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.
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.)
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