It was not a bad week running-wise. Tuesday when I showed up for the gazelle workout it was ridiculously hot, and there was almost not breeze. The plan was to run to Austin High, do 3000m for warm up, and then a bunch of core exercises. I decided I wasn't tough enough to run all those laps on the burning hot, complete unshaded track, so I opted to take the long way around. The trail was pretty deserted (I've got to believe due to the heat), but it was still dusty thanks to the lack of rain. Whenever the occasional bicyclist rode by, you wished you had something to cover your mouth.
Once I arrived at Austin High, I did one lap and it was as miserable as I thought it would be. Maybe I wasn't just happy to be there. In fact, running on ridiculously hot days like that day (~100 degrees) really makes me question my sanity. Anyway, Gilbert decided it was too hot to stay at the track, so we ran back to Runtex and did our core work there. Thanks Gilbert! I ran back the long way as well figuring I needed a little more mileage than I'd been putting in, and was surprised at how hard it was.
Wednesday at lunch DV and I ran about 5 miles on the greenbelt, from 360 to sculpture falls and back. I tried to pre-hydrate that morning at work, but I still felt tapped from the heat. Neverthelss, it was a nice run... no scary spider webs this time. Despite all the time I've been putting in on the trail, I'm still finding it tough on the quads.
I missed Thursday's workout because I was stuck at work, so that brings me to this morning. I was hoping to run on the greenbelt trail again, but no one seemed game, so I figured I'd try to get up at 5:45 to run with Pat. Seriously, that's earlier than anyone needs to be up, but I figured with the earlier start I'd be able to get home and get in a nap and start my day at around 10 if I didn't piddle around too much. See? Sometimes I can be a glass-half-full guy...
So I met Pat at Barton Springs (who was waiting with a couple of Dans) at just after 5:45 (I'm never on time that early in the morning) and was rewarded for my effort with temps in the low 70's. Woo-hoo! We ran to RunTex to meet the rest of the Gazelles group which, by the way, was GIGANTIC this morning. Someone had made cute little pace group signs, which was a great idea.
Once we all took off, it was mob scene. It was literally like the start of a race with so many people leaving at once. I was going to try to run an enhanced 10-mile loop with Pat, which would have ended up being 12-14 miles with the additional mileage added on by going under the dam and looping back, but ended up doing the standard 10-mile loop. I was happy with that, since it had been long time since I had done 10 miles. My mile splits were pretty good too. I didn't get the first couple of miles, but I know they were very slow. After mile 3: 8:11, 7:39, 7:36, 7:43, 7:27, 7:13, 7:26. Relative to my pace in recent runs, those splits are smokin! It should be noted, however, that there were a lot of breaks: stop at RunTex after the first mile to meet with the Gazelles, stop at bathroom at mile 5 and also get water and gu, stop at gazelle water stop at mile 6. All of those breaks were pretty long, especially that last one since DV ran up while I was drinking and chatted a bit, and then Shannon (who looks awesome and awfully comfortable so late in her pregnancy) ran up as DV was going away, which just meant more socializing, less running. Maybe all the stops put me in a good mood, because I didn't have as many of the usual feelings of utter despair as I got deeper into the run. I'm hoping to have more runs about this pace this summer, but I'm not going to bet on it.
Oh yeah, Barton Springs afterward - of course.
The other big running-related news for the week is that I'm the proud owner of 4 new pairs of shoes. This inundation of running merchandise somehow provided me with a little more motivation this week. The new arrivals were two pairs of mizuno wave rider 10s (in hideous white and red, $55/pair from runningwarehouse.com), and two pairs of asics nimbus 9s (in not-too-atrocious silver and blue, $80/pair from runbargains.com). They were discounted because there are newer versions of each shoe, but they were such good deals, I'm wondering if I should get more. (Normal prices: $90 for the mizunos, $120 for the asics)
On the home front, el beskrownito has been sleeping especially well this week (I'm sure I just jinxed myself for tonight), which we're hoping he'll carry forward into the the second quarter of his first year (he's 3 months old today).
