M'kay

LM warmup (10 reps), 18 miles in 2:33:05, 8:30/mi, HR 156, 2.5 mile walk w/ dogs, & stretching.

More gorgeous weather, partly sunny in the upper 50s.  Decided to alter today's scheduled workout (18 miles @ 10% off MP) to account for recent training downturn from illness.  Plus, the pain in my right knee had me a bit worried about pounding the pavement for 18 miles, so I decided to run to and in the UW Pack Forest.  Most of the run was either single or double track, with very challenging elevation changes and terrain (especially on the single track), so I knew pacing was out the window.  Really, I just wanted to get 18 miles in and to work at it.  Running the Hugo Peak trail helped.....1000' gain in 2 miles on a steep muddy but scenic mess.  A few picture and map consultation stops broke up the run.  The knee felt decent while running, but was a bit painful immediately after restarts and on the walk w/ the dogs.  A fun afternoon.

LM warmup (10 reps), 8 miles in 1:01:54, 7:44/mi, HR 154, w/ 15 x 12 sec Hill Sprints, 1 mile walk w/ dogs, PU/Crunches ladder, & stretching.

 Warm with a rain shower (54F).  Tired from yesterday.  Right knee pain persists....believe it's a tight ITB.  Worst on miles 4-6, better after the hill sprints.  Started icing it today every couple of hours and will put some increased emphasis on stretching....my hamstrings have gotten tight again.  So tight that I've been waking up with a sore back, a sure sign I keep forgetting about.  Hope I can keep the knee pain under control so that training isn't completely derailed.

LM warmup (10 reps), 9.75 miles in 1:10:19, 7:13/mi, HR 159, with 3 mile warmup, 2 x Strides/Drills, 15 min @ MP (6:43/mi), 1 min easy, 15 min @ HM/10K (6:23/mi), 2 mile cooldown (last 1.75 on treadmill), PU/Crunches ladder (6 steps), & stretching.

50F & rainy.  Aggressive icing last 24 hours significant help to right knee....no pain to start and only some minor feelings of looming discomfort at times during the run.  However, left hip was feeling sore today and given that I'm still not completely over the cold (still have cough and congestion) and lost a good week of training, decided to scale back the scheduled workout from 3 x 15 min repeats (MP, HM, HM/10K) to 2 x 15 min repeats (MP, HM/10K) with a shorter cooldown.   Actually, reducing the cooldown was because I was soaked and unmotivated to continue running in the rain, and because I wanted to give the legs a break from the pounding on asphalt, so I moved onto the treadmill, which I despise, so I conveniently dropped 1 mile from the cooldown.

All in all, a good workout and probably the correct amount to do.  More icing of the knee to follow today and increased stretching and self-massage should help bring the legs around.

LM warmup (10 reps), 12 miles in 1:25:34, 7:07/mi, HR 156, w/ last 6 miles Moderate, PU/Crunches ladder (6 steps), 3 x hip abductors, & stretching.

Managed to get completely soaked and cold in the run....rain started around mile 4 and steadily increased to a windy cold rain.  Very glad I decided on the tights instead of shorts today.  Felt good on the run.  Legs a bit tired from yesterday, but almost no noticable right knee discomfort, easy and moderate paces both nearly back to where they were before the illnesses set in late in Dec.  Perhaps my training plan hasn't been completely derailed.

LM warmup (10 reps), 8 miles in 59:34, 7:26/mi, HR 153, w/ 15 x 12 sec Hill Sprints, 2 mile walk w/ dogs, PU/Crunches ladder (6 steps), abductor leg raise (3 steps), & stretching.

Felt tired but good today.  Left hip still a bit troublesome but didn't impact stride.  All of the hill repeats felt good and strong, even the first ones.....rare.  Legs started tiring for the last few....expected.  Rained on....again.

LM warmup (10 reps), 10.34 treadmill miles in 1:27:18, 8:27/mi, w/ 4 mile warmup, 5 x 3 min Hill Repeats @ Incline=15 & same distance jog, 2.5 mile cooldown.

Idiot run.  I can say that because I'm the idiot, it's my blog, and I ran.  Faced with yet another miserable weather day outside with gusty & rainy conditions, I decided to use the treadmill to run my hill repeat workout.  Problem was, I did no preparation whatsoever.  The critical piece of data I was missing was what incline should I use, and I defaulted to the max on my particular treadmill (15), being a guy and all.

My repeats were 0.41, 0.39, 0.38, 0.37, 0.37 miles, respectively.  Repeat 1 was sheer agony by 1:30 when I frantically started mashing the slower button to try to last the full 3 minutes.  Figuring I'd pushed a bit too hard, I scaled back for repeat 2, which didn't help.  I actually had to grab the supports in the latter parts of repeat 3 and 5.  Of them all, 4 wasn't so bad, but that could be because I was losing consciousness, I'm not sure.  The guy in me also wouldn't let me get away with running any less than 5, nor with reducing the incline from 15.

So after the run, I perused Brad Hudson's book to see what he says about inclines for Hill Repetitions.  4-6 percent.  Oops.  Then I looked in my copy of Daniels running formula to figure out what kind of flat pace I'd been running at those speeds and at that incline.  ~4:59/mi for the first to around 5:20/mi for the last, give or take a lung.  Not exactly what I was supposed to be aiming for.  Which is why I'm an idiot. 

LM warmup (10 reps), 6 miles in 44:26, 7:24/mi, HR 151, 2 mile walk w/ dogs, PU/Crunches ladder (6 steps), Abductor leg raises (3 sets), & stretching.

Cloudy and cool but dry today.  Nice easy run.  Not feeling too bad after yesterday's overdone treadmill hill session.