Monday, June 25, 2007

Training Log - June 18 thru June 24 - 2007

Monday - 0
Terrible night of sleep preceeded by two nights of not enough sleep. Took today off to try and get myself geared up for the rest of the week.
Tuesday - 6.3 + 3.38
Slept in and did my miles before and after my pilates session. Felt really good. Pilates session also very good.
Wednesday - 6.05 + 3
AM run a little tiring because of last nights run but not too bad.
PM run hard as it was really hot and I was pushing Erik in the jogging stroller.
Thursday - 5.3 + 3.8
AM still not getting the sleep I need. Cut run a little shorter than planned.
PM run better but I really took it at an easy pace.
Friday - 6 + 2
AM things continue to not go well for me in the sleep department. Why is there so much to get done every night?? Tired run with Jenny and Brian.
PM Pilates and 2 miles afterwards.
Saturday - 15.15
High 50's and relentless rain without the usual running partner kind of led to a slower than usual run. 2hrs 6min (no mile splits). Didn't feel like a struggle but there was this underlying feeling of fatigue and I felt cold by the end of my run. Took a good nap later in the day.
Sunday - 8
Covered the miles by running to the triathlon in Naperville and running around the course to cheer on my friends Jenny and Kelly. Parts of run where hard efforts as I dashed to different parts of the course. Due to the difference in start times for Jenny's and Kelly's wave I was able to cheer for each individually as Jenny was done before Kelly's wave even started. This was fun and a great way to end the week. Jenny won the elite wave and Kelly looked focused and strong during her wave (21) improving on her last year's time.
Weekly Summary
Total Miles : 58.98
I entered this week with the goal of popping over 60 miles. Its been a while since I've done that kind of miles and I've been building for a few weeks so I thought I would drop the intensity and add a number of double runs to see how I did. Its been over 8 years since double runs were part of my daily routine and they can take their toll. Well thanks to a terrible week of sleep (some my fault, others not so much my fault) it wasn't the best of weeks. I had to lower distances at several runs and I was always playing catch-up on sleep on the train (Andy had to actually wake me up when we got to Union station on one morning as I wasn't even aware that the train had stopped). Okay so I got the message. This next week will have to be better. I plan on double running only on tuesday and thursday and upping the mileage a bit on my single run days. Lets see how it goes....

Jenny and Kelly compete in Subaru Women's Triathlon in Naperville



Jenny wins yet again (yawn). Just kidding. Training partner Jenny looked comfortable and relaxed as she won the elite wave of the Subaru Triathlon this weekend.















Kelly successfully completed her course and improved on her last year's time (wave 21). Kelly looked focused and strong throughout.

My apologizes to both ladies as I failed to get the pictures I busted my butt around the course to get. I just don't understand how my digital camera works and it turns out that even though I thought I took over 30 pictures I ended up with 3. I was so hoping to give these ladies some great action shots. :-(

Congrats and great job to the Jenny and Kelly. I had a blast running around cheering you both on.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Training partner Jennifer Garrison wins HyVee Triathlon


My training partner wins yet another triathlon. She is such an inspiration and she also gets my lazy butt out the door at 5am on tuesday and thursday mornings. Congrats Jenny!

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Training Log - June 11 thru June 17 - 2007

