Luke - 6.5

6.75mi, 58:04 (8:36)

See Steve's post.

Steve - 6.6

57:29 (8:43)

Luke and I did 3 loops around Silver Lake Reservoir. The distance of the loops was about 2.15 miles according to a few sources on the internet. It felt like 2.2 miles to us. We jogged for an extra .1 or so back to my car, so let's just call it 6.6 and move on with our lives.

Splits were
19:12, 19:06, 17:46

Luke - 7.75

7.75mi, 60:49 (7:51)

Went to a big park and did hills, some on roads, some on trails, some on grass, some on stairs. Felt pretty strong, especially in the second half. Probably my best run this year.

Steve - 5

42:03 (8:48, 8:33, 8:49, 8:27, 7:28)

Got pretty tired on this run on the MB trail after a solid workout in the gym. It's tough to both on the same day.

Chris - 4.2

31:45 - 7:33 pace

Ran with Mike today. I felt like I was in the best running shape I've been in since I stopped running regularly in October or whenever. Great Friday all around! Work is still going really well - I got a bunch done today and after I got off I picked up my nephew and we're going to hang out all weekend at my house playing video games and whatnot. Should be fun! Have a good weekend everyone.

Luke - 5.25

5.25mi, 39:58 (7:36)

16:51 to the softball field, 7:26 barefoot/in socks, 15:39 back. Callous was doing its thing but I tried barefoot anyway, it was stinging so I put socks on and went a couple more.

Luke - 7.25

7.25mi, 51:55 (7:09)

17:22 to a cemetery, loops in it of 8:24 and 8:21, 17:45 back. Stomach hurt off and on for the second half of the run.

Steve - 4.75

Track workout with the Flyers. Did a 2 mile tempo run. It went ok. Slowed down a bit in the second mile.

14:42 wup (1.5 mi)
2 mile tempo in 14:15 (7:03, 7:12)
13:35 cd (1.25 mi)

Chris - 4.2

31:42 - 7:32 pace

Ran by myself today. Perfect weather for a run - sun was out, slightly cool. Wore my long sleeve performance shirt and ended up taking it off halfway through. Hip/knee didn't bother me much at all, but my shins were feeling kinda weak. Looking forward to running w/ Mike Friday and closing off another good week with a solid run!

splits: 16:37 - 15:05

Luke - 4.75

4.75mi, 36:42 (7:43)

16:36 to the softball field, 4:22 barefoot in the grass, 15:43 back. Planned to do a lot more barefoot, but my callous opened up again so I had to cut it short.

Luke - 6

6mi, 44:53 (7:28)

17:17 to the softball field, 12:31 barefoot on the grass, 15:04 back.

Luke - 7.5

7.5mi, 61:09 (8:09)

Went out to Manhattan Beach and ran with Steve. This is actually the longest run I've done so far this year, pretty ridiculous. I was pretty tired by the end but managed a 3:13 last half mile.

Steve - 7.5

61:35 (8:38, 8:23, 8:09, 8:22, 8:25, 8:03, 7:49, 3:34)

So yeh, Luke and I ran the Manhattan Beach trail. Splits are above. A bit faster than I would have run solo, but it didn't feel too bad. Both of us were a bit tired near the end since we haven't done a run this long in all of 2010. We kicked a bit with a little more than .25 miles left and Luke pulled away from me.

I'm starting to feel good about my running again. I should start getting to some respectable mileage totals next week. It's always good to start the week out with a nice long run...

Steve - 5

41:18 (9:27, 8:40, 8:08, 7:47, 7:15)

Workout in the gym and then a run at MB trail. Went pretty well. My longest run of the year (although I would go on to shatter this record only a day later. 13 miles this week! It was a nice, progressive run.

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 45:58 (7:04)

Planned on going to the wilderness trail for a 10-miler with 5 miles of hills, but when I got to the trail there was a police officer who said the trail was closed for a week due to mudslides and rockslides. So on my way back I stopped by a park and did a couple miles barefoot pretty fast. It was nice and wet, and muddy in parts. The way to the trail was probably 7:45 pace; the way back, including the barefoot stuff, was probably about 6:30.

Zack - 4.25

Yo.

I haven't posted in forever and even the running then was pretty awful. I had my left foot checked out about a month ago and it ended up being a stress fracture. That being said, rest was/is my only option. I have managed to stay decently fit with lots of swimming and some hilly Eugene bike rides. My foot is close to being healed, however still feels a bit weak. This was the second run back and I felt pretty good.

muddy Amazon Trail evening loops

4.25 mi (31:23) with mile splits: 7:34, 7:29, 6:58!

