Marching On: running thread

[skhill]

Yesterday I ran a route I rarely use, due to the hellacious 1st mile. Mostly uphill to one degree or another, with a short steep downhill thrown in for variety. The reward is that the 2nd mile is a gentle downhill. Only went 4.5 miles in total, and I keep reminding myself how nice it is to be running outside again after this awful winter.

Saturday's my first race of the year, a 5k. Not expecting to go all that fast after the little running I've been doing lately, but that's fine.

And today we had a big announcement: we're having a local marathon in 2015! First here since one in the late 70s! And as it's about 14 months out, plenty of time to train.

[OakLeaf]

That's exciting skhill! Good luck on Saturday.

Yellow, yay for hill repeats! <wheeze, puke, trip>

I did downhill repeats yesterday, a workout I'd asked my coach for, since the descent out of Hopkinton threw me off so badly last year. It went much better than I was expecting. I think a lot because it turned out that some of the same form focuses I'd been working on, on the flats, turned out to be really useful with balance and leg turnover descending, too. Landing on all four corners of the feet (a cue from my yoga teacher that has been just IMMENSELY useful in regaining foot function), then bending my knees and lifting my heels behind me and "feeling the wheel" as in the Roadrunner cartoons (a Chi Running cue).

I got all the way through the workout before it occurred to me that at race start, I *will* want to be putting the brakes on and holding back my speed, and so biomechanically it might work out much different from what I was doing yesterday. Ah, well.

Five weeks out and I'm *finally* starting the mileage buildup in my long runs. So far it seems like this training plan is actually working. My longest run this cycle before Monday had been 14 miles, and on Monday I did 17, and not only wasn't it excessively hard, but it wasn't even hard the way 17 has often been a slog for me in the past. We'll see what happens with 20 miles this coming Monday ...

[Catrin]

Sounds great everyone! Oakleaf, I am seriously impressed by your just casually being able to run 17 miles!!! That is awesome and SKHill, "only" 4.5 miles? That rocks as well! I am cheering everyone on!

I think I need to separate my running from my hard gym days. I've been running on the track inside after my hard group training sessions, but the 7 minutes I ran Tuesday I think had repercussions because of what my body was submitted to the previous hour. Still though, I managed 7 minutes and didn't have any real problems with that. I THINK that was a bit over 6 laps, and 8 laps = 1 mile, so I am progressing.

Winter keeps giving here - they are calling for flurries next week That being said, it is supposed to be around 60 tomorrow! I am taking the day off due to my second round of diagnostic tests, so depending on how I feel afterwards, I think it is time to finally take my brand new trail running shoes out of their box and get them dirty It will be interesting to see how much longer I can run on the trail over the track - though I will try to keep it in 7 minute increments with 5 minutes of walking in between. If I can do at least two of those tomorrow without problem or pain then I will be a happy woman!

I will start the day with a good KB workout at home, but probably not my 500 swing workout - I will save that for Saturday

[skhill]

Well, the race wasn't fast but it's done. With how little I've been running and the rising pollen count I set a modest goal averaging a sub-9 min mile, and did. Barely. It was a very small field so I was running on my own most of the way; didn't really feel like a race. This is how small the field was: I was 5th overall and 3rd among girls/women, despite being so slow. But it was a beautiful morning and I'm glad I ran.

[OakLeaf]

Nice work skhill!

In other news: 20 miles still feels like 20 miles on my legs, but the mental game is just a whole lot different this time around. For one thing, the long run is definitely not the hardest day of my week - the speedwork and long tempo runs put the long run in a different perspective than I've had before. And then, even though I pretty much knew from week to week what my long run distance would be when I was making it up as I went along, it feels different to just get my training plan from my coach and say to myself, "Okay, that's what I'm going to do."

Still pretty sore at the moment, though.

[skhill]

Looks like a treadmill week-- 3 miles yesterday (it was 22F) 3 miles today (heavy snow falling); tomorrow's going to be frigid, so treadmill again. Sigh. At least on the treadmill I'm not planning routes to avoid that nasty pollen from maple trees....

Oak, I find the mental part of long long runs the hardest too. Once it gets more than 2 hrs, it's so hard for me to stay engaged. I do enjoy speedwork, maybe I'm not going hard enough!

[TrekDianna]

Hello all, I logged in for just a few minutes and of course I am totally jealous of all the running and biking going on. I am currently in Beijing, China and today has been the first day in awhile that I could actually go outside other than to work and back. It's been 435 or so out of 500 for the pollution (air quality index) and that's the hazardous range where it can cause death in old/young and serious breathing issues in others. I am finally heading for home tomorrow and not only am I going to be thrilled to breathe the fresh Oregon air, I don't care how tired I am, I am going for a long run to get all this junk out of my lungs -- a nice long air exchange.