Running for a plane...

But snuck 5.25 in. Those may be the last miles for this low-mileage in.

Treadmill Speedwork

2mi warmup, 4x800m with .2mi jog between, 1mi cooldown. Total was just under 6mi.

Pottruck

Did an evening workout at Pottruck. 3.5mi on the 'mill (up the ladder from 8mph to 9.5mph). Then full leg lifting circuit.

Catching up

• Monday: Drank beer, ate BBQ'd veggie burgers, did not run (first off day in 20!)
• Tuesday: Sweetbriar Loop from Pottruck. 5mi, untimed.
• Wednesday AM: South Philly Loop with Jeff. 5.88mi.

Most of a SuperLoop®, Bonky weirdness.

Ran the SuperLoop (extension out to Ridge) which, if I'd finished, would have been around 13. But on the return leg on Kelly Dr, I felt my gut starting to cramp up. I *just* made it to the toilets at Lloyd Hall in time, and even after clearing out the old system, twice, when I started running the last bit, I started cramping up again.

I'm not going to read much into this (i.e., really strange to have been hit so hard by a truncated 12 miler). Obviously, for whatever reason, I found my limit today. I think I may have been starting to bonk? I didn't eat a whole lot today and I felt progressively weirder until getting something in me. I'll just take it as a sign that I got a good, hard workout in. Meh.

Montgomery Loop

Did my usual Tuesday loop in reverse. This takes one up to the Belmont Plateau and is about as hilly as one can get in a run of this distance from my house (i.e., without going up to East Falls or Manayunk.) Total was 8.65mi in a few ticks over 1hr.

Sweetbriar, Lemon Hill

BCP gave his talk in the morning, and I sent off the ICFP rebuttal in the afternoon. After another long week I was tired, but really, really wanted to get a good workout in. I came home, lay down and read some New Yorker fictions, which got my energy level back up... and did a Sweetbriar / Lemon Hill loop. It started slowly--I think I was around 13 minutes to W River Dr, but I felt better once I was on the river and, by the time I hit the back side of Lemon hill, felt great.

Repeat

Same thing as yesterday.

Oof

I woke up early today and worked pretty much continuously from 6.30am until 8.30pm (with only a few short breaks--coffee with DV at Good Karma Cafe in the morning, a trip to the Magic Carpet food truck to grab lunch, and the usual water/bathroom breaks.) Megh. Got home around 9 and did a brisk AM Loop in 28m; I think this is a little under 4mi.

I am very much looking forward to beer o'clock on Friday, and running long this weekend.

Sweetbriar / Lemon Hill

Another day of meetings. Woot.

Finally got home a little after 8, and was out the door a few minutes later. I didn't even have time to make a plan, but as I made my way through Fitler Square, I settled on warmout out to Sweetbriar, then a few Lemon Hill repeats. I wasn't sure I was up to run hard--I feel tired--but as it turned out it was one of those days when every stride feels bouncy and your lungs feel bottomless. Everything felt easy for the first three. I picked up the pace for the bit around the waterfall opposite Boathouse Row and was doing just under 6.30 pace (for .5mi at least) and it felt easy. Threw in another pick-me-up just before Sweetbriar, and then did 4xLemon Hill repeats. These are short--only ~1/8 mi--but very steep and enough to get your heart going. Came down the backside and came home via the Parkway and 22nd. Total was around 7.25 in 56min. A good run.

Monday

Pottruck is closed all week, which puts an odd hole in my usual routine (even when I run outside, I like to do it from campus; also gives the chance to do some weights after).

Came home after another marathon day of BCP meetings (we may have finally gotten to the bottom of the blame game: it seems to be a type algebra with two kinds of arrows!) and ran an AM Loop via Rittenhouse. 32 minutes which I'm estimating was 4.25 miles (may be closer to 5, but I'm too tired to GMap it, and they're junk miles, so really who cares what the pace was.)

These long days are wearing me down and when I got back from running, I really felt like doing something non-academic. I did my latest obsessions for dinner--tofu / bok choy / scallion / red pepper pepper spring rolls with Braggs liquid aminos, natch, and spinach salad--then made hummus and baked bread for the week, then made a double batch of Cara2's almond / cranberry biscotti. Yum.

