Maria's Running Blog

Easy run in NJ on my old running route. I dropped my daughter off at her old school and decided to go for a run there, since our hotel is right on Rt.17, with no easy access to back roads.

I originally planned to do some miles at marathon pace, but as I started, I quickly changed my mind. After 5 days of no running, very late nights, my mother-in-law cooking and a bit more alcohol than needed, everything felt off. I felt like I haven't run in a year, not 5 days. Slow, sluggish, and the hills killed me. I thought I was crawling along, but when I timed few stretches, I was going at 8:30-8:40 pace. I just felt so out of sorts. It's the longest break in running I had since April. Hopefully, I can sneak a few miles in tomorrow and Thursday, and then Friday is all day travel on the plane. Time today 52:30 (8:45 pace).

Finally getting back to normal routine. I felt very slow and sluggish again today. Basically, last 1.5 weeks my training has gone down the drain. I hope I didn't lose too much fitness, although I'm sure I lost some. I missed 2 long runs, and I tried to go long today, but decided to stop after 8 miles in order to not run myself into the ground the first day back. Time 1:11:11 (8:53 pace).

The good news, I didn't gain any weight while in the States, which is no small feat considering all the food my mother-in-law cooked for us and our New Year's party meal. Traditional Russian cuisine is not very healthy.

Ran 6 miles in the rain and wind. I felt a bit better today than yesterday, and my pace was quicker as well. I'm going to repeat the week of 12/25 to get back on schedule. Time 52:36 (8:37 pace).

Yesterday I "officially" registered for the Rotterdam marathon, so there is no turning back now. I have also registered for the Fleet Half on 3/11, so these 2 races are set. Don't know if I'll do any other races or will just train the next 2 months. It seems counter productive to race 5Ks in the marathon buildup,taking up the place of a possible long run (although I do have an option of Friday 5K).

Did 2x10 heel raises after the run.

Ran a hilly loop in Primrose Hill park, pushing the pace on the hills (8). It was a tough run. The wind was crazy today, literally pushing me off the path into the grass at times, probably gusting to 50-60 mph. My adductors and right shin muscle were a little sore to start, and it's quite possible I'll be even more sore tomorrow. Again I felt slow, but overall pace was 8:45, not too bad. I think it's the loss of running economy after the break that makes me feel so slow. I should feel better by next week. Total time 1:03:56 (8:45 pace).

I felt better than expected today. Some quad and hamstring soreness, but pretty mild, really. Ran 6.8mi with 4x100m strides in 57:56 (8:31 pace) and felt decent.

Did 3x10 heel raises afterwards.

Very nice text editing extension, Sasha! Thanks!

Today was rather interesting. It was unbelievably windy again, gusts up to 50 mph. I ran about 3 mi. warmup and started hill repeats in Primrose Hill park. Of course, it so happens that the direction of the hill was right into the wind. The hill was very steep too. So, I was working hard, but moving up very slowly and feeling like I was running on an air pillow (kind of like if you put your hand out the car window while driving fast). After about 30-35 sec.on each repeat my legs would die, but I still tried to concentrate on maintaining good form. I ran about 40 sec.-1 min. up before starting back down again. I could only manage 8 repeats with all this going on, and I couldn't go faster than 8:40 pace! Interestingly, I was not the only one crazy enough to do hill repeats in this wind - there was another runner on the hill next to my hill, doing the same thing. His form looked much better than mine, I think. After I was completely dead, I shuffled home another 1.6 mi. to give me 6mi. for the day. Total time 55:31.

Took it easy today, 6.1mi in 53:21 (8:44 pace). Legs feel tired. I ran in shorts today, partially because it's warm out (55F), but also because I ran out of tights and can't even do laundry, since we don't have hot water - again! Not to mention taking a shower... This building has some problem every few weeks, the one with hot water is the second time in 3 months! But I really hope it gets fixed soon (but given that a weekend is coming, and nothing gets done here on weekends, it may be Monday before we have hot water again).

Did 2x10 heel raises after the run.

