Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

39F, partly cloudy w/ full moon poking through.  Calm & dry.  Easy 3 miles, then hill repeats (4 x 1 min w/ 2 min recov., 15-17% grade), then another easy 3.  10 min. core & pushups.

Other than being a little tired and having to blow my nose a few times, I felt pretty good today.  I adjusted my scheduled hill repeats to 4 instead of 6 and didn't push to the maximum, as a concession to any lingering threat of illness. 

I found a new hill for my repeats, just as steep as Leg Builder but located on a quiet street. (Sean and Jeff, it's the very tail end of Douglas Ave., where it is no longer an arterial.)   The odd thing was, I had an audience for a while.  This guy was standing in his front window, seemingly watching me go up and down, up and down.  "Hasn't he got anything better to do? Or is he watching the full moon set?"  Just before the last rep, as it was shifting from amusing to annoying, his carpool picked him up and all was explained.  Well, he'd better get used to it, because I thought it was a great spot for hill work and I'll be back.  

27F, clear & starry.  Icy in places.  Easy run w/ faster last mile.  20 min. weights & stretching.

I confess I really doddled getting out the door this morning.  I think somewhere in the back of my mind it seemed like a dangerous outing for a person with sniffles.  But it was fine once I got going and warmed up.

To ponder...  when I stopped at the bathroom I noticed that the skin on my legs was freezing cold. Does that affect the muscles?  I did feel slow today and would love to blame it on the weather.

40F, mostly clear, wind 13 mph w/ gusts to 30 mph (wind chill 33F).  Tempo run: 3.75 warm up w/ hill pushes, 3 miles @ tempo (various paces due to hills and wind), remainder cool down + 2 miles on the dreadmill.  10 min abs & pushups after.

My tempo run went pretty well, considering the conditions, terrain, and my lingering mucus issues.  This is the first tempo run I've done since September, so I only ran 3 LT miles instead of the 4 I'll do next time.  I felt good and was able to push hard.  

I kept the pace pretty close to 8:30 on the flats and downhills, but occasionally it climbed to 8:50 if I was going into the wind.  Definitely over 9:00 on the uphills, but I no longer want to loop around and around the only flat streets in the neighborhood just so I can see a consistent number on the Garmin.  I feel like I do all right if I start on relative flatness to get a feel for the pace, and then go wherever I want to go.  I'm childish that way.   

28F, rising to 35. Calm, clear and frosty.  Endurance run, club run, Leg Builder Hill.

When my running club buddies turned back on the SV Trail, I decided to keep going. It seemed like a good idea at the time.  In hindsight, it was too much... gravel.  

I turned up the Mt. Si Road and ran a few miles, then turned around and faced the long 10 miles home.  Since most of my Mt. Si Road mileage was on the shoulder, that made about 12 miles of running on gravel and piercing little rocks.  Too much.  Note to self, don't do that.  

Anyway, it just tired me out.  At around mile 14 I felt all the powers of Gravity and then some.  Going up the Parkway after so many miles was a practice session for pushing through fatigue.  Right now I feel totally worn out.  I'm going to eat some more, take a shower, and see if I can manage the Christmas shopping I had planned.  

30F, overcast and calm. Icy.  Recovery run.  

I drove the frighteningly icy road over Tiger Mountain early this morning to run with an old friend with whom I reconnected at the Turkey Trot in November.  We ran the Cedar River Trail (asphalt surface).  Great conversation and nicely matched paces.  Despite feeling about 95 years old when I got out of bed this morning, my legs felt great and are not sore at all. 

Total: 46.14

21F, windy at times (wind chill 13). Starry skies, deserted streets.  Easy run. 20 min. strength work.

Br. And it's supposed to get colder.  I must find my balaclava. 

19F, dry.  General-aerobic run. Last 2 on TM. 

I am so glad that we haven't had a lot of moisture in the air or it would be super icy out there. I saw ice two times.  Once was down by Stellar Park, where it looked like a fire hydrant had leaked. The sidewalk next to it had a solid layer of ice. The street, downhill from the hydrant, looked like the water had been spread all over the road  by a street cleaner and was all glittering. An accident waiting to happen. I turned and went back the other way. 

