| Member Since: Jun 03, 2009 Gender: Female Goal Type: Other Running Accomplishments: PRs: MacDash Duathlon, Sept. 10, 2011. 1:29:48. Second woman overall, third racer overall, and first in AG.
Mt. Ranier Duathlon, May 1, 2011. 3:05:00, 1st in age group. 5.1 mile run, 28 mile bike ride, 3.78 mile run.
5K: Fun With the Fuzz, April 23, 2011. 21:59, 1st in age group.
Marathon: Paris, April 10, 2011. 4:05:24.
1/2 marathon: Geoduck Gallop, February 2011. 1:42:23, 1st in age group.
Waterfront 15K (September 2010), 1:14:43. 3rd in AG. Lake Padden Duathlon (July 2010), 1:36:something. 1st in AG . 10K: Smelt Run, La Conner (2010) 47:14. 2nd in AG. I have fun every time I run, and have recently overcome the "I can't go fast anymore" hurdle. I'm having fun going faster and working towards becoming even faster. I have raised two running children, one competitive and one not. I have learned to run in ice and snow and I don't complain. Short-Term Running Goals: Work towards a faster marathon by Spring 2012. Get my 5K down to 21:30. Place in my division at duathlon and triathlon. Train for biathlon.
Long-Term Running Goals: Joining Forrest Gump
Personal: I'm a 52 year old mom of two ex homeschooled teenagers. They both think I'm nuts. |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 703.09 | 173.50 | 57.90 | 8.25 | 299.10 | 1241.84 |
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Saucony Miles: 252.51 | Bike Shoes Miles: 435.39 | Pearl Izumi Trail Shoe Miles: 18.50 | NB Orange Shoes Miles: 166.10 | Nike Flat Miles: 5.50 | Vroom Shoes Miles: 83.41 | Saucony Treadmill Shoe Miles: 42.11 | New Saucony Guide Miles: 157.95 | Marathon Shoe Miles: 81.72 |
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Night Sleep Time: 1220.60 | Nap Time: 24.00 | Total Sleep Time: 1244.60 | |
| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 |
| Training group run this morning. We jogged a bit, did a few strides, then warmed up and did a few easy miles. Then it was into 10K pace for 4 miles! This sounded scary, since I think my 10K pace seems fast (8:00), but it was actually fine. I had some asthma issues near the end, which is usual for an increase in speed for me, but it was better than last time. I really think that as I get used to the faster speed, the asthma will sort of take care of itself. In the meantime, must REMEMBER THE INHALER! Had to cut it short after the 10K pace miles and drive down south for High School State Track Meet. Had some time there to finish the cool down miles. I ran 3 miles, and here's what's funny: they felt really easy, but pace was dead on 8:00/mile! I'm not sure I understand why that felt so easy. But I didn't fight it, I figured that as long as the effort was easy, they counted as easy miles.
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 |
| I knew I would miss my scheduled group track workout, so I did mine on my own in the morning. It was so hard to do it without the group! Did the circuit thing, where I run 5K paced 600s, interspersed with push ups, abs, lunges, etc. I managed 4 sets. I was running my 600s much faster than 5K pace for some reason, more like an all out sprint on the last two! Two easy warm up miles and two easy cool down miles, then some planks and stretching on the infield.
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.00 |
| Hot but not too hot. The first miles felt easy, hard to keep at my easy 9:15 pace. Last few miles felt harder. Tried a different course just because, ran through the park, out onto the street, knowing there was a Starbucks with a bathroom at about mile 4. Finished with a few miles uphill grade on trail again, back to home.
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Hot and humid! 92 degrees, which is hot for us. Did my easy miles today on a somewhat technical trail with lots of ups and downs at about 1000 feet elevation. I was tired, even walked a bit. I think it was just the weather. Anyway, my average mile was just under 10 minutes, which is slow, but probably OK for technical trail. I also was a little dehydrated afterwards. On the positive side, I got to wear my "new" trail shoes, the Pearl Izumis, and they are fantastic! Not a hot spot anywhere. I'm excited to try them out on some longer trail runs soon. |
Night Sleep Time: 5.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 7.00 |
| This morning was track workout! Got there at 5:00, to get in the warm up miles. We're still doing circuit work, but the running bits are now 800m, instead of 600m. So, 2 miles warm up, a few strides, then 800m five times, interspersed with strengthening exercises, then 2 more miles cool down and some stretching and plank. Then, coffee and crossword puzzle! Glad to get it done early, because it will be hot today. Must nap this afternoon; been getting by on way too little sleep, and I'm starting to feel it. I'm actually liking the track workouts! This is a big surprise to me, since I dreaded it, and procrastinated doing it for about a year. I just thought that I was slow and lazy. |
Night Sleep Time: 6.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Scheduled day off from running. Had a really good stretching/yoga session, but didn't get the bike riding in. Except for lack of sleep, I feel really ready for tomorrow's longer run, with some challenging marathon paced miles sandwiched in. |
Night Sleep Time: 5.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 13.00 |
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The long run was OK, average pace of 8:49, which is fine. I used the asthma inhaler just before we started the marathon paced miles, which are supposed to be at around 8:30. I got through those miles with no wheezing, and maintained marathon pace/effort throughout. But near the end I had some strange reaction to the meds and was feeling pretty terrible by the end of the run. I can only compare it to the uncomfortable "adrenaline charged" feeling that I have experienced from a epinepherine shot. It took several hours to recover from that experience. I guess its good to know about that type of reaction before I use the inhaler during a race, but I don't really know what to do about it from here. Will talk to Dr. on Monday. On the positive side, legs felt very strong, no soreness, in spite of the fact that I haven't run this far in about six weeks. And, the marathon paced miles went well. I was able to keep the pace in the first miles slow, and could really feel the difference picking up to faster miles. At the end of the 7 marathon paced miles, the slower pace felt so restful! Wow! I just saw my total for the week when I posted this, and that's a lot of miles! I haven't been counting miles, since I've just done every day what the program tells me to.
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Night Sleep Time: 4.50 | Nap Time: 1.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Ran 5 "easy" miles this morning. I tried not to constantly check my Garmin for pace, rather tried to feel the correct effort and pacing for an "easy" run. Concentrated on correcting my left arm position, and thought about form a lot. Also worked on slow, steady, relaxed breathing and keeping my upper body relaxed. So it was truly a working run, but at an easy effort. When I got back just now, Garmin showed an average mile pace of exactly 9 minutes! Perfect. I feel like I really did a recovery run after yesterday's long run. Also got lots of sleep for the first time in forever, which feels great. |
Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 3.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.00 |
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Did a different kind of track workout this evening. We did warm up, which I chose to do on a trail out behind the track, just to slightly reduce the number of times I have to go around the track. I always prefer a trail. Anyway, we followed that with fartleks, which none of us had ever done before, so it was hilarious! We split up into several pace groups, then did a two mile period of fartleks, the came back in different groups to do two more miles. I have a real problem leading; I bolt out so quickly that the others in my group said they were in dread of my turn to lead! Obviously I have some work to do. We got better the second two mile period, at least our average pace was slower, so that was good. The miles went by quickly anyway, and I definitely feel like I got a good workout. I think tomorrow is some easy miles, which I will do at easy effort on some hills. Forgot to say, I logged 12 miles toodling around on my bike doing errands. Whoops! I just noticed that if I put biking miles in crosstraining miles, they get totaled into my weekly total, and I don't want that.
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.50 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.61 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.61 |
| I felt really tired in my legs after last night's workout, and I had to run early this morning, so I cut it short by about a mile, and included a mile of WALKING at the end! I think I will do more walking, as its good practice relaxing my left shoulder. I ran along the lake for a ways; its so calm and pretty this morning! Saw lots of tiny baby bunnies out along the road and watched the eagles fishing (for fresh water mussels?). Pace felt good and steady, just didn't feel like I could go longer. Maybe a few more miles tonight after my group bike ride. I'm insanely hungry. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 7.10 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.10 |
| I had to split up my run today. First section was from home to work at Red Cross, 4.21 easy miles. Pace was a little fast for easy miles (8.20), so I'm not very happy with that, but there actually was a bit of downhill. I worked for a few hours, and ran home by a shorter route, 2.86 miles. This time, my pace was slower (9.21), which is better, but of course this was the uphill part. I hope that it was not too late in the day for the mileage, as I have my tough track workout tomorrow at 5:00am, and we will be inserting 1200m 5K paced runs into the circuit this week. I have scheduled some free time tomorrow morning and am going to force myself to nap. I had some extra bike miles this morning, about 7, back and forth to the chiropractor. I've never been to this guy before, and he really helped my neck/upper back tension alot! Hope it sticks. He's also a runner, so he gave me some running, strengthening tips that should be great. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 3.00 | 1.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.50 |
| Hardest track workout yet! We did the regular circuit with strength building stuff, but more of everything, and ran 1200m at 5K pace in between. My legs were kinda shaky after, and I'm so hungry! Just ate eggs, veggies, and toast, and I'm still hungry. Wow. Mileage ended up at 7.5 for this morning. It never seems like that much when its all broken up into these 1200m and 800m segments, so I'm always a little shocked to see that many miles. Its much cooler this morning, and a bit overcast. Where is summer? |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.50 | Total Sleep Time: 8.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Friday is a day off. I won't make it, can't do it. Antsy, antsy. Maybe just a little walk around the lake, with my running shoes on, maybe if I run really slow. |
Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.30 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.30 |
| Very satisfying run this morning! We ran out along the bay and a bit into the woods and then back, total of 8.3 miles, mostly easy, with 3 miles of faster running inserted in there. My smaller group was going for about 9 minutes on the easy miles and 8 minutes on the faster ones. Our average was 8:36, though, so we exceeded our speed goal a bit. Bad runners! Anyway, I felt really good, and could not resist the urge to pass others on the trail heading back in. Again, Bad Runner! Totally forgetting that this is not a race. The two miles at the end did feel like easy effort, as planned. Hmmm, sounds like I didn't exactly train by the plan, but I really enjoyed myself. I think I should go ahead and get the Good Runner reward - good thing noone else has to vote on this. Some coffee, I think. |
Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.80 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.80 |
| A cool and overcast morning here. Also quite humid once I got into the woods. My right heel felt tender near the back, as if a blister was forming. I felt sluggish, but talked myself into the run. Was supposed to do 3 easy miles, which seems attainable on the worst of days. I kept the miles slow and easy, and spent 100% of my mental energy focusing on relaxing my left shoulder. This is easier than yesterday, as the pain and stiffness from Thursday's chiropractic treatment are gone. Also practiced positive thoughts about running and life in general. I'm finally getting that my thoughts really do create my future. If I can apply this successfully to running, I will be able to apply it to the rest of my life. Group running coach promised that this week we would start "special strength building". I'm totally curious about what this could mean, since I thought that is what we had been doing already! Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to it, but I will miss the workouts we've been doing. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 0.00 | 0.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.50 |
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Yeah! After several tries, I got my picture up! Its not the one I wanted, I wanted the RUNNING one, but there it is. Don't get to run until this evening, when we'll have a new exciting track workout. I can't wait; I love new workouts. Update: Track workout was pretty good. Basically it consisted of some warm up running, then a bunch of exercises intended to fatigue the muscles in our legs, followed by 4 more miles of running, on tired legs! I did feel tired when it was over, but I think partly because it was 8 at night and I hadn't eaten yet! I'm glad at least that we got 6 miles of running; I just feel that I'm not running enough. Maybe the pre race jitters are starting already for Seattle's R&R.
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
| I have a lot of stiffness and tightness in my neck this morning; it makes it hard to relax my arms as I run. The schedule called for 4 easy miles, which felt just about right after last night's workout. For once, I really felt like just jogging along. Usually I start out fast and only relax into my easy pace after a mile or so. This morning, I was able to go slow right from the beginning. And I used the auto lap feature on Garmin to get mile splits! Here they are: 9:15, 9:00, 9:22, 9:15. Pretty perfect for easy miles. The weather has gone a bit cooler, with no sun, sort of a typical NW summer day that has me wishing I lived somewhere else. I have a rolfing session scheduled later today, and I'm really hoping for some help with my sore neck and also some work on my shoulders. After that, I have my Tuesday group bike ride! I've missed the last few weeks, so I'm really ready to get back to riding. We usually have enough people for two speed groups, sometimes three. I'll ride 25 miles, either with the 17 pace group or the 20, depending on how energetic I feel. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.00 |
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Argh! Short run, lots to talk about. First, I am going absolutely bonkers! with this reduced mileage. I am trying so hard to trust this training, but it drives me crazy. I cheated a bit this morning and threw in some faster miles. I will cheat again this evening if I feel like it and do a three mile loop around the pond. I will also ride my bike to work this morning and see if that takes the edge off. Kinda Grumpy ): Its making me feel better to write in all these colors though. On the positive side (and there ALWAYS is one), the rolfing session yesterday was great! I feel like my whole rib cage has expanded, and the left arm was literally hanging loosely at my side while I ran. I don't even think I remember the last time that shoulder completely relaxed. There is now some tightness in the RIGHT shoulder. LOL. I think I need more rolfing to continue this stuff, but have to wait until after the Seattle R&R on 6/27. Then I'll schedule some sessions. It rained here this morning! It felt so weird to run in the rain, it has been so long! All the green stuff and flowers just looked brilliant; I was so distracted by looking at some peonies that I ran by I missed my trail and didn't even realize it until I had gone about 1/4 mile of course. This happens to me more and more often. Who knows where I could end up? I really should wear one of those wrist IDs. I have one somewhere, if only I could remember.... Rode to work and back, just under 9 miles total. The rain has stopped and its humid. BONUS MILES! - Yeah, I did get a second run today. Pretty fast too, although the effort felt easy. First two miles were around 8:10, last one 8:50.
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Saucony Miles: 8.00 | Bike Shoes Miles: 8.89 |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.50 |
| A tough workout this morning. Regular 2 miles warm up on track at about 9 minute miles. Then usual runner's warmup, followed by 200m strides. My times on my strides were 43 and 44 seconds. Then we did the series of 10 exercises designed to fatigue the legs. They tired me out more this time because: 1) I was doing them properly, and 2) my legs were still tired from Monday's workout, and 3) I did a bonus run last night at a fast pace. Following the exercises we run three miles, supposedly easy, but involves some big hills. This is hard on tired legs. I guess it makes us strong. As we run we talk about many things, like "why do many runners have so many shoes?", and stuff like that. So the time goes fast, and not unpleasantly, but I'm tired at the end. Its only 5.5 miles of running!
Came home craving food with FAT in it! Sometimes just can't get enough fat. So egg and cheese and veggie breakfast, then a short catnap. My real "taper" begins tomorrow. I'm certain I've not done this right before (if at all), because I get very antsy, but this time I'm detemined. I will run about 25 easy miles from Friday to Friday, and develop an actual plan for my race next Saturday. I am going to get out my big black sharpie on race morning and write "Slow Down" on my arm. That's the beginning of my plan. More on that later.
