Fast run from out of nowhere

My plan today was to do a recovery run after yesterday's slow 12 miles. I was on my own as my running partner had the dual recovery going on, 12 miles and a open bar gala last night. Since the both of us plan to do a recovery run tomorrow, I decided to just wing it and see what I was comfortable running. During my first mile I was lugging a pile of library books along with me for the first half and managed to do 9:30. I thought that sounds about what I expected. During the second mile I was paying more attention to my heart rate which was around 150-155 so I wasn't real sure of my pace. When the mile two beep sounded I had ran that last mile at 8:17! And I felt pretty strong, so I decided to do another mile at that pace which I did. As I started into the fourth mil I knew there were going to be hills so I decided I would try to recover for a mile. The first half was all up hill and I relinquished the pace but not the HR which was hovering around 170+. For mile five I cranked out another 8:15 before hitting another set of hills. Again I relinquished the pace but kept the HR up topping 181 at one point and keeping a pretty steady HR of 175-180 for the next six tenths before I decided to back off and recover up the last hill. My last mile I ran pretty steady but relaxed around a 9:30 pace with a stop off at the library. All in all a much faster run than I expected and very enjoyable after the luxurious slowness of yesterday. Speed rules...sometimes.

Last Long Run before the SF half

But not for me! Today's long weekly run was my running partner's last long one before a taper week and then the San Francisco February 7th. She is a bit nervous about what pace she should do, a knowledgeable running store worker recommended pushing for 9:20 but she thinks that is too fast. I think she is going to try for that at points in the race but accept a slower pace at times, probably averaging 9:30 - 9:45. She is going to fuel up well beforehand both with sleep, food and water so I am sure she'll do a really good job. She is also going to sport a waterbelt with two 8 ounces bottles of H20 and two of Orange Gatorade G2 which is the replacement drink they are serving. We both know its crap, but it will be flavored and have some good stuff to counter its ton of sugar. She is also going to take 3-4 gel packs. I am encouraging her to take one before she starts and she wants to take them every 45 minutes after that. They are serving the G2 later in the race (I forget exactly where) so she plans to space out her own bottles around that drink station. I'm really proud of her hard work, she is all set!

In other racing news, I have a third race to do this spring. Sean's Run from Autism. I have done this race twice before, it's a really nice 10K along the water front from Oaks Park down the Springwater Corridor.

So now I am looking at the following:
Shamrock run 15k - March 14th
Race for the Roses half marathon - April 11th
Sean's Run 10k - April 24th
And then I think my spring racing season is over and done. Not sure if I will doing anything this summer unless I can find one at the coast where it is cooler.

So today's run of 12 miles up Terwilliger Ave was one I have wanted to do for a long time but never have, mostly cause the hills make me nervous. They weren't nearly as steep as I had them pictured in my mind, but they weren't easy either. So maybe 3.5 up hill then 2.5 rolling, but relatively flat then we turned around and back tracked. Here is the Garmin report. We did a really good job of keeping our heart rate down and going slowly but steadily. The route has pretty good paths along it in the form of sidewalks and paved nature paths. There is really only one area without sidewalks where you have to cut across an off ramp. The nature areas near Tryon State Park were really nice. One of these days I want to go all the way down to Lake Oswego, really only another 4 miles total. We ended our run with a really good healthy meal at vegetarian/vegan restaurant, very yummy and good for us, good recovery meal.

Overtraining and exhaustion

After a really hard week of running last week I am feeling like I have overdone it. We have done two runs after our long run on Sunday and both of them have been slow and really rough. Both myself and my running partner were noticing this and having trouble figuring out what happened. One thought is that we have been doing so several really slow runs in an effort to keep our heart rates lower that we have forgotten what it is like to run fast. I am pretty sure it has been a symptom of over-training. One week we are kicking butt through some hard runs and feeling great, the next week we are pooped and slow as turtles. I hope she is able to recover sufficiently for the half she is doing in two weeks, I am sure she will. She has a nice easy taper week coming up.

My mistake last week was not so much a slight increase in miles (though it certainly didn't help I am sure) but doing so many hard runs in a row. I think of the five runs I did last week, I rated four of them as "hard" runs or red runs. One LSD run up the hill for 5.5 mi. one tempo run, one speed workout and a hill repeat. Way too much despite what my enthusiasm was saying. That is what I get for reading running books, I get all pumped!

