Add one easy run

No snow or rain. Yay.  But also no real sun, so boo.  It was about 38 degrees when I started with just a little breeze, but by the time I finished up, the wind had picked up and of course the wind chill factor went down.

I'm shooting for a long run of 10 miles on Saturday at a 10:18 pace.  My next race is in just over three weeks; this long run should tell me quite a bit about where I am conditioning wise.

One to go

I gave myself the option of a four or five mile tempo run today.  After four miles at half marathon pace, I employed one of the training concepts presented in the book I've been referencing: One to Go.

It is just what it sounds like, one mile to the finish, so go as fast as you think you can maintain for one mile.  At the 1/10th to go, I ran all out.  It felt great to pump out that last mile, and the run really ended on a high note.  Instead of interval recovery pace for the last mile, I maintained easy pace for a cool down.

This is the first time I think I've run in snowy conditions.  I've run with little flurries before, but by the time I got back to the house, it was coming down pretty good with a bit of wind behind it.  Stinging snow in the face...makes you feel alive!!

All in all, a great run!

2 X 2 miles

I decided to do a mile recovery instead of a half mile, and I took Denali on that recovery mile.  It was in the mid to upper 40's here with a little wind and sunshine, so altogether, not too bad for running.

I was pretty happy to see that I could maintain better than a 9:10 pace for two miles.  Wednesday, I'll be doing a 5 mile tempo run at a 9:20 pace, hopefully.  Not sure if I'm going to run tomorrow.

S.O.S.

Something of Substance.  That's the term that the Hansons use in their book to denote a run other than easy; intervals, tempo, and long runs all fit into this category.  So, this week, I did nothing but SOS runs; next week, I'll start adding in the easy runs again as my shin is feeling much better.

I'm going to shoot for around thirty miles and see how that feels, so I'm sure my Thu or Fri run will bite the dust to cut down the mileage.

Down the tempo

Four miles at my new tempo pace.  If I could go back to December and change this schedule, I would definitely cut down the tempo mileage as well as a little of the speed work intervals.  I was a bit over ambitious methinks.

Anyways, today's run was in 17 degree F weather, but at least it was bright and sunny out.  There was a bit of wind, but not too bad 'cause I dressed like a ninja!

Not by the hair of my shinny shin shin

Well that schedule didn't happen, but I did do a two mile strength run, which was last week's schedule.  The shin feels fine; once again, not perfect, but it is ok.

Felt fine

Ok, well, not perfect, but the hurt in da shin ain't so bad.  On my chiropractor's advice, I'm going to half my running from my intended schedule next week.  I'll still do interval strength training, a tempo run, and a long run as well as my easy runs; I'll just be doing half of what my schedule calls for.

Hopefully, I can get this shin healed up before March 23rd.

Aaaaaaand back.

The shin splints are still there, but they're not as bad...I think.  I'm icing my leg as we...uh, as I write this.  I'm trying to stretch throughout the day, and my other calf muscle is trying to get in the action by cramping up when I sleep.  Well, once...last night.  I woke up screaming like a little girl, or so Brandy said.  I'm sure it was like a little manly girl at any rate.

I'll definitely run Saturday and possibly tomorrow, but I have an appt after work and am not sure if I'll be able to squeeze one in.

Aaaaand stop

I have been wrestling with shin splints in my left leg for about a month now; I've finally decided to take a couple of days off to see if I can get it healed up.  It just wasn't getting better with the running even though I was icing it, stretching, and even having some therapy at the chiropractor's office.

So, I'll continue the icing/stretching with a break from running and hopefully I'll be back at it next week some time.

Easy does it

Nice easy 5 miler.  I stopped at the house after two and grabbed Denali for a mile.  We stopped twice to sniff and potty.  I'll let you figure out who did what...

Now I'll re-evaluate...

I thought that the treadmill was holding me down...that was incorrect.  As you can see, I've lowered my tempo pace to 9:20 (and hence, my target race pace).  I took a potty break at mile 2 of the tempo part (mile 3 overall), and I sorely needed the break.  And although I did the next four miles without a break, I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew at this juncture.

So, rather than hurt myself trying to break two hours for my upcoming mini, I'll settle for besting 2:05 or so.  Maybe I can train down to two hours for the 500 festival mini; I do know that if I hurt myself, I won't be running any minis.

Data Flow

I'm trying to make these easy, but unfortunately, my running gait changes when I go slower like in this run.  I'll work on it.  Tempo 7 tomorrow; shouldn't have a problem with my gallop.

4 X 1.5 miles

First, here's the format for those of you who might get all fuzzy-eyed when you look at numbers:
Wait a minute, it's right there in green!  I'm not going to retype it just because you can't be bothered to look at the schedule. 

Ok, so for those of you who might get a headache when doing division:
1 mile @ 9:00 pace = 9:00 minutes
.5 miles @ 9:00 pace = (watch carefully now) 4:30 minutes
.5 miles @ 12:24 pace = (doing it again!) 6:12 minutes

So, as you can see, all of my intervals were at or below target pace.  Yes! I did have one recovery period that was slower than recovery pace.  Nooooooo!  And, to add to that cry of anguish...I hit the stop button on the Garmin after the third and fourth intervals.  I rested about 2 minutes the first stop and about 30 seconds the second.

This was pretty tough; I really wanted to shut it down right about .5 miles into the interval...ha!  But, I persevered and pushed through to the end of the 1.5 miles each time.

Next Monday is my biggest interval challenge yet: 2 mile intervals! I get a half mile to recover, then off again.  I get to run three intervals of 2 miles.  That will then be topped the following week as I do two intervals of 3 miles with a mile recovery after each interval.

Whew, makes me tired just looking at that.  Glad I only have an easy 5 tomorrow.

Sausage Day Run

I'm sure I've used this joke before...but what else do you call ground hog day?

Another Cold One

16 degrees F.  It's supposed to warm up for tomorrow.  Yay!