Week 9 and 10 of Spring Training

I spent way more time foam rolling my legs than I did actually doing this recovery run. Grrr. I have some monster crunchies in my IT band near my knee, and up by my hip flexor. Grrrr.

My tweaked my knee at work early in the week and ended up taking the rest of the week off from running. Not exactly ideal a few weeks out from race day, but showing up to the starting line broken isn't ideal either. Luckily the weather was ATROCIOUS so I didn't feel like I was missing out on much. I probably could've run on Sunday but I decided to be careful and give it another day.

Of course on Monday one of Kyle's friends was in town unexpectedly so we went out for dinner with him and friends, so I was in no condition to run afterwards. 

Wednesday morning I hit the treadmill before work since I didn't have to go in until noon. I had the beginnings of a cold and it was hotter than the dickens in the gym, so I had a tough time keeping my HR down in the general aerobic range. The run was a bit slower than I was expecting, but it still flew by. My knee started to twinge a little the last half mile, but otherwise it was a great run.

Wednesday night I started to feel TERRIBLE and when I woke up Thursday I could barely breathe and my sinuses felt like they were going to explode. I decided to shuffle my remaining workouts for the week to take a rest day. 

offending sinus

For Sunday's long run, I had some very serious math story problem variables to figure out at way too early in the morning. First I had to consult my garmin maps for previous long runs, as ever since I've moved (almost two years ago) I still sometimes get my mile markers confused with my old ones, as they're only 1.2 miles apart. This is normally nbd when I'm running alone, but when you're planning to meet up with someone, it can be really bad. Like the time I told Jenn I would meet her in 11 minutes at my one mile marker, only to realize when I was already on the run that I was actually meeting her at 2.2 miles and she was going to freeze to death waiting for me. :(

Then, after determining our meetups, we had to figure at what time each of us would have to leave our places at our respective running paces to meet up at the pre-existing meet up place. My brain hurt as I hadn't consumed any coffee lately, but I figured it out, nonetheless.

I took off in shorts in hopes that my legs could lose some of their transparency. Seriously. No filter can make these legs more pleasant to look at. Sorry. But shorts! I heart shorts. I should've just wore a t-shirt but I wore a long sleeved shirt and had the sleeves pushed up the whole time.

The first two miles was spent trying to get the phlegm in my throat to either come up or down. I felt like I was choking. Gross, sorry. My heart rate was high from the get go, and I think it was because my breathing was all off since I was breathing primarily out of my mouth.

I met up with Jenn at 4.7 miles, and was elated to have some company. We were both so excited to run in the warm weather that we didn't stop to think about how the bike trails would be with all of the snow and now it's all melting. It was such a sloppy mess of flooding/ice/snow. But still it was a run that wasn't in the freezing cold.

I started to feel pretty wiped out around mile 7. Not a good outlook for a 14 mile run, huh? Jenn took off for home around mile 8 so I still had six miles to slog through on my own. In to a 20mph wind. Meh. If I hadn't lost steam before, I certainly did then. Around mile 12, I was ready to call someone to come get me I was so cashed. My heart rate was crazy high (where it normally is during intervals!) yet I was only managing an 11:30 pace. Ugh. Struggle city, population: Jerbear. I ended up taking walk breaks the last two miles just to get my heart rate to come down.

Both of my knees are sore from all the change in running terrain, and my whole body--joints and muscles are incredibly sore. I seriously feel worse than I normally do after a 20 miler. I clearly should've taken another rest day or dropped down the mileage to 10-12. 

So this wasn't exactly the confidence boosting final long-long run leading up to the half in NYC but I'm still awarding myself extra credit points for completion. Woof.

Week 7 of Spring Training

Week 7 started off with a bang. I hit the treadmill to do a HR test (more on that later) and was on a monster running high from there. I spent all day Wednesday looking forward to my run. And then I got home, got on the foam roller before my run and realized I should take a rest day. I had a super ouchy spot up high near my hip flexor and one down low by my knee. Running when these spots are tight, for me, almost ensures an injury.

I didn't end up running again until Sunday. Uff. I could've run on Saturday but I had a serious case of the lazies and madsies at the weather. It was supposed to be high 30s and then magically that changed to 30 and 30-40 mph winds.  Eew.

Sunday I hit the treadmill for an easy 3 mile shakeout run.

