a pretty awesome week
Nov. 27th, 2011 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaOf running, that is. Although the week's awesomeness was enhanced by Britt arriving on Thursday; he's been out of town on a work thing for the last two weeks, and I have missed him. (And not just because having him gone means I have to kill ALL the spiders and wash ALL the dishes.) We spent the afternoon cutting firewood on his folks' ranch, then joined them for a lovely Thanksgiving dinner.
But I want to talk about running. As some of you know, I was unable to run between early April and early August due to a stress fracture of the second metatarsal. In the second week of August I began to run again, very slowly and only every other day at most, and carefully increased my mileage until by mid-September I was running 5 days and around 40 miles per week. I held around this level through The Other Half Marathon in mid-October, at which point I planned to ramp up again to around 60 miles per week.
It didn't quite happen that way. It took me longer than I'd expected to recover from the half, so I ran only 23 miles the following week. I had about a week and a half of good running after that, but then my left foot started hurting in a suspiciously similar manner to the way it had felt when I sustained the stress fracture; I panicked, quit running entirely (although I kept up my exercise with pool running and biking), and saw my doctor. Fortunately, it turned out to be a minor soft-tissue problem, probably due to worn-out shoes, and after a six-day layoff (and a course of strong anti-inflammatories) I was running again. (In new shoes.)
And I haven't quit. I did a short test run, took the next day off, ran again - and now it's been 15 days in a row, the most consecutive days by a long shot that I've ever run (I think my previous record was 9). I don't actually feel like I NEED a day off - some of these runs are quite short and slow. Last week I ran 56 miles - and this week I finally hit 60. (In fact, I ended up with 61!)
So, my awesome week. Monday I ran 4 miles easy. Tuesday I ran 10.5 miles easy, but somehow relatively fast. Wednesday I ran 8.3 exceptionally hilly miles on the trails, incredibly slowly. (I felt pretty tired, actually; I think I ran TOO fast the day before, even though it was still within my easy range. My easy range on pavement at the moment is between about 9:30 and 8:45 pace; over the past month or so it's been noticeably dropping, that is, at the same heart rate I'm running faster. Which is yay!)
On Thursday I did a little speedwork, 6x0.5 miles with 2-minute jog recoveries. I have a 10K coming up next weekend, and I wanted to do a workout similar to one I did shortly before the same race last year, to assess my relative fitness. Last year I ran 4x0.5 miles averaging 7:15 pace; this time I ran the first four reps deliberately trying to hold between 7:10 and 7:15 pace, and averaged 7:11. Then I let myself go for the fifth, hitting 7 minute pace - and totally blew up on the 6th with 7:30 pace. Ah, well. Still, a good workout - and a good sign for the race.
Friday I ran a slow and easy 6.3, and on Saturday I ran 5.7 on the trails, over easier terrain than Wednesday's run but still the usual big hills and technical footing. Then today, Sunday, I ran 18.6 miles of SHEER AWESOME.
My last long run, last Sunday, was 16.4 miles, so I was a little concerned about bumping it up another two miles and started nice and slow. It was a beautiful day, sunny and calm, and I ran in a skirt and short sleeved shirt, with arm warmers and gloves I put in my waist pack after four miles or so. I let myself speed up a little at that point, and at the turn-around at 9.3 I let myself go even faster. My marathon goal is 3:30, which is an 8 minute mile; a common recommendation for long runs for marathon training is to aim to run them between 10 and 20% slower than marathon pace. 10% of an 8 minute mile is 48 seconds, so I strove to run the second half of my run at 8:48 - and I did. Actually I averaged 8:47, which made me really happy, especially considering the route I ran has a lot of rolling hills, my heart rate stayed steady in my easy/long range, and I felt strong and comfortable throughout.
In fact, this run was similar, in HR and pace, to my last 20-miler before what would have been my spring marathon, had I not had to bail due to the stress fracture. I feel like I'm finally back to my pre-injury fitness level - hooray! Best of all, I still have another five weeks of training time before my taper.
Next Saturday is the Winter Sun 10K. It amazed me last year how fast I was able to run it; the combination of the downhill course and the lower elevation meant that I could sustain paces I just can't run in training here. So I'm still a little dubious that I can run it EVEN FASTER. But...maybe I can. I'm feeling good, I'm feeling fast, I'm feeling strong. And I could really use even a measly PR, since so far this year I am 0 for 4 in my PR goals. So, I'm going to give it a really good try. And we'll see what happens.
