?

Last run of 2010!!! Tempo!

I was more sore than yesterday; I noticed this last week too. Perhaps I need more time to recover from the speedwork/weights combo on Wednesday. An additional factor this week was gluten: I am recovering from recent 'cross-contamination', but I've had night sweats the past few nights, including last night, so things are still not quite right.

I could move my tempo run to Saturday, the day before the long run. This has worked well in the past. However, my long run is more tiring for me these days, so I think I'll keep the old schedule a week longer to see if there's any improvement.

Anyway, I had heavy legs today.

2 X 15 min: 8:11/mile (1.83 miles) and 7:53/mile(1.90 miles)

The first interval was more daunting, nearly doubling my previous tempo interval (1 mile), so I took it kind of easy, I guess. The second interval was back-to-the-barn-faster, and it felt biomechanically better. And once it started, I could feel that there was more than just one interval in me, which was reassuring. I guess that was my main concern!

It was kind of silly. When I resumed running this fall, my foot didn't permit jogging--all of my running was at about 'tempo' pace and my longest runs were 20 minutes and then 10 more after a five minute walk. So 2X 15 with a five minute walk in between shouldn't have been a big deal.

But I goofed. I thought I had only 2 minutes. It felt ok but probably scared me a little.

Next week, I'll give myself the full 5 minutes (and try to mentally veil the lengthening of the tempo intervals to 20 minutes each). And I'm going to remind myself that that pace used to be fine, used to be the only option. I think I'm more tired now because I've run 6X a week the past two weeks instead of 3-4X. But I like running more more!

I have drifted off the Daniels' plan onto my run club's schedule, even though I'm running with the club just once a week. It's nice to be able to do the club workouts again. And it's nice to be wearing the Garmin again. I didn't miss it much until recently but it feels right and fresh to wear it now.

Accordingly, I have just deleted all my saved runs. No more baggage!

2011 will be a good year. I woke up thinking that this morning for some reason. It feels a lot more positive than the dawn of 2010 did. We have some major changes in store, mainly another move, but when and to where? but I'm still feeling considerably more optimistic than I was about 2010.

?

35 minute jog with the dog. Surprisingly, I was not sore from yesterday's speedwork and resistance exercises.

?

I checked the date I stopped eating wheat: Jan 23, 2010. Therefore, it's been about 330ish days mostly wheat-free.

The Christmas holiday meals and so forth were largely successful in terms of eating wheat, but after a week of dinners and guests, I'm feeling kind of zombie-like. Crumbs left in the butter, the serving ladle for the stuffing put in the potatoes, that kind of thing. I could be more vigilant, but I figure that enjoying the holidays without increasing stress on everybody is worth a bit of fatigue.

I pushed my sluggish slightly bloated self through speedwork this evening:

5X 800M

3:27, 3:29, 3:28, 3:29, 3:25. I felt great for the first three then had to dig for the last two. The pace was faster than expected; I still have some speed to regain but I'm happy. If I can keep this pace up for the next two weeks (1000M and 1200M repeats), I'll be thrilled.

Afterward, I did strides and resistance exercises.

?

I've been running but not typing.

Today was about -12C/-19C windchill. I wanted to take the dog for a while, but set my hopes low because I wasn't sure how he'd manage the cold. Fortunately, he has a coat and the pavement was mostly bare so his paws weren't subjected to much salty slush.

We ended up jogging for 2 hrs, including about 10 minutes of dog-related breaks: bathroom breaks and then one slightly longer break nosing and digging about in dried thickets. I figured he'd earned it.

?

1/2 hour recovery jog today. The snow is still slippery. I was going so slowly!

?

Thurs: no running, about an hour of x-country skiing.
Today: morning walk with the dog, a very slow morning walk. He had to wear his booties and he wasn't happy about that. Evening run, 3 X 1 mile tempo, plus strides. The snow underfoot was greasy and it slowed me down, but it's the effort that counts. Each mile was about 9 min. Total run: 52 min. Then I did some exercises.

?

Tonight was still cold but I'm getting used to it.
Tonight was speedwork! 5X 5 min with 2ish min recovery--I have no idea what the pace was. I just kept going. Then I jogged a bit and did some strides. Total run time including warm up and drills: 1:25. Then I did resistance exercises.

And now I am fatigued!

?

Morning: 20 min with the dog. He wore his new coat, no booties, no issues.
Afternoon: 40 min jog, 30-40 min x-country skiing attempt. My mitt liners got wet and my hands got cold.

?

1/2 hour recovery run with the dog. It worked out really well. I was stiff and sore in a good way: I'd trashed myself yesterday with the run and the weights and resistance exercises afterward. This was very different than the other kind of soreness I had felt for too long: inflammation, swollen lymph nodes, edema, etc, making each run a recovery run while withholding the good runs, the energetic runs, the lifting the ceiling runs.

But yesterday's run was a true lifting the ceiling run, followed by a good honest burn from the exercises.

I think it has been a long time since I've had a true recovery run; feeling the discomfort of progress actually made the run pleasant.

Another good surprise was the dog. He's been having issues with his paws and booties; we missed a couple of runs last week because of this. I was worried that it would be too cold for him, -9C/ -16C windchill, but there was a light dusting of fresh snow and no fresh salt; I didn't put the booties on him, and he was fine! victory!

? rain

Lots of icy rain and procrastination and indecision.
I jogged to the coffee shop, met up with Gaz, and ran for an hour with her while the sun went down and the rain began to freeze. It ended up being a really good run. My total run was 1.5 hrs. I ended up completely wet except for my butt. It was protected somewhat by my jacket even though it wasn't waterproof.

I did resistance exercises after the run.

?

Thurs: struggle with dog struggling with booties.
Fri: struggle with dog struggling with booties.
Saturday: 1/2 hour jog with dog without booties.

We are still sorting out this bootie issue.

speedwork!

I was going to jog this morning, but it was time to reintroduce the dog to winter booties. The windchill was about -19. He didn't appreciate the booties and wasn't moving very fast.

So I changed out of my running stuff, and back into it umpteen hours later for speedwork with run club! We did 4 minute repeats; I did 4 of them. I'm not quite sure how fast I was going; I wasn't wearing a Garmin. Instead, I concentrated on form and socializing.

The total time (warm ups, repeats, strides, repeats) was 52 minutes. I did situps and resistance exercises after that.

Day?

We jogged for 20 minutes this morning, that's all...it was a good intro to real winter.

The cold was almost past my dog's range of comfort, and it will get colder, and so the challenge begins. It ends in March when I bring him to the vet for shots and flea meds and admonishments: "he's overweight." The challenge is to not bring a 70+ pound dog there for the third year in a row. He should be closer to 60 pounds.

Meanwhile, I have to get used to the cold too.

I have to write a final exam this afternoon; I'm feeling a little not normal now; I just signed up for the Hypothermic Half. I'm not sure if that counts as a distraction, or procrastination; it's some sort of coping reflex. Anyway, the course is still not confirmed but will likely be loops or out-and-back repeats, both of which I like, and the loot is a tote bag and a hat. We have a similar tote bag which gets used a lot, and the hat is a very emotionally laden item: my old Hypo 1/2 hat was stolen, possibly by a army base rent-a-cop. I want a new hat and I have time to do a couple more longer runs and I'm in much better shape than I was before my last half. Just have to stay healthy!

day ?

Thursday, 3 X 10 min with strides, and then resistance training
Friday, walking
Saturday, 35 minute jog
Sunday, 30 minute jog. Well, more like 110 minutes (probably about 100 minus lights).

I woke up around 8 and decided to run soon after, but the -14C windchill set off an accumulation of excuses. A couple of hours later, my husband proposed having breakfast at Jean-Albert's; I changed into normal clothes and my run turned into a delicious omelet and a bit of grits. And then errands interceded, and then it was only a few hours until a family dinner. There was barely enough time to run and relax, and relaxation was taking precedence because I wasn't feeling that energetic and was already content with Saturday's 35 minute run. I'd earned a rest day.

However, my dog needed some sort of exercise. A half-hour of jogging, plus strides...this was the workout I was supposed to do, the workout I had successfully postponed for six hours by that point. It's amazing how quickly a half-hour jog has become a boring prospect. I live near a good path, I go out for 15 minutes and turn around and come back. Same-same.

The dog shared my enthusiasm: he lagged right from the beginning. He was going ridiculously slow and I was worried that the pace would aggravate my foot. Finally, after about five minutes of constant urging, he picked up the effort and we jogged for another ten minutes and turned around. The path was quite empty, the skies grey, a few tentative snowflakes drifting around but not collecting, not brightening the drabness.

About five minutes after that, a vision in white! (and purple, and other colours, I believe, but it was the white jacket that caught my attention)

Gaz?

It had been a while. It was fate. We had to catch up, and this required heading back out with her. I figured that we'd turn around at Bank street, but there was still more to discuss, even to Bronson. And I haven't gone past Bronson in ages and couldn't pass up running by the lake (didn't think that would happen until next year!), and then I figured that turning back at Preston would be fine, but then Gaz pointed to the distant green of the Arboretum and this was exciting, and we still had much to talk about.

My limit was long blown; I had jogged the furthest I have since August. Things had turned into one of those delightful circumstances of "well, since I've gone/done/eaten/drank/spent/etc so much already..."

We went through the Arboretum and then Gaz mentioned going through the Experimental Farm.

And then we went where I had never run before. We ran through the farm and I had no clue where we were. I recognized the street name, Fisher, but I wasn't quite sure where it went. Another reason to stick with Gaz for a few more minutes!

I was then nearly ninety minutes into my run, and I felt fine, but I was running out of time, and Gaz was nearly home, and I a few miles away from it. Time to split!

The dog and I dashed back up Wellington and I regained awareness of the weather: starting to turn a little foul. There was more snow. I felt great, my clothes were wet but I was warm and not sore. The dog started having issues with one of his feet near the end, but I brushed the snow out of it every couple of blocks and we made it home in about 1:50.

Total run: 10.8 miles. We lost 5-10 minutes due to lights and a few stops.

Many thanks to Gaz, and apologies to the running plan! I needed to be hauled out of it temporarily. This was a good workout physically, but more beneficial in terms of enthusiasm.

What I really enjoy about running is coasting for about 8-10 miles. That is the best sort of run, enough new scenery, enough endorphins, and not too much fatigue. I needed such a run!

