Training Lately

I have been plugging away with my training! I am *just* starting to feel more like myself again, but with that comes the realization of how much work I have to do to get after my sub-3 goal at TCM!

Mileage has been right around 50/week. This week is 52 with 2 days off, so I’m starting to get up there!

After my first 12 miler. Sara and Heather came to meet us to run from the hospital. I was SO SORE after this run! Sort of that “I just ran a marathon and my legs just ache for a day” feel.

I’ve only done 3 hard workouts since starting back up after 4 weeks off post-C-section. They have all been – well – an adventure 🙂

Workout #1: My first workout back! Jeff met me at Children’s and we trudged through a couple of inches of loose snow and slush (and hopped over the start of sidewalks where the plows had piled up the snow/slush). The workout was 8 miles total with 2 “hard”. Knowing that this was my first workout and that footing was so poor, I had no pace expectations. The first mile we clocked 6:50. I thought to myself: oh, wow… I’m going to be able to hold this for a marathon next October? The second mile was in 7:33.

Yep, you read that right. 7:33. Two miles in 14:23. Jeff just raised his eyebrows when he looked down at his watch to see our finish time and congratulated me on burying myself. I had! It was so fun to run hard, gasp for air, and feel like I accomplished something. The pace was… pretty darn laughable for the effort I put into it… but I’ll work on that :).

Jeff forgot pants so wore a pair of mine. The flared leg accentuated his girly hips.

Workout #2: 3 miles total, 1 hard, 1 moderate, 1 hard. Jerry had written in 6:20/7:20/6:20 as rough pace guides. I knew that probably wasn’t possible but made it my mission to try to go as hard as I could. I logged 6:50s for the hard miles and 7:45 for the moderate mile.

As the end of the last hard mile, one of my training partners pulled beside me to pass me. I willed myself to be able to change gears, but there was nothing. I couldn’t drive my knees any higher, nor get any more “air time” from my push-off. I made a mental note to take the strides in my plan a little more seriously (think about activation, power, and pace changes! Not just “get them done”). I also made another note to work on hip flexor strength when I’m doing strength work.

Yep, lots to work on!

Workout #3: I don’t even know where to start with this one! The workout was 5x1000m with 400m recovery. I asked Craig to join me and we ran over to Olaf’s indoor track since the roads weren’t conducive to speed work. I didn’t look up my previous repeat times, since I’m purposefully running without any expectations or pressure right now. I did remember doing 1ks with one of my athletes this summer, while pregnant, in just over 4:00.

The first one starts off great. I feel strong! I finished in 3:45 (6:00/mile pace). Wahoo! I was happy with that. I didn’t recover quickly between repeats like I normally do, and paid for it on the second repeat. I held 3:45-50 pace until ~600 meters to go. Then I started to sound like I was having an asthma attack and started to look like I was running in place. That was painful. 4:00 finish time.

The next three were a death march! 4:00, 3:57, 4:00. I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach. I immediately ran to the bathroom afterwards. We eventually jiggy-jogged back to our respective work places, and as soon as Craig peeled away, I decided to take a walk break. I coughed a good old hard-indoor-workout-track-cough and then all of a sudden leaned over —

and threw up.

The older gentleman walking towards me looked at me strangely. He just said, “Nice day, eh?”. I nodded.

I felt sick to my stomach the rest of the day. What a painful way to do a workout! I know I want to take each of these workouts hard, but…

Other random training pictures, just for fun:

Running out some of my angst and stress while in the hospital :(.

Beautiful 10 miler. It was fun to run as the storm rolled in. This was the first run where I realized my “normal” pace is now closer to 8’s. Nice!

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It’s fun to run to the new house to check out progress.

So… yeah! Lots of adventures, and a lot of work to be done! Jerry is working on my plan for the next couple of weeks right now and I can’t wait to see what is in store for me!! He has hinted of 60+ mile weeks, yay!