Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in shublog's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
4:23 pm	Sunday. Date: 11/22/2009 Time: 9:05am Duration: 0:50:14 Location: Neighborhood loop Sport: Running Workout: 5 mile recovery run Distance: 5.03 miles Weather: Low 50s, sunny People: Alone Comments: I knew the weather would be cool, so I slept in as long as my body would let me. Once I got up, I puttered about for a while, then finally got my butt out the door. The weather was just fantastic, and running felt good. One of those days where running just feels Right. It wasn't Fast, but relatively effortless. Exchanged a low-five (all my fives are low, technically) with RF who was running the opposite direction. (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
4:16 pm	Saturday. Date: 11/21/2009 Time: 7:00am Duration: 1:33:14 Location: Jollyville Park and Ride cow area Sport: Running Workout: 10 mile long run Distance: 9.92 miles Weather: Mid 50s, drizzly to light rainy People: Andi, Mike, Brian, Kris, Laura-Kate and Belle Comments: The end of our recovery week, before we start back up the last push to Houston. It was a bit cold and wet, but it felt good. We ended up pushing the pace more than we normally do, which is something we need to do on the rest of our long runs up to Houston, especially now that the weather is a bit cooler. (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
9:30 pm	Thursday. Date: 11/19/2009 Time: 5:14am Duration: 0:56:16 Location: Home to HEB loop to home Sport: Running Workout: 6 mile easy run Distance: 6.09 miles Weather: Mid to high 40s People: Alone, then Mike and Kirsten, then Karen, then alone Comments: Since it was a shorter run, Karen said we'd meet at 5:30 instead of 5:15. I decided my odds of getting to work on time were better if I started earlier, so I ran from home to HEB to meet the group, then ran one loop with them, then ran back home. Most folks were either not running or running in the evening, so it was just me and Mike from the subteam. Karen, James and Trevor were running really slow at first, so we all kind of stuck together, and Kirsten ran with Mike and I just behind them. Which meant a lot of the time, I was pushing a bit to stay up with people, but the weather was nice and cool, and it actually felt good. Once we got back to the water, everyone took off for their second loop, and Karen ran about half a mile back toward my home with me. When I got back home, I noticed my time was pretty fast for an easy 6 mile run. Checking my splits, one of the middle miles was an 8:43, so.. yeah, a bit fast for an easy run. But again, it felt so good to feel good, after SA. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
8:02 pm	Tuesday. Date: 11/17/2009 Time: 5:47pm Duration: 0:26:51 Location: Anderson HS area Sport: Running Workout: 10min w/u run, group core, 20min ez run, group stretch Distance: 2.44 miles Weather: Upper 50s People: Karen's Team Comments: Nice easy recovery workout after San Antonio. The running actually felt fine, though we certainly went very slow and easy, and the stretching felt great. Afterwards we had brownies and cupcakes for Karen's birthday. (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 15th, 2009
2:02 pm	Sunday. Date: 11/15/2009 Time: 6:48am w/u, 7:34am race Duration: 0:09:06 w/u, 1:52:29 race Location: San Antonio Sport: Running Workout: w/u, San Antonio half marathon Distance: 0.84 miles w/u, 13.1 miles event Weather: Mid 60s, 100% humidity, miserable People: Some with Andi, mostly alone Comments: Race report here. Splits according to the Garmin: 8:33 8:19 8:18 8:34 8:48 8:27 8:45 8:34 8:34 8:41 8:42 8:37 8:39 (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
1:57 pm	Saturday. Date: 11/14/2009 Time: 8:35am Duration: 0:30:39 Location: Neighborhood loop Sport: Running Workout: 3 mile easy run Distance: 3.01 miles Weather: Low 60s People: Alone Comments: Easy 3 miles before the SA half marathon. It started out feeling better than I figured it would.. better than Thursday. But it definitely felt like a day-before run. (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
1:51 pm	Thursday. Date: 11/12/2009 Time: 5:04am Duration: 1:01:54 Location: NW Park area Sport: Running Workout: 6 mile run Distance: 6.08 miles Weather: Warm and humid People: Kris, Mike, Brian Comments: This was a rough run, probably mostly mentally. We all knew how hard the workouts during taper are, though, so we just chatted and got through it. We were supposed to do a fast finish in the last mile, but we agreed without even discussing it that we just wanted to do 6 easy miles. We were very happy to be done. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
