ok

These past two days have kind of been zombie mode. I got sideswiped when April's work needed help. I am not working now, so I'll take extra money wherever I can get it and decided to go to in to work. So Monday all I did was stuff envelopes. There are 72 stacks each with about 100 envelopes in them. It's pretty simple, you grab this and that, hit it on the table to make it straight, put it in, zip the sticky strip, flip over and do the next one. I did this all day. They had someone helping me, and between the two of us we got about forty of these done on Monday. The other person was faster than me, so I'd say I did at least 18-20 myself out of the 43. So basically you become a machine and have to listen to the other machines that are sorting, shifting, printing, etc. It gets pretty boring.

So the next day I brought my ipod and listened to music. This made it go a hundred times faster, and by noon I had gotten the stack of 30 down to 3, with a little help again. My shoulders and arms were pretty achy after this. So after lunch I finished then worked feeding fliers on this belt thing. It was my responsibility to turn it off if something went wrong, meanwhile feeding a few, but not TOO many fliers, and getting more ready from the boxes behind me. yeah i toally jacked it up the first time. But I didn't mess up again. I felt terrible that the woman had to fix the machine and redo some, so I was straight from then on. After that it was another job where you grab 10 of 50,000 (literally) little info packets, rubber band them and place them a certain way. After an hour of that my fingers were raw from the band slipping along them. And that was probably the worst, but at least we got to watch tv.

So yeah, not too excited about it, but hey it's some extra cash so whatever. Mural biz will be going veeery soon. I've nearly completed the one in our house, and I'm going to use it as advertisement for postcards and things like that. So obviously getting home at 6 then eating after a day of monotony leaves absolutely no motivation. Plus on top it has been storming these past three days. I know excuses, but when I get in zombie mode things just don't happen. Ok enough rambling, I'll update when I have something more positive to post.

putting coals in the fire

I feel a lot like a steam locomotive right now. All I need to do is just stock up my engine with coal and it's gonna get me moving pretty quick. The hip is doing great!!! Tonight I was going to go a little longer, but my ipod died on me before I even started. I left it in the car yesterday and the heat must have shot the battery. So only a little over two miles, but it was good. When I got home, it was back to the jump rope for the same 4x100 sets I have been doing.

I was having a hard time on that second set though, I had to restart quite a few times. After that I did two sets of crunches. My abs were sore this morning from yesterdays all out sittups, but by tonight there was no soreness. I'm really trying to keep my goal in sight, which is to run sub 2:45 marathon. I think I could have ran right around 3:00 a few months ago, but I know that I will be able to in a matter of months if I train right. My basic philosophy is more speed, longer long runs, and easier rest days. With those three things in place, this train will be cruising in no time.

A little disappointed

I know it's not right, but I am a little disappointed by our finished in 9th/10th. But then again I'm not the one running sub 5 minute miles for 26.2 in the heat and humidity of China, so what do I know.

Ritz ran really well and actually surpassed Ryan. I wasn't expecting that, but he wasn't too far behind at the trials, so it's not a big surprise. The biggest surprise was a 2:06 finish in that heat!!! I guess the Kenyan who won, Winsiru, was trained in Japan which has similar conditions.

So it's over. Another FOUR years, and maybe next time Ryan and Dathan are going for the team I'll be behind them, waaaay behind them, struggling.

anyway as for the workout today. Jump rope 100x4 twice alternating steps and normal jumping, with anchored sittups inbetween. My left quad is kind of sore so I didn't do anything tonight (plus I had to watch the marathon during my usual running time) I think it was well worth it though

Marathon Today!

Oh no! the olympics is almost over :( I am very sad as that was the only thing on tv worth watching this past month. I didin't realize they were only three weeks, I thought there was at least another week left. But I was wrong, they end tomorrow night. The marathon is at 7:30 tonight, and it's the only time I wish I had tivo or something so I could record it and watch it a million times. I am making the prediction now that Ryan will win silver. I really hope he has a good race. If he does he should get the silver, but I think Martin Lel will win. Ryan will need a spectacular performance to get the gold, and I hope he can deliver.

working on it.

Ok heres the update. Went running a few days. I kind of wanted to see how the hip was doing and could wait no longer. Watching the olympics on tv is just driving me nuts. The marathon is tomorrow!!! I can't believe it's here. Go Ryan bring home the hardware!!!

Anyway the hip felt good although I only ran about 2 miles in the morning. Chest was so tight I could hardly breathe and I have a lot of rebuilding to do. That was a few days ago. The next day I jumped rope. I like doing that and will start implementing it more to build my quads and footspeed. I have been wanting to do it, but I guess i was scared to look like a fool out jumping rope in my driveway. But regardless it is a great workout and there is actually enough room in my small house where I can jump inside too. I took a day off because my legs were sore from those two days.

