800 Repeats, Pain in my Knee, and Why so much food?

What kind of things do I need to remember about today?

Pain in my right knee for most of the workout and definitely after the workout.  Talked to Mike since he came from a cycling background.  I told him that the knee pain only started once I got back on my bike regularly.  He said that it is possible that my saddle may be too low.  He said that my knee should only be slightly bent.  Not straight and fully extended, either.  I will have to check on this and make an adjustment if necessary.

Cliche:  Pain is temporary.  Pride is forever.  Gotta remember this when my legs feel heavy, there's a sidesticker making it hard to breath, my head feels like it is going to pop, and my arms are tingling.  I gave up on my last repeat tonight.  I was hurting, but was there more?  There's always more.  Always.  Unless you're on the floor.

Don't let the King be the Winner!  I went to Burger King an hour post workout.  I ordered and devoured

a BK Double Stacker (I love the sauce they use),

small french fries,

small Coke,

and the clincher... a BK Fish sandwich.

Did I really need the fish sandwich, too?  The King made me do it.  I will be stronger next time.  Approximately 1900 calories.  BMI just went up 1pt.  I can feel it.  This is gonna need some extra laps on the next workout.

And the workout...

3 laps around the track on my own (.75 mile)
1 mile loop around the neighborhood
Stretching and then 4 x 100 striders

6 x 800 repeats @ 4-7 seconds faster than 5k goal pace (3:20-3:25)
I ran 3:19, 3:20, 3:19, 3:26 (missed by 1 second), 3:21, 3:44 (refer to 2nd paragraph above ^ beginning with Cliche.)

Did some breathing exercises and slow stretching at home a few hours after the workout.

Reset on the Long Run

After getting up to 10 miles on my long runs, I have hit the reset switch and am now back at 6 miles for my long runs.  I didn't run as fast as my 10 milers either.

I didn't start with a warmup this workout, because I had my girlfriend pacing me on her bike.  She stayed slow enough for me to keep up with her, which was very nice.  I say this because a cyclist could very easily push the pace and send a runner into anaerobic activity in no time flat.

My left ankle has hurt since Friday.  No particular reason.  My GF felt my ankle and thinks that I am missing some cartilage.  Could be, but I don't really want to know that.  It was still a little sore when I started today's run, but it felt normal by the time I hit 2 miles.

Everything felt nice and smooth through 3 miles.  That's when I had to start thinking about pushing myself to maintain my pace.  I would say that I probably was running in the high 8's for most of the run.  Somewhere between that point and mile 5, my GF says to me, "Let me see that gazelle stride you talk about."  Of course, I start pushing off harder and lifting my thighs as I drive my knees forward.  I picked it up and ran sub-6 minute pace for about a quarter mile and was out of breath in no time.  I told her to wait as I slowed down, but kept motivated enough to go back to my previous pace.

I yelled out when we had 1 mile left, because I have that marked in my head (from too many runs to count).  When we hit about half mile left, she tells me that we're close and I need to pick it up a little.  I really like that about her.  She knew exactly when to push me.  When we finished up, I was spent.  The temperature was high 70's when the sun was going down.  Felt great!

It is Hard Running after a Layoff

I haven't really worked out very hard in about 3 weeks and I sure feel it.  It is now 3 hours since I finished my workout and my legs are killing me.  This time, I wised up and took my Claritin-D an hour before my workout.  I was very thirsty, which is a side effect, but much better than feeling like my lungs are about to seize up, runny nose, and itchy eyes.  Just saying.

The workout wasn't really that hard, which makes me feel even more pathetic about taking so much time off.  We ran a 1.25 mile warmup, did our usual light stretching and then a 4 mile loop to, around, and back from Lake Baldwin.  Most of the people in my group are running the Winter Park 10k this Saturday, so he didn't want us killing ourselves.  He said to run at conversational pace.  That would have worked if I kept up with anyone.  Instead, I just had to keep my thoughts to myself, which were mostly about just trying to keep pushing.  Nothing truly inspirational that's for sure.  I had to stop for about 30 seconds around the 2 mile mark.  After that, I went between barely jogging to pushing through the headwind and trying to keep pace.

By the time I got back to the track, almost everyone was finishing up the 200 meter repeats.  Coach wanted us to run 4 to 6 of them.  Run them somewhat hard, but not sprinting.  Just get a good turnover with your legs.  I was dying by the time I got there, so I ran 4 of them.  I felt like death afterward.  I sat down on the bleachers next to the water jug, so I wouldn't have to move very far.  I was beat physically, although mentally, I felt very accomplished.  I could have easily not run at all today in fear of the pollen.

