Maria's Running Blog

Stride workout, 8x30sec. strides with 1-1:15 jog in between. I felt pretty good on strides, but I had to cut it short (supposed to do at least 10 of them) because I had to be home for my daughter's return from school.

easy run, 1:10:23. It was supposed to be a 6mi. run, but I extended it to make up missed mileage yesterday.

15 min. warmup, then 5.5mi in 43:23 (7:53 pace), then cool down. Total time 1:07:51. The tempo pace felt hard, I still think I'm running these runs too hard, more towards my anaerobic threshold than aerobic.

Fast finish progression run. I ran 5mi. easy and then 0.7mi in 5:00 (7:08 pace). It felt like I was running at the limit and couldn't really speed up any more. Then jogged home a little over a mile for a cool down. Total time 1:01:50.

My alarm went off correctly this time, and I left the house 1hr. 45 min. before the start. It's only 40 min. trip to Dulwich Park, but I wanted to give myself extra time. Well, the transition to National Rail took longer than I planned due to a ticket line and I missed my train by 1 minute! The problem with that is that National Rail trains run on half-hour schedule, so I had to wait 30 min. for the next one!! I made it to the race ok, but I was stressed out and there went my warmup, since I only had 10 min. before the start - barely enough time to put on my race number and retie my shoes. Oh well... the race started and I settled into a comfortably hard pace, which my Garmin said was about 7:22-7:25. Current pace on Garmin is not very accurate and can really fluctuate wildly especially with hills or even slight inclines, but the lap avg. pace is always precise, so that's what I used. This race used km markers rather than miles, so it was a bit strange, but I kept taking km. splits since that was all I had. This was a nice flat course, 3 loops around the park, some mild inclines and descents, but nothing major at all. Good PR course and the weather was good as well. Some running on sidewalks, with curbs and cobblestone stretches, but not too bad. So I have no excuse for a poor result. I started hurting right after 3km mark, and I knew then it's going to be a long day. Here are the splits:

2km - 9:10 (avg. 4:35)

3km - 13:50 (4:40)

4km - 18:37 (4:46)

5km - 23:16 (4:39)

6km - 27:59 (4:43)

7km - 32:58 (4:58)

8km - 37:30 (4:31) - this km may be short, and the previous one long.

9km - 42:18 (4:48)

10km - 47:08 (4:49)

Total distance was measured at 6.27 by Garmin, so the course might have been a bit long. Still, I thought I was in better shape. Looks like all the missed runs and reduced/inconsistent mileage brought my fitness down a notch. My last 10K was in May on a similar, even faster, course and I ran 45:54 there, so this is quite a step down. I ran regular tempo runs at 7:40-7:50 pace but they didn't make a difference. Very disappointing. I'll try another 10K on 10/29 to see if I can improve.

Easy run, 55:44.

After much trouble with our internet service, I'm back online. On top of that, my laptop tends to overheat and shut down at the most inappropriate moments. I'll back fill last week soon, including my disappointing 10K race.

Today I did 6 mile steady run at 7:59 pace (started at 8:07 and progressed to 7:55), sandwiched between some warmup and cooldown. Got caught in heavy rain and thunderstorms. I'm seriously thinking about investing in Gore-Tex shoes. Total time was 1:15:53.

Ran tempo run. I adjusted my threshold pace down about 10sec/mi. based on my 10K last Sunday. I decided to take splits every mile, which I think now, was a mistake. I would do better watching overall pace on my Garmin, rather than individual miles. Warmup of about 2.4mi and I sped up to tempo pace. The goal was to run 7:50-7:40 pace. Splits:

1mi - 7:49

1.03mi - 7:45 (7:30 pace. This is where I think I got too excited seeing low 7s and pushed too hard. I paid for it in the next mile)

1.07mi - 8:24 (7:51 pace)

0.8mi - 6:09 (7:39 pace. In my tired state of mind I miscalculated that last lap can be 0.8mi instead of 0.9 since earlier splits were a bit long. Wishful thinking).

So, that gives me 30:09 for 3.9mi. (7:43 average). Jogged home very slowly 2.7 miles. Total time 1:19:08.

