Saturday, August 14, 2010

Another week goes by

Looking back to the last 6 days of running, I didn't end up getting the 17-18 miles I wanted last Sunday. I just ran out of time during the day and finished last week with 37.8 miles. I'll give the details below:

Sunday:  8.15 in 59:15 (7:16/mi avg) I didn't have time for a good run during the day so I settled for an hour after the kids went to bed. I wanted to do a few hill repeats so I want out to 40th, a one-mile long hill at about 8% grade and started running hard uphill for 2 minutes, then turning around and coming back down slowly to recover for 1 minute. I zig-zagged up and down the hill until after the 5th hard burst (Fartlek?) uphill I reached the top. I decided to keep the pace up on all of the rest of the hills as I ran down to 70th and then came around past Fox Island and back home. I pushed hard on the uphills, tried to stay fast and loose on the downhills and steady but a bit slower on the flats. I knew the run would be around 8 miles and wanted to see if I could finish 8 in under an hour. I was happy about that even if I didn't get the 18 I hoped for.

Monday: 4.8 in 42:09 (8:47/mi avg) Recovery day for the body. I just ran lazily out to the Bridle Trails for a short loop. I wanted to run at least 5 but I misjudged the route when i was in the forest and turned around too early.

Tuesday: 6.0 in 43:52 (7:19/mi avg) I wanted to run Intervals so I sucked it up and ran on the treadmill at the gym. I ran 4 1200 meter repeats at 6:00/mi pace with a quarter mile @ 9:30 pace rest interval between and a mile cool-down at the end. I struggled to keep 6:00/mi pace after the first two. I thought it would be easier but I learned that I'm not in as good of shape as I hoped.

Wednesday: 5.15 in 44:21 (8:37/mi avg) Another recovery day for my legs. I felt pretty good but there was definitely some soreness in my hamstrings that I wanted to work out. The easy running plus using the massage stick and a foam roller helped.

Thursday: 5.4 in ~50 min (slow pace). I ran with a guy at work around my Redmond Streets course. He's a really good mountain biker but doesn't get into running much. I don't think he enjoys running except as an effective tool to lose weight. He was good company to talk to on a run that I planned to be at recovery pace anyway. Later that day at work, he IM'd me and asked "So what'd we run, about 3 miles?" Funny guy.

Friday: Run 1:  6.05 in 40:33 (6:42/mi avg) along the Pro Club route Clockwise. I went after it on this one. I ran the first two net downhill miles in 5:53, then 5:50. I paid for it on the next two miles but picked it up again for some nice low-6 miles to finish it up. This time barely breaks my previous record for the route (by 9 seconds). It's something, I'm approaching 40 min!
             Run 2: 8.10 in 1:12:01 (8:53/mi avg) I ran the standard Bridle Trails full loop as a recovery run after work to sneak in a few extra miles and give my legs a chance to go easy. I didn't push the pace at all during the run and I rolled my ankle about 1/2 way into the lop. I was running down a trail that formed soft of a shallow V-shaped trench in the middle. I was running about 6:30/mi pace and I rolled my left ankle with immediate searing pain and a loud grunt escaping my lungs. I did my best to stop quickly and came pretty close to falling over and tumbling down the rest of the short hill. I got control and hopped to a stop on my other leg. The pain was pretty bad for a minute and then I walked it off and didn't dare untie my shoe. I continued on at a slower pace and made it back to the gym without any further problems. I iced it when I got home which helped and it's almost back to normal now so hopefully I'll get a chance to test it out for about 2.5 hours tomorrow.

So far I have 35.5 miles for the week and would like to hit 50 again. We'll see what Sunday (with many house guests) holds for my running. In other news I'm planning to sign up for the Baker Lake 50K trail run. It wasn't my first choice for a 50K but it's close to some relatives that I can likely stay with up in Bellingham. Now if I can only stick to my training schedule...

No comments: