As I was driving home from Maryland today, I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to run in one of my favorite places to run — White Clay Creek state park, in Newark, DE just up 896 a few miles north of the University of Delaware. I love it there. There’s a scenic, moderately challenging 3.9 mile trail that circles the park and is constantly going up or down, not much flat. It’s hella fun. I got to the park lot around 10:30am, and took a little nap in my car because I didn’t get much sleep last night after going out in Baltimore with some friends and sleeping on a floor.

I had half an orange and left the other half in the front seat to eat with my half gallon of Gatorade after the first loop. I decided to video tape the first loop on my Flip and I’ll try to add that video later, not sure how it came out but it’s the entirety of the trail from my perspective while running. It decided to get pretty hot while I was running and when I came out of the woods to do the biggest uphill right near the end, the heat hit me hard. My achilles also started feeling… uncomfortable. It didn’t stop me from running and it didn’t affect my gait in any way that I could notice, but I was certainly aware of it and because of that I decided to cut the run at two loops. My fitness right now is absolutely incredible (compared to my fitness at any other point in my life that is) and if I can just maintain that while letting my leg get to 100% so I can run pain free and not have to worry about it anymore, than that’s what I wanna do. Even if that means not running the high mileage that I wish I were doing last week and this week and probably for a few more weeks at least. It’s worth it in the long run. I’m also happy with the pretty consistent pacing from start to finish.

Here's the damage:

7.8 miles in 1:07:29 (8:39 pace)

including:
3.9 miles - 34:15
7.8 miles - 1:07:29 (33:14)

I went down to Baltimore County, Maryland today to check out what will become my home for the next year (starting in October) and meet my soon-to-be roommates. I’m going to be on a crew at Gunpowder Falls state park and living in a house inside North Point state park with two other crew members. This is absolutely awesome for me. The house is nice enough — I’ve got my own room, the kitchen is really spacious, we have a gorgeous view of the water from the back deck, etc. But there’s also lots of trails to run on!

I didn’t do much exploring today though. I measured 1.8 miles from the parking lot next to my house to the front entrance of the park with my car. Then I ran it twice. It was mostly on grass/dirt which I liked. And despite feeling like I was going pretty relaxed, yet again the pace seems pretty quick (by my current easy runs standards which may need to be revised some). And I had a big negative split! Here's the damage:

7.2 miles in 55:27 (7:42 pace)

including:
3.6 miles - 28:27
7.2 miles - 55:27 (27:00)

I was thinking about doing another 2-3 miles but the park closed and I had to get to Baltimore to hang out with some friends. Plus my achilles was a little sore towards the end so I figured best not to push it unnecessarily.

Yesterday all I did basically was drive home from Boston with Jess. First to LI to get her car and then to Bryn Mawr where I’ll stay so that I have a shorter drive to Maryland tomorrow (dag yo, I’m quite the travelin’ man!). Today Jess planned on running for an hour, heading over to the Haverford nature trail so I decided to tag along. We did the 1.5 miles there pretty relaxed. I found my legs feeling really good when we got on the trail and I was slowing down some for Jess occasionally. Towards the end of the first loop, she told me to do another and she was gonna sit it out. So I did. It didn’t feel like I increased my effort much, I just felt warmed up on the second loop but man, apparently I was cruising! I did the second loop over two minutes faster than the first, and about as fast as my fastest loop the last time I ran the trail (and at that point it felt REALLY fast!). Today it just felt normal. Then we took it easy back to campus and ended right at the dining hall. Nothing like a good dinner right after a great run

Here's the damage:

7.5 miles in 59:36 (7:57 pace)

including:
Campus to Haverford Nature trail (1.5 miles)

1.5 miles - 12:43

Haverford Nature Trail (2.25 miles)

3.75 miles - 30:41(17:58)
6.00 miles - 46:36 (15:55)

Trail to campus (1.5 miles)

7.50 miles - 59:36 (13:00)

Today Jess was supposed to run a 4 mile race in the morning. I was going to go with her and run some miles during her warm up/cool down nice and easy. But then last night we dealt with some crap (primarily my car getting towed) and this morning she was underslept and sickish so she didn’t run. I headed to the river to run along the bike path again, wanting to go a little longer than yesterday but realizing I couldn’t go more than 5 or 6 miles because I still had to shower, put on my tux, and get to the wedding at 3pm.

