Chris - 2.11

18:27 - 8:44 pace

I was supposed to run 3 yesterday but we watched the Pacers/Heat game at Jeeni's place, and by the time we got to my house it was getting late so I just ran this morning. Cut it a little short because I'm getting picked up in 2 hours to start my bachelor party weekend, and in case we play golf I want to have plenty of energy! Woo hoo!

Steve - 2.5

So I had this idea to run an 800m time trial on my 30th birthday since I'm officially an old man. My idea was that if I ran fast enough, I could turn back the hands of time. Well I got a few other friends to join me. Even the wife came to the track for like the 3rd time ever in the 10 years we have known each other. I had this great idea to run at midnight (a Thursday night). We brought donuts and she brought a cooler with little sandwiches and water. I had this goal all along to break 2:15, which is a pretty solid 800m time. I knew it would be tough since the guys running with me  weren't runners. I'd have to basically do it solo. Anyway, everyone didn't really show up until like 12:30.

After I warmed up, I realized since lanes 1-3 were blocked partially at some parts I had to run in lane 4. This meant that I had to do some measurements to get 800m. So I went to the 400m start in lane 4 and paced back from the start to the 400m finish. It was about 80 foot lengths. So I paced out the same distance back from the 400m finish and put a marker there so I could see a clear finish. So if I started at the 400m start, did one lap, and then did another finished there it would be 800m. Anyway, I positioned my wife like a rook at the 200m point so she could take splits for me at 200 and 600. Probably the first and last time she ever will take splits for me.

We finally started at about 1 am. The last few days I had been starting to get sick but I was doing my damndest to fight it off. So I was actually feeling ok that night. Anyway, we started the race and I took off pretty quick. I knew I needed to run about 65-66 to have a realistic shot at 2:15. I came through pretty smoothly at the 200. My split was 31-32. Probably a bit too fast but I needed to bank the time. Legs started feeling a bit heavy but I pushed through it. I hit the 400m split and glanced down to see 70:xx. Shit, now I know I'm in trouble. I would have to run a 65 (a negative split) to run 2:15. So I knew it was basically out the window since my legs were starting to burn a bit. I tried to at least maintain speed as my legs started burning more. I got to the 600m mark and didn't even bother to note the split cuz I didn't want to hear any bad news. I threw down whatever scant kick I had left and hit the line in 2:29. A pretty disappointing time for sure, but that's life for you sometimes. We hung out for like 30 minutes and ate donuts and talked and stuff. Then I headed home and crashed at like 3 am and proceeded to get really sick for the next week and half or so. It was a cool experience and I'm thinking of making it an annual tradition (minus the sick part). I'm hoping to shatter that 800 time in the coming weeks and months.

Chris - 3.05

26:13 - 8:35 pace

Today is the first time I've ever worn my key on my left shoe while on a run. Other than that...it started to rain a little bit for the last 10 minutes.

Chris & Jeeni - 3.05

27:37 - 9:03 pace

This week I start my half marathon/H2C training. I have 3,3,3 and then 4 on the weekend. Pretty mundane but it will be three days in a row and four runs for the week so it should give me a good workout. I think every other week the Wednesday's are race pace runs, so that should help my speed. I think I'll also work in a couple track workouts too.

Steve - 2.5

2x500 and 5x200.

Odd workout but that's what we did. I warmed up about 800 meters and then did drills and a few strides and stuff. So I was sort of treating the first 500 as a warmup. 500 is such a hard distance to run. Only one other guy ran the first 500 and he's much faster. I was 10 meters behind after 100 meters and I wasn't exactly jogging. I didn't look at my watch until 400 and it went by in about 73. Final 100 sucked and the total time was 93. Full recovery then another dreadful 500 in almost the same time. One guy was calling out times for this one and I was at about 51 at 300, which is relatively quick. In fact, quite close to the pace I hope to run on Thursday night for my 800 meter midnight challenge on my arbitrarily round number birthday of significance. Ended up slowing down the final 200 and finished in 93.8.

After a decent recovery, I banged out the 200s in 31.9, 32.5, 33.6, 32.6, 33.6. About 1:40 between each. I wonder if Luke is quietly complaining to himself that I should be just be only using whole numbers and ignoring the fractions of seconds.

