M'kay

LM warmup (10 reps), 9.09 miles in 1:14:16, 8:10/mi, HR 154, & stretching.

Cool and rainy (52F).  Hoped to feel up to a long run today but after missing 3 days of runs and the other events of this week, the body just wasn't up to it, so I took what I could get.

The short version is that while I was in VA for work, my wife Dianna was in a head-on collision that totaled both our truck and horse trailer as well as the other SUV involved.  Fortunately, both humans and all 3 horse seem to have been able to walk away with minor bumps and bruises (although the jury is still out on Dianna's neck....hoping that its just a strain and can be rehabbed from completely).  The cops, fire dept, ambulance crew & wrecker all count believe everyone was still alive much less without obvious serious injury.  We're both still counting all of the lucky stars involved.

On the insignificant side of the event, now we're trying to sort thru insurance, medical, property, liability, lack of transportation, and all of the other gazillion things that need tended too following something of this magnitude.  Runs didn't really fit into the schedule and yesterday when we were both finally able to take a breath, I chose a nap over a run because I was exhausted.  So today's run felt like I hadn't run in months but I'm hopeful that it woke the body up and tomorrow will be better. 

LM warmup (10 reps), 9.78 miles in 1:16:53, 7:51/mi, HR 165, w/ 3 mile warmup, 5 x 1K @ 5K/2 minutes rest in 3:44 (up), 4:00 (up), 3:56 (up/down), 3:43 (down), 3:34 (down), 3 mile cooldown, & stretching.

Brutal with a capital B.  Didn't get to run yesterday as every spare moment was devoted to dealing with accident aftermath (I believe the insurance adjuster called 11 times, suddenly the at-fault driver has "insurance issues" that their adjuster won't elaborate on, and Dianna's leg swelled up like a watermellon....none of it fun).  So, faced with easing back into running or hitting it hard with a rut-buster workout, I chose the latter, of course.  Sunny and 70F this afternoon, which started off nice but got warm.  The 1K repeats were simply impossibly hard....the breathing spiraled out of control quickly and the legs turned to lead early, then got heavier.  I managed the first with some semblance of dignity but quickly shed that for 2-5.  Actually, they were probably more fartlek like as I did take a couple second pause in #3 & 4 when the side stitch became nearly overwhelming.  The cooldown miles were complete slog miles too.  

But after all that complaining, I think it did what it needed to do.  Undoubtedly tomorrow I'll probably hurt a bit and it'll take a while to get back to normal, but I think I busted the rut.  Hope so, because the stomach cramps I got about 15 minutes after the run nearly had me praying for a quick end.....haven't had that happen in quite a while and it took about 30 minutes for them to pass.  Oh well, I really really really needed the stress relief that this run afforded. 

LM warmup (10 reps), 8.12 miles in 1:02:12, 7:39/mi, HR 165, w/ 10 x 12 sec Hill Sprints, 1 mile walk w/ dogs & stretching.

Warm (77F) & sunny.  Felt better today despite the (relative) warmth.  HR still silly high but typical after the recent stretch of intermittent training.  Hill sprints decent after 2 weeks without them training in the flatlands of VA.  Glad to be back in the hills. 

Another disasterous day took us down to 0 operational automobiles in the family, so a run was completely out of the question (although I nearly had to run from my house 30 miles to the car rental place so I could rescue my wife who was driving the now non-operational car).  It can't always get worse, right?  Right?

LM warmup (10 reps), 8.09 miles in 1:01:56, 7:39/mi, HR 159, 1 mile walk w/ dogs & stretching.

Oh, how I needed this run.  I'm tired, stressed, had a raging headache from when I woke up and really really really needed this run.  After yesterday's debacle...our remaining auto, our "beater" car decided it was time for the clutch to go, so I wound up taking a cab to get a rental to fetch the wife from the dentist where she had just gotten an implant....painful work on top of last week's accident injuries....and to attempt to limp the car home.  Made that by avoiding all steep hills where I might get stopped.  After some pain meds for Dianna and a breather for me, we decided it made no sense to dump money into the Saab, so off we went to find a new car and a mere 7 hours later were signing the paperwork.  So car payment stress, insurance claim stress, injured wife stress, plus normal everyday work and life stress == one giant stress-ball.  So I ran and actually felt better, except for the emergency pit-stop 6.5 miles into the run.  Hopefully tomorrow I can actually get a long run in so I'm not completely under-trained for the WR50 in July.

LM warmup (10 reps), 26 miles in 4:00:23, 9:14/mi, HR 158, w/ 3650' of elevation gain.

Back on the long run horse today and it about killed me.  Its been 3 weeks since my last long run (coincidentally, that was the R2R 50 which didn't go so well), so I really needed to get this in and knew it was going to hurt.  Goal was to get between 20 and 26 in but I really wanted to get the full 26 in if at all possible, and needed to throw in some hills to get my hill legs back.  Mission accomplished.  First third was easy effort and I actually managed to keep things fairly easy.  Focused on running the hills no matter what pace that brought, and I actually managed it.  This probably overworked the legs a bit earlier than I should have, but I was going out to get the distance in and to really torture the legs so they'd remember how to run hills.  Second half was some logging roads and some single-track I found.  The Nicholson horse trail system runs thru the area and I finally found a trailhead, which was nice.  The trail was highly technical and I nearly took headers multiple times.  Even going downhill, my trail paces were in the 10-12 minute mile range.  Thankfully, the dry/warm weather dried the mud so it was a deep soft mushy loam, but that really took some effort to run through.   Got lost a bit here, and was navigating using my general sense of location, the sun, and hoping to pop out on a fire-road so I didn't have to retrace steps back up the steep single-track, and I did manage to somehow take the right combination of trails to find my way back to the road home.

At this point, I was one big climb and lots of downhill away from the end of the run.  I was also low on water and my legs were feeling pretty shot.  The remaining third+ of the run was pretty brutal.  Lots of "power hiking" which means stumbling up the hill a tad faster than walking, and rationing my water as well as possible to make it last.  Got within 2 miles of the house and thankfully a neighbor was out working in their yard, so I begged for some water and they kindly obliged.  I probably would've made it back, but really didn't want to find out.  The last miles were slow with numerous short walk breaks but I got the miles in and collapsed back at the house.  Glad I don't do these too often.

The thing that really worries me?  I essentially ran 1/2 of the 50 miler (distance and elevation change-wise) today and was completely shot.  How the heck am I going to make it thru another 24+ miles?  Guess I have another month to work on that.