Posts Tagged ‘long run’

I had a good weekend of running, wrapping up a 61-mile week.

Due to some schedule switching, Saturday was an 11-miler with about 5.5 miles of tempo thrown in: 2x(15min@HP w/3min rec’s.), 10min@10K.   Yesterday, I had a 15-miler which I’m embarrassed to say around you marathon freaks, is my longest run since Boston!  I was looking forward to it for the distance and to take it to the trails so I could have that extra elevation/footing bonus.

The only hitch was that between the previous day’s tempo and 5½ hours of sleep, I was genuinely exhausted and certifiably dead-legged.   I really needed a recovery run instead of a long run, but I was stubborn about gettin ‘er done, so I took it reeeeeeaaaal slow.  Not that I had a choice.

The great thing was that even though I was too pooped to party, all my parts were working without complaint – not a twinge or niggle.  After 4 long months, the ankle problem is gone! And  I continue to do the hip exercises before every run – I can tell they’ll not only help with economy but ward off injuries as well, not to mention warming me up before I hit the road…so I’m loving them.

Speaking of Sleep
It’s getting better but still not great – July only had 3 nights of 8-hour sleep.  Also, I suspect that the one weekend where my HR dipped beautifully low was due to sleeping until my body woke on its own instead of my “beat the heat” alarm clock.  I’ll be thrilled when summer’s over and can sleep in regularly.

More Weight Stuff
The Racing Weight book has a lot of good stuff in it. One big change I’m making starting today, is how I time my caloric intake.

I’ve always been terrible about splitting my calories for the day.  I eat about half of them after 6pm (dinner and 2 snacks).  Dinner’s always been my “destination meal” and even though the snacks are healthy, I don’t need to be eating that much that late.  This is common wisdom we’ve all read enough times, but seeing his schedules of how to split it up percentage-wise made it clearer and looks sensible.

For those of you lapping up the weight talk, Jaymee (aka The fastest female runner I know) posted a great entry on the subject.  Also, on today’s entry she posts a sample day of what she eats which is cool to see.  I was actually shocked at the pro athletes’ sample menus in the Racing Weight book,  it looks like they eat hardly anything, whereas Jaymee’s intake looks more like what I’d expect a healthy athlete to eat.

Lastly, I’m anxiously awaiting UPS today – my fancy Tanita scale is scheduled for delivery, woohoo!!  Will let you know how I like it and what my reported weight and body fat are in the next post.

Runners Round Table This Wednesday
I’ll be on it again.   Joe’s hosting the episode about running in the heat.  I imagine we’re all pretty good at it by now, but I’m sure the conversation will be stellar and sparkling.  If you want to ask questions, listen to it live, otherwise, I’ll post it here afterwards.

Hair Bands That Stay On Your Head!
I ordered a headband from Sweaty Bands after a recommendation from a fellow forumite.   I’d stopped wearing hair bands because the Goody Stay-Puts were the only ones that would stay and even they required a clip behind each ear for stay-put peace of mind.

So I got it and, man…it works!!  It genuinely stays on your head.  It’s quite ingenious actually, what keeps it in place is (drumroll)….velvet.  The top part is regular woven ribbon from the notions counter, the lining is velvet ribbon and there’s just a small piece of 1/4″ elastic that goes under your head.

With shipping, the hair band was $20, but because I’m a frugal runner and handy with the sewing machine, I’m going to make a few for about $2.50 each.  I won’t give measurements since I feel kind of bad about giving away the company secret, but if you’re a crafty gal, buy one from the company and then make the next ones, like I’m doing (or not) .  Just remember if you get rayon velvet to wash it first so it doesn’t shrink when you wash it later.  Or if you’re lazy like me, get nylon velvet.

And that’s it for a chatty Monday.  Have a great coupla days, folks.  Later!

It’s official: I’m pooped and so ready to dial back.  I was asked a couple posts back about my taper plans so I linked to a graphic of my penciled-in schedule, it has since changed considerably.  Mostly because after last Saturday’s MP run and then Sunday’s 20, the next few days had my calf complaining to me, so I had to baby it which meant lowering the mileage at the beginning of the week and going slower throughout.  I did get a pretty good tempo run done but that was it as far as quality.  The schedule went like this:

Mon: 7 recovery (8:56)
Tues: 9 pouring rain, windy and hurting calf (8:58)
Wed:  13 slow again because of the calf (9:01)
Thurs: Off (enough of the calf, heal already)
Fri: 8 w/4tempo (calf was good, tempo was a bit slower than HP though @ 7:21s)
Sat: 6 recovery (8:51)
Sun: 17 (9:05s, slowest LR this cycle)

