Week 12: Lots of Daveshit. And some running too!

Okay so this week, I was traveling back from CA, and also having my first "back down" weeks where I do about 70% of the previous long run. It's a technique to basically prevent injury as well as burnout. Only problem is, it left me feeling like a loser since my miles for the week were so much less. Maybe this running gig is growing on me. Or not. Or maybe. 

Okay so I did my 14.1 miles along the beach between LaJolla and DelMar. Pretty friggin hard to beat that as it was just phenomenal! So I woke up from that run, after scarfing down my el gigante burger from room service the previous evening and I was, gasp, fine. I could walk, bend over and touch my toes, hips were good, etc. It felt strange to be in good enough shape to have survived that run without any stiffness or soreness. So I decided to go out for a while with my friend Art and his family to check out the Hale Observatory with an enormous 200 inch mirror on its telescope. If you are a science nerd, that's kinda crazy to think about. So here it is. Take 6 yard sticks, out them end to end and then construct a perfectly polished continuous piece of glass that is several inches thick. Then transport that Bitch up a 5000 ft elevation with gnarly switchbacks (mind you, it's like 1930 when you are trying to do this), then install it without breaking it! Pretty impressive. If that werent impressive enough, the signs for "Rattlesnakes! Beware!" had my gourd running in circles too. 

Traveling sucked as usual, with teeny tiny seats on the airplane. I paced the aisle barefooted like a mental patient, reading my book "Pride, Prejudice and Zombies", garnering freaky looks from many a folk. Eh, screw you. Turn the tv off bozos and pick up a book. ANY BOOK, cause reading is fundamental. So there went my entire Tuesday. 

The rest of the week passed rather quickly as stuff seems to implode when I go away from the lab. Damage control. 

By Friday I am ready for my friends Amy and Jenn to come into town the next day. Jenn is coming in to do the longest run of her life (9mi) with me, while Amy is tooling around on the bike, acting as the water wench. The run went great- meadow trail again. This time there were tons of deer out and about, particularly this pair of twin bucks with their antlers all fuzzy. They were about 5 pointers, At first, Amy wanted to shoot them, but I think she warmed up to them after a while. Of particular note was that Jenn and I smoked the run in less than a 10min/mile.

We decided to go for some Indian food as a reward, but I completely picked the place with good food, yet the WORST service ever. This was compounded by the fact that we were VERY HUNGRY from our run and it took about an hour just to get Naan. I think this took some wind out of our sail as we made off for the Village Idiot Bar a mile or so from my house. I have been meaning to try this place out and I am glad we did. Very hot, friendly and dry witted bartender that had the hots for Amy and more Simpsons stuff than one knew what to do with. They even had a tap with Milhouse on it!!!  And they had Oberon. I like this place. We hung out for  while, doing some Daveshit.

Okay, so if you've gotten here from Facebook you are now mystified by this term Daveshit. No we are not doing drugs. It is now an all encompassing term for  anything you do. You see I was describing the antics of my cousin Dave down in Mexico like 10 years ago and my friends asked me what he was doing, towit I answered " I dont know- Daveshit". Bam. Another Kate-ism is born, along with my friend Pete's fav "outerior" where my brain couldnt quite parse out exterior or outside and it came out as "outerior". So no drugs. Just Daveshit. 

So here is the lowdown then on this week of Daveshit...
Mon: hike 2 miles
Tues: airplane ride from hell. Pacing at 35k feet does not count in the training methinks.
Wed: 4 mi HARD run  at 9:20/mi
Thurs: 3 mi + personal training
Fri: off
Sat: 9 mi

So in this backdown week of 18 miles, I now have this weekend of BEERFEST, friends and a 15 mile solo run to look forward to. Another week, more daveshit.

Week 11: Welcome to the land of Hill training.

I am in sunny California this week at a science conference. But does this prevent me from ticking off my training runs, including 14 miles along the coastline. HELL TO THE NO. Dedication? Stupidity? Addiction? You be the judge... here's how the week went down in CA, with a few surprises throughout the week.

Sunday: My family was in town visiting and so I chilled with them, doing a 3 mile hike along the Maumee Bay State Park trail system, where Maumee River meets Lake Erie. It was about 93 degrees outside and a 100 degree heat index. But heat be damned! We hit it and saw some great sights, including the 3ft Eastern Watersnake that slithered right in front of my Mom and I while we were walking.

