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March 30, 2006
Wind Sucks
Today would have been perfect except for the wind. The track where we do our workouts always has wind on it, even on the calmest of days. It also seems to sit just so that you can have the wind for more than half of the track, although that doesn't logically make sense. Common sense would dictate that if you are running around an oval that it would be split evenly-half with a headwind and half with a tailwind. Tonight the headwind started a third of the way through the curve at the top of the track and continued all the way through the end of the curve at the bottom of the track. In all, we had a headwind for about 275 meters.
Doing workouts in the wind always brings out the worst in me as well, so I end up in a really bad mood. Part of it is that although I try to forget about the time, it gets to me that I have to work so much harder just to try to get close to the target pace. It also bothers me that I am always the one to do the work of running into the wind. The one guy who I seem to train with a lot always just sits on my shoulder and lets me do the work. He does this no matter what the conditions are, but he never offers to help with the pacesetting. I am by no means a big person and I get very beat up by running into the wind. Basically, I just get to be really bitchy when we have really windy workouts.
The schedule called for one of my favorites tonight, so this upset me even more. The workout was 2000-1600-1200-800-400 with 400 jogs. The target pace was 90 seconds a quarter, which I should be able to do even on a not so great day. Halfway through the 1600 I was spent from running into the wind. The 1200 was terrible. At this point, M graciously offered to lead for me. She had heard how frustrated I was with the situation and said she would do some work for me. Half of the workout was right on pace, half of it was off.
My run this morning was better than usual, so that may have been a factor in tonight. My Thursdays have not been good for a few weeks and I need to figure out what the problem is. I'm pretty sure that part of it is not getting enough sleep. I keep getting sucked into pretty lame TV shows. Last night, I should have gone to bed immediately after Lost, yet I stayed up and watched The Evidence, which isn't even that good. I know that I need to get a massage, which I will schedule tomorrow. I also need to shake whatever has been ailing me for the past month. It is really low grade, but it is still there.
OK, time to get myself in a better mood, the weekend is coming.
Posted by Blondie at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2006
A Sign of the Times
Things that I meant to write about yesterday, but completely forgot about as soon as I sat down to write. Sometimes my forgetfulness worries me. I can remember random bits of information amazingly well, but other items slip my mind so easily. So far I haven't forgotten anything too important. Anyhow...the treadmill in the lab has a carb counter on it. Only appropriate given our society's obesession with any thing carbohydrate related. It actually has it's own ticker that it shares with the incline. It can't be all that accurate since during the start up it never asks for weight or age, and I know that I burn calories at a different rate than a 200 pound man. Susan may be interested in the fake sweat; but I, for one, do not want to know exactly what goes into it. According to the techie, you can find the concentration of it online. He says it is just salt and water and "something else, but I won't tell you because it'll gross you out". I have my ideas, and frankly, all of them are disgusting. I don't want to know what is in it until I know that I'll never have it touch my body again.
Let me just say that today was beautiful. It was over 60 degrees at 5:15 when I left to run this afternoon. It is pretty obvious that we "spring ahead" this weekend. It was truly light out for most of my run. The only thing to complain about today was that the breeze was a bit on the strong side. I could have done without it, but that would be petty.
I wish I felt as great as the weather was. It wasn't that I felt bad, but it wasn't great. My stomach was gurgling which was in turn making me burp a lot. The culprit was eating lunch over an hour later than usual. The need to have at least four hours between eating and running is not all in my head. Less time can work on occasion, but it's risky. At least it was just an easy recovery run. My legs felt fresher than normal even after running more than normal yesterday, probably because the pace was easier than it normally is on Tuesday.
Finally, this isn't set in stone yet, but does anyone know about running in Bermuda? We may be taking a surprise trip there in October for a long weekend. I'd appreciate any direction that I can get pointed.
Posted by Blondie at 07:39 PM | Comments (1)
March 28, 2006
Lots of Miles
Morning runs are much better this year than they were at this time last year. It probably has to do with the fact that I don't have to be out running until about 6:45 instead of 4:45. When I woke up to go to the bathroom at 3:50, I thought about having to get up so early last year and that it would be nearly time to get up to run. Clearly I am happy that I do not need to do that anymore.
This morning's run was much better than the past few have been. That doesn't mean that it was an awesome run by any means. In fact, I'm not so sure that my legs felt any better than usual. The best part was that there were no bathroom issues until the last third of a mile. That is a short distance to go compared with the past few weeks where I've been about a half mile into the run when my stomach decides that it's time to act up. I did the extra loop and also ran up an extra street to see if I could figure out which house an acquaintace is getting ready to buy. I don't think there was any real estate agent involved, so there wasn't a sign in front of the house. There are only about twenty houses on the street, so there weren't that many to guess from.
This afternoon's run ended up being split up. It could almost be called two runs, since I had to get in my car to drive somewhere safer to finish it. Today was another day of testing. To answer "red" from the other day: for almost a year I have been involved in new product testing of a sports bra/heart rate monitor. Today we were getting baseline readings from the straps. I wore the soft strap and the traditional hard strap for different portions of the run. We discovered that my ribs are too small to get a really good reading from the traditional strap. Once again, fake sweat was involved. He told me that it is salt, water, and something else that he won't tell me because I'll find it gross. It was already gross, so I don't want to know. I got in 40 minutes on the treadmill plus doing other silly exercises and jumping jacks. I can't believe that I ever thought that jumping jacks were fun.
Once I left, I drove down to the track and did one of our tempo loops. I'm not sure how far it is from where I parked to the start of the loop, but my guess is about a half mile. I did the four mile loop and ran back to my car and that is where my OCD kicked in because it was 36 minutes and to make myself happy, I wanted to go for an even 40 minutes. A few laps on the track solved that, so I got in two forty minute runs this afternoon. I'm not really sure how far it was, about eleven miles? The part on the treadmill was all just under 7:30 pace, but my heart rate was only 135, so it was pretty relaxed. The cool thing about doing this is I can find out how good of shape I am in because it is all at the same pace. Judging by today, I'm getting into pretty good shape. In all today was 16 miles, which I consider quite a bit for a regular day.
Posted by Blondie at 07:50 PM | Comments (1)
March 27, 2006
Just Another Manic Monday
Monday is always one of the worst days of the week at work. The problem isn't so much that it is the day back to work for us. The problem is that it is the day back for the rest of the world and the phone rings all day long. It is hard to accomplish everything that needs to be done when the phone just rings and rings and rings. Of course, there was a ton of stuff that had to get done today. That is one of the nice things about Monday, I'm busy all day, so the day goes faster.
It was time to leave for the track before I knew it. Being busy was a good thing since I didn't have time to think about the workout all day. Since Saturday was so awful, having time to stew about the workout would have ruined it. It was also surprising at how light it was when it was time to leave. That does make some sense, since we will be springing ahead soon.
The workout was the same as last week with the idea to maintain the pace, but for it to feel easier. Last week, I fell off pace after about six or seven of the 600s, so I also wanted to stay on pace for all ten. This workout, 10 x 600 with a 200 uptempo jog, is probably one of the hardest that we do. If you can find a pace, it isn't too bad, but if you can't get the pacing down it makes for a very long workout. This week I had some company that made the workout so much easier. I was dead on 2:14 for every interval. On the 8th 600, my buddy J took the lead, so it was 2:13 and the 10th was a 2:12. We did each 200 in 55-56 and each mile was right on 6:20. The total time for the workout was over a minute faster than last week.
