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April 2010

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Location:

Littleton,CO,USA

Member Since:

Aug 04, 2008

Gender:

Female

Goal Type:

Boston Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

I've run off and on (more off than on) throughout my adult life. Most recently I started running in May of 2007.

5K PR: Colder Bolder in December 2009 in 22:50.

10k PR: Bolder Boulder in May 2009 in 48:06.13.

1/2 Marathon PR: Canyonlands Half-Marathon in March 2010 in 1:43:20.

Marathon PR: Newport (Oregon) Marathon in June 2010 in 3:42:17.

I have completed two full marathons.

Short-Term Running Goals:

Get back to consistent running.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Sub 3:30 marathon.

Personal:

I grew up in Utah, but live in Colorado now.

I am married and am a working mother of four children, ages 9-19.

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Nike Lunarracer Lifetime Miles: 284.91
Brooks Adrenaline Trail Lifetime Miles: 574.62
Brooks Green Silence Lifetime Miles: 681.13
Brooks Adrenaline 10 (2) Lifetime Miles: 424.52
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
233.8732.76266.63
Brooks Green Silence Miles: 69.94Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 50.33Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 142.36Brooks ST3 Miles: 4.00
Night Sleep Time: 165.00Nap Time: 2.50Total Sleep Time: 167.50
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
13.040.0013.04

Medium-long run.

4:53 am, 48-39°F, 41% humidity, wind 5 SSE.

I checked the temperature before I got dressed to run this morning and it was 48, but I was worried that the temperature would drop during my run. I debated whether to wear long pants or shorts. I finally went with shorts, even though I thought the temperature would drop. Well, the temperature did drop and I was getting cold by the end of my run.

I tried to take it fairly slow and easy today because I've got a long marathon-pace run on Saturday. This week is kind of a big week in terms of my training schedule, and so I'm just trying to survive it. Next week is a recovery week. Then I have 5 hard weeks after that before I start cutting back leading up to the race. I sometimes wonder what possessed me to do this training plan.

A while ago I put 2 or 3 whole albums that belong to my oldest son on my mp3 player and I haven't listened to them all the way through, so I sometimes hear a song on my mp3 player that I've never heard before. That happened this morning while I was running. It turned out to be a pretty good song for running and made me feel energetic. It's a song by Gogol Bordello called "Suddenly...(I Miss Carpaty)." For some reason I like this weird eastern-European rock.

I ran my home/work loop and made a pit stop at the Northridge rec center about 4 miles into the run.

AP: 9:33. Splits: 10:01, 9:34, 9:30, 9:21, 9:45, 9:46, 9:56, 9:31, 9:23, 9:20, 9:08, 9:29, 9:27.

Brooks Green Silence Miles: 13.04
Night Sleep Time: 5.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.50
Comments(15)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.680.367.04

Recovery run w/ 6 x 100 m strides.

5:06 am, 31°F, 26% humidity, winds calm and then 10-15 W.

Well, I didn't have to struggle with deciding whether to wear shorts or pants this morning. The cold weather has arrived, but no precipitation yet. I was thinking during the first part of my run this morning that it wasn't too bad because it wasn't windy like it's been all week, but about the time I got to the track to do the strides, the wind started up in a big way and I had to contend with it for the rest of my run. On the strides, the odd numbered strides were into the wind and I had the wind behind me on the the even numbered strides.

Aside from the strides, I really put the slow in recovery this morning.

Splits before the strides: 10:47, 10:46, 10:34, 10:35, 0.66 @ 10:33.
Paces on the strides: 7:00, 7:14, 8:07, 7:12, 7:42, 6:55.
Splits after the strides: 10:19, 0.70 @ 10:04.

I got home just in time to drive to seminary only to find out that the boy was skipping seminary to finish a school project. (He has really good seminary attendance, so I let him skip from time to time when he needs to.) I wish I had known last night that he wasn't going to seminary today. I would have slept a little later. It sure was tough getting out of bed this morning.


Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 7.04
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.50
Comments(5)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.0012.0016.00

Marathon-pace run - 16 miles w/ 12 @ marathon goal pace.

8:21 am, 43-52°F, 25% humidity, wind 9 SSW, all by myself on the Highline Canal Trail.

I had good intentions to get up early and get this run done in time to be showered before the start of Saturday-morning General Conference at 10 am. But I gave up that intention in favor of an attempt at more sleep.

I have been having a little issue with some PF pain in my right foot since about last Tuesday. It wasn't really bad, but it was bad enough yesterday that it bothered me all day, but I could walk on it. So I did some significant things yesterday to try to keep this thing from derailing my marathon training.

I think the cause is that I've been running too much in racing flats and my feet apparently just aren't strong enough for that. All my non-racing flat shoes were getting old, so I went out and bought myself a new pair of Brooks Adrenalines. I think for now I need to wear sturdier shoes for longer runs, and save the racing flats for the shorter runs. I also bought myself a Strassburg Sock, and wore it to bed last night. Finally, I went in to see my ART guy last night and had him work on my foot. That might have been the most helpful thing. My foot had been bothering me all day Friday, but as soon as the ART guy finished working on me (and nothing he has ever done to me before has hurt like this did), I could stand on it and it didn't hurt and it hasn't bothered me except for a wee little bit at the start of my run since. Maybe the Strassburg Sock helped too, but it was sure uncomfortable to sleep in. I tossed and turned and didn't sleep well, and finally took it off at about 4 a.m.

