Maria's Running Blog

I tried to keep it easy today, but the pace stayed around 8:35 most of the time. In the last mile it slowed a bit once I hit Primrose Hill on the way home, and I didn't try to push it. Overall, a very relaxed and enjoyable run. Ended up with 42:15 (8:43 average pace). It will be interesting to see how I run tomorrow.

Easy run, 1:01:22 (8:46 pace). I felt good, trying to re-establish the base with some longer runs this week. I joined this club yesterday, hopefully I'll be able to run some fun races and meet more runners. It's kind of silly to run alone all the time, when there are thousands of runners in central London! They stage some of their own races regularly and you have to be a member to participate, so I'll have more options now. There are also inter club leagues and competitions, even track meets, which unattached runners can't enter.

Next Monday is a bank holiday in UK, so that gives us 3 day weekend. We're going away to Prague very early Saturday morning for some sightseeing and great (and very cheap!) beer. I'm pretty sure I won't run there, but will take my running gear just in case. I always take it to these family trips, but rarely end up running.

With traveling and in-laws visit combined, I didn't run for 5 days. These are not good excuses, but I'm trying to get back on track now. My weakness is getting off the schedule easily when various distractions come up. Not having training partners doesn't help as I'm the only one who has to discipline myself.

I decided to follow Tinman's training system, following Paul and Cody. I want to try it for a few months and see if I improve. I'll focus on some 10Ks in the summer, maybe also 5Ks.

So today I did a Tinman tempo run, but I messed it up. Garmin was cutting in and out due to extremely cloudy and rainy skies, and I was feeling good after 5 days of rest. Without watching my pace, I ran too fast, 4.3mi in 33:10 (7:42 pace). The goal was 8:03 pace. The wind was ridiculous at times, up to 30 mph, then I got tired towards the end, and my legs may feel it tomorrow. It's been a while since I pushed the pace at all, so my legs kind of forgot how to move faster. Good workout overall, though, and I added 3x100m strides at the end. Total time 1:06:22 (8:37 pace).

Very late run today due to staying late at work. On top of that, it's a really nasty evening out here - rain and chilly, only low 50s. But I can't afford to take any more days off, so I got out almost at 9PM. As usual, the weather didn't feel nearly as bad as it looked out the window.

But Regents Park was about to close (it closes at 9) and I wasn't going to take chances going in and being locked up there for the night, so I ran to the track and did a mile there before heading back home. I was a little sore in the adductors, but better than I expected after yesterday. Total time 34:35 (9:36 pace). It was a short run, but better than skipping a day completely.

I'll try to have a better workout tomorrow, although my daughter's school runs an International Food event in the evening, where we somehow ended up in 2 categories, American and Russian. So we need to bring some "specialties". I'll try to sneak out of there in time for a workout (Lisa is leaving early too, since she has her swimming practice).

I did a variation of long run I've never really done before: 1.3 mi. warmup + 3x5km at moderate pace (supposed to be 8:30) with 3' recovery jog or walk + 1.2 mi. cool down.

The first 5K felt very easy, and I ran it in 25:43 (8:16 pace). I still felt good after, so I jogged 3 min. and started on the second one. Felt okay, but not so easy anymore, and ran it in 25:57 (8:21 pace). I felt the need to walk after this one, and after 3 min. started on the third one. Garmin cut out for a while, so the pace was skewed, but finished in 25:50 (8:19 pace). Last mile I was very tired, but was able to hold the pace. After that, just crawled home at 10:00 pace. Total time 1:43. It was a good workout, although my legs are pretty dead now. It was also very windy again, gusts of 20+ mph winds, and there were random strong showers. By the time I was done I was drenched twice.

Legs were very tight and stiff after yesterday. Also, I'm going on 6 hours of sleep for like 7 days in a row, and it's  not enough for me. I had to get up at 6 AM today to go to the airport to meet relatives coming from Moscow, so that didnt' help. Really didn't feel like going out to run, especially given the rain most of the day. But did manage to kick myself out the door, and just put the miles in. Tired and waiting for the run to end. One more week of relatives left...

Total time: 51:48 (9:05 pace), including 4x100m strides.

Felt better than yesterday, but still not a great run. Adductors still a little sore from Saturday. I took it easy and was fine once I warmed up, but freezing the first 2 miles. It's 48F and damp, and it's May.While we had 68F back in April. London weather can be truly bizzarre. Total time: 45:29 (8:55 pace).

Ran CV repeats today, 4x1000m with 1min. jog recovery. Of course, my Garmin ran out of battery so I had to take regular watch. Because my track is 387m long, I cannot be sure I ran exactly 1000m, but at least I ran the same distance every repeat and could compare times. The effort felt right, hard, but manageable. Splits were 4:28, 4:31, 4:30 and 4:25. Did 4x200m strides before repeats. I felt pretty decent overall and am glad I got this workout in. I had to bail out early from work's event (when drinks and dinner were about to start), but I'm glad I did.