The other place I saw ice was in the park bathroom.  They used to heat these bathrooms, but maybe there are budget problems.  Well, now I predict a plumbing problem.  The toilet water was completely iced over and there was a 2 inch icicle hanging from the faucet.  

Too slow and late again today, hence a bit of TM running.  :(   I wonder if my layers of Smartwool and fleece are slowing me down.  

17F, sunny.  VO2 workout: 3 mile warm up, 5 x .5 mile @ 5K effort (on roads) w/ 3 min. recovery,  cool down.  20 min. strength and stretching. 

We were planning a ski day before the area turned into Alaska.  Though it's too cold to enjoy the slopes, Mr. Sno took the scheduled day off anyhow. (He has a use-it-or-lose-it vacation policy at work and has a few days to "spend" before the 31st.)

After sleeping in (ahhhh),  I had plenty of time to procrastinate before my run.  It wasn't the cold so much as the workout that I dreaded.  These speed sessions are so difficult for me.  [Insert much whining here.]

Again, I am so very glad that our humidity is low. No frost, no ice, great traction. Tis the season to be jolly!  Oh, speaking of which, Mr. Sno found a hilarious (free) app for our iPhones that simulates the bell of a bell choir and rings out a Christmas song when you hold/move the phone like a bell.  What a world. 

20F, wind 5-10 mph, wind chill 13F, clear and starry w/ waning crescent moon. Very pretty morning.  General-aerobic run. 

I decided to forgo my fleece "shorts," the layer I wear on top of my tights when it's this cold.  It's actually a pair of fleece long-underwear that I cut just above the knee for greater leg flexion. (You can cut fleece any way you want without danger of fraying.)  The skin on the front of my legs was so cold that it turned numb, but!... I got a little speed back, which felt great.  So now my mind can't stop thinking of inventing some kind of fleece thing that would protect the front of the legs but not restrict movement - sort of like cowboy chaps for runners? Fortunately, we are supposed to warm up pretty soon.  

Christmas lights are everywhere now, and I'm really enjoying them.  These displays make running in the dark so much more interesting.  

25F, a little colder down in the valley.  Endurance run.

All the park bathrooms are now frozen.  I was clever enough to find the neighborhood Honey Buckets, but not enough to think of  - water!  No one at the club run was running my pace today anyhow, so I just headed back up the Parkway and stopped by my home for a warm bottle. Ha. That sounded funny.   

It's interesting that the "bad" weather has honed our running club down to mostly men and fast people.  I shall try not to feel too sorry for myself.

Not feeling 100% today.  Glad it was a short long run instead of a longer long run. ;)

30F, cloudy. Recovery run.

In the ongoing saga of the Frozen Park Bathrooms, today brought a promising new development.  The "closed" signs were down, the water was running, and whirring away under the sink was a space heater!   Other bathrooms I passed (but did not enter) were missing their "closed" signs as well.   At last, a worthy expenditure of my tax dollars! 

Nice run. I'm calling it "recovery" but all the moving parts were in fine shape and I felt plenty of energy.  I give the credit to my being able to sleep late today.  

Edited to add:

 Totals for Mon-Sun week:

Mon 7.75

Tue 10.07

Wed 8.15 w/ VO2: 5 x 800m repeats

Thu 9.88

Fri off

Sat 18.44

Sun 5.11

TOTAL 59.4 miles

33F, cloudy, occasional flake or two of snow falling, one heavy sleet shower for about 2 minutes, a bit of fog moving in.  Ice and snow on ground.  General-aerobic run.  20 min. weights. 

We got a little snow last night, and it was really slippery out there this morning, especially on the hills.  I spent my run looking for the best traction and trying to stay vertical, but it was fun and I had plenty of energy.

Some streets were terribly icy and I had to run on the grassy parking strip to survive, others were well sanded and clear with great traction.  But my favorite were the few streets where a bit more snow built up and where it was flat.  Just enough snow to be soft and have good traction, but not so much that you sink in as if it were sand, about 5/8of an inch. 

