Sunrise Run

Instead of a cross-train cardio session today (like Insanity), instead I got up and did another run right at sunrise.  It was cool and a little windy, quite a change from our 90's and humid weather we've been having.  I saw one other person out running and about 10 cars - pretty peaceful on the loop around our house. 

I'm trying to be a little run focused for a few weeks because I feel like I'm lacking good run base. From what I've heard, the best way to get better at running is to...run.

Run

Sunrise runs are awesome.

After finishing Upper Plus this morning, I knew I still needed to get in a little cardio, so I left the house for a nice early morning run before church.  I didn't go very hard and I didn't go very far, but I got in a few miles and felt good about it.  Oh and the sky this morning was awesome. 

I think tomorrow we'll probably do some cardio intervals in the morning and then I'll try to run or bike tomorrow evening.  We'll see how that goes.

Track Intervals

It's Memorial day weekend and I've been slacking a bit the last few days on structred workouts.  Friday I cleaned out the garage, Saturday I painted the trim on the front of our house and today, I needed to run.

I decided to try something a little different todayy so this afternoon I headed to the local high school and did some intervals on the track.  It was mid-afternoon and the sun was beating down to the tune of about 90 degrees.  Perfect for getting a solid sweat going and doing some speed work in the heat.

I warmed up with a quarter mile jog and then some stretching before getting into the intervals.  I decided I'd do distance rather than time intervals, just to see what happened.  I would go all out for a quarter mile (one lap) and then briskly walk a half lap, rinse and repeat until my quarter mile times were over 2 minutes (8 minute mile average). 

My first run interval was 1:32 (about a 6 minute mile) and the walk was about 2 minutes (16 minute mile).  I continued this cycle for about 25 minutes and was dripping sweat.  It felt good to get out and run hard, sweat buckets and torch some calories.  I think I'm going to start doing speed work once a week because it's quick, effective and (hopefully) easy to track progress.

Two Mile Run and Patience Yoga

I went into work this morning super early, like 4 something in the morning early, so I didn't get a workout in.  After I got home I put B & G to bed and Mrs. Gias had a meeting at church, so I took advantage of some alone time. 

I got on the treadmill and pounded out a quick two miles.  It was a good run, not too hard and my knee didn't hurt at all.  That's a good sign.  I have to admit, I've been really tenative on my knee the last few weeks and pretty scared to run hard.  This weekend is a short run, about three miles and I'm excited to really open up and see what happens.

After I finished my run I popped in Tony's Patience "Hummingbird" Yoga to get a nice post run stretch.  It was 35 minutes of quiet, relaxing stretching.  It was a pretty good for a taper workout.

Two days and counting until race day...I'm getting pretty stoked.

TriKC Indoor Triathlon (April)

I did another indoor triathlon today.  I previously did one other indoor triathlon last month with good results.  Today I was back for more.  The full race report should be up tomorrow.

Right now I'll just say that I improved in all three disciplines.  And I wore a wetsuit.  Oh yeah, a wetsuit.

20 Minute Run (Treadmill)

I was supposed to do a 42 minute long run this week (recovery week, so it's about half distance), but because of my lingering knee issue, I decided to cut it in half again and go for twenty minutes (two miles) at a nice slow pace.  I wanted to see if I shortened my stride and kept to a fore-foot strike if my knee would react better.  I have to say, so far so good.  I have another run scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday this week and I'll try the same thing again to see if I can get back to some longer runs next week.

64 Minute Run (Outside)

7 miles in 64 minutes.  6.5 mph, 9:04/min/mile.

Geek's Body:  Geek, I thought we had an understanding.  You don't run unless something is chasing you and I promise you won't get injured.
Geek:  I've been running pretty consistently for a couple of months now, so why on earth does my knee hurt now?
Geek's Body:  You only ran a few miles at a time before, now you've starting ramping it up and I don't like it.  The knee is just the beginning, you keep running and I'm going to f-you up!
Geek:  Woa body, pump the breaks a little bit there.  This is for our health...
Geek's Body:  I will destroy you!

OK, so my body is revolting a bit.  A mysterious muscle on my left side/back is pulled, my left knee hurts and I have a stuffy nose and a cough.  The smart thing to do may have been to take the day off, recover a bit and try to workout later in the week.  Instead, I went for a 7 mile run, (the most I've ever run in a row) after already having worked out this morning. 

Now my knee hurts and I'm having trouble walking up and down stairs.  Thankfully tomorrow is just one Insanity workout...

35 Minute Run

Did my short run this evening.  Just a quick 35 minutes (3.5 miles) on the old suckmill.  I really wanted to run outside, but I got home and Mrs. Gias was going out this evening, so I needed to stay home with our girls.  It wasn't too big of a deal, but I definitely want to get back outside this weekend.

