Back into the Spirit of It

And I'm returning. I've allowed school to suck the life out of me. No mas. See you folks soon. Happy 2013 in a few, everyone.

Steve - 4.1

So the other day I stubbed my toe against my bed. The very same toe that I had surgery on last year. It turned brown after a few hours and I was hoping that it wasn't broken again. After 6 days it seemed to be mostly healed so I went for an easy 4. It hurt a little bit but I think it's healing. I had been running 2-3 times a week for a few months now. Usually about 3-4 miles per run. I thought it would be a good time for me to return to writing on the blog again after this incident. Because it reminded me how much it sucks that I couldn't run for so long after the initial injury. And then once I could run I developed other minor nagging injuries that never seem to go away. So I'm just glad I can still run some. My perspective has changed a lot and I started playing other sports and lifting weights to get more balance. I miss being "fast" (relatively by my standards) but all things considered things are pretty good. Anyways, this is my first of hopefully many more entries this year and next!

CONGRATS, Chris!

Big SomeRunning congrats to Chris & Jeeni!

LOVE

Chris - mile+ and stadiums

Total time around track and to/from my house ~ 16:00

I started playing basketball every Wednesday in the Portland city league with the guys from work a couple weeks ago, and I've been so dead during the games that I decided its time to do some focused training.

I ran down the street to the Wilson High School track and did a couple laps as a warmup, then I did some 100's at 70%. My left hammy was feeling a little iffy so I didn't want to go all out. After those I did two 200's, at 44 seconds each. I know that's slow but I needed to start somewhere and have something to beat for next time. After those I went to the stadium steps and did 3x's up every step, 2x's every other step, and one time hopping up each step with both feet. After that I was pretty gassed so I jogged slowly home. Felt great to finally get my lazy ass outside and work out.

Hope you are all doing well!

Chris - 20.18

186:28 - 9:14 pace

I'm really happy with how this run went, and with how I feel afterward so far! I ran this a full 2 minutes faster than the 20 miler last year with Jeeni. Good for about 12 seconds faster per mile. I haven't had my ice bath yet, but I barely feel like I need to. I'm going to anyways, but that's still a good sign. Jeeni's volleyball team (Century High School varsity) has a tournament in Tualatin all day, so my dad volunteered to drive out to Hillsboro and meet me at various spots along my route to give me water and extra gel packs so I wouldn't have to carry everything myself the whole way. He was a huge help - I bought him lunch afterward at the Rock Creek Corner Pub. I saw a huge hawk along the run, sitting on a telephone pole scouting out the fields. I also was passed by about 20 road bikes out for a morning ride. My knees tightened up at times, but then would loosen and be fine. I started to run on the sidewalk for a bit after mile 16 or so, but it was noticable how much harder it hit my feet and legs so I crossed the road and ran in the sun in the bike lane. Once I knew I was getting close to the finish - probably about a little less than a mile out - I was able to speed up my pace pretty well without killing myself. I'd guess I was doing between 8-8:15 pace. Nothing better than finishing an epic run with a nice kick and huge smile on your face!

James - 0.9

It's been too long...

I am still nursing the same ankle injury that I sustained at the end of January. I don't know if I'm not doing the right things to treat it, or not enough, or what. I've learned stretches from fitness instructors, been to an Eastern medicine herbal doctor, and gotten an ankle support. A cotton one - maybe I need a more heavy duty one?

Mainly I don't know whether to stay off it or try and train it back to health. I need to find out because it isn't really improving by itself so far. Last week I tried a little run though. I did 0.4, and even at a slow pace it started to get sore, so I stopped. That night I dreamed that my troubles were over and I sprinted past a crowd to win a track race. So I went again the next day, with pretty much the same results as the day before.

In the meantime, as ever, I am going to the gym and trying to keep my strength up. Alison has been kicking the gyms ass and making us do lots of walking because she got a fun pedometer.

Now, can this place be revived!

Chris - 5.05

42:17 - 8:22 pace

I have to rush off to get to Jeeni's volleyball game she's coaching, but I wanted to blog this real quick b/c something interesting happened! Not even a mile into my run I passed a couple kids that were probably 15 or so, sitting on a bench. As I passed them they raised up their hands and clapped, "go go, you can do it!". I figured they were being wise-asses, so I put up my arm and waved and said, "come run with me!". I get about 10 yards up the road, and here come these two guys running up next to me with their backpacks on and everything. I chatted with the first guy Zach, he asked if I went to Wilson High and why I was running. I was pretty entertained that they actually responded to my beckoning to come run with me! Good stuff. Other than that the run was fine. I have a 5 mile pace run tomorrow, a 5 miler again on Thur, then the big 20 miler on Saturday. Woot!

Chris - 18.15

170:38 - 9:24 pace

I just found this draft and thought I would publish it! From what I remember, I think it went pretty well...

Chris - 8

74:30 - 9:18 pace

I wanted to post real quick since I haven't in forever. I've been super busy with marathon training and playing golf and trying to find a 3rd roommate for the house I'm living in with a friend. I went down to Eugene this past weekend and ran in the 'Luke Vaughn Half Marathon' with Zack and these other two guys Trey and Thomas. Luke couldn't run with us because he had his wisdom teeth out on Friday. So they helped me run more of a race pace and really push myself. My legs are still recovering from it so I got what I went down there for!

Lauren-1.00

After weeks of being MIA, I'm not. I took some much needed time away to take care of family concerns. Today, I was Fueled by hope, dreams, and Bluebell. It happened much easier than I thought. Also, my ear holes are still tiny. September 15 paycheck, come soon!

Luke - 5.5

5.5mi, 44:36 (8:06)
1.4-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 11:29.  Easy.

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 32:50 (7:43)
Mile loops of 7:49, 7:48, and 7:47, with Zack.  Nice consistency, eh?

Luke - 6.25

OTC All-Comers 3k Steeplechase, 10:24.98 (3rd place)
My yearly-ish steeplechase at Hayward Field.  Started out a bit too slow so I didn't know what place I was until after finishing.  Passed a lot of people throughout the race.  The regular hurdles were fine but I didn't have enough energy to do anything with the water jump so that was always slow and tough.  Right after the final water jump a guy came flying past me and I was unable to match his kick.  Probably would have been clear of him and the rest of the field except the first place runner, who was about 20 seconds in front of anyone, if I had gone out at a reasonable speed.
Splits were 44 (start line to finish line, no hurdles), 86, 83, 82, 82, 83, 84, 78.
There's video here, although the camera work is pretty crappy so you can't really follow the race or anything.  I'm in red shorts and a black t-shirt.
Warmup was a little over a mile (house to track plus a little more), and after the race I went home and dropped off my spikes and then did a mile on Amazon for an extra 2.25.

Luke - 5.9

5.9mi, 47:38 (8:04)
1.5-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 12:15.  After the construction, the 1.6-mile loop is now permanently a 1.5-mile loop, so I don't get a nice round 6-miler any more.

Luke - 16

16mi, 2:03:51 (7:44)
After camping Friday and Saturday nights, Zack, Matt, and I headed out in the morning to Waldo Lake and met our friends Jeff, Josh, and Renee for a run.  The loop around the lake was 22 miles, but the three of us that had done 14 on Saturday planned on only doing 8 or so.  About 4 miles in when I mentioned that we were due to turn around soon, Zack vetoed it, and Josh convinced us to go 16, and they could do their 22 and pick up the cars and drive back to us.  The trails were beautiful, probably the best run as far as terrain and scenery that I've ever done.  At least top 5.  Josh and Renee had their two dogs with them, and one had a backpack with gels, water, and gatorade, so we were good on nutrition for the run.  I felt fantastic...I hadn't looked at my watch the entire run until Jeff asked me how long we'd been going; I expected to be a bit under an hour, but we were at 96 minutes already.  The end came up unexpectedly; I thought we had a couple more miles when we got to the parking lot at 16 and I felt like I could have easily gone 20.  When we stopped at 16 and all got water, Matt decided he'd do the full 22, so the four of them and one dog left and Zack and I and the other dog hung out at the lake and got in the water a bit (Zack more than me; it was too cold for me to swim around in).  A little less than an hour later Josh and Renee came running back on the trail they'd left on...apparently they'd taken a wrong turn so since 22 was their absolute limit they came straight back and Jeff and Matt were gonna do the 24 or 25 that it would take to get back to the cars.  A couple and their dog who Josh and Renee happened to know were also there, so the six of us and the three dogs hung out on a dock for a long time.  We were wondering what happened to Jeff and Matt because they were super late.  When they finally got back, it turned out they'd taken some more wrong turns and gone about 29 miles!  The cars had food in them so we all devoured everything in sight before heading out.  On the way back into town we stopped at a pizza place and took down about a half-pizza each.  Great day, great weekend.

Luke - 14

14mi, 1:49:29 (7:49)
Was out camping at Little Cultus Lake for the weekend with Zack and our friend Matt.  We planned on doing an easy 5 or so and then doing 7 or 8 in the evening, but at 3-4 miles in we decided to just go 14.  I had planned on that distance for my long run on Sunday, and just figured I'd do it one day early and then go easy on Sunday.  We ran on some great trails through the woods, past a lake or two, and just did an out and back.  We hadn't had much breakfast and I hadn't taken a gel or anything since we had only planned on 5, and in the last few miles I was a little hungry and a lot dehydrated.  I was falling back of Zack and Matt with about 3 miles to go, and after a mile I gritted my teeth and caught back up and pushed the pace a little just so we could be done with it.  When we got back I had about a liter of water and then we got in the lake for a minute before making a ton of pancakes.
Splits were 55:48 out and 53:40 back.

Luke - 7.5

7.5mi, 56:54 (7:35)
Plan was to do 5.5mi at 6:30 pace, or maybe 6:40 since I was on Rexius.  After warming up, did a 6:35 and a 6:42, and was struggling in the next couple miles, especially with stomach issues, and stopped at about 3.75 miles (didn't get the third mile split because the post was missing).  Although my stomach was the only thing really keeping me from going on, I think the rest of my body was kinda not great also...after Thursday's tough workout I really wasn't able to do another workout so soon.  I think I'll get used to these aerobic development runs pretty quickly though, and should be able to get two in a week on the reg.

Luke - 12

Ran the Peak Challenge 10k as a workout.  Did a fartlek of two minutes hard, one minute easy, the whole way.  The course went up a hill for a mile, back down the hill, then on the bike path for a mile, then repeated.  The second time was pretty tough--it was hot and a bit windy which added to a tough workout on a tough course.  Near the end I was doing my fast portion for the entirety of a marked quarter mile on the bike path, and ran an 84; I was wanting to be around 5:30 pace, so I think I did well.
Afterwards had a couple slices of pizza in addition to a thing of water and a thing of gross sports drink.  I don't think there were any awards...at any rate I didn't win (the guy who did was actually faster than me and most likely would have had little trouble beating me even if I had raced it) and I didn't stick around since I needed to cool down by jogging home.

