cheryl

I ran 7 miles on the treadmill at various speeds/inclines.  Then I pool ran for 30 minutes.  I'm counting 15 minutes as a mile.

Butt-kicking day.  We met at the track and ran around the neighborhoods for just over 3 miles, the avg. pace being 9:06.  Then we did a tempo run up Rustic Roads, back thru Meridies, and back to the high school.  My time on that was 14:49, and 7:48 pace.  Hmm, when we last ran that about a month ago I did it in 14:41, so a little slower today.   I never like that.  Then it was off to do Yasso 800's.  My times were:  3:35, 3:27, 3:39, 3:29, 3:30, and 3:29.  When we last ran these, about a month ago, my times were  about 5 to 6 seconds slower, so I did better on the 800's today.  So according to Yasso, I should be able to run a marathon somewhere around 3:30-3:35.  I would be happy with that at St. George, but I'm not counting on it because Yasso 800's have never worked for me in predicting my marathon time.  Add about 10 minutes to the slowest, and then you have my marathon time.  I had to run off right away, no staying around for any extra mileage.

Here's the thing:  my 5th grader had a field trip to the Timpanogos Cave today.  Ordinarily I don't like field trips and I sometimes volunteer secretly hoping they've already filled the parent spots.  However, I wanted to go on this particular trip because I thought the hike up to the cave would be good cross-training and a good workout.  So I was looking forward to that.  So we get there, we wait around for quite a while because they had to take us up in different groups, and I was in the last group.  When it's finally our turn to go, I was pumped up about the hike.  So we get going, we hike for a few minutes, then we stop.  One of the girls in the group had asthma and was really struggling.  We waited a few minutes for her and her dad to catch up, then we're off again.  A minute later, we stop.  We wait a few minutes for them to catch up, then we're off.  Two minutes later, we stop, we wait, we sit and let everyone catch their breath, then we're off.  Thirty seconds later, we stop, we wait, we go.  Do you get the drift?  We probably didn't hike continuously for more than a couple of minutes at a time.  It took us 1 hour and 19 minutes (yes, I was timing it) to do the mile and a half hike.  That averages to about 1.2 mph.  Have you ever walked that slow on a treadmill?  It is slow torture, which is what I went thru today.  For some reason the teacher didn't want to send any of us ahead, so we had to do the slow march up the mountain.  Very frustrating, but I tried to be a good trooper and keep my frustrations to myself.  I probably won't volunteer for another field trip anytime soon.  So much for my cross-training plans.

I did get on the treadmill later and do a little more running, probably one or two miles.

Did all my running on a treadmill today, at a 2% incline most of the way.  I always enjoy the treadmill, so it was a fun workout.

OK, geek alert.  We ran our 5k's today, and because we have done these many times, I like to compare times from previous years and months.  So here's the lowdown:

Today, these were my times:  25:45; 23:44; 24:09; 24:58

Now, the good news is that these times were an improvement over how I ran them on August 6.  The times then were:  26:55; 24:29; 24:54; 25:42.

So I should be happy that in about a month I have gotten a little faster, it seems.  Plus, I felt much more relaxed today than I did last time, so I feel better about that aspect of the run also. 

However, in  September 2007, when I ultimately ran 3:35 at the SGM, these were my times: 24:58; 23:49; 23:27; 23:09.  So as you can all see I was better two years ago.  So that probably says I won't be running 3:35 or faster this year.

In September 2008, when I ultimately ran 4:01 at the SGM, these were my times:  26:15; 24:54; 25:49; 24:28.  So as you can see, I was slower then compared to today on all except the last one.  What does that mean?  I don't know yet, we'll see after SGM.

Another interesting thing:  I've usually been able to negative split, meaning I get faster on each 5K, which you can see I did in 2007 and  kind of did in 2008 (at least my last one was my fastest).  The two times we've done them recently, my last has not been my fastest. The second has been the fastest both times, then the 3rd was next fastest, and my last was my 3rd slowest.  What does that mean?  Why am I getting slower as we go along instead of faster, which I used to be able to do?  Is it an endurance issue?  Any of you (maybe I should say either of you) have ideas?  We'll see how it all plays out in exactly a month, when we run the big marathon.

Thanks to anyone who plowed thru this entry, probably interesting only to me.

I did a little cross-training and a little running today. Friday I usually spend time working on better form, which is what I tried today. Then something weird happened. I ran on the canal road and was fine, no problems. I went to my son's football practice, everything still fine. Then I went to a neighbor's wedding reception, stood around talking wearing you know kind of dressy shoes, came back home and then out of the blue I was hit by a pain in my left knee. It was either the ITB or the meniscus--I only know about the meniscus because my son hurt his a few months ago and my pain seemed to be where his pain was. It was weird because I didn't feel anything while running, it just seemed to hit when I got home in the evening. I've never had something like that happen before, usually you feel a little twinge and then it gets worse and then you really feel it. This seemed to come out of nowhere and it was somewhat painful--enough to know I probably wouldn't be running for at least a day or two. Very strange.

I wanted to meet up with the group and do their planned workout today, but because of the pain in my left knee, I knew there would be no running today.  Whenever I get injured it means one thing--cross-training, and for me today it was pool running.  I went to the Rec Center about 7:45 to pool run, then a water aerobics class came in at 8:00, so that cut short my workout.   I did get in 30 minutes of running.  I came back later to do more, and this time I just had to dodge all the kids that like to hang out at the pool on Saturday.  I got in an hour of pool running.  Not the same as land running, but I felt like I was working hard.  I'll give myself one mile for each 15 minutes of running.  Typing this Saturday evening, my knee feels better than last night, but I still don't think I should try running on it.  Good thing tomorrow is Sunday, my rest day (usually), so we'll see how things go on Monday.