Now that I know I can run for 10-ish miles, that changes things a little. I will still continue to follow the schedule I've been following, and I will move up to the Red Level next week and start tempo intervals as planned, and perhaps rejoin the Wednesday workouts with the run club. However, I will be extending my long run a bit longer than the schedule dictates. I think my next long run is supposed to be 40 minutes. Seems a touch conservative now.

december

I think that means my gluten-free count is up to about 330 days.

Monday was a rest day, just walking and a fair bit of cross training. I was trying out some new exercises and perhaps overdid things a little.

Tuesday, we ran 3 X 10 minutes with 5 strides in between. I felt kind of dull.
Today, we jogged for 20 minutes. It was short because I'm hoping to run tomorrow, too, which will be the first 3 days in a row I've run in a while. I felt kind of dull this morning as well.

Will see what tomorrow feels like. I will attempt 3X 10 min with the strides again, and then a half hour continuous run on Saturday.

not a run day

But I felt like it. 30 minute jog.

turkey

It was US Thanksgiving this past Thursday and we celebrated here, hence, leftovers. :D I actually feel a touch paleolithic because this is my third day of eating just one meal, but one really substantial meaty meal, per day. (plus snacks, mainly clementines)

Thurday: it was cold so I jogged for a half hour continuously. It amazes me that I was so concerned about a half hour just a week or so before, but jogging for a half hour and running for a half hour are different--thank goodness I can jog now!

Friday: rest day.

Saturday: my husband joined us and we jogged for a half hour and then I did strides and resistance exercises--I think I was supposed to jog for 6 minutes after the strides but I forgot that until now. But what are six minutes compared to the important aspects? The snow was beautiful, the weather was beautiful, just below the point where stuff gets melted and gross, but not too cold, and I was full of protein. And biomechanics were really efficient; after so many rusted iron days, I really appreciated being titanium today. It was still an easy run, which made it lovelier. I don't like breathing hard for more than a few minutes at a time.

We went about 3.4 miles. I think my new years resolution will be to return to Garmin--I'll probably resume it in a couple of weeks when I resume tempo portions, actually.

leftover megaddarah

Breakfast of emperors! lol

Today was 3X 10 minutes with 5 strides in between. This was tougher than I thought it would be--I tried to keep the strides light, but I hadn't slept well so didn't fee 'light' at all. And couldn't fully recover between strides because it felt too cold to hang around that long.

The dog really liked the strides, though!

I'm supposed to do the same workout tomorrow but since I'll be repeating this week two more times, I figure I'll omit the strides tomorrow.

even longer run!

I got bored and decided to take things to the next level. I have been following Jack Daniels' white plan (pretty much a learn to run thing) and had spent three weeks on the third stage and was going to stay there this week too.

Three factors changed my mind:

I jogged for 27 minutes on Saturday.
I jogged, period! Jogging for 30 minutes is less daunting than running.
It was icy this morning. It's easier to run than walk on ice.

So I went to the next level and we kept going. 30 minutes, then 6 strides, then 6 minutes jogging for a cool-down. it went well! It always amazes me, though, that what I think is a 'flat' route definitely isn't flat when there's a bit of ice on it. Fortunately, there was a mostly clear section long enough for strides; I never noticed until today that that section isn't exactly level, but good enough.

It feels great to coast again.

I forgot to add that the strides worked much better than I'd imagined. I had my dog with me but he matched my pace well and enjoyed the faster pace. It was exciting for him but he stayed at my side--but there were zoomies when we got home :)

long run!

I was voluteering for a race and got up a bit later than planned. But I still wanted to run with the dog before. instead of the planned workout, running 20 minutes, walking 5, and running 10, I decided to run for 25 minutes straight. Running 30 minutes straight, which I will do next weekend or soon after, is a little intimidating stepping up from 20 minutes. 25 minutes, not so much.

And a wonderful thing happened: I jogged. I was able to jog. I figure it was about 9 minutes/mile. I didn't consciously slow down, I just kept thinking, oh, 25 minutes, that's going to be hard, not sure how it'll go, etc, and my body retrenched and picked that ideal pace I've been missing this past while.

So, see, pessimism works sometimes!!

And, actually, I lost track of time and jogged for 27:16 and I could have kept going.

It feels good to be looking forward to that 30 minute run instead of wondering if I could actually manage it. I just have to scare myself beforehand.

It'll be interesting to see if I'll go back to my usual pace.

chili

The dog and I walked this morning, my left knee is feeling weird but that's because I've restarted squats and lunges, but stretching, not so much, but it's better today after tackling some quad knots yesterday evening, etc...

And I'm making chili this afternoon for a local race tomorrow. I guess I'm about halfway through prep-wise, but there still remains a heck of a simmer.

There is no recipe. There are umpteen clean spoons and the suitable median between courage and concern. I suspect that I will, as usual, be led too far into courage by an increasingly numbed mouth, and thus will have to make a late-evening run for more tomato sauce and sweet peppers.

And then there is the quality of the heat, but this is readily solved: I adore the smoky, slightly delayed gentle warmth of chipotle. That's my key note, as they say in the biz.

This time, this will be slightly and carefully augmented by a sharper, stronger and longer heat from another type of pepper. I went to the farmers' market last weekend expecting to buy a lot of peppers, but there weren't any. Finally, something caught my eye: small baskets of gnarled thin long peppers. They were different colours (yellow, red, green) but the same shape. I asked the farmer if they were hot and she said yes.

In the past, I have subsequently asked other farmers "Like jalapenos?" "Oh, no, nothing like that."

It's a trick question. Jalapenos can have a good kick and are but are still manageable on their own. I enjoy mild peppers, but sometimes I need something more.

This time, I didn't inquire further. I had a good feeling about them. I told her I wanted to buy a box because I needed to make chili.

"You're not going to use all of them?" she asked, shocked.

"Oh, no! Two or three."

"Be sure to taste test." She looked me in the eye. "They are hot."

After that, I believed her. I wore a plastic bag on my non-knife hand when I cut them into thin slices, and then I decided to try a slice. This was a very small amount but I'm still feeling the effect 20 minutes later. It's now a rather soothing warmth in the abdominal region, and a lingering, less pleasant laryngitis. It also made my nose run briefly a few minutes ago. I have blocked out memories of the initial sensation. It felt hotter than Southeast Asian peppers, but I probably ate more of this one.

I forgot to ask her what they are. They look like cayenne.

smoothie

I will restore the count...someday. after lab reports are done, I guess.
4X 8 min today. I think I'm finally finding that comfortable and (slightly) slower pace.

? megaddarah

Today was the same as yesterday, 3X 10 min, except that I took 2 min for the first recovery period and 1 min for the second because 2 minutes felt too long. Stuff froze up. The first interval was too fast--I kept slowing down and speeding up again. After two minutes of walking, my legs got logey and I settled into a slower pace. It seemed ok. I'm not quite used to it, but it feels easier and it might possibly work for 30 whole minutes. lol

pace (as best as I can tell):

8:00/mile
8:12/mile
8:12/mile

Once again, it felt like a blah run, but endorphins kicked in afterward and I was quite hyper the rest of the day.

? homemade pumpkin poppyseed muffin

Sat: long run, 20 minutes! (and then an additional ten after a short walk)...it went well. My husband came with us and he held the leash so I was able to relax my shoulders more. This is something I've been working on: letting my shoulders relax/drop a fraction with each exhale. Otherwise I start to get stiff holding them up.

Sun: walk

Mon: 3 X 10 min again, with two minute breaks in between. I was taking just 1 minute, and then read that it should have been 3 minutes. Compromise is so simple when it's purely quantitative! Anyway, I hope to repeat this workout tomorrow, and also do resistance exercises afterward. I didn't do them today because I'm still kind of sore, partly from all the lunges and squats I did on Saturday. Wasn't the best timing but I really craved them.

I feel a lot better than I did last week! I will do the same workouts, but with an extra run, this week, culminating in the long run of 20 minutes (lol) and I might move to the next level of the program the week after that. I still have to decide.

Apart from relaxing my shoulders, I also concentrated on finding a better pace in prep for that next level: 30 min run. I have to slow down a bit, which I did today without aggravating my foot, and it wasn't a huge change but it was still surprisingly blah, easy without being relaxing. It was probably an off day; it wasn't like I was full of energy and really reining it in.

? lots of green tea

I didn't run on Wed either--my foot felt better but general inflammation felt worse.

4X 8 min on Thurs...this was a tough run, an unforgiving balance between running fast enough to favour my foot, and slow enough to favour muscle fatigue and abdominal discomfort (the wheat might have done some intestinal damage). The last repeat suddenly got a lot harder near the end. the wall? lol I didn't do any resistance exercises afterward. Will wait until I feel back to normal. It's been hard sleeping the past few nights, but we've adjusted the mattress and hopefully I'll be fine tonight.

I didn't run today.

fortunately, my foot seems to be fine, and everything else is recovering.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, a long run of 20 min!

? grapefruit

No run today, I'm too sore. Too much inflammation...even my foot got sore again, but this happened during my exam, go figure. Hopefully I can run tomorrow.

Fortunately, I don't seem to have much or any muscular weakness this time round.
Mentally, I'm a bit out there (funny how something so pedestrian as wheat has such a strong effect), but I managed to pull it together in time for my exam, I think, I hope. Before the exam, after another unscheduled nap, I stood in front of the fridge and deliberated. What would restore acuity and, more importantly, unlock the trove of hours and hours of studying? Grapefruit.

? fruit smoothie

I had another wheat mishap this weekend; it was a culmination of a few errors. We went to the wine and food show and I asked the vendors about wheat but I didn't think to ask if there was wheat in cheese. Beer-washed. And then there was a bit of a wafer in a chocolate...but I felt fine until yesterday, when I ate some already tried-and-true rice crackers. They now 'possibly contain wheat'; they definitely contain wheat. Why do rice cracker manufacturers do this? Do they not realize that some people eat them because regular crackers have wheat? This is the second brand that has turned on me. I fell asleep for an hour soon after eating the crackers, felt groggy for the rest of the evening, and now I have the usual aches. I guess I'll find out if I have the mind fog too: my organic chemistry final exam is tonight. timing bad!

Anyway, I wanted to run.
3X 10 minutes again. I was too sore to try to find that comfortable pace again and I started off too fast, I think, but it went better than I'd expected. Tomorrow, I'll do the same thing, and then a rest day. My first 10 minute interval was just a week ago, and now I'm doing three of them in a row...very promising!