Monday - 6.8
7pm. Hot. Just put one foot in front of the other as steady as I could.
Tuesday - 7.5 + 3.25
5am. Warm up 15'; strides; 5 x (3' with varying speeds for each minute within the 3', I can't remember what they were exactly but mostly tempo, 5k, 10k with various combinations of each, this was my training partner's work out so she has the combinations with 3' recovery jog between each); cool down.
7:30pm. 3 mile run then pilates session, then run home.
Wednesday - 0
Life.
Thursday - 7.5 + 3.25
5am. Warm up 15'; 3 x 8' @ tempo with 2' jog recovery; 5 x 1' @ 10k with 1' recovery jog; cool down.
5pm. 3.25. Hot and slow.
Friday - 7.6
5:15am. Run at Springbrook Prairie. Nice rolling hills.
Saturday - 6.09
7am. Went to run with my church group but I guess I didn't get the memo that no one was going to meet today so I went off on my own. Splits: 1 - 8:26; 2 - 8:12; 3 - 8:13; 4 - 8:18; 5 - 8:11; 6 - 7:52, .09 - 46seconds. It was hard to get going. It was a rolling course but I just couldn't seem to get it consistently under 8min. Anyway I kept the perceived effort at moderate instead of trying to push to get under 8 as tomorrow's long run is what is more important.
8am. Pilates
Sunday - 14.12
5:30am. Very muggy with temps rising the whole run. Ran with Dan over a rolling course. We did well. 1hr 51 minutes. Splits: 1 - 8:46; 2 - 8:15; 3 - 8:06; 4 - 7:49; 5 - 7:35; 6 - 7:41; 7 - 7:43; 8 - 7:31; 9 - 7:29; 10 - 7:52; 11 - 7:46; 12 - 7:45; 13 - 7:39; 14 - 7:37, .12 - 1:00.
Note to self: BRING MORE WATER.
Weekly Summary
Total Miles: 56.11
Much better on mileage this week and nothing hurts, yippy. I really feel like I'm in a good groove. I have some days where runs are not the most comfortable but I really made sure I got my sleep this week and for the most part I felt strong all week. Hopefully I can pop up into the 60's next week. Only 4 pounds from goal weight!

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Training Log - June 4 thru June 10 - 2007

Monday - 7.5
8PM. Not bad, steady pace, relaxed. Back greatly improved.
Tuesday - 8.8 + 3.3
4:50am. Warmup 15'; 3 x (20" with 40" jog); 3 x 8' @ tempo; 5 x (1' @10K, 1' easy jog), cool down
7pm. easy 3.3
Wednesday - 6.8
Thursday - 0
We ended up in the emergency room with my daughter. She fractured her clavicle in gym class and even though the school nurse thought she was fine, I disagreed and the x-rays confirmed my opinion. Didn't get home till late and I was in no mood to run as I had to tend to the poor girl. Her birthday party is this saturday and its a climbing party of all things...ugh.
Friday - 6.8
5am. Muggy and slow.
Saturday - 12.75
5:30am. Long run with Dan (right around 1:40). Beautiful cool weather made for a really nice long run. Its been a while since I've done a long run and this was to be my first in this year's marathon training. Splits:
1 - 8:11; 2 - 7:42; 3 - 7:51; 4 - 7:51; 5 - 7:48; 6 - 7:58; 7 - 7:52; 8 - 7:41; 9 - 8:01; 10- 7:42; 11 - 7:47; 12 - 7:45; .75 - 5:40
I was really happy that we stayed mostly under 8 minutes without really pushing too much. Dan is a great pacer. Next week I will aim for 1hr 50 min.
8am - pilates scaled back a bit for my back which is almost 100% again :-)
Oh I almost forgot, I turned 40 today....
Sunday - 0
Kyla's birthday sleepover party had me up till really late last night and I was wiped out. Wanted to give the back another day off also. Kind of kills my weekly mileage but still the thing to do.
Weekly Summary
Total Miles - 45.95
This week was a little off with Kyla's emergency room incident and the party on saturday and allowing for my back, but I made sure to get in at least 1 hard effort day and one quality long run. Now that my back is pretty stable and Kyla is healing I hope for a better week next week.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Training Log - May 28 thru June 3 - 2007

