Recovery from my last 3 week cycle and Miwok has been very good. I bounced back much faster than I did from the prior 4 week clycle concluding with AR50. After that cycle I think it was about 10 days before I felt comfortable and strong on my runs. Even my recovery runs were sluggish but not this time. Sunday after we got home I was pretty tired and was ordered to go bed at 6:30 by my family who were annoyed by my ho hum mood. I slept for a solid 12 hours and woke completely refreshed. Bill and I went out for a short run on the Wildwood and I felt pretty darn good. Tuesday and Wednesday were more recovery and a hard weight training session where I felt very strong. Another sign I am getting in better shape is when I lift after a big week and I am still maintaining or increasing in strength and this week that's what happened. I felt like Superman in the gym. I had no residual soreness after Miwok so that means one of two things. One, I did not run hard enough or two, my trips down quad buster hill are working. I would like to believe number two! My feet are almost completely un-numb. The only toe that is still numb in my forth toe on my right foot. Today I wore my nice roomy Cascadia's but could still feel my metatarsals a bit so there must still be some inflammation. They are getting better and I won't ever do that again!
Today was a tempo run and these are another good marker for my fitness. I was fast and strong today and pulled sub 6:50's when I was supposed to go no faster than 6:55. My pacing needs work, I am seriously trying to NOT run faster than prescribed so if Scott J. e
ver reads this he will know I am working on it! When I am at threshold pace and I have to throttle back that's when I know things are good and today I was throttling back the entire time. I do all my mile tempo runs on Lief Ericson so I have markers every quarter mile and it's gravel road which is a nice break from the track. I have been doing these same workouts almost every week since February and I remember at the beginning they were so tough. Now they are just part of the prescription and I can really gauge my recovery by my results. In February I was doing 7:20's and that seemed impossible. By March I had moved to solid 7:10's and felt pretty good about that improvement. April Scott bumped me to 7:05's and I thought he was crazy but low and behold I could do it. This time he prescribed 6:55's and I set out and did them with ease. 7:20's to 6:55"s is a pretty good improvement for my Lactic Threshold.....I will have to keep this in mind at Mile 75 at WS100.....it's supposed to translate :). After AR50M my tempo run was incredibly difficult. I felt like I was having to pull myself along by my ear so having a stellar tempo run after Miwok makes me very happy!
The weather has been beautiful and the sun really feels good. Tomorrow I think I will head to Dog Mountain to join Beast, Anna and the gang. I drop Alex off at school at 7:30 so I be late but will go the opposite way and run down with them. I am just planning on a leisurely hike and an easy run down.
Today was a tempo run and these are another good marker for my fitness. I was fast and strong today and pulled sub 6:50's when I was supposed to go no faster than 6:55. My pacing needs work, I am seriously trying to NOT run faster than prescribed so if Scott J. e
ver reads this he will know I am working on it! When I am at threshold pace and I have to throttle back that's when I know things are good and today I was throttling back the entire time. I do all my mile tempo runs on Lief Ericson so I have markers every quarter mile and it's gravel road which is a nice break from the track. I have been doing these same workouts almost every week since February and I remember at the beginning they were so tough. Now they are just part of the prescription and I can really gauge my recovery by my results. In February I was doing 7:20's and that seemed impossible. By March I had moved to solid 7:10's and felt pretty good about that improvement. April Scott bumped me to 7:05's and I thought he was crazy but low and behold I could do it. This time he prescribed 6:55's and I set out and did them with ease. 7:20's to 6:55"s is a pretty good improvement for my Lactic Threshold.....I will have to keep this in mind at Mile 75 at WS100.....it's supposed to translate :). After AR50M my tempo run was incredibly difficult. I felt like I was having to pull myself along by my ear so having a stellar tempo run after Miwok makes me very happy!
The weather has been beautiful and the sun really feels good. Tomorrow I think I will head to Dog Mountain to join Beast, Anna and the gang. I drop Alex off at school at 7:30 so I be late but will go the opposite way and run down with them. I am just planning on a leisurely hike and an easy run down.
P.S. It was a great day on the Dog. It's been about 
a year since I have been up there and the hillside was in full bloom today.....beautiful. Ultra had a few ticks I pulled off of her and she got a Tecnu bath when we got home. She couldn't keep herself out of all the poison oak!
a year since I have been up there and the hillside was in full bloom today.....beautiful. Ultra had a few ticks I pulled off of her and she got a Tecnu bath when we got home. She couldn't keep herself out of all the poison oak!
4 comments:
That is indeed a great improvement. Have fun at the Mac!
Great to hear about Miwok from your perspective, and also really neat to hear about your improvements and how many months of diligent training it took to achieve. Lopping off almost a half minute off your mile splits is awesome! So how long are your threshold runs? Keep up the inspiring running and blogging. :)
Olga, have a great race at SS50 and take care of your hip!
Kendra my tempo runs are 10 miles long with a warm-up,then 3A for 15 minutes then marathon pace for .5 miles (7:24), then AT for 30 minutes at 6:55, then a cooldown. In February I wasn't doing the 2X40-60 min. AT hill repeats so my tempo run was much longer. I would do runs called a "Keyan-Style Progression Run" where you start slow and get faster every mile until you hit marathon race pace, hold that for 8 miles then hit AT for 2 miles. Now those were fun and tough but doable since there were no weekend hill repeats. At this stage they would take to much out of me for the weekend run.
Thanks, Ronda! You really know your stuff. I'm impressed not only that you do the workouts but that you can keep them in your head. They sound complicated but incredibly beneficial. My workouts are a total mush compared to that!
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