Trainer workout with Betsy.

Because of the blizzard (about 2 feet of snow at this point), we had to suck it up and do a trainer workout. We decided on Spinerval's Muscle Breakdown (much to Betsy's chagrin), which involves alot of sprint efforts, some isometric squats and some time trial efforts. Overall a good workout.

Lunchtime run before the blizzard!

They are calling for 30 straight hours of snow starting this evening at midnight, so it appears that getting a run in tomorrow or even Sunday is pretty well in doubt. So when Mike called just before 11 am to see if I was up for a run, I decided to go. We got out for our typical 10k route, this time maintaining just over an 8 min/mile pace (8:06). Felt ok, a little breathless and a bit tight, but on the whole it was a good run. Dissappointed about the weekend though! Guess I will be doing trainer work!

Treadmill Track Workout!

Since I missed track practice on Tuesday, I decided to break at lunch today to get a track workout. But of course being a wuss and it being 30 degrees out, I decided to do the workout on a treadmill! And once again I had the good fortune of getting stuck with the treadmill with the TV that is stuck on Fox 'news' (quotes intentional). Well anyway I did the workout set out by Jerry, starting with a mile warmup at an 8:30 min/mile pace and then doing a 6:49 mile, a 5:00 min 3/4 mile (6:40 pace) a 3:12 1/2 mile (6:24 pace) and then a final 3:09 min 1/2 mile (6:18 pace) with a 400 jog at 8:30 min/mile in between each effort. I finished off with a nice 3/4 mile cooldown. Good workout overall!

Spinervals Big Gear Strength, OUCH!

Betsy met me at NRL after the postdoc poster session to give me Cole so she could get to track practice, so Cole and I came home and enjoyed a Man's Evening! After a bit of playing and dinner and then bed time, I hopped on the bike for Spinerval's Big Gear Strength workout, a series of efforts, both standing and seated, all in the hardest gear ratio, along with some squats. Wow what a rough workout.

Morning Recovery Run on the Treadmill

I have been having difficulty holding the pace down for my recovery runs, so I decided with the terrible weather to hit the gym this morning and put in a dreaded treadmill workout. I kept the pace to 8:30 min/mile and felt fine. Had to pee way too many times, so it broke the run up a bit and I couldn't change the TV channel from Fox News, so that was miserable, but overall it was what my body needed.

Long run on a relaxed week

Betsy and I had to switch off because it was too cold to take Coley along with us, so Betsy got started earlier and had by all accounts a great run, and then I got to run. I got out at a pretty nice 7:40 min/mile pace and then found that I was picking it up on mile two, knocking out a 7:29 pace, so I decided to slow down and put out a pretty solid 7:40 min/mile pace most of the way. Overall I put down a 7:43 min/mile pace after finishing with a strong 7:30 last mile. It turns out that overall this run was a PR for both a 7 mile effort and for an 8 miler! Great run despite the cold weather.

Lunchtime Run with Mike P.

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOWWOOWOOWOWO it was SOOOOO f'n cold out! Mike and I got started just a bit after lunch in the frigid weather for our usual 10k at lunch. We tried to keep a solid pace and over all succeeded. The hill was quite rough and I had to stop briefly for the restroom at the top, but then kept it going the rest of the way. Oddly enough, it turns out that it was our fastest on this course ever! Of course the cold weather led to a serious ache in my ears for the next couple hours, but overall it was worth it... of course until I do it again tomorrow...

Terrible Run with Betsy and Cole.

I decided to try to avoid traffic on my return to NIST today and therefore went for a run with Betsy and Cole this morning before hitting the road. I have also been attempting to stop using my allergy medicine, an experiment which today's run clearly showed to be folly. Had a decent run as far as time was concerned, but struggled the whole way and had to stop a couple times to get some breath. Of course to continue on my day, my trip to NIST, which I was making later to avoid traffic instead put me in the midst of construction traffic on the Wilson Bridge, which took a 1.5 hour drive and made it close to 3. UGH... Anyway, it has been a very interesting day to say the least.

Tempo Run with Betsy and Cole

I worked from home today after a really terrible night's sleep. I think all in all I got about 4 hours of off and on sleep. However, I did hear that my paper got accepted, with some revisions, so that is why I stayed home to work on that. Therefore, Betsy and I decided to take Cole out for a tempo run this morning as a break. Considering I was pushing the stroller and the weather was in the mid 30's, I was quite happy with the 7:56 min/mile pace we maintained. I did labor a bit at places, but was able to put in a nice push at the end, so it couldn't have been that bad!

Weekly long run

After the snow yesterday and the really cool morning weather this morning (low 30's) Betsy and I didn't feel comfortable taking Cole outside for a run, so we Auntie Elana came over to watch him while we went for our run. Betsy decided to do a new route today, so we took off heading out towards the Potomac, with a quick jut out on Accokeek Rd. Once down to the river, we stopped for a minute and had some Sports Beans and then got going again. I had some really bad tightness in my hips and quads, but we still averaged 8:14 min/mile overall. Had one tough mile on the way back climbing Berry Hill where our pace dropped to 8:44, but overall we never dropped to a pace slower than 8:20 min/mile otherwise, knocking down the miles in 8:14, 8:08, 8:20, 8:16, 8:05, 8:17, 8:02, 8:20, 8:09, 8:44, 8:07 and 8:07 min. We did stop briefly after mile 11 because of tightness in Betsy's insole, but otherwise we had a good finish. Feeling very rough right now, but it was good to get out for the long run.