So last week I was home for the weekend, during which time I was to run about 45 miles in 3 days. My mother and I have very different views on what constitutes an appropriate amount of exercise (or, more specifically, running). She's a big yoga freak, which, most of you know, is my least-favorite form of exercise of all time. As a general rule, she thinks I run too much. Which maybe I do. But mostly I think this judgment is unfounded on her part: she doesn't have any idea how many miles/hours I actually run, nor how healthy I am as a function of that running (mentally and physically). Anyway, here was the week's schedule:
M: 8 miles. Run uphill 4:00 at marathon HR; downhill at marathon pace
T: 8 AM/ 4 PM
W: 5 easy AM/ 3 mile progression + 3 x 1 mile @~6:20 pace (plus a warmup + cooldown)
Thursday: 6.5 easy
Friday: 12 mile progression. Not allowed to look at watch. Supposed to feel like MP towards the end
Saturday: 24 miles
Sunday: Skiing AM/ 8 miles PM
So there were several good things about this week. Running with Club NW on Wednesday was fun, even though I slightly modified my workout (6x1 mile) and theirs (4 mile progression) so I could run with them for awhile.
Steps to keeping your mother from thinking you run too much:
1. Surround the time you are home with all the running you can
-Thursday I left for home, so I just ran a few miles in the morning before catching my flight.
2. Make sure to leave after she's seen you in the morning, if you're going for a short run, so she doesn't overestimate an easy run
- On Friday, for example, I had some cereal and water and read the paper with her before she left for work and I went running with Brooke, a HS buddy. This allowed her to know that I didn't start running at 5 am and continue running all day.
3. On a long run day, maybe it's just best to leave before she gets up
-While this seems to contradict the previous bit of advice, if you actually are going running for 3+ hours, it may be best for her to not see you leave. Then she will have a very inaccurate estimate of how long you went running, so (if she doesn't assume 3 hours is even a conceivable amount of running) she definitely wouldn't think you could have possibly run for that long.
4. Get a ride home from a friend (again, Brooke, thanks!) so you can excuse a bunch of the time you were gone as chit-chat and drive time. Better yet, get brunch!
The week was good: I made it through my highest mileage week ever (87 miles!) and was successful in all of my workouts. Running with Brooke on Friday and Saturday was nice: it was fun to run fast with someone fast and run far with someone who doesn't like running far :).
Also, some bad news. I have a broken sesamoid in my right foot. But, I have the official approval to run through it from Dr. MD (actually her initials), so I've bought some sesamoid pads and I'll ice the crap out of it for the next month and hope it feels better. I don't really know how I broke it, but I do know the pain isn't severe (it has been stiff and achy on and off since my fall marathon), so if it doesn't get worse I'll be fine to race in a month. Ugh. I'll post when I have more info/any useful updates.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Who knew it could snow in the rainforest?
This week was rather compressed for training, as B and I decided to go backpacking in the Hoh rainforest Saturday and Sunday. So, in a feat I wouldn't have thought possible, I packed 65 miles into 5 weekdays, and 59 miles into 4 in a row. My week:
Monday: 6 miles easy
Tuesday: 3 mile warmup, 7 miles at marathon pace by HR
Wednesday: 5 miles AM/ 3 mile warmup, 3.5 mile tempo, 15 minute jog, 5 x 45'' hill sprints, 2 mile cd
Thursday: 5 miles easy AM/ 5 miles easy PM
Friday: 21 miles. 13 easy, 3 fartleck marathon pace/7:30, 4 at MP effort (without looking at watch), CD
Saturday: 10 miles backpacking
Sunday: 10 miles backpacking
So, as you might imagine, this week beat me up a little bit. Tuesday's marathon heart-rate workout went really well, after I took off my tech tee (apparently, the combination of wind and tech material makes the heart-rate monitor freak out). I was to keep my HR between 155 and 165 for 5-7 miles, including a back-off on the pace as I tired. I felt really good! My splits were pretty consistently clustered around 6:40, which is goal marathon pace. It looks like 2:55 is going to be within reach at Eugene!
Wednesday, I went to work out with Club Northwest, The group to run with if you're a fast runner in Seattle. I had a nice tempo, where we ran 3.5 miles at about 6:08 pace on average (we were supposed to be more like 6:15, whoops!). After 15 minutes of jogging around, we headed over to do some hill sprints. Most of the hill workouts I've done this season have been at least 1:30 in length, so these all-out sprints were very tough for me. By the last one, I knew I'd be pretty busted for Thursday. It was fun to have some fun and fast people to run with; since I've been out on the West Coast, I've been hitting the Burke Gilman trail all alone.
