Exercising Restraint

After Thursday's VERY short 4 mile run, I felt an uncomfortable twinge near my shin. Went home, foam rolled and discovered several localized painful spots on the inside of my calf. After extensive google research, I pannicked and, of course, diagnosed myself with shin splints and possibly a stress fracture (which, by the way, I do not have). I iced, foam rolled, and massaged. I was disappointed looking ahead to Saturday's 16 miles since I had plotted my strategy perfectly. Big time bummer.

I altered my running strategy after consulting with Coach Kris: take it really easy with a shorter run/walk interval, stop at EVERY water stop to stretch for extended lengths of time, and possibly not complete the 16 miles. Goal, not to royally screw up my training for the Napa Marathon on March 1. Today's running buddies: Jen, Andria, and James.

Well, I didn't limp - but the last 4 miles really pissed me off as I knew I needed to take it even easier. Shin started hurting and I switched to a 1 min run/1 min walk interval. Coach Tim ran by us with Jesse, and congratulated me for "exercising restraint". We did the same for Jesse who's been fighting tendonitis.

Mike Z did make a comment at the end. I could have stopped at a water stop and had to be driven back to the start. As I think of it now, I've got a new perspective. It could just as easily be me wearing a Team In Training honoree shirt. We never know when or who cancer will strike - I should consider myself lucky to be in good enough health to run for a cause that raises millions for cancer research and patient services. Suck it up Janine, you don't have cancer and today's run was a success because you finished while exercising restraint.
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Yahoo Mr. Yasso!

At Tuesday night's track we did Yasso 800s. Some marathoners swear by Yasso 800s as part of their training program. Bart Yasso (that's him in the pic) developed this theory. The theory is... if you run 10 series of 800 meters at a particular pace, it's possible you could complete a marathon in that time. Between each 800, you have a brief recovery time and the goal is to run at a consistant pace. http://www.thefinalsprint.com/2007/05/yasso-800s-training-tool-or-test/

So J9, how did you do? Well.,.we only did 6 Yasoo's and 4 of those were within 2 seconds of 4:45. Another one was 4:53 (I new this was slow as I was running and should have gone faster) and the last one was 4:25. Not bad! Does this mean I'll run a marathon of 4:45. Probably not. However, if I did the full 10 Yasso's, I'm pretty positive I could have maintained a 5:00 pace for each of the 10 800s. That was NOT possible last August.

My average running pace is around 10:30 per mile on long runs. Now, I take a one minute walk break after every 4 minutes of running - this brought up the overall pace to 13:01/mile on the last 14 mile run. Jen and I are plotting our strategy for long runs:
  • Speed up running by about 10 to 15 seconds/mile
  • Speed up walk breaks
  • Create smooth transition from the run to the walk. We transition to a walk TOO rapidly, and THEN speed up the walk. We're wasting energy during this transition with the fast, slow, fast routine going on. Need to...run, jog, shuffle, fast walk.

This is going to take a lot of effort on this Saturday's 16 mile run, ya know, the brain doesn't always function well on runs. HOWEVER, now is the time to practice building the muscle memory.

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14 Miles

The best part of today's run:

  1. Legs feeling strong throughout
  2. Working camera
  3. Maintaining consistent pace
  4. Eating chocolate brownies and pretzels at water stop
  5. Running mates
  6. Maintaining good hydration and goo levels
  7. Cool running weather
  8. Scenic views along trail
  9. Eating post-run salmon breakfast burrito
  10. Comforting effects of 15 min. ice bath

The worst part of today's run:

  1. New socks retained moisture causing friction after mile 9
  2. Exploding goo in pocket soaking salt packs

Overall result? FANTASTIC run, once again supporting my claim that completing the Nike Women's marathon last October was far from a fluke.

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