Chris - 7.11

56:07 - 7:53 pace

I'm pretty happy with how this run turned out, considering how sore parts of my legs were earlier today. My right hammy was a bit tender, but it ended up not bothering me too much after I stretched. I took it a little easier on the way out because I wasn't sure how much I'd have left on the way back. I also did this run by Jeeni's place so it was much flatter. I felt like I was absolutely killing it on the last quarter of the run. And then  going in to the last stretch there was a cop car and ambulance coming my way and I was able to turn the loud sirens screaming right next to me into some adrenaline to carry me to the finish line.

splits: 29:09 - 26:58

Luke - 10.9

10.9mi, 80:32 (7:23)
Plan was warmup, 5mi at 6:30 pace, and cooldown.  Got a couple fairly fast chicks that wanted to join me, one planning on doing 7 miles and one planning on doing 3-4.  Also a couple guys that were doing a different workout warmed up with us, so I had a nice group for that.  We did the actual pace stuff on Rexius, which is the softest bark in town.  First mile we did 6:49 and were still talking a bit, then I picked it up to the proper pace, which was a bit of work for all of us.  The first 1.25mi was slightly uphill with a slight headwind which certainly made it tougher.  One of the ladies dropped back soon after I picked it up; she was breathing a bit heavy on the warmup so I was wondering how much she'd be able to do. A few of the quarter-mile posts are missing so I didn't get a second mile split, but 2+3 was 12:51, so a bit quick but fine.  Fourth mile with a bit of headwind was 6:36, and somewhere in that the other chick dropped back a bit so I was on my own for the last mile.  It was pretty tough and I could definitely feel the little uphill (it was 3/4 uphill and then the last quarter downhill).  The marker for what would be my finish line was missing so I stopped at about where I thought it was supposed to be, for a 6:45.  The chick that had dropped off at ~4 miles took a little shortcut to rejoin me, but it ended up only being for the last ~200m of my workout.  I realized when she rejoined me that it was a lot easier to run with someone else there.  Anyway she kept going as I slowed down to a cooldown pace.  I had to stop by the park for a pitstop so I just took roads the rest of the way home.
The workout was a bit tougher than I'd hoped.  Some of it was the soft bark and the slight hills and the wind, but really I am just pretty aerobically weak right now.  I'm doing a workout like this (aerobic development) twice a week, so hopefully I get used to it as they get longer and/or faster, and I can get marathon strong.

Chris - 4.02

35:47 - 8:54 pace

I figured this run would be a bit slow. I spent Friday night and Saturday up in Troutdale at McMenamins Edgefield celebrating one of my best friends bachelor party. Then Sunday after I got back I went wine tasting before doing my 9 miler. Yesterday after work I wanted to go to the driving range but I was too tired so I went today instead and ran after I got back home. Felt like it was a decent effort considering I had to run up the huge ass hill by my house on the way back. This coming weekend I'm playing in an 18 hole Platt employee golf tournament, then going to a wedding that Jeeni is a bridesmaid in that evening. Then Sunday I'm probably playing 9 holes in the morning before I do my 14 miler. Should be a busy weekend! Hopefully my legs are kind to me on my long run.

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 34:47 (8:11)
Mile loops of 8:22, 8:16, and 8:12, with Zack.  We both kinda just felt like crap but we got through it.  I need to stop getting home from work and sitting there for 2-3 hours before running...I've been doing it a lot the last few weeks and it's a terrible cycle of not getting enough sleep.

Luke - 16

16mi, 2:08:10 (8:00)
Ran with Zack and Jeff, up Rexius to Dillard, stopped real quick at the Barber Street Poetry Box and grabbed July's poem (I will reprint it at the end of this post) then headed up onto Ridgeline for a little while before coming down Fox Hollow and heading back on Rexius and Amazon.  We stopped at the HS track parking lot where Jeff had parked and talked for 5-10 minutes, and when I started running again I was pretty stiff.  Zack went straight home for a good 12 or so, and I continued on out to Pre's Trail and back to make it 16.  The last 4-5 miles, after stopping, were a bit tough, but I felt fine after and the rest of the run was nice.  Should get used to these long runs pretty quick, and hopefully these <3 months leading up to the marathon go well.

Luke - 6.5

BAC 5k, 15:55 (27th place)

Felt weird the first mile.  Was shooting for 4:55 or so, and was pretty much right where I wanted to be (4:57), but didn't feel good about it at all.  Normally the first mile of a 5k I feel bouncy; this felt hard and, like I said, weird.  Last two miles I was just trying to keep moving, trying to make myself hurt, but I just really didn't have anything.  Came through the second mile in 5:11.  There was a guy in front of me who I know is not nearly as fast as me, so I made sure to pass him.  My split for the last 1.1 was 5:47, so about 5:16 pace. I didn't have a kick; I felt like I was giving it all I had the last mile or two.  I had a goal of beating this guy Jeff who had beaten me at Butte To Butte, and I actually did beat him by one place.  Of the four Eugene guys who are right near each other (me, Jeff, Josh, and Brad), we came through in the exact opposite order as we did at Butte To Butte.  Of the eight Eugene people at the race I knew, half had a great race and half of us had a bad one.  Zack was on my side...I was 12 seconds slower than last year and 17 seconds behind my PR, he was 7 seconds slower than last year and 23 seconds behind his PR.

Really the last three weeks have been pretty low on mileage, and I haven't done many workouts this...year.  I was hoping I could fake it and still PR or be close, but it just wasn't happening.  Anyway, I start marathon-specific training tomorrow, so I'm glad to be back on a plan.  I do so much better when I have a plan.

Luke - 6.25

6.25mi, 50 (8)
Mile loops of 8:03, 8:05, 8:02, 8:02, and 7:57.  First four of the loops were with Zack.
This is the third run out of my last four that was an exact multiple of ten minutes long, and no seconds.  Could it be an omen??? (No, it could not.)

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 33:08 (7:47)
Mile loops of 7:59, 7:51, and 7:49.  My last three 4.25-mile runs have taken 33:08, 33:09, and 33:08.  I didn't even look at my watch during this one until after I'd finished.

Luke - 7.75

7.75mi, 60 (7:44)
Did Rexius without the mile at the top, then stopped at the track on the way back and did 400, 800, 1200 at goal race pace with 400m recovery after each one.  I was aiming for 74s and ended up going 73, 2:29, 3:4x (somewhere between 3:43 and 3:47, I didn't write it down and forgot), so not too far off.  Felt just right for a three-days-before-a-5k-race short workout.

Luke - 6.4

6.4mi, 50 (7:48)
Did the longer loop of Pre's with Zack.  It was slightly shorter because of trail construction, but we had to go slightly longer on the way there and back because they're still taking down stuff from the Olympic Trials.

Luke - 10.35

10.35mi, 81:30 (7:52)
Fox Hollow plus the 1.6-mile loop at the top, with Zack.  We had just gotten back from a weekend of camping and it was in the high 80ºs (I still consider this "very hot", as we do not live in one of the stupid parts of the country where it has been over 100º for the last month) so we were a bit ragged.  I did a decent effort up the hill (8:12) which got me feeling a lot better.  7:28 down.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 7/1-7/7

Luke - 48.75 (6)

Chris - 21.16 (3)

69.91 miles in 9 runs by 2 runners.

Chris - 12

109:57 - 9:09 pace

I definitely benefited from a good night's sleep and running earlier in the day before it got hot outside. Jeeni rode her bike with me and used the GPS tracker app that mapmyrun has for smartphones. It seemed to be pretty accurate so that was neat to try out. Then I went into work from 12-5 for a little OT.

Luke - 8

8mi, 67:15 (8:24)
Zack and I went camping with a couple other people out by Mt. Hood, and on Saturday night we ran the hiking trail to Ramona Falls.  It was a lot of fun, mostly uphill on the way to the falls, and then down on the way back.
And then six days later I wrote a blog post about it and found out that Ramona Falls is also the name of a band.

Luke - 7

7mi, 56:19 (8:02)
Drove up to the Willamette parking lot on Ridgeline, then ran out to Blanton road and back.  On the way out I just took the main trail, and then on the way back I explored every little side trail I could find, so it was about 17 minutes out and just under 40 on the way back.  All those side trails pretty much just went straight down the side of the hill, then straight back up, so it ended up being a decently tough run.

Chris - 3.05

26:59 - 8:50 pace

Felt pretty good on this run by my house.

Luke - 6.25

6.25mi, 54:58 (8:47)
Mile loops of 9:08, 9:07, and 8:59 with Zack, then 8:42 and 8:18 by myself.

Funny story!  Or maybe funny is the wrong word...interesting story?...

So I'd been seeing that chick that I mentioned on here a few times, for maybe 2-3 weeks.  I wasn't crazy about her and she seemed to be getting way into me, and I just wasn't really enjoying it any more, so I decided to break up with her.  So I called her and was like, "I don't think we should see each other any more," and she was upset, of course, but I was calm and nice, and repeated things like "It just didn't work out" and "I'm sorry" and told her it wasn't anything she did, that she was still a great girl and all that.  Lots of repeating of those lines.  I thought I did an okay job but I haven't really had to break up with someone in that way before so I don't really know.  Anyway she was like, "Let me come over and we'll talk," and I said no, I had to get to bed and there wasn't really anything to talk about or any reason for her to come over.  But she was having none of it and kept saying she was going to come over.  I was like, "Don't do that; call your friend once you get off the phone with me."  Again, I repeated this a lot but she kept saying she was going to come over.  I told her I wasn't going to answer the door and that she really shouldn't come over, and she said she was going to come over with a pillow and sleep on my porch and like follow me to work if I didn't talk to her.  I tried to talk her down, but after I got off the phone with her I told Zack what was up and that he didn't need to answer the door if she came by.  I went to bed, and 15-20 minutes later I hear her knocking a bunch and then I hear Zack answer the door and I hear them talk for a while before Zack finally closes the door on her.  A few minutes later she comes and bangs on my window.  I have inside shutters and a blanket over them to keep the sunlight out when I go to bed at 7 or 8, so I can't see her and she can't see me, so I just ignore her and figure she'll get tired and go away.  She keeps banging on the window and wailing at me to come talk to her, and then (drumroll please) the window breaks.  Holy crap she broke my window!  So I silently roll out of bed and go talk to Zack and we decide to call the cops, and they get here surprisingly quickly but are unable to find her even though her car is still out front.  They leave and I go inspect the window and find that she only broke the outside pane of my double-paned window, so it's not like she could have crawled in or something.  Anyway I go to bed, and when I wake up and go to work her car is gone.
Two days later when I got back from my run, Zack told me that she had come by while I was running, and she had apologized to him and said she'd pay for the window.
And then on THIS run, on the last 200m of my last mile loop, she was running with a dog the opposite direction of me, and she realized it was me and I realized it was her, and she laughed (or it could have been a sob, but I think it was a laugh) and I said "Hi" awkwardly and then didn't turn back.
The End!

Chris - 6.11

54:17 - 8:53 pace

I skipped my run yesterday because my body was feeling so drained. I don't plan on doing that any more, but I'm glad I did because I felt much more refreshed during this run.

