Luke - 4.5

13' up, 3000m @ 10:25, 10' down

Paced Zack for 3000m of his 5000m race, shooting for a PR for him (sub-17:39). Video is here (Olympian Ian Dobson doing a workout...). My splits: 39, 83, 85, 84, 83, 84, 84, 79. By my watch Zack got a PR by one second.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 6/19-6/25

Luke - 72.25 (9)

Chris - 13.1 (1)

James - 8.4 (3)

James - 2.2

21:20

Ran around the apartment complex 4 times. Was the day after my bachelor party (no stripping, i.e. increased amounts of drinking and computer games) so despite the not too impressive pace I am happy with this. I took every health step I could think of beforehand. After sleeping till 2pm, we ate gorgeous healthy raw vegan food at this place. Then I had a supposedly non-chemical energy drink, protein bar, and more stretching that I usually bother to do. Plus it was 8pm and post-rain cool.

We get married in 6 days and leave for Savannah in 3 days so there probably won't be an update for a few weeks. I'll post if there's opportunity though!

Luke - .75

.75mi, 5:52 (7:49)

Warning: this post is real gross and stuff.

Sooooooooooooo last Wednesday at the top of the hill I took a quick break into the woods for a pitstop...I thought I knew what poison oak looks like but apparently I need a refresher course, because I wiped with some. Everything was fine for a couple days and then it started to be the worst thing ever and I realized what I'd done. Friday it started itching a bit, but Saturday morning it was okay, and then by the time I needed to do this run it was just awful awful awful. It spread to my balls and they got huge and really really hurt...I tried to go out on this run but as you can see I made it 3/4 of a mile, swearing the whole way, and just could not go on. It got better then worse then better then worse over the next few days. I went to Seattle to catch a couple Mariners games on Tuesday 6/28 and Wednesday 6/29, and luckily it was pretty okay during that, but I didn't even take my running shoes with me. The next few days the pain and swelling and stuff was intermittent, and I was pretty much miserable most of the time, so I only got a couple runs in. I think it's getting better, but even now (7/5) there are times when it just gets blindingly painful...I can at least run now though.

Alison - 0.0 x 0^0

Four days before we leave for my wedding and I think I have bronchitis. So no running.

BUT - I found a dog for Luke

Luke - 6

6mi, 46:42 (7:47)

There was a group run put on by the people at Flotrack this morning at 8, so I ran over and joined them for an easy 5 on Pre's Trail. 20-30 people, most (all?) of whom were faster than me...a couple Olympians, etc. Got a free water bottle at the end of the run, it's nice.

Luke - 13

13mi, 97:48 (7:31)

To the top of Skinner's Butte for the first time in a couple months. Zack joined me for the first 3+ miles (the flat part). 8:23 up Fox Hollow, and kept up a pretty good effort all the way to the turnaround point. Stopped my watch at the usual place and hiked up to the very top, looked around, then hiked back down. I'm close enough to having the route to the top figured out that pretty soon I'll be able to actually run all the way to the cement slab that has a 360º view of Oregon (and it'll add a mile or so to the run). On the way down I absolutely killed it, just felt really really strong and was flying around switchbacks and over rollers. My three splits from the top of Fox Hollow to the turnaround were ~7', ~8', and ~4' going up, and ~2:30, ~5', and ~4:45 for the same three (disrespectively) going down. 5:49 down Fox Hollow, and then the last 3+ miles I did fairly slowly (~7:45 pace). Tomorrow's plan is an easy double to bring my weekly total to right around 80 miles!

Luke - 7.5

7.5mi, 56:35 (7:32)

Rexius, then a mile loop in 7:26 on the way home.

Luke - 8.75

8.75mi, 68:20 (7:48)

Fox Hollow with Zack. I was super tired to start out, and actually tripped and fell about a quarter-mile into the run...just a couple little scrapes, the terrain was not bad. 8:26 up the hill with some effort. Felt a lot better the second half of the run...7:23 down, then 7:30-7:40 pace on the way back. Long day, and 45 miles in the last 4 days. Woof.

James - 3.1

24:53

2 minute+ improvement! Alison tutored me through some non-running equipment exercises beforehand and maybe that was a good warmup. I realised that if I were running outside I would never take so long to build up my speed as I have been doing, so I went up to a high speed within 2 minutes and just slowed down a bit towards the end. At this rate I might catch up to my PR for 5K soon (and that run, in late '09, was a bad day!)

I dropped my towel before I even had chance to use it, I suppose that helped recreate the outdoors too.