The Loop

I woke up (at 9.30! I've been rising with the sun--5.45ish or so--sans alarm clock all week, so it was good to sleep in a bit) to a grey, gloomy day. The rain was coming in and out, which made for a nice morning with coffee, a crossword, and music. Fueled up for an early afternoon run, but the ran started coming heavier, so I went to Good Karma and worked for a while. Then went to BCP's for yet another meeting on The Meaning Of Blame (if Hinze is right, then contracted functions are the arrows in the Kleisli category of a comonad--woah categories!) We finally finished around 6 and by then the high-carb fuel I'd put in my belly was gone so I loaded it up again, gave it an hour to settle, and finally hit the trail a little after 8.

It was a gorgeous time to run: everything all wet and green, dogwalkers (including Darren), birds, and worms all out enjoying the first clear skies of the day. Ran a sunset East Falls Loop and came back via the river path for 11.75mi in unknown time. 45 miles for the week. No speedwork, but some tempoish shorter runs during the week. I'll have to taper down for my next race which is ... in ALASKA!! Yeah, I finally got my act together and bought my ticket last week! I'm so psyched: 8 days in Anchorage / Denali. Unfortunately I won't be able to stick around until the solstice half marathon, but Clare and I are going to run a 5k in Anchorage on my last day. ALASKA!!

Pottruck, Strawberry Mansion

Did a 3mi run at the gym last night, and 9.75 today.

Leif Statue

A long (13hr) day today: the first half spent compiler hacking and the second half spent in BCP's office trying to figure out what "well typed programs can't be blamed" means, if anything.

I stepped onto the treadmill at the gym, thinking I'd do a speed workout, but as soon as I tied my shoes and stretched, I realized there was no way in hell I'd be doing a hard workout. My legs feel fine, but my head is really, really tired, and therefore not in it. I decided to take (another) easy day and just did the 5mi+ out to the Leif statue. Sigh. Total time was 36 even. Finished with a 12min bike cooldown.

So many easy days! Perhaps I'll do that hill workout I like tomorrow, or sneak into Franklin Field (if it's not closed for graduation.)

Pottruck

3mi and change in 22 flat. Then full upper body circuit.

Tuesday 8

Back to my usual Tuesday workout: the Montgomery Bridge loop via Mantua and the Concourse. The total time was 58min and sumthin', but really there is only one number I care about: the split for miles 5-6. When I do this workout well, I warm up to Civil War memorial (about 18min), then pick it up a bit across the Concorse and down the hill from Belmont to the river, and then work the measured mile on MLK Drive at a good pace. This time the split came in at 6:34.

I want to get faster, and for that I need to train with specificity--easy workouts easy and hard workouts hard. Too often, like most recreational runners, I just run at the upper end of comfortable (for me, 7-7:15 pace.) I'm still not very good at pushing myself on hard days, but I'm learning...

Morning AM Loop

Met Jeff for a morning Art Museum Loop. 4.62mi in unknown time.

Wissahickon

Ran for 1h47m up into the Wissahickon. Didn't get all the way to Forbidden drive, but that had really better be 14mi.

Strawberry Mansion

I was supposed to meet up with KT and another Jeff resident, but they got delayed and told me to go ahead, so I ran Strawberry Mansion solo. My legs were pretty sore after lifting two days ago, but it ended up being a solid run. I guess the low mileage this week helped. Total was 9.5mi in 1h13m (not actually so slow: I stopped at Good Karma to say hey to Aaron).

Pottruck

Weather is meh, legs are meh, workout was... meh. 3mi in about 22, upper body circuit.

It's been an easy week, and that's OK. But I really want to put some tall blue bars on it the next few days.

Pottruck

It was a gloomy, humid day, a reminder that Philly's sticky summer weather will be here all too soon. I hit the gym and did a tempo-ish workout: 2mi warmup then up the ladder to sub-6:30 pace, increasing .1mph every 1min. Finished with a .5mi cooldown at 7:15. Total was 4.25mi in 30 for the tempo, and 4.75 total. I finished with a full (including hip abductors; usually I just do squat, lunge, quad and hamstrings curls, calf raises) leg lifting circuit.

Today was yet more evidence that biking and running workouts can be stacked up against each other. I was mad sore when I woke up today, and each trip up and down the stairs to the 5th floor reminded me that I did a long (for what kind of biking shape I'm in) ride yesterday. Then I hopped on the 'mill and felt great. I love that I can get a hard workout in riding, and when I run the next day, it feels like I just rested.

