Training log - Week ending 9/27/15

This week was 73 miles of running, 14 "miles" of pool-running and 1000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Race recovery/digging myself out of a hole week.  I was pretty trashed from Sunday's race on Monday, and only slightly better on Tuesday.  By Wednesday my running felt a bit better, and Thursday felt great, running-wise.  I just felt horrible the rest of the time.

To explain in more detail, I sometimes get into an insomniac "funk" for lack of a better word.  When I get into this funk, I have a lot of difficulty falling asleep, and nothing OTC or prescription in my medicine cabinet helps (no, I haven't tried Ambien).  I also get tense and simply CAN'T relax, I struggle with concentration, and my resting HR gets elevated.  And the more sleep-deprived I get, the harder it is for me to fall asleep - it's a really frustrating cycle.  At the beginning of this cycle, I can run OK, but the further I get into it, the more I struggle.

What causes this funk?  Well, a lot of things.  I've learned that running in the evening, or any other moderate to hard exertion after about 2 pm, can trigger a bout of insomnia that is very hard to end.  Training too hard also causes this, as does a lot of life stress.

And....looking at my past few days, I had:
a) a half-marathon that was very hard on my body, combined with
b) the stress of preparing to move next week (and oh yes, that's a LOT of work), combined with
c) some evening pool-running that probably wasn't the best choice, given a) and b).

Once I get into this funk, it's a downward spiral, since the less I sleep, the harder it is for me to sleep.  Since I'm not sleeping well, I don't recover, and so I can't absorb my workouts - all I gain is more fatigue and possible injury.

And when I get into this funk, there's only one way to fix it.  Rest.  For as long as it takes.  Which is the last thing I want to do in marathon training.

By Friday morning, I was deep into my funk, with several days of lousy or non-existent sleep.  After discussing with my coach on Friday morning, I decided to skip that morning's workout.  I also reviewed my work calendar, noted that there was nothing urgent scheduled, and took off work as well.   Instead, I spent my day either watching DVDs on the couch or packing boxes, followed by a nice dinner out with my boyfriend.  And sure enough, I actually fell asleep like a normal person on Friday night and felt like I had been rebooted on Saturday morning.

This was just in time for Sunday, and the  "4-3-2-1 workout" - a long run with segments of 4, 3, 2, and 1 miles at marathon pace, with an easy mile inserted between each.  In the past, I've used my Garmin to check pace as I ran this workout.   This time I decided to run it with my watch face blanked - I programmed my Garmin with the workout, so I'd know when each segment ended and also could review the splits post-workout.

I did this for a few reasons:
1) I race with my watch face blanked, so why not do the MP workout that way?
2) I've been worried that I have been running this workout too hard in the past, chasing paces rather than effort - running "blind" would help me with that;
3) if I was still fried/in a funk then running by effort would hopefully keep me from digging a deeper hole.

As it turned out, I averaged the paces I've been targeting all along.  Quite a confidence booster, that.

Two lessons for the week: running by effort can be a huge confidence booster.  And sometimes an unscheduled rest day is absolutely the best thing you can do for your training.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga and 6.5 "miles" easy pool-running in the morning; sports massage at night.

Tuesday:  5 miles very easy to yoga (9:37) and yoga.  Later, another 9 miles very easy (9:03).  2 "miles" of pool-running and foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 7 miles very easy (9:21) to yoga, followed by yoga.  Later did another 8 miles very easy (9:07), followed by drills, and two strides.   3.5 "miles" easy pool-running and foam rolling in the evening.

Thursday:   4 miles very easy to yoga (9:12), followed by yoga.  Later did another 6 miles (8:38 pace), followed by drills and two strides, and then some upper body weights work.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  3.5 miles very easy (10:11) plus drills and strides, then decided to bail on the workout due to sleep deprivation; foam rolling at night.

Saturday:  12 miles very easy in the morning (9:44).  Later did 2 "miles" recovery pool-running, some upperbody weights, and foam rolling.

Sunday:  18.5 miles as a "4-3-2-1" workout - segments of 4, 3, 2, and 1 mile at marathon pace, each separated by one mile easy (ran this by effort on a slightly rolling route). Splits were:

4 mile: 28:25 (7:12/7:08/7:07/6:55) ~ 7:06 pace
3 mile: 20:45 (6:54/6:55/6:56) ~ 6:55 pace
2 mile: 13:58 (6:59 pace - 6:58/7:00) ~6:59 pace
1 mile: 6:54 

Followed with some injury prevention work.  1000 yards recovery swimming and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Training log - Week ending September 20, 2015

This week was 60 miles of running, 9 "miles" of pool-running and 3000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Tapered for and raced a half-marathon as a tune-up, which meant that this week was a major cutback.  For my taper, I stayed with my normal routine for Monday and Tuesday, and then cut back the miles gently on Wednesday and Thursday, and significantly on Friday and Saturday.  I also cut out the cross-training after Wednesday (except for a quick recovery swim on Friday) and kept Wednesday's yoga class on the gentle side.

As for the race itself?  Went very poorly.  Ah well.  I have a whole litany of stuff that I tell other people when it comes to bad races - everybody has them, and they're not a reflection on your fitness or ability.  And I truly believe that.  But it's harder to listen to when it's your own bad race.

