Back in the saddle?

Today I fueled much better throughout the day, so the run wasn't quite so difficult as the other day.  It was also much cooler: 83 degrees.  I had to haul booty at the end to average under 10:00 pace, though.  I have my work cut out for me!

Total time was 49:43, average 9:56 pace.

2 x 12 pushups at home

I couldn't sleep at all last night, so I slept in this morning and skipped the group run, which would have been fun (and much cooler!).  I think it was already close to 80 degrees when I headed out, but fortunately most of my run was in the shade.  The path was very busy today.

Total time was 54:18, average 9:45 pace.  My heart rate slowed to 120 within 5 minutes, so that was a good sign.  I lost 7 pounds this week, but I think most of it was water weight.  I hope so, because my weight at the beginning of the week was a number I had never seen on the scale!  And because it's impossible to lose 7 pounds in one week without starving yourself, which I did not do.

I planned on running 6 miles, but catastrophe struck!  I had an English muffin right before my run, so I'm sure you all know where this is headed.  I felt fine until mile 1.5, and then...severe GI issues!  I tried to keep running but couldn't.  So I had to walk home (and barely made it!).

It was my own fault for forgetting to take a pre-run snack to work.  I was STARVING when I got home, and I would not have been able to run without some fuel.  It is so beautiful out too!  Oh well-at least I got out for a little while.

Yeah!  I had a great run!  I hit the wrong button on my Garmin at one point, so I'm not sure of the time, but I think I ran about a 9:45-9:48 average pace.

Lately I have noticed that my Garmin clocks shorter mileage for the same route.  I run on a path lined with LOTS of trees.  The only thing I can figure out is that the trees are growing in really thick, now that it's warmer, so the satellite in the sky can't penetrate as well (even with the Garmin 305-who knew?).

I had a MAJOR afternoon slump/blood sugar crash/whatever today, so I'm pleasantly surprised that the run turned out so well. 

Whew!  It is brutal running two workouts less than 12 hours apart (it is for me, anyway).  My legs are still feeling like rubber from the hill workout last night.  I ran with a friend, who was doing a fartlek workout.  I did one, and that was it!  Average pace was 10:16, and that was really hard for me.  It will take a few days to adjust to morning workouts, and I know it will get easier once I am doing all my runs in the morning.

It's supposed to be 105 degrees here on Sunday!

Goose egg for today, but my husband and I got into St. George-woo hoo!  This will force us to get up in the mornings and run when it's 85-90 degrees, rather than the evenings when it will be 110+!

Looking forward to meeting everybody!

Fun run with my group.  Total time 1:13:57, average 9:51.  It's getting warmer!

I decided to run against my chiropractor's orders.  I woke up with horrible hip pain on Sunday that got progressively worse throughout the day to the point where I couldn't put any pressure on that leg.  It had hurt very slightly on Friday.  Then I ran my longest run in a while on Saturday, so maybe that's what did it.  I was bummed because marathon training was supposed to officially start yesterday.  So I had to wait and start today.  I hope my hip forgives me.  It has felt fine since my adjustment yesterday.

Today was 4 easy miles.  It was unseasonably cool today: 75 degrees.  Total time was 39:18, average pace 9:49.

My husband has been waking up early to train.  I am going to join him, starting tomorrow.  I wanted to give my hip the extra 12 hours to recover today.

I did one-leg hops and high knee drills after the run.

Whew!  I'm not sure if that .4 was really VO2 max, but I'm too tired to care.

Planned workout: 2 miles warmup at 10:40-11:40 pace; 4 x 1:00 uphill reps at 7:37 pace with 2 minutes recovery after each rep; 2 mile cooldown at 10:40-11:40 pace.

Actual workout: 2 miles warmup at 10:59 pace; 4 x 30-45 second uphill sprints ending when I was gasping for air about to fall over and never getting below 8:15, with 2 minutes recovery after each: 2 mile cooldown at 11:14 pace.  I wonder if the hill was too steep.  I'm telling you, it was STEEP!