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Night Sleep Time: 5.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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Its supposed to be my day off, and I really feel like I need it. I did a yoga session already, and will do another this afternoon, plus ab/core strengthening, and maybe a walk. Going to the chiropractor - what is wrong with my neck? I've been doing the math on 13.1 miles, to make my goal of 1:50. I think it goes something like this: Miles 1-2: GO SLOW. Keep it at 9:00. 18 minutes. Miles 3-10: Gradually picking it up to achieve an average of 8:20/mile. My calculated marathon pace is 8:30; my 10K pace is around 8-8:10. Also, by mile 5, I'll be ready for an inhaler puff, if needed. Probably will go ahead and do it even if I don't feel its needed (ie, wheezing), just to keep ahead of things. I'm a bit concerned about the weird reaction I've had to the stuff in the past, so maybe just one puff. 66 minutes, 40 sec. Miles 11-13: OK, I'm at 84 minutes, 40 secs. Three more miles at 9 minutes puts me at 111 minutes, 40 secs. Finish time 51:40. Not good enough. So, where do I pick up the 1:40? Will I be feeling good enough at the end to maintain 8:30? That would do it. Or should I try to get some even faster miles in the middle? So, the end is really where my plan falls apart. I blame this on coaching, since he kept saying I didn't need to do the longer runs, just work on speed over distances of UP TO 12 miles. Aha, that's it. Garmin Connect shows my 12 mile training run at 1:46, an average of 8:51. This run incorporated only 6 miles at marathon pace. Could I have pushed harder. Yep! So, to achieve 1:50, my average miles needs to be just under 8:30. I guess I'd better push for SLIGHTLY faster miles in the middle AND somewhat faster at the end. Maybe ending miles being either 8:45s or 8:00s, depending on how I feel. Comments? This is making me anxious. EDITED: On the off chance that my coach reads this blog, (UNLIKELY) I don't really blame coaching, just feeling anxious.
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.57 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.57 |
| Easy miles today. I worked at a local race in the morning; I was one of the water stations on a turn around loop for miles 9 and 11. It was a small race, fast course, great running weather. This was a fund raiser for our high school XC team, so I drove a bunch of XCers to the race and set them up at water stations for their shifts. I thought about running the 10K at the race, just to get my miles, but it sort of seemed like they needed me to help, so that was OK. I chose a trail at the end of our lake, a 6 mile drive from my house. This particular trail got severely damaged in last winter's mud slides and floods, with many large trees down and huge slide areas. It was good to see it in such nice shape again. Nice out and back, averaged 8.43. A little fast for easy miles, but felt nice. Feeling pretty good about next Saturdays race. I'm trying to focus my thoughts on finishing strong, since that is really what I think all this work is going to do for me. Today I'm inclined to throw yesterday's elaborate plans out the window and just aim for a 8:30 mile pace. I think this works out fine. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 1.00 | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 |
| The schedule called for easy miles, but as hard as I tried, I couldn't do that! So, I've entered 5 as marathon pace miles. Splits were: 8:20, 8:07, 8:34, 9:03, 8:14. I followed with a mile of walk/jog, just to make sure that my shoulder was relaxed. I'm still feeling pain in the shoulder and have to concentrate every minute to relax my neck, back, and shoulder. I'm a little concerned about Saturday's race with this much pain, but, then again, I feel it the least when I run, and I do feel that I'm using the arm effectively while I run. So maybe nothing to worry about. I'll just do what I can to keep it happy this week. If I can begin my race Saturday with two truly easy miles, then settle into this marathon pace for 8 miles, I'll be happy! The last few miles should be optional; either stick with marathon pace or speed up! Weather here has become cold! Fine for running, but chilly and no sun. |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.20 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.20 |
| Nice, easy run! I succeeded in actual easy miles. Splits were 9:35, 9:56, 9:33, 9:27, 9:34, and 10:43. Maybe too easy. I am pleased. Walked a mile after and picked up trash around the pond. Talked to a couple of kids who were out fishing early. Saw a ton of baby things: ducks, geese, rabbits, and spotted deer! |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
| Camping with family on the Hood Canal! Eating great seafood, enjoying low tide. Terrible place to run. Did my miles on the highway, which thankfully had a really wide shoulder. Easy miles were hard to pull off today; I kept it at an average of 8:45 though, which is not too bad. |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 |
| Still camping. Still a terrible place to run. Did the three easy miles with my daughter; her job was to tell me to slow down all the time. It worked well, and our average was 9:54! Looking forward to getting back to my trails; I'm really appreciating the beautiful running venues that I have at home! |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 1.00 | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
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Last run before Saturday's race! Its good to be back home on familiar trails; I appreciate it so much more. I ran about the first 1/2 of the run on pavement, to be ready for 13.1 on pavement on Saturday. It was challenging to keep an easy pace, but the effort felt like easy effort, so I guess that counts too. Splits were 8:37, 8:07, 8:34, 10:37 and 8:40. Mile 4 is slow because I stopped to talk to a friend I haven't seen in a long time. Did some more thinking whilst I ran about my "plan" for the race. I truly think it will be impossible for me to start out slower than 9 minute miles. So, 9 minute miles it is for AT LEAST TWO MILES! Then, a gradual speed up to 8:45 for another 3, 8:30 for 4, 8:10 for 3. That gives me only 7:15 to finish the last mile.1. But its flat then, so I'll do that. |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| No running, just resting up for tomorrow's race in Seattle. I drove down to Seattle early am and hung around, meeting up with friends at the expo. Had a relaxing evening with Snoqualmie and went to bed early. This is the least jittery and nervous I've felt before any race. I have had a bit of a sore throat the last few days, but feel pretty good otherwise. I had a really tight left IT band this morning, so when I got to my husband's office in Seattle, I lay down on the large foam roller thingy to roll it out. When the roller touched my upper leg, it hurt so badly I almost yelled. Left a huge bruise! |
Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Race: |
Seattle R&R 1/2 Marathon (13.1 Miles) 01:52:23, Place in age division: 24 | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 1.00 | 13.10 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 14.10 |
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I was staying with Snoqualmie overnight, and we decided to get up just before 3:00am and get down to the first shuttles by 4:00am. The shuttles were leaving from downtown Seattle near the finish line between 4 and 6am and would take us down to the starting line in Tukwila. I think we might have been on the first one! We got down to the start line with a longish wait ahead of us, but just kind of sat/stood around watching other runners show up. It was cool, but clear, so obviously it was going to be a really pretty day once the sun came up. We were talking to this couple from Texas who were pinning their bib numbers to the outside of their thick sweatshirts! They were so cold from the climate shock of Seattle, they were going to run the whole thing in sweatshirts. I wish I knew how that worked out for them; not very well, I think. My stomach didn't feel quite right, sort of like heartburn. I drank quite a bit more water than usual to try to feel a bit better, so visited the porta potties many times. There were, amazingly, plenty of them. About 6:20, I left Sno and went out on the empty road behind the porta potties and did a mile of jogging, followed by special warm up exercises and a few strides. I felt quite happy with myself for doing this by myself. Everything felt really pretty good. I was warm by then and the sun had arrived, so I took off my sweatpants and jacket and stashed them in my bag, took it to the trucks that would carry it to the finish and headed off to find my corral. I have never before run in a really big race, and had no idea about these corrals at all! On the way over to the corrals, I found a friend from my running group in Bellingham! She was in corral 7 and I was in 5, so we found our spots together. The rolling start went so smoothly! As soon as the gun went off, we all started moving forward, and were actually running at pace before we crossed the timing mat. Even though there were thousands of people, it didn't feel like I was slowed up at all. The first few miles according to my plan were supposed to be 9:00 or more pace, but OF COURSE I didn't do that. My first couple of splits were 8:26 and 8:06. But it felt easy. There were bands every mile, and the first few I noticed, and even waved cheerfully. After that, I'm not even sure I noticed them at all, except one about mile 6, where the band was playing Sade's "Smooth Operator". For some reason I found that a funny running song. I realized by about mile 5 that I was going to need to use a porta potty during the race! Never did this before, but I just drank too much water. I spotted one at the top of a longish hill, and figured I'd dive in, go fast, and then make up lost time flying down the hill. That's exactly what I did! I used probably less than a minute, and flew down the hill after. It seemed as if the entire 13.1 miles was water stations, with cytomax and water, so there was no problem getting hydrated. I didn't stop, just grabbed a cup if I wanted one, took a small sip and chucked the cup over. Miles 4-6 were faster splits, as planned, with the fastest being 7:50. At one hour into the race, I used my inhaler as I had planned. I didn't want to wait for the asthma to kick in, because I thought it might take longer to recover if my breathing was already compromised. Right choice here, and my breathing never became wheezy. Another big hill and we turned left and headed down I90 towards downtown Seattle. The full marathoners went right and ran out the floating bridge and back, which looked really pretty! There is a really long tunnel on I90, I think between miles 10 and 11. Here's where things started to go not so well for me. As soon as I got into the tunnel, I recognized some lightheadedness which is the negative reaction to the asthma medication. Being in the tunnel seemed to exacerbate the feeling, and I consciously tried to just slow down and get through the tunnel. Even though I felt I was slowing down, my split here does not reflect that. I ran that mile in 8:21. Near the end of the tunnel, the "light at the end of the tunnel", I realized that some idiot had put a really loud, terrible band at the end of the tunnel. I will never again run a race with a band in a tunnel. The only way out was to run right through it. Horrible. With just a few miles left to go, I could not tame the lightheaded feeling; it just kept getting worse. But I was really determined to stay as strong as possible to the end, and knew my legs could work just fine. I reminded myself constantly of where I was and what my goal was to stay aware, because I have heard stories of runners who forget where they are. So I was OK, but wondering if I shouldn't have used the inhaler at this point. Anyway, last few miles were pretty rough, a few short walk breaks, which brought my split times down to 9:03. In the last 1/2 mile, my friend Karen came up behind, catching up to me and said "you OK?" As soon as I heard her, I said "yeah, I'm good" and picked up the pace a bit. Crossed the line I don't know how; and started walking crooked as soon as I stopped running. Funny, I felt like I was running in a straight line, but couldn't walk in one to save my life. Remembered to push the stop on my Garmin timer, and guessed that I'd come close to my goal time of 1:50. Karen was there, and medics were trying to wrestle me into a medical tent. They kept asking me where I was and what I was doing, which was easy because I'd been practicing the answers to these questions while I ran! So I passed that test, but there was a general feeling that I should lie down for a minute, so I went along with it. Didn't feel too bad really. My coach from my running group was apparently there as well, but I don't remember that. Kind of embarrassed about finishing so dramatically. After maybe five minutes, I wanted to sit up and get out of there, so they let me. I kept saying: "Look, I know this looks bad, but I'm really strong, and I recover FAST". And of course I did recover fast. Felt perfectly well, and walked around eating bagels and oranges for awhile. Then went out and found my husband in the nightmarish crowds, and wandered around for an hour or so trying to figure out where exactly the car was. Was going to wait for Sno to finish, but our car was at risk of being towed, so we left and stopped near Queen Anne Hill in Seattle and walked around for awhile shopping, which felt really great on the legs. Legs felt pretty fresh, and not tired, but a wanted to stretch a lot. Got home, went out to a party and celebrated by birthday! Dropped into bed at 11:00. Slept a long time. Edit: I forgot to say, I'm happy with my time, even though I didn't quite achieve my goal. Its still a big PR, I placed 24 out of 794 women in my age group! So this stuff is all good, and I think I have so much room to improve still. I'll be working on other solutions to the asthma nonsense right away! Its holding me back.
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Night Sleep Time: 5.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 |
| Nice recovery day. Just a few easy, easy, easy miles. Had a nap and have been puttering around in the yard. The weather is perfect! Mid to high 70s with a little breeze and clear skies. I am going to go over and flop in the lake soon. My left IT band is really sore/tight after yesterday. It was already before the race and is worse now. I've been icing it and gently stretching and will probably have to get a massage tomorrow or the next day. Just starting to get the post race let down sadness. I just have to blow through this, but its kinda hard. Don't know why it happens. I started out today feeling happy about my race, my time, my place, etc. Now I wish I had done better, run faster, not used my inhaler, not run in a tunnel with a band, etc. etc. Its a bit ridiculous. Tomorrow is back to regular training, I think. We've got yet another new track workout and it sounds pretty fun - fast bursts with short bursts mixed in. I don't believe I'll ever get tired of these fun workouts! |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.50 | Nap Time: 1.00 | Total Sleep Time: 9.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.50 | 0.00 | 0.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 |
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Haven't even run yet today; track workout is this evening. Which is great, because that means I can ride my bike a bit more this morning. I just have to blog out some of my jumbled thoughts about Saturday's race so that I can stop carrying them around in my head. Here's what I did right: Rested, relaxed, slept well and ate well the day before Did a good warm up before the race Kept my left arm and shoulder relaxed the whole time! This is big. Used focus and relaxation to control any difficult asthma related breathing glitches. Kept positive thoughts going the entire time. Never felt defeated. Had negative splits in the middle of the race. This is a first. Used the inhaler before any wheezing started. Didn't yell obscenities at the band in the tunnel. Ran in my skirt and loved it. Here's what I did wrong: MAYBE went out just a bit too fast. Splits could have been :15 sec slower at the very start. Got messed up with the asthma meds. I absolutely need to figure this thing out, so that it doesn't wreck any more races. Did not finish strong enough! My splits in the last three miles went way down, and cost me my goal. Got to find a way to push harder at the end. This is especially disappointing since the end of this course is pretty easy, with lots of downhills. Here's what I need to do to fix it: Talk to Dr. immediately and figure out the meds. Find the cause of the asthma and deal with that. Spend more time visualizing the mentally rehearsing the end of the race. Maybe even "practice" this on some runs, where I progressively get faster in small (:15 second) increments. OK, that's enough obsessing about that one! Time to move on and run some more. PM - this evening's workout was hard on still tired legs! Felt great though to run a bit. I didn't time my strides, but they were very slow. My mile splits were: 9:23 (warm up), 9:30, 9:22, 9:36, 9:45. Last 1/2 mile was 4:50.
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 13.00 | 13.00 |
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I didn't run today at all! Totally broke training and had TWO bike rides instead. It was really fun, and my biking totalled 55 miles. Averaged about 16 mph on the morning ride and 19 on the evening ride. No time to squeeze in a run in between the bike rides. The weather was beautiful all day; high around 75, slight breeze. I rode in the morning with my girlfriend, good biking buddy, who is leaving for a few weeks. Rode in the evening with my regular Tuesday bike group. There were at least 60 people this week! I didn't even know everybody. Rode with a guy who I didn't know and we talked about climbing in the Pickett Range, a place I've never done any climbing. He made me want to get up into the mountains soon.
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 7.60 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.60 |
| Delightful easy miles! Splits were 8:27, 8:26, 8:42, 8:45, 9:00, 10:17, 9:40, and a 9:37 average for the .6 mile at the end. Legs are a bit tired from yesterday's biking adventures, so somewhat fatigued at the end. Good preparation for tomorrow's strength workout. I ran at 11:30, and it was already 75 degrees, and very humid in the woods. I really do not like humidity very much! Ran right through a huge flock (herd, covy, pod) of geese on the road on the way back to my house. Last month's cute babies are growing up and blocking traffic, crapping on everything, and chasing the occasional runner. Something will have to be done someday to all these geese. I have also just learned that their excrement is a terrible source of phosphorous in our watershed and needs to be reduced. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 0.00 | 0.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.50 |
| It was really hard to get to the track by 5:00 this morning! Barely made it. For some reason, the legs are really, really tired. We warmed up, did strides, then did the leg exhausting workout, then ran 4 more miles on tired legs. We got to run that last 4 on trails, but the 3/4 of a mile at the end getting back to the track is uphill! A pretty good hill too. I made it running all the way up the hill, yeah! Then I took my time with ab work and stretching in the early morning sun on the fake grass infield. Treated myself to a good breakfast at the food coop on the way home. Rest day tomorrow will feel pretty good. If I do anything, it will be in water. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.70 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10.70 |
| This was group run morning! We met downtown at 7:00am and no public restrooms were open. I couldn't believe that. Our group ran a couple of miles up the hill to Western's track, where we did a warm up, then did 1 mile intervals at 5K pace, followed by 4 minutes of rest jogging in between. We did four intervals. I was in a group of two other people; we all have the same 5K pace of 7:30. We took turns leading and practiced keeping our pace consistent and drafting. It went really well. Then we did some easy miles down the hill, out the interurban trail, and eventually back to the green where we began. It was a fairly tiring workout. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 9.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.60 | 12.60 |
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Up in the mountains today. Ran 3 easy miles in the morning, as per schedule. We then did a hike up to check out the huckleberry fields. They are coming on really nicely! I think we'll have a really good season for huckleberries in a month or so. Still quite a bit of snow up high; no black bears sightings. It was a huge amount of elevation gain on the way up, plus the road was washed out 1 mile before the trail head. So I walked briskly up; best mile was around 18 minutes; slowest mile was around 24. I ran all the way down, trying out my new trail shoes. It was fun! I entered the running down as easy miles and the hiking up as crosstraining. Legs were tired, so I took a nap, then I remembered that I wanted to try out the aqua belt thing and job in the swimming pool. So, 3 more easy miles in the pool! What is wrong with me. The aqua belt is kind of fun, kind of boring though, because you don't really go anywhere. All I did was run, hike, and sleep. Oh, yeah, and eat.
