Maria's Running Blog

I did hill springing workout today in Primrose Hill Park. Ran 3.1 mi. warmup, did 10x60m hill springing repeats with the jog down recovery and then 3.1 mi. cooldown. Hills were pretty hard, and I could feel my calves and ankles got a good workout at the end. I did half of them on grass, and half on pavement. This is one of the Lydiard inspired workouts, along with hill bounding. It's more of a plyometric exercise than pure running, but it helps in building leg power. We did a lot of bounding (not so much springing) when I was training in Russia, but it wasn't up the hill. It was actually done on the track, and we even had time trials bounding over 100m, where both the time, and the number of strides were counted. Anyway, I had success with these workouts last winter, so I'm hoping they'll work again. Total time 1:10:15.

easy run in the rain. I am pretty sore today after yesterday's hills. Especially my back and even shoulders and arms, from the exaggerated arm motion. This is how weak my upper body is. My calves and hamstrings are a bit sore too, but not as much as my back. I remember I had back pain after doing hill drills last year too. It didn't bother me too much on the run, though. Time 53:08 (8:42 pace).

Did 3x10 heel raises afterwards.

Ran 5.5mi. easy, then 10:00 at half marathon pace (came out to 1.3mi, 7:40 pace), 1.4mi. cool down home. My easy pace today was brisk, 8:25, even though my calves and hamstrings are still somewhat sore. My back is sore too, but getting better. Overall, I felt very good today. It felt good to run faster, and I was pleased that my pace was comparable to 3 weeks ago, before the holiday break. Total time 1:09:09.

Did 3x10 heel raises after the run.

No running today. I simply was scared of getting outside. There are very, very high winds blowing across UK today. The weather service issued high winds and gale advisory, and there were several people killed by falling trees and such. In my area, there was sustained wind of 55 mph with gusts up to 80 mph. My blinds were blowing on windows, and the metal cover in the fireplace was rattling all day from the wind, coming in through some invisible space. Looking out my window, I observed everything flying, lamp posts shaking, and few people outside holding onto fences while walking. I was worried about my daughter, but she made it home from school ok (also holding onto everything she could on the way), and said, "Mom, don't go running today". I already decided not to go at that point. I had another hill workout scheduled, and it would have been just counter productive. So, I took a day off, and will do the workout tomorrow. It's supposed to be much better.

Did my second hill workout of the week. This time, it was bounding instead of springing. I ran about 3.7mi. warmup, and started on the moderate hill, no more than 5%. I counted my strides, and it came to 100 strides in 46-50 sec (Garmin showed 430-450 ft = 130-135m). This was a killer workout. At first, I could do 50-60 strides up the hill before my legs would start faltering, then it became 40 strides, and by my last and 8th repeat, I could only do 25 good powerful strides before I started floating in the lactic sea. My knees refused to go up, the stride length shortened, and my pace would drop sharply. All of that was happening at the same time and came on swiftly after mentioned number of strides. Still, I did all 100 strides each time, although my form was pretty bad by the end, and my legs were numb. I also increased my recovery after 3 repeats from 1min. to about 2min, because I was not recovering enough.

After that lovely exercise, I ran some 2.8mi. cool down. Not only was I trudging at 10min. pace, but my legs were feeling like cotton balls the whole time. Total time 1:12:42.

Ran 6 miles at TMP pace, sandwiched between 5mi. and 3.4mi. easy. I started out feeling great, despite sore hamstrings after the hills yesterday. First 5mi. went by in 42:42 (8:26 pace). Then I picked up the pace by feel to what I thought should be MP. When I looked at Garmin couple of minutes later, it said 7:40 pace!! Talk about pace judgement (but I was also going slightly downhill at that point). So I backed off a bit, and came to 1mi. split of 8:00. It was still faster than my projected MP of 8:13, but it felt very easy, and so I continued. Unfortunately, as the miles accumulated, plus slight uphills into the wind, I found this pace not so easy anymore, but I could still maintain it. I felt comfortable on flats and downhills, and struggled a bit uphills and into the strong wind. The uphills and downhills are very subtle in Regents Park, maybe 0.5-1%, but I could definitely feel them. After 4.5mi my hamstrings got really tight, and my pace slipped a bit. Overall, I ran 6mi. in 48:19 (8:03 avg.). After that I jogged 3.4mi. very easy (9:30 pace) - I was pretty tired, and probably running out of energy too, since I didn't take any gels or even water today. Total time 2:03:18.

I think the lesson I should learn from this run is the one that all marathoners have to learn, many in a painful way - I have to be super conservative with my marathon pace, no matter how easy it feels in the beginning.