I'll miss tomorrow and Thursday due to going to 2 evening shows in a row with my Moscow relatives. This is a busy week.

Just an easy run with 4x100m strides at the end. Felt tired despite 2 days off. Entertaining relatives took some toll. The shows were great (we saw "Phantom of the Opera" and "Stomp"), but I desperately need more sleep! Less than 6 hours a night is not cutting it.

Total time: 56:16 (9:04 pace). On strides, felt really good. 

Did the "Segments" run again, same as last Saturday. My pacing was better than last week, but it didn't feel any easier. Maybe because it was only 17 hours after my run last night.

I ran 3x5km with 3min. walk/jog recovery. The goal was to stay at 8:30 pace for the segments. I ran 26:14 (8:28 pace), 26:08 (8:25 pace) and 26:14 (8:27 pace). I was very tired at the end, not because of pace, but because of duration. I had to focus to keep under 8:30, as my body really wanted to slow down and run more comfortably. I didn't drink anything until after the last 5K, and it didn't help - it was rather warm and I felt dehydrated. Next time I'll carry some water. Did 4x100m strides at the end, and then jogged home very slowly. Legs felt dead.

Total time 1:47:47.

I felt much better today than last Sunday after segments run on Saturday. The weather was beautiful low 60s with light breeze and I enjoyed cruising through the park comfortably.

Total time: 53:35 (8:47 pace).

I felt lazy today and thought about just running easy as I was walking out the door. But then I thought that I have 10K race in 2 weeks, and I don't want to completely embarass myself as it will be my first race trying to score for my new club. So I decided to stick to the plan and do Tinman Tempo run.

Warmed up 1.7mi and started on the tempo. Garmin said I was running 7:50 pace, and I backed off a bit to stay closer to 8:00, but for some reason, my pace kept slipping more and more. Garmin was showing 8:15, and it didn't feel easy! A flood of negative thoughts went through my head - "what's going on?", "why does 8:10 pace feel so hard?", "I must have lost a lot of fitness", "I must have gained weight", and on, and on. I kept pushing the pace though, and finally, after about a mile, I managed to get the pace down to 8:00. From there on, I started feeling decent and got into a good rhythm. By the end of the tempo, I dropped the pace to 7:54 average (39:28 for 5 miles). Ran out of road on my loop and had to finish on the track, which was handy as I needed to do strides after anyway. Did 3x100m strides and jogged home. Finished in the dark, about 9:30PM. Still don't know what happened on that first mile of tempo, maybe Garmin was lagging.

Total time 1:06:53 for 8 miles (8:21 pace avg.), not counting strides.

Legs felt stiff, tight and tired. It's no surprise, really, seeing that it's my 5th day of running in a row at a higher mileage than I was doing since the marathon. I have to go through this re-training curve until I'm comfortable at 45-50 mi/week again.

Based on how my legs felt, I expected a slow trudge, but was surprised to see decent pace. Breathing was fine, but overall not a fun run.

Total time: 53:32 (8:46 pace).

Did warmup to the track, then 4x200m strides at ~6:40 pace, then CV repeats 4x1000m with 1 min. jog recovery between. This time Garmin was working perfectly, and I switched it to metric units so I could measure exactly where 1000m ends. Turns out last week I did run a bit too short, but only by 10-15 m, no more. The goal was 4:36, and my splits were 4:32, 4:31, 4:32, 4:32. I felt pretty good - it was pretty hard effort, but I could maintain it without going overboard.

Afterwards, did 4x100m strides at ~6:20-6:30 pace and jogged home.

I was debating whether to do long run today, or tomorrow since I did CV reps yesterday, and doing segments run today seemed a bit too much. Then I checked the weather forecast and it called for rain starting later today and going ALL day tomorrow. Hmm, I really didn't feel like running in the rain for 2 hours, so I decided to go today but do an easy long run with faster finish if I felt good, rather than segments run.

Feeling good about my compromise, I headed out the door... only to feel the drizzle as soon as I stepped outside! It has been solid overcast all morning, but of course it had to start raining just as I got out. Oh well, I was committed already and it didn't feel too bad. It was actually perfect weather for running - mid 50s, no wind and light drizzle.

