Winning Back What I Lost

AM:  Lunchtime run up Shaw Mt. Rd and then 3/4 of the way up Table Rock.  Total elevation gain in the 3.1 mile climb was 858 ft., 120+ ft greater than the Les Bois 10k course coming up this Saturday.  I was feeling rather confident on the uphill, that is until a 130 lb twig of a man w/ gigantic quads and calves whizzed by me like I was standing still.  He of course went all the way to the top.  I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this guy will be running Robie next month and I'm guessing he might do quite well.

PM: 4.31 easy/slow miles on the TM this evening.  Trying to increase my mileage up near the 50 mpw mark and its definitely easier for me to get away for shorter periods of time during weekdays at least. 

Planned on running this afternoon but thanks to an afternoon hail storm I had to wait until late tonight.  Long easy slow run outside @ a conversational pace.  I fell asleep on the couch and woke up in a pissy mood b/c I knew that I hadn't run yet.  My wife's been sick and coughing all night so I'm not getting a lot of sleep.  May have to sleep on the couch tonight to get some rest.  I can't recall ever doing that, voluntarily at least. 

My hip has been bothering me since my return flight from SF.  It feels like its come out of its socket somewhat and when I place my hand there while I walk I can feel an abnormal protrusion of the bone.  It's not terribly painful, sort of a dull ache, but it affects my gait while walking and running.  I plan on visiting my chiro sometime this week.

T/M: Raining/snowing this afternoon so I had to settle for the TM after work.  My IT is really flaring up.  I gave it a good once over w/ the hand massager and the foam roller.  Seems to be a little better.  Did a hill pyramid @ an easy, slow pace (warmup mile, 1 mile @ 1.0, 1 mile @ 2.0, 1 mile @ 3.0, 1 mile @ 4.0, .5 mile @ 3.0, .2 mile @ 2.5, .2 mile @ 2.0, etc., cooldown).  

More bad weather this afternoon forced me inside for another evening TM run.  I thought the ITBS was starting to feel better until I ran again.  It's tolerable right now until I stop running when it really starts to stiffen up and ache.  I'm gonna give it a good icing tonight and see if that's more effective.  I started a new audiobook today, "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" by Haruki Murakami.  Thus far its mildly interesting.  Its basically just the random musings of a 50 yr old novelist pondering the various stages of his passion/ambivalence toward running.  Kinda like what I do here from time to time.

2 mile warmup, 4 miles @ approx. 8:08 mi, 2+ mile cooldown.  Felt pretty good- like I could have gone a bit longer and a bit faster.   

Course map: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=189510

Woke up this morning w/ the first good night's sleep I've had in a week.  Ran about 1.5 miles at a slow jog to warmup.  Temp at the start was near 20 degrees after an overnight low in the teens.  This was actually a benefit because it froze the mud that developed on the course after a few inches of snow in the Boise Foothills began to melt yesterday.  It also froze the small stream that ran through the out and back course at roughly miles 1.8 and 4.2. 

I neglected to charge my Garmin so I had no way of tracking my pace.  As a result, I decided to just let it loose and run as strong as I could from the start.  I didn't hold back much at all- knowing that I couldn't possible run that hard through the steepest part of the course around mile 2.  Sure enough, by the time I hit the steepest portion I was spent and was forced to walk for about two minutes to catch my breath.  Nevertheless, I was not passed by anyone nor did I pass anyone the remainder of the race.  In fact, there was so much distance between the racer immediately in front of me and immediately behind me that I believe I was prevented from running the 6 seconds faster that I needed to beat my previous PR (established last year in my first and only other 10k on a pancake flat course).  When I rounded the last corner to the straightaway leading to the finish line the digital time readout revealed a time of 48 mins even.  I tried to pick up the pace but there was just too much space to cover and/or I am just too slow.  All that aside, I'm extremely pleased w/ my effort.  After running this course in training I was aiming for a 8:30 pace and ended up w/ 7:46 and just 5 seconds off my PR on a dirt and gravel trail course that averages around a 4.5 grade.  Throw in little bit of ice, snow, frozen mud and frozen creek to jump over and I should not have even flirted w/ a PR. 

This race was only the appeitizer.  Now its on to the main course- the Robie Creek 1/2 Marathon in 5 weeks- which offers a much greater endurance challenge.