Tempo followed by recovery

Yesterday I ran an eight mile tempo run, well the second through sixth miles were anyway, I started out with a half mile warm up and then picked it up for a sub 8:30 pace for the next 5.5. It went well was I felt strong throughout, My pace dropped a bit for mile four which is up hill for half of it, but I only lost 15 seconds averaged through the mile split, then back under goal for two more miles. The HR was obviously pretty high though this in the 160s for the first three miles and then over 175 for the next three on avg. I had to push it through this fast 5.5 and then spent the next mile and first of two in a cooldown going up hill and still keeping a relatively high heart rate. The last mile and a half was really slow (12 min miles) and I kept my HR around 150 or less.

I saw a barefoot runner go by and chatted at him for a bit. he told me he had heard that Vibram runners have been cutting the heels out of them. He didn't own a pair and was doing it full on barefoot. Said he might get some for the really hot weather.

After my hard run in the afternoon, I got up pretty early and went out again for a recovery run of six miles. It was slow going and a really good recovery run with very little time spent over my recover ceiling and a lot of it under by 5 beats or more. Boring run, slow run but a totally successful one. Recovery done, time for another quality run tomorrow! Maybe an AeT run with an HR around 160?

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.

Getting back into running after a marathon

I have noticed that after a marathon event that it is both hard to break from your established training routine and get back into it at the same time. In reality it is good to give the body a rest after the rigors of preparing, break the habits of training(assuming you aren't going to keep up with your routine, which for the most part is everyone) and ease into your post marathon life. Unless you injure yourself this is often tough to do. After I did a full marathon two years ago, I found myself running 15 miles on a grueling course just to prove I could do it. Bad idea, my body was tapped after the big even and pushing myself too hard was a mistake. I should have done several recovery runs instead of another big one.

This time I am going the extreme opposite and not running at all, not really by choice though. I seem to have pulled something in my groin area. I am not sure when, and I first noticed it a couple of days after I got back from Seattle. It doesn't hurt too horribly, it might be a slight hernia. I am going to give it the weekend and see how it goes before seeing my doc about it though I need to go back anyway for a cholesterol check. We'll see.

I think there must be a happy medium. Keep up the running, but let the training routine go. I have found one of the hardest transitions is laying off the food. You up your caloric intake, get used to it, run the race and then have to go back to eating less. It's hard, I like food (especially carbs) too much.