Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Objective: endurance, with hills.

Weather: mid 40's to 50's F during course of run, mostly clear and calm

A lovely morning, with just enough clouds to keep me from whining about the sunshine as much as I do the rain.  I like that middle ground; a few drops -- of rain or sunlight -- are just fine with me. 

On runs which go over 20 miles, there is always a great debate in my mind about Where To Go.  I prefer not to repeat a lot of terrain, and I usually end up doing a bunch of loops, like a four leaf clover, around the central area of my neighborhood. Each loop is anywhere from 3 to 5 miles long. 

But today, I decided to act on an idea I've had for a while. I had already covered the Heights and Palisades neighborhoods and the retail area when I decided to go... (cue dramatic music)... Down The Parkway.  Snoqualmie Parkway is a curvy, 2 mile hill leading to the older, flatter part of town.  I often go up the Parkway in the other direction, but not for so much distance. The advantage of going down to the old part of town is that 1) it's different from my usual routine, 2) it's nice to see what it would be like to live and run in a flat neighborhood, and 3) it adds a nice chunk of mileage (total round trip for that section of the run today was ~8 miles). 

Those are nice benefits, but ah, the costs!  The Parkway descent/ascent varies between a 3% and a 12% percent grade, with the steepest at the top 1/2 mile.  Going down thrashed me, and coming back up thrashed me again.  I'm sure it builds character and all, but the work-to-fun ratio was way out of balance.  At the top of the hill, I still had another five miles to run and they were painfully slow.  No negative split today.  I have to conclude that, on the whole, the Parkway is not worthwhile in a super-long run.   Maybe in 15 miler though...

Objective: active recovery

Weather: High 40's F, dry & calm. A little cloudy.

15 min. core & weights

I usually don't let my brain have any say in the matter when the alarm clock goes off, but today it somehow horned its way in.  "Wouldn't another hour of sleep do more for you than a short, slow run?"  "You are going to feel SO sore." "You ran so far yesterday; why not take some time off?"  Oh, it almost got me.  But then,  that still small voice whispered in my ear. And it said...."it's not raining."  OK! I'm up! I mean, really. It is November after all; how many more days like this will I get?  Just last week they were piling up sandbags downtown by the river.  I couldn't pass it up.  Surprisingly, I was not horribly sore or stiff. I only felt like my legs were quite heavy, and some of that was probably due to the big Mexican dinner I ate last night.

Objective: recovery, general aerobic

Weather: High 40s F, intermittent light drizzle (almost imperceptible)

DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness.  I've heard that it can take 2 days for muscle soreness to really set in, but this is the first time I've experienced it so dramatically.  It was actually difficult to come down the stairs this morning, although I proudly did do so without going backwards, ala post marathon.  I took about 5 minutes to massage out my legs with The Stick before heading out and that seemed to help quite a bit, though I was still feeling a bit weak. I was extremely slow.

Has anyone seen this farcical website?  It's rather funny, in a somewhat offensive way.  I only found out about it because of that page on marathons.  Do people really view our sport that way?  I started to think about the fact that I share very little information about my running with my non-running friends, so it might stand to reason that the only runners they really hear from are those flash-in-the-pan types who are not life-long participants.

Objective: General aerobic, form elements

Weather: High 30's, lots of fog

20 min core & weights - AND! I'm trying this program out. I love a challenge.

Nice run today.  I just love fog.  Even in the dark, which is really stupid, because the headlamp reflects all that light back and you can hardly see 6 feet ahead.  There was one weird patch of clear air down by Stellar Park, where suddenly I was running under a starry sky and quarter moon.

My legs feel much better today, but still not 100%.  I had scheduled hill sprints for today, but I'm not ready for those yet.  So I just concentrated on cadence and form, and ended up with a bit faster pace than I thought I was capable of today, about 20 seconds slower than MP.

On the recommendation of friends, I finally checked out Chi Running from the library and have been reading it this past week.  I was already a fan of the leaning stance for running, ever since I read Thomas Miller's Programmed to Run. Chi running is centered on that same theme, but with several other elements (and a lot of rubbish, imo) thrown in.  I know there is quite a debate about leaning, and I appreciate the logic of the non-lean argument. But there is just no doubt that I run faster with less effort when I do the lean. It's right there on the Garmin. The only effort I used to have to add was reminding myself to do it; now it is automatic.

I like Miller's presentation of this running style much better than Dreyer's, whose constant references to Eastern philosophy irritate me and muddle the issues.  But I did learn some new concepts, both simple (like the shoe tying method** - genius!) and more complicated (like the notion of opening up one's stride to the back instead of the front).  Overall, I think it is worth reading, though I'm glad I could get it from the libary rather than purchasing it. 

** Shoe tying: Instead of doing a double bow tie (which can be hard to undo, especially with cold fingers),  tie a regular bow but go around the first loop twice before pulling the second loop through.  It will stay tied while running, but pull apart easily just like a regular bow.

Objective: General aerobic w/ 3 mi @ MP + or - for wind. Even effort w/ wind, hills. Form focus: arms.

Weather: Low to mid 50's F, very windy (Beaufort 5-6) w/ gusts (7-8), but dry! :D 

20 min core & wts.

I beat the rain, which is supposed to start any minute now. Actually, the sky is an amazing red glow. I don't think it will rain until much later. Another day of muscle soreness, especially when just getting out of bed.  Once I was running however, everything felt pretty good -- yet another reason to ignore everything your brain says to you at 4:30 am.

Objective: Easy effort.

Weather: ~40F, Calm and dry until mile 4 > light rain and occasionally breeezy (Bf.3-4).

15 min. core and weights

Nice and easy run this morning, with mild weather.  I still haven't started my taper and that feels fine; I think I'll run something like 15-18 on Sunday and then start cutting back volume a bit.

I am a sleep wimp.  A friend of mine is staying up until 2 and 3 in the  morning these days to finish a project (self employed); she is probably getting around 4-5 hours of sleep, which is obviously a significant hardship. A hardship for me is anything less than 7 hours, under which I get incredibly cranky and become a walking Pity Party. One of my least favorite holidays is New Year's Eve, because the thought of staying up until midnight is absurd to me. For the past 2 nights, I've logged a decent number of hours sleep, but I have not slept soundly.  (Oh dear, can you hear the whine coming on?)  Tonight we are hosting a parents' group and my biggest worry (which would normally be something like how clean the house is or whether I've got enough food) is how I am possibly going to stay awake (let alone pleasant) until 10:00 PM.  "Would the last one out please lock up and turn off the lights?"