Oh well.  Recover, and move on.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, some upper body strengthwork, yoga, and 6.5 "miles" easy pool-running.  2.5 "miles" easy pool-running and foam-rolling in the evening.

Tuesday:  13.5 miles, including a workout of 8x800 (split 3:06, 3:05, 3:05, 3:01, 2:59, 2:58, 2:58, 2:52)  followed by some injury prevention work and 1500 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 8 miles very easy (8:58), followed by a yoga class and then another 4.5 miles very easy (8:22 - not sure why so fast), followed by drills and two strides.   Sports massage at night.

Thursday:   9 miles very easy (9:21), followed by drills, two strides and two hill sprints.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  5.5 miles, including a mile up-tempo at 6:17, followed by 800 yards recovery swimming and foam rolling.

Saturday:  3.5 miles very easy (9:15) plus drills and four strides, followed by foam rolling. 

Sunday:  2.5 miles warming up, half-marathon in 1:31:37.  Followed with a very easy yoga class (mostly stretching) and 700 yards recovery swimming in the afternoon.  Foam rolling at night.

Race Report: Navy-Air Force Half-Marathon, September 20, 2015

I ran the Navy-Airforce Half-Marathon today, finishing in 1:31.37.  Not quite the time I wanted, but oh well.

I had pretty high hopes for this race going in - I've been feeling really good about my fitness these last few weeks.  So I rested up for this race, hydrated and ate up, and hoped the weather would cooperate.

The forecast for this race had been coy all week - it had become warm and humid towards the end of the week, but a front would blow through sometime Sunday morning, with cooler and drier air behind it.  The question of the day - when would the front come through?


As it turned out, not in time for the start of the race.  Oh well.  I had raced a half-marathon in warm conditions before, so I knew how to do it - carry a water bottle and start very conservatively.  My coach's advice to me was "keep it very careful the first 5K" and I was absolutely going to comply.

The race started, and I went out gently, letting the crowds surge around me, before settling into a very controlled pace.  What felt very easy for the first mile started feeling a bit harder after the second mile, so I backed off slightly, letting a teammate pull ahead of me.  We still had 11 miles to go, and I knew I didn't want to push it early on.  "Keep it very careful."  Though it was still warm and slightly sticky, the front was starting to come in with a brisk wind, and I suspected we'd be dealing with a headwind for several miles to come, so I wanted to stay conservative now.

Things continued to toughen, though, and my chest started to tighten some.  Not a full-blown asthma attack, but I definitely wasn't getting the air I needed, with the "breathing through a straw" feeling.

Ugh.  I didn't want to, but with 8 miles to go, I needed to take care of this.  So I stepped to the side for a second, puffed my rescue inhaler, and then picked up where I left off.  Soon after, the breathing eased a bit, and I was able to focus on the group I had been running with - now a bit ahead.

My breathing still wasn't great, though, even after controlling for the weather (which honestly wasn't THAT bad).  It's hard to explain, but there is a difference between simply dealing with humid air, and asthma.  Humid air just feels like...moist air.  It still goes in and out of the lungs.  Asthma feels like my lungs are clenching up into fists, and the air gets stuck and doesn't go where it should.  I'd go through periods where it felt a bit better and my lungs would loosen up and I could talk, and then it would grab up again - never to the point of making me wheeze, but not good.  But all I could do was work through it.

The thought of dropping out did cross my mind.  But I nixed it for a lot of reasons:
a) I was running on a team, and I didn't want to have my drop out affect the team if they needed my score;
b) I didn't know how many masters females were ahead of me - there was still the possibility of an award there, even though I was having an awful day;
c) half-marathons, even if they go horribly, are still a great tempo workout, and one that I sorely needed;
d) I think dropping out of a race can really linger in one's mind, more so than a bad race.    I definitely would have dropped if the breathing became too much of a struggle.  But it was somewhat under control, so I just kept on.

(this long list all went through my head as I convinced myself).

That was pretty much how the rest of the race went - running fast when I could, backing off (sometimes way off) when needed.  There was a sharp hill climbing to a hair pin turn about mile 9 - my lungs grabbed up as we climbed, so I pulled off just after the turn to take another puff - I was struggling enough that another puff was a good idea to get me through to the end, and a sharp turn with a downhill was the best place to do it - I could use the downhill to get me back up to speed.

More slogging, and I finally made it to the finish.  This race ends with a steep downhill for the last tenth of a mile.  Amusingly, I ended up "out-kicking" a few people - not because I had anything left, but because I am a very good downhill runner (speedwise; not in terms of handling the pounding), especially when the downhill is fairly steep.    And then it was over, and I was glad.