For my part I am now in the midst of taking a second day off from running which seems to be helping my overall energy level quite a bit. We are ding a 12 mile run tomorrow, so hopefully I will be rested enough for it. I think I will have no problems as the plan is to go really slow.

Recovery run that felt like a marathon

Last night my running partner and I hit the roads to run a needed recovery run. Neither of us wanted to do it, but realized we really needed to get out there and stretch our sore legs. We decided to do out run very slowly so as not to kill either of us. Off we went.

So even though we went so slowly, the perceived exertion level was really high. Both of us felt wiped out by it. Though oddly we attacked the Reed campus hill and ran it as fast as we ever had. Perhaps it was our slow 5-mile warm up that gave us the energy. That and I think there is a "show-off" aspect sometimes to our running that we both feed off of (at least there is with me, and I think with her a bit as well.)

I was originally intending to go for a run today, but I had no choice but to take it off. I was wiped. I woke up feeling very dehydrated despite drinking a huge glass of powerade last night (essentially just sugar and water, and possibly some other good stuff.)

Tomorrow we are heading to the waterfront for seven miles at a consistent 9:30 pace. Our goal is to get my partner's half-marathon pace cemented in her brain.

Long SLOW run in the rain

Sunday my running partner and I set out to do our weekly long run. In order to keep our heart rate down at our recovery pace we had to do it really slowly. The goal was to keep our bodies in the fat burning zone as much as possible in order to concerve our glycogen stores. This is supposed to make our hard runs later in teh week easier. It was really tough to go so slowly, especially seeing as the first 5.5 miles was pretty much all up hill until we turned around and did 5.5 back down.

Originally we were to leave at 9, but it was pouring and my partner wanted and eztra hour to finish her book. So at 10 when we did leave the rain had luckily tapered a bit. So our first hour was rainy, but not as bad as it ended up getting. The road we took was a hard packed dirt and gravel road up into Forest Park. The surface is rally rocky and somewhat hard on the feet (but not that bad once you can get used to it). It had rained so much earlier that night that there were tons of puddles. The runners coming down were covered in mud, looking like road warriors. We were soon to join them, however we were going so slowly we didn't get too muddy.Some of the dogs on the road were a total mess, just caked with mud. It was pretty funny.

We managed really well with keeping the HR down. Our pace was really slow and even though we were going up for 5.5 and then down, it got consitently around 15 seconds slower each mile the entire run. The consitency of eth slowdown was really interesting to me.

Here is the online report the Garmin provided. When we got back to our starting spot, the run was showing up a quarter mile short. Looking at the report, you can see how off thebacktrack was. I have no idea why that would be. Makes you wonder how reliable GPS is.

Today, we are both really sore and mutually posponed our recovery run until this evening. I think we should still do it as our bodies will be craving some loosening by then.

Um, make it three?

For all my talk about the value of resting and recovery days (maybe I have just been thinking that and not writing it, but I am pretty sure I have said on several occasions rest, rest, rest!) recently I haven't been living up to it. I have been listening to my body though and have felt strong enough to do these multiple hard days in a row.

So my running partner and I chatted on our Wednesday tempo run and IM'd all day Thursday about doing a hill repeat run on Friday. At first I was a tad concerned because of the two hard runs (one solo) I had done already this week. But our long run the previous Sunday was on a reduced mileage week for my partner's program and we would both have a day off on Thursday to recover. So I felt pretty good about the whole thing.

So Friday morning came around and I got the dreaded text "Too tired, can't make it". My first instinct was to go back to bed happy (especially since I hadn't slept that well the night before) but I had already had a cup of coffee and I was pretty peppy. So I decided to go out and do it on my own. We had discussed several routes and I decided to do the one I wanted to try. I know the area pretty well, but wasn't too sure how good of a hill repeat route it would be. It runs along a ridge that has streets running perpendicular to it, the blocks are about three blocks long. So it seemed perfect for going down one street then up the next alternating as far as the ridge went (the ridge drops down so eventually the hills got less and less before ending at Johnson Creek.

So after a quick bathroom break at the college I started my hills. The first ones were really steep and tough but I was just getting going so I wasn't too concerned. However coming back to them and ending here would be a different story, but I wasn't going to worry about that yet. So on I went, the hills were pretty tough, but I was able to push the pace pretty well. I found myself getting my heart rate up over 170 (into my 85-90% range) and then dropping down to 130 on my recovery blocks (one block over to the down hill, 3 down and then another over to the up hill, so sufficient for a recovery). Sure enough as I continued down the ridge, my hills flattened out a bit, but they were still effective as I would push even harder.