My left foot has been bothering me for a few days now. I suspect it has something to do with PF, although the tender spot is not at the heel, but rather at the front inner side of my arch, a little below big toe joint. It's barely noticable when I run, but I feel it a bit more when I get out of bed in the morning, which is a classic symptom of PF, of course. I'm taking Ibuprofen 400mg 3-4 times/day and rolling my foot on a frozen water bottle, and stretching my calves a lot. If it's in fact PF, it would be very frustrating. I never had it before and I haven't done anything to bring it on, no increased mileage. The only contributing factor may be that both my pairs of shoes have about 300 mi. on them. That's when I usually replace them. I have 2 new pairs sitting in our container shipping from US, but we haven't gotten it yet. It's getting to customs this weekend, so maybe we'll have it next weekend.

Long run today, 1:53:55 (8:45 pace).I managed to stretch Regents Park loop to 3 miles so I only had to run 3 loops and then added 1 mile on the track before heading home. My foot behaved very well today, I didn't feel it at all. It may be Ibuprofen working, of course. I felt pretty good and ran steady, about 70% on dirt and grass parallel to the roads. I don't really like running on grass since it's so uneven and is harder for me, but I tried to be careful with the foot and minimize impact. It also has to be good for my weak ankles to run on uneven ground. Took one Squeezy gel at around 8 miles, just wanted to check how my body would react. I liked it a lot, it's a lot thinner and not as sweet as GU or PowerGel, so easier to take.

Did stride workout today: 3mi. warmup, 11x30sec. strides with 1-1:30 jog, and 3mi. cooldown. Total time 1:16:06.

It was the same story as before on the strides, especially towards the end - I would start feeling rapid lactic acid accumulation in my legs very soon. Once I glanced at my watch as soon as I felt it, and I was only 15 sec. into a stride. It would cause me to slow down in the second half. In the first 10-15 sec. when I felt good and ran strong, my speed was 5:05-5:10/mi. but overall speed was only 5:30-5:40 over entire 30 sec.

easy run in Regents Park. I felt very stiff to start, both hamstrings and quads tight after yesterday's workout. The pace was very slow in the beginning, but after couple of miles I loosened up somewhat. Total time 57:02 (9:12 pace). Perfect weather, low 60s and overcast. Forecast says rain for the next 10 days though.

Did 2 mile warmup and then 5 miles at what turned out to be too fast again for what it was supposed to accomplish. I should have run at about 8:00 pace, but instead I ran about 7:50 pace, and the last mile was hard, while it all supposed to be completely controlled. I felt great on the first 3 miles though. I set up Garmin on auto splits for each mile and I got 7:55 7:57 7:47 7:7:49 7:51. Total time 1:10:40.

Fast finish progression run today. I ran easy for about 5 miles, and then did 0.74 in 5:12 on the track. That's 7:00 pace - 8 sec/mi faster than in the same workout 2 weeks ago. I'm encouraged by that, as 2 weeks ago I felt that I couldn't go faster than 7:08 pace, but today I felt strong even though it was definitely hard. Total time 1:02:58.

Just heard that our container will be delivered on 10/30. I can't wait - I need my 2 new pairs of shoes! Don't know what's taking them so long as I know it's been in customs since this Tuesday...

3 miles warmup, 6 miles in 47:56 (starting at 8:05, ending at 7:59 pace) 3.2 miles cooldown. It was a moderate effort, although I was tired by the end of 6th mile at that pace. Total time 1:46:05.

Very easy recovery run. It was damp and rainy. My Garmin must have lost signal in the middle and I didn't notice until my average pace started creeping up, but I think I was running about 9:15 pace. Time: 35:05.

2.5mi warmup + Fartlek 10x (1min. on/1min. off) + 3.2 cooldown. I felt pretty good doing fartlek today. I did it on the track and took splits on my fast segments. The goal was to run at ~5K pace, and I ran faster (6:45-6:20 pace), but felt pretty good, except the last two that were hard.

Again, this workout was faster than identical session 4 weeks ago, by about 5-10 sec/mile, so I think I must have gained some fitness in the last few weeks.

easy run in Regents Park with 4x100m strides thrown in near the end on the track. The strides were all around 19-20 sec. I ran most of the run at 8:30 pace, which is a bit too fast for an easy run, but I felt good, so I let it be. After the strides, I slowed down to about 9:00 and took it very easy to the house.

Rainy and windy today. Warmup 1.5 miles, then marathon tempo 5 miles in 39:29 (7:54 avg. pace). First two miles were about 8:08 pace, and it wasn't easy with the wind, but after that I got into a good rhythm and was able to steadily pick up my pace over next 3 miles. By the end I was running 7:43 pace and still feeling good. Ran a long cooldown on a new route in the park, so got a little extra mileage. Total time: 1:16:12.