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Saucony Miles: 3.00 | Pearl Izumi Trail Shoe Miles: 6.50 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 1.00 | Total Sleep Time: 9.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.50 |
| Its so hard to wait until 6:00pm to go running! That's when our Monday track workout is, though, and I don't like to wreck it by running earlier in the day. It rained most of the day, so I ran to the track along trails for warm up, hoping for some mud. Didn't find much. This was our last strength workout; we have a 7 mile race on Saturday, then start hill training next week! |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.60 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.60 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Rainy morning, but not cold. Still looking for a good mudfest trail! Five easy miles this morning. We have a somewhat light running schedule this week, as we race on Saturday, so I'm trying to stick with the schedule. Maybe can bike ride more? Saturday's footrace sounds fun. Its the oldest race in the state of Washington, and is mostly trail out along Chuckanut Bay in the woods. Seven miles out to the finish. Then our group will run back "easy". There is some grade, although must be net flat because it begins and ends on the water. There is one nasty hill - truly nasty hill. My plan is to run up this hill very slowly. My time goal is around 57-58 minutes. That's basically my 10K pace. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Five easy miles today, as per schedule. I tried out the new shoes, New Balance Orange lightweight shoes. Like them a whole lot! I didn't even mind the rain this morning, and kept my pace pretty well for the first mile, then things got a bit frustrating. Splits are: 9:26, 8:49, 8:34, 8:53, and 10:49 (this last one is slow because I stopped to adjust a toe discomfort on the new shoe). I had to work really hard to slow miles 3 and 4 down to easy pace. Why is easy pace so hard to achieve? Why is easy pace not easy to do? My easy pace should be 9:20 or 9:30. It seems that I often am just not willing to work hard enough at going easy and sacrifice my easy miles for a fun run. Clearly I am not disciplined or motivated enough. OK, all done bashing myself about. The picture is my right bicep. Its a nice picture, but I'm pumping more iron now because I'm not happy with the muscle. I do like the anterior deltoid though. I am sorry I cannot make the picture a bit bigger, but I'm sort of stupid at things like that. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 5.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.90 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.90 |
| Beautiful morning! The rain and grey skies are gone, and although cool, it promises to be sunny, with lazy clouds. I'm happy to see the sun again! 5.9 easy miles, splits were 9:40, 9:21, 9:53, 9:21, 9:23, and 9:28. These are perfect easy miles. I rewarded myself by meeting my son at a local bakery afterwards that shows Tour De France each morning. Watched stage 6 into Barcelona. Those guys are awesome; I want to be a bike racer! Some of the falls are nasty though. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 5.90 |
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Night Sleep Time: 4.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 4.00 |
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| Race: |
Chuckanut Footrace (7 Miles) 00:58:02, Place in age division: 4 | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 8.00 | 0.00 | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 15.00 |
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Race Day! This footrace is the oldest running race in the state of Washington, and is 95% trail. It begins on Bellingham Bay, goes up into the forest, and travels along Chuckanut Drive to Larabee Park, also on the Bay. Our group ran the race, then ran easy miles back to the beginning. Start time was 9am, which was really wierd, because I didn't really know what to eat for such a late start. I was up at 5:00am, to watch Tour De France for a bit. What an exciting day! They were riding through the Pyranees, and it was absolutely beautiful! I love watching it. Anyway, I had coffee, then made a bagel and ate like two bites. Met my group at the race start at 8:15, had a Gu, and did our warm up. Because the trail funnels onto a narrow trail about 1/2 mile in, they limit it to 1000 people. And it actually wasn't bad. There was a brief bottleneck for maybe 2 seconds, then it was back to running. My Garmin wasn't showing me my pace! I kept hitting the bezel, trying to get to a different training screen, but it just wasn't happening. So, I didn't really know my pace until mile 1, when I got a split. It was 7:13! Way, way too fast. My plan was 8:30-8:45 for the first mile or so. So I slowed down. Next splits were 8:09, 9:06, 8:27, 8:34, 9:09 and 7:34 (nice downhill finish). The 9s are big hills. I walked the first one; its really steep and kind of long, and I needed to be able to run at the top. I did really well just reminding myself of what I had to do to make my goal for this race, which was to get between 58:00 and 59:00, and have a strong finish! A friend (in my age group) passed me at about 5, and it was soooo hard not to try and catch her. But I didn't! I held back and did my own thing. I saw about a million people I knew, in the race, watching, passing out water, etc. It was actually pretty hot (mid 70s). My doctor was trying to catch me at the end, and he kept shouting at me from behind "Can I borrow your inhaler". So goofy, we just talked about my medications mishaps yesterday, and agreed that I shouldn't even carry the darned thing. It was too funny. I sprinted the finish, remembered to stop my watch, and my son and his friend were there. The finish is at a beautiful park, with music, food, etc. Our group hung around for about 30 minutes, then headed back down the trail. I felt great, and expected to have a great, easy jog back to Fairhaven, but I was SO TIRED! I've never raced hard before, then run 7 more miles. It was a challenge. My average mile on the way back was about 10 minutes. Happy Day, successful race. Finish time was 58:02, pretty much what I wanted. And, if I compare this to my previous 10K pace, its quite an improvement too.
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
| Just 4 easy, easy miles today after yesterday's run. Feel pretty good. The right hamstring feels a bit tight; I'll do more stretching and possible a bath later today. Like an idiot, I didn't go out this morning when in was beautiful and clear, I waited until it was very windy and cold and looks like rain. Packed my daughter off to XC camp this morning. They get to train for a week up in the mountains! She took all of my socks, so I will have to wash socks every day if I want to run. We start hill training tomorrow! Sounds fun, doesn't it? |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 4.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.80 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 7.80 |
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Got eight whole hours of sleep last night because of the rain. I want to go back to bed and wait until its all over. No run scheduled until 6:00pm! Cannot, cannot wait that long. I dreamed I was running an ultra marathon in some desert place, really hot and dry, and I felt great, like flying. Running dreams are the new flying dreams! So, I'm pondering something. If we naturally get slower as we get older (and I'm not saying that we for sure do), but we are at the same time training to get faster, what will happen? Will the training to get faster just balance the tendency to get slower with age (SWA), or what? I'm just curious, since I never trained to get faster until I was this age (51). So maybe I'll get faster more slowly than I would have in my 20s? Or, maybe I'm an anomoly, and I'll never get SWA, just keep getting faster. Enough. Rain and not running are a bad combination. PM: Hill training was a tough workout! After the usual warm up, jogging and strides, we did 90 second intervals uphill, going from slow pace (on toes, with high knees), medium pace (exaggerating arm swings), and fast pace (high knees and hard arms). Did twelve intervals, with jogging in between, then some cool down running. I biked to and from the workout for some extra crosstraining miles, and because the rain is stopped. Did a upper body weight workout midday as well; my abdominals and arms need work. Hamstrings are tired!
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Bike Shoes Miles: 14.00 | NB Orange Shoes Miles: 5.80 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 | 11.50 |
| No rain. Very very humid and overcast, but warm. Did 6.5 easy miles on the trails, with an average pace of 8:45. I thought hamstrings would be very sore from yesterday's workout, but legs felt great. The running felt effortless; I love when that happens. I didn't quite keep it down to an easy pace, but the effort truly felt easy, and that's what counts, right? Came home, changed to bike gear, and went for a ride - 25 miles. I just cleaned and tuned the bike and it was shifting like butter. My average pace was 18 miles per hour, which is medium fast. No wind. No hills. |
Saucony Miles: 6.50 | Bike Shoes Miles: 25.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.50 |
| Didn't feel like running at all this morning. Got involved in watching the tour instead, then had to work for awhile. Finally got out at 1:30 or so. Ran a couple of miles at the track in my new flat nike shoes; really just wanted to see how they felt. It feels somewhat tiring on my front shin, but the feet are very comfortable. Impossible to go slowly in these shoes, especially on the track. Splits were 8:03 and 8:23. I switched shoes and hit the trails behind the stadium for 3.5 more miles, attempting to keep them slow. Splits were 9:23, 8:42, 9:06, and 9:21 (for the half). Didn't feel any more like running when I was done than I did in the first place! |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 3.50 | Nike Flat Miles: 2.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.40 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.40 |
| Clear, sunny, and calm this morning. 62 degrees at 5:00am. It will be hot later. Did hill workouts again, on the trail by the bay. Enjoyed seeing the early sun on boats and calm water along the trail. The hard intervals felt hard, but on the last one, I pushed really hard. Actually felt like I might be sick. After working out, I drove the car to the shop and dropped it off for servicing, then jogged down to the bakery where they show Tour De France every morning. I made this a really easy jog. Had a really good breakfast while watching TDF. I have to drive up to Mt. Ranier tomorrow to pick up my daughter from XC camp; its a day off running anyway, so I'll try to get there early enough for a little hike. |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.50 | 6.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 12.50 |
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Early group run. Beautiful weather, 67 degrees at 6:30am. Warm up, then 3 easy miles, 6 maratthon pace miles, 2 easy. Kept the easy miles easy (splits 9:30-9:45), and the marathon pace miles not too fast (8:20-8:40). Had a good kick the last 300 yards. Felt really good. The last mile and a half of marathon miles were a gradual uphill and I felt strong and still on pace, which is really good. Probably my last longish run before August 1 half marathon in Tacoma.
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NB Orange Shoes Miles: 12.50 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 | 10.00 |
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So far today, just a nice bike ride. I worked at a bike race yesterday, driving the lead car for some of the racing groups. The course looked fun, and was a good hill workout, so I went back there this morning and rode. I was inspired by the TDF, and stood up on my pedals and sprinted the hills. They were long hills. I felt good until I realized that my hill sprints, although they felt strong, were only about 10 mph uphill, and Contador's are probably like, what, 16-20? Oh, well. I was impressed with myself anyway. My IT band was really tight and sore last night, so I iced it a lot and used the roller a lot. I'm not sure yet if I'll run today. I suppose easy miles won't hurt it. I do have a massage scheduled for tomorrow, so that should help. Biking does not even seem to use the IT band, so that was good. PM - 5 easy miles. IT band felt pretty good, no pain, just tightness. Finished off with 1/2 mile of walking and then a really good stretch. Looking forward to that massage tomorrow.
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Saucony Miles: 5.00 | Bike Shoes Miles: 25.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.50 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| No running for me today! I am missing my hill workout right now, and I LOVE my hill workout. It makes me want to hurl, but I love it. Had a massage for my IT band, and my therapist did not recommend running afterwards. I'm not convinced that this is good advice, but I'm willing to try, as long as I can run tomorrow. Dang it! I've got a long bike ride planned for am tomorrow very pretty ride, with hills. 40 miles. Biking is very good for IT bands. It stretches them. Then the schedule calls for 7 miles of easy running, so I'll do that in the evening. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 11.00 | 15.50 |
| Did the bike riding first this morning. After yesterday's day off, it felt great to ride with totally fresh legs. I was really able to take advantage of the opportunity to ride hard up the hills. Rode a beautiful loop for 39 miles; it was 82 degrees at the end. That's a little warmer than it has been I think. I decided to just run right away, instead of waiting until this evening. I found it sort of hard to get right off the bike and run, but it relaxed my legs to do it. Felt good. I really didn't want to stop in 4 miles, so went an extra 1/2. I feel as though I lost about 2 gallons of sweat just running though! I might have to skip my bike group tonight! |
Bike Shoes Miles: 39.00 | NB Orange Shoes Miles: 4.50 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.00 |
| Seven easy miles along the Whatcom Creek Trail. I ran out the paved road for a mile or so, so that the first three miles were pavement miles, then into the trails. I find that adding pavement miles in the week or so before a race is helpful. Next 1/2 Marathon is august 1! Splits this morning were in the 9s, just as they should have been. Only the first miles was a little too fast. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 1.70 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 8.70 |
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Hill workout this morning. Fun, fun, fun. Edited to add 8 miles of biking to and from work this afternoon. Lots of gnats. |
Bike Shoes Miles: 8.00 | NB Orange Shoes Miles: 6.70 |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 4.00 |
| 2 easy miles on track shoes. 8 miles to work and back on the bike. Busy day. |
Bike Shoes Miles: 8.00 | NB Orange Shoes Miles: 2.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 1.20 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.20 |
| Early morning hill workout along the bay trail. Weather was 75 degrees at 5:30am, a little dark(!), and absolutely still - humid. Workout was tough. I noticed a big difference from not staying hydrated enough yesterday. I worked all day in a hot kitchen, preparing food for the RAGNAR relay teams and driving it back and forth to the serving area. Didn't drink enough water, then stayed up too late, with a bit of red wine as well. All those factors contributed to some dehydration this morning, and made me feel tired. It got easier by the last interval; and the fast hill part on that last interval was my fastest. Had a class for the rest of this day and did too much sitting! |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 9.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.00 |
| Out at noon, 82 degrees, sunny and beautifully clear. A little less humidity I think! I tried out my new hand held water bottle, and I loved it. Holds 22 oz, and just slides right onto your hand. I can't get my splits for this run because I will not have my own computer back for about a week, so can't download my runs. But I know from the reported splits while I was running that they were all "easy" miles. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 9.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.50 | 0.00 | 3.25 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 8.75 |
| Went up to Glacier today, where it was even hotter than in Bellingham! It was 94 when I arrived about noon, so I waited until 7:00pm to run. Still 94, plus about 100 percent humidity once I got into the woods. I tried to duplicate the workout that I was supposed to do in town, which was 4X1600 at 5K pace, interspersed with 4 minute jogs. I turned into more of a free for all fartlek session, which speedy portions being 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile. Narrow trails, a few technical bits, overgrown forrest on both sides, humidity, and HORSEFLIES! Horseflies are carnivorous flies, approximately as big as a small airplane, and persistent. They will follow you for miles, circling in case any body part stops moving long enough, then they will sink their teeth into you. The bites swell up terribly and last a long time. It was a really fun run. |
Bike Shoes Miles: 8.00 | NB Orange Shoes Miles: 6.75 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 |
| Not much sleep, on account of the heat. It really didn't cool down until early morning. I got out a bit earlier in the day, at 6am, when it was only 70! Still humid in the woods, so I did about 3 miles on the pavement on the roads around our little community up here, then tackled the woods for the second half. Had a nice hilly run down along the river and back up again. The woods are so dry! That's very unusual here, but we've had an unusually dry summer. Our community also has a pool, so in the afternoon, with 102 degrees still, I took the water belt down to the pool and "jogged" for about 1/2 hour. I'm not even counting it as miles, since I really don't feel that I'm working hard. I am not breathing very hard when done, although my leg muscles are working. Maybe I am doing it wrong. Anyway, it was cool and nice to be in water. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 6.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
| I slept better, because I think that it cooled off a bit and I moved my bed to a back room on the lower floor of the cabin. Did my easy miles early; it was 65. Nice. Was too afraid to go into the woods at all because of horseflies, so I just ran around the roads. I kept imagining that one would bite me in the leg and I would swell up and not be able to race on Saturday! My friend Rebecca made me some coffee after, and it was yummy. Then I drove up the mountain on an old logging road to check out the huckleberries. I found a whole bunch! Its a very technical place to pick, meaning its steep, brambly, thick bushes, and many red ant hills, which must be avoided. Luckily I wore long pants. I was so excited to be getting so many nice berries that I stayed way too long, and realized it was hot, hot, hot up there. Then the flies drove me reallly nuts and I bolted to my car. Back home now in Bellingham, still hot. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 4.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.50 |
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Not so hot this morning, but even more humid! 3.5 easy miles, with actual easy splits - 9:00, 9:27, 9:28, 9:15. It is supposed to be a bit cooler today, and I'm going to spend some time in the lake, staying rested and cool for tomorrow. I'm going to put some work and my cell phone in the kayak and paddle out to the floating boat and work! Also have some chiropractic work scheduled, and a massage. Why am I falling apart like this? Hopefully I can get patched together well enough to run Saturday's race. I'm considering carrying my handheld water bottle for the race, just to make sure I'm hydrated enough. I would think that if the heat keeps up, they would have extra water stations, but you never know. Update: Chiropractic work is done! The hip thing was not painful to fix, and he was able to give me some exercises to help keep it in place. The IT band, which he insisted on attacking, even though I explained that a massage therapist would be dealing with it later, was excruciating. Imaging a really sweet faced, gentle, altogether likeable guy hurting you to the point of yelping! Yes, I yelped! He promised that my leg will be horribly bruised on Saturday, but I'll be running well.
