Today, my body told me, and in no uncertain terms.

Remember last week with all those sub8 runs?  Well, I’ll take a little credit for getting faster, but more than anything it confirms the power of the taper.  This, because the previous week I was forced to take 3 days off – of course my legs were fresh and bouncy.  This week, they’re a couple of heavy appendages.  So today, I left the music at home and took it nice and slow, 11@9:02 average.  It actually felt great doing it, like a leg massage.  I’m cool with doing it again tomorrow if I need to, too.

Aerobic Talk
I really loved the interaction on the previous post, thanks to all who commented.  In timely fashion, there’s a related thread going on at LetsRun How Much Have You Slowed Down With Age?  It’s Masters who’ve been running for years so it doesn’t really apply to late-starters, but it’s interesting.

And I want to thank commenter Hmm for bringing Sabra Harvey to my attention.  With a dearth of late-starting role models my age or older, this is a beautiful find.  She started running at 51 and has been breaking records for about a decade so far.  Super duper inspiring.

That’s it for now.  Happy running, all!

Today was a troublesome speed session on the heels of two subpar 6mi tempos within the last couple weeks.  The speed session was supposed to be 5xmi@15k pace w/1min recoveries.  Halfway through the 2nd rep, I was thinking “I have a tempo run in just 2 days but this feels like I’m in the midst of one already and I just did one the other day…too much, I don’t wanna!”  It wasn’t good.

I was shooting for 7:00s, but couldn’t get past 7:05s  and the idea of continuing on for 3 more reps seemed a hellish prospect, so after the 2nd mile, I ditched the long intervals and switched it to 8 x .25miles w/1min rec’s.  In the end, I got 4 miles of fast out of it (total run was 9.75 mi) which is certainly worthwhile, but I feel ragged.  In response, Adam has kindly rejiggered this week’s tempo into 12×200 for which I am eternally grateful.

It’s crazy how without an injury to say “you must stop now” we really don’t have a clue when it comes to limits.  Sure, there are solid symptoms for overtraining, they concern sleep patterns, weight loss, not wanting to run among other things, but when it comes to the phase before that, overreaching, it’s your best guess.  And it’s frustratingly like that for so many areas of this sport.

Tapering, for instance: what’s the best taper for you?  How can you tell?  Even if you have a great race, could have been one thing during the taper period that made it that way, etc.  The only way to truly know what works for you is by many trials, errors and successes to reach that final “Aha!”  Or you can simply keep wearing your lucky red sports bra and say that was it.

Anyway, it continues to be a revealing learning process and despite the number of times I’ve thrown my hands up in the air out of utter frustration, I’m happy that there are still doors to unlock and secrets yet to uncover.  So I bitch, moan, whine and want to lay down to take a month-long nap, but in the end, I remain positive.

That said, Carlsbad may be more “fun run” than race for me.  We’ll see.

Food
With the holiday season, I relaxed a bit and had a little junk, but also, on the good front, I pulled out the long-ignored crockpot.  I love my crockpot but always thought of it as a two-or-more-to-feed appliance.  Well, in an effort to be a better mommy to myself, I’ve started making some wonderful cozy stews and mish-mashes of things that feed me for a few days or I freeze portions.  Today I made this Provençale Chicken: super duper easy – because cooking ain’t my thang – really healthy and yummy, too.  Shove the stuff in the pot, turn it on and go away.  That’s my kind of cooking.

(used 3 skinless breasts though, as per the reviews)

Foot
Went off ibuprofen on Saturday night, had a 17miler on Sunday (started sleeting and I wasn’t dressed for it, so a progression), a 6miler on Mon and an 8 yesterday.  My big toe knuckle was back to smarting on Monday and full-fledged hurting yesterday.  This was freaking me out, however, I think I found the cure!  I’d been using moleskin padding but it wasn’t that thick.   So I cut out a couple pieces from my foam yoga mat (one of those purple jobbers) and taped that around the bad spot…wow! it was like having a cushy pillow on the top of my foot.  That knuckle didn’t bark at all today!  I couldn’t believe it.  It’s been a downer to deal with all this last month, how lovely if it finally gets the boot.

This has positive implications; I’ve been able keep at it thanks to my body behaving admirably – a lucky thing for such a late-starting couch potato.  But when Adam said he thought I should take a few weeks off after Carlsbad, a feeling of nervousness came over me and I dismissed the idea entirely.  A few weeks?  Such a long time!  I’m not a cross-training gal – I’ll lose all my fitness and turn into a fat pig.

That said, I’ve been mulling it over this last week.  It does seem slightly twisted that I’ve been in training cycles almost non-stop since 2007.  What’s a couple weeks in the scheme of things?  When I came back from the week off in June, I felt no difference at all, so two weeks off can’t be that drastically different.

Then a few days ago, I read this cool thread in LetsRun, which asks What was the most important thing you did in training before a big breakthrough?  A couple people spoke of taking time off (more than 2 weeks, one took 10) and coming back faster than ever.  I bookmarked the thread.

