OBJECTIVE
3 mi.

ACHIEVED
3.27 mi.@ 8:10

6:24 AM 68° 89% 1 mph

Back home. I'm tired from traveling. Watched the Cougars lose to Florida last night on the plane.

PRE RUN
weight=164
22.2% body fat

POST RUN
diet V8 splash, multivitamin & oatmeal w/almonds, brown sugar & skim milk

OBJECTIVE

run

ACHIEVED

3.04 mi. treadmill hills in 27:18

ITB exercises & push-ups

~5:30 AM

There was supposed to be snow overnight but when I looked out the window this morning I didn't see any. However the flags at the Hyatt Regency Chicago were extended horizontal from the wind. I checked the weather on my Blackberry and it said the "feels like" temperature was 18F. Enough to push me in the direction of the hotel fitness center. I don't like treadmills. I'm sure I've mentioned that before. The center was surprisingly busy at this hour. I jumped on, set the dreadmill for a 27 minute hill workout at Level 5 and set out. Listened to my MP3 player for a bit but the cords were getting tangled and earbuds were coming out so I switched to the morning drivel on the television. Made it through the boredom and worked up a pretty good sweat. I don't trust any treadmill's calibration so the mileage and incline are always a question in my mind. So the best I can say is that I can at a pretty good pace for 27 minutes this morning.

I went back to my room and cranked out my old IT band exercises and mixed in push-ups during the rest intervals. I haven't done the ITB exercises for a while. I need to do them more. Not that I'm having ITB problems but I think they're good injury prevention as they work leg muscles associated with lateral movement. These are stablizing muscles for running. Can they help my calf problems? I don't know. Certainly not directly but maybe there's some linkage in the chain that benefits and helps with the calf issues.

I still don't have my sleeping and eating routine set while traveling. My nutrition is improving slowly but it's rare that I sleep through the night in a hotel room. This morning I woke up around 2:30 - the same time I did yesterday. Today gave up on falling back asleep so I cleared some work email before going to the fitness center. I also packed since I'm headed back to H-town later today. Hopefully I'm on a plane with LiveTV and can watch Jimmer and the Coogs' sweet sixteen matchup against Florida. I'm holding my breath on this one.

PRE RUN

POST RUN

sugar free instant oatmeal (maple & brown sugar) & Tazo Calm herbal tea

OBJECTIVE

3 mi.

ACHIEVED

3.35 mi.@ 8:23

6:03 AM blustery; ~30F w/winds

Another trip over to the Lakefront Trail. I'm not exactly sure what the tidal effects are with Lake Michigan but I was a bit surprised to notice this morning that the waves were coming over the banks this morning. This with with I believe is relatively light winds.

It rained last night and will probably rain quite a bit today. But I caught a window where there was no rain.

And finally, it was cold stepping out from the hotel so I didn't wait for my Garmin to find enough satellites to get a good bead on my location. After flying and when standing among the buildings of the city, the Garmin takes quite a long time to sync. I wasn't going to wait around this morning as it was cool and I wanted to get on with it. Therefore, I'm not too confident in the accuracy of my distance and pace.

PRE RUN

POST RUN

* maple & brown sugar sugar free instant oatmeal

* How can the oatmeal be "sugar free" and the flavor be "maple & brown sugar "? Sounds like I'm eating some bad chemicals ... ?

OBJECTIVE
3 mi.

ACHIEVED
3.22 mi.@ 8:34

5:04 AM 65° 91% 1 mph

Got back home last night. Needed this run for psychotherapy. It's been crazy the past few days. Now another week begins ....

PRE RUN
weight=165.5
body fat=22.2%

POST RUN
oatmeal w/brown sugar & skim milk

OBJECTIVE
run

ACHIEVED
5.19 mi.

6:20 AM

Finally got outside in the Windy City this morning. Found my way down to Lake Front Trail for a run along Lake Michigan. Felt okay. Warmed up pretty quickly once I got going. I found the Lake Shore path to be a surprisingly hard surface - concrete broken in some places.

PRE RUN


POST RUN
instant oatmeal

OBJECTIVE
3 mi.

ACHIEVED
3.21 mi.@ 8:26

6:12 AM 67° 90% 0 mph

Very tight calves starting out today. Got it in before the rains came.

PRE RUN
weight=165

POST RUN
body fat=22.6%
water, multivitamin & Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk

OBJECTIVE
run

ACHIEVED
5.16 mi.@ 8:11

6:13 AM 64° 86% 2 mph

Right calf was reminding that it's still "there". Was hoping for better after two weeks off the roads.

PRE RUN
weight=166

POST RUN
diet V-8 splash, multivitamin & oatmeal w/almonds, brown sugar & skim milk

Back in Chicago. Staying at Club Quarters whose fitness room is not nearly as nice as The Wit's last week. Therefore, I found myself on a Cybrex machine this morning. It looked like an elliptical but was more of a glider. I'm not all that familiar with fitness equipment since I rarely use it.

By way of update, I tried running last Saturday but didn't even go a block before my right calf was flaring. I decided rest was the order of the day and have been doing so since. All this rest is going to make the half in a couple of weeks an interesting challenge.

WU ~15 min. Cybrex glider
10x20 sec. all out w/10 sec. rests on Cybrex glider
CD ~15 min. Cybrex glider

Wanted to use the recumbent bike for the Tabata intervals but quickly determined that it wasn't working.

Circa 1968

For some reason this picture really cracks me up.

WU 15 min. elliptical
Tabata intervals 9x20 sec. w/10 sec. recoveries recumbent exercycle
CD 15 min. elliptical

Back to the hotel fitness room. Went a little harder on the intervals this morning than yesterday. Used a different bike and it seemed much more stable. Also used a tuck position (leaning forward) rather than yesterday's recumbent. (I'm not I cyclist so I probably have this all wrong!)