Tonight made me feel so much better after quite a few dismal days. I think that whatever has been ailing me is finally going away, my nose is less congested. Everything seems to be coming together again, so I'm feeling better about things.
Posted by Blondie at 08:25 PM | Comments (1)
March 26, 2006
Work Hard, Play Hard
As projected, there was a lot of time spent working this weekend. I worked late on Friday, most of the day on Saturday, and part of this afternoon. It definitely did not leave much time for any kind of social life. At least there was enough time to play some-run. Working late on Friday wasn't a big deal, it is my usual day off from running. After the disastrous workout on Thursday night, the day off was definitely necessary. Looking back at it, at least I know the reasons it was so bad. It is better to know why the workout was bad than to not know why it was so terrible.
Yesterday morning was one of those mornings where it was kind of hard to figure out what to do. It started with the weather, I wasn't too sure how much to put on. I finally decided to do pants, a thick long sleeve, a fleece vest, gloves and an earwarmer. It was about forty degrees, but I felt a lot colder than that. There weren't many people around for our run, we must have scared everyone off last weekend when we took the hilly route. This ended up being problematic, the bulk of the group that showed up does their long runs fast, really fast, around 6:30s. The rest of the people who showed up were only going to run about an hour while I had 16 miles on tap. Then those people decided to try to stay as close as possible to the front group. I was falling off the back of the pack and wondering if I was really going that slowly. Just before four miles I did catch a break, Usiah, a crazy dog came after T and I encountered it as well. He did not listen at all to his owner and decided to run out in front of cars as well. Somehow, Usiah didn't get hit, although if he had been a person, he probably would have been hit.
Right after the run-in with Usiah, I was on my own. It took another mile or so to find a comfortable pace. I did take a look at my watch at the five mile mark, and realized that I was not running that slow to be falling off the back of the pack. At five miles, the running time was well under 35 minutes, way too fast for a long run. The rest of the way out was uneventful. I stopped at the gas station at the halfway point, which I reached four entire minutes faster than the last time on this course. Here, I used the bathroom and started to blow my nose since all the phlegm was working itself out.
On the way back, I started to feel warm. After about fifteen minutes on the way back, I started to have a coughing fit. This fit was so bad that it required stopping because I couldn't cough so fiercely and run at the same time. Some of the phlegm came out, a good thing. I was feeling wheezy since my lungs were definitely not clear. I decided to take off my earwarmer and wrapped it around my wrist. Going up the massive hill another twenty minutes later, I had the same problem. As nasty as it was, I coughed up more phlegm, but at least I was getting it out. I unzipped my vest part way and took off my gloves for the rest of the run. Once I got back on the main road, I felt a little bit better than going up the hill. I did time one of the last miles going in and it was a 6:45, so even if I did crawl up the hill, it wasn't that slow.
When I got back, I was pretty beat. It was a long run that was faster than planned. I walked over to the track and walked a few laps to relax. After that I went to the gym and rode the bike for a bit. I lifted some, something that I've been neglecting. There are only a few more weeks to do the lifting before race season starts and then the lifting goes out the window.
My runs today were flip-flopped. Usually on Sunday I do my longer run off the roads in the morning. Today I was supposed to meet the techies to do some tests on the treadmill in the afternoon, so I did my shorter run in the morning. I went to a park that I hardly ever run at because there simply isn't that much to do in this park unless you want to loop back over and over again. I was wearing the HRM to make sure that it was an easy run, but for some reason it didn't register at all when I was running. It registered when I was driving to the park and driving home, just not during the actual run. It was dreadfully slow, on grass with lots of goose droppings. The weather was on the dreary side-cool and a bit of drizzle. It was about five miles.
This afternoon was supposed to be treadmill testing for the techies, but we ended up being locked out of the building. He was late, as always. He showed up three minutes before I was going to leave. Then when he tried to open the building, he didn't have the right key. He went to get his other keys, but none of those opened the door either. This was just wonderful since I still didn't have my run in and it was starting to get late. I drove down to the track and did the river loop. The weather had greatly improved by then, so it was pretty pleasant to run in the afternoon. If I had gotten there five minutes later, it would have been too dark to do this run since the area isn't someplace that I want to run alone in the dark. I haven't put today in my log, but I think that I ended up with 70 or 71 for the week, a nice start back.
This is long enough, there is a reason that I don't like putting more than one run into an entry-it gets entirely too long!
Posted by Blondie at 07:48 PM | Comments (1)
March 23, 2006
The Curse Continues
For as long as I can remember, I have never been able to have a good workout of mile intervals. I don't know what it is, but I can never do the pace that I'm supposed to do. I can do that pace for two mile intervals, but not for miles. I guess that it could be something that these are supposed to be a staple workout, according to so-called experts. For that reason, there always seems to be some extra stress when the schedule calls for miles.
The workout tonight called for 4 x 1600 with an 800 jog. This afternoon, J called me and told me just to get through it tonight. Ideally, he thinks that the miles should be under 6:00. Given other workouts of late, right around 6 seemed to be reasonable. Tonight simply was not my night. We are all allowed to have bad workouts every now and then, and tonight was definitely one of my bad workout nights. I don't want to dwell on it too much; the workout is done, it wasn't all that bad (well, #4 was pretty bad), and it's time to move on.
It isn't worth getting discouraged that the workout wasn't how I wanted it to be. I have been sick and coughing all day. My nose is still running, hopefully it will stop soon. I had to miss my breakfast, but for a good reason. I got the stiches out from my dental work, so now I can eat again! As the workout went on, the typical signs of not eating enough did show up. I was getting weeble wobbly, my tell all signal of needing sugar now.
This morning I did get my usual Thursday morning run in. It wasn't too good either, my stomach was not happy. I had to take two stops to make sure it would make it back home. At least tomorrow is Friday and I can eat almost normally again...
Posted by Blondie at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2006
Completely Grossed Out
Yesterday I got an e-mail that the tech guys needed to do more tests with the heart rate monitor/bra. No problem, right? We used to always go to the gym that I use, but now they have a treadmill in their offices. Again, not really a problem. First problem is their office has moved. In their old complex, I always got lost. Anyhow, I'm driving around the complex looking for the tech guy's car. I don't see it. After a few minutes, I give him a call. Their office has moved. He gives directions and says he's leaving to get there. It's only about two miles down the road. Get there, don't see him. Call again. His phone is turned off now. Oh, there he is turning in. Follow him over to the new offices, where I was waiting. It turns out that they really aren't moved into these offices yet, they're still in the process.
We get up to their office and there's a delivery man waiting. He tosses me the bra and deals with the delivery. OK, I go and put on the bra and put my longer bra on over top, since running in a sports bra isn't my idea of fun. He comes back and tells me that I need to get it completely wet. Yuck. I go back to the bathroom and wait for the hot water to get warm since I'm not a dummy. We get started, fifteen minutes of running. A few minutes into it, he comes in with a gallon jug that has a label on it. The contents of that bottle are supposed to be the same concentration as the sweatiest sweat known to humans. Yuck!!! I finish my first segment on the treadmill and then get sent to douse the bra again.