Luke - 10.25

Butte To Butte 10k, 33:57 (12th place)
I'm writing this nine days after the race, so we'll see if I have my usual level of race-recap detail.

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 33:09 (7:48)
Mile loops of 8:12, 8:01, and 7:12.  One second slower than when I did this run two days prior.

Luke - 13

13mi, 95:21 (7:20)
Ran with a group of people on a gravel road by a lake.  It was pretty and all, but the road was very crowned and a lot of the turns were banked, so I was always running on a slope, which is kind of annoying.  Some people were going pretty fast right at the start but I hung back a little and ran with one other guy and we turned around after not too crazy long and kept it pretty easy.  Some people did 12, some people did as much as 18.  Afterward I went in the lake up to my thighs even though it was quite cold.
48:02 out, 47:19 back.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 6/24-6/30

Luke - 49.55 (6)
Chris - 23.45 (4)
Alison - 11.25 (3)
James - 3.75 (1)

88 miles in 15 runs by 4 runners.

Chris - 11.24

111:39 - 9:56 pace

I did this out & back run in Kent on their "Interurban Trail". I played 9 holes in the morning, and only got 7 hours of sleep since we drove up last night, and I felt it in the second half of this run.

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 33:08 (7:47)
Mile loops of 8:05, 7:49, and 7:40.

Luke - 10.5

Went to Relentless Hills via the back side of Hendricks Park, and tried to explore all the mountain-biking trails.  Usually in that area I have just stuck to the larger trails, but in the woods there's a ton of fun bike trails, with jumps and banked turns and stuff.  I got lost a bunch of times and walked here and there, and at one point I wanted to be like 50-100 feet South of where I was but there was a never-ending swath of thorn bushes between me and the main road, and I wasn't really on a trail, so I ended up finding a large stick/log and swinging it like a hockey stick in front of me to make a path.  It worked surprisingly well; I mowed down like fifty feet of thick brush in about a minute.  Good times.

Chris - 3.07

28:45 - 9:21 pace

Hilly run by my house. Pretty tired from yesterday's run, plus I didn't sleep well last night.

Chris - 6.11

47:15 - 7:43 pace

Now this is closer to race pace! Jeeni rode her bike along with me again. It was pretty sunny and warm out when we left her place, so I slathered myself up with sunscreen and wore a white dri-fit tee that I got from doing the Pints to Pasta 10k last year. I'm also pretty happy that I was able to pull off a negative split.

I have a 3 miler tomorrow, then my dad and I are driving up to Seattle on Friday after I get off work so we can play 9 holes of golf Saturday morning before the Mariners/Red Sox game that night. I'll also get to run 11 miles sometime between golf and the baseball game, so that will be nice to have a different place to run.

split: 23:44 - 23:31

Luke - 5.9

5.9mi, 44:45 (7:35)
Did the 1.5-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 11:07.  Would have done the normal 1.6-mile loop to make an even 6 miles, but they're doing trail construction so the extra little bit was closed off.

Alison & James - 3.75

We went running outside since the tropical storm's intense winds have cooled down the temp so much (mid-80s!). Our fave park was under construction, so our detour had us doing ridiculously long laps.

This was fartleks. James did pretty well. We soaked his ankle afterward with Epsom salts.

We chatted about our upcoming one-year anniversary trip so that made the run less stupid.

Chris - 3.03

27:20 - 9:01 pace

I thought my legs would feel fresher for this run, but for some reason they didn't. Oh well. I hope my 6 mile tempo run goes well tomorrow. I'm going to try and run a flatter route to see if I can get a better read on what sort of pace I can run right now.

Luke - 6.4

6.4mi, 58:24 (9:07)
Ran the Butte to Butte course with that chick...she wanted to run the course at least once before running the actual race so I said I'd show her the course.  When we were coming down the hill there was a turkey and I chased it a bit, and then I saw a portapotty and went to use it and it was next to this guy's house and he came out and I wasn't sure if it was his or not so I asked if I could use it, and he was like "You know that's illegal.  That's a ticketable offense." And I was like "Using this?" and he was like "Chasing that turkey.  It's called harassing the wildlife.  It's illegal, you can get a ticket for that," and I was like, "Oh, sorry!" and then he lectured me some more, and I kept being like, "Okay, sorry, didn't know," and he kept lecturing me because apparently they were "kind of" his pets although he just lets them run through the streets I guess?  Anyway then he was like, "How would you like it if someone chased you?" and I was like, "Well I'd probably like it, but I'm a runner, and the turkey probably isn't, so I won't do it again."  Anyway after all the lecturing I decided not to use the toilet so I just joined back up with the chick and we started running again, and I really had to pee.  Finally like halfway through the run I told her to keep going, because I knew of a park with a toilet, so I bolted off to use it and then bolted back to catch up with her...it was pretty tough; she was going low-9s pace but with running an extra .2mi or so and using the bathroom it took a good few minutes of hard running to catch back up before the next turn.

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 59:48 (9:12)
The full Rexius at 3:30am.

Alison - 3

I was so wiped today that I had totally phoned it in today. Maybe I was thinking of my slow-cooker bolognese. Either way, I ran this in 33 mins.

Now reading an Edith Head bio that I can't read in public because it's so dang moving.

Luke - 16

16mi, 1:49:31 (6:50)
Went out to a bike path called the Row River trail, about a half hour South of here, with a bunch of other people.  In addition to some of the people I normally run with, we had a group of Ohio University runners that had road tripped out to Eugene for the Trials.  A local runner (who ran 2:15 at the Olympic Marathon Trials) went to school at OU so that's how the connection got made.
The route was out and back, so there were a lot of people going a lot of different distances.  Some of the OU guys turned around as soon as 3-4 miles in; a lot of them turned around at 6.5, and when I turned around at 8 there was only one guy still going (a group did 18 miles and then two of them did another 2 miles when they got back).  So on the return trip it was me, an OU guy, and Renee.  We had done low 7s on the way out, and we were doing high 6s on the way back, but then my stomach started hurting, and in wanting to get back (to the bathroom) sooner I pushed the pace, and we were doing 6:30s and faster for a lot of it.  It was fun and felt good except for my stomach, which felt fine after.  Splits were 56:03 out and 53:28 back.

Alison - 4.5

We came into the gym less than an hour before closing (a lot of gyms [here anyway] close early on Sunday nights) and blhablhablabh

Weekly Mileage Totals, 6/17-6/23

Luke - 91.75 (8)
Alison - 17.59 (5)
Chris - 17.15 (4)
Jeeni - 6.1 (2)
James - 1 (1)

133.59 miles in 20 runs by 5 runners.

Luke - 10.25

10.25mi, 77:08 (7:31)
Don't know exactly where this was; I have splits of 43:28, 21:49, and 11:50 written down.  I assume the 11:50 is the last mile and a half back from Rexius, so the 21:49 is probably Rexius plus coming down Fox Hollow, which leaves a mysterious 43:28.  Really need to write these things sooner than 20 days after the fact.

Chris - 6

58:00 - 9:40 pace

Ran a nice easy out & back down and up that big hill that I was referencing a few posts ago. Jeeni rode my mountain bike along with me while I ran. About a half mile from my house/the finish it started to rain a little bit, and while I was waiting at the stop light to cross it turned into a torrential downpour. So the last few blocks I was laughing and hooting and hollering about being caught in the monsoon, and wiping my eyes because the rain was washing sunscreen into them. Good times!

Luke - 16.5

16.5mi, 2:16 (8:14)
Ran, via Relentless Hills, out to the trails under the power lines behind Lane Community College, and at the point where I'd head West to get out to Ridgeline I went East instead.  I was planning on just going to the top of the hill I saw, but I kept on wanting to go just a little bit farther and a little bit farther, as the trail became less and less of a trail.  It was all wheat-type grass up to my knees but it was at least runnable.  I saw in the distance what I thought might be a road so I headed toward it to see if I could find a way back to 30th Ave (street with LCC on one side and Relentless Hills on the other), but I ended up coming to a power station with barbed-wire fences all around it and I had to turn back.  Followed the trail under the power lines a bit farther and ended up coming out on the other side of the power station, to the entrance, so I was able to run on the road at that point.  I didn't know what road it was or where it would lead, but eventually I came upon a nice bark trail and I hopped on it and a minute later found that I was back on the LCC campus.  I took the quickest way back, which was to cross the LCC track, and as I was doing so there was a security guard 50m off telling me I couldn't be on the track (the Olympic Trials athletes were using LCC as their training grounds for a couple weeks).  I told her not to worry about it or something and just kept going; I was heading off the track anyway and it's not like she was going to catch me.  Headed back through Relentless Hills and home, where I had to take a super-quick shower and grab a couple slices of leftover pizza as I headed out the door, because I was late and Zack and I wanted to check out the Olympic Trials.
Oh also this whole run it was pouring like crazy, so I looked especially haggard as I got home.  Also kinda funny that it was the hardest it had rained the whole year and it was the first day of the trials, so everyone coming into town got the worst Eugene had to offer.

Alison - 4.31

I ran and went to Publix immediately after. It didn't make me buy more than what I planned, but I was so ravenous when I got home. I ran more to make up for yesterday's flibberty gibbet attempt.

I drank weirdly little during my run today.

Distance: 4,31

Time: 48

Volume Drank: 12 oz (???)

Chris & Jeeni - 3

29:45 - 9:55 pace

Ran 3 miles before Game 5 came on. I had to sprint the last quarter mile because we realized that we had forgotten to set the DVR for the start of the game and we had a couple friends that were coming over to watch the game with us. Only missed about 2 minutes of the start of the first quarter. PHEW.

Luke - 12.5

Don't know if this was one run or an am and a pm...lost any record of it except the 12.5 on the Excel spreadsheet I've been keeping this year.  Hopefully I can get caught up on my posts and this won't happen again!

Chris - 5.05

40:57 - 8:06 pace

I'm getting faster! Today I was supposed to run race pace, so I tried to take it a bit easy going out before I killed myself on the way back. According to mapmyrun, my house is at 553 ft elevation, and the lowest point of my run (the halfway point) is at 267 ft of elevation. Between miles 3 and 4 I climb from 281 to 547. So I have my work cut out for me on my way back! But its going to be really good for me come marathon time...

Luke - 13

Did pretty much the same route as Monday, but with some others who wanted to be shown a couple trails that are useful for connecting portions of different runs.  Felt pretty good until 3-4 miles from home, when my stomach went.  There was a bathroom in a park I was able to make it to, and at that point the group knew the rest of the run so I was able to beg off.

Alison - 2.12

Today I ran two miles, but in segments. I had run a mile, saw a friend I hadn't seen in a while, meandered downstairs to give him a huge and exchange some goss, then went back upstairs and pounded out another mile. But by then, I had lost my momentum and didn't want to be late for my noon appointment. Poop.

