Women's training, racing and recovery thread - 12/13/09

Forums were definitely down. Anyways, it's good to read the no injuries report. Hopefully we'll get more recovery reports from others.

No club nationals for me, but I did race this weekend. I ran a 10K on Sunday in cold conditions on a very flat and fast course -- I ran 40:53, which is a minute off of the PR I set on Thanksgiving (on a hilly course), so I'm happy. It was a good close to the year (I have a small 5K this upcoming Saturday, but it's more of a fun race than an all-out effort).

I ran about 60 miles this week (the first of two cutback weeks for me). The week looked like this:

Monday: 7.5 miles outside easy (8:55 pace), plus yoga.

Tuesday: 8 miles easy outside (8:50), with 10 hill sprints of 14 seconds each up hill of 17% slope, plus weights.

Wednesday: 13 miles on the treadmill, including a VO2 Max workout of seven intervals of .66 miles each at 6:08 pace (so about 4 minutes) with .34 mile 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.

The above workout has been a progressive one – I did 5 intervals two weeks ago, and 6 intervals last week. This week, I cranked out 7 without struggling. Either I’m improving, or the treadmill’s getting miscalibrated (or both). In the future, I’ll cut down the # of intervals, but up the speed of both the interval and the recovery.

Immediately after this workout, I did some leg strengthwork.

Thursday: In the morning, 7 miles easy outside (8:44 pace), plus weights. Yoga class at night.

Friday: 9 miles on the treadmill – 5 at easy pace (9:18), and 4 miles of fartleks.

Saturday: No running. Walked about 5 miles.

Sunday: 3 miles jogging warm-up, and then 10K race in 40:53 (6:35 pace). Later, a six mile recovery run outside at very easy pace (8:58), followed by leg strengthwork.

HI Ladies-

Congrats on a no-injury week, Humbled, and great 10K, Darkwave! That is a super time. Glad to see some good reports and good mileage!

No news here. I ran 50 miles this week. It was nice to be back over 40's. It has been a little while! Still just doing strides here and there and trying to do Pilates twice a week. This week was a challenge with really cold temps and wind, but I did get one daylight run in, which helped me mentally. I'm still trying to hold off on the gym/treadmill running as long as I can because I know there will be a lot of it in January and February. I refuse to run on the crunchy ice/slippery snow stuff like I did last year. I think the terrible footing really contributed ot my stress fracture.

Wishing a great week to all, and happy holidays!

great going on that 10K, darkwave, and very nice that we're a no-injury-reporting group so far this week -- and that i can keep that string going. unfortunately, my past week was so crammed with work that i only managed to get two(!) runs in, although both were very nice trail runs in the foothills just east of salt lake city (bonneville shoreline and city creek trails, one just under 2 hrs and the other a bit longer than 2:30 -- both with a modicum of snow underfoot and one with abundant sunshine overhead.

now that i'm back home, my plan is to get back up to some reasonable mileage. and since my ankles are currently behaving themselves (with the help of a little athletic tape), and since the firearm hunters are out of the woods, my plan is to renew my acquaintance with the local trails -- it's been a really long time!

WATC, about running in wintry conditions, particularly ice, yaktrax can be real confidence boosters and training aids; i've done some good tempo runs in them the day after nasty ice storms when the dirt roads near home are sheets of ice.

congrats darkwave on you race and great miles for the week.

finally i too can add my post to the non or coming back from injury string!! achilles is much much better and hamstring is just a tad tight. been very conservative on the comeback trail. ran three times last week all 4 milers and yesterday 5 miles on the treadmill. pace is very very slow. basically i don't really care about pace much these days; just want to be out there and putting in the miles. i plan on trying 5 miles tuesday, thursday and saturday and maybe 6 on sunday if things stay good.

thanks for all your support.

hsb

HSB - that's fantastic to read! Yay!

