Going With The Flow

AM - 10 miles at Ibirapuera Park again today. It rained pretty hard last night so the trail was quite a muddy mess. I felt a lot of fatigue, probably from the run on Sat plus walking around Sao Paulo for 6 hours. Ran at an easy effort which turned out to be about 8:45 pace. Good thing I wasn't in a hurry! More exploring today...

AM - Found a different park in Sao Paulo that is closer to my hotel. Only a 0.9 loop around but that was good for mile repeats. The goal today was 4 x 1 mile at 5:50 pace. This ended up being way to ambitious for my current fitness! Ended up running 3 x mile (5:44 - too fast, 5:54, 5:56) the 4 x 200 (5:56 pace). I felt like I had a lot of fatigue in my legs, probably from walking around yesterday for 7 hours after a 10 mile run. I have also been building my mileage pretty steadily over the last month. I'm a little disappointed in the workout but I need to remember that I'm only beginning to do workouts and it takes time to get speed and endurance back. 

PM - 3.3 miles easy. Had some time to kill before dinner so I took it to the streets. Can't say it was a pleasant run..I spent most of the time dodging cars and people and doing circles around the block.

Some cool photos from Sao Paulo -

Really neat wall art.

Check out this cemetery! Quite the dramatic statues...

Local Samba music get-together. Really cool!

AM - Ran 0.3 miles to the subway. Went to the same park as yesterday and ran loops again. I felt almost like my "old self" today. Tired legs but I could still move at a good pace. I would say this is probably only the 2nd run since the marathon that I have felt good. Average 7:15 pace for 8 miles. Then took the subway back and ran to the hotel.

Here is the Link to the blog about my week in Juiz de Fora.

AM - I convinced all my colleagues to go running with me this morning - it's amazing what a little peer pressure will do! They are all on a corporate team to run Ragnar but have not started training. That is, until this week with me :o) One of the guys ran 5 miles with me at 8 min pace, and he was stoked to run that pace. It made me happy! We have a really long day of work today (until 9:30pm) so it was good for all of us to get the day started off well. This morning was an easy recovery day for me. Tempo run tomorrow!

AM - I'M BACK!!! 2 mile warm-up then 6 mile tempo (6:22, 6:16, 6:12, 6:09, 6:06, 6:04). I felt awesome today - no pain in my back or my feet and I felt strong during the whole run. I hope this "feeling good" trend continues!

Because I've been really concerned about iron recently, I saw this article talking about when is the best time to take iron on workout days. It discusses that there is an absorbing-blocking effect and why - interesting.

"If you're supplementing iron, or consciously choosing iron-rich foods to keep your levels up (which is likely a good idea for many female athletes), you should try to time it so you're not taking the supplements in the six hours after a hard workout. Do it earlier or later in the day, so you're not fighting against this absorption-blocking effect."

AM - 5.5 miles easy around the streets of Sao Paulo.

Apparently Thursday night is the best night to go out in Sao Paulo, so my coworker and I went to this really cool rooftop bar at a place called Unique Hotel. It was quite entertaining trying to understand Portuguese and communicate with people - fun times. Stayed out a little too late though and only got 4.5 hours of sleep :o( Hopefully I can stay awake today!

AM - Ran around Lagoa Rodrigo de Rreitas in Rio de Janeiro. It is a 4.8 mile loop of fantasic views. Lots of running clubs set up tents along this path and there were so many people out exercising! Was planning 14 but then got lost so ran an extra 0.8 trying to find the place I was staying at. This is my longest run this year!