Weekly Training Recap

Monday I took a rest day. Starting off the week strong! Lolz.

Tuesday I took advantage of the sunny skies and did a general aerobic run on rolling hills. I shocked myself when I looked down for the first time and saw a sub 10 pace on my watch. I don't think I've run sub 10 on a run that didn't have speed work in it.... for a while. So that was fun.

Wednesday I hit the track with Jenn J. I was nervous that my legs would be tired from the day before's run. We had 6x800 on the schedule since we slacked the previous week. Recap: I ran 8:02-8:10 paces for two and felt like my legs were going to fall off they were so heavy. Recovered? Nope.

We did our mile warm up and both of us commented that we didn't have much pep in our step. Uff. We did our stretches and I did some booty activation exercises (<--I will henseforth refer to them as such, because, lolz, sounds like a super hero move, Captain Booty, ACTIVATE!) I planned to run the first one at or around 8 minute pace, and then drop from there if my legs were feeling it.

Well, I guess my legs were feeling it.

3:55, 3:53, 3:50, 3:56, 3:50, 3:44. Avg. 3:51 (7:42 pace), whoop!

Alright then. Jenn stopped for a few seconds after each of our quarter mile jogs, allowing me to rabbit her, and that worked well, because I don't want to get caught! I'm hoping it won't be too long before her and I are running the same paces!

#stataholic

These paces are almost on par with a similar workout done in the spring of 2011 (yes, I clearly went back to check my log for this data) and the spring of 2011 was when I set most of my PRs. #comeback 

(#toomanyhashtagsforablogpost?)

All green. As you do when you hit the track, right?

Thursday I took a rest day.

Friday I had the day off for working Saturday so I set out for my long run after procrastinating most of the morning. As you do. The temps were cool and the wind was minimal. And it. was. awesome. I haven't had that strong of a long run in a really long time. It was actually at a faster pace than my first two halfs of this spring..... :/  I did 3 minute pickups every 20 minutes to keep things interesting and to keep my form engaged.

It's important to match your toenails to your running top.

My hat was soaked, even on a "cool" day. Somehow that didn't come across as well in the photo. :(

After the run I met up with some friends for some twofers. But not until I took a selfie to feature my new pug shirt and purty hairz.

If I was a pug, that's what I'd look like fyi.

Tom and Jeri! This picture makes me laugh.

And the best beer I've had in a really long time:  Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA. I may have spent a considerable amount of time calling around to liquor stores on Sunday to find somewhere that carried it. Spoiler: I didn't luck out. :(

Saturday I took a rest day and accidentally did Sunday too, unless you count eating Qdoba nachos as training, then I nailed it.

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 8 of Spring Training

I had a couple of crunchy spots in my IT bands after Monday's 13.1 so my next run wasn't until Thursday. I hit the treadmill all excited to watch some Olympics (ok I totally retract my statement about not being in to the Olympics. Watching the Olympics makes running a few measly miles at a pokey pace seem like child's play, also they're INSANE!). Naturally when I got to the gym, the tv wasn't working. Whyyyy world whyyyyyyyyy?

Luckily I brought my iPod and a Runner's World magazine. Which I proceeded to read cover to cover while I covered 6 miles. I felt like I could run forever, my HR was super duper low, and it was just a great effortless run. I probably could've bumped up my pace since my HR was quite a bit lower than it needed to be, but I tend to think that a recovery run can never be done too slow. Also I knew that I was either running a tempo run or a long run on Thursday and I'd rather have fresh legs for that.

Friday I woke up actually excited to run long. Normally I loathe long runs. The weather was decent--20 degrees with a feels like temp of 10, 20-30 mph winds. Possibly one of the nicest long run days I've had this winter. I worked on my wrestler skills and tucked in my shirt to my running tights to see if that would keep my belly from being BRIGHT RED when I finished. Spoiler alert: it worked. I even did a wrestler pose in front of the mirror and laughed at myself. Kyle would've enjoyed it had he not been off fishing for the day (*grumble grumble*). 

The first five miles of the run flew by. Looking at my data I realized why, I was practically running at a recovery pace for the first five miles with the wind at my back. Derp. When I turned around, I was miserable. The wind was intense, and I was hungry. Not starting my long run until 1pm and eating breakfast at 9am didn't really *work* for me. I inhaled the Honey Stingers I brought along but I was still starving. I made myself suck it up the last mile to have a strong finish. My plan was to run for time, because I wasn't sure how the bike bath was, and I wanted to hit 2 hours. 

Mission accomplished.

