Emily's training blog

Nasty blisters.  Cross training.

I am still feeling the race.  Especially in my hips. My left one is especially tight.  I ran 1300 W to the river trail at 7000 S.  I could feel some fatigue, but I have been worse.

When I got home I did core, push-ups and some pilates.  Gotta strengthen and stretch these hips of mine.

I have had this workout in my mind for a while.  I thought I would give it a try today.  I warmed up 2.5 miles to the track and stretched and ran strides.  The workout was 4 sets of 400-300-200-100 with 100 meter recovery between intervals and 400 meter jog inbetween sets.  I originally planned 5 sets, but felt that 4 was sufficient 4 days post-race.  

Set 1:  1:23, 1:04, 40, 19

Set 2:  1:21, 1:01, 40, 19

Set 3.  1:22, 1:00, 39, 19

Set 4:  1:19, 1:00, 39, 18

I would like to see this workout get faster.  It is a great alternative to 200m on/off.  It was a good turnover workout, and a nice one to start my return to regular track workouts. 

2.5 mile jog home.  9.5 miles total.

Some days it is hard to get out the door. This morning was like that for me. So I consider today a mental victory day. It was windy and miserable this morning. I ran Costco loop to 6200S and back on the canal road. 4 miles were uphill into the wind. I am glad today is done. Now it's time for core. 7:16 pace.

I thought I would try the AT/LT workout for my tempo today. I warmed up 2 miles and then ran 6 miles alternating every half mile at 6:15 and 5:45 pace. I ran it on the treadmill so I could control the paces. They felt like the correct effort level. I liked this workout and I am super impressed that Rachelle managed 8 miles of this workout. 6 was perfect for me. 36:07 total. I cooled down 1.5 miles.

Another "mental toughness" day for me.  I realized today how much I like to stay in my comfort zone.  I love perfect conditions and fresh, snappy legs.  When conditions are less-than-perfect, I tend to make excuses and lose it mentally.  I want to improve my mental fortitude, so I decided to make a note of days when I feel I overcame an obstacle by toughness and positive thinking.  Hopefully, by recognized the days that I persevered over hard things, I can carry those experiences into race situations.

Jenny and I texted back and forth this morning, trying to decide whether to brave the 20-30 mph winds, or  try for better conditions later.  Finally, we decided to suck it up and get our run in.  I'm not going to lie.  It was very hard.  I was feeling yesterday's tempo run, and my legs were heavy.  After being battered by the wind for 4 miles, we turned out of the wind.  While it was a relief to have the wind at our back, I realized that we had pushed ourselves hard running into the wind.  I never completely recovered.

But, I feel a sense of accomplishment now that the run is finished.  And it could be much worse.  I could be running in Montana in a 30 below blizzard.    7:15 average (more or less.  My watch died at 11.4 miles.  Jenny will have the exact average.)