The warmup felt too slow, but the cooldown didn't!  I have my work cut out for me...

For some reason, my entry didn't post, and of course I didn't save it.  In summary: hard run after the hill workout last night.  I ran a 10:16 average pace, and that was a struggle.  Looking forward to my body adjusting to morning workouts!

Six boring miles on the treadmill.  I stayed up WAY too late last night and was not about to wake up at the crack of dawn.  So I went to the gym.  Average pace was 9:48, and I felt good.

Now my husband and I are off to the Biltmore Resort for the night.  We are going to get massages, lay by the pool, eat some good food, and celebrate four years of marital bliss (anniversary was yesterday)!  We'll clean the house another time...

Tonight I ran on the treadmill-yuck!  But there was no way I was going to run outside in 108-degree weather either.  My body clock was off after two days of downtime at the Biltmore Resort.  We had a great time.  I got a hot stone massage (which I HIGHLY recommend) and read an entire book (The Kite Runner) by the pool (I'm a fast reader).  And, of course I got a lot of great quality time with my hubby.

Anyway, back to reality.  The run was fine, if not a bit boring.  The only thing that sucks is that I have to do a hill workout in less than 10 hours!

Whew!  The weather channel said it was 88 degrees when I headed out, but it felt a little cooler.  If not, that's good, because it means I was getting used to the heat.  I did some dynamic stretching before the run, which got my heart rate up pretty quickly. 

The goal was 5.5 miles with 6 fartleks of 75 seconds each at 7:57 pace.  It was hard to gauge my pace on the fartlek portions, but I think each one was .15-.17 miles.  I know the last one was .17 miles, which works out to 7:21 pace, so it looks like I went too fast on the fast portions (or maybe I'm in better shape than I thought-ha!).  My average pace for the whole run was 9:42.

It was 68 degrees and windy when I headed out!  I am SOOO sore from yesterday.  I'm not sure if it's from the dynamic stretching, which included lunges, or the fartlek intervals.  So my pace was pretty slow: a 9:57 average.  I'm sick of being slow!

This was a fun race.  I hung out with Lybi and James and enjoyed the view of the backs of their heads during the race!  It was around 60 degrees, extremely rare for Phoenix at this time of the year.  It was an out and back course on the canal, so it was pretty narrow.  The race featured a staggered start that got pretty mixed up.  My handicap was supposed to be 12:15, and it ended up being more like 15:00.  I started with the fast, young guys.  Oops!  It was a little uphill for the first quarter or so, and then obviously downhill at the end, which helped.  With such a narrow course, there were people all over the place who didn't have a clue about running etiquette, and it was frustrating having to weave in and out of people for the ENTIRE race.  But, I couldn't have asked for better weather.  The t-shirt was cool too, and the entry fee was cheap.

My only goal in this race was to break 26:00.  I really just wanted to gauge my fitness.  I was VERY sore until last night and was still pretty sore this morning, so I was concerned that I wouldn't do as well as I wanted to.  I did a 1.8 mile warmup (my longest warmup ever) and dynamic stretches, and I think they helped.  I started the race feeling nice and loose.

The first mile was 8:14, slower than I had wanted to run.  Part of it was probably the crowds, and the other part was just the way I race.  I saw Lybi near the turn-around part, and she was in the zone!  There was a water stop (with ice water!) at the turnaround point, so I lost a few seconds there.  Second mile was 7:59, and that's when I really started passing people, which I LOVED!  Mile 3 was 7:56, and the last .1 was 6:51.  I almost ran several people over, which I kind of feel bad about, but come on people!  Take off your iPods and run on the right side of the path!  I almost mowed a lady down near the very end-oops!

My performance today was about 90 seconds better than my 5K time at the beginning of my last marathon training cycle.  This time puts me on track for a sub-4 hour marathon, which I am confident will improve as my training continues.  Woo-hoo!

I did a 2-mile cooldown when I got home.