Chris & Jeeni - 3.1

29:20 - 9:27 pace

Short run after work before NBA Finals Game 4. I didn't think we ran this slow but oh well. I'm looking forward to see how tomorrow's tempo run goes.

Alison (5.26) & James (1.0)

James ran the first 10mins/1 mile with me and then he went down the weight room(s) for his upper body workout. He was making fun of me for nearly falling off my treadmill from laughter during Ch. 25 of the R.E. memoir.

Total time: 55:20

Distance: 5.26 miles

Volume Drank: 40 oz.

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 61:02 (9:32)
1.6-mile loop of Pre's in 15:43.  With the girl; a bit faster than last time.

Luke - 5.5

5.5mi, 50:12 (9:07)
Rexius without the mile at the top, at 3:45am.

Luke - 13

13mi, 1:43:33 (7:57)
Did a refined version of this run, with a lot less hacking through thorn bushes.  Did six (6) pullups on the way back in two sets of three.

Alison - 3.5 (P.M.)

James was out with buddies and I was feeling bad about not having an amazing run earlier so I came back for Take Two and to spend a little more time with Rodge. Did this in exactly 35 mins so am running a steady pace.

Alison - 2.4 (A.M.)

Post-weight resistance run of 30 mins. Felt awful, slow pace. Ate green matcha almond steel-cut oats for breakfast but it was right before the gym, so I am not sure they were really kicking in by the time I ran.

Luke - 14.5

14.5mi, 1:55 (7:55)
Met a group of people at a grocery store near my house and we carpooled to Mount Pisgah.  Took some weird trails that I'd never be able to find again, had to ford a few streams, climb a couple fences, and just generally have an adventure.  A lot harder than a normal 14.5-miler (and that distance is a total estimate).  A couple miles from the end we were on a gravel road and there was a six pack of Blue Moon sitting on the shoulder; five were empty but there was a full one, so I grabbed it and took it home.  A nice souvenir for a fun run.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 6/10-6/16

Luke - 78.95 (9)
Chris - 27.66 (5)
Alison - 18.2 (6)
Lauren - 4.605 (3)

126.912 miles in 20 runs by 4 runners.

Chris - 8.55

78:27 - 9:10 pace

Went to Welches this weekend with Jeeni's family (took Friday and Monday off). Mapped out an out and back route going up north on a road called E Lolo Pass Rd. I was supposed to run 9, but I wasn't confident that I took the right road so I turned around after 42 minutes, not realizing that a decent part of the run I had being running uphill...oh well. On the way back I also had my first experience with having to find a solitary spot to go to the bathroom and find some good leaves to use that weren't poison oak...lol.

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 67:13 (10:20)
Rexius with that chick again.  This might be a little too slow, maybe I'll encourage her to pick it up slightly next time.

Luke - 6.4

6.4mi, 51:00 (7:58)
1.6-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 13:01.  Legs were a wee bit tired after yesterday's run.

Alison - 2.5

Pre-yoga run. Legs are starting to loosen up. I blame nixing bananas from my daily protein shake because of the sugar that's in them. So stupid! I hardly eat any sugar so I don't know what's wrong with me. I will never again forsake the holy banana.

Luke - 17

17mi, 2:23:33 (8:26)
Drove up to Blanton Road and parked at the far West end of Ridgeline.  Ran the usual way to Fox Hollow Road, then did the 1.6-mile loop before heading down the trail.  Near the bottom I added the loop that goes up another hill and crosses a stream, then when I got back to the base of Fox Hollow I took the little trail that goes over to the trail I found a couple days ago.  Took that up to Dillard and continued up to the top of Mount Baldy, then headed down to the East end of Ridgeline.  Did a hairpin turn just before the road and took the trail that goes around Mount Baldy back to Dillard.  Randomly found a good-sized pond I never knew was there.  From Dillard I headed back down the same trail back toward Fox Hollow, but instead of doing the regular Fox Hollow ascent, I did the steeper/shorter alternate route up, just to save .1 or .2 miles because I realized how long this run was going to be.  From Fox Hollow Road I went back the same way I came...the last three or four miles my legs were fairly toast.
This 17-mile run was pretty much all trail.  Crossed a road six times and ran on one for one or two tenths of a mile, but that was it.  The first four miles was the same route as the last four miles, and I went both up and down that new trail, but other than that there were no repeating trails.  Over ten miles of unique trails, not bad for one run.

Alison - 3.2

I was pretty excited that I wasn't sore this morning after weight training (I run right after) but oh were my quads and shins sore after today's run.

We are watching England and Sweden's tense game. All the guys on the Swedish team have such beautiful hair.

PTL, I think tomorrow is a rest day (other than yoga in the late a.m.)

Lauren - 2.605

It's a Twofer Friday! This morning's run was curtailed by the occupation in which I currently earn money, which warranted a shower beforehand. As I bopped and interjected Batman references into my SAT Essay Writing Class, my mind pined for the track, and what baby wants, baby gets. Quite proud of this record. Inching my way up to that first goal of 5 miles/week. Goooo Team Legs!

Chris - 3

27:36 - 9:12 pace

Felt better today than I did last week after my Wednesday 5 miler, so I was happy about that!

Alison - 3.5

A husband and wife got on treadmills on either side of me (instead of next to each other, which they could have done), presumably to irritate the pea soup out of me. I couldn't hear my book on tape (and it was getting to the part where Ebert was talking about Cannes for goodness sake!) so I put on Bloc Party instead and now I probably have premature hearing loss because they were chattering So Loud. Then the husband stopped his treadmill and got on his wife's treadmill Behind Her and I was so afraid he was going to fall off and into me and then there would be the unholy rage that only can come from a Type-B personality when you push them too far. But it didn't and I am still sweet as pie!

James biked across the floor from me (my row of treadmills is in a balcony/loft area overlooking some weight machines and his bike was on a similar balcony on the opposite side of that room) so we were able to wave.

This was about 33 minute run (I didn't count my 5-min warm up) and then I did 3.5 miles on the bike with James for symmetry and then we went home and ate two cloves of raw garlic apiece for various health benefits. And oh man, it's quite an undertaking.

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 63:08 (9:42)
Ran Rexius with this girl I've kinda been seeing or something.  We were going to do 5 miles or less but she wanted to keep going.  Pretty slow but she was able to do 6.5 miles on bark no problem.  She said she normally does 5 miles or a little less about four times a week, and since she did this and it wasn't too hard she said she'll probably start increasing that.  Another step forward in my quest to get the world to run more miles.

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 37:57 (8:55)
Mile loops of 9:06, 8:53, and 8:35, at 3:45am.

Chris - 5.06

44:05 - 8:42 pace

Still tired...got off work and took an impromptu 20 minute nap on my bed. Felt better than I thought I would on my run though. The out and back I did had a pretty decent incline on the way back, so I have a tough time getting a negative split, but that's okay because I'm just supposed to be running relatively easy except for the prescribed tempo runs.

Luke - 13.5

13.5mi, 1:50:56 (8:13)
Ran to Relentless Hills and tried to take the trail that would get me to the bottom of the back side of The Wall the fastest.  I haven't run on this particular section of trail in a while, and for a while I was running through the brush a bit because the trail was quite overgrown.  A couple times I had to do some trickier navigation to make my way around or over trees that had fallen on the path (probably during that storm a few months ago that took a bunch of trees out).  At one point I got to what was pretty much a dead end, because a tree with lots of branches was across the path, and there were lots and lots of thorny bushes on either side.  I tried to bend branches back and move as much of the tree as I could, but it wasn't really happening.  I really didn't want to turn around and go back the way I came, so I worked at the tree for a while, and finally was able to make it through a tiny hole in all the mess.  I was just about crawling, but trying to avoid as much of the thorniness as possible.  After finally making it to my intended destination, I headed out to 30th Avenue and crossed it and headed for Lane Community College.  Once there I headed up to the trails under the power lines that I'd found about a month ago and tried to see how far I could go on them.  They were some pretty fun trails with a lot of up and down; early on there were some very short crazy-steep sections that I had to use my hands to climb up.  There were some dirt bikers riding around when I got to the trail intersection here.  I was heading South and there was a cool-looking hill in front of me, but I came to a fence when I tried to go that way.  Came back to the intersection and headed West (side-note, I definitely want to head East from this intersection sometime, because I think the trails will keep going for at least a few more miles), then saw another trail heading South, so I tried to take that one, but it ended up running into the same fence.  I ended up just following the fence to the West as the trail kinda faded away and I was just high-stepping through fields and bushes.  I ended up getting to someone's back yard, but they had barbed wire around it so I then followed their fence North, just trying to get out of there, again not wanting to head back the way I came.  After navigating some more thorny bushes, I got to their gate, but the fence kept going so I ended up just hopping the barbed-wire fence anyway.  At that point I was finally back on a road, but I didn't know where I was at all.  I came to a slightly more main road and it said the one I was on was Marci Lane, but there was no sign for the current road.  I picked a direction and headed up, and then saw a mailbox that said I was on Hidden Meadows Drive, which sounded familiar.  As I headed up the road I finally realized where I was...it's the road I've gone down a few times that's a really steep hilly loop off of Dillard Road.  Where it meets Dillard is at the Ridgeline trail.  I could have headed up Dillard and gotten on Ridgeline the normal way to get back home, but I had read they were going to put a trail from where I was straight to the bottom of the Fox Hollow trail, and I thought there was some sort of path already in place there so I set about finding it.  I headed onto a rocky road under some power lines and could see a trail stretching out below me, and I thought it was just going to be this boring road with big rocks that are no fun to run on...but about a quarter mile in I spotted a smaller trail heading into the woods, so I took that instead.  Once in the woods the trail split all over the place, so I explored all the trails I could.  One of them took me back up to right near the beginning of that road, so I barely have to deal with the big rocks at all.  A lot of the trails ended up in people's back yards, but the main trail, which was a lot of fun, ended up where I was hoping it would, at the end of a trail that goes about a quarter-mile, to the Fox Hollow trail.  Another Eugene trail I don't know how I missed for so many years.  It's pretty decent quality except for the last quarter-mile or so was a bit overgrown...I think they're gonna Ridgeline-ize it sometime in the next year so that it will all be nice and even.
Headed back home on Rexius, and did three (3) pullups.  The 13.5-mile label is obviously an estimate.

Alison - 1.5

Easy post-boxing, post-racquetball run. Yoga tonight.

Stretching must have worked cause my muscles feel looser with the exception of my left calf - it (and I) woke up screaming in the middle of the night with a horrible cramp.

Lauren - 1

I thought I was late to the lady parade today. At 7:01, I arrived at the park, threw my specs and other non-running items in the trunk, and squinted in desperation for my friends to no avail. As it so happens, they were late. I noticed a colorful blur waving at me after I walked a warm-up. Cut my running short again, this time due to knee yelping, but I did manage to walk the rest of my 5k. As of now, I am so caught by all of the zombies. Zoinks.