8:29 pm	Tuesday. Date: 11/10/2009 Time: 5:50pm Duration: 0:46:48 Location: Anderson HS track Sport: Running Workout: 1mi w/u, 3mi of (200MGP, 200HMGP), 1mi c/d Distance: 5.09 miles Weather: Moderate People: Andi Comments: (Oops, fell behind my logging.) One last burn workout before San Antonio. Andi and I ended up starting just behind Kris,Brian,Mike,Lori,LauraKate, and we basically just stayed the same amount behind them the whole time. The difference between MGP and HMGP for a 200 is negligible, so we just tried to stay relatively consistent, going slightly faster on the HMGP. HMGP: 0:59 MGP: 1:02 Splits: 0:59,1:03 1:02,1:03 1:01,1:03 1:00,1:02 1:00,1:04 1:01,1:03 1:00,1:01 0:59,1:02 0:58,1:02 0:57,1:02 0:57,1:00 By the time we got to the end, I stopped looking at my watch and we just ran by feel, which it seems means we ran a little faster. It was a harder than I thought it would be.. even MGP didn't feel easy, which concerned me a little for the next stage of training, but .. the last week before a race is always hard. (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
5:56 pm	Sunday. Date: 11/08/2009 Time: 9:37am Duration: 0:42:06 Location: Neighborhood loop Sport: Running Workout: 4-6 mile recovery run Distance: 4.07 miles Weather: Mid 60s, foggy, drizzly People: Alone Comments: It took me a while to motivate myself out of the house, then when I started to run, it did NOT feel good. All those muscles I normally don't use to run, that I'd used to run over the rocks to day before, were NOT happy. It was the worst I've felt on a recovery run in a long time, and we only did 10 miles the day before. But the weather was neat.. foggy to the point of there being water in the air, and sometimes it being watery enough to almost be rain. It felt nice, and wasn't tootoo bad for breathing. And the last 1.5 miles, my legs finally warmed up, so it felt okay. One week until the San Antonio half marathon. Need to get a massage this week. (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
5:08 pm	Saturday. Date: 11/07/2009 Time: 7:07am Duration: 1:36:26 Location: From The Rock, Scenic, Pease Park trail, TLT Sport: Running Workout: 10 mile long run Distance: 9.85 miles Weather: Low to mid 60s, foggy People: Andi, Brian, Belle, tallBrenda, Joe Comments: Karen was out of town for the weekend, so we were on our own. Belle suggested a 10 mile route, and I decided to join that group. It was odd to run Scenic, because it made me realize how long it'd been since I've run not-North. It was fun, though. Brenda and Joe were a little faster than us, so we just hung back when we needed to. The part on the trail was fun but I was pretty ginger going through there. There's some rocky areas that weren't kind to the bottoms of my feet, and running over the rocks was definitely making me use different muscles than I use for road running. All in all, a good run. That group is a little more laidback than I've grown accustomed to, walking for a minute or two after stopping for water and whatnot. Nice to chat with Brenda some, too, since I hadn't seen her for a while. Back at the Rock, it was social hour. Lori, Priscilla, Dee, Linda, Kris, Judge Jon (and I'd seen Barbara before the run, as well). Good times. (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
5:04 pm	Thursday. Date: 11/05/2009 Time: 5:17am Duration: 1:07:57 Location: NW Park area Sport: Running Workout: 2mi w/u, 4mi @ HMGP, 1mi c/d Distance: 7.27 miles Weather: Low 50s, chilly People: Kris, Mike, Andi Comments: Everyone is getting pretty burned out and sore and grumpy, and nobody wanted to run HMGP. In fact, we basically all decided we'd just run 7 miles. But after we finished our 2 mile warmup, I at least picked up the pace. And everyone followed. And then over the course of the run, we kept getting faster and faster. By the last mile, Mike took the lead and I fell further and further behind, just couldn't keep up with everyone. And it turns out, yeah, that mile was way too fast. So in the end, it turned out to be an okay run. Not what we were supposed to do, but good anyway. HMGP: 7:58 Splits: 8:52 8:16 8:06 7:42 (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
7:52 pm	Tuesday. Date: 11/03/2009 Time: 6:02pm Duration: 0:55:47 Location: Anderson HS track Sport: Running Workout: 1mi w/u, 4 miles Burn (400 HMGP, 400 10k pace), 1mi c/d Distance: 6.15 miles Weather: Mid to high 60s, chilly when not running People: Andi for the Burn (+ Kris and Lori for w/u and c/d) Comments: This workout sounded.. painful, so I permissed myself in advance just to do what I was capable of doing, and not sweat the paces too much if I couldn't hit them. It turned out to actually be a good workout for me. It WAS painful, and it was physically and mentally hard, but we were pretty damn close on most of our paces (after throwing away the first split as a test run). HMGP: 1:59 (2:00, because it's easier to remember) 10k: 1:53 Splits (HM,10k): 2:06,1:52 2:00,1:53 2:03,1:54 2:01,1:53 1:58,1:56 2:01,1:54 2:05,1:55 1:59,1:54 And by the end, HMGP DID feel comparatively "easier", which is the point of the workout. Well, at least, my legs felt kinda sluggish when doing HMGP compared to 10k, even though my breathing still sounded horrible. (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