So I realized recently that my surgically repaired foot will probably always be fucked up. The bone underneath my toe is tender to the touch at certain angles. Does anyone who has had a broken bone still have pain in that bone? I have only broken one bone before so I don't know. Anyway I probably land on my foot differently which causes I guess for my right calf to be really tight which screws up the rest of that leg. Whatevs.

Chris - 4

37:29 - 9:22 pace

Down and up the big Vermont road hill by my house. I start the half marathon training next week.

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 33:27 (7:52)
Mile loops of 8:01, 7:48, and 7:46.

Now to go watch the new episodes of Arrested Development!

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 33:04 (7:46)
Mile loops of 8:06, 7:34, and 7:38.

Steve - 4.1

36:23

Running in the dark isn't smart. After softball I forced myself to run 4+ miles. I turned both ankles pretty bad. First I stepped on a pine cone and nearly fell over. It was painful but I could still run since it's just straight ahead. Then like 15 minutes later I was adjusting my arm band that holds my music listening device (I know Frank Shorter thinks I'm dead inside) and I took an awkward step and turned the other ankle. I heard the sound of cracking a little but it's definitely just a bad turn. I had to stop and walk for like 2 minutes. Laced up  real tight and then ran home the final mile. I should probably be more careful.

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 33:40 (7:55)
Mile loops of 8:06, 7:53, and 8:07.  Went pretty late, after the Heat game, with Zack, and on our last loop we were joined by this elite woman we know.

Luke - 3.25

3.25mi, 24:49 (7:38)
Mile loops of 7:49 and 7:43.

So last Tuesday morning when I was getting ready for work I coughed pretty hard and my stomach immediately started to hurt.  I didn't know why but I noticed my inguinal hernia (the Wikipedia page for that is a bit NSFW), which I've always had, was protruding more than normal, and when I pushed it back in the stomach pain immediately went away.  All morning I was having to push it back in and it would pop out again within a minute, and I figured that was kind of a bad thing, so I called the doctor and asked if it was something that needed taking care of immediately, soon, or never.  After a few more phone calls I talked to a nurse, who talked to my doctor, who called a surgeon.  The surgery people called me back the next day and scheduled a surgical consult for today.  The nurse had said to avoid strenuous activity, but I wasn't really sure what that meant since I hadn't seen anyone and hadn't gotten much information from the people I did talk to, so for the last week I didn't run and didn't work any overtime.  Went in to my appointment this morning and talked to the surgeon, who was really good about giving me the information I needed, and he recommended surgery to repair the hernia, so we got that scheduled for next Wednesday.  He said I was okay to run between now and then as long as it didn't feel like it was doing any damage, and said I should be okay to run again within a few days to a week after the surgery.
I could feel the hernia bulging on my run today but it wasn't really hurting so I think I should be able to keep up easy runs for the next week.  I won't be able to do the next couple races I had planned, but I should be healthy enough to get the high mileage going this summer as I've been looking forward to doing for a while now.

Chris & Jeeni - 2.18

19:23 - 8:53 pace

Short out & back after playing 9 holes with my dad after work today. Jeeni got her first ever birdie on the par 5 at King City! It was 333 yards for her from the women's tees, and I missed my eagle putt on the same hole by about 6 inches. Fun day!

Chris & Jeeni - 3.06

28:09 - 9:11 pace

I had intended on running 4 miles this past Saturday, but instead I went to play 9 holes with my soon to be brother-in-law and we went to see Iron Man 3 in 3D afterwards.

We ran by my house, down and up the big hill that I ran all the time last summer. Our split was about 13 out and 15 mins back.

Luke - 5.7

5.7mi, 42:55 (7:31)
The shorter loop of Pre's Trail plus a short detour for a pitstop.

Luke - 13

13mi, 96:33 (7:25)
Went out for a long run with Zack and Thomas.  Started on Pre's Trail and went out to Springfield, did a couple loops, one on a trail and one in a trailer neighborhood, and came back.  I felt okay for the first five miles, then felt sick, as I have the last few weeks.  I let Zack and Thomas go about halfway through and jogged in a good bit of discomfort for a few miles.  Found a bathroom at about mile 10, and after using it felt way better than I expected.  Almost immediately I got down to 6:30 pace, then dropped it to 6-flat pace.  Settled into 6:30-6:45 pace for the last couple miles (on bark) and didn't finish too far behind my compatriots.  Was very glad that I didn't end up walk/jogging the last 4-5 miles.  Afterward, Zack and I got milkshakes at Prince Pückler's, which was key.