Fast finish progression run. Total 7.3mi with 1200 on the track in 5:11, one second faster than last week, but the effort seemed a bit easier. Splits were 400 - 1:42

800 - 3:29

1200 - 5:11

Also, decided to wear HRM today just to give me something to watch and keep me from getting bored. Average HR was 145 for easy segment and 171 for 1200. Max HR for 1200 hit 177. Total run time 1:04:37.

very easy short run before the race tomorrow, including 4x100m strides, around 19-20 sec. Total time 38:14. I didn't feel particularly fresh, and now I'm thinking that perhaps I should've taken a day off. Afterwards we went to Cambridge and walking around for 3 hours didn't help. I was quite tired in the evening. Oh well, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Rainforest 10K. This was a good race for me. It was in Regents Park, where I train every day, so I just jogged to the start as my warmup. Checked in my bag, did some strides and some stretches. I wisely hit the bathroom early, as there was a huge line for it later. It's interesting, UK races all seem to suffer from lack of porta potties. In this race, there were none at all, only park facilities which were of course, inadequate. Another thing strange for this race, there was no clock at the finish, or anywhere else, for that matter. They didn't sound the starting horn, either. I just hit my Garmin when I crossed starting mats. At least, it was chip timed race, so hopefully, they timed everyone okay. Not sure when results will be up, but I did my own timing, so it doesn't matter much. There were km markers, but some of them were inaccurate as I found out.

My strategy was simple - go out not too fast as to not put myself in oxygen debt too early. I also wanted to have fun and positive experience, rather than suffer most of the race. I would have been happy with anything faster than 47 min. as I ran 47:08 3 weeks ago and felt miserable.

So, right after the start, I am holding back, breathing easy, tons of people pass me, but I let them all go and try to ignore them. Few minutes later I look at my Garmin, and it says I'm running 7:00 pace!! That's not what I had in mind at all! I hold back even more and manage to slow down to 7:20 pace. I'm very comfortable. First km. comes along, Garmin says 4:35, same as 3 weeks ago. I keep the same effort, second km is 4:33. From there on, I just kept the same effort, and the pace varied a bit due to some sections being slightly uphill and others slightly downhill, but generally it was very flat. The course was 3 loops so I knew what's coming next starting from the second loop. I felt very good probably until 7km, which was a huge improvement over previous race. I was getting tired gradually, but still able to maintain the same pace. Last 2km were really hard, but at that point I shifted into the finish mode and tried to speed up. There was a long finish stretch which I tried to push as hard as I could and got to 6:48 pace on it right before the finish. Since there was no clock at the finish, I only looked at my Garmin after I crossed the mats and walked out of the chute. The total time said 46:29! I'm very happy with it, and most importantly, with the way I felt during the race. It was a hard, but controlled effort almost the entire time, and much more even than previous race. 5K split was 23:11, so I slowed down only 7 sec. in the last 5K.

I also wore HR monitor, but didn't put HR data on my screen so as not to have too much information. The max. HR hit 182, and average was 171. Splits:

1km (0.62mi) - 4:36, 7:25 pace, HR 154

2km (0.61mi) - 4:33, 7:31 pace, HR 166

3km (0.67mi) - 5:04, 7:37 pace, HR 171

5km (1.22mi) - 8:57, 7:20 pace, HR 173

6km (0.63mi) - 4:47, 7:33 pace, HR 175

7km (0.74mi) - 5:29, 7:25 pace, HR 175

8km (0.53mi) - 3:59, 7:28 pace, HR 176

9km (0.60mi) - 4:30, 7:34 pace, HR 177

10km (0.64mi) - 4:30, 7:06 pace, HR 179

Afterwards, jogged back home for a cooldown. Good day today. Consistent training does pay off. Not a surprise, but it's good to be reminded once in a while. I didn't feel all that rested for this race, and my mileage is highest it's been since July, so there is no reason I can't run faster.

recovery run, very easy. Time 36:15 (9:04 pace). Finally got our container delivered this morning, so I found my new shoes (Adidas Supernova Cushion) and tried them on. They felt great! My legs, on the other hand, did not feel so great, quads and shins complained after the race. Hopefully, they'll feel better tomorrow.

easy run in Regents Park, 1:12:25 (8:46 pace). Legs feel good today, the soreness is gone. Very windy, winds up to 20 mph.