Long and Less Long Runs: 4-2 to 4-8

[KSH]

My lunch run was about 1:26 and a little over 9 miles. It included 3 reps of a half mile hill working in zone 4 and pushing up into zone 5 for the last 1 minute. Then I did 5 reps of 6 min on zone 4 running on relatively flat terraine.

Phew. It was a toughy.

I hope I can run like you someday.

[yellow]

KSH, you'll continue to improve. We've all seen you take giant steps already. It takes time. We're all so close to our own personal training regimes and the day-to-day that I don't think we realize just how far we've come sometimes! I think it's taken me a good 1.5 years of pretty hard work to bring myself to the point where I am now. I was in good shape before, but I'm now at a point where I am surprising myself with my own fitness on a regular basis.

I am still on my family visit (returning home tomorrow--yay!) and decided that I needed to find someplace that wasn't totally flat. Running on the beach is nice, but I found that the constant flat was starting to make my back hurt. It's all in what you're used to.

So after yesterday's 7.5 on the beach, which was nice, I headed to a local state park to hit some trails. Found one with the word "peak" in it and decided I needed to run it. Aside from the minor considerations of ticks, mountain lions, and poison oak, it was an absolutely fabulous run. I was only going to go about 5 miles but ended up with between 9-10 (as near as I can tell...gps died on me during the run as I forgot my charger). And I felt great the whole time, still feel good, and never really felt tired. Spooky. It seems that after 2 runs of that length 2 days in a row I should be tired, but I'm not.

I was thinking that there was no way I was ever going to be able to run anything longer than a 20-25k but now I'm thinking pretty hard about one of the fall trail marathons. I would definitely say that the experience I had today was a big surprise (of course, it could also be that I'm running at sea level and am used to running at about 5000', but I'm not sure how the reverse altitude adjustment thing really works). I do need to start riding eventually. But running is going so well I'm not sure I really want to switch gears. Bad, bad.

[Shiraz]

So far it's been a great week. I ran 7 miles Sunday and today ran 5.25 miles then biked 39 miles (I would have went around the block until I had a full 40 but had to get the taxes dropped off). I plan to run 12-13miles on Friday AM with the buddies.Wow, how I miss my bike rides. My half mary is 2 1/2weeks away........

Yellow, it sounds like you have had some amazing runs!! Trail running is your thing. I find running in the sand very hard. I would love to be able to run on dirt trails more often. Today I took some detours from my usual path and hit some dirt roads and it is some much nicer to your joints.

KSH, you are doing wonderful! I am so impressed with your determination.

[Grog]

So far so good. I cycled as planned yesterday, than ran a not-too-hard 7km this morning and, well, it was too nice to be true so I went for a bike ride in the afternoon. It's probably not that smart to tax my legs like that but I didn't go too hard on the bike. It's just that I'm surrounded by hills!

No more running until Friday now. Or maybe just a tiny one on my own with the MP3 player? I must admit that I take some pleasure in running by myself... Much more relaxing, for some reason...

[Wahine]

I hope I can run like you someday.

I think you will. It's all about consistency and you're certainly consistent with your training.

Like Yellow said, You've made huge improvements, just in the last 2 months!!

You're doing great.

[tattiefritter]

KSH - second what Wahine says being consistent really pays off.

I was quite busy at work yesterday so didn't get a chance to update. Went out at lunchtime to do 7 miles at a steady pace. It was a hard run from the off as my legs felt pretty tired from yesterdays commute (16 miles in and 27 home at carried away speed as I was on the roadie for the first time this year ). A little voice in my head kept telling me to cut it short but I made myself run the whole seven miles. When I looked at my lap splits they were quite consistent around the 9:00mm mark until I started to head back to work at mile 4 and the last three got quicker and quicker . I've not had a mentally tough run for a while and although they hurt at the time I find them very useful (especially when I win) in that they train me to ignore the quitter voice when it gets tough. So 7.2 miles in 1:04, 8:45 mm average.

That's as much distance as I want to do for now I think. I will be doing 5 or 6 miles on Thursday with some fartleks and 5 miles easy on Friday. Next week will be a step back week with 2 or 3 runs of 3.5 miles max and easy commuting. My plan after my stepback week is to repeat this weeks sessions to consolidate and then possibly introduce some intervals in place of the fartleks but no more distance for a while. Still need to find a 10K to enter which is proving more difficult than I anticipated.

[crazycanuck]

I went running tonight for the first time in a few months...

Urrmmm..let's say i've got some work to do if i want to do the Anaconda in September..

I've been so keen on cycling & swimming I forgot about running....

C

[KSH]

I think you will. It's all about consistency and you're certainly consistent with your training.