On Friday, I was rather worried about my long run because my legs were still heavy and sore from Wednesday. For the first 12 miles, I ran out to Green Lake (a hilly 3 miles). Green Lake is a nice place to do some of a long run; there's a water fountain that's on year-round (unlike the water fountains in the rest of the city, that seem to be off for 9/12 of the year, even though it is never very cold here). Along the loop, there are at least 2 (maybe 3?) restrooms which seem to be open every time I go running. There are two paths, a paved one and a gravel one, around the lake, about 3 miles in length. Both are pretty flat. So, I often find myself making a couple of laps there so as to have easy water access (when I need to take a Gu). I ran 2 laps there on Friday, taking a Gu after the first, along with some water each time I passed the fountain. I ran back to the Burke Gilman trail after those two laps for the harder stuff; at that point I started doing roughly 1/2 mile pieces at marathon pace, with about a minute of 7:30 pace in between. After 3 miles of that, I turned around and did 4 miles of marathon effort work. I wasn't supposed to look at my watch much, but instead let the running flow. It was actually pretty fun. My first mile was 6:30, the next two were 6:40ish (there was some wind and they were slightly uphill, so 6:44 or something), and the last one was 6:18. I shuffled back home for one mile, showered, and rushed in to work for several highly unproductive meetings.
After work, B and I headed out to the Hoh Rainforest. We took a sweet ferry across the Puget Sound on our way. Saturday morning, we grabbed our backcountry permits and headed into the Hoh. The trail was beautiful; everything was covered in a thick blanket of green moss:
Here's a photo of me:
It rained on us for the first 5 or so miles. After that, the weather suddenly turned much colder, and the rain turned to snow. It didn't stick: everything was too wet to be frozen. I was grumgry (grumpy/hungry) around 6 miles, so we took a break to warm up and make some awesome freeze-dried food and warm up a bit. We found a sweet shelter:
called the "Happy Four Emergency Shelter". A plaque on it told us it was erected because a group of forest workers one summer got into a bit of a spat and wouldn't talk to one another and someone needed some "me time" so they built this shelter as a get-away. There were four of these workers, thus "Happy Four" became the name of the shelter.
I was in substantially better spirits after we did this, so we continued on past this shelter up to the Olympic Ranger station. On the way, B found a sweet newt that had a fluorescent orange belly. He picked it up even though he was pretty sure it was poisonous.
By the time we made it to the Ranger Station, we were pretty cold and wet. There was another shelter there, and since we hadn't really planned on the temperatures dropping into the 30s, we decided to pitch our tent inside that shelter rather than trying to find a piece of ground that wouldn't collect a large puddle under our tent if it rained/snowed all night. We made some dinner, and decided to hang out in our tent starting at about 5 pm, since it was much warmer than staying outside in the rain/snow.
At around 7, we wandered out to find several inches of snow had managed to accumulate on the very wet ground. This was somewhat worrying: first, that meant it was way colder than we thought, given how wet and muddy the ground was, and second, the snow was still falling, and the trail was unblazed and unmarked, meaning that if everything was covered in snow, it might be hard to find our way back the next morning. But at that point, it was getting dark, so we decided there wasn't much to do other than hope the trail would still be visible in the morning, or at least that the Park Rangers would come looking for people when they realized how much snow had fallen later on Sunday.
So we went to sleep. About an hour later, B claims he told me that "There was someone outside. With a light" to which I responded "I love you, too", and rolled over in my sleeping bag to fall back asleep. A few minutes later, Byron said loudly, "Hello?", and another voice responded, "Hi." I sat straight up when I heard a voice I didn't recognize, and said, "Is everything ok? Do you need help?" I was rather freaked out about someone random showing up in our shelter unannounced, albeit I was still quite groggy and somewhat confused about the whole situation. He responded, "No." I continued to babble another couple of silly questions at the man to which he responded monosyllabically. I was definitely worried he might either steal our stuff or slit our throats while we were sleeping. B was clearly also concerned; he asked if I wanted him to go out and talk to the guy. I said he didn't have to, right before the random guy said "Is it ok if I sleep in here?" I was much less freaked out once he finally offered us some information as to what he was doing. We told him that was fine, and while he was out dealing with his bear bag, B looked out and saw the man did have a sleeping bag and some other camping equipment, so he at least looked like he had a legitimate reason for being there. We eventually fell back asleep.
The next morning, we got up after almost 13 hours in the tent, made some disgusting rehydrated eggs for breakfast, and headed out into the rain/snow. The trail had been so wet, the snow didn't bury it completely and we were able to follow it on the way out. There was a huge herd of Roosevelt Elk we ran into on the way out; we tried taking a picture but my camera was way too soggy to be of any real use. Our hike home was seriously fast: it took us about 3 hours to cover 9 miles. In the last quarter of a mile, the sky opened up and there was sun! I guess we picked the wrong day to be out in the afternoon, because the weather was much nicer as we drove home than it was at any point during our hike.
All in all, it was a fun week. I didn't run Sunday night when we got home; my legs were pretty heavy and I knew the week to come was going to be intense so I wanted to be well-rested. This is definitely the most I've run in such a short block (4 miles and almost 60 miles, that is).