Luke - 6.25

6.25mi, 54:00 (8:38)

Out the door before 3:30am. 27:40 out, 26:20 back. I swear this run is longer, but Internet tells me it's even shorter. Felt like at worst 7:45 pace on the way back, rather than 8:25. I guess running at 3am makes you forty seconds slower per mile.

Luke - 8

8mi, 60:57 (7:37)

1.6-mile loop of Pre's Trail plus 1.5mi barefoot in the grass, with Zack. We were both pretty tired for this run, mostly due to the sustained mileage as of late, but we powered through today. Got home and watched the Mariners lose after being up 5-1 with two out in the bottom of the ninth. Oh man it was awful.

James - 3.1

26:55

80 second improvement. Very sweaty. Partway through a guy got on the treadmill next to me and started running at 7.5mph, which was faster than me at that moment, and it's rare to see other people running as fast as me at the gym. It didn't make me change my plan or anything but I did join him at 7.5mph and it was nice to have someone of similar speed alongside (he only went for about 10 minutes).

Luke - 10

10mi, 74:55 (7:29)

1.6-mile loop in 12:11, 1.4-mile loop in 10:13, then two miles barefoot on the grass. Wore no shirt, purple* short shorts, and pink shoes. There was some football camp going on so a bunch of high schoolers were crossing the footbridge in the opposite direction of me, so I got a few comments. The run itself was pretty all right, stomach was going but everything else was good.

*They're blue and red but everyone thinks they're purple since they try to look at them from as far away as possible.

Luke - 12

12mi, 95:54 (7:59)

Drove out to the country with Zack for a longish run. We were going to go a bit further away, and run a bit longer, but we drank a bit last night and got a late start this morning so we did this instead. The run was all along a road called Wolf Creek Road...started with 2+ miles of uphill, then had about a mile and a half of real gradual downhill, then basically flat the rest of the way until we turned around and came back the same way. We took it pretty easy for the first couple miles, since they were just uphill with no relief. 7:45s or so the rest of the way out (there were mile markers which seemed pretty accurate), then a bit faster on the way back. The hardest part was the very gradual mile and a half uphill on the way back which seemed to never end. Overall the run was a bit tough for various reasons but I felt like I recovered pretty quickly after finishing. On the way back we stopped for milkshakes.

Chris - 13.1

95:51 - 7:19 pace* - watch time

95:16 - 7:16 pace - chip time

Disclaimer: This is going to be a long post-race recap. And I put the asterisk next to my pace/time because I forgot to stop my watch right away as I came across the finish line, so I'm going to update it when they post the official results online.

Vancouver USA half marathon! My first ever race of this distance. Luke's advice was for me to run 7:15's for the first 10 miles, then see if I had anything left in the tank. When Jeeni and I drove up yesterday to pick up our race packets, we found out that the event organizers had accidentally signed me up for the full marathon instead - and even though they switched me over easily enough, they had run out of timing chips. So we had to get up earlier on race day so I could get my race bib with the timing chip intact.

Start time was 8:30am. We arrived about 7:15, parked and walked to get my timing chip, then walked back to my car and chilled until about 8:00. Went to use the restroom, then check in our bag, then warmed up a bit and walked over to the starting line as some lady was singing the national anthem. I said good luck to Jeeni and walked up as close to the starting line as I could get. I was able to get in about 5 minutes of good stretching before the gun went off. I still had to pass a bunch of people, but got into a nice rhythm after that. Once we got strung out a bit I spotted a guy in a blue Portland Running Co. shirt running about my pace, and decided to stick with him since he looked like about my fitness level. Sure enough we crossed the first mile around 7:15 (forgot to hit my watch). I let him pull me along for a good 4 or 5 miles, then put a little distance on him after a couple downhill sections. The 7th mile had a decent uphill section that I tried to power through so I didn't lose too much time. Came through that at 7:51. I grabbed water at about miles 5 and 9, and an energy gel after the 7th. It's so great to put distance on people while going down hills...I don't get why not many people take advantage of letting gravity do the work for you. After I passed the Running Co guy I was more or less by myself for the rest of the race. This semi-buff lady passed me around mile 8, and apparently she was doing the full. Insane. I passed a couple people on this big downhill, then had an older guy pass me a mile or so later. He said something to me about 'what a nice field we have', possibly referring to the lady in spandex in front of us? I'm still not sure what he said, haha. The 11th mile was probably the toughest for me, because my legs were starting to get tired and my hip flexor was a bit tight. Just tried to take short strides, be efficient and cover ground as quickly as I could. I spotted a girl up ahead of me around mile 10 that I seemed to slowly be reeling in, and was glad when I finally passed her in the last mile - although I think that was more from her dying than me picking it up. I had one guy pass me in the last half mile, and then in the rush to the finish a guy came flying up on my right and get about a body length ahead of me with ~30 yards to go, and I went 'oh no you don't' and got up on my toes and had a neck to neck sprint with him into the finish. That was a pretty badass way to finish a half marathon! If the announcer guy said me name I had no idea, I was in a haze trying to push myself to the limit and finish strong.

