8mi

Made up for yesterday's abbreviation by running the assigned miles in a little under an hour. 

4.3 treadmiles

Ran at Pottruck. Was supposed to do 8, but just wasn't feeling it in my head. Maybe I was only one good song away from picking it up. My legs could have soldiered through, but ... just didn't feel it. I decided to swap tomorrow and today. 

5000 watts

I'm going to stop using the dryer. If I do two-three loads per week, and each load takes 45 minutes, that will save at least 10kwH per week. Dryers have to be the dumbest appliances. They are only moderately more convenient than clothesline/drying rack, but such energy hogs. In Grenoble, the Marciaus didn't even own a dryer, and it was never a problem.  

6mi

Ran 6mi at high noon with Matt: Walnut St <-> Columbia Bridge H20 fountain. It's freakin' hot out. We, or at least I, wilted a bit in the second half. 

60min spin @ Pottruck.

Title says it all. 

Evening

Did 4x800s @ 9.5mph (=6:18 pace). Ran 1.5mi warmup and .5 mi cooldown, plus 1mi in between for 5mi total. Then met Matt, Cat, Chris, and Teagan for dinner @ Marigold Kitchen. Good times, good times.

I want a mind of winter...

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Misery, what's that? Or maybe I just want winter to be here. Funny that I checked out, and returned, many books of Wallace Stevens poems from the library before falling in love with his work.

Morning 4

Burning off breakfast before I eat it. I'm imagining the food hitting my stomach and vaporizing. Erm, that's all a litlte loopy. Maybe I should eat that breakfast...

Ran ~4mi up to boathouse row and back. The humidity is back. 

Revels?

I was just making a new workout mix for my iPod when I came across "Lord of the Dance" from the Revels in my iTunes. I remembered that we sang it to close out last Sunday's mass. I thought was a little bizzare--it made me want to link elbows with my neighbors and dance my way home.

I met Matt for a burger and some beers at New Deck last night. It was great to catch up a bit and make some plans for the Pigs. Somehow things fell apart over the winter and nobody has really played any ball since Harvard/IMs... silliness.

After taking all that time to make a mix, I'm tired and hungry and have no urge to run. Today was meant to be an easy day, so I'll just swap it with Friday, or maybe do two workouts tomorrow.

Tuesday Six

Did my 6 miles @ 7:30 pace, then very briefly lifted arms / back.

Monday

3mi treadmill, lifted legs. 

XI

Yesterday I complained about this training program being too easy. Excessive alcohol consumption is one way to give oneself a handicap. I think I drank more last night at Scott's party than I have on any single day in the last 12 months. We had a great time--Mets game, dinner at a fantastic Italian place (complete with pre-dining bocce), and closed out the night with drinks at Turtle Bay. Scott, Peter, and I caught the 3.47 train to Garden City and didn't get to sleep until past 4.30. I am dragging... but I still made it out for the long run. It was a beautiful evening in Philadelphia--cool temps, nice breeze, and a clear skies. I ran the Falls Bridge loop, slowly (about 85 minutes?), and walked back from Vine St. I think that's still ~11mi. 

Going to steal my bike now. I locked it up at St. John's for JacksYacs mass, and my key twisted off in the lock. 

US Grant

I felt good today so my Saturday 5 turned into 6+. I'm not sure how I feel about this running program. I know I shouldn't complain--it will ramp up soon enough--but for now it's a little ... easy?

Pottruck

Just a quick 25 minute gym trip: 10 minute run, 3-element circuit. 

Whitney Houston is 0% sane...

but when she came on my shuffle I cracked a smile. It's funny what picks you up at minute 43 of a workout. And my "sweat" playlist is, em, eclectic. 

60 minutes of cardio today. The plan for running was 30 minute tempo, so I did 10 min @ 8mph, then up in .1mph ticks for 13 minutes, held it for 3min, then eased back down to 8.5 to finish. Then finished up with 30 minutes random hills on the bike. 

Tomorrow is an off day, but I may try to do Saturday's workout. Scott's bachelor is in NYC and it may be tough to get the run in before I catch the Chinatown bus in the AM. Then 11 on Sunday!