This is just disgusting. I get back and have to do some silly exercises then get back on the treadmill. He comes in after a while and asks how fast I'm going. Today's an easy day, so 7:30s. He asks me to go faster, 6:00 pace for a little bit. That felt really awkward since I'm not used to running fast on the treadmill. After he slows it back down, he asks me to exaggerate my arm movement since I don't move my arms much. That felt really awkward, but apparently that is one of the problems that they have had in other users. After those fifteen minutes are done, I get to sit and relax until my heart rate drops.
Five minutes of rest, the silly arm motions, and then I get to run again. The final run wasn't anything special. I felt pretty good on all of the segments. I like the treadmill the lab bought, some sort of Nordic Track. It doesn't have a bar for me to hit my hands on.
I wanted to get a little more running than he had me do today, so I stopped at the track on the way home to finish off the run. If their office were in a better neighboorhood, I would have done it there, but that area is not the kind of place a girl should be running alone, especially at dusk. All I really wanted to do was get home and shower, but I did stop to run a mile on the way home. I was starting to get a bit of a rash from when it was just water, so that nasty stuff wasn't going to be nice to my sensitive skin.
The worst part of all of this...I have to do it again.
Posted by Blondie at 07:59 PM | Comments (1)
March 21, 2006
No Bushes
What is a girl to do when nature is calling and running in a development with no park? Seriously, there was no where to go. Lots of people were going out to get their newspapers and leaving for work. All the while, last night's dinner wasn't sitting well. That was the story of this morning's run. It was way too cold for the first day of spring. With the wind chills, it felt like it was in the teens.
This afternoon's run was better in regards to needing a bush. I didn't feel like it was a problem until it was almost done, as opposed to from the first quarter mile on. This afternoon still felt flat, nothing really felt bad, it just doesn't have the snap to it. I did my seven mile loop and wore my watch, but really only out of curiousity's sake. The ideas was still to stay relaxed and not push too hard.
I thought about going to lift after my run, but didn't really feel like going. I have dumbbells here that I could use if I feel up to it tonight. I decided that the best thing to do was really stretch. My right IT band feels extremely tight, so I'm going to roll it tonight. Given how my mouth feels, staying home was the best choice. I'm not going to subject my few loyal readers to more details about it.
I've been swamped at work lately. I have a huge deadline at the end of the month. The task is only about half done right now, so it looks like I'll be spending a good amount of the weekend in the office. Of course, my wallet will thank me for that. One of my favorite pasttimes, shopping, is off limits at the moment. I also need to get my hair cut and get a massage, but those aren't falling into the necessity category. The massage will next week, but not yet.
Posted by Blondie at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2006
Back to Reality
After a week of tapering and a week of recovering, it's back to real training. I can't say that it bothers me, I enjoy the training more than the racing sometimes. I do have some pretty aggressive goals for this year, so there needs to be a lot of hard work in order to achieve those goals. Even if I don't meet those goals, I want to go for those times. These goals haven't actually been discussed, but I'm pretty sure that we're on the same page given some of the discussions on training.
I was pretty apprehensive about tonight's workout for a couple of reasons. First, I had looked at how awful I felt last year eight days after the half. Secondly, probably more so than the other reason, tonight's workout was a hard one. I think that it is one of the hardest workouts that we do because there really isn't much of a recovery. The workout was 10 x 600 with a 200 jog. The entire workout is supposed to be up tempo, so there is no recovery. So when you start to think about it, the workout gets even harder. In most workouts, the recovery jog is half of the work distance. Like 800s with a 400 jog or 1600s with a 800 jog. In those workouts, the time of the jog is also about 2/3 the time of the interval time. Not in this workout. The recovery is 1/3 the distance of the work and the amount of time is less than half the time of the interval. In other words, not much rest.
Although it is technically the first day of spring, it didn't feel at all like it today. It was chilly and breezy. It seems that we've had more days of cooler weather in a row in March than we did all winter long. The workout did go better than I thought it would. I hit the first 6 in 2:14 with the recovery in 55 seconds. The next four were more difficult, a combination of tired legs and running alone. I may have been able to maintain better if there had been someone to share the work with. It also would have been easier to maintain the pace if I hadn't raced a half marathon eight days ago. The last four were 2:18s with the recovery in about 58, so it wasn't a complete disaster.
The rest of reality returns tomorrow when the doubles come back. I'm not going to jump into the full swing doubles that I'd been doing leading up to this, I'll take a week or two to gradually build back to where I had been. I don't have any races planned for a while since real race season doesn't start until mid-April. Right now I want to work on strength before speed, so doing more repitions at a slightly slower pace is the agenda.
Posted by Blondie at 08:27 PM | Comments (1)
March 19, 2006
Whining
The hygenist definitely lied to me when she said that this procedure wasn't all that bad. My mouth hurts. The stitches on my upper, outer gum are rubbing against the fleshy tissue that is the inside of my cheek. Whatever the dentist used to stitch feels like metal wire and it hurts. It feels like it is poking that soft, sensitive tissue. Add to that the fact that I can barely open my mouth and biting into food or chewing is pretty much off limits, one can determine that I've been pretty miserable lately.
Friday night was a tough night of not sleeping. I woke up at 2 in the morning and couldn't really get back to sleep. As a result of this, I was beat last night and went to bed early. I slept better than on Friday night and woke up on the late side this morning. I didn't wake up because I was rested; I woke up because I had to go to the bathroom. Realizing that it was later than I ought to be sleeping, I didn't go back to sleep and started on my day. It took a long time to be functional, and to be honest, I still feel like I could go to sleep. Eventually, I got myself into gear and went out to run.
The wind that seems to have been plaguing us all winter was still present this morning. According to the weather, it was 31 degrees but felt like the upper teens to low twenties with the wind. I determined that I was not going to be utterly lazy today and drive to run on the trail. My legs probably need to be on the softer (that is questionable, as it is frozen) surface to help in finishing recovery. Since the trail is right next to a river, a nice wind comes off it to keep you cold even when you're running.
I strapped on the heart rate monitor this morning to keep things very easy. One day last week J and I were talking about heart rate monitors and the wind. I had this idea that running into the wind affected my heart rate, but not so much for other people. He informed me that the monitor can be pretty useless in the wind since his heart rate goes way up whenever he runs into the wind. I take his word for all things heart rate monitor related since he swears by his. I only believe in using mine to keep things easy. Anyhow, since it was quite windy today, the thing was rather meaningless. I forced myself to putz along my regular Sunday route. Running so slowly felt more laborious than comfortable. My legs felt more tired trying to run slow, but since tomorrow night is a workout, I would rather take it easy today.
When I started to look at my log book, I realized that if I did a double today I would have 50 miles for the week. Then I evaluated where I am right now and decided that was one of the worst ideas ever. Real training resumes tomorrow, there is no reason to make my recovery week shorter. I still feel pretty crappy, nose-wise. Tomorrow's workout is rather low-key, I don't think that I'm really going to time the intervals. I may take a few peeks, but given my experience last year it may not be the kind of workout where I really want to know what the intervals are. If only I can be so disciplined when it actually happens.
