Day 53: Culver City hills

Tonight was my first Wednesday practice, and we tackled hills.

Hill training is annoying and painful BUT I can speak from experience when I say it makes a huge difference in strength over the course of training.

We met at Culver City park and worked out in four segments:

1) Warm up - about a mile down and back, with four 10-second pick ups on the return leg. Pick ups are, as you might expect when you pick up the pace for whatever the duration of the pick up.

2) "Triple Crown" - Run to the top of the hill with a strong effort, recover on the way down - x3

3) "Three Minute Monster" - Run uphill 30 seconds, recover downhill, run 60 seconds uphill,  recover downhill, run 90 seconds uphill - try not to keel over - recover downhill...All without stopping and at 80% max effort.

4) Cool down run / walk / stretch.

I made it...in the back of the pack the whole way, but that's okay. I'm working on taming my speed envy. Shins felt good which is important after all the downhills where you can really bang them up. I focused a lot on keep my stride short and quick and light. No clunking down the hill for me.

Tomorrow is a rest day. I barely know what to do when I get to sleep in these day - feels a little weird.

Day 53: 3.6 miles
season mileage to date: 103.6 miles

sweaty hill repeats

tuesday night's run was drenching and sticky. we were scheduled to run speed/effort work on the north hill and we all knew it was going to be a night that would kick our collective butts.

before we ran off, our coach asked those of us that were nursing knee or IT injuries to raise our hands and then see him before we headed out for the warm up. there were only three of us, and coach jim told us that because that particular work out is rather hard on IT and knee injuries, we would run the same course, but simply run it steady and easy, not pushing too hard on the uphill or the downhill.

it's hard to complain when you don't have to sprint uphills, although whenever i get a "special" workout i always feel like i am somehow slacking even though i know i'm not. i ran with one of the other injured people for most of the run and we were chatting about our events and how many marathons and fundraising and all that. i told him about how i started running marathons and about steve. he told me that his fiancee died six months ago and that's why he was running, and he was bummed that he was having IT issues because obviously he really wanted to do this well.

i didn't know what to say except for "i'm so sorry" and some fumbling offerings of how having this as an outlet can help. we quietly ran for a few minutes and i thought about jeanne and gave her a hug in my mind. losing loved ones so young is just so damn cruel and i was quietly sad.

my running buddy broke off to grab some water, and i used my sad to motor up and down the hills. it was not an easy work out. i understood why our coach wasn't going to let us push it during the workout because just running up and down the hill was definitely getting to my hip. i was glad when we were done - i stretched out well and rolled my leg when i got home, and hoped for the humidity to break later in the week.


today's mileage: 5.0
time run: n/a
season mileage to date: 163.0

The Yin-Yang of an Out-and-Back

This morning was my "big" 5 mile run in lovely New Jersey.

I had debated between just running in the boys neighborhood and fining a park/trail/etc but the latter was proving too difficult, so I plotted a 5-mile out-and-back course from the house. It was a simple route without too many turns since I don't know the neighborhood that well and didn't feel like getting lost in the wilds of New Jersey.

As everyone anywhere around here knows, the weather today was spectacular. I left the house around 11 and temp was on an upward climb from 65, but there was a gorgeous breeze that kept the heat from getting to me. (I am *not* a hot weather runner. Not a bit.)

What I didn't look at in my google plotting was the elevation, and while I knew this somewhere in the back of my head, I didn't really think about all the ups and downs I would potentially encounter. Thus...the roller coaster of emotions that comes with a hilly out and back course. For every uphill you encounter, there is a spark of joy that later, oh later!, you will get to run down that beast. And yet alas! Especially on the way out, each lovely downhill you float down, you know will come a reckoning, for you will have to run back up that monster to get back home again.

And so went my run. Lots of swearing under my breath as I encountered another hill. My turn around was a road that would basically loop around, and I laughed when I realized that I had chosen "Vista Drive", which as the name implied, was one long and windy road uphill.

I won't lie, I took three little catch-my-breath walk breaks over the course of the run, those being after I valiantly battled a hill. But I felt good about the run just the same. I increased my mileage by 40%, which is a big jump, and I think if it had been more flat I would have been a.o.k. So I'll take it!

Today's mileage:: 5.0
Mileage this week:: 15.5

back to the hills

last night was my first tuesday night practice since i had been diagnosed with my little quad strain. the team is in week 3 of hills. i wasn't worried about missing something technique-wise, because i am pretty much a hill master but i was nervous to see how my quad was going to feel during and after.

ironically, after we ran up the hill to the park, it wasn't my quad that was bothering me but my right shin. the lower inside spot felt like a big bruise coming on. damn the shin splints - there was no way i was getting those again. during warm up i spend some extra time on my calves to try to loosen them up and just hoped i wouldn't be feeling it the whole work out.

we ran a little less than a mile over to where we would be hill-repeating. the purpose of the practice was to get used to cresting a hill using the same effort level. basically when you reach that last little incline, as it turns flat, your stride can open up a bit more without you spending any more energy.

libby and i ran together and we passed the time chatting (when we weren't out of breath). we repeated the little hill 12 times (yeah 12) and were pretty good and tired when we finally got done. i could definitely feel my shin at first, but it loosened up a good deal during the run and i made sure that i stretched it well (and kept stretching it throughout the night). the good news was my quad seemed to be doing fine. yay.

then it was time to go home and watch the super tuesday results trickle in while i did yoga moves and rolled out my quads and calves. fun times ;)

my goal moving forward is to plan out my work outs better as well as try eating better too...i finally got a nutrition for marathoners guide, which i don't expect to be any huge revelations, but you never know. so i'm thinking for the week...

wed - off, or yoga
thursday - 4 to 5 miles (in the evening)
friday - cross-train (in the morning)
saturday - rest and stretch
sunday - bronx 1/2 marathon

lets see how that goes.