Monday, August 31, 2009

Start of Week 6


My new colors! Sad thing is that under the purple polish - three of my toes are actually a shade of purple/black...yep, they're going to fall off.


Above, me running on my Thursday "12" miles in the nasty heat again. Not a great run.


My feet after a great 15 miles on Sunday.

Thursday I had to do a treacherous 12 miles after my stupid 10 miles at the track. It was another hot one and the best I could do was to leave at high noon. The forecast was hot & sun and I knew it was going to only get hotter as the day progressed. It would have been ideal to go 1st thing in the morning, but I have a penchant for NOT running in the a.m.


I decided to try the Burnt Bridge Creek trail in Vancouver. I did not have a good run. It was way too hot and I didn't love the route. It just seemed so much longer than I'd imagined. I ran into some stomach issues and was able to use a bano at the turnaround point. I ended up having to walk a lot so didn't get in the full 12 miles of running. It was another quite miserable run under my belt:

Miles: 10.8
Pace: 9:20
HR: 154 bpm

Friday was an off day and I was delighted to enjoy this. Unfortunately, I also enjoyed way too many glasses of wine...

Saturday was scheduled to be 6 miles with strides. I had every intention to do this but at the end of the day didn't get it done. Feeling sluggish from the night before and taken over my wedding tasks didn't help.
Sunday I had 15 miles with 12 at race pace. Of course, I got cranky beforehand thinking about how much this was going to suck. I hate it when I do that to myself. I managed to completely turn around my attitude pre-run and ended up really enjoying this run. I did this one on Springwater again - two loops around the river path (about 6 miles total) and then another out and back to the end of the 1st part of Springwater. I decided to start off with the 12 miles at goal pace and do the last 3 at whatever pace. I nailed it! I was going to allow myself to have my goal pace of around 8:15, which is slightly slower than my first-announced goal pace of 3:30, or 8:00 miles. I've been thinking about this goal a lot more and trying not to focus too much on it - I'm stressed out enough with wedding plans I just don't need this hanging over my head too.

Back to the run...my mile breakdown is below, but have to note that mile 1 had to be skewed. It may not have been because it is actually downhill, but I'm going to add on a minute just to be safe:

6:29 (97 bpm)
7:38 (172)
7:55 (171)
8:03 (173)
7:55 (175)
7:54 (176)
7:48 (176)
7:49 (176)
7:52 (176)
8:18 (175)
7:42 (176)
7:46 (179)

Adding on a minute to mile 1, this comes out as a 7:51 avg.

Total Miles 15.1
Avg pace: around 8:00
HR: 170
It took me a couple of miles to hit my stride but once I did I realized it was comfortable and just locked in. My left hip and knee were the only places to feel tight toward the end, but nothing major.

I learned two important things about performance factors:
1. I perform much better w/o sun and heat. (It was overcast and probably in the 60s when I ran.)
2. I perform much better w/o having anything to drink the night before. Most of my long runs have followed at least a few cocktails/glasses of wine. The two runs w/alcohol the night before have been my best.

I have a lot of stuff going on this week and am starting to get really antsy and nervous about the wedding. Where has the time gone? We are crossing things off of the to do list but there is still a lot left and I'm scared. I have a massage again this week with Kurt. I need to keep doing a better job at stretching and trigger pointing. I feel like there has been a lot of info that I haven't posted here related to running, but I just can't find the time right now...bummer.




3 comments:

jen said...

Wow! Blazing pace on your long run. Good stuff!! Way to tough out that hot sucky run too. Both runs will pay off on marathon day.

Wish you could have made brunch but glad you had a great run. :) Have a good week!!

Amy - the gazelle said...

yesterday was great running weather, wasn't it? too bad we didn't see you either on springwater or at brunch, but it is hard to get up for those crazy early morning runs! glad yesterday's was at least good. :) I, too, find that the combo of cool weather + no acohol = better run! weird!

Alisa said...

Damn super speedster!

All you crazy girls who don't like the sun!

Sad, we missed you at breakfast.