I started where Talia’s race was held, near the Publik Theater. Marathon Sports is so awesome for providing a map of the river complete with all the distances for loops between various bridges along the Charles. The pace was kinda quicker than I had planned at the start. But I felt good, and my achilles felt good, and I decided to just cruise. So I did. The effort was probably slightly slower than a true tempo effort but it’s certainly the fastest I’ve run for any significant duration in a while. And I didn’t start out fast and crawl in, the pace was consistent start to finish. All told it was 5.7 miles in 38:51.

Afterward I did some wallball shots w/ my 25# medicine ball and drove back to the apt to get ready.

Here's the damage:

5.7 miles in 38:51 (6:49 pace)

Jess and I drove up to Baaahston this morning. We finally got around to running around 5pm. She had to do a half hour shakeout and I figured that’d be good enough for me. The beach running on Monday hurt my Achilles (the same one that I hurt back in May/June). I took Tuesday-Thursday off and it was feeling better, but not 100%, today. We ran a little ways to the Charles River near Cambridge St, ran along the river, and covered about 3.5 miles in the half hour. Good, not terribly challenging, my legs felt a little sluggish which is always the case for me after a couple days off it seems. Here's the damage:

3.5 miles in 30 minutes (8:34 pace)

So it appears that running almost 10 miles, barefoot, on the sand (which is significantly harder to run in than the track/grass) was not the greatest of ideas. I should have realized this sooner instead of trying to push it more each week. As a result, it seems I’ve aggravated my left Achilles again. It’s not nearly as bad as last time, and a bit higher up on my calf. I’m thinking I will not miss 3 full weeks like last time, but I’ve taken yesterday and today off and will probably do so until the end of the week at the earliest just as a precaution. I’m getting closer to dates that matter (3 races this fall, starting with the Baltimore Marathon Relay October 10th) and I want to be 100% for them, even if that means less mileage/speedwork than I had originally planned. This comes at an ok time and gives me a chance to step back and realize that I’ve ALREADY run more miles this month than the entirety of last September. Keep stuff in perspective, be smart, and don’t panic.

Did 4 miles around the neighborhood tonight at recovery pace. My left calf was kind of sore since the beach run, about midway between the gastroc head and the heel. As expected, some heat and Tiger Balm followed by a slow recovery run and it’s feeling much better. I’ll ice it now and then shower and massage it a bit before bed. With high mileage there’s always aches and pains, so this is not surprising or terribly concerning but I’ll be vigilant and address stuff before it BECOMES a problem. Cluck, cluck, cluck

Here's the damage:

4 miles in 37:05 (9:16 pace)

I biked down to Jones Beach a day earlier than usual to do my beach run. This week’s schedule is going to be a bit screwy with the traveling and wedding in Boston this weekend. I got down to the beach feeling pretty good, walked the boardwalk until I got to the West Bathhouse, where I was starting today. I decided to run east instead of west because it gave me the ability to run to Tobay which was a little further than my normal route.

This was a pretty fun and pretty tough run. There were really no spots where the sand was wet but firm. I was either running on the dry sand that caused lots of slipping or the wet sand where I was sinking in, occasionally up to my knees. I was soaked a couple times, although the water did feel nice. My splits were pretty even too, which makes me happy.

The only other thing of note about today’s run is… apparently if you go west of Field 5, it turns into a clothing optional beach. This would have been awesome for me if the beachgoers there were mostly young, hot women. However, I don’t think such beaches exist in real life, or I’ve not found them yet. 95% of the people were gay men. And about half of them were totally naked. I have absolutely nothing against gayness or nudity, but I was totally not expecting to see both so prominently displayed. After a bit of initial WTFness, I settled back in, ran to Tobay, turned around, and ran back. My right calf is a little tight/sore, but it’s not the achilles so I’ll just use some heat on it tonight and make sure to Stick it

Here's the damage:

9.6 miles, barefoot in the sand, 1:26:13 (8:59 pace)