Finally, ugh, the Euro Cup is killing me. The first three games in the quarter finals have been upsets, and genuinely surprising upsets at that. (Well, maybe not the Germany win as you can never count them out.) I'm most distraught about the Dutch loss to the Russians today. To say the Dutch had been playing awesome might be understatement, but they met a young and unintimidated Russian team that played very clever soccer, and lost in overtime. Just to add insult to the whole event, I missed the second half and overtime because our power had gone out during a random but extremely intense afternoon thunderstorm. At this point, I'm feeling some apprehension that Italy will find a way past Spain tomorrow and end up winning the whole thing. Ugh, that's such a depressing though that it almost overcomes that satisfaction that I'm still feeling from this morning's run.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
just happy to be here
It's been over two months since I last updated this blog, so why the sudden burst of motivation to finally write a new post? Well, the amount of shame I feel every time my last entry from the beginning of April shows up on the Gazelle home page keeps increasing, but also things have settled down a little recently. Sure, my schedule with the new child is still non-determistic at times, but Meghal is working occasionally now, and Alayna (our nanny) is helping on regular basis. This has allowed to at least think that I might be able to run on with some regularity. Also, after a similarly long break, Michelle updated her blog and I feel like that makes me look bad. (Apparently the Maton-ettes are playing with skunks these days.)
So about the running... A couple of two week periods where I've done absolutely no running finally ended up costing me a lot of fitness. For example, I showed up to a tempo run a week and half ago after not showing up for the previous two weeks' worth of workouts. My time was 21:40. I'm pretty sure that's only 20 seconds better than the very first tempo run I ever did with the Gazelles. (By the way, DV was present at that tempo run, and I think he ran exactly 21:00.) I went in saying I would be happy with a 7 minute/mile pace, but after finishing I backtracked and claimed what I really meant was that I'd be happy if I ran a single mile at 7 minutes or less. (My last mile was 6:50-something.) It certainly crossed my mind that a couple of months ago I probably would have run around 6:30/mile or so, but the self-pity didn't stick with me for too long. I've accepted by this point that I'm going to have work to get back to where I was, and (like the title of this post says) I'm just happy to be able to focus on running again. I actually feel somewhat excited about running, which hasn't happened in a while. And this is especially surprising considering this is such a miserable time of year to be running. Not only has it been hot, but it's been windy and dry, making for stifling, dusty conditions.
While I'm still missing a lot of Gazelles workouts, I'm trying to run when I can out on the Barton Greenbelt. There's a lot of advantages to this. First, it's a block away from our house, and the 360 entrance is literally connected to the parking lot of my office. Also, it's shady, meaning I can run mid-day, and the scenery is a little more interesting than running on Lady Bird Lake. Sometimes you get to distract yourself by thinking about things like, "what exactly is running in brush right next to me?" The main downside is that there are no water stops. The pace is always a little slower on account of having to watch out of ankle-tweaking rocks and tree roots, but it's an excellent workout because you're always having to lift your knees and my legs are often spent afterward.
This past weekend, I managed to work the greenbelt into my long run as well. Paul (aka Pablo Rey) agreed to meet me at Barton Springs and we ran out to just before Mopac and circled back. I had stashed some Gatorades near the 360 entrance to make sure we were hydrated enough to make it back. It was pretty uneventful except for "the web incident". When you run in the mornings on the greenbelt, you often find yourself running through strands of webs that have been spun across the trail overnight. In general it's just an annoyance. However, on this particular morning, I was watching the ground for ankle-tweaking obstacles and ran right through a large web which contained, I noticed at the last moment, what appeared to be a large spider in the middle. I reacted by yelping, falling on the ground, and frantically wiping at my head and shoulders in case there was a large scary spider on me. Paul gave me the all clear (he gave me the impression the spider stayed with the web), and I eventually calmed myself down and we resumed our run. I did make sure to be a little more careful about watching where I was going the rest of the way.
We finished our run at the Barton Springs parking lot, and it wasn't 9:00 yet, so hmm... how convenient, let's jump into the pool. (Barton Springs is free before 9:00 for those that don't know.) Is there a better way to finish a run? I think not. I was in such a chipper mood I jumped off the diving board a couple of times. I was diver in high school --- good enough to make it to the state meet, but not good enough to actually be competitive at that level. Anyway, I'm apparently very rusty because I did a one and half and was surprised at how utterly disoriented I was in the air.
I can't help but mention the European Cup. I've decided the European Cup is more compelling than the World Cup. First, all the teams are pretty good, which you can't say about the World Cup. (I mean, England didn't even qualify for the competition.) But the main thing is that it's all so localized, there there are real rivalries and the supporters are able to attend their country's games creating a really frenzied atmosphere. You can sense the passion involved when you watch the games. Anyway, how about those freaking Dutch? You've got to wonder what became of the formerly dominant French and Italians teams. I mean, I'm never sorry to see the Italians lose, but I certainly wouldn't have expected them to get spanked the way they did by the Netherlands. And France, they received an even worse beating.
