Pre-race run

Thurs - Off
Fri - 6mi

Todays run was pleasant. Got out of bed early and took my time stretching and waking up before hitting the pavement. The beach has been pretty foggy in the morning, but I kinda like it. It's cool and the moisture just envelops me as my shoes make a slicking noise over the not quite wet not quite dry asphalt. I ran the cliffs and listened to the ocean as I daydreamed about finding that perfect zone for my first Half, now only a bit more than three months away. No Garmin today, just feeling where I wanted to be pacewise. This was one of those days where I wasn't training...I was just running because I love it, not other thoughts in my mind.

Probably a nice relaxed mindset to try and take to the race tomorrow. I have no idea how much this achilles business set me back. I'm kinda hoping it cancels out with the fact that I've been running for a month since my last race so even with the two weeks of crappy training, i've had some solid runs in there.

Regardless it'll be nice to throw on the uniform and strap on the racers.

Fall has arrived.

"When autumn comes, it doesnt ask.
It just walks in, where it left you last.
And you never know, when it starts
Until there's fog inside the glass around your summer heart"
-John Mayer

Sat - 9 miles
Sun - 12 miles w/ the boys (85:45)
Mon - 8 miles (60:43)
Tues - 10 miles (8 x (2 min @ 6-6:15; 3 min @ 7-7:15))
Wed - 8 Miles (easy)
PM - 4 mi + gym

Back to normal mileage, no more achilles pain. I am very happy. Feels so good to get back in my running routine. Really grounds me.

Ran a bit of a workout on Tues. My long runs are feeling fine, but damn is it hard to take it down to six minute pace. My recovery felt fine...I didn't have a hard time transitioning from to a steady pace, it was just a major shock to the system to be rolling around 6 mins...which is a little worrisome since that should be slower than my 5K race pace. Luckily this weekend is an 8K so hopefully the extra mileage in the race will work to my advantage till get I get turnover back.

These last few runs are giving me my first glimpse of Fall...it's still dark as I'm getting the running gear on, and this morning a heavy fog wrapped around me for the entire run. Oddly enough, I'm kinda excited for fall. Some fun trips and visitors, lots of races, Halloween, pumpkin in cooking/baking, and overall goodness.

Ok...back to work. I think my double today is going to be ruined by contract review. booo.

Update: HA! Made it out in time for a late night run and even to throw around some almost heavy objects in the gym. Go me.

Let's get this party started.

Wed - 4mi
Thurs - 5mi

I think it's coming together. Left achilles no longer feels tight...there's this one spot of pain-ish-ness right in the middle/top of my achilles...but very minor and more an annoyance....something that kept me from going 5 on wed but not from rolling out this morning. This morning felt mostly good, except that little spot but overall not bad. Right achilles is TIGHT...kinda feels like I'm wearing a brace or something. When I went to my PT she noticed that so I've been working on getting both sides evenly stretched.

planning on going 6 tomorrow...might move up to 8 if things feel good.

My run this morning was at a snails pace. First of all my hamstrings are so so so so sore from PT that it hurt to walk yesterday. Thus its hard to tell if my stiffness in running is due to worry that my achilles is gonna act up, the fact that I haven't run in almost a week, or the fact that I kinda waddle right now when I walk (probably a happy combo of them all). Usually I take the first mile slow just to wake up...then drop down to a respectable speed...but with the way things have been I figured victory would be in getting through the miles without anything acting up...so i settled in and embraced the jogger within me.

Gettin' amped to get out and log some REAL miles soon...

Injury update

Well, this achilles business is getting a little annoying.

Went to the PT yesterday for some stretching, massage, and general getting my ass kicked. Due to work spilling over to the late hours of the night I didn't get a chance to try things out on a run, though I'm thinking an extra day off probably wasn't a bad thing.

Gonna give it a whirl today after work. 4-5 miles max. Nice and slow. Just testing it out. I think I really screwed things up in SB by running cause this is taking way longer to heal than I thought it would. Luckily no races this weekend so I still have time to pull my shit together for next week's race.

Good Girl

Saturday - 30 miles BIKE
Sunday - 60 min Elliptical and some strength.

Big gold star to me for not running all weekend. Gonna hit up the gym after work and elliptical one more time. Made an appointment to get the tightness rubbed out of the calves tomorrow morning. Yay for taking care of myself and being patient. Let's hope it pays off and I don't end up limping home after my first attempt at running tomorrow night.

I'm in time out.

Thurs - 6.5ish

Fri - OFF

I've decided not to race tomorrow. Was really looking forward to it so I'm kinda bummed to have to pull out. But the achilles isn't better and we wont' have a full team anyways so no use running it and then f'ing things up more when there's no team scoring on the line.

Yesterday's run was okay but I could definitely still feel it and even had a few pangs which really surprised me. Was gonna just add on the extra mileage to even it out for 8 when I got back to my apartment but decided that less running was probably better. Forgot my ice pack at work so finally got some good use out of that bag of frozen peas that has been in my freezer for several months now.


Once again, this is probably something that could have gone away if I just had accepted the fact that something was wrong and took a solid few days off from running. But I keep trying to run and guess what? yea, each time just screwed it up again. Sooooo this morning when I tested it out and could feel it still I just decided that this was it...I'm not running again until there is not even a twinge of pain. Biking, elliptical, gym...whatever. No running.

So stupid for me to complain about a few days off when only months ago I couldn't run at all.

Beware the Splash Zone.

Elliptical Workout
15 min warm up
2 min at L12, 4 min at L11, 6 min at L10, 6 min at L10, 4 min at L11, 2 min @ L11 with one minute recover @ L8 between each
15 min cool down

Weekly Summary (a little late again...this is for last week)
Miles - 37
Cross Training - 90 mins on Elliptical (total)

Mileage got rocked this week due to a) slacking off on Monday cuz tired from traveling from Portland b) Elliptical instead of running due to stupid achilles on Friday c) Day off on Saturday due to aforementioned achilles d) Long run essentially halved..again due to achilles.

no biggie. stuff happens.

Ellipticaled (is that a word?) today for 60 mins. Which was a miracle because after beers at En Fuego followed by the unwise decision to stay up after the bar and watch TrueBlood, my new addiction, I ended up not crashing until about midnight. But once I was up and about I was itchin' to sweat and stuck with my plan of taking a day off of running to heal that pesky achilles. Decided to attempt a workout on the elliptical since technically today was supposed to be my workout day. I discovered two interesting things.

a) Most people do not breathe very hard on the elliptical. I definitely stuck out as I panted through the intervals, sweat flying off every which way (I should have painted a blue zone around the elliptical to indicate the Splash Zone, like in Sea World) while all the rest of the morning exercisers calmly swished back and forth on their machines watching CNN and the Morning news, eyeing the crazy girl on the end machine warily.

b) One of my pigtails is necessarily larger than the other, due to my side part. Thus, when doing something like ellipticalling or running, the heavier one tends to stay put while the lighter one bounces all over the place. This bugged me for most of the workout as I stared into a blank TV that essentially acted as a mirror. Just thought I'd share.

Ok - that's all I got for now. Tomorrow I'm hitting the roads again. Achilles, please behave.