I grabbed a water and exchanged a high five with sprinter guy, then got my finishers medal and made my way through the chute to the free stuff area. Grabbed some fruit and Gatorade, went and got our checked bag and walked over to stretch and see Jeeni finish. She came in at 1 hr 57 mins, more than 20 mins better than she was shooting for. Success all around today!

splits: 14:10 (2mi), 7:10, 6:49, 6:57, 7:19, 7:51, 6:40, 7:24, 7:09, 7:10, 7:30, 7:20, 1:40

Weekly Mileage, 6/12-6/18

Luke - 60.3 (8)

Chris - 17.34 (3)

James - 5.1 (2)

Luke - 5.5

1.4-mile loop of Pre's Trail. I thought I put a post up for this run so I cleared my watch and now don't know my time for it. IT'S PRETTY TOUGH KEEPING TRACK OF ALL THIS MILEAGE

James - 3.1

28:14

A few days ago.

Luke - 4.6

4.6mi, 38:23 (8:20)

Ran right when I got up, because I'm doing two easy runs today. As I sluggishly headed out the door, I was deciding whether to do 4.25 (three Amazon 1-mile loops) or 3.8 (two Amazon miles and an Amazon k) but remembered that yesterday as we were heading out across the HS track, a coach I know told us there was a huge track meet that would be going all day today, starting at 8:30am...so since I didn't feel like going through that to get to Amazon I decided to do the Ribbon Trail instead. A bit longer, and has a bunch of hills. Started out super slow but once I got to the trail I didn't feel too bad. Just took it as easy as I could and it went by quick. I like running.

Luke - 10.35

10.35mi, 79:08 (7:38)

With Zack. Fox Hollow plus the 1.6-mile loop at the top. Our pace on the way out was slightly faster than usual...going up the hill I was a bit sluggish at first (halfway in 4:30) but then picked it up to finish in 8:30. The loop at the top is ridiculously beautiful, especially right now, and is also a very fun bit of trail...this is one of my favorite runs. Came down F.H. in 7:37, legs slightly too tired to be efficiently braking. On Rexius we were keeping up a pretty good pace, accelerating the whole time...we were down to about 7:20 pace and Zack kept picking it up so I went along as he got under 7-minute pace, and then with a half-mile of the trail left I said "Let's go" and passed him at better than 6:00 pace. I ran an 84 and then slowed up a bit and ran a 92, and he was only about five seconds back. It was a lot of fun, after 8 miles with hills. Took it pretty easy the last 1.5 miles, then watched the Mariners win, then ate the world.

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 49:04 (7:32)

1.6-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 12:11, with Zack. His mileage is in the low- to mid-50s this week, and I'm going for 60, so we are able to do a lot of runs together, which helps a TON.

James - 2

18:18

It's been over 3 weeks, due to various setbacks and then the last week and a half I was preparing for/at the Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester (hah), Tennessee. I got a surprise last-minute slot as a volunteer for Mountain Justice, who campaign against mountaintop removal coal mining in the Appalachian mountains. I was excited to be fighting coal, climate change and resource extraction, again. I did a whoooooole lot of walking (and running carrying drinks, which I spilled all over myself).

Anyway, I came back a little worse for wear from all the dust and heat and extreme lack of sleep and all the rest of it, so I was pretty happy with this run. Detox begins now. The illness made time go faster, which helped in a scary way.

In all the excitement I forgot to mention that I got new shoes. My old Nikes that I bought from a friend about 3 years ago (I'm not even sure, Luke, did I have them in April 2008?) have been a hazard for a long time, with Chris being the most recent one of you who doesn't live with me to witness. I got New Balance shoes from Marshalls, who sell things that are somehow defective or old brands or similar. Here they are. Someone asked me if they were the new air-filled ones at college the other week and that started a nice conversation. They are trend-free, sweatshop-free and consumer-demand free (because they won't encourage NB to make more, being old and untrendy). They say they're for trail running, but be honest: how are they for running?