33 degrees felt so nice after the cold air we've had to endure.  I had holiday music going on my iPhone (Pandora) and the snow with the Christmas lights looked so beautiful.  A really nice run. 

39F, cloudy, wind 11mph, occasional light mist, slush on streets. Finished on TM in VFFs.  Core & pushups. 

The noise of a storm woke me up last night and I got up to use the bathroom.  Mr. Sno was standing outside our bedroom door looking down at the living room windows. "It's slushing hard," he said.  I thought maybe I was dreaming. "It's slushing?" Sure enough, the windows on the east side of the house were plastered with a thick layer of slush that was sagging in waves and being replaced by new slush continually.  The glow of our porch light came through, but the windows were opaque. 

By this morning the storm was past but most streets were covered with slush and it was piled up at the curbs.  This presented somewhat of a challenge, as I had to find tire tracks to run in on the quiet streets, or watch out for the frequent cars on the better traction of the main roads.  These main roads usually had a broad clear track in the middle with a 5 or 6 foot border of slush on either side, in which I frequently had to walk gingerly while waiting for cars to pass in the middle.  I love my headlamp and reflective jacket!  But slow going today. 

42F, cloudy, wind 11 mph w/ gusts to 20. Tempo run: 3 E, 4 T on roads and hills (8:55, 8:36, 8:50, 8:49), 2+ E.   20 min. strength work. 

I managed to miss the rain by pure luck. Rain before and rain after, but no rain for me!  42F felt pretty warm. That is the first time we've been over 40 for quite a while.  

The splits aren't great but I have to give myself some credit for the hills and wind.  Even so, I don't believe I was pushing myself as hard as I did on my tempo runs last summer.  The pace without hills/wind today would probably have been 8:40 to 8:45, as opposed to the 8:30 I was shooting for last summer.  Mile 2, the fastest mile, was mostly flat with a bit of downhill for a couple of blocks.

I think I'll be ok relaxing a little on tempo runs for 2 reasons: the slightly slower pace gives me enough breath to make the work focus on lactate threshold more than VO2. In other words, legs more than lungs.  I always felt there was very little difference between my VO2 workouts and my tempo runs last summer, except for the duration of agony.  I liked thinking "this is like a 10K" instead of "this is like a 5K."  

The second reason it seemed like a better pace was that I really can make it through 4 miles without coughing up a lung afterward, and I can even believe that I will work up to longer distances.  I think the continuous tempo run will be better for me.  Last summer I had to break them up when I went over 4 miles.  

Please let me know if my thinking is in error here, blog-buddies.  I don't want to cheat myself. I just want to be more clear about the objectives of these workouts and not see them all as the same torture just dressed up with different names.  :)

 Had a great day of skiing at Stevens Pass.  The snow was very good, except near the bottom where it had a little rain crust on it.  I feel like I did squats all day. 

48F, mostly clear and starry, windy (11-15 w/ gusts to 25).  Easy run.  20 min. strength, stretches, and Stick. 

Tired and very stiff today, but my running muscles felt ok.  I  just took it really easy and tomorrow I'm having a day off to make sure I'm fresh for a long run on Sunday.  Have a great weekend, everyone! 

Mid to upper 40s F, light rain showers, windy (10 mph w/ gusts to 25).  Endurance run with 19th mile at 8:55. 

The 19th mile was a bit too fast for the marathon pace it was supposed to be.  I had a hard time settling into a 9:10 and kept getting panicky about not hitting it.  I may have been reacting to the realization I had this morning of the Napa Valley Marathon being only 11 weeks away.  For some reason I thought I had more time. And I hope to being skiing more regularly this season, which will cut into my running a bit.  

The goal for Napa is to at least run a PR (anything under 4:17), and hopefully get under 4:12 on my voyage towards a BQ (4:05) in June or in the fall.  Sometimes I think I shouldn't even set these kinds of goals, but rather should just keeping working hard, enjoying my runs, and see what happens.  Eventually I'll be so old that the BQ standard will be incredibly slow and all I really have to do is not slow down too much as I approach senility.   :)

Week summary for Mon-Sun:

Mon 7.96

Tue 10.09

Wed 9.11 w/ 4 @ T

Thu  ski day

Fri 7.4 

Sat off

Sun 20.1

TOTAL  54.66

Mid 40s, cloudy with a little wind at times.  Rain just stopped as I left home.  20 min. strength work. 