Steve - 2.3

200 meter repeats again today but with only 1 minute (standing) recovery this time (versus nearly 2 minutes last week). I wanted to get to at least 8, which I did. However, times slipped a little as I went. I have the time comparisons versus last week. I wore regular running shoes (probably 1.75 as heavy as my Nike Frees). So that in combination with less rest explains the times I think. The legs didn't feel as heavy as last time. Maybe cuz I was running slower times or I'm getting into better shape.

I want to add a run or two this week. Last week I didn't do a Tues or Wed track workout but I did an easy 3. So I want to do at least 3 runs this week. Although I'll miss this workout cuz I'll be in Princeton for a wedding. I guess I'll have to find a nearby track and maybe drag my brother out again.  Basketball is over now so I should get on it. I have only 18 days to get ready for my 215 800. I think I decided I'm going to do it at midnight on my birthday. The only trick will be to convince other crazy people to come to the track and run with me.

32.4 (-.1)
33.8 (+.8)
33.7 (+1.5)
34.2 (+1.7)
33.9 (+.4)
34.8 (+1.6)
34.8 (+.5)
34.7 (+1.2)

~3 min wup. (although I did drills and strides)
~1 mi cd in 9:11

Luke - 2.75

Beer Mile, 7:44 (~10th place)

I wasn't too confident going into this, with my recent body-feeling-like-shit-ness and all, but I gave myself goals of sub-6 if I felt great and sub-7:30 if I threw up.  There was one guy (Joe, a top ultramarathoner, BMPR of 6:15) going for sub-6, and all around a pretty good field of over 20 runners.  I also convinced a co-worker of mine to run...he's a 270-pound alcoholic who hasn't run more than a mile in the last three years.  He drunkenly did a practice Beer Mile on Wednesday and managed a solo 13:32.  Zack also was in attendance, ostensibly going for ~8:30 but I told him he could go sub-7 if he really went for it and had a great race.

For warmup I ran a little over a mile (4+ laps in lane 3), did a few strides, then 800m in 2:39, then a few more strides.  I also ate some pretzel sticks to soak up some of the carbonation.  I wore my red short shorts, a USA jersey, tall red-and-blue argyle socks, and my track spikes.  I was expecting the spikes to feel a bit weird since I hadn't worn them in a long time, but they just felt fast.

At the gun I downed my beer decently quickly, maybe just under 10 seconds.  I was probably in the top 5 off the line, then within a hundred meters (all the while burping) I was into first.  After about 70 meters I felt good enough to go pretty fast, and only had a couple more burps the rest of the lap.  The second beer took a little while due to inability to breathe, and though I started running first Joe was close behind me and passed me while I burped in the first 100m.  We were both quick through that lap; on the third beer we both took a little extra time and he was off a good few seconds before me.  I started that lap feeling a bit uneasy, going a bit slow so that I could sufficiently burp, and about 40m in one of those burps produced a little vomit--just enough, taking me by surprise enough, that I couldn't hold it in, and refunded about a third of a beer.  At that point I knew to not hold anything back, and I sped up considerably.  My fourth beer was pretty fast, since I was trying to put it down as quickly as possible and welcoming any ejection (which never actually came about).  I knew I had 800m to go but tried to give it as much of a sprint as I could...unfortunately I'm currently even slower than normal so that wasn't that great.  I passed a few people on that lap, and as I came through the finish line I announced that I had a penalty lap.  Passed a few more people on the fifth lap and came through at 7:44 to a crowd which included Zack "7:25" Kennedy, who was pretty happy to have beaten me.  They had popsicle sticks at the finish (for those of you who have never done cross country, a common way to tabulate finishers is to give out numbered popsicle sticks at the finish; runners turn them in later and give their name so officials can write everything down with plenty of time) and I didn't look at mine until well after the finish...I was surprised to see a double-digit number on there.  7:44 would be good for top 3 in a beer mile in any other city on Earth.  I was through four laps in 6:22, so I think I could be close to that in a non-penalty-lap beer mile.  Would love to have a few more beer miles throughout the year in order to get a feeling for how much to push and not throw up.

Adam finished at 11:19, which is pretty much amazing.  Would definitely be top 50% in a normal beer mile but with this amazing field it was only 21st I think.  Joe did break 6, clocking a 5:52.  I think 6:15 would be a possibility for me within a few tries, but sub-6 is elite territory.  Maybe I can get Adam to run a few with me over this summer.

