Maria's Running Blog

easy recovery run, time 49:08 (8:57 pace). Total 50.8 miles for the week.

Stride workout: warmup, then 10x30sec. pickups with 2min. jog between, cooldown. I did the strides on the track. I finally found out the exact length of the track I'm running on - it is 387 meters. I knew it was short (not to mention very tight turns), but I know exactly. It makes it a bit hard to know where 400m (or 800, or any other distance) ends as there are no markings at all on this track. They paint them once in a while, but since it's a cinder track, they get erased easily with rain and just people running over the markings. It also confirms my suspicion that Garmin is not accurate on tracks. Today, most of the strides were around 150-160 meters.

Anyway, the strides went well, it seems that the ones where I had to run the curve were slower than the straights, but maybe it's just Garmin errors again, not sure. I felt lactic acid accumulating in legs in the last 10 sec. on the last 3-4 strides. Here are the splits:

Time, min	Distance, ft	Pace, min/mile
0:33	457	6:24
0:30	468	5:49
0:30	482	5:38
0:30	476	5:41
0:30	503	5:25
0:30	485	5:29
0:30	475	5:40
0:31	524	5:15
0:31	491	5:34
0:31	503	5:31

Both quads and hamstring are pretty sore today after yesterday's faster running. I considered just doing an easy run today, but then decided to do marathon tempo, only 4 miles instead of usual 5.

I ran 2.3mi. warmup, then 4mi in 31:57 (7:59 pace) and 2.05mi. cooldown. The tempo pace felt a bit harder than last week, but I attribute it to back to back workouts without enough recovery between yesterday and today. Total time 1:10:09.

Tomorrow is another hard day, I have 6x800m planned, so all the more reasons to take it easier today. We're also supposed to get some snow tomorrow, so it could be a slushy workout.

What a miserable run today! It's been snowing, and nobody cleans the snow here, so it was about an inch of wet snow/slush. Footing was awful, I was sliding and slipping all the way, and my feet were wet and freezing from splashing chunks of snow that were melting into my shoes.

On top of that, I had to do 6x800. Track was out of the question, completely snowed in, so I ran on the roads, trying to pick drier spots. Some of the repeats were a bit uphill, and in combination with bad footing, times were totally off. I did 5, and had enough. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Total time 1:13:50. Here are the splits for 800s:

Time	Rest
3:35	4:11 (looking for better footing)
3:48 (uphill + snow)	4:22
3:31 (finally decent patch of road)	3:30
3:40 (started going uphill at the end)	3:40
3:54 (more uphill and awful footing)

just an easy run in the park. Snow is gone, except in few places, so footing was very decent today. I didn't feel that great - still some soreness from Tuesday, plus I felt sore left adductor, probably due to trying to run hard in the snow yesterday. Time 53:49 (8:49 pace).

Did a long run today. It was one of the toughest runs I've had so far. I decided to teach my body to be more efficient with burning fat for fuel, and so I took only 2 Squeezy gels with me. Squeezy gels have only 65 calories per gel, compared to 100-110 of GU and PowerGel. I started the run 3 hours after my normal breakfast, so I wasn't topped up.

Long story short, I started feeling bad (energy-wise) already at 12 miles, only 1:40 into my run! First 12 miles were 8:36 pace average, but after that Garmin lost the signal, but I could tell I slowed down a lot. I took one gel at 9 miles, and another one at close to 15, but they didn't do much. I was also starving. On top of that, my stomach was cramping, and it started even before I took the gel, so gels were not a problem. I can't really pinpoint waht caused the cramps this time, I did everything I could beforehand to prevent them. I think I'll have to accept them as consequence of my surgery 5 years ago and missing part of the small intestine. I think my GI system just became more sensitive, and all that pounding of running (especially on long runs) is causing the cramps. I worry it can affect me on marathon day, but I'll do all I can and hope for the best.

So, the last 8 miles were pretty miserable, and I was very happy to get this run over with. In the end, my time was 2:55:58, 8:42 average, so I didn't slow down as badly as it seemed, despite the bonking.