After five up hills, I decided to reverse course (I would actually hit six on the way back.) I crested my first hill on the return and realized that I would have the additional elevation gain of going back up the ridge, ugh. But I kept at it. I felt a bit tired, but still strong. HRs were still climbing high, but never higher that 175 and my recoveries were still dropping underneath 140. Sure enough as I neared the finish the hills got tougher and tougher. The last two almost broke me (actually it was the second to last that almost did it), but I made it. My final mile was run underneath my recover HR of 143 and was very enjoyable boosted by the successful completion of the run. I only wish my running partner had been there to enjoy the feeling (I knew she was going to be mad at herself for bagging all day (and she was!))

Overall my pace was really slow (over 10) but I felt great about the HRs I kept throughout. I look forward to improvement. Today we are scheduled for 11 miles at our recovery pace (actually we are going with out 70% HR counts- 143 for me and 151 for her.) It is totally raining, so I expect we will be very wet on this run. Maybe more on that later toady or tomorrow.

Two hard runs in a row

Not something I would recommend for every week, but as hard as that second run was I felt great afterward. My thighs are a bit sore and I feel a bit out of it mentally, but my body feels really awesome. Full of sore energy. I feel like I have worked hard, and I have.

Yesterday I ran down to the Cleveland Track to run on their newly surfaced track. Very nice. I did a comfortable 2.25 to the track to warm up. Once I got there I started in on 2 miles of straights and curves. My pace on the straights was as high as 5:30 and my heart rate got up as high as 178 (not far from what I estimate my max of 184). For the most part my straights got the HR over 170 before I brought it down to below 150 on the curves. It felt so good to go all out especially after our super slow Sunday ten miler. I even got to show off a bit as the girls track team came out to the track to workout, they had to wait for me to run a straight. I heard one of them say "I wish I could..." as I passed by them. I am sure she finished with something like "date Johnny" but I imagined she finished by saying "run as fast as that!" Ha ha. I only had one more lap after they got to the track before I relinquished it to them. I ended the run with another 3.75 back to home.

Overall I felt really good like I usually do after a speed workout. The other benefit is that the next runs always seem really fast as well. Speed workouts really do help improve in the fast arena. I think you are just getting used to the speed especially after months and months of base runs.

So today, my running partner wanted to do a seven miler at her potential half pace of 10 minute miles (though I know she is going to be faster). I thought I could handle that. Then she decides she wants to push it a bit. Of course I have to step up and say "Yay, let's do it." So now we decide to do 1 miles slow, followed by 5 miles at 9:30, then end with another slow one. By the time we got to the waterfront, our 9:30 goal became a 9:15 goal. Phew, now I was gonna be hurting.

The first mile went well. My legs were sore and we were passed by several runners, but it felt good. I wished out loud that this would be a super long mile so I could enjoy the pace, and it actually did go on for a long time. Then our fast miles hit and boom we were off. I think my running partner and I feed well off of each other and though I was lagging a bit I kept up with her fast pace. We usually talk the entire time we run together, never seeming to run out of topics. Well this mile there wasn't anything said. Second mile done and I looked at our pace and was greeted with an 8:33! Holy moly that's fast. So we agreed to slow it down a bit, but not a lot.

Third mile was grueling, but I was determined to keep going and so was my partner. Our conversation was sparse, I think we realized how quiet we were for the last mile and both felt that was odd. So we got a few words in. Mostly though we ran. I concentrated on my breathing, deep from the belly. I was really glad we were slowing down, but it really didn't feel like it was that much slower. Third mile done and our pace for the mile was 8:40. Yeah we slowed down but not nearly enough for me!

Mile four was another grueling one. I concentrated on breathing and was even able to blurt out a couple of things. I wonder, did they even make sense? As the mile wound down, my partner gave me some words of inspiration, only a mile to go! Well not quite yet, but yeah only another fast mile to go. At this point we decided to only do four fast ones, we were extremely happy with that. Especially since our pace was so much faster than we had started out with. Mile four done and our pace slowed to an 8:50 crawl (yeah right). One more mile to go.

