Archive for May, 2010

Good interval session today, though it put me in my place as far as my current fitness level. I’ve been getting back into a speed head with those 8x.25mi w/1min rec. workouts, which are entirely useless as indicators of anything, though perfect for getting the machine primed, as it were.

Today’s workout, on the other hand, was as standard as they come: 6x.5 mi w/90sec rec’s.  I was aiming to match my 5K PR time, so shooting for 3:18s.

Started pretty good, 3:17,3:18,3:18 but then I lost it for the next three 3:22,3:22,3:22.  So this tells me I’m a little wishful in where I am right now.  I should have aimed for 3:20s, then I would have had a more consistent session.

On the good side, it’s not that far off what I imagined, though it confirms I won’t be hitting a PR on the 30th at my 5K.  No worries though, I’m grateful to be near my old time at all and think a PR will be doable in June.

Oh, and I got on the scale today…123! Hah, not so good for fast running but looks pretty good. Time to put a muzzle on the cookie consumption. Not completely, mind you, just a little less.

Reminder:  Runners Round Table today at 4pm EST today.  Fun stuff!

This Wednesday at 4pm EST, I’ll be a guest on Runners Round Table, hosted by my fellow blogging friend (and speedy runner guy) Joe Garland.  The subject is near and dear to my heart “Reasons not to run a marathon”.  Perfect, huh?

The Round Table is recorded live with a panel of guests and includes a chat area where listeners can make comments.  This is all new to me, btw, I’ve only ever heard Runners Round Table as a recorded podcast so I’m still figuring out the nuts and bolts of it.  Anyway, I’ll be posting it here in podcast form for those of you who want to give it a listen after the fact.

I’m looking forward to it since I’ve never done anything like it before, plus the subject matter is obviously near and dear to my heart.  My only concern is that I’ll throw out a cuss word since I tend to do that.  Cross fingers for me that I behave properly.

The Weekend In Running
Was fucking great.   But seriously, something clicked this week – my easy runs haven’t felt this fast and light since mid-September.  Wednesday to Saturday’s paces included sub8s to low 8s despite the previous day’s speed or hill reps.  Recovery, shmovery, I wasn’t having any.  Of course, I know better, so yesterday, I followed the law and ran 13@ 8:30 avg.  Total for the week: 67.25 miles.

Here are the last couple weeks of running, Mondays to Sundays.

So it looks like I’m officially back to running 7 days/week again!  This means my mileage is where it was for marathon training (I’ll hit 66 this week) but split in way that is much easier to deal with.  And thanks to the new math, my paces are picking up naturally.

Resuming the shorter speed/tempo stuff is just what the doctor ordered, too – not just for the cumulative effect, either.  I’ve always felt that I run faster and easier on the days following speedwork, which is why the oft-repeated advice “you don’t get the effects of speedwork for 10 days” might be true (though I’ve never seen any study or evidence to support this), I believe there’s a worthy short-term effect as well.

Cookies
Another change I’ve made: I stopped giving a crap about my weight since Boston.  OK, it helps that my mileage is up there again and for the most part, I still eat very cleanly, but I’ve added in copious amounts of cookies to my diet.  I’ve also stopped weighing myself.  I can tell by looking at my stomach if I’m gaining and I appear to be holding steady.  My feeling right now is, as long as I get faster, it doesn’t matter…though I reserve the right to care again when an important race is on the line.

Last night’s workout
I ran with the club again, this time for hill repeats.  I left the house at 5:40pm so I could get in 5 miles beforehand, which in itself is a novel thing since I’m a morning/early afternoon runner.  Those miles were faster than usual and I had to keep purposely slowing myself down, reminding myself I’d be tackling hills afterward.  Still, I was doing 8:10, 8:02…like that.

Met with the group who, aside from the leader, were all different people from Saturday’s run.  It was a little smaller and a different vibe since we were doing a more structured thing.  We ran to Lemon Hill and did 10 charges up the hill and back, which came out to a little more than 20 minutes of actual work.  Then we jogged back to the museum, chatted a bit and separated.

What I enjoyed about doing this in a group was the lack of negative self-talk I usually feed myself during hard workouts.  Seeing other people in the same boat, it became more about rising above, rather than grumbling through.  Everyone was doing their own thing though we were doing the same thing together.  It was cool.