58 Minute Run (Outside!)

58 Minute Run - 1pm
54:07 Minute Actual
6 Miles
6.65 mph
9 minute mile

It was a blistery 36 degrees today (so I broke my arbitrary sub-40 no outside workout rule), but it was sunny and I couldn't take running on the treadmill again, so I finally got outside to do some "actual running" instead of spinning my wheels on the suckmill.  I don't want to understate this, so let me be clear...it was awesome.

I was at my parent's house with my girls, and when they went down for their afternoon nap, I put on some shorts, grabbed my iPod (yeah, yeah, I know...but Geek, don't you have a Zune?  I'm a geek, I've got both...get over it already) and started running.  There's a trail that starts about a half mile from their house, so I went down a couple blocks and hopped on the trail.  It's a beautiful asphalt trail through the woods that, if you go from end to end, is about 11 or 12 miles.  Of course I didn't need to go that far, so I ran the trail three miles and then turned around to come back.  I felt like I kept a nice pace and it actually has some nice hills so there was plenty of variety. 

As you probably know, I've never been a runner.  In fact, I typically hate running.  My old joke was always, "I only run if I'm being chased" or some stupid variation of that.  But today felt different.  I've been running consistently (on a treadmill, of course) for the past two months and I finally got to go cover some ground and I really liked it.  I had my iPod pounding out some tunes, I had a general plan as to where I wanted to go and I just ran.  It was great.  I can see where some people really like to get out and just run.

A few observations:

• I tried to smile and say hi to everyone I saw on the trail.  A little lame and weird, maybe.  But I'm out running because I want to, if I'm not having fun, then what the hell am I doing out there, I should just stay home and eat pizza, right?  I figure everyone else is out there because they want to be as well...so they should be happy, right?  Let's just say I did not get reciprocation from everyone I saw.
• Yes, it was 36 degrees, but I saw far too many people wearing heavy coats, gloves and hats for how warm it actually felt.  I was in a long sleeve UnderArmor shirt and shorts and was fine, what's wrong with everyone's internal temperature?
• I used a Genius autofill for my iPod today and I set the starting song on an old school Nirvana song from their Incesticide album.  I basically just wanted some rock/alternative to run to.  This ended up being awesome, I heard some old stuff I hadn't heard in a long time, Stone Temple Pilots, Seven Mary Three, Cream, Nirvana, Black Crowes...then it got weird for a few songs.  Apple decided that I also wanted to listen to Tom Petty (which I guess I can understand, but it's not really the same) and then...Phish.  OK, I know what you're thinking, "Geek, you're the one with a Phish CD, why are you complaining?" True, it's from a phase in high school where I probably didn't know what I was doing, but why on earth would it Genius think that a jam band would match the rest of what was on my playlist?  Awkward.
• Now I'm wondering, what the hell happens when I put a Phish song as the starting place for Genius?  What does that playlist look like? (Yeah, I'm totally doing that tomorrow.)
• It's harder to keep a steady pace outside without mile markers of some kind, I need to remember that.
• It's totally easier to lengthen your stride when you're not on a treadmill and can vary your tempo slightly.
• Six miles is the furthest I've ever run continuously (no walking at all today) and I still had plenty left in the tank.  I'm feeling good about this race.

20 Minute Run (Treadmill)

20 Minute Run (Treadmill) 7pm
2 miles

I nice easy run on the old hampster wheel.  Nothing too exciting.

35 Minute Run

It's recovery week...it's supposed to be slow.

Just a nice easy recovery week "long run".  I took it nice and easy and just chugged along at a 12 minute mile pace.  Just enough to get my heart rate up a bit. 

32 Minute Run (Treadmill)

32 Min Run (Treadmill) - 4:00pm
3.77 miles
7.07 mph

I was dangerously close to running outside today.  However, my car's temperature guage said that it was 39 degrees.  That's one degree cooler than my self imposed 40 degree limit (yeah, I may have made that up today as an excuse not to go outside, we'll see...)  Anyway, I ended up running on the treadmill and I had a great run.  I ran at about an 8:30 minute mile.  That puts me in the low 50's pace for a 10k.  Sunday is my long run of 58 minutes, so I'm going to try to do a full 10k in under 55 minutes to see if my goal of mid 40's for race day is reasonable. 

