Maria's Running Blog

After 3 days of constant rain I was able to get out again. Felt pretty good, I will try to keep 5 mile distance on my daily runs now.

Total time: 46:05 (9:13 pace).

Shorts and t-shirt weather!! Ran 5 miles and felt good. Also, felt pretty strong today!

Total time: 45:25 (9:05 pace).

The plan was to try 7 miles today for a sort of long run. However, I felt crappy from the start. Just tired, dragging, not smooth. I have no idea why - maybe because I ran only 16 hours after the previous run and wasn't recovered yet? Who knows. So I waited to see if I'll feel better, but it never happened, so I abandoned 7 miler idea and decided to just stick with 5 for now. The stangest thing was that my split times were all faster than yesterday, even while I continued to feel bad. It was one of those weird runs. To make things worse, my stomach cramped up in the last mile, and decided it would be a great time for a bathroom stop. Of course, there are no woods in central London, so I had to slow down to make sure I make it home ok! I still got a faster time than yesterday. Go figure. I will most likely take a day off tomorrow as I will spend it in the pool (Regional Championship for my daughter).

Total time: 45:11 (9:02 pace).

Did my regular 5 mile run. Didn't feel as bad as on Saturday, but not great either. It was good to get moving after spending all Sunday at the pool for Lisa's regionals. She didn't do well, and was pretty upset, but then she talked to the coach, and he said it is to be expected. It looks like the high volume training in Cyprus helped her endurance, but killed her speed. She also had slight leg injury last week, that caused her to pull all her sessions (using pullbuoy) and not use her legs at all. I like that in swimming - you can isolate the legs and still put a decent cardio work in. It seems to have cleared up now, and she even did 800m run time trial in PE, beating all girls and all but two boys in her class, which cheered her up a little after a dissapointing performance in the pool.

Total time: 45:53 (9:10 pace)

Very warm out. I went out late so decided to run a little shorter.

Total time: 28:18 (9:07 pace).

Today it was simply too hot, must be 75F. First, we get no spring, then we get middle of summer! I attempted 7 miler, but again was stopped by stomach issues. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow. Hopefully, it'll will be a little cooler, too.

Total time: 38:59 (9:03 pace).

Ran in the Vets League meet. I did 100m non-scoring, and 400m as a scoring W35 A string. 100m was a lot of fun, I had a good start (without the starting blocks, but still good), but after 20m I got passed by a speedster in our club, Pam - a tall slim girl who is just built for running. I don't have official times, but I think I ran around 16.5.

I was nervous about the 400m, because I'm not doing any speedwork, and my endurance is shot. But I started not too fast, and was able to kick in the end, and only felt that dreadful lactic acid flood in the last 70m or so. I managed to get 3rd place, too! Again, no times, but I think I did around 1:20. Not great, last year I ran 1:15.6, but not too bad for my current state.

Finally, the 4 of us did 4x400m relay. Somehow, our team captain got hold of everyone's splits. Pam ran the first leg in 1:12 and got a huge lead over the other team (there were only 2 teams in this event). Then, we had a lady who is 55 or 60, not sure, run the second leg. She is a good sprinter, but didn't have enough for 400 - she almost stopped in the last 100! She ran 1:31. Then it was my turn. We still had a big lead over the second team. I ran slower than in my individual race, because I didn't feel all that great, mainly my heart rate was still high, and I was worried about overdoing it and pushing too hard. So I kept the lead, but didn't kill myself - 1:23.6. On the last leg, we had a fast girl (she ran 1:16), but the second team had one much faster! She caught our girl and passed her!! Everyone was yelling and screaming, it was a classic relay scenario - even if the speeds were slow. So we lost the relay, but it was a lot of fun. Our team won the meet, though, by 10 points!

Now, as I'm writing this a day later, I'm very sore, of course. Was walking funny today, especially after sitting down for a long time. But these meets are so fun, it's all worth it (provided I don't get injured!).

A major "ouch" run. So sore still after Monday. Crawled along like a turtle, legs stiff like a piece cardboard.

Total time: 46:40 (9:20 pace).

Still sore today, but definitely better than yesterday. I ran faster, too. The weather was perfect - on the verge of rain, but not actually raining, about 55F. I think I'll be almost ok tomorrow.

Total time: 45:03 (9:00 pace).

