grrrrr!!

Tried a week of running at the silly 180 cadence.  It feels fine for around 6:20 pace (which oddly enough is my marathon pace right now).  Anything slower it feels silly.  Still not convinced you need that cadence unless you're running fast.  Sure, maybe it's great practice for getting your hips ready for when you do run fast....but then....why not just run fast to prepare yourself to run fast.  Frustrated I guess.

I had a good week and then on my 6th day of running my knees hurt.  Maybe too much?  Not sure because I only totaled 28miles that week and I had been doing 35.  I went to physical therapy and came home to run and they felt worse.  Grrrrrr!!!!!

Got word yesterday that Mr. Anderson's systems have begun shutting down.  He's in hospice and it looks like the lights will go out any day now.  I got the call just as I was drifting off to sleep.  The first thing I thought of as I got off the phone was a bit odd, but I guess my whole life is a bit odd.  I laid there thinking about how sometimes he'd suddenly burst into song.  He'd go from quietly working on something or reading, to top of his lungs singing.  I remember breaking into a cold sweat, my movements frozen expecting a beating only to recognize one of the dozen or so songs he'd sing.  Then I thought how my entire existence with him had been like that.  A constant uneasiness.  Holding my breath waiting, trying to decode his every move to sense if his next action would be anger or something else.  I still remember every one of those silly songs he used to sing.  Thinking of them made me cry until I fell asleep.

I'm going to go ride my bike today.  I'm off work early and it's not all that cold.  I can't run and I need to do something.  I'll see what kind of things there are out there to be viewed from 2 wheels.

Turning the corner?

I had a down week last week and it was frustrating.  I had my "orthotics" pretty dialed in so I decided to permanently affix them into my shoes.  Taping them didn't work all that well and I ended up making them thicker on accident and had a bit of a setback.  I've reworked them and they seem ok now but I missed 4 days of training.

Out of frustration I hit the trails yesterday and ran 10 miles pretty hard.  I did the difficult run/CCT loop.  I normally hit the road by route 7 in around 33:30 my record was 31:26.  yesterday I went through at 29:12 but I pretty much exploded a mile later and really crawled to the finish in 1:08:12  pretty fast still for the trails.

I went back to that physical therapist and got some good treatments on my knees.  He's having me quit yoga and stretching my quads.  Stretching the hamstrings and lower back is ok.  He thinks I'm irritating the tendon stretching the quads.  He gave me some icing strategies, some new exercises, and instead of stretching I'm supposed to use the foam roller like crazy.  I'm also supposed to stop the seated leg extensions.  Instead I'm supposed to do really slow single legs squats with my other leg sticking out at different angles.

After my treatment we decided we'd get back to work on my form.  Now that I'm in pretty solid shape we figured we'd try again.  Last time there were just too many variables.  Trying to figure out shoes, orthotics, form, turnover, and get in shape all at once was frustrating the crap out of me.  He had me run 180 strides per minute.  It felt weird for a bit but I did 4 miles with him recording my form and having me try different things. My right arm/shoulder needs some work so he gave me this green band thing and some exercises to start doing.  Probably due to broken collarbone as a kid.  Mostly everything else was due to pigeon toe compensation but nothing that seemed counterproductive.

One things for sure.  A few weeks of consistent short slow runs everyday has my fitness up.   It doesn't feel like I'm doing much but the consistency is showing promise.  I need to quit with the long runs because my form falls apart, I bounce, and my knees pay the price.  I'll keep with the 180 cadence until it feels more natural.  Then I can slow it slightly to do slower runs and add miles.

Yoga

  I was pretty darned sore after that treadmill effort on Monday.  Running a 20min first 3 miles and then a 16:30 didn't feel all that bad....but oooof  I sufferend on Wednesday.

Tuesday I ran 5 miles on the W&OD at 6:53 pace.  My left hip was really tight and hurting and my right calf was a little sore.  Wednesday I felt like I could barely walk.  Each time I got up from my desk at work my calf was really tight.  My hip wasn't as bad Wednesday, but that calf was horrible.

 I decided to take the day off and went to Yoga instead.  I went to Down Dog in Herndon because they offer a 1 week free trial membership.  Free sounded good so off I went in my green leisure suit.  My halloween costume was a big hit there.   I hadn't been to yoga in a long while and it didn't take long to remember exactly why I like it......holy hell the chicks!!  I met a nice girl named Kelly and set my magic carpet down right behind her.  NICE!!!   During the class I also fell in love with my teacher.  whoa!!

