Emily's training blog

It's time to get back to it. I've taken more than my fair share of time off.  This morning I paid for it.  It was a rude awakening!  I felt clunky and tight.  I expected it though.  Mentally I am ready to start training again.  I've definitely lost some fitness over the last few lazy weeks.  I think it will come back fairly quickly.  I do need to be a little careful about jumping into hard stuff too quickly.  7:26 pace.  Costco loop with added loop in the neighborhood.

So, what's a girl to do when her silly baby wakes up at 4 for a cuddle?  Why, go running really early, of course!  It was dumping snow, and I didn't feel like taking my life in my own hands by running in it.  I went to the gym for a treadmill workout.  It was a good one.  I warmed up 2 miles and then ran 10 x 2 minutes on/ off.  I eased into them, starting at 6:15 pace, and upping the tempo .1 mph every interval.  I finished at 10.5 mph or 5:42 pace.  It's true.  The treadmill told me so.  It got pretty tough for the last 3.  My body hasn't moved that quickly in quite some time.  My recovery was at 8mph.  I cooled down until I hit an hour total running time.

Yesterday afternoon I developed a random pain in my lower left leg.  It is on the outside of the leg, below the knee, where the knee hinges.  (Don't you love my scientific terms.)  I've been trying to figure out why it hurts there.  My workout yesterday wasn't too hard, and I didn't feel any twinges or anything during the run, or even in the hours following the run.  Impact doesn't seem to bother it.  It's more range of motion.  I think it might be tied into my hips, but it doesn't really feel like an IT band issue.  Hmmmm . . . 

I warmed into my run, slowly.  I felt a bit sore from yesterday.  It's cold.  It took 3 miles to warm up.  Once I got into a groove, it was a nice run . . . even if it was dark, cold, and windy.  7:25 pace.

No sign of pain in the knee today. I really don't think it was something running related.  Weird.  It seems to be gone, though.

Teren is out of town, so I was stuck on the treadmill again.  The happy news is that Myles played contentedly in the daycare for my entire run!  I was really bored during my warm-up, so I decided to get things over with more quickly and run a tempo run.

3 miles warm up.  25 minute tempo run (4.1 miles. I went through 4 at 24:20)  cooldown to eight miles.  

It was an incredibly beautiful day for a run this morning.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  I got to run a little later in the morning because Teren was home.  It's nice to run when it is actually light outside.  I ran to 4100 S, down to the river trail.  My body must have been loving the warm weather  and later start time because my average pace was a relatively brisk 6:58.  

The weather was so nice this morning that I ran a bit longer than my originally planned ten miles.  I was a little chilly to start, but started shedding layers as the run progressed.  I ran 7800 S down to the river trail at Gardner Village.  On the way back I saw a man standing on a bridge with his daughter on his shoulders.  They were just out enjoying the morning.  I thought it was cute.   6:58 pace for the total run.  I'm ready for a day off!

I'm happy with the way my first post-break week went.  My plan is to gradually increase the mileage.  I'll probably try to keep the workouts shorter and faster to get ready for 5k-10k type races.  I still don't have a solid race plan, but I will run a Turkey Trot, and then aim for some of the early circuit races.  I just want to enter next year's summer/fall training in really good shape!  Here's hoping for healthy running!