Same Time, Same Channel

40 minutes on the elliptical.

My training plan was beckoning, "Come run hill repeats. Come on, it'll be fun." But my knee is still bothering me just a bit and so I ignored the training plan and drove to work and used the elliptical. Also, I didn't get the laundry done and didn't have clean outdoor running clothes. I have to say, I hate the elliptical more than I hate the treadmill. I could not wait for that workout to finish.

I think I may try to run tomorrow, but not the 10-mile progression run that's on my schedule. I'm going to tentatively move that to Thursday and do today's planned workout tomorrow. It's supposed to be 2 miles easy, then 6 x 1 minute hill repetitions, and then 2 more miles easy. I think I'll use the 2 miles to run to a certain hill that I'm thinking of, do the repeats, and then run home. That really doesn't sound too difficult to me.

In other news, my husband and things 1 and 3 are all home from work/school today because they are all sick. I'm glad to be at work and away from them. So far I'm feeling okay in that department.

2 miles easy, 6 x 1 min hill repeats, 2 miles easy. Average pace: 10:10/mile.

Weather at 6:30 am: 27°, 66% humidity, no significant wind.

My pace on the 2 miles and change before the hill repeats was 10:36. My pace on the 2 miles and change after the hill repeats was 10:00. Pace on the hill repeats was 8:06, 8:21, 8:23, 8:18, 8:11, 8:20.

A 1-minute hill repeat is a lot harder than an 8-second hill sprint. But 1 minute sounds a lot easier than 2 minutes. I've got this same work out in two weeks, but the hill repeats are 2 minutes instead of 1 minute. I used to different hill this morning than I use for my hill sprints. This is a longer hill, but about the same grade (6-10%). I think the hill that I used today is long enough for the 2-minute hill repeats in two weeks. I was only running about half way up it today.

My leg felt fine except that I had a little tightness in the calf on the easy part after the hill repeats. I did some extra stretching after the run and it feels okay now.

Easy run + 10 x 8 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 10:00.

Weather at 6:30 am: 35°F, 35% humidity, wind avg. 5mph, max 10 mph, ESE.

The wind was more of factor today than yesterday. And the route that I took today is mostly uphill when going south and mostly downhill when going north. The wind was coming from the south, so uphill was into the wind, and on the downhill I had the wind behind me. As a result, there is quite a difference between my pace for the going south part (around 10:30) and my pace for the going north part (around 9:30). So I'm wondering about the principle of taking easy runs easy. If sometimes on an easy run 10:30 feels easy and sometimes, even on the same run, 9:30 feels easy, is it okay to include both paces in an easy run?

I got to the hill for the hill sprints at what was apparently the prime time for walking to the middle school (about 7:35). As I've mentioned before, the hill where I run hill sprints is on the path through the green belt between my neighborhood and the middle school. Since I did 10 hill sprints, I spent quite a while on the hill, and I saw lots of kids. I don't know these kids and I don't care if I look like a dork to them. In any case, my paces for the hill sprints were 7:50, 8:01, 8:00, 7:27, 7:57, 8:02,7:46, 8:12, 7:49, 8:20. That's perhaps a little faster than I should take the hill sprints, but it's so hard to figure out and adjust my pace within 8 seconds.

My goal on days I drive the boy to seminary is to get up early enough that I can get dressed for running before I drive him, so that I can head out on the run as soon as I get home. I didn't manage to do that today. I got up in time to put on my shoes, coat, and glasses, and drive him in my pajamas. So now I'm running late for the rest of the morning. I better stop writing stuff on this blog and get busy!

Oh, one more thing. I have a half hour core/abs class at work today at noon.

Objective: Progression Run - 10 miles, last 6 moderate.

Result: Progression Run - 10.53 miles, last 6.53 moderate (bordering on hard). Average pace: 9:39.

Weather at 6 am: 35°F, 23% humidity, wind 6 mph SSE.

I started out slowly and kept it pretty slow for the first four miles, but then I sped up fairly significantly once I hit the speed-up point. Splits were: 10:59, 10:39, 10:56, 10:31, 9:32, 9:12, 8:44, 8:51, 8:54, 8:51.