Chris - 4.2

35:40 - 8:29 pace

Ran during lunch at work. My body is feeling pretty drained of energy today. I slogged out the miles and felt good about it after. I'm sure making myself run on days like this will seem very much worth it once I run the marathon!

splits: 18:17 - 17:23

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 51:09 (7:52)

Rexius loop. The scraped-up bit of my foot was hurting, and my stomach went a little bit. Also I'm running low on sleep. But I powered through.

Chris - 8.1

75:46 - 9:21 pace

Rolled out of bed and headed out the door. The first 3 miles or so were pretty tough, my legs were tight and I was still waking up. After awhile (and stretching) I got into a nice rhythm and my legs started feeling a little better. Thirteen miles in less than 12 hours might not have been the best idea ever, but hey what doesn't kill ya makes you stronger! Time to go eat two breakfasts before work...

Chris - 5.04

39:18 - 7:47 pace

I'm working the late shift this week, and for some reason decided to do this run after work, which is dumb of me because tomorrow I have to wake up at 8am to run 8 miles, since I'm driving straight to Jeeni's after I leave work. Oh well. So I tried my best to make myself run a little slower...

Luke - 10

10mi, 76:48 (7:40)

1.6-mile loop in 12:28, 1.4-mile loop in 10:33, then two miles barefoot on the grass, all with Zack. About six miles in I felt my shoe rubbing on my foot (I wasn't wearing socks), and when I took off my shoes for the barefoot section I had a big chunk of skin that had been scraped away, so that was a bit painful. Other than that a very pleasant run.

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 49:06 (7:33)

1.6-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 12:16, plus a half mile barefoot on the small grass field on the way home. First barefoot of the year!

Luke - 10.35

10.35mi, 82:10 (7:56)

Fox Hollow plus the extra 1.6-mile loop at the top, with Zack. 8:04 up, 7:36 down. Felt great on this run. Lots of rain, which was great on the trails...so much like a rainforest it was ridiculous. After a couple days of 4.25 miles, and a couple days of relaxing and getting some sleep, I felt perfectly fresh.

When I was in Portland I bought a car from my friend Patrick! So now I won't have to get up quite as early, and won't be quite as tired when I get home from work, so my running should be very nice. Also Zack and I can drive to races or to long runs, for a little variety.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 6/5-6/11

Chris - 47.3 (5)

Luke - 38.75 (6)

Alison - 3.1 (1)

Chris - 20

188:58 - 9:26 pace

The epic 20 mile run - the pinnacle of the marathon training schedule. We got a late start due to sleeping in. Drove over to the Portland Running Company so I could buy a bunch of Hammer Gel packs. We mapped out our route in the rural roads outside of Hillsboro again. She had forgotten to take her allergy medicine so we drove by her sisters to get some. Drove the route and dropped off two water bottles in different places. About 5 miles into the run the worst thing ever happened...my stomach started to bother me. The sharp pain working around in my bowels told me that if I didn't find a bathroom in the next 15-20 minutes (out in the middle of farm country) I was going to be in serious trouble. We walked for a little bit and I tried not to worry too much. We crossed a road and stretched for a little bit, then took a right down the road. As I looked back at a barn we had passed I saw a lone port-o-pottie sitting next to a combine tractor. HALLELUJAH! I got so lucky haha. The run went pretty good after that. We stopped/walked a couple 2 or 3 times when we got to the water bottles, but I wouldn't really call it a break or anything. The last 2 miles were absolutely brutal, particularly the last one. My knees, feet and calves were so tight and sore it was ridiculous. Pretty friggin epic run though.

Next week Sunday I'm running in the Vancouver USA half marathon with Jeeni and some other guys from work that are on the Hood to Coast team. Our training schedule has 12 miles for that day, so it worked out well. I'm really looking forward to it - should be a decent measuring stick for what sort of shape I'm in and how fast of a time I can realistically expect to run the marathon in.

Alison - 3.1

I ran for about 30 mins on the treadmill; I've been hardcore working out lately so it was no surprise that I was running 10-minute miles again. I am a short-legged beast, so this is not a slow pace. I would be more comfortable at 8-minute miles again, but that is my goal for/by October when a girl friend of mine wants me to do a mini-tri with her. I forgot what those are called. We are most concerned about the swimming portion.

It was 102*F when I drove to the gym so running outside is really out of the question again until (maybe) early October.