I've also realized I only have 6 more weeks until Eugene, and only 3 until Cherry Blossom. I guess that means I only have a few more weeks of intense training before the taper... hopefully I'll be ready!
Monday: 6 miles easy
Tuesday: 3 mile warmup, 7 miles at marathon pace by HR
Wednesday: 5 miles AM/ 3 mile warmup, 3.5 mile tempo, 15 minute jog, 5 x 45'' hill sprints, 2 mile cd
Thursday: 5 miles easy AM/ 5 miles easy PM
Friday: 21 miles. 13 easy, 3 fartleck marathon pace/7:30, 4 at MP effort (without looking at watch), CD
Saturday: 10 miles backpacking
Sunday: 10 miles backpacking
So, as you might imagine, this week beat me up a little bit. Tuesday's marathon heart-rate workout went really well, after I took off my tech tee (apparently, the combination of wind and tech material makes the heart-rate monitor freak out). I was to keep my HR between 155 and 165 for 5-7 miles, including a back-off on the pace as I tired. I felt really good! My splits were pretty consistently clustered around 6:40, which is goal marathon pace. It looks like 2:55 is going to be within reach at Eugene!
Wednesday, I went to work out with Club Northwest, The group to run with if you're a fast runner in Seattle. I had a nice tempo, where we ran 3.5 miles at about 6:08 pace on average (we were supposed to be more like 6:15, whoops!). After 15 minutes of jogging around, we headed over to do some hill sprints. Most of the hill workouts I've done this season have been at least 1:30 in length, so these all-out sprints were very tough for me. By the last one, I knew I'd be pretty busted for Thursday. It was fun to have some fun and fast people to run with; since I've been out on the West Coast, I've been hitting the Burke Gilman trail all alone.
On Friday, I was rather worried about my long run because my legs were still heavy and sore from Wednesday. For the first 12 miles, I ran out to Green Lake (a hilly 3 miles). Green Lake is a nice place to do some of a long run; there's a water fountain that's on year-round (unlike the water fountains in the rest of the city, that seem to be off for 9/12 of the year, even though it is never very cold here). Along the loop, there are at least 2 (maybe 3?) restrooms which seem to be open every time I go running. There are two paths, a paved one and a gravel one, around the lake, about 3 miles in length. Both are pretty flat. So, I often find myself making a couple of laps there so as to have easy water access (when I need to take a Gu). I ran 2 laps there on Friday, taking a Gu after the first, along with some water each time I passed the fountain. I ran back to the Burke Gilman trail after those two laps for the harder stuff; at that point I started doing roughly 1/2 mile pieces at marathon pace, with about a minute of 7:30 pace in between. After 3 miles of that, I turned around and did 4 miles of marathon effort work. I wasn't supposed to look at my watch much, but instead let the running flow. It was actually pretty fun. My first mile was 6:30, the next two were 6:40ish (there was some wind and they were slightly uphill, so 6:44 or something), and the last one was 6:18. I shuffled back home for one mile, showered, and rushed in to work for several highly unproductive meetings.
After work, B and I headed out to the Hoh Rainforest. We took a sweet ferry across the Puget Sound on our way. Saturday morning, we grabbed our backcountry permits and headed into the Hoh. The trail was beautiful; everything was covered in a thick blanket of green moss:
Here's a photo of me:
It rained on us for the first 5 or so miles. After that, the weather suddenly turned much colder, and the rain turned to snow. It didn't stick: everything was too wet to be frozen. I was grumgry (grumpy/hungry) around 6 miles, so we took a break to warm up and make some awesome freeze-dried food and warm up a bit. We found a sweet shelter:
called the "Happy Four Emergency Shelter". A plaque on it told us it was erected because a group of forest workers one summer got into a bit of a spat and wouldn't talk to one another and someone needed some "me time" so they built this shelter as a get-away. There were four of these workers, thus "Happy Four" became the name of the shelter.
I was in substantially better spirits after we did this, so we continued on past this shelter up to the Olympic Ranger station. On the way, B found a sweet newt that had a fluorescent orange belly. He picked it up even though he was pretty sure it was poisonous.
By the time we made it to the Ranger Station, we were pretty cold and wet. There was another shelter there, and since we hadn't really planned on the temperatures dropping into the 30s, we decided to pitch our tent inside that shelter rather than trying to find a piece of ground that wouldn't collect a large puddle under our tent if it rained/snowed all night. We made some dinner, and decided to hang out in our tent starting at about 5 pm, since it was much warmer than staying outside in the rain/snow.
At around 7, we wandered out to find several inches of snow had managed to accumulate on the very wet ground. This was somewhat worrying: first, that meant it was way colder than we thought, given how wet and muddy the ground was, and second, the snow was still falling, and the trail was unblazed and unmarked, meaning that if everything was covered in snow, it might be hard to find our way back the next morning. But at that point, it was getting dark, so we decided there wasn't much to do other than hope the trail would still be visible in the morning, or at least that the Park Rangers would come looking for people when they realized how much snow had fallen later on Sunday.
