Lunar Obverse

Did my speed work tonight at the gym. Same drill as before: one mile warmup, then alternating sets of 4:00 at a fast pace (8:40 tonight) and 2:00 of slow pace (10:00 – 10:30 tonight), then one mile of cool down.

Going into it, my legs were a bit sore and tight. I haven’t been doing any hydrotherapy or temperature therapy (I know! I’m bad) and haven’t been moving much at work. Also, lots of sleeping (with really really odd dreams – another post). So I was afraid that I’d have a bad run, which is practically a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Wore the Adidas, shorts and a long-sleeved shirt, because when I do speed work, sakes alive I sweat. The longer sleeves help keep me from flinging sweat everywhere while I pound out the miles. Music was Harvey Danger’s “King James Version”, followed by the Decemberists’ “Castaways and Cutouts”. Yay for PNW bands!

Tonight, though… there were interruptions. First, why in hell is the gym so busy this week? See, here’s the thing; there’s only six good treadmills at my gym. There’s probably another 15 treadmills, but those 15 are crap. They speed up and slow down too slow, they’re not as quiet as the good ones, and they don’t report the basics in as readable a format as the good ones. So I eschew them.

Tonight, though, one of the six good ones was off, and the other 5 were in use and a quick walk-by showed that those using the good treadmills had just started their runs. Dammit.

So, I did a quarter-mile of brisk walking on one of the bad machines, then stretched out, then took a look. Yes! One of the good ones was empty. So I hopped on and started my mile warmup. Things were going well, so I got some water then started the speed work.

But I messed up and slowed down at 19:00 total instead of 20:00 (that total includes my 10:00 of warmup, so it was my second set of fast/slow) – argh. I did a minute of the slow speed, then a minute of the fast speed, then a minute of slow, but my timing was all off by now.

And by my third fast set, my digestive system made its presence known. I made it through my slow section, then had to go back to the bathroom. The break was annoying because I had been doing pretty good. Also, it meant that I lost track of how far I had gone and therefore my average pace. I’m pretty sure the total miles at that point were 2.87. My heart rate slowed down, and the sweat poured off my body like Multnomah Falls (I sweat during exertion, but once I stop, it seems to double or even triple in, um, flow) but I knew that I was going to go back and finish one more set of fast/slow.

But, of course, all the good treadmills were taken when I came back. What is it? Is the start of November the time everyone realizes that the holidays are coming so they’d better start working out to burn off all the delicious calories they’re going to partake of in the next couple of months? I’m going to have to find another time to go to the gym if that’s the case. I thought that getting there by 4:30 was enough time but apparently not.

…I had to do my last set on one of the bad machines, and it threw off my pace calculations because it didn’t get up to my fast pace until 55 seconds had elapsed. So I counted my first set from 1:00 – 5:00. Then it didn’t slow to my recovery pace for another 25 seconds, so I counted my recovery set from 5:30 – 7:30. But I had no way of eliminating the distance I covered in the extra time. I’m pretty sure my total distance, including warm up running and cool down running, was 4.77. My best guess is that, averaged over all four sets of speedwork (minus the 2 miles before and after), I managed about a 9:13 pace, which sounds right. It’s a good time – but of course I had a break in there, which allowed me to catch my breath, so it doesn’t really count, at least in my mind.

But, what I plan on doing to test myself, is this: during my long run, probably Saturday, which will more than likely be at the gym (the rainy seasons are upon us Oregonians), after I’m warmed up, I’m going to go for broke and see just how far I can go. If I can make 2.5 miles at a 9:00 pace that would show me that I am, in fact, improving. It would also be pretty freakin’ fast for me. I’m not sure if I want to do the alternating fast/slow like my speedwork, or just set a fast pace and try to maintain it. Probably the latter. We shall see.

I may also run on Friday, but will just focus on running for a specific length of time, say, 40:00 and not worry about distance. Or I might not run again ’til Saturday and then have an easy run on Sunday. I’ll decide tomorrow.

My nephew and I ran in the “Run Like Hell” 5K yesterday morning. I had been worried that it would rain on us, but that morning showed nearly-clear blue skies. It was a bit chilly and windy, but once we got moving we warmed up.

Max had planned on wearing his Hallowe’en costume in the race; he had his aunt put together a Link costume (from the “Legends of Zelda” games). However, he changed his mind since he didn’t want to get his costume sweaty, and just wore the hat.

I, knowing how much I sweat, did not wear a costume. I did, however, unusually for me, wear the event T-shirt. Just tryin’ to fit in.

The route was touted as “fast and flat” but there was at least one long, low-grade hill, and it took it’s toll on Max. I stuck with him, and we finished with an unofficial time of around 37 minutes.

