Three solid days of running

Three good runs, all sort of different. The distances were all the same, each around 6 and a quarter miles. But each had their own focus.

The run on Tuesday was a pretty standard junk run. It was cool out and I didn’t even bring water with me. My pace was pretty slow, I think I was considering it sort of a recovery from a tempo run I did on Saturday. It was a pretty nothing run, but six miles none the less.

Wednesday was a day at the track. A two mile warm up brought me to the track. I had been talking to a friend about different types of interval workouts. One of the was a ladder workout and I was thinking I had never done that before. So I tried it. The first lap consisted of two straights and curves. Got my HR jump started. Next came two 220s followed each by another 220 of recovery for what was now 3 laps total. Then the top of the ladder, two 440s followed by 220 recovery. Total lap count now is at 6. Then back down the ladder for three more laps. A tenth made for a last lap of recovery before I headed off another mile and a half to Trader Joes.

This was a tough workout and several times I felt like passing out, especially after the 220s. I ran the 440 intervals not too fast, but the first 220s I worked it pretty hard. It was kind of cool, but several of the other runners joined me in doing there own intervals. Kind of fun having all of us doing them.

Today’s run was sort of a recovery run, though I didn’t try too hard to stay under 144. My avg was 148 as opposed to 141 on Tuesday. So maybe that was the true recovery and this was more junk.

The thing about these three runs was that they all followed the easy-hard-easy pattern that seems to work so well. So I guess that means I am up for a hard run tomorrow. I am sort of feeling like a LSD run would be really good for me. we’ll see. Hills sounds pretty good also.

Slow junk run

Seems weird to call a run without a training goal a junk run. But that is what I did today for seven and a half miles. The first mile and a quarter my dog ran with me, she loves it and I think I am gonna up her miles a bit. Better her than me!

I got to elbow an entire row of rude prom dates and their photographer who wouldn’t give me an inch on the sidewalk. Grrr. They had just arived in a Dummer limo, ugh. Enjoy!

That’s it really. I did pass on a couple of chances to make the run shorter, so that was good. My feet are bugging me. As I concentrated on landing correctly on my mid foot they felt a bit better, but still sort of achey. I wonder if rubbing Arnica gel on them before I run would make any diff?

Fifth week of increased miles

Today’s nine miles took me over my goal of 36 miles for the week by a mile. I looked back and I think it has been five weeks so far of increasing my weekly miles by 10 percent each week. Next week will be a goal of breaking 40. I am going to hold off on doing my recent regular of a Monday long slow distance run. I’d like to get it back to weekends, possibly Sunday. It feels good to have a little break from the long ones. I am thinking 14 miles will be a good distance. I am basically going to start out with what I did last time but I won’t go up to the top of Tabor. I’ll instead brush up against the volcano and head to the river where I’ll pick up the Springwater trail to home. So I ramble,,,

Oh I forgot to mention in a previous post that I sort of saw Obama coming in by helicopter on his way to Intel. I didn’t realize it was him at the time, but it dawned on me later.

Today’s run was a little longer than I needed to do. I did my part to Keep Portland Weird by stopping to talk to a lady about a Toulouse goose that was honking loudly. I lectured her on the Toulouseness and the proper naming of the “Canada” Goose. Bird nerd.

I pushed my HR today to sort of make it a junk run day. But I thought that not doing my long run tomorrow, I’ll do a recovery run then. So today didn’t seem right for recovery, but I just did the track workout on Friday so a quality run seemed too much. So even though I call it a junk run it was still good in may respects. I felt like I got to push it a couple of times. But mostly kept it a steady fast at least for the first half. I didn’t drop under 9:15 until mile 5 when I was 15 secs faster. Now miles 6-9 were different stories, I was a lot slower climbing out of reed and Moreland.

Rainy run

After a break yesterday I was ready for a run today. I didn’t run right away and I was a little worried that my resolve would erode and I would stay indoors. I did some work after breakfast and then did some more. I couldn’t put it off any further. If I was going to run today now was the time. Looking for any incentive, I decided if I didn’t run that I would work more. Next thing you know I was out the door, well first I got dressed but you know what I mean.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do today, so I just listened to my body as I got going and the junk run of the day was born. I think that is what happens when I have no plan, I end up with a junk run. Not that I think they are all bad, I have issue with the term “junk”. But they usually are just a run and maybe one that doesn’t burn fat in the most efficient way or build as much strength as it potentially could.

As I rounded the corner and headed towards reed (about mile 4) I passed a couple of young runners walking in the opposite direction. A couple of blocks later then passed me going the same direction as I was but much faster. I yelled out “nice pace” and they thanked me and kept on past. Well I thought to myself, since I am not doing anything in particular, I might as well join them. I hovered behind them about 25 yards and matched their pace of about 7:30 or so. I decided to keep it up for the mile stretch down the Lindon corridor to reed. The woman was obviously the track star and the guy appeared to be along for the ride or struggle as it turned out to be. They slowed down a bit to accommodate his lesser fitness level, I had no problem with that. Still I found myself creeping up on them. After a couple blocks I was having to slow further to stay behind them and that is when I decided to go for it and keep up that 7:30 pace. Left them in my dust which felt pretty good. But I have to admit I was pretty happy to see the end of the corridor.

The rest of the run slowed down quite a bit, but I still pushed it and jept my HR high. In the end I ran it about 5 mins faster than I did the exact same run two days ago. Good junk run!

Recovery, not recovery

Today’s run was weird. Seven miles of junk. Blew past my recovery ceiling and stayed in the high 150s for the majority of my run. I tried a couple of times to bring it down, but 150 or so was about the lowest I could bring myself despite running really slowly – 11:30 pace.

So I have to wonder where this is coming form, two runs last week were like this as well. Is it over training? I don’t think so as even though I have been pushing it on most of my quality runs I have had several 3 or 4 day breaks recently. I don’t have an injury but I have been feeling it in my hamstrings and glutes. Using a foam roller has really helped there. My feet have been bothering me, but I don’t think it is getting in the way of running to any effect.

I will have to think on this more.

Oh, the pool. After running this morning I added on a good workout for the arms and shoulder. Empty a pool with three buckets. The third bucket is used to fill the pair. Then I lift up one full bucket and use it to balance myself while I lift the second. Then I empty them around the yard. Great workout.