Now, after the run (for which I wore the new shoes), my foot feels okay in terms of the PF pain, but the stupid big toe, which has also been bothering me since last Tuesday, is not very happy. When I got in my car to drive home, I took off my shoes and socks and drove home barefoot and I kept getting shooting pains in my big toe.

I guess I should say something about the run, even though this post is getting long. The run went fine. I tried to use the first 4 miles to work up to the target pace. My marathon pace, based on my recent 1/2 M race, is 8:19. But Pfitzinger says to run at goal marathon pace. To reach my goal of a 3:30 marathon, I need to run 8:01 pace. So I decided to target my MP miles between 8:01 and 8:19. I hit that target except for the last mile, which I ran a little bit faster, not because I was feeling good. I wasn't. I was feeling lousy. I just wanted to be done.

It's been a long time since I've run to the 8-mile marker on that trail. I usually do multiple shorter out and backs. The trail was in great shape. All the snow and ice is gone, it was dry, and it wasn't too rutted. On the way out, I passed several other runners. I didn't see as many runners on the way back, though I did pass some. It turned out that the wind was more or less behind me on the way out (which I did not realize at the time) and so I was more or less going into the wind on the way back, particularly in the last half mile. On the way back, I had to grab my hat several times to keep it on, and one time it blew off. I stopped to pick it up and rested for about 10-20 seconds. That was my only stop during the run. (I paused my watch, so the splits don't show it.) That's one difference about running on the trail verses on the roads. On the roads, I have to stop and wait for lights at intersections. The trail crosses some roads, but mostly they're small roads with little traffic. The route I took today crossed two busy roads, but those roads both had underpasses for the trail.

AP: 8:23. Splits: 9:44, 9:12, 8:51, 8:37, 8:05, 8:12, 8:06, 8:08, 8:14, 8:16, 8:14, 8:11, 8:07, 8:15, 8:07, 7:53. So average pace for the MP portion (if I did the math right), was 8:09.

Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 16.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(19)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
9.000.009.00

General aerobic run.

6:16 am, 33°F, 61% humidity, no wind.

My husband is on spring break this week, so he has agreed to drive to seminary all week. Without the need to drive to seminary or to even be home before the other boys leave for school, I lack the motivation to get up really early to run. Also, I had a hard time going to sleep last night on account of the nap I took at noon yesterday.

I ran the County Line Road loop. I had to stop at more intersections that I normally do on account of the increased traffic at the later time. My heel felt fine when I got up this morning and during the run and was just slightly wonky after the run. The big toe is another issue. It started bugging me after about 6 miles.

My training plan has 3 Fridays in the upcoming weeks in which it specifies a race. Two of them say an 8K to 15K race, and the last one is an 8K to 10K race. The schedule actually has them on Saturdays, but I've pushed the whole schedule back a day to put long runs on Saturdays and have Sundays off. I've been wondering what to do about these workouts, but I've got a solution for one of them now. On May 8, which is the day after the second 8K to 15K race day, there are two races on the Highline Canal Trail, where I usually run on Saturdays. There's a 10K at 8 am and a 5K at 9 am. I think I'm going to run both of them and pretend that it's a 15K race with a short rest in the middle. I'll try to run both of them at 15K pace instead of at 10K pace and 5K pace.

Here are stats for today's run:

AP: 9:26. Splits: 10:14, 9:54, 9:50, 9:34, 9:33, 9:05, 9:02, 8:51, 8:52. It was another unintentional gradual progression run except for that last mile.

I realized recently that the Newport marathon doesn't allow headphones, so I decided to run this week without my MP3 player. I've been wearing it on pretty much every run recently. Running without music today enabled me to focus a little more on my proprioceptive cue, but it which kind of a tricky, weird one. They are getting more difficult as I get towards the end of the list. There are three more after this one. With that said, here is this week's cue, "Butt Squeeze," from Brain Training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald:

"In the instant before your foot makes contact with the ground, contract the muscles in the hip and buttock on that side of your body and keep them engaged throughout the ground contact phase of the stride. This proprioceptive cue will enable you to maintain greater stability in the hips, pelvis, lower spine, and perhaps even the knees as you run, and will minimize wasteful (asymmetrical) long axis rotations."

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 9.00
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(9)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.003.009.00

V02 max intervals: 9 miles w/6 x 800 m @ 5K race pace; jog 50 to 90% interval time between.

5:59 am, 38°F, 80% humidity, wind 9 SSE.

I stayed up late watching The Blind Side last night and so it was hard to get out of bed this morning, even though I got up an hour later than I would have had to if my husband weren't on spring break this week. I think maybe the hardest thing for me about training for a marathon is not the running itself so much as the getting up early nearly every ding dong day.

I took a 3 mile route to the middle school track, even though the track is only about a half mile from my house, and ran the intervals on the track. I did a little more than a lap of jogging between each repeat. On each rest lap I went a little beyond the starting point and then turned around and accelerated up to the starting point and hit the lap button as I passed the starting point.

I think I saw Michelle and Michelle turning from Cresthill Lane onto Gleneagles when I was doing the rest lap after the 2nd repeat. They were too far away for me to be absolutely sure or to call out to them. As I was finishing up the last repeat, kids were starting to arrive at the middle school. As I crossed through the green belt from the track into my neighborhood to do my cool down, I crossed paths with my own son on his way to school. He gave me a high five.

