More Miles/ Less Speed

More miles/ less speed

So this week I was feeling a bit run down.  I can’t quite pinpoint why.  A couple of possibilities:

·         Accumulation of 3 weeks of a lot of speed work/ I don’t think that’s it

·         Milk in my diet/ haven’t been as tight with nutrition as I need to be-probably plays a role

·         Pounding on the downhills/ specifically last Friday  at Hyland-almost a 2 hour run with a lot of hills

·         Not enough slower steady running/ active recovery base work

Monday this week was a great day.  Mimi was nice enough to watch Hannah while Elli and I went to Orchestra Hall for her field trip.  What a great trip and a wonderful experience for the kids to learn about the different instruments and even play a few of them.  I love spending time with Elli and cherish every moment we get to spend together.  Caden had chess club Monday afternoon and earned 3 chess club dollars so he was pretty pumped about that.

Tuesday-back to work for the week.  It turned out to be a pretty good week on the work front.  I’m doing small group training and had a couple good groups this week so it’s fun to see the classes and the concept growing.  I’ll have some groups this week that’ll be pretty full too.  I really enjoy working with the groups of people.  I did a lot of small group when I was coaching baseball in Dallas too and I really enjoyed that as well.  From a training standpoint, I was purposeful in slowing down a little bit this week to let my quads in particular recover from the hills last Friday.  I did 1:51:00 hills Friday last week and another 12 miles on Sunday morning on a great new trail for me.  I’d do that again this week too.  So, I ran 35 minutes on Tuesday morning, then did some core work and stretching in the Ed Center before heading back up to work.  Then, having gotten the bike working again last week, I brought that out for a 60 minute bike ride after work.  It feels good to do something besides run for a change, but I don’t know if my legs like be fixed into the pedals like that.  I was tired.

Wednesday it was back to Lone Lake Park again and with the theme of this week and I’m thinking the next too now slowing down and adding more low intensity, I extended my repeats to .75 miles and worked in some steady base activity between the first two and second two repeats and then again at the end of the workout too.  A windy day and not nearly as warm as it has been, and my legs felt tired going into the workout.  I did the repeats in:

552 and 549 to the left

Going to the left I started with the .5 mile loop I’ve been doing the last 4 or 5 weeks and finished down the big hill around the tree to the picnic area and back up to the fence of the tennis courts.

610 and 611 to the right.

Going to the right there is a hill to a playground.  I started off going down that, around a tree coming up on the picnic area, then back up the hill to the tennis courts and through the .5 mile loop I’ve been doing for the last 3 or 4 weeks. 

I split repeats 2 and 3 with 15 minutes of easy running/ walking around Lone Lake and did the same after #4 to cool down and flush some lactic acid out.

Thursday was an easy day, again no running, just some ViPR work to get the hips loosened up with core and active recovery.

Friday was a beautiful day.  I went in to work for the morning and was able to get out and run in the afternoon.  Mom was with the girls when I got home and I headed out the door planning to do 12 miles or 2 hours (I didn’t bring the GPS out) nor did I wear headphones.  I would do 5 miles to the chalet, 4 frisbee golf hill repeats, then the 5 miles back home from  there.  What a beautiful day to be on the trail and I’m so thankful for mom watching the girls and it’s great to work for a company that really puts fitness and achieving personal goals at such a high priority.  The hills are rolling compared to what I’ve been doing for the last couple of weeks.   

The tubing hill and some of the others that go into the cross country ski loop that so many skiers got to know so well this winter with the other trails not having enough snow on them to even ski.  I really need to watch my pace and control on the downhills though.  It’s really easy to just let yourself go when it’s really important to be under control all the way down.  My knees thank me when I don’t pound em’ down the hill. 

Saturday I played a friend in basketball at the club.  A great game, then worked out with another doing some strength.  1 set of hack squats, lunges w curls, and a few good core exercises before hitting the shower looking forward to my Sunday run and festivities.  When I got home Saturday, it was time to get the yard ready for Hannah’s party on Sunday.  I spent a good 3 hours out there mowing the front yard for the first time this year, weeding the flower beds and getting some of the grass out of there, and pulling weeds to make the place look presentable.  It was a good day.

Sunday woke up looking forward to a blessed day with Hannah turning one tomorrow and all that goes along with your baby growing up, knowing I’d do 12 before getting into party mode.  It was an even muddier morning this than last Sunday but nice to not need to deal with rain.  It actually was quite pleasant although I think I was a bit overdress with my North Face coat and gloves which didn’t make it but 3 miles before they ended up in my pocket.  Kate had me try her app this morning though (some nike running app).  It took a mile to figure out so when I finally did, it showed mile one having taken 22 minutes plus and I’d already done 2 miles.  My goal, as some of you know, is to run Superior averaging 10 minute miles so I challenged myself even having gotten off to such a slow start, to finish this morning’s run averaging 10 minute miles.  This app tells you when you reach a certain mile mark, what your overall time is, and what your overall pace is too, so it was great to hear the pace getting quicker and quicker as the run went along.  When I got to about 4 miles to go, I was averaging 11 minutes or something real close to that.  My competitive juices got going and I was on a mission to get that pace down to 10 minute/mile pace.  It has never happened I don’t think in my running career that I’ve gotten that competitive about running, beating a time or the clock.  I’ve competed with the course, but never with the clock like I did this morning.  It felt good to attack the trail like that even though my body was telling me to practice my walking.  I got to 97^th and picked up the pace determined to get to 10 minute/ mile pace.  As I heard the music fade, knowing I would hear “the voice” telling my I’d reached “11” miles (actually 12-the gps didn’t start til mile 2 which is why the time for the first leg was so long), I was wondering if I’d done enough to reach my goal.  The female voice said, “you have completed 11 miles.  Your time is 1 hour forty nine minutes and fifty six seconds for an average pace of ten minutes and zero seconds.”  After a fist pump and an emphatic “YES!”, I turned around and walked the 200 yards or so home and made it back before 10.  The party started at 11:11 so I had some time to get ready and finish tidying up, carrying chairs, and overseeing the bigs “keep the basement clean”. 

What a wonderful day with family today.  Hannah’s party had a very hungry caterpillar theme so we ate all the foods the very hungry caterpillar ate on her journey to becoming a butterfly.  Hannah woke up this morning to balloons and butterflies hanging from the ceiling and she was giddy with excitement to explore all the things that Kate put out for her to celebrate her special day.  We are so thankful for our beautiful, curious, foot and shoe loving Hannah.  What a Joy!  Happy Birthday Baby.