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July 31, 2004

heat wave

I have been really bad so far about getting my runs in before the heat and I'm paying for it. Today's run (so far) was run in 90 degree plus heat. I wanted to run for an hour but was forced to make a detour back home when I discovered my 5 mile drinking fountain was dead. When I got back home and started drinking gatorade I felt so bad I'm taking a 30 minute break before finishing the hour. Tomorrow I'll have to make a better effort to run in the morning when its only in the 70's.

Yesterday I ran with my team in the morning for a river run. I only got 3 miles in and didn't have time to run any more later in the day. I did get a few wake board runs in that should count for something besides all the aches and pains that I have now.

After finishing today's run I'll be at 38.5 miles with one day to go. Even if I pound out a 12-14 mile day tomorrow, which I have planned, I'll only have a slight increase in mileage from last week and I didn't take any days off this week. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but better than a worse week. Next week I should get up to 55 or 60 miles and I'll either do Oregon Drills or mile repeats for speed. Plus I think I'll go up to Mt. Spokane for some hill running. That will be my toughest week so far this summer, but I need to get in a really good next two weeks because I am anticipating a lack luster week the third week of August while I'm traveling. Also, 50 mile weeks just won't get me in good enough shape to run sub 54 minutes for the 10 miler. The course isn't so tough that I can't break 53 but right now I am just hoping to go sub 54. I found out that there is a $100 prize for first so that should bring out the competition. Sub 54 will be good for top 3, but I might need sub 53 to take the win. In any case I need to step up my training so I'll have a good shot.

Posted by at 5:57 PM | Comments (0)

July 29, 2004

running again

This morning was another nice run. A South Hill ramble that wasn't very hilly. Didn't head down the bluff or anything. I put in 54+ minutes or about 7 miles. I might try to get in another run today because I need to run 4 more to stay above 60 miles for the past 7 days.

Yesterday was an easy run with the team. About 5 miles from Manito park, which put me at 61.5 miles for the past 7 days. We had pretty good turnout...4 frosh, 2 sophs, and 2 juniors or about half the team. Lots of vacations right now so hopefully the numbers will pick up. Tomorrow we're going to run on the coat tails of the Mead boys team for a river run.

Posted by at 9:28 AM | Comments (0)

July 27, 2004

feeling lazy

Ok I'm still feeling too lazy to write up a summary of my road trip from the east coast to the west coast. Maybe if I wait long enough I'll forget all the bad memories and it'll sound like it was actually fun.

This morning I ran with the new assistant cross country coach, J. He said he wanted to run about 6 or 7 miles so I came up with what I thought would be about that distance from his house. (I should mention that he just moved to Spokane like 2 weeks ago) It turned out to be closer to 9.5 miles. I felt pretty good since it was early enough in the day that it wasn't very hot and we were running 7:30 pace.
I felt a little bad because he wasn't really ready to go that far, plus he said before we started that he had stepped on a crowbar and cut his foot the day before. He didn't complain too much so either it didn't hurt him too bad or he's just not a complainer, either way its plus points for him. (Did I mention this was the first time I'd met him) Its a little strange hiring an assistant coach that I've never met, but I really needed the help and if he's interested in running that's at least better than some of the assistant coaches I've had as my coaches.

Yesterday I spent the better part of the day recovering from my road trip and ran a sluggish 6 miles in 88 degree heat. My legs were definately not as sharp as they were on Friday and Saturday.

A good start to this week. I think I'm going to do one more week of "just miles" before putting in some fartlek, hill repeats, and speed into my week. I think my next race will be Sept. 12th so I have 7 weeks of training left before the race and its a 10-miler so speed is not really necessary anyhow.

I found out yesterday that I am missing the half-fast ultimate runner race here in Spokane. Its Aug. 15th and I'll be in Maine for a friend's wedding. That puts some serious pressure on me for the Phillistine Race series. I still need to run and "win" 5 more races to guarantee first place and there will be only 8 races left.

Posted by at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

July 26, 2004

Home at last

Wow what a drive! 2830 miles in four days, 40 miles of running, 1 flat tire (at 2 AM). Home safely though! I'll post a complete summary about the trip soon. Right now I am out the door into the heat for an afternoon run.