According to the McMillan calculator, based off of my recent Canyonlands time, my 5K race pace should be 7:11, though I severely doubt that I could run a 5K at that pace, at least not in Highlands Ranch. In any case, that was my target pace for the repeats. With that said, here are my stats:

Splits before the repeats: 10:22, 9:39, 9:32.
Pace for each repeat with pace for following rest lap in parentheses: 7:12 (9:38), 7:06 (9:18), 7:13 (9:29), 7:19 (9:22), 7:15 (9:44), 7:06.
Splits after the repeats: 9:43, 0.53 @ 9:26.

I felt ready to stop after the fifth repeat, so I took it a little slower on the rest lap and then eeked out one more repeat.

In other news, my husband complained about my "slave to the plan" blog title this morning, so I had to change it.

Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 9.00
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(19)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.160.006.16

Slow, wet slog, aka recovery run in the snow.

6:15 am, 30°F, 83% humidity, wind 9 NW, snowing, about an inch of snow on the ground.

I put on my smart wool and strapped on my yaktax and headed out the door. (Actually, I dawdled for a long time first.) I stood there for a minute and thought about going back inside, but then I'd just have to run later, so I decided just to get it over with.

The problem with yaktrax in a freshly fallen wet snow like this is that they develop snowballs under your feet every few steps and then the snowballs fall off a few steps later. Rinse and repeat.

At one point a bus went by me and sprayed a bunch of snow on me. A while later, a snow plow went by me and he slowed way down in order to avoid spraying a bunch of snow on me. I yelled out thank you to the universe because there's no way he could hear me.

I'm glad that if we had to have snow, at least it was on a day that I had a recovery run.

AP: 10:21. Splits: 10:24, 10:22, 10:40, 10:16, 10:24, 10:02, 0.16 @ 9:58.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 6.16
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(14)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
11.000.0011.00

Medium-long run.

5:56 am, 29° F, 56% humidity, winds 2 S.

Yesterday's snow is pretty well all gone. Still, there was no cloud cover and it got cold over night. But it was nice and sunny, though still cold, by the end of my run.

I ran the home/work loop. I try to do that once a week. This Pfitzinger training plan doesn't have hill sprints and hill repeats like the Hudson plan I did last year. But I figure I can make up for that by running hills in my regular runs. Actually, I don't really have much of a choice, but this home/work loop is a little hillier than my other routes. And it's different in that the first half is mostly downhill and the second half is mostly uphill. Most of my other routes are the reverse.

I don't feel well. I've got a stuffy head. I think it's a cold this time, not allergies like it was a couple of weeks ago. Dang it.

AP: 9:16. Splits: 10:13, 9:40, 9:41, 9:33, 9:36, 9:08, 9:19, 9:03, 8:46, 8:29, 8:30.

By my arbitrary threshold for fast miles, those last 2 miles maybe should have been classified as fast miles, but they're right on the threshold, and I wasn't pushing that hard, so I'm calling them slow miles.

Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(12)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.460.658.11

General aerobic + speed - 8 miles w/ 10 x 100 m strides.

6:09 am, 42°F, 28% humidity, winds calm.

I woke up once during the night with a coughing fit. I didn't feel so great when I got up this morning. I decided to take my temperature and if I had a fever, I wouldn't run. I kind of hoped that I had a fever so I wouldn't have to run. But I didn't have a fever, so I had no excuse and had to run.

I felt okay while I was running, I guess, but I don't feel so great now.

I ran my 4 mile loop and then a little out-of-the-way route to the track, did the strides on the middle school track, and then ran another out-of-the way route back home. I saw Barbie, who was out for a walk, both when I was on my way to the track and when I was leaving the track. I saw my third son walking to school while I was on the track with one stride still to go.

AP: 9:19
Splits before the strides: 10:29, 9:58, 9:35, 9:25, 9:18, 0.26 @ 9:15.
Pace on the strides: 6:03, 6:11, 6:37, 6:03, 6:28, 6:05, 6:11, 6:03, 6:26, 6:00.
Splits after the strides: 9:09, 0.52 @ 9:03.

Brooks Green Silence Miles: 8.11
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(9)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
0.000.000.00

Sick. Didn't run.

Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(4)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.070.0010.07

Recovery run #1 - 6 miles.

4:56 am, 52°F, 38% humidity, wind 6 SSW.

Well, at least it was warm this morning. I ran wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt.

I'm still sick. I feel the worse in the morning and in the evening. I'm not too bad during the day. I still have this hacking cough that I can't get rid of. My nose is stuffy too. I was willing to miss my Saturday medium-long run last week because it was a recovery week. But I've got a big week this week and so I'm going to try to muddle through it. It will probably take me the same amount of time to get rid of this cough whether I run or not.

I had a hard time getting to bed and then getting to sleep last night on account of my sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday. But I sure didn't sleep in today, so I should be able to get to bed earlier tonight.

This was supposed to be a recovery run, and so that's what I did, even though I don't have a long or hard run to recover from. I don't feel very energetic anyway. We'll see if I manage to get out for four more this afternoon.

I qualified for the sub-6 club this morning after my lazy week last week. Not only did I start before 6:00 this morning, I finished before 6:00 this morning, but just barely.

AP: 9:58. Splits: 10:18, 10:07, 10:07, 9:49, 9:46, 9:43.

I forgot to look up this week's proprioceptive cue before my run. In any case, it's "Feeling Symmetry." Here it is from Brain Training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald:

"Focus your attention on a specific part of your body, or stride, on both the left side and the right side. Concentrate on the feel of your arm swing, the forward movement of your swing leg, the moment of footstrike, push-off, or something else. Compare the feeling on the left side of your body to that on your right side. If there is a discrepancy, adjust your stride in a way that eliminates the discrepancy, if possible, or at least reduces it. Specifically, alter your stride on the side that feels less comfortable, natural, or "right" to make it feel more like that side that feels better. Obviously, this proprioceptive cue helps you reduce asymmetries in your stride."

