Oct 31, Nov 4

FIT:
On Oct 30th, the day after the Spinx HM, my legs were feeling sore, especially my quads.  I had been doing a post-marathon shuffle after a HM, and I'm normally just fine afterwards... tired, but able to walk fairly normally.  I decided to do a strength session, to work out stiffness.  In hindsight, maybe a day of rest would've been better, but it wasn't bad.  550 crunches/side, 2:45 plank, 90/95 adductor/abdctor leg lifs, 25 tricep dips, 100 lower leg extensions, resistance band for arms, resitance band for legs, 1:00 sie planks, 50 arm sweeps in superman position, 150 weighted dead bug crunches

The next day, I was excited to prep for the Camp Croft HM, which would take place in another two weeks.  I decided to do some hills, which had the added benefit of being low impact compared to the usual 1 degree treadmill run.  It would also help me be a better overall runner.  I was originally going to just go to bed early and have a rest day, but I ended up being too alert to sleep (at 8pm), so I decided to do that workout instead. 

The workout: 0.25 mi @ 7mph, 0.75 mi @ 8mph to warm up quickly (my mom was taking video, so I wanted to get sweaty and into workout mode quickly... I normally wouldn't hit 8 until the very end of my run), 2 x [0.5 @ 5 degree, 0.5 @ 1 degree] at 7.5mph, 1 mile progression run to finish off and give my legs a break from the hills.  It's a baby hill workout, but I gotta start somewhere.  I guess it all depends on how fast you're going...

Let's break out http://www.hillrunner.com/training/tmillchart.php
at 1 degree, 7.5mph = 8:00/mi, and at 5 degrees, 7.5mph = 6:54/mi, so it was a decent workout after all. 

The next day, Nov 1, my legs felt a bit banged up, maybe with the HM, Strength the day after, and Hills the day after that. 

The next two days, I wanted to work out, but I was too sleepy.  On the bright side, sleepiness = forced rest, which will help prevent overtraining, which is good because I'm very eager to get better.  Also, it's been a fantastic week for me sleep-wise, with about 7 hr per night!!!  Hopefully, I've been able to absorb the training from the HM and hills.

I really wanted to run, though.  Earlier yesterday evening, I was itching for a long run, but by the time I had my usual big dinner, I got sleepy sleepy.  I dreamed about being able to run, though.  You know you want to run when you dream about it.

Today, finally got in the run after 3 days of rest.  I really wanted to go to the park.  I haven't been there in 7 weeks!  It's normally my staple outside place to run on weekdays.  It's dark by the time I get off work and finish dinner, though, so I don't think I'll be able to go out there again on weekdays for a while.  Treadmill saves gas, but I will miss the variation in surface and the use of my stabilizer muscles.  I'll really crave my weekend runs outside, though, so maybe that'll help me want to go extra long on long runs. 

So today's workout...
I just wanted to get in some miles, knowing that I'd go again this weekend, maybe tomorrow, maybe Sunday.  I always tackle the park runs in the same way - progression. Nothing fancy.  Start, and I'll naturally go faster as I go along. 

~0.75 mi Lap Splits> 6:31, 6:25, 6:16, 6:11, 6:06, 6:07, 5:58, 5:54, 5:39.

6.7 in 55:13, 8:15 ave, 546 cal.  Nice pace given the terrain.  The cool temps certainly helped.

Looking forward to HP7_II coming out on 11.11.11!!!  If Walmart opens before I leave for work, I may have to get it then, even if I can't watch it yet.  It'll be a nice way to chill before the Camp Croft HM (thanks for the race suggestion, Lindsay from chasingthekenyans.com!)  By the way - how should I pace the run?  They don't provide an elevation map, so I don't know when the slower miles are supposed to be and when I can feel okay about pushing it a bit without burning out too early.  Judging from your time last year, since I'm a bit slower, I can expect an overall pace of ~10:00/mi, but I don't know when I should be going faster vs. slower.  Thanks in advance for the advice!