Decision time
I knew that my angst about the impending XC season was starting to affect my motivation, so I had to make a choice. I decided not to train for cross this year. If I for some unlikely reason feel really compelled to race once or twice, I may do that to test it out, but I'm not going to alter my training to try to peak in a month or two.
This isn't the way I wanted it to be, but I think I've had some setbacks along the way and this is the right decision for where I am. Originally I was supposed to start doing more tempo work by now, and be on my once a week shot routine so I could phase in the 6 day week again. Instead, I'm over a month behind on my shot schedule now due to the outbreak of hives, and also missed 2 weeks of tempos. The lengthening process for the duration of my tempo runs has gotten hopelessly stalled at 3 miles, and I've yet to solve the mystery of why... so, all in all, I'm kinda shaky on even completing a 5K on rough terrain, without it degenerating into painful jogging by mile 3.
I think my runs ARE getting stronger though, and maybe I'll have a good shot at some late in the year road races if I just patiently keep at it for now. I think I can work in 1 medium hard day in addition to tempo day, hopefully that will teach my body to accept longer periods of high HR existence. Patience has never been a virtue of mine, but I try to remind myself that everything I've forced or rushed into with running has ended up a disaster. So far, nothing BAD has happened, I'm still on my feet, I'm still slooooowly making progress, I haven't made my foot completely better ... but at least it's not worse. As long as I'm still running, I'm still in the game. It's still the longest I've ever been able to train, in terms of # of weeks though not in # of miles. I guess I can be happy about that.
Sunday 08/03: 1:28:42, California backtracked to the stables, before heading out to once around the RB. Legs felt inordinately tired and sore from yesterday's adventures... but the run was fine. I realized that I'm so much happier if I can wake up and run at 6 am than 7 or later. Not sure why it makes that much of a difference, but something about that early dawn goodness makes me feel calmer and peaceful. Realized that going uphill was fine, but going DOWNHILL was the most painful thing ever, I think my quads are pickled with lactic acid from yesterday. Felt loads better after about 20 minutes of jogging, but unfortunately the soreness returned after I got back from the run and legs got a chance to cool back down. Darn.
Monday 08/04: Off, shots. Soreness continues... I'm either getting old, or maybe my legs didn't need that many miles yesterday.
Tuesday 08/05: 41:44, Huntington/Virginia/stairs. A pleasant short run with Stephanie, Sedona and Sarah. Legs were still feeling a little bit heavy and sore, but felt okay on the run.
This was also the first day of Bike-To-Work, a new fitness increasing/money saving initiative. I was only moderately terrified for my life... which I suppose exceeds expectations. ~80 minutes round trip, including getting horribly lost on my way back. It's only about 8.75 miles each way but somewhat slow going due to the traffic and heavy backpack. All in all it was not bad, I'm hoping to do this on the non shot days to supplement my meager running schedule. Toe a little bit tweaked out in the PM, maybe from pavement or from biking, or both.
Wednesday 08/06: 1:02:36, Monterrey to RB and back. The run in which I meet a golf ball named "Juice". No jokes. Ran really easy out, but pace crept up on the way back. Felt pretty good. I really enjoy the early morning. Bike to work went much better today, in which I had zero near death experiences and zero stopping to correct being losts. Hooray for improvement. ~70 minutes round trip.
Thursday 08/07: 1:01:39, RB perimeter plus the section to the yellow gate near JPL. Slept in until 6:30 this morning and it totally threw my whole morning off... Felt tired in many senses, legs felt heavy, and the temperature was creeping up. Somehow, it all started feeling a lot better after about 15-20 minutes, so I was able to finish strong, but basically ran pretty easy the whole way. I wonder if the extra biking is wearing me down... Felt much, much less zippy today both on my run and my commute. Hopefully my body will adjust... ~71 minutes round trip today, getting more comfortable with the route, but I rode much less aggressively than yesterday due to more tired.
Friday 08/08: Off, shots. It's amazing how quickly one adjusts to things. Felt really strange not to ride to work. I realized that I really enjoy riding to work.
Saturday 08/09: 54:42, some moderate tempo work in the Arroyo. 4 x Arroyo Tempo loops with the first and last warm up and cool down. There were supposed to be 3 tempo ones in the middle... but apparently it wasn't meant to be: 15:50, 11:51, 11:23, 14:23 plus jog back to car. Woke up with a stomach ache and felt pretty awful on the warm up lap. Surprisingly the first tempo lap was really good, a good clip but breathing only through nose, but for some reason I just freaked out on the second one. I think I was anticipating a slowdown and overcompensated. Then I had to sprint to pass an enormous (like, 50 kids) patch of HS cross country-ers, and at the end, I kinda felt like I was done. It bugged me for a while afterwards that I didn't do the 3 laps... but I decided that there'd be other days, and that I learned from this run that I do think I have 3 sub-12 minute laps in me right now. I was really worried about not clearing that hurdle, so I guess this exceeds expectations.
Training this week: 5:09:23, plus ~3:40 riding to work
Goals: To be able to descend a staircase without wincing.
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