Week 2: 7/17/06 - 7/23/06

Weekly Summary
I don't seem to be injured anymore, so I guess I can't complain, but I felt like this was a pretty boring running week for me. I'm trying to slowly get the mileage back up, but it's taking my body some time to get used to running again. Despite the fact that most of my runs this week were slow, my legs still feel tired. I guess that's what happens when I go from 0 to 60 in a couple of weeks. I just can't wait until I feel good and fresh doing 100 mile weeks once again. As you'll notice in the total weekly mileage below, I've decided to show my cross-training "mileage" separately (16x means I did 16 miles worth of cross training in the pool, elliptical, etc.). I used to just add it all together, but I think it will help me if I show the split from now on.
Resting HR: 60
Total Weekly Mileage: 46 + 16x = 62 miles

Sunday 7/23
PM - I slept in this morning after the late party last night. After a late breakfast, my parents and Sarah and I headed out to my grandma's house at the beach, where we met up with my brother and Lindsey, and a bunch of my cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. I had lunch around 2pm, and then went on a run around 5pm. Sarah rode next to me on her bike while I ran, which was nice. We went along the beach for about 6-7 miles before turning around. On the way back, we decided to run on the roads because the sand was a bit too soft for Sarah riding the bike. I, once again, got an upset stomach in the middle of the run, but it might be that I didn't wait long enough after eating lunch, or maybe it was something I ate or drank at the party last night. It was pretty hot and humid today, and I felt tired and dehydrated by the end of the run. I was trying to pick the pace up towards the end, but I doubt I even got down to 6:00 pace.
Sleep - 9 hours. Slept like a rock.
Food - Breakfast: Oatmeal with lots of fruit. Lunch: Tuna sandwich. Dinner: Chicken and rice for an early dinner, then steak teriyaki and sushi at Sakura's for a later dinner.
13 miles

Saturday 7/22
AM - Flew down to Florida with Sarah this morning and decided to take the day off from running. First we went to see my brother's new house. He's two years younger than me, and he already owns a house. Then we went out to the beach to meet up with a bunch of my cousins, and finally we came back into town for my mom's 60th birthday party. It was a great party, and went past midnight. I enjoyed seeing all of the family there.
Sleep - 4 hours. Was up packing until about 2am, and then had to get up before 6am to go to the airport.
Food - Breakfast: Yogurt and bagel with cream cheese at the airport. Lunch: Tuna salad that my dad made. Dinner: Steak, seafood with cream sauce, bread, salad, coconut cake, and beer. It was a delicious dinner for my mom's b-day party.
0 miles

Friday 7/21
AM - Took lactose breath test this morning. Turns out I'm not lactose intolerant afterall.
PM - I might take today off, but I haven't decided yet. My left knee is still a bit sore. Nothing major, but I am being super-sensitive right now about getting injured. Actually, I ended up running this evening after all. It was raining and starting to get dark, so I decided to do Bunker Hill instead of Jamaica Pond, even though Bunker Hill is all hard surfaces and my right knee was still kind of hurting. I finished the loop in about 57 minutes, so I went very slow (probably 6:40 pace or so). When I got back to work, I started packing up my office and then I went home pretty late to pack for my trip to Florida this weekend for my mom's birthday.
Sleep - 7 hours...didn't sleep very well.
Food - Breakfast: Skipped breakfast because I had to take a lactose breath test (a 3 hour ordeal that required me not to eat or drink anything, including water, after midnight last night). Lunch: Pork, macaroni and cheese, squash, yogurt. Dinner: Chicken with cashew nuts from Chilli Duck.
8 miles

