Achilles is bothering me again. I guess I'll run with the girls this week, at least on the workout days.

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Mon:	10	am: 70 minutes easy, from the north end of the RB up into JPL & back with Keith, Victor & Davey. Added 4 short (~80m) fast hill sprints with jog back recoveries. Those felt pretty nice. Calves felt sore but not damaged, even on the hill sprints at the end).
Tue:	6	I had an appointment with the podiatrist (Dr. Helfand) this morning. This is the guy I first saw about 6 years ago when the PF started. The only notable thing that happened is he took a few x-rays of my right foot, and there's a small heel spur visible now, whereas 6 years ago there wasn't one. He said it's a pretty small one though, and symptomatic to PF, rather than being the actual cause. Of course, we also only looked at my right foot, so there isn't a good comparison to the left one which feels fine. pm:Biked over to the Rose Bowl and joined the Oxy women in a tempo workout (of my own invention, no less): 3mi continuous tempo with 1st & 3rd miles at threshold, 2nd mile faster, plus a 1000m lap of the grass field at full speed starting 3-3.5 minutes after the finish of the tempo. Splits of 6:42/6:35/6:41 for the lead group, then 1000 in 3:35-3:40. Had a strange painful stomach ache start on the bike ride home.
Wed:	12	am: arroyo run with the Oxy guys, starting from San Pascual. Mellow pace for the first half, then things picked up a little. Finished the last couple of miles faster with Eric, edging down to 6 minute pace. This was when my hips & glutes started to get kind of achey. Ho hum. Other than that I felt pretty good. pm: Did a quick (20 minute) session in the weight room: pullups, core, eccentric calves.
Thu:	6	Easy workout with the Oxy women's pack: 2-3-4-4-3-2 minutes on (~6:50 pace) with 1 minute off after each one. Achilles felt ok. Some core stuff afterwards.
Fri:	6	pm: 42 minutes barefoot on the NF with Mark. Finished with 4 nice fast striders. Felt surprisingly good, although I can definitely feel a little something in the right achilles. Also, I had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Adamson, the orthopedist I saw about a month ago when my achilles first started bothering me (again). He didn't really have much to say this time, but I got a 6 day sample of Celebrex to try out.
Sat:	10	am:VO2max intervals on the Prado Park course with the Oxy guys. Ran 10x800 on the course, with equal recovery between reps and a 6 minute break between the first 5 and the last 5. Ran with Victor, Noah & Thomas mostly. The actual length of each 800 varied by enough to constitute 40-50s variation in times, But I think for the most part we were running 4:55-5:15 pace for just about the whole set, stayin steady in the middle and finishing strong. Ran the last one barefoot. pm: Partied till exhaustion at the annual Parkwood Halloween extravaganza. Pretty damn fun there: compared costumes, drank beer, ran barefoot around the block and generally laughed my ass off until 3:30 in the morning. At this rather late hour I still had enough wits to floss & brush my teeth, so it couldn't have gotten too far out of control. However, there are always consequences for this sort of indulgence in excess, and I believe most of these will rise into view with tomorrow's morning sun.
Sun:	--	Off. Spent most of the day in the fetal position. Actually, I did get up from bed from about 8am to 10am (still feeling slightly drunk, which is probably how I kept moving at all) and did some sweeping/tidying of the courtyard post-party
Total:	50mi	This is pretty solid for what I was trying to make into a down week.

OK, achilles is starting the week off feeling good. Let's try to keep it that way.