Recovery run #2 - 4 miles.

6:48pm, 75°F, 15% humidity, wind 12 SSE.

I finally made it out for my second run. I made dinner and then headed out. I got a low battery warning on my Garmin right after I turned it on and I thought it might last through 4 miles, but it died after 1/3 mile, so this run was essentially sans Garmin. I think I ran around 10:00 pace because it was 7:28 when I finished.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 6.07Brooks Green Silence Miles: 4.00
Night Sleep Time: 5.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.00
Comments(12)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.000.0010.00

General aerobic run.

7:42 pm, 56-51°F, 19% humidity, wind 8 SW.

My schedule had a 15 mile run today. I was going to get up at 4:00 in the morning to be out the door by 4:30 and do the 15 mile run. But I didn't get to bed until about 10:45, and so I didn't take any cough medicine because I thought if I did I wouldn't be able to get up at 4:00. I actually went to sleep without coughing too much, but then I woke up at 1:30 am with a coughing fit. At that point I got kicked out of bed and moved to the recliner, where I continued to cough until about 4:00. At that point, I was finally getting back to sleep, and so I did that instead of going out to run.

I debated all day whether to run. Finally, while watching The Biggest Loser, I decided to head out. I thought about doing 6, but then decided on 10, which was the most I could do and still get home in time to get to bed at an almost reasonable hour.

AP: 9:04. Splits: 9:30, 9:14, 9:17, 8:56, 9:14, 9:02, 8:50, 8:44, 8:52, 8:54.

Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 5.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.00
Comments(3)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.060.006.06

Recovery run.

5:00 am, 38° F 38% humidity, wind 2 SE.

I was up too late again last night trying to get things done. But this time I took some Nyquil before going to bed. I still struggled a little to get to sleep, but once I was asleep, I was gone. The next thing I knew, my alarm was going off at 4:30. I debated whether to stay in bed and try to run later in the day again, but I decided that I needed to get myself back on a morning running schedule after running in the evening the last two days. It just works out so much better for me to run in the morning, except that it compromises my sleep.

I think I was still kind of drugged from the Nyquil on this run. I just could never get going faster than recovery pace. Good thing it was a recovery run.

AP: 10:18. Splits: 10:35, 10:18, 10:19, 10:03, 10:13, 10:20.

**Update**

I went back to bed for a half hour after doing the seminary drop-off.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 6.06
Night Sleep Time: 5.50Nap Time: 0.50Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(10)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.005.0012.00

Tempo run.

5:06 am, 41°F, 56% humidity, wind 2 S.

I tried. Really I tried. But I couldn't do it. I was supposed to do 12 miles with 7 miles at 15K to 1/2M pace, which is 7:42 - 7:53. I debated which route to take this morning - one that is mostly uphill for the first half and mostly downhill for the second half, or one that is mostly downhill for the first half and mostly uphill for the second half. I went with the downhill then uphill route, which was probably the wrong choice. I thought I'd be able to run the uphill part fast if I got adequately warmed up on the downhill, but that was not the case.

I ran three miles warm-up and then started the tempo portion and couldn't hit the target pace. When I was almost at the end of the third tempo mile, my husband called me, and so I stopped and talked to him for a minute. After I got off the phone with him, I stood there for a minute more trying to catch my breath and recover. I felt like I was going to fall over. I tried to run tempo pace for two more miles, but during the fifth tempo mile, I stopped three times (and paused my watch) for a minute or so to catch my breath. At the end of the fifth tempo mile I gave it up as a bad job and just ran the rest of the way at an easy pace.

Meanwhile, my son got up on time but then wasn't sure whether he was supposed to walk to seminary, even though I told him last night that he was. He texted me to ask if he was supposed to walk, but in my travails, I didn't notice the text. He finally called about a half hour later, when I had about 2 miles to go. He wondered when I was going to get home. It was too late for him to make it to seminary by that point. I asked him if his little brother was up and he said no and that he couldn't wake him up. I had him put the phone up to the younger boy's ear and I tried to wake him up through the phone. So all in all it was not a very successful morning.

AP: 9:00. Splits: 10:00, 9:19, 9:07, 8:07, 8:22, 7:59, 8:11, 8:25, 9:56, 9:33, 9:32, 9:26.

Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 5.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.50
Comments(23)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.150.005.15

No time to run this morning. I've got to take my oldest son up to Greeley for a campus visit at the University of Northern Colorado. I might try to get in a recovery run later today.

4:15 pm, 59°F, 44% humidity, wind 8 SE.

Well, I made it out for my recovery run. I felt quite sluggish at the first, but felt okay by the end. I'm supposed to run 22 miles tomorrow. It's the longest run on my training plan. I think I'll just head out and see how I feel after a few miles and if I feel like I can, I'll go the whole distance. Otherwise, I'll cut it short and try to do 22 miles next Saturday.

AP: 9:59. Splits: 10:24, 10:11, 9:46, 9:47, 9:52, 0.15 @ 9:40.

Brooks Green Silence Miles: 5.15
Night Sleep Time: 7.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.50
Comments(2)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
22.000.0022.00

Long run.

