Friday, November 19, 2010

I'm sorry I haven't been able to update the blog in over a week, I have been really busy with a houseful of guests and lots of tough training. I finally get married today after a 15 mile tempo in the morning so I will update more after the weekend is over and things have settled down a bit.

Lemon

Monday, November 8, 2010

Friday - This was an easy day of 2 runs and 17 miles. I can't actually remember what I did that day apart from running with Brett in the morning!

Saturday - Big workout day. I had an 18 mile Tempo run scheduled for the morning but unfortunately Greg wouldn't be there to guide us through the workout and hand us drinks so Julie came out in the car did the job. I met Fasil and Jason at 7.15am and warmed to be ready just after 8am. Fasil was running 15 miles so I started back down Lake Mary Rd for 1.5 miles and back and he would start when I was coming back to the start. I started out well with a 5.12 and 5.13 but then dropped a bomb on the uphill mile of 5.24. That really woke me and I made sure that that wouldn't happen for the rest of the workout. I wanted to keep a steady pace of between 5.10 and 5.13 for the whole workout and I managed that pretty well. I think Fasil was getting a little nervous as he was looking at his watch every 200m and surging if it didn't read the numbers that he wanted to see. This workout was all about how you feel and not by what the watch was reading so I eventually told him just to forget about it and run how his body was telling him to. We both had a great workout. The last 3 to 4 miles we were told to run hard and we managed that with Fasil surging away and looking really strong. I struggled a little on the last 2 miles as we ran into the wind but I got the head down and finished well enough. I finished the run in 1.33.30 for a 5.11.6 average which was 3 seconds a mile quicker than before London. I'm taking a lot of confidence from this workout as that equates to around 4.56 miling at sea level.

I felt pretty good for the rest of the day except that I wasn't able to nap as my body was still wired from the workout. I got in another run later on to shake my legs out a bit and they actually felt really good. Later that night, Ron and Ann Morrison (my coach from Scotland and his wife) arrived to stay with us and we ordered some Thai food and caught up on all the news.

Sunday - A nice easy day today to recover from the day before and my body felt great! No tightness from the day before and the hills were no problem on either of my runs. I took Ronnie on a tour of the trails in the morning (he was on the bike while I ran) and then we headed up to Snowbowl afterwards so that Ann and him could see the scenery from high up on the mountain. We headed out to Karma sushi that night for a feast and then we all passed out pretty early.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Tuesday - This morning we ran out at E3 again. I really like this trail for the easy days as you don't notice the uphill on the way out but you can pick up the speed on the way back as you run gently downhill. I ran with Fasil on the way out and then Jordan joined us on the way back. I was supposed to run 85 minutes but I was tired so I just ran for 10 miles and decided to add onto the run later on in the day. I did some drills and stretching once I was finished and then headed back to the house to get a good nap and do some work.

The evening run was amazing as the sky was a mix of every colour you could imagine. I couldn't stop staring all around because of how breath taking it was.. I ran for 9 miles and then got some good strides in so I would nice and loose for the morning's workout.

Wednesday - Fasil and I headed down to Sedona at 7.30 to get our 8*1mile workout done. We arrived a little early so we did an 800m jog around the track and then we did our stretches. As we did this, Greg arrived back from his workout. We headed out for the warm up and I felt a lot better than I did before the stretching. Also, warming up with Fasil is good because he knows its just a warm up and doesn't try to push the pace like some others do. We got back and headed over to the track to finish our warm up. We did all our drills and strides and were ready to go. It was a beautiful day (see pictures below) so we wouldn't have to deal with any issues of wind or cold. Greg wanted us to start out easy at 4.40 to 4.45 pace and work it down so I took the first rep and ran 4.41. I knew it was going to be a good day as this felt very easy. The next rep was in 4.40 so on the recovery I asked Fasil if he would mind if I dropped the pace to 69 second laps and he said that was fine. 4.36 - Perfect. Again it didn't feel tough so Fasil ran the next rep in 4.34. We were now half way through the workout so now it was time to make it hurt. I ran the next rep in 4.32 and Fasil dropped off just a little and ran 4.36. Greg told him to do just one more rep and he said he could manage a fast one so he lead. We hit half way bang on 2.16 but I could tell he was starting to hurt so I passed him at 700m and kept the pace going. He hung on well and we both finished in 4.32. I would now be on my own so it was going to be really tough so I really took the time to get my head ready on the recovery. I had started to get a blister on my big toe but I stopped feeling it as soon as I started the rep. This rep was really tough. I really tried hard to keep the splits even and I managed it but boy did I have to dig deep to do so. I ran another 4.32 and then I knew I was done. I was happy with the workout so we called it day there. I asked if it was ok to do some 200m's just to get my legs going but I had to stop after one as my toe was too blistered. I did this workout before London up in Flagstaff and it was a lot slower (ok so it was 2500ft higher) so I was happy with how my leg speed had come along. We warmed down barefoot for 20 minutes on the fake grass and then headed to Safeway to grab some food and then drove to the creek to ice our legs.







Once we got back to Flagstaff, I passed out for a few hours and then had to get up right away to go run again and then take Jason for workout. That meant running for an hour and then jumping on the bike for 10 miles. I was really tired when I got home so Julie and I went down to Diablo Burger (one of the team's new sponsors), grabbed some food and then headed home for a long sleep.

