Addicted to Exercise

This morning was a strange little workout.  I arrived a little early to get some additional warm-up time as usual.  There is a race this weekend, and the traditional speed workout a few days before a race is to run intervals around Town Lake.  The funny thing is that almost no one’s running the race this weekend because the course is too insane.  So most of us were doing this workout just for fun.  The plan was to warm up for 15 minutes and then do 15 times one minute fast and one minute slow.  By the end of the first interval, I found myself between groups.  The really fast people were out in front of me, and the next group was a little behind.  I decided I’d try to catch the group up ahead, but then they made a turn I didn’t quite understand.  There was some construction on the trail, and they exited before we were forced to.  When we merged back together, they were well in front of me, and I ran by myself the whole rest of the way.  I felt pretty good and smooth, and I went fast enough to turn it into a pretty good little workout.  I did a handful of strides at the end, and that was that.

This morning was the coldest day so far this season.  I met a couple of the others for an easy lap around Town Lake.  We started and stopped at Barton Springs, so it was a little under eight miles.  I felt good, and it was nice to have company.  It didn’t really feel that cold once we got moving.  I threw in a few strides at the end and then hit the gym.  It was amusing to see the extra crowds at the gym since it’s the start of a new year.

Something I ate last night did not agree with me, and I really didn’t feel like running this morning.  I did need some thinking time to work on my 2008 goals and resolutions, though, so I decided to sleep in and then go for a walk.  I didn’t really have a plan, but I just headed off from the house.  It was really nice outside.  I guess it was actually a little chilly, but I had warm clothes, and the sun was peeking out to start warming things up.  I was out there a while.  I looked at the map when I got back and found I walked about eight miles.  That seems like a good way to start the year.  I’ll definitely run tomorrow, though.

This morning I ended the running year with one of the toughest workouts we have in the rotation.  We were doing the somewhat hilly mile repeats around Zilker Park, and
that one just always beats me up.  I showed up early for my pre-warm-up warm-up again.  I did about a mile and a half, and I felt warm so I dropped all my warm clothes back in the car.  I ran with the group over to Zilker Park and did the drills, and somewhere around there I wished I had kept my gloves on.

Gilbert had me run the first lap pretty slowly (relatively), and then I really picked things up.  I felt smooth, and people told me my form was good.  Really I was just cold.  Gilbert had the right idea and just stayed in his truck with his stopwatch.  In any case, I ran my best set of these ever.  I even felt like the two minutes between the intervals was too much rest.  I thought I picked up the pace more than the time showed on the last lap, but it was a strong effort nonetheless.  My lap times were: 6:39, 6:12, 6:04, 6:06, 6:06, 5:55.

I felt fine on the cool-down run back, and then I spent quite a while hanging around visiting and stretching a little bit.  I had over 11 miles for the day.  That was a long workout.  If my spreadsheet is right, I had 1915 miles for the year (vs about 1800 for last year and about 1500 for the year before), so that’s a big improvement.  I know now that I’m doing those extra warm-ups (which really seem to help) I’ll be adding even more easy miles moving forward.

It had been a while since I had done a long run to Mt Bonnell and back, so I was really looking forward to tackling it again today.  We did the route a little differently today.  Instead of going up Scenic and back down Exposition, we did it basically in reverse, but with an extra little bit on Lake Austin Blvd to Enfield before heading back to Exposition to match the marathon course.

We had a brief water stop there at Enfield and Lake Austin Blvd, and then we were off to tackle the hills.  We had a little bit later start than usual, so it was starting to get light as we ran up Exposition.  Those hills are a lot more intimidating when you can see them!  Heading up Mt Bonnell was no problem, and I checked my heart rate just to be sure.  Thankfully, I found a few takers for a trip down the other side to the bar and back up.  I like adding the second climb when I’m already there anyway.

We took Scenic to get back to Lake Austin Blvd, and there were absolutely a ton of people coming the opposite direction.  Obviously that group had a much later start.  Gilbert was playing dance music at the final water stop on Lake Austin Blvd, and that got me in the mood to run fast for a little bit.  I pushed hard all the way down Lake Austin Blvd and then just did a cool-down for the last couple miles on the trail.  I ended up with a little more than 16 miles.  I was a little slower than last week, but this was a much harder course.  My heart rate numbers were fine.

I knocked out a handful of strides at Auditorium Shores, and that all felt pretty good.  It was pretty cold outside, and I thought stretching at home, but I stayed because they were inside the building.  That’s definitely warmer, but it gets really loud in there.  That was it for the day.  I’ll call it a success.

This morning we had the reverse ladder workout again at the track.  I really like this one because it seems to get easier as we go, even though the pace speeds up a lot.  Gilbert had given me some pace targets yesterday, and my mission for today was just to hit them.  I arrived a little bit early and did an extra 15 minutes of warming up, and then I headed over to AHS with the group.  My first interval was a bit slower than I wanted, but after that I was warm and feeling good.  I didn’t feel quite as smooth as I wanted to be overall, but that might have been because of all the miles I did yesterday.  It still felt much better than it used to.