But I want to talk about running. As some of you know, I was unable to run between early April and early August due to a stress fracture of the second metatarsal. In the second week of August I began to run again, very slowly and only every other day at most, and carefully increased my mileage until by mid-September I was running 5 days and around 40 miles per week. I held around this level through The Other Half Marathon in mid-October, at which point I planned to ramp up again to around 60 miles per week.
It didn't quite happen that way. It took me longer than I'd expected to recover from the half, so I ran only 23 miles the following week. I had about a week and a half of good running after that, but then my left foot started hurting in a suspiciously similar manner to the way it had felt when I sustained the stress fracture; I panicked, quit running entirely (although I kept up my exercise with pool running and biking), and saw my doctor. Fortunately, it turned out to be a minor soft-tissue problem, probably due to worn-out shoes, and after a six-day layoff (and a course of strong anti-inflammatories) I was running again. (In new shoes.)
And I haven't quit. I did a short test run, took the next day off, ran again - and now it's been 15 days in a row, the most consecutive days by a long shot that I've ever run (I think my previous record was 9). I don't actually feel like I NEED a day off - some of these runs are quite short and slow. Last week I ran 56 miles - and this week I finally hit 60. (In fact, I ended up with 61!)
So, my awesome week. Monday I ran 4 miles easy. Tuesday I ran 10.5 miles easy, but somehow relatively fast. Wednesday I ran 8.3 exceptionally hilly miles on the trails, incredibly slowly. (I felt pretty tired, actually; I think I ran TOO fast the day before, even though it was still within my easy range. My easy range on pavement at the moment is between about 9:30 and 8:45 pace; over the past month or so it's been noticeably dropping, that is, at the same heart rate I'm running faster. Which is yay!)
On Thursday I did a little speedwork, 6x0.5 miles with 2-minute jog recoveries. I have a 10K coming up next weekend, and I wanted to do a workout similar to one I did shortly before the same race last year, to assess my relative fitness. Last year I ran 4x0.5 miles averaging 7:15 pace; this time I ran the first four reps deliberately trying to hold between 7:10 and 7:15 pace, and averaged 7:11. Then I let myself go for the fifth, hitting 7 minute pace - and totally blew up on the 6th with 7:30 pace. Ah, well. Still, a good workout - and a good sign for the race.
Friday I ran a slow and easy 6.3, and on Saturday I ran 5.7 on the trails, over easier terrain than Wednesday's run but still the usual big hills and technical footing. Then today, Sunday, I ran 18.6 miles of SHEER AWESOME.
My last long run, last Sunday, was 16.4 miles, so I was a little concerned about bumping it up another two miles and started nice and slow. It was a beautiful day, sunny and calm, and I ran in a skirt and short sleeved shirt, with arm warmers and gloves I put in my waist pack after four miles or so. I let myself speed up a little at that point, and at the turn-around at 9.3 I let myself go even faster. My marathon goal is 3:30, which is an 8 minute mile; a common recommendation for long runs for marathon training is to aim to run them between 10 and 20% slower than marathon pace. 10% of an 8 minute mile is 48 seconds, so I strove to run the second half of my run at 8:48 - and I did. Actually I averaged 8:47, which made me really happy, especially considering the route I ran has a lot of rolling hills, my heart rate stayed steady in my easy/long range, and I felt strong and comfortable throughout.
In fact, this run was similar, in HR and pace, to my last 20-miler before what would have been my spring marathon, had I not had to bail due to the stress fracture. I feel like I'm finally back to my pre-injury fitness level - hooray! Best of all, I still have another five weeks of training time before my taper.
Next Saturday is the Winter Sun 10K. It amazed me last year how fast I was able to run it; the combination of the downhill course and the lower elevation meant that I could sustain paces I just can't run in training here. So I'm still a little dubious that I can run it EVEN FASTER. But...maybe I can. I'm feeling good, I'm feeling fast, I'm feeling strong. And I could really use even a measly PR, since so far this year I am 0 for 4 in my PR goals. So, I'm going to give it a really good try. And we'll see what happens.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 01:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 01:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 02:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 04:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 06:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 04:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 03:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 04:06 pm (UTC)I'm glad to see you coming back, too. The year 2012 will be awesome for us both!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 05:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 06:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 07:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 05:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-28 06:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-29 02:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-29 02:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-30 01:22 am (UTC)All indicators are GREAT! A PR could be in it for you and what a fun thing that would be!!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-30 04:20 pm (UTC)We'll see if I'm actually any better than I was this time last year...