Triathlon Training Blog

Sorry for the alarm, folks, but this is something I feel very strongly about. ‘No, No, God, Nooooo‘ is what I think of NBC getting rid of Holly and bringing back Toby on ‘The Office‘. It’s also what Michael screams when he saw Toby. I loved Holly and was so sad when she was transferred to another branch. I like Toby alot, too; but I hate the way Michael treats him so badly. Please, NBC, please bring Holly back.

Haven’t done a poll in a while, so here you go…have fun!

This year’s edition of the Brooks Racer ST3 are green. These shoes are wicked fast! They remind me of the Green Goblin - the arch enemy of Spiderman. The Green Goblin was wicked and fast, right?

I’ve been wearing Brooks Racer ST3 shoes since last December, for races and speed/tempo training. I bought them for myself as a Christmas present. (hmmmm, what should I get myself this year?) I love these shoes because they feel like running barefoot. Or as close to barefoot as possible, while still protecting your feet.

My red ones were finally wearing out, so I ordered a new pair from CitySports. I’ve never heard of that website before, but they had the cheapest price according to Google Shopping. Got the shoes in two days! I can’t believe how fast they came.

Spider Man	Green Goblin

Yesterday I ran my standard 9 mile route in reverse. I wanted to do the last mile of my long run at ‘race pace’ on a flat section, and reversing this course made it so that the last mile was flat. My goal for the workout was to stay in zone 2 until the last mile, then go at a 10k race pace. I was hoping for a pace of 8 m/m for that last mile. I’m always chasing that dream!

It turned out to be really neat reversing my run. I felt like I was running an entirely new route! Here’s a rundown of my thoughts as I ran.

First Mile: I always feel pretty blah the first mile or so until my legs warm up. Nothing different here!

Kenmore and Brookview: Running these two hills in reverse felt no different. I had always thought Brookview was worse than Kenmore, but they are exactly the same by feel, and also you can see this in the elevation graph. I usually fly down hills fast, because it is fun. There were tons of leaves and pine cones along the side of Kenmore, so I had to run carefully to avoid tripping. Wah! Running up Brookview I felt great and thought how much I love hills. I really do!

Piney Mountain: This road usually feels really hard. I had always thought it was generally more uphill than down. Today doing it in reverse, I felt strong and fast. Actually, I think it’s about the same both directions. I guess it feels hard normally because it is near the end of the run, so I am fatigued.

When I got to the corner of Piney Mountain and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, the time was 55 minutes. That’s 5 minutes faster than I expected. Yeah, I was running strong today!

Elliot: Elliot always feels hard because it is one of those long gradual climbs. In reverse, it was marvelous and I was simply flying!

Ridgecrest/Tadley: These two hills are identical, just like Kenmore/Brookview. I never noticed that before!

The Lake: I got to the lake at 1:06:41. If I could run those last three miles at a pace of 10, this would be a PR time for me. I was really excited!

Miles 7 and 8: I was starting to feel tired but tried to maintain focus here. I was almost out of water. I had a Gu that I wanted to eat so I’d have a burst of energy for that last hard mile. But not enough water to wash it down, so I skipped it.

Last mile: I didn’t look at my overall time when I got to mile 8. I just hit the lap timer and starting going hard. I was trying to focus on fast feet and forward lean. I felt tired and running fast was hard. At the half way point of this last one mile stretch, I looked at my split time. It was 4:37. Crap, no chance of a pace of 8 now. I kept going as hard as I could anyway. At one point I thought “why bother, I should just stop here since I’m not going the pace I want anyway”. I did not stop, I kept going as hard as possible. When I got to the end, the mile split was 9:02. My overall time was 1:38:15, pace of 10:37. Not even a PR for the entire run. I was so angry that I slammed my water bottle to the ground, and then sulked all the way home. I felt really crappy about the entire run, because I could NOT run the last mile at a pace of 8. Later, I realized how stupid this was. The first eight miles of the run were great, and I was happy, and I felt strong and fast. Who cares that I couldn’t run a pace of 8 on and empty tank and tired legs? That’s an unreasonable expectation anyway.

So, in the end, I feel great about this run. I am a great runner! I will keep telling myself that. I think, therefore, I am.

Here’s a fun tool to reverse a string of text…Have fun!

Here is a quick update on my running. In case you don’t know, I am following a 10k training plan for a Turkey Trot race. I am hoping for a pace of 8, but not sure I’ll make that, unless good tapering and race day magic help me!

Two days ago I did a treadmill workout: warmup, some strides, then 5×800 @ 8.2 mph (pace of 7:24 for 3:42, which basically equals an 800).

For the treadmill sets, I was a wuss and had to stop midway and catch my breath. WAH! I felt sucky about that, so I ran outside for a bit hoping to do a pace of 8 on the 1 mile stretch of road near my house. I was trying to go at a pace I could hold for a 10k, but I pushed hard at the end trying to make it in under 8 minutes. Didn’t make it.

Must remember Kaizen: Improvements come in tiny increments with much persistence and hard work.

Also, I must remember to keep thinking that I am a great runner. I think,therefore I am. I love that existentialist crap!

My treadmill is pretty cool (Proform 860 quiet - got it on Craigslist for $280). It lets me program my workout into my computer, then my computer controls the speed and incline. Click image at right to see a screencapture of today’s workout.

Today, I woke up with a sharp pain in the toes of my right foot - near the three smallest toes. Last run was two days ago where I did speedwork on the treadmill. I was trying to lean and land on the balls of my foot. I think I may have landed on my toes rather than my balls (hehe), which is probably bad. I found an article at coolrunning.com which describes my pain exactly. Doesn’t sound too serious. Here is a pain diagram of where it hurts:

I’ve been working on getting the slight forward lean and landing on the balls thing right for a long time (like, um, two years when I first got the Pose Running book)! Now I am also adding in higher feet on the recovery cycle of my stride. Gee that sounds like swimming lingo! It takes me soooooo long to learn new sporty things. Luckily, I have tons of persistence, so will keep tri-ing until I get it.

It’s too icky to bike today, so I was going to do my long run. Maybe I should skip it. I’ll see how my toes feel later on. I will definitely stretch today. Been lazy about that again. Bad, very bad!

I removed this article due to receiving a letter threatening lawsuit. The story is still up at Everymantri.com