Luke - 13

13mi, 1:41:46 (7:49)

Up the butte. (hehehehehe.) Took the alternate route up Fox Hollow because I needed to take a pit stop, so I didn't get a split there, but 7:22 going down. Stomach gave me trouble throughout the run, so the pace was pretty inconsistent. Splits of 53:52 out and 47:54 back.

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 33:36 (7:54)

Mile loops of 8:22, 7:42, and 7:27. 6:30am.

Luke - 7.75

7.75mi, 60:01 (7:44)

Back to the cemetery--I'm doing hill work 3x a week now. Today went quite well. 22:30 of the hill sprint circuit, 12 minutes of hill springing, and ten more minutes of the hill sprint circuit. Averaged better than 35 seconds for the hill sprints, and my form is getting a lot better on the hill springing.

James - 1

8 mins

Back to the gym! 7.5mph felt really fast on the treadmill.

Got a bed from the warehouse this afternoon, that's enough fuckin' exercise for today.

Steve - 7.5

63:21

Easy run at Manhattan Beach. Starting to feel like I can run as normal now after being sick. Also, I have been listening to the Inception soundtrack on youtube. The whole thing is there on a playlist. It's pretty awesome. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0JHcum5Gw4&feature=autoplay&list=PLA53B19F49D9E6EDF&index=5&playnext=4

Weekly Mileage Totals, 1/23-1/29

Luke - 47.75 (7)

Steve - 10.86 (2)

Chris - 6.95 (2)

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 33:04 (7:46)

Mile loops of 7:58, 7:48, and 7:30.

Steve - 5.24

46:48 (8:56)

Easy effort. I got sick a few days ago and just wanted to do something after being in the house for like 72 hours straight. 

Chris - 4.2

32:10 - 7:39 pace

My watched battery died so Mike timed this lunch run on his brand new GPS watch he recently got. Felt pretty dang good for having sore legs from lifting yesterday!

Luke - 6

6mi, 43:54 (7:19)

Went to Pre's Trail and then went on the trail around the pond before heading back. Was going to do some loops of the BMX track but there were actual BMX bikers on it. Mostly normal pace but last mile was around 6:10.

Luke - 3.25

3.25mi, 24:01 (7:23)

Mile loops of 7:38 and 7:23. Zack was heading out at 8:30pm for a short easy one and I decided to join him even though my previous run was about four hours before.

Also I finished making my running schedule for the next three months. When I was looking through my Lydiard book, I happened upon a story he told which I found hilarious. I will type the whole thing out for you here--it's the first page of the chapter "The Athlete and the Coach - the Vital Relationship":

Motivation is the important factor in the relationship between the athlete and the coach and hope is the key word in motivation. We all have hopes. The coach, the athlete, everyone. But the goals on which hope is based have to be realistic. It's no good a coach telling an athlete he can run a four-minute mile when he knows damn well he's not going to do it.

You do not want to build up hopes unnecessarily. So we've got to use realism, otherwise both athlete and coach can be upset. The aim should be a minimum realisation rather than a maximum one. A coach should never tell an athlete he can perform better than a true evaluation of his current development shows.

I had this problem when I took a team to Europe which included one runner I had never trained but who had been trained by a coach who told him, more or less, that he could beat everyone.

The first race was an 800 m in White City and this guy, who had never run a big international race before, went out in front and led until he turned into the straight. He was a good runner but, when he ran into the straight, the whole pack went past him. Peter Snell, who I did train, won the race.

When I saw this runner after the race, he was walking off the track with his running shoes in his hands and his head down. I asked him where he was going and he said he was going back to the hotel.

"No you're not", I said, "just wait a while."

I had met the manager of the meet and his twenty-one-year-old secretary and I asked the young woman what she was doing that night.

"Nothing", she said. "Why?"

"See that guy", I said, "I'd like you to take him out to a night club tonight. Give him a good time and I'll pay for it."

I went back to the athlete and said, "See that girl over there? She's going to take you out for a nice evening."

I introduced them and I didn't see him again until about 10 o'clock the next morning when he was racing out of the hotel.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm going out with that girl."
"Good on you", I said. And from then on, I never had any problems.

