Mileage Reporting 45th week 2013

Today was my second day of weightlifting. I am going to the route of my ultrarunning idol, Zap/Krista, with regard to my ultra cross-training emphasis on weights and strength training.

All weights I do, unless otherwise noted, are done in 3 sets of 12
Weighted regular squats at 20/20/40
Split squats at 10/10/20
Inner/outer thigh machine 60/60/60 (I had no idea that I could do that much weight!)
My hamstring curls were at 25, only two sets.
My leg extensions were at 25, only two sets
My reverse hyper-extentions suck right now, couldn't do a complete set.

I did the "weird machine" for one mile. 60% of that mile was basically crawling backwards up a super steep hill, the other 40% was going up it forward.
 
Wednesday
Two miles of run-commutes, my mini plyo/mobility/'core' workout in the morning, then Back/Bottom ST in the afternoon. My squats are really starting to take off. Probably have the most room for improvement with that exercise, since I ignored it for so long. In addition to full squats and split squats, I did overhead squats for the first time, tricky.

Not sure if I just needed to change things up a bit, or if the two-bodyzone workouts are superior to single-zone workouts, but the strength-training seems to be going better this week.

Thursday morning
Run-commute then my mini plyo/mobility/'core' workout. It's starting to solidify into a routine:

First, I do box jumps on a cinder block a little less than 8" tall. I got an adjustable plyo box coming Monday that starts at 14", then has 19" and 24" heights:
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I've convinced myself I won't break anything jumping at 14", but I'm not sure about the other heights. I might just use them for step-ups.

Then I ignore a bunch of floor exercises I'm supposed to do, do some crunches, and then I put on my ankle weights for a half-dozen or so mobility exercises. Then I move on to some fun twists and tosses with my new 30-lb medicine ball, stuff like this

I toss these straight up in the air, in lieu of a partner

I do these with a pullover motion.

And wrap things up the power wheel.
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I'm doing everything pretty lite and easy to start with, so that I can get into a daily rhythm with it and not get so sore that it interferes with my ST sessions or running. Seems like about 10 minutes per day is the right dosage, but I'll up the intensity as I get better at this stuff.

Thursday afternoon.
3 miles track work.

I got off to a late start. The idea was to do intervals and hills, but didn't have time left over for the hills. Just as well, as I experienced my first numb-plunge of the season while doing the track stuff.

I first ran a mile at tempo pace on the sandy gravel/gravelly sand track, and then did 2 miles of 100-meter sprints on the grass field inside the track. Both surfaces were still soggy from the snow we got the day before. The air temp wasn't too bad, at 2.22 C (-1.66 C windchill) but the surface moisture had my feet numbing down right from the start. On some of my previous runs this season, I've felt a little numbness on the skin, but this was the first time it penetrated, and I got some pins and needles on a few strides. On several sprints I was running close to 5mm pace to try to warm up the feet, then on my 30/40-meter jog in between intervals, from one side of the field to the other, the feet would numb down again, a little more after each round. I kept telling myself after each circuit (two sprints on either side of the field, and two jogs in between)
track sprints.jpg
that that would be my last one. My mets were getting stiff, so it was just a matter of time before I would have to tap out, but then they seemed to stabilize a bit after two miles or so, and then at the three-mile mark it was time to go get the kids anyway, so I was saved by the bell.

I feel like I've been re-baptized. I had been feeling a little apprehension about experiencing this deeper numbness again, but I'm full in it now!

By the time I got to my daughter's school, after first picking up my son, my feet had regained their warmth, and the street's dry asphalt as I got out of the car felt nice and cozy.

Friday morning.
23F / -5C
19F / -7.2 windchill

Man, the concrete bridge on my morning run commute felt really cold this morning. I guess with air below as well as above, it gets a lot colder than the sidewalks on either side of it. A very refreshing way to wake up in the morning! I got a surface thermometer arriving today, so it'll be fun to see exactly what the temperature difference between different surfaces is.
 
Ran devil miles last night, 6.66 of them. Felt really good again, ran the first 5 loops fairly easy, then get some practice with picking up the pace due to others. First happened during the 6th loop of the park when I was passed by a young woman and her dog. I figured that was a good chance to practice latching on to a passing runner so I did that. Unfortunately she and her dog then stopped running about a quarter-mile later, but I worked on holding the pace. Then on the 7th loop I got passed by a couple of speedsters -- they were conversing pretty easily when they went by. I figured time to try going up another gear again. But even that next gear wasn't good enough to match their pace, but it seemed like good practice to continue, not to give up hope just because you get passed and see them fading into the dark in front of you. So I finished off the run strongly and quickly. And still had plenty left in the tank to run more.
 
6 miles on Wildwood. I LOVE that trail! I should have stuck to the flat end, like I had planned -but was feeling a bit frisky, which is frankly surprising given that run concludes 29 miles of running in 6 days.
 