Thursday - Today was all about work. After I had run with Fasil at the bagel run for 80 minutes, I came home, had a nap and then spent the rest of the day sorting out the house for all the guests we would be having over the next couple of weeks. I cleared 2 bedrooms, put a bed together, sorted out the office, filed our paperwork, sorted some insurance, vacuumed the house, cleaned the kitchen and then mopped the tile floors. Needless to say I was a little tired on the second run but it felt good to get out and run a new route. Julie's parents got into town so we ran some errands and then went over to their house to catch up with them. We were going over details for the wedding and that got my head buzzing. So much so that I had a sleepless night. I fell asleep around 11pm and was in and out of sleep until 1am when I decided just to get up and do something instead of just stewing in bed. I spent an hour on the computer getting some training programs written and then headed back to bed to try and sleep.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Friday - I ran nice and easy with Brett for 85 minutes in the morning. I was pretty tired from the day before so I didn't really have an option on running faster or not! I spent most of the day tidying up the house and packing as Julie and I were heading down to Phoenix for the weekend. I got in a slow 45 minutes in the evening before we left. I was really unmotivated for this run for some reason. Its not something I usually have a problem with but I think it was from being tired. I had dinner before I picked Julie up at her work. I had totally forgotten they had all dressed up and Julie came out dressed as Ziggy Stardust. She looked great but then had to spend the rest of the night dressed up as we stopped by some shops when we got into Phoenix. She likes to dress up at halloween so she was loving the attention. We went to bed fairly early as I was going to have to get up at 5am to get ready for my long run the next morning.

Saturday - The alarm went off at 5am this morning as I had to start the run at 6am. Julie had a wedding dress fitting at 9.30am so we had to be done by 8.30am (she would be driving with my fluids). It took me a little while to get things ready (coffee and bagel) so I didn't end up eating until 5.20am which only left me around 40 minutes to digest and be ready to roll. I didn't think about this until after the run. I felt great from the start which is always good before a 26 mile run. It took me a couple of 6 minute miles to get into the pace but after that I kept the miles all between 5.35 and 5.45. This felt a lot easier than before London so I was really happy with the way things were going. I then hit mile 17 and I started to get a side stitch. I tried to breathe through it and ease it out but it felt like it was pulling on my urinary tract so I had to stop and try stretch and get rid of it. It felt ok after a minute so I continued on only to stop half a mile later with a sharp pain. I jumped down into a ditch to see if I needed to pee but it wasn't that so I climbed back up to the road. As I did this I stood on a stick that had thorns on it and one went through my shoe and into the ball of my foot. I yelped and then plucked it out of the shoe and checked my foot to see if it was bleeding. It was but it wasn't bad so I painfully started to run again. I got about another 1000m down the road before stopping again. This went on for another few miles and then I thought I had it fixed. It kicked back in and Julie looked quite shocked when I stopped and started swearing and kicking a bush with frustration. She got out of the car and tried to calm me down a bit (she's good at doing that) before I tried again. I lasted one more mile and then called it a day at 20 miles. I ran it in 1.54.30 which was 5 minutes quicker through that point when I did this run before London (of course I lasted until 26 miles that day). The faster pace felt a lot easier this time so I took away some positives from the run but was still a little miffed that I didn't get the 26 miles done. I could only figure that it had something to do with eating so close to the run.

Julie was a way for most of the day so I had a nap and then went around some shops before coming back to the house and waiting for Julie to be done as we had planned to go to the mall. She eventually got back we headed down the road with her mum to spend some gift cards I had been given for my birthday. After a couple of hours of satisfying shopping, we headed back and I headed out to do a 40 minute jog to ease my legs out. I felt tired to start but fine after a few miles. I came home to find that Julie and her parents were doing blind tests of the wines we have a choice of for the wedding so I showered and then joined in the fun. We had a big dinner of steak and vegetables and then started to watch Iron Man 2 but I ended up falling asleep right away and then headed up to bed to pass out for the night.

Sunday - Today was a lazy day. We slept in until 8.30am, which felt great, and then started to write out the table plans for the wedding. Before I knew it I had to head out for my run as I wanted to get an hour in before we headed to church. I felt pretty good but still kept the pace pretty slow as it was just a recovery day. The weather was perfect so that made the run pretty enjoyable. I got back at 11am so had to very quickly shower and change and make a smoothie before getting to church. After the service we had a meeting with the music and wedding coordinators to go over some wedding day stuff. I wouldn't have minded if I had managed to get some food before we left but I didn't so my mind started to wonder as I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible to eat. We got back to the house around 2pm and I just started to stuff as much food into my mouth as possible. A chicken breast sandwich, salad, yoghurt, and a lean pocket I was thoroughly full and ready to pass out. Unfortunately Julie wanted to get up the road to Flagstaff so we could carve some pumpkins and see some trick or treaters. Once we got back to the house, I got changed to go for a run but once I was out the door I started to feel pretty bad and managed one mile before having to stop and walk back to the house. I don't know what was up with me but I have to listen to my body when I am in hard training.

Monday - I had a fartlek scheduled for the morning and I thought Fasil would have been there to do it with me but he ended up staying at home so I did a 5 mile warm up and then changed my shoes to do 12*1 min hard/1 min easy. I felt awful warming up and for my first rep but after that I started to feel good. It got windier and windier as the morning went on and I felt bad for everyone who was doing mile repeats on the loop I was running on. I actually jumped into their workout to help take the wind for them on the windy straight as I know how frustrating that can be. On the guys last rep, I ran the whole straight (around 700m) and I was actually all out to try and stay in front of them and take the wind. I can't imagine how tough it was for them. Quite a few people dropped out of the workout so that just goes to show how demoralising it was for them. I came home and had a good nap before heading out the door again for a 9 mile run as I had a massage with Dana at 3.30pm. The massage was, again, just what I needed and I was able to come home and start getting dinner ready for when Julie would get back.