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Day of rest! Rest from running anyway. The is a 7" X 2" bruise down my left IT band; I'll look; I'll look really colorful tomorrow. It feels better though, and that's what counts. I've spent some time working out some stretches for it, so should keep it in shape. I think I figured out what caused the IT band flare up in the first place too. Was talking to the chiropractor, who, in addition to being an expert at torture, is a very smart running coach/trainer guy. I've been doing some hill repeats on a hill near my house that is quite steep and seriously canted to the right (when I run on the right shoulder). The combination of running hard up a hill and running on the canted surface is not so good for the opposite IT band, especially when its already feeling stressed. |
Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Race: |
Tacoma Narrows 1/2 marathon (13.1 Miles) 01:49:00, Place in age division: 1 | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.00 | 13.10 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 15.10 |
| Race Day! So exciting. My friend Erin and I had a completely disasterous afternoon yesterday traveling to the race. It was a drive of a few hours that turned into an absolute nightmare of traffic, missed exits, you get the picture. We arrived in Tacoma around 6:00, too late to pick up our packets in the evening, so we set our alarms for 5:00am to get on the first shuttle so we could pick stuff up in the morning. Hotel was very comfortable, but couldn't really take advantage, since I don't sleep so well under usual conditions anyway, and this particular pre race had me a little amped up. Our shuttle bus driver got lost! We were supposed to start at a small airplane hangar across the river from Tacoma, in Gig Harbor. He took two wrong turns but some woman on the bus told him where to go and we finally made it. The woman who knew the way looked to about in my age division, so I was kind of scoping her out. I thought she looked very strong and like a good runner. We got off of the bus, picked up our packets, found SNO!, chatted awhile, then realized that it was freezing cold! For me anyway. Sno was happy because it was foggy, and I was happy for her while freezing my little butt off. Funny, because last week was such a record breaking heat wave, I was prepared to run in a sports bra and the lightest possible shorts I could find, and here I was on race day wishing I'd thrown in a sweatshirt. The air was also somewhat dense, not good for my asthma condition. I just stayed positive about the air quality and chanted soothing mantras to myself. Warm up felt great, because I needed warming up, and we finished about 10 minutes before start time. Perfect. I had sworn to go 9 minute miles the first few. Did I do that? Nope. But my effort was very easy for the first four, and the first two had a lot of downhill in them. So the first splits were 8:00ish. Anyway, things felt great. My IT band, while looking horribly bruised, was not tight, and I could only feel impact discomfort from the bruising. The first hill was at (?) about mile 4, and it was much much longer than I expected. I slowed and went steady, stopped just after the crest and had water at the station, walking through so that I could actually get the water. We have a strange phenomenon here where the marine air, which creates the freezy fog, burns off and abruptly changes the weather to HOT, so I was expecting that and wanted to stay especially hydrated. I felt great after the hill. It was a fairly hilly course, lots of smaller ups and downs and one more somewhat longer hill. There was a side trip into Cheney Stadium for a loop around the interior of the stadium, and the course workers were not pointing people in the right direction. People were sort of bottling up, saying "where do we go?", and finally we got some direction! By mile 10, the air got to me, and I decided to walk 12 breathes, while relaxing the airways. This worked, and I did it three times between 10 and 11.5. Then there was a lot of downhill in the last mile and a half, and I mean some big, haul on down downhills. My last two splits (haven't seen them yet) will be fast, which was one of my goals. I came to the top of a final hill, saw a longish downhill stretch to the finish, ran down, and SPRINTED hard to the finish (200m sprint)? That sprint made people whoop for me which I really liked. I was in some oxygen debt, and was concerned that it would be like Seattle's race, where I couldn't walk straight once I finished running. But that did not happen! I could walk perfectly well. A waited a short while for Erin, then for Sno! Erin and I hung around for awards, and unbelievably, I got a first place plaque for my division! I was beyond surprised and excited. Still am. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 15.10 |
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Night Sleep Time: 4.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 4.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
| A hot muggy morning. Legs felt tired after yesterday's race, and I was inclined to sit around. Thank goodness for two friends, who showed up and drug me out on an early run. We ran easy pace up Galbraith Mountain. Lots of elevation gain, then lots of elevation loss. I felt great and was glad to have it done early in the day, as it is going to be over 80 today and very humid. Going to a running birthday party tonight. I don't know if that means more running or not (I hope not, actually). We are wearing running clothes. |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.50 | 2.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 7.00 |
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No running today until 6pm. This will be tough, because I'm in the post race sad place right now. I am so afraid that I'll sign up for a marathon today. Probably Portland. I like Portland. Its not far from home. I don't have to fly. I know a lot of people running in Portland. Registration is still open. Its interesting, but not too hilly. I really NEED a new race shirt anyway. I did say I'd sign up after I got my 1/2 goal. But... I've never run one before. I'm scared. What if I can't. What if I'm a sprinter. What if I break a shoelace during the marathon. What if it snows? I don't really like days like this, but I do realize they are necessary. 5 easy miles was the assignment. Since we were running as a group, we ended up doing about 1/2 of those miles at marathon pace. Fun run. Rode home from the run for a little bike ride. Had to ride the clunker, though, because I lost my road bike shoes! This is pretty serious.
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Saucony Miles: 5.00 | Bike Shoes Miles: 7.50 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 |
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I'm not going to run today! Going to spend the equivalent amount of time rolling out my stubborn IT band. I did it last night, and it hurt really really bad, but felt better when I went to sleep. I want to get this thing cleared up before it gets bad. Kind of made a mistake on last night's run. There were seven of us from my group, but coach could not make it. And here is why we need a coach. We ran out Chuckanut, because someone wanted to see "the big hill". At the bottom of the big hill, I ducked into a porta potty, and said I'd catch up. Well, I was in there all of 3 seconds, then headed up the hill. I saw Erins bright blue just ahead, but when I got to the intersection, noone was there. I had a choice of straight, left or right, left and right being trails. After a bit of consideration, I chose left, down through the switchbacks to the creek and back up the other side. So, 3/4 of a mile later, I pop out on the road, and there is part of my group (the men). The women had all run back up the big hill to look for me in case a bad guy was in the woods waiting to attack me (be attacked BY me is more like it). So anyway, we all circled back around to catch everyone up, and ended up adding like a mile to the five we were supposed to do. Then, on the way back, three of us (myself included I'm ashamed to admit), took of flying back down the trail. Every so often someone would say "this doesn't seem like easy pace", and then we would speed up. It was the worst example of completely undisciplined running I've ever been involved in. I am sure that our coach has NO IDEA how much his tiny bit of neglect was squashed our training to bits! Anyway, I will go for a nice bike ride today if I can find my shoes. OH, I almost forgot to say that I signed up for the Portland Marathon. Now I'm really really scared! Got a little bike ride in this evening. Wow, did I ever feel fast without a run before the bike ride to tire my legs out! I led much more than my share and felt like I was flying up the hills.
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
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Its really cold this morning! Couldn't get out at 5:30 as planned, because it was just too cold and dark! I'm not ready for winter. Ran 5 actual easy miles: 9:47, 9:26, 9:37, 10:05 and 10:00. This is progress on keeping it slow, for sure. I've adjusted my marathon expectation based on Saturday's race, and my easy pace should be 10 minutes per mile. I am determine that on easy days I will hit that pace. See how seriously I take this now that I am going to run a marathon? |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.00 | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 11.00 |
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I went to my early morning group workout for hill workout, but I couldn't do the faster intervals on the hills; IT band still somewhat tight. I will save the hard work for next week. I did a few easy and a few MP miles instead. Its a beautiful morning to be out early. Since running is so light this week, I'm going for a longish bike ride this afternoon. Nice 25 miles on the bike. Felt really strong on the hills, no pain in the IT. Its really cloudy here now, like its about to rain, so I feel like I better run outside and do yard work now before it hits.
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Bike Shoes Miles: 6.00 | NB Orange Shoes Miles: 5.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 4.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 4.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| I got a lot of sleep last night. Woke up not knowing WHAT was up, with the cats sprawled all over me. Something conked us all out like a light. NICE. No running today, but three long stretching/strengthening sessions planned. I've been neglecting the upper body weights lately, and need to get back to that. The IT band feels really good, but I'll do many stretches anyway. I'm also beginning to take this marathon thing VERY SERIOUSLY! After about 10 seconds of consideration, I made a goal of a top ten finish (AG, of course!). I think this is reasonable. BUT, I think that I will really need to hit the hip/core strengthening routine hard. I believe that this is what will keep my legs strong and form reasonable to the end. Any of you experienced marathoners out there have any other tips? Besides running, of course! |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 9.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 11.00 |
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Group run this morning; warm up run for a mile, then strides, then warm up exercises, then 2 miles easy (9:30ish), 2 miles marathon (8:30ish), 2 more miles easy. Not many miles, as we are saving ourselves for some big mystery strength training next week. Its been nice to have a lower mileage, easier week while my IT is getting better. Got a lot of bike rides in also. Will run a few more miles this afternoon or ride my bike, depending on whether it rains. Got up to the mountain by 5:00; time for an easy run with daughter and cousin in the woods. It was fun to run with people I don't usually run with, especially with my cousin, since its good to see her back running again after bout with breast cancer! She looks and feels great. Yeah! Got to try out the new Vroom! shoes. Loved them.
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NB Orange Shoes Miles: 7.00 | Vroom Shoes Miles: 4.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.00 | 10.50 |
| A few easy miles near the cabin in my trail shoes. Rode up the mountain later with my husband. Biking felt great, and I think I was much steadier on the LOOONG climb than in the past. 21 miles up. Its funny, but I don't get out of breath so much as my legs just cannot go any faster on the steady climb. |
Bike Shoes Miles: 21.00 | Pearl Izumi Trail Shoe Miles: 3.50 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 3.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.50 |
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Nice track workout this evening. It was raining and kinda cold! I ran first with my chiropractor who worked with me on my mechanics. That was good, because by the time I got to the track, I had new stuff to work on while I ran the 1600s. My splits on the 1600s were 7:42, 7:41 (about right), and 7:21 (way too fast, but experimenting with not looking at Garmin). Garmin seemed to go wonky with the rain anyway, and by the cool down miles, all that showed on my screen was a compass looking thingy. The whole workout I practiced my new form and enjoyed my new shoes. Afterwards, I was freezing cold, starving, and had no hot water in my house for a bath. Had to eat carry out food and huddle up under a comforter all evening. Life is so harsh sometimes. But I did my arm workout on the weights anyway. BTW - I had not a speck of tiredness from yesterday's killer bike ride. And, believe me, its pretty killer. Why is that? It seems like a run of that intensity would have made me rather tired the next day.
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 2.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.50 |
| Had to split today's run into two bits: 4.5 miles in the morning and 4 miles in the morning. I didn't like doing to shorter runs in one day. I would prefer a two a day to include one longer run. But this is all I could manage. Felt really tired in the morning anyway, and felt like I slogged through the morning run. I didn't have Garmin, but I'm sure those miles were all 9:30s. Ran most of the evening run at a quicker pace, using trails in the woods. No Garmin here either, but I think the miles were about 8:30. Still tired though. |
Saucony Miles: 4.00 | Pearl Izumi Trail Shoe Miles: 4.50 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
| No Garmin again, but I was going for four easy miles. Once again on the trails by the cabin. It was a little nippy this morning, and I was out so early that I was especially alert for wildlife on the trails. I don't know why, but I always think somehow that the cougars will be out in the early morning. I have no evidence for this, and have never seen a cougar in these woods. I have seen tracks, and heard what I thought was a cougar once. Anyway, no cougars, but thinking about what I would do if I encountered one occupied most of the run. Silly me. I'm not doing any more running, or biking today. I'm just kind of strangely tired, and feel that I should save myself for tomorrow's track work. |
Pearl Izumi Trail Shoe Miles: 4.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Only five miles this morning, and a relatively short workout, but HARD! Instead of mile repeats at a relatively sane 5K pace, we did 200m repeats (10) at 90% effort or so. I actually felt great while doing them, but right now I'm very tired. I'm working out my diet for the remainder of time until the marathon. My biggest challenge at this point is to not lose any more fat. I think if I get any leaner it will compromise my strength. Any tips from experience marathoners out there? I've got about seven weeks to go and mileage will probably go up for a few more weeks, and some long runs thrown in there. I am already putting the snack plan into action: two snacks per day. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 5.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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HaHa. I just read my post from yesterday, and its clear that I'm getting freaked out about all the things that could go wrong with the marathon! Its good to get the anxiety out of the way early I guess. Here are some of my positive mantras: 1. I am getting good training from experienced people, who have helped many people successfully compelete marathons. I am fortunate in this. 2. I am a capable runner, and have proved myself to be competent at many distances. 3. I have set reasonable, attainable goals for myself. 4. I have ample mental resources to succeed in a marathon. I know that I'll feel better after tomorrow's long run: 5 miles easy, 10 at MP, 5 easy. It will give me some confidence. As per Carolyn's advice, I enjoyed hot chocolate before bed, and look how much sleep I got! Yes, its cold enough here for hot chocolate. Have a great running weekend everyone!