I liked it so much (and hill work is SO good for you) that I might make it a weekly deal.  The only thing is, if I do this, it means I’ll have to forgo a weekly speed or tempo run since 2 quality runs a week is my limit.  With that in mind, I think my next step is to analyze which of the 3 workouts I need most, keep that weekly, and alternate the other 2.

Enough rumination, have a great weekend folks.  As to my marathon running friends (and shorter racing pals, too) kick some booty this weekend!  Woohoo!!

I’m racing a 5K on the 30th and hope to get close to last year’s PR of 20:25, but have no expectations to exceed it.  Sub-20 is definitely on the radar this year and I’m confident it’ll be mine but not till Fall.

In the meantime, I had a speed session today, same as last week (8 x .25mi w/1mi recoveries) which was by design, since last week’s paces were all over the place and I wanted a basis for comparison.  Plus, it takes me a week or two to get used to faster running and this workout is a “no big deal” way to do that.

My splits, while not perfectly consistent, were eons better than last time:
1:37,1:35,1:39,1:35,1:37,1:38,1:38,1:38 (avg pace 6:28)

Three things helped:

1. The temperature was a lovely 60 degrees.  Interesting factoid: when it’s warm (last week was 75) my heart rate caps out low though the effort feels much harder.  Weird that, since you’d think the HR would be higher.

2. I did strides beforehand.  I know I should do this before every quality session, it gets your HR up and your body prepared for running faster. I will from now on, it really made a difference.

3. Confidence.  Last week, for all the crappy pacing and even though it was only 400s, that last fast one gave me an inkling that speed is indeed returning.  I needed that like nectar to a hummingbird.

Next two weeks I’ll do 6 x 800 w/ 90sec rec’s. and then my Half cycle begins!  Nice to be priming the pump before the heavy-duty work starts.  Though I must say, I’m pretty much doing what I’d do in a regular cycle anyway but it seems so casual and fun now, almost vacation-like.  Maybe it’s the weather.

Pill Popping
I’m not a huge pill-popper by nature, though I’ve been taking glucosamine and MSM since the IT band crap last summer.  This week I cut my glucosamine by half, so one pill instead of two.  So far, I’m not noticing anything different.  As for my MSM capsule, I’ll continue to take that daily but am open to seeing what’s what without these things.

I don’t think I mentioned that I started taking an Iron supplement a couple months ago.  I had my ferritin levels checked back in August which came out normal, but my mileage hadn’t reached the level it’s at now.  Also, I was still living with Nick at the time and ate red meat quite often.  I love red meat, so don’t think I’ve gone all veggie on you, but I’ve probably had it 3 times in the last 6 months.  I do eat a lot of fresh spinach but surprisingly, if you eat a whole bag of the stuff, it’s still only 30% of your daily requirement.  So anyway, I take an 18mg capsule daily.

Calcium is my other supplement – Viactiv chews, twice daily.  I wrote a whole blog piece two years ago on the different types of calcium and how this type (calcium carbonate) used to stop me up.  But now I eat so much more fiber and drink more liquids, I’m a great pooper.

Core Work Continued
I was doing those Runners World exercises for a couple weeks which are great, but I’ve started switching it up with one of my favorite exercise DVDs: Mari Winsor’s 20-minute Slimming Pilates.  It’s basically a fast-paced core workout that I love because she doesn’t chatter on, it goes boom boom boom, from one exercise to the next.

Group Thoughts
Today was a slow day on my running path, I only waved to about 7 people I knew.  Seriously.  I love my park because there are probably 35-40 regulars with whom I wave and exchange a couple words.  When we see each other in races or on the street, it’s a fun shot of recognition.

I was thinking about the whole “running with others” thing and while I enjoyed the outing, I’ll always be a lone runner at heart.  I’ll try to make the hill workout this Thursday because I like the idea of sharing a hard workout, but I guess I wanted to explain that while I’m out there on my own day-to-day, I’m surrounded by camaraderie every time I run.  So we’ll see how much running club action I get.  Maybe I need to work on my bar-hopping skills instead.