Like Yellow said, You've made huge improvements, just in the last 2 months!!

You're doing great.

Yellow and Wahine... thank you both for the kind words of encouragement. I really do appreciate it.

Tattie and Shariz... thank you so much too! Very kind words indeed.

I have come a long way... as I wasn't even running last year.

From May to December of 2006, I only ran 85 miles! From January to March of 2007, I have logged 125 miles.

It's just frustrating sometimes... the lower leg pain that never goes away... the side cramps... being so DAMN SLOW!!!

I know I should be proud of what I can do... but when I see that I could do pretty dang well in tri's (placing top 3-5 in my age group!)... IF I could RUN FAST... I get frustrated.



Well, I ran last night on the treadmill as it was raining.

45m 4.00 miles 11m 15s /mile

No side cramp! WOO-HOO! My legs were hurting pretty bad, but not my side. HA!

It's always one or to the other... although the legs typically always hurt.

[KSH]

So after yesterday's 7.5 on the beach, which was nice, I headed to a local state park to hit some trails. Found one with the word "peak" in it and decided I needed to run it. Aside from the minor considerations of ticks, mountain lions, and poison oak, it was an absolutely fabulous run. I was only going to go about 5 miles but ended up with between 9-10 (as near as I can tell...gps died on me during the run as I forgot my charger). And I felt great the whole time, still feel good, and never really felt tired. Spooky. It seems that after 2 runs of that length 2 days in a row I should be tired, but I'm not.

That sounds beautiful Yellow. Running for the fun of it!

[alpinerabbit]

Phew. second run after the break. I feel so sluggish. I managed something like 4K in 35 minutes. I also did some laps around the football field. Grass is tiring to run on.

I am religiously treating my hip with antiinflammatory cream and I think it is going away.

I got new running shoes. "Same" model as before which I used 3 winters (of little running until this one). The new ones feel much stiffer so maybe the dampening material was wearing out after all.

[Deborajen]

Great job everyone! I can't believe all the miles that are being put in.

I did an 8-mile easy run on Monday evening. Temps were in the mid 80's and it was windy. Towards the end, I started getting a little queasy and my calves started cramping, so I slowed down (even slower than the easy run/walk pace ) and came home. Guess the heat got to me a little since I haven't been out in those temps in awhile.

This evening is a 6-mile tempo run. It should be in the mid 50's, so quite a change from Monday. I'm looking forward to it.

Don't know how you girls manage a run over lunch hour - especially more than a short one. That would be a nice break. Then again, with the short lunch break we have here at my work, the full day is shorter so a before or after work run is more doable.

Keep up the great work everyone! It's always inspiring to read everyone's posts. It really helps keep me motivated!

Deb

[Wahine]

Don't know how you girls manage a run over lunch hour - especially more than a short one. That would be a nice break. Then again, with the short lunch break we have here at my work, the full day is shorter so a before or after work run is more doable.

It helps that when I took this job I duly informed my employers that I would need long lunches to get in IM worthy workouts. I assured them that I would get the job done efficiently and well but not to expect me in the clinic for 2 to 2.5 hours in the middle of the day. So they schedule my patients around my workouts. I block them out on the appointment sheet a week in advance and they just make it work.

[colby]

Great job, everyone. Good to see what progress we've all made as we move back a better season for running... and events!

Monday, I did 4 miles. Tuesday, a quick 3 miles, Wednesday I tried cardio kickboxing at a friend's gym, Thursday 4 miles with 20 minutes of hill repeats. Tomorrow... we'll see. This weekend is the last weekend of ski season and I'm already committed to that, so there won't be anything productive then.

My plan is 12k in 1 month, 1/2 marathon in almost 2 months. I'm excited to see what my progress is... I'd like to better my times by 1-2 minutes per mile, which comes out to almost 30 minutes for the 1/2 marathon and 10-15 minutes for the 12k. We'll see... hill training, here I come.

[limewave]

You gals are making me feel so lazy this week! I did one 3.5 mile hill training run back on Monday. Tuesday I skipped out on my running club to eat pork chops with the in-laws and tonight I passed up running to eat buttery bread with DH who happened to get out of work early I'm not running again until Saturday.

And, to make this worse, this darn snow has forced me to bring my road bike back into the basement and onto the trainer again

[Wahine]

Don't feel bad Limewave. I blew of my ride and my run today. I went out at lunch with full intent to ride and found a deep slash in my sidewall so I didn't ride. Then I ended up having a really long day and didn't have any energy left to run, plus my allergies have been kinda bad this week. So I proudly said "Screw it!" and decided to take a spontaneous day of. I even had 2 glasses of wine with dinner.