Training 2008-W13

A 'long run' week. Two more of these, with shorter-run weeks interspersed, followed by a couple weeks of taper before the upcoming jogging tour of Cleveland.

I did my tempo run Tuesday around SE-L. First shorts weather run of the season (low 40s, little wind), which always feels great and didn't disappoint. 7.6 miles at 8:40/mile.

For Sunday's long run, I found mention of a group run in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Sure enough, I show up circa half past six and there are gobs of runners stretching out and finishing their venti joes. More than a handful were there to touch up their training for Boston; fortunately for me, others took a more casual pace, so I had a few opportunities for chatting along the way. 18.1 miles at 9:12/mile "moving pace", after the Garmin software graciously subtracts my 10-minute pause to shed some layers and load up on albuterol partway through.

Continuing education

A list of terms I've looked up after their mention in XKCD:
Donner party, Seiken Densetsu, Bellman-Ford,
Counterstike, Simple Plan, Cory Doctorow,
Achewood, Toothpaste for dinner, Feistel cypher
Lojban, Xanga, Godwin's law, Aeris
River Tam, Adrian Lamo, Redwall, GLaDOS

4/3 Addendum: Summer Glau. That's two firefly refs; apparently netflix is in order.

Training 2008-W11+12

Last week, some intervals on the (indoor track) Tuesday: 5x800 at 4:00 with 200m jogs in-between. CFWU before, then some jogging afterward, say 4 miles total. I did legs+core strength training on Wednesday, which felt good but put me in the sore house for the balance of the week. Wimpy!

Sunday's run made up for it, though. 16.3 miles at 9:06. Nice weather: chilly with dry streets. I don't need any more long runs at that pace; though it felt great at the time, a week later my knees are still a little shaky. Motionbased plotted this pretty histogram of my pace.

This week was a cut-back before the distance-building ladder (ca. 8 weeks to go). 8x400m on the treadmill on Wednesday, then 7 miles Friday and 8 on Saturday, each at about a 10:00 pace.

If I lump last week's long run in with this week's runs (Sunday to Saturday), then this is technically my first 35-mile week. But, I won't.

Obama's racy speech

I'm usually not a fan of non-policy speeches, but (as read) the oratory in Obama's speech today is impressive. Definitely above the eighth-grade writing level.

On a similar note, I heard some of the Ohio high-school debate championships on WCPN (they were hosted by the City Club) on Saturday. For the presidential debates this year, instead of having Tim Russert search of obscure quotes on Google (ooh, driving journalism!), how about a Lincoln-Douglass style spar between the candidates? Three topics for each debate, scored by a panel of high-school debaters, who, in contrast to TAV might retain the ability to objectively value an argument and will certainly deduct points for off-topic rants and focus-group pandering.

Lungs

As advertised:

Conversation overheard while having one's torso intentionally irradiated:

May I get a copy of the images?
No, they're digital now.

I suppose the information being digital makes it more difficult to copy or transmit? Either way, apparently asking is enough to set some complex system in motion, resulting in the delivery of said digital files on CD (with utmost friendliness). Fun stuff.

I wasn't sure if the word above should have been "utmost" or "upmost". Utmost is correct, as in "uttermost". Interestingly, I think utter (adj) is often used pejoratively, whereas I would use utmost in an exclusively positive sense.

Lunchtime progression

I have a short tune stuck in my head. It's legitimate (I'm not humming Avril here) - maybe a theme from a radio program, or something I read with a quintet once upon a time?

I have this in c and 12/8 in my head, but I don't have pitch, so it could be in any minor. If each symbol is a dotted quarter, then:

i-i-i-V-VI-III-iv-V-

How disappointingly simple 90% of the tunes in my head are. In this case, I don't think the original was going to V at the end, nor i again after that.

Scientists and politics

In news of note, Bill Foster will join reps Holt and Ehlers as the third card-carrying physicist in the legislature. What fun it is to have people who care about understanding the world, and maybe even do so, participating in running it.

Meanwhile, John McCain picks on some nifty biology research as a waste of money, as described in this Post article. I defer to my standard argument on this one: read a book! [*] Seeing first-hand the recent effect of increased bomb turnover on the state of bioscience funding, I have strong feelings about present and future governmental incompetence (or short-sightedness) in this area, and, therefore, that of the average amercun voter. Bah; meh; yargh.

[*] Quoth The Tick

Training 2008-W10

Ca. 25 miles again this week:

Wednesday treadmill for 5x[2min on, 2 min off] where on=7:50/mi and off=10:15/mi. About 4 miles with the warmup jog. Running the 'off' sections any quicker and I'm not sure I could have dialed the speed back up after two minutes of panting; any slower and I would have looked like I belonged in the walking-and-reading-the-Plain-Dealer section of our cardio room. A few rounds of basic core exercises remind me that, despite increasing my running pace, I suck.

Thursday after school I joined the BME marathoners (many of whom are neither BME students nor training for marathons) for tempo hills in the Heights. About 6 miles at 8:40/mi over the elevation profile below.



Friday and Saturday it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. I shoveled out Sunday morning just enough to blast red car out of the drive and join four of the bravest BME marathoners for our weekend long run. This was snow-plodding at its best: the roads only had an inch of two of uneven, semi-packed snow. My limbs chatted ("hello, ankles"; "hello, knees") for 14.5 miles at 10:17/mi.

Training 2008-W09

Week 8 was a recovery week; given a few days in the Appalachian side of TN to boot, I skipped both of my midweek runs. Neither the (relative) relaxation nor warm Smokies milieu did anything for my persistent cough, but my legs felt pretty recharged going into Sunday's run. 10 miles at 9:21/mi. I suspect slower would have been beneficial; yet, when in Rome... [*]

Back to the 'three run' plan in week 9, 25 miles total:

It snowed all day Wednesday, reducing evening traffic to a minimum for a lovely one-hour tempo run of 6.7 miles: about a mile warmup, 4.5 miles at 8:30/mi, and a mile down.

On the treadmill Friday for 5x1000m at 8:15/mi. A struggle. I'll be happier with the local tracks thaw.

Back to the Heights for Sunday's run. I did about 5 miles alone before meeting up with the group for 9 more. 14.1 total at 9:40/mi felt pretty good at the time and in recovery. This bodes well for a sub-10 marathon, but my fatigue reminds me that I need to work in some hydration and calories as long runs start to push well past 2 hours.

[*] Here my dislike of the ellipsis was balanced by a dislike for dangling grammar and apparent lack of a more obscure description of being pulled along. "When being keel-hauled..."?