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Mon:	7	am: Rose Bowl to Golden Gate easy, plus 4 striders. Feeling decent enough. Achilles seems fine. Did some core exercises when I got home. Poor sleep last night. pm: Went to the weight room for a quick session: power-cleans, core and some weighted eccentric calf raises. Felt surprisingly un-powerful on the cleans-- maybe due of this morning's core exercises? Left with my lower back feeling really tired.
Tue:	8	pm: 8 threshold 1000's with short rest on the Rose Bowl field, running with Victor, Sebi, Keith, Will & Davey. Good tempo and really consistent times: all 8 in 3:26-3:29, with 6 of them in 3:27 or 3:28. I moved up one group from last few times I've run 1000's with the guys (Eric & Clay are still well out ahead). The rests were quite short-- these guys shuffle the 70y recoveries in just 25-35 seconds, but I felt well in control despite the step up in pace. Great workout overall. Core routine after the cooldown. on a side note my lower back muscles were really sore all day. Doing the cleans yesterday evening seems really stupid now. Fortunately once I got started running it didn't really bother me much.
Wed:	11	Very erratic sleep last night. Slept for 3h, then wide awake. Got up, ate a bowl of oatmeal, then slept for about 3h more. Wide awake again 15 minutes before alarm was to go off (convenient). am: One lap of San Pascual Park waiting for the vans to show up, then Otter Pop with Eric and Will, starting out very easy and then hitting a respectable pace in the second half. Feeling stiff this morning (particularly in the lower back), but fine other than that. PT with Andre afterwards.
Thu:	3	Bah, my lower back was killing me all day today. Felt pretty lousy in general. Squeezed in 3mi barefoot + 6 fast striders in the evening.
Fri:	8	Slept like crap last night. The last time I looked at the clock before falling asleep it was about 1am, and then the alarm went off at 5:50 for a trip to run Brown Mtn with KB & Gustavo. Oddly cloudy and humid this morning, with a little bit of rain. Felt pretty bad from the start. Took a bathroom break just before starting the climb, and eventually felt good enough to run the last 8-10 minutes to the saddle at around tempo intensity. That was the end of feeling good though. Returned with Gus & KB on the El Prieto trail. Had to take a nap when I got home.
Sat:	10	SCIAC championships. Tempo beforehand with Mark & Gustavo, covering 4.5mi of the course in 25:32 = 5:40 pace. First 3.5mi at below threshold intensity, then last mile barefoot and faster. This was followed by a bunch of running around yelling during the races. Remembered to do my eccentric calf exercises when I got home.
Sun:	6	43 minutes barefoot on the north field with Dennis, finishing up with 6 good striders. Feeling decent-- no obvious aches, pains or other maladies. Went to the gym afterward for weights and core exercises. Included some weighted eccentric calf raises. Lower back finally feeling better. Not 100%, but better, particularly after the run.
Total:	53mi	53 miles, and no achilles trouble. Sweet! I guess my lower back was the trouble of the week, but I'm not super worried about that since it had a clear cause on Monday.

Ok, I feel like I have sort of a plan now. The plan is: finish the remaining two weeks of the XC season with the Oxy guys, focusing on consistency and just getting in the workouts without the achilles trouble popping up again. Don't take any given day or workout too seriously. Then after XC ends start phasing in the long threshold tempo again, starting with 6mi at 5:50-6 minute pace (or 9:10-9:20 for arroyo loops) and gradually working up from there. One genuine continuous long tempo per 8-10 days is probably going to be plenty.