So we went to sleep. About an hour later, B claims he told me that "There was someone outside. With a light" to which I responded "I love you, too", and rolled over in my sleeping bag to fall back asleep. A few minutes later, Byron said loudly, "Hello?", and another voice responded, "Hi." I sat straight up when I heard a voice I didn't recognize, and said, "Is everything ok? Do you need help?" I was rather freaked out about someone random showing up in our shelter unannounced, albeit I was still quite groggy and somewhat confused about the whole situation. He responded, "No." I continued to babble another couple of silly questions at the man to which he responded monosyllabically. I was definitely worried he might either steal our stuff or slit our throats while we were sleeping. B was clearly also concerned; he asked if I wanted him to go out and talk to the guy. I said he didn't have to, right before the random guy said "Is it ok if I sleep in here?" I was much less freaked out once he finally offered us some information as to what he was doing. We told him that was fine, and while he was out dealing with his bear bag, B looked out and saw the man did have a sleeping bag and some other camping equipment, so he at least looked like he had a legitimate reason for being there. We eventually fell back asleep.
The next morning, we got up after almost 13 hours in the tent, made some disgusting rehydrated eggs for breakfast, and headed out into the rain/snow. The trail had been so wet, the snow didn't bury it completely and we were able to follow it on the way out. There was a huge herd of Roosevelt Elk we ran into on the way out; we tried taking a picture but my camera was way too soggy to be of any real use. Our hike home was seriously fast: it took us about 3 hours to cover 9 miles. In the last quarter of a mile, the sky opened up and there was sun! I guess we picked the wrong day to be out in the afternoon, because the weather was much nicer as we drove home than it was at any point during our hike.
All in all, it was a fun week. I didn't run Sunday night when we got home; my legs were pretty heavy and I knew the week to come was going to be intense so I wanted to be well-rested. This is definitely the most I've run in such a short block (4 miles and almost 60 miles, that is).
I've also realized I only have 6 more weeks until Eugene, and only 3 until Cherry Blossom. I guess that means I only have a few more weeks of intense training before the taper... hopefully I'll be ready!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Hippy-dippy Kale recipes!
I love kale. I know that puts me squarely in the 1% that my salary never will*. But it's awesome. Basically, the food makes me feel good when I eat it, and is super-duper-healthy, and relatively inexpensive, and tastes good when you prepare it well. Lots of people complain that kale and other "cooking greens" are too bitter; I agree that there is a bitterness to kale, but it is tempered by cooking it or adding something sweet to the recipe. More importantly, though, bitter flavors are interesting: it is my very humble opinion that not all foods should be light on the palate. Spicy, sour, bitter, sharp tastes are fun, and I, for one, don't like all my food to taste like white flour with butter and sugar (though some of my food tasting like that is much desired: mmmm pastries!).
Here are my current favorite three ways to prepare kale as the center of a veggie dish (I also add it julienned to lots of stews/lentils/beans/sauces):
1. Kale with Shallots
This is a modification of a recipe I found here:
http://www.wholeliving.com/130333/delicata-squash-salad-kale-and-cranberry-beans?center=136760&gallery=136045&slide=131141
Start by cutting up a bunch kale, either in bite-sized pieces or julienned. Sauté some diced shallots in a little bit of olive oil. When the shallots are transparent, add some garlic for a minute or two. Add 4-6 tablespoons of some combination of basalmic vinegar and red wine vinegar (I love basalmic, so I use more of that), and a couple tablespoons of honey. Heat the dressing in the pan for a minute or two, stirring to keep it from burning to the pan. Take the kale, add it to the pan, mix it around so it's covered with the dressing, and put a lid or a plate (if you don't have a lid) over the pan for a couple of minutes to cook the kale. Every couple of minutes, I'd recommend stirring this. Depending upon how well-cooked you like the kale, somewhere between 4 and 10 minutes of steaming should suffice. Serve hot (better) or cold (still pretty good).
2. Kale with cranberries and quinoa
This one is easy. Cook up some quinoa (half a cup to a cup dry), steam (put some water in a pot with the kale, turn on the stove, and cover the pot) some julienned kale for 5-10 minutes, and chop up a few handfulls of dried cranberries. Strain the kale. Mix all of the above in a bowl for a tasty salad.
3. Kale with spicy Thai peanut sauce
This is my take on the classic Thai peanut sauce over wilted spinach. It is also simple, so easy to do, say, when you get home from a hard workout and you want to beat up anyone who comes between your Hangry self and food. First, cut up your kale and steam it (I like bite-sized pieces for this recipe). Take a saucepan and add:
1 can of light coconut milk
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup natural smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons red curry paste
or combination of ground spicy pepper, such as cayenne or red chili powder, to taste (not 4 Tbs)
Sugar, to taste (I start with 1/4 cup and add as appropriate)
Cook the mixture on medium, stirring regularly, until it simmers, for a few minutes (it'll thicken a bunch in a short period of time), and take it off the heat. Let it cool somewhat before pouring it over the strained kale. Very good with rice or quinoa and protein source of your choice.