He'd got rid of his immediate dejection and he'd realised the world was full of very good runners - there weren't just a couple in New Zealand - and that when you get up against the best in the world you can't set yourself up to run it all from the front.

He ran very well for the rest of that tour, very well indeed.

Luke - 7.5

7.5mi, 58:46 (7:50)

Headed back to the cemetery for more hill work. Did the hill sprint circuit for 22:30, then did ten minutes of hill springing, then another ten minutes of the hill sprint circuit. Had a bit tougher time today (~0:40 on the hill sprints, compared with ~0:37 on Tuesday), which illustrates the usefulness of recovery runs, as opposed to taking a day completely off, Luke, you lazy bastard.

Steve - 5.62

Track workout with the Flyers. Tough workout with short recovery. I was a tick faster than 6:00 minute/mile pace for most of the 600st. I was going to do 7 but the 6th one was too tough so I stopped. 

1 mi 9:46 wup
6x600 w200m rec in (2:12, 2:11, 2:12, 2:11, 2:12, 2:16 )
1.75 mi in 19:27 cd

Chris - 2.75

23:23 - 8:30 pace

Ran during lunch today with Jeeni (a girl I work with). It's looking like I'll be semi-training with her for a marathon this summer. I say semi because she's tagged her official training partner as a friend of hers that lives in Clackamas, but I'll be doing some of my training with her/them. I think. We'll see how that all works out, haha. Anyway, the run went well. We ran a relaxed pace, which was fine with me because I have a basketball game tomorrow night and didn't want my legs to be all sore. Felt good to get back out on the open road/paths after awhile, and good to know that basketball is keeping me in decent running shape!

Luke - 5.75

5.75mi, 44:46 (7:47)

Ran to the Masonic Cemetery and did twenty minutes of hill sprints (~0:37 up, ~1:30 down/recovery) and then ten minutes of hill bounding (~0:45 up, ~1:15 down/recovery). The high school ski team was training there too and when I started the bounding the coach was like "Looks like you're doing Lydiard bounding," and so we talked for a few minutes about Lydiard and stuff.

Luke - 9

9mi, 65:12 (7:14)

1.6-mile loop in 12:23, 1.4-mile loop in 9:56, 1 mile barefoot in the grass. It was 60º and sunny out! In Eugene, in January. Crazy.

Luke - 12

12mi, 99:34 (8:17)

Ran home from work the long hard fun way. It had been a while since I did this run. The first 3-4 miles are so tough that I was already 5-6 minutes behind 8:00 pace by the time the pure uphill was over. 7:17 down Fox Hollow; 7:45 the rest of the way back.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 1/16-1/22

Luke - 47.5 (5)

Steve - 16.1 (3)

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 36:14 (8:31)

Mile loops of 8:33, 8:24, and 8:39. Didn't look at my watch the entire time. Stomach hurt at the end, rest of it was just blah.

Luke - 13.25

22' warmup; 3200m TT @10:20, 400m recovery, 3x3200m, 400r @13:05, 12:57, 12:46; 17' cooldown. Zack's workout was 4x3200m, 400r @13:00, so I did my TT and then joined him (he started a bit before me so we ran with each other when we were both going and then one would do a 3:15 lap while the other did two laps in that time, so my last five laps were alone). All four of our legs were quite dead by the end (I was going to say "both of our legs" but that doesn't make sense now does it). 6:30s, especially after a TT, are just out of my comfort zone, so if I didn't concentrate I would run a lap in over 1:40 (instead of 97)...kept the workout very tough.

Now to the Bier Stein!

Luke - 5.25

5.25mi, 42:01 (8:00)

Mile loops of 8:03, 8:02, 8:02, and 7:52.

Steve - 2010 Running Summary

I just exported all my running logs for 2010 from Flotrack.com to excel. Doing some quick analysis, I put together some statistics:

Total Miles Ran: 1044.09
Total Hours Ran: 146.3
Average Pace: 8:25 min/mile
Total Runs: 175
Avg Run: 5.96 miles
Median Run: 5.5 miles
Avg Monthly Miles: 87 miles
Median Monthly Miles: 79.8 miles
Avg Miles per week: 20.09 miles

This is probably the most I have run in a year. Here's hoping I can top all of these numbers next year...

