Archive for March, 2009

I had unhappy legs for yesterday’s run.  Luckily, that phantom thigh ache from Sunday had disappeared completely, but now a twinge in my left quad (vastus medialis) was noticeable,  so I spent a good portion of the run recalculating my week, “it wouldn’t kill me to skip a speed session, I’d still get my tempo in or maybe I should just move it up a day, but then…”

Last night I gave it mucho tender loving care – if grinding it against a foam roller alternated with freezing the sucker denotes tenderness – and it seemed imperceptible this morning so I decided to do the session and if it flared again, I’d cut it short.

The workout was basically a different version of the one from Sunday’s LR:  8×3min. @ 10k pace w/2min active recoveries.   Wonder of wonders, I felt nary a peep from the offending muscle for the entire run.  In fact, I felt pretty damn excellent during and afterwards.

I was aiming for anything between 6:55 and 7:00 since my projected pace is still in the little-elves-working-on-it stage.  Warmed up with a couple miles at 8:50, then the fast bits went  6:59, 6:49, 6:52, 6:47, 6:50, 6:46, 6:47, 6:48 (average pace 6:49).  I ran home the last couple miles at 8:10 pace, though it didn’t seem that fast at all.   Total avg. pace for the run 7:57.

Now for a race plug for you local yokels.  The best race deal in Philly is this Sunday by the museum -  the Schuylkill Mile Trial – only $5  to enter and test your mettle at the mile!  The prizes are great, plus you get to meet a special guest.  Last year it was Edwin Roberts, an Olympic medalist who won Bronze in 1964.  He brought his medal and we all got to hold it, which is cooler than it sounds.  I won’t be running it this year but hope to stop by and watch the festivities.  Go for it if you’re curious as to what you can do in a very short amount of time – it’s guaranteed to be a lotta fun.

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.

As per our usual catch up, Wednesday was an easy 11@8:29 and yesterday was an easy 7@8:32.  On the latter run I wore my HR monitor, which I rarely do for easys, but I wanted to see where I stood lately after all this racing.   It ended up giving me some very positive feedback so I was excited to use it for today’s tempo.

Since the run today was focused on goal Half pace and with 6 weeks to go, I’m still mulling it over, I’ve been thinking about 7:25/mi. which would get me a 1:37:04.  But then, how can you look at that and not think, “so close to 1:36″ so I finally aimed for 7:23s today, figuring that if the HR monitor told me “too much, back off”, I’d obey without a fight.

It was a lovely day out, 61 degrees, which I thought might work against me since I’ve been running in cooler weather and anything above 55 makes me nervous, but it ended up being juuust right.  My splits were 7:24, 7:23, 7:21, 7:21, 7:24 for an average pace of 7:22.  The best part is my Heart Rate averaged 172 (83% HRR) – well situated for a Half.

As comparison, my last tempo on March 6th (haven’t done them recently due to racing) on a similar 55 degree day was 6 miles @ 7:35, so here’s how the first 5 tempo miles of that run compares to today’s 5 miles.

March 6,   7:35/mi, avg. HR 176 (86% HRR, Max 89%)
March 27, 7:22/mi, avg. HR 172 (83% HRR, Max 86%)

I do believe that 1:36:30 is now a reasonable goal for May 3rd.  Woohoo!

Funny thing, I was looking at my receipt for the Half yesterday which I paid for back in October (a couple weeks before I’d even run Steamtown) and you had to fill in a projected finish time.  I had written 1:43 – and that was me being optimistic.

This is an entertaining time, is all I can say.

Yesterday was a little goofy in that I had hill repeats scheduled, six 2-min ones, which meant I couldn’t do them on my closest hill, because it’s not long enough.

I don’t know if you remember the hill I used for marathon training, dubbed Smile Hill because I used it for mile repeats and kept calling it “that stupid mile hill” which eventually morphed into Smile Hill, but anyway, it’s 4.5 miles from my house – not a problem when you’re marathon training and your repeats are focused on downhill running at marathon pace.  But when the repeats are uphill at 5K effort, a 4.5-mile slog home seems like unnecessary torture.