My nephew is thinking about trying out for track or cross-country next year. Even if he doesn’t go on to compete, I’m happy to have a running partner and glad to see he’s doing something he enjoys. I’m proud of him!

I did, however, feel sorry for the half-marathoners. Their route ran along Front Ave., then all the way out Barbur Blvd. to Terwilliger, and then up and down the West Hills before finishing back downtown. I’ll be interested to see what kind of time the winners in that race turned in.

In other news, my nephew has his own blog now. Go check it out; it’s called all about every thing and every where.

Long run today. That was the plan. Weather didn’t exactly cooperate, so I headed for the gym.

Woke up late, close to noon, so instead of running on a really empty stomach (might be OK for a short easy run but 7+ miles?), decided to have a light “breakfast” around noon, then hit the gym about 2-3 hours afterward.

Wore my Adidas, and a long-sleeved tech shirt, mainly to prevent my copious amounts of sweat from flying all over. Especially on a long run, I sweat in gallons, it seems. Blech, but there it is. I come from hairy sweaty people.

The nano wasn’t charged! Frustrating. I couldn’t run that far on the treadmills without music, though, so I used the larger older iPod. It doesn’t take to shocks very well, so I set it on the shelf on the treadmill. Worried about pulling it off the shelf, but those worries were baseless. For music, I chose the Gorillaz second album, “Demon Days”. Most excellent running music (and I’ll have to add that to the nano; it’s not on there and should be).

The plan was 2 miles at a brisk warmup pace (aiming to average a 10:00 pace), then push myself hard for the next 3 miles, aiming for a 9:30 or better, then cooldown at whatever pace felt good for another 2+ miles. I tried to talk myself into committing to 7.5 miles total, but it just wasn’t happening.

First 2 miles seemed challenging but do-able. My speed bounced around, but I finished in just a hair under my planned 10:00 pace – 20:00 and 2.01 miles. Took a quick break for water, then got to moving.

And… I hit 5.0 total miles in 49:00! Which means for the middle 3 miles, I kept a 9:40 pace! Not as fast as I had hoped, but still satisfying. I’m going to work on this…

I finished the total 7 miles in 1:12:00 or so (the treadmill stops showing seconds after an hour, how annoying), so I slowed down considerably on the cooldown. But, y’know, that’s what cooldowns are for. I’m still happy with the workout.

It’s much easier for me to push on the treadmill, for a lot of reasons. And I know that this doesn’t always translate into speed on the streets and trails. But long runs are more about building up my aerobic capacity, that elusive VO2 max that elite athletes are chasing. I know I’m not ever going to be an elite athlete, but I know that I’ve come very far in the past couple of years, and even though I’m over 40 (I’ll be 41 in December), I think I can look forward to a couple more years of improvement before time starts to take its toll. So I’ve still got some personal records to set…

Ran in the gym tonight. Wore the Asics. Forgot to bring the nano, dammit, so I was musicless.

The session was a repeat of last week’s speed work.

One mile warmup (around a 9:50 pace), then four repeating sets of 4:00 fast, and 2:00 recovery, then one mile cooldown.

This week I wanted to push my speed up faster than last week, so I set the pace for the fast sections at 8:40, which felt plenty fast to me. I tried not to let my recovery pace go slower than 10:00 during the first two, but by the third one I had to slow to a walking pace for about 30-45 seconds, and, sadly, that was enough to counter any distance gain I may have had over last week, because by the end of the 24 minutes of speed work, I had gone the exact same distance, 2.55 miles. Bummer.

But on the bright side, I impressed myself during the fast sections. 4 x 4:00 at 8:41 pace equals 1.8 miles. I think, on a good day, I could do 2 miles now at that pace, without the recovery breaks. Or, at least, that I’m close to being able to do that. And that means, with more training, I might be able to do a 5K at that pace… it’s foreseeable, at least. Wow, a 27:00 (or less) 5K time? On my short little legs?

So far my best 5K time has been a 9:27 pace… That would be so cool to break a 9:00 pace, on an officially-timed race, after my 41st birthday.

It’s something to look forward to.

Oh, before I forget:

Running tonight. Treadmill. Wore my Adidas. 3.09 miles in 30:00 exactly, for about a 9:42 overall pace. Started at 9:50, kept increasing the pace over the distance, ended up doing the last, oh, third of a mile faster than a 9:00 pace just to see if I could. And, apparently, I could.

Did my new, high-steppin’ stride (or at least lifting my knees more) and, man-oh-man, is that noisy on a treadmill. Oh, well, was listening to Bad Religion on the nano, so I just turned it up until I all I could hear was the punk rock.