Big tree fall down hard

First off there was no fifth run in a row yesterday. Spend a day (which became a rest day) drinking hard cherry cider and eating pizza, not a bad way to go at all! I also ended my no-cannabis rule too, so streaks ending all around which is fine as they were going to eventually one way or the other. One of the things that prevented me from running before my indulgence in cider and pizza was that I have been wanting to go to the track and run some straights and curves. I haven’t done this in a long while but I got it stuck into my head that I wanted to. Now I don’t think a fifth day in a row of running when one isn’t used to such streaks is a good idea at all. I wanted to be a bit more rested and ready to do the interval training. All in all, yes it is just an excuse for not running yesterday, but a valid one. I’ll take it and took it.

So that brings me to today. Is it now the sixth day in a row? No, excuse destroyed. Did I not fuel up yesterday? No, tons of pizza and cider carbs, excuse left by the curb. Was it too hot out? Uhhh, yeah actually it was as I procrastinated long enough for the heat to set in. Yes, an excuse! But not one I relied on. So out the door I went, heading north through Creston Park across Powell on my way to the recently refurbished Cleveland High School track. One of the things that make track running extra tough for me is that it is two miles away, so any track run automatically has four miles included. I guess I could drive or even bike but driving is something I don’t really do and seems lame for a run and biking is well biking for four miles which has its positives from a cross-training approach (though the distance isn’t really far enough to feel much benefit). But if I had taken either method of transport I’d be feeling much better right now, not just from the soreness of an interval run, but because I was that big tree and I fell hard.

About a block away from the track I was cruising along listening to talk radio speak on the great duh-bate. I must have been distracted as I hit a sidewalk crack (which I am usually on the lookout for due to the many we have in Portland in trade for our shade) and I went down hard. Usually I am able to roll through such stumbles, but this time I went down fast and hard and my inclination to tuck and roll caused me to land with a crack right on my elbow..The only thing to do is roll right back up and continue to run and with blood trailing down my arm I did just that. Initially my hip was pretty sore, I guess I balanced out the elbow abuse with some hip abuse. But it wasn’t too bad (yet!) and I kept on running to the track where I got in six laps of straights and curves (sprint the straight portions and recover on the curves).

I didn’t go super all out on the straights and instead pushed myself solidly but not to an extreme. At one point my watch registered 197 HR, but I think that was a anomaly (189 was my previous high chasing Fig and a pit bull while running) and I feel like I may have approached 180 or so. I was a little discouraged that I wasn’t able to get down to 144 (my goal for the resting curves) and instead was starting my sprint portions around 150-52. I will look for that to improve as my overall fitness increases. I initially set out to only do a mile at the track, but I ended up adding two more laps to that before I headed back. I set no speed records on the two miles back, but the last .6 lap came in under 10 min mile pace, so that was pretty good.

As I sit writing having rehydrated and showered the soreness is really setting in. My right hip is killing me. My cool down hip stretches were really rough but I finished them all. I think it is mostly just bruising on the hip and my elbow will take some good scabbing to return to normal, but it should be fine. Hopefully the pain I am feeling in my hip will recede (I know it will eventually…) after taking a couple of Ibuprofen and maybe dome targeted cannabis (indica strain for pain) later tonight. Oddly I feel really fuzzy headed, almost as if I hit my head, but I know I didn’t. I think it is just teh exhaustion of the hard run coupled with the heat and some tension in my neck after the fall.

I just read an article on a supplement called Cogniq that Steven Hawkings is taking to increase cognition. I am really curious. I would normally be a huge skeptic, but Hawkings makes me less so. The places it is for sale on the Internet make it look as if it is one of those gluten-free jellyfish pills but I am curious. Skeptical but curious.

Quality speed work run

This was the first time in several months that I didn’t just run past the track. It felt good to go do some speed work, not a lot, but a good amount: six laps and 12 total straights and curves. Usually I have been doing 2 or more miles (16+ S&Cs) but I think a mile and a half of them to start is good. Seems like I have done that in the past when I have been starting a speed work regimen. It was really cold and I was pretty bundled, not quite Christmas Story bundled, but it sort of felt like it. On the way over to the track I took a gel mixed with water, apple cinnamon. There were a bunch of people at the track, but few were running. The biggest group was playing short field soccer, the other football. Just me running.

After my six laps I added some extra miles to my route through the canyon and up through reed. My pace was pretty slow, almost 10:30 sec miles. The intervals really worked me, so I didn’t mind one bit. I think tomorrow I will try a recovery run.

On a sort of weird non-run note but at the same time I was out running a guy was involved in two hit and runs in my neighborhood ending up crashing into the local high school up the street. Glad I didn’t see them until the news.