How about you guys? What do you like to do with kale?
* I recognize that I could drop out of grad school and make some money. Sorry for offending anyone with this factually inaccurate statement.
Here are my current favorite three ways to prepare kale as the center of a veggie dish (I also add it julienned to lots of stews/lentils/beans/sauces):
1. Kale with Shallots
This is a modification of a recipe I found here:
http://www.wholeliving.com/130333/delicata-squash-salad-kale-and-cranberry-beans?center=136760&gallery=136045&slide=131141
Start by cutting up a bunch kale, either in bite-sized pieces or julienned. Sauté some diced shallots in a little bit of olive oil. When the shallots are transparent, add some garlic for a minute or two. Add 4-6 tablespoons of some combination of basalmic vinegar and red wine vinegar (I love basalmic, so I use more of that), and a couple tablespoons of honey. Heat the dressing in the pan for a minute or two, stirring to keep it from burning to the pan. Take the kale, add it to the pan, mix it around so it's covered with the dressing, and put a lid or a plate (if you don't have a lid) over the pan for a couple of minutes to cook the kale. Every couple of minutes, I'd recommend stirring this. Depending upon how well-cooked you like the kale, somewhere between 4 and 10 minutes of steaming should suffice. Serve hot (better) or cold (still pretty good).
2. Kale with cranberries and quinoa
This one is easy. Cook up some quinoa (half a cup to a cup dry), steam (put some water in a pot with the kale, turn on the stove, and cover the pot) some julienned kale for 5-10 minutes, and chop up a few handfulls of dried cranberries. Strain the kale. Mix all of the above in a bowl for a tasty salad.
3. Kale with spicy Thai peanut sauce
This is my take on the classic Thai peanut sauce over wilted spinach. It is also simple, so easy to do, say, when you get home from a hard workout and you want to beat up anyone who comes between your Hangry self and food. First, cut up your kale and steam it (I like bite-sized pieces for this recipe). Take a saucepan and add:
1 can of light coconut milk
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup natural smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons red curry paste
or combination of ground spicy pepper, such as cayenne or red chili powder, to taste (not 4 Tbs)
Sugar, to taste (I start with 1/4 cup and add as appropriate)
Cook the mixture on medium, stirring regularly, until it simmers, for a few minutes (it'll thicken a bunch in a short period of time), and take it off the heat. Let it cool somewhat before pouring it over the strained kale. Very good with rice or quinoa and protein source of your choice.
How about you guys? What do you like to do with kale?
* I recognize that I could drop out of grad school and make some money. Sorry for offending anyone with this factually inaccurate statement.
Monday, March 11, 2013
It's always sunny in Seattle
This week was a much-needed break from the intensity and mileage of the last month. This training cycle has had, by far, the most consistently high mileage I've ever had. I had two weeks of 80, a week of 72, and last week of 78, so this week, 70 with no double days felt like a big break. Here was my week of workouts:
Monday: 5 easy
Tuesday: 2k, 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 400
Wednesday: 6 miles with 40" strides
Thursday: 10 mile easy progression: 3 at easy, 3 at ~7:00, 3 at somewhat harder (not looking at GPS)
Friday: 8.6 (no watch)
Saturday: 8.6
Sunday: 20 miles. Second half harder than first. Last 4 miles pushing (ended up being ~6:35), 7:13 pace overall
Monday, the weather was as beautiful as you could imagine was possible for Seattle. It was 55 and sunny, with a slight breeze. B came for 5 whole miles with me, though he left me in the dust in the last 2 miles (wanted to do 7:15 pace or something, and I had held 7:30 for longer than I'd wanted to on an easy day).
Tuesday was a royal cluster, as seems to be the case every time I plan to do any trackwork anywhere but on CMU's track. I ran 4 miles up to a local high school, somewhat suspecting they might be having track practice, but hoping that by around 5 pm, they'd be wrapping things up. This was not the case. I don't know how big their high school is, but when I showed up, it looked like there were about 75 kiddos working out on it. Isn't this supposed to be an all-time high for childhood obesity? If so, why is their track team so huge?
Anyway, while I'm glad for the public health which is implied by this track participation rate, I was going to need to do something else. B met me there, and we drove back to the Burke Gilman trail. He went to the gym, and I (gasp) *put on my headphones and ran to Taylor Swift* with no idea how far my intervals actually were.