Thursday 7/20
AM - I jogged over to Friedman's place in the late morning, and we went on a run around Fresh Pond. Friedman said he thought we were probably averaging 6:35 pace. I have no idea how he can estimate it down to the second, but I'll take his word for it. So the 8 mile loop from his apartment plus 2 miles each way to and from work gives me 12 miles for the day. I stopped at Friedman's place for a while to have some gatorade and look over an atlas of the U.S. before jogging back to work. Friedman thinks that when I do my roadtrip next month, I should drive from Yellowstone through Idaho and Oregon rather than going south to the Grand Canyon because it won't be as much driving and there is plenty of cool stuff to see in Idaho and Oregon. I'm still not sure what route I'll take. I'll have to see what Sarah wants to do...
Sleep - 7 hours.
Food - Breakfast: Balance bar. Lunch: Fish, corn chowder, salad. Dinner: Lots of pasta with tomato sauce, salad and mango shake from b.good.
12 miles

Wednesday 7/19
PM - This evening, I was going to run outside, but my left knee was kind of hurting, so I decided to jog over to the MIT pool and aquajog. I was in the pool for a total of 45 minutes: 10 minutes easy, 5,4,3,2,1 hard with 1 min easy in between, and then 15 minutes easy. I actually didn't push myself too hard during the hard parts, but it was more effort than the easy parts. I guess I'm just getting back into things gradually. When I got out of the pool, I stopped in Ana's Taqueira for dinner and saw Jen standing in line. She told me that Alasdair has only run twice since the Corporate Challenge. I wonder what's up with him. I forgot to mention that I saw Steve at POST physical therapy again today. He gave me a few more exercises.
Sleep - 7 hours.
Food - Breakfast: Yogurt, bagel with cream cheese. Lunch: Chinese noodles with chicken and pineapple. Lunch wasn't very good today. Dinner: Chicken burrito from Ana's and caesar salad.
8x miles

Tuesday 7/18
AM - This morning, I went on an easy jog from work along the Charles River around the Science Museum and back. It was really hot and sunny this morning and I was pretty tired, so I kept the pace very slow. I felt a bit nauseous when I first started jogging, but that feeling went away a few minutes into my run. I ran across Matt Taylor (a buddy of mine from Yale) along the river, but we were going different directions and I was running late for a meeting at work, so we didn't stop to say hi.
PM - I was going to go on a run with Friedman this evening, but he wanted to wait until after 10pm so it would be cool enough. I ended up going around 8pm, and it wasn't too hot. I did the Jamaica Pond loop at a very easy pace. I've been pretty tired recently from the increase in my mileage, but things seem to be going okay so far. Unfortunately, my stomach was bothering me a bit during my run this evening, so I had to stop at the porta potty at Jamaica Pond. I wonder if it's something I ate for lunch...
Sleep - 7 hours.
Food - Breakfast: grape nuts, lemonade. Lunch: pasta with swordfish, tomato soup, banana, yogurt. Dinner: Sushi platter from Douzo.
5 + 8 = 13 miles

Monday 7/17
PM - I didn't workout until 10pm this evening because I had to go home and wait around for a guy who saw my TV on Craig's List and wants to buy it. He said he'd come by around 7, but he didn't show up until after 9pm. At least he said he wants to buy the TV and entertainment center, so that's one less thing to move out to Stanford. After he left, I jogged over to work, did 45 minutes on the elliptical, and jogged back home. Even though it was 10pm, it was really hot outside when I jogged between home and work. Earlier today, I went to see Ellen Halpern, a massage therapist at Myotech. She has helped me out a lot over the past couple months. Today, she spent time working on my left achilles and right hip flexor. I also had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Keroack, a GI doctor at MGH. He said all of my blood chemistry appears to be normal (I was tested for celiac sprue antibodies and thyroid stimulation hormone, among other things), so I'm going to go in on Friday for a lactose breath test. The good news is that my stomach is actually feeling much better these days, so maybe it just took me a while to get over that stomach bug from Argentina.
Sleep - 7 hours.
Food - Breakfast: Bagel, yogurt, and odwalla green tea protein drink. Lunch: turkey sandwich. Snack: sushi, chicken, pita with hummus. Dinner: pasta salad, potato salad, and caesar salad.
8x miles