Every Wish That We Put Into Motion.... (comments welcome!)

[Herding_Cats]

This week was......something. Kind of like the running I got done. Something.

Monday: 4mi easy weird work day, I don't remember why exactly, but I didn't run.

Tuesday: cross train 5mi easy-ish. My GPS was pretty weird, had me leaving the road and running through backyards, pinging for miles when I was still at least 100 yards away etc. My pacing is all over the place (low 13s, except for mile 3 which my watch says was over 14) so I'm not paying any attention to that. HR zones show almost half the run in zone 4, so I apparently pushed it a little bit more than I thought.

Wednesday: 4mi easy, on the treadmill. This was a morning run while the boys were at XC practice, and I knew if I waited for after work I would find a reason to not go out, so 730 on the treadmill it was. HR reflect the 14min pace. Also, Summer I Turned Pretty season 2 has me completely sucked in, so treadmill runs aren't being dreaded right now.

Thursday: 30min easy. Nope. There's no good reason this run didn't get done, but it just didn't happen. DS1 had his first soccer game of the season (he's dual-sporting with XC) and unless they can get a few more boys to sign up and stay academically eligible, they're going to play short-handed all season.

Friday: rest.

Saturday: 1mi WU, 5k Time Trial, 0.5mi CD First XC meet of the season (Ryan Shay Memorial Hokum Kerem relay) meant leaving the house at 545am, so no morning run. I got a decent amount of walking in, but nothing that would really "count" for cross training. When we got home I was exhausted. I fell asleep in the car about 30min out, and after we unloaded the car, I crawled into bed (DD was napping) and slept for another 2 hours. AND, I was still tired and ready to sleep at my normal 10pm bedtime. Not sure why I was so tired, but it was nice to get some extra sleep.

Sunday: decided to shift Saturday's run to today. I was expecting to have a 3-person crew for pie today, so I opted to run before work since a 3-person crew puts me off the anti-fatigue mats most of the time and I didn't want to run it on dead legs. Set my alarm for 530, so I would have time for coffee and a light breakfast before getting out the door. Except, DD slept in her own bed all night util my alarm went off so I ended up laying in bed for another 15min so she would be fully back to sleep before I got up. And now I'm behind schedule. 4oz of coffee and a piece of dry toast later, I'm out the door.

The warm up mile sucked (14:29), and I was expecting that. 3 days in a row off does me no favors, and I know that about my body. But my legs are just really sluggish and mentally I'm not really into it. I set my intervals for the planned time trial to 90/30, and figure I'll try to be sub-11 and hold whatever pace this first faster mile ends up being.

TT Mile 1: starts with a couple of downhill rolls, so yay fast! But 90sec seems like it's taking forever. And half way through this mile I'm already negotiating with myself. 10:55, but I'm still not buying in mentally.

TT Mile 2: trying to gut it out and just see if my body will wake up fully at these faster speeds. But I'm getting a little lightheaded here and there and this pace is killing me with the hills. I actually stopped for about a minute (paused the watch) near my turnaround point because my head just felt weird. I can already tell that there's no way I'm sustaining the pace I planned for, and I'm having a full mental conversation with myself about how I'm going to change the rest of this run. 11:37 pace. Ugh. Side note: Bruno Mars "Lazy" is the worst possible song to have pop up on your playlist when you're already struggling.

No longer a TT Mile 3: intervals get changed, and we are just working on running with effort (M-ish pace) and working on turnover rate. Due to my late start, I will NOT be fitting in a cooldown, and will have just enough time to shower and grab something for breakfast before heading in to work.12:10 pace. Plus a little extra on the driveway to get to 3.1mi, but it didn't matter because I gave up on running for time.

Strava put me at 36:13 for a 5k. Last year (in early August) I did a similar run and went 32:58, which stands as my current PR. All of my splits were 10:35 for that run. Am I in the same shape as last year? I have no idea. Today's run says no. Maybe my body hates morning workouts, or just isn't used to them. But I also came home from work today (finished early) and took another 3 hour nap, so something is up. Might be time to get back on my iron supplement.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Actively talking myself out of ordering shoes that won't fit as well as I probably need them to, because they would match my race costumes.

When I ran my first marathon 2 years ago, I trained for (and ran) the whole thing in "normal" width shoes. I got a few small-ish blisters during training, but nothing bad. And then during the race I developed a blister under my big toenail on one foot, and eventually lost the nail. After that I switched to "wide" shoes and haven't had a blister since. But none of the shoes that are the correct colors to go with my running costumes come in a wide. (And this is a MAJOR problem right? )

So now I'm trying to decide if I should "risk" going back to B width for the half, knowing it might cause a blister that I would have to run the full on. Reasonably, the answer to this is no. But matching shoes.....