First, I feel very weird admitting to running with music outdoors. I've done very little of this: my treadmill workouts always come with an iPod, but outside running seems like a temple that I've never defaced by listening to music while running. Headphones are for hobby joggers, and people who want to be hit by cars, or make their butts look good by running, not for serious runners. But, as I've been slogging through 3 days of quality each week, often with 1 or 2 or even 3 of those sessions alone, I've been getting pretty bored of the easy-to-reach flat running path. I've found that I've lost some motivation, and it's hard to run faster than sub-6:30 pace without someone sweating next to you. So, I decided to try L's approach and got a $48 iPod shuffle. This workout was my very first one using the iPod, and I'd be lying to say it wasn't fun. It was. I had a lot of fun working harder than I'd have worked without the music. Listening to TSwift, and thinking about M's metal version of that song, really pumped me up for that last 400. And Third-Eye Blind's 10 days late made the 1600 go by much faster. I still don't plan to run on streets with headphones, nor do I plan to race or do easy runs with them, but I just might use them on hard workouts when I've been running alone a bunch. Ugh. I hate myself for this so much.
Also, when I say those distances (2k, 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 400), I don't actually have any idea how far/fast I ran, because I didn't have my Garmin. So I ran for 7:55, 6:15, 4:30, 2:50, 1:25, 1:22, all trying to do what I thought were the appropriate paces for those distances. No one will ever know how fast/far those intervals actually were...
Thursday's progression run was fun. Again, I used headphones, which were a good motivator to get out the door in when it was rainy and my legs felt heavy. After the first mile, though, my legs suddenly got really light and I just flew. I ran miles 2 and 3 in 7:10ish, miles 4, 5, and 6 in 6:50-7:00, and 7,8,9 at 6:38, 6:38, and 6:26, respectively. The whole thing felt really, really good, which was a nice surprise, given how tired and heavy my legs felt Wednesday (and at the start of this run).
Sunday, I went and met up with some people from Club Northwest at Green Lake, and ran 11 miles with them. After they were done, I settled in around 7:00 pace, until I was at 15 miles. From there, I sped up to 6:35ish pace for 4 miles, and took the last mile as a slower cooldown. For fueling, I took only maltodextrin in water, and my stomach felt awesome the whole time. Also, I noticed I'm pretty good at forcing my legs to run at a particular pace just by looking at my Garmin ever .25 miles or so. While this may not be a good race strategy, I'm considering wearing it for my race in April. I won't look too closely at the beginning, but I think after about 18 miles it might be nice to have a little screen telling me to speed up or slow down, rather than once every 6 or 7 minutes being reminded that I am either too slow or fast. I'm also really glad I'm not racing a marathon on dirt paths: I find it a lot harder to run fast on gravel than I used to. The last 12 miles were all on gravel, so I'm pretty happy with that pace.
This upcoming week, I am going backpacking Sat/Sun, so my whole week of training is condensed! We'll see how that goes...
Monday: 5 easy
Tuesday: 2k, 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 400
Wednesday: 6 miles with 40" strides
Thursday: 10 mile easy progression: 3 at easy, 3 at ~7:00, 3 at somewhat harder (not looking at GPS)
Friday: 8.6 (no watch)
Saturday: 8.6
Sunday: 20 miles. Second half harder than first. Last 4 miles pushing (ended up being ~6:35), 7:13 pace overall
Monday, the weather was as beautiful as you could imagine was possible for Seattle. It was 55 and sunny, with a slight breeze. B came for 5 whole miles with me, though he left me in the dust in the last 2 miles (wanted to do 7:15 pace or something, and I had held 7:30 for longer than I'd wanted to on an easy day).
Tuesday was a royal cluster, as seems to be the case every time I plan to do any trackwork anywhere but on CMU's track. I ran 4 miles up to a local high school, somewhat suspecting they might be having track practice, but hoping that by around 5 pm, they'd be wrapping things up. This was not the case. I don't know how big their high school is, but when I showed up, it looked like there were about 75 kiddos working out on it. Isn't this supposed to be an all-time high for childhood obesity? If so, why is their track team so huge?
Anyway, while I'm glad for the public health which is implied by this track participation rate, I was going to need to do something else. B met me there, and we drove back to the Burke Gilman trail. He went to the gym, and I (gasp) *put on my headphones and ran to Taylor Swift* with no idea how far my intervals actually were.
First, I feel very weird admitting to running with music outdoors. I've done very little of this: my treadmill workouts always come with an iPod, but outside running seems like a temple that I've never defaced by listening to music while running. Headphones are for hobby joggers, and people who want to be hit by cars, or make their butts look good by running, not for serious runners. But, as I've been slogging through 3 days of quality each week, often with 1 or 2 or even 3 of those sessions alone, I've been getting pretty bored of the easy-to-reach flat running path. I've found that I've lost some motivation, and it's hard to run faster than sub-6:30 pace without someone sweating next to you. So, I decided to try L's approach and got a $48 iPod shuffle. This workout was my very first one using the iPod, and I'd be lying to say it wasn't fun. It was. I had a lot of fun working harder than I'd have worked without the music. Listening to TSwift, and thinking about M's metal version of that song, really pumped me up for that last 400. And Third-Eye Blind's 10 days late made the 1600 go by much faster. I still don't plan to run on streets with headphones, nor do I plan to race or do easy runs with them, but I just might use them on hard workouts when I've been running alone a bunch. Ugh. I hate myself for this so much.
