Saturday, May 13, 2006

Baseball, Speedwork, Cookies, and Trail Runnin' Bloggers

Just a normal week in the life...

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: I ran what I have begun calling the Lasagna Loop. 6 miles from my house to my mother-in-laws. My brother-in-law had been in town from Rocklin, CA so we were blessed with lasagna again. During the run I caught up to two guys, mid-20's. We chatted for a bit. They were running Robert's Loop. They are contemplating the LA Marathon next year with go at the Long Beach Half Marathon. This is a great combination that many local runners put together, especially first timers. The races are spaced apart nicely.

Wednesday: I ran the Santa Fe Dam after work. 8 miles. I tried to stay nice and relaxed. I pretty much felt like I was on autopilot. I never felt pushed or tired. I maintained my long run pace of 9:00/mile.

Thursday: Speedwork. For some reason I just dread these workouts. I am way more comfortable with long runs, even 20 milers, than I am with these track workouts. I ran one 400 at 1:45 just to get used to the idea. Then I did 3- 800's with a recover lap between. The times were 3:35, 3:37 and 3:38. I definitely felt more tired on each set but I was happy that although I slowed down each time it was only a second or two. If it wasn't for the watch I would have thought that they were a lot slower. I finished up with one more 400, then took an easy run home. This Runner's World article on Yasso 800's predicts a 3:3? marathon, cool. I do need to increase the number of these I do. With that bit of information sitting out there in front of me I may look at next week's speed session a little differently.

Friday: Rest. The family and I had some cheap seats to the Anaheim Angels ball game. Our seats were in the second to the last row at the top of the stadium between home and first. We had a great view, just from what up in the stratosphere. The Angels actually won, 12-7, over the Seattle Mariners, including a grand slam by Juan Rivera. On the way to the game we drove past the two guys that I had seen on Tuesday out running again. Good for them.

Saturday: Long run. Today my wife actually got up before me on a Saturday morning. She was walking the Revlon Run/Walk 5K for Women's Cancers. She had to catch a bus at 5:30 a.m. from the local medical center along with 203 other participants for the ride down to the LA Coliseum. This is a huge event. She heard that there were about 5500 55000 participants this year. It took her and her friends over 2 hours to walk the 5K course just because of the shear volume of people. The finish is inside the Coliseum. So there is a huge bottleneck to get 5500 55000 people through one tunnel and onto the floor of the Coliseum. Last year I ran the 14 mile Malibu Creek Trail Race in less time than it took her to do 5K.

This year the two races fell on the same day again. I opted out of Malibu Creek this year because of the marathon training. I would have liked to do it, since three local blogging buds were all participating. Jeff, Jessica and Matt all did the race today. Matt's write up is all ready up. I'm sure Jeff and Jessica's will be there soon. Speaking of trail running bloggers, Rob ran the McDonald's Forest 50K today. Reading about that will be cool, I'm sure. Rob loves these crazy long runs.

I went down to Yorba Linda to run with the CA Cruisers. It has been over a month since I last ran with them. Between vacation, long runs, and races before you know time flies by. I ran 10 miles with Cecil. Some of the others were running 14 miles training for the Saddleback Half on Memorial weekend. This is one I've have wanted to do. It would have fit nicely into the training schedule. Instead, we will be camping at Carpinteria State Beach with a big group from church. That is always a very fun weekend. I finished the run just seconds shy of 1:30.

After the run, I did yard work. Then I cleaned up and went shopping at Trader Joe's for a Mother's Day BBQ. My wife's mom is coming over for lunch. I finally got the propane tank refilled too. It has been empty since last fall sometime. I used the excuse that it was too dark outside to see to cook anyway. This time of the year I don't have an excuse, plus some things just don't taste the same cooked indoors in a frying pan. By the way, if there is a Trader Joe's near you, don't buy the Dark Chocolate Chunk and Almond Cookies. These are bite sized and delicious. The problem is they seemed to disappear. I don't know where they all went. Six hours after buying them they are just gone. (In my defense, I didn't eat them all. I only had a few, really)

Off to Bonelli tomorrow morning for a counter-clockwise loop.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

sounds like a great weekend!

TJs always has the BEST. we live within walking distance. always end up buying the cheapest best food.

Anonymous said...

darrell, it sounds like you had an amazing week on and off the roads. i am so glad to hear that. your times are so solid, i cannot wait to see how you do in your next marathon. that lasagna loop is just the kind of run that would get me back on the roads :)

we are going to have to catch up in person soon. when you are ready to run hawaii, then i am there with you. i have a buddy who crews it every year. i am hoping to put that state on my list in the next year or two and might make it a regular one. heck, if i am going to run a road marathon, then why not in hawaii :)

here's to hoping you have another excellent week on and off the roads! hehehe, and to finding those missing treats from trader joe's :)

Anne said...

Man, Darrell, I'd kill to run a marathon with a 3: in it. Let's hope Yasso's right on those splits. Sounds like your training is working out nicely. As is your weekly schedule. I noticed a lot of LA marathoners using Long Beach's half as a tune-up run. They do seem nicely timed.

Mike said...

Darrell- glad to hear the running is going well. I totally agree with you- I would rather do a long run anyday then hit the track.
And thanks for the "warning" on the TJ's cookies...I'll make sure they don't end up in my cart.
*yeah right*

Unknown said...

Yassos are a great workout. They are good structured interval workouts that may or not be close to predicting what you can do. I've done the Yassos, just not a predictor because I never got up to the right amount.

cookies disappear... conspiracy I tell you!

Anonymous said...

I don't comment on your blog too often, but have a few points to clarify this morning.

First, you made me look really bad. If there were only 5500 people doing the Revlon Run/Walk for Women, I would hopefully finish in less than half that time!In reality, there were 55,000 people out there, which explains the bottleneck out of the start and into the tunnel at the end. Please remember to count your zero's next time!! :)

Secondly, you are right, you only ate a few...dozen of those TJ's cookies. But you can afford to!

Finally, Mother's Day was wonderful!!! I love that you did all the shopping, cleaning and prep work and that my mom and I were able to relax and enjoy the day. And the Honey Moon Vigonier (another shout out to TJ's~wine department this time!)was a great added touch!!

Today needs to be a holiday, I'm too tired to work!!

Love,
Me

Donald said...

God, don't get me started on Yasso 800s...I've done these workouts consistently many times before, and they've NEVER correlated to my marathon time. I posted a whole rant of them once.

Having said that, speedwork is the best way to drop your marathon time, so those workouts are still very valuable, whether they are 800s or mile intervals.

Rae said...

I love the Lasagna Loop!!!

I can't even imagine an event with 55,000 people!!! That's insane.

I wish we had a Trader Joe's, I've only heard good things about it!

Great job with all the running!

Legs and Wings said...

You're a happy guy Darrell. All things are going well for you - that's great! I detest speed work as much as you do. 1200's seem to be the worst, at least for me. I find the 800's do wear me out. What am I saying, it's all very tiresome.

I hope you have fun camping. Keep up the great training.

Anonymous said...

Spending Memorial Day at Carpinteria State Beach? Hmmm, are you going to be doing any running over the weekend? That's up near my neck of the woods.