10 Days to the Rock N Roll Half

What a weird week it has been! Thanks for the nice messages regarding my neck and back. All is fine now. :)

Just a quick recap of how things have gone since my last blog entry.
I pool ran for an hour on Monday (oops, did I already say that)? I did my best to not use my arms. It was actually kinda neat to just use my legs.
Tuesday I ran 15 miles and I really don't like running in the heat because it's harder on my body these days. I slowly picked up the pace every 5 miles and finished the run several minutes shy of 2 hours, average overall pace of about 7:50 (I don't have my log book in front of me).
I was so sore the day after, but I think it's because I got up at 0400 to leave for work, 2 hours away, by 4:50 a.m. Long day! At the end of the day I ran 7 miles on the treadmill with a steady uphill climb on the hill setting. It felt challenging, but not hard enough to call it more than an easy run. However it was much faster than my usual recovery run pace.
The inside of my right ankle, just underneath the bony protrusion, was quite swollen and sore afterward. I iced and iced and took ibuprofen and it was better today, but still sore when I ran.

This morning I ran 6.35 miles at a recovery pace (9:00-9:15/mile average). It felt good to run very mellow like that. My ankle did not hurt much, and the swelling is down. Tonight I run another 4 miles, and will not go faster than my body says it wants to go. I like true recovery days because I don't give a crud about how slow I go. :)

Tomorrow I have a GREAT workout... a hard one but I love these challenging runs. It's a progressive tempo run where I start slightly slower than tempo, hold most of the middle miles at tempo and then finish close to all out for the last 2 miles. I can't wait! I'll report back sometime over the weekend.

Run strong, friends!

BREAKTHROUGH :) and then a Break :(

First the good news, from my running log book on Friday 9/19:

"I woke up edgy, a bit stressed and cranky. Felt some nervousness when I thought about the workouts: 4 x 800 + 4 x 400. I tried to calm down by saying, 'It's just 800s and 400s' but still felt nervous. I ate 2 pieces of toast with butter and strawberry jelly and 1-1/2 cups of coffee, lots of water. During the warm up and workout, I drank 20 oz. of Cytomax (concentrated mixture).

Before the workout as I was getting sunscreen on, I visualized my body running the 800s and 400s -- relaxed shoulders, calm face, gliding legs. I visualized me breathing hard, but in control. I KNEW it'd be a hard workout because it's V02 Max work. During the warm up I still visualized and said affirmations: RELAX, CALM, GLIDE, STRONG. Sometimes I'd say, 'Soft is strong.'

The striders felt great. No tightness at all. I was ready for the workout. I practiced exactly what I visualized. I DID NOT let my body get tense. I FELT the lactic acid coming and I remained calm through the end of each interval. In between intervals I said, 'Hurt is good. It's not hurt, it's good stuff. I feel strong. This is what V02 work feels like. Yes!' I also said a couple, 'Thank you God. Please be with me.' I am so happy with the workout. God was with me!" -end of entry

The 800s were done with 2 minute active recoveries:
2:54, 2:55, 2:58, 3:01 ( all four were faster than I've ever run 800s on the road before)!

The 400s were done with 1 minute recoveries:
1:25, 1:28, 1:29, 1:25 (the 1:25 is a new 400 'pr' for me on the road).

SPECIAL NOTE: I did not have the Pace or Time function visible on my Garmin screen, only the distance. I literally had no idea, other than FEEL, what paces I was running. This forced me to pay attention to my breathing and to my entire body. I went with what felt hard, but controlled and by the good grace of God, it worked! :)

Now the Break: I was not able to do my long run on Sunday because late Saturday evening my neck and upper back seized. I could not move my head more than one inch in either direction and the pain was just excruciating. I felt it all night long, despite taking a lot of ibuprofen and icing it. Woke up Sunday completely stiff from the waist up. Horrible! I rested a lot. :(

Today the pain is not so severe and I have better range of motion, but any kind of pulling on the upper back and neck muscles causes sharp shooting pains to go up and down my neck/upper back. If the pains persist through the night, I'm going to call the doctor and or chiropractor tomorrow morning.

I might try to ride the stationary bike at the gym, but leaning forward on the handlebars is out of the question. :(

Take care and stay healthy!

Third Week of Marathon Training

I'm such a slacker with posting lately! There's not a whole lot to catch up on but training is going well. I'm reading Running Within by Jerry Lynch and Warren Scott and I'm practicing a lot of visualization and affirmations as I run. It's renewed a certain appreciation in me for this sport! When I relax and focus on calm as I do hard training runs, I end up running faster. It's like a pleasant surprise. I still feel the work, but my fear of the 'pain' is not as great as it used to be. I'm learning to work through the pain. I prepared for childbirth in the same way. I visualized and practiced positive affirmations and relaxation and was able to give birth 3 times without the need for anesthesia. I have to say those child births were easier than marathon training! Weird, I know.