Garmin was completely out of it, and understandably so - the skies were grey and visibility was low. It never caught the signal at all, so I had to run only by feel. I was just running easy pace, doing loops around Regents Park. I did 3, and felt decent, so I hit the split and sped up for the 4th loop. I know that one loop is 2.75 miles, and I was wondering what pace I was running. Couldn't tell for sure, but it felt like marathon pace. When I finished, the watch said 22:15. By that time, the rain was coming down steady, no longer a drizzle. I was totally soaked. I spent my 10+ minutes of cooldown trying to calculate the pace on that last loop, but being pretty tired at that point, my math skills were not the greatest (not that they ever are!), so I just concluded I did around 8 min. pace. Now I know it was 8:05 pace - right at my marathon pace. Overall, I'm pretty happy with this run - I'm done with my long run for the week, and I felt very decent for 13+ miles.

Total time: 1:56:25 (8:41 pace).

The forecast was right on, and it's been raining non stop since yesterday. But I found partial clearing and quickly got out to maybe sneak my run in before it starts raining again. I almost succeeded - it was drizzling, but not bad, really.

My legs felt a little tight after yesterday, so I just took it easy, and then finished with 4x100m strides on the track. From all the rain, the cinder surface of the track got very soft, and it felt like running in the sand, my feet were sinking a bit.

Total time: 56:10 (8:54 pace), not counting strides.

Rain, rain and more rain. Third day in a row, and this time I couldn't find an opening when it rained less. Not a fun run, cold, windy and wet. It was just about getting my miles in and getting out of there as soon as I could. Temps only in mid 40s. My hands were freezing, so I tucked them into my sleeves and didn't look at my watch the whole run, which was probably for the best. Just ran easy, except maybe in the end, where I sped up a little just to be done sooner - I was really cold.

Total time: 48:20 (8:52 pace).

Only got 4 hours of sleep last night. I was falling asleep all day at work, especially in one boring meeting. REALLY didn't want to go runnning, but also didn't want to miss a day. So dragged myself outside and did about 5 miles. Felt very sluggish, legs felt like wood. Threw in 4x100m strides in the middle to try to wake up, but it didn't really work. I'm going to bed in about an hour.

Total time: 45:54 (9:16 pace).

CV reps workout at the track. I felt fine, but my times were significantly slower than last week. I first felt it on 4x200m strides in the warmup - I ran 51, 52, 52, 51 and it felt hard! Then I did 4x1000m with 1min. jog recovery and my times were 4:33, 4:38, 4:40, 4:39. It felt hard, and I couldn't hit my goal pace of 4:36 without going anaerobic, which I didn't want to do because it's not the purpose of this workout. It was pretty windy today, but it wasn't just the wind slowing me down. Afterwards, did cooldown, including 4x100m strides at 5K pace.

It is discouraging to run slower times than a week ago for no apparent reason. The only difference I can see this week from previous week is that last week I did this workout after 2 days off, while this week it is my 6th day of running in a row. For me, even 1 day off makes a difference, I seem to accumulate fatigue from all the miles by the end of the week.

In any case, I don't feel particularly optimistic about my upcoming 10K this Sunday. I can't expect anything faster than 47:00 with these kind of times on my CV workout. Maybe I should take off Friday and run short easy run on Saturday to try and get some juice back into my legs.

just a regular easy run, Garmin woke up only mid way, so no pace information, ran by feel. Legs were tired, but cardio was just fine, and by the end, even the legs felt better.

Total time: 53:07 (8:51 pace).

I contacted my club about taking part in some track meets this summer, and they responded very enthusiastically. There are 2 track leagues I can participate in - one South England masters (called veterans here), and another one open. There is usually one scoring runner per team in each event, but it's also possible to run as a non-scoring runner. I had been not careful, and mentioned that I trained with heptathlon group for few years in high school, and the team coordinators jumped on this and told me I'm very likely to do shorter distances (200-800) and javelin and shot! I told them it might be dangerous to let me near javelin, but they were unfazed and said that meets are very low key and a lot of fun. The image of me and javelin or shot puts me into a state of nervous laughter, but it should be fun. I did indeed have some exposure to throws, but it was really no more than that - and 20 years ago. At least they are not asking me to do high jump or discus or pole vault!!

Aside from track meets, there is club championship Grand Prix of 4 races that sounds like fun with cumulative scoring. It looks like I'll be running a lot of middle distances in the next 2 months. Here is my tentative schedule:

June 3 - interclub league10K

June 11 - track meet (1500 most likely or whatever the team needs, 400-800)

June 20 - track meet (3000 or whatever the team needs, 400-800)

June 30 - club championship Grand Prix 1K (road)

July 3 - club championship Grand Prix 3K

July 10 - club championship Grand Prix 1 mile (track)

July 19 - club championship Grand Prix 5K (road)
July 23 - track meet (1500 or whatever the team needs)

July 27 - Last Friday of the Month 5K

 It looks pretty intense. I think I'll have to just run easy between these events to recover and do long run on weekends. But hopefully, I'll gain a bit of speed with this.