Long run, 5 loops around Regents Park. I felt ok, not great, legs a bit heavy from all the miles during the week, this was my 7th run without a day off. Had some GI problems, which always happens when my body doesn't cooperate before I go for a run. Everything got tight around 12 miles, but I guess it's to be expected after the break I had. Time was 2:22:27 (8:47 pace). Not bad, considering GI cramps and pain that slowed me down few times.

Took 2 gels, one PowerGel with 200mg sodium, and then one GU with caffeine. I'm experimenting to see how I react to extra sodium and caffeine. I think sodium definitely helped, because today I got a lot less hand swelling than usual. I can't say I felt the kick from caffeine, though. Maybe because I was already very tired when I took it (around 13.5 miles). Also, GU was very thick, it was a bit hard to swallow. I wore my FuelBelt today with just 2 bottles on the back, and it worked out ok. It's the best thing I found for carrying water on long runs - it doesn't bounce at all, and usually doesn't chafe. The problem is the front bottles interfere with my arm swing, so it's annoying, and I don't use them. Of course, in the summer, 12 oz. of water from the back bottles alone, is not enough for 20 mile runs. But now, when it's around 50F, I can get away with it.

I did hill springing workout today in Primrose Hill Park. Ran 3.1 mi. warmup, did 10x60m hill springing repeats with the jog down recovery and then 3.1 mi. cooldown. Hills were pretty hard, and I could feel my calves and ankles got a good workout at the end. I did half of them on grass, and half on pavement. This is one of the Lydiard inspired workouts, along with hill bounding. It's more of a plyometric exercise than pure running, but it helps in building leg power. We did a lot of bounding (not so much springing) when I was training in Russia, but it wasn't up the hill. It was actually done on the track, and we even had time trials bounding over 100m, where both the time, and the number of strides were counted. Anyway, I had success with these workouts last winter, so I'm hoping they'll work again. Total time 1:10:15.

easy run in the rain. I am pretty sore today after yesterday's hills. Especially my back and even shoulders and arms, from the exaggerated arm motion. This is how weak my upper body is. My calves and hamstrings are a bit sore too, but not as much as my back. I remember I had back pain after doing hill drills last year too. It didn't bother me too much on the run, though. Time 53:08 (8:42 pace).

Did 3x10 heel raises afterwards.

Ran 5.5mi. easy, then 10:00 at half marathon pace (came out to 1.3mi, 7:40 pace), 1.4mi. cool down home. My easy pace today was brisk, 8:25, even though my calves and hamstrings are still somewhat sore. My back is sore too, but getting better. Overall, I felt very good today. It felt good to run faster, and I was pleased that my pace was comparable to 3 weeks ago, before the holiday break. Total time 1:09:09.

Did 3x10 heel raises after the run.

No running today. I simply was scared of getting outside. There are very, very high winds blowing across UK today. The weather service issued high winds and gale advisory, and there were several people killed by falling trees and such. In my area, there was sustained wind of 55 mph with gusts up to 80 mph. My blinds were blowing on windows, and the metal cover in the fireplace was rattling all day from the wind, coming in through some invisible space. Looking out my window, I observed everything flying, lamp posts shaking, and few people outside holding onto fences while walking. I was worried about my daughter, but she made it home from school ok (also holding onto everything she could on the way), and said, "Mom, don't go running today". I already decided not to go at that point. I had another hill workout scheduled, and it would have been just counter productive. So, I took a day off, and will do the workout tomorrow. It's supposed to be much better.

Did my second hill workout of the week. This time, it was bounding instead of springing. I ran about 3.7mi. warmup, and started on the moderate hill, no more than 5%. I counted my strides, and it came to 100 strides in 46-50 sec (Garmin showed 430-450 ft = 130-135m). This was a killer workout. At first, I could do 50-60 strides up the hill before my legs would start faltering, then it became 40 strides, and by my last and 8th repeat, I could only do 25 good powerful strides before I started floating in the lactic sea. My knees refused to go up, the stride length shortened, and my pace would drop sharply. All of that was happening at the same time and came on swiftly after mentioned number of strides. Still, I did all 100 strides each time, although my form was pretty bad by the end, and my legs were numb. I also increased my recovery after 3 repeats from 1min. to about 2min, because I was not recovering enough.

