1/16 – Rest

1/17 – Weights (chest, shoulders, stomach) during lunch hour

1/13 – Tempo Run – 1 mile warm-up, 4 miles or so at 7:00-7:15, 1 mile cool down.  Felt good.

1/14 – Back and arms at the PAC.  Tried doing two sets of more stuff, instead of 3, mainly because I felt pretty weak – especially on pull-ups.

1/15 – 20 miler (give or take).  I’m so tired of the North YMCA route, I decided I’d rather run up Paris Mountain.  I’m not sure that was a good call.  Paris Mountain back to home was the first 10 miles, and then the second ten consisted of runs through neighborhoods on either side of Old Buncombe and Furman.  FIRST training leaves my legs REALLY tired for these long runs.  I’m used to feeling stronger.  The last 30 minutes was like running under water.  The last 15 minutes, I was pretty spacey.  I think I’ll sleep well tonight.

1/10 –   Ever had one of those days where you feel really light, your strides fell long and smooth, and running seems effortless?  Well, this wasn’t one of those days.  I felt choppy and slow.  Times weren’t too bad.

First 1200m – 4.36

Second 1200 m – 4.39

First 800m – 3.04

Second 800m – 3.03

Third 800m – 3.05

Fourth 800m – 3.01

1/11 –  Busy day at work.  Rest day.

1/12 – Stomach, chest, and shoulders at the PAC.

1/8 – Back arms and stomach on the machines I could get to in the PAC.  Wow it’s crowded in the New Year!

1/9 – I need to get back in the swing of lunch workouts and did one today on the stationary bike.  I alternated resistance (standing up / out of the saddle) and increased tempo into the workout.  Felt like a good effort level but not too much on the day before speedwork (Oh joy!  I can’t wait for that).

On a fun note, Bill Pierce took Larry, Diane, and me on a tour of the human performance lab during Dr. Moss’ class.  Especially cool was the treadmill / setup for measuring VO2 (I couldn’t help but notice the huge read escape button, much like the EASY button on the commercials), the new 20k bike for measuring power, etc., and the 7 camera setup with force plate for gait analysis.

Is there an EASY button for speedwork?!!

Whoops. I got behind in my journal.

1/2/07 – Back, arms, and stomach at the PAC

1/3/07 – Speedwork. I felt a little under the weather and got a late start, so I did my 3 x 1 mile intervals on the treadmill. I was supposed to hit 6:15’s, but eased into it with a 6:30, 6:22, and 6:15 for the final one.

1/4/07 – Weights. I ended up chatting with a bunch of folks, so I had about 20 mins for my workout before heading home for dinner. Chest and shoulders – very, very fast. Didn’t get much out of it.

1/5/07 – Tempo work. Ran in the rain after work. It poured the last 10 minutes or so. I did a 1 mile warm up, 28 mins at a brisk pace, and 1 mile cool down.

1/6/07 – A rest day. Watched kids basketball games, hung out with them, and worked around the house.

1/7/07 – 14 miler. The run started out great, despite buckets of rain coming down.  I toyed with the idea of running on the treadmill for two hours but decided better to get rained on than bored to death. All and all a good run, but like always, the hills in green valley left me heavy-legged after mile 7 or 8. I had a good, comfortable pace going and felt pretty strong. Man, I really like the lemon sublime gu flavor! 🙂 Good gu – apple, orange, vanilla, lime, and sometimes expresso. The bad stuff – raspberry, strawberry, and cola flavored. That stuff stays with you! Knee felt pretty good but was a little sore by the end. I ran some on the cart path at the green valley course, since no one was out in the monsoon.  1:52 and some change.

6:45 am New Year’s morning.  The alarm is going off and it’s pouring down rain outside.  The whole world is sleeping.  “Maybe I don’t need this long run.  Maybe I’d do myself more good by sleeping in and resting.  Get up and run, you big dummy.  Hitting the snooze one more time won’t matter”…

It was really tough to get going this morning, despite going to bed before the New Year.  Luckily the rain eased off by the time I went out the front door.  Tough run.  FIRST calls for 20 miles, but I’m not there yet, so I decide on 16.  Ran to the North Greenville YMCA, back home to get some fluids, and then out around Furman Lake to get the last 4 miles.

My legs felt heavy from the start and never really felt good, although the knee felt fine.  I’ll take that trade.

Total Time: 2.14.24, so maybe more like 16.5 or 17.  About 49 minutes to get to the YMCA, so I need to measure that distance.  Long runs seem to alternate between good and bad, so the next long one should be great!

New Year’s Eve Day – Situps, pushups, shoulder and chest stuff using dad’s weights in the basement during our Atlanta visit.

Tempo run  day.  The goal was 1 mile warm-up, 4 miles at medium tempo pace, and 1 mile cool down.  I altered it a bit and ran up the back hill hard in the middle of the tempo.  After running for 28 minutes pretty hard, I jogged back to the front hill after a slow mile and finished running up it hard.  I was tired, so I barely made it.  Total running time 47.13.  6.5 miles (maybe a little more).

35 minutes on the bike.  Cranked up the resistance and stood up in the pedals for a couple of minutes, every 7-8 mintes.  Moderate interval work but didn’t push it too hard.