Immediately after finishing the run, I got on the phone to see if I could get a vet appointment for Ollie. She has had a really bad cough the past couple of days and I was starting to freak out. Luckily she's ok, but going straight from the run to the vet's office meant I almost perished before I got to eat at 7pm. Uff.  Also Ollie's vet bill was like 2 months worth of groceries, so I guess I'll be really skinny by the time my next race rolls around.

Saturday I had planned to run a few miles for recovery's sake, but my legs were super duper tight. I stretched and foam rolled and finally resigned to another rest day.

Sunday I woke up with the intention of beating my legs in to submission to dominate a tempo run. I spent a considerable amount of time foam rolling. I had three different spots that were super painful. Then I attempted some self massage on my hip flexors, along with some hip flexor exercises. THEN I found some videos online for additional things to do. I dug up a tennis ball and almost died. Ok, that's a spot my foam roller doesn't hit. Got it.

As soon as I got the final alert for Dom finishing her ultra I hit the gym. I've decided my yellow Lululemon shorts are my speedy shorts. I always seem to wear them for my speed sessions, and I'm thinking they might be my speedy luck charms. For your retinal pleasure, I only wore a black tank top instead of another wild and bright shirt. You're welcome.

I did a mile and a half warm up super slow since I didn't get in a recovery run after my long run on Friday, and after about 8 minutes my HR dropped to where it should be. My tempo pace was supposed to be 9:17, and I hit 9:15, 9:12, 9:13, 9:10. Which clearly means that I lied on my photo below, now that I'm re-doing the math. Oops, that's what I get for doing math on a oxygen deprived post-workout brain. Average tempo pace: 9:12. I'll still take it! Then I did a half mile cool down. This was one of the strongest runs I've had in quite some time (also one of my first tempo runs I've had in awhile, those seem to be the ones I've ended up skipping... oops). I felt strong, and my HR really didn't jump up to the tempo zone until I had ran about 2.5 miles. Since I've done very little (=no) running at this effort level, that's pretty darn good for now.

The filter on this pic makes my legs look super weird, but at least it hides the small layer of fur on them. Oops. Filters, the new faux leg shaving!

Technically for the week, I hit 36.1 miles, my sixth highest weekly mileage over the past 52 weeks of running. But I consider Monday's run to be tacked on to last week, so that drops me to 23 miles. Regardless, I spent a ridiculous amount of time stretching, foam rolling, and doing various dynamic stretches and exercises to make sure my legs didn't fall off this week.  Success! (So far.)

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.

Week 4 and Week 5 of Spring Training

Monday morning I hit the treadmill to run an easy shake out run. My legs were super heavy and pretty sore from my long run the day before. I don't know if I could've done further than 3 miles. The gym was ROASTING. I thought I was going to die. Luckily I didn't.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I could NOT get out of bed. I went to bed at or before 10am and my 5:30 alarm came and went every single morning. I think my body is still fighting off my cold/sinus crap from last week, because I'm normally a-ok with 6-7 hours of sleep a night. Thank goodness my weekly mileage is still low and easy to swap around training days at this point.

Thursday I hit the grocery store on the way to work to grab some healthy snacks so I wouldn't be STARVING when I left work Thursday night. Starving Jeri = grabbing crappy food for dinner and then feeling like crap and not being able to run.

I got home played with the pug for a few minutes and then hit the treadmill. Still crazy hot in there. Wasn't able to pry the window open for some breeze, frozen shut--NEAT! The temp in the hallway is set at 72* and it feels FREEZING out there compared to the gym, if that gives you an idea of the temp.

I was supposed to do a general aerobic run, but my HR ended up being in my recovery range. After the first 7-8 minutes my heart rate dropped dramatically, so I spent the remainder of the run bumping up the  speed on the treadmill and being excited as my heart rate would settle back down immediately after. Whoop. Fitness. Orange shirt, green hat, purple shorts, yellow shoes, running eyesore. Sorry.


Friday's long run didn't happen. So I convinced myself to do my tempo run instead. I ran my 1.5 mile warm up, half mile at tempo and was GASPING for air. Ugh. Long run turned tempo fail.

As of Wednesday I was still planning to run the Frostbite 4 on Saturday, so with a slight heat wave (above zero) I attempted my long run after work. Around the 1.5 mile marker, I was making my way across a street when a car came barreling through a stop light. A car was obstructing my view, so I had about half a second to react and did some high knees/sprinting combo so the car didn't take out my left leg. After I made it out of the way, I turned around, and the vehicle hadn't even slowed down. WTF. I was wearing my glow in the dark (practically) hat, white coat with reflective strips, and black tights with reflective strips. I also had my handheld which has reflective strips. Scary scary scary. Clearly I need the bright pink nike tights I've been eyeing lately for "safety purposes."

