I’m going to forgo the usual workout breakdown and just post a few points.

1. I did a long run with EW on Saturday morning.
2. It was hot at 8am. Like, supa-hot.
3. Around 4.5mi I decided to improvise in order to make our route the requisite 12mi.
4. I got us lost.
5. We ran an extra 1.5 to 3mi just trying to make our way back to familiar territory.
6. By the time we made it back to said territory, I had to walk. I told EW to go ahead.
7. We finally made it back to Griffith Park. I ran/walked, ingesting much water on the way.
8. I had given EW the keys to the car. Thankfully, by the time he was driving, I was only .5mi away.
9. I took an hour-long nap after getting home.
10. I did not run Sunday or Monday. And I’m not running today. EW is fffffffast.

That is all.

Planned: 10mi @ Easy/Relaxed Effort
Actual: 10.14mi @ 8:35
Average Heart Rate: 147bpm

I finally chose a training program. But I don’t think it’s going to be a marathon. I think it’s going to be a half. The more I think about how difficult a marathon is in a fairly flat environment, the more I worry about San Francisco which is decidedly not. Also, most of my training is going to take place in the afternoon in the summer and the fewer 20 mile runs I have in those conditions, the better.

I forgot to post my last several runs. I’ve been tinkering with the code from a Wordpress plug-in to see if I can create one that will make posting runs that much easier. So far, I’ve just proven that my brain still has problems bending itself around the logic required to write code. However, I have succeeded in creating an admin page that saves your preferences. Now I just need to wrestle with actually retrieving the run data and making a new entry out of it. Piece of cake, I’m sure. I was hoping that I’d figure it out in time to, y’know, use it. Clearly, my ambition outweighs my smarts. Bummer.

Anyway, here’s a list that exists for no other reason than to make me feel like I got something done:

4/10/2008
Planned: 5mi @ 8:00
Actual: 5.57mi @ 7:57
Average Heart Rate: 158bpm

4/12/2008 Planned: 3mi @ 8:00
Actual: 3.14mi @ 7:54
Average Heart Rate: 153bpm

4/14/2008
Planned: 5mi @ 8:00
Actual: 4.84mi @ 7:40
Average Heart Rate: 162bpm

4/16/2008
Planned: 5mi @ 8:00
Actual: 5.47mi @ 8:08
Average Heart Rate: 162bpm

4/19/2008
Planned: 3mi @ 8:00
Actual: 3.17 @ 7:58
Average Heart Rate: 149bpm

Planned: 8mi @ 8:00
Actual: 8.68mi @ 7:57
Average Heart Rate: 155bpm

This would have a been a pretty average run, say, four months ago. Nothing spectacular. Just a little endurance training. But it’s a whole other ball of wax (what does that even mean?) when it’s the longest run you’ve done in recent memory.

I’d like to say that the pace was the result of my willful effort, but it had more to do with the pain in my legs. And the cramp I got three quarters in.

In other news, I’ve begun work on a new site design. I just realized that I really don’t like my current one. The design itself is nearly finished. The code, however, has not even started. And that’s where the fun begins.

Planned: 7mi @ 8:00
Actual: 5.97mi @ 7:50
Average Heart Rate: 163bpm

EW and I ran the larger loop over at the Sepulveda Dam. I was sure it was 7mi. It wasn’t. But since EW runs fast even when he’s still recovering from a marathon, we made up for the distance by running sub 8.

If I keep this up, I may actually get in shape.

I’m not sure the average heart rate is true. There’s a little area at the beginning of the graph that looks suspect. And yet, I do remember the beginning of the run being challenging as I tried very hard not to be left in the dust. So, who knows.

Planned: 5mi @ 8:00
Actual: 5mi @ 7:52
Average Heart Rate: 161bpm

Nice weather. Not too hard. Hey, could’ve been worse.

It stinks that 5 miles counts as a long run these days. Brother…

Planned: 8mi @ 8:00
Actual: 8.02mi @ 7:59
Average Heart Rate: 147bpm

I’m no Jack Bauer. He’s going full steam the whole twenty four hours. I did two runs with twenty four hours in between them and came out the other side looking far worse than him.

This was a tricky week. I’m still running FIRST distances, but completely ignoring the pace suggestions. The holiday didn’t help, forcing me to stay late on the day I should have been running and then keeping me home the next night preparing for the cooking onslaught the following day. So I ran when I could and that turned out to be about twenty miles over the course of four days. If I were at the end of a string of marathon training, that would be nothing. But I’m not. And it showed.

