Happy Holidays

Recent studies show that gravy is the optimal recovery drink.
Happy Thanksgiving, southern neighbours.

The Final Countdown

I can hear all of you singing the intro: ba da bum bummm... bada bum bum bummmm...

10 days to go and it's been another good week with Tim at the helm. I have to say, as public recognition, that this guy has taken my running farther in a short amount of time than I had ever imagined. Unreal. Not that he needs me to plug him as a coach but I'll do it anyways. When he has a coaching spot available, get it. You won't be disappointed. Sore, yes. Stretched, yes. Tired, yes. Fatigued, yes. Motivated, yes. Sick of hearing your alarm clock, yes, oh sweet mother, yes.

But not disappointed.

It just occurred to me that this kind of public ass kissing could have saved me a lot of pain if I had employed it say, oh, about 15 weeks ago instead of now, right before the taper that I pray every day is coming but never seems to show up.

Anyways, 2 highlights from last week:

Thursday AM: 2 miles warm up increasing to 7:20/mi by the end, 6 miles @ 7:00/mi, 1 mile cool down.

Same workout in the PM. 18 miles total ON A WEEKDAY! It's good thing that I sit in a chair all day at work.

Sunday AM: 2 mile WU, 17 miles at 7:30/mi or better, 1 mile easy.

Same workout in the PM.

Ok, I'm kidding, the PM session was more like me pounding down bowls of ravioli and lounging on the couch watching TV.

Speaking of nutrition, this week calls for a slight reduction in daily/weekly calories. I've eaten two snickers bars already today in addition to the usual shopping bag of things I bring to work . Things have definitely gotten off on the wrong foot there.

For those of you who thought it was coming: As if I'm going to post a 'Europe' song here. Europe is forever linked to the beautiful art of magic, thanks to this guy.

I wanted to post NWA's '100 miles and runnin'" but that's pretty much NSF-anywhere so we'll go with NWA's only radio friendly track 'Express Yourself' from the classic album 'Straight outta Compton' where you can hear a very young, pre-'Chronic' Dr. Dre proclaim that drug use causes brain damage. That Snoop Dog is a bad influence.

Hungry runner needs help!!

I'm a person who enjoys structure. Enjoy is the wrong word. I'm a person who requires structure and has come to recognize it as a helpful friend who gets me through what I need to do so I can get to what I want to do.
I'm a person who mentally works out how to carry my dishes from the dishwasher to the cupboards in the fewest number of trips so that I can get back to watching 'Flight of the Conchords' in the least amount of time possible.
I'm a runner who loves having a coach who tells me exactly what to do and when to do it.
I'm a person who DOES NOT LIKE AT ALL going to a new restaurant and deciding what to order. Seriously, it stresses me out.
I'm a guy who eats the same thing for breakfast, snack, and lunch every week day for a year. I added some Trader Joe's yogurt to the lunch menu and it took me about 5 minutes to decide to spend the $3 to add it to my shopping cart.
Anyways, it's these last two items that lead to this request.
I'm looking for suggestions for what I should add to my lunchtime salad.
OK, reading this post, the title of this blog is maybe a little overly dramatic, but whatever.

The salad is usually:
mixed greens or spinach
tuna packed in olive oil
avocados
bell peppers

It's delicious, quick, easy, and nutritious but it's lacking something and I don't know what that 'something' is. Some crunch maybe? A little goat cheese? A huge glass of beer to accompany it? Who knows...
Thats whay I'm coming to you, fellow bloggers, foodies and all around beautiful and fit people, to help me with suggestions of what I could toss into my salad to jazz it up a little.

Imagine if...

Imagine if this guy:
and this guy:
started a heavy metal band inspired by superheroes, fantasy role playing games, and of course, Battlestar Galactica. Jump on the treadmill, put on your headphones, and buckle up your chinstrap. This one goes to '11' !

Another one bites the dust

The countdown is fully on. Training is clicking along and I'm feeling good. The legs are tired and a few little race day demons started to swirl until Coach gave me a good bit of advice, I beat them down, and added another successful week to the calendar. I'd better pile up the weeks if I'm going to double down against this animal! What a race! Between you, me, and the two other readers of this blog, part of me feels like living with a World Champion is kind of like cheating but whatever! Just jokes, just jokes. I'm stoked that Beth is crushing it. I have someone to draft off of in Vegas now until I can bust out my patented 'finishing chute kick'!

After getting a breather from Tim last week it was on like Donkey Kong this week with intensity and distance in full force.

Two key workouts last week were an interval run and a progression run.
The interval was 4x200m on 50' with 200m easy jog recovery followed by 5x1mile on 1'walk recovery and an easy jog into the next interval. The instructions were to not look at the watch during the mile but to run them at an intensity that felt the same as the 200's. The loose goal was around 6:40-6:45/mile. Crazy ass brain training.


