March 29th, 2009
Today was a long run with Audra (aka Doggie poo or Dog lb, depending on where she’s posting). Since running our marathon together, we’ve become fast friends and though she lives in NYC, she visits here a lot so we try to run together whenever she’s around.
We had different plans for our runs today, she with 12-miles starting from where she was staying, me with a 16-miler which included 15 x 90sec.@10k pace w/90 sec recoveries in the latter half. In the end, we ran together for 8.5 miles.
I was pretty pooped from the get-go because I had driven Nick to the airport at 5:30 this morning but running with Audra was fun as usual, though we spent a lot of it zigzagging through masses of rowers because there was a huge rowing competition going on.
Then we met up with her fabulous girlfriend Loren and their cutest new member of the family, Bea, the border terrier. We ran a couple miles all together and then shared goodbye smooches before I turned off to start the fast crap.
Much to my annoyance, during the first 1:30 I got an ache high in my thigh (maybe IT band?) which stuck around the rest of the run. My pace was fine, though I skipped one of the fast bits to stretch my leg, so I ended up with 14 of those bad boys instead of 15. No matter, it still gave me 21 minutes of 10k pace in the midst of a long run, so useful stuff no matter how you slice it.
I’ll admit that I’m happy this was the last of Hudson’s “fartleks” (as he calls them) within a long run. From here on in, the LRs will be progressions or normal paced runs. Yay! Fifteen times anything is about 10 more than I like and makes a progression run seem so inviting.
But enough whining, it’s time to repair to the bedroom for a long, lazy nap. Later, y’all.
Posted in 
Tags: 
So, I was off looking at your race times. Not bad ‘tall. shaved 8 minutes off a 5K in 2 years. I’ll be so awaiting your half improvement. Wow, I didn’t realize how many 5K’s you’ve done.
15 reps? That’d be a problem. Uh, I only have ten fingers. (well, 8 fingers and 2 thumbs)
Enjoy your rest!
FOAM ROLL THAT LEG!!!!!
and lovely to see you today, I do believe Bea will be sleeping soundly tonight.
Mirnr, I have the Garmin to thank for the 15 repeats. All I had to do was start at the beep and stop at the next beep. Thank goodness, because my memory is useless.
5Ks – yeah, I guess I have done a few. Note how much my time dropped in the first year (newbie gains) and then the next year was like molasses. That first year, I fully expected it to keep dropping at the same rate for at least a couple years, so last year was sobering. That’s why the fast gains I’m seeing now leave me elated but at the same time, wary.
Doggie, Bea got the best workout of anyone, especially if you compare stride rates. Hope you get some great sleep too. Thanks for the foam roller reminder, all rolled out.
I’m so jealous that you guys got to run together. One day I will make it up there and run with you fun gals!
I’m jealous, too. I wanna run with you, Dog Lb., LAR and Mirnr!
I want us all to run together, too – what an excellent party that would be!
Fartleks programmed into a Garmin? Uh Huh. But then I would have trouble counting to fifteen too. I often lose track of how many strides I’ve done on a run.
I’m with you on the newbie gains. Easy at first, then more work. Each time I worry about plateau-ing, another little jump (so far).
So you got to run with Doggie and a doggie
Jim, putting a 15-step workout into the Garmin is the simplest thing to do and so worth it. Hell, I even program my strides into the Garmin, it’s the only way this old pothead can keep track. (h)
Do you carb load at all? I’ve never done it before. What do you think?
Mirnr, I do but not like scientifically or anything, just free reign to eat pasta and more honey pretzels. I think it’s cool to do, though be aware you’ll weigh more on race day, don’t worry about this at all, the carbs make you hold water. I’m so excited for you, Martian Woman!
Oh, so you don’t do the thing where you eat no carbs, then add more carbs? Cool. I never have done it either, but maybe next time I’ll try it. I do the same thing, just maybe eat a little more carbs a couple days before.
Ah, no I don’t carb deplete, just load. And load.