Women's training, racing and recovery thread - 12/6/09

20 degrees? That's treadmill weather for me. Wow. Actually, pretty much anything below 30 degrees is treadmill weather for me -- I have a circulatory/automimmune condition called raynauds, and it's really difficult for me to keep my hands warm (when I get chilled, my body overreacts and cuts off circulation to my hands -- which then places me at increased risk for frostbite).

Also, FWIW I've found it helpful to enter my foam rolling into my training log -- that seems to work well in motivating me to be consistent.

As for me, decent week this week, a bit over 72 miles. My plan is to cut back on my mileage for the next two weeks, as a “mini-rest”, and then jump into high mileage basebuilding during Christmas week. In each of my past base building periods, I’ve upped my weekly mileage to a new peak. This time around, I’m going to keep the same peak mileage (~90 MPW), and add more aerobic runs on hills, plyometrics, and general leg strengthwork to the mix. As someone whose longest race is a half-marathon, and who is also approaching 40 (meaning loss in power/stride length), I think I’ll get more bang for my buck this time by adding power work as my new stimulus, as opposed to pushing my miles per week to 100+.

My week looked like this:

Monday: 7 miles outside easy (8:48 pace), plus weights.

Tuesday: 11 miles very easy on treadmill (9:22 pace), with fartleks, plus yoga class.

Wednesday: 15.5 miles total. In the morning, 12 miles on treadmill, including a VO2 Max workout of six intervals of .66 miles each at 6:08 pace (so about 4 minutes) with .34 recovery at easy (8:50) pace (about 3 minutes). Immediately after the last interval, I did a practice kick of .1 mile at 5:10 pace.

That evening, 3.5 miles very easy outside (9:12 pace)

Thursday: In the morning, 5.5 easy outside (8:53 pace), plus weights. Yoga class at night.

Friday: 13 miles outside, including 8 miles at aerobic effort on very hilly route. Averaged 8:10 pace for the 4 miles that were net uphill, and 7:33 pace for the 4 miles that were net downhill, for overall average pace of 7:51 for the 8 miles. Also 10 hill sprints of 14 seconds each up hill of 17% slope.

Saturday: 5 miles very easy on treadmill (9:32 pace)

Sunday: 15 miles on treadmill, including a tempo workout of three intervals of 2.5 miles each at 6:40 pace, with about 2:30 jogging recovery between each. After the last interval, I threw in a “practice kick” of .25 miles at 5:24 pace.

I have Raynaud's, too . . . so do several other runners I know. Do you suppose it's more prevalent among runners for some reason, or do we just have occasion to notice it more? I'd never heard of a connection with frostbite.

Humbled wrote:

I have Raynaud's, too . . . so do several other runners I know. Do you suppose it's more prevalent among runners for some reason, or do we just have occasion to notice it more? I'd never heard of a connection with frostbite.

I think it's probably the latter. It's in about 10% of the population, IIRC, though the severity varies greatly. But we're in situations where we notice it.

As for the frostbite, I'm not pulling that from any study, just doing some deductive reasoning. Frostbite starts to occur when the temperature of your flesh drops below a certain point -- when you have a Raynauds attack, the lack of circulation makes it more likely that the temperature of your hands will drop to that point, since there's no blood flow to produce heat.

I've had enough close calls to be pretty careful. I've never had any permanent damage, but the times where I've tried to run in sub-30 degrees, post-run I've had to do the hold-your-hands-under-room-temperature-water-for-20-minutes-and-scream thing post run -- even with a pair of gloves and then mittens on top. I'm thus pretty shy about running below certain temperatures now -- I'll just stick to the treadmill.

I do have a nice box of disposable handwarmers, so I'm going to see if that helps any this winter. I do think it's better, training-wise, to run outside, if it's possible to do so.

Hey there Humbled Darkwave and all......... Sorry I missed a week I believe partly due to moving into my own place which is half a mile from where I was living, am now in a spacious loft apt complete with spacious deck deep in the countryside and less than 6 miles from " Massage Works" my business.