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 10.00 | 10.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 20.00 |
| 20 mile run is done. I'm not really jumping up and down impressed with myself, but I rarely am anyway, and I'm trying to keep it positive. On the good side: 1. I ran farther than I ever ran. 2. My feet and legs feel great! 3. My MP miles were all on pace, all 10 of 'em. 4. Its done. 5. I can wear my toe ring with no ill effect. 6. Ice baths don't kill you; they kinda feel good. One the other side (the side that could use improvement - the side with potential!): 1. At mile 17, I just had no oxygen left. Asthma/shmasma, or whatever. Last three splits were bad. 2. Orange Gatorade looks really good, but makes you throw up. 3. My overall time was nothin' special; don't really see how I can run a marathon like this. Going for a really pretty bike ride tomorrow- one of my favorites! Down to Edison and pop in at a favorite gallery, hopefully eat something yummy, and home 'round the big loop through Alger (site of the famous Alger shooting spree!) The "running" assignment is 4 easy, so the bike ride fits into my Sunday. |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 10.00 |
| Recovery day, only 4 easy running miles required. So I decided to go for a bike ride first. The weather is absolutely perfect today for riding! Its warm, sunny, and a little breeze. There is a lovely fall smell in the air, and people are picking blackberries along all of the roads. I rode with my friend Julie around a hilly loop here near my house, partly along the lake and partly along some hilly country roads. If I ever live out of town, I want to live up there, and have llamas. Anyway, when we got back to my house, I was inspired to just stuff a bit of food in, change into my running gear, and do the four easy miles right away. I was thinking that later in the day I would be tired and it would be harder to get out and do it. So that's what I did. Wow, did my legs feel funny. I felt like I was moving through water and going about 12 minute miles. But when I looked at Garmin, my first two splits were 9:09 and 9:12! This kind of cracked me up for some reason, because I really felt like I was not even moving. In fact, I even wondered if people passing me in cars on the road part of the run were looking at me funny, wondering why I was moving so slowly! Third split was 9:23, and last split was 9:22. So, a strange workout, but good recovery jog. Now I'm tired and will sit around reading. I love being outdoors in this weather, the breeze is nice. |
Bike Shoes Miles: 24.00 | NB Orange Shoes Miles: 4.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 |
| 9:00am, sunny and 72 degrees! This is perfection. Splits for 6 miles were: 8:48, 9:01, 9:09, 9:14, 9:27, 9:54, with .89 miles at the end of walking at 15:18. These are more or less perfect easy miles. I wore the Vroom shoes (Lunaracers). The run was about 1/2 street and 1/2 trail, with a short section of more technical trail, so I could see how the Vrooms did on more rocky, rooted terrain. I loved them everywhere; now that I've got somewhat used to them, it is easy to go slowly in them. I felt like this run was truly effortless, and should become the template for all of my runs. I was talking with my chiropractor/coach/personal motivator yesterday about what muscles are required for just lifting the foot off the ground for each step, in Chi running form. He said just think about the foot, not the muscles. While I ran, I just observed what my body did, and sure enough, its just the foot. The leg feels pretty relaxed with each step. I want to have this feeling for the first 10 miles or so of the marathon. I came home and did my core work, arm weights, hip strengtheners, and stretches, and found that all this stuff takes me over an hour! It has really added up over the last few weeks, but I didn't realize how much time I was spending on the support stuff. It is all important; there is not anything that I would cut out, so I guess I'll just have to carve out the time each day. Sometimes I do it in two pieces. |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Another perfect morning! I got out around 5:30 and watched two young men fishing along the lake, pulling in quite large trout. That was the first mile. Then my run took me into the woods, where I was able to see a small coyote lurking around one of the ponds, probably looking for frogs. It was so small I thought it might have been a partially grown pup. So cute! I ran down past the fish hatchery and went up and down a hill a couple of times, trying to feel that effortless stride going up the hill. Finished my run as the sun was coming up, blood red, over the duck pond. The ducks are all back in the pond now, back from wherever they have raised their babies; I wish I had brought something to give them to eat. It was a beautiful morning to get out early, and I think its going to be a sunny day, yippee! My splits were: 9:27, 9:37, 8:20 (too fast, because I wanted to get to the bathroom by the playground), 9:03, 9:54, and a walking .7 of a mile at 15:19. As I got back to my driveway, I was greeted by Jesus (my cat, pronounced HeyZeus), who presented me with another blue stellar Jay! This is the second one in two days. They are lovely birds, and it makes me sad to se him kill them, but he obviously wants me to enjoy the gift, so, as his pack leader, I try to graciously accept them. Maybe I can use the feathers somehow. Little cat Pirate is insanely jealous, both of Jesus' hunting prowess and the attention that Jesus gets for said prowess. On to the stretching and butt strengthening exercises. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 5.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.50 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.50 |
| Track workout! Some warm up running, exercises, 2X200 strides, then 5X800M at 5K pace. My splits were 3:30, 3:41, 3:42, 3:38, and 3:42. The first one was way too fast, but it was really fun! I knew after the first 400 that I was going too fast, but it was too much fun to stop, so I just went for it and resolved to make the next one slower. I am very undisciplined at 5am. Anyway, super fun workout, and another beautiful morning. On Saturday, we have a 1 mile time trial! What? |
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Night Sleep Time: 4.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 4.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.50 |
| Day off, so I just ran a bit to check out something with my stride I've been curious about. Call it a bodywork session. Supposed to be "resting up" for the one mile time trial tomorrow. The whole thing is making me so angry that I might just run it really fast because I'm mad. I'm angry because I don't see what it has to do with marathon training, and I don't want to waste my time. I want to run a long run tomorrow. When I got back into my car after my run, there were wasps inside my car. At least three of them! They were just sitting there looking at me, but not saying much. I am allergic to most wasps, so I asked them to get out, then opened the doors. They just sat there. I finally had to take off my shoe, hold it out, and let them get onto it, one at a time. I then flicked them outside on my shoe. I hope I didn't wreck their day, but I just didn't want to drive them around. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 2.50 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.50 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 5.50 |
| We did our 1 mile time trial today. Started at 7:00; weather was perfect; 60 degrees, clear skies. I had my goal, which was to run it in 6:40, based on my earlier season 5K pace of 7:30/mile. Coach said to wait until 3rd lap to increase speed. I had been thinking to wait until lap 4, because I know that I can always kick at the end. Anyway, my first lap was way too fast (1:25), so I ended up not speeding up at all until the final stretch. Final time was 6:10! As much as I complained about this run, it really was an incredible confidence booster. Everyone in my group has improved fitness dramatically throughout the training, and it showed. Best of all, for me, was that there was NO ASTHMA whatsoever. I was breathing hard, and my lungs were burning after, but no wheezing. |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.43 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.43 |
| Easy miles, nothing special. First two were too fast, as usual, (8:43, 8:38), the rest were all in the 9:15-9:40 range. I noticed lots of ripe blackberries all along the trail; I could even smell them! I will go out on my bike in the morning and collect them for jam. Yumm! I was up on Mt. Baker this morning picking huckleberries. It is so peaceful and quite and actually quite Fall-like, lots of colors turning already, and a crispness in the air. Many signs of bear in the huckleberry fields! I guess they are trying to fill up. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 5.43 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.50 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 7.50 |
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Had a nice but short bike ride this morning. 16 miles. Track workout tonight. Warm up, strides, then many exercises to strengthen and tire out the legs, then a run on tired legs. The theory is that making the legs tired first, then running will strengthen them and "teach" them to do that in the marathon. I think I get it.
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NB Orange Shoes Miles: 4.50 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.97 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.97 |
| Nice easy run; I threw some long hills in for fun. Looks like rain today; but if it doesn't rain, I will go on my group bike ride tonight. Los of work today. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 5.20 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.20 |
| An easy run that turned into M miles. Super fun, though. Splits were 9:00, 8:38, 8:48, 8:42, 8:35, 8:36 (for last little bit). I felt the effort by the end because I was completely out of fuel - my body does that sometimes. I ran on a trail I don't usually go on, and explored a spur that I have NEVER been on! It was a steady climb up from the lake for about a mile, than levels out and climbs again. I went way too fast on the uphill bits, but somehow that felt good this morning. Then, by the time I was back down on the flat lake trail, with just 1/2 mile back to my car, I started feeling so hungry that I was weak. I must find something that I like to eat for breakfast. I was going to stop and pick some blackberries there at the end, but didn't want to ruin my nice marathon pace splits. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.25 | 0.00 | 1.25 | 0.75 | 0.00 | 7.25 |
| Whew! Busy day, so I'm just now getting a chance to post this mornings workout. I've organized a huge fundraiser for the high school XC team, starts Saturday and runs through Sunday afternoon. Its a 30 hour relay, with nightime hours run at the high school track, and daytime hours run in front of a local grocery on a treadmill. Trying to get 60 runners and 100 or so parents stuck into time slots is crazy. Then I have to keep bugging the runners to see if they've got the pledges they need, and trying to get food donated so that the runners don't starve to death, find tents and lights for the nightime (some parents want two tents, in case any boys and girls get mixed up!). Craziness. But fun. This morning's workout was new and quite interesting! Some jogging, warming up, as usual. Then, many many hopping and jumping exercises for explosive strength, plus some cadence drills and counts. Then, four all out strides of 100m. Then 2000m of 5K pace, then cool down. It was exhausting, with all the jumping and hopping. It should get my legs in really good shape for skiing I guess. PM: 3 easy miles, just because the sun is out and tomorrow is a rest day anyway. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 7.25 |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 |
| Day of rest, just a tiny bike ride, before the rain happens. I love my bike. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.50 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 1.50 | 8.00 | 0.00 | 0.25 | 0.00 | 9.75 |
| Group run this morning. It was supposed to be 2 easy miles, 4 marathon miles, and 2 more easy. But, our coach wasn't there, so, as usual in his absence, we ran amok and completed the miles at marathon pace. We did do a warm up though, and stretched after. The hill in mile 6, which used to frequently kill us now feels like a breeze; we just MP right on up that hill. Definitely stronger than 4 months ago. Enjoy your weekend! |
Saucony Treadmill Shoe Miles: 9.75 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.50 |
| Easy miles, splits 9:17, 9:08, 8:51, 9:18, 9:08, and 9:03. Nice slow motion easy effort all the way. |
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Night Sleep Time: 4.50 | Nap Time: 1.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.70 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.70 |
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Whew! Eight whole hours of sleep last night, and I'm feeling really recovered from the weekend of the 30 hour relay! The event was fun, and we made some money for the team. Its fun to hang around all that teen energy for awhile. By 5am at the track, where they ran during the night, I arrived to make waffles for the gang, and there was a group of kids sleeping on the tennis courts, another group sleeping in the tent, and a third group doing laps around the course that I set up. Parents were sitting in chairs encouraging the runners and playing some strange form of twenty questions with the kids as they ran by. A very peaceful scene. Its a good thing they have another week to rest up before school starts! Anyway, I am a bit grumpy because I will miss my track workout tonight. Parent sports meeting. I'm feeling a little beat up today anyhow, so I might just do some easy miles, and do the track work on my own early tomorrow morning. PM - I never got over that beat up feeling, so I just took an "off" day, and did 3.7 easy miles, just focusing on picking up my feet and leaning from the ankles. Call it a form intensive.
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 1.50 | 0.25 | 0.00 | 5.75 |
| I made up the track workout that I missed last night. Had to do it on my own, but it wasn't too bad. Here's what it is: 2 mile warm up jog, following by the special warm up exercises I always do. Then, a series of 10 drills, all forms of explosive hopping or jumping, following by an easy lap around the track. Then 4 all out 100M sprints (I did these barefoot down the infield!). A couple of minute cool down, then 1.5 miles at 5K pace. Usually I struggle to keep this right on 5K pace and to keep it consistent at 1:48 per lap, but this morning I was great! A few of my laps were dead on 1:48! Maybe its the lack of distraction from other people. After the 5K laps, just a couple of miles cool down. Then some stretching, home to write my blog. Now the stretching/strength workout on the floor. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 5.75 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.14 | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.14 |
| Ordinary run; a few MP miles in the middle. My focus was on form and breathing. I tried to keep the easy miles at a two breath in two breath out effort; the MP miles 3 and 3. I forgot to mention yesterday that I ran 1200m barefoot during my track workout. It felt great, and I really felt like I could have done all the track miles with no shoes. I'll have to add a bare shoe to my blog; the miles are adding up! It is really striking how natural the stride feels when barefoot. Its actually effortless without trying to be effortless. I've been drinking coconut water after my runs; it seems to be getting a lot of attention as a serious recovery beverage, and I thought I'd give it a try. It is loaded with pottasium, magnesium and calcium, as well a many other nutrients, antioxidants, aminoacids, and enzymes. |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.25 | 0.00 | 1.50 | 0.25 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Same workout as Tuesday, except that the 5K pace mileage is increased to 2400. I really dread these 5K miles, I think just because my legs are tired from the hopping and jumping exercises, followed by the 100M all-outs. I managed 10:40 for the 2400, though. I really want to time the 100M all-outs next time, because they are really super fun and I feel pretty fast. I think I accelerate up to all out speed pretty efficiently. I will time them on Monday. Its rainy today; first time in 4 ever! Pretty windy too. Temperature at 5:30am was 55 degrees, though, so definitely not cold yet. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 5.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.67 | 8.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 13.67 |
| Nice windy run today. The rain stopped and it was warmish; just a stiff breeze coming off of the bay. I don't like wind, but it was just for a few miles until we got into the woods. The run was supposed to be 11 or so easy miles, then 1 mile at 5K and the rest easy. Obviously, it didn't turn out that way. Splits: 8:49, 6:06 (this was actually the .67 mile, mostly strides for warmup; that's why it was so fast), 9:19, 8:49, 8:42, 9:16, 9:10, 8:55, 9:25, 8:46, 9:06, 8:31, 8:17, 8:04. A nice run all in all, even though it did not fulfill the training requirements! I was pleased to have my fastest miles at the end, since I was aiming for mental toughness and I was tired! At the end my toes were all bloody due to a shoe issue. Why does that have to happen. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 13.67 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.50 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 |
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Not sure if I can run today or not. Its so windy right now that I'm afraid I'd blow away or get hit by a catapulting object or something. I'll wait awhile, since its a totally "free" day and I can run whenever. There is a house next door to us (separated by a small orchard), and the owner rented it to a bunch of college students, who had a big noisy party last night! That is so inappropriate in this neighborhood! I was out in the middle of the night, telling kids not to park in my yard! Millions of cars coming down the street late in the night, etc, etc. I will go over this morning and talk to the renters, and tell them that they will not get a second chance; next time its law enforcement immediately! Unbelievable. The home owner must be a complete idiot to rent her nice home to these trashy hooligans. PM: Running, sort of. 3 easy miles, splits of 10:10, 10:30, 10:12. Something is not right. Tomorrow is another day. The wind never let up all day, and is so strong now that there are whitecaps of several feet in height on the lake. Our dock is underwater.