I wish I had done more indoor workouts during my time off.  Some of it was to rest my calf, so maybe not that time.  But I could have been doing something instead of going outside and causing a nasal infection a week ago and that would have given me the ability to do even more indoor workouts.  See how that works?  Maybe next year I'll have a game plan in place for when the Oak Pollen Attacks!!

3 weeks exactly until the IOA Corporate 5k in downtown Orlando.

First Run in 2 Weeks and Allergies Did Me In Again

It is 2 hours after my workout stopped and I am still blowing my nose.  The last time I ran I hurt my calf and then I got a sinus infection from pollen overload.  The pollen count is still very high today, but it hasn't been as bad on me the last few days.  The pollen has gone from a light green to brown now and I thought it was a turning point.  I am fully vested in Claritin and hopefully my nose calms down soon.  It is driving me crazy.

So the workout... we did our normal 1 mile warmup, stretching, and then 4x100 striders.  All is well.  The actual workout is 5x1000 at 5k goal race pace with 200 recovery jog.

I ran the first one in 4:05 (6:34 mile pace) and the second in 4:20 (6:58).  That's a considerable drop.  The first felt pretty good even though my legs felt like they were burning up.  I didn't think too much of since I haven't run in 2 weeks.  The definitely felt like I slowed down on the second repeat even though I was trying to maintain the same pace.  My lungs were starting to feel asthmatic, though, by the end of that one.  I walked the recovery, got a little swig of water, and started the third 1000.  My lungs kept getting more constricted as I went and I stopped after 1 lap.  That was it.  I walked it off and got some cover under a tree.

Within 5 minutes, my nose was running like crazy and my eyes were itchy.  Done.  I popped one Claritin right away.  I biked home and ate some veggie lasagna and popped another Claritin.  Hopefully this goes away within the next hour, so I can sleep tonight.

Tuesday's Workout Brought Calf Pain

Irony Alert:  We never stretch our calves during warmups.  On Tuesday, we stretched our calves.  On Tuesday, I hurt one of my calves.

Tuesday's workout was 2 sets of 4 x 600 @ slightly faster than 5k pace.  I ran the first set with no problems.

2:25, 2:30, 2:23, 2:25

The second set was going great.  2:28 on the first rep.  On the second rep, I was on pace all the way through the 400 and as I was coming down the last straightaway, I could hear someone just bearing down on me.  Breathing.  Footsteps.  So I turned around mid-stride to see if the person was going around.  I moved into the second lane to make way and as I stepped through with my left leg, something pulled in my left calf.  Just enough to warrant stopping.  It was the kind of muscle pain that you know to stop and rest it.  So I didn't even try to jog it off.

It is Thursday now.  Yesterday, it was very sore and there was a little pain going into my Achilles.  Today only hurt when I used stairs, but walking on flat ground didn't hurt.  It's still sore.  I will rest it tomorrow as well.  We'll see for Saturday.

Started Riding the Bike to Work Again

I finally took my bicycle to the gas station up the road and inflated the tires.  I haven't ridden my bicycle to work since pulling my hamstring in late October.  Then after my leg healed, it started getting cooler, so I made that my excuse from riding in the mornings.

Well, the temperatures are fantastic and I finally rode my bike to work this morning.  Yay!  It felt great and I was energized when I got in the office.  That may be the kick I needed to start losing some extra pounds.

Tempo Run Around Lake Baldwin

Coach was in a good mood today and extra jolly in telling us that our workout was going to be a tempo run.  Two laps around Lake Baldwin.  Afterward, Jonny's Garmin showed it as 4.98 miles, but I'll call it 5 even.  So he tells us to think of our pace as 15k race pace.  I've never run a 15k, but I figure it is going to be slightly faster than talking speed and not as fast as 5k or 10k speed.  He told us to try to run a negative on the second loop around the lake.

I was running this time with Paul.  He normally runs much faster than I, but he has had foot problems lately and he just got back to running.  He said that he got some more padding for his shoes and socks and that helped with the pain, but he still doesn't have his lungs back.  I totally understand, because I just recently felt like I got my lungs back after a pulled muscle a few months ago.  Anyway, Paul asked me what pace I was gunning for.  I told him somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30.  I figured that if I can run that for 7 miles on my long run, then I should be able to handle that for 5 miles.  He immediately said we were running under 8 minute pace.  I mumbled in agreement and said that I was on the verge of sucking wind.  We kept it up though.