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Mon:	7	am: Rose Bowl to Golden Gate with Noah, Victor, Davey. 6 striders at the end. Feeling decent this morning; not great, but decent. Legs are a wee bit tired, but not too sore anywhere.
Tue:	9.5	Rose Bowl tempo with Davey and Will. Nice cool evening. 6mi continuous in 33:48 (=5:38 pace), with splits of 5:40/5:45/5:38/5:37/5:43/5:25. For the first time in quite a while, I've done a workout where the weather didn't feel warmer than optimal. Felt fine (great even) for 4 miles, then mile 5 (slightly uphill) it started to get hard to stay right at threshold intensity, and mile 6 just went unabashedly over threshold (it was a good over though). I guess the biggest concern was that towards the end my lower back and hips/glutes started to get tired, then tight, then achy. I remember this being the failure mode in my long tempos from the spring of last year, just when the hamstring issue was turning into a major problem. Lower right calf also had a minor sore spot at the end. But for the most part I'll call this workout a moderate success. I'd be thrilled with the pace except I know the RB is a lot faster than the arroyo tempo loop, and that's the one that really counts in my mind. Or at least, that's where I'll have to do most of my upcoming threshold work if I want to legs to stay healthy.
Wed:	9	San Pascual to RB trail loop with Victor, Davey. Nice cold damp morning. Megumi sighting in the arroyo. A bit tired from yesterday, but not too bad. Calves sore, and hamstrings/glutes started to bother me in the last few miles. Went to PT with Andre afterwards, and he gave me a full half hour extra for the sake of stimulating (though disagreeing) political conversation-- seriously, he said so. Well, it was probably also because the person with the time slot after mine probably canceled, though Andre didn't mention that.
Thu:	7	Moderate fartlek on the RB field with the Oxy guys. 2-3-4-5-4-3-2 minutes on with 1 minute recoveries. Pace felt good-- not slow but also not overboard. I felt surprisingly good. Being on the grass the whole time seemed helpful for the legs. Short cooldown and core routine afterwards.
Fri:	5.5	NFTC with Mark: 35 minutes moderately easy, then 6 quick striders, finishing with 3 more easy laps, all barefoot. Dinner with Mark, Megumi & Kangway afterwards.
Sat:	8.5	9x800 on the track with the Oxy guys w/ 2:30 rests (5:00 between 5 & 6). 2:27/2:26/2:28/2:25/2:26///2:27/2:26/2:25/2:20 Slightly positive splits on all of them (1st 400 generally 71-72) except the last one. Felt surprisingly under control, though I could tell the repeated trips into oxygen debt were definitely taking their toll. Rests felt long, but reps felt fast-- I guess that's the way it works. This was a tough one, and my first time doing a full blown track workout in roughly 20 months. In retrospect I was never going as hard on any of these as I did in the 'hammer intervals' on the La Mirada XC course 4 weeks ago. I think I should be pretty pleased (especially since I don't seem to have damaged anything) but at the same time my first instinct is to look back through my log and to compare it with workouts of the past to "figure out what I could run for 5k" right now. Ok, I just yielded to temptation and read over Junior year track, Senior year track, Spring of '06 and even a track workout in the fall of 2004. The answer is: I don't know what I could run for 5k. I just don't do track workouts with recoveries as long as this, and when on occasion I do (as in 11/04) they are pretty fast and I end up injured and not racing. But I still think I could run 15:45.
Sun:	5.5	40-and-change minutes easy on the north field with Kangway, followed by some lifting and core. Calves are sore and the rest of me feels a bit worn out, but I don't think anything is actually damaged. Rah.
Total:	52mi	Rah?

Goals for the week: finish XC practice without getting hurt. Do some nice runs in Oregon. Revisit the site of my last cross country PR without freaking out.

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Mon:	9	am: Beautiful sunny cool morning. Ran Eaton Canyon to Henninger Flats with Gustavo. Took the old toll road from the bridge up to Henninger, then on the way back down caught the steep shortcut back into Eaton. Doubled back for Gus' hat at the bridge, then returned to the car. 72-73 minutes total, going pretty easy for most of it. Calves feel sore but still not damaged. Glutes/hips are a little touch as well. Overall a really great run. Core exercises back at home.
Tue:	10	am: Track intervals with the Caltech women: 4/8/4/8/4/8 in about 90/3:00/85/3:00/85/2:45. Not a bad way to wake up. pm: Biked over to Oxy and back. Ran 6 threshold 1000's on the track with Victor/Sebi/Davey, in 3:34/3:26/3:27/3:28/3:25. It's amazing how easy 5:30 mile pace (3:26/1k) feels on the track now. Pulse checks immediately after the last 3 reps put my HR consistently at ~168. Unfortunately I can also tell that spending the day on hard surfaces kind of bothers my calves & hamstrings.
Wed:	6	40 minutes barefoot on the north field, plus 8 striders. Then a quick trip to the weight room for a few core exercises.
Thu:	10	Threshold intervals at Lacy with Mark: 6 x mile with 50-60 seconds jogging recoveries. We ran the first 5 on Mark's version of the half mile loop, going 5:37, 5:28, 5:35, 5:37, 5:39, then the last one on my version of the loop (slightly shorter than Mark's, same loop I did 2007's spring tempo runs on) in 5:29. Mile #2 felt over threshold. Actually, the pace for all of them felt harder than the 1000's on the track from Tuesday. HR was higher as well, consistently 174-180 at the finish of each mile. But the effort level felt pretty stable, so I think it may be legit threshold intensity. Calves, glutes & hamstrings sore on the slog home.
Fri:	9	Oregon! Jogged the Willamette regionals course with the guys (3 minutes at race pace in the middle), then added 30 minutes on my own. Beautiful weather. Both hamstrings started to bother me in the last 2 miles or so.
Sat:	9	NCAA Western Regionals in Salem. Ran before, during and after the races. It all added up to over an hour. My legs feel pretty beat up today. Kind of a bummer. Beautiful conditions though. So did I freak out? Not sure yet.
Sun:	--	(Sun entry)
Total:	--mi	(Week entry)