As our final fast mile came to a close we realized we would finish it before the next hill which was a great feeling. Both of us had worked up a great sweat. Felt really good to be flying along with each other. We rocked this run. Phew, mile 5 done with an 8:42 pace. Time to cool down for the final two miles. Max heart rate for the fast part 170.

Those last two miles were heavenly and a great reward for us both. What a fantastic run, we both were really happy with it. We are getting good.

Long Slow Run with HRM

Yesterday my running partner and I braved the oncoming rain and headed out for a 10+ mile run. When I woke it was warm out with no sprinkles, so warm I passed on the tights. But the rain didn't hold out for long and greeted us at the start of our run on the West side of the esplanade.

We have been talking about keeping our long runs slow so as to keep our heart rate under our recovery ceiling thus keeping us in the fat burning zone. The idea is to burn fat instead of reaching into our glucose stores. So like I said we have been talking about it and trying to do it. Today we both strapped on our Heart Rate Monitors and did it for real. We knew we were going to be going slow and that the full run would take around 2 hours. Our target heart rate was 147 and we were really successful in keeping it there. It was sort of fun to watch our heart rates so closely, we even managed to stay under on our small hills. My heart rate was a bit lower than my partner's, but not much. Overall my average was 141 for the run with an avg pace of 10:45.

As we were finishing I really felt like I could run a full marathon at that pace. My feet were hurting a little bit but my legs and body felt great. I even considered adding and extra 5 miles to run home from downtown, but not seriously. My mile were high this week (36) and I didn't want to push 40 yet. Later in the day I felt really good as well, not very tired and not very sore. I did quite a bit of stretching throughout the day and the next morning I felt a bit sore and tired, but not bad.

We are scheduled for a recovery run this morning of five miles. I just got a text hoping to put it off until tonight. Sounds good to me, I'm pretty pooped this morn.

I have been trying to figure my resting heart rate in the morning right after I wake up. The first time I tried it it was 46. The next day 47 and today 49. The cats kept jumping up on me while I was laying there and not helping. I want to measure how low I can get it while doing chi gong breathing exercises. I am sure it would go even lower.

Mileage, mileage!

Last week marked the second week in a row I managed to get in over 30 miles. I feel pretty good, no exhaustion, no overwork, no lingering aches (other than my usual feet things.) I also found myself running for six days in a row without a break. Usually I will go three days max before I take a rest day, but it just worked out to do the six days. My only issues seem to my my feet aching and a slight case of boredom.

To counteract that boredom I just got a Garmin Forerunner 405. So far I really like it, the reports it gives are amazing. Way more info than I could ever want on my run. A few quick complaints: its a little large and gets caught in my sleeve, the maps that the computer based reporting system uses are really crappy (compared to MapMyRun which uses Google Maps it totally pales) and the bezzle interface can be a little sensitive. I have gotten spoiled with Google maps and the almost blank maps the software displays are completely unacceptable. I hope I can figure out how to change that, there must be a way.

I have never used a heart rate monitor before, and it is pretty fascinating to watch. Apparently there are a number of ways to sue the data to maximize training that I am looking forward to utilizing. Hurray, more ways to get scientific.

Winter running

I keep kicking myself for not writing more this year, I guess I have just fallen out of the habit. Need to roll back into it. Especially now as I have been running quite a bit this winter, more than usual. Most of this has been due to my running partner who makes the runs fun and gives me reason to get up early and face the weather. She has been a fantastic influence. Her pace is slower than mine as well which has given me some sorely needed variety in my running, actually right now we have been doing so much running together that runs by myself be the ones giving me variety!

This week I put in 35 miles, the most I have put in in awhile. I would say my body feels great which it mostly does, but a 10.5 miler yesterday is forcing me to say differently! I am a little sore this morning and looking forward to a nice leisurely 5 miles today. But overall I am feeling great and getting over this cough thing which has been haunting me for several weeks now. It is still around a little, but nothing like before. Odd that I was able to run through it. I was a bit winded, but mostly felt pretty good. Both of us felt strong after our long run yesterday, it was pretty amazing. I think a lot of it had to do with proper hydration before and during, snacks during and good conversation.

I have taken on some pretty rugged runs this winter so far. Cold and wind has affected me less than in past years. I want to look back in my running journal for past winters to see how they compare. I should have four years of records to peek at. I did purchase a warmer shirt that has helped quite a bit, too warm a lot of the time, but perfect for those really cold days. Good thing to have in the closet.