Um, so I guess that works. I swear these felt like they were the same effort as the 200's but turned out they were a little faster. Nice!
Got a couple days to chill before the next big effort so me and Violet went down to check out the Mud Bay wildlife habitat . Gunner and I do our long runs down here. It's a sweet hard packed lightly graveled trail that runs about 15 miles along the coastline through a wildlife protection area. We've seen coyotes, tons of great blue herons and the biggest freaking bald and golden eagles ever! It's crazy to be so close to an animal that incredible. So intimidating. Yeah, I'm as big as you but I have a beak, sharp talons, and did I mention I can fly?
Today, Brian and I saw a bald eagle pull a fish out of the ocean, fly to shore and eat it at a distance of about 20 feet. RAD! Not so cool when one of these giants takes off from a telephone pole and circles around 10 feet above your head. Hmmmm, that's weird. My pace has dropped and yet my HR has spiked through the roof !

Anyways, Violet and I went down there to check it out but not before making sure that we were fully hydrated.




The trail is along the right side (obviously) and goes to the horizon and beyond. Just a fantastic spot to run.






It was very windy and before long Violet wanted me to get her out of there and away from the wind. Well, the wind and all the toddler stealing bald eagles! You can see the grass all bent over and the trees over her shoulder swaying in the wind. The look on her face is classic.


The other effort of the week was a progression run: short W/U, 3 miles@7:10 (race pace), 1 mile at 7:00 and 2 miles@6:45.




I felt good about this effort on a day I woke up feeling a little heavy legged.
Cap that all off with a solid "old school LSD" 24 miles today and I'm ready to sleep in, hit the sauna and start it all over again tomorrow.

Is it genetic?

Similar, hey? The top picture is my daughter, Violet. She's the one on the blog header trying to escape from my hoodie. The bottom picture is my wife Jamie at the same age, er, um, a few years back.

I think I have an idea what Violet may look like when she grows up!

Not a training post AT ALL but two cute baby pictures is a good cop out until I can get something put together.

I've included some more music as a special added bit o filler. This track is a song called 'Highway Patrolman' from Bruce Springsteen's watershed album 'Nebraska' released in 1982. It seemed a fitting choice considering the 'family' theme we've got going here. Between 'Nebraska' and 'Born in the USA' you can see pretty quickly why they call him The Boss. It's slow and haunting and I'm not ashamed to say the first time I heard this album I cried. Enjoy.

Race Until Your Feet Bleed

"Sometimes we persevere in spite of what we're made to suffer and sometimes because of it."
A great line from an article written by Haile Gebreselassie for Newsweek.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/166926/page/1

Not SMRT

I wanted to throw some music up here but when I went to my BOX account I had forgotten the password. Finally hacked my own account. For anyone who isn't familiar, Arcade Fire is a band from Montreal that became a pretty big deal around here a few years ago with their debut album 'Funeral'. Here's a couple from that release. Enjoy. Sorry southern neighbours, none of the usual maple syrup and dogsled references that you are used to hearing in Canadian music.

Rest and Recovery

The adjusted schedule had me laying pretty low the last few days. I've been doing some aqua jogging and dry sauna in the morning and short, easy runs in the evening. I'm back doing strengthening and flexibility exercises for the ankle and really working my calves over with the stick. All is well on that front.

I'm pretty sure that one of the key requirements to being a coach is the ability to hand out grueling new forms of training. In fact, I would say that all of the great coaches in history do just that:

"Paint the fence? Crazy old man..."

"Wax on Wax off? What the hell does that mean?"

"When can I come down off this dang piling?"

Then, after spending the whole movie trying to show Elisabeth Shue what a pimp he is

*BANG*

Suck on that, Cobra Kai! Crane kick. 2nd best movie martial arts move ever.

Daniel Larusso 1, Douchebags 0

Look at Rocky. He and Mickey. That was some crazy stuff those cats were doing.

"Hey, Rock, pick up this log and run through the snow."

"Sweet, a big frozen beef. Get ready for some punchin, beef!"

Then, after spending the whole movie trying to show Adrian what a pimp he is

*BANG*

How you like them apples Apollo Creed?

Underdog 1, Cocky Champ 0 (for now......)

The magic formula is 'crazy coach+grueling training=success'

At least that's what I was thinking this morning amidst the hallucinations after 20 minutes in the dry sauna.

Make Good Choices

Cut the long run this weekend. It called for some efforts at race pace and I wasn't feeling 'right'. As well, I had some pain in my ankle flare up that had been quite for about a month. Usually it loosens up during the WU, but this time it didn't happen. The sound of my stride said it all: a nice loud slap every time my left foot hit the pavement. Not good. Feels OK now after some stick work on my calves but Dr. Tim moved my rest week up a little just in case.
Southern neighbours: Tomorrow is a big day. Rock the Vote.