Back in the saddle?

Well, it's been an interesting weekend.  I didn't run on Thursday because I had something to do after work (I need to be a morning person!!).  Friday my husband and I traveled to Colorado intending to do a long run in the mountains on Saturday.  Our flight was cancelled, they lost our luggage, and we didn't get to CO until midday Saturday.  Our luggage arrived Saturday night, so we had no running shoes or clothes until then.

We were finally able to go today.  We went hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Forest with family members who don't run.  We had intended to do about 6 miles, but it started POURING on us.  I ran back down the mountain.  Once I got going, my body heated up enough to where I wasn't cold, even though I was soaked.  It was actually very liberating.

Back to Phoenix today, with the intention of lots of running this week to prepare for our trail 10K this weekend in northern AZ (and burn off all the junk food from the family reunion!).

It was frustrating to not be able to run, especially because it was out of our hands!  Next time I fly, I'm carrying on my running shoes and clothes!

Thanks to those of you who posted comments.

We ran 1.1 miles outside and decided to complete our run in the gym because a HUGE storm was coming.  It ended up being a good decision.  The outside portion of the run went fine, but once we got to the gym, I felt awful.  I did some pushups, ab exercises, and squats at the end.

Pace: 1.1 miles outside: 8:21.  1.6 miles inside: 9:06.  Average pace: 8:47

I ran on the treadmill tonight and felt generally bad.  Last week was a great week, until the end, and this week is just not going well.  I ran for 30 minutes at about a 9:00 pace.  I can't imagine that a few unintentional days off would set me back that far.  Maybe I'm exhausted from the weekend.  If anyone can offer insight, feel free!

Another mediocre run on the treadmill.  My heart rate was around 180 at the end of my run, and five minutes later was still well above 120.  I ran a 9:05 pace the whole time.  Some of you have sent me suggestions as to why I'm not feeling well this week-thank you!.  I feel like I drink enough water, but maybe I haven't been lately.  My workload has dramatically increased this week to a level where I expect it to stay.  Maybe my body needs time to adjust to a higher level of stress.  My husband is feeling out of sorts also.  We are leaving for a week-long vacation in one week in Connecticut.  I'll be running at sea level, in cool weather, with no work-related stress-yeah!  It will be interesting to see how that week goes.

Tomorrow will be a rest day, and then a 10K in Flagstaff Saturday morning!

Today my husband and I ran a trail 10K in Flagstaff, Arizona.  I ran the race two years ago, so I was familiar with the course.  Last time, I was four minutes off my goal time, given the high altitude (7000 ft), steep hills, and rocky terrain.

Before the race started, my Garmin froze up and wouldn't work.  At the starting line, the announcer said there were no clocks or mile markers along the course, so I figured I would listen to my body and see what happened: uncharted territory for my type-A self!

The first mile is slightly downhill and on a packed gravel trail, so it was pretty easy.  The big hills are in the second and third miles.  After what felt like about 4.5 miles, I asked a volunteer how much further, and he said three miles.  I wanted to cry.  A little while later, a girl with a functioning Garmin passed me, and I asked her.  She said we'd gone about 5 miles (yeah! I was right!) and told me our pace (bad, bad).  I typically have a pretty strong kick late in my runs/races, and I think I was able to make up some time between miles 4 and 5.5 (estimates!), but I wasn't able to kick in my characteristic finish line sprint.  As I approached the finish line and saw a number I had never seen before in a 10K, I wanted to cry.  We drowned our sorrows in excellent Swedish oat pancakes at breakfast, though.

I have read that one can expect performance to suffer by about 10% when running/racing at high altitude.  I had wanted to run the race at marathon race pace (8:24 for Boston!).  I ended up running about 10% slower than that, so I felt a lot better about my performance after doing that calculation.  However, I will have my work cut out for me this training season.  I'm hoping that last week was just a bad week and that I'll be back to my easy sub-9:00 pace 5-milers and weekend 9:00 pace 10-milers this week.

I'm also trying to lose some weight.  I'm 5'8" and have been at 135 lbs for the last several years but have gained 10 lbs, more or less, over the last eight months.  I know the extra weight is affecting my performance, but I also need the calories to run well.  Since I've started keeping track of my calories, I find that I eat 1300-1400 calories a day, but I'm not losing weight.  Maybe that's too few calories to keep my metabolism going...I'll have to play around with that.

Another week, a fresh start!