I'll go ahead and tally this week up. Was going to run tomorrow but I am just going to write this week off. Flat, boring, maintenance miles. Happy with my barefoot cold runs and I picked the pace up for a couple of my others, but I just wasn't feeling it this week, it happens. Positive outlook for next week with a big one planned for Sunday.

33 miles in 5 runs. 16 of those miles STD. (Skin To Dirt)
 
maybe a hike w kids at sunset, which is coming waaaay to early this time of year for my preference.
I know what you mean about the dark, but after living in Taiwan for a while, I at least appreciate that we get daylight evening hours in the summer. I never could get used to the 6 PM dark every. day. of. the. year.
 
5 miles today. did my maf test. started out in slight pain but worked it out by the end. i should say i adjusted my for well enough that my foot didn't hurt so much and i actually got faster from the better form.
 
4.25 miles on local trail in State Park. Never trail ran bf before.... is there a limit to the smiling and laughter? Out of respect for the shoddies should I scale it back when we cross paths?

Snuck up on a doe. I was like 8 yards away when she spotted me and she was all like, "aw hell no!"

White tail and meaty bottom.... bye bye!
 
Thursday - swam 20 minutes after 2 hours of garden strength training.

Friday - was feeling poorly, but managed 90 minutes on the spin bike late in the evening. Had done about 1.5 hours of garden strength training right up until dark.

Saturday - felt much better after a good night's sleep. Spent a pleasant 2 hours heavy weeding while visiting with one of my son's who is nice enough to work for me once in a while. Then, I barely fit in 10 miles before dark. Someone broke a bunch of glass between my first and second time along the path, so those 2 sections were dicey. On about the 4th time through it, the path being a 4 mile stretch, I got a small piece of glass that attached itself to one foot. I felt it right away and flicked it out, but I think it knicked me. The spot is a little sore. I'm not set up for running in the dark and the path is kind of isolated, so I ran the half mile section near where the car was parked to bring me to 10 miles. That section is next to a large open field on one side and multiple backyards on the other.

This was the first time that I have run that far and my legs have not been getting tired. I wished I could have gone 12 because I do like nice, round numbers, but that brought me to 28.55 miles for the week. Significant distance for me. :)
 
5 miles today. did my maf test. started out in slight pain but worked it out by the end. i should say i adjusted my for well enough that my foot didn't hurt so much and i actually got faster from the better form.

And what, specifically, did you adjust?
 
Friday afternoon
One-mile run-commute then Front/Top ST while cleaning the garage.

Saturday woke up at 4am but just couldn't motivate for my long run. I don't know if it was the cold or I just needed a rest day. I'd been a few hours behind on sleep the whole week. I told myself I would do it later in the day, and went back to sleep, but then got caught up in family stuff, culminating with Africa Night at my wife's college. Our toddler stole the show dancing on the sides. Several people came up to take photos or film him. It's funny, our daughter who spent the first three years of her life in Mozambique doesn't have nearly the same sense of music/rhythm as our son, who was born in the US. And he only likes to dance to music with a good groove. I can hardly wait to teach him bass.

So, anyway, 17 miles on the week. Decent week for ST though. Will try to get in my long run later today.
 
Well, I went a little bit crazy yesterday. This year my brother has been getting ready to the half at the Philadelphia Marathon but some weeks back got stung by plantar fasciitis. I asked him he was doing last week and he's currently doing some short runs with no pain, but if he feels anything wrong on any of them, won't run it. So that got me thinking about how my longest run so far had been 7.3 miles but I hadn't been gassed by it and I hadn't been gassed yet by anything long, and could I go more than 10 miles run that easy-dope pace? So I plotted out a course, got up yesterday morning, then threw on the Xeros because I decided to be on the safe side against blister issues and set out.

I focused very hard early on on keeping the pace easy and slow, and myself relaxed. One thing I knew if I accomplished this long run is that it would be a good barometer of how well I could run a half at Philly next weekend, the half there is fairly flat and there's one uphill that'll slow you some around mile 8 and a tougher one around 9.5, but other than that, it's pretty flat. My course yesterday was pretty rolling:

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I figured if I could handle all those hills through the first 9 miles and finish easy but still strong and with something left in the tank, it would mean I could run 13.1 in Philly if my brother couldn't run next weekend.

Only had a couple of tough mental patches. The first was a little after 3 miles where I realized I still had to run my previous long run distance to finish this one. But it passed quickly when I focused on how good the legs and feet felt, that I was just loping along nice and easy. The second difficult patch came a little after 6 miles when I had just turned the corner after coming down a steep downhill and where I had been thinking to myself, "Oh yeah, free speed and gravity power" and had just let my legs kind of like flop down the hill, but when I then leveled out I found it a bit difficult to find the easy rhythm. But it returned and from then on I just kept running. And I felt so good when I crested the top of the last big hill, I decided that I would throw on an extra mile or so.