?? chocolate cake again

Long run today! 20 minutes, and then another 10. lol
My concerns: running twice as long as before, running out of steam and having to walk, and running too slowly and hurting my foot.

Fortunately, my foot is very good at giving feedback. I started off slowly and it started to ache; a change had to be made quickly. I didn't quite hit upon the magic pace I've been envisioning, but a compromise of sorts ensued. I ran and when I noticed that my breathing was becoming a bit pushed, I dropped back a bit and let things relax. It was just a fraction but it made all the difference, a moment or two of feeling like I wasn't actually running. I miss this sensation, I used to have it all the time on my easy runs after coasting for a while in some other zone and then coming back with a ridiculous realization "I have actually been running all this time!" There, perhaps, was the magic pace, but I couldn't quite lock into it. Not quite there yet!

However, it was a much nicer run than I'd feared. I extended it by 40 seconds to get to a bridge (because I like getting to stuff). 2.58 miles in 20:40. My ten minute section was 1.24 miles and it felt more consistent. I wasn't tinkering, I was just coasting. Maybe it's time for the Garmin to come out because I seem to be craving numbers these days, but maybe that's because I still have to watch my watch, but what I really want is to float over miles and come home after an hour or so of head-clearing.

It'll be interesting to see how my easy run feeling develops. I will be doing pretty much the same workouts next week, and perhaps the week after that too, will see.

day? smoothie and chocolate cake

And, yes, that was breakfast!

This morning, we did 4X 8 min, with one minute rest. It was poorly paced; I went too fast. I still can't jog, and I think that I've gotten fit enough that I could find a pace that is comfortable both aerobically and mechanically, but I've also gotten used to a certain level of effort and I keep pushing. Maybe I've even come to like it. There's a certain beguiling rhythm that spurs me on, thump thump, swish, swish, clickety-clickety-clickety (that's the dog). But it still tires me out.

Anyway, we did an out and back that I know really well, plus there's mapmyrun, so I was able to figure out how fast I went:

7:37/mile (I got to the mile point at 7:33, and probably slowed down out of unease)
7:41/mile
8:00/mile
7:59/mile

I'm thinking that maybe I should use the Garmin to help me find a more suitable pace for longer runs. 8:10-8:15 used to feel really good--it was below tempo effort so nice aerobically, but it was also fast enough to feel light and efficient.

Tomorrow, if I remember the plan correctly, I'm supposed to do 20 minutes of running, five minutes of walking, and another 10 minutes of running. I can't remember the last time I ran 20 minutes without stopping! I definitely don't need to pop off a 7:33 mile to start with.

day? rice/lentil + lamb/pepper stirfry leftover

We ran 3 X 10 minutes with 2 minutes walking break. It was supposed to be two but it was too cold early in the morning to walk that long. it went really well! We even ran up the locks hill again--I expanded my loop but with the added third repeat, it still wasn't long enough. My foot felt fine so I guess laziness is the only remaining issue.

Tomorrow will definitely be a rest day.

day? lentil and carrot soup

The dog and I walked about 40 minutes with my husband this morning, and then the dog and I ran. 2 X 10 min, 3 min recovery. Lately, I've been feeling a bit jaded about my running plans; though things have been going well, I didn't feel like I was going in the right direction. I needed a change. Last night, I flipped through a Daniels book, the newer one, and looked at his white plan or whatever it's called--it's the beginner runner plan. I figured I was almost at the 3rd level, which mainly consists of 3X 10 min one or two days, and 4X 8 min the other day, and possibly something else on the weekend (I forget); anyway, I decided to try 2X 10 min this week and hopefully do the full plan the following two weeks. Will see!

My main goal was to try to find a pace that was fast enough so that my foot didn't hurt, but less intense, more sustainable. I wanted to keep to 4-2 breathing...that didn't quite work because there were inclines and I felt that I couldn't slow down on those, but I was almost in a comfortable aerobic zone. My foot felt fine until I ran out of road, so to speak: I got to the locks. IT's a pretty steep hill there and I could have kept my heart rate up by walking briskly, but pride prevailed and I ran and eventually I got slower and my foot started to complain. It's a steep enough hill that I don't think my heels touch it, which isn't good for my foot either. Next time, I'll expand my loop. I hadn't realized that it wouldn't be enough. Mapmyrun puts my 10 minute intervals at 1.24 and 1.21 miles. I'm trying not to care how far I go, but I am curious for more than planning reasons. I'm going to find my comfortable pace by feel, and maybe once that gets sorted out, I'll indulge my stats cravings with Garmin. Maybe next year.

Anyway, it went well, I think! First time in a while running up and down inclines. I'll see if I do the same sort of workout tomorrow, or take a rest.

As for cross-training, I'm doing 55 situps after runs, and I'm getting back into morning yoga and pushups.

Stairs? I got sick of them, I guess.

day ?? someday...

Long run today! 10 minutes and 20 seconds without stopping!! foot felt fine! Next weekend, 12 minutes. ooooo

I am hoping to increase the length of this long run even more, of course, but it is kind of nice to head out knowing that it'll only be ten minutes. Some days, I really miss the long easy jogs, though. I feel like I'm seeing all the same stuff and I'm sad that I probably won't get to do some of my favourite routes before the snow stuffs them up.

The snow from last night, though, was piddly. Serves it right: it wasn't supposed to come before Halloween, that's the rule!

Day ?

The dog and I didn't run on Friday--my foot felt a bit stiff. Serves me right for tearing around on asphalt in old stiff and heavy trail shoes. It was back to feeling fine today so we ran.

6X 6min intervals, with 50 sec between intervals. Some of the running intervals were a bit longer, though, because I kept forgetting to look at my watch. I suppose that's a good sign.

I was going to take tomorrow off but I'm toying with the idea of doing a 'long' run, a whole 8-10 minutes without stopping, but in proper shoes this time. I might ditch the dog for this run. will see! It felt right to run a bit of a longer stretch the day after running intervals.

I've lost count again.

A lot has happened. The stair repeats disappeared (I got bored with them, I guess), and the morning yoga, pushups and situps temporarily disappeared (along with a hostel/B&B, which is a whole other story, but I didn't really want to stay there anyway once I realized that 90% of the people wandering about in the neighbourhood were skeevy looking men), a Muay Thai tournament, a weekend tinkering with hydrocarbons and glassware and one minor accident, my first in a lab, just a 'bump' and splatter, a red-eye flight which was oddly comforting since the flight attendants were trained to treat it like Adult Nap Time (this was after a nap in front of an HD TV turned to the fireplace channel; any other airport terminals have this, I wonder?)

Anyway, this is my easy week. It was appointed as such even before I realized that I was too tired to do much more than walk on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was supposed to be 5 minute intervals, but I decided that since I was going to run just 2 times that week, I might as well ease into six minute intervals. And they were hard. It didn't help that my dog couldn't quite keep up at times, which made things seem faster and harder. I did five repeats and then tried to jog a sixth, but that made my foot hurt.

Today, I walked for a while in the morning with the dog (I really don't want him to get as fat this winter mainly because his vet appointment is in March which is before the ticks emerge but also before the adipose tissue reduces, and I'm sure the vet is tired of hearing about the 70 pound dog who is not 70 pounds during the rest of the year, I swear!).

And then, because it has become routine to walk a bit before his supper, we walked this evening. But the weather was perfect running weather and I was craving something more even though I wasn't wearing suitable clothes or shoes (I was wearing old trail shoes). We walked out and after 1.5 miles or so, we turned back and I started running. I decided to try to run for 8 minutes, just one interval to keep it kind of light. This seemed like a good way to introduce running into another day of the week. I'm envisioning a long walk with a gradually increasing running interval, and maybe turning all my walks into that.

The prospect of doing just one easy interval was added excitement. We ran 1.16 miles in eight minutes. I had to measure it online because I'd figured that 8 minutes would be about one mile, and I knew where the one mile point was, roughly, and that I'd passed it.

I'm surprised the dog kept up.

Tomorrow, we're going back to six minute intervals, hopefully at least five. I've decided that I'll attempt a sixth, but I'll cut it short rather than jog and hurt my foot.

I won't be racing anything this year at least, but hopefully I will be able to run continuously for more than 20 minutes by the end of it.

Day 264

Walked and did 3 stair repeats this morning. I hadn't slept well and I was pretty sore from that, the run yesterday, and also from eating gluten sometime recently (still trying to figure out from exactly what).

It would have been nice to do the 4th repeat but 3 felt like enough. Maybe I'll do four on Wednesday.

Day 263

Stairs on Friday didn't happen. It was rainy and the steps are wooden and covered in leaves and slippery even in better conditions. Plus I was still feeling the effects of the last stair workout.

Instead, I walked on Friday and Saturday, and ran today.

6X 5 min, 40 seconds walking in between.
I decided to run an extra repeat slightly more slowly instead of tacking on an extra few minutes of really slow jogging to the end of the last repeat. It felt better but I couldn't keep the slower pace because it still started to bug my foot. I'm really not quite sure what's going on, but running faster feels fine, if tiring everywhere else. I'm hoping that it's more of a pace than effort issue; that as I get more fit, I will find it easier to maintain that foot-comfort zone and I can coast and get somewhere.

Meanwhile, it's great to be running again! I am happy with 30 minutes of running in a workout. I'm going to try to run three times this week, Tuesday and Thursday.

Day 260

Recap(Ctrl-C):
Oct 5th: ran 5X 3 min, with 5 min jog at end. 30 min
6th: walked for 1:20, 2X stairs
7th: ran 5X3 min (last 4 min actually). 30 min
8th: ran 10 min, total 20 min
12th: ran 5X 4 min (last repeat 8 min total with jog). 35 min total w/walk
13th: 90 min, 4X stairs
14th: ran 5 X 4 min (last one 5 min) + 8 min jog. 40 min total

And lots of walking. I'm going to start including short jogs in these walks to get heartrate up a little more. The problem is, I still can't quite jog. It feels better, though less sustainable, to go faster. My run repeats have been going well and afterward I jog, but after 7 minutes or so, it starts to feel wrong. Hopefully this issue will sort itself out somehow.

No wonder the stairs yesterday were kind of brutal: I'd doubled the stair repeats. I'd thought that I'd done 3 repeats last week and not just two.

