Each Day Is a Gift

Had a rough morning, took hubby to lab tests at 7am, to dentist at 8 which was supposed to be a cleaning/check up, but found that he had an abcess and an decaying tooth where this front teeth bridge was.  Anyway he ended up getting worked on for nearly 4 hours.  Along with his terrible virus laryngitis, cough, diarrhea, he had a miserable day. Didn't go for run till mid afternoon, at least lunch was somewhat digested.  35F little breeze sunny. Wore l/s top, Boston jacket, light headband, UA capri. 

Today's workout calls for 8x1 mile repeat @10:00 pace with 3min recovery, 1mi WU, 1 mi CD.

Ran 1 mile WU to MCT, paused briefly for dynamic stretch.  Began mile repeats on MCT.

Splits     Moving Time     Distance     Avg Pace

1             11:21                  1.00           11:27

2              9:33                   1.00            9:36

3              3:00                   0.27           11:08

4              9:36                   1.00            9:43

5              3:00                   0.18           16:15

6              10:00                 1.00           10:04

7               3:00                  0.15            19:45

8               9:37                  1.00              9:40

9               3:00                  0.20             15:07

10             9:40                  1.00              9:47

11              3:00                 0.13             22:16

12              9:50                 1.00              9:55

13              3:00                 0.14              20:52

14              9:39                 1.00               9:46

15              3:00                 0.15              19:49

16              9:45                 1.00               9:53

17              3:00                 0.15              20:38

18              14:51               1.00              14:57

11.4 miles total in 2:08:48.  AP: 11:19

The 3rd mile repeat was on a slope, ran 1st half down then 2nd half back up, so that mile repeat was the slowest @10:04.  Had to really push to stay on pace.  The 3 min recovery got progressively slower went from jogging to walking.   Calves started to tighten up on the last 3 repeats, after the 3 min recovery and about 200m into the mile repeat the calf muscles would tightened but ok when I kept pushing the pace.  But after the last (8th) repeat, I walked for the 3min recovery and could hardly jogged during the cool down mile home so had to walk a little and jog a little and that mile took nearly 15 min.

This muscle cramping issue has been my demise at the last 5K of every marathon and last 1.5-2 miles of every half marathon race.  It's as if my muscles figured it's quitting time and swithced to revolting mode.  In today's workout, the muscles rebelled after the 3 min recovery on the 5th mile repeat and the remainder of the workout where the cramps would come on 200m into the mile repeat. What's with that? What to do???  Is it muscle fatigue brought on sooner with threshold pace or neuro-transmitter issue with the mind sending message to the muscles that it's quitting time (near end of race) Grrrr??!!!

Today's workout calls for 1x6 miles @ 10:30 (threshold pace), with 1 mile WU, 1 Mile CD.  Coach Green's note says: "Aerobic threshold pace - PR plus 1 min. " His notes are very generic.  He rarely gives any feedback comments!  But he did reply my question/concern (by text) couple times even though his replies were always very very brief.  If I were a beginner runner, I would be inudating him with bazillion questions!!!

39F 9mph ESE wind cloudy.  Wore similar clothing as Tue. Ate one Chobani and 8oz water. Took 2 puff albuterol.  Legs still had some residual faitue and tighness from Tuesday's workout.  Warmup mile felt good, paused briefly (30 sec.) to stretch the quads and calves at MCT trailhead.  1st mile was 14 sec shy of target pace, a bit of wind and navigate icy patch at the 1200E tunnel.  Anyhow, I cound not hit 10:30 pace, I was either a bit slower or a tad faster.  Breathing was a bit of an issue with so much muccus buildup.  Good thing I took albuterol beforehand so never got into asthmatic wheezing.

The headwind from the east combined with slight incline made the 4th threshold mile a bit tough, had to push really hard and still came up 9 sec. shy which I attributed to navigating the slipperies at 1200W tunnel.  Had to hurry the last 3 miles because I had a lunch engagment for Gisela's birthday.  I did pause briefly (10 sec.) after mile 3, 5, 7 to clear the muccus and drank.  The last cooldown mile was dejavu, felt some calf cramps coming on...but I never slowed to jog or walk like on Tue.  What's with these cramps at the end of workout or races...crazy neurotransmitter thing or what....

