Denouement

Yeah, that's right.  10.01, not more, not less.  I could have stopped at my car at 9.88 and rounded up, but I was tougher than that, risking further frost bite and hypothermia, and the nasty .06 into the wind was one of the nastiest .06 I have ever run in my life.  And this is why I don't round.  If I log it, I have earned it ;)

The really sad thing is I got a voicemail from Jamie last night wondering if we could run in Salem (closer to me!) and thus avoid the SF wind.  I didn't get the voicemail until this morning and it was  too late to call everyone else, and the SF wind was worse than usual.  The starting temp was about 26F but the wind chill brought it down at least 10 degrees if not more.  It was soo bad, sooo sooooo soooooo bad.  Toward the end we just stopped our conversation, I think because we were all so miserable and were just trying to tough the rest of the run out.  Ok, enough whining.  

 Ali, Jamie and I started, then out popped Tara Fryer from her minivan and she joined us for our first three miles.  I used to run quite a bit with Tara, and it looks like she might join our little group occasionally.  It's nice to renew old friendships. 

No real hamstring pain, but it feels just kind of tempermental, like it wants to be injured, like a grouchy child.  I don't know, it's hard to explain when you know you have a problem area but there's no real pain.

 Ave pace 8:13.

Asics

 PS Thanks Jamie for letting me use your bathroom at the end. I hope the kidlets didn't wake up!


 

Another miserable SF run. I think I may rethink running at all in SF in the winter. The wind chill is much stronger there than neighboring cities.

I met at the Scenic Dr. meeting place but never found anyone so I ran alone and with no music. I did eight strides which were uneventful except I felt weak in the 6th, and 6th and 7th were into the wind.

ave pace 8:28

Mizuno

Ab workout.  Ouch!  Getting ready for Hawaii!

My watch got screwed up on this run somewhere, so the distance is not exact.

It was a snowstormy morning, slid down my driveway (15% decline) with about 4 inches on it, and got to our meeting place late because I had to drive slow. Even with going 12 mph, AWD, and in lowest gear I still slid coming down Woodland Hills drive on patchy areas. The things I do for running! It was even more dangerous coming back up 1.75 hours later, but I made it up.

As for the run, it's hard to keep your pace up when you are running in slush and it's snowing. It was just Mac and I and we did a loop through Payson. I stepped in a huge pothole at around mile 5 and got the leaden leg feeling. We had several cars spray us, even hitting our faces, with slush. Good times. In the last mile or so Mac hit her own pothole and got soaked to the ankle. Amazingly enough this has been the most enjoyable run of the week. I will take slush over wind. I am going to run a bath and raise my core temperature now.

Mizuno.

Evening ab workout.  Feel the burn!

So today was the 6:00 pace until I puke workout at the BYU indoor track.  Jamie and I carpooled there, and warmed up 4.1 outside, then Josse joined us on the track for a couple of laps.  We figured out the splits and started.  Jamie ran the first 3 with me I think.  Our first lap was fast 1:07, instead of 1:12 target (5 laps to a mile), but then we started hitting the right pace generally.  First mile 5:54, second mile 6:00.  I told myself 2 miles would be acceptable but to try to go more.  The last mile was really hard and I stopped after it.  One dry heave and a little crying (both typical after race phenomenon) so I know I worked hard, but I am rather upset I didn't push myself at least once more around the track, I bet I had at least one more lap in me.  I should have given Jamie more of a heads up so that she could have harrassed me into another lap.   Jamie- in the future, no verbal abuse is too severe!

2.2 miles in 13:05, so that predicts me at a 6:40 or so 1/2 marathon pace.  That sounds really painful for 13.1 miles.  

We cooled down around the track for about 1.5 then went outside for more miles. 

Asics 

AM: Speaking of treadmill running, got in 4 this morning.

Asics

I was going to meet MacK in Salem but about 18 inches of snow fell in my snowy town in the past 24 hours so it wasn't advisable to try to drive down. We decided last night to meet this afternoon.

So my body feels banged up from yesterday. I have felt a knee pain and a shin pain last night, kind of random pains that have gone away and I didn't fee them during the morning run. I am feeling some tenderness in perhaps my groin, though I don't know for sure. It is where my leg attaches to my lower abdoment, just above that ligament/tendon thing by the crotch. I iced it last night and it hurt a little in the first 1.5 but then calmed down to an "I know it's there but its not to the point of pain". I feel conflicted because if it was a month ago I would just take a couple of days off and try to nip this in the bud, but I am within 4 weeks of my second most important race (Painter's 1/2 Jan. 19th) so I don't want to slow down too much. Any advice would be great.

PM:  Dug out my car from a ton of snow, getting my tights all snowy and thus wet a third the way up my thighs.  Had an errand to do before meeting up with MacK so turning on the auto heater full blast on the legs.  Got them dry to a couple inches below the knees before the run.  Started at 3:30pm, I felt frozen, especially my feet but they warmed up after about 3 miles.  This was the best afternoon run I have had in a while, not the pace, but just felt like a decent run.  It's hard for me to eat right and feel ok for a late run. 7:08 miles at 8:08 ave pace.

I am still feeling it in my potential groin (not sure what muscle it is).  It is only painful part of the time, the rest it is "niggling" (see Ian's blog today for translation).  I will ice, run fewer miles tomorrow and see how it goes.  Considering taking Monday and Tuesday off to make it a three day rest :(  That is not a Christmas gift but a Christmas nightmare.  Hopefully at least it would mean more sleep.  I guess this injury in infancy also means I shouldn't do ab workouts?
 

No run today.  I am going to play it conservative and take a couple of days off and ice my problem area.