10.22.08

A pretty unproductive day. Tomorrow should be better. It was nice out today and since i was home I got to run in the full daylight. It was definitely warmer. Even that small change affected my breathing and I could tell it was heavier than yesterday. The legs felt really great throughout the run until the end. After about 5 or 6 they started getting pretty heavy and I could feel some lingering soreness that was still in there. I took it really easy today and practically felt like I was jogging.

The pugs were out today. Since it was easy day I decided to stop and pet them. Ahh gosh they are the worst animals ever. I'm never owning one, nor do I ever want to be associated with them. They are just frolicky and bitey and barky fat little things. They were nice for a minute and just stood still, but then I decided to start walking and they went bark crazy and nipped at me and jumped up on my leg. Good lord I was thinking. So I just starting jogging off and they were darting in and out of my feet. Do you know how hard it is to run with a fat pudgy dog running UNDER your friggin' feet. It's hard. Finally I made it around and they became so tired they quit chasing and barking and turned back. The funny part was when I came back around a second time the owners still hadn't put them away or whatever it is they do with them. So they chased me yet again. I just went slow and this time they made it even less far before quitting. I just laughed to myself thinking about how many people in the subdivision were staring out their windows at what probably to them was entertainment.

Did 2.5 loops tonight. Closing in on that 3 loops for a short run. It's really hard to believe, but very soon I'll be over an hour for my short runs. It just seems so contradictory. But that won't happen till November. I'm basically taking it one month at a time. Right now I do 7-11-7-11-7-(6-7)-long(17) which is 66-67 miles. Next month I'll be into the 70's, and December I will hopefully be healthy and be able move up to 80's.

Running more is great, but I've finally learned you can't just make huge jumps. I mean I could run 20 miles a day right now. I could. I could do that and in a month I would be so hurt from the pounding that my legs would shatter. The thing is the more you run, the better shape you get, and so it's intuitive to want to run more. But the other fact is your legs/body can only take so much of it before it breaks down, and it WILL break down. So I'm happy to slowly build up. This allows for the legs, heart, running form, mind, and overall body to slowly adapt to the increase instead of being crushed by it.

So the plan for November is increase my medium distance first - maybe 7-12-7-12-7-7-(19-20) for 71-72. and increase short runs as needed through the month maybe one a week to end at 8-12-8-12-8-7(21-23) 76-78. In December I plan on 8-13-8-13-8-7-(23-26) to start touching 80. That is a tough month due to Christmas and the cold weather so hopefully things will work out. Obviously the plan is to hold near 80 as long as possible (alap) while infusing hill-training and speedwork into the mix. Repeat miles are ahead of me well below my goal pace - around 5:30-5:40 I'd say. That will be fun though I'm looking forward to the track. There is like two months of that! But when you're a crazy guy like me you do what you gotta do.

5:08pm. home. 65 degrees perfect.
59:16, bf 621