Had a bit of a set back last Friday, with chest pain and heart palpitation on the way to work. I have no idea why. Felt like crap all Friday, and decided to take few days off. Maybe I pushed it too much with the pace, or maybe track meets are too much for me now. Who knows...

Ran very easy 3 miler and felt okay, but not great.

Total time: 30:09 (9:43 pace).

Feeling better, but now I caught a cold somewhere. Totally stuffed up and sitting next to the tissue box. Felt pretty good on the run though. I wore my HR monitor again, but again it was showing wild results. At one point it started showing desreasing HR until 64, which was defintiely not true. Towards the end, it showed 130-150, which I think is realistic. I was careful not to push the pace at all.

Total time: 29:39 (9:33 pace).

Sick, sick, sick... I couldn't sleep last night, couldn't breathe and kept waking up every half hour. Woke up already tired. Then spent all day at work sneezing and struggling to talk on the phone. As luck would have it, I was the only one on site today and had to deal with a broken web proxy on a remote connection that my German colleague was trying to use. After an hour of trouble shooting I gave up and did a Webex with him, giving him remote control of my desktop (because the server was up just fine on internal network).  Now, in the evening, I still can't breathe through my nose, and can only imagine the fun night ahead. I can't even take any medication for the cold, not even zinc, because everything can affect my INR. I have to even watch my diet.

Ok, I think I complained enough. Hopefully tomorrow will be better or at least not worse.

Still sick, but feeling a bit better. I slept better last night, and the stuffiness is not as bad today, but now it moved to my throat. I kept popping cough lozenges all day and I think they messed up my stomach.

Went out and ran one loop around the park. Didn't wear HR monitor and moved naturally faster. Felt okay except for the messed up stomach.

Total time: 39:49 (9:15 pace).

It was pouring all morning, and then suddenly it stopped. I quickly changed into running clothes and went out hoping to get my run in while the rain is at bay (it was supposed to be raining all day long). But the rain never started again, so I had a great run, even if a bit wet and splashing in the puddles.

My sister-in-law is visiting us from US, and I'm the main entertainer/guide. So yesterday we spent all day on the bus excursions of London, and today we went to the British Museum, which by the way, had fascinating exhibition on Enlightenment, and another one on the history of world religions, with so many artifacts and interesting exhibits. But I'm pretty tired from all this time on my feet.

Total time: 39:47 (9:15 pace).

Today was not a good day, for some reason. I didn't feel good on the run, had this heavy sloppy feeling, breathing was hard as well. Well, I did 5 miles anyway. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.

Total time: 46:28 (9:17 pace).

Felt a little better today, but still not really good. I had some weird lung pain again, for no reason. It's so frustrating, I thought I would be fully recovered by now. Maybe my lungs became like arthritic knees, reacting to the weather changes. It was overcast and gloomy today, and some light rain would start and then stop all day long. Oh well... as long I can get some miles in, I should not complain.

Total time: 39:13 (9:07 pace).

Finally, I had a good day! Felt like I had a nice stride, and didn't strain except for some inclines. I hope to run both weekend days to bring my number of runs this week to 5.  I want to do some aerobic threshold runs and some strides, but I'm still nervous to push the pace. Altough I did run 400m all out in a track meet few weeks ago, so I should manage high heart rate, but 400m was only slightly longer than a minute, while aerobic threshold section would be 20 min. at least. The alternative is to get up to 6 runs a week/30 mi. at least before trying anything faster, which is safer and more consistent.

Total time: 45:39 (9:07 pace).

Finally managed some semblance of a long run, after trying for couple of weeks. It was a bit too warm, 70F, but no sun, so not too bad. I started off at a slower pace than yesterday, hoping to not get tired too soon. Felt pretty good after the first loop, then started the second. Unfortunately, after 40 min. I started feeling chest pain again, and after 54 min. it got so bad, that I stopped and walked for about a minute. Then started running again, very easy, and felt a little better, so was able to finish. But this run showed me that 7 miles is still too long, I probably should not have gone more than 6. I hope I don't feel any consequences tomorrow. I want to build up my mileage, but it seems that my body is not quite ready yet. Still, I finished May with a lot more miles than April (around 80), and this week is the highest mileage week, so there is definitely progress.

Total time: 1:05:36 (9:22 pace).