Somewhere, someone colder than you is running

Week of December 12-18, 2016

Mileage: 56.1, with a fartlek, a double, a set of strides, a long run with a little workout, two bootcamps, and a bit of a sore throat/stuffy nose cold.  A bit of motivation is always, "Somewhere, someone busier than you is running,", but this week I changed "busier" to "colder", as I continued to talk myself into not being a winter wimp.  The cold weather didn't fatigue me as much as it did last week, which was a step in the right direction!

Snuggled up back in November when we had it good!

Monday - Cross-training manic Monday with 30 minutes on the elliptical to warm up and 45 minutes of bootcamp.  On Sunday evening I got a headache and sore throat, and I assumed I was run down from my weekend of two Saturday races plus a Sunday long run, all in not optimal weather.  I then woke up in the middle of the night with my throat feeling more sore, and thinking that I might not be going to bootcamp or to work on Monday.  However, when I woke up to my alarm, my headache was gone and my throat was much less sore, so I gargled with salt water and decided to give it a go.  I felt about normal for coming off a hard weekend.

Tuesday - 10.1 miles with the "Flipping Fartlek" workout:  3 miles warm-up, 6', 5', 4', 3', 2', 1' pushes with recoveries of 1', 2', 3', 4', 5, then cool-down to 10 miles.  This workout is weird because the recoveries are so short between the longer pushes, then so long between the shorter pushes.  It also forces you to positive split on your miles splits (due to your hard/easy proportions), which Miss Negative Split here does not like!  I kept all of my pushes sub-6:00 as was my goal (exact splits below).  I still had a sore throat but felt fine otherwise, and decided I couldn't really be sick or I wouldn't be running sub-6:00s on this.  Missy and I ran our warm-up together, and she also had a sore throat, so we decided that it was from our windy long run on Sunday and also possibly from talking for 15 miles while running in those conditions!  We talked much less on this run (she ran a hard tempo while I was doing my fartlek).

Flipping Fartlek living up to it's name

Wednesday - 12.3 miles total:  8.1 miles a.m. (7:45) with 547 ft elevation gain with Missy, and 4.2 miles runch (7:29).  I titled the morning run "Technical difficulties" on Strava, as it included the following:  me running late due to my cat puking twice right as I was about to leave, both Missy and I having almost dead batteries in our headlamps ("I hope there's no potholes on this road!"), me taking my hood on and off about 50 times in an attempt to regulate temperature, Missy giving me her jacket mid-run when she was hot and I was freezing, us being very indecisive about which way to turn after a pee break/jacket exchange, and Missy having to help me take off the jacket at the end of the run because my fingers were too cold to remove the cuffs!  We were quite the sight I think!  I enjoyed the run, we found a new hilly route that was exactly 8 miles, and my sore throat was gone (replaced by excessive nasal drainage!), so there were victories.  At lunch I ran from my office, and things went more smoothly.  The most embarrassing/amusing part of running from my office at lunch is running past the smokers gathered on the sidewalk just off the property line of our smoke free campus.

Any nutritionists out there, please tell me what/when to eat between my two runs to optimize recovery and performance (and minimize digestive issues) when I start the first around 5:30 a.m. and the second around 1:00 p.m.  This is a puzzle I am still figuring out!

Thursday - 8.2 miles with 6 or 7 x strides at the end (7:23).  I lost count of my strides as per 90% of the time.  I was solo on this run and got to start later than usual, at 6:45 a.m., so it was daylight!  I wish I could go into work at 9:00 a.m. every day!  I was still having a ton of nasal drainage on Thursday.

Friday - 3.1 mile shake out (7:30) and bootcamp.  Typically, I want to run farther than 3 miles when I have these short runs scheduled, but today was not one of those days due to the 20 mph wind!  The wind chill was 12 degrees, and I was okay with only being out for 23 minutes.

Saturday - 16.2 mile long run (7:17), with 10 miles steady, then for the first 1:00 of the last 6 miles I was supposed to pick it up to 6:30 pace, followed by the remainder of the mile at regular relaxed pace.  I ran this one solo, as none of us could quite coordinate.  Saturday was the first morning I woke up and didn't have to immediately blow 5 lbs of mucus out of my nose!

I stalked the hourly forecast multiple times on Friday to figure out the optimal time to start this run.  I almost couldn't believe the forecast, which had temperatures rising from 30 degrees on Friday afternoon to over 50 degrees from 2:00-7:00 a.m., and then dropping dramatically along with sleet/ice/freezing rain/snow and wind on Saturday.  I made the sensible decision to aim to finish my run before the temperature dropped dramatically, which was supposed to happen around 8 a.m.  I woke up at my normal time of 5:00 a.m. and started around 5:30 a.m.  It wasn't quite as warm as forecasted, but 44 degrees felt amazing!  I had my long sleeves rolled up for the first 9 miles, but then the wind picked up and the temperature started dropping.  It was also slightly drizzly, and really it was dark for the entire run, even after the sun came up.

At mile 10 I started my 1:00 pushes at the beginning of each mile, and I did not do very well with them.  My first one was a little fast but not too far off (6:16), but then in my subsequent ones I could not find 6:30 pace to save my life!  I'd push and suddenly be running 5:50 pace, then I'd try to not pick it up so much on my next and I'd be running 7:00 pace.  I couldn't find the nice in between on any of them.  On the last mile I was just ready to be finished so ended up running the whole mile in 6:38, but that was the only time I could find the 6:30s!  The pushes made me feel kind of wonky -- like end-of-the-marathon-need-sustenance wonky -- and I guess since they are supposed to help my body learn how to conserve glycogen then maybe they served the purpose.  It was just kind of a weird run, because I felt good but "off" at the same time.  I blame the weather.

Sunday - 6.2 recovery miles on the treadmill (7:46).  As much as I'm working to embrace winter, I'm not up for running in windchills of -15 with patchy ice on the road!  So on this morning, someone colder than me was running for sure (i.e., anyone running outdoors!).  When we were driving to church and I saw the road conditions on the back roads where I'd have run, I knew I made the right decision, as much as I do not prefer the treadmill.

Finally, the below post popped up on my Facebook memories this week.  I remember that tempo run, as I was training to break 1:30 in the half at the time (something I'd done 3 times before then, but I'd been out with an injury for a long while and was trying to get back to it).  I had a good laugh at it, because absolutely nothing has changed in regard to me always being hungry for a few more seconds!  But it also made me so appreciative of my progress since then, as last week I ran my 4 mile tempo run in 24:03 on the exact same course...and obviously wanted 4 more seconds. I ran a 1:29:5X half on 12/27/14 on a horrible weather day after that tempo run, so it also made me thankful for taking over 7 minutes off of that time in 2 years!  It makes my goal of taking 3 minutes off in the next year seem a little less crazy I guess (I will for sure need a good weather day, though!).