I did it!  The planets didn’t realign and I’ve no plans to become a running club groupie but I had fun.  Took me a bit to warm up though, as we started the run I was thinking, “I dunno, this kind of sucks and is weird” because I wasn’t feeling a connection with anyone, but then one of the guys started talking to me which put me at ease.

About 2.5 miles in, our little group hit the water fountain but me and another girl kept going, ending up on our own for the rest of the run.  It turned out to be a perfect pairing; she had just done the NJ Marathon in that 90 degree hellfire, so we had lots to discuss marathon-wise and our paces were well-matched.

I discovered a sweet perk of running with someone: you can turn to them and ask, “Is my back straight?”  I’ve been trying to be more mindful about form since starting up core work so it was nice to get feedback (even if I did straighten myself up before I asked).

I also learned that the Tuesday group is almost all different people than the Saturday morning folks.  It’s a short run, about 4.5mi, and a quasi-speed thing (sounds more like a tempo from what was described).  Then Thursday is hill repeats, again just 4.5 mi total.  The only possible hitch with these runs is that they meet at 6:30pm and I like getting out during the day, but I’ll try ‘em both eventually.

As for pacing, we ended up running the bulk of it at 8:10-8:05s with the last couple miles @ 7:50.  We agreed we both ran faster than we would have solo, especially with me having done a tempo run the day before, but ’twas all good, body felt fine even if the conversation got a bit breathy.

Afterward, while waiting for the rest of the group to finish, my companion and I chatted with another girl for a long while, then a few more people joined in, then after everyone was reassembled, none of the gals wanted to go to the group coffee thing and I didn’t either, so we parted happy campers.

Total distance was 9.5mi and yesterday was a beautiful, albeit windy 13, netting me 67.5 miles for the week.  So pleased about this!  It means I can keep stuffing my face like a piglet.  More seriously – and forgive me for repeating this sentiment – it’s such a pleasure to feel this gung-ho again.

I’m enjoying my runs more than ever lately – without a huge scary race to worry about, the fun factor has gone up 10-fold.  In fact, I’m not taking a rest day this week so it looks like I’ll be around 65 miles by Sunday.  This is unexpected (was planning on keeping it mid-50s) but I’ll ride the wave and just keep doing what feels good.   Hell, I even considered doing a double the other day but gathered my wits about me to nip that one in the bud.

Monday was 7.5 easy, Tues 10.5 and Wednesday was my first speed session in a while (8 x .25mi with 1 minute recoveries, aiming for 6:35 pace).  It was a toasty 75 degrees and I’ve been out of the speed loop so I expected a rocky start…it was.  My first interval was a lethargic 6:56 pace but each one got progressively faster till my last one @ 6:16 pace.  The only reason I did that one so fast was a cute guy passed me earlier and I felt compelled to pass him back. Total for the run, 8.75 mi.

Yeah, it was some terribly erratic pacing but I’m just getting my feet back in the game, next week will surely be steadier.  I feel really good about the session – it’s the complete opposite of my first speedwork after the Philly Marathon when I went from bad to worse and had to abandon the workout entirely.

Yesterday was 9 easy and today was a tempo run.  I had planned on 7mi w/3 tempo but there was a huge regatta in the park, university rowers everywhere, so I couldn’t start my tempo till a couple miles beyond my usual start point so it ended up being 9 w/3 tempo.   The tempo miles were a tad slower than I wanted but I was doing some dodging and it was hot for me (near 70) so they went 7:11, 7:12 and 7:09, average 7:11.  Average for the entire run was 8:01.

Again, very satisfied with the session despite not hitting my intended pace target – like I say, it’s one more coin in the speed bank and every coin counts.  Also, the weekly recipe of 1 speed, 1 tempo, a medium long run and a long run is my favorite.  When I’m able to get all 4 in, I know I’m doing the best I can for myself.

Now, about Saturday’s group run and that vow…  The weather report says there’s a 50% chance of thunderstorms but it’s supposed to clear off by the afternoon.  So please don’t hold it against me if it’s thunderstorming and I don’t go clubbing tomorrow.  I’m genuinely excited about getting involved now so it won’t be because I’m trying to weasel out of it, I just want my intro run with them to include zero chance of electrocution.