So I drove to my run, which felt really silly since I parked in a spot I run by daily, but I was glad to have done it.  I ran 4 miles warmup, did the repeats which came out to 3 miles worth and then ran 2 miles back to my car, so 9 miles total.

It was funny because there was this lone crossing guard standing on the sidewalk whom I passed on the way up and down each time.  She was cute, made small talk on my trips down, “how many do you have to do?”  “did you make it to the top?” “tired yet?”  I think she knew not to chat on my way up though, my face one ugly determined grimace fighting against a constant wind.

Much improved pacing this time – when I did 8×1-min repeats @5K effort a couple weeks ago, I started with a 7:31 and by the 8th one could only eek out an 8:46, and if you recall I was so embarrassed by my shitty pacing I kept it from you.  This time I ran the ups in the low 8:00s so they didn’t veer much at all, but I got a solid workout and felt great afterwards.

Today I have 11 easy, or as easy as will be after having consumed vodka shots and wine last night.  We went with friends to a Russian restaurant, a BYOB, which makes getting drunk that much more convenient.  Feeling pretty good actually, considering I was on the verge of puking last night.

Looking ahead, the rest of the week looks downright luxurious with no races on the immediate schedule.  I’ve got 7 easy tomorrow, then Friday it’s 9 w/5 tempo at goal Half pace (ooh, time to decide on race pace), Saturday 7 easy, finishing with a 16-miler on Sunday that includes 15x(90sec.@10k pace w/90 sec recoveries).

Onward and outward, looks like a wonderful 55 degrees out there, just right for a fragile boozer such as myself.

Had a really nice LR yesterday, 16 @8:23 with a couple 7:55s at the end.  Was gorgeous outside, took my 20 oz. handheld and drained it empty.  Still holding out hope that they’ll turn the fountains on eventually.  My only irritation for the run was thinking “hey, my thighs are smaller, let’s see if I can get away from needing Bodyglide”.  Uh, no.   My chub rub is very much still in existence.

Speaking of,  now that my weightloss/push-up adventure is in maintenance mode (albeit with the new addition of chin-ups) it’s as good a time as any for some documentation.
Overall, I’m really pleased, though some stuff will always suck -  like no matter what I do, I can’t make my skin be any younger, so I’ll forever be floppy in my butt and upper arms, but considering I look better now at 47 then at any other point in my life, I’ll take it.

OK, been putzing enough around here enough today, time for my run.  7 or 8 miles with 8 hill sprints.   See you later!

As the Adrenaline promises, today brought another collection of super fast runners together.  You could feel the speed mojo while standing around waiting for the start, which was a chilly 35 degrees.

I got nervous last night, realizing that I’m finally at a level where I’m racing people, not just the clock.  Now I have to pay serious attention to where I line up because starting behind someone in my AG can make all the difference between winning and losing.  What a pain in the ass, but hey, I guess that’s why it’s called racing.

Lining up I saw a fast-looking woman who seemed around my age, so I tried to get as close to her as possible, but she was a little nearer to the front than I felt comfortable with, so I stayed behind.  Not that it mattered, the gun went off and she shot ahead faster than I could have chased, so I just said “oh well, I know I’m not First” and sucked it up.

Funny how last year, this race seemed like it had a couple hills.  This year, same course, it seemed a little rolling but instead of moaning about the ups, I took them in stride and thoroughly embraced the downs.  I passed a lot of people, including XC girls, so I knew I was running well.   The third mile was my fastest at 6:38 and I felt strong coming in for the finish.

Final time 21:11, 2nd place in my AG (award was a Brooks hat).   The cherry on the sundae is my WAVA score: 77.02%.   Movin’ on up!

So it’s a happy day, and happier still because I’ve got no races for an entire month. Woohoo!  Time to remember what I was working on before, though…oh yeah, training for a Half in May.  Hmm, might just concentrate on that now.