Posted by Blondie at 04:56 PM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2006
"Rudlolph Had a Stroke"
Those are the words that I've been using to describe how I look at the moment. My nose is bright red from blowing it every two and a half minutes and the right side of my mouth is drooping because I can't use the muscles to smile. The dentist had to move around the muscles on my upper right gum to do his work and therefore they are very sore. I think that when he was moving stuff around in there he did something to my right sinus cavity. The right side of my nose is flowing, the left side is dry. Everything is completely clear, so at least it isn't a sinus infection. Every person who knows someone who had the same procedure I had tells me how painful they have heard it was. Maybe being a runner helps with the pain. I seem to have a very high tolerance for pain and discomfort, so for me to be sore four days after the procedure means there must be a good deal of discomfort involved.
I wasn't sure what to expect of my longer run this morning. J and I had discussed it on Wednesday and made the up in the air decision of seeing how things were going. This meant the run could be anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes. He did advise me that we were going out the back roads, so it would be hilly. This actually presented better since it also meant that I didn't have to make any decision until about half an hour into the run when there were two choices on what distance to run. I didn't feel too bad for the first part of the run, the only part that was tough was the part that is always tough, the 200 meters or so until the splitting off point. This part is a long, gradual up hill right after screaming down hill for a good mile or so. Four of us decided that we were going to go longer, meaning close to 90 minutes. One of the guys who we were with was definitely fresh and likes to push the pace, so I told them that they had to take it easy on me. Anyhow, I was the only one who knew where they were going, which isn't saying much since I tend to get lost when we run on the back roads.
This run includes Mount F---, which in other places might not be as bad as we think it is. It just goes straight up for about 100 meters. One of the guys with us said he wished the downhills would stop since he knew that we would have to go back up at some point. One of the problems when we run out the back is that it is constantly up and down with steep grades, so the downhills hurt and the uphills are difficult. I was doing fine on the downhills and the little bit of flat that we encountered. Going up hills was a completely different story. I'm not a particularly strong hill runner in the first place and my legs do still have a bit of fatigue left over from Sunday. The last of the hills is about 2 miles from where we finish and I managed to keep the guys in striking distance the whole time, so I survived. We ended up finishing the route in a few ticks under 80 minutes, way faster than I would have liked. Usually this course takes about 82 minutes on a good day, so that did explain why I struggled so much with the hills. I felt like I needed a warm-down from this run, so I ran very slowly around perimeter of the school. In all, the run ended up being about 12 miles.
After running I went over to the gym to get back into my lifting routine. I took the last two weeks off from lifting so I hadn't been to the gym in some time. In those two weeks, the crowd has thinned considerably. I rode the bike for half an hour and read an issue of Life & Style. I think that it was a week old, but since I'm never really up to date on celebrity gossip, it was all new to me. I did some lifting afterward, but thought it would be best to ease back into it, so I only did a few things.
I've been doing laundry all day today since once again it has piled up to monstrous piles. It's hanging on the line outside at the moment, but the clothesline is currently out of the line of the bit of sunlight that is left. It will probably have to go into the dryer for a little bit to get completely dry, unless the wind dried it out. It was definitely chilly this morning, but when I was hanging the clothes out, it felt warmer in the sun. We are once again in a below average spell. The wind has been bad this winter, but only on the colder days. All things considered, we had so many nice days that it really isn't fair to complain.
Posted by Blondie at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2006
Sticker Shock
Just when my appetite was starting to come back from the combination of Sunday's race and yesterday's dental work, I lost it all over again. The bill from yesterday came, and well, let's just say, I was floored. I am slightly confused since I thought I was getting one graft done and the bill makes it look like there were two, I would like the price much more if it were only one. There will not be anymore shopping of any sort for some time. Just today I was saying that money isn't motivating me to race this year, I want fast times. I take that back. I want to go to every money race there is so that I have some money. I have to pay all of it since we are just a small family business and don't have a dental plan. I think that we'll do my taxes this weekend, hopefully I'll be getting money back instead of owing.
This morning, I felt pretty crappy, but as the day went on, I started to feel better. Lots of sleep (like 11 hours) and some Airborn helped. My right nostril has been drippy all day, but at least it's been clear. I can't say that it was all the water that I drink because I just didn't feel like drinking today. By the time I got up to run I felt much better than I did early in the day.
Tonight was the last night of hills, but those of us who raced on Sunday were supposed to take it easy. We were doing the longer gradual hills that are a mile up. It was much warmer than I thought it was going to be, but luckily I brought a little bit of everything with me so I did have a pair of shorts to put on. We did stay relaxed, but did them faster than I was planning. A big group of us stayed together and talked a lot going up the first time, but we didn't talk as much on the next two-probably because we were doing them faster. Anyhow, we did them in 7:05, 7:00, and 6:53.
J and I had a discussion today about the rest of recovery. I looked in my log book to see how I recovered last year and read entries that said things like "felt like hit by a Mack truck" and "could hardly move" so I am definitely in better shape than I was last year. We pretty much decided that I'm going to stick to the roads this spring. There is a good chance of being last in the track meet that I was looking at, and being last in a 10K just didn't seem like fun. I also said that, mentally, getting some fast road times would help me more. I know that he wants me to work on my mile time later this spring and for my track workouts to get much faster later in the spring. In order to reach the times that I would like to be doing this year, that is going to happen. Along those lines, this is pretty much ruling out a marathon this fall, not that I'm upset by that at all. I want to get my times at the shorter distances down some before taking a stab at a marathon again. Anyhow, it doesn't seem to be a very good distance for me. One of these days I may do the one that I'm capable of, but if I never do one again, that's fine by me.
Posted by Blondie at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2006
Some Musings
So, I feel like crap again. In more ways than one. I'm tired. My sore throat is back. I still have some post-nasal drip. I'm sore. I'm freezing cold.
This morning I was able to get up early to get a short run in. This week is supposed to be easy and recovery, so I didn't sweat it that today was short. The temperature had dropped quite a bit overnight and the wind was still pretty bad. It wasn't quite as bad as it was yesterday, meaning that I didn't have to hold onto a telephone pole to prevent myself from getting knocked over. I felt tired, but it was the morning and my body has been through a lot the past few days. I considered tacking an extra loop on, but thought better of it, so I only did four easy miles today.
I got home and took one of my loopy pills so that I would not freak out at the dentist's today. The problem with these pills is that I can't drive if I take them, but at least the dentist had me nice and relaxed. The procedure took longer than I thought it would, but I handled it better than expected. I kept my eyes closed the entire time so that it is a complete mystery to me. Afterwards, he told me some of what he did so that I know how to care for it. I don't want to know too much since I have to get this done to at least two or three more teeth. There are oral bandages on both the inside and outside of the tooth that he grafted today. I have to go back to get the stitches out late next week. Eating isn't easy right now since I don't feel comfortable chewing on the right side of my mouth. I had thought that liquid would be easier, but they go all over my mouth instead of having something solid to keep on one side. I haven't really wanted to eat today, so it hasn't been too much of a problem.
My illness seems to be back some. I don't know if it is because of what the dentist did or not, so I'm planning on going to bed early. Ideally, I want to see Lost, but if I fall asleep before that, I'll have to wait for the rerun.
