Going With The Flow

4 miles in Indy with Jake along the river. This wind better die down by tomorrow morning!!

Another step in the right direction today. I consider this a better performance than the SOJO 5k and was able to finish a lot stronger.

The elite race coordinator was nice enough to let me hang out in the elite quarters (=warm indoors) prior to the race as Jake's coach/psychologist/masseuse. The talent level in that room was pretty phenomenal - truly some of the best in the country ran today. I ran part of the warm-up with Jake and walked with the elites to the starting line. Conditions were pretty good for fast times at 41 degrees and only a little breezy. Because the 5K started after the half/full, I jogged to the half mile mark to watch (and make sure Jake didn't go out at 3k pace). I have never seen such a big race start - the masses just kept coming and coming. It made me happy to see so many people that love the sport!

Obviously I wasn't super focused on my race. Apparently no one else needed to do strides for the 5k so I didn't either. A few mascots danced for a couple minutes then we were off. I was in 50th place at 0.25 mile and I'm pretty sure there were at least 35 epic crashes. I stuck to my 5:55 goal pace and worked on reeling in the runners ahead of me. I was able to speed up in the last 0.5 mile and finish with a pretty good kick. 

I hoped to run around 18:15 so I am satisfied with my performance! I haven't had the best week with quite a bit of discomfort of my lateral knee and glute, but once again race day performed its miracle and I felt completely healthy. I really do believe that the races are helping my right leg/hip muscles fire correctly and are good for me as I continue to heal.

I relaxed for a few minutes then went out to wait and cheer for Jake. He came around the corner with two guys on either side of him, and it was great to see him kick it into that extra gear and outsprint them! Overall a good race for both of us. 

It was nice to meet Jason D then watch Paul come in 3rd (and PR!) in the marathon. Also, hats off to Joe Bell with a big PR as well!

According to my Garmin, I need to get better at running the tangents... and stop running THROUGH buildings during the race :)

After watching the NYC Marathon, Jake and I went out for a nice jog around the horsepark for 6.2 miles. The run started with snow and ended with sunshine.

Goals for 27:
1) Get 100% healthy
2) Have tons of adventures
3) Don't grow up yet

Lunch run in Dimple Dell...slow and pleasant. Got to thinking about long-term running goals and that was fun.

Monday Motivation!

“You have to hang on and look at the future. This is a very significant point. Running is never a waste. Everything you are doing now is all part of the grand plan. What’s going to happen nine years down the road? The more you train, the more consistent you become.” - Bill Rogers

“The enduring satisfaction of distance running is not in records that will inevitably be broken, not in knowing that you were the best on a given day. It lies in knowing that you have learned how to be brave and to do something better than you first thought you could, and perhaps in knowing you amazed a few people along the way." -Kenny Moore

10 miles with Jake A. We ran a 3 mile warm-up then 4 mile tempo in 27:23 (6:49, 6:53, 7:02, 6:39). The tempo portion had a few small gradual ups and downs but mostly flat. I felt a little tired by the end of the run and psoas got a little achy. Our 3 mile cooldown was very snowy and felt like January. Come back fall!!

4 miles, 8:55 pace. My groin and psoas were a little tight but a massage from Tim tonight should help. The cold weather has also mildly triggered forefoot pain again (metatarsalgia) so this morning I moved up to a size 10.5 WIDE in womens shoes! 

Horsepark loops, 6.1 miles. Saw Teddy and lots of other dogs. Which brings me to my question....Jake - can we foster this puppy?!?!?

Track workout with Jake A. After a 2 mile warm-up, we ran 6x800m w/ 400m jog recovery. Splits were 2:59, 2:59, 3:00, 3:00, 3:00, 3:00. Short cool-down back to work for 7.8 miles total. The workout felt pretty challenging, especially those last couple reps. 

AM - 45 minutes of arm weights and PT. Adductor is really sore (in a good way!) so I'm waiting until this afternoon to run.

PM - 4 miles with Jake. Very enjoyable run.

Millcreek run with Allie, 9 miles. Sunday runs are the best.

