Maria's Running Blog

My alarm went off correctly this time, and I left the house 1hr. 45 min. before the start. It's only 40 min. trip to Dulwich Park, but I wanted to give myself extra time. Well, the transition to National Rail took longer than I planned due to a ticket line and I missed my train by 1 minute! The problem with that is that National Rail trains run on half-hour schedule, so I had to wait 30 min. for the next one!! I made it to the race ok, but I was stressed out and there went my warmup, since I only had 10 min. before the start - barely enough time to put on my race number and retie my shoes. Oh well... the race started and I settled into a comfortably hard pace, which my Garmin said was about 7:22-7:25. Current pace on Garmin is not very accurate and can really fluctuate wildly especially with hills or even slight inclines, but the lap avg. pace is always precise, so that's what I used. This race used km markers rather than miles, so it was a bit strange, but I kept taking km. splits since that was all I had. This was a nice flat course, 3 loops around the park, some mild inclines and descents, but nothing major at all. Good PR course and the weather was good as well. Some running on sidewalks, with curbs and cobblestone stretches, but not too bad. So I have no excuse for a poor result. I started hurting right after 3km mark, and I knew then it's going to be a long day. Here are the splits:

2km - 9:10 (avg. 4:35)

3km - 13:50 (4:40)

4km - 18:37 (4:46)

5km - 23:16 (4:39)

6km - 27:59 (4:43)

7km - 32:58 (4:58)

8km - 37:30 (4:31) - this km may be short, and the previous one long.

9km - 42:18 (4:48)

10km - 47:08 (4:49)

Total distance was measured at 6.27 by Garmin, so the course might have been a bit long. Still, I thought I was in better shape. Looks like all the missed runs and reduced/inconsistent mileage brought my fitness down a notch. My last 10K was in May on a similar, even faster, course and I ran 45:54 there, so this is quite a step down. I ran regular tempo runs at 7:40-7:50 pace but they didn't make a difference. Very disappointing. I'll try another 10K on 10/29 to see if I can improve.

Easy run, 55:44.

After much trouble with our internet service, I'm back online. On top of that, my laptop tends to overheat and shut down at the most inappropriate moments. I'll back fill last week soon, including my disappointing 10K race.

Today I did 6 mile steady run at 7:59 pace (started at 8:07 and progressed to 7:55), sandwiched between some warmup and cooldown. Got caught in heavy rain and thunderstorms. I'm seriously thinking about investing in Gore-Tex shoes. Total time was 1:15:53.

Ran tempo run. I adjusted my threshold pace down about 10sec/mi. based on my 10K last Sunday. I decided to take splits every mile, which I think now, was a mistake. I would do better watching overall pace on my Garmin, rather than individual miles. Warmup of about 2.4mi and I sped up to tempo pace. The goal was to run 7:50-7:40 pace. Splits:

1mi - 7:49

1.03mi - 7:45 (7:30 pace. This is where I think I got too excited seeing low 7s and pushed too hard. I paid for it in the next mile)

1.07mi - 8:24 (7:51 pace)

0.8mi - 6:09 (7:39 pace. In my tired state of mind I miscalculated that last lap can be 0.8mi instead of 0.9 since earlier splits were a bit long. Wishful thinking).

So, that gives me 30:09 for 3.9mi. (7:43 average). Jogged home very slowly 2.7 miles. Total time 1:19:08.

My left foot has been bothering me for a few days now. I suspect it has something to do with PF, although the tender spot is not at the heel, but rather at the front inner side of my arch, a little below big toe joint. It's barely noticable when I run, but I feel it a bit more when I get out of bed in the morning, which is a classic symptom of PF, of course. I'm taking Ibuprofen 400mg 3-4 times/day and rolling my foot on a frozen water bottle, and stretching my calves a lot. If it's in fact PF, it would be very frustrating. I never had it before and I haven't done anything to bring it on, no increased mileage. The only contributing factor may be that both my pairs of shoes have about 300 mi. on them. That's when I usually replace them. I have 2 new pairs sitting in our container shipping from US, but we haven't gotten it yet. It's getting to customs this weekend, so maybe we'll have it next weekend.

Long run today, 1:53:55 (8:45 pace).I managed to stretch Regents Park loop to 3 miles so I only had to run 3 loops and then added 1 mile on the track before heading home. My foot behaved very well today, I didn't feel it at all. It may be Ibuprofen working, of course. I felt pretty good and ran steady, about 70% on dirt and grass parallel to the roads. I don't really like running on grass since it's so uneven and is harder for me, but I tried to be careful with the foot and minimize impact. It also has to be good for my weak ankles to run on uneven ground. Took one Squeezy gel at around 8 miles, just wanted to check how my body would react. I liked it a lot, it's a lot thinner and not as sweet as GU or PowerGel, so easier to take.