Chris - 4.2

32:26 - 7:43 pace

Lunch run with my coworker Mike. He had told me he was running a 9 min pace yesterday, but as soon as we left I told him we were running a little over 8 min pace. It's a fairly cool route that we ran, you follow the busy road for a bit and then peel off into a path that you follow out to a school & baseball field and then head back. With about a half mile left he picked up the pace quite a bit, and you know I wasn't going to let him drop me, so I tucked in behind him and sucked it up. I didn't feel good during any part of this run - I was tired before we started since I had ran on Wednesday and then played basketball for 2 hours last night. My knee did fairly decent. It was tightening up and bothering me a bit, but not so bad that it slowed me down much. Then the last .1 I put in an extra kick and left him in my dust, finishing with a sprint up the driveway to the sidewalk that we started from. Boo yah. I was dead in the afternoon, but I think I could get used to these lunch runs....

Luke - 5

5mi, 38:00 (7:42)

Forgot to write this down before my next run, so the time is approximate. Went to the softball field for a mile barefoot in the (wet) grass, and back.

Luke - 4.5

4.5mi, 34:20 (7:37)

I was in Riverside because my mom had dental surgery, so afterwards I took the opportunity to run in a new location. I found a place on Google Maps a couple miles from the dentist's and went there while it was pouring out. I was expecting a trail but the whole thing ended up being a paved loop, which I did twice. I hit it pretty hard, charging up the hills and not stopping myself too much on the downhill. I have noticed that my downhill speed is not what it once was...I think increasing mileage will help that a ton.

Steve - 4.25

34:16 (8:50, 7:56, 7:48, 9:41)

I was one of three Flyers that bothered to show up for the track workout at Cal Tech. It actually wasn't raining all afternoon or night, but the track was pretty fucked up. Lane 1 and Lane 2 were flooded and the infield was flooded too. So I decided to run 4 miles in the outside lanes. I ran mostly in lane 5 and 6, so you can add anywhere from 25-35 meters for every lap. Since I ran 16 laps, I added 480 meters (16*30) to my total so it became ~4.25 miles.

This is the first time I ran two days in a row, and I was sore because of it. I think I can only get away with that if I run on soft surfaces for both runs. Heading to Manhattan Beach for a dual weights and running workout in a few mins. I'm getting huge.

Welcome back, sun!

Chris - 3.47

27:55 - 8:02 pace

I wanted to run today because I'm hopefully going to run during lunch on Friday with one of my coworkers so he can show me the 4.5ish out & back route that they all do. So I wanted to see how my knee felt, and also make sure I'm in somewhat decent shape so I don't get dropped by him. My knee felt fairly tight and was bothering me pretty good the last 1/4, but hopefully I'll be able to do the Friday route without too much pain...

Steve - 4

35:12 (8:48, 1.0 incline)

I ran on a treadmill cuz I didn't feel like running on a muddy trail. I did get a tip from a friend for another trail I can run near my work at Silver Lake reservoir. I will check it out maybe next week. Weather here is crazy. Rained a lot of the day and there was lots of thunder and lightning at like 11 am. No one had remembered hearing thunder for several years. I'm ready for this brutal winter to end. (note the somewhat sarcasm. I did grew up with Colorado winters)

Luke - 5.5

5.5mi, 39:30 (7:54)

16:47 to the softball field, 7:18 barefoot on the grass, 15:23 back. Pouring rain here in Southern California! It was nice.

Assorted thoughts

1) Everyone should read Born To Run. It is my new favorite book (yes, surpassing Once A Runner). I got it on Christmas and finished reading it the same day, then read it again on the 30th. If you can't afford it, I will send cash in an envelope to you so you can buy it. It's so good.

2) I'm in Pomona, CA until sometime in February (probably). So if you are also in Southern California, contact me so we can run together or just hang out. I'm free like all the time (I completed a jigsaw puzzle last week and have almost mastered the Rubik's Cube).

3) You guys got any races coming up? Or any other goals? My current goal is to get to 140 miles per week. I really do think it's very possible to be there in two or three months. For some reason I stupidly asserted that I won't get a haircut until I run 140 miles in 1 week, so I guess I'll probably end up making some cancer patient really happy.

-Luke.

Luke - ten hours of running

So December I barely ran, and then for those of you who haven't heard, I went all crazy and crap around the new year and am now in California for a brief respite. So I've been able to get back into running, which is great. I will start posting every run again; the past couple weeks I've been hitting split on my watch for each run, so now my chrono says 7:06:50 and I don't even know how many runs that is. Probably like ten. I also have four times written down in a little memo pad book thing. I will give a brief recap of all of them as much as I can remember. I'm guessing on the distances.