Anyway back to physical training now...
I ran a little over 60 miles last week and here's what the miles included:
M: 8 miles recovery (4 a.m., 4 p.m.)
T: 7.2 miles easy
W: 9.94 miles with 4 x 2K at 5K pace
T: 9 miles recovery (4 a.m., 5 p.m.)
F: 9.14 with 4 x 800 & 4 x 400 @ sub 5K pace
S: 3 miles recovery
S: 14 long run with first 6 at easy pace, then 2 miles ins & outs @ 10K effort, then 3 miles @ 1 minute slower than MGP, 2 miles @ goal MGP (but ended up being a little slower) and then cool down mile.

This week is a very slight cutback week to about 55 or so miles in preparation for a tough schedule next week. I haven't seen next week's workouts yet but I've been told to "get ready."
Well this is what I've been doing in this 3rd week of marathon training:
M: 8 miles recovery a.m.
T: 4 easy a.m. followed by mid-core strengthening, 4 easy in p.m. followed by pull ups, dips, sit ups
W: 10.48 miles including 5 at progressive tempo pace followed by 1:30 recovery jog and then 1 mile at 5K pace (6:30).
T: 4 recovery a.m.
F: will be 4 x 800 and 4 x 400 (at slower paces than last week)
S: will be 4 recovery
S: will be 15 with first 12 between 7:40-8:10 and last 3 at 6:30-6:45 (I'll run this on good size rolling hills)

Sometimes the paces feel on the easy side and I have to remind myself that it's only week 3 of the training cycle and to be patient. Miguel reminds me that I'll definitely be running faster as the weeks go on, and to be patient. I think he's making sure that I don't peak too soon and then feel burned out by the time the CIM rolls around. We talked goal time for the San Jose Half and it's in the 1:26 range. If I stay healthy and I keep my mind strong, I can do it. I'm going for it and I can't wait.

My brother and his wife are also running and it should be a great event for all of us. Christy from Runningskirts.com is running too! We'll be working the runningskirts.com booth together on Saturday. :)

Okay, back to the regularly scheduled programming. Run strong.

Residuals & a Race Report on Miguel

I hope whoever is reading this is well and healthy! I still have some residual gunk in my chest and can feel it clearing out with each sneeze or cough. My body feels fine though and I don't feel sick. I think it's just a case of bad allergies accompanied by colorful phlegm. Mmmm, lovely.

But running has been going good this week. I met with Miguel yesterday and he looked to be in crazy good fighting shape! He's probably dropped 10 or so pounds since he left for altitude training up in Mammoth Lakes at the end of July. I looked at him and knew I had no excuses not to whip my fat arss into shape. Anyway, he showed me the overview of my training cycle and it looks challenging but very doable. I'm glad he had gotten me up to a few weeks at 75 miles per week this summer. My highest week will be 90 and I will have about 4-5 weeks in the 80 mpw range. I'm so excited to see how my body and running are affected by this. I'm 39 and am in the best shape of my life as far as running and racing. I have only been racing and training with commitment since 2006, so I think I have a good number of years left in which to improve.

This week was a low mileage week in the 50s range. I did a couple of V02 workouts this week and they both hurt. I like my legs going fast, but I have a hard time liking my lungs burning and my head feeling like it's going to explode. The first workout was Wednesday and it was 4 x 200s with :30 recoveries followed by 4 x 400s with 1:00 recoveries followed by 4 x 200 with :30 recoveries. In between each of the 3 sets I took a 3 minute jog. The 200s were all in the :40-:42 range and the 400s were in the 1:29-1:32 range. I need to work on letting go when it comes to these types of sprints. I just need to do it and not hold back, but call me chicken!

The 2nd workout was 4 x 1 mile speed intervals where I got a full 4:00 recovery between each. By the last interval I could have used a 6 minute recovery! Anyway they turned out like this: 5:54, 6:20, 6:21, 6:23. I was so so surprised to see a sub 6 mile on the road! I have not done that before and was pretty happy. But the last 3 intervals brought me back down to earth. In fact, I almost passed out at the end of the last interval. I was absolutely wiped out. When that last mile started, I literally felt scared (of the pain that would soon take over my body). I said some prayers for health and strength and for some reason, God always seems to hear my prayers for help! He amazes me and I am thankful.

I'm happy with the workout because Miguel told me to just run them a little faster than 6:30s. He was happy with the way they turned out too but he says we need to get me finishing faster rather than slower. Absolutely the truth! He also said that with good tempo training, I will soon be able to hold my paces at the faster end of the spectrum instead of finishing almost :30 slower than the first mile.

Okay, today is an easy 3-4 miles and I'll probably do it on the treadmill when the kiddo is napping. My older kiddos are at their step mom's and will be back tomorrow afternoon.

I do think that I will ask Miguel to change one thing: make my long runs on Saturday and easy runs on Sunday. I really want to be able to go to morning mass and enjoy it rather than worry about a long run I have to do later. I think he'll understand. :)

Lastly, I wanted to give a shout out to Miguel for his race performance at the USA 20K Championships. He had taken quite a few days off in the weeks leading up to the race because of an acute achilles injury. He started conservatively in the first couple of miles and then he went for it. He ended up passing 22 runners from the time he picked it up to the finish line and he didn't get passed. He placed 13th overall with a PR of 1:02:18. That's a 5:01 mile average. Awesome!