43. That's almost but not quite world record pace in the marathon, and I was giving it everything I had in a sprint.

1 mile - Today's 7:32 is my best in a long time. I seem to think I did some miles faster than this back in Fremont. But I'm not entirely sure.

10k - I ran a 54:53 back in mid-May, which is my best ever.

200yd freestyle - Went 2:37 this evening. A bit better than I expected, as I was thinking that about 40 sec / 50 yards would be my best.

Pull-ups - I can't say I have completed this one because I was unable to do a pull-up.

Push-ups - 15. I was disappointed with this.

Wall sit - 1:24. I had no idea how difficult this would be.

Standing broad jump - 68 inches. I think with some technique practice I could do better.

Jump rope (1 minute, rope rotations) - 57. Terrible. I don't have the timing down very well, my rope was too light weight, and I kept snagging it on my foot and having to restart. I think a bit of practice will bump this up a lot.

Stair climb - 51.04 seconds. We work on the 8th floor, so this is from the 1st to the 8th. The first 4 floors were very easy. The last one was not.

Blister! Ow!

I set out to do 6 miles this morning. On the way out, I decided to extend it to 8 miles. At the turnaround, I was at about 9:45 pace, and I wanted to kick up the pace to average 9:30 for the whole run. I clicked off a 9:17, a 9:02, and an 8:58. But there was a building pain on the outside edge of my right foot. Just after passing the 7 mile mark, I gave up, took my shoes off, and walked the last mile home.

I have a large blister on my foot. This is the first blister I have had in the last several years. There did not seem to be any folded spot in my sock or anything else out of place. So I have just kicked the Nike Frees off my preferred running shoes list. I'm going back to my Asics.

Swim win

I did the same swim workout as before this evening: 12x100 on 1:40 until failure, then dropping to 2:00. The last two times I have failed on the fourth. This time I made all 12 on 1:40. After the first at 1:30 flat, I did most of them at 1:35 to 1:37. I even managed to kick my way to a 1:32 on the last one. Booyah!

Long swim

Catching up a bit, Monday was a 1000 yard swim, nothing fancy. This morning I got out for a brief easy run of 2 miles. But the big workout of the week was tonight's swim.

I did a straight 2500, in 43 minutes. I never would have guessed where my failure point would be. At about 2000 yards in, my left hand couldn't hold flat against the water. My fingers would split and twist and I kept losing my grip on the water. I just tried to relax my hand a bit, let my fingers split a little, and it got better at the end. But my left forearm is pretty sore now.

Weekend update

Friday night was a repeat of last Sunday's swim workout. 12 x 100 yards, at 1:40 until failure and then 2:00. I still only made 4 at 1:40. I'm quite certain I could have done 5, but I lacked motivation on the 4th.

This morning I got up and it was only 59 degrees outside. I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a run. It was the first run since before the marathon that I wasn't doing intervals or a time goal or wearing funny shoes or no shoes or whatever. I just set off on a 10k for the fun of it. Of course, when I got to the halfway point in just under 30 minutes, I suddenly had a time goal. Despite significant fade in the last half mile or so, I ran a 59:50 10k. Brisk, but not fast.

Thursday sick

Yesterday just as I got home from work, I got sick. It was weird just how hard I crashed out. I was pretty normal all day at work, and just as I got out of my car at home I felt oddly unsettled. An hour later, on a warm summer evening, I was wearing sweats, under a heavy feather blanket, and still felt cold. That kept up for a few hours, until I finally took some Advil.

This morning I felt mostly normal, except for a little bit of a sore throat. But I decided not to do my intervals run. Maybe tomorrow.

I'm still hoping to be able to swim this evening.

Interval fail

I set off this morning with the idea of doing 4 half miles @ 3:30. I did 1. It actually went pretty well, but then I realized I needed to go home sooner, so I turned around and jogged home. I don't think there's any way I could have done 4.

Sunday swim

The Friday evening swim got pushed back, and then got pushed back again. So it became a Sunday afternoon swim, which was kind of nice after working in the hot shop much of the day.

Main set was 12 x 100, at 1:40 until failure, then at 2:00. I failed on #4, with my arms burning and coming in at 1:41. But with the extra rest I brought the remaining 8 all in around 1:39 to 1:41. It was a good workout and I'll be sore tomorrow.

Body weight

Yikes! I'm back up to 178 lbs. Dropping weight early this year for my marathon target, I had gotten down to 170 lbs. Then I started free-feeding leading up to the race, and I think I raced at about 174. Unfortunately, the free-feeding has continued and perhaps intensified. Time to stop. Target weight is 170.

Yasso 800s (more-or-less), first attempt

Today's running workout was 4 x 1/2 mile, 1/4 mile rest in between. My target was 4:00, and I went 4:01, 3:51, 3:53, 3:49. Then just for fun I did an all-out 1/4 in 1:36.56.

The 1/2s were easier than I expected. I might be able to double this workout next week, and do 8 x 1/2. That would be 4 miles of good tempo running, which would be great.

Tonight I need to get a good swim in. I think I'll try 100s on 1:40 until failure, rest until recovered, then 100s on 2:00 to make up the balance to 12. Throw in some warmup and cooldown and I should be close to a mile.

Training goals

I'm trying to gradually transform myself into some kind of recreational athlete. Although I've done a few triathlons, a two-mile ocean swim, and just finished my first marathon this month, I still don't feel like I'm successful at these things. So I'm setting out a few goals for myself:

1. Pier-to-pier swim, August 1. I started training way too late this year, so I'm not going to set any time goal or anything like that. I'll just try to survive it.

2. 7:00 mile. I'm doing intervals right now for this target. I'm not there yet, but I think this is possible in the next couple of months.

3. Las Vegas marathon, December 5. My current goal time is 4:22, the same as it was in San Diego. In SD I blew out after 18 miles, and came in at 4:54. Las Vegas is flatter and it should be cooler, too. To be honest, 4:22 should be pretty easy.

4. 10k in 50:00. The Runner's World pace calculator says that if I can do a 7:00 mile, I should be able to do a 48:32. The best I've ever run was a 54-something, but that was in marathon training and I should be able to improve on that with my interval training.