 

[Naomeri]

Sometimes, you just have to suck it up and not have matching shoes The real answer is that shoe companies need to be more inclusive to wide-width folks with their colors

 

[Herding_Cats]

Sometimes, you just have to suck it up and not have matching shoes The real answer is that shoe companies need to be more inclusive to wide-width folks with their colors

new balance is one of the best ones for this (at least that's what it seems like compared to brooks and/or saucony who give you the option of black/white for wides) but either no one has the color I want in-stock in my size any longer (it was made in a wide, but was one of the first few colors released) or it's one of the 10 colors that didn't come in a wide. Because of course. And I found out the hard way last year that a men's standard width (D) is NOT the same width as a women's wide. Because of course it isn't.

 

[MissLiss279]

Actively talking myself out of ordering shoes that won't fit as well as I probably need them to, because they would match my race costumes.

When I ran my first marathon 2 years ago, I trained for (and ran) the whole thing in "normal" width shoes. I got a few small-ish blisters during training, but nothing bad. And then during the race I developed a blister under my big toenail on one foot, and eventually lost the nail. After that I switched to "wide" shoes and haven't had a blister since. But none of the shoes that are the correct colors to go with my running costumes come in a wide. (And this is a MAJOR problem right? )

So now I'm trying to decide if I should "risk" going back to B width for the half, knowing it might cause a blister that I would have to run the full on. Reasonably, the answer to this is no. But matching shoes.....

Do they come in white? Could you try dyeing them the color you want??? (I have never tried this, not sure how well it would work.)

 

[Herding_Cats]

Do they come in white? Could you try dyeing them the color you want??? (I have never tried this, not sure how well it would work.)

i've dyed stuff before (not shoes) and it's not something i'd want to risk, especially with the risk of the color bleeding when my feet start sweating.

 

[MissLiss279]

i've dyed stuff before (not shoes) and it's not something i'd want to risk, especially with the risk of the color bleeding when my feet start sweating.

Oooo… I hadn’t thought of it bleeding later. Great point.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

What about a fabric marker? Or you could bedazzle them or something?

 

[The Expert]

I used some Cricut vinyl cutouts on my shoes during Dopey last year. I made a set for each race and scattered them across and around the shoes. They held up pretty well but also came off easy when I swapped them out between shoes and races.

 

[GollyGadget]

What about a fabric marker? Or you could bedazzle them or something?

If it's good enough for Athing Mu, it's good enough for me.

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[Herding_Cats]

Weekly wrap-up.

It's starting. The craziness. I only forgot that DS3 had soccer practice in the evening twice this week, but he was never late, so I'm counting it as a win. This week "only" had, 3 soccer games, an SAT re-take, and a very large XC meet that we got to volunteer at (water station at the finish line, and double duty clipping timing chips off kids' shoes while they promised not to puke on us.) This coming week should be OK since it's a holiday weekend, but after that all bets are off.

Monday: 4.5mi easy. Dropped DS3 off at practice, and then went and ran on the rail-trail along the lake. 13:26avg pace, so mostly easy as intended.

Tuesday: cross train. LOL. I keep messing up these cross training days and not actually doing anything. That needs to stop because as I look at this past month, I'm only actually running 3ish days per week, and that's not going to be the case in about a month when Dopey training starts for real.

Wednesday: 4.5mi easy It was crazy humid on Wednesday. Everything at work was condensating, including the floor, and it was like a gosh darn slip'n'slide in there. I spent most of the day off the anti-fatigue mats, and pushed this run off to another day. I also managed to get into the chiro since my neck has been awful lately, and I basically couldn't turn my head when I got up that morning; it loosened up some, but it was definitely not where it should be.

Thursday: cross train 4.5mi easy. Part of one of my routes has been under construction for a month, so I haven't been running toward "the hill" (it's about a mile of uphill, most of it coming in a quart mile, but ugh.) My quads and hamstrings have since let me know that it's been awhile since I ran up a real hill.

Friday: rest day. At least I got this one right?

Saturday: 7mi long run Worked the meet, and then DH hurried over to DS1's soccer games. DS2 didn't run as fast as he wanted and was in a mood for the rest of the day. I came home and napped. I have been so exhausted for the last 2 weeks.