Chris - 3

26:51 - 8:57 pace

It's funny to me that it now makes me happy when I run under 9 minute pace for my training runs. Just call me Steve ;) lol juuuust kidding! I did an out and back and definitely picked it up on the way back without too much extra effort, so that was nice. I'm hoping to fast forward through a lot of the commercials during Game 1 tonight so I can get home earlier and go to bed.  I don't have premium cable so I have to watch all of the NBA Finals games at Jeeni's house, which she so graciously lets me do =)

Luke - 4.8

4.8mi, 37:39 (7:50)
Ran on the bike path and a little bit on Pre's, ending up at Midas, where I picked up my car.

Alison - 4.5

48-minute run, after a cycling warm-up (hoping I can get over the stiffness).

Roger Ebert has some great stories about studying in apartheid South Africa.

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 59:23 (9:08)
Rexius at 3:15am.  Yesterday I went to bed at 6:something without running, because I was so tired.  I was hoping to get another mile in on this run but I didn't have enough time...my car is in the shop (the brakes were fuct) so I had to bike in to work.  I ended up being late anyway because I couldn't find my helmet.

Alison - 3

Post-weight resistance, pre-pilates run of 3 miles in about 28 minutes.

Instead of yoga and pilates helping my running, I almost feel like running is impairing my yoga/pilates practice over the last few days -- my hamstrings and hips are so tight and no amount of stretching seems to alleviate it.

Lauren - 1

Late, so quick run this morning on treadmill. Nick lent his earbuds to me. They kept falling out! Perhaps my ears are oddly shaped? Fail buds. Boo.

Chris - 8.05

73:16 - 9:06 pace

I was supposed to do my long run yesterday, but I worked 7-4 at the RSC and when I got home I tried taking a nap to gain some energy it didn't really help so I decided to run today instead. I'm pretty happy with how the run went considering I didn't feel like I had much extra energy in my legs. It will be nice when my body catches up a bit with all of these miles and I can feel a bit more fresh before I do these longer runs.

Luke - 13.5

13.5mi, 1:48:15 (8:01)
Went out to the South end of the Ribbon Trail, took it to the backside of Hendricks Park, then took the road I came out from Relentless Hills onto a week or two ago and followed the same trail in.  Explored a bit of that trail and did some tromping around in brush here and there, and after I'd had enough gallivanting in Relentless Hills I went up Spring Street to Ridgeline.  Took some offshoot trail in there and ended up coming out onto one Barber Drive, which links up to Dillard, which links up to Rexius.  As I was heading toward Dillard, I saw one of those boxes that real estate agents put out that have sheets of paper in them with information on the house for sale.  I stopped to check one out, but the box was actually the Barber Drive Poetry Box, which apparently gets stocked once a month with a new poem.  There was a little note on the box that said "June's poem is here!" so I took one and read it, and then folded it up and put it in my key pocket before heading home.  I took Rexius to Amazon, and did four (4) pullups.
I'll re-print the poem here...I think I should make a point to stop by that box once a month and get the poem and post it with my run.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 6/3-6/9

Luke - 62.85 (7)
Alison - 25.57 (8)
Chris - 11 (3)
Lauren 3.25 (2)
Jeeni - 3 (1)

105.67 miles in 21 runs by 5 runners.

Alison - 2.0

Pre-yoga run this morning. Wanted to go for 30 mins but James was taking forrrever to get ready.

Luke - 13.6

13.6mi, 1:52:01 (8:14)
The Butte.  Didn't run yesterday, but am mostly caught up on sleep now.  Did three (3) pullups on the way back.
Splits: 11:51, 14:24, 9:11, 7:21, 8:24, 3:58, 3:28 (58:41), 3:12, 2:46, 6:19, 5:26, 7:46, 15:13, 12:33

Alison - 3.31 (P.M.)

Went back to the gym for a 29-minute nighttime run since we had slow-cooker veg lasagna for dinner and because I had to find out what happened in the next chapter of the Ebert memoir.

Lauren - 1.55

Running group added a fourth member today, Rebecca. R wasn't keen on the running, and I fell prey to her walking. The second she said, "I think I'll bring my bike next time," I nodded to her, wished her luck, and went back to running. The track was nice out. A deluge passed through last night, leaving everything crisp. The issue with rain and Houston is that the humidity likes to hang in the air, making my lungs curse in protest. First lap was the warm-up. I'm at a loss because yoga to warm up at home is a fair distance from the practice track with the team. Second lap left me feeling like rubbery, heavy jelly. My third lap was my strongest, and I could have kept going, but team had places to be and such. What's the verdict here? In the future, should I keep trucking if I feel healthy and able, sans team? Or should I call it a day in case of injuries? There's probably not a right answer here.

Alison - 3.1 (A.M.)

26:30

My PR is so far away that it will take an asteroid 3.4 light years to make it to where I am now. Ugh.

Luke - 5.5

5.5mi, 40:22 (7:20)
1.4-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 10:32.  With Zack.  Tired.  Weekend starts now, thank God.

Chris - 3

28:15 - 9:25 pace

I'm super dead today...it was all I could do to make myself go run and slog my feet in front of myself until I was done. I love the NBA playoffs but it's been so much harder to get to bed early when I'm running and watching all the Celtics games and doing errands with Jeeni and whatnot. Oh well!

Alison - 3.56

FINALLY got my speed up a little bit - did this in about 31 minutes. I had the incline at 1.0 most of the time so I think that helped. I did a core class before and I think I was just so glad that that class was over that it helped me run better.

OMG you guys, you have to read that Roger Ebert memoir!

This week's green of choice in our protein shakes in chard.

Chris - 5

43:32 - 8:42 pace

Today is my first prescribed tempo run. Hal Higdon says to run it at "race pace". Since I'm not in good enough shape to run 7:30's for 5 miles, I just pushed myself so I got a good workout.

Luke - 8

8mi, 60:34 (7:34)
1.6-mile loop in 12:03, 1.4-mile loop in 10:33.

Alison - 2.65

Happy National Running Day, Luke/Lauren/ChrisBreen/Jeeni/Steve/Zack! oh and James of course.


Post-weight training (used pilates reformer machine today for an excellent full body workout and I am sore in places I didn't know I had) and then ran for about half an hour but didn't go full-throttle after last night's craziness. I went home and died last night!

Incline: 2.0
Time: about 30
Distance: 2.65

I listened to the Ebert memoir again but kept in under control. I think he is going to give some really good dirt on what it was like working with Siskel.

Lauren - 1.7

My summer schedule at work just started (lucky me!) and so I've been up earlier and earlier to greet the day. My MWFs just became more interesting, too. My co-worker Rosa, who's a former Marine in name only, invited me to join her and a friend (Jennifer) for a tri-weekly 5k. Ouch, but YES. I ran half today. Goal for Friday? Be stronger. Stretch more efficiently. But I dig this. The drive home was interesting, as my brain went to mush and I felt like I loved EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING on this planet. Still feeling groovy. Mas! Mas! Mas, por favor!

Chris & Jeeni - 3

27:08 - 9:02 pace

Quick run after work so I could watch the Celtics/Heat game before it got too late. What an exciting game all the way to the finish! We were originally supposed to go see 'Snow White & The Huntsman' tonight but a couple people dropped out so we're going tomorrow. I'm also going to see 'Prometheus' on Friday, and maybe 'The Avengers' again on Saturday. Today is my first official day of marathon training! This week is 3, 5 @ race pace, 3, and 8 for the long run. Go Celtics!

Luke - 10.5

10.5mi, 85:34 (8:08)
Fox Hollow plus the 1.6-mile loop at the top.  Took the alternate route up, and then on the way down did the extra bit that goes up a hill and over a stream.

Alison - 6.88

Incline: 1.0 to 3.0
Time: 75 mins
Distance: 6.88 mi

I was very stressed out today and worried about some stuff on Weds so I decided to run at a decent pace for as long as I could. I got a little slower toward the end. This took me about 75 minutes. I was listening to Robert Ebert's memoir and nearly weeping openly on the treadmill because of how he was touched by Ingmar Bergman's Persona, so maybe I won't be listening to that in public anymore.

Luke - 8.25

8.25mi, 64:47 (7:51)
Did both sides of Pre's, but with a handful of detours throughout the run.

Alison - 1.5

I was feeling pretty fubar today so I ran for about 15 minutes after my weight training and then went home. We moved a bunch of furniture over the weekend and I think that really took it out of me as well as lack of good sleep the night before.

Had an excellent pudding I made from chia seeds though. Highly recommended for energy and protein and taste! (I just soaked chia seeds overnight in almond milk with lemon zest and then added Morani Splenda-sweetened coconut flavoring in just before serving.

Luke - 5.5

5.5, 48:55 (8:53)
Rexius without the mile at the top, at 3:15am.

Alison - 2.57

Post-core class run on a level 8 incline (15 is max, by the way, not 10 so it's not as impressive as it sounds). Thighs burn, ouch.

Luke - 11.5

11.5mi, 86:57 (7:33)
Dave and Zack and I drove out to Springfield and met up with a half-dozen other runners for a longish run on the Weyerhauser logging road.  It was a good time, although my stomach hurt the second half--again, I need to catch up on sleep.  Afterward we all sat around at the Starbucks inside the Albertsons for some snacks and some running talk.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 5/27-6/2

Luke - 51.3 (7)
Alison - 16.58 (5)
Zack - 11.2 (1)
Jeeni - 8.41 (2)
Lauren - 4.21 (4)
Chris - 3.11 (1)
James - 1 (1)

95.81 miles in 21 runs by 7 runners.

Luke - 5.6

5.6mi, 44:53 (8:00)
Dave and Zack and I drove up to the Willamette parking lot of Ridgeline, and ran over to Fox Hollow, did the 1.6-mile loop, and ran back.  All really easy, although Zack said I was going pretty fast.  My stomach hurt the last mile or so, as has been happening the last few days, almost certainly due to not having enough sleep.
We did this run after watching The Pre Classic, which is always a great time, and I was about ten feet from Kenenisa Bekele at one point, which is pretty cool.

Lauren - 1

Friday, I ran a mile. Nick, who has spent his time cycling, has nudged me to vary my routine, so today, I plan to at least walk my entire 5k. Maybe I'll intersperse some running, too. Also: In need of headphones. Paycheck makes this possible. Recommendations?

Luke - 7.8

7.8mi, 57:31 (7:22)
Zack's friend Dave got into town today so after a latish lunch at the Beer Stein he and I met up with Zack and the three of us ran both sides of Pre's.  1.6-mile loop in 11:46, 1.4-mile loop in 10:08.

After running we had some dinner and then headed to Hollister Night, which is what they called the track meet the night before The Pre Classic.  We saw some great races, and afterward we went out for food and drinks with a running friend we ran into, a German guy in his late-40s who is a lot of fun to talk with.

Alison - 4

Post-weight resistance run of 4 miles. I keep the incline down to 0 today cause I didn't wanna die.

This was another 42+ minutes or so. My book on tape ran out so I was forced to listen to the weather channel instead of the heinous music videos the gym was blasting out at shakes of 7.7 on the Richter.