8:45 am, 48-60° F, humidity 70-50%, wind 6 S and then calm, overcast the whole time, just a sprinkle of rain at the beginning. I'm not sure about that wind figure I got from a wunderground weather station. It felt windier to me than that. But the wind was definitely from the south, which was a pain because my big uphills were all heading south.

Marathon training is hard. I sometimes wonder why I do it.

Other people needed the cars this morning, so I ran on the roads instead of going to the trail. I ran my 10 mile loop twice, and then my 2 mile loop. I figured that way I could bail after the first loop if I felt like it. I did make a stop in my house after the first loop, used the bathroom, and had a raspberry-flavored gel and some water. I didn't carry my fuel belt with me and I guess it was warmer than I'm used to because during the second loop, I stopped in a Walgreen's just after mile 16 and got a big drink from their drinking fountain. Then 4 miles later I stopped in to a rec center and got a big drink from their drinking fountain. It takes a little extra time, but I think maybe I prefer this approach to running with that dang fuel belt.

The first 5 miles of the 10 mile loop are the hardest, particularly the 3rd and the 5th miles. And of course I had to do them twice. So on the second loop, I just told myself that if I could make it through the first 5 miles, then everything else would be easy, which is not quite true.

In about mile 8 of the 10 mile loop I run past a private Christian high school. They had a track meet going on today. It was fun to watch the pole vaulters as I ran past and I saw a lot of high school runners warming up on the road that goes past the school, which I was running on. The second time, there was a group of 3 boys and one of them was running up and down onto the grass and jumping and just looked full of energy. All of the boys were grinning. But I was too tired at that point to take much energy from it.

I'm just glad to have this run over with. If I hadn't gone the full distance today, I would have tried to do it next Saturday, and I really don't want to have to attempt 22 again next Saturday.

Incidentally, this completes mesocycle 2 in my training plan. Now I just have to survive mesocycle 3, which is only 4 weeks long.

AP: 9:08. Splits: 9:55, 9:32, 9:34, 9:02, 9:14, 8:52, 8:42, 8:54, 8:51, 8:57, 8:58, 9:05, 9:10, 8:45, 9:05, 8:55, 8:45, 9:02, 9:13, 9:24, 9:26, 9:29.

Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 22.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(13)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.581.929.50

V02 max - 9 miles w/ 6 x 600 m @ 5K race pace (7:11 target pace), jog 50 to 90% interval time between.

7:21 am, 46°F, 60% humidity, wind 3 S.

My kids don't have school today or tomorrow for reasons that are unfathomable to me, though I suspect it's a comp day and then a professional development day for the teachers. I have absolutely no discipline regarding getting to bed on time and getting up on time when I don't have to get my kids off to school. So I stayed up way too late last night and then slept in this morning.

I really didn't feel like running when I got up, but I was okay once I got out the door. It was really a beautiful morning and it turned in to a pretty good run.

I ran a little over 4 miles and then was going to go to the high school track. I have always used the middle school track in the past because it is easier to get to. But my son says that the high school track is a real track surface, while the middle school track is asphalt. So I was heading to the high school track, but I could see that there was a team of some sort, I think it might have been lacrosse, practicing on the infield. I didn't want to run my workout with a bunch of high school boys watching, so I continued on to the middle school track. That's no problem because the high school and the middle school are right next to each other. Maybe I'll try to go to the high school track next time I have a track workout if I'm out earlier in the morning.

I kept my rest intervals on the V02 max repeats pretty short. The 600 meters took me about 2 minutes and 45 seconds, or a little less on the later ones, and my rest intervals were about 1 minute and 20 seconds, so close to the 50% time, rather than 90%.

Here are my stats:

Splits before the intervals: 9:53, 9:44, 9:32, 9:25, 0.82 @ 9:33.
Pace on the 600 m intervals: 7:14, 7:14, 7:07, 7:00, 6:59
Splits after the intervals: 9:45, 9:19, 0.16 @ 9:13

I was arithmetically challenged when I finished the intervals. I looked at my total distance and saw 7.38, or something like that, and did a rough subtraction in my head to see how much further I needed to run to get 9 miles total. Somehow, I came up with a little over 2 and a half miles instead of a little over 1 and a half miles. So I was going along and after a  little more than a mile and a half  I was thinking about what route to take in order to end up at home in a mile and I looked down at my watch and the total time said just over 9 miles. So then I realized my mistake. At that point, the shortest route home was a half a mile, so I ended up running 9.5 miles total instead of 9.

Today I bring you the penultimate proprioceptive cue from Brain Training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald. It is "Axle Between the Knees:"

"Imagine there is an axle, dowel, post, or something else of the sort that is positioned between your knees and pushes your knees half an inch farther apart than they would normally be while you run. This proprioceptive cue helps you engage the hip flexors and hip external rotators and prevent interval rotation of the thigh—a common cause of injuries."

I thought about this cue some while I was running before I got to the track, I didn't really think about it much while I was at the track, but then I thought about it a lot while I was running home from the track because it gave some relief to the chafing of my thunderous thighs that had developed during the track running. I think I need some longer/better shorts.

Brooks Green Silence Miles: 9.50
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(13)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
14.000.0014.00

Medium-long run.

6:59 am, 47° F, 69% humidity, wind 6 SSW. It was sunny and beautiful for the first part of my run and then it got very overcast and gloomy.

I played hooky from the sub-6 club again today. I actually got to bed on time (but not early) last night, but then I couldn't make myself get up since I didn't absolutely have to. I actually did a little bit of work before I went out on my run.