There was some craziness in the house around dinner time and it caused me to alter my plans for this evening’s run a bit. I had planned on going up to the track for 6.4 miles around the fields, but by the time I headed out, I knew the lights would be shutting on me about 2 miles in. So I did my usual Wantagh Ave route with the extension around the soccer field. I felt a bit off mentally at the start. My pace was easy, but I was sweating quite a bit. I stopped around a mile in to re-tie my right shoe and then got caught at a light or two. Overall, the pace was on the slowish side but that’s fine. A good end to a very successful cutback week (successful in that I feel re-charged and have no weird/disconcerting aches or pains now). All told I ran 70.2 miles this week, pretty much right on for a 25% cut from last week’s 93+

Now I’ll be ramping back up, but I have to do a little juggling with the schedule because I’ll be traveling to Boston on Friday for my cousin’s wedding Saturday. Regardless, I WILL run 90 miles this coming week. Cluck, cluck, cluck.

Here's the damage:

6.6 miles in 58:27 (8:51 pace)

Went up to the track today to do an easy recovery run. After yesterday’s effort I had NO problem keeping the pace nice and easy. I did the whole thing barefoot on the track, and got to watch some little kid soccer games that were being played on the football field as I ran. Nothing much else to report, it was exactly what I needed and my legs feel much better. Now a hot shower and some Sticking/stretching before tonight’s run. Here's the damage:

5 miles, barefoot, 46:28 (9:17 pace)

What a run! The weather today was absolutely perfect for a long run. We had rain all day yesterday and today’s temperature was in the high 60s/low 70s, not much humidity, a gentle breeze out of the south, and overcast skies. I headed up to the high school a little later than I’d planned. I had been following the Brooks Ragnar New England ultra relay team as they tweeted along their 6-person journey from New Haven, CT to Boston, MA. but it was no biggie. Scott, Pete, Greg, James (and later Mayor) were up there playing tennis for pretty much the entire duration of my run. Up on the football field, there was a semi-pro football game getting ready to start when I arrived (it basically lasted for the duration of my run, too). I brought with me one GU (strawberry banana, NOT my fav) and three half liter bottles — 1 water, 1 whey protein/sugar mix, and 1 50/50 OJ/water mix and aligned them, like I normally do, along the fence (more on this later!). My legs felt good from the lighter mileage during this cutback week and yesterday’s day off and I had a really good feeling about the run. The plan was ten 1.35 mile Tours and then 4 miles barefoot on the track.

I took the first Tour out nice and easy. It felt like I was going even slower than Thursday’s recoveryish run. I was looking to do the first two or three in 11:30ish (~8:30 pace), but when I finished that first Tour I looked at my watch and saw 11:11. I was kinda stunned. I really thought I was barely jogging. I knew the weather was close to ideal and that influences it a bit, but my perceived effort was really low. This was my first inclination that today was gonna be good. I kept the effort consistently easy for the next Tour and saw it was actually faster. I think at this point I exclaimed out loud "Holy shit!" After the third I grabbed the OJ/water mix and sipped on it throughout the fourth Tour. When I got back to the track I put the OJ back on the fence and noticed my other two bottles were missing. WTF?! I looked quickly and concluded that they were indeed nowhere to be found. Either someone made off with them or threw them out. This pissed me off. Kind of a lot. However, I did NOT panic. I wouldn’t let myself. The entire fifth Tour I kept reminding myself that shit like this happens during races and whatnot sometimes and you have to roll with it. Fortunately, I hadn’t gone out crazy fast, I felt great, the pace, while increasing, still felt like I was basically jogging, I had half the OJ and a GU still, and the weather was beautiful. I convinced myself that I’d be able to get through the run with what I had left. But I was still pissed off that someone would do that.

About the same time (fifth Tour) I was also noticing that I was kind of gassy and also had to pee. Neither of these things are very uncommon for my runs, but I was cruising along so well I didn’t want to stop and break my rhythm. It would figure that I get through runs feeling fine after eating horribly and this time I was so careful with my fueling the past two days and I was starting to have GI issues. They became much worse and more dire during the sixth Tour and I told myself if they didn’t improve, I’d stop at the port-a-pottie after the seventh and then turn up the effort a bit after. It’s a REALLY good thing I did. For whatever reason, I had a bad case of the runner’s trots. I spent 3 pretty uncomfortable minutes in the port-a-pottie, sweating all over myself. But I felt MUCH BETTER afterwards, and shot out of there like a bullet when I was done.