I did a Thanksgiving 8km and won Masters but it turned out that I may have been fighting a virus as the next day I felt like I had been knocked flat by a truck and it literally hurt my legs to go down stairs much like after a marathon. This muscle soreness was so intense I ended up with 3 days off last week, and 29miles total..

Then on Saturday I entered a Jingle All the Way 5km and had the surprise of my life, a first place overall win and even finishing ahead of the young chick who wins everything she enters.... I clocked 19:32 on a rolling course and did not pass said speedster till almost 3 miles so reckon she was not having a good day.

No crazy muscle soreness today on my 10 miler and bought the miles up to 45.

Since I have been training 50-60 plus per week for ever I do not feel at all bad for dropping down and giving the body some time to decompress..

Last race of the year for this chica will be A Cold Winter's Day 5km on Dec 26th where I hope for as close to 19mins as I can go, my goal was to be 18 anything by the end of the year, but life happens so we shall see.

Looking forward to hearing more race reports and hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.

All the best to those racing cross country Nats in KY this coming week-end. I will be skipping that but would like to get back on board this time next year.

Blessings all and :o) keep on keeping on. This race was only my 7th back in 4 yrs of being hurt NEVER GIVE UP!

Someone needs to read that. Looking forward to my ART appt in the morning it has made all the difference in the world to me :o)

count me in for raynauds, too. i buy a full case of chemical hand warmers each fall and use them to manage the condition throughout the winter. works quite well for the hands, although things are a bit trickier when the feet go white and you can't feel what's under them.

my husband and i had a glorious week in southeastern utah. lots of multi-wow hiking and trail running, and the week ended with a road 10K in moab. i had an awful time during an uphill bit (mile 2-3) of a seriously net downhill race. unusual for me, i was hit with a side stitch and nausea, which kind of killed the race for me, although i pulled out second master and therefore won the 40-49 age group (42:25). the master winner (also 49) was very sweet, encouraging me as she passed to tuck in behind her and draft off of her, but i couldn't pull it together right then and finished well over a minute behind her. we enjoyed a nice chat both immediately after the race and later at the local bookstore where we were redeeming the gift cards we won. a fun morning (although i was coughing the rest of the day with my throat severely challenged by the very dry cold air), and my husband nabbed himself a PR. one additional note: the winning woman ran a smokin' sub-36 and was just a minute and a half after the first man and fifth overall.

great job, sarah. woohoo!

Hi Ladies-

Missed you last week! I just didn't get to post in time and then the week was half gone. I'm still in the 45-47 mpw area right now, doing strides after some runs and trying to work in some Pilates when I can. I really need the core stuff! No big races scheduled anytime soon.

Humbled, glad to see you're getting some good mileage in. I feel you on the weather - it was 17 yesterday when we ran. I have a training partner with Reynaud's too. I think you are right that runners notice it more.

DW, nice mileage! I hope I can build up to one of your "fallback weeks"!

NLS, sounds like a beautiful trip. I would love to go to Utah. Too bad about the nausea at the 10K, but still sounds like a good race.

Sarah - congrats on another win! I bet you are getting pretty well-known down there on the SC racing scene!

Hope everyone has a good week!

Well I am back to running, the achilles seems to have cleared up, as I ran a total of 6.5 miles over the weekend (including two sub 8-min miles with my running club which just about killed me). A year ago, 12-mile runs at that pace were a piece of cake. But I'm happy to just be running again, and hoping the knee and heel get better not worse.

For those with Reynaud's (I think I have it too) I find that mittens are infinitely better than gloves, because they keep your fingers together which keeps them so much warmer. In fact, I think nothing but your long sleeves over your hands is better than those cheap CVS gloves.

Actually the person you beat doesn't win EVERYTHING around town but she has won a lot recently.

I only have recent history racing in SC and this young gal has been winning a good bit that I have seen.

Having said that there are some talented women in the area and so it just depends who shows up on race day.

Personally I am just delighted to be part of a good running community, doing well at any event is simply icing on the cake.

Hi. Another flameout for me at CIM. Actually, that choice of words perfectly captures how I felt at about mile 22, when self-imolation was awfully tempting. Whatever I've been doing for the past year, don't try this at home.

I am so looking forward to the new year.