I ended up going a little farther than I had intended. I took my standard 10-mile route that I've done a lot lately, but I don't like the last part of it, so I changed it up and went home a different way. I was afraid the different way wouldn't be long enough, so I added in a loop. It turns out the loop was a little too big. I wanted to end close to but not under 10 miles. Oh well.

I'm trying to figure out how to approach my Saturday run this week. The description of it is "Hard Long Run - 1 mile easy, 10 miles @ marathon pace + 10-20 sec./mile, 1 mile easy." The thing is that my marathon pace, according to McMillan and my most recent race, which was a 5K on Thanksgiving Day, my marathon pace is 9:58. If I had 10-20 seconds to that, then I'm at easy run pace. I've been running a lot faster than that on the moderate part of my progression runs (see today's splits). However, on Saturday I've got to go 10 miles at whatever pace I decide, with only one mile of warmup before. My progression runs have been no longer than 6 miles with at least 2 miles of warmup before. So I'm not sure what pace to target for this run on Saturday. I'm thinking maybe around 9:30-9:40. It is supposed to be a hard long run. I guess I'll just have to see how I feel.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:29.

Weather at 6:30 am: 42°F, 24% humidity, winds 5-12 mph ESE.

Just an easy run today. The wind was a factor some of the time. I've got a little delayed-onset muscle soreness in both quads from the core class I went to on Wednesday. He had us sit on the floor in kind of a v shape, leaning back part way with legs off the ground, and pull our knees in towards our chests then out again repeatedly. It really killed in quads for some reason.

My 12-year-old son is in the school spelling bee this afternoon. This is his third year in the spelling bee. Last year he took second place. He got out because he garbled what he said even though he knew the spelling of the word (the word was 'angstrom'). I hope he doesn't make a mistake like that this year. He is favored to win this year. These things make me really nervous. I sat through it sweating buckets last year. I should try not to get so worked up about it. We've studied this year, but not quite as much as I would have liked, but I think he's in pretty good shape. But he was grumpy this morning. I hope he calms down by this afternoon.

**UPDATE - Spelling Bee Report**

Argh!! They were doing a round with 6-7 kids in it and Sam got teriyaki. He said t-e-r, started to say a and changed it to i, then y-a-k-i. He clearly knew the right spelling, but they got him out for his stumble. The strange thing was that everyone else in that round also got out, except for one kid, who I think was a 4th grader. So they declared that kid the winner, but they needed a runner-up. So they continued the spelling bee without the winning kid and went on with all of the people who had gotten out in the round. It took several more rounds, with the words getting progressively harder, but Sam went on to win as the runner-up. If that strange fluke round hadn't happened, I'm pretty sure that other kid would have gotten out along the way and Sam would have won. He was runner-up last year too because he garbled a word that he knew how to spell. Argh!! I can't believe it.

Now here's the best story from the spelling bee. A girl had the word "character." She started out saying c-a, and my daughter, who is in first grade, was sitting beside me and said to me, "That's not right. It's c-h." Maybe she's my future spelling champion.

Long (sorta) run - 1 mile easy, 10 miles at marathon pace (maybe - could be wishful thinking), 1 mile easy. Average pace: 9:33/mile.

Weather from 9-11 am: 46°F, 30% humidity, wind 5-10 mph SW.

I went on the Highline Canal trail again because I didn't feel like running hills. There are a few small hills on the trail, but nothing like the hills on the streets where I normally run. It was really unseasonably warm and I didn't notice the wind at all until the last mile. If I can maintain this pace in my marathon, I will be thrilled. I think I can run a faster pace than this in my half marathon in March. My run today was only a mile short of a half marathon, and it wasn't really that hard. I had to look at my watch a lot to try to maintain a steady pace. I tried to keep it around 9:30 for the specific pace miles, but got a little anxious and sped up just a bit the last couple of miles. In any case, my splits were 10:19, 9:25, 9:34, 9:33, 9:28, 9:31, 9:24, 9:24, 9:27, 9:13, 9:12, 10:04.

Thus ends my cut back week. I plan to be back up over 50 miles next week.