Feb 24

FIT:
Back after 3 days off. My plan: after Sat's run, I spent Sun just building up endurance in a non-impact way on the bike (although not without irritating what I just guess is the bursa in my rt butt). Then Monday, I was long overdue for a strength session - if you don't do it once/6 days at least, I lose it. Then, a break on Tuesday, prepping for what I hoed would be a Wed night run in the dark. The headlamp I ordered would come just in time for it, too.

Well, the light came, but it was raining, and it's not warm out, either. So... a run in the cold rain in the dark on very uneven ground... or an indoor treadmill at about 71 degrees... Went home after Bible Study and hit the treadmill.

The first few miles went by so slowly. I kept worrying/wondering how far I could go, both because of uncertainty about what my body could handle, and because I'd have to cut whatever I was doing short if anyone was waiting in line for the treadmill. Went slow, hoping to make it a long run. 3 finally passed by. As it gets closer to closing time, the chances of people showing up is usually slimmer, so things looked up, and the miles started going by faster. It was nice watching the Olympics while running. Nothing better. As an aside, I've had a very satisfying Olympic experience this year - I've watched so much of it, that I'm satisfied.

Anyway, my inner knees were a bit burny at work today, just a little. And they were a bit groany at times during the run, but I realized that telling myself that I was doing a super long run, and that I had lots more to go, made me loosen up somehow. It's kind of strange. And loosening up resulted in better form - higher knee drive, higher kick back, instead of staying tightened up. It's more efficient... funny that it kind of happense automatically when you know you're going to be in it for a while. So whenever things started hurting, I'd tell myself that I had a long way to go, and my form would adjust, and things would stop hurting. Excellent!

So I was at 6, then kept triggering form tweaks to make it to 7, then decided it wasn't much more to bring it to 8, then figured that I could probably make it to 9 without injury, and I lasted... barely, I'd say. I kind of feel like I was kind of riding the line and barely avoiding crossing it. The last couple hundred meters felt very risky... could be because I knew I was close and was tightening up rather than loose. Hard to say. But I made it.

I knew I had to ice afterwards, so I stayed as long as I could before being out in my bra in wet clothes and an ice bath in cold air got to be a bit much. Hit that 30-min fueling window with a Whey Powder + Acai drink, a mini-PB-WW-Honey muffin (supposed to be a cookie, which I made in a muffin tin because I don't have a cookie sheet, but turned out to be more like bread b/c I had dumped lots of the PB oil), and a banana.

Splits> 8:18, 8:19, 8:13, 8:13, 8:13, 8:11, 8:12, 8:05, 8:11. 9 mi in 1:14:00, 8:13 ave. Oh yes, the best part, I used a 1 percent incline, because at 0 degrees, it's almost as if you're getting a downhill advantage, due to wind resistance. At 8:13, if I had done it at 0 degrees, it would have been like going at 8:34, so this was a legit 8:13. If I had done this effort level at 0 degrees, it's like going at 7:54. (See http://www.hillrunner.com/training/tmillchart.php for the conversions). So I think I have improved. Yay base. Boo line, but I'll ride you for now.