Maria's Running Blog

I feel like I need another weekend to recover from the this one, after getting back from Lisa's swim meet! I couldn't run at all Saturday and Sunday as I spent 8AM - 8PM on a very hot pool deck, without air conditioning. But it was worth it, because Lisa swam 3 PRs, including a breakthrough 100m butterfly - 1:11:87! All her coaches were stunned as no one expected that much improvement (her previous PR was 1:14:02) . This time is well into the regional qualification. National time is in 1:05 range, which is still miles away, but she is still improving, so who knows... She got 4th place and missed bronze by 0.2 sec. I was so shocked after her heat that I kept staring at the electronic scoreboard in disbelief. I'm very happy for her, because it's a nice reward for all that very hard training she did all year. Swimmers train harder than runners, I think, maybe because it's less impact and their bodies can take more punishment without breaking down.  Her current load is 14 hours of swimming every week in 7 sessions.

My run was an easy 5 miler in 45:36 (9:07 pace), nothing exciting.

Went to my club championship 1 mile race (on the track). Based on my 3K time last week, the calculator predicted 6:50 mile, and that's what I was expecting. However, it went a little better than that. Maybe I had some training effect from the 3K, I don't know. I went into the slower heat and was able to keep contact with other girls the entire way, finishing fourth in the end. My quarter splits were 1:40, 1:41, 1:45 and 1:37, overall time 6:44. It felt very hard, but not as excruciating as the 3K. And now, a day later, I am not sore at all, which is rather strange for me. Last year my time in this race was 6:28, but all things considered, I'm happy with my time.

I decided not to do the 5K on Thursday - it's supposed to be a hot day (for London, at least - around 80F), and I know that I will not get time better than 23:20. I also need to be home before 10PM since Lisa is leaving for US Friday morning, so I want to make sure she packs everything and is ready. 3K and 1K gave me enough of a feedback about my current level, and I can use these times to gauge my training paces.

Instead, I will go to a track meet on Saturday (my club is asking for more people to fill all events) and then on Sunday, there is a 10K in Regents Park - right in my own backyard. It is so close and so convenient to get to, I can't miss it. I don't think I will truly race it, but I'm planning to use it as a tempo run. I will try to run first 5K at aerobic threshold, and the last 5K as lactate threshold. It should be a good hard session, and with warmup and cooldown, hopefully give me a nice mileage.

I tried to compensate a little for the last 2 days of no running. Felt okay, but I'm dead tired and need more sleep. Yesterday was stressful with late day at work and then getting my daughter ready for her trip to US this morning, staying up till midnight. I didn't get more than 6 hours of sleep this whole week.  Today I struggled to stay awake in my meeting at work.

I will try to run tomorrow morning before going to a track meet at Battersea Park. I will only do 100m, long jump and javelin at the meet, so I won't get any mileage unless I run early in the morning before going there. My goal is to get close to 30 miles this week.

Total time: 1:03:53 (8:59 pace).

I ran in the track meet today, and it was a lot of fun, as usual. Besides, I got 3 PRs out of 3 events I did, so what's to complain about? I did long jump for the first time since high school, and I jumped 3.55m, which is better than I expected (my lifetime PR is 4.40m).  I lost a lot of technique in these 20 years, because every time I landed I kept moving forward, falling on my hands in the sand. It means that I could have jumped further, but didn't have the strength (probably abdominal strength) to bring my legs forward enough to jump the full distance I was capable of.

Then I ran 100m and got 16.1sec, which is a PR in recent years, and a full half a second better than I did in the last meet. After 100m, I had 2 hour break before javelin, so I went into the park and ran 6 miles. That was great, because I got my miles in and didn't have to do it in the morning (sleeping instead). In javelin I managed to get 13.98m in the second throw, which was also a PR! In the third jump, I wanted to break 14m so badly that I tensed up and screwed up the whole throw, getting only about 10.40. Oh well, I'll try again next time.

So, all in all, it was a great day, despite pretty hot and humid weather. I'm doing 10K race tomorrow, probably as a tempo run rather than racing. I feel my quads hurting already, so it's not going to be an easy run. I may be able to get close to 30 miles for the week after all!