Splits were:
Mile 1: 6:56
Mile 2: 7:27 (long)
Mile 3: 6:06 (short)
Mile 4: 6:55
Mile 5: 6:56
Mile 6-7: 14:17 (7:09) -inhaler
Mile 8: 7:06
Mile 9: 7:21 -inhaler
Mile 10: 7:05
Mile 11: 6:57
Mile 12: 7:08
Mile 13: 6:50
Last bit: 36 seconds

My frustration with racing at this time of year continues.  I have a habit of being massively disappointed in September half-marathons - I've never raced one where I felt good, even when the weather was fantastic.  I know why it is - this is a rough time for me, allergy-wise, and the bad breathing days battle with the good.  In fact, I have just enough good days to convince me it's going to be different this year.  Effectively I have an abusive and toxic relationship with my own breathing.   Heh.

Every year, I swear I won't do another September half-marathon.

What do you want to bet I'll run this race next year, and be optimistic (as I was this year) that I'm primed for a great race?

Other notes:

• Arrived around 6 am, which was perfect timing to park, do bag check, and warm up.  I did warm-up fairly early, ending around 6:45.  I was OK with having the extra time pre-race, since I wanted to make sure I was cool at the start, and I didn't care if I went out a bit slow.
• Ended up second Masters Female, which was nice, and shows why you don't drop out of races just because you're having a shitty day - you never know what's going on ahead of you (well...unless you're in the lead pack).
• Temperature was supposedly 70, with a DP of 60 at the start.  Which is weird, because it felt stickier than that.  *shrug*
• This race is in its fourth or fifth year now, and it's really nice to note the work the race management is putting into it.  The expo this year was well-run, and an easy trip.  And the course was redesigned this year to avoid any intersection between the half and the five-mile races.  Well done.
• One puff of my Foradil long acting inhaler at 5:30 this morning plus two puffs of the rescue inhaler pre-race; two more puffs of the inhaler during the race at 40 and 60 minutes into the race.  For you Alberto Salazar fans - no, neither of my inhalers have steroids - they're both broncho-dilators.  One takes longer to kick in but lasts longer; the other kicks in very quickly but doesn't last that long.
• Tossed my water bottle at Thompson's boathouse - worked perfectly for retrieving it after.
• Took two gels - one was a Strawberry Kiwi rocktane at Mile 4, the other was a Maple Bacon (actually quite yummy) around mile 9.

Training log - week ending 9/13/15

This week was 81 miles of running, 18 "miles" of pool-running and 5000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

The week didn't start out great - as I noted last week, I thought I was either getting sick or fighting off allergies.  I felt lousy on Monday night and Tuesday morning, so I started off the Tuesday workout (1200s) very easy - about tempo pace.  I felt better as I went along, so I dropped the pace some with each rep, and ended up with 5x1200 paced very "progressively."  Each rep was about 7 seconds faster than the previous.  That's not how I normally pace my workouts - I'm usually a lot more even.  On the other hand, better that way than the reverse.

My symptoms continued on and off all week - sinus pain and fatigue.  I felt better mid-week, but then I felt horrible on Thursday night.  I debated whether to show on Friday morning for tempo, but decided to make an appearance.  While many people talk themselves out of workouts, I talk myself into them: "well....I'll just warm-up and see how I feel.....well, I'll just run the first mile and see how I feel..."

As it turns out, after a (characteristically) slow start, the tempo went very well.  I've decided that whatever bug I have is actually just allergies manifesting in a different way - no stuffy nose, just sinus pain and fatigue.  This view is supported by the fact that a max dose of Benadryl makes the sinus pain vanish (but also puts me to sleep).  This coming week I'm going to play with taking the Benadryl mid-day, in hopes that the sedative effect will wear off by morning, while the antihistamine effect remains.

(in answer to your questions - other OTC antihistamines don't seem to be helping here.  Benadryl or bust, baby.)

Sunday we got lucky and the heat broke - resulting in a very nice confidence boosting 16 mile long run.  7:00 pace actually felt like marathon pace, rather than something harder, and I was very tempted to extend my long run another mile or two for the ego boost and validation.  After all, my schedule said 16-18 on Sunday, and most of the others training for Philly Marathon were doing 20+ miles.  But, for whatever reason my coach had ordered me (twice) to limit my long run to 16, so I (reluctantly) complied.  Coaching only works if you listen to the coach.

(and...it does make a lot of sense.  I really don't need to work on my endurance - the ability to run for a long time.  That's my strength.  What I do need is more stamina - my ability to sustain fast running over a distance.  So it makes sense to restrict the long runs, so that I'm fresh enough to max out the distance covered during my weekday intervals and tempos, and get a higher volume of quality running).

This upcoming week is a cutback.  I'm running a half-marathon on Sunday, and so I'll start tapering after Tuesday's workout.

Dailies

Monday:   9 "miles" easy pool-running in the morning plus 600 yards easy swimming; foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  12 miles, including 5x1200 with half distance recovery (4:59, 4:50, 4:43, 4:36, 4:29).  Then did some injury prevention work and 1400 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 9 miles very easy (9:23),  followed by a yoga class.  Later did 7.5 miles very easy (8:45) plus drills and two hill sprints.   2.5 "miles" easy pool-running and foam rolling in the evening.

Thursday:   8 miles very easy (9:11) followed by a yoga class and then some upper body strengthwork, before 2.5 miles very easy home (8:49) plus drills and two strides.  3 "miles" easy pool-running and foam rolling in the evening.

