Skipping a Speed Day

I'm bummed about this. I don't do this often.

I RARELY skip workouts. When "life" gets in the way, I'm fine saying "We've out of town with family, so I can't get in a solid workout today." Fine. That doesn't bother me. Life is about balance.

But I pretty much just skipped a hard run yesterday. I just didn't feel like it. I've been eating crap lately and just feeling sluggish and disappointed that I've been injured. I'm not too upset that I'm injured, but feeling like I've lost so much speed now is depressing. I don't mind just taking it easier, but I'm finding it harder to up the effort again. I'm not in a great spot mentally about all of this.

The plan was to crank out some 800s at the track as my first speed workout in 5 weeks. But I just didn't want to. I just ran easy instead.

So here's the timeline of the last 6 weeks (starting April 1st and going through yesterday):

The runs are in light gray. I normally run M, W, and F, except for the week of the 6th (the 2nd week down on that calendar). The 3rd week down was all easy runs. The 4th week had a little effort in a shorter "long" run. The 5th week was a BIT CLOSER to a normal long run, but it was also weird because it was just a few hours after a colonoscopy, and hoped to run hard that Friday but had some calf pain and just ran easy instead. And then I had a VERY NORMAL long run earlier this week (with 6 harder miles with normal splits, but I was working EXTRA hard to hit those "average" times).

We'll see if I can reset next week and try to have a NORMAL running week with a NORMAL long run and some NORMAL speed work on Friday. Trying to kick this injury funk I'm in.

Read more...

Friday Funny 2593: Signs That Tell a Story

Lots more funny things posted all day long on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

Read more...

Friday Funny 2592: Teacher Funnies

I always hated this in middle school.






This is my life as a professor.

Lots more funny things posted all week long on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

Read more...

NORMAL Long Run!

Monday was my first NORMAL long run in 5 weeks! I went down on my normal route, and I did my normal harder 6 miles in the middle of 11+ miles. I was working hard and didn't feel great, but I got in the distance that I wanted to.

Splits #5-17 were my faster miles.


Pace chart with the harder 6 miles in red. The 2nd big dip just after
mile 6 is stopping for a sip of water from a drinking fountain.

6 miles harder (as half-mile splits):

3:20, 3:09, 3:08, 3:08, 3:02, 3:13, 3:06, 3:02, 3:09, 3:08, 3:06, 3:01

= 37:37 (6:16.17/mile)

I was PLANNING to try some 800s on the track 3 days prior to this on Friday, but as I took off on my run, my left calf started to hurt a little... NOT BAD, but decided to just keep that run easy. So I felt good that my calf held up for 11 miles on Monday!

Now the big question... do I try to hit the track tomorrow? (So a normal long run with 6 faster miles on Monday, and then a normal track workout 5 days later?) Or is that too much too quick? I think it will be a game day decision as I head out the door tomorrow. Stay tuned!....

Read more...

Semi-Wordless Wednesday: Turkey Sex

These birds didn't even move. They didn't care that I was driving RIGHT past them.

Damn horny birds.

Read more...

Two Decent Rides!

I was able to get out for some intervals on the Greenway earlier last week. I had 90 minutes to bust out some speed:

Not an overall fast run, but fast in the middle.

I did 4 intervals of 5 miles each down the Greenway. There was a 14 mph wind from the NW, so #1 and #3 were slow because of that, and #2 and #4 were faster. I like to glace at my average speed 1/2 way through each interval and try to get it higher by the end, so you see that noted in my workout:

4x5 mile intervals with 3:00 easy spinning between:

#1: 16:29, 18.2 mph (17.8 halfway)

#2: 13:38, 22.0 mph (21.7 halfway)

#3: 16:19, 18.4 mph (18.1 halfway)

#4: 12:52, 23.3 mph (22.8 halfway)

I wasn't super happy with those splits, but I haven't been riding HARD lately - I've been going LONGER, but losing my speed.

Then on Saturday, I went out of another longer ride very much like I did on the previous Saturday. I rode a very similar route, but took on even a few more hills. On my ride the week before, it was calm and I had 1800 feet of elevation change. On this ride, there was a 12 mph wind, and I had nearly 2100 feet of elevation change. And even though I was hitting a lot of hills (on purpose), I still tried to do a 25 mile tempo ride at the start of this longer ride.

Adding on lots of little out-and-backs where I found more hills.
Did 25 mile tempo from split 1-6 (1:16:49, or 19.53 mph ave on those hills).


The red area is the "new hill" I found just south of split #5.

75 miles of outdoor riding for the last week of April isn't too shabby. I mean, it's not GREAT, but not horrible either. Need to keep working on that shorter-end speed...

Read more...