running schedule

Over the last several weeks I’ve been testing out a new running schedule. In the past I mostly just ran to the top of my street and back (3 miles) or to the bridge and back (7 miles) with occasional longer runs. Now I’m trying to follow a three-week rotation of short, medium, and long runs. The short week might contain all 3-milers with a focus on form and speed. The medium week might contain one or two 9-milers and one or two 3-milers. The long week might contain something in the 15–18 mile range and a couple 3-milers. It’s an up and down pulsing sort of training schedule. It’s not really based on anything I’ve read about except that one should probably not do the same thing everyday forever. I allow myself a lot of leeway with this schedule. If I don’t feel like running long on my long week I won’t – if I feel like running long on my short week I will. It’s just a bit of a guideline to keep my running from flat lining. And it seems to work pretty well for me so far. This week is a medium week. I’ve run two 9-milers. During both I felt good and strong and my form held up throughout the run enabling me to run faster than I’ve been running over the last several months. Even though my overall miles are down from last year I feel like I’m a better runner in regard to form, speed, and distance. It feels like I may have reached a new plateau. Of course last year’s foundation is probably still relevant to my current gains and it’s possible that my body is just suddenly happy that it’s not a million degrees all day long.

Brown Saturdae

I actually rode Brown on a Saturday… Okay, not that surprising… It was a great (perfect?) morning for a ride, too – sunny skies, 60 degrees at the start, 80 at the finish. And a nice cup of sugared coffee for recovery.

I collected some of the seeds from that “bear” scat I mentioned a couple weeks ago. I’ll plant them and see what comes up.

The riding felt great and I ended up with a pretty fast time. Although I was passed on the way up by a cyclocrosser! I moved my seat about 7mm forward from last time and this really seems to put me in a better position to power. Throughout all the seat raising I’ve been doing over the past year I’d never moved the seat forward. As the seat goes up it also goes back so hopefully this will correct my fore/aft positioning to its original or proper spot.

By the way, Major by Todd Balf is the book I’m reading right now and it’s really good – about the early days (turn of the century-ish (not this one)) of bicycles and racing. Next I might check out his book The Last River.

strumming

I don’t actually know how to true a wheel yet. Nor do I know how to build one. These are things I’d like to learn someday. In the mean time (and this could be a while – probably decades) I learned a little trick for minor tweaks. I read about this about a year ago and have dabbled with it occasionally. I’m guessing I read about it on Sheldon’s site, but I’m not entirely sure. Anyway, it goes like this: If you strum your spokes like a guitar string (using a fingernail seems to help) you will hear a certain tone or pitch or note. If the spoke is tensioned properly it usually makes a nice high-pitched twing. All the spokes on the same side should make about the same sound. As you strum your way around the wheel you may come across a spoke that makes more of a dull plunk. That spoke is loose and probably needs to be tightened (I try to go slowly – about a quarter or half turn at a time). In theory you should be able to true the wheel without even looking at it and without at truing stand. There are probably situations where this technique isn’t sufficient, but I’ve had some good luck with it so far.

eighteen on the eighteenth

Went out for a long run today. Same route from my episode a few weeks ago. This time it was light, though, and sunny and cooler (80 degrees) and I brought a water bottle with me that I refilled a few times at the drinking fountains for a total of about eighty ounces. This seemed to help. I was still pretty wiped out at around the 16-mile mark and could only just focus on putting one foot in front of the other to get home. Still need to add calories.

There were a lot of tailgaters around the Rose Bowl for the UCLA game. Looked like they were having a pretty nice morning getting ready for the game with their bbq’s and their music and their beers and such. It feels a little strange to be running by all that, though. It’s like an alien world crammed with really long RV/UFOs.

The lesson I’ve learned from these two runs: don’t get in a hot bath after a long workout on a warm day. I’m starting to believe that was what pushed me over the edge a few weeks ago. I felt it pushing me over again today so I switched on a cool shower which seemed to neutralize the craziness. After difficult workouts my body seems to have trouble with temperature regulation and maybe submersion in water overwhelms whatever ability it has left to regulate throwing the body into the crazy spiral.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon on the couch with a blanket sipping water and watching both the games (UCLA, USC.) Maybe the next run will be slightly better still…

Enjoying my Brown Sundae

Really that should say Brown Sunday, but I just couldn’t resist. I don’t know why it’s almost always on a Sunday that I ride up Brown mountain. I could do it pretty much any day. Maybe it’s my church.

It was a very nice day today. It was sunny and a bit cool – 52 degrees - at 8:15am - hard to believe that it got up to 95 just a few days ago. I went for a short warm up run with Hilary in the morning.

Finally got on the bike at around noon – by then it was probably mid-seventies (I forgot to check before the ride, but when I got back it was 72.)

There were a lot of walkers on the trail. Not many bikes.