And did anyone catch the Turkey-Czech Republic game today? I missed the exciting part (i.e., I watched the first 75 minutes). In the last 15 minutes, Turkey scored 3 times to come back from a 2-0 deficit. Or so I hear.
Anyway, now I'm babbling. I should save some energy for a future post.
So about the running... A couple of two week periods where I've done absolutely no running finally ended up costing me a lot of fitness. For example, I showed up to a tempo run a week and half ago after not showing up for the previous two weeks' worth of workouts. My time was 21:40. I'm pretty sure that's only 20 seconds better than the very first tempo run I ever did with the Gazelles. (By the way, DV was present at that tempo run, and I think he ran exactly 21:00.) I went in saying I would be happy with a 7 minute/mile pace, but after finishing I backtracked and claimed what I really meant was that I'd be happy if I ran a single mile at 7 minutes or less. (My last mile was 6:50-something.) It certainly crossed my mind that a couple of months ago I probably would have run around 6:30/mile or so, but the self-pity didn't stick with me for too long. I've accepted by this point that I'm going to have work to get back to where I was, and (like the title of this post says) I'm just happy to be able to focus on running again. I actually feel somewhat excited about running, which hasn't happened in a while. And this is especially surprising considering this is such a miserable time of year to be running. Not only has it been hot, but it's been windy and dry, making for stifling, dusty conditions.
While I'm still missing a lot of Gazelles workouts, I'm trying to run when I can out on the Barton Greenbelt. There's a lot of advantages to this. First, it's a block away from our house, and the 360 entrance is literally connected to the parking lot of my office. Also, it's shady, meaning I can run mid-day, and the scenery is a little more interesting than running on Lady Bird Lake. Sometimes you get to distract yourself by thinking about things like, "what exactly is running in brush right next to me?" The main downside is that there are no water stops. The pace is always a little slower on account of having to watch out of ankle-tweaking rocks and tree roots, but it's an excellent workout because you're always having to lift your knees and my legs are often spent afterward.
This past weekend, I managed to work the greenbelt into my long run as well. Paul (aka Pablo Rey) agreed to meet me at Barton Springs and we ran out to just before Mopac and circled back. I had stashed some Gatorades near the 360 entrance to make sure we were hydrated enough to make it back. It was pretty uneventful except for "the web incident". When you run in the mornings on the greenbelt, you often find yourself running through strands of webs that have been spun across the trail overnight. In general it's just an annoyance. However, on this particular morning, I was watching the ground for ankle-tweaking obstacles and ran right through a large web which contained, I noticed at the last moment, what appeared to be a large spider in the middle. I reacted by yelping, falling on the ground, and frantically wiping at my head and shoulders in case there was a large scary spider on me. Paul gave me the all clear (he gave me the impression the spider stayed with the web), and I eventually calmed myself down and we resumed our run. I did make sure to be a little more careful about watching where I was going the rest of the way.
We finished our run at the Barton Springs parking lot, and it wasn't 9:00 yet, so hmm... how convenient, let's jump into the pool. (Barton Springs is free before 9:00 for those that don't know.) Is there a better way to finish a run? I think not. I was in such a chipper mood I jumped off the diving board a couple of times. I was diver in high school --- good enough to make it to the state meet, but not good enough to actually be competitive at that level. Anyway, I'm apparently very rusty because I did a one and half and was surprised at how utterly disoriented I was in the air.
I can't help but mention the European Cup. I've decided the European Cup is more compelling than the World Cup. First, all the teams are pretty good, which you can't say about the World Cup. (I mean, England didn't even qualify for the competition.) But the main thing is that it's all so localized, there there are real rivalries and the supporters are able to attend their country's games creating a really frenzied atmosphere. You can sense the passion involved when you watch the games. Anyway, how about those freaking Dutch? You've got to wonder what became of the formerly dominant French and Italians teams. I mean, I'm never sorry to see the Italians lose, but I certainly wouldn't have expected them to get spanked the way they did by the Netherlands. And France, they received an even worse beating.
And did anyone catch the Turkey-Czech Republic game today? I missed the exciting part (i.e., I watched the first 75 minutes). In the last 15 minutes, Turkey scored 3 times to come back from a 2-0 deficit. Or so I hear.
Anyway, now I'm babbling. I should save some energy for a future post.
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