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October 09, 2004
Consistency
Good luck to everyone running Chicago tomorrow!
I’ve been a delinquent about posting this week. I have had an incredibly busy week at work—I’ve left the office by 6 every night, but I’ve been bringing my computer home and working until 11 or 12 most nights. Things won’t calm down until next month, unfortunately. We’re putting on a huge (5000+ attendees) conference and expo the second week of November, so we’re in serious crunch time. I know the world is on pins and needles waiting for my next entry :-) but for the next few weeks I may only be to post a few times a week. I’ll just have to make each entry extra long! Anyway, on with it:
Wednesday
I had a good workout Wednesday night, 16 x 400. I wasn’t excited about running 400s but it went well. It’s funny-we did the same workout about a month ago, and I wasn’t excited then either, but wound up having a good night. What’s more significant about having done this workout a month ago, though, is that this week, I ran several seconds faster. Yay, progress! Not that my spits were “fast” by any means (the first 400 was 1:36, the majority were 1:33-1:34, and the last three went 1:31, 1:29, 1:28) but I felt really strong and consistent. I finished feeling like I could do more, instead of like I was dying, so I was happy with the workout. I’ve decided to look at this entire fall as base building for next year, so my objectives are consistency and consistent progress. With that mindset, the workout was definitely a successs. I failed in my cute-guy mission, though—he wasn’t there! I’m gearing up for a second attempt this week.
Thursday
I had a nice solid recovery run Thursday morning. It’s always tough running less than 12 hours after a workout, but once I got warmed up I felt good. It was a gorgeous morning—I ran along the Virginia side of the Potomac River and saw the sun come up behind the Washington Monument. The river and sunrise are always beautiful, but today was especially so—the view along the river in the early morning is one of my favorite things about living here.
After work, I went to the gym and lifted and did 30 minutes on the ellipitcal. I can tell I’ve been a slacker about lifting the last few weeks—I struggled with weights that were fine a few weeks ago. Oh well.
Friday
I cross trained (30 minutes on the ellipitcal and 30 on the bike) to rest up for a 23-miler on Saturday. This taking-days-off thing is new for me—I used to pride myself on almost never taking a day off. In that respect, getting injured was a very good thing for me—it taught me that the world doesn’t end if I cross train, and that in fact it might even be good for me. Who’d have thunk it? Of course fitting in a day off is easy when you’re running 60 miles/week; it’s a little more difficult to manage at 85 or 90. But I’ll worry about when I get back to that mileage.
Saturday
The day off was a great move, because I had a great run this morning. I ran 23, and I never felt bad; I was certainly happy to finish, but I never had that “oh-my-god-I’m-never-going-to-make-it” feeling. I was a little worried before we started because the people I usually run with weren’t there, and I thought I would be alone the entire time. But I fell in with a couple of guys and we ran together almost all they way. They picked it up at the end and I didn’t go with them (I assuaged my ego with the fact that I had run 3 miles before the group met, so they were at the end of only 20 miles and I was at the end of 23) but since I was feeling good I didn’t mind running the last few miles on my own. I kept a 7:45-7:50 pace the entire time, and it felt very comfortable. I’m thinking I might be in 3:15 instead of 3:20 shape, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
Posted by jessie at October 9, 2004 08:04 PM
Comments
Jessie, it's great to hear that you're running is getting better all the time! Hopefully I'll see you track or SLR next week; I plan to be there. :)
Posted by: Leilani at October 10, 2004 07:07 AM
I'm jealous!! I want to come to track, too :)
Posted by: becky at October 12, 2004 10:57 AM
And I forgot to say, I feel the same way about taking days off to cross train too. You know I didn't take days off either before this injury! I know I'm due for one soon (probably tomorrow) and am dreading it.
Posted by: becky at October 12, 2004 11:04 AM
You gals are so dedicated and hardcore. I feel like such a slacker, even more so when I take a day off.
Posted by: Leilani at October 12, 2004 08:27 PM