Screwy Tempo Run, Royal Marine Commando Fitness

Tell me I'm strange, but I added a whopping 1k to my tempo run today and then got disappointed that I was running so poorly when I really was running well passed where I usually run.  I meant to add .5k but I screwed up on mapmyrun.

Today's tempo times with a 6:56 pace (11:06 per mile):

Split	today	week ago	2 weeks ago	3 weeks ago	4 weeks ago
0.5 k	2:44	2:47	2:51	2:52	2:45
1.0 k	3:16	3:14	3:08	3:12	3:14
1.5 k	3:29	3:17	3:28	3:47	3:30
2.0 k	3:33	3:34	3:20	3:46	3:32
2.5 k	3:25	3:31	3:16	3:44	3:24
3.0 k	3:49	3:16
3.5 k	3:41
4.0 k	3:44

I don't see much improvement in my times from 4 weeks ago for the first 2.5 k.  There is another factor and that is the food I ingested (or didn't) last night.  But I'm not giving up - a breakthrough happens on Friday when I run 9k (5 1/2 + mi).

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On another note I found an old program talking with James from The Runner's Bug.  Then I started to scan them in and I wondered if somebody had already done so - and I found http://www.jazclass.aust.com/blog/files/5bx01.htm.  There are only 3 of the 6 charts there, but I think it's a good start for discussion.  It's a routine for doing workouts for strength.  I'll be posting more on this topic in a few hours once one of my morning meetings breaks up.

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On still another note, a patient of my wife, gave/lent about 2 years worth of Runner's World magazine to me!  Thank you.  I've started to peruse the mag and found an article on "10 ways to guarantee motivation".  So much to write about.  So little time today.  Back to the meeting!

Tempo Wednesday and Before Shots of Running Man Wannabe

Well today was a tempo run that boring-coach Adam did not make into a 3.0 k  from a 2.5 k.  He also did not send me a great link on improving your Marathon time.  [Thanks Adam I'm running my first race - a 5k - in about 4 weeks.  Great having you stay right on topic.]  It's a good overview of sports science and the way the body it thought to work and perform well.  He also nodded in a non-legally binding way to me increasing my weekly distance by 15% rather than 10%, before I taper off on the race week.  I'll be putting these changes into the program tab. [Note: Adam is not a coach and does not give advice, this is a joke, closed course, professional driver, your mileage may vary - really just wanted to paste his head on someone in Paint.]

Today's tempo times with a 6:33 pace (10:30 per mile):

Split	today	week ago	2 weeks ago	3 weeks ago
0.5 k	2:47	2:51	2:52	2:45
1.0 k	3:14	3:08	3:12	3:14
1.5 k	3:17	3:28	3:47	3:30
2.0 k	3:34	3:20	3:46	3:32
2.5 k	3:31	3:16	3:44	3:24
3.0 k	3:16

What's interesting is the more I pull out the run in the first 500 m, the slower I seem to recover in the second 500 m.  I bet the first 200 m of the run is fast ... my body is going "WTF? Are we running again?" and it's trying to keep up, but then quickly I drop down in speed, start my breathing, launch a couple of snot rockets,  [projectile vomit] throat clearing horks and I'm ok.

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Here is a before picture from late May 2010.  I'm actually soaking my feet in Stanley Harbor in Hong Kong, that behind me is a piece that turns into the South China Sea and then the Pacific Ocean. This picture is interesting because what you don't see on the left is that a bunch of environmentalist started running towards me once I started struggling out of the water.  They were all pointing at me and yelling in Chinese "a whale has beached itself we must push it back into the water!" ... That's about the time I started to loose weight and not eat all those executive meals my EMBA program was feeding me.  If this kinda travel pictures are interesting to you check out some more on my Facebook page search for Andrew Opala - I think they are shared without having to friend me, but please do if you are so inclined.

Here's another (still before) at the Great Wall standing beside my buddy and classmate Scott.  I think the belly is quite pronounced - and it's not the horizontal stripes baby.  It's the real thing! ... some real after pictures will follow shortly tomorrow.  I'll see if I can snap a good one when I'm golfing with friends (Scott being one in fact).   But it's really not after ... it's DURING - I expect to go a lot further.