First BSR photos posted. Evidently I have awful running form. What is this? A race? Or the Funky Chicken dance?

KoP

Oh man, I'm tired.

I felt like biking so I did this loop, which turned out to be 45 miles. No energy for blogging the details, but it's a great little loop. I had a ton of fun.

Sweetbriar / Pottruck

I first felt the wonderful feeling of legs truly exercised, as well as the awful feeling of chafed nipples after a long run Xtie and I did in Cordoba, Spain way back on spring break 2k. My legs are used to lots of miles now, so the first feeling is harder to come by, but the nipple problem still pops up every now and again. I wore a singlet for Saturday's race--something I hadn't done all winter--and both yesterday and today I noticed some painful chafing a few minutes in. Perhaps I need to take up taping. Or develop callouses. Hmpf. Silly.

Was planning a Strawberry Mansion Loop, but when I got to Sweetbriar the problem from above and legs still a bit tired from Sunday, convinced me to loop back to the gym. Call it a (very) conservative 5 miles in 40. Finished with 20 minutes on the bike to round out an hour of cardio. I think I will bike tomorrow.

Broad Street Run

My story (and it is long) starts on Saturday. Long-time readers of this blog will remember that last year I crashed my bike hard and, instead of getting a good night's sleep Saturday night, I woke up every 90 minutes to talk to a very sweet almost-Dr CAC (who was home in Palo Alto for the weekend, but got up through the night to call and make sure I hadn't gone unconscious from subdural bleeding.) I was still thinking of racing, and woke up at 5 to see how I felt, but with the chorus of "don't runs!" coming from friends and family ringing in my ears and the bruises puffing up overnight... for once, the Stubborn Boy listened and did not run (and then stubbornly snuck in a 7 miler later that day.)

I rehash this story (yet again) because, well, bike crashes are sort of traumatic by definition, and because this past Saturday started out as a Groundhog Day-esque replay of last year: I hopped on my bike, peddaled over to the Linc, locked my bike to the same pole, picked up my bib and shirt, went to the same market (Reading) and bought dinner supplies, and then started back. The whole ride home I kept reminding myself that lightning couldn't possibly strike twice but, even so, I was extra paranoid/careful/defensive... and, thankfully, made it home in one piece this year (last year, I literally did not come home in one piece: a large chunk of molar ended up somewhere on Spruce Street.) I cleaned the kitchen, which was still all nasty from our house party on Friday night, got dinner going, and then rushed over to Darren and Jen's excellent Derby Party. Watched the greatest/fastest two minutes in sports, hurried back home to finish cooking (vegan sausage, sauteed veggies with a light farfelle pesto, salad, and blueberry crumble) and had a nice pre-race meal with fellow first-time BSRer Jeff. Capped over the evening with a prickly pear vodka tonic, brought by our weekend houseguest from AZ, which knocked me out.

Sunday morning I was up at 5 for yogurt, banana, and coffee, then ran over to Jeff's place and caught the subway up to the start. I wanted to get a good warmup in, but figured I might as well get to the start wicked early and run around up there. Did a ~20min easy jog with Jeff down past the 1mi marker and back, got some water and stretched out, and then did another ~10 min loop with some short strides. I hadn't run in 3 days, and had managed my food prep perfectly (ate like a pig for the previous 36 hours, but emptied everything out shortly after waking up in the morning... sorry that's probably TMI, but GI stuff can be important!) Lined up in the middle of the 6-min mile pace section and waited for the start.

