Last Year

Last year I was driving home from Alabama, ran in Chicago and found 5 inches of snow in MN.  Week 10 didn’t go well last year! I was a little sick, my leg hurt, and more traveling.  My unscientifc poll showed that only 1/3 of my readers stretch before and after every run. You might recall that after finishing last year’s Little Rock Marathon, Adam Nickel died suddenly.  A month later his cause of death was announced.  This time last year was the London  Marathon – with lots of Ryan Hall hype I highlighted the Massai Warriors and their marathon attempt – before and after. Last year’s Foto Friday was the last of my memoribilia from my wall of fame.

Mileage

Run – 15 Miles
Bike – 8 Miles

Monday since this is Spring Break I had hoped to have some fun with my training this week – going places I don’t usually get to go.  Today I decided to check out Pike Island.  We had walked around a little bit yesterday there so I knew it would be flooded – I wasn’t expecting what I found though!  I ran through 4 flooded areas.  The first was easily traversed with a fallen tree, the second went over my ankles in cold water, the third was a muddy mess that had me completely losing the trail and turning around, and the fourth was about to the middle of my shin (around 6-10 inches) deep of cold water.  I think it was about 3.5 miles and the time is pretty irrelevant.  Be sure to check out these videos that I created after running there.   I should also note that my Garmin is still at the repair shop.

Tuesday was interval workout. 5 x 800 at 10k pace was on the schedule.  The only local track that I know is open to the public is at the University of St Thomas so I drove over there and did my warm-up.  My goal 10k pace is 6:26 which would make a 3:13 800. I handled that pretty well – 2:39,2:53, 2:54, 3:04, 2:57.  I had about 200m active recovery time in between (all less than 2 minutes).  After a short break I decided to finish the workout off with a 400 and a 200.  I ran them in 1:13 and 0:35 respectively.  I had to share the track with some female track members and the football team was using their field in middle so that was a little different than I expected.  Obviously I felt tired, but I felt pretty good about the workout and enjoyed running on the track.

Wednesday I decided to try something a little different.  I had just been reading about recovery days and hard days in Running Times and it was saying that you could do two hard days back to back as long as you followed with two recovery days.  Since the schedule called for two off days before the weekend’s race I decided to give it a try and ran my 30 minute tempo run.  It seemed a little odd today given my schedule to drive 30 minutes to run 30 minutes so I just ran along the Greenway. I actually ran on the rocky section next to the Greenway which does have some nice flat trail (but not recommended).  I did about 4.25 miles (still no Garmin) in exactly 30 minutes, ok 30:06.  My legs were pretty tired from yesterday’s track workout (as expected)!

Thursday I didn’t run.  However, we did have a staff versus student basketball game.  We got ripped off – students reffed and the scorekeepers did a terrible job.  We lost by 3 points in over time.  Not too shabby for 7 “old people” who don’t play much against about 15 middle schoolers who play all the time.   This may have been a mistake because my foot was almost done hurting and it started back again.  I was also a lot more tired and sore than I expected to be – so maybe I ended up having 3 hard days in a row.  The game also ruined a lot of the benefits of the massage I received in the morning. I also stood around at a bonfire for a few hours which tends to make my heel hurt worse. Ugh.

Friday I didn’t run. I didn’t bike. I took the day 100% off.

Saturday I ran the Fred Kurz Memorial 10 mile run.  This was a time-handicapped race – with the handicap being assessed at the beginning. The first runners left at 8:30 and I left at 9:30 with several runner starting after me.  I ended up running the 10 mile race in 1:10:31 which was pretty close to my goal of 1:08.  I cramped about halfway through otherwise I’m pretty happy with my performance. My Garmin arrived which was great timing!

Sunday was a great celebration of Easter and the resurrection of Jesus.  We enjoyed time with friends and spending the day together.  We rode our bikes around the neighborhood hanging up flyers for an upcoming event and put about 10 miles on the bike.  It was all at a nice leisurly pace which felt good.

Weekly Mileage

Run – 23.5 Miles
Bike –  21.7 Miles