I'll do 4 stair repeats tomorrow, maybe jog a bit on Saturday or Sunday, and then next week will be a little tougher still.

quinoa/lentil/chickpea/tomato/feta thingy

with lemon, chipolte, and tumeric

I recently completed part of an assignment for a nutrition course I'm doing. I had to track my diet for two days, which didn't seem like much considering how long I had to keep a diet journal during the 5-6 month gluten testing adventure...but this time, I had to record quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Out came the measuring cups, spoons, and kitchen scale, and then, after 2 days of eating and a few hours of entering data into software, I found out that I was eating way too much salt.

I love salt. I don't have sweet cravings often but salt is a siren that sings to me daily. Noodles look so naked without a crystalline dusting. I even have salts that are different colours.

I don't have high blood pressure. In fact, mine is sometimes too low.

Still, it doesn't seem prudent that I continue to eat more than 100% of the RDA. I have conveniently forgotten exactly how much salt I was eating, but it was more than 300%, even though I eat relatively few processed foods.

Hence the spices and lemon. A little zing, a little vit C...will see how it goes. It tasted fine but there was definitely something missing.

Meanwhile, I was able to go to the lake this weekend. I don't like running there because I'm lazy: the road is gravel, which is fine, but it's up and down and up and down up down up down up up down. Turns out it's very good for a good strenuous walk, however!

Sat: 20 minutes walking.
Sunday: 1 hr walking--saw turkeys!
Monday: 1 hr walking--saw a coyote. My dog didn't notice it because it was about 100 meters up the road and he had his nose and half his face buried in something, but it and I made eye contact and then it trotted off. We were both a bit taken aback, I think. I wasn't sure if there were more--do coyotes travel in packs?--so I looked around and found a nice thick stick, just in case. When we passed the place where the coyote had been, my dog smelled that something was up, but the novelty of the stick hadn't quite worn off and he was more interested in that. I think he had been smelling coyote pee all along anyway.

And then we came home and walked for another hour and a quarter or so, including the stairs twice. It was a lovely vigorous evening walk. The slanting sun illuminated the leaves amazingly.

Tomorrow, I will run again. I guess I'll stick with 3 minute repeats for now, will see how I feel.

snow peas

Until I figure out the count, my titles will be whatever I ate last. Vendu!

This morning, the dog and I walked for a hour, including 2 sets of stairs, just like Wednesday. I believe there are 260 stairs. Running, it takes me about 1:45-1:50 to ascend; walking takes me 2:15ish; walking actually feels harder.

I got up to 5 repeats before the hiking trip, which helped a LOT. I figure that, as my foot heals, I'll substitute running for walking/stairs every 2nd day. Eventually, I'll slip running segments in, but keep doing the stairs until there's too much snow.

On the one hand, the stairs are really boring compared to rocks; on the other hand, I kind of like getting to know them better.

Another observation about quitting the rocks (some loose) and uneven footing--I no longer have to concentrate where I step. It was actually mentally tiring at some points trying to determine the best footing--I especially remember one 'easy' flat trail that was really a rock scramble--after an hour, my head hurt. And most of those rocks weren't moving! One beach we were on was all large rocks and most of them were loose; eventually I got the hang of lightly going from the tops of rock to rock (and not spazzing completely when one tilted or rolled). At first, though, it was very slow going. Maybe it was like learning to walk. Now that I'm back at home, I'm mourning that added dimension; I look at level and flat asphalt and concrete and it's like indoors. Too regular. Not enough is being challenged.

I guess I have to find some large loose rocks!

Fortunately, I should find some at the cottage this weekend :)

day?

I guess I'll figure out the count someday...Day 365 seems like an easy place to rejoin it.

Yesterday, the dog and I walked for 1.5 hrs and did two sets of stairs.
Today, I ran 5X 3 min, 1 min recovery. It was going to be 2 minute intervals again but I lost track of time on the first one, so I kept them all to 3...ish. My body still prefers the faster pace which helps somewhat in curtailing distance, at least--I tried jogging more slowly, but it felt too jarring. Part of the problem might be shoes. Up until this injury, I was running in race flat-type shoes, nice and light and bendy. But during this healing process, my foot seems to prefer more...something. I tried running in trail shoes today and that felt a bit better, but I might have to pick up a cheap pair of cushy stiff road shoes until my foot gets better. It feels fine now, and maybe what I'm feeling is merely disuse. Will see what's on sale.

day???

I'm back! It's been a while and many rocks and a few hapless lobsters and much laundry. And too much rain--every time we were in a tent (or yurt), it rained. It was a great trip, though!

Today, I ran 5X 2 min with 2 min recoveries, and then a slightly longer bit at the end to try to loosen up. My foot feels stiff but not sore. Running didn't feel as foreign as I'd feared, but I seemed unable to run slower than tempo effort. It just didn't work otherwise.

Total workout, mostly walking: 1 hr. Then situps--back to 40, but I guess it's progress not to start at 10 anymore, and yoga and stretching. I would like to work in push ups too. Those are usually the first thing to go! lol

I figure I'll take tomorrow off running--stairs instead.

Day :)

I've lost track of many things.

Recap: no, I didn't get to try that evening marathon after all because I hurt my foot running over loose rocks up North and then PF set in and then impatience and then all sorts of odd little tight areas...no running now because we'll be heading East soon for two weeks of hiking and ??? My foot feels a lot better now but I'll probably wait to run until we get back.

Day 154

More running, less typing...last week: 502 minutes. This week will be a bit lighter.

Today was a great running day. The weather was wonderful. This morning was brisk and windy and only 14C; the dog and I jogged for 90 minutes with a few tempo intervals thrown in. This evening was brisk and windy and drizzling and felt suitable for rejoining run club. Cosmically, Gaz came back too!

We did 800m intervals: 3:28, 3:32, 3:27, 3:23, 3:22. That was about my 2-3 min VO2max interval pace in May--it's a good sign that it feels easier now!

So groovy to be back with the run club.

Day 146...I think

I've been busy, but have been running.
Last week: 504.5 minutes. more like it!

Speedwork didn't happen once again but I was drained. Fortunately, the problem resolved itself (after 20 days...ehhh), and I've been taking two iron supplements after each run, and eating red meat and green leafy veggies often, and I feel better.

We've been doing the bridges loop 3 X a week and the inclines are feeling more comfortable. They deterred me from doing that loop often last year, but the three water fountains--plus a creek behind the musee of Civ!--make it really doggy friendly. Plus the hills are making me stronger, I think. So we'll keep at it.

I'm back on track with pushups. Situps are now 2 X 10 situps with the medicine ball, with clamshells in between, once a day.

Yoga...:(. I really need to get back to yin.

My real inspiration for posting is the wonderful run I just had--actually, both of my runs today were good. Morning: 75 minutes with the dog, and it was so good, I would have been happy with that. The temp was 18, cool enough to be comfortable for both of us. It was such a treat to run in that that this evening I set out again: 68 minutes in the rain, feeling cool and effortless. No dog, so my arm movement was freer and I've noticed that it's become looser and somewhat reminiscent of the arm movement I use during short intervals. It's hard to describe but it seems to help with keeping loose and transferring more freedom below the waist. Tonight I was quite relaxed but moving well. I ran 7 miles (ok, 6.99, lol) in 60 minutes and then jogged a bit to cool down...my last two miles were pretty much tempo. Kept getting faster and faster, but it was invigorating and not arduous. It was one of those really good runs that keeps me slogging through the bad ones. I can't remember the last time I had such a good run, but I'm grateful. The last couple of weeks haven't been that pleasant, and now I have something more tangible to pull me through the next stretch of too hot and humid weather before I get another bit of rain or freshness.

Day 138

I've been busy. But I have been running.

Two weeks ago: total 506 minutes
Last week: total 425 minutes

Unfortunately, I'm dealing with another issue and it's frustrating because I finally recovered mostly from the gluten thing and got my iron levels to almost normal...TMI! I think I had another enlarged cyst burst. It felt like that though far less painful, but now things are a bit whacked out and, TMI! TMI! TMI! I've had a period for two weeks now and not when I'm supposed to have it either so I guess it'll just keep happening until it gets back onto my cycle. I'm actually on meds to regulate it so props to my gonads: you gals are just that good. Hence the drop in mileage last week and no sprints either. I was feeling kind of zombie-like.

I didn't run much at the end of the week; I lounged about at the lake and ate pretty much everything that wasn't nailed down this weekend, still lost a bit of weight but I feel better. At least I have a license to pig out now. Just like the old days :/

Yesterday was 6X 1 mile tempo, 1 min rest (supposed to be Sat's workout but the lake isn't good for this sort of thing)...I cut it down to 6X 7 min tempo (combo of cowardice and not really wishing to know how long a mile at tempo would take at the time), and then my dog had the brilliant idea that 5 repeats was enough. And it was. My tempo pace was 8:15 except for the 2nd last interval (8:20--he was lagging) and the last one (8:07--I told him that it was the last one and we both found that 2nd wind). It was a bit tiring but ok.

I have to get back into resistance exercises--those went out the window last week too. I've decided to do 2 X 10 situps with the medicine balls and some anti-ITBS exercises every day--it's very manageable. I don't have ITBS; I have a congregation of insect bites on the outside of my right knee and they're sore enough to have tricked me! It's been a while since my last round of anti-ITBS exercises anyway.

40 min jog this morning, hopefully a long run this evening. The schedule calls for a tempo run and a long run the day after. "Long" at this point is still <2.5 hrs. Not bad.

edit: 2:16:30 this evening....not that hot but very humid. I don't deal with humidity that well. It wasn't much fun.

Day 126

I woke up really early for some reason, so I grabbed the dog and we jogged for 50 minutes. I will try to get up that early from now on--we were out the door by six and there was still shade and relative coolness, so he didn't overheat. a bit clammy for me, but ok.

Evening--was nearly thwarted by this huge storm moving up, but it has a hole and I seized it. I was especially anxious to get out because this was to be my first speedwork session. I have started a Daniels plan, same one I used before...I still intend to get out with run club now and then but I really needed a few weeks of fast intervals with full recoveries. The run club doesn't do them quite like that and I've missed them. I'm also hoping to throw in some plyos because it's been a very long time, like 2 years?

At any rate, it's been almost a year since I've done the faster intervals!

5-6X (2X 200M, 1 X 400M)
I ended up doing 4 sets because I'm getting back into it and I was running out of daylight...excuses, excuses...I did 2 miles' worth of 'fast' this week and will do 2.25 or 2.5 miles next week, etc.