Luke - 8.75

8.75mi, 72:07 (8:14)

Fox Hollow with Zack, in the dark. I wore my headlamp and Zack carried a flashlight, and they were about equal in effectiveness. A respectable 8:43 up and a safe 9:01 down. Makes three Fox Hollow climbs in the last three runs for me.

Steve - 6

Track workout with the Flyers. The group was doing the Marquis de Sade workout. If you're not familiar with this individual, he's the genesis behind the word "sadism."  This workout really is torturous. So here's the workout: 2-3X(800, 100r, 400, 100r, 800, 5 sec recovery then a 400). I wanted to run with the faster group so I did part of the workout. I always skipped the hardest part, which is the 400 and 800 with almost no recovery. I joined for about half of the 800s overall. Times are below. For the final 800 a bunch of us really sped up on the last lap. I closed the final 400 in a hard 1:21 for a 2:52 800.

1 mi wup in 8:20
2:56,3:00,1:31(400), 2:57, 3:00, 2:52(1:31, 1:21)
1.25 mi cd in 11:30
3x400 rec

Steve - 6

61

Pretty slow run at Griffith Park with my friend. It was probably a tad longer but whatevs. Looking at my mileage from the last 3 weeks I'm feeling pretty good: 24, 28. 30. This week will be low 20s-ish cuz I didnt do a long run on Sunday with the race.  What are you guys up to?

Luke - 16

16mi, 2:12:11 (8:15)

Mileage approximate. Ran up to the Butte again, but didn't do the last, rock-climbery part of it. On the way up, added a 1.6-mile loop of Ridgeline. Same way back. 6:51 for the last mile of Rexius (14 miles in). Splits were 69:22 out, 62:49 back. Didn't get a split for the Fox Hollow ascent. Pretty good little run, but doesn't make up for the fact that I took the previous two days off (Sunday I was sick; Monday I was lazy).

Steve - 4.1

Today was my battle with the Bear. Before the race I was waiting to use the Porta-Potty and struck up a conversation with another runner. When I got to the start line I recognized my suitemate from my senior year at college that I hadn't seen for 5 years. Turns out he was friends with the Porta-Potty Guy(I will call him PPG from now on). Weird coincidence! PPG said he wanted to run about 6:10-6:15 pace, which is about what I was figuring I was capable of.  My old suitemate (MOS), said he wanted to run between 20 and 21. It was a smaller race so once the gun went off I didn't need to jostle around with other runners. The Bear took off a bit faster than I would have liked. MOS and PPG were right with the Bear and I was about 10m behind. I didn't feel like I would be able to maintain that pace so I just wanted to keep them in range.

The race was on the Venice Boardwalk for the first mile. All sorts of homeless people were gawking and commenting on the Bear. After we turned off the boardwalk onto the street, we approached the 1st mile marker. I was a little further back from the Bear, probably about 20m. I hit the first mile in 6:20. I was feeling pretty good at this point and sped up a little. MOS, PPG, and the Bear were still all running together but I wasn't getting any closer. It took forever to get the turnaround. It was actually 2 miles instead of the customary 1.5 ish. MOS started fading as we approached the turned around, but PPG was hanging tough with the Bear. When we turned around, I figured he was ahead of me by about 20-25 seconds. It was gonna be tough to close that in one mile. But I knew had a chance because he was wearing a bear suit and I wasn't. I passed MOS with about a half mile left but I was beginning to struggle. I wasn't slowing down but I wasn't speeding up either. My dream of defeating the Bear was fading. I did what I could for that final mile but it wasn't enough. I took one final turn and I glimpsed PPG and the Bear far ahead of me. I crossed the line in 19:16 for a pretty solid time. The Bear finished in 18:46 and PPT slightly ahead in 18:44. MOS was a few seconds back of me in 19:20. So I didn't get the free pair of shoes that PPT and 11 other runners were fast enough to get. I think with another a few weeks of training I could beat the Bear, but I won't have a shot until next year. I talked to the Bear after he took his mask off and he said he is a 16:xx 5k guy. The Bear suit apparently slowed him down about 2:30 or so.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 1/9-1/15

Luke - 57.5 (7)

Steve - 7.5 (1)

James - 3 (2)

Luke - 13

13mi, 1:48:10 (8:19)

Ran up Spencer's Butte with Zack. The time and distance don't quite line up because the end of the first half of the run was just mountain and was more scramble than run. Zack left his watch off during that section; I turned it off and on as I switched between climbing and running, and ended up with seven extra minutes. Anyway I rounded down on the mileage and up on the time.

