Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Checking In

dessicated leaves
cover the trail
-- and the cracked ice

Just checking in with a haiku and a short update. I've been incredibly preoccupied with work and traveling to Arizona last week to spend a little time with family, and so have not had time to update this blog lately.

The daily challenge is still going strong (sorry, I don't have the totals handy right now -- don't remember which day I started on -- will update again very soon). I must admit that there have been a couple days that I didn't get ALL 300 ab reps in -- BUT I did make them up and so am maintaining an average of 300 reps per day.

The running is going quite well. Last Sunday I did a marathon goal pace run in Tucson. [Side note: flew from Boston to Phoenix last Thursday night and it was colder in Phoenix than it was in Boston!] Anyway, the goal pace (GP) run was different. The objective was to start with the 6-mile cutdown -- 8:50 pace for the first 2 miles, 8:40 pace for miles 3 & 4, 8:30 pace for miles 5 & 6. Then run current marathon goal pace (about 8:20) for 8 miles. Unfortunately, Saturday night the wind began to howl. I woke up to incredibly strong winds Sunday morning. My out and back route would be interesting. The first two miles were kind of meandering around a neighborhood and were pretty close to being on target, but the next 5 miles were all WITH the wind. And boy were they fast (yeah, well faster than planned). BUT, I maintain that they were at an appropriate effort. The fun began when I turned around for the return. There was no way to maintain GP against that wind. I may as well have been running up a steep hill -- it was that strong. But my average for the entire run was an 8:32 pace (14 miles). My goal average was 8:29, so I was pretty damn close for having to deal with all the wind.

Then after taking Monday off (and traveling back to Boston), I did a tempo run yesterday (Tuesday). Three miles easy, 5 miles at tempo pace, and 2 miles easy recovery. I took 4 seconds per mile off my tempo pace, and added a mile onto the tempo run I did two weeks ago. Feeling strong.

Today was an easy 5 mile recovery run. I think I've got a 10 miler scheduled for tomorrow, then a couple easy runs before Sunday's 20-miler. I'm feeling good. I've had a couple minor aches and pains (left hamstring and left foot), but they seem to be improving.

Work will be hell for a little while so posting will be sporadic. But I'll be lurking and keeping up with everyone.

C-Ya

5 Comments:

Blogger Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

Hey Kurt, I found u via runliarun blog...

I am training for my first Marathon and just stopping by... Way to go on your Mileage and U have a great BLOG I will be back from time to time,

Bob

12/07/2006 12:25 AM  
Blogger runliarun said...

Okay, so I've been trying to figure this out for some time, and I have to confess my ignorance. What are abs reps? God, this is embarrassing. Abs might stand for abdominal muscles, but reps? I don't know if it's my English that sucks, or if I am just so removed from the world of fitness.

12/10/2006 7:59 PM  
Blogger Kurt in Boston said...

Hey, don't worry about it at all. You know there are others out there who are wondering the same thing. (And are too insecure to ask!)

ab(s) = abdominal muscle(s)
rep(s) = repetition(s)

i.e. crunches, sit-ups, and a whole world of abdominal/core exercises. A world I did not know much about either until I started doing 300 of these every day. I quickly added enough variety to keep myself sane. (It's just a bit boring, and probably just not a good idea, to be working just one area of your core all the time either.)

12/10/2006 9:35 PM  
Blogger D said...

Just checking in. Nice explanation on the ab reps! Good job on the running!

12/21/2006 4:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Happy holidays Kurt!! Enjoy your time with your family!!

12/24/2006 2:25 PM  

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