Otherwise, I discovered saw this article that makes me feel better. Another of the women who was ahead of me on Sunday has been interviewed for Fast-Women, so I was in good company. Now I have to figure out the rest of my spring. I'm not sure if I should focus on the roads or try to get into a certain track meet. I know what times I'm chasing, but it's a matter of where to go for it.
Posted by Blondie at 07:24 PM | Comments (2)
March 14, 2006
Tweaked Cheek
Something was definitely tweaked in my left glute on Sunday. It is working itself out with the aid of ice, heat, and anti-inflammatories. If it hasn't worked itself out more by the end of the week, I'll call to get a massage. I should get on an every two weeks schedule, but that gets really expensive really fast. It is feeling a lot better than it was yesterday, so it couldn't have been something that serious.
Today was an unbearable day at work. I had nothing to do because I was completely caught up, something that doesn't happen all that often. My mother was having a bad day and when she does, she is a complete bitch to everyone. It wasn't just me who thought this, when she went to the bank my father asked what happened to put her in the mood she was in. Needless to say, I was happy when it was time to leave!
I took it easy today, although I know that I did more than I should have done. It started out pretty warm this morning, but the weather was changing. It got colder and was very windy during the day. When I saw the weather on my way out the door, the winds were sustained in the 20 mile per hour range, gusting well into the thirties. I went out without much of a plan, start out on my normal course and see how my legs felt. I left the watch at home, there wasn't any point in wearing it. First of all, it was meant to be easy, and secondly, with all that wind time was meaningless. I ended up feeling pretty decent, so I did my seven mile loop. I know that J only wanted me to do three or four miles today, but I felt OK after the first half mile. Unless I can get myself out of bed early in the morning, I won't be able to run tomorrow, so I took that into account.
Posted by Blondie at 07:51 PM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2006
The Aftermath
Well, today wasn't too bad. I went to bed very early last night, like almost immediately after I wrote. Other than waking up a few times to pee, I slept very well. This is kind of strange for me, usually the night after a race is a pretty restless night of sleep. Of course, considering my condition yesterday, a good night of sleep was needed. I woke up pretty early this morning, without my alarm, and felt pretty fresh. This afternoon didn't even have that period where I feel like I'm going to fall asleep at my desk, but that is probably from sleeping all day yesterday.
My body has the usual sore areas after a long race. My calves are a little bit tight and my quads are a little beat up from all of the downhills. I think that I tweaked something in my left glute when I tried to stop myself from completely wiping out. Looking back, I'm pretty lucky if I only tweaked something. I spent lots of time sitting on my tennis ball at work trying to work out that spot, but it is probably too soon after the race to really get to it. My massage therapist always tells me that she won't work on me for five days after a long race because there is so much truama to the muscles.
It was practically a summer day today when I went to the track. The thermometer that I drive by on the way read 80 degrees at 5:00. I was pretty sweaty in shorts and short sleeves, definitely not seasonable for mid-March. There was a small crew tonight since a lot of people who raced yesterday didn't come. We did our usual warm-up and those of us who raced did 8 x 100 easy strides to get the blood flowing and get some of the gunk out of our legs. After a warm-down, it was a total of 7 miles for the night.
I ought to ice my butt, but that involves sitting on an ice pack and that just doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Running did help to loosen it up, so I'll stretch some more tonight. I have to keep reminding myself that the rest of this week is easy, there is a lot more damage that I can do by trying to actually train this week. I'm good about taking a rest day every week, but recovery from races isn't one of my strengths. It is always harder to take it extra easy when I don't feel like I lived up to my expectations in the race. I have to remember that if I don't take the proper recovery I won't be able to do what I want to in my next race.
Posted by Blondie at 08:13 PM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2006
Definitely Disappointed
I was definitely disappointed with how this morning's race went. There are plenty of factors that probably influnenced the ultimate outcome. I don't want to make excuses because that creates a crutch for bad races, but given the circumstances, I probably did the best I possibly could today.
This is a half-marathon that is run in my hometown. It isn't a world class event at all, but it is a big deal in the newspaper and the running community. I've wanted to win this race for almost as long as I can remember. Back in 7th grade when we had to run the mile once a week in gym class, I wanted to win this race. Now remember, I was impressed that I could run one mile in 6:35, not really knowing that the winner of this race would run thirteen of those miles faster than that. I still wanted to win it someday. Fast forward, oh, fifteen years, I still want to win it. The issue is that it gets a big draw of people within an hour who are getting ready for Boston, so there are always some people who are the real deal there.
Anyhow, I felt like crap yesterday. I got to bed early and slept very well and felt marginally better this morning. I did try to steam the mucus out of my lungs this morning since I could still feel some of it lingering. It was also damp this morning when I woke up, actually with periods of very heavy rain. I packed up and headed over to the race around quarter of eight, so I got there just before eight. My concern was finding a parking spot, but I parked in the same spot that I always do. I sat in my car for a long time to stay dry and warm. It was supposed to be in the mid-sixties today, but I don't think that it ever got there. The cloud cover and the rain seemed to keep the temperature down. I did a short, easy 12 minute warm up in the drizzle. I stopped under an overhang to hang out with some of the people from our group. While I was under it, it started to pour again. I had to run the short trip down to my car to get out of my warm-up clothes, change my shoes and socks, and grab my number. It was still pouring when I finished doing this, but a few minutes before the start, the rain let up.
I never felt really good during the race. I didn't take splits at the miles, but I do remember what the clocks showed at the two places that there were clocks. The first mile of the course is very downhill, which sucks lots of people into going out too fast. The next two and a half miles are relatively flat, then from three and a half to just after nine miles is a long uphill section. It isn't particularly steep, but it can really take it out of our legs. From nine to twelve and a half are running back down what you just ran up, and then there is the final climb to the finish line that is steep. I went through five miles in 31:30, ten miles in 64:20, and finished in 1:24:32 (chip time). The course was very slick and with my bad balance, that made me fall at six miles. There were two guys who I was running around and one of them had no clue about space. Anytime I would go to a side to try to get around him, he would go exactly where I was trying to get. Finally, this spelled disaster and I went down. I landed on my hands and didn't hurt anything. When I got up, I was shaking and had a hard time breathing. Right about then, I considered DNF-ing, but it was almost as far to the finish line and I wasn't hurt.
That guy would be right around me for the rest of the race. He did apologize and made sure that I was OK, but eventually he started to pull away. I went through periods where I felt really good and periods where I felt really bad. The really bad periods felt much stronger than the really good periods. I ended up fourth out of the women, in time 35 seconds slower than last year. Although deep down inside I wanted to win, the three ladies in front of me were all the real deal. I was very disappointed since I feel that I am in much better shape than last year and thought that I was in shape to run in the high 1:22s.
I went to lunch with some of the guys from the club. While I was there, J called and we did a little bit of post-race analysis. We both felt that I am in better shape than that time indicates. My workouts had all gone very well and there really hadn't been too many bad runs in the lead up. I am pretty sure that whatever I had last week is still here, since by the time I left lunch, I could hardly stay upright. I got home and after my shower ended up sleeping. I just got a little bit of an appetite, so I ate something. Before that, it took too much energy to even sit upright. I've been having chills and waves of nausea.