5.5mi, 44:15 (8:02)

18:10 to a grassy softball field, 9:14 barefoot on it, 16:50 back.

6mi, 48:17 (8:02)

17:26 to the same place, 14:35 barefoot on it, 16:16 back.

5.5mi, 42:15 (7:40)

17:15 there, 9:13 barefoot, 15:47 back.

6mi, 47:27 (7:54)

Went to Joshua Tree National Park with my brother, ran in the sand, on some trails, and over some rocks. Pictures of the place are on Facebook.

5mi, 38:46 (7:45)

17:41 to that field, 5:21 barefoot on it, 15:44 back.

6mi, 46:47 (7:47)

18:05 there, 12:52 barefoot, 16:50 back.

5mi, 39:19 (7:51)

16:57 there, 6:15 barefoot, 16:07 back.

5.5mi 40:21 (7:20)

17:23 there, 7:28 barefoot, 15:30 back.

5mi, 40:25 (8:05)

There's a trail about fifteen minutes from here that is five miles long. It's two miles of uphill, one mile of rolling hills, and two miles of downhill. There is a bike path that starts about 2.5 away from it, so I'll be doing that ten-miler probably at least once a week starting soon. I actually did this run and the one before it on the same day, about two hours apart.

6mi, 48:54 (8:09)

After hiking with my mom in the Mt. Baldy area, I went for a run by myself and got out of breath pretty quickly. It was straight up the whole way out, so it took 29:33 up and 19:21 back.

6mi, 44:12 (7:22)

17:18 to the field, 11:17 barefoot, 15:37 back

5mi, 36:23 (7:16)

17:00 there, 4:46 barefoot, 14:37 back

5mi, 43:36 (8:43)

Went to a trail expecting to do about ten miles in about 75 minutes, but found out the trail was steeper than cuss, so I did about 45 minutes of running and about 10 minutes of hiking. They were some seriously ridiculous hills. If I did ten miles on those trails every day, I'd be either dead or ready for the Olympics inside of two months.

6mi, 46:57 (7:49)

16:59 there, 14:23 barefoot, 15:35 back

Alex - 2.78

19:44 (7:05)

Just wanted to make sure I got a quick one in today to help my body feel better about daily runs. This one was on The Strand.

This was an interesting week, my first week with furniture and a fridge in my apartment here in LA. I moved in with a friend who already lived here, but her last roommate had almost all of the furniture. My roommate bought all the new stuff, but we had to wait for it to get delivered.

So I spent my first week sitting on the floor and eating ramen and/or chili. Then this week I saw a commercial for the new season of LOST, a show I have never watched, and decided that I would watch the whole series before the new season begins. I have Netflix streaming through my PS3, so I could start immediately. You see, I thought if I was ever going to watch this show I didn't want it to be like Star Wars where I already knew that Darth Vader was Luke's father, Leia was Luke's sister, etc. etc.

So I began streaming LOST and embarrassingly completed the entire first season (25 episodes) in 2 days. I'm almost done with season 2 now and have 3 more to go before the end of the month. In between this LOST marathon I've been working and trying to get my body back in running shape. It was actually a really productive week because I forced myself to work way harder during the day to make up for how pathetically dedicated to LOST my nights were.

Also, I linked to this in one of my updates from a run earlier this week, but here is my "review" of sorts on the Nike Lunar Swift for those who are interested. If not, I can boil it down to this: I don't like them for running.

Steve - 3

25:28 (9:13, 8:45, 7:30)

It turns out there is a 24 hr fitness a few blocks from the start of the Manhattan Beach trail. So I decided to knock out a quick workout in the gym and then head out for an easy 3-miler. The gym is kind of small, not as nice as the Super Sport one in Glendale that I go to after work that has a bball court. I'm gonna try to do a weights and run combo at least a few times a week. Run went pretty well, about the same as the run I did last Sunday. I ran 3 times this week. Next week I'll shoot for 4 times. Feels good to be running regularly again. I signed up for a 5k race on Super Bowl Sunday in Redondo Beach. You get free beers (Asahi, one of my favorites) after the race. Alex, you might wanna check it out. It's one of the better races in this area.

Alex - 2.65

19:26 (7:20)

This one was on the trail. Body still wasn't feeling up to par. It's gonna be a couple of weeks before I am enjoying these runs again.

Steve - 3.5

Track workout with the Flyers. I did my sad, slower paced running around the track. And then my car died in Pasadena and I had to get it towed to a friend's house in Glendale. Spent the night there and then got it towed to a shop the next day. It was a fantastic night. 500 bucks later, everything is all good.