Running malaise done? Two quality runs in a row

After contemplating my recent slump with my training in recent days I have managed to break out of it in a big way with two quality runs in a row. Now I know that is not the best idea, I should instead be alternating quality runs with recovery runs. While I still fully ascribe to this thinking there were several things in my favor for doing both these runs back to back. The main reason being that they were both very different types of runs; yesterday’s long slow distance run and today’s speed work at the track. The long slow run was actually a sort of blend of recovery and quality. My avg HR was 127 for the 10 miles, so we did it pretty slowly which was exactly how we should have done it. My running partner’s HR was about 15 beats higher than mine throughout, so perhaps she could have benefited even more by us going even slower. We were pushed forward throughout by the promise of sushi afterward which I inhaled! I was tired towards the end, but the pace kept my fatigue at a reasonable level and despite my feet giving me grief I could have gone further though I am not sure how much further…

I was a little concerned about how the previous LSD run would effect me the next day, but I made a commitment to myself to go to the track and do some speed work. I figured I had better just jump on my run soon after getting out of bed, with of course some time to read online, drink coffee and gobble half a Clif bar. So fueled with information, caffeine and oats I headed out. Right away I noticed how energized I felt. My warm up run to the track went smoothly and I arrived feeling ready to go. The first couple of straights and curves felt pretty good, but the third straight was awesome. I actually managed to get up to a 5:07 pace on that one, the fastest time I have ever recorded doing speed work. The rest of the laps went well mostly hovering under 6 with a couple of slower ones. I was really happy with that, not only had I set a PR but also managed to remain relatively consistently fast on the others. After my eight laps I considered doing another mile but decided that with yesterday’s run I would be pushing it so I headed home. After a slow cool down to reed I picked up my pace through the canyon and once out did my final flat mile between 7:30 and 8.

As I mentioned I think the slow pace and low HR on the SD run was the main reason I was so successful at the speed work today. I also was very well hydrated for the LSD run as well as today’s run despite having 2 and half beers yesterday afternoon. The beer could have had a good aspect as well, I didn’t over do it, but got the carbs for recovery. Also a slice of pizza (on top of the sushi) helped. I swear over eating is one of the greatest benefits of running! My HR on the speed work was not that high for what I did. I would have expected it to be at least 10 beats higher. I wonder if the LSD run’s low HR had something to do with stabilizing the HR for the intervals? My average HR was 141 (obviously this includes long warm up and cool down portions, but still low). Past track speed work runs had avg HRs of 153, 150, 151. So I must have done something right today.

Speedwork and then taper

Today I find myself in the midst of a short two day taper, actually all I am doing is a break for the two days. No reason to really taper for this race as I am not planning on attempting any sort of PR and I haven’t really been training other than my usual. My goal is a finish under an hour, should be doable. Weather should be nice and cool for the race and I am looking forward to the beer and pasta!

The last run I did was a speed workout at the track, my usual straights and curves. I felt really strong throughout the workout. I didn’t really push my sprints that much except to pass a slower runner as I approached a curve. I was coming in just over 6 min miles on the straights. I also added a loop and a half through the canyon to cool down. Overall a really solid quality run for the day.

I wanted to do a recovery run last night, but ended up blowing it off with the help of my running partner! Neither of us really felt like doing anything last night, so we didn’t.

Recovery from straights and curves

Today was an eight mile recovery run that for the most part I managed to do under my ceiling. I had a couple of hills where I pushed it and jumped up to high 50s and into the low 60s. I have added onto my trail running in the canyon by doing a full lap and through the easternĀ  part of the north side. I took off a little bit of my East Moreland portion and I need to find a good path after coming up from the golf course. I felt pretty strong through most of the run which I didn’t really expect after my intervals I ran the day before.

At the track 24 hours previous I managed to finish nine laps of straights and curves, so a total of 18 sprints. The track was pretty empty for the most part with one fast distance guy doing a couple laps. There was also a woman in a walker that was doing a pretty good pace around our track doing arm exercises. I was pretty impressed.

As for my run, my heart rate never got too high mostly in the high 160s and I felt like my sprint paces were pretty decent as well with the first four and most of the rest peaking under 6 minute miles. I also did the 1.5 canyon run that day as well and ended up putting in teh miles at just under nine miles.

There is a group that runs on Sundays that I might try. They have it broken up into 12 mile and then eight additional mile chunks. A 20 miler sounds pretty challenging, but I might go for it if the weather is going to be cool. I am not much of a group runner but it could be fun especially if any of my regulars I see are doing it.

Track work

Visitors in town last week brought on a four day layoff from running. While I blame them, really it was just a convenient excuse to postpone making the switch to early morning heat avoidance runs. Seriously my laziness is getting out of hand! I’ll get in the groove of it, I just need to commit to setting my alarm and dragging my butt out of bed. So today was a start. I didn’t set the alarm but I let the sun wake me up instead. I had committed last night to doing a quality run of some sort, so I rolled out of bed and got ready.

The track was relatively empty this morning so I had my choice of lanes. I like to start on the outside and make my way toward the inner lane, changing lanes every lap as a way to keep count. Seems to work out well. I manage to do three miles of straights and curves with a 2.25 mi warm up and 3.25 on the back end. It was really cool this morning and it made for a great run. Now I just need to keep up with these morning runs.

I also think I would like to do an occasional hot daytime run, maybe even schedule one in every week. As long as I keep hydrated I think I would see some benefit form doing it.