That's how I ended up doing 11.4 miles in 1:56:10 yesterday. Damn, that's the fastest I've run that sort of distance, and I wasn't even working all that hard at it. Man, if I do the training, there's no doubt in my head that I could run a half-marathon in under 2 hours. I ran 11.4 yesterday for the first time since returning to running without any big huge aerobic base and was just slightly above 10 min/mile pace, did that on a route with a lot of hills and I run routes like that some more, I'm sure to build some more speed.

One of the best long runs I've ever done.
 
Well, I went a little bit crazy yesterday. . . .
One of the best long runs I've ever done.
Hey Scratch, you probably have a lot more natural running ability than I do, but I would still be a bit careful about the sudden jump in distance. Last summer I went from six to 10 and got ITBS and it took a while to shake it afterwards. It really spooked me the way it came out of nowhere--within 10 steps I couldn't even walk--and I spent almost a whole year before attempting that distance again. Of course, everyone is different, and you're younger, thinner, and have more running experience. And it would be cool to see you do a half so soon after getting back into running.

Anyway, congratulations on the run! Sounds like you had a great time.
 
Lee, yeah, I'm definitely a bit conflicted in that sense about yesterday's run, and probably the best thing that could happen would be for my brother to be fine and he runs the half next weekend. But everything is feeling good this morning, nothing is achy. And I'm certainly not going to run anything hard or long over the next 7 days, just shake the legs out with short stuff, and give the body tissues time to rebuild.

So right now I think it was crazy but safe enough. Hopefully I won't get proven wrong.

I've realized maybe there is a huge advantage to having stubby legs like I do. Now that barefooting has taught me not to overstride and keep a quick cadence, it's perhaps easier for me to maintain good form while running than people with longer legs. I know now that when I ran back in 2007-10, I was overstriding and that's what slowed me down and slowed down the cadence. Now I've learned to have quick light steps and it's pretty damn easy with short legs to keep'em doing that. That's why I've been doing longer runs and not feeling gassed by them, I'm running much more efficiently. Back in 2007-10, when I would extend long runs, the last few miles tended to be hard work to keep moving. Not yesterday. There was some effort and need to focus, but the legs were still springing and when I was done, I had no doubt I could have run farther.
 
Lee, yeah, I'm definitely a bit conflicted in that sense about yesterday's run, and probably the best thing that could happen would be for my brother to be fine and he runs the half next weekend. But everything is feeling good this morning, nothing is achy. And I'm certainly not going to run anything hard or long over the next 7 days, just shake the legs out with short stuff, and give the body tissues time to rebuild.

So right now I think it was crazy but safe enough. Hopefully I won't get proven wrong.

I've realized maybe there is a huge advantage to having stubby legs like I do. Now that barefooting has taught me not to overstride and keep a quick cadence, it's perhaps easier for me to maintain good form while running than people with longer legs. I know now that when I ran back in 2007-10, I was overstriding and that's what slowed me down and slowed down the cadence. Now I've learned to have quick light steps and it's pretty damn easy with short legs to keep'em doing that. That's why I've been doing longer runs and not feeling gassed by them, I'm running much more efficiently. Back in 2007-10, when I would extend long runs, the last few miles tended to be hard work to keep moving. Not yesterday. There was some effort and need to focus, but the legs were still springing and when I was done, I had no doubt I could have run farther.
Well, I think almost everyone who runs barefoot adopts a shorter stride and higher cadence fairly naturally, no matter their limb proportions.

But yah, there's probably no danger, and you have a different build, much more an endurance runner's build. I doubt I'll ever get below 200 again, and right now I'm at 220-225 and adding weight with my recent push in st. Yesterday my jeans felt tight in the thighs. Egads! I don't have any plans for running longer than I already do. Now I just want to get faster.

But I don't know if any of that necessarily means anything, nor the fact that you feel good now. My ITBS came out of nowhere. One moment I was running fine, then literally within ten steps I could barely walk and had to call my brother for a ride home. It really freaked me out.

The only sure way to prevent it is to adopt some version of gradualism, which is what I did this year. But as you've described so well in your posts, the exuberance of barefoot running is hard to contain. At the very least, I would suggest doing ITB stretches before and after your runs as a preventive measure.

It's a bit silly for an old, slow guy like me to be giving advice, but I'm still a bit spooked to this very day by the way ITBS can just come out-of-the-blue. It's the only niggle/injury I've experienced that works that way. Most other things are either acute or come on gradually, with some warning as initial strain, pain, or fatigue.

Anyway, you have good awareness, I'm sure you'll do fine. Just wanted to add a bit to that awareness. Looking forward to the Half report if your brother can't make it.
 
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