week 8

Wow, I have been back at this for 8 weeks already? This week the total is a bit small but that was because of a long week last week, making this a short week. Monday I did my long run for last week because I was dragging all weekend. That left me dead on Tuesday, but I did go to the gym for upper body. Wednesday I was so sleepy all day and sore all over so i decided not to do anything. Thursday I had a 6k easy run and yesterday I went to the gym for some lower body. Today I knocked out 15k and tomorrow I will go to the gym for some upper body no matter what. I have the whole day with nothing to do so no matter how tired I will make it there. That leaves me with only 21k this week, but really that is not so bad. I only took one day off from exercise and I needed it. I have been working on a plan for my 1/2 in July and I got to say that the prescribed long runs are not the toughest thing to do. its the little varied runs where I kind of shrug and think, I can do that later. I need to stop doing that. 6k easy, 15k interval, 1 lower body workout, 2 upper body workouts. total 21k.

Week 7

Last week on Friday I had done some ladder with my kiddos. I ended up doing two sets of 50, 100, 150, 200, 150, 100, 50 with rests of 200 in between. Well it killed me. Even as practice ended I knew I was going to be sore because my legs were jello. I just don't sprint, so it was tough. I got in my 14k the next day because I knew my legs were going to be raging on Sunday. They were.
Since then Middle School track has ended. We had our meet last Saturday and a couple of kids got medals, but as a school we got crushed. The middle school team is just too small, 8 kids, vs the other schools which bring 12-20. So we ended on a low note, but I bet I will see some of them next year in CC and Track. Now my days are free after school which feels really weird to me.
I had really sore stiff hams all week basically which really did not encourage running. I tried twice, once on Wednesday and then again on Saturday. Wednesday I got 5k in, but oh it hurt. Saturday I did 3k and could still feel the pain so I gave it up. By Monday I was feeling ok so I put in for my 14k of intervals. It was tough, but I am finally getting some feeling back in my hams. It makes me realize that I need to do at least a touch of spring/strider work. This week, 5k easy, 3k easy, 14k interval, 2 upper body, 2 lower body. total 22k.

Week 6

Week 6 was a fairly normal week. I picked up going to the gym a bit more and am pretty much over that whole first two weeks of being sore as I flesh out my routine. two days of leg work, one day of upper body, 5k easy, 3k ladders, 5k easy, 14k intervals. Total 27k.

Week 5

I just realized that I forgot to put a miles total for last week, but I don’t think I will go back and edit, it was too meager to matter much anyways. This week I was back on track, but also got some bad news. Once again I am aiming at a phantom race. The ½ marathon I was planning on doing in July was cancelled because it is about 70k from the nuclear power plants in Japan and well… So I was talking to my buddy who got me interested in it and he says he is now aiming for one in Nagano around the same time. Sounds nice, but Nagano is about 4 hours out of my way, so I am not sure if I will do it, but probably.

Another interesting thing this week is that I finally got a gym membership. After being out of the gym for 10 months I was back in this week and it felt great. I have a treadmill and a few small weights at home that I used over the winter, but going to a gym is like being a kid in a candy shop.

This week, 34k. 8k intervals, 5k race pace, 5k intervals, 3k jog, and 13k race pace.

Week 4

Yes, I slacked a bit getting this week’s entry posted. Why? Because this week was not good and I wasn’t too enthused about writing about it. I have been having stomach troubles since I got from India and this past week just felt too tired, beyond a few short runs with the Middle School Track team, to do much of anything. Last Thursday I went back to the doctor’s office for the third time and hopefully this round of antibiotics will squash whatever I have. I am feeling ok now and this have run about 15k so far and its not even Wednesday yet, so that is shaping up well.