Luke - 5.5

5.5mi, 39:50 (7:14)
1.4-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 10:28.  Faster than usual, but felt easy.

Jeeni - 5.3

Ran a 5.3 after work today..it was a very rolling hills 5.3, but my last mid-size run before my half in Chicago next weekend.

Luke - 11

11mi, 85:24 (7:45)
Met up at Amazon with another runner and we ran over to Hendricks Park, around to the backside, hopped the railroad tracks (they recently put up a No Trespassing sign, which I guess I have to ignore) and onto Pre's Trail before heading back home.  We had lots of conversations about running, which was nice.

Alison - 4

Post-weight resistance run of 4 miles in 44.5 minutes. We had yoga later; I think I really need a rest day tomorrow!

Since I haven't been improving my time much, today I went for distance. The bad news is I got bored and quit before I was tired cause I was bored -- my book on CD ended and I had been at the gym like 90 mins at this point(honestly that was probably only another few minutes). But the good news is I could have ran more -- I'd like to be able to run an hour straight again by July 2nd. Adding that extra quarter hour is going to be way harder than it seems; I haven't ran that long in ages.

We've been using bok choy as taco wraps, since they are so much less delicate and less crunchy than similar leafy greens but still have lots of iron. This works so well and I recommend it to everyone!

Products I like:
I've also been really liking Lemonade-flavored Designer Whey (they come in single serving, 50-calorie packets sweetened with Stevia). I love lemon-flavor better than anything (including chocolate), so this is a hot commodity right now. They come in orange and berry too. I like mixing the lemon with unsweetened iced tea for an Arnold Palmer protein water. yay! The protein powder isn't gritty so you can't really tell it's even in there, except it will cloud the drink up a bit.

Lauren - 0.76

Legs were tight yesterday with new shoes, and even tighter today with old shoes. Going to hang back for a day and do some yoga stretching. Going to have to work my way up to 5 miles per week smarter. Probably going to keep old shoes just for biking.

Chris & Jeeni - 3.11

29:33

Tried to run a little quicker today. Felt like it, but I think Jeeni forgot to hit her watch at one of the intersections.

Luke - 6.4

6.4mi, 47:28 (7:25)

1.6-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 12:03.

Alison - 3.2

33 mins

Incline 2-4

I was a little anxious today (today was supposed to be my rest day), so I visualized stress drifting toward my feet and then my shoes smashing it out onto the treadmill.

Lauren - 1.07

Note to self: Hydrate. I spent most of this weekend being quite 'Muhrican and eating. And eating. And eating. The next holiday that pops up will be spent running, running, and running. Lucky for me, this will be July 4, possibly one of the hottest months in Houston. Whee. Did I hallucinate or did someone ask about the zombie 5k?

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 50:04 (7:42)

Rexius, with Zack.

Alison - 2.31

Fartleks/interval run for about 28 mins.

Slower pace was about 4.2 mph, which is a jogging pace if you have short legs. Everyone stay safe today, especially if you are running on the roads!

P.S. During my run today I listened to LCD Soundsystem - which I tend to do when running intervals.

Alison - 3.07; James - 1

HeartRate: 138
Adjusted Incline from 1.0 to 5.0 every 4 minutes. Ouch.

James ran with me for the first mile and then hung out with the recumbent bikes.

Luke - 8.5

8.5mi, 68:33 (8:03)
Ran on the bike path with Zack.  My legs were feeling real sore so I could barely keep up 8-minute pace.

Zack - 11.2

85:17 (7:37)

Ran to the bike path along the Willamette River with Luke. We were both trying to keep things relaxed as he raced the day before and I did a long, hilly bike ride.  We cruised along easy and split back near Autzen foot bridge.  I cruised over to the short loop of Pre's to tack on a few more miles.

I want to keep up with posting my runs again as all of this activity on the blog (and new members) has provided the necessary motivation.  I was running quick early in the year before being sidelined with a stress fracture in my shin.  I took the time off from running as an opportunity to work on my swimming and biking and now I have decided to get back into triathlon as I build my mileage back up.  I raced an olympic triathlon (1500 m swim, 40km bike, 10km run) last week and had a blast.  I am looking to do a sprint triathlon on July 28th but other than that will be focusing on running races.  Excuse the long post, but I felt the need to provide a training update after such a long hiatus from this blog.

Hopefully everyone has an excellent Memorial Day!

Lauren - 1.38

This morning, I woke up bright-eyed, bushy-haired, and ready for a run. First, I had Corn Chex with Horizon 2%--this turned out to be an iffy decision. Since moving, I have managed to displace my earbuds, so I ran in almost silence (aside from the sound of sneakers hitting tread). The gym was cool and empty. Perhaps the Memorial Day parties have commenced. Headed to buy new sneaks today since my current shoes are at least a year old (granted, they haven't seen much action).

Running in the News

I feel like I've been hearing nothing but running today. It was on NPR today, in my newsletter from a health site, and available On Demand as Yoga for Runners. Here's the NPR article I mentioned above. Here's what I am listening to on MP3 while I currently run. The times I've run 35 minutes instead of 30 is because I've been too excited to find out what happens at the end of the chapter. Sorry to the group's purists (Luke), but it's been good for me. I am linking it from the best site ever so you will all sign up now for GoodReads accounts. Today was supposed to be my rest today but I think we are going to try the Yoga for Runners! Check your local libraries for similar offerings; Netflix Instant has several good yoga programs (one of which is NOT Yoga for Indie Rockers -- terrible!) I'll let you know what I think in my next running update. Cheers & Beers, APL

Weekly Mileage Totals, 5/20-5/26

Luke - 61.15 (7)
Jeeni - 23.15 (4)
Alison - 17.95 (6)
Chris - 15.3 (3)
Lauren - 1 (1)

118.55 miles in 21 runs by 5 runners.

Lauren - 1

After a few weeks of hemming, hawing, and hemming, I finally took a week and did yoga almost exclusively, 3 days/week for an hour plus. When I went to the treadmill today (because Houston is HOT, yo), I cranked out a ten minute mile non-stop. Given my past wheezing and weakness, this feels monumental. Call me cookie dough, but not for long. Post work-out was plain oats and a banana. Will seek smoothie-type fuel to see how my body best responds. Hydrated very well while at work after my run, and I definitely felt the energy boost. Every day can feel this good. Yes, it can.

Jeeni - 12.15

Saturday- Long run time; Ran first 7 with Chris and then finished off the last 5 on my own. Felt like no energy at the start, hit a couple hills in the middle, but after Chris was done the "I'm over half way and just want to be done" mind set set in and I picked it up for the last 4 miles.

Luke - 13

Ridgeline Ramble 20k, 1:21:29 (4th place)
This recap is really long, so I think I can make it only show these couple lines on the front page and you can click through to see the whole thing.

Chris - 7.3

My watch is still broken and I don't remember the time Jeeni said to me before she went to run her other 5 miles. We didn't go very fast - I think it was around 10 minute pace. But at least I'm getting my mileage up a bit before the marathon training starts. STEVE I BELIEVE YOU STILL NEED TO SIGN UP =).

Alison - 3.0

Pre-yoga run of about 25 minutes. I can feel my core getting stronger from yoga and my legs feel longer and stronger from pilates. Weee! Yoga was an hour so my legs are pretty sore right now. Came home and had a good protein shake: kale, bok choy, choc protein powder, banana, chia seeds (soaked in water for 10 minutes first), ice and flax milk (only 25 cals/cup). It's my new favorite blend.

Luke - 6

6mi, 45:53 (7:38)
1.6-mile loop of Pre's Trail, easy, in the morning.  They were resurfacing one section of the trail and it smelled delicious.

Alison - 3.7

Today I had a post-weight resistance run of about 3.7 miles. I was afraid I was going to fall down the stairs to the lower level of the gym after I was done! I was on a 2.0 incline and it took me about 31 mins, so this was a decent clip for me.

Chris & Jeeni - 5

47:35 (9:30) We ran a 5 miler when chris got off work down the road and half of it was a run we used to do at lunch from work a lot last summer..it wasn't too bad considering my legs felt dead from yesterday and Chris is getting antsy to run faster, but his legs are still getting used to running...thanks for the invite Luke it works!

Luke - 5.5

5.5mi, 40:17 (7:19)
1.4-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 10:32, with Zack.  Took it easy but the pace was slightly quicker than usual again, that's been happening this week a bit.  Hopefully it translates into fast when racing.

Alison - 3.0

Farleks for 35 minutes. Ouch.

Luke - 8.75

8.75mi, 61:29 (7:01)
Fox Hollow with Zack.  On the way out I was taking it easy but the pace was pretty fast anyway.  I wanted to do a good hard effort up and a good hard effort down.  I went 7:07 up and then waited for Zack at the top...my heart rate was through the roof; 7:07 is only a couple seconds off my PR.  5:29 down didn't feel quite as hard but is pretty fast too.  On the way back we were doing a pretty good pace again, a lot of it being Zack pushing it.  This was a good last hard run before the Ridgeline Ramble on Saturday.

Jeeni - 3

26.36- 8:33 pace.
Went on a run after work and since I got home late, tried to run a bit faster to make it to Chris' work by 5:10. Ended up being my quickest run this month..and of course I finally ran under 9's when I wasn't with Chris :)
Also, Luke could you please email me the link so that I can get set up to be able to post? I know I can only comment currently. My gmail is jschantin@gmail.com Thanks!

Alison - 2.5

Had yoga tonight so didn't want to overdo it. Post-weight training run of 31 minutes. Resistance level 3; Incline 2.0.

Luke - 8.5

17' w/u; 15x400m@80", 100m/45" rest; 16' c/d.
The guys I ran with Sunday morning convinced me to come out for a track workout today, and I was thinking it would be really tough, but it ended up being right on.  The original plan was 20x400m@77", which I think is a bit fast/voluminous for me, but when I showed up today it had turned into 80" pace, just a little faster than tempo effort for as many as felt comfortable.  There were five of us doing most of them, plus a couple other guys that did portions.  We were going to do slightly different paces but ended up just all shooting for 80 every one of them, and 100m rest in 45 seconds.  We were able to talk intermittently, so no one was really hurting or anything.  I stopped at fifteen because they were starting to get tougher (and my stomach was starting to hurt a bit).  Exact splits: 80, 77, 82, 80, 82. 80, 81, 80, 80, 80, 80, 81, 80, 80, 80.  Dialed in!

Chris & Jeeni - 3

27:25 - 9:08 pace

Quick little run after work. Did a loop by Jeeni's house before she goes to girls night and I go home to drink and play video games =).

Luke - 6.4

6.4mi, 45:24 (7:05)
1.6-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 11:31.  Felt real good/fast today for whatever reason, but was thinking that might be a bad thing because I'd rather take it slow and feel good for my workout tomorrow instead.  Hopefully I can get both..

Alison - 2.25

Post weight resistance run; pre-pilates run. About 28 mins plus cool down and warm up. Fartleks. Have shedded some major weight, per my weekly weight-in, which has only helped me become better at running again. Dang, why are 5Ks so expensive? We want to do the Color Run but it's $40/person! Yikes.