53 Minute Run (Treadmill)

53 Min Run (Treadmill) 6:00am
5.85 miles
6.6 mph

B and G spent the night at my parent's house last night so that Mrs. GIAS and I could go to a wedding.  Consequently, they weren't home this morning, so we pushed our P90X workout back an hour and I got up at regular time to run before we did 30:15.  I did the run at a steady 6.6 mph and it felt really good.  I think that's the furthest I may have ever run today and I did it at a faster pace than I have run a significant distance at.  I also think that I could have gone further and possible faster; that's encouraging.  I think a good goal is to shoot for a 10k time in the 40's (that's about 4-8 minutes faster than I am right now, I think) so after a few more months of training, I think that's reasonable, we'll see.

More Snow

The view outside my office window today.

So any delusions I had of an outdoor cycling or running workout this weekend seem to have been cancelled by mother nature.  Hello stationary bike and treadmill, more fun with both of you tomorrow.

29 Min Run (Treadmill)

29 Min Run - 7:15pm
3.15 Miles
6.5mph

Here's a tip for you...don't watch Modern Family while you are trying to run on a treadmill.  That show is hilarious and I literally had to jump onto the rails of the treadmill three or four times because I was laughing so hard...If I didn't slow down I thought I was going to hurt myself on the treadmill.  Here's a taste:

--Luke: "What's Jaegermeister?" [Phil's 10 year old son]


--Phil: "Well, you know how in a fairy tale there's always a potion that makes the princess fall asleep, and then prince charming starts kissing her? Well, this is like that except you don't wake up in a castle. You wake up in a frat house with a bad reputation."

Anyway, if not for the added danger of laughing during the run, this was one of my better running sessions to date.  My calves, glutes and hamstrings were a bit sore from this morning's workout, but I still kept a steady 6.5mph pace and felt like I could keep going after my 29 minutes were up.  I basically did a decent 5k with gas left in the tank.  I think my training is benefiting from being slightly fatigued at most (if not all of my workouts) as triathlon seems to require you to push through being tired to finish.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Increase The Geek's Speed by 700%

Photo of Usain Bolt: antonhazelwinkel/Flickr

This article in Wired talks about the potential for a person to be able to run 40mph.  That's crazy fast.  Usain Bolt (fastest man alive) tops out at 27.3mph for about 100 meters.  Yeah, it's a big game of "what if" right now, but with Science on the case I'm sure this'll all be figured out. 

"The human frame is built to handle running speeds up to 40 miles per hour, scientists say. The only limiting factor is not how much brute force is required to push off the ground as previously thought, but how fast our muscle fibers can contract to ramp up that force.

If you just find a way to rev up those contractile fibers for the muscle, then everything else from human biology and gait would allow us to be that fast,” said physiologist Peter Weyand of Southern Methodist University, lead author of a study published Jan. 21 in the Journal of Applied Physiology."

I've been averaging around 5-6mph on my runs and hope to increase that to 7-8mph through training.  Now, if Science can tack on another 30mph by developing more "ultrafast 2X type muscle fiber" I figure I'll be all set. 

Of course, at my speed, I'm not sure that I have any "ultrafast" anything right now...so that could be a problem.

48 Minute Run (Treadmill)

48 Minute Run (Treadmill)
4 miles
12 min/mile

Is there anything geekier cooler than running on a treadmill in black dress socks? I didn't think so; that's why I did it. 

Oh yeah, the run tonight was SLOW becuase I am TIRED.  Insanity kicked by tucus this morning and a long run after work, in hindsight, was a terrible idea.  But it's over and I will strive to go faster the next time.  Promise.

29 Min Swim - 58 Min Bike - 17 Min Run

29 Min Swim - 4:50am
1400 yds
48.28 yds/min

58 Min Bike - 5:30am
20.07 miles
20.76 mph

17 Min Run - 6:30am
1.7 miles
10 min/mile

It's very early (4:30am) on what should be my rest day, but I'm off to the gym to get in some swim/bike/run.  It's weird because going to the gym Saturday morning is something that I look forward to all week, even though it's super early and I know I'll be tired.  I'm sure it's because there is some novelty to it still, I wonder how long that novelty will last and keep motivating me out of bed in the cold to go do cardio for a couple of hours.  I guess it doesn't matter right now, because I got up fine this morning and had a great session.

When I got to the gym it was me, the guy behind the counter and one girl on an eliptical machine that I had never seen before.  The parking lot (above) was pretty empty, a far cry from the hustle and bustle that a weeknight at 5:30pm brings.  I like the peacefulness, the quiet, the ability to go in and just work.  I didn't see Frizzy McBlonde Hair or Brownie VonCrop Pants at all today, I don't know where they were.

