Running week of St. Patrick...

[indigoiis]

Hi all... ran 7.87 today, nice run in the rain with no pain. Yay! Anyone racing today?

[colby]

Ran about 5 with the dog and the other 8 or 9 by myself. GPS was measuring speed, but not distance, so I don't actually know. I also have a map, but no distance measurement. :P Based on speed and adding warmup/cooldown, it was somewhere north of 14 total. I wish Google Earth/Maps/something had an easy way to take my route and turn it into distance as a backup for when the GPS is being stupid. It did this once before, then worked great for a few weeks. Frustrating. Might be time to complain to Polar or dig in their forums.

Haven't ran in regular shoes in 2 weeks, this is my longest run in FiveFingers to date. My calves are not sore, but my left ankle is still giving me trouble, when I stretch it feels like it wants to adjust back into place but just won't (more stretching is in order). Last time I ran 12 in shoes, though, I hurt way more. Also, I seem to have come to a compromise with my right foot and re-learned a little about running with even pressure across my toes/forefoot, as my callous is NOT tender like usual and the skin between my first/second toe wasn't as irritated. All things I can take to running in shoes, when that time comes again (I assume it will, though I don't know when).

At the end of my run, I definitely felt like jogging on grass, which felt oh so good (never feels good in shoes, I don't know why... lack of connection between feet and brain with shoes inbetween?). I probably had 2-3 miles on concrete, somewhere around 1 on grass for cool-down, the remainder on asphalt. I can really feel the difference between the different materials. I'm sure I "knew" in shoes, too, I just didn't consciously notice it. Anyway, my feet didn't hurt as much as they did when I did 12 miles in the FiveFingers a few weeks ago, it was more of a muscle tiredness (especially glutes and hamstrings) that led to the grass jogging, and it was my cool-down, so it felt warranted.

So, I've got a 12k planned first week of May and will probably run a half marathon later that month (my normal long run right now is 12-14 and will be 16-18 by then), which I plan on doing in the FiveFingers unless something unexpected happens. As for Ironman... I am going to wait and see. I have 3.5 months to decide. I'm interested to see how it feels once I start doing long distance bricks.

Lots of shamrock runs today... though I don't know if there was one here. I had trouble getting up at a decent hour as it is thanks to the DST change so it's probably best I didn't race.

[OakLeaf]

I wish Google Earth/Maps/something had an easy way to take my route and turn it into distance as a backup for when the GPS is being stupid.

mapmyrun.com - as long as you know where you went, you can use it to get your distance. If you were on trails, almost always you can go to the satellite/aerial view and zoom in close enough as nevermind. (And since Google Maps added bike paths, those are now included in the "follow roads" option.) If you actually have a readable .gpx but for some reason your software won't tell you the distance, you should be able to import it into SportTracks.


I've come to the conclusion that the callus on the outside of my left foot is a tailor's bunion. Small and I hope to keep it that way, but not sure whether it'll keep me from running barefoot on hard surfaces. It's definitely pretty painful right now if I try to jog across the road to beat traffic, coming back from a barefoot beach run. But I'm still toughening up my soles all around, so maybe that will get some cushioning too. Still haven't tried on any VFFs yet, but I've decided I'm going to whenever I get around to it.

Anyway - long run on tap for me today, not sure how long I'll go considering I seemed to have lost so much fitness over the last couple of weeks, but planning to try for 20.

[Susan Otcenas]

Yesterday I ran Portland's Shamrock Run. 5K, 8K, 15K options. I chose the 15K, which also features a big climb (500 ft + of elevation gain, though I've seen cumulative estimates upwards of 1000 since the course rolls quite a bit as it climbs) up Terwilliger Blvd. Basically, it climbs/rolls for a good 5.5 miles, loses most of it's elevation by mile 8-8.5 and has a flat finish to 9.4 miles.

I had an *amazing* run. My overall goal was sub-10:00min/mile, or a total time under 1:34. Had I been thinking straight, I would have hit my lap timer at each mile marker so I could know all my splits. As it was, I kept a few numbers in my head.

5 miles at 51:50 (pace 10:21)
8 miles at 1:19:50 (3 mile pace 9:19 - overall 9:59)
9.4 miles @1:31:38 (1.4 mile pace 8:43!! - overall 9:45)

8:43!! Holy moley, I never would have thought I could run that pace, for that distance, after already running 8 miles. I was definitely maxed out. My anaerobic threshold is at 170, and in the finishing stretch I glanced at my HR monitor and saw 171.

Anyway, I'm thrilled. For me, it was good affirmation that my training is paying dividends.

In 2 weeks I will run the Fort Vancouver 10K. I ran it last year as well, so I'll have a direct comparison on that course for year-over-year improvement. I'm really looking forward to it!

[GLC1968]

I did my 3.2 mile training run yesterday. I actually ran most of it (had to flat out stop at one point because I ran out of shoulder and the cars were not cooperating) but I did walk for about a minute just after the half way point. I told myself that I would run all hills - non-negotiable. And I did.

My CV was fine at my chosen slow pace, but my hipflexors were bothering me as I topped out the last hill. Gotta work on those...

Overall time was 38 mins, so I've got some work to do before May to meet my goals for the tri.

[OakLeaf]

Way to go Susan! Great job. (If you import your track into SportTracks, you can see whatever splits you like. )

I got my 20 in but it was a struggle mentally and physically.

So I figured today was the day to try an ice bath again. Not sure how long I was able to leave my legs in it - should've had a clock - but it wasn't any more than five minutes, and now my fingertips are numb, where I had frostbite as a kid. I don't have hypothermia like I did the last time I tried an ice bath, though.


The other thing I'm dealing with is my usual post-long-run upset stomach. It doesn't seem to matter what I use for fuel on my long runs, I can force down a recovery snack when I first come back, but once an hour goes by, forget about eating much for dinner. It can't be good for me. (Plus, the f*rting isn't much good for anyone around me, either. ) Anybody have any suggestions?