Posted by at 2:56 PM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2004

Bike Riding

Today was a non-running day. Running in Newport is not as exciting as I would like it to be and I didn't want to drive anywhere to run so I climbed on my bike. I brought it along for 4000 miles so I had to get some use out of it anyhow. I rode for 2 hours in and around Newport, for about about 30 miles. It was pretty windy so I had to fight that, but it was a nice switch from grinding out some miles on foot.
Yesterday I felt like slacking a bit so I ran an easy 6 miles on the cliff walk. Clock time 44:14.

Posted by at 6:28 PM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2004

Another Road Trip

Arrrgh! Another 700 miles on my car. Once again it was nice to have had some rest days before climbing back into the blue subaru. The trip to Burlington was worth the drive though. I spent 12 hours pouring beer at the Vermont Brewers' Festival. The festival was in the park right on the banks of Lake Champlain so I had a very nice view for the better part of the weekend. Somehow I managed to get some decent runs in even though I was surrounded by beer most of the time.
Today I ran 9 miles (71:35 on the clock) on the Appalachian Trail heading south from Norwich, VT. It was a fairly hilly route and lots of roots too. The sign said 3.5 miles to the Happy Hollow shelter but it took me 38 minutes to get there so I guessed it was further. Just to be sure I ran back at a hard pace. It took me 33:35 running hard to get back so it must have been closer to 4.5 miles to the shelter. Anyhow it was 9 miles worth of effort. That gives me 56 miles this week. A decent jump from 15 miles last week! Next week I am hoping to get in another 55-60 mile week and hopefully some biking too.
Saturday I did an easy 45 minutes from the hotel in Burlington that was about 6 miles.
Friday I ran the outer loop at Northfield Mountain. The summit had a sign that said I had reached 1100.49'. That's just too funny in many ways. The run was about 9 miles.
Thursday I had an easy day. 32 minutes of running from my campsite.

Posted by at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)

July 15, 2004

So much for "just miles"

Yesterday I raced! What was I thinking?
I checked the internet looking for good places to run around Newport and found that Colt State Park looked good. I also noticed that there was a 5K run happening there about the time I would be running so I figured I would jump in as part of my workout. I ended up running 17:37 on a fairly twisty but mostly flat course. It was two loops so I got a good idea of my splits. 8:43 for the first 1.5 and 8:54 for the next 1.6. I ran the first lap with a group of about 5 and then the second lap pretty much alone. Overall it was nice to get some tempo work in and I feel pretty good still even though I have 38 miles in the last 5 days. I ended up with 65:30 on the clock for the day...9.5 miles.
The run was part of a series of xc races at Colt run on Wednesdays evenings. I will have to run this race again, it was lots of fun and the crowd very nice - about 40 people. I'll have to wait awhile though, I'm not exactly in racing shape right now. The winner ran 16:14 and I'm a long ways off of that!
Today I am heading into the north country. I am most likely camping tonight or crashing on someone's floor and then tomorrow I'll be in Burlington, VT for some sort of festival. The Stowe 8-miler is also this weekend and I'll probably end up being a turkey for that - $22 is simply too much for me to pay since I don't plan on racing any faster than 6 flat pace and I really don't need any more t-shirts.

Posted by at 11:11 AM | Comments (1)

July 13, 2004

Rainy day running

It took me awhile to motivate to run today. Mainly because it was raining outside. I kept switching to the weather channel looking for a break in the downpour but none came. Finally I made it outside ready for a soggy and miserable run. It turned out to be not too bad. I think its been so long since I ran in the rain that it was like 40 degrees and raining. Today it was 65 and actually felt really nice. I ran the beaches today, which were quite windy ~20 mph. Overall it was another good run...slightly faster pace than yesterday, 67:33 on the clock again today - 9.5 miles. A great start to the week so far.
It was nice to see some good coverage on USA last night for the trials. Even nicer was the absence of Bob Costas who never has anything positive to say about track and field. Also, anyone who thinks Marion Jones used some sort of steroids is crazy...unless she started using them in high school when she set several national records. Its sad that track and field has no "players union" like baseball and football that can control the media. I hope all the athletes that are proven innocent (so much for innocent until proven guilty) knock out millions from the media for slander.