Thanks for the requests, I would have wanted to show the before once I had the washboard stomach, but what can you do?  My goal is to become a [RILF - Runner I'd Like to ... Feed] healthy individual with a long life that does not become a burden on my family once I get older.  If you want to check out a washboard stomach go to Chris's site: BQ or Die and see him out at his aqua-training.  Just rub your shirts clean on those abs!

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Welcome to my new friends: Wannabe Runner, Candace, Jill, Heather, Christine, and Elizabeth.

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I'm officially in the Core Club, even though Groucho said "I'd never join a club that would have me as a member".

The Macmillan Running Calculator

The Macmillan Running Calculator says [I am deceased] that I am running my tempo runs slightly too slow, and my endurance and EZ runs slightly too fast. Chris! If I become a good runner it's because of that article you sent me and one I found on The Boring Runners Site.

It looks like I'm doing it wrong. That's probably why I seem to be trending the wrong way in pace times. Great that I could discover this now - but I need to introduce some better time goals into my running.

When I type in 30 minutes as a 5k target it tells me that my:

(1) 2k tempo run should be between 12:00.1 to 12:20.8 minutes time (compare 13:01 now)

(2) longer endurance runs should be 7:16 to 7:53 minutes pace/k (compare 7:23 /k)

(3) EZ runs should be 7:16 to 7:35 minutes pace/k (compare 8:01 /k pace)

So to me that means I can slow down the longer runs and not try so hard to run them as quickly as I am and set my mind to run the tempo runs on Wednesday much faster.

Food Experiment Last Night

Rather than my normal 600 or so calories in carbs last night after 6 p.m. I reduced it to 400 calories and ate at 5 p.m. - fasted for 14 hours before running. I did feel less energetic today. So my experiment suggests I need to eat more closer to the run. So on Thursday, I experiment with carbs at around 5 p.m. and then a big carb snack at around 9 p.m. I also took a longer than normal warm-up jog. My goal is not to feel to full, and time the p@@ing so I can be as empty as possible for the run. Also ran on my own today.

So my run today looked like this: 2.5k in 17:23. Pretty bad I know, since my race-pace target is 6 mins. But I have valuable information about how long I can fast before I run.

Split	Today	Last Wednesday
0.5 k	2:52	2:45
1.0 k	3:12	3:14
1.5 k	3:47	3:30
2.0 k	3:46	3:32
2.5 k	3:44	3:24

Incidentally, I've lost 2 lbs [Alert: Metric Police, Andrew is using pounds again] since last Wednesday. I have also dropped 5 belt-holes since I started running about 3 months ago.

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I've limited a lot of chatter about my life because my home is now home to another person who is troubled in our family. There's not a lot of funny things to say about the situation and it consumes a lot of my thought and some of my time.

He's a young 19-year-old man who has a lot of big challenges waiting for him, but is sweating the small stuff like going to work, and sleeping regularly. He's been staying with us for the last 3 weeks, and our picture of hope has slowly deteriorated. My first reaction is to get angry and I want to tell him to grow up, and then force him to live properly in the basic areas of his life. But my wife, the nest-builder, says wait. He comes from a troubled home, and his father was shot and killed by police 4 months ago (it was a mistake - his father suffered from schizophrenia and did not apparently understand what the Police were asking him to do - the Police are being investigated by the SIU).

The unfortunate thing is the three simple rules the young man had to keep each day while here have been broken regularly without any consequences - and this is my wife's lead so I follow and give her support in what she is doing. But my image is the following: I don't care if he doesn't love me after this whole experience, I need to know that he has the proper life skills to live in the real world, right now he doesn't, let's start working on changing these improper behaviors.

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On perhaps a lighter note, has anyone seen the Robin Hood Series from a couple of years ago on the BBC with Jonas Armstrong as Robin and Richard Armitage as Guy of Gisborne? I've seen a trailer and want to watch them ... but I don't want to waste my time. I'm actually waiting for Caprica to start again on Sci-Fi or Syfy or what every stupid name they thought up for the network.