Emily's training blog

I took a few days off of running to see if some rest would help my achilles.  It didn't.  It feels pretty much the same.  So, I'll just keep plugging away, and hopefully get into a doctor soon. 

I woke up early to get my run in.  It was cloudy, muggy, and very dark.  There are some spooky places along the river trail.  I forgot my watch, so I don't know what the pace was.  I ran down 4800 to the river trail, to Boullion, and then back. 

After I ran, I took the kids to cross country practice.  The high schoolers got soaked.  As I was turning into the park, I hit a garbage can . . . it came out of nowhere!  I knocked the sideview mirror off of my car.  So, it was off to the dealership to get it fixed.  Great morning!

I ran on the treadmill this morning, with no achilles pain.  I guess I will be doing more treadmill running since it doesn't seem to bother it.  That will be exciting.  I started easy, and increased my pace every half mile.  I will be running a second run later this afternoon.

I had planned to run later in the day yesterday. But,  Teren worked overtime last night, so I didn't make it.  This morning I got up at 4:30 again to make sure I got my run in.  Someday I will learn that the only way I get my run in is to get up early. 

I ran on the treadmill again.  I warmed up 2 miles, and then ran a 6 mile tempo.  I was happy to get six in this week.  Of course, I should have been pretty fresh.  I started at 10.0 mph, and increased every 5 minutes.   The last mile I increased every .25 miles.  I finished at 5:33 pace.  My splits were:  6:05, 5:55, 5:50, 5:47, 5:43, and 5:37, for a total time of 35:02.  The last five minutes were pretty tough.  I cooled down ten minutes, and then had to stop because my stomach started giving me problems. 

I go to the doctor next Thursday to get my achilles examined.  Hopefully, the doctor can offer some solutions for getting healthy. 

I ran some easy soft-surface miles at Liberty Park.  It wasn't the most exciting run, just running laps around the park.  But, I have been running on the treadmill, so it was a big improvement from running in place. 

I ran most of the run with Susannah, and then threw a lap of fireman drills with the East High boys on my third lap.  I ran a couple more laps with the team, and one more with Susannah.  Then, I just had one more on my own.  My legs are tired, but not as bad as I thought they would be after a tempo run.  I was glad to get off of the treadmill.

I hadn't planned on running this race, since I've been struggling with the achilles problem, and haven't done much in the way of speed work the last two weeks.  But, last night I figured that since I was already registered, I might as well see what I could do. 

I'm a little ambivelent in how I feel about the race.  I didn't really prepare for it, so I didn't have much expectations of it.  However, the competitive part of me wishes I had done better.  It's just kind of more of the same pace that I have been stuck in the last couple of months.  But, at least I haven't lost too much fitness while nursing this injury.  I guess I'll just be happy I'm 75 dollars richer, and call it good.

I ran a 2 mile shakeout run this morning.  At the race I warmed up 3 miles with Andrea and Jake.  After a surprise cannon boom to start us out, I got out with Andrea the first mile.  I stuck close through 1.5-2 miles, and then started to fall back.  Andrea encouraged me to keep up, but I fell off.  I tried to keep the momentum going, but now I was in no-man's-land, so I got complacent.  I tried to stay strong on the nasty hill, but at this point I was really all by myself.  I finished as hard as I could, but it definitely would have been better had I stayed closer. 

I cooled down 4 miles with Susannah, Stephanie, and Andrea and Jake.  I had a major energy crash on the cool down, so I stopped there. 

So, since my achilles seems to be hanging in there, it's back to full training next week. 

Later AM:  5 miles at the health club.