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New Saucony Guide Miles: 3.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.25 | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.25 |
| Nice run this morning. I ran a mile to the meeting place for our group. Our track workout was cancelled because of the holiday, so we had decided to meet anyway just to run. We ran 6 miles together, then I ran back home. Splits were 9:14, 9:09, 8:44, 8:33, 8:47, 8:46, 9:16, 9:17, plus 9:20 (for the last little bit). Weather is still cool, but the wind and rain of yesterday are gone, thank goodness. It looks like rain is a possibility later today, though. Enjoy the holiday, fast runners! |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
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4 miles. I have come to the conclusion that I have messed up all my training by my complete inability to run easy miles. I believe that I will take up rowing. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 4.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Treadmill run! Nice and easy. Trying to rest my totally fatiqued legs with easy running. Its a pretty good place to work on form and cadence. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 5.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| I have not disappeared, just on a little bummer this week. I'll post tomorrow after 22 miler and update the week's events. Mantra: I am strong, confident, and capable (of anything!). |
Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 10.00 | 12.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 22.00 |
| OK, I'm back. Just had a sad week, with very little running, due to extremely fatigued legs. Fatigued means HURTING. Muscles just feeling so tired, weak, and hurt, I wasn't sure about anything. And not exercising much makes me feel sad, and desperate. My leg mechanic assured me that I was just tired, not hurt, and could still make my marathon. This session ended with lots of whining on my part, crying while my legs were worked on (it hurt). I left with some tape on the left leg. Took Thursday and Friday completely off, just trying to make it to the 22 mile run today. Hung out in the lake (the water is cool), used a lot of ice, gentle stretching, some strength work, and even about 10 seconds of meditation. Worked a lot on positive mental attitude and mental strength. I really had no idea that marathon training would become so absorbing and emotional. I really should take up a sport that complements me better. This morning my legs felt pretty good, not what I would call fresh by any means, but better. I decided to do the run, and felt positive and strong in my head about it. We were supposed to run the first eight easy, and this felt truly easy and fine (splits are high 8s to mid 9s). I told my partner that I might just run the 12 MP miles easy, but we kicked right into them and the effort felt good! My left leg spent most of the run asleep, but no real twinges of pain. My Garmin crapped out at mile 18, with two MP miles to go. But I know I achieved them. This run required more mental strength than I have ever had to use before, and I was very happy with my effort. Huge deposit in my mental strength bank account today. Splits on the MP miles were in the low 8s to high 8s, with one longer one where we stopped to refill our water. The last two miles we were supposed to slow back to easy, and I tried, but not sure if I did because Garmin was done. So, its over, and I'm pretty pleased with the result, both in MP miles and being strong mentally. Clearly, my legs are still very tired, but I didn't hurt them today. I'll need a plan to get through the next few weeks to let them rest. I know today would have gone even better on fresh legs. Just had an ice bath! Thanks everyone, for your support while I was being a baby. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 22.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 |
| Worked for my bike club at the Mt. Baker Hill Climb (best bike race in the world). Helped people with bike troubles before the race. Once everyone was headed up, we took down our tent, and I met a nice sports massage guy waiting around to do massage on finishers of the bike race. I got a GREAT massage, which worked out a few sore spots from yesterday's run. Then I got on my own bike and biked back toward Bellingham. Just part way, a short recovery spin. Spinning feels great on the running machine; a nice way to recover. |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 |
| Wow, this tapering is really stupid! Ran 3 miles, didn't breathe hard, didn't sweat, didn't even shower. That was the assignment. On the positive side, we still get 2 track workouts, mostly 5K pace stuff in each of the next two weeks. That's great, because I really LOVE track workouts. I'm thinking the taper is also a nice time to EAT and gain a couple of lbs. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 3.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 |
| Crosstraining day; did a bike ride. It was beautiful out. We ride out on county roads, where berry fields and corn fields line the highway. It smelled and looked like Fall, but warm still. We start at 5:45, and in summer, finish while it is still fully light. Tonight it was getting darker already! The spinning felt relaxing and easy on the legs. I made no attempt to ride with the "fast" group. They ride at 20-22, and on fresh legs, that speed is fun for me, but I stuck with the 17-19 group tonight, and it felt perfect. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.52 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.52 |
| Went out early this morning, because it was clear and warm, and I thought it might get hot later. Nice easy miles. I just ran, not even looking at Garmin, letting the pace feel "easy". As on othe runs like this, I noticed that I start right out at 8:40 and speed up a bit by mile three. Makes me think that going out right on pace for the marathon might be the best strategy. |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.50 | Total Sleep Time: 8.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 0.00 | 1.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.50 |
| This morning's workout was supposed to be a couple of miles warm up, special warm exercises, strides, then 5X3 minutes at mile pace, followed by several more cool down miles. I had no intention of doing my actual mile pace for these intervals, just because my legs are still feeling somewhat stressed and I don't want to take any chances at this point. So I adjusted the pace to 6:40, which is somewhere in between my mile and 5K paces. Even so, I completed 3 intervals and felt a slight twinge in the left adductor. I hope I made the right decision to stop and jog instead. I am worried about giving up any valuable training, but I'm also worried about pushing too hard right now. Making mature decisions about my training is so new to me. Beautiful morning after yesterday's rains. Cool, with a light mist hanging over the infield. The sun was rising just as we finished about 7am. We are working out at WWUs track, and I keep wondering where the cross country team is. Shouldn't they be practicing? I have been so faithfully doing my strength training, core workouts, and stretches (2X/day) that I feel differences, particularly in ab and glut strength. It does seem to be helping my form over distance; the hips stay in place better because there is more hip flexor and glut strength, I guess. Happy day, everyone! |
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Night Sleep Time: 4.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 4.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 |
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Day off. I feel like I might explode. But not in the house; too messy. Finished all my work in time to run downtown and pick up my new marathon shoes. During the 22 mile run last week, I seriously damaged four toenails! Apparently, my feet really do swell up enough to warrant a bigger shoe. This is my marathon shoe, apparently. Seems so silly, since I will never wear it for shorter runs, and I may not ever run another marathon. I tried them on, went for a jog which felt so good that it lasted for two miles. Cheating, I know, on a day off, but it did keep me from exploding.
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Marathon Shoe Miles: 2.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.50 | Total Sleep Time: 8.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 4.25 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.25 |
| Early am track workout this morning, in pouring rain! Yikes. 4X1600s at 5K pace. It was terribly windy, so the three of us ran in a line, taking turns to break the wind. Splits were 7:22, 7:23, 7:19, and 7:28. That third one is my fault; my turn to lead, and I'm really bad at being chased, and I can't pace. Anyway, a pretty good effort overall, with 2 miles warm up 2 miles CD, strides, and special warm up exercises. Finished wet, wet, wet. Ran home to shower, hop in the car, and drive Son#1 off to college in Olympia! Spent that day getting him organized in his new place, hugging a lot and crying a bit. |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 1.00 | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 |
| Easy miles to try out the new marathon shoes. They do feel big, but it doesn't matter. Splits were 8:41, 8:14, 8:47, 8:36, 9:02, and 8:40. |
Marathon Shoe Miles: 6.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.25 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.75 | 0.00 | 8.00 |
| This workout was tough. So tough that I didn't even blog it last night, just ate my soup and fell down. Partly it was tough because it is really hard for me to workout at 6pm and finish at 8pm. I'm just more of a morning person. It was warm up (2 miles), warm up exercise, strides, then 5X3minute at mile pace, with 3 minute recoveries in between and then 2 miles CD. I kept thinking I just didn't have mile pace miles in me (I'm afraid of my mile pace, lol!). Also, too much math. 45 seconds for the 800m, 1:30 for the lap, etc. At least it keeps the brain busy wile running. Anyway, pace was too fast for first interval (2:50, instead of 3:04). Then intervals 2,3 and 4 were perfect! The last one was very slow (about 3:40). The CD miles felt like such a treat, just jogging along on tired little legs! Its now Tuesday am when I'm writing this down, and surprisingly, the legs feel good! Must go run 5 easy now. Its a good day to be a runner! Happy day everyone! |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.27 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 7.27 |
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Not quite 5 easy miles, but at least they were easy. Legs somewhat tired from last night's workout, but I wanted to run at 7am, since that's marathon time. Riding to work and back! Beautiful sunny day, unbelievable Fall weather. Once in a blue moon we have falls like this in the PNW, and its like nothing else on earth. Edit: My splits were 9:11, 8:59, 9:40, 9:27, and 9:11. That is about the best "easy" I've ever done!
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Bike Shoes Miles: 14.00 | Marathon Shoe Miles: 4.27 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 |
| Assignment was "very easy" miles. What the heck is that? My splits were 9:44, 9:07, 10:26 (stopped to stretch calf muscle), 9:24, 9:58, and 9:59. That seems good enough. The newspaper this morning predicted a dry, warm fall. That's nice for right now, but what about the snow? Will we get to ski? Maybe a good year to ski Utah.... |
Marathon Shoe Miles: 6.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 |
| Something not good happened at this morning's run. I was so psyched for this workout, because it was to be a repeat of the 800m repeats at mile pace that we did on Monday. I felt that Monday went well and felt great, and I was excited to do it again. Went to bed last night with a tight adductor/hamstring in the left leg. Just couldn't relax it. Felt ok this morning, and felt fine during the warm up, but in the first stride, I felt it clench up and tighten. Sort of like a charlie horse in the adductor muscle. I tried to go back to just jogging, but couldn't work it out. Hobbled to my car and drove home to ice it. After the initial frustration with the thing (where I sort of cried driving home), I'm feeling OK about it. Stuff happens, and tomorrow's a rest day anyway. I'm sure by Saturday I'll be back on track (pun!) Gonna try to see the leg mechanic this afternoon and coax the leg back into cooperation. Its not a torn anything, just feels kind of seized up. I'm icing. Some 10K pace stuff on Saturday, another mile pace workout on Monday, then the rest of the week is easy stuff. Marathon next Sunday. Yippee. |
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Night Sleep Time: 4.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 4.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Finally, a really good night's sleep! Felt almost too rested this morning. I've got a rest day planned, letting this stubborn hamstring muscle get itself back together. A gentle spin on the bike will help. After my little mishap at the track yesterday morning, I spent HOURS driving, first up to the mountain to retrieve some shoes my college boy needed, then down to the airport in Seattle to drop of some XC athletes for their flight to Stanford. I sat on some ice part of the time, saw the leg mechanic late in the pm when I got home. Here's my theory about the hamstring hurt: Its from acceleration. I seem to like speed and acceleration, but lets face facts: I actually have a very limited experience doing it. Up until six months ago, all my runs were the same: tempo runs. I didn't even know they were called tempo runs. Anyway, I think that I can assume that any speed muscles that have developed are BRAND NEW, and maybe not fully assimilated into my legs yet, so they have growing pains. To corroborate this theory, I have noticed a HUGE muscle in the back of my leg (my hamstring), that was never there before. I mean, its freakin' HUGE! It makes total sense to me that all this new training results in changes that take a while to adjust to. Can you tell I'm not a medical person? Anyway, no more intense speed work before the marathon! |
Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 |
| 5 easy miles with a 10K pace mile thrown in the middle. The leg felt fine, even with the acceleration to 10K pace. Well, it was supposed to be 10K, but was actually 7:20ish. I wish that was my 10K pace! No seizing up, not even a twinge in the leg. Hooray! I am rocket-ready to go to this marathon! Schedule this week calls for easy running, with 200m pick ups during the runs. Sounds good to me. This crazy energy that I feel in my body is not nervousness, it is stored power, and it means that I am feeling rested and ready. |
Marathon Shoe Miles: 6.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.50 |
| Spent the night in Seattle after seeing "Wicked". Great fun! 4.5 easy miles in downtown Seattle early, cheerful good mornings to all those sleeping in doorways. Kind of nice to be in the busy city. |
Marathon Shoe Miles: 4.50 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.75 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.75 |
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Easy miles, group run. Ran four with the group, then rejoined the other part of our group at the track and ran .75 more so I could catch up on some gossip. Its cold and raining rather hard. Came home soaking wet and feeling great. I had a pre marathon massage today that lasted for two hours! I honestly don't know how I stayed still that long. Well, really I didn't, I wiggled a lot. It felt good after, though! And, I had some very nice coffee afterwards. |
Marathon Shoe Miles: 4.75 |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Another drenching run! It was patchy clouds with some sun all day, EXCEPT when I decided to go running. Within 2/10 of a mile, it just opened up and poured. Sheets of rain. Drenching rain. Splashy puddle rain. Soaking shoes rain. For 45 minutes. As I got to my driveway it stopped. Tell me that wasn't planned. Fun run, splits were 8:55, 8:39, 8:37, 9:01 and 9:07. It is absolutely absurd that after six months of training and just days away from my marathon, I still can't run an easy mile! That just cracks me up. Happy running everyone. |
Marathon Shoe Miles: 5.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
| 5am, 48 degrees, slight rain, no wind. Wore complete marathon outfit, minus the shoes, since they are wet from yesterday. Stuffed two gels into my shorts, two in each side of my bra. I think this will work. Only logistical problem is retrieving them from my bra gracefully. I'll practice some more. Spllits: 9:39, 8:41, 8:35, 9:20. This was as planned, to use Sno's analogy, easy bread, marathon filler. I'm ready. Can't wait for the train ride to Portland so I can sleep. |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
| 5:30am, 51 degrees, calm, light rain. It felt much colder than 51; there is a lot of dampness in the air. I met some of my group at the track and we did four easy with 3 200m pick ups. We just did one at the end of each mile. The pick ups felt good, nice and easy, a little faster than 5K pace. That's it! The marathon training is in the bank. The next few days will require only two very easy miles with pick ups on Saturday morning. Looking forward to getting to Portland now, and resting (?) |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 4.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 |
| Jogged around the university of Portland on Willamette ave. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 2.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 15.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 15.00 |
| OK, here goes. I don't really want to talk about this, but I DO want to move on, and this is part of the healing. Its long, but I'll try to get some of the funny bits in as well. Beautiful marathon morning in Portland! Wore my throw away jacket while lined up waiting to start. Standing by my running buddy Brad in the start line up. Some nerves, but I knew that once we started, it would be fine. The gun went off and the first few miles, Brad and I concentrated on avoiding other people and not going too fast. Its a bit downhill at the beginning, but even so, our first miles were 8:15, 8:21, and 8:47. This last one is a bit fast, since its a long uphill, but neither of us felt winded. The next mile was a WHEEE! downhill (7:41). Then I just settled in to a pace that felt good, focusing on not going too hard and staying steady. These miles took us through downtown Portland and on a 3-4 mile out and back, so we got to see some of the elite runners returning as we were running out. Our coach was somewhere on this section also. It was good to see him. I ate GU and drank at every water station. These six miles were 8:05, 8:17, 8:21, 8:15, 8:30 and 8:17. Somewhere around here we headed out toward Hwy 30, which would eventually take us to the St. Johns Bridge and over to the bluff for the final 8 miles of the race. Very flat in here. Met Cara from my training group and chatted a bit. She looked really strong, but we both tried to slow a bit here, in preparation for the one big hill of the course - the ramp up to the bridge. I also walked through the next several water stations. So, as planned, the next four splits were 8:34, 9:09, 8:51, and 8:21. During the last 10 minutes, I began to get the aura that precedes a migraine headache. I don't get migraines, but do get that visual aura every few years. I just kept running, trying to breathe especially well to help with the visual disturbance. The left half of each visual field was rather dark, but I felt that it would clear. Then I was on the ground, with AJ the EMT talking into my face. His lips were moving but no sound was coming. I think my lips were moving but the words stayed in my head. This part is a bit foggy. As soon as I realized where I was and WHERE I WASN'T! I tried to sit up and bolt, but that didn't work. I was trying to answer the questions that the EMT were asking, but was pretty focused on just getting up and running, so they were definitely not happy with my answers. Finally, I was wavering between trying to run and accepting the fact that I was not going to run. When the ambulance came, I resisted all that I could, but I was unfairly overpowered. Then, once in the ambulance, I cried, got an IV, and got a 3.14 mile split on my Garmin! Fastest split yet. I don't know how long it had been since I passed out, but AJ told me that a spectator heard me say "going down", and he tried to sort of break my fall, so I only have a few bruises and a nasty back of the head ache. Once in the ambulance, I was able to answer all the questions, like birthday, age, all that stuff. About here it dawned on me that I was powerless and in the clutches of my worst nightmare - the medical machine! I really really do not like this institution, and am very mistrustful about medical care. I begged and tried to bribe my way out of going to the hospital, but with an IV in the arm and straps holding me down, I was really powerless. Probably you guys know that I don't like to feel powerless. Then it got worse. Once at the hospital, I began to worry about Karen, my sister in law, who would expect to see me at 18.5, and my coach and teammates, who would not know what had happened. I had no phone, of course, and didn't know anyone's numbers. The hospital staff, led by a Nazi woman doctor, were 100% focused on keeping me down, filling me with unnecessary fluids, and inventing every imaginable test to perform! They wanted blood, urine, Cat scans, MRIs, and chest xrays! All this in spite of the fact that my oxygination and heart rate were excellent. I allowed an MRI to see if I had had a stroke. While the MRI was being prepared, I tried several times to escape, but my speed was hampered by the tubes and electrodes and the stupid gown, so I couldn't get it done fast enough and was captured and actually put under arrest! Yep, armed guards. Two of them, so I must have represented quite a threat. They were really nice guys, though. Oh, I forgot. This is kind of funny. When they helped me take off my shirt and bra so I could wear the regulation hospital gown, the GUs that I hadn't used flew out of my bra. The staff looked quite shocked because they didn't know what it was! So, finally, MRI. These are truly awful, but I let them give me some kind of sedative, and had some nice Led Zeppelin in my headphons. So I was pretty calm. Of course I'm not allowed to walk anywhere for any of this, but have to get wheeled along on a guerney. I am totally convinced that the medical model works by making people feel sick and powerless. It was really starting to affect me. Of course my brain was fine and I didn't have a stroke. Finally, a friend from my group who was not racing but was tracking my progress on her computer was able to locate me at the hospital and help me get in touch with my sister and coach. I was way overhydrated from the IV and kept having to go to the bathroom, but had to be accompanied by the hospital guards each time. I am convinced that the IV was only to keep me from escaping and not for any medical reason. Ms. Nazi wanted to keep me overnight for observation, but finally she was replaced by a much more reasonable Neurologist. He agreed to release me to my sister and saw nothing wrong with me. The whole experience is working its way into a box in my brain called "unexplained experiences". That's where I keep alien abductions, miracles, and anything related to hormones. Sorry, that wasn't as funny as I thought. Here are the positive things: 1. No need to recover. The 15 plus miles of training at a fast marathon pace left me strong! 2. Jogged 7 miles on Monday. Only intended to jog 3.5, but my daughter forgot to pick me up, so I had to jog home as well. Felt like nice recovery miles. 3. I had a great pace and felt great for the first 15! Wow. Tapering works. 4. I'll see Sno and Snoflake on Sunday in Victoria, where I will finally finish my marathon! Thanks for listening. We really are all crazy, but its all good. I'm spending the rest of the week focusing on mental strength and a second taper week, with a nice training run thrown in. Still a bit weepy as I write this, but its a positive step to get it all down and on its way out! |
Marathon Shoe Miles: 15.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 3.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 3.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.00 |
| Whoops! Forgot to log these miles. Just 7 easy miles, more than I wanted for recovery, but it was a beautiful afternoon for running. |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 |
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Just two today; some lingering tiredness from the drama of the weekend. Hope I feel a little more perky soon. Getting lots of sleep. Thanks, everyone, for all the niceness on my sad sob story blog. I love and need the support, especially since certain unnamable coaches think that I'm not entirely sane for doing Victoria. You all are better than a coach. |
Marathon Shoe Miles: 2.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Five miles nice and easy on the treadmill. The weather in the gym was warm, humid, but not raining. Listened to David Bowie's "Heathen" album, Death Cab for Cutie and Snow Patrol. Finished with Lucinda Williams "Lonely Girls". That's all for now. |
Saucony Treadmill Shoe Miles: 5.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
| 4 miles, alternating between easy pace and 400m pick ups. I think I screwed it up; they were probably supposed to be 200m pick ups. Easy was easy, fast was fast. Sunny and beautiful, little wind. Ended my run at my sports medicine Dr. He lasered my arm for awhile before my daughter showed up for her appointment. My elbow and arm are terribly bruised and sore from the IV needle. Hurts when I run. Maybe the laser will help. |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Wow, I'm banking pre marathon sleep big time! Eight whole hours. No running today, so I luxuriated in the opportunity to spend an entire hour on stretching. And, this is huge, actually spent 2 minutes sitting quietly approaching meditation! I'm going to kick it up about 10 seconds next time. I feel so zen and self satisfied (wait, are those mutually exclusive things?). My mental game is in an interesting place. Not the same as last week at all, but every bit as strong. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 |
| Two easy miles, 8:27 and 9:09. Cold this morning - 47 degrees at 8:30. BRRR. I packed longer pants for Victoria tomorrow just in case. I for sure cannot run slow miles if I'm freezing! I just love Canadia! |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Race: |
Victoria Marathon (26.2 Miles) 04:18:23 | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 13.10 | 13.10 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 26.20 |
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Victoria is done; Portland never happened. I don't really need to say more, do I? I know that most people in my life (and maybe a few of you on this blog as well), thought I was insane to run Victoria after what happened in Portland, but it was absolutely the best thing that I could have done to get over it. My time is crappy, and for once I don't even care. It was a terrifically fun race; wonderful to see Sno and family! I can say very honestly that I enjoyed every single mile of the run. My first half was a few minutes faster than planned, but by mile 18, I had to admit that I was not recovered enough from last week's miles to have a great time on this one. So, I just settled in and enjoyed the scenery and the people. The spectator support was great, and very funny. I even helped a guy work his calf muscle out a bit towards the end; got him walking again and went on. At mile 24, I saw a man being loaded onto a stretcher and cried for 1/2 mile. All the tears that I held in all last week. So glad the week is over; I'm not going to run with my Garmin for at least three weeks. I want to run like crazy in the mud and trails. The next marathon will be about performance; this one was about healing and fun! Thanks for your support, everyone!