The run started like Fox Hollow, and I took it somewhat easy for 9:24 up that hill, and then the next two miles were also uphill. I was feeling pretty good so I bounded off ahead of Zack for some parts. At the top the wind was coming over the other side of the Butte, and there were some really strong gusts as we stopped at the top for a quick gel. It was getting dark by the time we started descending, but we managed to keep up a pretty good pace and still stay safe as it turned to night while we were still in the woods. Oh also it had been raining all day so there were some slick parts as well. 7:50 down Fox Hollow, and then at the bottom I was feeling real good so Zack and I went along Rexius at 6:45 pace or so. At 3/4mi to go on that trail I took off and ran quarters of 91 (through 3" deep mud puddles most of the way), 90, and 86. Took it pretty easy the last 1.5 and walked in the door to the smell of the soup I had made in the crockpot...a perfect dinner after an epic run.

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 33:40 (7:55)

Mile loops of 8:07, 7:55, and 7:42, with Zack. I needed a real easy run like this after feeling not great the last couple runs.

James - 1.5

13:24

I didn't have college today, but I went in to get a book (African-American Literature), and ran back, alternating between both my hands. Or both hands - it's 2800 fooking pages. I even lifted it a few times over my head but then felt silly when I noticed someone across the road seeing me.

Alison and I also did a workout DVD last night, one of those ones with permanently smiling back-up dancers and a host with unmovable hair. It was an hour. Those things are corny but harder than they look.

Luke - 7.75

7.75mi, 74:08 (9:33)

Relentless Hills. I left later than I thought so it was getting dark by the time I got to the trail and I had to slow way down so as not to take a wrong step. Also it was super muddy, and on top of all that I just didn't feel that good, so that's why it ended up being so slow.

Steve - 7.5

First time in a long time I have been back to Caltech for a track workout. The track was closed for a month for renovation. Today's workout was Voimas, which are 2400m intervals alternating 400m in marathon and 5k pace. I strove for about 7:20/mile and 6:25-6:35 ish. I was probably a bit too conservative, but I wanted to keep a smooth effort. My 5k pace 400s gradually climbed up to 1:35.

Also, I'm running a 5k on Sunday. If I beat some guy wearing a bear costume, I get a free pair of shoes. Prepare for detailed recap if I manage to stay close to the fleet footed bear. 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/131marathon

2 mi wup in 18:32
3x2400 in  (10:27,10:20, 10:20)
1 mi cd in 9:07

Luke - 11.25

11.25mi, 93:49 (8:20)

Schedule called for ninety minutes aerobic running today. I went up Fox Hollow and did an extra loop on Ridgeline, then took another offshoot trail on the way back. The first half I was feeling (and was) pretty slow (9:45 up the hill) but the way back was pretty okay.

Luke - 7.75

7.75mi, 59:14 (7:38)

Did an "easy fartlek", as was called for by my schedule. Basically I threw in surges whenever I felt like it. Up into the hills briefly, then a bit on the streets and finished with two 1k loops of Amazon and one mile loop (7:11). I have lots of other runs to post; I will try to do that soon.

James - 1.5

13:56

Thanks a lot to Zack for recommending gmaps-pedometer.com. Once I get used to it I can see it will be very handy. I burned 192 calories, woah!!

And yes, I will definitely be continuing my runs whilst it is cool enough in Florida. I have just started back at college and only have one class on Monday/Wednesday, so I was toying with the idea of always running back from that class (as with this run). But it looks like I'm going to need to be carrying a heavy book. Maybe I can figure something else out to easily put it into my schedule (I only have 3 classes until March so there's little excuse).

