Week Starting Monday, November 16 (Week 6)

Sunday, Nov 21
Tim: Today was recovery run day! A nice and easy 35 mins for Mark and I. Matt even ran with us today for 20 minutes or so. Boy was that a treat... not to mention he was pushing the pace. He must be feeling fresh. :)

Matt: I ran today for 20 minutes and guess what?! No pain at all in my foot. So happy about that! Now I think I’m ready to work my way back into workouts with Mark and Tim. But, as I’ve learned from too many injuries over the years, fully jumping back into workouts would be crazy and stupid. It will hopefully be an interesting read over the next few weeks as I use Mark and Tim’s workouts to my advantage to get back in shape. For example, I think a mile repeat day is planned for sometime next week. I think I can talk them into doing it on the dirt track close to our place so I can jump in and out. During their 4 laps I will either do the first 800, break, and the last 400 or the other option will be a full 1200 with a longer recovery. Either way I am starting each interval with them and have someone to run with the whole time. If I’m not mistaken, I believe it will be the day we shoot for our next video too :)

Mark: 20 min with Matt and Tim and Adriane who will be filming for us on Tuesday for our workout video. In the beginning Tim and I were feeling pretty tired so we almost just took the day off, but after the first 20, we felt really good and it is a nice evening so we continued around an extra loop to get us up to 35 min.

Saturday, Nov 20

Matt: Since we had a full house and I wasn’t working out, I decided to make a big breakfast for everyone. I made my signature breakfast scramble but usually only cook that for 2 or 3 people. This time it was 6. I always start the potatoes first for the home fries but I cooked them too long and they were too soft to use. So I went ahead and made mashed potatoes with those and started over on the home fries. The second try was perfect and I added in onion, peppers, ham, and about 26 eggs. Then added cheese, tomatoes, salsa, and ketchup on top. I ended up having to use our big cooking pot to fit all of it. Ended up making enough for about 10 so I’ve got leftovers for breakfast for a few days now. Sam and I took a trip down to Hollywood and just drove around for a bit. Then we went up in the Hollywood Hills to a vantage point where we could see the Hollywood sign and a great view of the Los Angeles skyline and all the way to the ocean. Very cool. My birthday is tomorrow but since it’s Saturday and Sam leaves in the morning I am celebrating today. Sammy made me a cake (see the picture) and the six of us all are going out to a club near Thousand Oaks later tonight. It should be a great time. Oh, I am turning 27 tomorrow but it’s ok. I still feel like I’m 23 :)

Tim: I can honestly say that I enjoyed today’s workout above any other workout we have done this season. The funny thing... It was raining! Mark and I woke up feeling cold and apathetic, but we knew we had a job to do. The workout was 6x800 with 2:30 min recovery. We have done these twice before and we are slowly getting better at it! We run these little goodies on our bike path on Victory Blvd. A few weeks back we took out Mark’s Garmin and mapped out a perfect 800m stretch. Today was very encouraging. Although, I used to run 8 of these closer to 2:14, I am still happy with the way that things are progressing. It is all about patience for me at this point. Here were the times: 2:22, 2:21, 2:18, 2:20, 2:21, 2:16. The last one made the workout for me. I finally felt like I could get into somewhat of a groove. Let’s hope we can keep stringing these together!

Mark: Woke up today and it was chilly and rainy...we walked out the door and as we were starting the warmup we nearly just stopped and went back, then we considered just doing an easy run, but figured it had to be more and almost ended up just doing an extended run (I feel bad using the term “long run” when mine only are 45-50 min).  Ultimately we came to our senses and decided to stick with our 6x800 workout we had been planning on. Tim was convinced it was gonna be a good one, but on top of the crappy for LA weather, I did the stability drills the day before and had trouble getting out of bed this morning because my glutes and groin were sooo sore. So we did a 1.75 mile warmup jog and some drills to warmup a bit more and started the workout. I pretty much just keyed off of Tim the whole time and ran 2:26-2:26- 2:22-2:25-2:23-2:18. Its hard to compare these times to last year as its on a straight path and last year we were on Amazon trail in Eugene which was definitely slower; but they were on par with solid efforts for me in the past I think.

Friday, Nov 19

Mark: Since Tim worked today I just went out by myself for an easy run around 1 for 35 min. Afterwards I did some of the stability exercises we did last year. We only did them once or twice when we were doing some testing, and me and Matt thought they were really good so we want to work them in more regularly, maybe even a couple times a week. Its hard to describe them so if we start doing them regularly maybe we will put a quick clip of them in one of our videos we do. I didn’t do very many today, but I can really feel it in my groin and hamstrings so its probably good I cut it short so I will be able to run the workout tomorrow. Also if any runners are out there and you have any questions about what we are doing or workouts or really anything, we all love to talk about running and our training so feel free to comment or ask us questions, even if its wondering why we are doing certain things or aren’t doing others.