I got into the locker room, threw my bag in my locker and hit the pool.  (Old Navy showed up right as I was going into the pool, he lifted for a half hour and then proceeded to do his usual circuit of every cardio machine in the place for 15 minutes a piece - nothing out of the ordinary.) Today is a shorter session becuase it's the end of my recovery week so it was only 29 minutes, but I was determined to work on my technique, flip all of my turns and drop my stroke count, at least a little.  I ended up flipping all of my turns on all of my 100yd intervals.  I also did them on a strict 2 min interval (start then finish 100 yds and start then next one two minutes exactly after you started the last one...if you finish in 1:45 you get 15 sec rest, if you finish in 1:55 you get 5 sec rest).  I was consistently finishing at 1:45 and taking 15 seconds rest and felt like I could have done these intervals ad infinitum.  My first 25 of each of my 100s was my best technique wise and my technique would fall off as I got more fatigued.  My stroke count was averaging 20 but I had a few lengths where I really focused and got it into the 17-18 range.  This still needs an immense amount of work.

I finished my yards and hit the locker room to put on some shorts and a shirt and headed to the spin bikes.  I hopped on my favorite (second from the right, back row) and started to pedal.  Spinning gives me the opportunity to listen/watch my Zune and do some people watching.  By this time in the day (5:45am or so) there are a few people filtering into the club.  One guy that I hadn't seen before was working with the cable machine and dumbells doing triceps, biceps and rows.  It was odd because he was only using one arm at a time and I wanted to tell him to just get another dumbbell and do both arms at the same time.  I should have shouted like one of those infomercials, "I can cut your exercise time in half!" and I wouldn't have been lying.  The other odd thing about this fellow was that he was wearing a weight belt, which is pretty unnecesary doing cable exercises and using 20lb dumbbells, but I'll let that slide AND he looked like he had in some chew.  Y'know, smokeless tobacco.  I couldn't figure this part out because I know people do stupid things, but dip during a weight routine seemed extrodinarily odd.  I was somewhat releived, but more bewildered when he went to the drinking fountain and figured out that it wasn't dip at all.  It was a mouth guard.  Why on earth does this guy need a mouth guard to use a cable machine and dumbbells?  Does he hit himself in the face a lot?  Does he expect that someone will come by and elbow him?  Is weightlifing a contact sport now?  Seriously, WTF?

Anyway, I finished my spin and hopped off and jumped onto a treadmill to finish out the trifecta for the day.  I started the run at 5.5mph and sped it up by half a mile an hour every minute or two until I got up to 7mph (8.36 mile avg).  This was a better running session than I expected after already swimming and biking for an hour and a half before starting.  This is the first time I did all three sports right after each other and I realized taht I think (with more training, of course) I can do this.  It was a nice realization because it felt like I did a mini-tri of sorts today and I didn't collapse or die or feel like I couldn't go on.  Hopefully that feeling lasts.

29 Min Run (Treadmill)

29 Min Run (Treadmill) - 5:00am
2.85 miles
10:01 min/mile

I woke up a little earlier than usual today...before 5:00am...on a Sunday...to run...on a treadmill...what is wrong with me?  I wanted to start my run before Mrs. GIAS got up and came down to do our regular morning workout (short yoga today). Anyway, I flipped on the TV and James Cameron's The Abyss was just starting on HBO so I watched that while I ran on the treadmill. As an aside, Jim Cameron can make a movie...underwater drilling platform with aliens, sweet.  The Geek loves movies with aliens.

Anyway, it was a good run, I was tight and tired so I started at 5mph for half a mile, then ramped it up to 5.5mph, 6.0mph and 6.5mph every half mile after that for 29 minutes, settling in on 6.5 mph, although I think I could have gone faster. I know, I know, but anyone can go faster than that, Geek.  But you see, gentle reader, I've said it before and I'll say it again, running is an acquired taste for me, and right now it tastes like poop. 

I was working on my breath and on forefoot striking today, rather than the heel strike that I usually run with. I have read a bunch of stuff saying that forefoot strikes cause less injury and naturally shortens your stride to make you more comfortable when you run. Yeah, it's a little weird, but it plays to my geekiness and after trying it, I didn't seem to mind it at all. I'll try it some more on my runs to see what, if anything changes...perhaps running will taste less like poop.

29 Min Run (Treadmill)

29 Min Run (Treadmill) - 7:45pm
2.42 miles
12 min/mile

I hopped off the Air Bike and did my short run for the week, 29 minutes. This was weird as it was the first time I went from the bike to the run. My multi-sport training or "brick" training thus far has only been from swim to bike. In any event, my legs felt a little weird (read wobbly) when I first started, but once I got going for about 15-20 minutes, I felt great, like I could go forever.

I think I need to up the speed on the treadmill to really challenge myself, but I like having a steady and respectable pace to build my volume. I think for my long run on Sunday (which is a recovery week long run, so actually shorter than usual) I will up the pace to 6.5mph and see what happens.