I guess that it isn't really fair to complain about this race because there are a ton of people out there who would be very happy with it. This race will be around for years and I have not hit my peak yet. I just hope to feel better tomorrow.
Posted by Blondie at 07:16 PM | Comments (2)
March 11, 2006
Don't Drink the Water
Today I went to a baby shower. At this shower, most of the people who attended either had young children, were pregnant, or were trying to get pregnant. I think that it was something in the water, so I would only drink the bottled water. That I did, I had four bottles there to go with the bottle that I drank on the drive up and the water that I've been drinking constantly all day. Baby showers are never that much fun to me-I'm not in any position to even think about kids and I'm clueless about baby stuff. I do find it disturbing that I now have one click ordering at Babies R Us, something that someone with no thoughts of children should have.
So, I'm pretty much freaking out about the race tomorrow. I got a great night of sleep last night, which is a good thing. I remember my high school coach telling us that the night that really mattered wasn't the night before the race, but two nights before a big race. I went to bed at a decent hour and slept in this morning. According to her theory, tonight's sleep doesn't matter that much, but I'm still going to try to get a good night tonight.
The main reason that I'm freaking out was how terrible I felt this morning when I did get out to run. I wore my heart rate monitor to make sure that I ran very easy, kind of like I did on Wednesday. It probably wasn't such a good idea this morning, becuase it has me worried. Even though I was trying to run as slow as I possibly could while still making forward progress, my heart rate was alarmingly high. This could be because I'm excited about the race, or it could be because I'm still sick. I don't feel too sick right now, but when I blew my nose this morning some nice solid stuff came out. This might be good-it might be getting rid of whatever is left. Whatever the case, I've been drinking extra water, taking Vitamin C, and drinking AirBorn. I don't know if the stuff works, but it can't really hurt either.
This morning's four mile run that was going to be five miles, took me over an hour. On the way back I ran into a former training partner who was out walking her son. I stopped and talked to her for a while. About a mile later, I saw one of my biggest supporters washing his car, so I stopped and talked to him for a long time. I haven't seen him in a long time since it really isn't race season and he hasn't been able to make it up to the track this year. It was really warm for a March morning, which it will be as well tomorrow. It could rain, but that doesn't bother me i it's warm. I felt awful, but it could be from trying to back off of what feels natural.
I got a cell message from J, but didn't get to talk to him. He just reminded me to stick to my race plan and to have fun. I have a plan, not as scientfic as what some people have, but I know what to do. Two of the guys who I train with want to run the same time as I do, but I'm running my own race. Neither of these two guys is very good at doing that, so I don't want to get sucked into what they do. I'm pretty sure what the eventual outcome will be, and J agreed with me on that.
Tonight I need to eat a good dinner since my lunch at the shower was pretty small. I'll also soak in the cold tub, with or without ice, something that I usually do the night before an important race. If I still feel congested in the morning, I'll take a steam shower before leaving to get the gunk out of my lungs, such a nice thing to do.
Posted by Blondie at 05:08 PM | Comments (1)
March 09, 2006
The Day Before Friday
Thursdays are one of my favorite days of the week. It's the day before Friday. Now Fridays are nice, but I usually like Thursday better. Maybe it's because Thursday is my running Friday. Since I take Friday off from running that is like my weekend so this is the end of the running week, even though my mileage goes from Monday to Sunday. In all honesty, once I get through Tuesday the week is good. Mondays aren't even that bad since you can talk about the weekend. Tuesday and Wednesday are the hardest days of the week.
So, there wasn't too much running going on again today. It was another strange weather day since it was almost 65 degrees out. This is the first winter that probably involved wearing shorts more than tights. Anyhow, it was track night (actually hills, but most of us weren't doing the hills). I ran the warm-up really slowly with J since he was at the back of the pack and gossiped with him. We did a lap on the track and then went down to the hills. People who aren't racing this weekend did the hills and the rest of us did striders along the flat portion for 20 minutes.
In a nutshell, my legs felt like crap. This always seems to happen when I think that the workout should be really easy. It also happens the day after a massage and having the evil elbow working in my butt. By Sunday my legs should feel great, but the massages I get really affect me the next day. The striders felt much harder than they should have but the recoveries didn't feel too bad. We ran up to the track and did a mile on the track to finish off the warm-down. After that I walked two laps with J to talk about this weekend. I guess that I got about 6.5 to 7 miles in, but I'm trying to not worry about mileage at all this week.
Posted by Blondie at 08:16 PM | Comments (1)
March 08, 2006
Very, Very Easy
Today didn't go at all like it was planned to go. It all started last night when my dad called me and asked if I wanted to go to court with him in the morning. Of course, this was going to the courthouse in another county. It takes about an hour to get there. The catch was that we had to be there before 9. He wanted me to meet the clerk of the court, someone who I talk to on the phone a few times a week. This changed my plan for getting extra sleep in the morning. No problem, I just went to bed earlier than planned.
Our trip was fine. Neither case really went the way he wanted, but there was nothing that he could do about it. We had another mission to do while we were there and that didn't have any hitches. Once at the office, I was getting most of what I needed done, but the last thing I was working on wasn't going right. I knew that I needed to get out earlier than usual so that I could get home, run, shower, and eat before leaving for my massage. I didn't get out as early as planned, so one of those things had to go-eating would have to wait until later.
It was really sunny out earlier today, but by the time I got out to run it was really overcast and kind of damp. I slogged through 41 minutes of really slow running. It was so slow that it felt awkward, but that was the point of this run. In reality, it probably wasn' t all that slow since I looked at my watch when I turned around. The turnaround point was almost three miles from home and I got there in just under 22 minutes. I took off one loop on the way home so that my run would be as close to 40 minutes as possible. I wore my heart rate monitor and it was beeping the whole time because my heart rate was out of the target zone, but I wanted it to be as easy as it could be. Luckily I only ran by a few people because I sounded like a ticking bomb.
I got home and showered quickly and headed out for my massage. Apparently I wasn't too bad, but the regular spots were tight-the ITs and my feet. She pretty much said that I should start rolling my feet on the golf ball more because I'm prone to plantar flare ups. I haven't had one in a few years, at least one that would affect me. My tolerance for pain is probably too high in that respect.
Posted by Blondie at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2006
Practicing Self-Control
At some point last week, J and I had a discussion about what this week's training would look like. He told me that I was allowed to do one run today, not my usual double. Even though we had talked about it and I know that it is in my best interest to not double today, when I went to bed last night the thought of a very short morning run was there. In fact, I set my alarm to get up to get a few miles in. When the alarm did go off, I decided that I would rather sleep for an extra hour than go out and run three miles. It's amazing how running for twenty minutes requires getting up almost an hour earlier. After using the bathroom and doing a few things when I get back, it requires about an hour. Tapering is just difficult for me, I feel like I'm losing fitness and lazy during it.
This morning and today were difficult for the family. Since work is a family affair, things that happen at home are brought into the office. The diffuculty was the news that Dana Reeve passed away from lung cancer. My mother gets very emotional about all cancers now. She gets very upset when she hears of a celebrity being diagnosed with cancer and even more upset at a death. She was upset with the news of Sheryl Crow, but somewhat optimistic becuase the news reports were that it was found early. This is just something that we're going to have to deal with forever. We kind of had to walk on eggshells around her all day, which wasn't easy because one of my jobs was not working at all.