In other news, I told my interviewer that one of my 3 favorite fiction novels is Maniac Magee. I knew Luke would be proud.

Luke, I miss you!
Chris, I am so proud of you!
Zack, you are so awesome to keep Luke in line and an awesome runner.
James, I hope you are never the father of my children.

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 32:39 (7:40)

Went up to Portland on Friday night to surprise my friend Patrick for his birthday...Saturday afternoon got in a quick run to Wilshire park and back, with 5 loops of the bark path around the park: 5:04, 5:00, 4:52, 4:46, 4:42.

Luke - 4

4mi, 31:18 (7:49)

Mile loops of 8:10 and 7:53, then 3 laps on the track in 5:44.

Chris - 5

44:06 - 8:49 pace

Jeeni and I were supposed to do this run from work, but she forgot her clothes so we did a loop from her apt complex instead. Went pretty well considering we've done 15 miles in the past 2 days.

Luke - 11

Ran from Zack's lab to Dorris Ranch Park in Springfield, where there was a low-key 5k going on. Was just going to have fun with it, maybe go 6-minute pace or so, but once I got going I got into race mode and had to go hard. First mile felt pretty good, second mile I hoped I wouldn't die in the third mile, and third mile I died. Splits were 5:18, 5:36, and 6:05, but the course did get progressively harder. The last .1 was 53 seconds, so it was definitely longer than .1. Oh I ended up getting second, to Josh Gordon. I was with him for the first 2 miles and then he started putting distance on me and the gap just kept getting bigger. He ended up winning by 30 seconds.

After the race we hung out a bit and talked with Josh and Renee, and listened to Lauren Fleshman try to sell Picky Bars to everyone. We ran home a bit longer of a way and it was really tough, after 7 miles of running with 5k of it hard, and especially after the 30-45 minutes of standing around post-race, too. When we finally got back we were rewarded with some local organic chocolate milk that the wife of one of Zack's labmates had dropped off. Long long day for me.

Chris - 10.3

92:16 - 8:57 pace

Jeeni and I ran down and back on the Fanno Creek trail for this mid week long-ish run. Went pretty well. For some reason I can't remember much about this run...oh well.

Luke - 4.75

4.75mi, 36:17 (7:38)

Some stuff on Pre's Trail, pretty easy.

Chris - 5.5

48:29 - 8:48 pace

We drove down to Cook Park by Tigard High for this run. Except after running the route through all the fun dirt paths, we thought we had only done 4 miles, so we ran out & back a little bit to extend it.

Luke - 6

6mi, 45:50 (7:38)

1.6-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 12:31. Getting back into it. Working 4-4 m-f again, probably for the last time...I figured I could handle it since I'm only running 40 miles this week.

Chris - 6.5

58:30 - 9:00 pace

We were supposed to run 14 today, and mapped an out & back route from her apartment. Unfortunately about 5 miles into it her stomach started hurting pretty bad. We tried walking/resting for spurts but it wasn't getting any better so we just decided to cut it short and walk back. We ended up getting caught in a thunderstorm with lightning and the whole bit, so that was kind of fun.

Luke - 8.75

8.75mi, 68:36 (7:50)

Fox Hollow with Zack as my first run in a week! Started out feeling real rough, definitely breathing heavily after about a mile. Went up the hill in 9:06 with a bit of effort, and Zack and I were both pretty wrecked at the top. After a breather, we headed back down (we were thinking of doing the extra 1.6-mile loop, but figured just a regular Fox Hollow run was enough). Down was much easier than up! 7:28. Had some water at the bottom, and then did about 730-7:40 pace on the way back, and I threw in an 85" quarter at the end of Rexius. The second half of the run was a lot better than the first. Also it is getting hot in Eugene (finally)! We ran early but it was already about 70º, which I know doesn't seem hot to Floridians and Californians but we are not used to it yet.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 5/29-6/4

Chris - 19.18 (3)

Chris - 5.04

37:46 - 7:29 pace

Felt much better today, even though my calves are still way too tight. Ran after work as the sun was going down. My right calf/achilles was so tight that when I tried to stretch it there was a sharp pain in my heel that pretty much wouldn't let me properly strecth it out. Pretty lame. I had to walk up the little hill to my house because they were so tight by the end. I guess I need to start stretching on my days off too....

Chris - 5.04

42:40 - 8:27 pace

Ran this morning before work. This run was brutal. My calves are super tight, and I just didn't have the energy in my legs to go any faster. I'm going to run on Friday and give myself a little rest, since we're running our long run on Sunday this week.