Wow.

What a ride. I'm not a Landis fan, but his ride today was gutsy.

3-4mi

Did a loop up to Boathouse Row and back before rushinghome to cook for Cathy + Marc (grilled halibut, corn on the cob, gazpacho... Cathy brought cherry almond pie.) 

 

5mi

And not a yard more. At Pottruck, just as the storm started. 36:45 I think?

3mi, Lifting

Doing what Higdon says. 3mi, easy pace (21:45 total) then bench, rowing, pull downs, raises.  

X

I did my 10 miles at Pottruck. It was just too damn hot to run outside today although if I'd waited until now (8pm) it would have been fine. 76 minutes total. I had to force myself to stay slow--7.5mph for the first 6 miles, then cranked it up to finishing in the middle 8s. I love long runs. I wish it were fall already and the weather weren't such an impediment to running outside. 

My bike is starting to come together. Or rather, my wallet is starting to come apart as I purchase parts for it. EP cut the fork for his Gios and now it's too short for the headtube. I found a decent looking 1" threadless carbon fork and headset from an '05 warranty return on eBay so hope to get it. EP gave me about 1/2 of an Shimano Ultegra group, and I found another auction with most of the other half (just missing calipers). If I win those two, I'll just need wheels, seat, stem/bars, and cables. I can't wait to have a real bike!!

I believe that puts my weekly total somewhere in the range (36,37].

An Inconvenient Truth

See it. 

Stats

Miles: 4.5
Minutes: 34
Gallons sweat: too many.
Cramps: Yes (ate lunch at 6pm.)
CSX Engineers TO'd: one (there was a big train sitting on the tracks at 25th & Locust, so I ran across in front of it. Evidently, that ain't cool.)

Sucky workout

Tired end-of-week Pottruck trip. Biked for ~20 minutes to warm up. Both bikes I tried seemed a little broken... then did a very quick chest/arm circuit. Tired, sore. Looking forward to long runs tomorrow and Sunday.

Wilco...

may be the perfect summer band. I've been listening to "I thought I held you" and the rest of A.M. pretty much non-stop for the past 24hrs. Props to Wes for making the mix tape a few years ago that first put them in my head. 

Last summer Xtie and I drove down the Merriweather Post Pavilion for a great show the night of Pottstown Rumble (after driving down from Shelburne, arriving at 2am, and waking up at 6 to play). Unfortunately most of this year's tour is in Canada or Jeff Tweedy solo. Boo.

Girard Ave

I like sunrises better than sunsets... I woke up at 6.13 naturally today. Woot! I'd love to wean myself off the alarm and still be getting up early. 

I took yesterday off. I got home around 6pm and was just zonked. My calves and glutes were really sore anyways from lifting two days ago so it was probably best. This morning I ran ~5mi, up to the RR bridge just past Girard Ave and back down 22nd to Pine St (I find that if I hit a red light within a few blocks of home, it's really hard to motivate to run it in... have to work on that).

The trail is jam packed with bikers, bladers, and runners, even at 6.30am. I miss the wooded river trails on the Isère. It made me a little slower--like many people, I start running faster, often without realizing I'm doing so, when others are around--but it was nice to have the solitude. And how I miss seeing the sun breaking ove the Belledone range, lighting up the ridge of the Vercors and the overhang of the Chartreuse with brilliant white light. 

Pottruck

Ran 5mi (3+2) with an upper body/back circuit in the middle. 

Pottruck

I did a nice hard workout today. Warmed up with a (felt fast for what shape I'm in) 3.1 miles in 21:00 on the nose + 4 more minutes of slow jogging. After that I did a full leg lifting circuit: 3x each of dumbell lunges, leg press, extensions, hamstring curls, yes/no hip thingees, and calf raises, with ~12-25 for each rep.

