CIM Week 5, no running in the rain!

This was to be a big week...first 20 miler was a *must*. But I was worried about the AT and so asked Jill if she could cut down the hard running a bit and just let more focus more on making sure I got to Sunday and the long run.  She removed a run and put in some XT instead which seemed like a good idea.


Monday: a rest day...I had to drop off Toni's car at the dealer, which is located about a 20 minute walk from my work. Walking is a GREAT way to loosen up the legs after a hard or long run.


Tuesday: 5@base(slow 9:58) + drills + 10x8sec hill sprints, got this done. (note to self: timer is running during hill sprints and recoveries but not during drills).


..some AT still there but not too bad. Was not able to ice after so we'll see how that goes but so far in the afternoon as I write this things are too bad at all.


PT in afternoon: she really helped with the AT by loosening up my heel so it's more vertical..quite a few of my footbones are pretty locked and don't move enough. This causes me to strike on the outside of my foot with the heel tilted slightly inward, hence it hurts on the outside. She showed me how to loosen these up before I run with an exercise that's not too hard.


We also worked on my right forefoot spreading better: she has me doing these exercises that involve mashing my right arch down with my left foot (with towel underneath) and rolling the foot inward and down. The goal is to see the toes on my right foot inch forward as the footbones are moving..which they don't want to do. When I stand on my toes, the line of bending of my toes should be linear, not curved as it is. If your foot bones don't move you don't get the shock absorption and energy return you should.


Wednesday: called for 7 miles with 4 at MP, leg workout and upper body weights after, I did 8 with 6 at MP:

Split	Distance	Avg Pace	Avg HR	% WHR	Cad	YPB
1	1.00	9:39	128	78.7	89	1.425
2	1.00	9:13	131	69.7	90	1.458
3	1.00	9:01	133	71.3	89	1.468
4	1.00	8:57	133	71.3	89	1.479
5	1.00	8:56	129	68.0	89	1.527
6	1.00	8:41	130	68.9	89	1.559
7	1.00	8:59	130	68.9	88	1.507
8	1.00	9:02	131	69.7	88	1.490
9	0.48	9:58	122	62.3	86	1.458
Summary	8.48	9:06	132	70.5	89	1.465

I wanted to run the MP splits at 9:00...I plan on this as my garmin pace for race day:  5s for the gps noise and bad tangents and 4s so I have a 1m 20s pad going into the last miles. (9:09 is the 4hr pace JEEZE !? HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW THAT? ;)


I kept looking down at my watch and seeing paces like 8:45, 8:52, etc. Then I'd slow down and sandbag for a while until the split for the mile came back to 9:00, then try to run at 9:00 again.  I seemed to have two speeds: sub-8:50 when I was thinking about my form and race day, and 9:15++ if I was thinking about work stuff 8/. 


My HR was a bit high for the pace by my new standards  and the YPB numbers show that I wasn't super in the "zone" but I did ok especially after I warmed up a bit.


The AT was again "there" but not bad. I did icing after and that made it feel almost normal. Off to the gym after that for the other stuff. 


Thursday: 30 min bike and strength training


Friday: 8 miles with 6 at 1/2 MP. I did 9 with 7 at MP...the foot seemed gradually getting better. Rain showers were looming for the weekend and may louse things up. Friday morning was supposed to be raining so I figured I'd run in the afternoon.

Split	Distance	Avg Pace	Avg HR	% WHR	Cad	YPB
1	1.00	9:36	135	73.0	88	1.358
2	1.00	8:40	134	72.1	89	1.515
3	1.00	8:35	136	73.8	89	1.505
4	1.00	8:28	136	73.8	88	1.528
5	1.00	8:23	136	73.8	88	1.544
6	1.00	8:18	138	75.4	88	1.537
7	1.00	8:29	136	73.8	88	1.525
8	1.00	8:32	132	70.5	88	1.562
9	0.96	9:16	128	67.2	87	1.483
Summary	8.96	8:42	135	73.0	88	1.499

The HRs are a bit higher than my best but I did this run in the late morning after I'd had morning expresso, etc.  I'm not worried about it. It took me a couple of miles to really feel fluid and warmed up and then I felt great.

