Spring Running Thread

[rocknrollgirl]

Oak,
How much longer until the race? Three weeks or so? When would you normally start your taper?

We drove north today to get some bigger hills. We have not made the trip since Dec, right before the great hamstring debacle of 2016. I was a bit worried given my barfy status last w/e and the state of my quads this week post race, so I took an extra recovery day.

There really is no easy way to start your trail run at this park, it is either up and to the right, or up and to the left. So we opted today to start at a neighboring park and run those trails and then a short road stretch and then into our intended destination. That way we had a bit more of a warm up and some extra mileage.

We got in 11 miles total, and about 1200 feet of climbing, so mission accomplished. My goal today was to just run easy, walk the big climbs and pace myself. At about 2 miles in my legs said, no thanks, we do not want to do this today and my stomach felt gross. So I kept it to a trudge. About 1/2 way through my stomach settled. No help for the quads, they hurt on all the downhills and made my knees barky. But I blocked it all out and got through. And here is the crazy thing. I walked all the big hills and felt awful for 9 of 11 miles and my pace was the same as the last time I ran there, when we only ran 8 miles, I felt great and ran all of the hills.

Go figure. There is something to be said for trudging. So I will draw on this day when things get tough at North Face, cuz it was not fun today. Today put the work in workout. But I did meet lots of nice folks out with their canine friends and saw some mt bike folks that I know, so that was fun.

[OakLeaf]

Yep, three weeks from today. Lots of non-running stuff has to happen between now and then too ... Your race is the end of the month?

Mine was pretty much of a trudge yesterday too, but I got it done without aggravating anything. Besides the injuries it was super hot and humid, which it seems like I've been complaining about all winter, but it hasn't been consistent, so I'm still not even close to acclimated to 80° and 80% humidity. I only did four miles at goal pace (which honestly, my time goal is pretty much out the window at this point), even took a couple of walk breaks, but got all 17 miles done. The ankle was kind of twingey, especially going around corners - that's one good thing about Boston being a more or less straight line point-to-point course - but it doesn't feel any worse this morning. The other Achilles I'm just trying to be as careful with as I can. Day by day.

[rocknrollgirl]

Two hours of trail running today, in the rain. I had a tough time convincing my husband on the way to the park that it was going to be AWESOME! But, once you are soaking wet, you can't get any wetter.

Actually on the way over we reminisced about all of the mountain bike races we have done in pouring rain/sleet/snow/hub deep mud. The last one of those was the last time. we had over 500 dollars in repairs to our bikes! Today, I just had wet gear.

[Crankin]

This is true. Thinking of all the trail runners and people prepping for the marathon today. We decided to walk to the gym (.99 mile the short way) for tabata. OK, it was sprinkling on the way there, and the weather forecasts were very conflicting, so off we went. Class was over and when we went out the door it was raining lightly. Then it got heavier. Ugh. I had a hoodie on, with thumbholes, sort of stretchy, wicking material, but it was only about 50 out. The road into the gym is a downhill, going home, and I really wanted to run, but DH was lagging, as the class wore him out. He had shorts on, too and a heavy cotton hoodie. Once we got to the bottom of the hill, it was not much further to the condo, but I was seriously concerned about hypothermia; i don't think i have ever walked so fast, less than a 15 minute mile. When I took my capris off, the tops of my thighs were turning red, so I am glad I got home when I did.
Will have to wait to show DH the trail and neighborhood way to get home from the club. Today, we needed the fast way!

[Catrin]

Sounds like challenging weather! Here we've had amazing winds today - could actually barely stand up against a couple of the wind bursts. My car even tried to move over into the next lane No hiking for me today, obviously, but glad both of you were able to get out regardless of the weather!

[rocknrollgirl]

It was probably about 48 when we ran today, but in the first mile, it feels like 20 degrees warmer. That is one nice thing about running in cold or wet weather is that you do generate a ton of heat. That being said, we were in the right gear, so it does make a difference.

And it has been CRAZY windy here all week. I almost got knocked over in the grocery store parking lot the other day.

[rocknrollgirl]

Can you believe that I am sitting here waiting for snow on April 9th? This is crazy!
After last week's long run in the rain, we decided to get up and out early this weekend to try and beat the storm. We made it back just as the rain started coming in. It was cold this morning, I think around 26 when we started. Cold enough to freeze my hose again. We only h ad to run for an hour because it is a drop down week. One more really long run to go before race day in a few weeks.

Hope you all had a good week. Oak if you are checking in, I hope your achilles is feeling better. Stay warm and dry North East TE'ers, cuz it is coming your way!!