Back in the saddle?

Goose egg so far today.  AARRRRGGGGHHH!  Warning: if injuries are contagious, DO NOT READ FURTHER!

First, I am just about as sore as I am after a marathon after that downhill run on Saturday. So, I woke up extremely stiff yesterday morning (but after 10 hours of sleep-wonderful!), wandered into the bathroom, and promptly stubbed my toe!  What a way to start the day.  I hopped back into the bedroom screaming, looked down, and...blood everywhere!  When I could finally get back into the bathroom, it looked like a horror movie set!  Yuck!  Somehow all the toenail polish was taken off that toenail too...weird.  Anyway, my husband went to the store to get band-aids (can you tell we don't have kids?!), cleaned it, and taped it up.  I still can't wear closed-toe shoes.

I'm hoping some of the soreness and the toe issue goes away today so I can get in some miles tonight.  I'm disappointed, especially after my good 6-day running week last week.

PM-I did 45 minutes on the bike, followed by 15 minutes on the elliptical trainer.  Let me tell you: that elliptical trainer requires a whole new level of coordination that I do not have!  I guess that's why I run: I don't have to fall as far.

My soreness has improved enough that I should be able to run fine tomorrow.  I'm glad I did the non-impact stuff today, though.

I did it!  10 x 400s!

We (hubby and I) ran 1.3 miles to the track, did dynamic stretching, and started the workout: 10 x 400s at 1:58 (goal) with one lap of jogging after each 400.

My first lap was 1:53, and all the rest were 1:50-1:52.  The 5th or 6th repeat, and the last repeat, were 1:48!  I am so excited that I did so well!  We slogged home afterward.  The heat didn't bother me nearly as badly as last week.  We started the repeats at about 5:50, though: a bit earlier than last week.

I am REALLY tired now, but it's going to take a while to get used to the intense workouts.  Also, my spine hurts to the touch-weird!  I first noticed the spine tenderness last night on the bike.  I have a chiro/massage appointment tomorrow, so I'll get it checked out then.  But I don't care right now, because I ROCKED my workout!

Well, what goes up must come down, in terms of workouts.  My legs felt like lead today, and I didn't run a single mile faster than 10:04.  Average pace was 10:18.  My cardio capacity was OK-it was just my legs!  They didn't really feel that sore, just heavy, until after I had been finished for a few minutes.  Now I realize that my quads and hamstrings are actually pretty sore.  I'm REALLY looking forward to my chiro adjustment and massage today.

No more Garmins on recovery runs-it's too discouraging!  I'm glad I got the miles in, though.

I felt really good yesterday, but do today's difficulties mean I overdid it yesterday??

Mid-day: chiropractic adjustment and MASSAGE.  The chiropractor told me the tenderness in my spine was a result from jarring it during lots of running and that it should go away on its own.  The massage was WONDERFUL but went on too long, and now I have zero motivation at work!

PM: anti-sitting stretches

Well!  This workout didn't go quite as well as Tuesday's workout.  We did a 1.5- mile warmup with dynamic stretching and then 3 1-mile repeats with 2-minute rest periods.  Last week, my goal was 8:24 and I surpassed it, so I increased my goal to the 8:05-8:10 range, which proved to be a little ambitious.

The first mile was 8:15, and it felt fine.  The second mile was 8:12 and felt harder, but I still felt OK.  When I started the third mile, I knew I was in trouble.  My legs felt like rubber.  I REALLY wanted to stop, but I pushed through (Michelle, your voice was yelling in my head!...even though I have never actually heard your voice), hoping to just finish the repeat.  I figured it would be about 9:00, the way I was feeling.  I was very pleasantly surprised when I finished in 8:25.

Based on my 400s the other day, I should have been able to complete these repeats in the 8:05 range.  So now I know: I need to work on my speed over longer periods of time.  I cooled down with slightly over 1.5-mile jog.  I had to walk a bit first, though.  Glad it's over, and looking forward to slower mileage for the rest of the week!

I just did a short run today because I want to keep my mileage this week below 40.  Two weeks ago, I cracked 30 miles for the first time in quite a while, and I don't want to escalate the mileage too quickly.  And I have to do 13 tomorrow, which will put me barely below 40 for the week.

I didn't even run the whole time.  I saw my neighbors walking on my way home.  I ran by and said hi, but they asked me about the burglary, so I stopped and walked with them for about a quarter mile.  Apparently another house on our block was burglarized through the doggie door a few months ago.

After listening to my body and the words of several wiser-than-me bloggers, and evaluating my performance, I have decided to change my training plan.  I am going to drop the short interval speed workouts and focus on base mileage with one good tempo run/mile repeat workout per week, and a long run, of course.  I knew in my head that I needed to train this way, but it's fun going fast!  I will also do some hill training (mostly downhill) during one run per week, probably during my easy Tuesday run.  I am a little bit sore all the time, and I know it can escalate into injury or burnout if I don't watch it.

Happy Friday!

Lunchtime: I was checking out my past blogs to see how much mileage I have put on my shoes (it's almost 900: time for new ones!), and I was surprised to see that I wasn't as consistent as I thought I was during marathon training.  There were a couple of minor injuries that laid me off for a few days here and there, and I got really sick one week.  Then I was VERY sore after the two half marathons I did.  But there were also many unexplained goose eggs.  This month will put me at my second highest mileage month ever, since I started blogging, and I'm still 3 months out from St. George.  I'm hoping I stay healthy and motivated, because it will be very interesting to see how I do with consistent consistency (is there such a thing?).  Also, if I have a goose egg day, I'm going to record it, so I can look back and know why I skipped a run.  I think I'm going to join Lybi's consistency challenge too!

Today was a good run.  We started at 5:40 today, instead of after 6:00, so that made a big difference.  I ran with my husband, two other people training for St. George who are a little faster than me, and a 1:26 half marathoner.  We were also running a new route, so I knew I had to keep up.  The first 3.75 were flat miles on our normal long run route.  Then we did about 4-5 miles of hills. 

It was beautiful where we went!  We ran up into Paradise Valley, past amazing houses with killer views of the city.  It almost took my mind off the pain.  We got some good downhills too, but not a lot of sustained downhills.  There was no water there, but it was shady.

It got pretty hot as we got back on the canal (no more shade!), but somehow I was able to speed up.  My average pace was 9:52.  There was just as much uphill as downhill, so they basically cancelled each other out.  I'm pretty happy with my overall pace, especially given all the hills. 

I'm going to post my splits ONLY to show the gains and losses on the hills: 9:40, 9:53, 9:47, 10:03 (unexplained slowdown, no hills yet), 10:08.5 (uphill), 10:16 (BIG uphill and some downhill), 10:03 (big uphill and some downhill), 9:38 (heading back down), 9:56 (flat again), 9:58, 9:45, 10:00 (slight uphill and HUMID by the golf courses), 9:33, 9:15 pace for last .5 mile.

I am now going to attempt my first ice bath.  I hope I live to tell about it.