Today’s 17 was quite a tough one, it’s warm now so I ended up taking my shirt off on the way back, but the bottom line was I felt tired in legs, body and mind.  I had planned to do 4MP but I knew that was not going to happen. I did 1, lol, but it was 70 degrees by that time and my big toes were really unhappy (they’re both bruised now and I had to stick a needle under the nails to drain them before the run…nice, huh?) so I wasn’t sad about cutting the MP miles, more like I’m happy to know I’ve reached the topping point and that I will most assuredly benefit from two weeks of tapering.

As for my big toes, it’s insanely irritating to have this nail bruising/blistering happening now, but I guess in one way it’s good, hopefully the blisters will harden the toes up within the next couple weeks.  I attribute it to all my LRs being done in the trails, more footwork and ups and downs than any other cycle, so again, it was for the good, I just wish it didn’t hurt.

Hey to Steph (or was it Linds? they’re identical twins), it was cool to see you out there today, you looked good!  Funny about the orange Philly Distance Run shirt, I must have seen 50 people wearing one this morning.

Interactions this week
Ignore this if you read my Facebook updates, but I had a couple entertaining bouts of human contact this week.  On Monday’s recovery, there were 4 college rowers in the river who burst into an acapella rendition of Sheena Easton’s “Morning Train” then waved at me and wished me a good run.

Not two minutes later, I heard a double boom from what I call “Dead Man’s Curve”, a curve in the road near the bike path, but hidden by a fence, and every time it rains, I seem to see the tail end of a wreck.  So this was a double wreck caused by a line of cars sitting behind a wreck that had already happened. Triple wreck!  Hoping everyone was ok.

Then the next day, it was pouring rain and windy and I was feeling pretty crappy but as I neared home, a man under an umbrella yelled out “Dedication!” to me.  What an unexpected present that was.  Suddenly, everything was made right.

I want to spread that word to you all, too, because every single one of you who read this blog sweat, work hard and go the extra mile in some form or another and it’s too easy to take ourselves for granted.  It makes no difference how fast you are, if you win awards or not, be proud of yourselves for having dedication to do something that most people never dare to do…get up off their asses.

And with that, I’m going to sit on mine for the next two weeks.  In my mind, anyway.

Last week’s race was a very good thing.  Yeah, I didn’t PR but I knew I wasn’t going to and I thought I was going to end up in the 1:36s so I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome.  But most importantly, I appreciated the clarity it gave me for choosing my goal pace for Boston.

It was a bit of an ego bruise this cycle; everything was a little tougher, a little slower, my head and heart weren’t as committed, but with the outcome of Sunday’s Half, I was given solid numbers to target, which was like letting out a big, comfortable sigh.  It was the not knowing exactly what I’d lost that was making me tense.  Having this race result gave me “permission” to target something slower.  Weird but it’s how I look at it.

So with the revised goal pace, I had a really solid MP run on Saturday, 12 w/10mi at 7:45s.   My HR was a steady line which told me I would be good to go at that pace and effort-wise, I felt phenomenal, as if it was simply a peppy long run.  In fact my cooldown mile only slowed by about 5 seconds, I felt that good.

Today was my last 20 and I cannot tell you how glad I am to be done with them.  The idea that I may never do one again tickles me pink.  I honestly don’t remember in the last two marathon cycles being as uncomfortable on my 20s as I was this time.

Maybe it’s because all but one were prefaced with a quality run on Saturday and I made a point to do them all in the trails so I’d get more elevation and fancy footing and it doesn’t help that half of my big toenail is now purple from the 20 two weeks ago and still hurting, so…how about a little whine with that cheese?  Hee

The wrap-up
This week was my peak week with 72.2 miles, just shy of what my average mileage was last cycle.  As for long runs, I ended up with two 18s and four 20s, but nothing longer.  Last cycle I did  two 18s, a 20,  two 22s and a 24, so I’m slightly concerned about “time on my feet” but obviously not enough to have run farther.  Lol, I know I slacked some, no secret there, but truth be told, I think I’ll be fine.  I’m feeling as if I’m just beginning to hit my stride again!  This is a very good thing.

I’ve been lax on my blog duties this week: one post, no newsletter, no video. Thanks to the Financial Marathon, I’ve been knee-deep in web domains and keyword research, ultimately ending up with 17 new domains!  That’s a lot of new websites to build.  I love researching with a passion and when I’m in the midst of it, it’s all I want to focus on.