As for the Yaktrax, here in DC I'll often encounter a mix of dry pavement, ice (where residents didn't shovel), and black ice. Would Yaktrax work for those conditions, or do you need to have a consistent mix of ice and slush?

Glad to hear everyone's doing well! Sorry to crash the no injury thread--my achilles pain sort of came back after some uphill running on saturday, except a little differently--it hurts when I walk, but not when I run--completely counterintuitive, I know. So it's back to PT tomorrow. Knee is feeling great though, and I've been running a little despite the achilles. Highest mileage of the year last week, 17!

Nice 10km Darkwave you have put in loads of miles glad you are reaping decent results.

Moving can really keep the head busy let alone the bod but I love my cosy yet spacious loft apt and am just about all settled complete with Charlie Brown Christmas tree :o)

with lights no less.

No Cross Nats for me but thinking I am all about it next Dec since they will be held an hour up the road in Charlotte NC.

Decent training week here with 60miles total I am on track to break 2500 for the year which is something that has not happened in years.

Looking forward to another crack at breaking 19 mins on Dec 26th when I run a local 5km here in Columbia and having a blast with the runners here, a tightly knit group you gotta love.

I loved all my runs in Utah NLS, it is a beautful state and the altitude just high enough to be useful at sea level races.

Best to each of you and may the season be full of health happiness and many blessings chicas :o)

regarding yaktrax, they make for pretty lousy running on clear roads, are so-so in deep-ish snow, but are great on ice. i also plan to make a pair of screw shoes out of the still-fine-but-the-tread shoes that wore down a bunch on the utah slickrock (look at matt carpenter's skyrunner website for instructions; he says they're not a problem on pavement other than the clickity clack).

sarah, club xc nationals next year in charlotte? interesting, although usatf doesn't have it posted yet. i have a meeting in charlotte next dec 7/8, so if i was on a travel-capable vet team i'd find a way to stick around.

Hi all. Late to the party again, but happy to post something useful.

I use these for running on ice. I think Yaktrax are good for snow (which I try not to run on, since it screws up my lower back muscles), but these will keep you for slipping while running ice:

http://www.mountaingear.com/pages/product/product.asp/imanf/Petzl/idesc/Spiky+Crampon/Store/MG/item/920030/N/661

I'm still trying to sort out why in nearly 1.5 years I've failed to consistently improve in training, and have with rare exception run mediocre to horrible races since last fall.

Thanks for the shoe addition suggestions! I think I will try something this year, either the Yaktrax or the things RLAG posted. I am like Darkwave and just wonder how they feel on dry pavement. Who knows, maybe I'll make screw shoes, too. One of my friends swears by them. Ugh, just the thought of ice makes me scared! It is already here but not all over yet.

RLAG, I hope you can figure out what went wrong. I'm sorry the race was so bad. I really think switching things up majorly could be good, like training for shorter stuff just for the different type of training. It helped me a lot when I went back to marathon training. I think one can kind of get in a rut just training for marathons specifically all the time. I had to be dragged to that realization kicking and screaming by my friend/coach (and only followed it because I got injured and didn't have time to ramp up for the marathon I wanted), but this time around I am very willingly training for the shorter stuff. That training is so different and I find it equally hard, if not harder, than marathon training. I am much better at long runs than really hard, very fast interval workouts, and focusing on my weak points will hopefully make me faster overall. Hopefully 2010 will bring some good races your way.

Good advice, and you're not the first who has made this suggestion, with the benefit of first hand experience. I'm talking with my coach this weekend about what's next, so we'll see where things go.

It's funny, I hate running right now. Yet I miss training. Paradox?

darkwave wrote:

HSB - that's fantastic to read! Yay!

As for the Yaktrax, here in DC I'll often encounter a mix of dry pavement, ice (where residents didn't shovel), and black ice. Would Yaktrax work for those conditions, or do you need to have a consistent mix of ice and slush?

