Week Starting Monday. December 6 (Week 9)
Sunday, Dec 12
Mark: So
after a rough outing Friday, just when I thought I couldn’t do anything
worse than that................I went out aaaand.............totally
redeemed myself!!! Ha anyway after Friday I was a bit discouraged just
kinda questioning myself as I occasionally do, thinking maybe I’m not in
as good a shape as I thought/ hoped. So coming into the workout this
morning, I was a bit nervous and I thought if I couldn't do the workout
today then I would have to rethink things a bit. I was still feeling a
little tired and weak but the workout ended up going extremely well. We
haven’t done hardly anything at mile pace, and this was our first time
on a real track. So the workout was 2x(400-400-400-300) with 1 minute
between efforts and 10 minutes between sets. The first set I hit
63-61-62-45. I really just felt like I was sprinting on the first 1 or 2
and I was like wow theres no way we are gonna make it at that pace, but
I think that was speaking more from the havn’t run fast in a long time
mentality, as I actually felt all right after the first set. The second
set I went 61-61-60-41. After the 3rd one, Matt said he needed the full
75 seconds (he was doing 300’s, jumping in after the first 100 so he
lost 15 seconds recovery on the 300’s) but Tim didn’t hear so we ended
up goi
ng with about 68 seconds rest. I got out strong, hoping to run
smoothly and hit a 43 but Matt wasn’t having any of it and blew by me
50m in and really started to push with 100 to go and I responded a bit
and he pulled me to a 41 to finish it off. I didn’t feel like i pushed
too hard like I often did in years past trying to hang with people
throughout the workout, but I got a very solid effort in and I thought
it was very good for me. Also it looks like we found a track we can use
on weekends for a few months, but we are still going to need to be able
to go once in a while on weekdays (like maybe 5x200 Wednesday afternoon
to follow up the workout in the morning). Oh, and wish me luck in my
fantasy football matchup...gotta win to stay in the hunt for the
money!!....Oh and my team is called Playin In DIRT...just to remove
confusion there ;) I have another battle going in the inaugural OTC
League, but I’m not in jeopardy of elimination there at the
moment...more to come next week on that one.
Matt:
Wow, what a positive, reinforcing workout today. My workout was 2 sets
of 4x300m around 45 sec with 75 sec recovery and 10 minutes between
sets. I was definitely unsure of whether or not I would finish the
workout or would have to change the plan midway through. I was unsure
because only about a week ago I did 200’s with 90 sec rest and had to
eventually change it to 2 min rest. Anyway, I was doing the 300’s as
part of Mark and Tim’s 400’s so I had them to run with the whole time.
Through the first 7 I averaged 45-46 and then tried to burn one on the
last one. I knew it would be a good one because on the next to last,
Mark picked up the pace on his 400 and I knew he was ready for a quick
one to finish out the day. I had to respond to Mark’s early push with
250 to go and then made my own move with 150 to go and cruised in at 40.
It’s a really good sign for me to be able to feel like I am gaining
significant fitness in only a few weeks. I’ve getting more and more
excited for my season to get going, although I’m still not totally sure
on when/what I’ll be doing. And that just makes me excited that I’m
excited. I don’t think I’ve been this mentally fresh and energetic in
maybe a few years. :)
Tim:
Wow, what a negative, discouraging workout today. I did the same
workout as Mark... only I died at the end. I was able to hang until that
last couple intervals. I fell off big time. I attribute this to not
having run on a track at any kind of decent speed in 2 years. I hope my
ability to run fast will come back soon. Here were my times: 63-61-62-47
(rest) 61-62-66-48 : /
Saturday, Dec 11
Matt:
I got up at 6am this morning and headed to Balboa Park in San Diego for
the Foot Locker XC Championships. Both races were really good and I got
some pretty good interviews with several of the runners. This is only
about the 5th time I’ve done interviews so they may not be great but I’m
getting better at it. Here are my interviews with the winners: Aisling
Cuffe and Lukas Verzbicas. Took the day off from running but am looking
forward to a good track workout with the boys tomorrow.
Mark: Went
for 35 minutes with Tim and still felt really sluggish like yesterday,
my energy levels just seem so low right now so hopefully I’m not getting
sick or something.
Tim: Man,
Mark and I got like 10 honks today. 35 minute run around Canoga Park
and our legs were pretty shot. Also... when we got to the corner of
DeSoto and VICTORRRYYYYYYYY some girl in a car started whistling at us.