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 49:10 (7:33)

Pre's Trail plus a loop on the BMX track.

Luke - 7

7mi, 59:33 (8:30)

Two easy loops of Amazon (7:56, 7:37) warmup, then 100m sprints focusing on turnover rather than long strides. Six repeats with 300m jog between each. They took 15-16 seconds each and I could definitely feel them. Two easy loops of Amazon (8:42, 8:38) cooldown.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 1/2-1/8

Luke - 44.35 (6)

Zack - 12.55 (2)

Steve - 10 (1)

James - 3 (1)

Luke - 10.35

10.35mi, 82:54 (8:00)

Fox Hollow plus extra 1.6-mile loop, with Zack. 8:40 up, 8:01 down.

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 48:48 (7:30)
Pre's Trail plus a couple loops on the BMX track.

Luke - 10.25

10.25mi, 79:21 (7:44)

23-minute warmup, 4x1600m, 400r: 5:28, 5:22, 5:21, 5:11, 26-minute cooldown.

James - 3

Hi guys, happy new year.

That is a guess distance of 2 runs added together, as Google maps no longer seems to have a distance measurement tool. I know I should use a real running site instead of the site of one of the many companies I rail against, so what do you recommend? I know they've been mentioned here a lot but I wondered if maybe there had been any recent discoveries.

Oh here's the times. They are both from the last week while off from college, and outdoors, yay.

10:18
14:24

My new years resolution is to lose some of these American pounds that I've gained and generally be a bit healthier, so hopefully you will see a few more updates from me.

Love,
James.

Luke - 3.25

3.25mi, 25:15 (7:46)

Mile loops of 7:56 and 7:45.

Luke - 5.25

5.25mi, 38:01 (7:14)

Mile loops of 7:38, 7:21, 6:59, and 6:34.

Zack - 3.8

30:50 (8:06)
Started at 7:30AM, apparently I was still asleep while running two mile loops and a 1 km loop. Splits: 8:05, 7:48, 4:59.

Luke - 8.75

8.75mi, 69:32 (7:56)

Fox Hollow with Zack. 9:19 up, 7:43 down. Just a good easy-medium effort.

Zack - 8.75

69:48 (7:58) 500'
Fox Hollow (#1) with Luke in the late afternoon. Kept things relaxed yet steady with a 9:32 uphill split. Sunny weather and about 35 degrees, bridges on trail were moderately icy.

Steve - 10

79:12 (7:56)

Hopefully the first of many 10+ mile runs on Sunday this year. Weather was good after raining most of the night. I messed up my bathroom schedule so last 2 miles were tough, but I made it without stopping. I'm starting to get some decent mileage together as you may notice from my retro posts.

Steve - 4.6

36:40 (7:58)

Happy New Years to all Some Runners! I haven't been posting my runs so I have a lot catch up. This run turned out to be a bit faster. I think it was because some girl was running behind me and she was trying to stay with me for some reason. I might have unintentionally increased my pace. She turned around at some point. Maybe she got tired of hearing of my keys jingling in my pocket, maybe she was devastated she couldn't outrun me, or maybe she was going to turn around at a designated spot.

Luke - 5.25

5.25mi, 40:19 (7:40)

Mile loops of 7:45, 7:44, 7:42, and 7:36.

Zack - 4.6 and 2010 Brief Statistical Summary

33:14 (7:13)
Off to Wilshire Park for 6 loops with Matilida, fell into nearly a tempo pace for the last four loops. Splits (0.6 mi): 4:30, 4:29, 4:21, 4:10, 4:02, 3:57.


2010 running log statistics:
Year: 1806 miles, 276 runs, 263 days, 4.95 mi/day, 34.7 mi/wk
Dec: 204 mi (last 4 weeks: 40, 52, 38, 42)

Ran 22 miles last Monday with old college roommate Joe (who is also doing the Death Valley Marathon) and another friend Kevin (3:03 marathoner). 2:55:00 total time (7:57/mi) on hard packed snow in Ohio with temperatures hovering around 20-25F and windy. The two mile extension in these conditions surely tested my body and mind and I feel it was extremely beneficial.