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.

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.

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.

A Terrible, Horrible, Really Bad Six Mile Run

Today's six miles really sucked. It was bad and it had NOTHING to do with my legs - well, despite the fact that they felt heavy. The odd thing was that my arms were really sore and I felt that my legs were carrying my arms. What's up with that? Who ever says, "Yah, I had a bad run today cause my arms were really sore." It just sounds stupid.

Jen and I started our 4:1 interval which turned into a 2:1 - this was the smartest move we made. The last two miles were far more tolerable than the first four. I'm hoping this was my bad run of the season - I've got 14 miles to do on Saturday and it's gotta feel better than the six miles did today.

12 Rounds of Core Strength

'Tis the season to continue track workouts. Cancer doesn't take a break so why should Team in Training? It was a small group tonite since so many people were out of town or getting ready for the holidays. (By the way, I have 11 coming for Christmas dinner - but I showed up.)

Tonite Coach Kris put together a "fun" little Christmas carol inspired circuit training workout - 12 circuits total, with one lap of jogging in between each circuit. The carol? 12 Rounds of Core Strength to the tune of the Twelve Days of Christmas. The carol led us through our training. AND YES...what we sang was EXACTLY what we had to endure. Sing it with me!

On the first round of core strength, my mean coach sent to me
A fifteen second front plank.
(jog a lap)

On the second round of core strength, my mean coach sent to me
Two standing squats,
And a fifteen second front plank.
(jog a lap)

On the third round of core strength, my mean coach sent to me
Three jumping jacks,
Two standing squats,
And a fifteen second front plank.
(jog a lap)

........and so on...you get the picture, leading to the final round...

On the twelfth round of core strength, my mean coach sent to me
Twelve blazin burpees,
Eleven toes a-prancing,
Ten crabs a-walking,
Nine count side planks, (both sides, no cheating!)
Eight butts a-kicking, (not the coaches, kick your own)
Seven speed skaters,
Six runners running,
Five push-ups!
Four walking lunges,
Three jumping jacks,
Two standing squats,
And a fifteen second front plank!

Well done on the carol, Coach Kris! I'm sore already. So...those of you who missed track - you've got no excuse to say, "I didn't know what to do?" By the way, don't sass the coach - 'cause she'll sit on your hip while you do the side plank (both sides).

Coach Bob and Coach Doug did a different training rendition of the 12 days - check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2oPio60mK4

Whatever your holiday ---- enjoy this time of year with your friends and family!

TWELVE Fantastic Miles!

TWELVE fantastic miles in Sawyer Camp along the Crystal Springs resevoir on Saturday. I felt great throughout the run - best I've felt doing this distance. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The day before was a day full of weather - cold and rain. But Saturday? Well, 36F and ice on the windshield at 6:45am when I left my house. But clear skies on the drive to San Mateo...until we saw Crystal Springs - dense fog over the water. Pea soup fog. Holy crap fog. Did-I-bring-enough-gear-to-keep-dry-and-warm kind of fog...but I was dressed perfectly. Had my camera and everything and started running with a great group that kept on getting bigger - apparently we were at the right pace and the 4:1 interval was working for a lot of people. We had a great time chatting and couldn't believe it when we hit the four mile mark where we bid farewell to Simone. Then 5 mile mark and we said, "so long" to two more. And all along the way MY CAMERA WOULD NOT WORK. It's a dinky little thing that distorts action shots in a kind of cool way. These were the only pictures that came out - so no picture of Andria running on the dirt trail with grass edging the barbed wire fence. No group picture on the Crystal Spring Dam. No pics of Toni flying down the hill or the lone deer at mile 9. No picture of the post-run feast at Hobbies - Florentine scramble with extra spinach, home fries, endless cuppa joe with half 'n' half, and for dessert - blueberry coffee cake. Hey, just ran 12 miles...what do you expect? Non-fat yogurt for breakfast?

11 miles at the Baylands!

11 miles and 42 degrees on clear, still day at the Palo Alto Baylands. It was a 10 mile run along the bay with ducks, pelicans, blue herons, and other birds ignoring us all along the way. Great running with Andria and Rakhee and maintained a fairly consistant pace while running a 4min run/1min walk interval. First time running that interval for a long run and it worked for me. I decided to run with the wave 2 folks, but I'll be doing track workouts with wave 3 to work on speed work. Long runs are all about the mileage, track is all about the speed. Ahh, now it's coffee with half 'n'half after the bagel with lox shmear. Yumma.