A Little Taper

Thank you so much for reading and leaving your comments. I REALLY appreciate that. I feel your good vibes and they inspire me!!!

After last week I am now in taper mode for the upcoming San Francisco Half Marathon. I think I mentioned before that I'll be running the 2nd half (the easier one -- of course). ;)

This week I've done the following:
Monday - Easy run on the canals. 7 miles in 1:01:42, 8:47/mile average
Tuesday- AM Easy run on the roads. 6.1 mile in 50:57, 8:21/mile average
PM Easy run on the roads. 3.2 miles in 29:00, 9:03/mile average (95-degrees)
Wednesday- 2 mile warm up and 4 x 100 meter strides followed by 2 miles in 13:09 (6:36, 6:33), 3 minute recovery, 1 mile in 6:22, 3 minute recovery, 1 mile in 6:19, 2 miles cool down. This looked easy on paper, but it was FAR, FAR from easy. I had never pushed myself so hard before and I think Miguel only had me do this for one mile for psychological reasons more than physiological. It took me out of my little comfort zone and I need that in order to improve. It was out of this workout that I posted the following on Runner's World online:

"I thought about Squirrel's thread this morning before my workout. I had a feeling the workout would hurt when my coach wrote in his notes to me:
" Don't be afraid to push yourself hard for this last mile."

The workout itself wasn't long. It was to be run at a high intensity, sandwiched in between a couple miles warm up and couple miles cool down.

2 miles at slightly faster than 5K pace, 3 minute recovery.
1 mile about :10-:15 faster than 5K pace, 3 minute recovery.
1 mile 'as hard as you can.' Thus the, "Don't be afraid..." statement.

I was still hesitant to let it all go until the half mile point, and then I ran my heart out (literally). I felt the lactic acid in my shoulders and arms and my breathing was crazy. I even drooled on my chin because swallowing took too much energy! I don't know that I've ever done that before. My heart rate was 178 bpm, which leads me to believe that maybe my max IS closer to 181 than I thought. The effort just felt so HARD!

The workout was good for me psychologically. I need to push myself past my comfort zone and know really well what that "pain" of all-out effort feels like. That way I won't be 'afraid' when I feel it in a race.

I think I'll get over my fear as I push myself harder. He commented once that he has seen me finish races and has also seen some of my goal race pictures, and he said that I looked too full of energy the entire time, and especially at the end. It's true. I think I play it safe too much.

I know there is racing smart and there is racing timid... I think I've raced timid too long! Time to get over it! "

Anyway, today I ran 5.5 easy on the treadmill, ~47:00, ~8:32/mile average.
MY SWEET HUSBAND BOUGHT ME A TREADMILL AND SET UP A MINI GYM IN OUR GARAGE LAST NIGHT!!!!! He is the best!
I could not do all this stuff without his support and encouragement. Thanks darlin'!

I followed the run with 6 x 10 second strides to loosen up the legs and fire the fast twitch muscle fibers. Then I did 3 rounds for time of 21-15-9 reps of 30# overhead squats and Burpees. Took me about 10 minutes! Yikes. I'll get better... I hope. Yesterday I did Fran, scaled to very light weight and jumping pull ups, in 4:38.

Okay, time to get on with the day. Will be doing a series of 400s tomorrow (at 85-87 seconds). Not really super fast, but just enough to get the legs turning over again.