Weather.com said it was 73 degrees when I got back, but it felt much hotter.  My husband and I slept 10 hours last night and the night before, which felt GREAT, but it will make it hard to get up tomorrow morning to do hill sprints-yuck!

Today I did 6 easy miles in 58:56, a 9:49 average.  I am still very impatient and wish I was getting faster.  Of course, I am increasing my mileage too.  Oh well.  I wasn't sore from the 5K at all while running, but I could feel it when I was stretching at the end.

We did two form drills at the end.  I'm sure our neighbors got a good laugh out of it!

Today was hill training (notice I got up early!).  We did a 1.5-mile warmup at a very easy pace, then dynamic stretching, then 6 x 90-second hills at 1-mile pace (7:27 for me) with 2 minutes active recovery after each repeat.  I tried to keep track of the distance of each repeat so I could keep track of my pace, but it was hard.  I need to figure out how to do that.  I think some repeats were too fast and some too slow.

I cheated a little and added an extra minute of recovery after the third repeat, and another minute after the fifth, I think.  We did an approximate 1.3-mile cooldown at the end.

Next week is the last week of hills, and then we start going to the track!

I slept 10 hours Saturday night and 10 hours Sunday night.  Wouldn't you know it-I couldn't sleep at all last night!  I got MAYBE 5 hours of sleep, so I'm starting the week out tired.  I'll get to bed early tonight.

PM-various stretches to combat potential stride problems resulting from spending all day in an office chair.  And I'm really starting to get intrigued by the barefoot running...

Sore, sore, so sore!  My glutes were on fire, and everything else started hurting during the run.  I had no idea hill sprints would make me so sore!  I need to take it easy so I don't injure myself, but I also need to be building up the miles.  I'm supposed to run close to 40 miles this week, but that would mean almost doubling my miles, which I'm not going to do.  I'll try to top out around 30.

Total time was 40:55, average 10:15 pace-yuck!  I saw a big rabbit about 2 blocks from my house and a BIG "lender foreclosure" sign about 1.7 miles from my house.  I hope I don't see too many more of those!

Zero so far today.  I had planned on running this morning (and I woke up before my alarm went off at 5:30-yeah!), but I'm listening to my body, which is sore and tired.  The plan is to try a few easy miles tonight, maybe go to spinning tomorrow, and do a long run on Saturday to finish off the week at 30 miles.

Whew!  I can't believe how slow I am!  I'm hoping it's just because my body is having to re-adjust to higher-volume training.  I ran the first 3 miles easy at about 10:00 pace (which should have been faster).  BUT I didn't try to push it.  I decided to pick it up for the last mile and ran 8:54.  Frankly, that felt harder than marathon pace.  I have a long way to go!  It was a beautiful morning, though.

With the faster mile, my average pace was 9:42.

Tomorrow I am running 10 miles with my group, which will put me right around 30 for the week.

Whew!  I'm going to pay for this one.  This was my longest run since the marathon in January!  I've been LAZY!

I ran with my group, and we had about 10 people: a good turnout.  We started at 6:30, but we are going to have to make it earlier with this heat.  One hour after I finished, it was 81 degrees, which doesn't make sense because I was SO hot during the run.  I have been running fine in well over 80 degrees lately, so I'm not sure why I felt so hot today.

I really struggled to maintain a 10:00 pace for the first half.  I hit the five-mile mark at 50:31, only because I ran two miles with a couple of people who were running about 9:45 pace.  I was able to really pick it up (relatively) in the second half, and I ran the last five miles in 49:00.  Miles 9 and 10 were 9:38 and 9:19.  Total time was 1:39:31, with an average pace of 9:57.

My legs and knees are sore now, and I'm very salty!  I am going to keep the mileage constant around 30 miles for a couple of weeks, until my body feels more comfortable with the increased mileage.  Then I'll start following my brain training program to a T, which will have me up to around 60-mile weeks during peak training-whoa!  I really want to be back to the level where I was 2-3 years ago, when 8:00-9:00 was my normal, easy pace, even with relatively inconsistent training.  I'm not sure what has happened over these last few years.