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April 14, 2005
Good Intentions, Good Runs
While I had every intention of posting daily this week (especially since I had great runs and had drafted a couple entries), sleep overcame me just about every night. In fact, I fell asleep on the living room floor more than once. Now it’s Thursday and trying not to write a book seems like a daunting task, but I’ll give it my best shot.
In the past couple days, I’ve had some mental debates on whether I’m a hypochondriac or simply overanalytical. I have had great runs and have been feeling strong the entire week, so I should be happy, right? It’s a huge improvement over the lethargy of early last week. Then I got to thinking about my training around this time last year, which was going fabulously until hip bursitis and piriformis issues pulled summer season from under my feet. I had been increasing the length of my tempo runs as well as doing the usual track workouts with the group, just as I’ve started doing again recently. So, I’m a bit paranoid about injuries and overly sensitive about my aches and pains. I hope the feelings will pass soon enough and my body will become accustomed to the increased demands that I’m putting on it. Anyhow, it’s been fun to push harder, more often and see what the outcome is the next day…if I’m sore at all, if my legs are tired, etc.
Monday, April 11
9 miles – 15 minute warm up; 3 miles at tempo pace – 1 mile easy – 1 mile hard;
~20 minute cool down
Tuesday, April 12
Easy 6 mile run
1 mile swim – 16 laps freestyle; 16 laps mixed – back, free, breast
My legs didn’t feel bad from tempo-ing. I wanted to take it easier in anticipation of track, but sometimes legs have a mind of their own. Note: running before swimming seems to be a tougher effort than the reverse.
Wednesday, April 13
Lift arms
~6.7 miles – 15 minute warm up; 1-5-2-4-3 minute intervals ON (varied pace) with 2-3 minutes easy between; ~14 minute cool down
R. and I couldn’t make it to the track workout, but this is what the group did on the trail and what we ended up doing near the house. I wore my GPS and found myself running a 6.5 mile pace at one point, which didn’t feel too hard at the moment. But I definitely felt it in the last three minute interval, when I was running up an incline and my legs started getting tired. This was a great workout (at least mentally) because I could look forward to doing shorter and varied periods of hard running instead of one set distance or time repeat.
I almost forgot to mention my new toys. I got a new pair of New Balance 900s and a stability ball. The NBs are awesome but take some getting used to. They’re super lightweight and as a result, it feels like the bottom of my foot feels the ground more, if that makes sense. I suppose racing flats must feel that way, but I don’t know since I’ve never worn them. My plan is to rotate them a couple times a week with my 3d Grid Hurricane 5s. And I finally broke down and bought a stability ball. The decision was between that and a small, weighted ball (for abs and leg exercises), but I figured that I would use the former more. It’s mostly been a cat toy so far, but sometime I want to read the poster and learn some new core exercises. I need to be more consistent about doing those.
Posted by Leilani at April 14, 2005 10:08 AM