Posted by at 1:11 PM | Comments (1)

July 12, 2004

The last week

Last week was very long. I am extremely happy to be off the road again. I totaled over 2000 miles driving last week, but only 15 miles running. 5 miles in Denver before I left and 10 miles in Atlantic City on the boardwalk, Saturday morning. I also had a 20 mile bike ride in Pennsylvannia and a few runs of Wake boarding on Sunday near Newport, RI. Overall I definately lost some conditioning last week but not too much. The plan now is to make a BIG jump in mileage this week. Not recommended for the average runner, but I am pretty sure I can jump up to 60+ miles this week without too much risk of injury. I have a fairly good base, probably 45 miles per week average during the last 4 months. In any case I am fairly tired of being such a slacker and I have no reasons not to run at least an hour everyday...so that's my new goal - 7 hours of running per week. After two weeks of "just miles" I'll decide what kind of interval work to add into the workouts.

Today was a good start with 67:33 on the clock. A pretty easy run through Newport and along the Cliff walk. I'm thinking about 7:30 pace so that's close to 9 miles for the day. I was a little sore from wake boarding yesterday so I had to take it a little easy.

Posted by at 3:49 PM | Comments (0)

July 5, 2004

Slackerness comes through

I had fairly light weekend as far as running goes. Today I did a 6 mile hike at 11000' and called it good for the day. Yesterday was an off day, and Saturday was an easy 7.5 miles in Denver.
Total mileage for the week was 42 miles. Short of my goal of 50, but not bad for 5 days of running. Hopefully I'll be able to get 6 or 7 days in next week, which should make it easy to break 50.
Car repairs were completed today so I should be back on the road again tomorrow. A long day planned going to Kansas City, MO. I have recovered from the first 1400 miles of driving and the trauma of driving during the wheel bearing debacle.

Posted by at 4:51 PM | Comments (1)

July 2, 2004

Running at 7 and 8

Today I had a very nice run. I thought it would be a lot harder when I started, but it turned out to be fairly easy. I stopped at Summit, WY. Which is really just a rest area not too far west of Cheyenne, WY. It is also part of the Medicine Bow National Forest and had some really good running trails. Only problem is that you start at over 8600'! Most of the trails are rolling hills, but I took the one that said "most difficult" and claimed to have 600' of elevation drop in the last 1.5 miles of a 4.5 mile out. I thought the elevation combined with the uphill coming back would destroy my will to run, but I actually felt pretty good. Must have been all the hills I ran in Montana two weeks ago. 9 miles today at over 8000' felt pretty good though, definately glad that I stopped.
I finished today's drive in Denver, CO (460 miles today). What a bad day of driving. The loud grinding sound that started in Nevada continued to get worse all day yesterday so I took the Subaru in to get checked out. They determined that the wheel bearings needed to be replaced. Which is what I expected. They didn't have the parts though and said it would be tuesday before they could get them. So I drove on, grinding down my axle. I stopped again in Rock Springs at a Subaru dealership to see if they had the part. Surely a dealership would have it! Nope. So today I put almost 500 miles on a bad set of wheel bearings and probably ruined my axle, but I wasn't about to spend the 4th of July alone in rural Wyoming. Anyhow the grinding sound just about drove me nuts. Fortunately, sorta fortunately I figured out that the sound was worst when I drove at 65 mph and over 75 mph so I could cruise at 70 mph without too much ear damage. Driving that slow at least saved on gas mileage, I went from 26 mpg to 30 mpg today.

Yesterday was a bit tougher run. Actually the course was much easier, but after spending the night before in Nevada and getting only 5 hours of sleep I was hurting. I stopped in Park City, UT to run an old favorite of mine, the Rail Trail. The Rail Trail is almost completely flat and not too overcrowded. It also has the miles marked out so I didn't have to guess at how fast I was running. I managed to get in 8 miles at 7:30 pace, which isn't too bad for my first day at over 7000' in years and being quite fatigued. I finished off the day in Evanston, WY. (210 miles for the day)

Wednesday after my terrible morning run in Baker City, OR I had a really good run in Twin Falls, Id. I stopped at the bridge that goes over the snake river for the view and ended up running down to the river and back up. It was another 5 mile run and I felt pretty good so I ran the uphill (Boat launch to Bridge) at tempo pace...just under two miles with 500 vertical feet in 12:02. I also got to see the spot where Evel Knievel tried to jump over the canyon and I watched some people bungee jump and parachute off the bridge. Capped off wednesday by driving another 2 hours to Wendover, NV. (420 miles)

Posted by at 7:04 PM | Comments (1)