Times, better than I'd expected but still slower than I used to do. The 200s were all in 41-42 seconds, slow but I'm happy with the consistency. They used to be in the 36-38 second range, but hopefully that will return in time. Meanwhile, the 400s were better than I was dreading: 1:31, 1:31, 1:34, 1:32--the third one was a bit off because I rushed the recovery to get before one pedestrian, and I had to go around another. Still, I was expecting stuff in the 1:40s, and back when I was at my fittest in Maryland, I used to do 1:25ish, so not too bad!

Then I did single leg hops, 2 X 15--those felt pretty random. Oh, well. I've got all summer. LOL

I'm especially pleased with how my form loosened up--I felt tight at first and then things fell into place. Still, the 400s got kind of hard after a while!

The rain held off too--the storms cleared and cooled things down, and the rain kept the path clear pretty well for awhile, so I can't complain. I was going to do this on a track, but I figured it would get muddy.

Day 125

47 min in the morning, 30 in the evening.

Day 124

So this morning I oozed out of bed into my running clothes and out the door (not without noticing a new acrid odour), and two minutes later, I was back. The air was smoky from forest fires. It didn't seem prudent nor fun to run.

I biked 1:20 to/from errands, and then ran for 45 min in the evening. The air quality had improved a lot. I felt a bit tired but breathing was fine and I seemed to be moving at a fair clip with a 4-2 pattern of breathing. I didn't have a garmin but I looked at my watch at the 2 mile mark and it was 18:15ish. My legs felt a bit heavy, not sore, just guarded or something, which could be from Saturday's 5K.

Then sit ups--just 10 of them, but with the medicine ball. I've found what seems to be a good alignment but, oh, the burn.

I've also resumed pushups, just 2 at a time umpteen times a day.

And my husband rescued a good bench for me (it was outside an apartment building but good quality and in good shape) so I will be able to do a greater variety of exercises with that.

Day 123

60 minute jog with the dog, situps, pushups, and a lot of spectating about 300M from the finish line.

My husband ran the 1/2 marathon in 1:53--I'm very proud of him.
I saw some friends on the course too--unfortunately, I missed a few people. Within the 1:45/3:45- 2:15/4:15 range, it was packed. That was the definite bulge of the race.

I watched much of the race; I was there for the first elites finishing in 2:10 or so and while jogging with my dog I ended up seeing the last finisher, a woman walking in about 7:30ish (not really sure)....the crews were packing stuff up and then there was this woman with knee braces or compression socks or something of that nature (I can't quite remember) and a police car with flashing lights behind her. The last finisher.

I also saw Rick Ball, the amputee runner who has a few world records--he busted another one! Sub-3 hr marathon!

I also saw a few marathoners who were royally cramping up, could barely stand--they were so close to the finish but such a struggle.

So it was a pretty inspirational day.

Day 122

Slowest 5K ever! but not by much, and it was hot, and I didn't feel like pushing myself too much. It wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be, but still pretty packed. I got boxed in a few times, probably because I conveniently allowed myself to get boxed in so that I could slowly drift behind someone else for a bit. LOL. But pace wasn't consistent, there were people (ok, lots of high school boys) stopping to walk and then bolting, and then I was catching some people, and other people were passing me--the whole race was like the first 2K of the other 5Ks I've done in terms of everybody trying to settle into a pace. It was pretty cool in a way. I couldn't focus on anyone, so I just soaked up the atmos and crowd and looked around and so forth. It was quite a difference from honing in on a few runners and only them. I was in a bit of discomfort--it was hot--but I wasn't going as hard as I usually do, and the crowd was amazing, so I was smiling a lot and on some level I enjoyed it. The best part was the end, of course, but I was still kind of fresh and had a decent kick. I started to really pick it up around 300 m to go or so, and then again after 100m, and then I thought, wow, I still have another gear, just springiness, so that was great to really bound the last bit although it felt horrible once I stopped. LOL.

I was glad I'd dressed for the occasion, at any rate! The cheetah/leopard(?) print running skirt came out again, and after seeing that the temp was 25C and sunny, I decided to pin my bib to my sports bra and go without a shirt. I felt a little stupid because I seemed to be the only one, but after sweating in the starting corral for 10 min before the race (my warmup, lol), I decided that I had been wise. The 100 rep situps came in handy, I guess--thank goodness I've lost the pudge/muffin top action I had earlier in the year! I don't think I scarred anyone. This was the first time I've run without a shirt and I really liked it. And thus a monster was born....

Anyway, 23:35, but 9/514 in my age group. LOL. So now I'm thinking, hey, I could do this next year and really honestly train and try to place in my AG. I have done in 2/3 of my 5Ks this year (the third didn't record times so I don't know), but I guess I'd assumed that I'd have no chance in heck of doing it today. But since it was actually so close it's a nice goal for next year.

Meanwhile, I've been pondering a crazy idea for the fall--there will be a set of evening races on Sept 4th. I was going to do the 1/2 but my husband has talked about doing the full and I have sometimes often complained in the past that all marathon races are in the morning, so freaking early, plus it gets hotter and hotter as it goes on, why do they have marathons in the morning, it makes no sense! So now that someone's rigged up an evening marathon here (don't even have to travel!) I should try it out. We probably won't be here Sept 2011; this might be my only chance.

Training would be pretty much the same as for a 1/2 for the first bit, so I don't have to decide right away. For the past 10 weeks, I've averaged just under 400 minutes/week, which is probably just above 40 miles/week...not the best mileage, but not the worst. I could get up to 60 miles/week again. Hmm, will see. Meanwhile, I have 5 weeks of real speed reps, fast and with full recoveries--my favourite workout! It'll be interesting to see how I do at Emilie's Run after that--might sharpen me up. But I don't really care! My ultimate main goal will be Winterman 2011 full--a 1/2 or full early this fall is an excuse to bump up mileage over the summer, and then I'll have a good base for 6 months of prep for Winterman.

Day 121

The 5K is tomorrow. It might be a bit chaotic, even with the bib colour-coding/corrals. I heard that strollers are allowed. There was nothing posted prohibiting dogs so of course there will be a few dogs too, and maybe livestock. It might end up looking like a typical third-world city street. Throw in some fruit, some plastic tarps, a few motorcycle 'cabs' garnished with Christmas lights, cigarettes...

I've had good luck with races for which I had low expectations.

I don't feel pumped, I've been strangely sluggish these past few days. I'd like to believe that I've been safeguarding my energy stores for tomorrow's event.

Day 119

Oh, man, don't remember what I did on Sunday and Monday, and too lazy to look it up, but Tuesday and today were definitely rest days--what perfect timing, two days of mid-30sC, and an excuse not to run because I'm 'tapering'. yes, that's right! For whatever reason, I've been feeling pretty tired, so tapering's right up my alley.

I suppose I should run tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm sipping a jackfruit/ground cherry/pineapple/papaya/rum concoction. We've been experimenting with fruit and the blender tonight.

Day 115

Fri: 25 minute jog. sort of stiff, sort of sore
Sat: 52 minute jog--the same route as earlier in the week (the bridges) plus a bit more. I was still kind of tired and my legs are still feeling heavy. Perhaps diving into "the bridges" route 3 days in a row wasn't the smartest move, as there are a few steep uphills and downhills, but it was a badly-needed change of pace. And I still have a week to recover.

I'm pleased about another aspect though: fat reduction. I got soft last year, couldn't do much muscularly near the end of the gluten challenge, so my weight gain from 115-118ish to 130-133ish lbs was mostly fat/water retention. It took a while for things to start budging, especially since my appetite, rendered voracious due to malabsorption, took a while to settle down, but things are much more reasonable now. My husband is trying to tone up too so we've been trying to eat healthier, walk after supper, etc. Anyway, I got down to 127-130ish and hovered there for maybe two months while I increased my workouts. A couple or so weeks ago, I decided that I would reduce portions a bit (not eat until I was stuffed anymore, basically), and see if I could keep activities up and maybe lose a bit more flab and maybe a bit of weight in the process. I didn't want to focus on the weight, but it has made a difference being heavier. I have a much stronger core now but running still feels sort of logey. Well, a couple of weeks of evening walks and so forth seems to be the key: I'm now in the 122-125 range. My pants still don't all fit--most still don't--but I've been targeting hip flexors and quads/glutes too so maybe some pants will never fit again. And maybe I will never get back down to 115, but if I stay at 125 or whatever, it had better be because I'm strong!
So maybe I'm a bit tired because I've been losing weight, but I'm assuming that it's mostly flab that had to go.

Day 113

I took a break from the international food fair today.

55 minutes in the morning with the dog--we did the usual loop and then a bit extra.

The forecast thunderstorms did not happen, so my evening run was kind of hot and sunny (26C). However, I did speedwork!

6X 2 min hard, 2 min easy. Lazy, I know, but, oh, I have excuses!

The intervals were a bit sluggish: @ 7:09, 7:12, 6:53, 7:00, 7:04, 7:08/mile. Slow but that happens. I'm feeling pretty tired and a bit run down (could be the reduced iron supplement dosage, too--it's been a few weeks and perhaps I should go back to what I was doing before because I felt better and my iron stores were still low so no danger of overdosing. lol). I think I'll do one last light bit of speedwork early next week and that will be that.

I've gotten much more consistent with pushups, 4-5ish times a day--I can still do only a couple or so proper ones at a time, though! baby steps...

Sit ups, I've cut from 100 to 15...with a 8lb medicine ball. I was getting tired of all that counting. I'm still trying to find the best way to hold the ball--right now I'm holding it a bit above my head with elbows bent. That seems to target the areas I want to target but it still feels like I have to get used to it. After the 15, which are pretty hard, I do 20 without the ball just because.

Day 112

Training has been going not so well or really well, depending on the target:

Running, not so good. Didn't go to speedwork, didn't do any speedwork.
Eating at the international food festival, however, seems to be my forte. I have been very consistent with that. It's gotten to the point where some of the vendors/chefs recognize us and give us discounts or freebies.

I did run for 44 minutes this morning, though, same loop as yesterday. I guess I'll be doing that for the next while unless I feel really tired. It's a nice change.

I've had a bunch of dumb dog owner incidents recently--loose dogs on the rec path almost every day this week--but, ah, it's been too sunny and hot to gripe. Next time, though, I'm hoping that circumstances will be ripe for us to continue running with the loose dog alongside us, kind of a ride into the sunset "so this jog is what you've really wanted all along, bud, eh?" Meanwhile the owner gets to run too and hopefully catch his or her dog.