James - 0

Hi guys. No run update I'm afraid but a few bits of news.

Today was the tenth Great Manchester Run and my excellent friend Luke (AKA 'English Luke') took part for the first time. He raised money for Cancer Research in memory of our friend Gary. Gary's brothers did the run as well. Wish I could have been there, but I donated and I also happened to be wearing my 2007 Run shirt at the time. His time was 1:13, which is 2 minutes faster than my first 10K, and I did that at the sprightly age of 18, so good job!

Personally I have had a turbulent time with running stuff recently. I've seen a few doctors about immigration stuff (green card process nearly done!) and I asked one to take a look at my ankle. He only had a quick look but he said the sprain was perhaps chronic, that I should have dealt with it earlier. I basically heard him say "you peaked and you won't be able to run the same again, ever" and was quite horrified. But Alison is convinced he was just trying to scare me into taking care of it. I am about to pick up the phone and make an appointment to get an x-ray, and I am going back to see the initial doctor next week. We've just joined a new gym so I am doing a little exercise (they have yoga and other similar classes so I am trying whatever works), but am too paranoid to run for the time being. Alison and I have also bought a blender for ourselves and loads of supplements for me so we are on a new health kick. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Luke - 13

13mi, 11:46:12 (8:10)
Ran with a couple other guys on Pre's Trail, then the roads out to a park with hazelnut orchards, did a few laps on trails there, then headed back.  All really easy.  Felt good except for being hung over.  The guys had some good, funny running stories which made the time go by really fast.

Alison - 3.5

Post-core class run of 3.5 miles in 35 minutes, so a pretty slow pace, but I'm still working on longevity. James was asleep and did not accompany me. I've been working out in the mornings and he's been doing stuff at night when we go into pilates or yoga classes, but he's still needing to stay off the ankle. His x-ray is on Friday.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 5/13-5/19

Luke - 55 (7)
Chris - 13.08 (3)
Jeeni - 4.08 (1)
Alison - 7.75 (3)

79.91 miles in 14 runs by 4 runners.

Luke - 2.5

Beer Mile, 7:26 (1st place)

Drank Budweiser.  I never really pushed too crazy hard...second place was thirty seconds back after a lap plus two beers, so I just kept it that way and made sure not to throw up before the finish.  Didn't throw up after, even, which is unusual for me.  Walked a few times to burp, but had a nice finishing kick the last 100m.  Might be able to take a minute off my time on my next one, in two weeks, which should have some better competition.

Chris - 6

51:33 - 8:35 pace

I played 9 holes this morning (shot a 53) with a couple people from Platt, then went over to my parents to wash my moms car as a belated Mothers Day present. I ran an out & back route mostly on a walking/biking path that goes from Tigard toward Beaverton. I felt pretty good the whole way, and enjoyed pushing myself a bit. I think my body is going to be yelling at me a bit tomorrow but that's a good thing.

Luke - 8

8mi, 59:56 (7:29)
1.6-mile loop in 12:13, 1.4-mile loop in 10:34.

Alison - 2.9

HeartRate: 138
Time: 31 min
Incline: 2.0 - 4.0

Luke - 10.25

10.25mi, 91:19 (8:54)
Have no idea how long this run actually was.  Went up to Relentless Hills and wandered around a bunch.  There was a pickup and some sort of earth mover up by The Wall, and since I didn't really want to get too near the earth mover I just went down the back side of The Wall...it's usually pretty overgrown and not great for running, but I guess the earth mover had already been over this area because it was all mowed just about flat.  And by "flat" I mean "uniform", not "parallel to the surface of the earth", because it's a giant hill.  Probably somewhere between a quarter-mile and a half-mile of really steep slope.  At the bottom I got on the road for an out-and-back because I wanted to see how long the road was (it's a bit less than a mile).  Back in the trails I wandered around a bunch, and I looked for the old overturned car that's always been there, but either I forgot where it was or someone removed it.  Probably the former.  I found a fun little singletrack trail that I haven't been on before and it ended up coming out onto a road and I had no idea where I was.  After a minute of looking around and a minute of thinking real hard I realized which road it was; I've run on it once (it's a dead end and I didn't see the trail that time) and picked someone up in the taxi there once.  I ran back to a more main road, and went up the back side of Hendricks Park on what could be called an extension of the Ribbon Trail, then down another trail in Hendricks, and took roads the last mile or two home.
I took it really relaxed today; I didn't run Wednesday because my shin was hurting and then didn't run yesterday because I was tired and lazy.  So today I just wanted to go run around for the sake of running around.  Beer Mile tomorrow!  Ridgeline Ramble a week later...I don't think I'll do quite as well as I'd hoped cause the last two weeks didn't go as well as I'd hoped, but it should be fun anyway.

Alison - 2.75

HeartRate: 142
Duration: 25 min
Incline: 1.5

I was really stiff so we took a mile-long walk that night.

Chris & Jeeni - 4.08

38:55 - 9:32 pace

We ran a figure eight loop by her place. Jeeni told me it annoyed her that we post her mileage based on what I add, even though her true mileage is much higher. Maybe she'll buck up and post a run or two on her own...although I don't think she ever got set up as an admin on here.

Alison - 2.1

138 HeartRate (my target was between 130-150)
Incline 2.0
Time: 21 minutes

A pretty easy run after taking a month-long break (sans a run a week ago) -- we joined a new gym (which is actually my old gym) and I like it a lot. I'm running 10-minute miles, so lots of improvement to go to get back to the PRs I was setting 5 years ago. Can I do at 30 what I was achieving at 25? I think so.

Luke - 6.25

6.25mi, 49:44 (7:57)
Mile loops of 8:20, 7:59, 7:48, 7:54, and 7:48.  First three with Zack.

Chris - 3

27:25 - 9:08 pace

Ran a quick 3 mile out & back near my house. I wanted to do 4 but Jeeni and I have somewhere to go so I had to cut it a little short. Felt decent going out, but the hill I ran up after the turnaround point sapped my energy pretty good.

Luke - 15.2

15.2mi, 2:06:53 (8:20)
The Butte run, but did the 1.6-mile loop on the way back also.  My legs were pretty dead for the last three miles or so...the rest of the run they didn't feel so hot but the splits were a bit faster than usual.  I guess that's to be expected after a few days of mileage-laziness: a bit faster from being tapered, a bit out of shape from having not run enough the past five days.  The four (4) pull-ups on the way back felt pretty good though.
Splits: 12:05, 14:42, 9:01, 7:12, 8:25, 3:48, 3:18 (58:35) / 3:25, 2:41, 6:21, 5:47, 13:38 (1.6), 8:14, 15:41, 12:27.

Luke - 7.8

7.8mi, 57:21 (7:21)
1.6-mile loop in 11:54, 1.4-mile loop in 10:24.  Ran with Zack for the first ~4.5 miles.

Luke - 5

5mi, 34:34 (6:54)
Same route as Friday, but instead of doing the first half easy and the second half hard, just did a straight-up acceleration run.  Splits for bark loops in the middle of the run were 4:29 for 1k, 8:45 for 2k (forgot to take a split), and 4:15 for 1k.
There was some crazy stuff going on in Portland...a lot of the streets were closed and there were a ton of people on bikes...not racing, just doing a course.  There were booths set up all over the place for people to stop at...a lot of them were booths like you'd see at a packet pick-up for a marathon, and some were little things like lemonade stands.  In the park where I ran they had a climbing wall set up in the middle, and the whole park was crawling with people (I had to dodge them quite often).  The positive part of all of this is I got to hurdle a bunch of little "street closed" barriers.

Weekly Mileage Totals, 5/6-5/12

Luke - 40.5 (5)
Chris - 11 (3)
Steve - 9.54 (1)
Jeeni - 6 (3)
James - 1.5 (1)

68.54 miles in 13 runs by 5 runners.

James - 1.5

15:40

We are still bouncing around free gym trials so runs are haphazard. Did the same trail run as last week and god if this little distance didn't take it out of me.

Chris - 5

48:05 (9:37 pace)

Jeeni is running 10 miles this morning, so I did the first 5 with her. Felt fairly good - ran a nice easy pace. Only stopped two or three times to stretch and argue =)

Luke - 5

5mi, 33:27 (6:41)
Was up in Portland for the weekend, where I don't know all the places to run.  Ran from where I was staying ~2km to a park where there was a ~1km bark loop, ran it four times, and went back the same way.  Went easy on the way out and for the first two loops, then picked it up for the last two loops and on the way home.  Splits on the bark loop were 4:47, 4:41, 3:50, and 3:36.

By the way, bark trails outside of Eugene are inferior.  In Eugene it's bark-dust (like sawdust), and other places have bark chips like on a playground.  This particular trail was freshly-barked on half of it, so the bark chips were 3-4 inches deep and very difficult to run on.  I am so spoiled to live in Eugene...I don't think I can ever move.

Chris & Jeeni - 3

Before I write about our run, I wanted to let everyone know that I looked at my spreadsheet and got the total for my miles in 2011 - 609.51! Pretty awesome!

27:59 (9:19 pace)
Both of us were really tired again but made ourselves go run. I felt better once I was running.

Luke - 2.25

2.25mi, 20:07 (8:56)
A mile loop in 8:53.  Felt terrible, mostly from being tired, but got out the door since Zack was running.  Was gonna do four loops, but I was pretty much just falling forward the entire time and it didn't seem to be doing me any good so I went home and went to bed.  SLEEP IS IMPORTANT GUYS

Luke - 11.75

11.75mi, 95:08 (8:05)
Drove up to the Fox Hollow parking lot and ran West to where the trail ends at Blanton, then turned around and went pretty dang hard for what was pretty much the first 10k of the Ridgeline Ramble course, then did the 1.6-mile loop easy.  My legs and breathing felt decent for the hard portion, but my stomach was giving me trouble off and on.  My gastroenterologist hasn't figured out what's wrong with me and told me to take Immodium a half hour before my run, and if that doesn't work, he said we'd "talk about [me] running less."  (I'm not gonna do that.)  The Immodium hasn't exactly worked, but it has made things different, so I'm trying to figure out if I can take a certain amount at a certain time and figure out a way to make it work.  Anyway on the run my ascent of Fox Hollow was 8:09, which is decent after 5+ miles hard.
Yesterday I was going to run twice but on my morning run my ankles were kinda feeling weak and then at work my shin was hurting, so I decided it would be prudent to not go too crazy on the mileage, and I instead watched the Mariners somehow win a baseball game.

Chris & Jeeni - 3

26:55 (?? pace)

The hoffman calculator isn't working and I'm not at home so I don't know what our exact pace was. Felt alright on the run. A bit tired and sluggish but that wasn't from the running. I finally walked to the library yesterday and got a library card and checked out a book by Lee Child called '61 Hours'. I love the Jack Reacher novels so I'm excited to read this one. I also randomly saw 'Once A Runner' while I was looking for my book. Yay for running!

