Women's training, racing and recovery thread - 2/7/10

Humbled -- what the hell? That's bizarre. Creepy guy who knows all about running, taken to an extreme.

I'd be a bit weirded out too.

Funniest encounter that I had was on a wide sidewalk last summer. The side walk is about 10 feet wide, and at the time was completely occupied by 2 women carrying an assortment of shopping bags. The women were carrying quite a few bags, were notably obese, and were walking with just enough space between them to completely block the sidewalk for all other walkers and runners.

I'm running on the sidewalk, and call ahead "on your left...on your left... on your left...." and then "goddamn it" as I ended up ducking out onto the muddy grass to run around them (they never tried to move at all).

As I ran past, one of them called out "the sidewalk doesn't belong to you! You need to share it!" The irony was completely lost on them.

As for me, still rebuilding post injury. This is my third week of running post-injury, and I’m working my mileage back up, with 60 miles running, plus 4:00 on the bike, and 2:00 on the elliptical/arc-trainer.

I’ve been adding in quality work, and so far the ankle has held up. This coming week, I’m going to try to add in some very easy miles as well (it’s the slowest miles that seem to stress my ankle the most, which is why I’ve resisted adding them in until now).

We got hit badly by a snowstorm on Friday into Saturday, and I'm effectively still trapped in my neighborhood. However, my gym actually stayed open, so I was able to keep training. (and I work from home, so no snow day from work tomorrow for me). I was also able to get outside for a run pre-storm on Friday -- my first substantial run outside since late December.

Week looked like this.

Monday: In the morning, 12 miles on the treadmill, including two intervals of 3 miles each at 6:50 pace, plus some quarters and halves at 5K-10K pace, with full recovery. In the evening, an hour on the arc-trainer, plus yoga.

Tuesday: 75 minutes on the bike at easy effort, then upper body weight training.

Wednesday: 14 miles on treadmill, including 8 miles continuous at medium hard pace, with a bit of progression (first two miles at 7:24, next two at 7:18, next two at 7:14, final two at 7:08). I wanted to get a prolonged effort in to strengthen my legs, without pushing my aerobic system to threshold level. In the evening, an hour on the arc-trainer, plus leg strengthwork.

Thursday: 75 minutes on the bike at easy effort, then upper body weight training.

Friday: 18 miles total. In the morning, 15 miles outside at easy-to-aerobic effort, including five “repeats” on Capital Hill. I didn’t push the pace on these repeats; I kept them at easy pace and just practiced good form. Average pace was 8:25 for the 15 miles. In the evening, 3 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:03 pace), plus leg strength work.

Saturday: 90 minutes on the bike at easy effort, plus yoga class.

Sunday: 16 miles on the treadmill, including a tempo workout of 4 intervals of 1.75 miles at 6:40 pace, with .25 mile jogging recovery between each. I also did some short fartleks of about 60 seconds eacy at ~ 5K pace (6:00-6:18) to test out the ankle some more. So far, so good. Also did some leg strength work.

Humbled, I'm glad I', not the only one who encountered a weirdo this week....

Friday was a snowstorm, so Saturday morning, my training pal and I are running on the street, no cars around at all, until a snowplow runs a stopsign, makes a right turn and is headed right for us....here we are, the only colorful things on an all white landscape...the blade of the small truck was literally inches from my behind, and we are spinning out on the snow beneath us....oh yeah, he was on his cellphone. He finally stops...after 5 minutes of expletives from me, he just sits there with his window down and a grin on his face (chick cursing me, this is funny!) - no apology, until I tell him I am headed straight to the police station 100 meters away, with his license plate numbers. He then looks remorseful and says "I'm sorry", I say "too late" as he tries to drive off and we are ready to capture those plate numbers, there is 6 inches of snow on the plates!

anyway, was on schedule for 60 miles this week, but the 12 inches of snow reduced it to 55, 4 of my runs were over 70 minutes. still feeling good.

Ack! 16X, I'm glad that didn't turn out worse!

Sounds like encounters with weirdo week for some ........ 52 miles this week with 2 days off up from 48 last week with 2 off. Am playing it mindfully in light of the virulent case of bronchitis that landed around Christmas eve and lingered into even this week with some early morning sea lion coughing...

Did a 10 miler on Sat at 7:37 pace average and 6:48 last mile and 12 today with fun friends at an easy 8:20 romp!