Friday:  14 miles, including an 8K tempo in 6:48/6:37/6:35/6:27/6:25, followed with injury prevention work and 1250 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:  12 miles very easy (9:27) with drills and two strides inserted in the middle.  Later did 3.5 "miles" recovery pool-running, some upperbody weights, and foam rolling.

Sunday:  16 miles progressive, split as first 3.5 miles at 9:29 pace; next 4.5 at 7:59 pace, next 3 at 7:34 pace, last 5 at 6:59 pace.  Followed with some injury prevention work and a yoga class.  1750 yards of easy swimming and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Training log - Week ending 9/6/15

This week was 63 miles of running, 17 "miles" of pool-running and 1500 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

This was a combination cut-back and race week for me.  I had a 5K on Saturday, so I eased off on the mileage and crosstraining on Wednesday-Friday, both to rest up for the race, and to give myself an opportunity to recover from and consolidate the gains from my last two weeks of training.

Though I blew up in Saturday's race, I'm still pretty happy with it.  Both the race and my Tuesday workout indicate that my fitness is improving and I'm on the right track.  So woo.

The negative to this week is that either I'm getting sick, or my allergies are in full force.  It is that time of year, so I suspect it's the latter.  Either way, my sinuses and throat were in pretty bad shape on Sunday, to the point that I decided to skip my recovery swim.  It's not recovery if it makes you feel worse, and swimming was going to be awfully painful on Sunday.

As of Monday, the sinuses and throat are a bit better, but still achy.  I'll have to make a judgment call on Tuesday morning as to whether to do the workout.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga, some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work, and 6 "miles" easy pool-running in the morning; 3 "miles" easy pool-running and foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  12.5 miles, including 8x800 with half distance recovery (3:06, 3:04, 3:00, 2:58, 2:59, 2:57, 2:58, 2:52).  Then did some injury prevention work and 1500 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 10 miles very easy (9:46),  followed by drills, two strides, and some upper body weights work.   2.5 "miles" easy pool-running and a massage in the evening.

Thursday:   7 miles, mostly very easy but with a one mile pick-up in 6:27 (down hill).  Also some drills and two strides. Later, 2.5 "miles" of easy pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  4.5 miles very easy (9: 24) plus drills and six strides, followed by foam rolling.

Saturday:  4 mile warm-up and 5K race in 19:51; 6 mile cooldown.  Later did 3 "miles" recovery pool-running, some upperbody weights, and foam rolling.

Sunday:  16 miles progressive, split as first 7 miles at 9:15 pace, next 4 miles at 8:21 pace, last 5 miles at 7:33 pace (didn't finish at marathon pace because I had raced yesterday).  Followed with some injury prevention work and a yoga class.  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Race report: Kentlands 5K, September 5, 2015

I ran the Kentlands 5K today, finishing in a time of 19:51.  Fourth (and missing out on the podium) for the second race in a row.  Oh well. 

19:51 is still a fair bit off of my PR (19:10, which I set at this race in 2012), but it's the fastest I've run a 5K in the past 2 years, so it indicates that my fitness is moving the right direction.  Which I knew anyway, but it's nice to have some validation.

The Kentlands 5K is held on a "gently rolling" course in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  It's a bit far from where I live now, but pretty close to where I grew up, which makes it a fun race for me.  And, despite the hills, it can be a very fast course (see, e.g., my PR). 

And so I schelpped up to Gaithersburg, registered, did some stretching, and then started my 3 mile plus strides warm-up, aiming to finish by 7:45 for the 8:00 am start.  Which I did beautifully.  Only to learn that I had misread the website, and it was the kid's race that started at 8, while the 5K that started at 8:30.  Oops.  

So I hung out for a while, waited until 8:10, and then jogged another mile plus some strides, bringing me up to a 4 mile warm-up.   Good thing I'm a marathoner - the extra long warm-up was a non-issue for my race.

The race start was split into corrals starting in 1 minute waves, with the first corral being 6:30 pace and faster.  I wasn't thrilled about this, since I knew there was a big risk of being pulled out too fast (increased by the fact that a lot of high school kids were running this race).  But it was what it was.  Fortunately, they modified the corrals to 7:30 pace and faster, which was better.

The gun went off, and just as I had expected, it was a sprint, accentuated by the fact that much of the first mile of this race is downhill.  There were the fast guys, going out at a pace that was appropriate for them.  There was the high school kids, doing what high school kids always do in a race.  And... there was a third group.  This race was apparently also the "Senior Olympics Championships for Maryland", which meant that there was a large contingent of 50+ runners going for glory.  And they all sprinted also. 

I was getting massively dropped by people old enough to be my parents (and I'm a masters runner).  It was a quarter mile into the race, and I was in something like 200th place.  And I wasn't running slow.  It was a bit disconcerting, but I just reminded myself that everyone ahead of me fell into two groups - those who were faster than me (and I shouldn't try to hang with), and those who were going to blow up at the end of this downhill first mile.

As it turned out, most of the 200+ ahead of me fell into the second category, and I got to spend the next mile and a half chasing down people - trying to hold steady on the uphills as they faded, and then building speed on the downhills and blowing past others.

