Denouement

Well this rates as a first class sucky running day.

I was planning on meeting someone in Salem who hasn't met there before, so when I arrived I wasn't surprised she wasn't there yet.  I took my cell phone on a warm up jog as I waited for her.  I promised I would bring my cell in case she got lost on the way.  20 minutes later she still wasn't there and my hands were freezing (from holding the cell phone, my hands always get cold when I have to hold something).  I am sure she had a perfectly reasonable excuse for not showing, but I haven't been stood up in a while so I was caught unprepared.  So I got in 2.12 miles slow (8:59 ave) and I decide that since my hands were cold, I didn't have my mace or my mp3, that I would take my new (used) treadmill on its first spin.

I get home and have to maneuver the beastly thing (a used monster sized Star Trac bought from the Ogden Gold's Gym) to plug it in.  It didn't work when I press start.  Plug it in in another location, and it still won't start.  Well, then I looked and found an on/off switch by where the plug goes out of the machine. 

I turn it on and I am in business, trading off between 7:47 and 8 min pace (depending on the song on the radio, of course) at 2 % (I think it is percent) grade.  about 3/4 a mile into it I remember that treadmills are incredibly boring, and in the fifth mile on the treadmill my son wakes up, as he doesn't understand the glorious opportunity daylight savings gives us of sleeping in, and my morning run is aborted.

GRRRR.

Asics.

Evening -

I walked my kids to the park by our house and ran in circles on an asphalt path that borders the park while my kids played.  In my first mile they each ran with me for a part of the time.  My 3.5 year old ran .2 miles with me at 10 min pace.  So my first mile split was around 10 min, and the next two were in the low 8's while my kids amused themselves by getting tangled in the soccor goal mesh.  I shouldn't have let them play with it, but they were reluctant to go to the park at all, so I just felt lucky that they would stay entertained for 27 minutes.  3.08 at 8:50 ave.

Easy run with SF group.  I ran with the speedier girls at first, but then I had to hit the bushes.  I got a foot into some wetland type of area and screamed--way over-dramatic.  So I am in the bushes and right away hear the guys in our group who were taking the pace easier.  I wrap up and jump out again getting my foot wet, and the guys were still 100 meters away.  They didn't even recognize me when I ran up to them.  Mark said, "Good morning" to me and I had to introduce myself. 

After the run I go grocery shopping, and I tend to get sick from not eating or drinking, so lately I have picked up a powerade.  I picked up a new powerade light (that's not the name but it is lower calorically).  It was ok, but had that fake sweetener taste.  I had to get some breaded fish fillets for this fish taco recipe I make (Recipezaar #10078, very easy and good), and I swear I had to touch every fish product in the frozen food section before finding the only one that isn't half fat.  My body temperature just kept dropping and dropping.  I'm ok now, but I think I will need to start bringing a parka for these shopping trips.

Mizuno

evening abs

Eight .5 mile repeats.  Ran with Tom, Jamie and Amber, though Amber wasn't doing our 800's. 

1 - 3:05, 3:18 rest

2 - 2:59, 3:05 rest

3 - 2:58, 3:02 rest

4 - 2:56, 3:20 rest

5 - 2:55, 3:14 rest  (By this time I am thinking, "oh, yeah, this is what under 6 minute pace feels like, I had forgotten but I remember now".)

6 - 2:55, estimated 3:30 rest

7 - 2:56, 3:05 rest

8 - 2:54  And we are done! 

Though I lead the group through all but the first and the last, I could NOT have done this workout alone.  It takes group pressure to pull these numbers (not impressive by some people's standards, but my best workout since college for sure).  On #6 and #8 I felt like I was in college again, seeing what my body would do for me and pushing it to puke point.  It was great.  Either Jamie or Tom said something about whether or not speed is fun, and I have to say in some ways it is not fun, but in others it is exhilerating.   I am sure my Friday run with Sasha will beat some humility into me but for now I am really pleased :)

Ok now for advice solicitation:   I am on a cycle that is trying to go strong through January, since Feb-April have to be my slow down period for work reasons.  I want to peak for the Painter's 1/2 marathon in mid January.  So I want to do 1-2 quality hard workouts a week, but the cold means we have to be more careful about injury and warming up.  I warmed up over 3.5 miles before starting today.  I want to do intervals over the winter.  Are intervals a definite no-no as the temperature drops?  At what morning temperature do tempos or fartlek become the only safe bets?  I always want to train 95% safe.  100% safe means not training, eh?

Mizuno

Ran with large group today:  Amber, ER speedy, Jamie and Tom.  We went uphill at first around Goosenest and into Payson.  It was a nice run and it is great to have such a wonderful group of runners to run with.

ave 8:27 pace

Asics

afternoon abs

So I ran the Sasha's Uneventful 1/2 Marathon with Sasha, Ted, and Jamie.  Jamie and I met at Sasha's house at 6am to warm up before Sasha and Ted's warm up because we were intimidated and wanted to be ready to go.  We ran 2.26 miles, then went in Sasha's house and waited around for about 10 minutes (I guess we should have run 2.75 or 3 then came to the house).  Sasha let us into his home at 6:20am and we hung out in his family room.  It just shows how dedicated his whole family is to running and how patient and tolerant Sarah is. 

