SLOultrarunner: CIM 2012: Week 3

(Almost caught up...this was from a week ago.)

Week 3

Monday--yoga at noon + 5.56M
Tuesday--cross train + hill 1.65M
Wednesday--pilates, speed 5.69M
Thursday--lite power
Friday-- mp for 4.57M
Saturday- time trial 4.31M
Sunday--long run 10M trail run
Total Miles--31.78M

On Monday, I decided to do a 5.5 mile recovery run since I didn't run the day before. Legs were still a little tired from Saturday's Cal Poly trail run.  This effort was necessary to shake out the toxins in my leg.

Tuesday was my cross-training day. I worked on the elliptical for 12 minutes, the bike for 13 minutes and five minutes on the StairMaster for a grand total of 30 minutes. I will say it again, boring. I watched the numbers flipped and it seemed like an eternity to stay on these machines. But I have to do this and I know it's doing something good. After this, I headed out for a short 1.65 run. Yes. Short.

Track work Wednesday: We did my favorite workout tonight and that was 2 sets of (1200m, 1/2 lap recovery, 400 fast, full lap rest).   Next set was the same as the previous, except 800m instead of 1200. The last set is 400. In the stress of the workout, sometimes I would fumble over my watch and accidentally hit stop instead of reset. So I missed the first set with 1200m and 400m. Luckily that was all that was not recorded. My paces were 1200m ( 7:45), 800m (7:39) 400m (7:18, 7:10, 6:35).
All in all a good night.

Thursday I headed over to the gym for some, solo lunchtime Power routine. I took my own computer and DVD since class was canceled. I felt silly at first, but it wore off fast. I just did my thing and crossed it off my schedule. Strength training for week 3? Done!

Friday was my pacework. I got up early and ran 3.5 mi at 9:01. of course I warm-up thoroughly. This is also the first time I put my Garmin's Advance workouts to the test.   For two year's now, I've had this incredible watch and it wasn't until now that I decided to take the time to learn how to set up Advance Workouts. I've always used the Interval mode training, but that's only useful if I have the same distances that I need to repeat over and over. Once I vary the distance, I'm screwed. Workouts like we did on Wed, where we ran 3 laps, rest 1/2 lap, run 1 lap then rest again and repeated the set twice then add another set with 2 laps, rest 1/2 lap, run 1 lap, then full lap rest--that's the kind of workout I can program in my Garmin. I'll show you how on a future post. This is incredibly exciting for me as now I can pre-program my Yasso workouts, progression runs, tempo workouts, goal pace runs--the possibility is endless. I can have time and distance variables as well as HR zones. It gets to be too much and a little overwhelming at first, so I plan to keep it simple as I learn to maneuver the variables. As I progress I can really tweak it like crazy! For now I am a happy camper.

Saturday was my mile PR day! I've never raced a mile in my life and this perfectly fits in my schedule as I have a mile time trial for this week. This was my benchmark. I came in third overall and 1st woman. Don't get too excited: there were only 10 folks running the mile! It felt good however. Just the night before, I asked Hubby: how do you run a mile? (He was a sprinter in high school.) I don't remember him giving me a solid answer. It was an inside joke between us. So when I came home with a medal, we both busted out laughing. It was really unexpected. Well you had to be there.

Aint' she pretty?

When that gun went off (I kinda kidded the director, Is there really a need for a gun?) I took off. That's what you're supposed to do right? There was a little kid who took off like a bullet. He was fast. I never would have imagined I would catch up to him. Usually kids lap me. I thought either I was warmed up and got faster or he was slowing down. It was both. I told him he was doing a great job. After the quarter of a mile, I realized, I was in second place. I could hear shoes shuffling behind me. I knew it was John Tiffin and he was hot on my heels. I tried to stay on pace but the hills came fast and just before the halfway mark, he reeled me in and passed me. He said he was going to use this as a warm up for the 5K coming up shortly. He was going for it. He got second in the mile (10th in the 5k and 4th in the 400m dash) and I maintained my 3rd position to the finish. It was fun. Even though the start wasn't as smooth as it went, ( I registered just in the nick of time and didn't know the start was one mile up. After having ran from my house to the registry point, I really didn't want to run a third mile fast to the start.) It worked out that the RD gave me a lift. So barely two strides on, I made it to the start.

For Sunday's long run--I decided to go with some friends to do a trail run at MDO. It's been a while since I've gone up with folks up there. They were going to run Horse Camp to East Boundary Trails. I wanted to go with them because they are doing this trail backwards (from what I am used to). I usually go the other way around and for some reason, I am a little unsure about exploring it backwards on my own. These folks are like deers prancing up the mountain. Before too long, I told them not to worry about me, as I was a lot slower than they are and the fact that my ankles were a little tweaky from the mile race yesterday. I'll be right behind them and there would be no need for them to wait for me. I didn't want to hold them back. I feel more confident knowing they are ahead of me. After a few instructions on directions, they were gone and I was on my own. For a while there I could make out their shoe prints, then it disappeared. I was not worried.

I love going early in the morning, I can feel the mist against my cheeks. It was very humid today, but with the mist, I didn't mind it. I was chugging along the trail and I realized, I hadn't been listening to my ipod. It was calming. I was enjoying the run and the trail and at the same time concentrating on not falling. There were only two parts that I had to stop and think about which directions to go and in so doing, I accidentally hit my watch to stop and forget to reset. (This was twice this week!) To complicated matters even more, I had my Garmin set on 'Auto Pause'--which meant really there was no need for me to hit stop because when it senses there's no movement it would stop automatically. Long story short, my distance is technically longer that what it recorded. For today's work I ran about 10 miles. In reality, it's probably closer to 11. I was supposed to end back where we started at Horse Camp. Instead, I ended up on Barranca/Islay Trail. The one trail that is not my favorite because it is an endless 3 miles of fire trails and nothing but. I must have missed a turn or got confused with the trail sign-whatever or whichever it was pointing at. The other thing I wanted to avoid the Islay trail is that it comes out on Pecho Road. To get back down home, I had to contend with sharp turns and curves with sometimes crazy drivers. Anyway, it was hard work but worth the effort.