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Marathon Shoe Miles: 26.20 |
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Night Sleep Time: 5.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Enjoying my day off, but I'm antsy to run! Maybe tomorrow. I feel so stupid for inaccurately reporting my marathon time, although it looks pretty good! Do you think I can get voted off the blog for that? My time was 4:18, something, not 1:18! During the last 5 miles, while I was just sort of 12:30 miling it along, having a great time, I met some really interesting people. I met these two guys who were on their seventh day of doing the full marathon course. They were running for some charity, and the actual race day was their last one! They were in pretty good spirits, but were out of fuel sources, so I gave them a couple of GUs, and walked/ran along with them for awhile. They were amazing! I think I already mentioned that I helped a guy with his calf muscle! He thought I was the EMT at first, and wondered how I found him. He had a knot the size of a baseball in his right calf. He was able to stand and walk when I left him. It was his first marathon. Then there were the many strange assortments of people cheering us on. At one point, a really trashed car was parked, with "You Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog" blaring out of it, and a bunch of people dancing. I was walking at the time, but I picked it up into a sort of solo dance, kicked into a sprint, and got a lot of cheers! So, those are some happy memories of this one! I hope that next time I'll be running to hard at the end to enjoy it in quite the same way, but it sure was fun to take in all the sights. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| Sleeping badly now from not enough running. I don't know if the marathoning is worth it, having to take these days off. Have been yogaing and stretching, and today went to the gym for eliptical training for 40 minutes. Took the edge off. But, interestingly, I'm totally hooked on the idea of my NEXT marathon now. I guess I never realized that I have an addictive personality. Luckily, I'm fairly busy at work right now, planning for shelters for winter disaster victims, natural and otherwise. The other thing in my favor is that its gotten VERY windy here today, and I do not like to be out in wind. If the wind dies down tomorrow and there is no rain, I'll get to ride my bike a bit. Went to my family Dr. today to have him check out the results of the multitude of tests that were performed on me against my will in the hospital in Portland. I love him sooo much - he said of course there is nothing wrong with you, but stop running next time your migraine aura happens, and its a very good thing that you did Victoria immediately so you won't build up any fear. Isn't that great? He just wants me to not lose any more pounds, eat lots of protein, and get weighed at the office every week. Which is great, 'cause there is a really good coffee place right near his office! Next marathon is definitely Newport. |
Night Sleep Time: 6.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| Did about an hour of stretching and weights and abs and stuff, then later some time on the recumbent stationary bike in the basement. The recumbent bike is kind of nice, because you can read a book while riding. This activity helped a bit, but its definitely not running, which I miss. |
Night Sleep Time: 6.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 |
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Running again! Six gloriously muddy, wet and rainy miles on my favorite hilly woodsy trail! With four of my running buddies. It was fantastic to be running again, without Garmin, without discipline, without a plan! No splits, no MP, no easy pace, just the run. It felt positively primal. No cougar sightings. Happy.
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Night Sleep Time: 5.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 11.00 |
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60 degrees this morning! It rained hard all night, then cleared up, with no wind. So different from yesterday's lightning and wind. I ran seven miles through and around Whatcom Falls Park. Still no Garmin. Felt good to run flatter trails after yesterday's hill workout. Legs were somewhat tired near the end, but still feeling pretty dang good. Added some bike miles later. Still sunny and warm; 1 hour ride out Lake Whatcom and around the Agate Bay loop.
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Bike Shoes Miles: 4.00 | NB Orange Shoes Miles: 7.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.50 | Total Sleep Time: 8.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 |
| Another dry day, so I decided to ride the bike. The Fall colors are beautiful, and riding is pleasant right now. Unfortunately, I had no energy left for a run. IT band is somewhat tight; have had to have two special stretching sessions for that. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 8.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.00 |
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Eight miles, perfect weather again. I went out for three, and couldn't stop. I may have overdone for recovery. At mile 6.5, I swallowed a gnat or something. I coughed and spat, but could still feel it in there all the way back home. Yuk! Forgot to say my splits! I wore Garmin again and got 8:51, 8:40, 8:49, 8:46, 9:38, 9:25, 9:17, and 8:51. Notice how I begin and end on 8:51; that must be a significant number for me today. Maybe I'll work for 8:51, or eat 851 calories for breakfast, or do 851 crunches. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 8.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 |
| Well, I did overdo the recovery running a bit yesterday, and I'm paying for it today. Legs feel very stressed. I decided to skip running, do lots of stretching, work with the stick, and bike ride. |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Five easy miles; legs still somewhat stressed, in a strange way. Did a nice upper body weight lifting session and a killer ab workout. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 5.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| No running; had to travel South for an all day meeting, and its absolutely pissing rain here, so didn't get out before I left. My legs need a day off anyway. This recovery stuff seems to come in waves! |
Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 8.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.00 |
| 44 degrees and clear! Beautiful. It was a little bit cold in shorts for about 1/2 a mile. Eight easy miles along the Chuckanut Trail, through the leaves and up and down in the woods a bit. Splits were 8:48, 8:55, 9:24, 9:35, 9:21, 9:54, 8:15, and 9:12. No tightness in the butt, IT band, calves. Everything good. Am I finally recovered? Hooray! Finished at the Village Green and got some excellent coffee. Ran into a couple of guys who also had on their Victoria Marathon shirts. We chatted for a few minutes about how great the marathon was. Its going to be sunny today; we really need this! |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 8.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 5.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.62 | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.62 |
| I dressed for my run just as I did yesterday morning, without realizing that it was 8 degrees colder! I drove to our meeting place and saw that it was 37 and I was in shorts. Luckily, I was warmly dressed on top and had my little gloves. It took somewhat longer than usual to warm up partly because I was underdressed and partly because the route starts flat, then descends a rather long hill. Once my muscles were warm, though, I was good. This was a different group of runners, one that I have not run with, and it actually turned out well for me. There were six of us, and we ended up divided into two groups by the middle of the run. But the pace was great for me, you can see by my splits that I was able to maintain an easier pace than usual. The route was super hilly, with really long hills. I was delighted to find that I felt great on the hills; recovery seems complete! Splits were: 9:29, 9:36, 9:30, 9:18, 9:03, 9:27, 9:28, 8:28, 8:34, and 8:55. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.50 |
| Used the treadmill at the gym today. 3.5 miles in track flats, then 1 mile in barefeet. I tried a few strides at 7:20 pace, and felt good. I believe that I might be ready for a track workout tomorrow evening! That is very exciting. My gym does not like me to run in bare feet, so I may either buy a treadmill or find a new gym. Why can people do yoga in bare feet but not run? Noone at the gym had a good answer to this question. Followed the run by some intense upper body weights (I will be sore tomorrow!), and some squats with weight, then all my stretching, core work, and conditioning exercises. Made for a long time at the gym, but everything is done! May ride the indoor bike this evening if time permits. |
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Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 7.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 3.75 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.75 |
| Track workout! We started at 5:30, so already dark, but the WWU track has lights, so its good. The workout called for 5X1200s, which we decided to do at 5K pace. Mile paces for these 1200s were: 7:26, 7:19, 7:24, 7:08, and 6:50. I had tons of energy and felt great, especially on the last one. Felt really good to go fast for a change. Will thoroughly stretch and do abs and strengthening stuff before I go to sleep. |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 7.75 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 11.75 |
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No Sleep. Dark. Cold. Raining. 7.75 miles. Food. Hot Shower. Off To Work.
1:30pm - some X training on the basement bike, where I don't have to look outside. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 7.75 |
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Night Sleep Time: 3.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 3.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 |
| Whoops, this entry is supposed to be on Wednesday, and Wednesday's entry is supposed to be on Thursday. Nothing really happened today except some indoor biking. |
Night Sleep Time: 6.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 |
| Since I have to miss my group's longer together run tomorrow, I decided to do a track workout today on my own. I don't know why I decided to do 800s, I'm really kind of lost doing this with no guidance. But 800s sounded fun. I meant to do them at about 5K pace, but they turned out quite a bit faster. I did four, with 2 miles warm up before, a lap or so in between each 800, and some cool down miles afterwards. The last 3/4 of a mile were barefoot on the track, since its quite warm today. Splits on the 800s were 3:14, 3:16, 3:13, and 3:20. Just small spitting rain here today, but no sun. Very very windy; we seem to get a lot of wind here in Bellingham. |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 9.67 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.67 |
| Easy miles, sunny day. 8:53, 8:49, 8:47, 8:29, 9:26, 10:07, 12:45, 10:46, 8:52, 8:19. |
Saucony Treadmill Shoe Miles: 9.67 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 |
| Great weather, but something is wrong with my right leg today. |
Saucony Treadmill Shoe Miles: 3.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 5.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.19 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.19 |
| Still gorgeous, cold, clear. Still something wrong with my leg. Jogged a few, then called it quite. My Garmin map shows me starting this run from the middle of the lake, and running the first mile in 6:15. Neither of these facts is accurate. Reported splits are: 6:15, 8:44, 9:12, and 8:59. |
Saucony Treadmill Shoe Miles: 3.19 |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 |
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My leg still hurts. Did some X training on the stationary bike. Its so windy here today that I am afraid to run anyway, especially in the woods. I followed the bike with a bunch of upper body weights, whole body stretching and some major abdominal work and squats. |
Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.17 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 8.17 |
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The longest run since last Sunday! I went slow, and the leg was not hurting, but my hip felt a little "out". Once again, my garmin did something funny the first mile, creating a long average time, what's up with garmin? Splits: 12:31, 8:49, 9:49, 9:27, 9:04, 9:28. I spent a long time with hip alignment exercises when I got home, plus abs, stretching, squats, shoulder exercises, etc. Its pouring rain now, but I missed it! Tomorrow will be a really long day in the care; going to Pasco for State XC Championships (my daughter). Five hour drive each way! Should be an exciting race though! Edit: Added a few XC miles on the bike. I'll try to run tomorrow during one of the more boring races. There are eight races, and my daughter is in only one, so I should be able to find a break somewhere.
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New Saucony Guide Miles: 5.17 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 9.20 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.20 |
| Gusty wind, spitting rain, warmish at 6:30am. Ran longer than I thought I would, and hillier also. I went on a usual trail, and cut off to Big Rock Park for an adventure. It was a great trail, and one that I have never followed all the way through. I didn't realize that I could follow it through and create a nice loop back to the road. Fun run, splits all between 8:45 and 9:00, except for the one loooong steep uphill. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 9.20 |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.00 |
| Track workout in cold rain and strong winds. Bizarre! Two mile warm up to get to the track, then 8X400s at something between 5K and mile pace, with 400 in between, then 2 mile jog back to the car. Didn't really look at times on the fast 400s, it was too dark and rainy to mess around with Garmin. They were fast. Slow laps were slow. This morning my knee hurts and I cannot walk, literally. WTF. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 8.12 |
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Night Sleep Time: 5.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| JD, WTF stands for #$%@#!! of course. No miles, knee pain is a probably miniscus tear; still can't walk properly. The knee feels like it wants to buckle up and tip me over. I'm doing some very simple leg lifts, trying to keep the muscles firing. I'll see the Dr. again on Friday, and we'll assess whether or not I'll need pictures of the knee. In the meantime, its been 24 hours with no running, and I'm doing OK. I can't ski tomorrow, opening day! I am supposed to try the stationary bike this evening. On the positive side, I tried melatonin as a sleep aid, and I think it worked. Slept solid from 9:30 pm to 4am! Then went back to sleep until 5am. This is a record. I am not at all certain that the combination of no exercise and lots of sleep is good for me. |
Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.50 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 |
| Was able to walk better this morning. I used the stationary bike for 20 minutes on the lowest resistance setting, just getting the knee to move smoothly. Iced after. I am pretty hopeful because it was better today. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
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More XC miles on the stationary bike, which has now been moved in front of my television! I'm up to over an hour with no knee pain, and I'm able to activate all the muscles around the knee. It is definitely a miniscus tear, but is healing very fast! I have an MRI scheduled Monday, but maybe I won't need it if things keep progressing so quickly. The dreaded prospect of surgery is fading. Hoping to run one week from today! PM - added a few more XC miles. I've had the bike on the lowest resistance setting, and the knee is a tiny bit sore after the second session today. I iced. Still walking slowly, but the knee doesn't seem to want to "buckle" any more. This all seems pretty good to me.