Thursday I did my 5 mile lunchtime run and felt horrible.  I normally do the loop anywhere from 36min - 38:30 and yesterday I ran 40:10.  Everything was tired.  That yoga was tough.  Last night I went to yoga again and Kelly met me there.  She's a cutie.  Got the same instructor, damn....married.  Last night was a killer.  I was so sore from Wednesday night that I was barely making it through the class.  Wednesday I was really working all the poses and trying really hard.  Thursday I was just hanging in there.  Even found myself doing nothing occasionally when nobody was looking.  I was TIRED!!

Today I ran the 5 mile loop again nice and easy and I still felt really horrible and heavy but my time was 36:50, so right in line with always.  My back and shoulders are just really tired from yoga.  probably my hips and things are really fatigued too and I just don't feel it.  I'll see how I feel tomorrow.  I'll either do an hour run or I'll stick to my 5's.  I'll be right on 30 miles I think for the week.  Not many miles but I can tell the consistancy is really helping.

3 minute explanation of why you should all go to Yoga.

Hurricane

  I went to the office yesterday to use the gym.  Work was closed because there was some sort of weather problem in the area.  I did my core work, those damn knee exercises, and then went out to run and it was cold and rainy....so I wimped out and went back up to run on the treadmill.  I figured I'd might as well make myself run 3 miles easy and at least get SOME miles in.  Get my metabolism going and whatnot.

I ran the first mile in 7:10 and it felt horribly slow and boring.  Edged it up to 6:40 and then decided the only way I'd survive on this silly machine was to go fast.  I'd wanted to run 5miles outside everyday anyways so I set myself to run 5miles.   Ran the 3rd mile in 6:10, the 4th in 5:40....tried to do the 5th in 5:10 but I had to back it down near the end and got 5:16.  Somewhere in that mile I decided to run 10k and I got the last 10k of a marathon going in my brain.  Couldn't hold the 5:20 pace and backed it off slightly....and then slightly again for 5:33 and then the .2 I sped back up to just under 5min pace.


1 = 7:10
2 = 6:40   13:50
3 = 6:10   20:00
4 = 5:40   25:40
5 = 5:16   30:56
6 = 5:33   36:29
.2 =  :59
____________
10k =        37:28

Then I jogged 3/4 mile and walked 1/4 mile. First 3 miles in 20min and then next 3 in 16:30.....I'll take that!!  Of course...In my mind I was pulling away the last 5k in the marathon.  The crowd went crazy....  :-)

22-28th training.

Friday I took the day off because I had to get all sexied up and go to a Halloween party. 

Saturday I went to the Occaquan/Bull Run trail, parked at Hemlock overlook, and ran 5miles southeast towards Fountainhead park.  I got somewhere passed the marina and turned around.  I love that trail.  It's my favorite because each mile is clearly marked.   The terrain is really tough too.   I ran between 7:10's and 7:50's depending on how rocky and hilly the mile was. 

10miles total.

Sunday I ran 5 on the Fairfax lake trails.  I saw two hot runner chicks stretching over by the new skate park.  I hope they're regulars.  Trail was crazy packed with mountain bikers since it was so warm and the storm was coming.

Week totals.
Mon - 3 easy
Tues - 5 easy
Wed - 6 track tempo
Thurs - 5 easy
Fri- off
Sat- 10 easy
Sun - 5 easy
__________________________

34 miles

Oh yeah......   Talked to my buddy Fernando Cabada  yesterday.  He recently got sponsored by Newton.  I tried talking him into sending me some and he said....

 "You're an idiot Terrible.....I send you Newton's you'll be whining on your blog for the next 6months that your calves are broken because you'll go run your Grandpa ass 80miles a week in them as soon as you get them and I'll feel responsible.   How about I send you a care package of BenGay and diapers  instead you old fuckin' geezer."

 

From now on Fernando, every time you race, I'm telling God that you're the Devil so he'll have Ryan Hall beat you...... bastard!!!!

Weeks training

Monday - 3 miles.  Out an back on the W&OD  super easy, felt in a funk from a weekend of eating poorly, hard work, and not running. 133hr

Tuesday - 5 miles 150hr  on the Lake Fairfax loop.  Felt great

Wednesday - 6 miles.  mile warm up and cool down with 8x 800 in 3 min with 90 second jog recovery in between.