Monday: Sent my family packing and went to work to sort shit out there. Since it was still so hot, I ran on the treadmill inside. Did another 3 miles and then had to call it quits to go get some sleep.

Tuesday: Personal trainer (1mi on treadmill) + 2 miles inside. Had to cut it short so I could pack for my trip.

Wednesday: Travel Day. I hate those little seats and the large men that are in front of you that put their seat back and the little kid behind you that kicks your seat. I could barely walk after that. throw in the 3 hr time difference and I am flogged. But that shan't stop me from body surfing with friends. We hit the ocean at Torrey Pines State park with the boogie boards for 2 hrs. Lets call that cross training.

Thursday: Conference. Ate sushi in the sunshine with peers. Sat on my ass for 8 hrs at conference. Got in a quick 2 miles to relieve stress.

Friday: Got up at 6am, hit the UCSD campus loop. Holy hills! Did 4.2 miles around the campus, checking out their sculpture collection, and running through the pines. It was a bit unlike what I have been doing, as it was non-stop hills so my quads got hammered. Recovered pretty fast though and after sitting on my ass again at the conference, went with friends down to the beach below Salk Institute. The clothing optional beach. We descending a cliff to get down there, which was quite a workout. We were rewarded with a beautiful surf and schlangs in our faces every which way you look. You see this was a mostly gay nude beach, apparently reserved for overweight men in their 50s and 60s. It was a little awkward, but you got over it pretty fast as no one seemed to care. Except for the man wearing what we will refer to as "The Apparatus" starting talking to our friend Kiki (name changed for privacy). Kiki was sitting on the beach whilst apparatus man stood above her, wearing a button down shirt and the apparatus, his member making a guest appearance hear and there during the course of Kiki's conversation with him. Talk about creepy. Kiki handled it well. Needless to say we packed it up soon afterwards and climbed up the cliff. We will just call this a cross training day of the eye opening kind.

Saturday: Off. Had to give a talk at the conference and couldnt sneak out. This is my normal long run, but that is being delayed until Sunday.

Sunday: LOng run along the Coast line. Ran along Torrey Pines Golf Course, skirted the ghekkos and various lizards in the desert trail, descended another cliff again (via runnable switchback) and ran along the beach up to DelMar. Turned around and met a local lady, with whom I ran for 6 miles. She told me about some trails I needed to hit in my last day in CA. The run was great, sunny, 70 degrees and fantastic surf. The only problem was I had to ascend that switchback cliff. It was, for my GR friends, like 20 Hall hills or Michigan hills strung together. It felt like a 1000ft ascent over 0.5 miles, but ended up being a 400ft ascent over 0.7 miles. It was insane to do my tip toe sprints up that. I did have to stop and walk a little, as my heart was pounding. Kicked that hill's arse and kicked it into a 9:30 for the least 3 miles of my run. Got back to my swank hotel on the oceanfront and PASSED OUT. 14.1 miles total.

So totals: 3+3+3+2+4.2+14.1=29.3 miles.

So tired. Got one more relaxing day in California before I head back to reality

Week 10: Aunt Katy Boot Camp

Okay, so this week was a bit challenging, as I had family in town, various ridiculous crises at work and it was ridunculously hot!!! Here's how it went down...

Sun: was down in Akron for the weekend and went for a recovery run with my sister Margret after hitting it for 12 miles on Sat. It was a good leisurely run in cute lakeside hood. Stuffed my belly with awesome Indonesian and Dutch food whilst there. Cranked it out to Toledo late in the evening, plus one niece, 14 y/o Ally, who was enrolled in Aunt Katy Bootcamp for one week.

Monday: off from exercise but various crises at the lab. Brought Ally into the lab and then we went to lunch and a movie- G Force. Not porn. It was the Guinea Pig movie. Then we hit the Greek deli for dinner. Walked a mile or so around the hood. Crashed HARD that night!

Tuesday: So since Ally is 14, she sleeps until 10:30 and then requires an hr of inline time to catch up with what shit has gone down overnight. I use this time to got to the lab and deal with more crap. Upon returning home about noon, gather up the kid and we are gonna hit the train for 3.3 miles prior to personal trainer session. Despite my threats to be ready to run 2 miles, that wasnt to be, so Ally adopted the run-walk approach of run 3 min/walk 2 min. I did it for a mile with her, and then I just had to ditch her and get in a loop and a half of running while she walked the loop. Caught up to her again, and we got the run walk back on for the last 1.3. Personal trainer was pretty damn funny as Ally said she hadnt used those muscles in forever. Another mile there on the treadmill. She passed out hard that evening, after computer time to tell everyone how much I sucked. She did not like the push ups or plate pushes.