Sunday: rest 7mi long run. Ran 45/30 intervals, and my HR definitely showed that that was a change from 30/30.

Got out of work unexpectedly early, came home and helped DH get a big batch of spaghetti sauce ready to can and then forced myself out for my run. Earlier in the day I had thought I feel great today. Maybe I'll do 9 or 10 instead of 7. But by the time I got home that was long gone. It was also glorious outside when I was thinking that.

No worries, it'll be back into the high 60s/low 80s for normal temps later this week. And I'm already planning on rearranging days next week to fit around sports, work, and camping.

I didn't run my first mile too fast for once, but then around mile 4 I realized that I had run each mile a little faster than the previous one, and now I had a challenge for the rest of the run. I may have been dying during that last mile, but it was probably worth it?


I also nearly stepped on a small eastern hognose snake, and from then on, all sticks were snakes. So fun.

As soon as I hit the driveway for my cooldown walk, my left foot/ankle let me know that they were done waiting for the run to be over, and I got to limp the rest of the way home, even though it didn't really bother me during the run. This is similar to what happened last summer where my PF didn't bother me while running, but would be annoying during the walking segments; this is very annoying when you are an interval runner.

 

[jmasgat]

This is similar to what happened last summer where my PF didn't bother me while running, but would be annoying during the walking segments; this is very annoying when you are an interval runner.

This really bugs me, and I'm not an interval runner. I hate those little injuries/strains/whatevers that are there when I walk but not when I run. Makes me neurose about whether I am heading for trouble if I keep running. I had one in my ankle a couple of weeks ago and ended up resting an extra day. Amazingly, that helped--a very rare occurrence. But even now, I have a few other spots that are mildly annoyed with me--except for when I run!

 

[Herding_Cats]

Hills. Help a hill-avoidant lady out!

I've come to the conclusion that I need to do some actual hill training. Not specifically for Disney races (because we know those are essentially flat) but because a lot of my local races have a least one good hill, (and I may or may not be heavily considering that trail 50k I've talked about in the past that's about an hour from me next August that has almost 5k feet of elevation gain.) And it'll hopefully make me a stronger, faster running overall.

On one leg of my normal running route, there's a long gradual uphill section, and then most of the elevation gain over about 0.2mi at the end. I don't like hill much because the road is very cambered, it's on a curve, and people come flying around that corner and the shoulder of the road is very uneven and gets washed out in heavy rain. So I'm looking for something else.


But. There's another hill in a different direction that I have never run. Because it's dumb. Today I decided to walk down it, walk back up, and then go for my run. I used my start/stop-on-the-hill "laps" a little way down the hill, at a driveway so if this ends up being a training spot, I can turn around and not have cars-cresting-the-hill problems. It's about 0.3mi from my driveway and then 0.21mi from that landmark driveway to the bottom of the hill. Downside is that people go 60+mph down this hill.


Is this "too steep" for practical use? Is walking the uphill going to be actually beneficial, or should I be running intervals (if I use this hill) for training on it? Spoiler: hills kill me right now. It's kind of embarrassing how much.

There's another hill/drive that I'm going to walk at some point this week that is much more gradual, and it's the entrance drive to a township park, so it gets very little traffic. But I would have to drive to this. HOWEVER, DD is going to preschool this year 3 mornings a week, and I'll have a few hours every morning where I can go train alone during the school year, and not have to fit it in around everyone's sports schedules.

 

[jmasgat]

Is this "too steep" for practical use? Is walking the uphill going to be actually beneficial, or should I be running intervals (if I use this hill) for training on it? Spoiler: hills kill me right now. It's kind of embarrassing how much.

So it goes up 85 ft in roughly 1/4 mile? That is in the 7% range which is sort of steep. I am currently doing a BAA marathon plan that includes hillwork repeats of same distance and it calls for 3-5%. Now granted, I am supposed to do them at 10k pace, but I will say that I have only had one really good workout of the 3-4 I have done.

I would try to find something below 5%, if you can, to start with.

 

[Naomeri]

The hill workouts I used this year (before summer reared it’s ugly, hot head) were:

For a short, steep hill (mine was .1 miles and Strava says 27 foot gain):
Interval 1: easy
interval 2: medium
interval 3: medium-hard
interval 4: hard
interval 5: hardest
interval 6: hardest
interval 7: hard
interval 8: medium-hard
interval 9: medium
interval 10: easy

For a longer, more gradual hill (mine was .25 with a 33 ft gain):
Interval 1: easy
interval 2: medium
interval 3: medium-hard
interval 4: hard
interval 5: hardest

 

[The Expert]

VERY curious to follow this as I also hate hills (and they hate me). But my new neighborhood is all hills, so I may as well embrace them.

