Week 3 (or 4): Last week was actually a pretty good one. I was too beat after “the Loop” to do much on Monday except ride my old mountain bike up and down neighborhood hills for 30 minutes with my MP3 player. Tuesday, I made it to the track in the morning with the goal of doing 4x400’s, 2x800’s and 1x1600, but struggled mightily and managed only 5x400 (76 average) + 1x800 (2:47). Wednesday, I had good intentions but got too busy at work and did absolutely nothing. Thursday, I got to Barton Springs at 6:00 am, jogged to Austin High where the Gazelles were doing 400’s, and did 10 with Floyd at between 74 and 78. Friday, I ran a short 7 around the lake in 49 minutes – not too bad since it was afternoon and already 90 degrees. Saturday, it was back to the track for 4x400 (75’s) + 2x800(2:40, 2:44), then Sunday I did 7 in the neighborhood - 31+ total for the week. The Glucosamine seems to be doing the trick. Either that or I’m well rested - my joints are feeling great. I've got to get to the point that I'm doing three interval miles regardless of pace.

On Saturday, I actually felt painfree, so I did 4 around the neighborhood. Friday was a different story. The best I could manage was 30 minutes on the spin bike while I watched an old episode of "the office". Sunday was the trail run. I made up my mind to go easy. And it's a good thing too. It was rocky as hell with big ledges and lots of turns - A motorcycle/mountain bike track. In the past several years I've ran 30k's around 1:55:00. But I'm a wuss and my ankle hurt. So, it took me two hours and fourty-four minutes to run 3x10k loops. Floyd got fourth overall and won masters in 2:14. Birk ran sub-2:20. I waited around for two hours for awards. At least I'm not less sore and with the 18.6 mile race, I got in 29.6 miles for the week. Gonna get serious on June 5th.

I’ve run only once this week so far. It was a pretty good 7 miles on Wednesday (47:37) but the other days I just got too busy. I did ride the stationary bike twice, for 90 minutes on Monday alone and rode neighborhood hills on Tuesday morning. I unwrapped a jump rope I’d bought 5 years ago and tried to jump but I kept smacking my feet (which hurt) so I made a mental note to find my old lighter rope before I try again. I also consumed a bag of pretzels, which is probably as bad as it’ll get this week from a bad snack perspective. Yesterday, I bought mostly fruit and vegetables.

Floyd sent me an e-mail saying that he was doing 1000 meter repeats around 3:15, which is pretty fast. He also told me that Richard Mendez did an 800 in 2:05. I wasn’t nearly that fast in high school as a 120-pound sophomore. I printed out Floyd's e-mail and taped it to my cube for inspiration.

I signed up for Sisson’s Rogue trail race on Sunday. It’s called “the Loop”. There was a 10k and a 30k option. Since I haven’t run more than 9 miles since February, I decided to run the 30k (18.6 miles) for my first trail race. This is really dumb on my part. The course is supposed to be tough. I have no trail shoes. I’m out of shape and could easily bust my ass and set my training back several months. On the other hand, before I heard how challenging the course was, I was imagining myself sneaking in to win. Right now, I thinking that I’ll be lucky to finish in the 25%. I ought to be able to do it in 2 ½ hours, but who knows? I wish I’d registered in a fake name. Floyd was saying that if I finish early enough I’ll get a free hamburger. God, I hope I get a hamburger!

It was 60 degrees this morning. Excellent running weather. I’d planned on running hill repeats with the Gazelles at Wilke, but I couldn’t get going, so I settled for a 15 minute bike ride in the neighborhood. Although I didn’t actually run yesterday either, I did ride the stationary bike for nearly two hours while I watched the season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy”. I’ve also done a pretty fair job of stretching.

New goal. I’d like to beat Lance Armstrong in the 2006 NY Marathon. This is a floating ill-defined goal since I have no idea what he’s capable of running. My guess is that he can probably do something south of 2:30, which is about 15 minutes faster than me on my best day. On the other hand, if he treats it like a training run I might be able to make it respectable. So I now have at least that goal to start with. On Saturday, I got up at 6:30, but by the time I’d finished two cups of coffee and the newspaper, it was closer to 7:30 and mighty hot and humid. My plan was to run 3.5 miles to St Gabriel’s school in Barton Creek and then run two miles on the track at a 5:50 pace. I managed the first mile in 5:50, but slowed up on lap 5 and decided to make it a 2000. I added a 800 at 2:48 and a quarter at 77 before running back home. Eventually, I’ve got to get in shape to run this at goal pace. Right now, I can’t. I forgot to take my fish liver oil, glucosamine chondrotin and flax seed oil supplements during the day, but took a handful of pills before going to bed to catch up. My diet isn’t going well at all. Part of the reason is that I eat like a 13-year old kid when I’m with my 13-year old kid.

On Sunday, I agreed to run with Floyd and Woo. Floyd was doing 15 miles. I figured I was good for about half of that but needed to get home by 8:00 so I could drop my daughter Amanda off at my ex-wife’s house so that they could go to Mother’s Day church service together. It was another humid morning and I ran a sluggish 7.2 miles at maybe a 7:30 pace. Both those guys are in better shape than me. Very discouraging. I’m hoping it doesn’t matter since it’s only May. I can’t decide if the glucosamine chrondrotin is doing me any good yet. It’s supposed to take two months to work and I’m only 15 days in so far. I need quicker results! I’ve started to add carrots to my smoothies.

In addition to the “Beat Lance” race goal, my more realistic training goals are:
1) Jog to San Gabriel School and run a 3200 at 11:20
2) 30 x 400’s at 80 average pace
3) Sub-18 5k training run on the track

The Start

In 2006 and 2005 I paced the Austin Freescale Marathon 3:00 hour group. The result was that I didn't really train myself and have fallen further and further behind what I'd consider competitive. At one point, this didn't bother me. I've accomplished just about everything I'd hoped to as a runner. Four years ago, at 41 years old, I ran a 2:44 marathon, the top Austin Master (in a slow year) and a year or two later was voted(?) the Distance Challenge Runners Choice Awards Male Masters Runner of the year. Still not sure how this happened or who voted or why. Nonetheless, the awards were a good memory with my daughter hearing my name called and watching me stumble through a totally unprepared acceptance speech.

I haven't raced in two, maybe three months. My achilles tendon on my right foot hurts everytime I run. My knees and hips are creaky and I'm about as flexible as a stick, plus I'm totally unmotivated and my hair is thinning and I'm getting bags under my eyes. Lots of guys who I never thought would beat me are routinely kicking my butt. Now I care. I want to get back into good enough shape to take one last shot at my marathon PR. To do this I made a list of things I need to do and not do. In no particular order, here they are:

Eat less doritos and cheeseburgers.
Take glucosomine, flax seed and cold water fish oil daily.
Ice knees and tendons regularly.
Ride spin bike at least 45 minutes twice a week while catching up on reality TV.
Ride neighborhood hills one morning per week.
Jump rope twice a week after spin bike soon as glucosomine kicks in.
Go to gym at lunch.
Use shoe inserts in running shoes and work shoes.
Buy heat pack and use it to warm tendons up before running.
Crack open Sheehan running book.
Join Gazelles running group in June.
Sign up for NY Marathon.
Sign up for M2M.
Run two uptempo runs per week. Stretch everyday.
Use ACT every day on sore tendon.