I reserve the right to be fickle.
Hmmm … Running? Workouts? Races?
I think my mileage has been 45, 51, 44 the last 3 weeks. Did a couple of doubles last week before my trip to Colorado to load up and counteract the looming beer and beef and BS. One afternoon I was planning on doing 7 and ran into Jorge on the trail and ended up with 11 or so for a 14 mile day. But it was worth it. I run alone so much these days it’s nice to run with others (even if they don’t necessarily feel the same about me).
I’ve run a couple of firecrackers and a couple six-mile MGP runs with Kevin and Sam. Why am I running MGP runs? Just because. I like them. Kevin is doing a lot of running right around 6:50 (hmmm, what’s that MGP for?) and I usually run the first 3 miles with him then try to negative split the last 3 miles. Last week was 6:36, 6:29, 6:26 or something. 6:30ish? MGP? Really? Well, you never know….
I got fourth again in the Blanco Mini Triathlon a few weeks ago. Twice as long as that family tri a week before, and yet my pace was faster. I was pretty pleased with my run I guess. Chased down a guy at the end.
Ran once in Colorado. Six miles, 47 minutes, 7500 feet. That first and last hill, there was one of those signs with a truck on a triangle that said “10% Grade”. Aw, crap. But it was fine and I didn’t really notice the altitude, other than feeling a little more dehydrated than normal. Ok, I did nearly throw up and was stuck in the bathroom for a while afterwards, but really, that was due to the previous night I’m sure. Oh, you mean the previous night when we hung out with the guy with spurs on his boots who smelled like horseshit and the lesbian cowgirls who had knives on their belts and the guy who fights in UFC and the dude who was offering blow all around? Yeah, that night.
The real body banger from Colorado was the two hour football game with my friends. Again, the altitude didn’t affect me (my friends on the other hand… whoa….), but I’m not trained for sprints and cuts and jumps and, you know, actually doing stuff. Two days have passed and I struggled on a 30 minute run today. My hamstrings felt like, well, actual hams. But at least they’re not torn and I still have my wedding ring, so I consider this trip a success.
Check out this video of Shalane Flanagan (the women’s American record-holder in the 5K and 10K) doing a sick workout. There are so many things I love about this video. Seven mile tempo. Circuit training. Socks. Shalane. Anything else?
There are other good workouts on that same page. Check out Leo Manzano’s 9×300. I saw Leo running up Shoal Creek Boulevard a week or so after the Olympic Trials when I was dropping my kid off for camp. I wanted to yell “Go Leo!” or some other dorky thing but I didn’t. I hate it when people yell at me, though of course they’re usually yelling at me from an El Camino to “get outta the f’ing way”. So I looked around for someone to tell (“there goes an Olympian”) but I don’t think anyone other than me would have known who he is.
Have you been reading the new blog on the block? It has the knob of approval.
This is my knob.