8 miles in 1:24:17. AP: 10:32.  Splits: 11:47 (WU), 10:44 (walked the 2 icy patches at 2 east tunnels,) 10:18, 10:10, 10:39 (icy patch at west tunnel), 10:11, 9:56, (hurrying up) 10:29 (CD, this is finally the pace I should've been running). 

I know I should not be too hard on myself...but it's really depressing to see how slow and out of shape I've become.  I remember when I first picked up running at age 50, my goal was to run 10 min mile.  I did not own a GPS watch, just put on a timex watch and some exercise clothes to get out and run.  After a couple years, my goal was to BQ.  I was running 4 hour marathons and able to BQ 5 out of 6 of the yearly marathons I raced. I think I had my best racing years in 2010, 2011, running and even winning my AG.  Now I run/train solo because I'm so slow. a 10 min pace is VO2max for me!!! Sigh!  But I will NOT give up running or jogging for as long as my body let me! :)

5 weeks to marathon!!!! Today's workout: 17 miles @ 11:00 (marathon pace), 0.5 mi WU, 0.5mi CD.

27F, 8mph ESE wind, cloudy.  Wore similar clothing as previous 2 workouts except for a warmer headband (UA).  Ate chobani, banana and 6 oz water, 2 puff albuteral. 

Wanted to run this long run by feel.  Quads were tight and sore the first 5K.  Sometimes my thoughts wandered and the pace would slow.  Stopped (paused watch) at mile 5.6 at Lone Peak restroom to void, eat 2 bloks, drink water and refill 6 oz water flask.  A bit chilly going east with the east wind, breathing okay, had lots of phlem to chuck.

Stopped (paused watch) at mile 10 at PG trailside restroom to eat 1 GU (it has 50mg caffeine), drink, refill water flask, stretch quads and calves.  Felt good from mile 11-14 (from the caffeine?).  Hubby called at mile 12.5 so I paused to answer the phone and update him on my run.  He said I sounded wheezy...well, that's how I always sound with my asthma and phlem, haha! 

Stopped at mile 15 to eat 2 bloks, drink, stretch, call hubby to let him know I have 3 miles to go and will meet him at his mother's house in Orem; turned out he's already there.  When I resumed running after that stop (~couple min.), my calf muscles started to cramp so I changed my strides a little, but the feet felt slappy.  When I slowed a bit, the muscles behind both knees started to cramp.  So instead of stopping to stretch I decided to keep going and mentally tell myself that if I was in a marathon, I would still have 10 more miles to go...so suck it up and look at the snow-capped mountains ahead for distraction. 

When I reached the end of MCT on 800 N 1100 E (16.15 miles), I turned right (west) and ran on the sidewalk till I reached the traffic light at 800 E where I would cross the street to go south.  I had to wait for the pedestrian walk light to come on at which time the muscle cramps came on again.  So I just jogged in circle around the sidewalk corner (looking pretty silly to other motorists) to keep the cramping at bay.  

When I reached 400 N on 800 E (mile 17.10), I was may be 0.20 mile to my mother-in-law's house...was tempted to cut the run short.  But decided to go further south for another 0.25 mile then turned around back to 400 N, west to 600 W, north to 750 N, then turned into my mother-in-law's street.  But I was still 0.15 mile short so ran past her house and made a U-turn till my Garmin read 18 miles.  That was so OCD of me but was happy to see that 18th mile split came in at 11:00.  Once I got in her house, I walked around the kitchen island sipping a fruit smoothie, stretched the legs all the while eating 2 bowls of rice porridge with ham she's made for me.  Perfect recovery food...I should end all my long runs in her kitchen! :) :) :)  She could not fathom that I ran from my house in Lehi to her house in Orem! Legs were pretty tired and sore.  When I felt sufficiently cooled down, hubby drove me home.

18 miles in 3:17:10 (running time).  AP: 10:57.  So glad I got it done.  I don't know how in the world I'll be able to run another 8.2 miles in this pace! 26.2 miles is HARD stuff!!!

Splits: 11:18, 10:30, 12:19 (walked part of Dry Creek hill), 11:00, 11:09. 11:19 (incline), 10:41, 10:53, 11:06, 10:41, 10:42, 10:34, 10:28, 10:37, 10:49, 11:02, 10:58, 11:00