Thursday - 5 miles.  Felt pretty tired actually.  133hr was 90 seconds slower on the route than normal.

Planning to run everyday without days off just to get my body used to it.  Thinking I'll make myself run 5miles every evening and then try.....TRY....to incorporate morning runs of 3-5miles.  That way all my runs are short and easy but my miles edge up.  I'm not much for morning runs, especially in the winter so we'll see how that works out.

I nearly got hit by a car on the way home from work yesterday on my bicycle.  A oncoming car turning left into Starbucks turned right into me and I leaned way back and grabbed a healthy handful of breaks.  I don't know how I didn't end up on their hood.  They saw me and slammed on the gas trying to make it not recognizing how fast I was coming.  I ran right up onto their car but didn't crash.  Fucker just roared away.  I should have gotten the license plate.  grrr...


Remember folks....It's my life.  I don't want to trade it for you getting your coffee 30seconds faster.

Secret Blog

I have decided to preach to the choir and have started another blog.  I want to keep this one just to running.  The new blog will be my environmental ramblings, details from my binders full of women, my childhood stuff, political BS...and whatnots.  It's going to be members only.  If you'd like to read it send me a note or comment on this post.  If you don't get a response that means you're better off not reading it.  It'll require you to login.  If you don't want to read my crap or don't want the trouble of logging in I won't be hurt not receiving a request from you.

Blog name is TerribleThinking. 

I may drop all the posts from previous blogs on there in an archive to be made into an autobiography later.  For now I'm still occasionally slogging away at my book and might start posting chapters online.  We'll see.  It's a fictional post-collapse story about a family contracted by the collection of North Eastern States that remain, to rebuild the C&O canal.

For a good brain stimulator today...and a sample of stuff you'll get on my super secret private blog....

This guy Geoffrey West is one of them smaht fellers.  He outlines how growth is measurable and how it scales.  For example you can show that one cell takes x amount of energy and lives y amount of days.   Then you can see that for every 10 to the 4th power of cells that you have the lifespan doubles due to efficiency.  Since we're all made up basically of the same cells you can then measure other things based on this theory.  Mice live 2 years, dogs 15, humans 100 etc based on this doubling.  Beyond that you can measure the other benefits and limitations size brings...for example mice sleep 15hrs a day, humans 8hrs, elephants 4hrs, and whales 2hrs a day. 

Once he establishes this he goes on to tell how you can do the same with cities.  He asks the question is New York a scaled up version of San Francisco.  Is San Fran a scaled up version of smaller city, etc.  What are the scalability of cites.  What components (cells) are necessary and how much energy do those take.  Interesting stuff.  It's a long video but really good.

WHY CITIES KEEPING GROWING, CORPORATIONS AND PEOPLE ALWAYS DIE, AND LIFE GETS FASTER

First few minutes while he's setting up the biology is tough but it gets better as you go.

here's my favorite part starting around 23min in.

"Cities are the cause of the problem, and they're also the cause of the good life. They are the centers of wealth creation, creativity, innovation, and invention. They're the exciting places. They are these magnets that suck people in. And that's what's been happening. And so they are the origin of the problems, but they are the origin of the solutions."


and another spot.

"One of the bad things about open-ended growth, growing faster than exponentially, is that open-ended growth eventually leads to collapse. It leads to collapse mathematically because of something called finite times singularity. You hit something that's called a singularity, which is a technical term, and it turns out as you approach this singularity, the system, if it reaches it, will collapse. You have to avoid that singularity in order to stop collapsing. It's great on the one hand that you have this open ended growth. But if you kept going, of course, it doesn't make any sense. Eventually, you run out of resources anyway, but you would collapse. And that's what the theory says.

How do you avoid that? Well, how have we avoided it? We've avoided it by innovation. By making a major innovation that so to speak, resets the clock and you can kind of start over again with new boundary conditions. We've done that by making major discoveries or inventions, like we discover iron, we discover coal. Or we invent computers, or we invent IT. But it has to be something that really changes the cultural and economic paradigm. It kind of resets the clock and we start over again.

There's a theorem you can prove that says that if you demand continuous open growth, you have to have continuous cycles of innovation. Well, that's what people believe, and it's the way people have suggested that’s how you get out of the Malthusian paradox. This all agrees within itself but there is a huge catch."

He later describes that eventually you'd need major inovations faster and faster which isn't possible.