Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Nudging the ball down the field

Tuesday: (5.1mi 44:40  8:45/mi avg) After Monday's slow recovery run I  didn't feel quite recovered so I set the dial for recovery pace again and ran down to the Bridle trails. On the way out to the trails my legs didn't feel very good and kept my pace down. I was hungry and sluggish. It was one of those runs where you plan to turn around and end it early if things don't improve after a mile or two. It wasn't bad enough that I was ready to throw in the towel at the midway point so I kept going and tried to stay on top of my hydration as I entered the Bridle Trails from the North end of the Powerlines road. My mood and legs started to improve once I was on the trails running amongst the tall trees. My pace improved a bit and I enjoyed the shaded trails until I left the park and headed back toward the gym. It was warm enough that I was able to enjoy running with my shirt off. I relaxed and focused on the run, shutting out everything else except the path in front of my feet. Not a spectacular run but the best way I could find to spend my lunch hour.

Wednesday: (6.0mi 41:14  6:52/mi avg) I wasn't looking forward to the tempo run that I pushed from Tuesday to Today, I had an uneasy stomach which was probably was nerves about how fast I would be able to run. I ran the work loop Counter Clockwise, the slightly slower direction. It was 85F and felt every bit of that from the start. About 1/10th  of a mile into the run I hit a red light  and noticed that my legs felt heavy already. I decided at this point that I wouldn't look at my watch during the run and turned the live display off. I hoped running blind would take some of the stress out of my busy brain. I don't know why I have any stress about running in general, much less a once-a-week tempo run that only matters to me. Internal competition with my past times I guess, but you can't PR every time out there. My first mile was slower than usual for this route. I'm usually hitting the first mile in about 6:00 even but today I got there in 6:17. I kept losing a few seconds per mile but still managing to suffer just fine. Gasping for breath I was able to start picking up the pace along the back stretch which just upped the suffering a little as I chugged on.

My legs weren't doing that well and by the time I went down the big hill and back up the other side I started to feel the heat of the pavement through my shoes. It wouldn't have been a good day to try barefoot running. I did my best to keep the  pace up for the last slightly-uphill mile back. When it was all said and done I had a decent sub-42 min. time for the record books. I hope the tempo runs and intervals will help my pacing for running a 10K later this year in a quest to go under 40 after I turn 40.

Other things of note:

After running out of water twice on my last long run I went to REI to look for larger water bottles to run with and found some. I bought a larger replacement bottle for my Ultimate Direction holster thing that holds 4 more ounces. I also reluctantly picked up a Camelbak 24oz hand bottle. I liked the ergonomics, the insulated lining, and especially the nozzle but they only had them in pink. I bought it in pink rather than trying to find another color in another store or online. Maybe it'll help my ego to carry a pink hand bottle. Either that or I'll tell people that it was dark when I packed for the run and I accidentally grabbed my wife's bottle my mistake. :-)

Also, I had an appointment at the physical therapy office yesterday. I am now the not-quite-so-proud wearer of a custom-formed plastic wrist brace to help with a bad case of De Quervins tendonitis that I've been suffering since I returned from Hawaii back in May. I thought it would go away on it's own if I took it easy on my wrist. Here I am 3 months later and it hurts more than ever. Having a job where I sit in front of a computer most of the day doesn't help a bit.

2 comments:

ross88guy said...

Glad to hear you are getting back on track with your running! Physios are great aren't they!

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nrmrvrk said...

I'm letting the Physio and my acupuncturist compete to see who can fix my tendinitis first.