By the time we passed the second mile, another woman and I were alternately leading each other.  I'll pull ahead on the downhills, she'd get me on the uphills.   The third mile of this 5K includes the longest climb of the course - it's followed by a long downhill almost to the finish.  For the last hill, I decided to hang with her rather than letting her pull ahead - I knew the downhill was coming, and I could regroup.

In retrospect, this was a bad decision.  For one thing, I had forgotten just how long this hill was - it weaves a bit, and so you think you're approaching the top only to realize you have a way to go. 

I pushed pretty hard up the hill, but lost her anyway.  And then, when we turned to the downhill, I was so deep into oxygen debt that I couldn't regroup and work the downhill the way I had planned.  Instead, I blew up, including having to drastically slow up for few seconds just to get my breathing pattern restablished.  In the end, the splits don't look that bad, but I think I could have run a bit faster had I been more patient on the uphill.  I'll remember that next year.

But it was satisfying to come around the final turn, and see that despite the blow up I was still going to break 20.  In the past years, I've broken 40 for 10K more than I've broken 20 for 5K, which has to be right up there with silly running statistics. 

Splits:

Mile 1: 6:19
Mile 2: 6:23
Mile 3+last bit: 7:10 (6:28 pace)

Other notes:

• Pretty sticky morning - temperature of 72 and dewpoint of 69 at race time.  A cold front came through today, but a bit too late for my race, sigh.
  
• For the past 15+ years, I've avoided caffeine - in my teens and 20s I consumed a lot of caffeine and had problems with migraines from caffeine withdrawal.  However, recently I've been experimenting with caffeinated gels, to see if a small dose of caffeine will help me in my races (and if so, what the right amount and timing is).  For this race, I took a gel with caffeine (I tried the salted watermelon GU) about 45 minutes before race start. 
  
  Results?  a) I was really jumpy at the start (and also post race).  b) I did run my fastest 5K in a few years.  c) I got too aggressive near the end and blew up.   
  
  a) is probably the result of the caffeine, but it's hard to be certain about b) and c).   I do run my races off of perceived effort, and I think the caffeine changed my perception - so mental note to be extra careful to stay relaxed when I try this again.
  
  (and yes, I'm actually feeling a bit guilty about using a substance - caffeine - for performance enhancing purposes.  Which is admittedly ridiculous, and perhaps indicates that my moral compass is a bit too tightly wound.)
  
  
• The whole day was a big flashback for me.  First...I saw two friends from my clubbing days at the race, including one I haven't seen in nearly a decade.  One, Brian (AKA Zooom - it's a club thing), I expected to see - it's

  

  It's not a MD race without
  seeing Zoooom!

  been wonderful running into him at various races over the past few years.  The other, Nick, was a complete surprise - I saw someone very familiar looking at the start line, so thought I'd ask.  Yup - it was him.  The last time I saw him was the last night that Alchemy was held at Nation.
  
  

  

  I haven't seen Nick since a dance floor in 2006.

  
  
  Then....post race I swung by the house where I grew up (my parents owned it from 1979-1999, which means I lived there on and off from age 5 until my last year of law school).  It's been many years since I've been there, though I've checked it out on Zillow and Google Maps.

  

  Some things have changed; some things are the same

  
  
  
  Afterwards, I headed into the city to get a contract signed for some property I own and rent out in DC.  Which gave me the opportunity to do my cooldown jog on the same route I used to run when I lived in Dupont Circle.  All in all, a very fun flashback day.

Training log - Week ending 8/30/2015

This week was 81.5 miles of running, 17 "miles" of pool-running and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Good week, so yay.  This is my second week at 80-ish miles; next week is a cut-back, since I'm racing a 5K.  Then another high week at 80-85 before racing a tune-up half.

We had a break in the humidity, which opened the door for a confidence boosting workout on Tuesday.  We were scheduled for 2-3x(1600, 800) - generally one of the tougher workouts for me, since I like to drop the pace a bit on each rep of a workout.   For that reason, I prefer workouts with identical length intervals (i.e. 8x800) or downward ladders (2000, 1600, 1200, 800, 400).  Pulling back on the pace while shifting from a shorter interval to a slightly slower paced longer interval is hard for me, especially if I'm running the workouts hard. 

For this one, I was determined to get the max number of reps done, which meant that I ran the first two sets very cautiously.  For the third set, I decided to release the brakes a bit, and was pleasantly surprised to break 6 minutes for the third 1600, without straining or trying to run that fast - it just happened.  It's not a particularly ground breaking split - I used to regularly split 1600s in less than 6 minutes.  But that was all before I tore my hamstring at the attachment two years ago, and I was also running my workouts a bit too hard back then. This is the first time I've broken 6 for a (almost) mile repeat since I tore my hamstring, and to do it without straining, struggling, or racing the workout (and then to follow it up with a solid 800) was awesome.

The rest of the week was also good.  I was a bit disappointed to only do a 5K tempo on Friday.  For one thing, though I dread 8-10K tempos on the track like nothing else, I also know that the 30-40 minutes running at 10 mile/half marathon pace does great things for my fitness.  I also take a while to find my groove in track tempos, which is fine for longer tempos.  But when you've only got 12 or so laps, you have to hit pace pretty quickly.  As my splits show below, I was still a bit sluggish the first mile before finding my rhythm.  And it probably wasn't a bad thing to do a workout that was out of my comfort zone.  (I did whine a bit).

