Week #8: Jan 28 - Feb 3

Week #7 was a rest week.

Monday - YAYOG in my hotel room in Harrisburg, PA. Bent knee push ups, squats, russian twists, lateral bent over arm raises. I worked the push ups slowly trying to keep good form. I bailed with a minute and a half left on the timer but I did finish the rest. I did do some morning Yoga today as well but failed to follow through the rest of the week. I'm just not good at that kind of thing in the mornings. I will have to find a way to work it into my day in another fashion.

Tuesday - my REALTOR running buddy, Terry and I did 6 miles along the Susquehanna River. We stayed up on the street level as it was still dark when we headed out at 6 a.m. Terry is a bit faster than I am. We did slow down at the end at my request but I think we went out too fast for me. We took planned walk breaks every 2 miles and a few unplanned ones early on when we approached slushy spots that we thought might be icy. Fortunately they were not and as our eyes adjusted we ran through those. I stepped in one spot that turned out to be a very cold puddle. My legs held up well. The limiting factor after a week off was breathing not legs. I'll need the foam roller when I get home tonight but it's all good. Well it would be all good if I had just opted for the banana at breakfast instead of the large coffee cake muffin. *shrug* Garmin stats Interesting that we did get faster as the miles wore on. The heart rate monitor drops off at the end because I took it off. It was beeping that I as going to hard but I felt fine at that point. I have to adjust the settings.

Wednesday - Yoga. This was the last day for this session. I will have to substitute something else on Wednesdays until the next session starts on Feb 27th. This class was ok. My neck and shoulder ( left) were bothering me and it only got worse. I'm writing this on Thursday morning and I do feel better after some sleep aided by an Alleve.

Thursday - Tonight I met Maggi and Julius at Pawlings Road. I was early so ran 2 miles on my own and then 4 more with them. It was very windy and cold and dark. It snowed in the last mile or so and that was awesome! I ran the first two miles in one piece. The final 4 we followed Maggi's intervals. She is coming back from sickness time off. She is one strong lady. I'm sure I would have walked more if I had been laid up as long as she had been. Garmin Stats The heart rate monitor was yelling at me up the hill to Pawlings Road. I was pushing but not to the extent it thought I was. I really do have to adjust the settings.

Saturday - 13 miles today. I met with the Misery Loves Company (MLC) group at 7 a.m. Technically it was my turn to "host" the run. Fortunately that simply means I chose the meeting place. We met at Forbidden Drive where you can run the more or less flat crushed stone drive along the creek or head up on the more technical trails in the hills along the banks of the trail. 13 miles on a ' normal' trail would take me 2:36 on a good day so I figured I'd start with the MC group and if all went well I.'d be happy with 2:36 of running regardless of the miles. And if all didn't go well I could break off onto the drive easily enough.

Well a mile into it I broke away from the MLCers. I can't keep up with them especially on the rocky trails at Wisahicckon. the challenge got into my head and I need to stay on track for Bob Potts. It took quite awhile to shake that disappointment. I almost went home early. I didn't but it was a close call when I went back at the start after an hour to see if any others had arrived. Kristen said she might. I waited until 8:05 and the took off again down the trail. It was very cold this morning. 18 at 7:00 a.m.! I couldn't wait too long. Kristen is faster than me - significantly. I was kind of glad she wasn't there. I was still shaking the funk from bailing on the MLCers and was worried I would get caught up trying not to hold her back and break down.

I had finished close to 5 at this point so needed about 8 more. I reminded myself I was going to feel much better if I finished than if I didn't. So I tried to relax my shoulders and run at a comfortable pace regardless of how slow that might be. Today was going to be about just getting it done. The next two miles were actually pretty good. At around 7.5 I started to lose focus again and was considering turning around early when Kristen and Roxy passed me. (I told you she was faster than me) Roxy, btw, is a beautiful grey poodle. Their timing was perfect. I started running again and started to feel ok again. Kristen fell in step with me and alternated a few steps in front or behind me the rest of the way. I love my running friends. At 9 miles I turned around. 4 miles to go and about 4.25 miles of trail. Mentally, this was awesome. I knew I would finish before the trail did! :) Shortly after the turn around we caught up John T.

I ran in 2 mile intervals except for the brief stop at 5 to see if Kristen had arrived yet and an extra walk break at 7.5. I increased my fuel intake to about90 calories every 2 miles and was careful to take more water than last week. I didn't bonk. The wanting to quit was all mental. My legs and lungs felt good. I felt slow but I wasn't in danger of stopping because of lack of energy.

I continued to drink on the ride home yet still think I could have used more. I had a bit of a headache within an hour after getting home and failed the pee test. I WAS a bit distracted when I got home. There have been water problems on our street since early Friday morning. In fact as I type this - at 8:00 p.m. the water is out again and instead is gushing out a hole down the street. So after my run - once I started to cool down - I got the chills and was more concerned about getting warm than eating or drinking. Garmin stats I'm surprised that my pace was still 12 min/mile average. I tried to stay relaxed and really thought I was going slower. I didn't wear the heart monitor today. If I had stayed on the technical trails it would have been beeping too much and driving me (and my friends) insane.

Sunday - Thank goodness for the indoor trainer. We got a coating of snow last night. So I pedaled 90 minutes while watching "In Her Shoes" on TV. I enjoyed the Philly scenes and references. The trainier is almost as mind numbing as the treadmill... not quite but almost.