I really hope this taper week works as advertised. If I start next week’s race feeling like I did on this eight mile run, it’s going to be a very unfun 13.1 miles. And I don’t like unfun. No I don’t.

Oh, and here are the stats for Saturday’s run since I apparently forgot to post that one too.

Planned: 6mi @ 8:00
Actual: 6.36mi @ 8:00
Average Heart Rate: 145bpm

Planned: 12mi @ 8:00
Actual: 12.73mi @ 8:09
Average Heart Rate: 151bpm

No, I haven’t been running stark naked. I had shoes! Just kidding (not about the shoes).

For the last couple of weeks, I decided to see how not listening to music affected the runs. Answer: badly. However, it’s nice to get some space every once in a while — some time alone with your thoughts. Unfortunately, my thoughts tended toward the distance I had yet to run. And when you’re out there for 12 miles, that’s a lot of thought.

I just wrote a long post that didn’t publish. So I’m going to hold off until I figure out what’s going on. Stupid technology.

Planned: 10mi @ 7:20
Actual: 8.18mi @ 8:10

I walked for a 1/4 mile. Had to. Dying. Felt terrible. I’d like to blame it on the flu shot I got on Friday. Totally the flu shot’s fault.

Probably not the flu shot. This half marathon is starting to shape up like a fun run. Whee.

Here’s the breakdown for posterity: 3.5mi @ 7:26; .25mi @ 17:41; 4.43mi @ 8:13. Frankly, I’m pretty impressed my overall time was low eights.

By the way, Wordpress People, what’s the difference between a category and a tag. Don’t they serve the exact same purpose? I don’t get it.

Planned: A run/hike at no particular pace for no particular amount of time.
Actual: 7.8mi @ 17:00
Average Heart Rate: 132bpm

We didn’t bring enough water. And I forgot to put on sunscreen. But we trotted off into the Santa Monica mountains at a 9 minute pace with a cool breeze and a layer of mist covering the surrounding valley.

It got difficult around 10 minutes into the run as we started into the mountains proper. But every once in a while it evened out and we could move forward without the involuntary grunting. We were going to stop at the apex of one hill until a cute girl appeared running the other way which somehow obligated us to continue on without a break even though she was out of sight about ten seconds later.

We mocked those with hiking poles.

The mini canyons forced us to walk — cuts in the earth where water run-off had created deep crevices where loose rocks collected and waited to twist your unsuspecting ankle. Suddenly the hiking poles made sense as our chances for decent footing approached terrible.

We stopped at the crest of one of the shorter mountains and looked out over what I think must have been the Camarillo valley but it was covered in white mist so thick it looked like someone had frosted the farmland like an artisan cupcake. We ate a Clif bar, finished off the last dash of water and set off back down the trail.

Once we returned to less-dangerous ground, it felt great to open up and let gravity pull us along. It’s an amazing feeling to be responsible for nothing but balance and the next foot fall.

When I got home I napped for thirty minutes before even considering a shower. It was a good Sunday. But now it hurts.

Planned: 9mi @ 7:41
Actual: 9.7mi @ 7:36
Average Heart Rate: 148bpm

This week didn’t go well. I skipped my speed workout entirely so that’s seven miles I’ll never run. I’m not sure if it’s related, but my long run today was brutal. I was tired after the first two miles and, while I was able to speed up near the end, the first half of the run was all about trying to stay on pace — because I was going too slow.

I did discover a way to run comfortably with my fuel belt. I basically need to tighten it as far as it’ll go and then some when it’s around my actual hip bones. It sounds awkward but it’s actually quite nice considering that my hip bones aren’t squishy like my waist which means that vital organs aren’t being limited in any way (like, for instance, my lungs).

Thankfully, this is my last taper week before the race which is good because (a) it’s a taper week and (b) running with this new schedule is a lot more challenging than I would have thought. I still want to run the LA Half Marathon in December, but I don’t know if that means I’ll be running in the dark after Daylight Savings. I’m giving a good, hard look at the FIRST plan which emphasizes only three runs a week. That means only two runs during the week which is nothing but good news for someone who feels exhausted when they get home.

Did I mention my new job comes with new stress? It’s awesome.

One last thing: This is the first week that I didn’t use my Nike+ at all. I have to admit that I really liked not finishing the run to discover that it had only recorded a fraction of the distance. This may be the death knell for the little guy. We’ll have to see.