I ran my home/work loop, which kicked my butt last Thursday. I don't mind those hills when I don't have to hit a certain pace, but I don't think I'll ever try to run that route as a tempo run again. I made a pit/water stop at Walgreens at about the end of mile 6. No matter which of my routes I run around here, there's always one or more Walgreens on my route. There are four different ones that I pass regularly when I'm running, but not all of them in the same run (often 3 in one run though). Actually, I passed three today, but not the same three as usual.

It seems as if the approach during this mesocycle is to do a day of speedwork followed by a medium-long or long run so that you are fatigued for the long run. This pairing occurs several times in this mesocycle, the first occurrence being yesterday and today.

AP: 9:21. Splits: 10:09, 9:35, 9:27, 9:17, 9:31, 9:24, 9:26, 9:19, 9:06, 9:00, 8:54, 9:18, 9:14, 9:17.

Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 14.00
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(17)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.500.0010.50

Run #1. Recovery + 6 x 100 m strides.

6:12 am, 43° F, 89% humidity, winds calm, overcast.

My oldest son and his string bass had to be to school at 6:00 to go to an orchestra competition and the second son had to be to seminary at 6:30, then the third son leaves for school at about 7:05 or 7:10, at which point the girl is the only kid at home. I didn't want to get up early enough to be finished with my run in time for the 6:00 drive to school, so I got up and got dressed for running (and ironed a tux shirt for my son), did that drive, and then ran. This necessitated the second son walking to seminary, and the girl was left alone for just a few minutes between the time the third son left and the time I got home.

My overall distance was supposed to be 6 miles, but I ended up going a little long because I took a detour from a certain point to Michelle's house and back to measure the distance for her. I used the lap button to measure the distance, and so I don't have even mile splits recorded. I'll just say that my average pace was 9:58, and the pace on my strides was 7:20, 7:02, 7:19, 6:54, 7:17, 7:22.

Run #2. Recovery.

2:22 pm, 61°F, 52% humidity, wind 9 N, mostly cloudy.

I ran a 4 mile loop around the business park that my office is in. I felt really sluggish. It is really easy for me to run slowly on recovery runs because I'm always tired from my faster and/or longer runs that I do on other days.

It looks like I just missed the rain. It might have been fun to run in the rain. Or maybe not. If the forecast is right, I might have the chance to run in the rain later this week.

AP: 10:18. Splits: 10:37, 10:29, 9:59, 10:08.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 4.00Brooks Green Silence Miles: 6.50
Night Sleep Time: 6.25Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.25
Comments(8)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.000.005.00

Recovery run.

5:13 am, 44° F, 87% humidity, winds calm, light mist followed by light rain.

Well, this was my first sub-6 am run since April 15. I'm having to get back into the sub-6 club for the next several weeks, though I would prefer not to, as cool as it is.

The flip side of this two-hard-day-in-a-row pattern that I've got for the next few weeks is that I've also got two recovery days in a row, such as yesterday and today. I need to be well rested up for Friday and Saturday this week. I'm a little anxious about doing a tempo run tomorrow after my crash and burn on my tempo run last week. Tomorrow's actually supposed to be a tune-up race, but there's no race to go to, so I'm going to do a tempo run instead.

The ground was wet when I went outside this morning, but it wasn't raining. However, there was a light mist in the air, enough to make my glasses wet. Around the end of the 4th mile, I realized that it was raining lightly. That continued for the rest of my run, but had stopped by the time I drove to seminary shortly thereafter. I was pretty wet, but not soaked, by the time I finished the run.

AP: 10:16. Splits: 10:41, 10:22, 10:14, 10:11, 9:52.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 5.00
Night Sleep Time: 6.75Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.75
Comments(11)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
3.646.009.64

Another attempted tempo run.

5:03 am, 38-35° F, 92% humidity, winds 11 NNW, steady rain changing to snow.

That was beyond miserable. I knew I was in trouble when I woke up and I could hear the weather. I know that Snoqualmie runs in rain all the time, but I'm not used to it and I don't have good rain gear. I don't have rain gear at all.

My training plan said an 8K-15K tune-up race for a total of 9-13 miles. Not having a race to go to,  I planned to do 3 miles warmup, then an 8 mile tempo run, then 2 miles cooldown, for a total of 13. I managed the 3 miles warmup, then 6 miles at a hard effort (not quite my tempo pace), and then I cut my losses and ran slower home for 0.64 miles. I might have been able to stick with the original plan if I hadn't been soaked to the skin and freezing to death. I'm still shaking so hard I can hardly type even though I put on dry clothes. And there is a pile of seriously soaked clothes on my bathroom floor. I would take a hot shower right now, but I think my boys just used all the hot water. Since I did manage more than 8K at a hard effort and more than 9 miles, I think I'll call it good.

Rain unties shoes. I've never had my shoes come untied while running before, but they came untied several times this morning, and by the end my fingers were too numb to tie them well and I ended up running home with one shoe untied.

Besides stopping several times to tie my shoes, I had to stop for several minutes at one point to try to straighten out things at home. I was unable to drive to seminary today, so I told my son to walk, but if it was raining, to wake up his older brother and have his older brother drive him. I also warned the older brother last night that he might be called upon to drive to seminary. At about 6:15 I got a text from seminary son saying he wouldn't be able to wake up his brother and so he wasn't going to seminary. So I stopped and stood there in the rain and called older son's cell phone twice. No answer. I called seminary son's cell phone twice. No answer. I called the home phone twice. Seminary son answered the second call. I asked him if he had even tried to wake up his brother and he said no. So I told him to do that. I guess it all worked out, because older son did drive seminary son to seminary.