Lunch run of 3.6 miles. Shirtless running in November - yes please!! :)

Monday Motivation - 

"It's important to know that at the end of the day it's not the medals you remember. What you remember is the process -- what you learn about yourself by challenging yourself, the experiences you share with other people, the honesty the training demands -- those are things nobody can take away from you whether you finish twelfth or you're an Olympic Champion. 
-Silken Laumann, Canadian Olympian 

Horse park loops with Jake, 10k. We had an interesting discussion about the mindset differences in men's and women's running.

If you want to run a 5K this weekend, Saltair is giving 50% off registration with code "salty5krun" to the next 10 runners that sign up!

Wednesday Workout. 2 mile warm-up then 1600m + 8x400m with 400m after the 1600 and 200m b/w 400s. Splits were 5:51 + 87, 85, 85, 86, 85, 86, 86, 86. I am pleased with the workout and feel like I am making great progress.

Met Jake at the horsepark and ran a couple laps, 6 miles. By far the best I've felt the day after a workout since before injury. 

Easy 3 miles in the drizzling rain. 

I am running the Saltair 5K tomorrow morning. The weather looks iffy right now - could be raining, snowing, windy, etc. As long as the weather doesn't become a huge factor, I'm shooting for around 18:30. I have kept my mileage up this week so I won't be surprised if I have some fatigue in my legs. 

Vern Gambetta has a great post today - 

Training is not about the hurt or pain; it is not about puking and being at the max in each workout. That is not training. Training is systematic, sequential and progressive; it incorporates hard workouts and easy workouts to allow the body to adapt. Work is easy training is hard. Anyone can do mindless work that wears out the body; not very many can focus and put the pieces together to systematically improve performance over time. To understand what good training is, it is important to be able to separate fact from fiction and style and marketing claims from programs that have substance and produce consistent results. Along the same line of thought beware of false prophets bearing gifts. Nothing easily attained is ever worthwhile and nothing worthwhile is easily attained. Focus on fundamentals and build on the basics. Good training is build upon scientific laws, empirical evidence and best practices that has stood the test of time. Adaptation takes time; the process is predictable based on the demands imposed on the body. Nothing exotic here, it is all very basic, if someone tells you otherwise, don't listen. Take your time and stay on the functional path to the destination - optimum performance in the competitive arena.

Typical conditions at any race that starts at Saltair - rainy, snowy, cold, windy, etc. I ran a 2 mile warm-up with Allie and Kassi then watched the half marathon start. The 5k was 30 minutes after and a much smaller race. The weather varied from a calm wind to very windy and raining. The race started, and the first half of the race felt relatively comfortable at just under 6 minute pace. After the turnaround was a different story. I was able to maintain my pace until about 2 miles but was working a lot harder to fight the wind and rain. I looked at my watch at 2.5 miles and was running 20 sec/mile slower. I think the wind died back down at that point, but I wasn't able to speed up. My final time was 18:45 with the course at 5-10 seconds short. Splits were 5:58, 6:01, 6:19, 5:59 pace for .07 miles. 

I ran slower than I expected/wanted, but I'm not worried. I've had a great couple weeks of training and the weather wasn't ideal today. Today served as a great workout and I did win the women's race :) Afterwards, I watched the half marathoners come in, froze, then ran a 2 mile cooldown with Collin and Kassi. Overall a well-run event and I was pleased with the organization. Big congrats to Jake A for a HUGE PR today!

Pics from the race here.

Afternoon run in the sun, 6.2 miles. I felt okay but not great - my pelvis felt a little off. Met up with Jake afterwards, who was measuring out the tempo loop with his new wheel.

I hit 40 miles for two weeks in a row :) Goal this week is to try a short tempo on Tuesday, intervals on Friday, and a longer run on Sunday for ~40 miles again.

Easy 3 miles during lunch - really nice outside.

Tuesday Tempo with Jake - 3 mile warm-up then 5K in 20:27 (6:36, 6:34, 6:31, :47). It felt like a very controlled effort and it was nice to have Jake join me on the tempo as part of his easy run :). Ran 2.5 miles to cool-down for 8.5 miles total. Temperature was in the 50s which was a nice surprise.
 

Ran the usual four mile loop and saw the CIM-bound guys fly past me on their tempo. 

Lots of good stuff in here - Trent Stellingwerff: on the belief effect

Horsepark loops with Jake, 10k. It was a cold drizzling rain at first then raining pretty steadily by the end of the run. Had it been the other way around, I probably would've crawled back into bed.