This year is the first time for me to experience running in "real" snow (moved from Texas to Idaho). I have not tried the Yaktrax yet, but a friend recommended them. I wore a pair of cross country flats that seemed to have pretty good traction.

I'm back home for the holidays, so don't have to worry about snow here. I ran the Dallas White Rock Half on Sunday, which I've been training for for the past few months. The race felt good and I hit my predicted pace, which was the main goal. I ran 1:47:50, not fast yet (PR is 1:35), but I'm just happy I made it through a training cycle and peak race without getting a stress fracture. That hasn't happened in the past 2 or 3 years.

Now I'm taking this week off to heal up some little nagging aches and pains and will start back up next week with some easy running and think of what I want to do running-wise in 2010.

Sarah, you need to take a photo of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I bet it's even cuter than our Christmas shrub.

(belated replies)

WATC -- I've got a similar viewpoint with regard to treadmill v. outdoors. Whenever there are acceptable outdoor conditions, I take advantage, because I know how much time I'll be spending on the treadmill.

FTS: GAH! How frustrating. Did the PT session help?

Sarah: Teehee at the Charlie Brown tree. I did my own "decorating" last week -- My sister gave me this a few years ago, and I pull it out of the closet and stick it on my shelf every December. No other decorations (I'm not decorating inclined, and I have a cat)

RLAG: my line is that I love running EXCEPT for when I'm actually doing it. :) I love geeking with runners, reading about running, stalking athlinks results, planning training schedules, etc. But I'm always grouchy when I'm actually doing it (with the single exception of hard intervals with full recovery, which are damn fun).

I almost see running as similar to a roller coaster. I'm grumbling the whole time I'm in line; wonder why the hell I'm putting myself through this while I'm on the ride; and then as soon as it's over, I can't wait to do it again.

I guess I don't see running as "fun" as much as it is "fulfilling" -- it adds to the total quality of my life, even though the actual running part can be a grind.

txRUNNERgirl -- congrats on the training cycle and the race that cemented it. I'm guessing it feels very good to have made it this far -- almost like coming home.

Link didn't make it in. My tacky holiday decoration of choice is here: http://www.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-123547/

Nice, but I've seen tackier. At Spencer's they have a snowman that talks dirty and flashes his "carrot."

Tx girl I do not have a digi cam but have friends coming over for a run on Sunday AM who likely do I will ask them to take one. Hey girl congrats on the training cycle sometimes that is all it takes a jump start :o) Call me if you know how to upload a pic from cell phone to FB cos I do have my dear lil tree on my phone :o)

As for the tacky snowman that was my big laugh of the night before going to bed. Look for my snail mail card headed out to Idaho.

Loving running in SC cos it is way the heck milder than up state NY and this Chica is so done with training in bitter cold any more ............

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Nice, but I've seen tackier. At Spencer's they have a snowman that talks dirty and flashes his "carrot."

I think I need that.

I think my glee was short lived. As I wrote earlier, my achilles is GREAT. But . . . my hamstring is definitely acting up. Been seeing the ART guy; what scares me is that I have had hamstring issues before and they took quite awhile to get over. I remember lamenting weeks ago -- what's it like to run pain fee. I am pretty jealous of darkwave and sarah and RLAG and What about the cats - you guys can have training cycles and train for races and have the continuity. That is one thing that I have never really had . . . continuity. On and off. I swear after the achilles pain went away -- I think I had about 5 days pain free before the hamstring started acting up. BAH HUMBUG.

sorry for being a downer. I plan on trying to plod on with this if i can.

HSB

Hang in there, HSB! Your experience with running sounds very similar to mine...yet for some reason I keep coming back for more! My achilles is under control for now, although I occasionally feel it walking (but not running). I'm running every other day, built up to 6 miles so far. I decided to take the plunge and try and train for Boston, although I can defer to 2011 if it doesn't work out--I'm planning on a 3-day a week plan with lots of x-training. Lots of x-training and little running has worked well for me in the past.