2015/16 Nov OS Wk 7 RUN: Dial it in for testing next week!
Hard to believe next week will be the test week! Important to note how you are feeling this week and start coming up with some goals for test next week. Pay extra attention to your HR/pace/RPE to get a sense of how you've changed these past 7 weeks. Try to stay focused this week and next, before the holidays come again and try to derail us!
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As for my run week, I had a scheduled HM on Sat with the family. PR by over 10 minutes over last year so I am thinking that is going to be my run test. It will be interesting to do the 5K test and see how closely the predictions line up. It was my first HM race that was not at the end of a 70.3 and I was interested to find that I was able to maintain my HR about 10 beats higher than usual for the majority of the race and still finished with the last 2 miles being the fastest. I just did the bike Sunday and then the short run last PM where my HR was still above normal but I was hitting the pace. Gonna keep it short today too till I am fully recovered.
So far for the OS, I ran for 25 days last month and broke 85 miles. Both are an improvement for me. Keep on keeping on.
69' for 8.3 miles
1-7.3 - mostly Z1/2
Last mile Z3
Well yesterday I was NOT feeling good. After kicking myself most of the morning, with no results, I gave up and took a nap instead. Got out there this afternoon. What a lovely evening! Rain stopped and there was intermittant sunshine. Was feeling really down when I headed out the door but about half way through started to feel better. Came home smiling. Life is good.
"You come to a fork in the road. Which path do you choose?" I choose the path to AWESOME!
The 40' brick run on Tuesday went ok, despite lingering cold symptoms. (3 weeks is enough already!!) Did a slow increase in pace from Z1-2 midpoint for the first 30 mins, with strides the last mile bumping pace closer to Z2 ave. Legs felt a bit sluggish for the strides again, but did the best I could to maintain form at increased tempo. Finished with 4.8 miles at 8:19/mile ave.
The stand-alone 70' Wed run was done on sleep deprivation, 3hrs 45 mins, due to work sched keeping me up until 115am and the need to get the wko done before the 3 little boys woke up and needed attention. My eyes were literally half closed for the first 1 to 2 miles, then I started to wake up. I eventually felt more normal by mile 4-5 and the paces finally climbed above z1-2. Was somehow able to find the EN mojo to hit Z3 pace for the last 1.5 miles, even with some uphill. 8.6 miles at 8:12/mile ave. Hoping I can shake this bug before next weeks tests.
Yesterday I managed to get most of a run in but it was 9:15p.m. when i started. I missed my weekend run Sunday because of work/family. There's something EXTREMELY motivating about seeing your name and mileage (or lack thereof!!) on a spreadsheet. Haha!! I think that was motivation to get me out on the road so late…..love of our sport kept me out there. It was nice to look at all the cool Christmas decorations in the neighborhood (silver lining). It was a slooooooow but happy run. I know I'm fatigued right now physically and mentally from work. Trying to keeping my head in the Box this week.
Enjoy the rest of the week!!
Good Morning all! Will be missing today due to travel. Thought I would get up early and go but the little person had a really rough night.
@ Mark- What is your PT person having you do? Deets please.
@ Stephanie- Dang Girl. Way to be a Super EN Chica!
Enjoy the work!
37' for 4.47 miles
z1/2 pace adjusted for wind
5x hill repeats
@ Jacklyn, I went to the PT for a hamstring problem in my right leg. She diagnosed the cause as weak glutes and first had me doing exercises to isolate and strengthen them. These exercises also helped to teach me how to fire my glutes before my hamstrings. Her diagnoses said that since I wasn't using my glutes first I was using the hamstrings too much and thus the strain. It also turns out that my left glute is stronger than my right glute and now that I know that I can really feel the difference while running. So strengthening the right side is a priority especially since that's the side that I've had the hamstring problem off and on literally for years.I did notice when I was running if I engaged my core and "locked down" (for lack of a better word) my pelvis then my hamstring didn't bother me and I could feel my glutes firing. Good start.
So after I had been doing the exercises for a couple of weeks she put me on the treadmill and analyzed my gait. She noticed that I drove my right knee more upward than forward, I rotated my arms across the middle of my body rather than straight ahead, I tended to run and place one foot in front of one other, and that my ankles collapsed inward some. So I had to work on that by spreading my feet apart, driving my knee forward instead of up, and drive my arms straight forward instead of across the middle. She also gave me some exercises to strengthen my ankles and recommended that I get some different shoes (I don't know if I'm going to do that or not since I've had problems with "motion control" shoes in the past). So I've been working on those things. Now what she does is have me run for a few minutes on the TM and adjust my form from there. One thing that she noticed the last time is that I was leaning back slightly and my foot was striking slightly in front of the centerline of my body. So she had me lean forward slightly from the hips so that my foot strike was behind the centerline. Just doing that allowed me to up the pace on the TM by a couple of notches without changing anything else. I could immediately feel the difference.
The thing is that I have to always keep thinking about those things when I run. It's really hard to change your stride. The last time I did that was when I went from a heel strike to a mid-foot stride. For the most part it was a gradual process until I got to a point where I had to change shoes from a cushioned heel strike shoe to a mid-foot strike shoe (Newton's in my case). The biggest change then was the strain on my calves and I had to go slow to strengthen them, so I'm aware of how long it can take. OTOH, my speed increased with the last change and I hope that I'll pick up some speed with these changes as well. So my goal for this NOS is to work on frequency and technique and forget about speed work. (Do you know how hard that is to do when I see all these great posts about Z4 intervals?
) So far so good. I do notice that different muscles are sore though after my run so I guess something is working. The other thing that the PT has me doing is a lot of different kinds of stretching concentrating on my legs and pelvic area and of course core work that I've chronicled in the other post.
So a lot of this is probably very specific for me but some of it is very generic like the forward lean and foot strikes behind the centerline of my body. I knew about those things but since I can't see myself when I'm running I didn't know that I was doing it correctly.
I hope this helps. (is that detailed enough???
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Keep it up everyone, and get set to nail next week's tests!
I had to miss Wednesday's run due to a trip to the doc's office. I had been having some tightness in my chest since Tuesday morning. It subsided a bit and I did my Tuesday bike w/o and run. That night it was back again...then again I woke up with it in the morning. Initially I thought it was indigestion but it never fully went away. So I thought I should check it out (I had an abnormal EKG in 2014 prior to shoulder surgery. A repeat test a week later had me in the "normal" range.) I have to say I love my doc. He's athletic, has done an IM so he knows what "we" are like! He did an EKG...it was ok (phew!). He asked if I was "stressed". Now, I don't normally get to stressed out...I vent pretty well around our house...but my husband had an accident on his MTN bike and broke his neck 10/25 (he is doing great!!). He spent the night in NICU and was released and had a neck brace that he wears 24/7 for another 6 weeks. A week prior to his accident a dear friend collapsed while running and was in a coma for 2 weeks and passed away. She was a great friend and athlete and was only 54. So, with Christmas and all these other things happening I guess I was internalizing some "stress". Glad it was an easy fix! I had a spasm in my esophagus that connects to my stomach.
I was kinda beating myself up for not getting that run in...but I'm over it...move on...next...I guess with age comes some good sense! Like Coach Rich says..."it's just a game". Thanks for letting me "vent"!!
Great work, all! Jennifer, glad you're OK. Being on the other side (the physician with endurance experience), I find it really helps connect to patients who are in the same position you are/were.