Felt fine. May try running tomorrow or Saturday to test the calf out.

WU 15 min. elliptical
Tabata intervals 8x20 sec. w/10 sec. recoveries recumbent exercycle
CD 15 min. elliptical

Calf not a problem as long as there's no impact. Figured I'd take advantage of the equipment in the hotel's fitness room this morning. Wasn't able to go 100% all out on the bike because it started shaking so much that it was drawing too much attention.

OBJECTIVE
2 mi.@ 8:35

ACHIEVED
4.96 mi.@ 8:45

5:06 AM 67° 71% 1 mph

Well, it's official. I'm injured. I laid off running over the weekend sensing that my right calf was still pretty tight. I headed out this morning with a six-miler in mind to somewhat "makeup" for the lost weekend mileage. A little over 3 miles into it my right calf kept getting tighter and tighter. In the past I would have just pushed through. This time I tried listening to my body and just walked for a while then ran ... a little and slowly ... then walked some more. It's the exact same thing that kept me out of Boston last year. I'm wondering what the cause is and what the true diagnosis is. I suppose it could be repetitive muscle strain as I was told last year. Or could it be something else? As far as I can tell the only thing that remedies it is time.

PRE RUN
weight=165

POST RUN
water, multivitamin & Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk

OBJECTIVE
2 mi.@ 8:37

ACHIEVED
4.10 mi.@ 8:17

6:18 AM 53° 85% 2 mph

Recovery run after yesterday's track workout. Calves were tight especially right but seem to be somewhat better than they would have been had I not rolled them yesterday (How do I know that? Pure speculation, I suppose.)

Rolled again today after the run and will roll again later.

Scheduled for 8 tomorrow. Thinking about turning it into 10.

PRE RUN
weight=163.5
water

POST RUN
water, multivitamin & oatmeal w/almonds, brown sugar & skim milk

OBJECTIVE
4 mi. inclu. 2x1600m @ 6:47 w/800m active recovery

ACHIEVED
1.95 mi. WU
2 x 1600m (6:16/6:17) w/800m active recovery
1.89 mi. CD

total distance = 6.33
total time = 50:04

6:04 AM 69° 87% 4 mph

Went to the track uncertain how this one might turn out. Happy with the result and the effort. Fairly tough workout.

After the run, I "built" a rudimentary rolling device (basically a cut down broom handle threaded through a section of PVC pipe). Rolled my calves using quite a bit of pressure. Optimistic this could provide some relief for my tight calves. (fingers crossed ...)

PRE RUN
weight=164.5
water

POST RUN
SlimFast & multivitamin

OBJECTIVE
3 mi.@ 8:36

ACHIEVED
4.09 mi.@ 8:27

5:35 AM 67° 85% 1 mph

With a final push over the past three days, the all-consuming project at the office was completed yesterday. That's almost 8 weeks of +70 hours per week. Hoping to get back into a little more reasonable "life balance" now! That includes more consistent running ....

PRE RUN
weight=165.5

POST RUN
water, multivitamin & Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk

OBJECTIVE
8 mi.@ 8:39

ACHIEVED
8.43 mi.@ 7:48

6:05 AM 63° 87% 0 mph

Had a conference call this morning so I stayed close to home for this run. Slogging along for a couple miles before a solo woman jumped on the Faulkey Gully Trail about 40 meters ahead of me. Had the darndest time reeling her in. Finally got her with a 1/4 mile left on the trail. As luck would have it, her route crossed mine two more times on the way back in. I marked her and passed her both times. I don't know who she was but she sure helped my run today. Thank you, Anonymous Fast Asian woman along my run this morning!

PRE RUN
weight=165.5

POST RUN
SlimFast

OBJECTIVE
3 mi.@ 8:36

ACHIEVED
3.24 mi.@ 8:16

6:01 AM 63° 84% 3 mph

Ominous sign ... tight calves this morning ....

New Boston qualifying requirements announced yesterday. I need to get faster.

PRE RUN
weight=165.5 <---- chicken fried steak & brownies yesterday ... that's really not like me

POST RUN
orange juice, multivitamin & Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk

OBJECTIVE
5 mi. incl. 3 mi. tempo @ 7:13

ACHIEVED
WU 1.01 mi.
3 mi. tempo @ 6:51
CD 1.05 mi.

5:34 AM 57° 73% 0 mph

This was a surprise. After no semblance of speedwork in months, I was able to uncork a very solid tempo run. I was targeting a 7:13 pace but started a bit too hot and, surprisingly, was able to hold it. My fitness certainly isn't anywhere near what it was last fall but it hasn't fallen off as much as I thought it may have. Good news!

PRE RUN
weight=164

POST RUN
diet V8 splash, multivitamin & Kashi GoLean cereal w/skim milk

OBJECTIVE
4 mi.

ACHIEVED
4.06 mi.@ 8:18

5:31 AM 46° 94% 0 mph

Work life has not been kind to my running life as of late .... Very frustrating. Decent run today. Felt okay.

Will be moving to Chicago ... eventually.

PRE RUN
weight=163
FRS orange chew

POST RUN
diet V8 splash, multivitamin, oatmeal w/brown sugar, almonds & skim milk

OBJECTIVE
Run

ACHIEVED
4.51 mi.
.5 mi. WU
3.51 treadmill hills
.5 mi. CD

Westin Galleria Dallas treadmill. Eating too much and running too little ... but having a lot of fun.

On the bus to tailgate party now. I guess Keith Urban, Maroon 5 and another gluttonous food fest are in my immediate future.

PRE RUN
Water

POST RUN
Water
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