I knew that eighth Tour was going to be quick, but I was surprised at just HOW quick it actually was. I decided to keep the pace the same for the last two, then see how I felt when I got on the track. I had the GU at the end of the ninth Tour and finished the OJ during the tenth. When I got back to the track, I was feeling really strong, like a locomotive that had gathered some steam and was running downhill now. When I got on the track, I just took off. The game was still going on and one guy watching on the backstretch asked me how many I was running as I passed on lap one. I yelled back, "17.5 miles today," and I think he just shook his head and laughed. I cranked out that first mile in 7:00 flat, feeling like I had even more to give but deciding this was a good enough pace. I figured I’d allow myself this little bit of hard/fast running. It’s not quite speedwork but I think familiarizing myself with the running strong at the end of long runs will help at the end of races more than just banging out a quick tempo or intervals on the track, mentally AND physically. After four and a half laps the same guy asked me how many I had left and I said just under three. His response, verbatim: "Damn, you a running muthafucka!" I laughed out loud, it was priceless. The first two took 14:00 and then I changed directions to run counter-clockwise. I still wasn’t feeling that bad, my legs just a little tired, my lungs not overly taxed. A light drizzle started falling and it felt AWESOME! The game had also gotten pretty exciting apparently but I wasn’t paying much attention. I ran that third mile in 6:45. Yes, 6:45. And I felt ok still. In fact, looking at my watch after each lap I saw I was getting FASTER still. What. The. Fuck! I guess I did pick it up a bit that last mile. I wanted to be done and I wanted to finish strong. Well I would say a 6:37 for the final mile of 17.5 qualifies as "finishing strong" and that’s just what I did. Wow. My fitness continues to amaze me. If I have this, at the end of a long run, in the middle of base building, on NO speedwork, what will I have come Thanksgiving?! I’m really excited to find out that answer.

I walked a cool down lap and some cool stuff happened — I was stopped a few times by people who were watching the game, most of them asking me how far I ran today. When I told them, they mostly gave me a look of disbelief followed by me explaining today was a long day, usually it’s closer to 10 or 11 miles (which was still met with amazement). The obvious follow-up to that was to ask me if I was running a marathon or something. I told them I do race marathons, that I’m training for some fall races including a 50 kilometer trail race in November. One older guy, Rick, was there with his son watching the game. He was the first person to talk to me after I finished. Then when I went over to my bike and put on my shoes, he came up to me again and asked me about running shoes. We had a nice little conversation about running shoes, I told about how awesome Brooks was (of course) and told him a bit about my training. I hope he finds some good shoes and sticks with his 5 miles a day stuff. He asked me my name and then said, "Thanks Mark. You better keep running. I’m coming for ya now."

Great end to a great long run. Tomorrow is a recovery double to finish off what has been a really solid cutback week. I’m mentally and physically recharged. BRING ON THE MEGA MILES!

17.5 miles in 2:17:40 (7:52 pace)

including:
Tours (1.35 miles each)

1.35 miles - 11:11
2.70 miles - 22:17 (11:06)
4.05 miles - 33:24 (11:07)
5.40 miles - 44:19 (10:55)
6.75 miles - 55:04 (10:45)
8.10 miles - 1:05:50 (10:46)
9.45 miles - 1:16:29 (10:39)

3:09 emergency bathroom break

10.80 miles - 1:29:43 (10:05)
12.15 miles - 1:39:53 (10:10)
13.50 miles - 1:49:42 (9:49)

36 seconds to take off shoes

arefoot on track (4 miles total)

17.50 miles - 2:17:40 (27:22, 6:51 pace!)