I'm afraid the weather's not going to be any better tomorrow.

AP: 8:55. Splits: 10:09, 10:14, 10:08, 8:08, 8:38, 8:21, 8:08, 8:02, 8:13, 0.64 @ 9:11.


Brooks Green Silence Miles: 9.64
Night Sleep Time: 5.50Nap Time: 2.00Total Sleep Time: 7.50
Comments(15)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
21.360.0021.36

Long run.

10:24 am, 38-46°F, 84-66% humidity, winds 7 NNW, very overcast with mist to begin, light rain for a few minutes around mile 8, and then partly cloudy with some sun by the end.

Thus ends week 1 of mesocycle 3. I really wanted to do 13 miles yesterday so that I would have 70 for the week with my scheduled 18 today, but I didn't manage it. I thought about going out yesterday afternoon for the 3.36 that I missed, but I took a nap instead. So I added the 3.36 to today's run. I was supposed to have 70 miles last week and didn't make it, so I wanted to get 70 miles this week. Also, I missed a scheduled 20 miler back in March on the day that I ran the Canyonlands Half Marathon, so I thought it would be nice to get another 20+ miler done.

However, I bailed on Michelle this morning. I was supposed to meet her at her house at 7:30 as long as it wasn't raining or snowing. I got up at 6:30 and it was cold, in the low 30s, and it didn't look like it was raining too much, but I did see a person out walking a dog carrying an umbrella (the person was carrying the umbrella, not the dog). I really didn't want to be cold and wet for 3 1/2 hours, so I went back to bed and figured I'd run later when the weather was a little better. I didn't call Michelle because I thought she would still be asleep. I was going to call her at about 7:15, but I fell asleep. She called me at 7:40 wondering where I was. So I wasn't a very good friend this morning. I didn't really have great weather when I started out, but it got better by the end of my run.

I decided to circumnavigate Highlands Ranch today instead of running a shortly loop repeatedly. I passed 3 different high schools and 4 Walgreen's one of them twice, on this run. I kind of combined three different routes that I normally do, which meant that in addition to have the hills at the beginning that I often have, I had the hills going up Highlands Ranch parkway in the 2nd half, not quite at the end. I'm glad to finally be done.

AP: 9:32. Splits: 10:13, 9:40, 9:28, 9:21, 9:39, 9:17, 9:43, 9:08, 9:14, 9:02, 9:12, 9:16, 9:32, 9:34, 9:44, 9:32, 9:43, 9;26, 9:47, 10:07, 9:33, 0.36 @ 9:22.

Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 21.36
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(26)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.173.8310.00

VO2 max - 10 miles w/ 6 x 1,000 m @ 5K race pace; jog 50 to90% interval time between

11:00 am, 44° F, 48% humidity, wind 3 E.

I had a hard time getting to sleep and did not sleep well last night. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was apprehension about today's workout. In any case, I got up at about 4:45 and checked the weather and the temperature was just below freezing. We got just a little bit of snow last night that stuck to the grass but not to the streets and sidewalks, but I figured that the streets and sidewalks might have been wet when the temperature dropped and so it might be slick. But mostly I didn't want to have to go out in sub-freezing temperatures in late April. But I didn't go back to bed, as much as I would have liked to. I set up my computer and worked. I had to take short breaks to drive a couple of kids to school, but I actually got a good 5 hours of work done before I went on my run.

Today I ran either really slowly, or really fast (for me), but nowhere in between. I was still kind of fatigued from hard workouts last Friday and Saturday. I was really worried about having to run at 5K pace today. So I decided that would run a 4-mile route to the track and then see how I felt. I never got going very fast during those 4 miles, but I felt good enough that I decided to give the track workout a try. I didn't worry too much about pace, but just ran hard on the intervals. I took one lap recovery between the intervals and I went really slowly during the recovery. It was more of a bouncy walk than anything. I went as slowly as I could go without actually walking.

My theoretical 5K race pace is 7:11. I didn't quite hit it, but I feel fine about the paces I did hit, considering how tired I was. Here are the stats. Don't laugh.

Splits for the warm-up miles: 10:41, 10:44, 10:09, 9:44, 0.12 @ 10:24 (there's a steep uphill getting up to the track)
Pace on the 1000 meter intervals: 7:19, 7:14, 7:25, 7:22, 7:22, 7:12
Cooldown: 0.79 miles @ 10:41 pace (this included the hill sprint hill that leads from the green belt where the track is to my street).

My goal right now is just to hold on and make it through all the workouts this week and then I have an easier week next week. It's not really a recovery week, but it's lower mileage.

Brooks Green Silence Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 5.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.00
Comments(16)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
15.000.0015.00

Medium-long run.

10:43 am, 55-65°, 45-24% humidity, wind 4 ENE.

I think I'm about to be expelled from the sub-6 club. In order to get this run done before all my big kids left for school this morning, I would have had to have been out the door at 4:30 at the latest. I just couldn't do that. Instead, I got up at about 5:00, went downstairs in my pajamas, turned on my computer, and started working. I got in a good 5 hours of work before my run.

I talked with my boss and told him that I'd like to do this 2 or 3 days a week, when I have hard workouts, for the next 3 weeks. I told him that the training plan is stressing me out and not having to get out and run in the cold and dark alleviates the stress somewhat. Also, I get more work done this way, which is true. I am more productive in the morning. 5 hours of good work before my run and 3 hours of so-so work after my run is better than 8 hours of so-so work when I'm exhausted from a long and/or hard early-morning run. Also, this enables me to be home when my boys are leaving for school. They usually don't need much help from me, but it's nice for me to be there.