Well, let me preface the run with the fact that I went to the BYU vs. TCU night game last night.  We left toward the end of the 3rd quarter because my husband is coming down with something and I was happy to bow out early to get some decent sleep, but then our 7 year old son went to the game with a school friend, they stayed for the whole game, and thus got stuck in game traffic and he got home at 12:20am, two hours after we got home.  It was my first experience staying awake for a child to get home, and he is only 7 years old!  If he was old enough to have a curfew he would have broken it for sure.  But it shows a lack of judgement on my part that I let him go, so I have learned something. Ok, so the point is I fell asleep at about 1:30 am (was wound up) and woke up at 5:20 so less than 4 hours sleep.  You know you are in trouble when you are telling yourself--"You need to fall asleep or you will crash in burn in your run tomorrow!! Go to sleep right now!! You have to relax now!! Go to sleep right now!!"

Ok, my goal was to be around 7:15 pace, which would make for a slower but very long tempo run.  Well my laps seemed pretty screwy on the watch.  In general they were close to the mile markers but some of the splits seemed way off.  Here's the splits from the gps:

1 - 7:15, just warming up, included a stop to wait for Adam who arrived a minute late.

2 - 7:30

3 - 6:54

4 - 7:30  see what I mean about splits being screwy?  In actuality we were going about 7:15 pace for miles 2-5, conversational but not full sentences, really enjoying the run, seeing the leaves falling in front of us, soaking up the experience of running with Sasha and Ted.

5 - 7:08 probably right on, we ran on the river trail toward the lake and turned around at 5.05 miles, a near crash between Jamie and Sasha? at the 180 turn around point.

6 - 6:58

7 - 6:33 yeah right, I don't think this one was that fast, at around mile 7 Sasha and Ted started doing strides.  I tried to pay attention to what they were doing but my concentration started moving to trying to keep pace

8 - 7:03 see what I mean about screwy splits?

9 - 6:58 By mile 9 I am really needing some water.  I brought shot blocks but didn't know how taking them without water would go, so I didn't take one.  I don't run 15 miles without fuel normally so my body was starting to feel it -- or was it the pace my body was feeling?  At the 9 mile marker we found we had 24 seconds (if I remember right) to catch to get the 7 minute gal for the run, so we picked it up.

10 - 6:47 in the 10th mile Jamie drops back a little and it starts to be Sasha and Ted encouraging me through the last portion of the run.  I am tired and am entering race mode - giving everything I have and wondering if I am going to break

11 - 7:04 tired but hanging on to them.  Sasha is giving out 100 m, 200m 1/4 mile splits

12 - 7:06 I don't think these last two splits were right.  I think they were right at or under 7 min.  Sasha said I could break 1:31 if I did a 6:30 and I said yeah right and just tried to hang on.

13 - 6:35 pace, but my watch showed 12.93 for the whole distance, off by quite a bit.  Sasha had a 6:20 for the last mile, and they know this course really well so I'll take his word for it.  I know that I surged when I could, within the last .6 or so I had strong and weak points but was able to squeak it out:

1:30:52 BABY!   6:56 ave pace, better than the SF 1/2 marathon race. 

I am so grateful to Jamie who pulled me through the middle miles and Sasha and Ted who were so positive and encouraging in the last three as I tried to not fall apart.

This was definitely a race level effort from the mile 9 marker on, and probably even before that, since you need to stay relaxed and in control in a 1/2 marathon or marathon through those middle miles anyway.  It's kind of embarrassing to be putting forth race level effort while the guys you are running with are relaxed and conversational, but they were great and didn't harrass me about my breathing, etc.  :)

I have to say a special thank you to my husband, who got up with the kids and got the two older ones off to school, even though he stayed up until 12:30am last night, and even though he was sick, so that I could do this run.  I wish I could come up more often, but am grateful for the chance to do it this time.

Ran with the SF group.  It's great to have a big group to run with.  Kelly ran with us and that was fun to push his pace a little.  He seems hungry for more.  We saw two fast guys from Salem and Josse went crazy with them for a couple of miles, but Tom and I hung back.  Seemed like Tom's horses were neighing because running behind Josse and her male posse we kept speeding up until I would try to slow it down.  At one point we were chatting and I was having a hard time holding the conversation, looked down and we were doing about a 7 minute pace and I put on the brakes.  In retrospect I should have cut Tom loose because he should have been running with the faster crew.  I don't feel really sore from yesterday, but didn't feel like pushing the pace today either.  I toyed with the idea of running 15 today, but thought 10 would allow me to rest better.

Ave pace 8:03

Asics