Today, checking in with Adam, he again brought up taking time off and said he couldn’t think of too many serious runners who didn’t take real breaks, saying “Paul Tergat was adamant about it”.   So I told him yes, I’d do it.  I asked if I could do some short runs during this time (because it’s scary to go into this uncharted territory) and he said he didn’t see the point.

As if I needed more confirmation (I don’t, Adam is the voice of reason) I just opened Jack Daniels’ Running Formula to read the section on Planned Breaks which says “Runners should take a few weeks off occasionally as scheduled breaks from training” and “Although runners are often reluctant to take breaks, most breaks are beneficial in terms of overall development.  A break gives both the body and the mind some time to regroup.”  “Sometimes, a couple of two-week breaks fit into an annual schedule quite well, but eventually a more prolonged break (four to six weeks) is probably a good idea.”

Obviously, I could use some regrouping, probably more in my head than body, but both will surely benefit. So this should be interesting, a new experience in this running adventure which turns out to be Not Running.  I won’t be doing any real aerobic activity though I might pull out some pilates and yoga DVDs, maybe take some walks by the river, keep a few push-ups and a little core work to keep the guilt away.  It’ll be good for me, no matter what.

Btw, Joe sent out an email to a few of us last week for ideas on the next Runners Round Table podcast.  Since this has been on my mind, I said I’d like to hear about it in an episode and much to my delight, that’ll be it: Rest, recovery, and aging.  It’s on for this Wednesday at 8pm.  I’m not participating in it, btw, since this is something I don’t have experience in, but am looking forward to hearing more seasoned runners discuss the subject.

My Training Plan
It’s here, it’s here!!  My Half plan for the philadelphiadistancerockandrunhalfmararoll, formerly known as the Philadelphia Distance Run on Sept. 19th.

During my week off, I  Half-fashioned a Half training plan under the guidance of mentor (coach?) Adam/A Muse who patiently refined and shaped it into a really swell, kick-ass plan.  I can’t thank him enough for working on it and hope to do him proud come September.  Thank you, Adam!

The plan is based on an article about periodization (for marathons actually, but applicable to the Half, as well) where Base is followed by a Speed phase, then a Strength phase.

Now, I haven’t followed a periodized plan since I did Pfitzinger’s 18/55 two years ago.  Since then, I’ve used either Hudson’s canned plans, which don’t have real defined phases, or I rolled my own without any thought about that stuff.  I mean, I always knew I should be thinking in those terms, but wasn’t really understanding how to go about it till now.

Base: a no-brainer.  This one is abbreviated because I have a strong base already, just need to build back easily after the heat drama, so nothing hard this week except for a progression run.  The following two weeks include rudimentary quality to get me prepped for the Speed phase.

Speed: this phase features 5K pace interval sessions and tempos mostly at 10k pace.  There are also a couple miler workouts from this great article Adam sent my way.  The tempo intervals on Aug. 6th will be my first taste of Half pace and establishes a baseline.

Strength: this portion focuses on 10k strength workouts. As Salazar says about Half training, “…it’s 75 percent the same as 10K training.”  Also, in addition to the 10k fun, starting in the Speed phase and ramping up through Strength are a good number of race pace runs, very important.

Long Runs: most of these will be on my local trail which gives me a hillier route than usual.

Recovery: this may be listed here after all the fun stuff, but it was the first thing I penciled in.  Recovery (or lack of) has been on my mind a lot these days; my cavalier attitude about it, how I rarely took cutback weeks and when I did, the mileage cut was meager.  No more.

This plan has two major cutback weeks on each end of the Speed phase with a 30% reduction in mileage.  That means taking two days off in each of those weeks.  Seems excessive, but my instinct tells me it’s the right thing to do.

To bolster my point: my friend Jeff is an accomplished, hardcore cyclist, podiums all the time.  A few weeks ago at a bike race, he and the entire 40-45 AG were beat out by a 63-year old, and by a sizable margin!  He spoke to Jeff after the race and told him his success is all about recovery, especially before races.  And he never puts in miles “just to put in miles”, everything has a purpose.  This is nothing I haven’t heard before but this time…I’m listening.

Enough jabber, here’s the plan, full size.
Joking. Click for hugeness.

Two more items worth mentioning, nutrition and sleep:

Nutrition: I already eat cleanly, so no problems with this.  The cookie gorging finished a few weeks ago, then dessert became cereal before morphing this week into fruit salad, which is really weird because I’ve never been a big fruit eater – suddenly I love it.  Yay me.

Sleep: I’ve been as stupid about this as recovery.   I have to stop going to sleep after midnight  if I’m going to get out early to run.  I end up tired all summer.  Will amend this starting tonight.  11pm or bust.

Ankle Saga Continues
When I walked home from the hospital, it was creakier than usual, thanks to having raced a 5K only to be stuck in bed the next 30 hours.  So I went on ibuprofen for a few days to get a solid anti-inflammatory punch and when the weekend came, I went off it so I could see how it felt, undrugged.