Day 111...oooo

47 minute jog in the morning--we "did the bridges". I'm getting tired of doing the same 30-40 min out and back in the morning--there's construction after a couple of miles so I can't go further. That's my main source of annoyance. They've been working on it for awhile now and I'd thought that they would have it done by the tulip festival but, nope.
The bridges route is hillier (bridgier?) but it was time to get back into it. It was a good run.

No evening run, no speedwork. I got derailed by yardwork and the international food festival (again). Maybe tomorrow. Honestly, I'm kind of consumed by non-running matters these days, I guess. Turns out that the run club scheduled workout tomorrow would probably be a good workout for me at this point, 500M repeats, but will I show up? LOL

Day 110

Sat evening: 30 min
Sun: 30 min, plus hiking, and the usual walking. I'm mentioning the walking because we've had family stay with us this past weekend and it's been eye-opening how much much more people walk here (downtown) than there (suburbs). I think we tired them out a bit but they had fun; thankfully they're considerably more fit and healthy than the average person their age; they work out and maintain a healthy weight and diet but they also live in a car-centric place and so they don't walk the couple of miles a day or so that people downtown tend to do just getting around. That makes a big difference.

Monday morning: 30 min. The calf knot seems to be finally gone! I'm not sure what caused it, but I didn't want to do any more VO2 max workouts with it. I figure I might attempt 5X 3 min tonight or tomorrow, and again later in the week, and then a shorter workout next week, and then that's it for VO2 max for a while, I think. I was considering doing some more before Emilie's run to sharpen up for that, but now I'm thinking that I can't keep up the VO2 max workouts for much longer. I'm getting tired from them and increased mileage in general, but I want to keep the mileage! Best hammer a couple more VO2max workouts before NCM 5K (too bad that I didn't work up to 4-5 min reps, oh, well, maybe next time), then switch to faster shorter reps with longer recoveries (these are considerably easier for me) to begin a training cycle for my next race, a fall 1/2. This will give me at least 3 months to prepare. I'll still do Emilie's run but it won't be something that dictates training anymore, beyond a few easy days beforehand.

At any rate, it feels nice to be training almost like normal again!

Oh, and this week's trough will be the international festival nearby--we've already eaten there three times in the last three days! no joke! We've eaten Brazilian, Filipino, Mexican, Polish, Ukrainian, Peruvian, Thai, Turkish...I've lost track. Unfortunately, yesterday, the Peruvians had run out of their corn/condensed milk cookies, but they said that they would have more today. The festival goes on until the 24th.

Day 108

I've been running, just haven't had much internet time:

Wed: 70 min, two runs
Thurs: 60 min, two runs
Fri: 60 min, two runs
Sat: 80 min, one run, and possibly more tonight.

I've been slowly loosening up a calf knot. eating is fine now, thank goodness, because we'll have visitors this weekend and I have to be able to eat.

I'm a bit tired, one more tough-ish week and then an easy week and then NCM 5K!

Day 104

20 minutes this morning and probably nothing this evening. I need an easy day.
But things are good. The swelling has gone down and I can eat normally. Plus I talked with my nurse practitioner today and she said that my ferritin has gone up from 11 or 14 or something around there to 37. That's still on the low end but higher than any previous results.

Day 103

No run this morning, I'm dealing with a swollen something in my neck just below and behind my ears; I guess I'm still a bit lymphy. I woke up and I couldn't eat or drink because it hurt too much to swallow stuff down, even little sips. This happens every so often and never lasts much more than a day. Now it's getting better and I can sip liquids but I'm so hungry I'm not really hungry anymore.

once this happened to me the day of a long run. I had a bit of trouble drinking before it but figured the problem would go away. It didn't but stubbornness and good weather kept me going for about 21 miles, and then I was STARVING. I'd burned through approx 2000 calories without refueling. The post clinic was closed so I went to a pharmacy and asked for antibiotics or something. The pharmacy was, no, you need a doctor for that. I told him I was STARVING. He looked at me like I was nuts. I was so vexed, I wanted to go off on a tirade about how Western culture is so used to placating emotions and misinterpreted urges by robotically cramming down copious amounts of empty calories so nobody is hungry, just lonely or bored, but I AM REALLY STARVING. Respect that! But I controlled myself. I went to the post clinic the next day because the thing wasn't quite gone and I was still failing to get enough nourishment down to fight the hunger, and the doctor had problems understanding my issue too but he gave me antibiotics and the issue went away quickly. Usually I don't bother with antibiotics but that time I was STARVING. They didn't understand. With the long term gut issue I had back then, I was almost always hungry anyway, but STARVING was a whole new level.

I'm not used to being hungry like that anymore! As my digestive system recovers, I've noticed that my portions have been gradually shrinking; my system is getting used to needing less. My husband and I have gotten so used to serving each other the same sized portions that I have to remind myself that, no, I don't have to eat that much anymore.

But now I'm hungry and I want to eat something soon.

I also feel a bit odd today because I got a message from my nurse to phone her back. She'd phoned while I was in TX. I tried phoning back but she's off today. It might just be a paperwork issue. LOL

Will see if I eat and/or run later on and update accordingly.

update: 40 min jog with the dog--hopefully it'll get core temp revved up a bit so that the swelling will go down! I can drink now but haven't tried eating yet. 100 sit ups, some pushups...trying to get more consistent with those.

update update: 10 min jogging to my parents' house--thank goodness I can eat now! we went out for sushi. :)

Day 102

30ish minutes jogging yesterday, stiff after being in planes and dealing with Continental's crap. Usually it's best to announce gate changes before boarding is complete, right? Fortunately, most of the plane wasn't told either so they had to wait for us. Nice of them! And then the plane had mechanical problems...

The funny thing was, when I was waiting for the plane at the original gate, I noticed that the people also waiting at that gate seemed somewhat different from most of the people in that place:

mother dealing with her children in a reasonable and effective fashion using multi-syllable words instead of the same old empty repeated threat or bribe (unlike the woman who was watching the children kicking the back of my seat on the previous flight)
Orthodox priest
fit lady who looked like she was in the process of male to female-reassignment. She looked like she was near the end, actually, but it's hard to disguise the thicker rib cage and thinner hips of male puberty when wearing lycra. She was more toned than 99% of the people wearing lycra in that place, so props to her. Or maybe she was dealing with a different endocrine balance. I'm curious about these issues (have been ever since I was told that women don't have visible adam's apples, but I do!)
fit young lady not exposing too much skin
no visible tramp stamps--I like seeing good tattoos, but the poor little blurry butterfly/amphibian/dolphin/?? clinging onto the bulge of dimply flesh squished up from underneath low-rise pants really breaks my heart
no threadbare sweats or doughy people poured into their clothes
old fit people
no weirdly grey complexions

Ok, I hate us vs them stereotypes but after a couple of hours walking around people in that airport, I noticed a slight difference in this bunch and figured that we all headed to the same place and not SC or wherever.

And then I overheard someone asking about the Ottawa flight--I actually had asked if a previous flight being boarded was for Ottawa--no, Omaha. So I figured that the Ottawa flight was delayed because it was still displayed at that gate and the gate attendant didn't correct me. And then I heard her say to someone else a short time later, oh, Ottawa? what? Gate A10. So I went to the shuttle bus and then, gradually, was rejoined by the rest of that same crowd!

I slept lots last night and got up around 9 and headed out about twenty minutes later. My dog forced me out...he hasn't run all week and was pretty anxious to go. But it was cold out! I had to wear a hat and gloves and layers. After a while, I saw slight flurries even! It was a bit abrupt to go from wringing out the sweat in my tank top and short-shorts to that! The wind was monstrous.

A good run, though. I was tired but it felt good to run. I actually brought the Garmin again to check the distance of the route: 1:20/ 8.54 miles. Ok, the route was actually 7.6ish miles but I kept coasting to get to 80 minutes. LOL

Then 100 full sit ups for the very first time in my life! I'm still dealing with push up issues and some soreness and swelling in my armpits/chest/shoulders, but the sit ups are going well.

Day 100!

Somehow I forgot to post this yesterday.

I woke up feeling a bit swollen and sore: lymph glands. Had some wheat slipped past my teeth or was I fighting something else? Not sure, but I jogged around for about 20 minutes outside. It felt too hot. I retreated to the fitness room, cranked the aircon down to 62 degrees, and hopped on the TM. After a 5 minute warm up, I started my VO2max intervals.

Fortunately, my legs felt better than the rest of me. I managed the first 3 minute interval and decided that the rest could be 3 minutes as well, as opposed to 2.5 minutes like last time.

The recovery/jog interval was very boring, though, so I shortened it to 2 minutes. This was a bit premature: my legs felt a bit lactic-acidy heavy during the next interval. My next break was 2.5 minutes--boring, but more reasonable. My legs were still a little burnt, though, and I was beginning to contemplate doing 4 intervals instead of the planned 5. Another 3 minutes of faster running, another 2.5 minutes of jogging, and I was geared up for the fourth and final.

Paradoxically, I felt really strong mentally during my intervals. No counting down or up, no covering the timer with a towel and trying to be somewhere else--I was fully in the exercise for perhaps the first true and honest time. It's uncomfortable, ENJOY IT. Feel how much more goes into going faster. Feel the momentum. Feel the hum of jacked up metabolism. Feel the discomfort. Feel the progress. Feel it, feel it, feel it. It was a revelation of sorts. There was a mirror and I was smiling. Maybe mostly grimacing, but it was good to acknowledge that I was stronger and under more duress.

Anyway, the fourth interval went by quickly and then I started jogging to cool off...but, wait! At least do a little bit, maybe two minutes for a fifth interval, just to see? The thought of doing another interval was onerous; I had to start it quickly. Two minutes' recovery, and I was off again.

Drawback of tricking myself: I wasn't fully committed and thus it started to get rather hard and I played mind games for the last minute and a half.

Benefit of tricking myself: once I got past a minute and a half, I felt triumphant. Tired, desperate for distraction, but happy.

I'm hoping to get up to 4 minute intervals for VO2 max before Emilie's Run...I think that will be good enough for the time being.

Total run: an hour.

Day 99

I didn't make it to the zoo today. This wasn't the original plan, especially since I felt a bit sluggish and it felt a bit more humid and hot out there even though I started almost an hour earlier today...but once I started rolling, it seemed like a good time to aim for the zoo.

