1/18 – Chest, shoulders, stretching, and a few situps at the PAC after watching a heartbreaker a championship game for the BUMC 10 and 11 year olds. Legs feel much better after the short bike ride to the gym and stretching. Lower abs are a different story. Knee’s a little sore. Not too bad.

1/17 – 23 miles. 3.09.30. The longest run is behind me! I felt pretty strong and the knee felt good. I still can’t envision 7.36s for this distance, but I still had some left at 8.15s. It was cold and windy. Why is the headwind always on the way home? Steady pace. First 12.4 same pace as last 10.6.

1/16 – Rest

1/15 – Tempo. 1 mile easy, 4 miles at 7:15 @ 1% grade on the treadmill after work, 1 mile easy. Knee stayed sore for the first mile or so, then loosened up.

1/14 – I had intended to do speedwork, after the first lap in the wind and cold my knee was really sore (probably from rowing), and I decided to call it quits. I stretched in the PAC and went home. I felt whooped.

1/13 – Rowing competition. The faculty and staff put together a team of rowers to compete against the youngsters. We were in the 165 lb and under group. Man, rowing is tough. The goal was to row 2000m as fast as possible. I started off fast for me, a little too fast (1.47 per 500 min).  That didn’t last. With 800m to go I seriously thought I wasn’t going to finish. My arms were cooked, so I tried to push more of the effort to my legs. That helped a little, but not much. I finished in 7.37.5 and haven’t been that tired in a long time. This is why I hate 5k’s!! We won first place by a whole ten seconds, combined! It doesn’t hurt when one of your teammates has run 10 iron mans and can row a 7.02. I sat on the stationary bike and spun the wheel around for 20 minutes afterwards but can’t call that riding. Felt rotten the rest of the day.

1/12 – Weights – back and arms. Short workout.

1/11 –  FIRST calls for 15, but I only did the 12.4 route to the YMCA and back.   I think I’m going to blend this somewhat with the Galloway philosophy and take next week’s 20 miler a few miles further, so I backed off of this week’s mileage.  I covered the route in 1.34.30 (7.37 / mile).   I felt pretty good.  My legs were a bit sluggish from riding around the lake with the kids earlier in the day and rowing yesterday.   They are hard to keep up with!  I still can’t see maintaining this pace for 26.2 miles.  I guess I just gotta have faith!   Now I have that silly song stuck in my head.

1/10 –  Ate a big lunch with mom and dad at Montereys.  Made for a lousy workout two hours later.  Started the workout with 2,000 m row.  I got my time down to 7.52.  Not sure I can push it much faster.  I tried to do pullups / back afterwards and really had to back off the weight to get anything done.  Rowing certainly hammers the glutes.  Ouch!

1/9 –  It took me a long time to shake mundane thoughts of the day and enjoy this run of absolutely no purpose (no tempo, no speed, no distance). Usually just running helps me shake the minutiae of the day, but it took more concentrated effort this time.  As I noticed the new shingles on the science building (they’ve probably been there a while), a metaphor started to materialize.  I visualized trivial thoughts as shingles being blown from the roof by the wind of the run.  Silly, but it worked.  The last 15 minutes of the run I was able to focus on the how nice it is to have this lake to run around and to really listen to the songs play, as shingles went flying through the air and into the ether.  😉

1/8 – Rest.  No corny philosophy today.

1/7 – Chest and shoulders.  Kind of rushed.  Only had about half an hour.

2/6 – I can’t believe I’m saying this, but speedwork wasn’t too bad. 6 x 800s. Legs were somewhat heavy, but I feel like my lungs are stronger. My achilles is a little tight, so I need to be careful.

3.00
3.04
2.59 (wohoo!)
3.04
3.02
2.59 (yipee!)

2/5 – back, arms, and stomach.

2/4 – 20 miles: After last weekend’s agressive 18 miles, I decided to take it slow. Ran the 12.4 to the Y and back in 1:46 (8.33s), and the last 7.6 in 63 minutes, so a little bit faster. I felt good most of the way. Legs got heavy towards the end, but the slower pace left a little bit in the tank. I felt like I could have squeaked out a few more. Good excuse to pig out while watching the superbowl!

2/3 – Chest and shoulders at the PAC, after a great day of watching the kids’ basketball games.