And my weekend was great.  I had a good long run on Sunday, but the real highlight was on Saturday, when our cat, Izzie (Isabella) had some visitors.

Kathy, one of the people from Healing Hands,
gave me a framed version of this photo,
featuring Izzie and the toys she managed
to steal despite wearing a cone.

As a backstory, Izzie was surrendered to a veterinary clinic in Salisbury, MD by the local Humane Society, due to severe allergies.  She was supposed to be euthanized due to those allergies, which had caused her to lose much of her fur and made her unadoptable.  But none of the vets at the clinic could bring themselves to put her to sleep, due to her youth, friendly personality, and the treatable nature of her condition.  So...she became a resident cat at the clinic, where everyone fell in love with her. 

And then, after about 9 months in a cone, when the clinic had figured out the combination of medications that controlled her allergies, they let us adopt her.  That was in February.

This past weekend, some of the employees at that clinic happened to be in town, and stopped by for a visit.  Cue several hours of playing with and spoiling Izzie - they brought two bags worth of new toys. 

It was really awesome to meet them (well, except for my sister - I knew her already...) and to have the chance to thank them for trusting us with Izzie.

Isabella, some of the crew from Healing Hands, and ALL THOSE TOYS.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga, some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work, and 6 "miles" easy pool-running in the morning; 3 "miles" easy pool-running and foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  13.5 miles, including 3x (1600, 800) with half distance recovery (6:16, 3:01, 6:11, 3:00, 5:59, 2:53).  Then did some injury prevention work and 1500 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 8.5 miles very easy (9:29), followed by a yoga class and then another 6.5 miles very easy (9:07), followed by drills and four strides.   2 "miles" easy pool-running and foam rolling in the evening.

Thursday:   8 miles very easy (9:04), followed by drills, 2 strides, and a yoga class.  Later, another 2.5 miles very easy (9:06), and some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work.  3 "miles easy poolrunning and foam rolling at night.

Friday:  12 miles, including an 5K track tempo in 20:14 (6:41/6:26/6:23/0:44).   Followed with some injury prevention work and 1500 yards easy swimming.    Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:  12 miles very easy (8:54) plus drills and four strides, followed by upper body weight stuff and foam rolling.  3 "miles" easy pool-running in the afternoon.

Sunday:  18 miles progressive, split as 9:39 for first 3 miles, 8:40 for next 6 miles, 7:56 for next 4 miles, and 7:08 for last 5 miles.  Followed with some injury prevention work and 1000 yards easy swimming.  Yoga and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Training log - Week ending 8/23/2015

This week was 79 miles of running, 15 "miles" of pool-running and 5000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

(I guess I should have run another mile)

And, I'm into the rhythm of marathon training.  Which I really like.  Long runs are my favorite workout by far, and I also enjoy racking up easy mileage (as odd as that seems).

Plus, we did my favorite track workout on Tuesday - a pyramid of 400, 800,v1200, an optional 1600, and then back down with 1200, 800, 400.  The fact that each interval is a different length makes it easier to mentally break up the workout, and it's also a good way to make sure that you get a full four miles worth of intervals in.  If you're doing 6-8x600, the decision point really comes after rep six, and a lot of times it's just easier to shut down the workout then, especially if your teammates are as well.  But when doing the pyramid, the decision point comes earlier in the workout, when you decide whether or not to do the 1600.  Once you've done that, each interval is a bit shorter, and so it's easier to just complete the whole thing.

Friday's workout was long intervals on the track - 3200m, 800m recovery, and then 1600m.  Since I was only doing 3200, I decided to hang with a group of slightly faster people for the first 2 miles of their 4-5 mile tempo.  The first lap felt a bit slow even by my standards, but I didn't want to push stuff or pass them - after all, they were a) faster than me and b) had a longer distance to cover.

And then my coach called out our 400m split - 7:20 pace.  That was "leisurely" according to my coach, and slower than marathon pace for me, never mind everyone else in the group.  And everyone woke up.  :)  And I hung on for the next seven laps at somewhere between 6:15 and 6:20 pace - possibly one of my more painful workouts, though I can laugh about it now.  It was good practice in gutting it out.

Sunday, I had another of my coach's 4-3-2-1 workouts on tap - segments of 4, 3, 2, and 1 mile at marathon pace, each separated by one mile easy.  I normally do these on a flat segment of pavement, but this weekend that route was blocked by construction, forcing all of us doing this workout to use the C&O Canal Towpath instead.

Some people (mostly those with histories of stress fractures) love the towpath. Others can't stand it because it's boring.  For myself, I don't mind the boredom factor (still beats the track), but too many miles on the soft, occasionally unstable, sometimes rocky surface make my joints hurt and aggravate the various chronic injuries I try to keep at bay.  Plus, I've tripped and fallen on the towpath enough times to be leery.  Despite all that, it was our best option, so I sucked it up, running with cash in my pocket so that I could bail out at Carderock and call a cab if things started to hurt too much.

