In roughly one more month, it is actually supposed to get warmer. Even if February turns out rather cold, overall I've been quite pleased with the mild winter. Here's to hoping it won't be 100 degrees everyday in the summer....
1/23 Monday:
PM: 7 miles total, 6 with the Monday night Fed Hill group.
1/24 Tuesday:
PM: 11 miles total with 6 in a progression style quick run (on the Gilman track) at least starting out at half marathon pace...
5:39; 5:32; 5:32; 5:30; 5:30
It still amazes me how much I struggle to put together three consecutive miles under 5:20 in a 5K, but slow it down 10-15 seconds, and I can rail off mid 5:20s to mid 5:40s almost on command. This problem has existed forever, the miles just keep getting faster.
1/25 Wednesday:
PM: 7 miles from Canton Square, first half easy, second half not so much
1/26 Thursday:
AM: 5 Miles
PM: (cut short) 4 miles
My shins and ankles still seemed upset with me from the previous weekend and rather than make it worse, I canned the afternoon run halfway through.
1/27 Friday:
AM: 4 miles, easy with the Back on My Feet crew
PM: 7 miles, easy/moderate
Legs felt ok.
1/28 Saturday:
AM: 7 miles, easy/moderate
1/29 Sunday:
About 17 miles total in roughly 2 hours. This was the morning after some bar hopping, which I haven't done in a long time, but a friend was leaving for Philadelphia for a new job opportunity, so we decided to send her off in style. 10 bars in 10 hours (though not quite 10 drinks because well, I only weigh 142 lbs) made for an interesting long run. Overall, it was actually pretty good, until the last 20 minutes; I almost puked but managed to hold it together. I was glad to have the company of TWSS on that one.
Total Miles: 69
That made for three consecutive weeks in the 60s...61, 66, 69. A nice careful addition of miles with no bike riding has left me rather healthy. Except for these pesky shins, but keep reading.
1/30 Monday:
PM: 7 miles with the Monday night Fed Hill Group. It started easy, but as usual, it did not end easy. Good run though.
1/31 Tuesday:
PM: 9 miles total. On yet another crazy warm night in the 60s, I got in a pretty cool workout (thanks to the creativity of others). It was termed a "broken 1600" workout, for good reason.
Rep 1: 1 mile....5:22
1 lap jog
Rep 2: 1200 meters...3:53
short rest
Rep 3: 400 meters...69
1 lap jog
Rep 4: 800 meters...2:30
short rest
Rep 5: 800 meters...2:25
1 lap jog
Final...4x400 meters with short rest between each lap: 72, 67, 67, 65
I had done a lot of sustained hard runs the past few Tuesdays, so it was good to mix it up with some speed. That last 4x400 was a great way to work on that finishing kick.
My shins were actually quite displeased with this run (but don't worry it gets better).
2/1 Wednesday:
7 miles, easy from Canton Square
Shins and ankles were meh.
2/2 Thursday:
By now I'm finally thinking, if I can't get this pain to go away which has been coming and going for the last 2 weeks, I'll take some time off. However, I had a very sneaking suspicion that my shoe laces were to blame. I've occasionally had shin pain when I had running shoes that tended to loosen up in the past. Though I've never had problems with my ST5s doing that, my latest pair for whatever reason would not stay tight.
I changed to that pair around the same time I ran an icy 16 miles the previous weekend. So for 2 weeks, I was experiencing shin and ankle pain that I thought was related to that run when in reality, it may have been related to my shoes. So I tied the shit out of my shoes and went for a not so easy 7 miler with some dude who ran a 58 at Club Challenge last year. He wasn't running for HCS, so I didn't have to dump him in the harbor...
And as luck would have it, all my issues were in fact caused by shoe laces that were loosening up and/or not tight enough to begin with. After that run, I had no pain at all. Kind of stupid in hindsight, but at least I seemingly figured out the problem.
2/3 Friday:
AM: 3 miles easy. The pace nearly makes it an off day, but I'll still count the miles. As I learned last year, even really slow miles can contribute to and make overuse injuries worse, so they need to be tracked.
2/4 Saturday:
7 miles easy/moderate. I actually ran into 3 people I knew. Go Baltimore runners! No pain at all again. Tightly tied shoes = no pain. Hopefully my next pair will be easier to tie.
I've got about 15 miles on tap for tomorrow to cap off a 55 mile step back week. Following this one, things are going to ramp up. I'm going to make my Monday and Wednesday runs longer, around 11 and 10 miles instead of 7 each to get some mid week longer stuff in. I'll also add a secondary workout on Fridays, some hills to help augment my training, rather than just dropping the hammer whenever I encounter hills on regular runs. Both Club Challenge and Boston require some dedication to hills. Mileage will go up into the mid to upper 70s, and I'm still avoiding the bike like the plague to maximize my chances of staying healthy. One step back week during the final week in February will cap this month off, then its time for the races I've been impatiently waiting for:
10 Mile Club Challenge
Shamrock 5K
National Half Marathon
Boston Marathon
I'm gunning to crush Club Challenge and National. I'll take a PR of even 1 second at the 5K. As for Boston, well I have yet to determine a goal time but the main goal is to finally run that damn race after first qualifying in November 2009. I'll worry about a time when I get close to the finish line.
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