Mayor Nutter gave a little speech and fired off the horn and about 20 seconds later I was going over the chip mats. The race bunched up, predictably, but since we had both sides of Broad Street, and I was close-ish to the front of the pack, it wasn't too bad. The first mile is a gentle but steady downhill, so I just let it carry me down, and didn't worry about wasting any energy making silly surges. The first mile passes in 6:4x and feels easy, so I feel good. The second and third miles have some gentle rolls (can't quite call them hills) but I'm in a pack of people running at around the same pace, so we glide up over them and speed up on the downhills. I miss the second mile marker, but the split at mile 3 is 13:31, so I'm right on 6:4x pace. Mile 4 goes by Temple and I slow a bit to 6:51, but then I see City Hall through the fog and the 5th mile goes in 6:45 again, putting my halfway split at 33:57. We wind around City Hall and through the crowds in Center City. I've heard that this is often a fast mile, but my stomach is starting to feel heavy (maybe I didn't plan that eating so well after all) and it goes in 6:50. My legs feel a little heavy, and I wonder if I'll have anything left for the last three. I hook onto a father-son East African looking team. The dad is clearly an experienced runner, the son is really young (14? 15?). They are gliding along and making it look easy. The dad keeps talking about focusing on staying strong and running easy, and that the race starts at 8, and I try to follow his instructions (relax my breathing, pull my shoulders down, let my stride glide along strong). At mile 8, the dad says something about now let's do sixes, and I assume they'll take off, but after an initial surge they slow again and soon I'm with them again. My stomach worries have gone and I feel strong now, so I make a move. I'm picking people off slow but steady and the the miles between Oregon and the stadiums, which are often long and boring, don't even register. The marker for mile 9 goes by and I kick it up some more. We pass the gate to the Navy yard and I pick a guy in front of me a few dozen yards in front of me and take off in a full on kick. I pass him, he catches up, and we're the only two kicking as we zoom by what feels like a bunch of people. I actually can't remember who finished in front, but we both surged through the chute together and I click my watch stop and see 1:07:37!! (The :32 I wrote below was just me reading my watch wrong.)

This post is already getting way too long; I promise I won't drag it out much more. But I'm so happy. I haven't raced anything this short in a while (5k a few weeks ago was a tuneup for this), but also have not felt like I've been in good enough shape to really go at the distances I've been doing. My new plan (after a short break of just running whatever I feel like) is to keep focused on BQ-equivalent training. That means a 5k at sub-19m26s, a 10k at sub 40m21s, and a half at sub-1h29m48s. I'm probably just delusional after a good race, but they feel doable.

The rest of my Sunday consisted of a long trek around the hood trying to find brunch with Jeff, Heidi and the cute vet surgery residents, then taking our AZ visitor for a spin out to Conshy via Lower Merion and back by the Schuylkill River Trail, Manayunk, and Kelly Dr.

Today I just did an easy 3mi and a short upper body lift at Pottruck.

BSR SBRR

I'll write up a full-blown LBRR (long, boring race report) from yesterday morning, and a description of our 30+ mile spin to Conshy on the bike yesterday afternoon, as soon as I can find some time. But for now, let me just say that I am thrilled. Hitting a goal, even a somewhat modest one, feels great.

For now, here are the splits from my watch. I am really pleased with these numbers. Each mile went by right in the 6.45-6.50 range, until the last half mile, when I kicked a bit and saved ~15 seconds.

1	2-3	4	5	5	7	6	9	10
6:48.7	13:31.2	6.51.5	6:44.8	6:45.1	6:50.9	6:48.6	6:44.2	6:31.5

Also hit a secondary goal--running the second half faster than the first. The split for the first 5 was 33:57 and for the second second was 33:35.

Unofficially...

67m32s!!!

Ready...

Two days of total rest and a whole lot of eating had me practically bouncing as I walked down to the Brey's for their Derby party tonight. Can't wait for tomorrow!!

AM Loop

I went to Pottruck this evening, changed, stretched out, and climbed up on the treadmill, and then realized I didn't want to do a treadmill run at all. I went outside instead and found an absolutely perfect late spring evening. Ran the Art Museum Loop, back by Spring Garden; call it 4mi in something a little under 30. I ran easy for most of today, thinking about form more than speed. Did a few strides in the second half to get the heart going a bit and cooled down with 15min on the stationary bike.

I am locked into the taper routine: my diet, sleep, workouts are all on autopilot now. It feels familiar. Sunday is only 10 miles, so much of this is not needed, but I have a routine that works and I don't want to mess with it. Here's how it goes: a last longish run on Sunday, two days of what amounts to the Atkins diet, break a sweat with my run on Tuesday, switch to carbs on Wednesday, then eat, eat, eat on Thursday and Friday. No running on Friday, but continue with bagels, pasta, yogurt etc. A short run with some strides on Sunday, and a good night's sleep, then up early for yogurt, banana, and coffee, then off to the start.

I am trying to figure out if I should just run to Temple. I don't want to waste energy, but I think I need 3-4mi of warmup and unlike a longer race, I can't just use the first few miles for that... Perhaps a compromise is run to City Hall, hop on the subway, and finish warmup on the track?

Pottruck

Hit the gym again for a brisk 3mi treadmill run, then more upper body lifting (no way I'm lifting legs this week, but I wanted to do *something* more than 21min.)