Running For Trevor

Easy recovery miles. 8:37 pace.  Did my 5 mile loop and added on a mile.  Such a gorgeous day out.  After my run I walked with my friend Julia and the pups for an hour.  I might have to head outside again because it is just so nice out.

30 minutes weights

8 miles on the treadmill....I think if my math is correct.  Changed treadmills x3, bathroom breaks x2, phone calls from work I had to stop and take x2.  Felt like the most unproductive run of my life. ha!  At least I put in the miles.

PM:  5k with the pup.  8:30 pace. Wore shorts. :)

15 minutes working shoulders.

10.2 miles with 8.2 at a sustained tempo pace.  First of all not that this matters to anyone but me but I 100% anticipated doing this workout outside this morning.  The treadmill makes tempo runs very easy to plug in the pace and go to town and I wanted to see if I was capable of controlling the pace on my own.  But I woke up to 25mph gusting winds in Payson and I am just not that hardcore to attempt a tempo workout in those conditions.  Those of you that nail all of your workouts outside no matter what are truly hardcore!

Warmed up on the treadmill 1.4 mile @8:34 pace.  Switched treadmills and gradually worked into a comfortable 7:30 pace.  kept it there for the first half and then gradually increased the speed every 10 minutes.  Finished with 8.2 miles in 60 minutes - 7:20 pace.  Quick cooldown of .6mi @8:34 pace.  A good solid workout that definitely helped boost my confidence after Saturdays epic fail!

30 minutes weights.  pushups/planks/triceps

7.55 mile recovery run.  8:20 pace/2% incline.  This is the pace I will be pacing (1:50) at Riverton so I wanted to practice.  It feels pretty comfortable so hopefully I can do a good job!

Great blog post from Camille Herron about Overcoming stress fractures.  I am not dealing with an injury now but her advice for prevention is awesome.  http://camilleherron.com/2011/05/11/overcoming-stress-fractures/

My favorite thing that she says is:  I suffered stress fractures with only 20-30 mpw (nearly all high intensity running)…. yet I’ve had none with years of 120-130+ mpw of mostly slow mileage! Folks, you won’t get hurt running easy mileage or easy high mileage…. but I can guarantee you may get hurt if you do too much high intensity running, day after day!

I know Jake has been preaching this for a long time but I am one of those people that needs to hear it over and over again. 

PM:  ran easy for 30 minutes/3.5 miles

Not even sure what to say about this workout.  Why are our bodies so weird sometimes?

Warmed up for 20ish minutes 8:34 pace and then went into the 400s.  I wanted to keep the recovery short so I stuck to about 200 meter recovery (or 90 seconds).  I felt pretty good and was rolling along when suddenly I had a SHARP pain on the outside of my left foot.  What the heck!  I slowed down to a jogging pace and realized I was compromising my form completely (running on my toes and inside of my foot) so I stopped.  I stretched out the foot a bit and started jogging again.  After about 8 minutes of jogging the pain went away so I decided to finish out the 400s this time with equal 400 recovery to make sure I wasn't stressing my body too much. 

I am not real sure what to think of all this.  I feel like the foot pain may have been because of the impact of transitioning from fast to slow and I may have just landed funny.  I really don't know but hope it is just random.....

PM:  Got home late (yes 6:30 is late for me) but I had to test drive the foot.  2 miles easy.  It feels just a little funny but definitely not anything like the weird pain I experiences this morning.  I will keep it really easy tomorrow but I think I am in the clear.

Easy run outside.  It felt nice to be back on my old stomping grounds.  My ears were freezing the first few miles (should have worn a hat) but after that I felt fine.  Started out really slow 8:50 first mile and then gradually eased into a comfortable 8:10ish pace.  Felt great then entire time until the last quarter of a mile when my stupid left foot started throbbing.  I am not sure what to make of this.  It is even a little painful walking now. 

Dr. google tells me it could possibly be peroneal tendonitis?  I don't know but the plan for tomorrow is to keep the LR close to home just incase.   Feeling frustrated and really hope this can resolve itself.  I had a similar problem on my right foot about a month ago and it seemed to go away after a couple of days so hopefully this will be the same.

This is going to sound pretty stupid to most of you but for me this was a huge run.  I HATE running long by myself.  Absolutely hate it!  But I knew that for me it was necessary to do at least one long training run solo to build my mental strength.  2 out of the 3 marathons I have raced I have ended up being all by myself and I know it has effected me so I just needed to prove to myself that I was capable of doing a long run alone.  (the furthest I have ever ran alone before today was 15 mi.)

The thought of 20 solo overwhelmed me so I told myself I would just do at least 18.  I woke up and my left foot was bothering me just walking around the house.  Crap!  Took some IB profen and just got going.  Initially I wanted to wait until it was warmer out but I was wide awake and the anxiety of doing this all by myself was killing me so I just went for it.  I promised myself that if my foot was still bothering me after my 2-mile warmup I would quit.  I also planned on running 2 loops around my house so it would be easy to stop and call it a day at any time.

I will let the splits tell the rest of the story. 

1 -8:09 for the warmup mile?  what?

2 -7:46 Whoa!

3 -7:53

4 -8:09

5 -8:03

6 -8:05

7 -7:40

8 -7:40  (decided at this point that I wanted to add on to my first loop and make it an even 20.  I knew my second loop was 8 miles and that I wouldn't want to add on at the end.)

9 -7:51

10 -8:02

11 -7:52

12 -7:49

13 -7:59 (starting the second loop after stopping for water.  Legs felt way heavy after re-starting and I started to worry that I was falling a part.  See how my mental toughness sucks!)

14 -7:50

15 -7:38 (convinced myself I should do 4 marathon tempo miles.  I kept promising myself that if I ran fast until mile 18 I could slow down as much as I wanted or even walk home if I felt like it.  Just push through 4 miles.)

16 -7:11

17 -7:20 (just keep pushing, just keep pushing)

18 -7:21

19 -7:51 (seriously felt like I slowed way down and was shocked I was still running sub-8.)

20 -7:53

21 -8:26

And that is how I ran my very first solo 20 miler.  I should add that I did stop 3 times for 1-2 min each throughout the run.  Once at mile 12 for my only water stop and to shed my hat and gloves. The 2nd time was at mile 14 to eat a Gu and decide whether or not I wanted to throw in the tempo.  I tried the power bar gu that will be at Boston.  Yuck not a fan!  I did find them at Big Lots for 70 cents if anyone wants me to buy them some to try.  And the last stop was a total cheat at mile 17.3 of the tempo.  I stopped at the church quick to shed my jacket.  I was dying of heat!  There was a car at the church so I tried to get inside for water but no such luck.  1 water stop was probably not enough...I was way thirsty by the time I got home.  Anyway re-started and pushed to the finish.  20.1 miles/7:48 pace.  I really wish I wouldn't have stopped to shed my jacket during the last tempo mile but other than that I am really proud of myself.  The route I ran is mostly completely flat with very gradual uphills and downhills throughout.  Think Payson onion days 10k for 20 mi and that is basically what I ran.

Went to the gym and lifted weights for 30 minutes after.