Week 3

Not too much to say this week. Middle School Track started so I got that going and there is a meet tomorrow. Its fun to see them run and to think about how much they will improve in the next few years.
I did not do much running myself this week. Last week on Wednesday I hurt my calf, but didn't really realize it until Thursday. I took it easy and on the race last Sunday I felt fine, but I knew it was still there. On Wednesday I went out to test it and it still hurt. So I took Thursday off and then did stairs with the kids on Friday. Saturday I did 3k to test it out and was feeling fine so today, Sunday, I did 8k but got tired really quickly. Overall, it has not been a good week for running, but I am confident that this week will be better.

Jinqiao 8k

Well, it has been an eventful weekend of running for me. Yesterday market the last day of the track season and so my end as long distance running coach. Our school traveled to another nearby school which hosted a meet of 8 area schools. Both boys and girls teams placed 5th, which to me was a little disappointing. However, we did have a lot of individual winners and placers and that was great. One of the girls, someone I have mentioned in previous posts, had to leave early for health reasons. She also had a soccer game the next day and was battling a cold. She did take 1st in the 3000m and I am sure she would have taken first in the 1500 and 800 as well as placing in the 400 had she been able to stay. I wonder a little bit if that would have skewed the scoring enough to bring the girls team to a 3rd place. We also had one boy break the school and probably the city HS record for 100m dash at 11:02 seconds. That is pretty darn fast. It was kind of sad to see the season end, but coaching is not over for me. On Monday I will start coaching the middle school team for a month (they have a short season) and many of the HS kids have agreed to come by and help out with the younger ones. That will be fun, and hey, there is always CC to look forward to next fall. I am pretty sure we can do much better than the previous year, just about everyone who ran last year is coming back and a year older so I think we could win 2nd or 3rd overall.

The second part of this weekend was that I ran the Jinqiao 8k on Sunday. The weather was pretty nice, but a bit hazy. Although this is Shanghai, so it is almost always hazy. I haven’t been training specifically for an 8k, basically I have been training to get 5min k’s and to just keep expanding the distance I can keep that up for. Right now I am on 13, but hope to be to 20 by the time I run my half marathon this summer. Sure would be nice to get under 2hrs for a ½.
Earlier in the week I had done practice run around the track so I could time my splits and sprints and I did an even split with a time of 38:something. I even stopped twice for a minute to drink some water and walk so that was good time. I was hoping for the 38 min mark, but being realistic races are always different and slower. Too many people and too much excitement usually slow me down. Today wasn’t much different. I forgot the start time, thinking it was 5 minutes later, and so was just getting to the back of the pack and working my way forward when the gun went off. Needless to say I was log jammed for the first k and didn’t have a good open path until 3k. At that point I was 3 minutes behind my pace. 3 minutes! I tried to keep just a little bit faster than pace and the next thing I knew I was passing the 6k mark and was just 30 seconds shy of 5 minute pace. I picked it up a bit and by the time I crossed the finish it was 39:30. Retrospectively I really wish I could have broke out more at the start, I may have gotten under 38, but 39:30 isn’t too bad and I felt like I could have kept running strong for another 2k which would have given me a decent 10k time.
I don’t know the split, but it was definitely negative and that is the first time I have been able to do that in a race as well as keeping better than 5min pace. I wasn’t as nervous either and didn’t feel as rushed as I have in the past. I guess I am learning a few things along the way.
The race itself was ok, but the t-shirts were a hideous yellow and red that made you look like a wearing ketchup and mustard. Very typical Shanghai atmosphere; traffic going the wrong way down one lane to get past runners causing traffic jams, wafts of industrial smoke filling the nostrils, fans ignoring the race demarcations and walking onto the course. However, I was surprised that no one pushed during the race even when I was in tight quarters. Chinese people are renowned among foreigners for pushing and cutting in line, but no one pushed me today (though someone did cut in line when I was waiting for a urinal pre-race). The course itself was ok, nothing special; it followed some pretty broad streets and new buildings so it was nice to have a little room and the roads were nice too, no potholes that I could see.
All in all a good day. I am glad I went and I think I came away with a decent time, even if I did look like a hotdog while doing it.
This week’s kilometers 12k intervals, 3k easy Vibrams, 8k 5min pace, 6k easy. Total 29k.