Is it too early to be affected by SAD? It's not that early in the morning, but I'm looking outside and the weather seems quite drab on the verge of depressing. I sure hope a little sun comes out for my midday run today. I'm not a big fan of running in the gloom.

Labels: here comes the sun?, running

We went for a 11.25 mile run yesterday, and I had the best run I've had in a while. As always I started off slow, per usual though at around mile 3 I warmed up and then just took off. I got into a nice little groove, where I was cruising along at a decent clip but I wasn't taxing my cardio at all. I felt like I could hold the pace I was running forever. My good running performance yesterday was probably due to the caffeine infused nuun I drank beforehand. Each day I fall more in love with those tablets. Is it wrong to love an inanimate edible object?

I like getting fast. Although I've realized that track does help somewhat, it's the tempo and interval runs I do outside of track that help me a lot more. This could be because when I do tempo or interval I'm off a track, which mimics real racing than running on track. Although, real racing is all relative since I'm not running the 1500m or 5000m as an event.

On Saturday I baked this sweet pastry thing called a Beirut Tahini Swirl. It's a very simple recipe, but it seemed to turn out okay. The first batch was better than the second though since I let the first batch cook longer so the crust cook crisp up a bit more.

I'd like to get into baking, especially breads. Yesterday, I went out with a woman I've been seeing and we had a picnic of sorts in a coffee shop. It would have been nice to eat outside, but by the time we were ready to eat the sun was saying it's final goodbyes for the day. It was still awesome eating inside because we got to talk a lot. I really like talking with her. We have some interesting conversations, and I always love a good mentally stimulating conversation. Anyway, she baked this absolutely awesome(love alliteration) tomato bread. I seriously could have eaten the entire loaf right there, it was that good. She also brought some sweet potato fries which were equally excellent. I brought some prosciutto, smoked turkey breast along with the tahini swirls and some dried figs. I couldn't stop smiling I was so happy. Good food and great company, you really can't beat that save for some great music.

Labels: baking, food, inanimate love, nuun, running

Results

Chiptime: 01:26:59.8

Avg Split: 6:38 min/mile

I finished 8th in my age group and 23 overall. I'm pretty happy. I'm actually really happy that I squeezed in under 1:27.

Labels: half marathons, running

Well I'm officially back on the training wagon.

The race: San Diego.
The date: June 3, 2007
The goal: To qualify for Boston and also erase all the bad memories from last year.

I did 8 x 400 last night. I was only able to do them at around 80 seconds with the penultimate 400 clocking in at 75. I've never been able to run my quarters fast, but I'd like to get my average down to somewhere between 70 and 75. I'm pretty tired from a boxing class I took on Monday and also from fighting off this pseudo-cold. I'm not exactly sick but I feel just a little off to know that I'm not exactly one hundred percent well. Today I'm running 6 miles. I'm going to train with a variation on this program:

http://runningtimes.com/rt/articles/?id=5997&c=36

I'll probably only run 5 days a week instead of 6, but I was very strong last year when I did run 6 days. Consequently, I might be running a lot again, but I don't want to feel run down or tired. I'm also only going to run track once a week as opposed to twice since I always seem to get little injuries when I run on the track too much. I hope to get down to around 160 before race day, so I need to strike a balance between fueling correctly and not starving myself.

Training can be very scientific, but I never really meticulously monitor my training as a scientist would monitor their experiment. I'm more of a run how you feel type, so if I'm having a good day I'll run hard and vice-versa. I sort of have the same approach to running as I do with cooking. I'll take a recipe, or in this case a training program, and modify the ingredients to suit my needs. At least I have one thing in common with a scientist. I do like to experiment.

Labels: marathons, running, training

Hmmm...I suppose it's been a while since I've typed anything here. I'm still running like a fool. I did the Rock 'N Roll marathon down in Arizona and PR'ed by a few minutes, which surprised me because I hadn't really put in any serious training for this race. I learned a lot though. I'm gearing up again for RNR SD, where I will own that sucker. I'm going to beat that race into submission and qualify for Boston in the process.

I officially became a Senior R&D Engineer at work last week. This doesn't really mean anything in terms of changing responsibilities in my job, but I do get a little bit more change to play around with.

I must say that HDTV is a marvel to watch. I love watching Heroes, Supernatural, and well, that's about it since I don't watch much TV with which to begin. DVDs are awesome though.

Eggplants are awesome vegetables.

Labels: eggplants, running, tv

I did my first track workout in a couple of weeks last Tuesday and was quite surprised by the results. The first mile I ran in 5:58, which happens to be the fastest I've run in a bit. However, I subsequently followed it up by a 5:53 mile, all the while my stomach still feeling like it was in England. I had run a total of 4 times in England so to come back and knock out some relatively fast mile repeats was interesting. This performance doesn't really give me any indication as to how I'll do for my marathon in January, although I am looking for some metric because I feel like I'm just running for the heck of it currently. I'm not sure where I am in my training, and I'm consequently in a state of limbo. It's strange. Well don't look a gift horse and wot.

Labels: running