I ran the first 2.5 in 18:50  That's 7:32 average pace.  I stopped for 10 seconds to take my shirt off and wipe my face.  I got right back to my pace.  The entire time I was running the second lap, I thought I was going faster.  Not quite.  Paul only had 10 seconds on me and no matter how much I tried do some pickups along the way, he kept the relatively same distance ahead of me.  My total time ended up being 38:18.  That includes the 10 second stop.  If it was a race and I stopped for any reason, the official time clock wouldn't wait for me.  That made my second loop a 19:28 which gives me an average pace of 7:47 for that one.

My average pace for the whole 5 mile tempo run was 7:40.  No world record, but I feel good about my effort.

1000m Repeats

The workout that I dislike the most is mile repeats.  Today's workout is my second least favorite.  1000m or 1 kilometer repeats.  That's 2 and a half laps around a track.  It's about .6 miles.

The goal was to run at 10k pace.  I don't have a frame of reference since I haven't run one in 5 years.  In this case, coach told us to use our 5k pace, double it and add 1 minute.  I figure that's around 23 minutes, so 46 plus 1 equals 47 minutes.  Our chart didn't have 10k times, so my partner and I guessed it would be around 4:40-4:45 and anything under that is good.  Now that I can look it up online using a pace calculator, I can see that it is 4:42.

The workout was 2 sets of 4 repetitions.  The first one was 10k pace and then 3-4 seconds faster each one.  Take a 1 minute rest between reps and 3 minutes between the 2 sets.  At the beginning of the second set, start over at 10k goal pace again and work our way down again.

That didn't work out at all.  We ran the first one in 4:21.  Way too fast.  Followed that up with 4:25, 4:23, and 4:23.  I don't remember the second set except for the last one.  Here's what happened on the second set, because I deviated from the workout.  My partner and I tried to keep up with the pack in front of us to begin the next set of 4 x 1000.  They were only running between 5-10 seconds faster than us, but we were already running too fast.  That did me in.  On the second 1000, I started feeling numb in my feet and a little dizzy, so I stopped with 300 to go and did a walk and jog around the track to get straight.  I then did my third and forth by myself.  Third one was slow and the forth one I ran the 1000 at 4:30, but I also kept running for another lap to make up the difference of what I cut short on the second rep.  It probably didn't help my workout, but it helped my ego at the end of the workout, so I didn't feel like I cheated.

I don't like 1000's.  Everyone has theirs.  I like running 400's.  Most people hate them.

Registered for the Corporate 5k on April 14th

I have been meaning to register for the IOA Corporate 5k all week and I have finally taken the time to register my company since I am the team captain again this year.  At least this year, we have a heads up on what's going on.  Last year, we didn't even know if we were going to have a team, because the previous captain was gone.  I kind of defaulted since no one else wanted to do it.  I have been running it for a few years and I didn't want us to completely drop the ball and not have a team.

I am pretty sure it the largest 5k in the state of Florida.  It is definitely pretty crazy for the first mile if you aren't at the very front.  As a matter of fact, some of the fastest runners finish before all of the walkers get through the starting gate.  Last year, there were 12,500 participants and I think they are aiming for either 13k or 14k this time.  Either way, there is a lot of energy.  You can't worry about getting a PR.  It's about the atmosphere of the event.

If you live in Orlando and don't have a team, create one.  Check it out at www.corporate5k.com.

1 and 1's and Then a Few Extra Miles for Good Measure

Today's prescribed workout was 1 and 1's.  That's 1 minute at 5k race pace alternating with 1 minute of jogging.  We did this for 16 minutes.  I definitely ran faster than my 5k goal race pace.  The first thing that made me feel really good about this workout was that I stayed with the group through 5 of the fast portions.  I trailed off for the last 15 seconds of that 5th one and then I lost ground on the remaining jogs, but I only finished about 100 meters behind the pack.  I made sure not to slow down much on the fast parts, but I definitely lost ground on the jogs.  That's when everyone else has a good time talking to each other and I'm panting like a dog.

After the 16 minutes were up, I took another minute and a half to jog back to the track to get some water.  Instead of finishing the workout with a mile cooldown, I started running around the track.  I only had 1 mile planned in my head, but then I just kept going.  I ended up running 3 miles after the main portion of the workout.  That's the second thing about today's workout that made me feel really good.  I started off around 10 minute pace and by the last mile, I was running at 8 minute pace.  My legs were tired, but at the same time, I kept feeling stronger as I went and I think it was swelling up from confidence. I think this is all due to the longer runs that I've been doing on the weekends.  Everyone told me it would help a lot, but I have to admit that I was skeptical.  If I wasn't, I would have started doing them months ago.

Total miles including warmup and cooldown:  6.8 and feeling great!