Maria's Running Blog

Finally, it's getting warmer - nice 50F weather, but very windy. I'm enjoying running in daylight and opportunity to go inside the park (because it closes at dusk).  I decided to try and run 4 miles a day this week. I may have some interruptions in a way of evening meetings with old friends in town from US and Russia, but I don't have anything set up yet.

Felt pretty tired by the end, but manageable. No chest pain and quick recovery. It felt good to move after sitting on my bottom for many hours this weekend, and at the hot pool, too. But I think it was worth it. My daughter got one PR (in 200 free), and swam a very respectable debuts in 200 fly, 400 IM and 400 free. Her sprints were shot, though, probably due to heavy training in Cyprus (70km in 9 days!). I think she did great being so tired and untapered. Next up - London Regionals, where she is swimming 50 and 100 fly, first time ever in a long course.

Funny story from her Cyprus training: there was some Russian team training at the same pool, in a time slot right after her team, and her coach was very curious whether it was Russian National team. So he made Lisa translate and talk to them. Turned out they were not a national team, because they had swimmers from all over CIS (Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belorus, etc), but her Russian was not enough to really find out much more. She should have talked to them more, but she is too shy and self conscious, knowing her Russian is not fluent.

Total time: 37:12 (9:18 pace).

After a 2 day break, felt pretty good. I will try to hit 20 miles total for the week. Planning to go to a track meet this Saturday. The team captain put me in high jump (!), javelin and 4x100m relay. I'm excited!

Total time: 36:39 (9:09 pace).

Don't remember anything special about this run, but that is good!

Total time: 36:06 (9:01 pace).

We got beautiful day for a track meet - sunny and warm, around 70F. I even got sunburned from being outside for a few hours.

I did high jump (pathetic, but I remembered how to do "flop" after 25 years!). Of course, I pulled a muscle in the right hip flexor while jumping, but I pretty much expected it. If you're not using certain muscles for 25 years, chance of inury is pretty high. I felt it for the first few hours, but by evening it was okay. Lucky this time.

Then I did javelin, also pathetic, but lots of fun. I did only one throw, and had to leave for the 4x100m relay. I was running the 3rd leg. Not having done almost any strides, I had no idea how I was going to run or feel. When I got the baton, I almost tripped over myself - I think my brain was firing faster than my legs could move forward! I caught myself and ran the rest of it okay. I didn't lose any ground on the third place woman, and we finished fourth as expected. It was all great fun. I was tempted to try hurdles, but I'm afraid of falling. Not so much falling, but bleeding, since that could be troublesome now that my blood is so thin. Our team captain is trying to organize a jump and hurdling coaching session, which would be great. I want to get some confidence I can safely clear the hurdles before I'll try it in a race. Right now, no one is willing to give it a try and we're losing to other clubs simply because of no shows. I've seen some women just jogging through the hurdles, it's still better than having no one in the event.  So we'll see it. All in all, a fun day out. I managed to jog about a mile in between my events.