As for today's run, it was warm enough for shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, and I was a good girl and wore sunscreen. But I figured if I was going to be out for 2 1/2 hours in that weather, I better carry water, so I wore my stupid fuel belt. I had to straighten it out and push it down on my hips ever few minutes throughout the run. I made a pit stop at a Walgreen's a little bit fore the half-way point, and after about 9 miles, I took a short break and consumed a gel. I can't really say whether it helped me any or not.

Yesterday's and today's workouts are the two hardest weekday workouts this week, so I'm glad to be done with them. Maybe I can survive this week, though I'm still a little nervous about Saturday.

I was slow today. Here are my stats:

AP: 9:59. Splits: 10:47, 10:28, 10:13, 9:57, 10:26 (big hill on County Line Road), 9:49, 10:01 (long incline on Quebec Street), 9:46, 9:54, 9:51, 9:44, 9:43, 9:48, 9:46, 9:34 (I tried to pick up the pace just a bit the last half mile)

Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 15.00
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.50
Comments(6)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.000.0010.00

Recovery run #1.

AP: 10:34. Splits: 10:53, 10:36, 10:42, 10:28, 10:22, 10:20.

5:39 am, 53-58°F, 30% humidity, wind 3 S, perfect weather for running.

I had to run in the morning today because I've got to run twice today. Also, I need to work in the office today because I have a bunch of meetings. That is going to make it a little challenging to get in my second run.

I was able to sleep in a little this morning because there's no seminary today. The juniors are taking the ACT at the high school this morning, so the other grades don't have to be to school until just before noon. The high schoolers in my house are a sophomore and a senior.

Getting out to run in the morning is not so daunting when it's a 6 mile recovery run. Also, it was starting to get light when I started this morning, though the sun had not risen yet.

I was nearly half-way through my run and was near Michelle's house about 5 minutes before she usually starts her run. I figured that if she was running today, she would be up getting ready. So I stopped at the entrance to her neighborhood and called to see if she was going to run. She was, so I ran to her house and met her there. We ran about 2 miles together and then had to part ways so that we could each head home. It was nice to run with her this morning. I do so many of my runs alone, it's nice to have someone to run with every once in a while, even if it's just for a short distance.

Recovery Run #2.

12:26 pm, 75°F, 14% humidity, WIND 20 mph SSW, gusting to 36.

Average pace: 10:27. Splits: 10:51, 11:00, 9:55, 10:01.

So one benefit of running early in the morning is that it is typically less windy than it is later in the day. That certainly was the case today. I thought about doing this afternoon's run on the treadmill because I knew it was windy, but I decided to head outside anyway. Maybe I should have stayed in. I think I ran a harder effort the first half that the second half, in spite of the splits. The first half was generally uphill and into the wind (south and then west), while the second half was generally downhill with the wind behind me (north and then east). During the first part, particularly when I was going west and the wind was hitting me mostly sideways but also in my face, I had a hard time running in a straight line. Also, I had to grab onto my hat several times and one time it blew off and I had to go chase it down.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 6.00Brooks Green Silence Miles: 4.00
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(13)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
12.000.0012.00

Medium-long run.

5:14 am, 35°F, 89% humidity, wind 7 EHE, overcast, with a few sprinkles during the last mile or so.

Running 12 miles just sounded too hard. So instead I just ran my 4 mile loop 3 times. That sounded easier. That's how I tricked myself into getting this run done. Also, this 4 mile loop, while definitely not flat, is more of a series of shorter ups and downs instead of big long up or down stretches like I get when I go on my longer routes.

I had to run early today because I have meetings all morning at work and I don't want to wait until the afternoon to run.

I feel encouraged that I was able to go a little faster than my recovery pace, but I still went pretty slowly. I didn't want to push too hard because I'm trying to save something for Saturday's MP run. Incidentally, tomorrow is the only day all week that I have less than 10 miles on my schedule. I'm looking forward to that.

My oldest son drove son #2 to seminary since I wouldn't be home in time. When I passed the house at the end of the 2nd loop, I saw that the garage was open and the car was gone, so I knew they had gone to seminary. My son is not very good about closing the garage. However, when I got home from the 3rd loop the garage was closed, so he did close it when he got back home. I think there might be only a week of seminary left this school year, or maybe there's two. I'm not sure. Seminary finishes up for the year before school does.

AP: 9:32. Splits: 10:36, 10:02, 9:27, 9:30, 9:33, 9:29, 9:14, 9:21, 9:33, 9:20, 9:13, 9:12.

Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(10)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.000.005.00

Very slow recovery run.

5:14 am, 32° F, 40% humidity, wind 2 S.

Freezing temperatures? On the last day of April? Really?

Actually, it wasn't that bad since there was no significant wind and it was dry. And I saw the moon for the first time all week.

There's not much else to say about this run, except did I mention that I ran very slowly? It was nice to just take it really easy this morning. I'm tired. I'd like to go back to bed.

AP: 10:42. Splits: 11:22 (really?!), 10:40, 10:33, 10:27, 10:29.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 5.00
Night Sleep Time: 5.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.50
Comments(8)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
233.8732.76266.63
Brooks Green Silence Miles: 69.94Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 50.33Brooks Adrenaline 10 Miles: 142.36Brooks ST3 Miles: 4.00
Night Sleep Time: 165.00Nap Time: 2.50Total Sleep Time: 167.50
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