cheryl

I ran 6 miles on the treadmill while watching the Bingham-Texas high school team game.  Bingham lost by two touchdowns I think, and that was too bad.  Then later I went to the Rec Center to do some pool running.  Labor Day is a bad day to try to swim at the Rec Center, way too many kids in the way.  I made it for 45 minutes, then had enough of dodging kids.  I will count that as 3 miles.  My knee felt much better today.  It was a strange thing, how it came on suddenly with really no warning and then went away after a day or two.  The way it felt when it first hit, I thought I might have to cross-train all this week.  Fortunately, it got better faster than I thought.  Let's hope that doesn't happen again.  Can you imagine being hit by something like that, completely out of the blue, the night before a big race?  That would be very frustrating, so I'm hoping the bizarre knee pain will stay away for good.

Today the group met at Parkway Palisades, but we didn't really hit the hills too hard--we're saving that for Thursday. We did warm up around the Parkway Palisades neighborhood, then when we regrouped, we went over to the main hill and ran that once. My time was 8:27. Then we went to the trail to run some tempo/harder intervals. My idea was to run for 10 minutes comfortably hard, then 5 minutes really hitting it. The only problem with my plan was it was dark and I could not see my watch, so I had to guess on time. Fortunately, Cheris came up on me at the end and let me know how much time was left. In the 15 minutes, I ran 1.94 miles, with the avg. pace about 7:40. As we were standing around recovering, I thought I wanted some incentive to run the next one faster, so I came up with my brilliant idea to have the speedies start behind and then try to chase and catch up with the rest of us. What a difference it makes when you're running "scared." This time in 15 minutes, I covered 2.06 miles with the average pace 7:19. I was pleased because I haven't averaged that fast in a two mile run in quite a while, so even though I don't really like the idea of everyone wanting to run us down, it does get us to run faster than we would otherwise, so it seems worth it to me. Some of us then ran our main hill again. I wanted to take this one easier, but Nancy R was running by me, so naturally we were pushing each other. Time on that was 8:32. It was all a lot of fun, as always with our group. Later this afternoon, I made it to the Rec Center for 1 hour of pool running. I love pool running, it's so relaxing and rejuvenating to the legs.  I'll give myself 4 miles for that (1 mile for each 15 minutes).

Six miles on the treadmill.  Ran for 30 minutes not going below 7.0mph and getting up to 7.5 for a lot of it, on a 2% incline.  Then ran fast minutes, mainly at 8.5mph and 2% incline.

Our group's plan was to run up 114th So. to 13th East, then from 13th east to 11000 So., back down, past Alta High, back up to 13th East, then back down.  From 1000 E. to 1300 E. is a nice hill.  My times were 16:53, 15:20 and 14:52.  We ran this on July 23rd, and my times that time were 17:00, 15:35 and 14:38, so I was faster on the first two, but not the last one.  I think I could have been a little faster today on all 3 runs if it hadn't been so dark.  I ran on the sidewalks a lot and was afraid of hitting an indentation or something and falling, so I held back a little.  The best part is I felt great at the end, felt like I could have done it again (if really coerced), I did not feel wasted like I think I felt the last time.  Fun run. 

PM--Because I missed the early mileage this morning, I felt like I needed to do a little more.  So I ran 4 miles on the treadmill, then went to the Rec Center and did 30 minutes of pool running, which I will count for 2 miles.

Well, good and bad news today.  The good news is I got a lot of miles in.  The bad news is that I tweaked my left quad and I think it will put me out of running for at least a couple of days.  This is the second Friday in a row where I've done something that hampered my running.  Last week I felt better by Monday.  I'm hoping for the same this go around.  But I've missed out on two Saturdays of getting any real running in--pool running is close but of coursre not exactly the same as running on the roads.

I was hoping I could at least run a little today, but it just wasn't happening.  Then I thought if I couldn't run I'd at least get out for a couple of hours and just have the experience of being on my feet for a long time.  So I headed out on a walk, hoping to make it for at least an hour, two would be better.  Things started out fine, but about 30-40 minutes into it my quad starting hurting, enough to make me think if I kept going I would just be doing more damage and hinder the healing process.  I did make it to an hour, then that was it.  Very sore quad.  I'm still hoping I'll be able to run  by Monday, but we'll see.  Based on the pain level, I'd be surprised if it put me out for more than three or four days, but you never know.  I'll give myself 4 miles for today, one for each 15 minutes.