Toni and Alma

Saturday: a rest day before the 20 miler.  For my upcoming birthday, Toni took me sailing on a boat: the  Alma at the maritime park in San Francisco. Alma is a restored 120yr old scow schooner, the last of what used to be many on the bay long ago.

On this day she was also hosting the "Weplayers" and they were putting on a play that was from parts of Homer's Odysseus. This was done in and around the boat deck as we were under sail (!) We were lucky with Poseidon that day and the rain held off during the entire sail and only started after we were back on shore!

cyclops!

The story is about Odysseus's long hard sail home to Ithaca from Troy. The actors help sail the boat  (A gaff rigged 80' schooner is not easy to sail) and did 4 seperate parts from the play: the story of the Cyclops, the Sirens, Circe, Aeolus and even Achilles shows up (he meets him in the underworld...). 


Anyway, the sailing combined with the play all around us,  and the fact that the weather stayed rain-free made for a really fun 3 hours!

Funny how Achilles was in my brain for two different reasons that day. As I watched him in the play I imagined if his tendon was named after somebody else... Imagine having  Schmelding's Tendonitis? 


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Later, I was studying the rain forecast for Sunday morning. I really had to get this run done before 12noon ...glad I got an extra hour of sleep for 'fall back' that night! I was very happy to see on Saturday night that the forecast shifted to 30% chance of rain by 7am Sunday morning. Yay!


I'll take a bit of rain, I just didn't want to run in a cold windy major dumpage. I did that at the LA marathon and it's doable but not great for a training run. Buuut, I'd rather do that than run on the treadmill any day!


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Sunday: 20 miles @ base on the plan.


Morning dawned and there was NO RAIN. I did the Arastradero/Junipero Serra road loop (hilly) followed by a couple of track miles at Cubberly then home. I wanted to do a high base average pace and I wanted to do a few miles at the end at MP:

Split	Distance	Avg Pace	Avg HR	% WHR	Cad	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
1	1.00	10:04	135	73.0	89	4	0	1.295
2	1.00	9:36	131	69.7	89	22	0	1.399
3	1.00	9:52	133	71.3	87	113	0	1.341
4	1.00	9:26	130	68.9	88	43	15	1.435
5	1.00	9:34	130	68.9	87	79	0	1.415
6	1.00	10:15	149	84.4	86	181	10	1.152
7	1.00	9:09	122	62.3	89	10	73	1.577
8	1.00	8:55	123	63.1	89	0	102	1.605
9	1.00	9:03	126	65.6	88	0	114	1.543
10	1.00	8:59	129	68.0	88	13	52	1.519
11	1.00	9:18	130	68.9	88	60	15	1.456
12	1.00	9:32	128	67.2	87	24	25	1.442
13	1.00	9:12	123	63.1	89	10	88	1.555
14	1.00	9:12	124	63.9	89	0	63	1.540
15	1.00	9:19	130	68.9	89	5	0	1.453
16	1.00	9:07	131	69.7	89	6	19	1.474
17	1.00	9:12	135	73.0	89	4	0	1.417
18	1.00	8:48	139	76.2	88	0	0	1.439
19	1.00	9:02	138	75.4	89	0	4	1.412
20	1.00	9:03	139	76.2	90	8	5	1.399
Summary	20.01	9:20	131	69.7	88	583	584	1.440

I pulled it off, but it was not easy....I was able to hold a fast pace at the end but the problem was my feet were beat up..the AT was bothering me too and I had to really work on my form to prevent both. Initially I thought of stretching the run to 21-22 miles but I decided to play it safe and stick to 20. I think Jill will offer me the extended 20 miler as the final run before the taper.


A rare problem: because of the post-rain humidity my glasses fogged up and I couldn't see my footing well. There are several paces with broken pavement and I think I bashed up my feet more than usual.


After ice bath they were feeling a LOT better. On to week 4!