The workout itself went well.  The first four miles were pretty rough - there's gentle but steady elevation gain over the first four miles (a false flat), with the occasional short sharper hill at each lock that's just enough to screw up one's rhythm.  After that, we got to turn around and run back, benefiting from the slight downhill.    Overall, it was a hard workout, and I was glad to get it done.  My hips and feet did hurt intermittently during the workout, and I was pretty sore right after.  Some gentle stretching and a solid night's sleep helped a lot, though, so hopefully no longer term damage.

Despite the heat and the slightly slower towpath surface, the pace of this workout ended up being the same speed as my previous 4-3-2-1s.  Not sure what to think about that.  On the one hand, this is supposed to be a "marathon pace" workout, and 6:50-7:00 is not a realistic marathon pace for me right now (and also feels way too hard for marathon pace).  7:10-7:15 is closer to my actual current abilities, and I'm certainly not targeting a sub-3 marathon this go-round.  On the other hand, when I discuss with my coach, he's fine with the pace I'm running, and tells me not to overthink it.  And I am definitely prone to overthinking.  So I guess I'll just not worry about it, and continue to run this workout at somewhere between marathon and half-marathon pace, until my coach tells me to slow down.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga, some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work, and 6 "miles" easy pool-running in the morning; 3 "miles" easy pool-running and foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  12 miles, including a pyramid workout of 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800, 400 with half distance recovery (1:37, 3:05, 4:40, 6:13, 4:35, 3:01, 1:25).  Then did some injury prevention work and 1800 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 8.5 miles very easy (9:42), followed by a yoga class.  Later did another 6.5 miles very easy (9:03), followed by drills and 2 strides.   2 "miles" easy pool-running and a massage in the evening.

Thursday:   8.5 miles very easy (9:28), followed by a yoga class, and then another 2 miles home (9:07) plus drills and 2 strides, and some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work.  2 "miles" easy pool-running and foam rolling at night.

Friday:  13 miles, including a long intervals workout of 3200 (12:47, split as 6:32/6:15) and then a 1600 in 6:09.   Followed with some injury prevention work.  Did 1700 yards easy swimming in the afternoon, plus foam rolling.

Saturday:  12 miles very easy (9:18) plus drills and four strides.  Followed with upper body and core strengthwork and foam rolling.  2 "miles" easy pool-running in the afternoon.

Sunday:  16.5 miles as a "4-3-2-1" workout - segments of 4, 3, 2, and 1 mile at marathon pace, each separated by one mile easy.  Splits were:

4 mile: 28:01 (7:04/6:55/7:01/7:00) ~ 7:00 pace (uphill)
3 mile: 20:35 (7:03/6:46/6:45)  ~6:52 (downhill)
2 mile: 13:45 (6:54/6:52) ~ 6:53 pace (slight downhill)
1 mile: 6:37

Followed with 1500 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling in the afternoon.  Skipped yoga and injury prevention work because my hips were pretty darn sore.

Training log - Week ending 8/16/2015

This week was 60 miles of running, 11 "miles" of pool-running and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

A cut back week, with a 5K race at the end.  This was also supposed to be our second week back at the track, but that got sidelined when we discovered the track was closed.  Since most of us were on a tight schedule and couldn't relocate, we opted to run loops around the outside of the track on the sidewalk - each lap was about .82 miles.

I was apprehensive at first, but ended up really enjoying the workout and preferring it to the track.  As tough as concrete is, the firmness of it is easier on my body than the bounciness and near-continual turning of the track - I was surprised at how good I felt on Wednesday, as compared to my normal morning-after-track easy jog.  And the path we took had some mild rises and falls, with the descents coming at just the right point in each rep.  I felt good enough to want to try for 5-6 repetitions, but my coach shut everyone down at four.

For the latter half of the week, I reduced the workload and the intensity, before racing a 5K on Sunday.  I raced simply because I hadn't done so in a while, and needed to get back out there.  Judging by the splits (last mile 40 seconds faster than the first), I definitely needed the practice.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, some upper body strengthwork, yoga, and 5 "miles" easy pool-running.  3 "miles" easy pool-running and foam-rolling in the evening.

Tuesday:  12 miles, including a workout of 4xthe concrete loop with 2:30 minute recovery (split 5:25, 5:20, 5:13, 5:09)  followed by some injury prevention work and 1100 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 7.5 miles very easy (9:18), followed by a yoga class and then another 7 miles very easy (8:49), followed by drills and two strides.   Foam rolling in afternoon.

Thursday:   10 miles very easy (8:54), followed by drills and two strides, and some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work,.  Foam rolling and 3 "miles" easy poolrunning at night.

Friday:  7 miles, including a mile up-tempo at 6:41.   1350 yards easy swimming and foam rolling at night.

Saturday:  3.5 miles very easy (9:13) plus drills and four strides, followed by foam rolling. 

Sunday:  3.5 miles warming up, 5K race in 20:16.  Later did another 6.5 miles very easy (9:06). Followed with 1550 yards easy swimming.  Yoga and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Race Report: Leesburg 5K, August 16, 2015

I ran the Leesburg 5K today, finishing in 20:16, which was good enough for 4th (the top three won prize money - oops).

