Week #6
Monday - ladder YAYOG workout. Squats with a twist to either side, push up knees
on floor, russian twists, bent over lateral raises. The push ups are still
killing me.
Tuesday - 5 miles today. I rushed to change and get out
running before the rain and to get as much of the miles in before dark as
possible. I will be very happy when the sun sets later. I was all dressed and
ready to go and realized I forgot to put on my heart monitor. I left it.
I've decided it's pretty much impossible to start out slow on any run in
Media. I live at the top. Less than a quarter mile in any direction from the
house begins a downhill. I am not going to fight gravity. Lord knows at my age
that's a lost cause anyway but really it doesn't make sense to fight the
downhill pull. What I need to do is pull back to normal running when the
downhill is over.
I wanted to run 2 miles and then walk break. The first
two miles were fine. The second two were interrupted by a barking dog and
several traffic stops. So I skipped the walk break after mile 4. I stopped the
Garmin for the traffic but the dog not so much. It was getting pretty dark when
I came upon him/her and it was a very loud dog. I stopped dead in my tracks and
waited to see if it was leashed or at least behind and invisible fence. Then I
walked past it until I couldn't hear it's growl anymore. Too bad I didn't have the heart
rate monitor. It would have been an interesting spike!
Overall, the run
felt good although I'm pretty sure the second half was slower than the first -
the downhill thing and all. My goal for runs around home may have to be to just
keep a steady pace. Garmin
Wednesday - Yoga. Tonight was tough. I arrived in a
great mood! I almost felt bad about that because almost everyone else in the
class said they had a headache of some degree. After class I didn't feel so good
anymore. I know it's just frustration because the movements were very difficult
for me. I have very poor strength and flexibility in my arms and shoulders and
that was where we spent most of our work tonight. Kristie keeps reminding us that
it's important to accept where we are. It's just a little sad that I played lacross for 5 years in Jr high and High school. And it's all gone now.
Thursday - Well I know what you
are going to say. She'll do anything to avoid a speed workout. Believe me that's
what I scolded myself with all afternoon but in the end I didn't do any minutes
tonight. I woke up thinking I'd likely walk tonight. As the day wore on I wore
down. I wish I had a fever or something then I'd feel better about this. I just
feel weak. Not sore but weak. Just the thought of changing into workout clothes
feels like work. I hope I'm not making a mistake and I'll just have to focus on
Saturday's 12 miler instead.
Saturday - 12 miles. Now that I've crossed
the 10 mile mark I want to manage my Saturday runs as close to what I'd like
race day to be. That means running two miles at time; with walk breaks every two
miles for hydration and fueling. On race day I want to run water stop to water
stop about 2 miles apart. I also want to try to average 12 minute miles.
Today I met Caroline at 8 am. Since I was not alone I chose to run
whatever she wanted to do for the first five miles together. We did our "usual"
2 and 1's. We had a very pleasant run and chat. Our pace averaged more than 12
but i was fine with that. I still fueled and took water at the 2 and 4 mile
mark.
After Caroline left I went in the opposite direction. One more
mile to 6 - walk to fuel and hydrate - and then 2 at a time to finish. I was doing fine until about 9 miles.
The bottom fell out of my energy. I decided not to stop. If this happens on race
day I'm going to have to push on so I might as well today too. I was taking in
45 calories every 2 miles but obviously that wasn't enough. It's possible I was
going faster than expected and also likely that I'm not 100% right now. I felt
great on the run (save for the energy loss) but all week I've had bouts of
achiness and fatigue. Anyway I made it to ten and took my last fuel and finished
all 12 miles. I also took electrolytes at 2, 5 and 10.
I was taking the
Honey Stinger version of chomps today. Three at a time every 2 miles. I noticed
that I had one set of three left at the end of the run. I can't remember if I
did that on purpose to have something for post run or did I forget to take a
set? Even if I did forget one set that wouldn't explain the bottoming out. It
was very noticeable. I'll probably increase my intake for next run anyway. As
long as I don't get an upset stomach it's probably better to have too much than
too little.
I don't know for sure if I managed the 12 minute mile
average or not. I know I was over for the first 5. My Garmin only recorded 11.68
miles. I stopped it when I had to wait to cross route 29 shortly after mile 6. I
didn't notice until later that it hadn't started again. So I lost some time and
mileage. Until then the watch was signaling the miles very close to the trail
markers. So I know I ran 12. My goal was 12 in 2 hours 24 minutes. The watch
says 11.68 in 2 hours 20 minutes. So I think I was close assuming the missing time/miles were not slowpoke slow.
Now that I've
had time to think about it I realize my math was off on the fueling. 45 calories
every 2 miles means I only had 90 by mile 5. I didn't take the next set until
after mile 6 so it's no wonder I ran out of steam. I should be taking in around
135-150 per hour and I had 90. So next time I'll try 75 every 2 miles and see
how that works. In hindsight I don't think I drank enough either. So today was a fueling failure but I have lots more 'practice' runs to fix the mistakes.
The Honey Stingers were ok on my stomach. Only very mild
discomfort at the very end.
Garmin
Ok so now that I've looked at the paces and heart rate, I'm pretty happy about this workout. If I had fueled and hydtrated bettter it would have been awesome.
Sunday- 75 minutes planned. Ended up with almost 85. I drove out to Betzwood and rode on the SRT. It was a gorgeous sunny day. The river was sparkling in the sunlight. I didn't have the camera though. The wind picked up in the final 30 minutes or so. I was fighting it most of that portion. I think at times it was actually going across the trail. All in all though a great ride. My legs were not happy for the first mile or so but once they loosened up I felt fine. Garmin
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