5:29 pm	Sunday. Date: 11/01/2009 Time: 9:25am Duration: 0:49:31 Location: Neighborhood loop Sport: Running Workout: 4-6 mile recovery run Distance: 5.02 miles Weather: Around 60, sunny People: Alone Comments: Slept in! Rolled out of bed once I couldn't make myself sleep anymore, and it was still tolerable running weather. I set out in a random direction, because I couldn't stomach my normal route. Passed by Randalls and realized one benefit of running so late is that I could stop in and use Randall's bathroom, which I did, because I needed to. Beautiful day, decent run. Split the difference on the distance. (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
5:23 pm	Saturday. Date: 10/31/2009 Time: 6:35am Duration: 2:27:20 Location: Anderson HS and surrounding areas Sport: Running Workout: 15 mile long run Distance: 14.91 miles Weather: Started around 45 degrees, warmed up over the run People: Andi, Kris, Mike, Lori Comments: Just a long run! Well, sort of. She said we could pick it up the last few miles if we were so inclined, but mostly she wanted us to be healthy. For some reason, this 15 mile run felt like it was 20 miles. Just seemed to go on forever. The route didn't help.. we ended up running a big loop and then a little loop inside of it, so we ran the same area several times and kept running away from the start. But it was fine. We got through it. Kris picked it up for the last mile, so we all sort of sped up. It was definitely the fastest mile we ran. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
7:03 pm	Thursday. Date: 10/29/2009 Time: 5:21am Duration: 1:12:56 Location: NW Park area Sport: Running Workout: 4 x (1 mile easy, 1 mile HMGP) Distance: 8.01 miles Weather: Awful, 75 degrees, 93% humidity, raining/drizzling intermittently People: Kris and Mike Comments: Started running, and the weather was just wretched. It was warm and unbreathably humid, and I was gasping for air during the first easy mile. Not to mention the legs were tired, but that really wasn't even on the radar, since I couldn't breathe. Decided to just do what I could do, given the conditions. I didn't hit any of my splits, but I'm incredibly proud of what I managed. It was SO tough mentally (I know, it's a theme lately), and I pushed through it and stayed strong. Kris fell behind, but Mike and I would regroup during the easy miles and chat about how much it sucked. I told him when we started the last one that I had no idea if I had anything left to give, and it might just be a 2 mile cooldown loop, but when it came time, I gave it what I had left. Each fast mile involved a lot of unattractive wheezing. Goal: 7:58 Actual: 8:14 8:03 8:06 8:05 That's three really hard, physically and mentally, quality workouts in a row (soulbuster, CV, this), and my body and my head are ready for something more manageable now. I'm glad San Antonio is soon, and this part is almost over. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
7:00 pm	Wednesday Date: 10/28/2009 Time: 10:45am Duration: 0:28:56 Location: Campus loop Sport: Running Workout: 3 mile run Distance: 3.04 miles Weather: Low 60s, drizzly at times People: Alone Comments: The schedule said "easy 4 miles or off". Karen was going to pick me up to go somewhere Wednesday evening, and so Tuesday after the CVs, she asked when she should pick me up, and when I planned to do my run. I took that to mean "you're supposed to run, not take it off", but I figured I'd see how I felt on Wednesday. I woke up and did NOT feel like running at 5am on Wednesday. Couldn't muster up that much mental toughness so soon after using all my mental fortitude at the CV. But I looked at the weather and it was supposed to be a fairly moderate day, so I took some running stuff to work with me, just in case I felt inspired. And I did. Not enough to do the full 4 miles, but I managed one loop around campus, and called that good enough. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
8:08 pm	Tuesday. Date: 10/27/2009 Time: 6:05pm Duration: 0:59:40 Location: Anderson HS area Sport: Running Workout: 1mi w/u, 4 x 2k @ 15k pace, 1mi c/d Distance: 6.99 miles Weather: High 70s People: Andi and LauraKate Comments: CV workout, this time with 4 iterations. Wasn't feeling too great, after a doctor's appointment earlier in the day, but just set out to do the best I could. As always, we kinda used the first to judge our speed, and it was too slow. We were able to chat during the first one, which is a sign we're going too slow. Goal: 9:42 Actual: 10:08 9:45 9:49 9:52 Not super close on any but the second, but it was right after the soulbuster, I wasn't feeling great, and I really had to dig deep to keep going, and I was proud that I did. According to the Garmin, those 4 miles averaged 7:47. (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
7:18 pm	Sunday. Date: 10/25/2009 Time: 6:37am Duration: 0:51:08 Location: Neighborhood loop Sport: Running Workout: 5 mile easy run Distance: 5.02 miles Weather: Around 60 People: Alone Comments: Earlier than I ever do my Sunday recovery runs. I got up at 6am like I do every day to feed the animals. But rather than going back to bed for a while before doing my run, like I normally do on Sundays, I decided to go ahead and run. I still had to shower, eat and costume up before heading out to Longhorn. It was odd doing my Sunday run in the dark, but pleasant. Legs felt better than expected.. didn't feel good, but didn't feel horrible. Stopped to pet two greyhounds that were out for a morning walk. Then home, shower, change into costume, eat, and stand around for 7 hours in gogo boots. That wasn't great for my legs or my feet. (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