So I bought the domains, did the graphics in one fell swoop, then started figuring out ways to automate a lot of the work as much as I can. Thanks to iMacros and Excel, my system’s just about down, so then it’ll be a matter of rinse and repeat and then I buy another handful of domains.  That’s where I’m going to focus my Spring work concentration.

I know I said a few weeks ago that I’d like to ultimately monetize this blog through writing ebooks and eventually attract paid advertisers but I’ve since changed my mind. What’s the phrase? “Don’t shit where you eat.”

Not that I eat here, but this blog is my baby and I write it because I enjoy it, so to mix money stuff into it just feels wrong. Plus, I really love being an anonymous web builder, just doing my thing out on the interwebs with no one knowing my business. It’s the lurker in me, I guess.

Runs!

I’ve had a solid week of good running and enjoying myself out on the roads.  The weather suddenly broke, as I’m sure most of you are experiencing.  Woohoo!!  Shorts and shortsleeves…heaven.  Picking up where I left off last:

Wednesday was a 9-miler at 8:25/mi.

Thursday I had a 14-miler in which I wanted to do some tempo miles but I got out there and something was going on with my back.  It was very windy which didn’t help, I think I was hunching over or something, so I bagged the quality and had to stop and stretch a few times, which I never do.  So that was 14mi@8:44.

Friday was a lovely day off.

Yesterday was an 11-miler with 5 tempo.  It was pretty windy again but I did ok, with 5@7:19, 7:53/mi for the whole run.   The tempo portion started out not so great, I looked down and saw 7:25 which was just about my targeted MP last cycle, but I wasn’t surprised since my paces haven’t been so hot in general.  Over the bridge I slowed down even more, but when I got to mile 4, I said fuck this, and sped up.  My HR was higher than it should have been for tempo pace, but I didn’t care.  I just wanted to know I could run faster.  So the last couple miles were 7:05s.  I needed that.

Today was a strangely good run, a 17-miler @8:31 that started out tired, likely thanks to yesterday’s tempo, but it was beautiful out so I took it to the trails.   The trail starts 5.5mi from my house and for that whole portion I was pretty draggy, but when I got into the trail, it was like a switch turned on.

There was snow, mud and puddles but the air was cool and crisp which felt amazing against my bare legs and arms.  Just doing all the fancy footwork energized me.  It became a game of wending my way around the few walkers to find the least puddly bits and not slip on the snowy patches.

I took a gel at 1:25 into the run (trying to be more consistent with that) and as I came back out onto the street, I held the energy up enough to play speed games against some unsuspecting runners, running the last 5 miles in 7:58s.

Weekly Wrap-up

All in all, it was a great week.  The decision I mentioned last post about speeding up a bit in general made my weekly average 8:28/mi, when it’s been around 8:40ish previously.  I had some ankle tightness the last couple days but right now it feels fine.  Mileage total was 68 miles, so nothing huge but hopefully, juuuust right.  I’m thinking with the warmer temps this week, I might find it easier to get close to my old paces again.

I won’t push, but I’ll certainly take note since this is basically my second year as a “serious” runner.  I consider Winter and Spring 2009 to be my running puberty as the new paces emerged, so now that I have something to compare to, I guess I can call this my running adolescence.

Now if I can find an old hygiene class textbook, I’ll be set.

Today closes a 69mi week, my highest since mid-November.  Considering I had a day off on Friday, it was a pretty dense set of runs.

Yesterday I unknowingly tricked myself.  I had 10mi planned w/4MP.  Got out there and before I started the MP miles, I changed it to 5MP.  Then when I got to my halfway point I changed it to 11mi total but somehow still thought I was doing 5MP, so it wasn’t till I got home that I realized I did 6MP.    Silly, yes, but it’s funny to note that had I gone out with 6MP to begin with, I wouldn’t have been so lalala about it since 6 of anything raises my anxiety antenna.  Crazy how much weight the mental shit carries.

Today was a 20-miler but instead of doing one of my two usual routes, I decided to try something different.  The first and last 5.5mi were the same but between that I veered off onto the towpath in Manayunk and planned on going up/down a tough hill I’d heard about, Shawmont St.

I’d been on the towpath before but only on a bike and that was a couple years ago.  I remember it being lovely on the water and lots of other sporty folks around.  Well, there was water.  But it’s pretty industrial and there was nobody around except a couple people walking their dogs so I was actually a little nervous.  Also, I kicked myself for not bringing money or a phone…really not smart.

