I'm Not Dead

Really, I'm not it has just been a REALLY long time since I had Internet and felt like posting.

Life: Things are going well! Anne and I are now in the new townhouse and living large in Arlington. We both are working and the cat and dog continue to attack one another to stay amused.

Joey- the cat is not thrilled about the city life and having to stay inside, but he does now have 4 levels to run around on and perhaps more importantly....find hiding places.

Oskar- the dog is happy about everything as a general rule. He now enjoys city block walks and having to have his master pick up his (Oskar's) poop..... Who is really the master anyway?

In my running life I must admit I don't do well with change and living in strange places and having odd schedules and traveling a ton and having a million new duties that I always seem to deem more important than running. Thus my last 4 weeks since leaving Richmond have been all in the 24-38 mile range. Wow sucko!

Anne's running has been going well and we have successfully done long ones of 15, 18, and 20 miles in this time span. She is averaging 30 miles a week now... You go Anne!

A return to normalcy?? Well sort of. I managed 4 runs last week ( an 8 and a 20 with Anne) and a 10 on the C&O towpath.....which I think is my favorite place to run ever. And a whopping 45 miler. The later being the VHTRC's Andiamo run which covers the entire W&OD bike path trail from Purcelville into Shirlington. This was loads of fun for the first 34 miles. Then the last 11 took over 3 hours and resulted in my first bouts of running induced vomiting in over 20 years of running. Pretty amazing GI tract killing pain honestly. Lasted well into the night keeping me up and out of bed from 1-3AM even.

If all ultras were like the first 30 (50k split in 4:58 running easy with 60sec walk breaks at all mile markers) I'd run ultras every few days. If all ultras were like the last 10 miles. I'd never run one again.

Trying to make it Ours

Ahhhhhh Arlington! Good stuff. Moving back to NOVA. Start work Aug 25th. Close Sept 15th. Can't wait for either!

Feeling The Need

For Speed....or the best I can manage these days: MotionBased stats here

8 miles with: 4x200, 4x400, 3x1000, 400, 4x200, 400......ugh..in 95 degree sun at 2pm

Easy warm up...didn't take long in the heat and my favorite time to run...AFTERNOON!
4 x 200 on 40 sec rest- 41, 41, 37, 38 Felt really good, not trying to press, just turn them over
4 x 400 on 90 sec rest- 91, 86, 88, 84 Pace was all over as I was trying to find the best mix between relaxed and pressing the 2nd half to hold the pace. Not to mention I have not run anything this quick since February. By the 3rd and 4th my heartrate was really getting up there and staying up above 120 a bit long following the repeat.

so I took 5 minutes rest then did 3 x 1000m aiming to hit 4:00 or a guess at my 10 mile-1/2 marathon pace. But onc eI got into them I ran faster and was probably closer to VO2max pace than Lactate threshold. Using equal recoveries I managed to hit 4:01, 3:54, 3:46. It felt good and I was running very smoothly. After the faster repeats to start off with, it was hard to run above 90 sec 400 pace on these repeats.

After the 3rd one I felt hot and tired. So I decided to do some more shorter reps and work on my recruitment of the fast twitch fibers that I let lie dormant so much of the time. I will probably be wicked sore tomorrow.

Last bit went 400-84, 4x200-39, 37, 37, 36, then one last 400 to try and break 80 and a nice result of 76. That chased the heartrate up to 175bpm. Probably within a few ticks of my max honestly.

All in all it was a good workout and I am glad I went and got it in. Tomorrow I am off to DC to do a bunch of things related to my new job and my new townhouse! Trying to finalize things on a new place. Super exciting.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday & Monday off
Tuesday- walked 3 miles
Wednesday- 4 miles w/ 6x striders
Thursday- 6 miles easy roads

I wanted to wish all a happy thanksgiving. It feels good to be in the USA again for this one as my memories of being in the Sinai desert last year are very strong today. Richmond is beautiful right now with the leaves flying off the trees in this 75 degree breeze. Very nice to crunch them and try to catch some on the run this morning. I could smell baking turkeys all through my neighborhood even at 8am.

Enjoy all, and spend some time thinking about what you are truly thankful for today. An email from a former patient brought it home to me yesterday. My health! I wish you continued patience and success Matthew.

Back in Class

Monday- 8 miles trail 1:11 easy
Tuesday- 12 miles hilly roads 1:36

Well my prosthetics program through Northwestern University has begun and I once again back in class! I have always loved learning and although I have been enrolled in my fair number of colleges (8 at last count) this program is a bit different. It is on-line for 20 weeks with video and teleconference sessions, on-line classes (think U-tube) and many many group projects, discussion boards, tests and quiz's along the way. The program has students from Ecuador, Australia, Alaska, Maine, Florida, TX, Calif, ect ect. Technology is great isn't it.!

