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….

0 miles

Went to bed early last night after pounding the vitamins hoping for a speedy recovery from illness.  Feeling more energized and healthy today but my bum/hamstring strain is actually worse than it was yesterday.  Weird?  I didn’t exercise at all yesterday but did have Aaron rub out my legs a little.  Today I have a limp even while walking.  Even so, I did put on my running clothes and attempt running down the street but the limp was obnoxiously hindering so I walked back.  Called Coach D to chat and ask advice and he said to rest it and maybe go see Richey on the team (he’s a Chiropractor).   Still waiting to hear back from Richey.  This injury is REALLY frustrating timing with the Houston Half next weekend.  I guess I’ll just take it one day at a time.  If I can’t run without pain next week I will have to pull out of the race.  Its a depressing thought because I’ve really been looking forward to going to Houston to run with elite women and my training has been going well up until last week when I had the knee issue.  I think I could still PR if my bum would cooperate but I am not certain that will happen.  I’m trying to keep a positive attitude either way.  I keep thinking about what caused this injury and I think it is probably mostly related to running on cruddy, slippery snow and ice over the past month.  Winter running can be pretty precarious.

Aaron had another one of his fix n’ flip homes robbed yesterday so he took the kids on a drive to go check out the damage.  Luckily only the appliances were stolen and no vandalism occurred so its just $1,500 to replace the appliances.  Not fun, but could have been worse. While they were gone I took Aaron’s car in to get an oil change and walked over to my gym to lift weights and do core while I waited.  Afterwards I washed his car and went to Vitamin Cottage for a few things.  Aaron is out on a long run right now and I’m jealous.

12.19 miles in 7:59 pace

A.M. Ran 2.5 this morning before lifting weights.  Lifted weights and did core for 40 minutes.

P.M. Met my group at Potts Field in Boulder.  Fun and unique workout tonight!  Each person got to lead an interval and choose how long we went for (between 30 seconds to 2 minutes).  The next person got to choose the time we recovered (no longer than 1 minute)  for and then their interval.  There were 17 of us and we all got a turn.  It was really fun trying to match each leader’s pace.  Seemed to unify the group.  Coach D took the final leg and brought us in for 2 minutes hard.  Here is the breakdown of what we did:

20 minute warm up, stretching, strides

50 seconds in 5:56 pace

1 minute easy

2 minutes in 6:04 pace

47 seconds easy

2:08 in 5:31 pace (this was my lead but I lost track of time and people did not like that…oops)

1:46 easy

51 seconds in 5:41 pace

48 seconds easy

26 seconds in 4:57 pace. This one was hilarious because it was led by Dianne, who usually brings up the rear of the group but she must have been nervous to lead all of us because she just went ALL OUT for 26 seconds and called it good.  She has WHEELS!

33 seconds easy

1:10 in 5:26 pace

52 seconds easy

55 seconds in 5:35 pace

46 seconds easy

1 minute in 5:30 pace

33 seconds easy

2:01 in 5:42 pace

1:06 easy

51 seconds in 6:19 pace

37 seconds easy

1:22 in 6:13 pace

55 seconds easy

1 minute in 5:53 pace

40 seconds easy

59 seconds in 5:41 pace

55 seconds easy

1:16 in 5:55 pace

1:06 easy

1:58 in 5:52 pace

1:17 easy  This recovery was longer because someone teased Bean for spitting and she apologized and tried to tell us she never farted though and speaking of which, I said I just breathed in one as Damon raised his hand.  What do I expect…we were running a fartlick afterall.  I mean fartlek?

48 seconds in 6:08 pace

43 seconds easy

53 seconds in 5:50 pace

35 seconds easy

47 seconds in 6:09 pace

34 seconds easy

44 seconds in 5:43 pace

24 seconds easy

1:56 in 6:01 pace

12 minute cool down

11 miles in 7:40 pace

Went to the gym this morning and ran for 20:30 (2.5 miles at 8:12 pace) then lifted weights.

Was going to run with my group in Boulder, but Aaron had too much to do and didn’t get home until 5 pm (I usually leave around 4 pm to make it to my group in time) so I left him with the kids and did my workout around my neighborhood when he got home.

20 minute warm-up, stretching, strides.

Fartlek: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1 with 60 sec rest between the 1 and 2 and 90 sec rest between the 3 and 4

My pace was as follows: 5:14, 6:00, 6:13, 5:52, 5:56, 6:24, 5:53, 5:20

Total evening run was 8.5 miles at 7:15 pace

For some reason I had issues during the 3 minute intervals both times. The first 3 minute interval was uphill and very dark on a muddy trail with a short steep uneven hill near the end.  The second 3 minute interval brought bowel problems and I ended up stopping right after to do some business.

I probably would have run these faster had I been with my group and people to push me, but as it was I felt good about my effort and had enjoyable time with my friend Mr. Ipod.