The riverwalk path stops after a while, but the route continues to the zoo--I think it eventually rejoins the river and this is the part I'm curious about. I stopped with the path yesterday; today I went up, crossed the street, and took a few minutes to get out of a dead end path and through a park and into another couple of dead ends...finally, I was on another path, a really nice one beside a golf course. That turned into a somewhat ratty bike path behind a commercial street, and then that ended at Mulberry Street. Yes, I remember the name!

Turns out that I was on the right path, but should have turned left onto Mulberry for a bit...well, I'll take a look at one of the maps on the route next time I attempt this. I might try on Friday and do speedwork on Thursday because a long run after tempo or intervals often feels really good...will see how I feel tomorrow. I really want to see the rest of the route because I think it'll be nicer than the last part I ran. It wasn't bad or nasty, just not as good as the part right beside the river.

I chafed a bit today probably because it was more humid. It's still drier than back home, though--running in 25ishC here felt like running in 17C or so there.

Day 98

I jogged for 70 minutes this morning, nice easy run on the riverwalk. I didn't make it all the way to the end but I think this will be my goal for this trip. I'm not sure how long it is, though! I will have to wake up earlier and start when it's cooler when I attempt it; I wanted to wake up earlier today but I didn't sleep well. I'm surprised that my run was as good as it was. I started off tired and stiff but loosened up. It helps that there are at least a couple of water fountains on the route (I've been carrying a water bottle too) and the air is a lot drier here. And there is a lot of shade. Though it's hotter than home, I feel more comfortable. No chafing, either!

I'm enjoying the riverwalk. Some of it is by restaurants and hotels and this gets pretty packed in the evening, but other parts remain pretty empty. And there's hardly anyone at all in the morning, mostly landscape workers and other joggers. The vegetation is gorgeous, lots of sub-tropical plants, magnolia trees, eucalyptus, some water gardens, some flowers, especially honeysuckle which is blooming now. It's lovely running in perfume! It doesn't smell the same as my perfumed runs in Florida, but it inspires a similar feeling of being on a lovelier plane. And the non-vascular parts of the path are yet organic as well--the path has straight sections, but also many gentle curves and dips and rises, and it has texture. It's mostly concrete, but a lot of it has inlays or patterns, and there is some stone of varying roughness, some grates, some pebbles. My shoes are pretty thin so I can feel the variety. It's mesmerizing and sometimes surprisingly harder running on art. A little ridge of grout or concrete sets off a flurry of sensation. I will be sad to return home to miles of asphalt; I'd forgotten how boring that is. Back to the riverwalk: there's art beside and above too, tilework, some sculpture, most memorably the suspended fish below the I-35 underpass. Going under a major highway like that can be very dismal, but someone had the vision to put a school of fish sculptures under there which somehow masks the shadows and the drone and whine of cars overhead. The city of San Antonio has done a really good job with the riverwalk. I wish that the NCC back home could have a look...some things they do really well, but there's always room for improvement. I think the underpass under the Queensway needs some floating fish!

Day 97

Saturday: ran 80 minutes with my husband and the dog. A good run although we had a pretty upsetting incident: some guy in a truck yelling a load of insults at us. He launched them out of the blue. We were standing waiting for a light; we were dirty and sweaty and in short-shorts and with our muscly mutt. he's not your typical 'nice' lab or golden or whatever purebred although typically much better behaved :) We got him from a pound after some degenerate starved him and supposedly cut his ears off with scissors among other abuses; now he's filled out and very glossy, either gorgeous or scary depending on who you talk to, but either way, we're not the type of people this guy was screaming about. Now it seems pretty funny, and it's pretty clear that this guy was dealing with wayward DNA and/or neurotransmitters. But at the time, it was upsetting and I wanted him to ram his truck into some inanimate object and snuff out his overactive amygdala. Nobody needs that sort of crap.

But, thank goodness for the golden rule of shitty people: I rarely encounter the same one twice and, in my fortunately limited experience, the rare time I have, they weren't shitty the second time.

Sunday: no run, traveling to San Antonio!

Today: ran for one hour and 36 minutes: I jogged for an hour then did an interval workout on the TM: 6X 2.5 min VO2max, 2 min recovery jogs. I'm really pleased with this--I ate a bit of wheat accidentally yesterday and had aches in the evening (didn't help I was crammed in the very last row on my last flight, very uncomfortable) and diarrhea this morning.

Fortunately, I seem to be fine now...I maybe could have done my VO2 max intervals a bit faster, say 8.7-8 mph instead of 8.6, but they felt solid enough and I was thrilled to do as much as I did. It was really pleasant jogging along the riverwalk,it was shady and still sort of cool, and the hotel exercise room, though it didn't look promising at first glance, turned out to be wonderful. They have a couple of fancy and solid TMs (dunno the brand, but the display monitor (with TV option) is newer than any other I've seen before), and a very good air-con system. I entered the room and it felt COOL. Too many exercise places have temps hovering around 20C--way too hot for running. This one was at 65F, had a good fan, and controls so I could have dropped the temperature even further. I'm not sure how much I'll be using the exercise room; since it's so nice, I'm toying with the idea of doing some speedwork on Wednesday as well as Friday, making use of the TM while I have it. Will see how I feel.

Meanwhile, I'm going to be eating well this week. Just had a good lunch at a good Mexican restaurant, lengua (beef tongue) and a margarita to celebrate my arrival.

day 94

Last 5K for a while! I guess I ran/jogged about 30 min altogether, ambled over and trotted around a bit, then ran the 5K in 23:20. But it was a bit over 5K--there are km and 1/2 km spray-painted markers on the path next to the road that had been measured by a measuring wheel, very accurate, and so I'd figured out roughly where the turn around would be and we were a bit beyond that. Just checked on mapmyrun and, yeah, at least (being conservative) 1.59 miles out and back. But it turned out that they had the road blocked off so we ran on that which was a nice surprise! I was expecting to be dodging rollerbladers and dogs on the path. no complaints. it was a fun, inexpensive, and relaxed race...with a 20-odd buck race these days, I'm not expecting accurate course measurements or timing chips or whatever. Just block the road and let us run on it!

I had negative thoughts during the race, of course, but I tried to keep sucking in air and keeping my shoulders relaxed and my tempo up and it felt like a more solid effort overall than last time. I think I accepted the discomfort more. I'd seeded myself poorly and had to weave a lot at first, and then I tried to pin myself onto a certain woman and didn't catch up to her, but I passed others later on. But this little kid blew by me somewhere around 3-4 K! I hope he keeps up running. Then, close to the finish, some guy passed me--I'd passed him earlier and was kind of surprised that he wasn't breathing very hard then...anyway, he caught up to the guy ahead of me and they had a photo finish sprint. So now I'm disappointed that I didn't pick it up more at the very end. The last couple of km, I felt I was picking it up because I could feel more energy tapped and I passed a few people there, and I was happy with that, but the final 100m or so wasn't as strong as it had been the race before. I picked it up, of course, but what if I'd tried even more? I can't stop kicking myself! It would have hurt more but maybe I would have learnt something. As it was, I was alone when I crossed and it was kind of boring. I feel like I should have tapped into an inner terrier or something--gone for it. It wouldn't have killed me! At the very least, I would have known what it would have felt like. Where's that curiosity when I need it?

I didn't warm up as much as the races before and that didn't seem to matter...I still feel sort of dull so I guess a warm up doesn't really help beyond a certain point. This season, I haven't done much VO2 max work, aside from the races, and barely any sprinting besides the very short hill sprints I did earlier on, so I'm not totally put together yet. It'll come.

There's been something that's been bugging me about these 5K races--all three of them have been similar, out and backs....I didn't figure out where the turn around point was beforehand the first two times, and it was a bit further than I'd expected this time, so maybe that has something to do with it...it seems that I concentrate so much on it and then it's the long stretch back (feels so long) and it's lonely and deserted. Not really! But at that point people are pretty spread out and it's disconcerting somehow. I still can't put my finger on it.

Anyway, my 5K experiment is done!

April 18, Race 1: 7:24/mile
April 25, Race 2: 7:22/mile
April 30, Race 3: 7:18-7:30/mile, lol (7:20 if 1.59 miles out and back)

So, not too shabby! I'm tired, though. I would really like to get under 7:00/mile this year but I've got a lot of catching up still; I'm increasing mileage (will taper a bit for NCM and Emilie's run, though) so I'm not sure I'll be doing shorter intervals/sprints/jumps/whatever until after Emilie's run. I'll continue to do VO2 max intervals for the next 6 weeks, I think.

I might jog this evening, will see. We will likely do a long run tomorrow. Meanwhile, I should phone the doctor and find out Monday's iron blood test results.

Day 93

Yesterday: 30 min jog with the dog in the morning, 35 min run with my husband in the evening. We both got new shoes in the mail so it was a bit peppy. I'd ordered a pair of Saucony Grid Type A3 shoes, but a 1/2 size up from my old pair because they were out of my size. Turns out that was wise: they look the same size as my old shoes. anyway, they feel fine.

I was going to do speedwork, but signed up for another 5K race tomorrow instead; that will be my speedwork. Originally, I was going to do the race on Sunday and the VO2max intervals on Wednesday, and then I was considering the race on Saturday. Well, the race on Friday is the closest and cheapest and I know the course best so that settled it. It will be crowded, though, as the path is narrow in parts and won't be closed to the public, so it might get kind of annoying, but this is a race as a workout, not a goal race. anyway, once I signed up, I figured I was already a bit tired and doing intervals yesterday mightn't be the most logical thing to do. I will have access to treadmills next week so I might try to get two interval workouts in, say Monday and Thurs or Fri.

At any rate, tomorrow's race will be the end of my 3X 5K experiment, and then I have 4 weeks until the NCM 5K. My goal tomorrow is to be stronger mentally.

Today: 30 min jog with the dog in the morning. I probably won't run this evening. I'm kind of tired and I'm curious to see how things will feel tomorrow without the evening run.

Day 91

Morning: 35 minutes with the dog
Evening: 57 minutes with my husband and the dog. I took the Garmin and we stopped at six miles. The run was ok at first, the little snow flurries were odd but we enjoyed seeing the tulips, and then I started to get a stomachache. Still have it :(

Day 90

Well, the shocking metamorphosis did occur, sort of...I expect an even greater one on Day 91. lol

Seriously, though, I ran pretty well today, considering the sort of blah race and all the other running yesterday. My legs were surprisingly fresh. In fact, I felt so good this morning that I passed my usual turn around point and even considered a 7.5-8 mile loop...but then I decided to be sensible. It was the day after a race, things might start to catch up to me after a while, the dog might get hot (we had no water), etc, etc. I'm glad I listened to the sensible grey matter: around 43 minutes, things started to tighten up. I ran a bit more just to see if they'd loosen up, but no. Hence 47 minutes and another 15 to walk home.

