21 April 2011: athletic navel staring

This post will contain no politics and no spandex butts.

Workout notes AM: kind of weird workout. I planned on running a bit given that I am racing and won’t be able to get in a longish run. But I forgot that I had a good (for me) run on Saturday and again on Tuesday; I wasn’t recovered enough to run well.

So when I started at a 10:30′ish pace or so I more or less gave up .6 miles into it and ran/walked a bit. I then walked/jogged to my usual 2 mile mark (at the bottom of a hill than ran up it reasonably hard. That felt good, so that is what I did for the remainder of the workout: I ran up a hill, jogged down, walked the flats and repeated; 8 uphills in all (I visited 4 different uphill segments, 2 times each). I then walked it in to get in about 10K.

Over lunch; lifting:
Squats: 10 x 135, 10 x 135, 10 x 155 (free; no Smith machine; decent depth)
barbell curls: 3 sets of 10 with the EZ bar plus 30 pounds (52 pounds?)
dumbbell curls: 1 set of 10 with 25
incline bench press: 10 x 115, 8 x 130, 5 x 135, 4 x 135
light rotator cuff
pull downs: 10 x 120, 10 x 140, 10 x 140 (shoulder friendly grip)
rows: 10 x 180 (wide grip), 10 x 200 (wide grip), 8 x 220 (narrow grip)
Sit ups (100)

Pings and Dings: shoulder was getting better and is now sore; also I had some whining from my left piriformis muscle.

What I am finding:

1. I can’t run more than three times a week at anything resembling a pace that feels like running. For example, check out my easy run paces (based on a 26 minute 5K, which…well, I was running 24 minutes in 2009 and I am slower now: (via the Team Oregon Pace Wizard)

Note: using 24:10 (my 2009 time), one gets 10:28-11:10 for the short easy run pace.
I can’t stand “running” at that pace; it just feels crappy! I’d much rather walk at 13-14 minutes a mile. So for the time being, I’ll have to discipline myself to 3 runs per week with faster walking on Sunday (long) and a combination of faster walking and social walking on the other days. I think that the hill workout is a keeper.

2. I am enjoying the longish walks (14-17 mile) again.

3. Weights: I have to mind my shoulder; it got a bit sore today. But these are going ok.

4. Yoga: I skipped today’s class: that was a mistake. I am finding that the flexibility that I get is essential, even if my teacher is ADD.

Events: I am running the Wild Life Trail 4 miles on Saturday and a university 5K the following Saturday and probably the Race for the Cure the next one. Hence I need to get in a longish midweek run (8 miles?) on Tuesday (after yoga class?)

Knowing myself, I’ll try a “not trained for it” 24 hour; I haven’t decided on the local trail 24 hour (20-21 May) or the FANS (first weekend in June). If I do the latter, I could do the 8 hour trail ultra instead of the 24. I’ll know more after this week’s longer walks.