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March 30, 2006

Team Update

Today was our second league meet. Somehow I've managed to maintain some decent running this past week and I'm totally looking forward to spring break next week so I can get a good bump week. Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to run 80-75-69 on my last interval. Also, my long runs have felt particularly good. I'm actually considering running the Bloomsday 12K again, only a few weeks after abandoning hope for running a good time there.

My team had a decent showing today. We got absolutely waxed in our first meet, something like 120-30. This week we ran against last year's league champions and had a much better effort. We still lost 100-36, but we had a few close point swings go against us, so that made it look worse that it was. For instance in the discus we were winning the event 9-0 after 26 of the 28 throws, but ended up losing 1-8. For those counting that would have made the score 92-45. Also our 4x100 blew a handoff that would have made it 87-50. So I'll let myself believe that we really only lost by 37 instead of 64. Anyway next week will be another tough day since we'll be on spring break and the two schools we're competing against in a 3 way meet are not on break. That means we'll be at about 30% strength. BTW, what's up with so many kids taking spring break vacations? I don't remember ever doing that in high school. Just kills the special event kids, practically wipes out all the work we've done already.

All in all though with quite few younger kids on the team I think this season is going pretty well with a big upside for the future.

Miles this week: 14 miles, YTD: 532 miles, $ raised for LLS: $1195
Thurs: 0 miles
Wed: 7 miles, 4x1200 (4:03, 4:01, 3:58, 3:45)
Tues: 7 miles, Hills
Mon: 0 miles

Miles this week: 46 miles, YTD: 518 miles, $ raised for LLS: $1195
Sun: 8 miles, Seward Park
Sat: 12.5 miles, Discovery Park
Fri: 8 miles, Greenlake
Thurs: 0 miles
Wed: 8 miles, 1600 (5:40), 800 (2:40), 800 (2:39), 4x400 (75-75-70-67)
Tues: 7 miles, Bellevue
Mon: 0 miles

Posted by james at 10:30 PM

March 22, 2006

Early Start

I decided to take Monday off despite feeling no ill effects from my runs on Sunday. But I did make it to the TNT run in Bellevue last night to get a better start to this week. Now if I can just make it out the door to the track tonight and get up early Thursday to run in the morning I should be on my way to a 50 mile week!

This is probably a good time to remind those searching for a good training plan to follow that mine is not a good choice. My schedule is just too crazy and consistentcy leaves a lot to be desired in my running program. I think over the past 8 years I've developed an immunity to mileage "bumps", but I still try to be very careful about how my legs are feeling in reaction to those jumps.

I've been spending pretty much all of my free time lately trying to learn all 40 of my track athletes names and what events they do and how fast they can run or how far they can jump. The last couple years I've only had to do this with 5-10 newcomers, learning 40 is quite the undertaking.
Tomorrow we have our first league meet and I'm hopeful that it will be close, but realistically I have no idea how we'll score. I just don't have enough information to align my team's entries to maximize points. So I'm just letting the chips fall where they may at this point, but if we can hang tough with this team (3rd last), it will be a step forward for my team (10th last year).

Miles this week: 7 miles, YTD: 479 miles, $ raised for LLS: $1195
Wed: 8 miles, 1600 (5:40), 800 (2:40), 800 (2:39), 4x400 (75-75-70-67)
Tues: 7 miles, Bellevue
Mon: 0 miles

Posted by james at 10:24 AM

March 19, 2006

Weekend Warrior

Miles this week: 44 miles, YTD: 473 miles, $ raised for LLS: $1195
Sun: 11 miles AM - Cougar Mountain (Off Mountain - LOST)
11.5 miles PM - Extended Central Park
Sat: 8.5 miles, Pioneer Park
Fri: 6 miles, Greenlake
Thurs: 0 miles
Wed: 7 miles, 3x(1000-600)
Tues: 0 miles
Mon: 0 miles

Posted by james at 7:20 PM

March 15, 2006

End of a streak

My ability to avoid the rain clouds ended today after an amazing 30+ days. Somehow I've been able to avoid the rain for the past month. (taking about 10 days off helped)
It looks like my trend of taking Monday and tuesday off has continued and I'll be racing to get over 40 miles by the end of the week.
I finally made it back to the track today and was surprised by how good I felt running at 5:20 pace and better (two rest days always helps) The workout was 3x1000-600 (3:20-1:54, 3:17-1:48, 3:16-1:44).

Miles this week: 7 miles, YTD: 436 miles, $ raised for LLS: $1195
Wed: 7 miles, 3x(1000-600)
Tues: 0 miles
Mon: 0 miles

Posted by james at 11:02 PM

March 12, 2006

Blue Skies?

Perfect running this morning! At least weather-wise, a little muddy, but the sun has been out all day. N and I met for a 64 minute run through Bridal Trails. I can't wait until weather like this is more frequent because my mileage will sky rocket!
After the run we hit up the Triple J cafe in downtown Kirkland. If more people knew how satisfying it is to pound out 9 miles and then eat a huge breakfast, everyone would be doing it.

Miles this week: 39 miles, YTD: 429 miles, $ raised for LLS: $1145
Sun: 9 miles, Bridal Trails
Sat: 6 miles, Seward Park with TNT
Fri: 9 miles, Central Park/NE 52nd
Thurs: 7 miles, Lake Union
Wed: 8 miles, Central Park
Tues: 0 miles
Mon: 0 miles

Posted by james at 4:25 PM

March 10, 2006

Who says it rains in Seattle

Another good run tonight. I decided to run the NE 52nd St hill tonight mainly because N reminded me last night that constantly avoiding hills is not the most productive training.

Miles this week: 24 miles, YTD: 414 miles, $ raised for LLS: $1145
Fri: 9 miles, Central Park/NE 52nd
Thurs: 7 miles, Lake Union
Wed: 8 miles, Central Park
Tues: 0 miles
Mon: 0 miles

Posted by james at 8:30 PM

March 5, 2006

Poker Success!

This week was extremely low in terms of miles, but a great finish to the week has me very excited. Yesterday I did my first big fund raiser for the Team in Training. My friend W and I hosted a 14 person poker tournament. I had hoped to raise about $500, but in the end I ended up raking in $900! That puts me 1/4 of the way to my goal, now I just have to pick the running back up. I did get a lot of cross training in this week working with the throwers group.

Miles this week: 23 miles, YTD: 390 miles, $ raised for LLS: $1145
Sun: 9 miles, Mercer Slough with N
Sat: 7 miles, Discovery Park with TNT
Fri: 0 miles, Poker Tournament Prep
Thurs: 0 miles
Wed: 0 miles, KingCo Coaches Meeting
Tues: 7 miles
Mon: 0 miles

Posted by james at 9:35 PM