This evening, I figured I'd go maybe 30-40 min. My legs were even fresher still and my form felt great, really tight, and after about a 1/2 mile, some guy was trailing me, breathing hard, spitting...well, I found the energy to make him work a bit. I didn't want to lose the 4-2 breathing rhythm so soon though, so he passed me eventually and I decided to trail him. Shortly before my 2ish mile mark, though, he started to slow down. Fortunately, I knew that I'd be turning around soon so I slowed down, didn't have to worry about bruising his ego by passing him. LOL. I turned around and picked things up again, just a bit, just to see how long I could continue coasting along. My breathing was slipping into the 2-2 range, but it wasn't a hard run, not at tempo effort. It kind of felt like 1/2 marathon pace.

And then around 2.5 miles or so, I heard a guy breathing hard and spitting behind me. Really? No, it was some other dude, and he was fast. So I trailed him until I got to my 4ish mile mark (it was 4.08 miles--yes, I cheated and checked on mapmyrun.com afterward) in 33:15. I jogged it out to 40 min.

I can't believe I ran at 8:09 pace for 4 miles! A month and a half ago, that was my 2 mile pace, with considerably more effort. I'm definitely on the mend, not 100%, but getting there. I'm still not sure if I'll PB at any distance this year, but it would be nice to get back to where I was before things started going south.

I had a follow up with my nurse practitioner today and another ferritin test. It'll be interesting to see the numbers now.

Day 89

I expect a shocking metamorphosis to occur on day 90, unrealistic though that may be! I spent approx 90 days trashing my system with lots of wheat in preparation for the celiac tests so I figure that it'll take at least 90 days to undo that damage...my rational is purely symmetrical. I have no idea how long it will really take!

Anyway, Saturday: 25 minute easy run.
Sunday: I'm not sure how much I ran today. I figure about 1:40, same as last Sunday: 20ish min warm up, 5K, then 1 hr jog, this time with my husband and the dog. We had to go pick up the car; we took a cab back from the casino/Army Ball. A lot of fun last night!

The race was later this week, 10:45. I appreciated the extra sleep-in time, but I don't really sleep in even when up past 1 am the night before. I was worried about getting hungry so I ate some dessert tofu and drank some water. Jogged over to the start an hour before to get my chip, jogged around and warmed up and cheered some runners finishing the 1/2 marathon, then jogged back to use my washroom one more time, then jogged back to the start and warmed up some more. Did I mention that my house was about 300 metres from the start line? Very convenient! I didn't have to feel bad about doing damage in a public restroom.

This race didn't feel as mentally strong as last week's...it was later, hotter, and I wasn't as optimistic. And physically I didn't feel as good. I was sort of expecting this: army ball last night and a tougher workout week before. I felt like I was running so slowly today and it was a downer, and I had to keep pushing myself.

I think I seeded myself better this time, in that I didn't have to pass as many people, but I think I went out a shade too fast. It wasn't major, though. Things settled down, I passed a woman and then another passed me (us) at 2ish K, an older lady who looked like a born runner, lanky and leggy. She swept by seemingly effortlessly and I tried to dig in but didn't quite manage. The first woman wasn't too far behind me at the turn around and that helped keep me going. A guy passed me sometime soon after that and then that was pretty much it, I think--lots of space ahead, too much! I tried to break the course up in minute intervals, picking things that I thought were a minute ahead, and I remembered to loosen up my shoulders, keep my guts tight, and my turnover quick and not too sloppy, but I did feel sort of mired in place. Push, push, push....

The woman behind me passed me somewhere past 3K, the longest km of the race. So, her turn to pace. I trailed her, started counting down after 1k, but haphazardly, push, push, push, and then it was 500M to go. Nice! I felt like crap but only 2:15ish to go, I guessed. The woman ahead of me looked a little closer so that was incentive to push a little more. When we got to 200M I decided that I would try to start to kick it in at 100M. baby steps! Maybe one day I can have a longer kick, but today was a good start. It wasn't my best 100M but I found another gear. I passed her sometime shortly after the 100M mark, I think, and ended up beating her by 5 seconds (gun time). Not bad for 80-90 metres. Turned out she was in my age group too. You just never know!

The kick was a bit of a confidence booster but overall I was a bit disappointed at how hard this race was. But a 6 second improvement over last week's race, LOL: 22:52 vs 22:58--I forgot to correct it, but my time last week wasn't 22:54 after all.

I won a CD as a door prize and a pair of socks as an age group prize. They also had pancakes after the race (i didn't have any, of course! but good to know).

This was the Minto race--I did the 10K two years ago and enjoyed it. It's really nice having the 500-400-300-200-100 markers at the end and it's a smoothly run race. They had some really enthusiastic volunteers at the drink stations and road blocks.

So now I have another tough week and one more 5K...still trying to decide which one because there's the Law Run on Friday, one by the river on Saturday, and one on the same course as last week's Physio Run on Sunday. I have to catch a flight to San Antonio on Sunday, but I'm still tempted by the Sunday race...

Day 87

Very good day! I feel a little tired and my legs are a little tired too, possibly residual recovery from Wednesday's hard workout...I probably should have jogged at least a little bit yesterday to loosen up but I just didn't feel like it! So this morning's run was dusting off cobwebs for 20 min, and then I ran 30 minutes with my husband in the evening.

And we ran. It wasn't a hard run, nowhere near tempo effort, and I kept to 4-2 breathing until a few minutes near the end when we were pushing it a bit more...it was one of those good runs. I love having good runs! This is what makes giving up bread and beer and all that other wheat stuff worth it! I still don't feel 100%, but I'm definitely getting there.

I try not to track time/pace except for speedwork, but I had to know, had to look it up on mapmyrun.com: 3.58 miles in 30 min. That's 8:23/mile. Nothing major for a few miles, but considering where I was a few months ago (11:00/mile? didn't want to know how much below 10:00/mile), and considering that that wasn't too far off my tempo effort pace a month ago (8:10-8:15/mile), I'm really pleased. I'm not going to be pushing that pace on all my easy runs--heck, I can be more than a min slower per mile and still be fine--but if it happens now and then, cool. We'll see how things go when the runs get longer and the temps get hotter.

At any rate, I didn't do the 500M intervals today, lol, because I didn't think I had enough pep.
Tomorrow will be an easy run and maybe a few light pick ups in prep for the 5K on Sunday. Maybe I'll do a short run in the evening too, maybe not. Will see how I feel.

Meanwhile, I've been throwing down in the kitchen...we'd cooked a chicken this past weekend, so I made broth yesterday, picked the chicken today and made chicken noodle soup, plus I took the tenderest bits and made rillette with some duck fat, plus I made wild garlic pesto, plus the fruit/whey smoothie I'm having now, lol. My husband made some wheat-free bread and we're going to stuff ourselves tonight!

Day 86

35 min jog in the morning, 80 min run in the evening.

Let's get the dumb dog owner rant out of the way now, and quickly: I almost got hit by the handle of one of those flexi-leashes I'm always frothing about. Karma? The dog was attached to the leash, which was not attached to the owner; the dog bolted to my dog, then stopped suddenly, and the leash whipped about. I felt the handle whisk past my arm. Sounds implausible, but I was also hit by a golf ball once and a bird twice (not the same bird as far as I know but both times it was a starling, I think)...my luck isn't the greatest sometimes.

I feel like this bad karma is unwarranted because I was really polite and calm about a minor dog incident this morning, and what could have been a major one yesterday morning--some lady let her dog loose and it was tearing around, but fortunately this was a few hundred meters away and I was SO grateful that she collected the dog before we got near, especially since it was wearing a prong collar. A prong collar usually isn't a good sign when the animal is loose!

Anyway, the jog this morning was pretty much uneventful and relaxing. This afternoon, we ran 4 miles with my husband who is trying to shake a knot in his ankle. Then I started my intervals.

Run club was 2X 3K, which didn't really appeal to me. I decided to attempt VO2max intervals, seeing as my goal races (yes, with 5Ks, I can have two!) are 5-8 weeks away. This will give me four weeks of VO2, and then maybe another workout or two to sharpen up in between the races. So, today was a very modest 6X 2min hard/2 min easy. I was tired (I've been doing a lot of scrubbing in the house this week, grout, etc), so I didn't feel quite at the VO2max effort, but maybe that's because the intervals were so short! Not really sure. No lactic acid. My form felt good on some, not so good on others. I just tried to keep pushing myself without getting into a more sprinting kind of thing.

Anyway, I covered 0.29 miles, 0.29, 0.29, 0.29, 0.29, and then 0.28 (sucks that I couldn't go faster). The distances are rounded by Garmin, and I was sometimes a second off in hitting the lap button, so the paces I got ranged from 6:48/mile to 7:02/mile (the saggy last one). I'm going to program the workout next time so I don't have to fuss with the lap button. First I have to decide how much to increase the intervals.

Week 1: 2 min
week 2: 2.5 min
week 3: 3 min
week 4: 3.5 min

Something like that! Move up to 4 after the first race for a couple of weeks, and then a week off before the 2nd. hmmm.

After the workout, I did two 100 meter strides and then resistance exercises, including 80 sit ups. They're starting to get a little monotonous. Yeah, they start to hurt near the end (ok, today, the last forty or fifty hurt!), so I know they're useful, just boring to count that much. Maybe I need to integrate a medicine ball somehow.

Day 85

36 min jog in the morning, with two easy pickups/strides, whatever they're called! lol
30 min run in the evening. 80 sit ups.

Did a LOT of stretching last night and the knee is much better. Didn't feel it during either run, just briefly while walking once. Will do more stretching/yin yoga tonight. I'd been neglecting that these past few weeks and finally things caught up with me!

day 84

I was sore today!

Morning: 21 min jog...was supposed to be 25 min but I could loosen up only so much before things got tight again. It was a very slow pace.
Evening: 30 min jog. Still sore but felt much better, and definitely I was much better aligned.

And then my right knee got a twinge when I was carrying the laundry downstairs. I'll stretch in front of the TV and hopefully locate whatever it is that's tight and pulling. Maybe my quad, maybe something in my calf...will find out!