Andrea's Running Page

Although my quads were still a little tender from the 5k on Saturday, I was anxious to get back out on the track for some speed work.  I met up with Natalie at little after 5:30 and we started with a 1 mile warmup.  While we were warming up, we chatted about what distances we wanted to do; we decided on 4x200s, 2x400s, 1x800, and another 4x200s.  Natalie is a great athlete so it's nice to have her there to make me push myself (too bad Dominique is out for a while -- she's another speed demon).

We started our 200s with a medium effort just to ease into it.  It had been 2 weeks since we did speed work (Moab taper the first week and recovery the second).  We finished our 200s in around 32-37 seconds.  On our last 200, I seemed to have done something to my left hamstring.  Whoa!  What was that pain all about?!  We stopped to stretch for a bit in hopes that the pain would subside -- never fully went away.  Walter showed up about that time so we ran another few laps at a casual pace with him while he was warming up.  The hamstring started to feel a tiny bit better.  Uh-oh, I hope this is something that will heal overnight -- I hate not being invincible!   

We ran a 400 (1:--), then an 800 (3:15), followed by another 400 (1:--).  I don't remember what the times were.  Natalie was in charge of the stopwatch and I was in charge of the total distance.  At that point, we decided to call it a night so we ran 1 mile to cool down and stretched for about 15 minutes.  We wanted to ease back into things after taking a couple weeks off from speed work. 

When I got home, I iced my left ham and put some topical Sore No More on it.  Seems that I had a bad reaction to something because I have a big ol' rash on my leg this morning.  That'll look really nice at the gym tonight -- maybe I'll wear capris.  My ham didn't heal overnight but it's not as sore as I thought it would be either. 

I ALWAYS have a great time at Wednesday night Hill Kills!  Tonight, we had a good turn out: Coach Bill, Tracy1, Natalie, Walter, Traci H., Esther, Murphy, and me.  A few miles in, we did 6 short sprints to really get the blood flowing.  We took on 6 hills for a total mileage of about 5.75 (all of our GPSs had a different distance).  Overall, it was a great quality workout.

It was good to catch up with Coach about the race last Saturday and the passing of Jude's father.  I chatted with Walter and some of the fast girls about the WBR female speed time; I'm interested to see how that pans out.  Unfortunately, the pain in my right hamstring hasn't subsided yet.  But it isn't debilitating either -- I can just feel it gently nagging in there, especially when I try to attack a hill.  Fortunately, Murphy was right by my side the whole way keeping the pace.  I gotta say that he's the best running companion -- never has any complaints.  Cardio-wise, I feel the best I've felt in a long time.  Maybe I'm finally kicking this cold!

What a great day for a run!  I ran with the group today in Bountiful -- we had a small turnout (likely due to Easter weekend).  All 9 of us took the big Bountiful/North Salt Lake hill by storm -- our progress and improvement on that hill are already evident!  I ran all 1.8 of it without stopping.  I felt great cardio-wise today; my body still feels a little beat up from a hard training week (left hamstring is still a little tight).

We met at Coach's house and warmed-up for a few miles along Davis Blvd.  Then we stopped in the school parking lot for 6 quick sprints to really get the blood flowing.  Then, on to Orchard Ave. for the stretch out to the refineries.  Of course, Coach wasn't going to let us off easy with the small hill.  No, we had the big hill on tap for the day.  We missed Craig who usually passes the rest of us up like we're standing still!! 

We made it up to Bountiful Blvd. and ran back to Coach's house with a hurry-up pace.  I always love the Bountiful run, such a nice view of the valley!  It was great to see Dominique who was sagging for us.  Overall, this was a great workout!