My run this afternoon was awesome. The weather was nice, not perfect, but nice-mid-40s and pretty breezy. It was the kind of weather where I was comfortable in tights, long sleeves, and gloves. If it was a workout, I would have worn shorts, but otherwise the extra warmth is more beneficial. I didn't want to go longer today, doing anything longer would be detrimental. I did my bread and butter seven mile loop. My stomach was giving me trouble from our later lunch today, but it was tolerable. Even if it weren't tolerable, there isn't a place to take care of that on my loop. Tuesday is the day where I can push if I feel good, I never felt smooth, but I was moving. I finished the loop (which is a legit 7 miles) in 46:50. The last two miles where I try to drop the hammer if I feel good was 12:15. I was really surprised to see how fast it was since it didn't feel smooth.
The rest of this week is pretty easy, sticking to that is the difficult part. It's weird, I love to race, but I hate to taper. I have found that taking easy days really easy has allowed my quality days to be better quality, but this hasn't been easy to discover.
Posted by Blondie at 07:29 PM | Comments (2)
March 06, 2006
Gaining Confidence
Thank goodness my cold has decided that it is time to fade away. I never felt absolutely terrible during it, but I would rather feel awful for one or two days than to feel kind of bad for a week. My theory is that if you are really, really sick, you are so sick that all you can do is rest and get better. When you're kind of sick, you can continue doing everything you usually do (maybe not as well as normal) therefore taxing your body and delaying your recovery.
Tonight was a perfect night for a track workout. It was cold when we were standing around before we left for the warm-up, but once we got moving it was very nice. It wasn't windy at all, so we didn't have to fight the awful wind on the backstretch. The crew was a little bit smaller, and my two usual buddies weren't there. Since there is a race this weekend, I was cutting back and everyone else was staying at the same place. The workout was 800s with a 400 jog again. I guess that we do them psuedo-Yasso style since from what I understand, our rest is different. I think in the Yasso style 800s you're supposed to jog very slowly for the same amount of time as it takes you to do the 800. We're supposed to do an up-tempo 400 jog, so it is quite a bit less recovery and it is harder.
I felt very good doing the workout, even if I did most of it by myself. The first 800 was with the big group and then I was on my own for the rest of the workout. The first four of my 800s were exactly 3:01s with my jog lap between 1:48 and 1:49. My fifth one, which was the hardest for me mentally, was a 3:02. The sixth one I got under 3, doing a 2:59 because I decided to kick it in the last 75 meters. I think that last week, the second or two that the recovery was faster was making the workout more difficult. I also think that I was coming down with whatever ailed me for the rest of the week because tonight felt so much easier. After the warm down, it was 9.75 miles for the night. I'll have to tack a quarter mile on somewhere during the week because I only like to work with whole numbers.
The rest of this week is a cut down, so I'll be going nuts from not running much. There will be plenty of other things to keep me busy, so I should still be busy.
Posted by Blondie at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)
March 05, 2006
It Must Be Part Of Being A Runner
Something I notice any time my entire family gets together is how slow certain members of my family eat. My father, who walks nearly every day, eats pretty quickly. My brother, who does no activity, is one of the world's slowest eaters. He eats so slowly that it drives me crazy. I never thought I was that fast of an eater, but maybe I am. Last night, he was driving me crazy because he ordered soup before dinner. My parents had salads and I had nothing, so we were sitting there waiting almost forty minutes for him to finish is bowl of soup. I guess he doesn't mind his food cold either. Anyhow, this was particularly irksome since they won't bring out the entrees until everyone is done with appetizers, so I was sitting there starving and eating the bread basket until he was done his soup. Now, I'm not sure if it is that he is an extra slow eater or that I'm an extra fast eater. Are other runners "fast" eaters?
OK, enough venting. This morning I didn't feel like driving to any of the places where I run off road, so I just ran from the house. It was chilly and very windy this morning. I used the heart rate monitor, but didn't time the run at all to stay easy on the road. It was one of those mornings where it didn't matter which direction you were running, the wind was in your face at all times. This made keeping the heart rate extra low particularly difficult because I've found that running into the wind makes mine spike no matter how easy I'm running. I did my eight mile loop because I had a little bit of runner's guilt about having an extra short long run yesterday. Running an extra mile this morning really didn't do anything for me, but in my mind it does. I felt marginally better than yesterday, but that can also be attributed to sleeping for ten hours last night.
This afternoon I went for another short run. The wind was just as bad, but didn't seem to be as troubling. I was feeling much better, so hopefully that means that I'm getting much better. I did my five mile course in my racing flats to get my feet used to wearing them. My body, in general, as well as my nose felt more normal.
I think that I'm going to let myself sleep later every day this week. That means more planning at night, but the extra half hour of sleep every morning adds up. I'm interested to see the Oscars tonight, but can't stay up until they're over. It isn't like I've really seen any of the movies that are nominated. It is a big waste of money for me to go to the movies since I fall asleep as soon as a movie starts. I did manage to stay awake to see Walk the Line last night, but I think that is the only film that has been nominated for anything that I've seen. It isn't that I don't want to see most of the films, I'd just rather wait to see them in the comfort of my own home.
Posted by Blondie at 07:31 PM | Comments (3)
March 04, 2006
Still Feeling Like Crap
I don't feel awful awful, but I still don't feel great. This cold is one of those nagging, low-grade kinds of colds. It's one of those sinus kinds of colds. In this area everyone has sinus problems, so what other places find kind of debilitating, we find normal. I'm sort of congested, but the snot isn't a nasty color yet-a good sign, I think. In general, I feel kind of tired and run down. This coming week is a down week anyway, so hopefully lots of rest will speed up getting healthy.
I went to bed really early last night and slept pretty well. I made two trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The first one wasn't too troubling, but the second one ruined my day. I woke up and had to pee ten minutes before the alarm was set to go off. Clearly I really had to go, because it was enough to wake me up. I didn't want to get out of bed since I knew there wasn't going to be time to go back to sleep once I got out of bed. Finally, I just went, peed, got back in bed but couldn't get back to sleep. The main problem is that I hate being woken by the alarm and knew it was coming.
I got bundled up, packed dry clothes to wear at the gym, and dry clothes to wear on my errands on the way to the gym. According to the weather report, it was 27 degrees but felt like 14 with the wind. Not a good sign. It was a lot sunnier out than it has been when I was driving over to run, so I decided to wear my sunglasses running today. Of course, the hat that I had on isn't one that works well with sunglasses, but my eyes thanked me for wearing them. I couldn't decide if I was too bundled up or not. When it was still and we were in the sun, I felt really warm and then the wind would blow and I'd be freezing. Every time I considered taking off a layer, I'd get cold again, so I wouldn't change. It was pretty clear that I had on more than anyone else around me, but that isn't anything new. Today was tame compared to what I used to wear, but some people have a more normal internal thermostat than me.