Luke - 4.75

4.75mi, 39:17 (8:16)
Mile loops of 8:31, 8:22, and 8:05.  Felt like crap mostly...I should start eating better...

Luke - 5.9

5.9mi, 45:39 (7:44)
1.5-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 11:38.

Luke - 9.1

9.1mi, 68:41 (7:32)
Fox Hollow plus the stream crossing on the way down.  7:48 up, 7-flat pace on the way home (last 3.5 miles).  Run was just a little longer than normal because there was a track meet going on at the high school so I had to go around.  Glad I was able to give it a decently-hard effort, but my legs were certainly feeling it in the last half-mile.
I have a beer mile this Saturday, the Ridgeline Ramble on the 25th, then the Dirty Half Marathon in Bend two weeks after that.  I probably won't feel great for the beer mile but it's short enough that I should be able to at least have some fun and maybe scare 6-flat if I don't throw up.  I won't be 100% for the RR but I hope to feel somewhat strong...we'll see what the competition is like there, and maybe use it as a practice race for the Dirty Half.  Would like to do well out there (it's a pretty competitive one usually) but things haven't quite gone as planned the last few weeks.  Kinda wish I hadn't done the Eugene Half, but I felt like I had to since it was a free entry, and for whatever reason I didn't think it would take as much out of me as it did.  Really just looking forward to a high-mileage summer, and I think I should be able to stay healthy since the only races I have planned between June 9 and August 29th are a 5k and a 10k.  We shall see.

Chris & Jeeni - 3.1

28:22 - 9:09 pace

Three mile loop by Jeeni's place after work, before she has to go coach volleyball. And leave poor me all alone to play Call of Duty all night and do some laundry.

Steve - 3

Easy cruise on dirt in 23:30.

Luke - 4.9

4.9mi, 38:21 (7:49)
Mile loops of 7:49, 7:48, and 7:33, and a 1km loop in 5:16 before heading home due to needing a bathroom and the one near the trail being out of order.  Again did 3 pullups, 30 seconds rest, 2 pullups on the first and third loops.  Foot was really hurting from the rubbed-raw blister on my right foot, plus the lower leg is not back to 100% yet.

Steve - 4

Ran with this new smaller track group the for the second time. Workout called for 200 repeats with 200 meter jog/walk in between. All in one set. We ended up taking a longer recovery than planned (a little less than 2 minutes on average). But I really needed it. I felt pretty good and ran every single one in 34 or faster (in my ancient Nike Frees). I could only muster 8 before I felt like I was starting to lose my speed. The 7th one was my slowest so I ripped the shirt off for the 8th and banged out one more good one. I should add a little mileage this week. But I feel like my routine of 2 speed workouts a week and a full-court basketball game is getting in me pretty good shape. We had a physical at work the other day and my pulse was 42. I was bragging to everyone that  it was the lowest pulse ever recorded at one of these things and that 42 or lower is usually the number that olympic caliber athletes have. I'm an asshole.

about a mile wup
32.5
33.0
32.5
32.5
33.5
33.2
34.3
33.5
10 min cd

Luke - 5.5

5.5mi, 38:56 (7:04)
1.4-mile loop of Pre's Trail in 10:14, with Zack.  Wore no socks and some old shoes and got a pretty big blister on the top of my right foot, which is dumb.

Chris & Jeeni - 3.12

9:36 pace

Woke up this morning and went to go run before we ate breakfast. It was about 68 when we left. It has been awhile since either of us have run this far, and there wasn't much shade along the road. When we got back Jeeni was overheating a little bit and felt nauseous, but after a little water and a cold rag on the neck started feeling better. I have officially been assigned the most difficult legs on our Hood to Coast team this year, so I really need to get my ass in gear and start training and running on a regular basis again!

Luke - 4.25

4.25mi, 33:26 (7:52)

Mile loops of 7:46, 7:51 and 7:46.  Halfway through the first and third loops I did three pullups, 30s rest, two pullups.  Legs still pretty sore, but getting better.

Luke - 3.25

3.25mi, 26:20 (8:06)
Mile loops of 8:14 and 7:58.  Legs starting to get a little better, but not much.

Luke - 2.25

2.25mi, 19:32 (8:40)
Mile loop of 8:54.  Right calf still really tight.