Run that ye may Obtain

Lately I’ve been drawing my attention to “the little things” that are going to help me become a more efficient, healthier, stronger runner. For instance I’ve gotten some custom orthotics to help my foot strike and pronation efficiency.  I’ve been dialing in my long run fueling and nutrition and eliminating products that don’t work for me (thick gels/gu) and maximizing my use of products that do work.  I’ve also recently gone in for some blood work to get some baseline measurements of different markers, specifically my ferritin.  I used to get my ferritin tested a few times a year when I was running at BYU but since graduating, haven’t put much thought towards it.  Now that I’m running more mileage and more intensely than I ever have before I figured its a good idea to keep tabs on how my body is keeping up with it.  I still take liquid iron+Vit. C almost every day because I know living at altitude and training at the intensity I am, that iron is being put to good use.

I’ve been working more frequently and effectively in the weight room strengthening my running specific muscles with a focus on my hips and core.  Colleen gives me exercises that activate my core while working my arms/legs and I am able to feel a more full body workout every time I meet with her.  I also make time to do the cannonball cooldown after almost every run to keep my hips loose and gluts and core strong.

One of the biggest “little things” that is still a work in progress is getting enough sleep.  While I think I am a pretty darn good sleeper (I’ll sleep long when given the chance), I can’t say that I’ve mastered this piece of the puzzle.  If only there were an extra 3 hours in the day!  With my busy schedule running my kids around to their daily activities, grocery shopping,  cooking, cleaning, and trying to stay on top of all the laundry, while running 8 to 20 miles (depending on the day, excepting Sunday) every day is a full day.  I hate to admit that sometimes a basket of clean laundry will sit on my dresser for 3 days before I actually get around to folding it and putting it back in the dresser drawers.  Twice this week my son came to me in his underwear asking me where his clean pants were and I secretly snatched a pair out of the dirty laundry basket and presented them to him.  Clean enough for one more day!  At least I have Aaron to help me so I don’t get too behind on things.  He has cooked dinner at least three times this week and folded the laundry lots too.  Sometimes I’ll dump the clean laundry out on our bed so we are forced to fold it and put it away before climbing into bed at night.  That 20 minutes of folding laundry with Aaron is the perfect end to my day.  Despite being super busy, I have to take a step back and be grateful for all that I AM able to do in my quest for speedy PRs.  I recognize that I truly am very blessed.

This week in review:

Monday

Easy 8 miles with strides, 6:47 AP

Tuesday

A.M. 11.5 miles; Hill repeats.  7X 2 min. up, 2 min. down Lehigh Street with RRBers and Striders who are training for Boston

P.M. 4 miles, weights with Colleen

Wednesday

13.5 miles in 7:01 AP

Thursday

A.M. 6.5 miles in 7:08 AP

P.M. 4 miles in 6:59 AP

Friday

A.M. 11.5 miles; 7XMile workout with Katie and Joanna.  Coach D timed us, thank goodness because I forgot my watch and was forced to go by feel.  My first 4 repeats were something like 5:26, 5:30, 5:33, 5:32.  Coach D kept reminding me to run the odds slower than the evens but I just couldn’t seem to feel it.  Finally he threatened to pull me out of the workout if I didn’t run the 5th repeat at 5:45 or slower.  To help me with the assignment, Katie let me borrow her watch for my 5th repeat and I ran a very comfortable 5:50.  Then my 6th was 5:21 and 7th was 5:39.

P.M. Easy 4 miles in 7:14 AP, weights/core.

Saturday

14 miles; First 5 miles in 7:27 AP, middle 4 miles in 5:58 AP, last 5 miles in 7:17 AP.  (6:58 AP for the entire run)

Sunday

Day of Rest

Total Mileage for the Week: 77

Last, but not least.  Our good friends Zach and Kristy recommended a new band, Mumford & Sons, so I got to enjoy some fresh tunes on my iPod this week.  Here’s a sampling….

I have never been a high-mileage chick.  In high school I ran ran a 2:10 800M and 5:05 1600M with 25-30 miles a week in training.  My ability to race well on low mileage was one of the biggest reasons why my college Cross Country Coach, Patrick Shane was excited about my potential. He knew I hadn’t been over-trained or burned out and I could run fast on, well basically talent.   Even in college he didn’t feel the need to have me doing mass mileage.  I mostly hovered around the 45-50 miles per week range, hitting 55 miles per week maybe 3 times in four years while training for my specialty, the 3,000M Steeplechase.  Now that I’m training for a little bit longer of a race (only 24 miles longer, no big deal) I’ve gradually been building up my weekly mileage and today’s run concludes my first 70 mile week ever!  I have to admit that 70 miles did make me feel a bit more tired throughout the week but luckily I was able to sneak in a few naps and get pretty good sleep at night, which helped a lot.  My left achilles is feeling better than it has in weeks and my right shin was a little tight earlier in the week but after self-massaging it every day and trying to loosen up that calf, its actually feeling quite a bit better too.  I’m very pleased with how well it has responded to self massage and daily icing.

So for today’s workout, I met Running Republic at Tom Watson Park for some intervals around Boulder Res.

20 min warm up, stretching, strides

6X45second quick stride hills (5:15-5:40 pace, started off slower and got faster as I warmed up)

2.5 minutes easy

10 minutes at controlled tempo pace (6:00 pace)

3 minutes easy

3X3 minutes at 10k effort (6:17 pace; first one was uphill and I’m starting to overheat in the sun after the 10 minute tempo, 5:36 pace back down the hill, 5:53 pace on pretty flat mild uphill on the last one)

As soon as the intervals were over we were all super hot and the reservoir was right there calling our names so we jogged on over and took a swim.  Everyone had their shoes off and was at least waist deep in the lake, most of us fully submerged which felt SOOO nice.

Then we did a 12 minute cool down which felt great with the slight breeze and wet running clothes.

When I got back to my car I drank my 24 oz water bottle within seconds.  I also stopped at a gas station on the drive home to get another 30 oz of liquid.  Nothing like a good quench after a hot run.