Back to Back

I know I said I would be back on Sunday. Sorry if you visited and found nothing new. I spent Sunday on a 10 plus mile trail run, Monday on a back to back 6 plus mile trail run, and Tuesday sleeping it all off.

Today my fingers no longer hurt (believe me – on Monday evening every part of my body was sore and tired!), so here’s my contribution to my YouTube channel. Come join me as I travel some of the ridges and canyons of Laguna Coast and Crystal Cove:

I think I’m reinvigorated. After well over a year of being in the dumps, I am finding some satisfaction with setting aside three or more hours on my weekends to traipse the hills. Not enough yet to say I want to race a marathon (or even a half), but enough to get out when the weather is good and enjoy the sights and sounds.

The other thing that is painfully obvious is that I need to build my aerobic base. More on that this week.

Title FAIL

I want to thank everyone for being nice about my title fail yesterday:

It's a common problem when I'm in a hurry. I cut corners. I move on to the next thing before I finish the task at hand. Maybe kind of like the way I approach a race? I was watching my Surf City video again last night. My comment at mile 9? It's about the miles to the finish. Not the mile I'm at right then and there. Not about my breathing or my heel strike. It's about the hill up ahead.

I thought about that a lot last night as I was running. On the schedule was a 10 mile tempo run. I headed on around Newport Back Bay, a trail that I often run. I think I've said before (and maybe I should be shot for thinking this), but I'm bored by this trail. To fight the drudgery, I anticipate where I'm going and praying that it will be over soon. I think ahead to the hill at mile 5 1/2. I think about the boring Westcliff neighborhood that I will run through. I think about the church at mile 9 and the warm down.

So I tried to do a couple things differntly last night. I tried to concentrate on my breathing. On my foot strike. On my posture. Basically on what was happening instead of what was going to happen. Here's what did happen: 10.5 miles in a 9:08 pace overall, 7.5 tempo miles in an average 8:49 pace (including hills) with an average heart rate just below LT. Compare that to the last time I ran this exact route under the same conditions two weeks ago - that's 45 seconds per mile faster during the tempo miles. Wow. I still need to do a lot of work on this, but maybe there's something to it.

On tap today is a date with my rowing machine. 10 kilometers. I'm already starting to sweat.