Wed: We are running again, this time along the river. Ally was dogging it this day and was crying a bit that she couldnt do it. Her attitude quickly changed when the bare-chested high school cross country team came running past us. She perked up and picked up the pace. We did run-walk again and she did a good job there. 3.5 miles there.

Thursday: We are running and doing personal trainer today again. We are doing projects around the house first and only get to do 1.5 miles prior to personal trainer. We get a good clip on though at PT. Another 1 mile on the treadmill. Then we went to teh farmers market and I wailed on her sore arm since there was a VW bug. Sorry kid that's the rule. She did not enjoy that.

Friday: This should be an off day but since the heat of Hades is a comin', we decided to hit the trail for 13.1 miles (I run it, se bikes it). It was damn hot in the late afternoon, and especially out on the prairie. Whatever I did, I need to keep doing it as I was running a 9:30/9:45 clip with only 4 1-minute walking intervals over the entire 13 miles. I felt great. I have now completed a half marathon and minimal aches and pains. I can definitely do this, barring any injuries or burnout. We celebrated with Chili Cheese Dogs and beer (me anyways).

Sat: off. My mom and sister come in for a visit and to pick the kid up so just walking a mile in the hood after having a burrito.

So the tally: 2+1+4.3+3.5+2.5+13.1+1=27.4miles!

This week will be tricky as I am traveling to San Diego for a conference and I need to get in a 14 miler over the weekend. Wish me luck on this one.

Week 9: HOW many more miles do I have to run?!!

Okay, so when we left off, I was limping around from my last long run in my crappy shoes, and I had just dropped a bundle on my new shoes...

the changes are astounding. Knee pain is virtually gone, shins are back baby and calves have been worked over thoroughly. Of course, some of this happened via a thorough beating from my masseuse. Once a month I get a massage due to some severe neck tension problems I've developed over the last year. My regular dude wasnt there this past week, so I went with a young woman who was strong as an ox and put the beat down on my muscles. I was cringing in, well in pain, but it was working all the crap out from the prior days long Sat run- so it was all worth it in the end. She did some insane neck stretches on my too that scared me but again, kinda worked things out for me. I am going with this woman again after an excessively long run.

So I got my massage and cleaned out my old crappy apartment and moved the last load of stuff on Sunday. So no running. Supposedly that was a rest day, but you be the judge. I was done by 8pm I think. The good news is that I hit the store and scored some new spanky running gear so I can thro out some of the cotton tank tops that are getting quite skanky. My new look rocks. I am even running in pink shirts!

Monday I took the new shoes for a test drive and I dropped back into 9:30 territory immediately. 5 miles.

Tuesday I ran outside again- 3.5 miles. Then hit PT session for 30, with another 1 mil or so.

Wed: Off. I had some faculty function and so I ate Indian fud instead. Good call for me.

Thursday: Made up for my Wed off by running 4 miles, then PT for 30 min. Maybe 1 more mile during PT.

Friday OFF. went home after work (5pm!!!) and ate chicken wings and drank beer. I think I was in bed by 10pm, I was so whipped.

Sat. Got up. Not feeling the running love. Gotta get my arse in gear though as I need to drive 2 hrs to Cleveland to pick up my niece for her weeklong visit to Ohio. Finally get out the door by 10:30 and nail the 12 miles. Felt great. Ran my meadow run again to give the joints a break again and twas a good strategery! I ran up this bluff (real slow like) to check out the monument for the battlefield from the 1790s that I was running on. The overlook was phenomenal! There was some wedding going on over in the corner by the swampy lake and a blue heron was chilling on its banks. I dod my walk-run with 12-14 minutes of running to one minute of walk, except for 60 minutes in when I took 3 min to walk and chow down on a powerbar and chug a lug some water.

Got back to the house, stretched and snoozed after cleaning up. It was all good, except I was feeling really dehydrated. I drank a 40 oz diet soda on the way down to Cleveland and didnt have to pit stop for 4 hrs. Dehydrated much?

So tally

5+5.5+5.0+12miles=27.5 miles.

Getting there folks. I have now surpasses in one week what I need to run in one day.