TexasLindsey

Ran 8 miles at 5:10 am. Just took it really easy. My left calf muscle ached a little while I was running. Didn't even look at my watch until I got back.

Splits

11:16

10:19

10:25

10:09

9:53

9:49

9:44

8:52

Ran 6 miles at 5:30 am.  Since I've been increasing my milage these last couple weeks, most days I try to keep it easy.   I've noticed that what feels "easy" seems to get faster as I run more and more.  I just don't want to get injured as I ramp up my miles.  This week I'm planning to run 40 miles.  Last week I did 35.  The week before 29.  Prior to that I was ranging between 20-27 miles each week. 

Splits

10:33

9:59

9:42

9:47

9:51

9:01

Easy 6 miles at 5:30 am. 

I was feeling a little achey this morning.  I think the extra miles is making my muscles sore.  My left leg especially.  The calf and the hamstring... maybe the IT Band too... it's not bad pain, just kind of an ache.  That left knee makes a popping noise every once in a while when I walk too.  

Not sure if I should take a rest day tomorrow or run less miles tomorrow or just stick to the plan and keep running easy 6 milers every morning this week.  Sasha's article on training mistakes says I should stick to the plan.  Maybe I should and just try to run it slower. 

Splits

10:36

10:05

10:12

9:52

9:55

9:05

My left leg was a little achey yesterday.  I decided to take it slower than normal today but keep the plan to do 6 miles.  I went a slightly different route though and it ended up being 5.6 miles.  I averaged 10:26 a mile.  I also went to bed at the same time as my 3 year old last night around 8 pm... so I got roughly 9 hours of sleep (minus all the times I woke up to readjust the sleeping position or give a bottle to my 5 month old).

There are several hills around my house where I've been running lately.  Several steep ones of around .3 miles long and one long gradual big hill of .65 miles long around mile 3-4 of my 6 mile loop.  Now keep in mind--> when I used the word "steep", this is relative to where I live!  Ha, ha!  I live in Fort Worth, TX.  This is mostly just flat praire land here... but around my house there are some rolling hills...  but I'm sure people who run in Austin, TX (hill country) or especially Colorado would just laugh at what I'm calling "steep"... Hey, for what I'm used to, it's challenging, ok!  Ha, ha! 

I used to drive to the Trinity River to run on the crushed limestone and generally flat path there... but that's a 15 minute drive each way.  By running around my house and at 5 am, I can get in more miles, more days a week without getting a babysitter.  It really works out. 

It's just now that I think about it, the hills around here might be the reason my legs are sore.  I haven't only been increasing my milage and frequency of running, but (by running around my house instead of by the river) I've been increasing the amount of hills I run.  If I can just take it easy as I'm increasing my aerobic base (as to avoid an overuse injury), over time this is going to really going to help make me faster!

Splits

11:24

10:37

10:29

10:13

9:40

10:01

Started out at 7:30 this morning instead of 5:30 like usual. Much more humid and hot.

Earlier this week I was having some muscle aches in my left leg which had me worried about my IT Band. Two years ago I had an IT Band injury which made me have to stop running for 2 months. I thought about not running as much as planned but instead I took it easy yesterday and I got 9 hours of sleep these last two nights in a row. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! I felt great today. My legs were fine.

I did 7.2 miles at a 9:47 avg pace. Thought about doing more but the sun was a beat down and I figured I save some energy for tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm running 12 miles with my group at the river. Tomorrow I'd like to see about running with the 10 min pace group for the first 2 miles and then speeding up to a 9:15 pace for the remainder of the run. If I have energy during the last two miles, I'll speed up and do a tempo 8:15 or so. We'll see... sometimes it all depends on who's there for me to run with. If there's no one around that is game for what I want to do, I may just end up with the 9 minute pace group the whole 12 miles.

Ran 11 miles with my group this morning. I thought we were going to run 12 but I misread the schedule. It was a good run. Alot of people weren't there today because they are running a race tonight. My running store, The Fort Worth Running Company hosts a 25k and 50K starting at midnight called El Scorcho. Would be fun, but I've got babies so I can never participate.

I ended up running with a pretty dang interesting woman for the first 8 miles. We averaged between 9:00 and 9:45 a mile. She is 65 years old! But I would have guessed she was in her 50's if she hadn't told me that! It took her a couple of miles of nonstop talking to explain to me all the sports activities she does during the week. Wow! She plays tennis, does weights, sprint track workouts, racquetball... she runs half and full marathons all the time. Her marathon PR was 3:20 something. She's run Boston and NY. Pretty cool lady! She also recently went on a missionary trip to Africa.

Then the last three miles I told her I wanted to speed up to a tempo run because I wanted to be able to say that on my FastRunningBlog! Ha, ha! Really, I said that!

So I caught up to this 22 year old girl who agreed to run 8:30 with me. We did 8:30 for two miles and 8:06 for the last mile (which included a big hill). Felt Great!

I felt strong the whole run. When I was running in the 9 minute miles I really felt held back. I honestly think I could have run 8:30 the whole thing and talked the whole time! On Saturdays I just have so much addreline, I run so much faster than normal. I look forward to it all week. A- I get to run with other people. B- I get to run at the scenic river. C- There's electrolites and water every 2 miles and on my normal daily runs I run without anything.

Splits

9:46

9:34 (included quick water stop)

9:39

9:47 (included water stop)

9:15

9:56

10:03 (included water stop)

9:04

8:55 (included water stop)

8:33

8:06