2/2 – In Auburn, AL for a conference. Ran through campus and surrounding neighborhoods. Nice easy pace. No tempo, no speed – just running.

2/1 – Snow day and travel to Auburn. No exercise except throwing snowballs and sledding down the back hill with the kids in the morning. Finally – a chance to use the sled!

1/31 – Worked at home and ran at lunch.  Headed towards the track to do speedwork and decided to skip it.  Ran tempo-like 6 miles,  with the middle 4 at a brisker pace.

1/30 – Decided to rest and attend a meeting on campus about the rails to trails path being built and connecting downtown Greenville to TR.  By the end of the year, the trail should be covered with crushed limestone and ready for walkers, runners, etc..  It’ll be at least a year before it’s paved, so it should be a great year of running on a soft surface.  Yea!

1/29 – I showed up at the gym to do back, arms, and stomach.  Gave up on stomach because my abs were sore from the long run.  Growing old is so much fun!  I was at the gym but wouldn’t exactly call what I did “working out”.  Spent a good bit of time stretching which has helped the soreness and seems to be really helping the knee – even more than the ice.

1/28 – I wanted to get a better sense of my long run pace, so I drove the course to mark the miles. It’s 6.2 miles from here to the basketball goals at the North Greenville YMCA. I decided to push it a little bit and see if I could hang on. I ran the first 10k in 47.30, and the first 20k (12.4) in 1:35.05. If my math is right it was 7.40s on the way out and 7.40s on the way back. I stopped for fluid at home and ran the last six miles in 46.00, so I think I held on to 7.40s there. I’m pretty pleased with the time, but I’m fried now – feels like I’ve been run over by a truck. It’s hard to imagine running even faster for 8 more miles, but that’s what I’d have to do to qualify for Boston. One run at a time. … I’ve probably killed my long run for next week. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Ouch.

I’m going to dial back the workouts this week.  Feels like a bit much.

1/27 – Shoulders, chest, and stomach

1/26 – Got busy at work. Rest day

1/25 – Tempo run around Furman lake a couple of times before dinner.  8 minute warm-up 21 mins pretty fast (not exactly sure of my pace) 10 minute brisk cool down.  I felt really good, like I’m actually making progress.  Colder than I expected.  A hat and gloves would have been a good idea, but I packed thinking it would be in the high 50s.  Oops.

I was in back to back meetings at work all day, so the introvert in me enjoyed the solitude.

1/24 – Weights in the PAC.  Back arms and stomach.

Back and arms at the PAC.  Rowed for 2000m to get ready for team rowing competition.  Did 2000 m in 8:30.  Felt uncoordinated and not tired enough, so I’ll try to take off some time and not look like such a doofus next time.  🙂

I don’t have much control over the doofus part though.

This is the mantra that seems to get me past the strong urge to stop or stay in bed.  If I can get moving before I think too much, I’ve got a shot!

1/23 – Speedwork before work. Man, it’s hard to get motivated for this stuff. 12 x 400s, which I’ll take any day over 6 x 800s. Strange day. My lungs kept saying, “We can do more! Pick it up!”, but the legs had a plan of their own (although it was a good workout). First lap at 1:31. After that 1:26 – 1:29, so not too shabby. Knee was a little sore at times, but not too bad. I stuck to short rest intervals (a minute and a half).

1/22 – Chest, shoulders, and stomach during lunch hour.

1/21 – Thirteen miler (1:44). YMCA route plus a loop around the mall plus a little extra. Mentally, 13 was not intimidating, but with the heavy speedwork my legs didn’t agree. Not a great run. Rainy and cold, which seems to be a theme lately. Had a really close call with a van over by Timmons Arena, on campus of all places. Car swerved off the rode, and I had to hop out of the way. Glad I’m in the habit of running against traffic. I don’t think she ever saw me.
1/20 – Rode my bike to the PAC and did back, arms, and stomach in the afternoon.

1/19 – Busy day at work. No workout. Ate pizza with the chem dept instead, which was a much better choice :-). Guess I’ll skip the tempo run this week.

1/18 – Speedwork on the track (6 x 800). Ran first couple of miles around the lake with colleague Diane. Speedwork in teams certainly helps! Mild ice storm, so it was cold and wet. Most right around 3:00 – 3:01. Fifth one a little slower (3:03), but last one was 3:00 flat. Wohoo! Will speedwork ever get easy?