Also, when I say those distances (2k, 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 400), I don't actually have any idea how far/fast I ran, because I didn't have my Garmin. So I ran for 7:55, 6:15, 4:30, 2:50, 1:25, 1:22, all trying to do what I thought were the appropriate paces for those distances. No one will ever know how fast/far those intervals actually were...
Thursday's progression run was fun. Again, I used headphones, which were a good motivator to get out the door in when it was rainy and my legs felt heavy. After the first mile, though, my legs suddenly got really light and I just flew. I ran miles 2 and 3 in 7:10ish, miles 4, 5, and 6 in 6:50-7:00, and 7,8,9 at 6:38, 6:38, and 6:26, respectively. The whole thing felt really, really good, which was a nice surprise, given how tired and heavy my legs felt Wednesday (and at the start of this run).
Sunday, I went and met up with some people from Club Northwest at Green Lake, and ran 11 miles with them. After they were done, I settled in around 7:00 pace, until I was at 15 miles. From there, I sped up to 6:35ish pace for 4 miles, and took the last mile as a slower cooldown. For fueling, I took only maltodextrin in water, and my stomach felt awesome the whole time. Also, I noticed I'm pretty good at forcing my legs to run at a particular pace just by looking at my Garmin ever .25 miles or so. While this may not be a good race strategy, I'm considering wearing it for my race in April. I won't look too closely at the beginning, but I think after about 18 miles it might be nice to have a little screen telling me to speed up or slow down, rather than once every 6 or 7 minutes being reminded that I am either too slow or fast. I'm also really glad I'm not racing a marathon on dirt paths: I find it a lot harder to run fast on gravel than I used to. The last 12 miles were all on gravel, so I'm pretty happy with that pace.
This upcoming week, I am going backpacking Sat/Sun, so my whole week of training is condensed! We'll see how that goes...
Monday, March 4, 2013
The day I ate 6 full-sized meals.
This week was pretty heavy on the intensity, and right around 80 miles (as usual for now, I guess). I had the following week:
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: 6x1k at 3:30-3:35 (getting to be a staple!)
Wednesday: Am 6/ PM 8
Thursday: 9 mile progression run. 3 at 7-7:30 pace, 3 at 6:30-6:50, 3 at 6:10-6:30, 1 mile CD
Friday: 4 early AM/ 8.5 mid-late AM
Saturday: 5 AM/ 3 PM
Sunday: 20 miles. 6 warmup, 1mi @ 6:30, 1 @7:30, 2 @ 6:30, 1 @7:30, 2 @6:30, 1 @7:30, 1 @6:30, 2 easy, 3 progression to max for finish
I was, as is usual these days, beat all to hell on Monday; I ran those 5 miles about 2 minutes/mile slower than marathon goal-pace, to give you some idea how slow my easy days have become.
Tuesday went pretty well, despite the most horrific weather. K and I decided to do the 1ks outside (she was volleying for the indoor track, but I wanted to run outside. I hate track-hack and also run better on the unbanked track). It was 35 and the sky was unleashing freezing pellets of rain that stung every time they hit uncovered skin. So, of course, I was wearing Spandex shorts and a couple of long-sleeve shirts with cotton $1 throw-away gloves (the obvious attire for such weather). After each rep, I promised myself I only had to do 1 more. My legs felt fine, but the wind on the back stretch of the track was enough to discourage Rocky in any of his roided-out montages: clearly, my mere mortal self hadn't much chance in keeping my commitment. After 3 of them, I threw away my gloves, thinking the soaked cotton was only making my hands colder. I also contemplated taking my shirts off; they were soaking wet and cold, so they must only be making me colder, my pre-hypothermic brain reasoned.
I did make it through 6, all on pace, before my hands felt like they were going to fall off if I didn't warm them up.
Thursday's progression run was also really tough, but for different reasons. My legs were pretty heavy, and my stomach had been pretty unhappy throughout the day. S was kind enough to help me through it: we ran the first 3 out on the roads, then headed to the track for the harder stuff. In the last 3 miles (the ones at sub-6:30 pace), I kept telling myself that I just had to finish another lap. I honestly didn't know if I was going to finish until I had about 150 meters left. At that point, I realized I was going to successfully run the whole distance at the appropriate pace, and picked it up a bit.
On Friday, I managed to eat 6 separate normal-person meals. After my first run, I ate oatmeal. I ran to a meeting at work on run #2, at which there was pizza (I ate the pizza). When I got home from the second run, I ate rice and beans that L had made the night before. I ate a burrito at the airport en route to Seattle, and a quesadilla and a salad and frozen yogurt in Houston. This day was awesome.