Had a pretty interesting run tonight. This was one of those "be thankful my stomach can handle apparently anything pre-run" runs, because I had OMGDELICIOUS steak basted in Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce & garlic, cauliflauer, and Blue Point Brewing Company’s Toasted Lager for dinner:



About an hour later, I head up to the high school for a little over 7 miles. I was feeling pretty good, the air was cool and not humid. This being the last night of summer for the high school kids (school starts Wednesday so tomorrow’s a SCHOOL NIGHT!) I wasn’t surprised to see about 200 up at the track and surrounding area, drinking, smoking, and whatnot out in the open. Some girl sitting on a curb in the parking lot summed my thoughts best when she said to her male companion, "They’re so stupid, there’s a pitch dark baseball field right there, why are they drinking on the track?" Good question dear, because they’re 17 or so and, by default, retarded. I know because I was there 7 years ago.

The run: I started off well, I could feel I was a bit fast so I immediately tried pulling back some. I started the first Tour going out into the baseball fields next to the track (the "normal" way). About a minute in, some girl sitting on the side of the hill said hi to me, so I waved and said hi back. Right after I came to the two ballfields and noticed a couple engaged in a SERIOUS make-out session on the bleachers. Whatever to me, they could go crazy for all I cared, and I don’t think they noticed me until I ran into a wall of silly string. I’m not kidding. A wall. Of sillystring. Someone must have thought it would be funny to do that between the two dugouts of the two baseball fields. In truth, it was kinda funny, but I was in run mode. I briefly considered blasting through it, decided that would be more trouble than it was worth and opted to jump the fence and run back around the backstop on the field to continue on my path. This worked fine enough, sorta. I got over the fence and started running again, felt something weird in my left forearm, looked down and notice a giant cut across it. When I got into some better light I realized there were two pretty sweet cuts along my forearm from the fence:



I was caught off-guard by the cuts, but it was early in my run and I didn’t want to cut it short. So while I stopped for a few seconds to pee (alcohol before a run will do that to you), I decided I would rinse it out with my water when I got done with the first Tour and as long as it wasn’t too bad, I’d continue on and treat it when I got home. I did just that. But before I finished that Tour I encountered another couple. These two were a bit more brazen then the first — they were on the ground, next to the bushes near the tennis courts, and they looked like they were gonna go for it there. Good for them haha! I’m sure I startled the hell outta them. The first Tour took me a little over 12 minutes because I stopped to treat it and take a picture (of course).

The adrenaline was definitely hitting me. I did my best to keep it under control on the second Tour but it was still pretty fast. The couple-about-to-fuck was definitely startled the second time I came by (mysteriously, they were gone the third time). Even though they were both sorta fast, at least the second and third Tours were consistent, right? Meh.

Then I ran 3.25 miles barefoot on the track. That felt pretty good. It was interesting for the first mile or so, as the mass of 200 or so rapscallions were congregated at the far end of the track. I wound up having to weave in between some of the drunkest teenagers I’ve seen since homecoming last year at UD. About a mile in, two police officers showed up and the kids began to clear out, heading away from the cops to the parking lot. As I ran through the throngs, one kid pointed at me and said, "there’s that runner guy, he’s crazy, ALWAYS running, so intense, go runner man!" and started clapping. It made me chuckle. I finished up on the track and headed home quickly to treat yet another self-inflicted wound.

All in all, despite the weird nature of the run, it wound up being right around 8:00 pace. A little faster than I’d have liked but I’ll take it and call it a good start to cutback week.

7.3 miles in 58:15 (7:59 pace)
including:

Tours (1.35 miles each)

1.35 miles - 12:15 (includes time taken to treat wound)
2.70 miles - 22:26 (10:11)
4.05 miles - 32:48 (10:22)

41 seconds to take off shoes

Barefoot on track (3.25 miles total)

7.30 miles - 58:14 (24:45)

This run was taught me a lesson, Bruce Denton style. The lesson being most runs are to be kept easy (don’t be a workout hero and all that) which should feel fine enough on a day to day basis, more of a mental challenge than a physical one. But if you start picking it up, the pace has to stay there for the remainder of the run. No picking it up, realizing you’re going too fast and backing off. You have to suffer with what you brought upon yourself. Today was one of those days, sorta. The weather was beautiful, a little wind, low-70s, a few fluffy clouds. I felt good after yesterday’s light recovery day, even though I’m less than 48 hours removed from my 21+ miler.