After that lovely exercise, I ran some 2.8mi. cool down. Not only was I trudging at 10min. pace, but my legs were feeling like cotton balls the whole time. Total time 1:12:42.

Ran 6 miles at TMP pace, sandwiched between 5mi. and 3.4mi. easy. I started out feeling great, despite sore hamstrings after the hills yesterday. First 5mi. went by in 42:42 (8:26 pace). Then I picked up the pace by feel to what I thought should be MP. When I looked at Garmin couple of minutes later, it said 7:40 pace!! Talk about pace judgement (but I was also going slightly downhill at that point). So I backed off a bit, and came to 1mi. split of 8:00. It was still faster than my projected MP of 8:13, but it felt very easy, and so I continued. Unfortunately, as the miles accumulated, plus slight uphills into the wind, I found this pace not so easy anymore, but I could still maintain it. I felt comfortable on flats and downhills, and struggled a bit uphills and into the strong wind. The uphills and downhills are very subtle in Regents Park, maybe 0.5-1%, but I could definitely feel them. After 4.5mi my hamstrings got really tight, and my pace slipped a bit. Overall, I ran 6mi. in 48:19 (8:03 avg.). After that I jogged 3.4mi. very easy (9:30 pace) - I was pretty tired, and probably running out of energy too, since I didn't take any gels or even water today. Total time 2:03:18.

I think the lesson I should learn from this run is the one that all marathoners have to learn, many in a painful way - I have to be super conservative with my marathon pace, no matter how easy it feels in the beginning.

very easy recovery run, 45:05 (9:24 pace). I tried to go as slow as possible, but HR stayed mostly 142-143, although the average came out to 131. Felt fine. Went to the London Marathon store to look for Asics DS Trainers, but they didn't have them. When I asked if they have anyting comparable, the girl said she needs to go and look up what category of shoes DS Trainer falls into. At that point I knew it's not a good place to buy shoes (not to mention the prices!), or at least I shouldn't listen to their advice. They did, however, give me a free trial pack of High 5 products, various drinks and a gel, so at least I got something :).

Marathon pace tempo plus some strides today. It was raining when I started, but stopped after about 30 min. or so. The wind, however, bothered me the entire run, steady at 16-20 mph. I did 15min. warmup, 5.04mi in 40:00 (7:56 pace), then about 2mi. cool down. Also did 4x100m strides on the track before turning to run home. Total time 1:12:59, not counting strides. I felt good, although tempo pace was a bit too fast, perhaps. Garmin couldn't get a signal for the longest time, so I started tempo by feel, and after about 2mi. it locked in, and I saw 7:55 average, so I kind of went with it. When I was running into the wind, I just tried to keep the same effort, rather than pace, but I think my breathing was affected anyway.

easy run in 42:00 (8:45 pace). It's chilly today, one of the coldest days so far in London - 36F, chill factor 27F (I know it sounds balmy compared to the temps you guys are running in elsewhere). One of the few times I wore gloves on the run. But - it is sunny and clear, and for once, my Garmin didn't have any trouble picking up the signal.

Did 3x10 heel raises after.

Did 6x800 intervals on the track today with equal time jog in between. We got snow for the first time this winter, and track was snow covered, but melting quickly. It created a slush since it's a cinder track, but didn't affect the traction. I ran 2.6mi. warmup, and started on the intervals. This track is a bit short, so it's very possible I ran slightly under 800m, although I'm not sure by how much. I ran the first one in the outer most lane to try to compensate, but it might have been too much, as Garmin showed 0.52mi for that interval. Of course, GPS is not really accurate on tracks with tight turns, so it can't be completely trusted either. In any case, I ran all the other intervals in 3-4 lane and at least they were consistent and Garmin showed 0.5mi for all of them (except one at 0.49). The splits were:

3:36 (Garmin showed 0.52mi)
3:28 -0.5mi
3.27 -0.5mi
3:26 -0.5mi
3.25-0.49mi
3.24 -0.5mi

The last two were very hard, and I generally was running first lap few seconds faster than the second. I started usually in 1:40-1:42. Then I ran 1.4mi cool down. Total time 1:15:58.

