Same Time, Same Channel

Tempo run. 2 miles warm-up, 5(ish) miles @ 15K-1/2M pace, 2+miles cool-down.

4:55 am, 30°F, 81% humidity, winds calm, light snow, but no significant accumulation.

The battery on my Garmin was dead. I should have checked it after Saturday's long run. But at least I realized it before I headed out the door, so I wore my heart-rate monitor watch (though not the chest strap) to use as a stop watch. However, I am not very experienced with that watch, so I didn't really get it going properly until I started the tempo portion.

I was going to invent a new route on the fly today, but I couldn't since I didn't have my Garmin. I had to run a route that I knew the distance of and at least had a rough idea of where the splits were. I think I did a good job estimating the split locations for the first 4 miles of the tempo portion, but then I cut the last tempo mile a little bit short, and ended up with a total tempo distance of 4.88 miles instead of 5 miles. Oh well. I figure my average pace on the tempo portion was 8:03 and my average pace overall was 8:38.

This week's proprioceptive due is "Pulling the Road." Here is the description from Brain Training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald:

"Image that your running route is like a giant nonmotorized treadmill. On a nonmotorized treadmill, you are able to run in place by pulling the treadmill belt backward with your feet. Envision yourself doing the same thing with the road as you run outdoors. You're not actually moving forward--you're simulating forward movement by pulling the road behind you with each foot. This proprioceptive cue will teach you to begin generating thrust earlier, stiffen your stride, and minimize ground contact time."

I found that on the few occasions that I remembered to think about this cue while I was running today, it sped me up a bit until my mind wandered again.

Medium-long run.

9:34 am,  36-43°F, 55-45% humidity, winds calm, except South at 7.8 mph around mile 4 (during which time I was heading south).

I've been a bad, bad girl. I stayed up way too late last night for no good reason. When I finally went to bed at 1 am, I thought it would not be a good idea to get up 3 1/2 hours later to run 14 miles. So I recent my alarm for 6:30 so that I could get 5 1/2 hours of sleep. Still not enough, but better than 3 1/2. When I got up, I worked for about 3 hours and got the kids off to school, and then went for my run.

I overdressed just a little bit. I'm just to used to it being really cold when I run. Not that it was fantastically warm when I ran today, but it was sunny, which I am not used to.

I decided to just run at a moderate effort, and that worked out pretty well until about the last 4 miles, and then it got hard. Michelle passed me in her car and honked and waved when I had just finished the 12th mile, and I was hurting at that point.

I'm going to take it slow at easy for the next 3 days so that I'll be ready for a MP long run on Saturday.

AP: 8:32. Splits: 9:22, 9:01, 8:42, 8:28, 8:41, 8:26, 8:31, 8:27, 8:13, 8:23, 8:25, 8:24, 8:28, 8:20.

I wish I could run comfortably in my supposedly Steady State pace range (8:04 to 8:18), but I'm not quite there. Today's run was about as close as I can get.

Recovery run + core conditioning.

6:47 am, 36°F, 54% humidity, calm.

My kids (just the middle two because the oldest and youngest don't have to do it) had CSAP (statewide standardized testing) yesterday and today. They also have it next Tuesday and Wednesday. That means no seminary on these days. I tend to lose my motivation to get up early when there's no seminary. This morning I got up at 4:45 and made a lunch for my husband because I neglected to do it last night, but then I went back to bed until almost 6:30. As a result, I had to do my workout today in fits and starts. I had promised the son I usually drive to seminary a drive to school. So I did 3 miles with shoes, then I got breakfast for my daughter and drove my son to school. Then I changed into my VFFs and did two more miles, then got my daughter off to school and then did the core conditioning. My oldest son is still home and asleep because he doesn't have to be to school until noon.

AP: 9:55. Splits: 10:09, 9:36, 9:41, 10:13, 9:55.

Medium-long run.

5:06 am, 32°F, 40% humidity, winds calm. The sky was clear and I could see the waning gibbous moon, but it's overcast now.