• 2000m - 7:49
• 2000m - 7:32
• 1000m - 3:36
• 1000m - 3:33
• 1000m - 3:34
• 400m - 78
• 400m - 81
• 400m - 80
• 400m - 78

I’m really happy with those, and I was pretty tired at the end of it.   Gilbert suggested taking the long way back for some extra cool-down.  With that, I ended up with well over 11 miles for the day.  My legs feel pretty good now.  I did some stretching afterwards, and I’ll do some more later.

This morning my plan was to extend my easy run a little bit to make up for how much I ate over the last couple days.  I had twelve in mind, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to make that.  It was dark, windy, and raining when I showed up at Town Lake this morning, and I took my time getting started.  Once I did, I headed west on the trail, not really paying much attention.  There really weren’t very many people out there today.  I warmed up after about a mile and just carried my hat the rest of the way.  By then it had stopped raining, too.  Over on the north side of the trail, I saw the Wednesday group heading to AHS, and then shortly after that I had to make the detour around the construction on the trail.  Throughout the run today I had brief flashes where my leg movement just felt really smooth and natural, but then that would pass and I’d be back to the old ways.  The good news there is I’m becoming much more aware of it, and I can recall the good stuff when I realize I need to.  I decided to turn around when I got to I-35.  That was five miles, so I figured maybe I would add an out and back once I got back to the zero marker.  It was still pretty empty out there.  When I climbed up to the street by Congress to go around the detour again I tried to make my legs move really fast going up the stairs.  That seems harder than bounding up them two at a time like I usually do.  When I got to the street, my legs felt perfect for a while, and it was really fun to run so smoothly down the sidewalk.  When I got to MoPac and crossed the bridge, I was thinking about how an out-and-back would be a little annoying, so I decided to add some distance by running over to Barton Springs once I got to the bridge by the one-mile marker.  I ran over by the pool and made a lap around the road where we used to run 900 meter laps (haven’t done that workout in a while) before heading back to the trail.  It was finally light enough to see by the time I got back to the zero marker, and I still wanted a little bit more distance.  So, I added a lap around Auditorium Shores, and that brought the total to about twelve and a quarter.  I did a few strides, and those felt really good.  I wasn’t very fast today, but my legs felt good and my heart rate was nice and low.  I’ll take it.  From there, I headed to the gym where I did a total body workout, and that all felt good, too.  It’s nice to have a little flexibility in my schedule.

I didn’t run today, but I did eat, eat, and eat.  I’ll make up for that tomorrow.

I hope all y’all out there had a wonderful day with family and friends.

As it turned out, my legs were a little more tired after Saturday’s run than I thought they were.  I stuck to my plan and pushed through it, though.  Since I wasn’t going to run on Tuesday, I decided to run the seven-mile loop and then head over to AHS for some circuit and core work.  I could tell my legs were tired during my lap around Town Lake.  I ran slowly, and by the end some of my demons had caught up to me in my mind and I felt downright bad.  I still wandered over to AHS for the other workout, though.  I was early, so it was a while before people started showing up.  I joined a few of them for a couple warm-up laps.  Then when Gilbert arrived he sent us off to do our usual circuit training exercises with only one lap between each set.  I did like four sets of those and then a bunch of core.  The very last thing we did was the fast feet, and I was terrible at that as usual.  The final one was three minutes long, and I was barely moving at the end of it.  It was a good amount of exercise for the day, even if I didn’t feel good.  I’ll gather it all up and move on from there.

It was absolutely beautiful outside this morning.  The temperature was perfectly cool, and there wasn’t any humidity in the air.  I’m still not committed to running the Marathon in February since I’ll be racing hard a few weeks before it, but I like to leave my options open.  So today I joined the group for the 21-miler just for fun.  Actually, I was only really with the group for the first three miles.  Then I got out ahead where people were a lot more spaced out.

I was a little stiff when I first started out, but after a mile or two that had gone away.  I just focused on being smooth and was amazed at how quickly the miles clicked by.   Before I knew it I had reached the top of the route and was on the way back.  Looking back at my splits I see that I was remarkably consistent the whole way.  A few of the others from the group kept catching up to me as I was leaving each water stop, and they kept telling me I looked good.  That kept me motivated to keep focusing on my form.

Gilbert was out driving around the course checking on us, and I saw him several times.  He seemed pleased, so that was good, too.  The route today was basically the last 20 miles of the marathon course, and I liked the minor adjustments they have made since last year.  It’s still pretty much the same hilly course, but a couple of the meaner spots late in the game have been made a little easier.

Once I got back to Auditorium Shores, I did a handful of strides with some pull-ups mixed in before leading the group in an hour or so of stretching.  That was all a lot of fun.  My pace on the run was good, and my heart rate was nice and low.  It was so awesome outside this morning.  I’m really glad I got to enjoy it, and I feel sorry for anyone that wasn’t out there.