Running Redhead

Seriously tedious run on the treadmill, but got the mileage in.

Nice and easy flat miles on Park Street.

Tempo run. 2 x 16 minutes at 6:51 pace. Felt pretty tight and struggled somewhat until the last four minutes of the second segment. Might have run the first half to one mile too aggressively.

Slow and steady recovery miles on the treadmill.

General aerobic miles along Park Street around 7:50 pace. Quads a little sore from the tempo run on Thursday.

Out Loudville and Route 66 to Florence Road. Sunshine with temps

warming up to about 50. Excellent smooth distance except for being

chased by bear. Finished with overall pace of 7:59. Ice bath afterward

freshened up my legs.

Run home from school. A couple miles warm up around the Westhampton 5K course, then 1.5 mile tempo due to bear issues, potty stop, 2 mile tempo, one minute jog, then 1.5 mile tempo. Paces were 6:45, 6:54 and 6:50. A bit winded day after giving blood, but legs felt good and overall felt good next day.

Easy miles on the treadmill at 8:49 with one percent incline.

Hills on the treadmill today. Intended on being 5 x 3 minutes at 5 percent incline and 7.8 mph (10K pace converted from hillclimber). Didn't have it, so I modified to 2 x 3 minutes with two minute recoveries and then 4 x 2 minutes with three minute recoveries. Hard on the lungs.

Recovery miles on Park Street in cool wind and rain. Felt fairly relaxing.

On bike path. Warmed up for 2.5 following some GI issues. Created a ladder workout with 1600, 1200. 800, 400, then back up 400, 800, 1200, 1600. Two minute recovery jogs in between. Average pace ended up at 6:40. Pace would have been about 6:34 without hiccup in the first 800. Legs pretty beat up aftewards, but better Monday morning.

Treadmill at recovery pace of 8:50 with one percent incline. Regained some energy after feeling wrecked by interval ladder yesterday.

Long run after a long day at school. Excellent temp and sunny day was great for first eight miles. Gatorade hits kept the energy going and cooler temps at finish stimulated me to keep the pace moving. Average of 8:17, but significantly more zonked at the end of this run. Of course, this was afternoon versus usual Sunday morning for a long run and my intervals from Sunday probably had an effect as well. Legs sore afterward, but not bad on Wednesday.

Flat and easy on the bike path in wicked nice afternoon sun. Average pace at 8:45-ish. Still a bit sore from long run Tuesday.

I fought through some more GI issues for a semi-successful tempo workout. The plan was about 5.5 miles or 35 minutes continuous running at around 6:45 pace with some help from an overall downhill. Started out well but the tummy trouble hit around the end of mile two. A couple of breaks to settle the stomach and then a pit stop about 4 miles in broke up the tempo into four segments (one minute in between except for the pit stop). The overall pace was right at 6:45, so that was the successful part. Felt comfortably hard.

A general aerobic run on the bike path in 59 minutes.

Long run out Glendale onto Route 66 at 8:08 overall pace. Two sets of 5 x one minute accelerations at goal half marathon pace to build some strength. 6,7,8 uphill were tough but definitely fulfilled the purpose of the workout. Some weakness issues on the outside of my left knee.

Tried a recovery run today and the left knee is protesting strongly. Some pretty significant pain on the outside of the knee. Cut the run short obviously and now I'm icing. We'll see what if feels like tomorrow, but I'm pretty worried right now.

I've been working fervently this past week to stretch and strengthen my IT Band. My knee was sore when trying to run Monday and Tuesday. Ice and NSAID and rest Wednesday through Friday. I've started with a foam roller and hip strengthening exercises. I tried on the bike path Saturday and it's still a bit sore, so I decided not to push it. Another day off tomorrow and then I'll try on the treadmill Monday.

Jog for 1.5 miles on the treadmill. Stop and stretch. Jog another mile to warm up as much as possible. Knee felt a little tight. Decided to try some intervals since I've read that faster running seems less impactful on ITBS. 4 x 800 meter intervals at 6:07 pace with two minute walk breaks to recover without putting more stress on the IT band. Intervals felt okay as far as fitness, but I kept waiting for the knee to start protesting. No pain, but some tightness. I'll continue with stretching, strengthening, ice, NSAID and extra rest days. Hopefully can get some more miles in this week (in the 20s maybe) and then back up to about 75 percent next week (low 40s).