Matt: Went for a 10 minute run this morning with Sam to test the foot. It wasn’t too bad but did get a little worse as the run went on so I’m pretty sure I won’t be doing anything tomorrow for the workout :( In the evening Sam and I took a trip down to Malibu hoping to see a sunset. Unfortunately it was too cloudy for that but during our walk on the beach we got to watch 5 dolphins playing in the waves about 20 meters off the beach. They were riding the waves and jumping clear up out of the water just having some fun. Such a cool experience.

Tim: Um yeah... I got home from work around 4:30 and just decided not to run. I did, however, take a nap! Some days you just gotta give it a break.

Thursday, Nov 18
Mark: Woke up feeling a bit sluggish today, and even on our warm up my legs just weren't feeling great. We went to Pierce for our hill repeats so it was about a 13 min warm up. Last time we started out too fast for me and i really fell apart later in the workout (and i was kinda sick the night before so that prolly played its part) so I wanted to start out easier and really work the times down on the later reps. Also the other times we did these, we started out taking 2:00-2:15 recovery and by the time we would get to the later efforts it would be up to 2:30 or even higher, so this time we kept on it and took 2:15 between every repeat. So the times today were 46-45-44-43-42-43-42-43-42-38. I was trying to hit a 40 on the last one since Tim was 41 on the 9th effort and that was the fastest to date and I ended up hitting 38 high. I think I just really lifted and kinda went into sprinting form and maybe switched energy systems just a bit but it felt really good to do well on the workout and finish strong, especially after having to cut it short last week. In the past I have struggled with consistency in my workouts, especially during this phase of the training cycle so its a big priority for me to run within myself and really do well for me in every workout, rather than just dominating workouts for a couple weeks and then just tanking and running very poorly for several consecutive workout. The last couple years in Eugene I really struggled with that so hopefully I can improve on that this year. Afterwards we came back and I did some core with Matt and then hit the pool to ice the legs and lay out in that sweet California sun...seriously though I really feel like I am just on vacation for spring break or something every day....I love it here :)

Matt: Picked up Sam this morning from the Burbank airport. It had been quite a while since we’d seen each other. Long distance relationships are tough. Mark and Tim were working out while I was picking her up but we got back in time for a good core session and then an hour out by the pool for some sun and hot tub. I can’t even express how nice it is to have the sun shining almost every day and the temperature still be in the 70’s half way through November. After 8 years in Eugene, Oregon I really needed a change like this in weather. I just wish I could be out there working out every day right now but I just need to stay patient and not force things. Not going to run today but am planning on a run tomorrow to test out the foot to see what, if anything, I can do Saturday.

Tim: On our warm-up today, I told Mark that I felt it was gonna be a good one today. My legs felt a little tired but my energy levels were up for sure. We decided to keep the rest to 2:15 today which is about jog back recovery for us. Today’s hill workout was the best yet... for sure. Mark and I just traded off on leading every other repeat. For the most part, we ran the same times, with an exception of the last one. From the get-go Mark took off and I was just not yet ready for that sort of turnover. These are the times that I really notice that I haven’t trained in a little while. I still hit 40 for the last which was good since the rest of my repeats were quality. I really haven’t had a terrible workout yet and I want to keep it that way :)

Wednesday, Nov 17
Mark: Slept in pretty late this morning, so got off for a run around 10:45 for so with Tim. We mixed it up a bit and ran into Pierce college and did a loop around the hills for a 28 min run. Matt also cleaned the house for us today...looks so nice with all the clean hard wood floors :) Let’s see if I can get him to play monopoly, its been tough ever since his latest losing streak....

Tim: I just read Mark’s blog... and yes... THANKS MATT!!! Such a good little cleaner. Our run today was pretty slow and short. I think we were a bit tired from yesterday. Tomorrow we are running hills again... it’s gonna be tough so were are making sure that we recover today. It is our focus this year that we nail pretty much every workout. In the past I think  that we had over-trained a bit. We would do awesome in some workouts and then fail in others. Our goal is to make sure that we are training within ourselves, so we are not bringing watches with us on some of our easy runs and just running off of feel. I am feeling great as I slowly progress. Tomorrow should be another good workout day!

Matt: Woke up today and realized that my girlfriend Samantha was flying in to see me in 24 hours so I went to work on cleaning up the apartment. I made a trip to Target to get more swifer wet wipes and also stock up the refrigerator with some food for the weekend. I’m still optimal about doing something more than a jog on Saturday but we will see, but decided not to do any activity today.