Grace

Work today was mildly frustrating. I hosed my computer over the weekend and decided to bite the bullet and back everything up, wipe the disk clean, and reinstall from scratch. As part of all this reinstalling, I decided to finally give my PowerBook a proper name. It's geek tradition to give your computers a name, the thinking being that it's a lot easier to refer to "zeus" or "apollo" than "host-56.cis.upenn.edu". Usually folks pick out names using some kind of theme; names from Greek mythology are popular, as are place names (Williams had "lee", "lenox", "colrain", etc.). One of my favorite themes is used by Michigan's ITD for the machines at the Michigan Union: "uaw", "afl", "cio", etc. My machines have always been named for bars in the cities where I've lived: "vatican", "ri-ra", (both Dublin) "cindys" (Cambridge), "doobies" (Philadelphia). Following that tradition, I have dubbed my PowerBook "grace". I chose it both because it is the name both of the closest bar to my new place, Grace Tavern, and also because that other kind of grace has been on my mind too lately. Friar Paul Dressler preached a fantastic sermon on Sunday on 2 Corinthians 12 ("my grace is sufficient") on the 12th anniversary of him taking his OFM vows ("no money", "no honey", and "I got a boss now")... I really enjoy the masses he celebrates. I think he said he may have been raised in a Baptist church, which explains his fondness for "Now Thank We All Our God" (which he's preached on once, and which we sang on Sunday) and, more importantly, his appreciation for the centrality of the Word. Like Fr. Frank @ CtK, Fr. Charlie @ St. Francis, most of the priests at St. Mary's Student Chapel all in Ann Arbor, Fr. Lawrence @ St Vincent de Paul in Baltimore, and Fr. Goudot @ St Victor in Meylan, he understands that the Word can be just as integral to Catholic liturgy as in a service at any Bible-thumpin' church (even if it's centrality is not mentioned at every twist and turn).

Tonight I hit Pottruck for an evening workout. Having my iPod back helped a lot and the adrenaline was up for once! I didn't realize how much I've been missing it. I clocked 2 miles on the treadmill in 13:22, then did an upper body circuit, then closed it out with 17 minutes on the bike.

6.5

Finally got up early to run today. Ran the loop up to US Grant and back. I think it's around 6.5mi from the new place, but I haven't measured out all my loops yet. My hip felt fine, though I cheated and popped some Advil before heading out (a trick I learned from my step-dad). Still, it felt great to get over that 3-4mi wall!

Update: Of course, all this crying over a little bruised hip makes me a big wimp. I can't believe that Landis is attempting the Tour with all the hip problems he's having (though, depending on the injury, biking may be easier than walking...)

Last week was another low-mileage week: ~19 total. Will definitely have to step it up this week; the long runs start all too soon. I have two interested running partners now--Matt and Jeff--and Matt is even considering marathoning it in November!

Bike

Had to exchange shuffle at Apple Store, so biked out along Lancaster Ave and back. ~25mi total. 

Yick.

3-4 evening miles. #@!$ this hip!

Pottruck

Quick 2mi to warm up, then lifted other alternate body circuit.

Few miles

Ran only ~2mi last night before my dinner stared to come back up. Lovely, yes. 

Ran ~4-5 this morning. 

Wet

I biked from 13th to 37th St. this morning just as the heavy rain hit shortly before 9. Ran 4mi sloshy miles on a treadmill @ Pottruck, then did abbreviated upper body circuit. Didn't notice my hip at all!

C'est finit.

Ran 3mi this morning, did 30 minutes more cardio at Pottruck this evening, and lifted legs. And I want more.

I hoped I'd never have another day in my life like today.

(Frustrating) Week of 25 June

3(Pottruck) + 3(Pottruck) + 0(bike @ Pottruck) + 1(and bike @ Pottruck) + 4(Pottruck) + 0(bike @ Pottruck + 3(and bike @ Pottruck) = 14mi.

My crash on Tuesday night totally screwed up my running week. On the plus side, I biked and lifted a ton this week. I tried to run the day after the crash but my hip was too sore so I biked. I did 1mi on Thursday and decided the pain wasn't worth it and biked again. Friday was fine, but then it stiffened up on Saturday. Today was fine again, but I didn't want to push it too hard. My "real" training program starts in two weeks so I want to  ready for it. I am hoping to try for a medium-length run tomorrow AM if the weather permits.