Sunday's run had beautiful weather in Seattle. It was about 50 and sunny. My legs felt pretty heavy, partially due to sleep deprivation and partially due to dehydration and partially due to this being my 3rd hard workout this week. I ran from Green Lake (where I unsuccessfully tried to meet up with a local running group) to the Burke Gilman Trail, where I did the aforementioned workout. For those of you who don't know this about me, my stomach is definitely my weakest link as a runner, and this run is a prime example of just that. After the second hard 2 mile piece, I had to stop to use a restroom. While I was stopped, I figured I should take a Gu, since it'd been an hour since I'd fueled. I took it, and about 10 meters into the "easy" mile, I puked the gu right back up. I don't like Gu, and I've had any number of other negative reactions to Gu when taking it during hard running, but I've never had that one before. I guess that means (as I told Coach before this week) that 6:30 is a little too hard for marathon pace this cycle. And also that Gu is disgusting and I'll be having trouble forcing myself to take it very often in this training cycle. But, since Eugene only has 2 elite fluid tables, I'll need to take Gu at least twice. And I clearly need to practice. I managed to finish off the rest of the run as planned (including the progression at the end), but it was pretty tough.
I'm looking forward to a somewhat easier week ahead... this one beat me up!
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: 6x1k at 3:30-3:35 (getting to be a staple!)
Wednesday: Am 6/ PM 8
Thursday: 9 mile progression run. 3 at 7-7:30 pace, 3 at 6:30-6:50, 3 at 6:10-6:30, 1 mile CD
Friday: 4 early AM/ 8.5 mid-late AM
Saturday: 5 AM/ 3 PM
Sunday: 20 miles. 6 warmup, 1mi @ 6:30, 1 @7:30, 2 @ 6:30, 1 @7:30, 2 @6:30, 1 @7:30, 1 @6:30, 2 easy, 3 progression to max for finish
I was, as is usual these days, beat all to hell on Monday; I ran those 5 miles about 2 minutes/mile slower than marathon goal-pace, to give you some idea how slow my easy days have become.
Tuesday went pretty well, despite the most horrific weather. K and I decided to do the 1ks outside (she was volleying for the indoor track, but I wanted to run outside. I hate track-hack and also run better on the unbanked track). It was 35 and the sky was unleashing freezing pellets of rain that stung every time they hit uncovered skin. So, of course, I was wearing Spandex shorts and a couple of long-sleeve shirts with cotton $1 throw-away gloves (the obvious attire for such weather). After each rep, I promised myself I only had to do 1 more. My legs felt fine, but the wind on the back stretch of the track was enough to discourage Rocky in any of his roided-out montages: clearly, my mere mortal self hadn't much chance in keeping my commitment. After 3 of them, I threw away my gloves, thinking the soaked cotton was only making my hands colder. I also contemplated taking my shirts off; they were soaking wet and cold, so they must only be making me colder, my pre-hypothermic brain reasoned.
I did make it through 6, all on pace, before my hands felt like they were going to fall off if I didn't warm them up.
Thursday's progression run was also really tough, but for different reasons. My legs were pretty heavy, and my stomach had been pretty unhappy throughout the day. S was kind enough to help me through it: we ran the first 3 out on the roads, then headed to the track for the harder stuff. In the last 3 miles (the ones at sub-6:30 pace), I kept telling myself that I just had to finish another lap. I honestly didn't know if I was going to finish until I had about 150 meters left. At that point, I realized I was going to successfully run the whole distance at the appropriate pace, and picked it up a bit.
On Friday, I managed to eat 6 separate normal-person meals. After my first run, I ate oatmeal. I ran to a meeting at work on run #2, at which there was pizza (I ate the pizza). When I got home from the second run, I ate rice and beans that L had made the night before. I ate a burrito at the airport en route to Seattle, and a quesadilla and a salad and frozen yogurt in Houston. This day was awesome.
Sunday's run had beautiful weather in Seattle. It was about 50 and sunny. My legs felt pretty heavy, partially due to sleep deprivation and partially due to dehydration and partially due to this being my 3rd hard workout this week. I ran from Green Lake (where I unsuccessfully tried to meet up with a local running group) to the Burke Gilman Trail, where I did the aforementioned workout. For those of you who don't know this about me, my stomach is definitely my weakest link as a runner, and this run is a prime example of just that. After the second hard 2 mile piece, I had to stop to use a restroom. While I was stopped, I figured I should take a Gu, since it'd been an hour since I'd fueled. I took it, and about 10 meters into the "easy" mile, I puked the gu right back up. I don't like Gu, and I've had any number of other negative reactions to Gu when taking it during hard running, but I've never had that one before. I guess that means (as I told Coach before this week) that 6:30 is a little too hard for marathon pace this cycle. And also that Gu is disgusting and I'll be having trouble forcing myself to take it very often in this training cycle. But, since Eugene only has 2 elite fluid tables, I'll need to take Gu at least twice. And I clearly need to practice. I managed to finish off the rest of the run as planned (including the progression at the end), but it was pretty tough.
I'm looking forward to a somewhat easier week ahead... this one beat me up!
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