The run went from my usual asphalt path to concrete sidewalks to boardwalk then soft gravel to about a mile of packed snow and mud, not to mention 9 felled trees in the span of about 1.5miles that I had to climb over, under or around and going both ways so that made 18 trees to deal with – a real obstacle course.

And then that big-ass hill.  Damn that was a good hill. It was a little over a mile and really effective.  Again, not the safest, the sidewalk and bike path were obliterated by snow and I almost considered skipping it since cars were going pretty fast on it, but it looked so inviting in a masochistic way and I’d come that far (that was the whole point of the route was doing that hill) that I just hoped it was not my day to be hit by a car. Happily, it wasn’t.

I had one gel at mile 12 and ran out of water a few miles too early, same as last week, so I’m going to have to use the larger handheld for 20′s from here on in.  Also, my last few miles felt like last week’s; like I was running through sludge – which is somewhat worrisome since my long runs were not that tough last cycle.  Maybe by taking 2 gels next time and bringing more water, it’ll be better.

It might also be due to the fact that I did that 5-mi race the day before last week’s 20 and I did 11 w/6MP yesterday – maybe it’s just normal poopedness.  Still, I cannot wait to say sayonara to 20s!  It’s so much easier to feel good for 17 miles than it is for 20, much less 26.2.

Epilogue on the race

Turns out the time I listed on my race report was clock time  and my chip time was 35:41, so less suckage than originally thought.   Seriously though, I have only good feelings about the race, those consecutive negative splits tell me I was holding back which is very unlike my usual race M.O. (go out pretty hard, lag in the middle, then try to get back to speed at the end).

Yesterday’s Long Run & A Shoe Question

I had 19 scheduled but I made it a 20 (what’s another mile when you’re at that point?).  I did a couple trips up/down Smile Hill though not the full mile due to a snow barrier, but still got in about .75 mi each way.  As I continued on I started feeling really leg-tired, which was partially the race but it’s not the first time this cycle that my LRs had my legs feeling “used”.

As I picked apart what exactly was bothering me, I came to the realization that the way I’ve been wearing my shoes for the past couple months (quite loose) was not doing me any favors.  I could feel the arch shifting around with each step which has to defy the whole support system of the shoe.

Now, the reason I’d been wearing them loose was my right foot had a hotspot on top around Xmas and it lasted about 3 weeks, so I loosened that shoe quite a bit.  Then, due to the cold, I’ve occasionally been wearing 2 pairs of socks so I loosened them further to accommodate the thickness but never tightened them back up.

I’ve read of guys wearing their shoes so loose they slip in and out of them, so I didn’t think it would matter much, but after I realized their floppiness might be hindering my comfort level, I tightened them up near the end of my run and wouldn’t you know…the rest of the run felt way better, so that was an elementary lesson learned.

What about you guys?  Do you wear your shoes loose or tight?  I’m curious about this.

My First Blog Freebie

A couple weeks ago I got an email from a company saying they’d send me a free case of Vita Coco coconut water if I’d mention it on my blog or Facebook, but it was for a contest that ended that day so I told the guy I wouldn’t be doing another blog post for a couple days but I could mention it on Facebook.

Before I did, I asked Doggie Girl if she’d ever heard of the company or the product and she said Vita Coco is great stuff, then someone else chimed in and said they loved it, so I figured, what the heck, I’ll do it.  So I FB’d and Tweeted it.  Today I got my promised case of Vita Coco.

It’s actually really good!  I was expecting something thicker like regular fruit juice (which I don’t like full-strength and always water down) but it’s really light flavored water, basically.  It only has 60 calories and loads of electrolytes so it was cool to find this in the vestibule when I returned from my run.  It made for a great recovery drink.

I’ve been thinking about freebies since a few of my fellow bloggers often get free products to review.  My problem is I find it weird to ask for stuff, which I assume is the main way to get hooked up.  Hopefully more people like that one guy will happen by, if not, I’m going to have to get some guts and start begging for goodies.

A New Gifted Runner Service

I’ve had a lot of requests recently for putting people’s running shirts together so today I officially went into business as offering that service to anyone who wants it.  I’m not charging much and turnaround time is pretty fast, so if you’re interested check out my Let Me Make Your Shirts! page for info and pricing.

And that’s it for this Monday’s Hodgepodge.  Newsletter day will be tomorrow so keep an eye out. So long for now, peeps.