« Training Week: February 12 - 18, 2007 | Main | Winter Ending? »
Rough Week
This wasn't my strongest week of training, despite being my highest mileage since Chicago. I'm so freaking slow right now, I can't stand it. I'm trying to understand why, and here's what I've come up with:
* I'm 9 pounds heavier than when I ran Chicago, and 14 pounds heavier than when I ran the 1/2 in August.
* It's been really cold here. I've been out in sub-zero temps and/or wind chills a lot lately; my last run in temps above freezing was Jan 10.
* Due to the cold, I'm wearing probably at least 3-5 pounds of extra clothing.
* For the first time since high school, I'm trying to train while dealing with fluctuating hormone levels. (I really miss the steady levels of the pill).
* I'm having issues sleeping, but not taking sleeping pills.
* I'm adjusting to the higher mileage/intensity of Pfitz, which I do remember taking a bit of time last summer.
I don't know, though. I'm still left feeling like something is wrong with me when I later look at my watch and see multiple splits over 10 minutes. But all my blood work came back normal, so seeing my doctor again won't do anything for me.
I already posted about Tuesday's run, except for the part where I started getting cramps during the last "LT" mile. So here's how the rest of my week turned out.
Wednesday was a terrible day, since I got woken up at 4:30 with cramps and my period. What a shitty way to start the day. I finally fell back asleep for a few minutes after being kept awake for at least 30 minutes wanting to die and remembering how much I loved being on the pill. The cramps continued off and on throughout the day, making work a much more fun occasion than usual. I was supposed to do a 4 mile recovery run that afternoon, and it probably would've made things better but eating Noodles with the Engineer followed by Cold Stone cake sounded a lot better.
Thursday I got back on the ball, and did my 11 mi GA run after work. I parked out at one of the high schools and ran on the bike paths. This was actually a good run. My left ankle/achilles was off again at the start, but I got into a good groove after a few miles.
4:00 PM | 5°F | felt like -9°F | From WNW 10mph
5:00 PM | 4°F | felt like -13°F | From WNW 15mph
6:00 PM | 0°F | felt like -14°F | From WSW 9mph
1 | 9:34
2 | 9:26 | 19:01
3 | 9:23 | 28:24
4 | 9:23 | 37:47
5 | 9:07 | 46:55
6 | 8:55 | 55:50
7 | 8:43 | 1:04:34
8 | 8:49 | 1:13:23
9 | 8:47 | 1:22:11
10 | 8:38 | 1:30:50
11 | 8:24 | 1:39:15
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11.14 miles | 1:40:22 | 9:01/mi.
Friday, I'd thought about making up the missed recovery run but I didn't feel like it again. I also made the mistake of sitting down after getting home from work - I really do best when I just get dressed and go. Well, I do the best when I change at work and don't even come home, but I don't always want to spend the time in the morning or at lunch packing my bag. (Packing it the night before isn't an option if I ran that day, since everything needs to dry out).
Saturday, it was in the double digits with a wind chill above zero! Molly has looked so sad lately that I decided to take her with me. She turned into spazzy, snow fiend monster around 1.4 miles, making me angry. I think I have to give up on the harness - when she starts diving around, it loosens enough that she could get out. Plus, I think she's just not built right for it. It fits snug around her ribs, but I can't get it tight around the shoulders, she's too narrow there or something. I unhooked the leash from her harness and attached it to her collar and then she behaved better.
Now that it's warm, I think I'm probably done running on the road to 0xbow. I didn't write about it last week, but I did encounter a dog out closer to the park. He seemed to stay in his yard, but I crossed the street when I returned (figuring he wouldn't cross the street to chase, but he wasn't outside). Triathlete told me this week that he's been chased by 2 dogs from the house before while out biking, so I'm not as inclined to run past it now. And yesterday, a dog at a different house came running at Molly and me. He didn't really leave his yard, and he was gone when we passed back, but it bothered my wussy pup.
I think I'm also done running on that road because my last few runs on it have been horribly slow. I find it hard to believe that I ran so slowly, but both SportTracks and MotionBased match the overall distance so it wasn't a GPS error. What a crappy run.
16°F | felt like 1°F | From NNW 15mph
1 | 09:21
2 | 09:58 | 19:19
3 | 10:08 | 29:28
4 | 10:08 | 39:36
5 | 10:02 | 49:39
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5.05 miles | 50:08 | 9:56/mi.
Today, it was also in the upper teens with wind chills above zero. I decided to be smarter than last week and carry water with me. Having read other blogger's accounts of their water freezing, I decided I'd park kind of in the middle of the area I wanted to run and I'd stop halfway through to change bottles. I didn't want to run from the house, because I didn't want to have the temptation to stop but also because I can't think of where I can run that would have clear enough roads to get in a good long run.
My first half ended up being longer than planned. I'd started out on the bike paths, but then ventured out onto the roads. From about 1.5 to 3.5 miles, the sidewalks and roads weren't the best, but then the road became really good for running. It had a wide, paved shoulder that was clear of snow. I was heading up hill, but it was gradual so it wasn't too bad. I would've kept going, but I didn't want to get too far away from my car and extra bottle, so I turned around at 5.
That turned out to be smart, because by 7 miles the spout to my bottle had frozen. I was able to open it, but nothing would come out. I could hear that my water wasn't frozen yet, though. I took a slightly different way back to the car, so I hit my car around 9.6 miles. I stopped briefly to drink some water and change bottles and then took back off.
My hamstrings started getting kind of sore around 11 miles, and by 14 miles I was kind of done. I stopped around 13.5 and 16 miles to try and stretch but it didn't help a whole lot. Although it wasn't terribly cold out, I think it was kind of getting to me. I'm so tired of winter! I trudged through my last mile, and was glad to reach the car.
1 | 9:36
2 | 9:46 | 19:23
3 | 9:38 | 29:01
4 | 9:37 | 38:39
5 | 9:35 | 48:14
6 | 9:07 | 57:22
7 | 8:57 | 1:06:20
8 | 8:54 | 1:15:14
9 | 8:41 | 1:23:55
10 | 8:51 | 1:32:47
11 | 8:54 | 1:41:41
12 | 8:47 | 1:50:29
13 | 8:56 | 1:59:25
14 | 8:59 | 2:08:25
15 | 9:08 | 2:17:34
16 | 9:08 | 2:26:43
17 | 9:21 | 2:36:04
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17.23 miles | 2:38:19 | 9:11/mi.
Still on the fence about Boston. The Engineer and I were talking the other night about taking a trip somewhere else; neither of us has passports so we're kind of limited on where we can go, but he suggested maybe Hawaii. I really want to get away from this cold weather, and I want a break from work. I don't really know what else we'd do in Boston besides the marathon, and it's not really a fun vacation for the Engineer.
The marathon is 80% full, and the price goes up on the first so I have to decide soon. What I really need is several days of good running. Because right now, I'm feeling pretty crappy about things and not in the mood to try and run a marathon right now. I'd feel a lot better if I had more than an isolated good run sprinkled in between really bad ones.