[S]he Conquers Who Endures

My calves and hamstrings were still tight from Thursday, but they felt a little loser than yesterday so I decided to give my run/walk a try. 2 min walk/8 min run x3. My calves felt like they were going to tear the first running interval, but felt nice and loose by the third. My paces were: 8:03, 7:44, 7:09 min/mi. Finished up with some really good stretching and foam rolling. Then went for a 2.4 mile hike in the Blue Hills (443 ft elevation gain). I hope I can run Tuesday! 

I started measuring my resting hr every morning when I wakeup. I thought it would be a good leaf to turnover after I got my stress fracture to figure out if I'm pushing too hard. It seems 42-43 bmp is my average "low" and I typically have closer to 45-47 bmp for a more "normal" resting hr. This morning my resting hr was 40. Holy cow! I had a pretty hard workout week last week and would expect to need a recovery this week. 

AM: Criss-cross speed bike 1.25 h. I found out my glutes are pretty sore probably from running and hiking yesterday. My calves and hamstrings are still tight but not as bad as I expected, so I'm happy about that. It turns out, my glute weakness somewhat limited my workout since it's harder to get your hr up on the bike with weak muscles. 15 min wu @ 61% max hr, then 6x4 mins at 80-89% max hr (ideally would be more like 85-93%), then cd staying above 60% max hr. It's called criss-cross because you are supposed to build your hr for the first 2 mins, then slowly lower it for the remainder 2 mins. I am fairly surprised to find out that although the bike workout seems to drop a hair on tired running legs, you can really do a lot on the bike fairly comfortably when your legs are so sore you can hardly walk. You use the opposite muscles biking so I think this will be a really great exercise to maintain once I'm back to 100% in my running life. :) 

PM: 40 mins easy waterjogging. Felt good on my legs! 

2 min walk, 15 min run, 2 min walk, 14 min run (because I can't add), 4 min walk.

I haven't run slow enough yet to hit recovery pace. This run was slower than my previous runs, but my calves and hamstrings are sore and tight. I don't know why I'm scared to purposely run slow! I don't want to get comfortable there, but that's stupid because I should be running slow to reduce the pounding and allow my bones to adapt.

First interval was 1.84 miles at 8:14 min/mi pace, the second interval was 1.74 miles at 7:57 min/mi pace.

I got a lot of work to in 4.5 weeks to prepare for this half! But, I did not feel the need to walk once. My foot is feeling great and ready to run!

Drove to Hopkinton for 1 h on the AlterG. 2 min walk (4 MPH)/10 min run (10 MPH) x5 at 30% body weight. I kinda cried a little during this run. A really good song came on during one of the run intervals. My body was in sync, my legs were flying and I felt like I did when I was speed training on the treadmill back in March. Once the chorus hit during Mumford and Sons "I Will Wait", it was over, tears welled in my eyes and I was so glad I was facing a wall so people could see this crazy girl teary eyed on the treadmill filled with joy to finally be able to feel that great feeling of the run. What a great glimpse of what is to come!!

65 mins threshold on the bike. Normally I do longer, but now that I'm weaving in running, I think it's better to cut back the bike to keep my legs fresh for the run. 15 min wu at 60-65% max hr, then 35 mins at 82-88% max hr, followed by 15 min cd. This felt good hard and I even had enough energy coming off the bike to stretch, foam roll, then hit up a few exercises.

circuit (3 rounds): 12 pushups, 12 stepups each leg 20 in box, side step with band

then 6 mins continuous plank (normal and each side alternating), then burned out my abs with 3x30 abmat situps. 

PM: 40 mins easy waterjogging. I met a girl who is trying to join the New Balance team! So cool! We chatted, waterjogged for a bit and exchanged emails. It will be so nice to have a waterjogging partner, and a super speedy one at that! :) 

 Resting HR: 44 bpm

 2x20 min run, 2 min walk. I tried to allow myself to slow down for this one. I still couldn't mentally allow myself to slow to my old recovery pace (9:15 min/mi), but I did a lot better. Runs were 2.31 miles at 8:49 and 8:51 min/mi pace. I need to succumb to a slow pace! My calves and hamstrings were minorly sore, but my right knee start giving my that kiss of death pulling sensation that in the past has forced me to take a month off running.

Note to self: this is a period of building mileage, you are not supposed to build mileage, frequency of runs per week and intensity!!! Forget the half in July, focus on getting up to a healthy base to start marathon training in July!!

I know I don't have the running endurance I had, but my speed is there and I still haven't felt like I had to walk during a run (I force a walk to stick with the training plan). I just have to stay injury free and practice patience!

PM: Walked 3 miles total to volunteer for the corporate challenge in Boston Commons.

Resting hr 41 bpm

3 miles no walk/run this time. Just running. :)

Then 1 hr on alterg at 35% body weight ran 10 MPH. Boy this felt great! No run/walking fo this one either! 

Resting hr 48 bpm