Alas, once off Vitamin I, it didn’t hurt per se,  but it was still there in the background, a shadow when I descend stairs or step a certain way.  As usual, there was no visible swelling and I couldn’t even press an area to make it hurt, but just knowing it hadn’t gone despite the week off was a bummer.

So yesterday morning, I started googling on how to deal with it, wondering if I should get it looked at.  In my search, I came upon this collection of posts from an Ultra runners site that, while I’m not suffering from an achilles problem, has some good stuff in there for tendon recovery.

One happy eye-opener on that page was the Nirschl Pain Phase Scale of Athletic Overuse Injuries (here’s more info on it).  I’d say my ankle is Phase 2 which isn’t even at “take rest days” intensity, so unless it gets worse, there’s no reason to get it looked at – I’ll live with it the way many runners live with a constant niggle.  I’m sure I have tons of company on that score.

Still, I want it gone, not just managed.  The supplements in those posts looked interesting (L-lysine and glycine) so that’s something to consider, though I’m at my limit of pill-popping between glucosamine, msm, a calcium chew and now a multivitamin (I stopped taking separate iron, btw, the multi is enough).

My other thought was that maybe I could just take ibuprofen as needed, since it works really well for me and it’s not like I’d use it regularly, but I have that guilt about it, which I think I don’t need to have – it’s not crack, for god’s sake!  Still, in looking for alternatives, I started investigating ibuprofen cream, which ultimately landed me on Arnica gel.

Arnica gel is natural, it comes from the arnica flower, and has been used for hundreds of years in Europe and by tribal Indians.  It’s great for bruising – makes them go away sooner (I never heard of anything that can do that) but what got my attention was the anti-inflammatory properties – better than ibuprofen cream and with less adverse events.

My friend Lara uses it but I thought it was just for pain, not that it actually helped with inflammation and healing.  So when I read it genuinely helps bursitis and tendon issues…Jackpot!  After scouring tons of glowing user reviews at Vitacost, Drugstore.com and Amazon, I flew to Whole Foods to buy a tube.

I started on it yesterday morning (you use it 3 times/day) and knock me down, my ankle feels fab!  I felt just a tiny twinge upon waking today, so I have major hopes for this and will keep you posted as I return to mileage. The fact that it’s available in gel form is excellent – it dries super quick, isn’t sticky and no pills to swallow, yay!

Running Times Fabulosity
I’ve already posted this on Facebook, but after those months defending my position on moving to shorter races vs marathons, there was an article in Running Times this month that encapsulated my thoughts perfectly.  If you don’t get the magazine (I just subscribed, it’s only $10!) you can read the article here.

There’s also a good article on running form in the same issue.  Be aware this is a preview website that lets you view these, so if you “use up” your preview, just try again later.  Otherwise, the articles should end up on the Running Times site in a months time.

The week was going pretty well, I had a couple of fun runs on Wed and Thurs, feeling all recovered and pretty peppy.  Looking at the calendar, I was eyeing a 5k on the 19th and even figured out a little schedule with 4 quality days between now and then; one this week, then a tempo and speed next week and a speed session that following Tuesday, the week of the race.  Sounded like a good plan for ending the year with a PR.

So yesterday, I decided to do some 800s (1/2 miles actually), 6 of them @6:30 w/90sec recoveries.  What a nice change it’d be to do shorter intervals again and it would get me back to seeing what 5K pace is supposed to feel like.

Worst fucking idea ever.

It was the hardest speed session I’ve ever had – the first 3 reps averaged 6:40, I just could not go faster.  By the 4th, I’d basically quit with a 6:55, the 5th was a laggardly 7:08 and I bagged the 6th completely.  Never had such a bad session.

I get home and look at my logs, noting that back in April, I did this exact workout perfectly and with a lower HR.  Anyone within 5 miles of me would have now begun to hear the thwack, thwack of me caning myself full-on. “Oh no I’m regressing, something’s not right here…”

Luckily, I have my Sub 3:20 thread friends who assured me that I was a complete dodo for even attempting such a workout so soon after a marathon.  Then today, my blogging friend Joe Garland confirmed this by sharing his own recovery rule handed down from a 2:14 marathoner friend:  no hard running for 26 days after a marathon.  Thus, a miserable attempt at 5k pace only 12 days out was no surprise to anyone but me.

In my own misguided defense, I thought I could handle it because I didn’t actually run the whole of Philly (having walked probably 3.5 miles worth) and my legs were feeling normal already. But The Body, she is a complicated machine, and legs that feel fine don’t tell the full story.

So forget the 5k, I don’t want to risk a bad race.  I just wish I wasn’t so impatient with myself!  I need to trust that running well takes time and experience and that I can’t push it out like a hard turd just because I want it all NOW!  This is a learning process that requires discovering and respecting limitations, even if I like to pretend I don’t have any.

So…Limits, meet Flo, Flo, these are your limits – now put the cane away.  Masochism is overrated anyway.

And this concludes lesson #46.2 of Know Thy Runner Self.   Perhaps a safe word won’t be necessary, after all.  Thwack. I stand corrected.