Monday I was one of the lucky ducks to have the day off from work, so I gave the sun a chance to do its thing and melt the new snow and ice that was dumped on us last night, and then headed out for a long run in the early afternoon. I had planned for 13-14, but after seeing how messy the bike trail was, and how slowly I was running to compensate for the poor conditions, I told myself I'd be happy with 12.

Once I got about 4 miles from home, the conditions on the trail got better, so I decided to keep running, dreading when I'd have to turn around. I decided a half marathon would be a great way to spend the day. I hit my turn around point and for the first time in the history of my running career, the wind that was at my back for the first half HAD ACTUALLY DIED DOWN for the second half. Usually it doubles while I'm running with it at my back. Also a couple of the super slick and icy spots had melted so that was nice too. I ran out of water with 4 miles to go, drank some snow, but was still super thirsty when I finished up. I need a new Nathan's quickdraw because my straw got super moldy and nasty, blech. I only have my tiny little 12 oz. handheld for the moment. That's not going to cut it in a month or two when it's actually hot out.

22.1 miles for the week (Tuesday-Monday). Who else is ready for spring??

Week 6 of Spring Training

Monday I didn't have to go in to work until 6pm because I was scheduled to work both Saturday and Sunday (#weekendbrarian, whoop!). It was sunny and almost 20 degrees so you'd better believe I was heading outside for my recovery run. Due to some new information from one of my friends, I learned that the terrible turkey has been relocated because he was chasing so many people. YIPPEE! Unfortunately that bit of news was accompanied with a snapchat video that showed three turkeys crossing the parking lot. Hmm.... I decided to take my chances.

Oh how I missed my little recovery run route, turkey free! I even got in some miles on the gravel. That counts as trail running right??  jk.

Wednesday I hit the treadmill for mile repeats. Eek. Mile repeats have always been my least favorite and most stressed about workout. ALWAYS. I was actually pretty excited about them, however, because running has been going pretty well, my body has been holding up (everyone knock on wood along with me, please!), and I wanted to see how they would go.

I did a mile warm up, than 3x1 mile repeats with an 800 jogging recovery in between them, followed by a one mile cool down. There was a guy on the treadmill next to me, and when he was done I thanked him for keeping me company. It almost felt like I had a running buddy! The intervals were hard, and I was definitely counting down the last two minutes of each one but I was able to run strong and keep proper form throughout which is a major win for me. Interesting fun fact: I almost ALWAYS count down from 120 with speedwork and in races. Two minutes seems like a really long time, but 120 seconds seems like NBD. Also, I count along with the cadence of my feet and breathing, so it's actually slower than a second and I'm done long before I hit zero. This is weird, I realize. I'm ok with that.

Pouring sweat? Check.

Bright red mug? Check.

Full on swass? You bet (and you're welcome for no photo #proof)

After logging my run, I went back through my log to see when the last time I ran that fast was. I had to go all the way back to January 2013 to see mile repeats at similar paces. 13 months! Getting back there.

Friday was my scheduled long run. Due to working Saturday and Sunday and Friday being the "warm" day of the week (high of 12), that was the plan. Unfortunately that means that my long run buddy Jenn, was working.

I sent this text to Kyle at 10am when it was -5 and -16 which chill. Come on winter, get yo act together!

Somehow I laid on the couch all day and finally threw the towel in on my LR when I realized I was starving and needed some food. Of course, as soon as I stepped outside to go grab some food, I realized it wasn't nearly as bad as the forecast was projecting. #fail

Saturday night after work it was a balmy +10 because of the snow fall we got. Thanks snow for bringing the temps in to the bearable range! On my drive home I noticed that a few sidewalks were cleared on a hill repeat spot I've been wanting to try (once the threat of turkey chases disappeared). Of course by the time I got out there, I realized that it was 95% covered in a thick sheet of ice. Luckily it's a fairly low traffic area with two lanes, so I was able to hop on the road to complete my repeats. I did a 1 mile warm up, followed by 6x800m hill repeats, and a quarter of a mile rest/recovery in between. I walked for about a minute and jogged the rest of the recovery. Then I ran home. This is the strongest I've felt on a speed work session! My hill repeat averaged to 4:10, or 8:20 pace.

Since I didn't do my LR, I tried to push two runs fairly back to back to at least try to simulate the time on my feet. Sunday morning I hopped on the treadmill for a 4 mile recovery run. I wanted to go another mile longer, but I had to get ready for work. Womp.