Once I finish this portion I will go to Chicago for 8 weeks during May and June and look forward to getting my hands into the "hands-on" portion of the blended learning program.

Additionally I am observing/working at a prosthetics/orthotics shop here in Richmond spending half days learning all I can from the great practitioners at Powell's.

Slacking

Last week- 21miles on 2 runs, some walks
Sunday- 9 miles w/ Anne
Monday- 3.5 mile walk

Yep, I took Last Sunday off to rest up, drive 14 hours on Monday. Spent Tuesday-Friday in Chicago (yes it was warm then too) then drove for 17 hours (with two stops to sleep for 60min) home on Friday afternoon eve. Not much running going on.

I hate that changes in schedule and routine totally mess up my running. It shows I am not too serious about training that I let other things and "being busy" get in the way of getting out the door. I am very "on" or very "off" with my running. Kinda stupid really.

Anyway, time to get back on it. Legs feel great. I weigh 129-130lbs.(back to my ultra-race weight) And I am really looking forward to some bigger races coming up. Must focus now!

Good news is my grad program in prosthetics through Northwestern is underway.

Settled now????????

Sunday- 21 miles- 5hrs
Monday- off
Tuesday- 6 mon TM 1 up, mile-6:22, 2min jog, 3miles @6:40

wow, am I ever going to settle in?? Moving from a one bedroom apt to a house is very involved. We have now bought something for every single room.... And this weekend purchased a 2007 Honda accord. Most expensive month ever for sure!! :-)

Nice to have a house though, and having a dinning room table is nice too. The new accord is great and opens up some doors to me again. Not having a vehicle where we live has been a bit limiting. Time to get the kayak out..slap it on the roof of my old Sentra and hit the river!

Also in the big Life news file... I was accepted into Northwestern's blended learning prosthetics program and will be starting that in November. It culminates in June 08 in time for us to move back to DC. Very exciting.

Now, if I could just get a running routine back! I did manage a fun day in Shenandoah running with buds from the VHTRC on Sunday. Nothing speedy, but good to be out and moving again for 5 hrs. The legs were a bit shaky and weak. I also seemed to have a virus last weekend...ugh unpleasant, but gone now.

Yesterday's treadmill workout was something I hope to build on. 6:20 was too fast, but 6:40's felt okay, hard but comfortable with HR at 160. As the weeks approach JFK 50 I hope to extend this to 20 miles.

I've been busy

Sunday- 19 Aug- 5 miles -1up, 3xmile, 1 dn

Okay it has been a while!!!!!!!! Life moves fast.... Since the last blog I drove a UHAUL to Richmond, unpacked it for 2 days (thanks for the help Quatro) then headed off to Ithaca, NY for good Friend Ian's wedding on aug 4th. Ran with a bunch of the old ICXC teammates that day and felt the blown hip flexor (psoas) muscle after a short 45min run.

We then went back to Richmond only to catch a 6am flight out the next day to The Dominican Republic! This was a reunited-celebratory vacation. Anne and I had scheduled a trip to the Caribbean last summer that had to be canceled due to me heading out to Egypt for a year... Then I come home with Anne immersed in Bar studying. So, once she took the exam and we had moved to Richmond it was time to go!!

A great time there....lots of time in the sun, on the beach, in restaurants, and being lazy. I began reading the Harry Potter series (I am 33 and male..but it okay) Got thru books one and two and now into the 3rd.

Then we got OSKAR!!!!!!! He is an 8 week old miniature Schnauzer and he is awesome. Life consuming, but awesome. Lots of pictures to follow once my internet gets back up (we had a huge storm that fried our cable modem...I'm scamming the neighbors wireless now, but it is not super great.

So finally after actually BEING in Richmond for a week... we are all unpacked and settling in. I have had some exploratory runs and like it. trails 3 miles away, and a HS track a mere 6 minute run down the road. I am ashamed to admit it took 7 whole days to discover that, but at least I utilized it on the first discovery.

I have only covered 20 miles of running since the VT 100 (that was 28 busy days ago) so I eased in with a 3 x mile run doing 100 on / 100m off stride jog miles at 7:20, a 200m on- (45sec/60sec) mile in 7:06, and a 100 on/off in 6:27. Felt pretty good then I actually ran a400m at a good clip in 78 and did not die. all a good sign. Time to get back on it training wise.

Today is my first official day of unemployment!!!!!!!!!!!!! As I am now officially out of the Army and not working. After 10 years I figure I deserve some time to relax a bit and figure things out. right now training the new 6lbs pup and keeping him from killing himself ( he wants to bite the 16lbs cats tail) is keeping me busy.