The plan was to do four 1.35 mile Tours, followed by a barefoot mile on the track. I started off at a pace that I could tell was a little faster than usual, but I didn’t think it was TOO much faster. After I finished the first Tour and saw it was sub-10:00 I realized I may have gone out a bit too quick. But I decided to drive home the above lesson. I held my pace for the second Tour. My legs felt good, my breathing was still pretty relaxed, I wasn’t even close to a race pace. The third Tour the effort didn’t increase that much but I found a nice rhythm. As for the last Tour, I dunno. I thought I was going about as fast as the third but apparently I wasn’t. When I got on the track and started running barefoot, my legs felt refreshed. There was no feeling of lactic acid build-up at all. I was smooth and relaxed and kind of astonished at how easy a 6:40 mile felt. All of this and my legs have had 80+ miles on them per 7 days for the past week or so. Every day I continue to be impressed by the level of fitness I’ve managed to get to this summer and really excited by where I’m possibly headed in the next few months.

6.4 miles in 45:44 (7:09 pace)

Tours (1.35 miles each)

1.35 mi - 9:58
2.70 mi - 19:55 (9:57)
4.05 mi - 29:30 (9:35)
5.40 mi - 38:43 (9:13)

21 seconds to take off shoes

Barefoot on track (1 miles total)

6.40 mi - 45:44 (6:40)

I had one of the best long runs I’ve ever had this afternoon. I had been kinda sorta dreading this run all week. I planned on running 21+ and figured if it got really bad I could cut it off at 19 or 20. Well everything went even BETTER than I had planned. I got my 17.5 miles on the grassy and kinda wet fields of the high school and then did the last 4 miles barefoot on the track. I had been worried the weather wouldn’t be very nice, as there were reports all week about the tropical storm/hurricane Danny hitting LI. Turned out to be nothing, by 2pm the skies were clear and I didn’t feel a drop of rain for my entire run (although I did have to dodge sprinklers on the lower field).

The run started well. I wanted to take a conservative pace for the first few Tours, evaluate and adjust my pace if need be for the latter few. I thought I did a good job of going out sorta slowly… until I got done with the first one and saw it was a good 30 seconds faster than I had anticipated. I worried a bit that I had accidentally cut some of the route and when I was sure I hadn’t I was worried I’d gone out too fast without realizing it. Then I calmed down and realized that the weather was much cooler and not very humid and my "easy" pace was probably a bit faster than I’ve been used to because of that (and somewhat improved fitness too!). After the second Tour this was confirmed as I knew my pace had been easy still, I wasn’t straining at all and I clocked the same exact time.

I had brought two GUs, two 16oz. bottles of 50/50 OJ & water, and one bottle of water to drink with the GUs. The way it worked was: OJ/water after basically every other Tour. Some Tours I brought it with me and then skipped it the next time around. I took a GU after the 6th (8.1 miles) and 12th (16.2 miles) along with a big few gulps of water. By the end of my run I still had about half an OJ/water bottle left.

For much of the first half of the run, I was holding myself back some. I knew I had a little more I could push, but I didn’t want to push too soon or too hard. After the 7th Tour I let myself start increasing the effort a little bit. I wanted, at the least, to make each Tour as fast or faster than the previous one. This worked out perfectly. Then I got to the track, quickly took off my shoes and started running the last four miles barefoot on it. I was surprised how fresh and strong my legs felt, despite already gone 17.5 miles. I did the first two miles one way, then turned around and finished the last two in the opposite direction, using lanes 1-4 on various laps. I did the last lap on the infield which felt so nice, cool & wet under my feet. When I finished I realized that I had just run my longest training run ever (21.5 miles) in basically the same overall pace as my first marathon (~8:00)!! WOW! This is astouding. AND I felt great! I rewarded myself with an ice bath and some bbq wings. Woo-freaking-hoo!