Luke - 5.5

5.5mi, 50:48 (9:14)
Rexius without the mile on the far end, super-early.  Felt (and was) slow.

Steve - 9.54

Today was this Nike mile challenge thing. My legs didn't feel great and it was super hot out. There was like 25 people running in the sub 6 minute group. As soon as we started I went right to the back. There were lots of fast people. I hit the first lap in 81ish. Felt OK. I passed a few people in the next 200 but it started getting pretty hard. My next lap was slower, not quite sure what the split was. I tried to pick it up after 800 and passed a few more people. Just tried to alive in the next 400 to get to the ball lap. I hit 1200 in about 4:08. I knew 5:20 was basically out of the window. I tried to surge but the legs didn't have much juice. Finally got the last 100m and tried to kick as a bunch of kids that I had passed were kicking for the final 100 as well. I think 4 of us finished at about the same time. I hit the line in 5:32 high. Kind of disappointed but I think my legs were pretty beat from my 10-miler on the bark yesterday and I was kind of dehydrated too. Or I am just not in as good of shape as I thought/hoped. Afterwards, I ran 5 miles.

Luke - 16

16mi, 2:07:53 (7:59)
Ran up to Hendricks Park and met up with eight other runners for an easy long run.  We took the Ribbon Trail to Spring Street, then took Ridgeline to Fox Hollow, came down and took Rexius and Amazon to the high school, then took streets back to where we started.  I did about 3.5 miles from my house to where we met and back, and the other ~12.5 with the group.  Overall it was not too hard, but the last mile or so my stomach was hurting a bit.  Legs should be fine by tomorrow; I'm hoping to get after the mileage pretty well this week (and next).

Weekly Mileage Totals, 4/29-5/5

Luke - 74.5 (9)
Steve - 32.47 (4)
Chris - 6 (2)
James - 3 (2)

115.97 miles in 17 runs by 4 runners.

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 34:05 (8:01)
Mile loops of 8:14, 8:03, and 7:58.

Steve - 10

85:50 (8:35 My watch died about 4 miles in so time is approximate. I hadn't charged it for awhile. I was running on the bark trail in Manhattan Beach so I at least I had the mileage markers for guidance. I was glad to get up to double digits for the first time in a few months. I have done some 9.x runs lately but for some reason I had a hard time getting myself to 10. It's tough to do on this trail because a full out-and-back is 7.5. So I have to add in 2.5 miles by repeating portions of the run. I never want to do it at the end of the run so this time I did a mini out-and-back in the middle of the run. It's pretty hot this weekend. When I got back to my car which I stupidly parked in the sun, my phone had a message saying it was too hot to use and I had to lower the temperature. Anyway tomorrow I'm running in this mile contest thing in Santa Monica. I plan to run about 5:20. We'll see.

Luke - 10

Cinco De Mayo Five 5-Miler, 27:55 (1st place)
At the Bring In Spring 5k one of my prizes was comped entry into this race...I was gonna give it to Zack but he had to be in Portland this weekend and wasn't sure he wanted to do a race anyway...so I went ahead and ran it.  There was a 5k and a 5-mile, and I decided to do the latter because I figured it'd be less pressure and I'd be able to get more miles in.  I was able to get about 2.5 miles of warmup and the same for cooldown feeling pretty good this morning.  At the start I saw Orestes Gutierrez, who was doing the 5k, and this fast guy Alex Jones who has done a bunch of races lately with results like 15:15 5k, 31:30 10k, and 70' half-marathon.  I talked to him a little before the race and he said he'd be doing the 5-miler, so I figured I wouldn't end up with a win today.
At the start Alex took off like a shot; I think he was shooting for 5:00 pace.  I ran just behind Orestes for the first ~200m, and then he pulled away a bit.  Another guy in an orange Saucony jersey came up and passed me at about a quarter-mile in, but after about a half mile of hanging out a couple seconds behind him I was able to pass him and pull away a bit.  The course went out on the bike path for just over a mile, then took a right to do an out-and-back over a bridge; the 5k went back the exact same way while the 5-miler took a right where the 5kers went left, and did another out-and-back.  Coming over the bridge I tried to get closer to Orestes but didn't quite make it; and I saw Alex (and gave him a high five) coming back pretty far ahead and looking fast.  As I got back to the turnoff I tried to look ahead to the 5-mile course to see how much distance Alex had on me, but didn't see him.  There were some volunteers with water telling people to go left for the 5k and right for the 5-mile, and as I made the right turn one of them said, "You're the leader."  I said, "What?" and kept going, and wasn't sure if Alex had taken a wrong turn accidentally or on purpose, or if the guy was wrong, or what.  I was all alone heading to the turnaround, and after about 3/4 of a mile I was wondering if I might've missed a chalk arrow on the ground, as sometimes these races aren't super-well-marked.  Finally I spotted some chalk on the ground, and I almost turned around at it while wondering why it was an E, and then realized it was a 3 from the other direction and the turnaround was another ~200m up ahead.  When I turned around I of course hadn't seen Alex so I knew he hadn't done the 5-mile; the next runner was about thirty seconds behind me.  My first mile was 5:13; I didn't see the second mile marker but my split was 11:13 at three miles, so I had slowed down a bunch (probably because there was no one for me to try to catch or try to hold off).  Fourth mile was 5:43, a fine effort, nothing too taxing.  As I came around the last corner to the finish there was a 5k runner who looked like he'd finish in front of me, so I gave a good kick and just barely got him at the line...I know he's not competition or anything, but it's always good to have a body there to try and get in front of.  My last mile was another 5:43.
I talked to Alex after the race and he had apparently just decided at like a mile and a half in to do the 5k?  Said something about there being too many turns?  It was kind of a weird conversation.  Anyway for the win I got a $20 gift card to JC Penny, and of course a medal.  I saw this morning that Blue Dog Meadery was one of the sponsors so I was really hoping the winners would get a bottle of mead, but alas that was not the case.  They had a couple piñatas hanging on the start/finish arch, and Alex and I each got to whack them with a baseball bat...they were filled with candy and a rolled-up comped entry into a Memorial Day race, and kids and adults scrambled for it all when they exploded.  I took a few pieces of candy on my way out; also they gave everyone an awesome chocolate bar when we picked up our race numbers, so some nice sweets to start off the day.
results

Luke - 6.5

6.5mi, 53:16 (8:11)
Rexius without the top mile, and then a mile loop in 7:53 on the way home.  Also did three (3) pull-ups.  Ran at 10pm; I would have gone sooner but I was busy doing important things like eating chips and watching Sherlock.

Luke - 5.5

5.5mi, 42:47 (7:46)
1.4-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 11:10.  Easy morning run, felt pretty sluggish.

Luke - 10.7

10.7mi, 84:11 (7:52)
Did the Fox-Hollow-plus-1.6 run, but added the extra little hill plus stream crossing before going up Fox Hollow.  Ran with Zack for the first ~3.5mi, and then went hard for up Fox Hollow, the 1.6-mile loop, and down Fox Hollow before coming back easy.  Going up I didn't get a complete split because of the added section leading into it, but it would have been about 7:45.  Coming down was 5:57.  Stomach hurt on the last couple miles, when I was going easy.

James - 1.5

16:22

Without the gym membership hanging over me, insisting I should use it, I was back on the trail. Around 8pm, barely starting to go dark when I'm done, beautiful. No great new distance but getting a bit faster.

Luke - 7.8

7.8mi, 58:06 (7:26)
1.6-mile loop in 12:07, 1.4-mile loop in 10:24.  With Zack.

Chris - 3

29:07 - 9:42 pace

Ok I'm starting to get tired of running so friggin slow. I'll be doing 4 or 5 miles on Saturday with Jeeni so hopefully that will go well.

Steve - 7

52:10 (7:24) Ran all on concrete which I hate. But that's what the group was doing. So the time is naturally faster than usual. Last 2 miles were 6:57. Probably should have run a bit slower cuz I didn't feel great.

Luke - 7.75

7.75mi, 64:33 (8:19)
Drove up to Dillard Road and parked at the Ridgeline trailhead.  Took it West to Fox Hollow at a decent clip, then descended Fox Hollow pretty dang fast.  Took the extra loop up a hill, over a stream, and on the road for a second before heading back up Fox Hollow.  The ascent was 7:56, which is definitely decent, and was especially hard directly after the fast previous mile and a half.  Continued back East towards Dillard at a slightly more reasonable effort.  Saw someone way up ahead, and wasn't sure if it was a bicyclist or not, but then saw another flash of their green jacket and could tell they were running, probably about the same speed as me.  I picked it up to try and catch him or her, but didn't quite make it in the ~half-mile before the trail split and they went the opposite way as me.  When I got back to Dillard I stopped for a minute and was like, "Oh my, I can't breathe."  Felt like I'd done a lot more than the 4ish I'd actually done.  But because I am not weak I did not get back in my car; I instead headed down the road and then went up Mount Baldy and down the other side, then took a bunch of random trails on the side of the hill before coming back up Dillard and finishing up.

Steve - 6.25

Track workout. Finally did a real track workout instead of a tempo run since I'm trying to do either tempo or fartlek on Saturday from now on. Working out with a group that was doing 3x(1200, 400r, 400, 150r). It's actually kind of a tough workout. I managed 4:27, 4:29, 4:27 for the 1200s. For the 400s I managed 78, 80, 80. Felt OK, had to push a bit on the tail end of the 1200s. I'm running a mile race on the track this weekend. Nike is doing some event in Santa Monica and I want to see what I can do. There should be 15-20 people or so running sub 6 pace. I'm gonna shoot for 5:20. That would be 80 second 400s. I think I should be able to do that. I kind of had my mind on that during the workout as I didn't want to run any slower than 80 for 400, but not too much faster either. 400, 400, 400, 450

James - 1.5

20:04

The final day of our Youfit gym membership. While running I watched Manchester City v. Manchester United LIVE on ESPN. City were winning 1-0 for the duration of my run and I think that's how it ended. As I was finishing up even the team managers nearly got in a fight, and they're old guys! Fascinating!

Luke - 8

8mi, 62:53 (7:51)
1.6-mile loop in 12:56, 1.4-mile loop in 11:21.  Body felt pretty rough, I suppose that's understandable after yesterday.

Chris - 3

28:37 - 9:32 pace

Ran with Jeeni after work instead of going to play basketball. I think we're going to put our memberships at 24 on hold for the summer. I didn't do that last year and I regret throwing all that money down the drain. Came home to try and fix the bathroom sink. It's super clogged up...removing the u-trap didn't help either, so we're going to try baking soda & vinegar to eat through whatever is down there. Now it's time to clean up, eat some lasagna and watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade!

Steve - 9.22

72:04 (7:49) Nike run group. Legs didn't feel great. Same route we usually do on Sundays with a tough set of stairs. Lately I have been thinking that I should try a good sports massage again. Or at least figure out some stretches or something that will help. My right calf is super tight and never seems to loosen up. I think it's related to the pain I get in my knee while running sometimes.