I tried running in moonshoes (Hokas) for the first time this morning and was honestly a little disappointed. There is so much squishiness - to the point where I felt like I was losing all of my momentum on every stride....kinda like running on really soft wood chips all the time. The shoe was not very flexible so I could feel blisters starting to develop on my toes, and I just didn't feel like I had good running form with them. I can see how they might be nice for a 3-4 mile shake-out but definitely not what I would consider a good every day shoe. I don't want to sound negative but I'm just not as impressed as I thought I would be. My opinion though, and I know several people that do love the shoe.

Interval workout. Jake was nice enough to join me again so we warmed up 2 miles then ran 6 x 0.5 mi w/ 0.25 mi jog recovery. Averaged 2:53 (2:56, 2:52, 2:55, 2:54, 2:52, 2:49). It was extremely windy this morning - mostly from the east - so we picked a north and south route so it wasn't a big factor.

Four slow miles in the afternoon with Jake. Windy!

Liberty Park loops with Allie, very casual and enjoyable run.

I have been pleased with my last three weeks of training since the Indy 5k, with over 40 miles and two quality runs each week. This week I am taking it easy in prep for the 5k race next Saturday - my last, and hopefully best, race of the season.

Scheduled day off! I have finally gotten to a point where I understand the value in taking days off from running so it's not nearly as difficult as it used to be :)

Logic of Long Distance always has great philosphocal blogs about running. This is an excerpt from his Toughness post -

"Being mentally tough is less about confronting pain and more about controlling the attention. The toughest racers are those who allow their attention to be "consumed by the race," as a friend recently described it. Being tough, paradoxically, doesn't mean confronting the largest amount of pain. What it demands is literally not feeling the pain at all--keeping the attention absorbed in other things, like controlling the body, competing with rivals, maintaining the rhythms of the running motion. When we achieve a race like this, we usually call it a breakthrough. What has been "broken through" is an old preperception, an old habit of attending to an image of the self or of pain that was supposed to come but didn't."

Tuesday Track Workout. The goal of this workout was to sharpen up for the 5K. 4x200m + 6x400m w/200m jog recovery between reps. Splits were 43-46-42-43 + 84-83-82-81-79-78. I got a little negative-split happy during the workout! 

Easy 3 mile recovery run. We are headed to Phoenix this evening and I am looking forward to lots of warm sunshine!

Paced Jake's dad in the Mesa turkey trot for 4 miles.

Easy 4 miles in Phoenix with Jake. I have that dead legs feeling that I always seem to get the day before a race. Renegades 5k tomorrow - I'm planning to go after sub-18 as long as my right leg/groin cooperates. I'd say there's a 50/50 chance I can do it.

Would've been a sub-18 if it was a 5k! Great end to the season.

This morning, I ran the Renegades Run to support the Arizona Academy of Youth Soccer. The course was one big loop and very flat. It was a small race of ~150 runners, mostly kids and parents of the academy. Jake and I debated whether he should pace me or not, and we finally decided that it wouldn't affect his training negatively and would help me a lot. 

The start was as crazy as always when lots of kids are racing. I squeezed myself onto the start line and we were off. I knew that 5:47 pace would be a stretch and it was...it felt really fast from the beginning. We "settled" right on pace and hit the first mile in 5:47. I passed the first girl shortly after the mile then focused on keeping good form. Jake pushed the pace a bit on the 2nd mile with a 5:42 in order to give me a confidence boost. The final mile was a straight shot to the finish. I really started hurting at 2.25 miles and said to Jake "Help!". He pushed me through that last bit to keep pressing. The course ended up being exactly 3 miles, running the last mile at 5:49 and with a finish time of 17:20. That was HARD - I ran as hard as I could and am proud to have run that fast :) 

Part of me was disappointed not to race the full 5K and the other part was really happy it was over! I am confident that I would have finished barely under 18 minutes for the 5K which has been my fall goal since I had surgery back in May. It's been a long journey since then and I still have a long way to getting back to 100%, but this fall season has given me a lot of hope that I will continue to feel better every month. 

I really appreciate all the encouragement that I have gotten in the last year. I have had a lot of ups and downs, and the people on this blog have helped me in so many ways.