Running the Myrtle Beach half marathon on Sat and hoping to be as close to 1:30 as possible although before getting sick was quite sure a 1:26 was possible.

Happy Masters win shout out to Lori Kingsley of Wysox PA for her National Half Marathon Championship win today in Melbourne FL in 1:20, a PR. She is a some time poster on this thread, way to be and warm congrats Lori!

Very busy week in my bizz Massage Works and no openings for this coming week wowzers.

Have a great week of training one and all and here is to avoiding the weirdos.

Onwards and upwards ladies :o)

yikes on the weirdo encounters, and i'm thankful you both came away from them physically unscathed. the closest running encounter i had this week was scaring a squirrel and being scared by the sound of a construction worker's table saw.

i'll second the shout-out to lori; "female runner," if i recall. (i heard about her win while doing timing for a track meet yesterday.) it's such a treat to get PRs as a masters (especially during a big win)! are you still coaching her, sarah?

another good week for me: a little over 70 miles, some on real trail, some on rails-to-trails, some on the golf course, and all on a relatively thin layer of snow over solid ice. my main workout was a 22.5 miler, with the first 18 done as a progression run. i was thrilled to feel good and controlled throughout and to get my pace down to marathonish pace (7:30) for the last 4.5 miles (prior to the cooldown loop), even considering the uncertain footing, which of course makes for appreciable slowdown. 10 miles easy each of the following two days left me feeling frisky, and i turned what was to be a 12.5 minor hill workout -- easy run on the golf course but pushing all the short hills -- into another progression run, with my final two loops considerably faster than what i could do in perfect fall conditions last november, which bodes well for my fitness.

still, my shin (site of last june's stress fracture) has been niggling at me, so i'm going to focus strongly on form this week as i ease into a two-week taper for my upcoming trail marathon, although i'm also going to work the long hills this week, since the race will include four climbs of 800-1000 feet each and i need to reacquaint my body with uphill starts.

Sounds like too many encounters with mean spirited people this week. Glad everything turned out well in the end for you both. Hopefully we've hit our confrontation quota for awhile, at least.

I had a pretty solid and uneventful week. Ran approx 40 miles over 6 days- legs were strong and my injured thigh was tame. Ran 8 miles in the so-called blizzard with my Yaktrax which turned out to be an excellent workout for my legs. Repeated this workout on back trails the following day.

As much as I love the snow & cold, the weather is causing me to feel a bit confined. I usually do most of my running in the early morning hours and am reticient to run on the slick roads in the dark. As a result, the mind-numbing treadmill will be my fate for the next week or so until things clear up a bit here. Haven't had to resort to running on the treadmill all winter. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Will check back next week- assuming I maintain my sanity.

Lori's time rocks!

clarification: the 800'-1000' mentioned above refers to the elevation gain, not the length.

It seems i am singing the same song again. I remember months back i wrote how i wanted to go for a block of training without being injured as that is something that is a huge struggle for me. Things were going pretty well but ..... it seems that the achilles thing that had me out for weeks or was it months this fall reared its ugly head sunday. Ran on the treadmill friday and sunday because of the weather and at the end of sunday's run i had a twinge in the achilles and it seems like deja vu. i can feel the same progression. i am soooooo bummed. i hope it's just a temporary thing but my history usually doesn't work that way. there goes a good 4 months of training.

sorry for the downer. everyone seems to be doing so much better these days.

just needed an outlet. sorry.

hsb

HSB, I'm sorry to hear about the twinge. Maybe that's all it is. Did you do anything different that may have brought it on and that you can immediately correct? Like maybe running with the belt on an incline?

As for me, my week was sheer poetry.

http://raceslikeagirl.com/2010/02/09/spring-training-week-five/

well. i did a track workout on thursday - 6 x800. then 6 miles SLOW on the treadmill friday. saturday nothing then 10 miles on treadmill sunday with a couple of half miles at 1% incline then i did the last 3 miles at a slightly faster pace.

so two treadmill runs which are different and the incline and the slightly tempoish run. doesn't take much for me to get "injured". it's not like i haven't been doing speedwork. i built up to 6 x 800 starting at 2 increasing one 800 per week. last 2 sundays ran 14 miles on the roads.

discouraging when i don't think i did anything that out of the ordinary.

i am crossing my fingers.

thanks RLAG