Monday - 13 miles
Race day. Fox Trot 10 miler. warm up 2 miles, cool down 1 mile, race time 1:05:12, 3rd female overall. Great weather, consistent mile paces. Cool down was really hard as I was spent after the race. See race report for details
Tuesday - 3
5am. A slow and torturous 3 miler. Plans were for 5 miles but I was so sore, my back hurts, and there was just no go-juice in the legs.
Wednesday - 5
5am. Much better today but back is still not right. I will have to keep tabs on this as the last time I did something to my back I was out for 8 weeks.
Thursday - 7.75
5am. Warm up 20 min, 8 x (15'' @ 5k, 1' easy jog, 30" @ 10K, 90" easy jog). Not too bad today and I had some nice easy flowing turnover. The back is improving but it did talk to me a bit during the workout.
p.s. come evening I was so tired I totally crashed on the couch after dinner
Friday - 6.75
5am. Easy run, back still being a pain. Will address with heat and ice this evening and take some advil. Got a race tomorrow that I may have to call off but I will see...
Saturday - 9.2
Race day. Warm up 1.5, cool down 1.5. Wheaton Run for the Animals 10K race time 39:59, fifth female overall, 1st AG 35- 39. Started off too fast but rest of splits just a slow decline mile by mile. Just plain tired and worried about the back. Still not all that bad in that I wanted to break 40 minutes and as always I love racing with my team. We took the top 7 spots!! See race report for more details.
Sunday - biked
Decided that I needed to cross train today and I went out and biked around to get the legs moving. Continued with icing my back.
Weekly Summary:
Total 44.7 miles. Very pleased with my 10 mile race results. It was a good indicator of where I'm at in my condition and I know where to go from here. I will have to give more consideration to the idea of taking the day off after a race (or some form of cross training), my body just isn't recovering as fast as it used to and the course in Elgin is not the easiest. Unfortunately I had to follow the 10 miler up with a race only 5 days later (team commitment) and that was tough.

RaceReport - Wheaton Run for the Animals 10K 2007

Wheaton Run for the Animals 10K - June 2, 2007 7:30am

Hi everyone!
I hope everyone who raced this weekend had fun.

I ran the Wheaton Run for the Animals 10K this weekend and most of my team was there (Dick Pond Racing Team).

The day started out a little weird as I overslept a bit and kind of had to rush out of the house. I couldn't do my warm up at home and when I got to the race I had to park a few blocks away which was annoying but no biggie. During my warm up I could still feel the tightness in my back from Monday's race, I felt sluggish and the humidity felt really high to me. Good thing Wheaton has great big trees and most of the race would be shaded. I will admit I was worried about my back. Last time I did something to my back I was out for 8 weeks. My goal was to stay under 40 minutes, and with a good race I really wanted to try and average 6:20ish per mile.

I lined up with my teammates and off we went. Oops, right off the bat I started out too fast and I hit a 6:01 first mile. I had been shooting for 6:15 or so. I was with 8 of my teammates and I figured I would just do the best I could to keep with them. My back was talking to me everyone once in a while and I did my best to relax and run with good form. During the next few miles 4 of my teammates broke away and the rest fell behind me so I was alone for most of the 2nd half of the race. I kept my teammates in my sights and tried not to fall too far back. Although I hit my split watch at each mile I don't look at my watch so I went on feel and I felt like I was slowing but not falling off per say. In the last mile some guy decided to play cat and mouse with me, sprinting ahead of me, then falling behind me, then sprinting ahead of me etc. This always makes me laugh but it at least gave me a target to go for during that last mile. I finished solid with a fifth place overall and first in my age group (39:59). My team grabbed the first seven spots overall.

Using my Fox Trot 10 mile time which was an average of 6:31 I really thought I could average closer to 6:20 for a 10K which would have given me a 39:20 but messing up a bit in the first mile, the concern I was having with my back, not being as focused as I was at the Fox Trot, and still feeling tired from monday's race had its effect. I still managed to barely stay under 40 minutes so goal was accomplished on a day that I didn't really feel "on", so it was a good day on the whole. :-)

I took Sunday off for my back and biked instead. I did a lot of heating pad and then icing and that has made a big difference today (Monday). I was going to run twice today but I decided that giving my back another 12 hours and just running this evening would be the best. I don't race again until July 21st.

Splits
1 - 6:01
2- 6:24
3 - missed, don't think it was marked
4 - 12.57 (ave of 6:28 for mile 3 and 4)
5 - 6:40 (in Northside park, some mud, some crushed gravel)
6 - not marked
6.2 - 7:55 (ave of 6:35 for 1.2 miles)
total 39:59

The trail run you guys all did seemed like a lot more fun! The pictures told the whole story.

Peace,
Janeth