I felt my right arch on the second interval, which is worrisome, so I'm icing it now just in case.

Did progression run today: 5.6mi. easy (8:28 avg. pace), then 10:00 at half-marathon pace (1.3mi, 7:42 pace), and finally 1.5mi. cool down (9:14 avg. pace). The half-marathon pace felt easier today than before, in fact I ran an average 7:36 pace until I hit a slight uphill in the park, and the pace slipped a bit. Total time 1:11:47.

I had to do my long run today due to the family weekend trip to Brussels. I knew there is no way I could take 3 hours to run there, not to mention I wouldn't even know where to go, so I decided to rearrange the workouts a bit this week, giving myself slightly less stressful day yesterday (800s intervals were originally scheduled for yesterday), and just go for it today.

I got inspired by Paul's article to try running with my iPod. I never run with music, I can't stand anything bouncing on me, dangling cords, earphones falling out of my ears and having to readjust all this stuff. But I had to wear FuelBelt with water and gels anyway, so I got my iPod as well, as an experiment. It wasn't going to be an easy run and I figured I could use all the distractrion I can get! Well, in the beginning I did hate it, but after about 5 miles I found a way to tuck the iPod into the FuelBelt so it didn't bounce and the cord was mostly out of the way. Listened to everything from Enigma to Russian rock. I ran around the perimeter of Regents Park with only 2 crossings on 2.75mi. loop, so safety wasn't an issue. I did 6 loops, and the pace was around 8:45 in the beginning, then around 9mi. Garmin lost the signal for a while, but got it back less than a mile later. I took one gel around 9mi. (probably too late), and the second gel around 14mi. I was certainly tired, but my pace actually got a little quicker. Then 2 miles from home iPod ran out of battery! Just when I needed it the most. Oh well... I was glad to be done though. Total time 2:44:04.

Ran variable fartlek today at 3K-10K speed with equal time jog recovery. It was a hard workout, but I felt good. The splits were as follows:

5 min. - 0.68mi (7:19 pace)

3 min - 0.43mi (7:10)

3 min - 0.44mi (6:54)

3 min - 0.44mi (6:58)

1 min - 0.15mi (6:37)

1 min - 0.16mi (6:28)

Total time 1:07:50.

Easy recovery run, 50:21 (8:59 pace). I picked up a cold in Belgium - not realy surprising seeing how I went to crowded public places (tube, train station) immediately after 19 mile run last Friday, when my immune system was probably down. It's not too bad, I have some congestion, mainly at night, but on my runs I can usually breathe better.

Did 40 minutes of marathon tempo, it came to 5.05mi (7:56 pace). It is the same pace as last week, but for some reason it felt a lot easier today. It was really a medium effort, my breathing was steady and my legs were happy to chug along. I tried the shoes I intend to use for the marathon for the first time today - Asics DS Trainers, and they felt great. They are very light and responsive. I have to try them on some long runs with marathon pace segments to make sure they won't give me blisters or any other trouble, but they were great for 9 miles straight out of the box. Maybe the shoes gave me the edge to feel so good today, I don't know. I'd like to think it's the long runs and tempos working, and my fitness maybe is nudging ahead ever so slightly.

After the tempo, did 4x100m strides and jogged home. Then did 3x10 heel raises. Total time 1:15:51 (not counting strides).

I found this race on Feb. 25, in Hyde Park, so I sent my registration yesterday. Today is the deadline, and I'm hoping they got it in time. I didn't run a race since November, so it would be nice to run an 8K. In fact, I don't think I ever raced this distance! I did a few 5 milers, but not 8K (granted, they're close enough).