Saturday, July 24, 2004
Running
After spending a good part of the morning and early afternoon catching up with all the Tour de France coverage I had recorded (and hadn't managed to see since Wednesday), I finally decided that I had to go out for a run. Not only was I scheduled for one, but how can you watch Lance win all those mountain stages and then sit like a lump on your couch afterwards??? Anyway, so into Forest Park I went. We had had a ton of rain and so everything was completely saturated, the air was much cooler than it had been on Thursday when I ran my race, but the humidity was still extremely high. Probably pretty close to 100% as there were still storms and rain in the area. Anyway, ran in on the Drive as I always do, continued in on the Bridle Path and then to "my" hill, running up the thing in it's entirety (yay!) Looked at my watch at the top and... is it possible that I ran that mile+ (from the entrance of the park to the top of the hill) 2 minutes faster than I did last week? Perhaps I'm just remembering the time wrong. Anyway, after the hill, I was really shot. Ran another half a mile or so, but my legs were dead. My whole body felt tired, I just couldn't seem to make myself run after that. I decided to cut it short, although, I did run the last hill up the park drive on my way out of the park. All-in-all, a pathetic effort, about 2.5 miles, only 1.5 of that was probably actually running. After leaving the park I decided to take a different route home and was surprised to run into Paul & Luminita at the ice cream place. They invited me back to their apartment for a beer (they live near the park) and so I ended up with a nice reward for a crappy run.
|
After spending a good part of the morning and early afternoon catching up with all the Tour de France coverage I had recorded (and hadn't managed to see since Wednesday), I finally decided that I had to go out for a run. Not only was I scheduled for one, but how can you watch Lance win all those mountain stages and then sit like a lump on your couch afterwards??? Anyway, so into Forest Park I went. We had had a ton of rain and so everything was completely saturated, the air was much cooler than it had been on Thursday when I ran my race, but the humidity was still extremely high. Probably pretty close to 100% as there were still storms and rain in the area. Anyway, ran in on the Drive as I always do, continued in on the Bridle Path and then to "my" hill, running up the thing in it's entirety (yay!) Looked at my watch at the top and... is it possible that I ran that mile+ (from the entrance of the park to the top of the hill) 2 minutes faster than I did last week? Perhaps I'm just remembering the time wrong. Anyway, after the hill, I was really shot. Ran another half a mile or so, but my legs were dead. My whole body felt tired, I just couldn't seem to make myself run after that. I decided to cut it short, although, I did run the last hill up the park drive on my way out of the park. All-in-all, a pathetic effort, about 2.5 miles, only 1.5 of that was probably actually running. After leaving the park I decided to take a different route home and was surprised to run into Paul & Luminita at the ice cream place. They invited me back to their apartment for a beer (they live near the park) and so I ended up with a nice reward for a crappy run.
|
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Spinning
Scary Spinning Instructor wasn't there this evening, so instead we had a sub. Consensus in the locker room after class was that he was totally annoying, I said that he sounded like a cheesy game show host, he had this Don Pardo-type voice. He basically spent the entire class dancing in front of the class to the tunes he was spinning. I had to keep my head down and my eyes closed for most of the class for fear that I would lose it and just start laughing. I knew that there was no way I could look over at Ellen. If we happened to catch each others' eyes, forget it, it would have been all over. Anyway, despite all this, I managed to have a very good workout. He spent most of the class in climbs and I was pretty aggressive with the resistance. He also had one series of intervals of short sprints and I tried to be as aggressive here as I could too. So, I didn't walk out of there as wiped out as I may have, had it been a usual Tuesday night grueling session, but I had a great workout nonetheless.
|
Scary Spinning Instructor wasn't there this evening, so instead we had a sub. Consensus in the locker room after class was that he was totally annoying, I said that he sounded like a cheesy game show host, he had this Don Pardo-type voice. He basically spent the entire class dancing in front of the class to the tunes he was spinning. I had to keep my head down and my eyes closed for most of the class for fear that I would lose it and just start laughing. I knew that there was no way I could look over at Ellen. If we happened to catch each others' eyes, forget it, it would have been all over. Anyway, despite all this, I managed to have a very good workout. He spent most of the class in climbs and I was pretty aggressive with the resistance. He also had one series of intervals of short sprints and I tried to be as aggressive here as I could too. So, I didn't walk out of there as wiped out as I may have, had it been a usual Tuesday night grueling session, but I had a great workout nonetheless.
|
Monday, July 19, 2004
Week 22
Running
Well, last week ended up being pretty much of a bust. Work was crazy, I wasn't feeling all that great and I got really mired down in some personal issues that distracted me from my workout schedule. I am determined that this be a much better week.
Today wasn't off to the best start. Went to bed after midnight and was up before 6 AM and at my desk by 7:30. Caught my regular train home so, needless-to-say, I was pretty exhausted. I was also less than thrilled with the hot and extremely humid weather (around 90% humidity this evening), but I was determined to run anyway. I stalled for about half an hour and then finally dragged myself out the door and up to Forest Park. Decided that I was just going to take it really, really easily and not worry about how much I was able to run. Well, can I tell you that tonight's run ended up being one of my best runs in years? It was truly amazing.
Ran my usual route. Started at the entrance to Forest Park and ran up the hill on the Park Drive here, marvelling at how easy it was, the memory of it being a tough climb for me still very fresh in my mind (it was only a few months ago), continued running down to the Bridle Path entrance and ran in for my loop, selecting the more difficult direction. Kept running, reminding myself again and again to slow, slow, slow... I wanted to be able to keep running as long as was possible. It was hot and humid and uncomfortable, but I wasn't dying. Now, here's the interesting part: I reached my hill (you know, the 3-tiered one I keep writing about) and I kept on running. No walk break. Not only that, but I ran up the entire hill. Without stopping. Or walking at all. I've never, ever been able to do that before. Once I reached the top, I ran a little farther along, just to solidify the effort in my mind and then allowed myself a short rest break. After catching my breath, I started running again, back down the backside of the hill, completing that half of the loop and onto the second half that is mostly up hill grades of varying degrees. No hills are as tough as the 3-tiered hill, except the very last one (which is, however, shorter) but most of it is uphill to some degree. Anyway, I was able to continue running far into the second half of this loop and finally had to succomb to a walk-break about 2/3s of the way through. After my break, however, I was able to finish the Bridle Path loop in it's entirety, including the steep hill at the end. After a quick recovery from my Bridle Path loop effort, I was also able to run the entire way to the end of the Park Drive and back to where I started. This is by far the best running effort I have shown in years and it gives me hope for the future of my running life. It was agonizingly slow, but tonight (and for now), the most important thing for me is getting the run in, increasing distance, increasing endurance and decreasing the amount of time that I have to walk. Check, check, check and check! I am especially satisfied with the run given the humidity today and how hopeless I usually am in this kind of weather. So, the total was around 3.0 - 3.5 miles. Probably around 4.0 with the walk to and from the Park.
|