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 |
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More XC on the bike. I'm running out of movies to watch! A few extra bike miles this afternoon. If this lasts much longer I'll go crazy(er). |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
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Biking miles. Tried the deep water running class and couldn't do it. All the really old and fat people could do it, but not me. Added a few more bike miles. The howling wind is back tonight! Man, we have had a lot of wind this last few weeks; its getting tiring. I have an MRI tomorrow, so I'll know more about what is up with my knee, and hopefully have some sort of timeline for recovery! |
Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 |
| Six XC miles on the bike indoors in the early am, then 3 XC miles outdoors in the sun later! XC miles are equal to 12 minutes of biking, FYI. Didn't want you to think that I biked for 3 miles! Knee feels OK with this, but the soul need to RUN! Had the MRI this afternoon; just waiting to hear tomorrow. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 13.00 | 13.00 |
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I was able to bring my tempo up a bit for some sprints; I think I'm getting better at this bike thing. Watched all of "Mama Mia" while riding. I love musicals. I added another workout tonight. Dr. gave permission to do some ladder intervals on the bike! Almost like a real workout, with cardio and everything. Still low resistance, but way more fun than slogging out those easy rides. I did intervals of 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 minutes with 1 minute recoveries in between. The intervals were at about 22 mph; recoveries at 17. MRI shows no tear in anything! This is good news, as it means no surgery. The not so good news is that there is some lesion/inflamation sutff going on, some of in bone. The advice is to get an xray to make it is benign. Also, the healing is not very determinate at this point. Still no skiing or running. |
Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 |
| Same ladder workout on the bike that I did last night. A increased the resistance just a tiny bit, still keeping it pretty easy. I get a lot more benefit from these ladders; some cardio involvement, which means endorphin involvement, which means more cheerful attitude all around. I may do an easy hour later today, or just take the rest of the day off. I'm going to the gym to do weights and core and stretching. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 |
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Just three quick bike miles this morning, then had to go to work, then a long meeting. Dropped by the gym on the way home, great weight and core workout. I think I'll have sore abs tomorrow! May get a longer workout on the bike this evening, but no intervals today. Still waiting for the results of the bone x ray on my leg. This whole experience is strengthening my belief that medical testing leads to more medical testing, and in the end the body heals itself! Let's hope this is the case; it does feel more like my old knee every day. Went back this evening and did a few more, but my heart just is not in it today.
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 |
| I helped with a community 5K race this morning. It was cold here! 40 degrees and very damp. At least the winds died down a bit during the run. I came home and did another bike workout. Finished Pearl Harbor. That was a really long movie! I was doing the toughest intervals just as Pearl Harbor was being bombed and things were exploding everywhere; perfect timing. Hope everyone is having a great running weekend! |
Night Sleep Time: 6.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.50 | 5.50 |
| More biking. Also went to the gym for about 1.5 hours of weights and abs/stretching. I'm doing lots of stuff to strengthen the leg. One legged squats are still hard on the bum knee, but getting better. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 12.00 |
| Deep water running went well this morning! Nothing hurt, and I was actually able to "run" for an hour and push it a little. I might actually be healing. Some miles on the bike to finish it off, now on to the cooking! |
Night Sleep Time: 5.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 |
| Interval workout on the bike while the turkey was cooking. |
Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 | 10.00 |
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More early morning pool running. I'm better now, so I added some "MP" pool miles in the middle. The thing about pool running (or any kind of water workout) is that I get really hungry. I can barely make it home I'm so starving after the water workout! early pm: Got to the gym for some intense shoulder workouts, plus abs, upper body weights, squats and stretching. PM: Added an hour on the indoor bike while watching a movie. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 |
| A ladder interval on the bike, with a little extra time of just easy spinning. I was hoping for an outdoor bike ride today, but its gone back to sideways rain and blustery winds. Not ideal. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.00 | 9.00 |
| Indoor biking |
Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.50 | 12.00 |
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Nice pool run early this morning. I'm starting to like this routine. Getting in the water early in the day is nice, except that I get so hungry! Long dreary spell of weather here; its getting really difficult with no skiing and no running. These are the things that keep me cheerful in winter. I'm starting to think about a warm weather vacation. Suggestions? pm: Got an interval workout done on the bike.
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Night Sleep Time: 5.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 5.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 |
| Stationary bike this morning, now off to scuttle around and take care of all the things that need to be done before I can leave tomorrow. Going to Maui for 10 days, to escape gray skies and rain and finish healing this knee. I'll be out of internet land, so I'll check in when I get back! Happy running everyone. |
Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.12 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.12 |
| Ran out the highway in Hana, Maui. Finished at 7:20, and took a yoga class after. Knee felt OK, somewhat sore. The rest of the day involved a lot of walking, which probably was not great, but I enjoyed the beach and the sunshine! |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 4.12 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 3.75 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.75 |
| Ran on the lower highway this morning. There is no traffic at 6:30 am, but it is a hillier run than yesterday. Stopped to walk on the steep downhills. So great to run in the warm and moist air! |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 3.75 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.61 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 8.61 |
| Lower road again. My days seem to involve a whole lot of walking in addition to the runs. Knee does not feel any better, but no worse either. By evening, its sore and tight again. I'm trying to do a lot of stretching. Swimming in the ocean helps too. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 4.61 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.60 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 8.60 |
| Finished this run with a 1 mile barefoot run (shoes stashed at the beach). Barefoot run was on sand and grass. Cross training miles on the bike. Yoga again this morning. I've done yoga class every day here, and it feels really good to do that again. I've missed my yoga practice. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 3.60 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.10 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 8.10 |
| Ran in the early morning, then hitchhiked up the coast to hike a trail to a waterfall. I practically ran most of the trail; the elevation was not what I'm used to in a hike, and the trail was easy. The waterfall was worth the hike! |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 4.10 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| The knee is all irritated again. I'm going to take 4-5 days completely off, except for swimming in the ocean and walking. |
Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 8.50 | Total Sleep Time: 8.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.01 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.01 |
| Ran 2 miles down into the Haleakala Crater and 2 miles back up! 9,740 feet high. Really could feel the elevation on the run back up. The last mile up was a walk jog thing, with my heart bursting out of my chest. Great altitude training, I guess! |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 4.01 |
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Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 |
| Ran on a trail by the beach. The trail was paved, but was right on the sandy beach. It was beautiful, with a gentle breeze and warm moist air. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 4.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 9.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 9.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Got back in late last night. I extended my stay a couple of days, and I really can't say its that great to be back. I guess I missed the really cold weather, but it still feels plenty cold to me, and the wind is howling. I had a great, restful, healing, and peaceful trip. I'm running again, and will post the runs as soon as I get the new Garmin to become friends with my computer. The highlight was a run at the top of Haleakala Crater at 9,740 feet! Short, just two miles down and two up. Beautiful day and great altitutde training! My miles are still short, but I'm ready now to ramp it up a bit and see if I can get ready for a 1/2 in mid January. I am happy, brown and plump. |
Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 7.97 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.97 |
| Got up early to run almost 8 miles with my friend Aeron. This is the longest and best that I have run since the knee thing, and it felt soooo good to be back out there! My respiratory system is having a bit of difficulty adjusting back to colder Pacific Northwest air, but other than that I felt great. Better than great. No knee pain, perfectly balanced hip flexors for the whole run. Stopped once to do some exercises to realign everything at about mile 6. It was around 42 degrees, not too cold, but it felt plenty cold to me. Spent the afternoon up at the mountain skiing. If running felt good, skiing was like heaven. I only skied for a couple of hours, and stuck to speed runs down groomers, but the knee was happy. I'M BACK! |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 7.97 |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.12 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.12 |
| My breathing is better today. I'm adjusting to this climate again. Glad I went early, because now there is cold rain. I'm not ready for that. I had to wear gloves this morning. I saw two rabbits on my run. Usually they are more secretive, but they were running across the trail in front of me this morning. They look really fat and healthy. Makes me think of stew. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 4.12 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 10.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 10.00 |
| 40 degrees at 7:30am. Very damp air and fog. So damp that my hair was all wet even though it didn't even rain. I met three running friends for a 10 mile out and back along the interurban trail. We all started out thinking that our paces would be different and we couldn't stay together, but we were together the whole way. It was great to catch up with everyone, and we saw other groups of runners and bikers along the way. An active Saturday morning in Bellingham. Splits were 9:33, 9:31, 9:46, 9:31, 9:27, 9:05, 9:07, 9:08, and 8:49. The way out is slightly uphill and the way back is slightly downhill, which you can see in the splits. Funny thing is that mile 8-9 is a steady UPHILL on the way back. About a 2-3% grade I would say, and 3/4 of a mile long. For some weird reason, I always rock this hill. My knee feels great, but I'm going to take the rest of the day off and either ski tomorrow or go for a short run (OR BOTH!) Have a great weekend! |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 10.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 6.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 |
| Short bike ride outdoors; very cold, but I have some spiffy new winter biking gear that makes it fun. It didn't rain much. I think I have seen the sun once for about two minutes since I got back from Maui. |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.68 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.68 |
| Had a nice run in whipping wind and hard rain this morning. I have no car today, so my run was to my Drs. office, the allergy Dr. for shots, and then home. All trail. Splits were 9:20, 8:27, 8:43, 8:27 (for a portion of a mile), stop at Drs., then 8:14, 9:05, 8:42, and 7:29 (for a portion of a mile). My sports medicine Dr. is now my coach (which is great, because this way coaching is covered by my insurance, I think). I've got three races coming up: a local 1/2 marathon on January 16, the Chuckanut 50K on March 20, and my marathon on June 6. In between, I'd like to run at least one more 1/2, and some shorter things, like 5Ks. |
New Saucony Guide Miles: 6.68 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Went skiing today! It was very very cold but clear and sunny. What a treat! I wore a neoprene sleeve on the knee and it seemed to work pretty well; I didn't hike into the backcountry, but I definitely got off of the groomers and felt fine. Did five miles when I got home, in the dark. My headlamp went out on me mid run! What a great way to celebrate solstice. |
NB Orange Shoes Miles: 5.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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Day off running; knee was feeling stressed. Did a yoga class with my daughter instead. I'm not sure what I thought of the teacher. He kept saying things like "bring the outer part of your shoulder down and relax the inner edge of the shoulder". Just complicated stuff to figure out and too much talking about it. I guess I learn better by feel, not by so many words. We felt good afterward, but during class, I could tell that my daughter was spending just as much mental energy as I was trying to take in all the instructions! Followed class by a big breakfast and some coffee. We are planning a ski hike tomorrow for Christmas eve. Hike up on skins for 2-3 hours and ski back down to the car! Hopefully, the snow will be good where we are going. Haven't had much new snow, but it is certainly staying cold enough most of the time so its not melting! |
Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 15.00 | 15.00 |
| Snow hike was wonderful! Took us 3 1/2 hours to skin up to about 5500 feet elevation. All for 20 minutes of skiing back down! This is called earning your turns, for you non-skiiers out there. It was a beautiful day, cold and clear; the snow quality was actually pretty good. Views from the top were spectacular, with sightings of the San Juan Islands to the West and straight across view of Mt. Baker to the East. Kind of like being on top of the world with skis on. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Rest day, lovely morning, and a cold walk down to the river with the family after breakfast. We built rock sculptures by the river until we were cold, and hiked home to the sauna. |
Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 |
| Running was not possible for my knee today, so I did a bike interval workout - AGAIN! |
Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Knee was good today, so I ran. Five easy miles, cold and sunny. Perfect. Lots of stretching and strength workout after. Now its time for a latte. |
Saucony Treadmill Shoe Miles: 5.00 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 6.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 |
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Pool workout again. I call it 6 easy miles, because I stay in the pool for 65 minutes. However, I actually did an interval workout this morning. I do hard efforts for 5 minute intervals, followed by ten minutes of "easy" effort. I have no way of knowing how far I actually "ran"! The water workout always makes me ravenous! Why is that? I could run for an hour or even two hours and not even be hungry, but being in the pool makes me just starving. Followed up the large breakfast with a 1 1/2 hour yoga class. Not ideal to eat right before yoga, but this yoga place has the most awkward times for classes, and I've got to eat sometime. Just have not found the right yoga teacher since I moved up here. I believe I have tried all the ones at this particular studio and haven't really loved one.
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Night Sleep Time: 6.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 4.00 | 0.00 | 2.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.50 |
| First track workout in awhile! Actually, first track effort since I hurt my knee (6 weeks, 7 weeks?). I did a very conservative workout: 5X800 with 400m cool downs in between, and added a few 200m strides at the end. The objective was "T" pace, which is about 7:55. Splits were 7:22, 7:48, 7:32, 7:28, and 7:41. 200m strides were 6:20 and 6:22. The workout felt great, no knee pain whatsoever. I could have done more 800s at that pace, maybe two more. So happy to be back on the track! No more skiing for me for awhile, since that is the thing that aggravates this knee thing. |
Saucony Treadmill Shoe Miles: 6.50 |
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Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 5.00 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.00 |
| Long pool run this morning, with four intervals of harder effort (I call these the marathon pace miles). This workout is really tiring; if you've never done it, try it! My legs feel so tired afterwards; much more than if I'd run for 75 minutes. Go figure. Back up to the mountain this afternoon; I'll try a snowshoe hike tomorrow while everyone else skis. Skiing is totally off of the books for me right now; it is the one thing that is actually bad for my knee. I miss it terribly, but hopefully in a few weeks I'll catch up. I believe that I could get out the cross country skis with no problem. Happy New Year everyone! |
Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 8.00 | 8.00 |
| XC skiing today to crosstrain. A really fun trail; two hours long with a long gentle down and up then down and long uphill back to the car. I wish there were rules about snowshoes and a lane for them, though. They really mess up the track. The road is plenty wide to have lanes for skaters, skiiers and snowshoers; I don't know why they don't do that. Back in town tonight so that my daughter can have New Year's with her date, then an in town activity tomorrow. I'm trying to decide between the combo run around Lake Padden, Polar Bear Dip in the lake and a long bike ride. The bike ride is one of my favorite rides - about 50 miles round trip to a small community called Edison, where there are several yummy lunch spots and galleries. But, its supposed to be pretty rainy and cold tomorrow, so maybe the run and dip will win out. |
Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Crosstraining miles | Total Miles | 703.09 | 173.50 | 57.90 | 8.25 | 299.10 | 1241.84 |
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Saucony Miles: 252.51 | Bike Shoes Miles: 435.39 | Pearl Izumi Trail Shoe Miles: 18.50 | NB Orange Shoes Miles: 166.10 | Nike Flat Miles: 5.50 | Vroom Shoes Miles: 83.41 | Saucony Treadmill Shoe Miles: 42.11 | New Saucony Guide Miles: 157.95 | Marathon Shoe Miles: 81.72 |
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Night Sleep Time: 1220.60 | Nap Time: 24.00 | Total Sleep Time: 1244.60 | |
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