She then proceeded to pull out her camera and video us on the corner. We
just played along and struck a few poses. Not sure if she was liking
it or just making fun of us. :)
Friday, Dec 10
San Diego the night I arrived
|
Matt:
I didn’t really know what I wanted to do today for a workout but Mark
wanted to do a 2 x 2 mile workout. So I thought I would just run with
him as long as I could and then see what happened. I made it about 1400m
of the first mile at 5:25ish pace before I decided to fartlek the rest
of it. I intentionally didn’t wear a watch again today. I just wanted to
go off of feel and get some work done. After that was finished I headed
down to San Diego to the Foot Locker XC Championships where I’ll be
getting post-race interviews for RunnerSpace tomorrow. Woohoo!
Mark: I
woke up in the mornin feelin like I was gonna have a good
workout....Tim texted me and said his went well so I was pumped for
mine. I had a few bowls of apple jacks and I was ready to go. As we
started warming up i just didnt feel good at all. The workout ws
supposed to be 2x2 mile, but 800 into the first one I was just dead. Not
sure if I was just tired or didnt eat well enough the last couple days
but I just had no energy at all. I did the first 2 miles in 5:25-5:24
and i was just done. I took 3 minutes to see if I could recover and do
the 2nd half but it just wasnt happening, so I figured no need to kill
myself and just called it a day. We did some strides on the way home.
Tim:
Today was a very encouraging day for me. Last night I went home to
visit with the Mom and Dad. I had a pizza and a salad. I even got some
laundry done. After a good night’s sleep on the couch I woke up at 7 am
and felt like I wanted to get my workout on! I texted Mark asking him if
he wanted to work out with me, but he never got back to me so I assumed
he was still sleeping. He was. I set out to run 2x2 miles at tempo pace
with 3 minutes of rest in between. The first set was sub-par. 5:13,
5:23. I was pretty upset that I let that second mile slip away from me. I
just basically fell asleep. After 3 minutes of rest I felt recharged
and was determined not to let that happen again. This set was much
better; 5:06, 5:09. At this point, I was finished. However, after
another 3 minutes I felt good again and wanted to make up for that first
set, so I added an additional mile. I ran 4:54 without straining at
all. This workout was very encouraging as my lactate threshold, I feel,
is finally coming along.
Thursday, Dec 9
Matt:
I was a little sore today from the hills and squats yesterday. But
today was just a nice recovery run of about 30 minutes I’m guessing.
Mark and I just went out for our run with no watch and just ran for a
while. Sometimes it feels good to not be a slave to the watch. To get a
chance to listen to and get more in touch with how your body is feeling.
I wish I did that more often. It makes it seem a little less like a job
and more like a passion. But anyway, made pancakes at 3pm for lunch
that were amazing. And part 1 of The League season finale is tonight so
I’m pumped about that.
Mark: Nice
and easy 30 minutes or so with Matt, we picked it up for a bit but it
felt good and my groin was really sore from those sets of squats we did
yesterday...either that or getting tackled into the arctic shatter pool
water (don’t be deceived by the 75 degree weather and beautiful skies
filled with sunshine...the water is filled with icicles of death).
Tim:
When I got home from work today I found that my “Playin in Dirt”
teammates had not waited for me to get home to run. :( This made me sad.
I felt betrayed and furthermore, like I had been stabbed in the back.
However, I mustered up the courage to run on my own. I ended up running
for about 40 minutes. I keep telling myself that I need to run a little
longer on my easy days in order to make up a little bit of mileage.
Wednesday, Dec 8
Matt:
I’m not sure how today turned out to be a good day but somehow it did.
After not being abl to get on the track yesterday we were set to do a
real workout today. After having an actual debate for about 30 min when
we all woke up this morning, we finally agreed on doing the workout on
the dirt track at Pearce College. We jogged over from out apartment and
the construction noises only got louder as we got closer. The track is
officially closed for reconstruction :( They already had the infield
torn out and I guess they are planning on putting in a new field and
all-weather track. I don’t know what that does to our blog as part of
the whole theme is that we are working out on a dirt track. So when that
track no longer is dirt, I don’t know whether we should find another
dirt track or change the name of our blog. What do you think?
From
there we decided to make today a hills day. That was perfect for me as I
want to get in alot more hills this year than years past. Mark and
Tim’s plan was to do 10 but with my lack of recent training I wasn’t
sure what to expect. I thought I would just do what I could and take one
or two intervals off as needed. I made it through 6 before I needed a
break but didn’t really want to stop. Instead I just ran the first 25
sec of the hill for the remaining 4. For where I thought I was in my
training I couldn’t be happier with today’s work. I hope it is a sign
that my fitness is coming around quicker than I thought. If so, maybe
running indoors isn’t so much of a stretch, although there would still
be alot of work to do. We did film today for a video and I must say, I
think this one is by far the best so far and I think you will all be
entertained. Please comment on it to let us know what you think. PLEASE!