After this encounter, I was obviously pretty shaken up, and then was treated to ice upon ice upon ice. I kept going thinking that the residential area I was en route to would be better, but I was wrong. I know our city has a 48 hour sidewalk snow removal law, but clearly people aren't following it. So since we'd had a warmish day, but it was now cold again (see: bright red face in the photo) the sidewalks had frozen over to super uneven ice. Grumble grumble. I decided to turn for home around 3 miles. To keep it interesting, on the back half, I ran hard on the clear sidewalk parts, and then teetered/tippy toed on the super ice parts.

Friday after work I hit the treadmill for a 3 mile shake out run. No photos because there were people and I can't bring myself to do the gym selfie in "public."

Saturday I had planned to run an hour easy, because Sunday looked the nicest for my 2 hour long run, but my stomach was super wonky all day long. Instead I watched season 1 of Homeland for the majority of the day, and finished a pretty terrible book (ugh, review to come in a bit). I scratched the race completely because the windchill was -15 at race time. LOLNOPE.

Sunday I woke up, and for the first night in a REALLY long time, I hadn't slept with a hooded sweatshirt on OR under my electric blanket with the heat turned up to HIGH. HEAT WAVE. Jk, the weather said it was -2. But a windless -2. WHOOP. I was planning to do my LR around noon, where it was going to be +10. My running friend Jenn (non-purpleshoe Jenn) texted me to let me know she wanted to come run with me, AND IT'S HER BIRTHDAY. So of course I said yes. BIRTHDAY RUN!!!

I dug out my balaclava to save my face, and Ollie wanted to try it on. I also dug out my yaktrax, but those don't come in pug sizes.

The run was pretty great. Some areas of ice, and holy wind on the back portion of our out and back. I was so thankful I brought my balaclava along for it. I did 3 minute pick ups every twenty minutes for the first half, and then kind of forgot about them/got tired/was sick of running in the wind for the second half. I did pick up the pace the last mile to have a strong finish.

Week Two of Spring Training

That blog post title makes me think this post has something to do with baseball season, but alas, it's just about me running. This week I hit all four of my prescribed workouts at approximately the correct recommended paces.  Whoop. I got back in to the habit of early to bed and early to rise, to teach the treadmill who's boss before work. I also learned that VH1 plays the same music videos back to back from one morning to the next. I also learned that I can still read while running on the treadmill, so hopefully I'll get in a few extra books if I have to log treadmill miles sporadically this winter.

Wednesday I hit the treadmill in the gym for a GA run. I got caught up on Runner's World reading and spent a lot of time staring at this photo pretending I was running somewhere snow-covered but not -40 below zero. I also learned that our apartment gym isn't a trillion degrees if you go early in the morning.

Just kidding on the apartment gym heat detail. Turns out yesterday someone just left the fan on to move around the sweltering heat. It was its usually 80 degrees in there. (I think the heating is shared with the pool area, so I guess I'll just plan on FINALLY becoming acclimated to the heat....) I knocked out 3 mile repeats and didn't die, so I consider that a win.

I attempted my long run on Saturday because the temps said 20 degrees. Unfortunately the wind chill was 4, and with 25 mph winds in those sorts of temps it feels WAY colder on your face. I couldn't find my balaclava, so I ended up doing my 3 mile recovery run and pushing my LR to Sunday. Good news: balaclava found. Also this recovery pace was faster than my GA pace earlier in the week further proving that 4 degrees is much easier for me to perform than 80 degrees is. Neat.

I met up with my friend Jenn (non-purpleshoe running friend Jenn, to clarify) as she agreed to join me for some of my long run. This was my first double digit run since Madison! I told her I'd meet her at my 1.25 mile marker and gave her an approximate time of 15 minutes for my arrival (I have to stop at quite a few stop lights en route to our meet up spot). When I hit the one mile marker of the run I realized I was actually meeting her at the 2.25 spot and had to throw down the hammer so she wasn't stuck waiting for me in the cold. Bad running partner, Jerbear. The good news was that I saw 9:20-9:20s paces in that mile and a quarter to find her. The bad news is that starting off a long run with paces that are too fast pretty much ensures you will crash and burn. And I did. I didn't bring water or nutrition, oops. The last 2.5 miles weren't pretty and had a few walk breaks, but a long run with a lackluster finish is still better than no long run!

24 miles ran for the week. Whoop.