Today was great. Rather hot tonight, but after going shopping with April I drove out to my track. I've decided to do things right and did a warmup mile, then some light stretches, nothing much. In my head I'm already preparing for raceday. So I treated today's workout just like I would the morning of a race. I shook out my legs, relaxed, toed the line and started the first of my two "sprints". Actually I am going to call these time trials. The total distance was about a half mile, starting at a pole near the start of the course, and ending at a bench on the opposite side. I ran these faster than my slogging pace I've had to use since I'm out of shape.

First one was 3:22, I forgot to look at my ipod on the second so I don't know, but it may have been slightly faster. Breathing somehow was better on the second??? who knows what that is about. I jogged back to the "start" after both of these, repeating my ritual for the second. Then I did a mile cooldown.

I was tired, but not dead after all this and I'm starting to realize the truth in all the books I've read on running. All the time they speak of this "exhausted, but not overworked" state, and I was right there tonight. Not too hard, not worthless. So that is great and I'm really looking forward to the training. I don't know if I wrote this before, but I want to do speedwork once a week now, then twice a week as I close on my goal race. All miles will be logged, but total time instead of pace. I think one thing I do is race against my average pace and that hinders my recovery so I won't be worrying about pace except for time trails or specific speedwork days.

I am also adding things like jump rope and sittups/pushups/etc. on top of my running. I've actually been consistent with this while not running. The thing I was doing before was skipping them because I was so exhausted from a workout, or didn't do them because it would tire me for a workout. That is not good so now I do them every morning or night, regardless of my running.

THE HIP: duh duh duuuuuuh. Still after all this time and babying it is still bruised. It causes me no pain except the normal bruisy pain you feel with any other bruise. I don't think it's affecting my stride, and at this point that is my only concern. So as long as it doesn't hinder my running I am going to persevere through it.

I LOVE

the olympics!!!!!!!

Things are going ok here. I did not get an art position again this year, which sucks, but I think it may be the best thing right now. I am just working on my art currently, finishing the mural I started a loooong time ago, then starting up the business.

It's been great having time off to watch the olympics and I even got to visit my family last week, which wouldn't have happened. I'll also be able to be in my sister's wedding, and go to my cousin Chris' wedding in about a month. Michael Phelps is kicking some major butt. If he wins tomorrow he'll have the record for most gold's in an olympics and that is just insane. I'd settle for a single bronze, let alone that many gold. But that is why he is so great.

But more importantly the women's marathon is tomorrow!!! It snuck up so fast, luckily I read the schedule and saw it on there. It is supposed to be live and I am going to be glued to the tv if it is. Deena Kastor should win in my opinion, but I don't really know the other countries runners that well. Paula Radcliffe is out with a --- i don't remember anymore, but i believe she had a fracture of some sort. Been a while since that happened. I kind of would have liked to see her run, but I guess that gives Deena a really good start.

Not sure when the men's is, but it should be soon. Lagat is in the 1500 and his prelim didn't look that great today. He may have just been conserving though- when I watched him at the trials he looked really good.

So anyway I'm just having fun painting and watching the olympics. Wish I was competing, but hey maybe one day I'll make the trials, you never know. Speaking of being able to run my hip bone thing is still hurting if I press on it. Yeah, still. Sucks so bad. But the good thing is I can move without pain. I'm so itchy though. I wear my running shorts and shoes around the house and think about where I would be running. Only a matter of time then I'll be back at it. I can't wait.

recovery

Ok so sorry for not updating, but I really didn't want to seem like I was complaining. The hip "injury" had just gone on too long and I was tired of feeling beat up everyday. So I decided to wait until it was fully healed to start running again. Week after week it has remained, not to my satisfaction. I really wanted to get a full summer of running in.

So now it is finally to the point where it is almost healed. I am still waiting though as there is still tenderness unfortunately. My goal is to start again running by September. That will give me 7 months to complete a....FULL marathon. Oh yes you read it right. I think training for the half isn't giving myself enough credit. I plan to do speedwork once a week and just increase miles instead of trying to get all the speedwork done at the end. I think that will let me see improvments and feel what is like to run faster as the weeks go on. I think that will help psychologically just to know that I've been going fast and not have to feel like it all has to be done at the end.

So that's the story. I have been doing core work, and swimming recently, so I'm not totally out of shape. The hip is just an unfortunate area where even swimming could be damaging and that was the last thing I wanted. Once I come back I'll be stronger than ever and ready for some new personal records.

Hope you all have had a great summer.

ron