Auntie Em Goes Running

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!   

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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.