Alex - 5.0

36:00 (7:12)

This is an estimated time/distance. I tried out some new shoes and didn't have my Nike+. The distance should be about right, but the time could vary because I didn't have a very accurate way of timing myself. The new shoes I tried out were the Lunar Swift+, here's what I thought.

I'm back running in the Lunarlite Trainers.

Alex - 4.22

30:21 (7:11)

I think I did this one on the trail and It was okay. My body is definitely not in good running shape right now.

Chris - 3.47

27:53 - 8:02

Felt pretty good on this run. Hip/knee was feeling somewhat weak by the end, but no sharp pain during the run. I think playing basketball twice a week is probably helping!

Alex - 1.9

15:19 (8:03)

Went for a run down on The Strand (concrete by the beach) and got a really bad stomach ache at this point. I then had to walk all the way home. It sucked. But if you are interested, my walk home was 2.3 miles in 40:34 (17:36).

Alison/James -- 3

We did three miles today: 1.5 miles down to James's school (is it James' or James's, Luke?) and then 1.5 miles back. We took the Pinellas Trail and it was so hard to run in the cold. It was 39*f outside, and in Florida, this is unheard of. James being from UK did fine, but it felt like my lungs were filled with dry ice.

I would say I need to buck up but don't really need to if it is just going to be 70* again next week. It felt good to get out and run though, working off the post-Christmas/NYE debauchery pudge.

We still need to take our Christmas tree down.

Love,
Alison & James

PS - James lives here now.

Steve - 3

25:44 (8:35) Mile splits of 9:33, 8:31, 7:40

This is the first real run I have done in a month. Headed out to the wood chips in Manhattan Beach. Knocked out a solid 3 miles. First mile was pretty slow, but I want to ease back into it. Felt pretty good for the most part. I'm thinking about joining a gym so I can start hitting the weights regularly too and maybe play some basketball a bit as well. Weather is getting a bit warmer out here and the sun is starting to set later so that kind of helps with motivation. I just need to get back into a new routine. Hopefully we can all get going again..

Also, I bought a pair of Asics GT-2140 a few weeks back. I had ordered some Brooks Adrenaline GTS 9s but they didn't fit so I sent them back. I went into the running store because I had a coupon for 15 dollars off and tried on a bunch of shoes. They had an older model of the 2140s I liked that was only about 80 bucks so I decided to roll with it. And then when I finally bought the shoes, I realized my coupon had expired a month ago. So it was kind of a waste because they dont usually have very good deals in the running stores, but I at least got to try on a bunch of different shoes. So the shoes seem to be working out. What is weird is I used to get 10.5 for these shoes a year or so ago, but now I need the 11. So either my foot grow or they changed the size of the shoe. Perhaps the latter is more likely.

Alex - 3.09

23:20 (7:32)

I'm still alive and have been running a couple times a week for the last month, but just got so far behind that I started forgetting to post. I'm in LA now after stops in NYC (during the snow storm), Eugene, Pasadena (that was tough) and Las Vegas (that was also tough, but in a good way). The only things of real note were my run on the morning of the Civil War (8.8 mi, 1:05:28, 7:26) which took me from my parents house to Pre's Trail to an Autzen Stadium lap and back to my parents house and a bout of food poisoning that I got the day after Christmas and battled until New Year's eve.

I'm in LA now and back at it. Go Ducks!

Chris - 1.97

14:35 - 7:24 pace

Once again, this injury astounds me. I did the short route again today to make sure my knee wouldn't bother me too bad, and it ended up feeling so good that I was able to set a pretty good pace and finish strong! I'm going to try and run Friday during lunch at work with another guy, so hopefully that will go well because I'd like to do the whole 4.5 out & back that they usually do...

Steve - 2

Yeh I know it's been like 10 years since I posted. My first run in a long time. I have been really sick the last couple of weeks with an awful cough. Probably had bronchitis, but I never went to a doctor so who knows. Also Luke and I did a crazy race adventure in Decemeber and it took me a while to recover from that. I'll be sure to post the details of that one. Anyway, I went to my run club and I jogged 2 miles around the grass. It was kind of depressing watching everyone sprint around the track, but I need to take it slow. Hope everyone else is doing well.

Chris - 1.97

15:34 - 7:54 pace

I know this mileage is bordering on pathetic...I was going to do my normal 3.47 out & back but shortly after I started I could tell my knee/hip wasn't going to let me go that far. But hey at least I made myself get out after not running for way too long.