This was my first race back since Grandma's Marathon in June.  I'm not a fan of 5Ks.  Or August races.  Or August 5Ks.  But racing is one of those things that needs to be done regularly, or you get rusty.

How rusty was I?  Well, let's look at the splits....

Mile 1: 6:52 (admittedly most of this mile is uphill, but come on...)
Mile 2: 6:27
Mile 3: 6:12 (downhill)
Last bit - 46 seconds

Um...yeah.   I'm a huge believer in "start slow/finish fast", but I think I overdid it a bit here.  Keep in mind that 6:52 is slower than half marathon pace for me.

Granted, going out carefully was my strategy for multiple reasons.  The Leesburg 5K course starts on a downhill for about a third of a mile, then has a fairly significant climb for the next mile, before leveling off and then gently descending back to the start.  I a) run best with a negative split by effort and b) cannot recover from oxygen debt once I'm in it.  Thus, the last thing I wanted to do was to blast the hill.

Additionally, I know that when I haven't raced for a while, I sometimes go out faster than I should, and pay for it at the end.  I wanted to avoid that mistake today.

So when the gun went off and everyone surged on the downhill that started the race, I hung back and let them flow past me - a huge mass of people.  With the solid mile-long climb ahead of us, I figured many of them would come back to me.  After we turned and began to climb, I held my same effort level.  For about 30 seconds, people continued to pass me.  Then the tide started to shift, gently but inexorably, and I stopped being passed and started passing people. 

I held my controlled effort until I hit the first mile marker, at which point I upped things a bit (and felt a bit of sympathy for those who were wilting this early in the race).  I was still fairly in control - I wanted to be able to make full use of the downhill on the way back - but my increased effort meant that I was pushing through various groups, and picking off women right and left (didn't care about the guys that much).

This second part of the course involved a hairpin turn and also a loop through a high school parking lot that was marked with cones.  Things got a bit tricky here - like trying to pass slower drivers while winding through a construction zone on the highway.  Or like trying to do a workout on a very crowded track.

I also found the route through the high school a bit confusing - there were cones, but it was never clear to me which side of the cones we were supposed to be on.  I just did whatever the person ahead of me did, and hoped it was the right path.

Another tight turn out of the school lot and we were headed towards the trail - we'd make a right turn there and take that nearly all the way to the finish line.  As we turned onto the trail, I dropped my version of a hammer, and passed the last woman/girl in front of me.   At that point, there was no one left ahead of me (that I could see) to chase, so the last mile became a hard solo push.  It would have been nice to have someone ahead of me to focus on, but I guess the flip side of that is that it's better to be ahead of others than behind them.

I hauled ass down to the last turn, which was followed by fairly steep hill to the finish.

I have to admit, I love it when shorter races have steep uphills at or near the end.  I'm not a very good uphill runner, but I am very willing to hurt pretty hard at the end of a race.  And while hills in the beginner or middle of a course reward the runner who is good at running uphill, a hill at end of the course benefits the runner who is willing to close his or her eyes and hurt like hell while counting to 10 repeatedly.  

When I turned the corner, I just forgot about the previous parts of the race and imagined I was doing a hill repeat workout - up and over - worry about oxygen after you're done.  And then I was done, and started worrying about oxygen again.  And remembered that I really hate 5Ks.

I was a bit disappointed when I first flipped my watch and saw the time - it had felt like I had run much faster.  And then I checked the splits and realized that I had, except for the first mile.  Ah well.  As pacing mistakes go, I'd rather make that one than another.  And that's why we run rust-busters, right?

That time was also good enough for 4th overall female.  In a race where the top three get cash.  D'oh.  But such is life.  Knocking the rust off and getting out of my marathon pace comfort zone was the primary goal of this race, and I did that, so woo.

Other notes:

• At race start, the temperature was 69, dew point 62.  That's not bad for an August race in Northern Virginia.
• Left my house at 5:45, and got to Leesburg around 6:25.  Arguably a bit early for a 7:45 race, but I needed to register, and also knew that parking could be tight.  This was about perfect timing - I found parking fairly easily, but traffic started to back up and snarl about 5 minutes after I arrived.
• Warmed-up by jogging the 5K course once, and then did some drills, an extended stride, and a few shorter strides.  
• Allergies and air quality were bugging me pretty badly.  Oddly enough, I didn't feel like they affected my race at all.  But despite using my asthma meds pre-race, I really struggled to catch my breath post-race, and during my cool-down jog an hour later I felt like I had a tight band across my chest that wouldn't let me breathe (even checked my sports bra and heart rate strap to confirm they weren't too tight).  First frost can't get here soon enough.
• I'm amused by the fact that I've broken 40 for 10K in the past few years, but not 20 for 5K.  Probably part of this is that I need to run a fast 5K course in cold weather.
• I met a reader post race!  And Scott was not only nice enough to introduce himself to me, he also had a great race - breaking 20.  Excellent! 
• I got an age group award, which consisted of a gift certificate to a running store (honestly, the best award besides cash) and a cowbell.  Cat is not quite sure what to think of cowbell.