6:57 pm	Saturday. Date: 10/24/2009 Time: 6:33am Duration: 2:33:08 Location: NW Park, Lamar JH track, surrounding areas Sport: Running Workout: 2mi w/u, 1mi 10k pace, 8mi longrun pace, 2mi HMGP, 2mi 10k pace, 1mi c/d Distance: 16.35 miles Weather: Mid 50s, great People: Kris, Brian, Mike, LauraKate for most, alone for track parts Comments: Our first soulbuster for this runningsemester. It sounded hard but doable. It turned out moderately less doable than I callously assumed. 2 mile warmup to the Lamar junior high track on Burnet. The one I always think, "Man, I bet it's embarrassing to run there with all the Burnet traffic watching you." Doh. It was cold and dark and a new track, and all that combined to make track running not all that miserable. Kris started out slightly ahead of me, and I passed her, saying "I know I should go faster, because 10k pace should feel like I want to die." Four laps went by pretty quickly, and when I finished, I felt like I'd probably gotten close to 10k pace. Turns out, I was aiming for 7:32, and I got 7:23. That's bad, 'cause it means I can't pace myself to save my life. It's good because.. hey, I think that's the second fastest mile I've ever run! But that wasn't the goal. Back out onto the road for 8 miles at long run pace. Moderately hilly. One pickup to try to get some distance ahead of the group so I could duck into Russell's and use the bathroom and meet them again without them having to wait too long, or leaving without me. Then we wound our way back to the Lamar track again. Matt, Mae and Karen were doing water handups, so our task was just to run in circles really fast without stopping. The sun was now up, though the temperature was still cool. I hadn't brought my sunglasses, though, and it was painfully bright going around one side of the track. And now there were people on Burnet to gawk at us (and quite a few track-walkers who probably thought we were insane). It's kind of intimidating being The One With The Fastest Time Goals in the group of folks that were there that day (Andi, who has my same goal, was not there). Knowing that either (a) people are pacing themselves off you, or (b) people are going to pass you because you're going even slower than their goal times. But I struck out in the front to do what I could. Hit the first mile spot on.. goal was 7:58, ran a 7:57. Tried to maintain that for the second mile and failed, 8:07. I was tired. And now I was supposed to go faster for two miles, goal once again of 7:32. I pushed and pushed, but when I hit the first mile it was a 7:56. Doh. Based on the cheering of the water-bearers and people who'd already finished, I could tell Kris was right behind me, and I called over my shoulder that she should pass me, because I was way off pace. She said she was trying, and then shortly thereafter she did. I tried to hang right behind her. I was seriously giving it everything I had, and just couldn't go any faster. The last mile was run on pure force of will. I wanted to just stop, but I remember that I felt somewhat failurey last year during the soulbuster that I skipped the last mile of. I wanted to at least finish knowing I did the whole workout and pushed past when I wanted to stop badly. That's most of the point of these workouts, is testing your mental strength in tough situations. So as we came around the last 200m, I pushed to catch Kris. I passed her, and as I did I told her to stay with me. Egged her on and pulled her in with me, and that mile was only a 7:55. So, while I didn't get near the last 2 miles, (a) I'm proud of my first 10k attempt, even though it was too fast, and (b) I'm proud of my effort on the last 2 miles. It was definitely 10k effort, even if it didn't result in 10k pace. Cooldown back to the cars was slow and tight. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
8:12 pm	Tuesday. Date: 10/20/2009 Time: 6:03pm Duration: 1:02:19 Location: Murchison area/Knollwood hill Sport: Running Workout: 1mi w/u, 5 x Knollwood hill repeats, c/d, plyometrics Distance: 5.98 miles Weather: High 70s, overcast, drizzling at the end People: Kris, Andi, Brian, Lori Comments: Same workout we did last time, but with one more hill repeat and one more plyometric repeat. It felt about 20x worse this time, because my legs were still worn out from the race on Sunday. I didn't try to stay with the group, just ran up at a pace I knew worked for me, and tried to keep good form. It was slow, but steady. I told myself if I felt like I was actually injuring or compromising my body, I'd stop, but aside from my legs being completely weary, it was okay. However, during the plyometrics, lunges were really not feeling good on my knees, especially my right one, so I did very shallow lunges. Frog jumps were even worse, so I didn't do those at all. Karen said to take Wednesday as an extra recovery day. Afterwards, I made everyone have some of the copious cake we had left over. (Comment on this)