21.5 miles in 2:51:57.00 (8:00 pace)

Tours (1.35 miles for first twelve, last one 1.30 miles)

1.35 miles - 11:15
2.70 miles - 22:30 (11:15)
4.05 miles - 33:39 (11:09)
5.40 miles - 44:47 (11:08)
6.75 miles - 55:52 (11:05)
8.10 miles - 1:07:01 (11:09)
9.45 miles - 1:18:09 (11:08)
10.80 miles - 1:29:05 (10:56)
12.15 miles - 1:39:52 (10:47)
13.50 miles - 1:50:36 (10:44)
14.85 miles - 2:01:16 (10:40)
16.20 miles - 2:11:44 (10:28)
17.50 miles - 2:21:54 (10:10 1.30 miles)

27 seconds to take off shoes

Barefoot on track (4 miles total)

21.50 miles - 2:51:57 (29:36)


21.5 miles in 2:51:57.00 (8:00 pace)

Made up Saturday’s WOD: 5×5 deadlifts. I did them sumo style tonight, I dunno why but I like this way better and I can generally get up more weight. I put as much weight on the bar as I could, it came to 240 lbs. This was actually a pretty good weight to use, although I could’ve managed ~275. Ah well, it’s not like I pay anything for my basement gym so I won’t complain. I felt good and strong, I think the form was pretty solid too. This is one of my favorite WODs.

Some warm-ups (1×12x120, 1×8x170)

Today I got closer to running a weekly long run that was actually long enough for me to consider it a true long run. 12 miles is on the shorter end of counting, but as I build up my mileage again slowly, it counts for now. You have to go all the way back to May 6th for the last time I did a run as long as today’s (that day I ran 14 hilly miles in Newark). That’s almost 3 months! This is cause for celebration!

Ok, back to business… Today finally cracked 80 degrees here which excited me to do a long run in the heat and all. No heat training gear today, actually almost exactly the opposite. My nipples have been irritated the past few days and because I was too lazy for band-aids, I ran sans shirt today.

So I headed up to the high school around 4pm. The only real mistake was that I brought just one 16oz bottle of Gatorade and totally underestimated the heat-refueling requirements. The run itself did not feel the greatest. It was definitely not one of those feel like you’re coasting but are really going sub-8 pace sorta runs. I WAS running at a comfortable effort, and my pace was even — around 8:15-8:20 throughout– but it was not effortless. From the second (of seven) Tours on, mentally I had to be really engaged and focused on moving forward. It didn’t get any easier when I got my shoes off and ran the last 3 miles barefoot on the track. My legs didn’t feel tired really, and my breathing was alright, but the heat was definitely a factor. I was sweating a lot and I went through my bottle of Gatorade pretty quickly, despite trying to ration it to a few swigs every other Tour. The barefoot running on the track felt great and I am definitely getting more and more used to that. Overall, I’m real happy with today. I pushed through some obstacles I don’t encounter on every run, I ran longer than I have in almost 3 months, I passed the 1,000 mile mark for the year and the 100 mile mark for this month.

Tours (1.3 miles each)

1.3 miles - 10:43.25
2.6 miles - 21:16.06 (10:32.81)
3.9 miles - 31:58.85 (10:42.79)
5.2 miles - 42:36.68 (10:37.83)
6.5 miles - 53:26.75 (10:50.07)
7.8 miles - 1:04:05 (10:39.00)
9.1 miles - 1:14:45 (10:40.14)

27 seconds to take off shoes

Barefoot on the track/infield (3 miles)

12.1 miles - 1:39:59 (24:46.04)

Workout:
* Type: Run
* Date: 07/25/2009
* Time: 16:00:00
* Total Time: 1:39:59.00
* Calories: 1509
* Distance: 12.1 miles
* Average Pace: 8:15.87/mile

Did Thursday's WOD on Friday afternoon. The WOD was called 'DT' In honor of USAF SSgt Timothy P. Davis, 28, who was killed on Feburary, 20 2009 supporting operations in OEF when his vehicle was struck by an IED. Timothy is survived by his wife Megan and one-year old son T.J.

It consisted of the following:
Five rounds for time of:
155 pound Deadlift, 12 reps
155 pound Hang power clean, 9 reps
155 pound Push jerk, 6 reps

I had to scale to 140 pounds because 155 is close to my ONE rep max for push jerks, and up there for hang power cleans too! It was still brutal.

