Tuesday Ramblings

Still pretty blown away by Usain Bolt's ridiculous performance the other day at the World Championships! I ran across a few articles this morning that I wanted to share with you - first, this one talks about Bolt's performance and the fact that his technique is still raw, and people think he can improve a lot more. SICK!!! Next, this article is in interview with Justin Young, one of the American runners participating in the World Championship Marathon later this week. Absolutely amazing the workouts these elite athletes do - the one that got me was his Wednesday workout of 20 miles in the a.m. at sub 6 minute pace, then 10 miler with 6 mile tempo at sub 5 minute pace in the middle. I guess thinking about it, it would be the equivalent of me doing 20 miles at sub 8 and the tempo later at sub 7, but I highly doubt I would make it more than 1-2 miles into the tempo. Just ridiculous, I am in complete awe of elite runners!

Next, an article that Pat sent me this morning from the NY Times (rapidly becoming my favorite newspaper to read) talking about the averse effects of fatty foods concerning short term memory and exercise. Obviously, this isn't a surprise, but kind of amusing to read if you have time. And something I need to clearly pay attention to since my diet has not been too good as of late!!! FINALLY, Runners World had a quick interview with Ryan Hall concerning his third place finish in the NYC Half last weekend. Good to see he is in good spirits about his training, and aiming high for a good attempt at the win later in November.

To the good stuff - running has continued on, and sticking to the schedule for once!!! Last night, was POURING rain and storming like crazy, so basically tried to wait it out by sleeping on my couch. Woke up later, examined the clouds which looked very ominous, but decided to get it out of the way since every second delay was 1% chance more that the run wasn't going to happen. Did an out and back loop in town on the roads, felt myself speeding up a lot but my main focus was to keep it as easy as possible. Was monitoring my breathing, once I started speeding up my breathing it was time to slow down, but quite honestly was never a factor. Legs were tired, deservedly so from the hard last week, but held up fine. Humid as crap outside as usual, but the run blazed by thanks to my wonderful Ipod. Total mileage: 4 miles - didn't have a watch and forgot to check what time I left, but estimated I ran in 34-38 minutes. Showered and stretched afterwards.

Was emailed last week about today's run (scheduled 10) - Crystal wanted to get it in early because she had dinner with her coworkers, so decided it would be a good idea to get it completely out of the way. So 5 a.m. came WAAAAYY too early, and we got going shortly after. Weather was HUMID, sort of cool but mostly because the sun hadn't come out yet. Clouds in the sky looked dark and evil, so decided to go towards Edwardsville where it didn't look as bad. First couple miles were ok, I think we were both pretty sleepy and just kind of flew by before we knew it. Coming towards the 4 mile marker, Crystal suggested we make it a loop instead of an out and back, so decided that was a good idea and jumped onto the different trail when we hit the fork on the road. Kind of cruised for a few miles since it was downhill, but was getting noticably tired. Legs were definitely starting to get that leadened feeling, and wasn't from the pace because we weren't pushing it. Stopped for a quick water break, then forged on. Last 3.5 miles were fine, except my stomach was doing some weird things and I felt like I had a continuous cramp. Saw Bambi and her mother on the trail, and the sun started to come out - nice way to end the run, I guess. Total mileage: 10.33 miles (extra mileage due to improvised loop) - splits were: don't have them, but 8:26 avg. and pretty consistent.

Showered and stretched afterwards, legs are TIRED. Nice to get the run out of the way before 7 a.m., so will do massive stretching and possibly runners yoga tonight. Scheduled 5 tomorrow, Stacy is in town so I think we are doing most of it with her. Will be at a SLOW pace to let our legs recover, especially for the uber-high mileage weekend and the eagerly antipated/dreaded first 20 miler.

In tomorrow's post, I will review the Brooks Adrenaline GTS shoes I recently purchased as a trainer. I have been running with them off and on the last month, and have enough mileage in them to give a good analysis.