Yesterday afternoon and evening I was so sore and stiff from my run. I guess the MP mile took more than I expected it would.  I had to take some ibuprofen before bed because I was so uncomfortable and feared losing sleep.  But today's run was very pleasant, albeit slow.  

33F, light drizzle and snow (depending on elevation) throughout neighborhood for the first 5 miles, then sun breaks and some F - (Smiley face) - G.  Objective: General-aerobic run w/ Progression.  

Nice run.  I had the idea of doing a progression run when I decided too much of my morning had gone by and I wanted to get home a bit sooner.  Started out with a 12 minute mile, then into the 11s and the 10s and ran miles 6-9 at around 9:45. Cooldown mile at 11:30.  

Mr. Sno is off today, so 100% daylight for this runner - yay!   And nine hours of sleep.  :D  We were going to ski, but the Cascades didn't get enough snow to cover the concrete that has formed from rainy days and icy nights the past few days.   

33F, cloudy, occasional flake of snow falling, all is calm all is bright (new headlamp batteries).  Objective: VO2 work (4 x 1K on roads/hills w/ 3 min recovery b/t).  20 min. strength and stretches afterwards.

I have no idea what my pace was and I don't want to know. (Suppresses urge to stick tongue out.)  Concentrated on sustained hard effort, good form, high cadence and try - oh try - to enjoy it a little. 

32F, Clear and frosty.  Objective: general aerobic run.  Last mile on TM w/ VFFs. Ten minutes core, pushups and stretches. 

Merry Christmas! 

Low to mid 40s F.  Clear and HORRIBLY windy. 15-20 mph sustained and gusts to 40 mph.  Objective: endurance run and club run. 

Fun-o-meter in danger today.   

Low 40sF, clear, still very windy (20-40 mph). Objective: recovery run. 

I was pretty wiped out from yesterday's run, but recovery runs always seem to end up feeling better than I think they will.  I was a bit of a wreck yesterday, and fell asleep on the couch for 1.5 hours in the afternoon.  But that didn't stop me from sleeping over 9 hours last night!  So my fun-o-meter was accurate - that was a hard run.

Two days of gale force winds have taken their toll on the neighborhood lawn ornaments. Penguins, light-up deer, and inflatable Santas were strewn around like battlefield carnage.  The last lawn penguin I came across this morning was upright, and his little flippers were held up high, ala marathon finish line, as if to proclaim, "I survived the wind!"  Me too, but with a lot less gusto. 

MON-SUN WEEK SUMMARY

Mon 4.51

Tue 9.98

Wed 6.46 w/ 4 x 1K VO2

Thu  9.78

Fri off 

Sat 20.68

Sun 5.28

TOTAL  56.69

40F, light rain showers, wind ~10-15 mph. Objective: easy run w/ 10 x 10 second hill sprints.  20 min. strength & stretching.

Busy day!   

35F, breezy w/ occasional drizzle. Objective: easy run.  20 min. strength work.  

I spent the day skiing yesterday and consequently am extremely tired.  Running felt good, but I definitely lacked energy. But it's nice to feel justified about moving slowly and just enjoy the mindless movement.  

40F, thin cloud layer w/ lots of moonlight coming in. (Blue moon tonight, second full moon in one month.) VERY slow run. Brief core workout w/ pushups. 

Legs? Hello? Hello?  ....They're not home. Well, as lackluster as my last run of 2009 turned out to be, I am WAY over any previous year's mileage so I can sail into 2010 with my head held high.  The highest annual  mileage I ever had before was 1,924 and I'm over 2,400 for this year!  I left an enthusiastic message about it for my legs, for whenever they decide to come back. 

ETA: just received this link to a video overview of SoftStar mocs that I wanted to share with you all: http://www.youtube.com/user/softstarshoes#p/a/u/0/LW6p2tVBwH4  These are the best!