I took a new route today. It's about 2 1/2 miles to the temple from my house, so I ran around the temple and then back out to University, to Dry Creek, to Quebec, to County Line, and home. I normally do all my week-day runs in Douglas County, but this run was almost entirely in Arapahoe County. The roads are straighter there, but no less hilly. There were some good hills on this route. I kept the pace slow and easy because I'm still a little tired from Tuesday's run, and I have a marathon-pace long run on Saturday.

AP: 9:42. Splits: 10:05, 9:55, 9:58, 9:59, 9:59, 9:45, 9:39, 9:40, 9:28, 9:18, 9:25, 9:12.

When I had about 3 miles left, I stopped and called home to make sure that my 13-year-old son was up. My daughter answered and I asked her to wake him up. Apparently she tried but had a hard time waking him up. He should have left for school by the time I got home, but hadn't. He left shortly thereafter, but was probably late to school. This is a struggle I have on the days that I have longer runs in the morning. I can count on all of the kids to get up on time except for this one boy. He'll sleep through an alarm even if it's right by his head. I have to assign other kids to wake him up if I'm not home. Apparently my daughter was a little too timid about it today.

I haven't been commenting on blogs much during the day lately because it's hard for me to access the blog from work for some reason. Also, I've been busy at work.

Recovery run + core conditioning

5:42 am, 26°F, 88% humidity, winds calm, patchy fog.

Busy morning again. I had to do some take-care-of-the-family stuff before my run, so I only had time for the 3 miles in shoes portion before the drive to seminary. I did the 2 miles in VFFs and the core conditioning after the drive to seminary.

I've got another busy day at work and then I've got to leave early so that I can usher at my husband's orchestra concert tonight. I have to do that to get discounted tuition for my sons in the youth orchestra that's affiliated with my husband's orchestra. My oldest son is actually playing with the grown-up orchestra tonight. I don't know when or how we're going to have dinner tonight.

Tomorrow's marathon-pace long run is in jeopardy because of all the things the kids need.

AP: 10:21. Splits: 10:55, 10:21, 10:16, 10:12, 10:00. (An accidental progress that never got fast.)

Marathon-pace long run. 18 miles w/ 10 miles @ marathon race pace.

3:06 pm, 52-46°F, 30-48% humidity, wind 6 ENE.

I can't believe I managed to get this run done despite the forces conspiring against me. I had to take my oldest son up to Greeley today to audition for the music department at the University of Northern Colorado. I think his audition went well and he had a nice time together. But that took a 7-hour chunk out of my day. I got dressed and went out for my run as soon as I could after we got home, but this run was so long that by the time I finished, the sun was setting and I was starting to get cold (I wore shorts and a short-sleeve top). Also, despite that I was running for 2 hours and 38 minutes, the run took 3 hours because I had to stop for lights a lot more than I do in the early mornings because of the increased traffic, I made a pit stop at a Walgreens, and my family kept calling me and I would have to stop to talk to them. My husband called when I had run 6 miles and asked if I was almost done. That was kind of disheartening. But the worst was when I had about 3 miles to go and I got 5 calls from home in 10 minutes. My poor son was the 5th caller (actually I think he was the 3rd and the 5th caller - he called twice) and I yelled at him because I was so frustrated at that point. I felt like I could get home and help them if they would ever stop calling me. I take my phone on runs so that I can make OUTGOING calls in an emergency, not to receive everyone's INCOMING call when they can't find their wallet or whatever.

I ran around the 'hood rather than driving to the trail in order to save time. I can go lots of places in the 'hood in 18 miles. But I ran so that the route would have more uphill in the first half and more downhill in the 2nd half in order to make it a little easier to do the MP miles, but the last 2 miles were net uphill, which was tough. As it turned out the first half was also more into the wind. They say that you're supposed to do these MP long runs on a course that is similar to your race course. But the race course I'm training for is flat and at sea level. We don't have flat around here, let alone sea level.

I'm glad just to have made it through this week. Next week is a recovery week.

AP: 8:47. Splits: 9:35, 9:31, 9:33, 9:25, 9:34, 9:43, 9:12, 8:58, 8:13, 8:17, 8:11, 8:09, 8:06, 8:22, 8:17, 8:25, 8:10, 8:26.