Pfitz- Week 1

Mon- Rest
Tues- 7 miles with 10x100m strides
Wed- Rest
Thurs- 9 miles general aerobic
Fri- REst
Sat- 4 miles Recovery
Sun - 12 miles on the treadmill due to thunderstorms. The most painful run if the week.

Totals - 32 miles

I think this plan is going to work. the only negatives are not being able to work speedwork, formally into the plan and not being able to sync my long runs to the long runs of my running group, who used HH's programs.

Extreme Dehydration

Runs

6/12 - 6 miles 55:10
6/13 -
6/14 - Speedwork 2x2400(6:52, 6:45/mile), 4x200, - 6 miles total
6/15 -
6/16 -
6/17 - 15 miles: 2:25
6/18 -

total : 27 miles


I was still sore early in the week from my garden work. On Saturday I ran 15 around 8:30 am. I guess I am not ready for the heat. It was 75 degrees at the start and 85 by the end of my run. I was pretty dehydrated and had lost 6 pounds. I felt horrible for the rest of the day. It was the worst I have felt outside the end of marathons.

A was in NYC from Friday until Sunday. So I had baby duty the entire weekend. I had help from my father-in-law and a cousin. N was pretty good, only crying for A a few times. He seemed to be mad at A when we picked her up from the airport. He screamed, as if to voice his extreme displeasure for having been left with me for the weekend.

Culinary

Not much this week.

Garden

Most of the plants are surviving. The ones grown from seeds are more fragile. Out of the 12 seed grown tomatoes, I think only 3-4 are going to survive. That plus the 6 store bought plants will give us a decent amount of tomatoes. The cucumber plant is also showing signs of not making it. Outside of that all the okra look good. All the store bought plants look good and the basil, cilantro and oregano look well as well.

I'm really sore and not from running

Runs

6/5 - 8 miles with 6x100 strides
6/6 -
6/7 - Speedwork 2x1200/2x1000/2x800, 6.25 total
6/8 -
6/9 -
6/10 - 3 miles
6/11 - 14 miles

total : 31.2 miles


I reached a high in mileage for this year. The runs are slower, but I feel like I'm making progress. I still have a nagging left toe pain and tight hamstrings. My shins are slightly sore, like they get during training. I am ready to start Pfitzinger

Culinary

I made my patented veggie/tofu fajitas. On satudray morning, I made an interesting dish. I took a couple of tortillas and sauted them in some oil. I placed a fried egg(over-hard) on each tortilla and smothered one in a Green salsa and one in a salsa roja. It was actually pretty good. On Friday night, I went out to dinner to one of my favorite restaurants. My buddy from college, who lives in Bejing, finished his executive MBA from Northwestern Kellogg School of Business. His graduation was in Evanston. WE went to dinner to Osteria Via Stato. They have a Prix Fixe menu with all you can eat food(except the actual entree)

Antipasti
Beet salad
Baked onion with parmesan cheese
Watermelon, arugula and shaved Parmesan
mozzarella balls in olive oil with red pepper flakes


Pasta
Gemelli in pesto
Some other pasta with olive oil, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes

Entree
Eggplant Parmesan- Sicilian style

Dolci
Burnt Caramel Gelato


Garden

I spent 3 hours of back breaking work, planting 40 vegetable plants and several herb potters. B/c if timing, A couldn't help and I had to do it myself. Here's a breakdown
Cucumber -1
Squash - 1
Eggpalnt -1
Beans -2
Peas - 1
Okra-7
Peppers - 8 (Jalapeno-4, Chili-2, garden salsa-2)
Tomato - 18 (Heirloom-12, regular-2, roma-2, grape-2) I can't remember all the Heirloom varieties (Tigerella, Arkansas Traveler, San Marzano, and 2 others)

Herbs- Basil, thai basil, oregano, cilantro)

Graduation

Runs

5/29 - In KC, travel - no running
5/30 - Heavy rains when I came home from work - no running
5/31 - Speedwork 3x1 mile repeats, (6:50,6:45,6:32) 3 miles warm/cool - 6 miles total
6/1 -
6/2 - 12 miles - 1:52
6/3 - 3.1 miles :Lew Blond Memorial 5K : 27:00, ran with a jogging stroller
6/4 - too tired no running.

total : 21.2 miles


This was not a great week for training. Little things got in the way of running and I didn't plan my week very well. In this stage of training, I'm not running based on a real schedule. The only 2 runs that are set are my long run and Speedwork. All the other runs are filling in the blanks. I had hoped to run >26 miles this week, to build upon my 26 miles last week. I had hoped to run 6 on Sunday, but I stayed out late on Saturday night and didn't get to sleep until after 2 am. In the morning, A had plans to take N to the Lincoln Park Zoo early, thus I didn't get to sleep past 6 am. When we got back home after the zoo, I napped until 5 pm. Sunday night was the annual "graduation" party for the Cardiology Fellows at our hospital. It's a small dinner and reception and to thank the fellows for their hard work and to formally acknowledge them. In a month they will be finished with their training and be practicing in different parts of the country. I like going, since I am only 4 years removed from that time in my life as well. It's a wired feeling, finishing training. Not unlike Brooks from the Shawshank Redemption, once you're free, you don't remember what it was like to not be free. For me, if you count my time after high school, my schooling/training have encompassed 15 years. In those 15 years and especially the last 7, you have always had someone more experienced who you could ultimately rely on. Then all of a sudden (for me July 1 2002), when you're in a tough case, you look around, and their is no one. It's just you and you're training. Hopefully, In October, I'll be looking at 3:15:59 on the clock knowing that my trust in Pfitzinger ultimately allowed me to rech my goal.

Culinary

Not much this week. I did make a nice Pasta dish. I'm not a huge fan of non-tomato based pasta hishes. However, A really did not want a tomato based sauce, so I concocted a primavera-type dish with some Indiam spiced mixed in. It had roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, some other veggies, all sauted. It was then mixed with bow-tie pasta and EVOO. The only missing ingredient was Parmesiano Reggiano and/or some Panko bread crumbs.

Garden - (New addition to blog)

We have decided to start a garden again this year. Last year was generally a sucecss with bountiful crops of tomatoes (12 plants, 5 varieties), okra, peppers and cucumbers. The marginally successful plants were beans, radish and carrots. The failures were Eggpalnt and zucchini.

This year, i have started several plants from seeds (Heirloom varieties of tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers) plus several herbs (basil, oregano, cilantro and italian parsley)

We bought a few plants from Home Depot, some more tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, chili peppers, eggplant and some squash.

Our lawn service will be bringing some dirt to level off our garden area and we will plant this coming weekend. If I could grow avacados, I'd have everything I care to make- pasta sauce, salsa and guacamole.