Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Objective: endurance
7 AM: 44F, raining and windy. Blech...

Well, I got the job done. It wasn't the first long run I've had to do in the wet, and I'm sure it won't be the last.  Unfortunately, I seem to be coming down with a cold.  I have felt a signal coming from the back of my throat since Friday night, but since it is not severe I decided to get this run checked off my list.  I can skip tomorrow's short recovery run if an afternoon of rest doesn't bring me back. 

I'm not feeling too bad this morning, though I definitely have some junk in my throat.  I think this one will pass quickly; I compare it to the cold I had in February that knocked the life out of me for nearly a week. This doesn't feel anything like that.  (Thanks, Carolyn, for telling me about yours.)

I did promise myself yesterday, at around mile 16 (that was when my shoes started to "squish") that if I finished the miles, and if I didn't feel well by nighttime, I could skip today's run. That was the deal: long miles for additional miles.  Because goodness knows, I was tempted to go home so badly that even stopping by for some dry shoes may have ended it. 

I'm just rambling here... (A mental subsitute for running?) I have read many marathon training plans that suggest long runs up to 20 miles, or long runs up to 3 hours, and I am very conscious of my abnormal practice of going beyond that.  Confession time: I was running yesterday for nearly 4.5 hours.  That's some slow running, chugging along like the proverbial tortoise.  But what I really want to say is how impressed and inspired I am by Bonnie's run  of the same distance.  Someday, when I am fitter, and when it's not pouring, and when I'm not coming down with a cold... I want to be like her, and combine the distance of my race with a progression of pace.  I look forward to Eugene and I feel really positive about this training cycle, but I also feel like I have a lot more improvement to pursue.

One last bit of mental flotsam: do you all know about Ed Whitlock?  He was the first (only?) 70+ y.o. person to run the marathon in under 3 hours.  His training comprises 2-3 hours every day of running a ~400m circuit through a cemetery in his neighborhood, around and around... 

Objective: easy. Average pace on flat terrain: 11:10

5:10 AM: Snowing, 34F, traction poor.

15 min strength work

I believe that Spring will come. I believe, I believe...

Other than a lot of phlegm and some tiredness, my cold is very mild and not affecting my running much.  The legs felt good, though a little heavy.  On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being elephant-on-valium and 10 being Pegasus, they were at about 6. But no soreness or stiffness. 

Needless to say, I am disgusted with the weather. Silver linings: it didn't do this on Sunday, I was just having an "easy" run anyway, and it really cannot last much longer.  

Objective - Moderate run, pushing pace a little:  w.u. 1 mile easy & slow (11:00-12:00), 5 miles MP + 30 seconds (~9:30, +-w/ hills), c.d. 1 mile moderate (10:00-10:30) w/ walking last 1 minute.

5:15 AM...  35F, mostly clear, no wind :D, icy on short cut trails.

What a nice morning, though cold! It was getting light by 5:45 and I even turned off the headlamp during the last 30 minutes. (I often keep it on for safety, being visible to cars in dusky light.)  Once I got warm, it was a very pleasant run.

I had scheduled myself to do some intervals today, but I still have so much phlegm from my cold, perhaps even more than yesterday, and with the temperature so low I did not want this thing going down into my lungs.  So, what to do?  I decided to work on running faster without a really lengthy warmup, only 1 mile, and then to focus on my form and keep the effort very even, just a bit easier than marathon pace. Who knows whether this was the best plan, but I had a good time and was very pleased with my workout.  Still a bit of hacking cough when I finally stopped, but not too bad.

It is a pity that my feet and calves are not strong enough to wear racing shoes for a whole 26.2. These Lunars and my ST3's feel so wonderful and make it so much easier to go faster.   I might try to build up to longer distances with them in the coming year. I know that stronger runners do wear them in marathons; perhaps that can be me someday.  

I have an observation about pace, hills, and self-image.  Naturally, my pace slows down when going uphill, and the steepest hills took me down to 11:00 today, even with my harder effort.  But the downhills were not that much better.  I got 20-30 seconds faster on slight declines, but as soon as the downhill was steep enough for me to land on my heels (I am not normally a heel striker), I slowed to 10:00 and even slower on the really steep hills (>6%).  I've tried to lean forward more so that I am not braking, but it only helps a little. 

It makes me wonder, with all the hills I run every day, how differently I might view myself as a runner if I lived in a flatter area.  A few hills to build strength would always be welcome, but if I did 75% (instead of 20%) of my running on a flat surface, I might not have so  many "false readings" about my abilities, if it can be called that.  There is nothing I can do about it, but I just wonder sometimes.  More Ruminations from Snoqualmie's Brain.... thanks for listening.

Objective: general aerobic, fun.  Pace on flats after warm up: ~10:00

5 AM:  41F, breezy in open places, mostly cloudy, a "normal" spring day in the NW, finally! 

Beautiful morning and a fabulous run.  Lots of snot, but lots of energy too.  First mile very slow (12:30) and then picked it up a bit. By mile 3 I tried to keep the effort very even.  I experimented with some different gaits on the downhills; the only way I could improve the pace was to take short, fast little steps. Really fast. But I'm not sure that's a good way to run.

Speaking of running styles, Dale has a link to a really funny Youtube clip on his blog.  How not to run.  Then you can look at this other amazing video of Josh Cox and Ryan Hall on a run together.  BEEEautiful running form.  Look at how consistent Josh's form is as he continues the run alone, up to 31 miles.  Look how high his heels come up in back.  Her Majesty Deena runs like that too.  

Objective: easy, w/ fast finish (easy running until mile 5.2, one mile hard, and then cool down)

5:20 AM: 45F, raining

Today felt like a recovery run, very slow and stiff.  I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, since both Wednesday's & Thursday's runs were fairly vigorous. But they seemed too easy to have wiped me out this much.  I dreaded doing the fast mile. When the time came, my pace was always a little slower than MP (~9:20) and my effort level was much harder than MP (felt like 5K effort).  Looking forward to sleeping late tomorrow!

Have a great weekend, everyone!