I felt like I had no power today and that I was just moseying along. Even on the sections that flatten out on the ascent I just couldn’t push it. But I kept pedaling and enjoying. Strangely, though, when I got home I discovered that I had a pretty decent time. I guess my perception was off. Or maybe I need to move my seat forward to gain that “ride the rivet” effect. I tried moving forward on the seat a bit during the ride and it resulted in a lot more speed and the illusion, at least, of power.

I think I saw bear scat. Seems more likely that it was coyote but there was a certain volume, if you know what I mean. Whatever it was, it looked like it had been eating a lot of berries – cherries, actually – Prunus ilicifolia (Hollyleaf Cherry), I think.

Skies were clear at the top – great view.

It rained about a week ago and the trail was still firmed-up. Not too sandy. That made for some excellent descending – even got down into a tuck a few times to avoid the wind.

It was a nice fall day.

coffee maintenance

Lately I just can’t seem to get enough caffeine no matter how much coffee I drink. But I’m not of the mind to stop drinking coffee right now. So I cleaned my coffee maker. I ran a cup of white vinegar through it twice and then disassembled it and cleaned it all out with soap and water and then ran a pot of water through it. This morning’s coffee tasted much better and delivered a better kick. It helps things just a little bit…

DNF marathon dream

I had a dream last night that I was running in a marathon - or trying to, anyway. The dream took place in and around the start/registration area. I was trying to get a bib number and start the race but every time I made contact with a race official I would be led off somewhere to help with some kind of set up or course maintenance or something – somehow they kept thinking that I was a race volunteer rather than a runner. It was frustrating because I always had to run back to the starting area and I was wasting all my energy before I even started the marathon. I kept seeing all these runners going along but I couldn’t join them. I ended up running all over the place and saw a lot of the course which looked pretty good – sort of like a Disneyland/theme park kind of course with lots of little bridges and waterways and twists and turns. Later I saw some friends gathering after the race talking about it and their times and they wanted to know how I did and I tried to explain to them that I hadn’t even started.

another poorly planned eighteen

I went out for a long run last night. It got up to around 100 degrees during the day but had cooled off to about ninety by the time I started the run. I planned to run to the drinking fountain at the trailhead. It started getting dark by the time I was about half way there. The planning for this run was not excellent. I think I need to get a light. I saw several people running with lights. Light would be especially nice through the creepy parts of the trail like when you take the pedestrian tunnel through Devil’s Gate Damn. The run was going really well but I kept telling myself to turn around because I didn’t have a light and the terrain I was running over was pretty uneven – basically a trail/path through the Arroyo Seco. Just as it was getting totally dark I saw two coyotes out for an evening stroll. At that point I was still a couple miles short of my turnaround destination but I figured that it was already dark so there was no point in turning around anymore. But there’s dark and there’s dark. Running through the Arroyo it’s pretty easy to see because there are a lot of distant light sources (high school practice field, freeway, etc.) but as you enter the forest at the canyon bottom it gets dark-dark and there are hooting owls and scary lurking creatures around every corner. At that point it was very dark. I couldn’t even see the ground I was running on. That was actually a pretty interesting out of body sort of feeling to run/float through the forest night. I made it to the drinking fountain then turned around and remembered that I had to run through all that darkness again to make it home, but I still felt pretty good and strong so it was fine – that’s the way it goes on a long run. Then I saw some headlights approaching from behind. I figured it was a forest service truck but it turned out to be a guy on a mountain bike – wow, those were some incredibly bright lights. Then I saw two more bikers with big bright lights. I had no idea night biking was such a deal up there. And then there was more darkness and creepy tunnels and river bottoms. It was a bit of a relief to make it back to the Rose Bowl area where there were lots of people still walking/running/riding. It was probably at about this time that Hilary was starting to get really mad at me for not telling her what time I’d be back. It was probably about eight pm and I still had about six miles to get back home. But all I could do was keep on running. With about 2 miles to go I stated getting a little tired but focused on form and kept cruising along. At that point Hilary had decided to start the hunt for me by car. Someone pulled up next to me in a car and said Hi, Hi but I couldn’t stop to give them directions because I couldn’t stop and restart – the fatigue was setting in - physical and mental. Well, clearly the mental, it turned out that person in the car was Hilary who was out to rescue me but I was clueless. Eventually I stumbled home and even then things seems relatively okay… until they weren’t. Apparently I had gotten totally, totally dehydrated and I crashed hard. I’d never experienced anything like that before. I was nauseas and my legs were cramping and doing their haunted legs thing but the strangest part was the hands – it was like they were filled with moving/rolling marbles. It was crazy and cool at the same time but I was way too wrecked to appreciate it – I was sprawled out on the floor unable to do anything – I really needed an IV and was moments away from heading to the hospital… Thank you, Hilary, for caring for me. I just don’t seem to learn my lessons very well. It was the same story a year ago and I haven’t made food and water a priority on my runs. How am I going to make myself get on top of that? Finally by about 1am I was able to get some gummy energy snacks and fluids down. Surprisingly, (in Floyd’s defense) this morning I feel totally fine and kinda feel like going for a run.