We ran out the back roads this morning. One of our new guys commented that he hoped that this route wasn't as hilly as the run he did with them two weeks ago when we went out the front. I had to break the news to him that that way is the flat way, this way is all up and down with steep grades. Later on he said he wished the downhills weren't so steep because they didn't make his legs feel any better. Since we went out the back, I was looking to run about 90 minutes, but that was contingent on feeling OK. Evenutally, I decided to just run with the group. M mislead us, she thought the loop we were doing took about 80 minutes, but we got back in 66 minutes, so we added a loop around a neighborhood. I knew there was a street where we added on, but never knew how big the neighborhood was. I've lived in this area my entire life and never really knew how many houses were there.
I was kind of struggling the entire time. It feels like any air I breathe in isn't going to my muscles to get used. This makes my legs feel kind of dead and my body kind of achy. It seemed that being conservative would be a better idea than being a slave to my plan. We ended up with about 82 minutes and another mile probably would not have done me any good, it would have been more harmful. I'm probably racing next weekend which is why next week is a down week, so taking it easy today isn't too big of deal. The hay is in the barn, now I just need to rest up.
I had to go to the post office after the run, conveniently, there is a post office right accross the street from where we meet. I took care of mailing some bills and a package that has been sitting around for a few weeks. At the gym I rode the bike for an hour and read an issue of Star that is a few weeks old. I had to be one of "those" girls and wear long pants since my legs need to be shaved very badly. It was OK since the resistance was down pretty low, so I didn't sweat too much or get too hot. I did some lifting, but really wasn't in the mood to do it. I probably won't lift at all next week since I would like to be rested going into the weekend.
I think that a nap is in the cards this afternoon. Being sort of sick and tapering are always great excuses to spend more time sleeping!
Posted by Blondie at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2006
Assessing the Damage
It does not appear that last night's stupidity has caused much damage. The level of congestion is about the same, as is the level of general achiness. One strange symptom is that my abs are very sore. I don't know if the core workout I did on Tuesday or Wednesday in my state of semi-sickness overworked them, but I started to do core exercises last night and decided that it would put my stomach over the edge. In all, the eleven hours I spent in bed last night were quite helpful. I didn't sleep the entire time, but all that rest had to help.
Today was a perfect day to take off from running-cold and windy. The wind was knocking me all over the place when I went to the bank this afternoon. Also, the rest is way more beneficial in shaking this cold.
My brother is coming home tomorrow for the rest of the weekend for his final Christmas present. We're going out to dinner at a steakhouse that my parents and I went to a few months ago. He'll order the biggest, most expensive steak on the menu. It will balance the side of broccoli and baked potato that I'll get. Any guy who dates me is lucky because I'm happy with the inexpensive menu items!
Gotta get in bed early again tonight...
Posted by Blondie at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2006
Ugh
So, today was one of those days. I apologize in advance for whining. It was disgusting which definitely affected my outlook on the day. I probably did the stupidest thing I could have done, was stubborn, and may now lose the battle with the cold.
The forecast for today was just plain ugly-just above freezing and rain. This morning it wasn't really bad outside when I went out for my pre-workout run. The roads were wet, but it wasn't doing anything. It was cool, but the roads weren't slick. None of our local schools were closed, but schools just over the state line were closed because they were afraid that the roads would get really bad later in the day. I got my four miles in and it didn't feel all that bad. I felt better than I had the other day, so I was happy with it.
As the day went on, the weather got grosser and grosser. Around 4:00 it was absolutely pouring. This wasn't making my attitude about doing a workout any better. I wasn't feeling bad per se, just grumpy. Luckily the rain cleared out and held off. We had a smaller group for the hills tonight, probably because of the crappy weather. I wasn't too sure what I was going to do, I want to keep winning the battle. We were doing the longer, more gradual, mile uphill intervals. Two weeks ago, I did four and we knew that we weren't going to go all the way up to five since that was just too much mileage. I considered doing three since it would be the smart thing to do, since I don't want to succumb to this cold.
I was bundled up, but got warmer as we did the warm-up. I had on the Runner's World/Gore Duluth tights that I bought last year. They are my really bad weather tights, but I think that they are going to be retired. The material doesn't stretch enough for my stride so it is nearly impossible to run fast in them. I also need to wear some kind of tights under them since they cut the insides of my thighs so badly last year that I have scars. Finally, I have never once had a decent run wearing these tights.
I ended up doing four of the hills like a complete moron. They got slower and slower, so pathetically slow that I won't even write down what the miles were. I felt fine on the recovery, which was probably just as fast as the actual work portion. By the fourth hill, I just wanted to go up it for the mental purpose of knowing that I did it. The entire point of the workout changed to doing a tempo run and getting up the hill. After the warm down, it was 11 miles tonight, so a pretty big mileage day.
In response to Corrado's comment about the heart rate monitor yesterday; I know that 189 when running easy is way too high. I think that the issue is when I wear the bra that the transmitter snaps into, the bra isn't tight enough around my ribcage to get a good reading. When I use the strap I usually don't get the really erratic readings because the strap is tighter than the bra, but isn't as comfortable. My bra is a small, but from what I understand, it needs to be really snug to get a good reading. Since it was brisk yesterday, I wasn't sweating enough for it to get a good reading. When it's warmer, it settles down after about five minutes. For me, using it is really to keep my easy days easy enough. My fear yesterday was that my heart rate was running high because I'm really sick. As athletes, we know what the signals to getting sick are, but we are usually too stubborn to listen to those signals.
Posted by Blondie at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2006
Fighting the Eliterunning Cold
And winning, so far. Yesterday brought on those first feelings of the cold that seems to be affecting both Beth and Mary. This is no time to be getting sick, so I took action right away. All the standard stuff: taking extra vitamin C drops, drinking more water even though that is the last thing I feel like doing, and getting more sleep. Tonight I'll probably take some over the counter cold stuff that we have left over from before the pharmacy started a registry to make sure that we aren't running meth labs. The symptoms were better today than yesterday, so I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing to keep the cold at bay.
Although it wasn't that much warmer today than it was yesterday, my body wasn't as freezing as it was yesterday. I wore the heart rate monitor to make sure that the run was easy enough. It seems that keeping my easy days easier has made my workouts better, so I try to keep it very easy on Wednesday and Sunday. I wore it in the bra instead of using the strap. The bra seems to have a less accurate reading for me because it isn't tight enough around my ribcage. For the first seventeen minutes or so it was reading unusually high, around 189, even though I was running very easy. Of course, I was freaking out that it meant that I was really sick and my heart rate really was that high. It finally settled down to a realistic number after 17 minutes, but I did stay in a backed off pace zone. The final average for the entire run was 141, including that really high period, so I did a good job of staying very relaxed.
We'll see how my calves and achilles feel tomorrow since I ran in my racing flats today. There is a race that I'll probably run in a few weeks and it's long enough that my feet should be used to running in flats before doing it. The balls of my feet tend to get very torn up when I run in flats for the first time in a season. It was strange running easy and wearing racing shoes, but in the long run it was proably worth it.
I did go to lift after my run today. Again, in the feeling on the run down almost sick side, I didn't do too much. The weight area was pretty crowded but the cardio area wasn't nearly as crowded. When I was there I also made the point to stretch since my right foot is feeling really tight. Tomorrow I need to call to schedule a massage.
Posted by Blondie at 07:28 PM | Comments (4)