Sunset tonight outside our apartment |
Mark: So
when I woke up this morning I thought I was going to a nice all weather
track for a workout of 2x400-400-400-300. After calling the nearby high
school we resorted to doing a 3 mile pace run and possibly 4x300 on the
dirt track, but thought it would be better to do 800’s on the path.
After thinking that through, we realized we wouldn't get the vlog filmed
today if we did that so we combined the ideas to do 5x800 followed by
4x300 on the dirt track. So we jogged over there and as we approached we
heard lots of loud construction vehicles and such and quickly realized
that the track was on lock down for construction...sooo we were left
with either just jogging home and trying to find somewhere else to
workout in the afternoon, or just doing hills and we opted for hills. So
we jogged over there and did 10 hill repeats in 46-44-43-43-42-43-43-42-43-40.
I was so dead after 5 or 6 and thought I wasn't going to make it
through all 10, but I went to the well and was able to get through it.
Very solid effort today I thought, so I’m happy with it considering it
was our 7th option for the workout. I was struggling on the jog home, I
kept needing to request some walk zones (periods of walking to break up
the recovery jog home so I could recover enough to recover).
Tim: Hill
repeat times: 46-44-44-42-43-42-43-43-43-39 This was really tough.
Especially the last interval. We worked pretty hard and I think it is
gonna end up paying off.
Comment on the Video! CLICK HERE
Tuesday, Dec 7
Matt:
Today was workout day so as soon as I woke up I got some coffee to help
wake me up. I don’t drink coffee often so it got me pretty excited. The
workout today was supposed to be somewhat fast for the guys so they
wanted to go to a real track. We drove over to Cal St Northridge but
discovered that their track is not open to the public at any time and
all the gates were locked. So we just went on a 30 min run through
campus and headed home :( So I guess now the plan is to try the workout
again tomorrow. And to follow up yesterday’s post, it’s only noon and
I’ve already been to the post office, so there!
Mark: I’ll
go ahead and take the blame for not finding a track that would be
available to workout on ahead of time...hopefully we will be more
successful tomorrow, I really need to workout, but at least none of have
work so we wont be as pressed for time. Aaaaaand we got our jerseys in
today...cant wait to debut them :)
Tim: Went
to CSUN and hated our lives because we couldn’t get on the track. So we
ran on the city streets of Northridge, dodging pitbulls and evading
cops. At one point during our run we talked about stealing a cop car.
Random... I know but a true story nonetheless. Back to the point, we ran
about 29 minutes today and probably should have ran more. We were all
just so disheartened and apathetic after the whole not getting on the
track episode occurred.
Monday, Dec 6
Mark: So
this morning I got up relatively early and I was in the living room
talking with Tim and we decided to head out for our run. So we got all
ready and we were just walking out the door and we said, hey, what about
Matt?? So we went in and tried to get him to run and even said that we
would wait 5 minutes but he didnt want to so we just left (Tim had to
get it done so he could get to work). So we jogged over to the dirt
track and we were 
gonna do 2 miles with a 100m moderate acceleration
each lap but it was really muddy so we just left and circled around and
back home for a 35 minute run. Matt and I watched the 2nd Underworld
movie and then we knocked out like 7 Disney puzzles...good times.
Matt:
Today I woke up to the sound of the apartment door opening and hearing
this, “Hey, where’s Matt?” Then my bedroom door creaked open and in pops
Mark and Tim shoes on ready to get out the door and on with their run.
“Hey Matt, you want to run with us?” So to cut to the point, I didn’t
want to run within minutes of waking up so I didn’t. Thanks for thinking
of me guys... Then one thing led to another and I ended up just taking
the day off. But here’s a list of things I did get done today: Worked
some puzzles, watched Underworld Evolution, laid out in the sun (yes
it’s sunny and 75 here), took a nap, played some iPhone games, skyped
with Sam, and made a pizza. I did also do several hours of work on the
computer so that’s a plus. Here’s a list of things I didn’t do today:
Laundry, dishes, use the swiffer, take out the trash, make my bed, or
check the mail.
Tim:
Geez... I wake up everyday just hoping it is 7:30ish, but almost always
it is 9:30ish. As a result I am forced to get up and run before I go to
work. Today was one of those days. Mark and I went for a 35 min run...
Matt was too lazy. He claims that we didn’t give him enough time, I
disagree. Long story short; we ran, he didn’t. Off to worko-de-sucko.
