Getting there...
Things are improving (knock on wood!). I really tried, and its hard for a obsessively competitive person--to take Markkimarkkonnen's advice that every run should be its own reward to heart. I think last week's breakthrough, other than the increase in training minutes, is that I'm rediscovering the joy of running, feeling a little bit more of that "what's behind the next bend" intrigue of trying new routes and just enjoying the steps I take, instead of constantly hashing and rehashing what this means to The Plan, and how I'm doing that day.
Coincidentally or not, I'm also feeling a lot stronger. I feel like the runs that turn out the best are the ones that I really feel like doing. Within certain parameters, maybe sometimes it is good to listen to my moods and the runs I'd like to do that day. I was a bit worried after the unplanned Saturday longer run, how that would affect my Sunday long run, but surprisingly, I felt great. I'm really encouraged to know that I can do back to back solid runs now!
Sunday 06/01: 1:11:43, California around RB and back. I can usually tell within the first 10 minutes of a run, what kind of a run it's going to be, and I could tell early on that this was going to be a good one. Felt easy and coordinated for a change, legs strong, upper body relaxed, no breathing troubles, it seems like the yellow flowers are starting to subside a little bit. It just felt so very fantastic to feel like running was a natural, non taxing activity, that my legs just moved effortlessly over the terrain. Coming back on the other side of the RB, you can see the runners down below on the pavement, and my competitive instinct kicked in there, evidence that my spirit is actually not completely broken. I was pleasantly surprised that I could smoothly accelerate and pass them one by one, chasing them until I got back to the fields and the entrance to the Arroyo. It felt good, and it didn't seem to strain my breathing at all. Went pretty easy the rest of the way. A good run.
Monday 06/02: Off, shots. Tai Chi in the morning with Intern. It was great! It requires balance and coordination, which I lack in abundance. I think I will try to make a habit of doing this on shot days. Hamstrings oddly sore in the PM, wonder if it has to do with trying to hold all of those leg kicks and etc.
Tuesday 06/03: 1:14:56, warm up, 20 x 200m with 200m jog rest, cool down. This was both harder and easier than I thought it would be. In retrospect, I guess I was a little bit more tired for this than I would have liked, but overall, I think I got what I wanted out of it. Getting through the 7 warm up laps on the grass took a lot longer than usual, and it was really tough to control the pacing on the first 5 (I thought about them in 4 sets of 5 even though there was no break in between sets), so I was actually pretty concerned at that point. If this is what 5 feels like, how will I feel on 20? If this is what 200m feels like, how will I complete my 800's (next session)... yikes. I settled down after 5 though and it turned out alright:
46, 51, 49, 50, 49, 48, 48, 47, 47, 47, 47, 48, 47, 47, 48, 48, 47, 48, 48, 43.5 on an average of 2:02-3 lap cycles for 40:46 for 20 laps. I'm actually really pleased that I was able to remember these 20 numbers (GRE here I come!). I wanted consistency on the tempo parts, and to really just keep on moving through the jog parts and I think I got that. 6-19 were all about the same in terms of pace, lap time and how they felt, which is exactly what I wanted. On the last one, I was kind of just curious to see what I had left, since even at my best I am She-Who-Has-No-Kick (aka the opposite of KB). Ran the turn like the other ones, and accelerated into the straightaway for probably the best 100m I've ever run in my life. Apparently I do have a significantly faster gear, and it felt smooth, easy and fantastic. I think the breakthrough was about thinking "faster turnover" instead of "more effort", and the speed comes more easily, and the everything else feels more controlled.
Wednesday 06/04: 42:04, Monterrey to bridge loop in the PM. Had to go shadow a principal for the day, which meant leaving the house at 6:30 AM, which meant, no morning run. Run was very chill, pleasant, though I guess the advantage of the morning is that there aren't little kids and horses and other stuff that blocks the trail out there. Definitely aware that my legs feel a little bit beat up, but was pleased that the runtime was still on the better end of the spectrum of previous results. Even so, I've had a lot of volume in the past few weeks, I think I'll go easy through end of this week, and try to do a chill but longer run on Sunday so I can not be exhausted for whatever Tuesday is... maybe steady-state since I don't quite feel mentally prepared for 800's, even if its just at threshold pace.
Thursday 06/05: 53:10, California to Salvia Canyon. Yikes. I have to say, since the past week or so has been pretty encouraging, at the back of my mind, I've been wondering when the other shoe was going to fall... and fall it did today. Was falling asleep at the wheel yesterday and just had a lot of trouble waking up today, already bad indications... just felt really systemically tired this morning. Legs felt okay, just the whole system wouldn't move. Felt better during the second half, but I guess it didn't really make up for running the first half at like 10 minute miles...
Friday 06/06: Off, shots. Stressed and sleep deprived, argh!
Saturday 06/07: 45:34, Huntington/Virginia disaster. Body feeling kind of beat up from all of the stress, lack of sleep and etc. these days, so decided to start my down week one day early by cutting this run down from planned Huntington/Oak Knoll. Good thing too, bc I started off feeling barfy and then got this side stitch that wouldn't work itself out and it was pretty miserable and slow. Not that I was feeling particularly great before the side stitch, it felt a lot warmer than I would have preferred. I also saw Rachael Martin of CMS running on the Sierra Madre median, she had a look of vague recognition when she saw me, but I didn't want to freak her out by saying "hi Rachael". I guess I'm also weary of running into competitive runners (vs. exercise runners) if I'm having a particularly ugly day, which today definitely was.
Training this week: 4:47:27, 3 pretty heavy weeks in a row... definitely need a down week.
Goals: Not to go crazy and overdo it, now that I'm feeling better.
1 comment:
fyi paula's marathon pace is 38.5s/200m
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