I did it in 30:44 (breakdown: 2:26/4:27/8:16/7:50/7:45). But instead of talking about it, just watch these:

Round 1/Round 2/DLs for Round 3


Hang power cleans & push jerks for Round 3


Round 4


Round 5


I know at times the form is abominable and at times it's worse. I also know at times I look like a little bitch just sucking wind. I dare any of you to try this and then we can talk :)

Thought someone might be interested in a video of me deadlifting, if anyone still reads this journal. Feel free to critique my form. Objectively, I think it's much better than the last video I shot of me deadlifting, albeit I'm only deadlifting 261 lbs this time. In fact, I think this would be a pretty good video to show a beginner what good deadlifting form is.

That's all of the weights I have here in the basement. The bar is little too low to the ground because the biggest plates are dense 25 lb-ers and that explains some of the initial rounding of my back.

It's been a while since I posted here, I have a lot of catching up to do! When I have some more free time I will go back and fill in the blanks, and probably just copy/paste my race report. Yes I did run a 3:09:04 marathon and BQ. Woot.

Today was my first long run since the race. I've been feeling pretty much fully recovered since Thursday, so I'm back to the mindset that it's business as usual here. So I set off, with the weather a little bit hotter than it has been, and much more humid, for a good 14 mile run. It went long. Here's the damage:

15.56 miles in 2:05:14 (8:02 pace)

including:
Campus loops
5.5 mi- 45:48.23
9.0 mi- 1:14:16 (28:28.64 3.5 miles)

Newark Reservoir
9.55 mi- 1:18:49 (4:32.61 0.55 mile)
9.90 mi- 1:21:55 (3:06.04 0.35 mile)
11.0 mi- 1:30:32 (8:37.16 1.1 miles)
12.1 mi- 1:38:59 (8:26.97 1.1 miles)
13.2 mi- 1:47:27 (8:27.86 1.1 miles)
14.3 mi- 1:55:48 (8:21.24 1.1 miles)
14.65 mi- 1:58:22 (2:34.14 0.35 mile)
15.20 mi- 2:02:36 (4:13.14 0.55 mile)
15.56 mi- 2:05:14 (2:38.50 0.36 mile)

I wanted very badly to take my shirt off around mile 5, but I decided to play a little game with myself and keep it on for as long as possible. Then it stopped being so damn hot around mile 9, and I headed for the reservoir where I knew I'd get a little breeze. Well, it was more than a little breeze. It was a freakin gale! As I headed over there I had made up my mind that I was gonna do more than 14, but not much more. Then around mile 12 I saw lightning off in the distance. This caused me to pick up my pace to get the hell out of there and home to safety.

I ran up the hill to my house and as I neared it I decided to tack on a little extra so I ran up to the church parking lot and went in. The wind had picked up considerably at this point. Like CRAZY wind. Felt like I was on the top of Mt. Washington, and the trees were just aching to break. I turned to head out of the parking lot and I noticed drops beginning to rain down. By the time I turned back towards my house it was all-out POURING. Torrentially! It was awesome. I finished the last ~200m, got to the porch, stripped down to my underwear and spent the next 5 minutes splashing around, getting soaked by the wonderful cool rain. It was something like a scripted end to a wonderful, hard run, and a good recovery week where I ran just about 30 miles.

This coming week and beyond...back to business as usual. Ramping the mileage up to 100/week by summertime. And in two weeks I will be reclaiming the 10k PR crown from hbfs. Happy running indeed.

Went running this morning with Alyssa. She's training for the Delaware Marathon May 17, I'm her coach. I currently have two guinnea pigs I'm training actually, and this is fun! She took me down to the zoo she works at, which is right along the Brandywine River. We ran around there for a while and then took an impromptu detour up Market St to Rodney Square (it's how the Caesar Rodney half marathon ends, and if you read my race report from it, I was NOT a fan of the hill. It didn't seem nearly as bad today). I mapped it out just before but the distance is an approximation. Here's the damage:

~4.5 miles in 47:00 (little over 10:00 pace)

We started off a bit too fast and ended up having to slow down some towards the end. But she didn't stop once on the hill and ran the whole way. We could've gone more but I had to get home for Carl's dad's wake :( This run is GORGEOUS though. I really need to come run in Wilmington far more often.