Tuesday, Nov 16 - Watch the Video!!!
Mark: 7:30 a.m: Woke up early and had a bowl of cereal cause I was having trouble sleeping..It was Marshmallow Mateys in case you were wondering...then I got really tired again and went back asleep. I re-awoke to Matt with the camera asking me something, I don't even remember it too well now that I think about it, but I thought he was pretending to interview me or something and didn't realize he was actually filming so apparently it may be going in the video. Anyway, around 10 I got up and had a fruit and grain bar and a glass of Gatorade right before we left for the workout. We warmed up 1 ¾ miles and finished at the beginning of the loop where we do the repeats. I went out pretty quick, 2:32 for the first 800 so I really put the breaks on for the rest of the first mile and came through at 5:26. I really just settled in at that pace and kinda zoned out until I saw 2:54 for the first half of the 2nd mile, so I had to pick it up to get back on track and hit 5:32. I felt really comfortable, I think going back to the Nike flats really helped me. I finished the 3rd mile in 5:23 for a total time of 16:21. I know it probably sounds lame for an elite half miler to be so slow on these pace runs and the aerobic workouts we do, but hey this is the stuff I struggle with so today was a solid effort for me. When I was with OTC, Coach Rowland sometimes had me do 2x 10 min or 2x 3k efforts in place of the pace runs to help me progress up, so I think that the next tempo workout I do in 2 weeks will be 2x 2 mile on the bike path (next week we are doing a local turkey trot). After the workout we came back and did 13 min of core and went to the pool to ice the legs. Honestly I really do just love it here...the pool was really cold, but it was actually refreshing cuz it was just so hot outside, and we even just laid out in the sun for a while (after a visit to the hot tub of course lol). So yeah, we went to McDonald's for lunch, came back and Matt wanted a shot at redemption in Sorry so we played our first 3 player game and Matt got last....sorry Matt :).

Matt: Today the boys were doing a pace run on the bike paths so I left a little earlier and walked out to the path and took my yoga mat so I could do core in the middle of the workout/video. So I did a little videoing and about 12 min of core work. But the good news today is that I walked about a mile and a half and have no pain in my foot. It really makes me want to go for a run tomorrow but that’s the mistake I made last week. I still want to stick to the original plan of shooting for Saturday but I still may wake up tomorrow and decide to do a light 5-10 minutes of walk/jog. Tim and I are working on this week’s video as I’m typing this. I don’t know what Mark is doing. We need to find him a job to do to help this blog out a little more. If anyone has an idea that Mark can do to improve this site/blog, post below and he will do it. Oh, Jon Jajoie release this WTF Collective 2 music video today. We watched it after the workout and it sent us spiraling into a Jon Lajoie YouTube marathon. So we will watched all those probably 3 times today.
Ok, off to put this video together!

Tim: The fact of the matter is that I went out way too fast on my tempo run today. On a lighter note, I was really pleased with the way that my body felt today, I am just still lacking in the lungs department. I was huffin and puffin a little much. I used to be a decent tempo runner, but lately it has been a matter of finishing. I mean... I know I haven’t been running for a while, but c’mon... this is way tougher than normal. P.S. If you take a year off... run at least once in a while. Back in the day I was able to run tempo runs much faster... but I told myself I would let me body naturally  progress this year... and although it has... it has been a slow process. Today I ran 5:08 for the first mile, 5:16 for the second and 5:19 for the last... in other words... I kinda died. Oh and by the way... we hope to have a guest appearance soon... could it be you? Stay tuned! Ok, I’m out... see ya guys.

Comment on the Video! CLICK HERE

Monday, Nov 15
Matt: I have almost nothing to say today. I didn’t run or do abs. Instead I went on a horrible losing streak to Mark in literally every thing I did today. It was terrible. We played like 10 games of Sorry and 7 or 8 games of Halo and I maybe won 2 on the day. Not to mention I lost my edge on him in Rock, Paper, Scissors. It was quite possibly the worst day of luck I’ve had in a long time. Tomorrow we are shooting for our blog video this week. Hopefully it turns out as good as last week’s. Re-watching an episode of The League right now. Every one is epic... so good!

Mark: I went in and got a couple interviews as well as a job offer today so I wont be unemployed much longer. Waited for Tim to get off work and we did a twilight run, so that was actually pretty nice. Played a few games of sorry with Matt...and I’m using the word few lightly lol, but the current standings are at 23-16 now, nice swing from a day ago. I felt so good on the run though, I’m pretty pumped for the tempo tomorrow, I’m hoping to be in the 5:25-5:30 range.

Tim: Gosh, I was so tired today. I got home from work last night at 10pm and had to get up today at 5am to go to work today. Psh.... work is way over ratted. I don’t know why Mark wants to get a job... I want to get rid of mine. Anyone else thinking what I am? Anyway, I got home around 4:00pm today and ended up crashing hard. I took an hour power nap and ended up waking up very confused as to what day/month/year/lifetime I was in. Mark and I went for a quick 30 min run... I felt very sluggish, but definitely needed that nap. :) Tomorrow is tempo Tuesday. I have usually been decent at these workouts but lately I haven’t been able to get a grip on these things. I am shooting for 3 miles at 5:15 mile pace.