ETA: My strength trainer once told me the safest thing for your knees and joints is to run up hill and walk down, rather than stick to intervals. YMMV.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

ETA: My strength trainer once told me the safest thing for your knees and joints is to run up hill and walk down, rather than stick to intervals. YMMV.

I like to do the opposite of this

Although I guess running uphill is good for you or whatever.

From what I remember when I was starting to do hill workouts, you're looking for about a 5-7% grade for repeats that might be a minute or two long. Steeper for shorter intervals and less steep for longer intervals. But also, you don't necessarily have to do a hill workout - I think there's benefits to just including hills in your regular easy runs too.

 

[jmasgat]

A couple more thoughts on hills....having just gotten back from a hill workout. Take them with a grain of salt.

--There are as many hill workouts as......workouts. I am sure you will find one that fits with whatever your hill running goal is. Mine, for example, is to just not hate them and die when they show up in a race. So I have modified what is included in the plan I am currently following--I don't need to go for speed, just survival.

--Frequency of hill training: My current plan does one every other week--which is plenty for me. Don't feel like you have to do one every week. I guess this is part of the previous item--find what works for your goals

--I think it's equally important to learn how to run downhill. I try to keep it loose and actually let myself feel slightly like I am "falling forward". What I try to avoid is that feeling of leaning back and having my knees take all the impact of the natural momentum of going downhill.

--I am not a mantra person, but when I do hills, I do actually tell myself "Breath, buns, bhandas" as in: Modify breathing to support the effort, use the strength in my glutes to get me up the hill, keep erect with a strong core.

YMMV.

 

[Herding_Cats]

VERY curious to follow this as I also hate hills (and they hate me). But my new neighborhood is all hills, so I may as well embrace them.

ETA: My strength trainer once told me the safest thing for your knees and joints is to run up hill and walk down, rather than stick to intervals. YMMV.

that makes sense from a loading standpoint. I also know that when I ran my local marathon 2 years ago, that at around mile 20 there was a big uphill, and then a downhill and my quads were NOT interested in "catching" me on the downhill and I was getting major jelly-legs when I tried to run the downhill. So I'm trying to avoid that in the future.

I like to do the opposite of this

Although I guess running uphill is good for you or whatever.

From what I remember when I was starting to do hill workouts, you're looking for about a 5-7% grade for repeats that might be a minute or two long. Steeper for shorter intervals and less steep for longer intervals. But also, you don't necessarily have to do a hill workout - I think there's benefits to just including hills in your regular easy runs too.

My "normal" route has some very gentle rolling hills so they're sufficient for training for the overpass hills of Disney, but not much else IMO.

A couple more thoughts on hills....having just gotten back from a hill workout. Take them with a grain of salt.

--There are as many hill workouts as......workouts. I am sure you will find one that fits with whatever your hill running goal is. Mine, for example, is to just not hate them and die when they show up in a race. So I have modified what is included in the plan I am currently following--I don't need to go for speed, just survival.

--Frequency of hill training: My current plan does one every other week--which is plenty for me. Don't feel like you have to do one every week. I guess this is part of the previous item--find what works for your goals

This is one of the reasons I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate them. Survival. And for something different than just running my normal out/back route.

--I think it's equally important to learn how to run downhill. I try to keep it loose and actually let myself feel slightly like I am "falling forward". What I try to avoid is that feeling of leaning back and having my knees take all the impact of the natural momentum of going downhill.

This is something I have definitely worked on with my small hills on my usual route. And on days that I decide to "run for time" I make sure to run all of the downhills.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I'm realizing how close we are getting to when my training program is going to transition (it's coming WAY sooner than it feels) and I'm wondering about timing for my long runs in relation to a "hard" day.

This fall (until mid-October when they close for the season) I'll be working 2 days a week while DD is at school, and then on Fridays I'll have 2.5 hours to myself between when she starts school and when I have to pick her up. I have 2 thoughts with this: I put my long run on Fridays, so it won't interfere with weekend stuff (our otherwise quite busy weekends won't have 2-3hrs dedicated to me getting out the door for a run, coming home, and then doing recovery stuff) OR keeping my long run day on Sunday.

And depending which day I choose to put the long run (Sunday vs Friday), would the other day be OK for a hard/workout day?