Maria's Running Blog

I missed yesterday due to the family trip to Oxford, so I had to run long today. It really wasn't the best day for it - the wind was ridiculous again, steady at 25 mph, gusting to 40. I started off slow and struggling with teh wind a lot. I planned on going 3+ hours, and the thought of circling around Regents Park 7 times wasn't very appealing. I decided to be adventurous and run all the way to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. I took Baker Street to get there (the same Baker street featured in Conan Doyle's works; there is Sherlock Holmes museum and statue there now). It was annoying dealing with many lights, but eventually I got to American Embassy and then Hyde Park. Ran around both parks twice, that gave me 8.6 miles. Still struggling with gusty winds. I had 2 gels with some water, first at 7 miles, and second at 13.5 miles. Thankfully, didn't have much GI trouble and made just one restroom stop. When I got back to Regents Park loop, I noticed that I was feeling pretty good and my pace was picking up. I wasn't planning on it, but I ran last 5.5 miles a lot faster than first 15.5. Even my legs weren't as tired as they usually get. It probably was from having a day off yesterday, but I'll take it! I didn't time this last section because it kind of just happened. When I finished at 21 miles, I still felt pretty good and I could have kept running, although I was, of course, tired. So it was interesting today. Total time 3:04:55 (8:48 pace).

Ran easy recovery today. Legs felt a little beat up, but not terrible. I've felt worse after long runs. I tried to keep the pace slow, but somehow was running 8:30 until Primrose Hill on the way back. Time: 43:25 (8:41 pace). Seems too fast for recovery, but I wasn't forcing it. Maybe I'll pay for it tomorrow.

Easy run with 10x0:30 pickups at 6:30-7:00 pace. I felt good, and my pace was faster than on comparable runs in the past. More importantly, I felt pretty smooth. The weather, however, threw a surprise at me: it wasn't supposed to rain, but around 15 min. into my run, the skies opened up and cold wet snow followed, coupled with terrible wind (AGAIN!) straight into my face.It actually felt sharp, like hail.  I couldn't even see where I was going, so I stopped my pickups until I turned and the snow was coming at an angle. 15 minutes later it was gone, but the wind continued. I was glad I wore my SportHill top, it's really warm. Total time: 52:04 (8:32 pace).

easy run in Regents Park. It was cold again and still windy, although the wind wasn't as strong as few days ago. My hands were freezing though, but it just seemed silly to wear gloves on the first day of Spring! I felt good, but ran slow for some reason, 56:22 (8:56 pace).

After about 5 miles I stopped at the track to do some strides. For some strange reason, I felt fast and decided to time 3rd and 4th.  I got 18sec. for 99m on the 3rd and 17sec. for 90m on the 4th. It's too bad Garmin doesn't register tenths of a second, because 18 could have been 17.6 or 18.4, but was rounded up to 18. But I was shocked by how fast I felt - my turnover was very good, my knee lift was good and I felt real power to my stride. I was spending very little time on the ground and landing on the ball of my foot, like sprinters do :). It was all the more surprising, because I was wearing my heaviest shoes, Asics Nimbus, which are really not conducive to fast running.

On my jog back home I was trying to solve this puzzle why I felt so great doing sprints today, but couldn't come up with any explanation. But it made me think that perhaps I still have a little but of speed left at my advanced age, I just need to focus on bringing it back. Maybe I'll start focusing on 5K again after my marathon and doing more intervals.

 Almost forgot: I watched British Eurosport channel's coverage of Seoul marathon. I was very inspired by Lee Bong-Ju. He ran incredibly gutsy race and never ever gave up. There was a big gap between him and Kirui starting from about 30K, and it grew to about 100 meters.  At that point everyone was already tired, but Lee just held his own, and then somehow found the reserve to close the gap and pass Kirui, who as it turned out, had nothing left and was barely hanging on. When Lee passed him at like, 40K, Kirui gave him this mad look, but couldn't do anything. The gap looked insurmountable, and yet Lee found a way back in. Very very inspiring to watch. Just goes to prove that you should never give up and that your opponent might be hurting more than you are, even if he is in front at the moment. He had screaming and yelling fans all the way to the stadium that helped, I'm sure, but to win in such a way, especially at 36, when people pretty much wrote him off, is really awesome. He also ran the best time in the world this season, I think - 2:08:04.

My spontaneous speed experiment on Wednesday did not go unpunished. Yesterday, almost exactly 24 hours after I ran sprints, my legs started killing me. Both quads and hamstrings. It's hard to believe, but it took only 3x100m at close to full speed (the first one wasn't that fast)!!I haven't done strides in a while, not to mention at full speed, and so that was the result. On top of really sore legs, I just plain got lazy and ended up not running at all. It would have been better to run easy for few miles, I know.

So today, my legs were still very sore, no better than yesterday, but I had to do my speed workout. I planned on at least 8x800m, but got a late start and ran out of time before I had to get home and take my daughter to her swim practice (her regular pool is closed for inspection for 2 weeks, and we have to go to a far away pool that takes an hour to get to!). So I ended up with only 7x800m.

The whole time it just felt very hard, starting from the first one. There was significant wind on one of the straightaways and it seemed to always pick up when it was time for me to start the next repeat! Coupled with very sore legs, it made for really tough workout. I did 7x800m with equal time jog recovery. Splits were all over the place:

Repeat	Time	Comment
1	3:26	hard, stiff legs
2	3:21	a little better
3	3:19	pushed too hard, and I knew it. This repeat broke me.
4	3:21	very hard, surprised at the time, thought it would be slower. Things are going downhill from here.
5	3:27	dying out there, wind a killer
6	3:21	barely hanging in, again surprised at the time. Feeling a little nauseuous afterwards.
7	3:24	done, finally, can barely jog afterwards

Not really pleased with this workout, few weeks ago was a much better, consistent effort (and one more repeat, too).

easy recovery run, 43:49 (8:45 pace). Very strong wind again, and cold. Not a pleasant run, although my legs are almost back to normal.