I'm sitting here waiting for the Oklahoma summer heat to abate. I've elected to hang out in Stillwater for the summer which is pretty low-key and relaxing. I have some great training venues, with the cross country course literally feet away, the track less than a 1/4 mile away and dirt roads less than a mile. It's allowing me some time to rest physically and mentally from the last six months. There were alot of miles run and some frustrations in different respects and so I opted to change my surroundings. The summer around here really tests you're resolve and I have yet to really get anything going in training.
Last week, I was in southern California with friends and managing to effectively stay up way to late, drink way to much beer and waste alot of time in traffic. It was a good time and made it apparent how tough a stimulus consistent 100+ degree heat is. I could spend all day there outside and have little lingering fatigue, whereas here its an hour here or there. I've taken a different directive the last couple summers in that I don't skimp on sleep to get the run in. I don't know what it is with me but I often struggle mightily to breath if I'm not well slept and so that's what I'm working with.
I'm loving the sports this summer. We signed on for a premium cable package and I thought we were getting NBCSports but no dice, so we're lacking some cycling but Euro '12, Wimbledon, Olympics, and it's only getting started! Hopefully these scintillating performances will inspire me to keep the blog more active, and my goal will be to provide a link with every post to flavor the wordiness.
So on my little stint in southern california, I made a tour to The Stone Brewery and hung out in The World Bistro & Gardens.
I hit the track this morning for some work. It was another nice morning but I can't imagine the humidity abating for long. Jordan and Meagan had matching workouts of 4-8-12-16-16-12-8-4 w/ 60 second rest. The paces prescribed were quick and I didn't run great but I tried to hang with Jordan on the middle reps. I should hopefully be able to substantially improve on my efforts this morning and maybe feel better doing it. I did something like a 200-500-1100-800-1600-1200-600-200, I wasn't happy with missing out on the first 1600 but I had to break for the restroom and I at least touched on some faster paces on the other reps. The recovery made it a pretty honest effort and I at least was able to sneak below 5:00 pace. My goal for the summer is breaking 15:00 so we'll see what happens. The picture above is my uncle's digital rendering of a wave complete with a frigate bird. I think he used only Adobe throughout the process.
Comments