Ups and Downs

Well, this past week was a downer, in terms of mileage. There was Christmas, and I've been upping the mileage ever so slightly each week. So its a let it down a little week before really upping the mileage next week.

Monday, December 24th, Christmas Eve

It was a very slow day at work, a total of 4 calls, so my run during lunch was a second highlight after breakfast with my beautiful wife. I got on the treadmill(ick I hate those things, I really do, no stories to tell afterwards and only a silly little clock to watch, good thing I'm a thinker anyhow and ponder existential, ontological, spiritual, linguistic, or whatever else seems to be on my mind) and after a few minutes felt my right arch start to feel a little odd. I shrugged it off, and it wasn't really painful, but it felt like it could cause problems if I overdid it. So I stopped at 20 minutes at which point I decided to make it an easy week(Not that I've really been running hard) for real. Core was 3 full sets of 20 of each pushups and situps, 10 more reps on the lunges/step-ups, static core became full sets rather than just planks for a minute and a half.

Tuesday, December 25th, Christmas

A wonderful time with the wife's family, lunch and a bit of cards. First Christmas away from Vacaville with my own family. Got to say hi to them over the phone. There was no run today.

Wednesday, December 26th

I got on the treadmill again and decided to give it another easy 20 minutes. Also got my core in.

Thursday, December 27th

Easy didn't really cut it today. I got on the treadmill and the legs were too bouncy, needed to settle em down a bit. Threw the treadmill onto hill workout mode, not too difficult, but level 6(there are 20 levels) and clocked it at a shallow 8 mph pace for 35 minutes. Got a tiny bit winded on the highest of the grades, but it still wasn't too bad. At least it tired my legs out a little bit.

Friday, December 28th

Another 20 minutes?! Yep.

Saturday, December 29th

Took out into the snow at the parents' place with my brother in law for an easy easy run. He came with for about 10 minutes on the snow and I took off to explore the neighborhood for 30 minutes more after that. Nothing too rash, but was nice to say hi to all the neighborhood dogs, they sure are friendly ;).



Honestly, I don't really think I even put in 20 full miles this week, super low. Time to ramp it up a bit next week and put some strength into these legs.

Running Toward God,
Jason

Another Week, Another Rep

Well, slow growth is progressing steadily. Its so incredibly hard for me not to amp things up. I finish doing a set of sit-ups or pushups and my body doesn't feel like its falling apart or can't go on and I know I have more that I can give. But thats not the point of this. Anyhow, just a slight increase of things this week.

Monday, December 17:

Got 2 full sets of sit ups and pushups(20 reps per set) and a half set tagged on at the end. 50 lunges and 25 step-up lunges for each leg. I have been adding in a few pull-ups whenever I'm doing core at home and also added in 10 leg lifts. Afterwards I added in some static core as well, starting with an easy minute of planks. The run was a simply 35 minutes easy.

Tuesday, December 18:

25 minutes easy

Wednesday, December 19:

The same core as Monday with 35 minutes easy.

Thursday, December 20:

25 minutes easy

Friday, December 21:

Since the world didn't end I did core and put in an easy 45 minutes which gave me a nice blister on my right foot that is still tender.

Saturday, December 22:

This was an interesting day. I spent most of the day debating with myself whether I'd run or not because I knew there wouldn't be any time to go for a run during daylight hours. My wife and I had plenty of things that needed to get done. I finally overcame my weaknesses and got out onto the road past 9PM and came back with a nice white frosty beard after a 70 minute run. I was plenty warm since I bundled up well, and even got to try out my new Injinji socks designed for vibrams. Its interesting wearing them. I can actually keep my feet warm in some pretty nasty weather in vibrams now.(That is to say under normal circumstances. If it is dry and I'm running they stay warm just fine without em) I'll have to wear them only occasionally with only 2 pairs. I'll destroy em pretty soon I'm sure and they'll get very dirty pretty quick as well. But it'll be fun to see how they affect me and my training and normal everday type of things as well.

So really only about 30 miles this week, trying not to up it too quick. Hope everyone has a blessed and merry Christmas. That is to say, recognize Christ as Lord, God, and King and you will indeed have a merry Christmas.

Running Toward God,
Jason

Back at it, nice and slow

Well folks, I'm back at it again. Its been a little while. I stopped giving accounts of my training and competitions this last year at Trinity Western. It was a bit of a rough patch. I was never able to fully get enough base to prevent injury when we stepped up the intensity. I had a few good runs in there in cross country towards the beginning with the first race being a 26:05 5 miler. After that it was downhill and trying to prevent my IT band from exploding. Track was even worse as I spent around 4 days a week trying to cross train instead of run and the other 2 either racing or putting in higher intensity runs that left me limping my way off the track. So 1:56 800 and a 2:34 1k was about all I could pull out. Now that I've had tons of time off, I'm getting back into it with a different attitude. I'm taking things slow and building a lot of base and core, slowly. Did I mention I'm going to make sure I don't take things too fast? I spent the past two weeks just running 3 days a week, M-W-F, with only about 30 minutes each day on a silly treadmill at work(ick). The Friday of the second week I went ahead and put in 45 minutes, but thats all I upped it. Now I've started last week with everday 6 out of 7 days. I still put in only minor mileage and am focusing a little more on my core and especially strengthening my glutes to avoid the IT band issue. Just simply push-ups, my own sort of sit-ups, lunges, and side-step step-ups(adaptation of a lunge) for the gluteus minimus. So far no complaints from the IT band except for a few moments on occasion which simply reminds me to lift with my glutes and it goes away almost instantaneously. Now on to the boring day to day of last week. Monday: I put in an easy 30 minutes with 2 sets of 20 push-ups and sit-ups(my version I sit up and turn my body to touch my right elbow to my left knee and vice versa then go down and touch each elbow to the ground making sure I'm turning my body instead of my shoulders and arms). I then did my 40 lunges(20 each leg) and 40 side-step-ups(20 each leg) to round it out. I'll add some static core in here in the next couple weeks I figure. Tuesday: Easy 25 minutes Wednesday: Easy 35 minutes with core and lunges with 5 pull-ups. Thursday: Easy 20 minutes Friday: Easy 45 minutes with core/lunges and 5 pull-ups. Saturday: Easy 60 minutes on a gravel road in my vibrams helped keep it slow and easy, which is the harder part of these runs right now. Treadmills make it easier since they don't speed up unintentionally. So there you have it. Do I have any plans for races? Not really. We'll see what happens in the future. I tell you what though I'm really looking forward to some good running in Papua New Guinea! Running Toward God, Jason