avondale training journal, starting Dec. 2018 (comments welcome)

Week of Apr. 22 - 28, 2019

Running
  • Tuesday, Apr. 23: 3EA, T+D 126 = 1.5% correction, target pace 12:10, splits 12:17, 12:15, 11:57. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Wednesday, Apr. 24: 5EB, T+D 109 = 0.5% correction, target pace 11:12, splits 11:11, 11:03, 11:12, 11:13, 11:15. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Thursday, Apr. 25: 3EA, T+D 118 = 1% correction, target pace 12:03, splits 12:04, 11:56, 11:59. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going south.
  • Friday, Apr. 26 (originally scheduled for Sat): 4EA, T+D 114 = 1% correction, target pace 12:03, splits 12:00, 11:40, 12:04, 12:05. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Sunday, Apr. 28: 5LR, T+D 118 = 1% correction, target pace 10:56, splits 10:56, 10:53, 10:46, 10:50, 10:47. Route: Rock Creek Trail, going north.
This was my first week of my DopeyBadger training plan for the 5K on May 27. It feels a little strange to be running so few miles.


Other
  • Monday
    • morning: foam rolling and stretching
    • evening: supposed to be a tennis lesson, but there was a miscommunication and it was canceled, but not before I wasted most of the evening driving.
  • Tuesday morning: tennis strength phase 1, like previous
  • Wednesday morning: core routine, like previous
  • Thursday morning: foam rolling and stretching
  • Friday morning: foam rolling and stretching
  • Saturday
    • morning: 2-hour tennis practice
    • evening: tennis doubles match - my partner and I had an amazing comeback, winning 0-6, 7-6, 1-0! Our team won overall, too!

Health
  • The headache continues. I am still doing my neck stretches, because I can definitely feel that my neck gets really sore and tight.
 
Week of Apr. 29 - May 5, 2019

Running:
  • Monday, Apr. 29 (originally scheduled for Tue): 3EA, target pace 11:56, splits 11:55, 11:53, 11:53. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Tuesday, Apr. 30 (originally scheduled for Wed): 2WU + 8 x (150-m @R with 150-m RI) + 1 CD, T+D 136, 3% correction, target R pace 7:59, splits 7:22, 7:03, 6:59, 7:02, 6:39, 6:49, 6:36, 6:54. At the HS track. *note below
  • Friday, May 3 (originally scheduled for Thu): 3EA, T+D 138, 3% correction, target pace 12:17, splits 12:08, 12:13, 12:01. Route: Sligo Creek, going north.
  • Saturday, May 4: 5EB, T+D 136, 3% correction, target pace 11:25, splits 11:29, 11:25, 12:05, 12:11, 12:13. Stopped at 4.35 mi. Route: around Wilde Lake. **note below
  • Sunday, May 5: 5LR, T+D 118, 1% correction, target pace 10:56, splits 10:48, 10:49, 10:40, 10:53, 10:48. Rained the whole time. Route: Rock Creek Trail, going north.
*Note from R-pace run: I did the R-pace intervals too fast. But's not clear how much too fast, because the Garmin GPS doesn't really have the precision to mark 150 m, and double-tapping for manual laps doesn't always work well. DopeyBadger said to see how the 300-m R-pace intervals go the following week.

**Note from Saturday: This 5EB run happened immediately after my singles tennis match, which was also after a tennis practice (see below), and so my legs were dead. My HR was getting way out of the EB range, so I cut back the pace to EA after 2 miles. The route was also pretty hilly. My route was a little short of 5 miles, but it seemed good enough.


Other
  • Monday morning: foam rolling and stretching.
  • Tuesday morning: tennis strength workout, same as previous
  • Wednesday morning: core workout, same as previous
  • Thursday
    • morning: tennis strength workout, same as previous, and foam rolling and stretching
    • evening: I had just started my 3 EA run when I got a text from one of my tennis players needing an emergency sub for our match that evening - so I stopped the run and played a doubles match. Unfortunately my partner and I lost badly.
  • Friday morning: foam rolling and stretching
  • Saturday:
    • morning: 2-hr tennis practice, mix of singles and doubles
    • afternoon: singles tennis match. I won against a woman 20 years younger than me! Yay! Then changed and went right out into my run.

Health
  • Headache has been really bad Friday and this weekend. Blah. Keeping busy doesn't let me dwell on it.

I officially signed up for the 5K on May 27 and the HM on July 14.
 
Week of May 6 - 12, 2019

Well, the big event this week was the collision that totaled my car on Monday night. I was driving home from my tennis match after 11pm. I was making a protected left turn on a green light. As I turned through the intersection, someone going straight through the intersection in the same direction as me ran the red light and hit my car around the back passenger wheel. The collision made my car turn more to the left and hit head-on two cars that were waiting at the red light going in the opposite direction.

Fortunately I was not hurt and no one else involved was seriously injured. I think car safety must just be amazing these days. I had my seat belt on. The side airbag on the passenger side went off. I had a sore neck for a few days, but it's already gone. Unfortunately the hassle with the insurance claim and related problems remain. My insurance hasn't yet officially declared my car a total loss, but it seems likely. I have been doing some car shopping.

Now to the point of the training log...

Running
  • Tuesday May 7: 3EA, T+D 136, 3% correction, target pace 12:17. Splits 12:15, 12:16, 12:10. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Wednesday, May 8: 2WU + 4 x (150 m @R + 150 m RI) + 2 x (300 m @R + 300 m RI) + 4 x (150 m @R + 150 m RI) + 1 CD. T+D 125, 1.5% correction, target R pace 7:53. Splits: 7:06, 7:02, 8:11 (I had a lot of trouble getting the manual lap to activate), 6:47, 7:08, 6:56, 7:05, 6:42, 6:29 6:36. HS track. Again, these were too fast, but DopeyBadger says this is OK as long as I can keep up the pace for all of the intervals.
  • Friday, May 10: 3EA, T+D 126, 1.5% correction, target pace 12:06, splits: 12:09, 12:01, 12:02. (Originally scheduled for Thursday.) Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north
  • Saturday, May 11: 5EB, target pace 11:08, splits 11:04, 11:01, 11:03, 11:09, 11:06. Route: Justus Trail going toward Oil City.
  • Sunday, May 12: 2WU + 4 x (0.5 @T + 1 min RI) + 1 CD. T+D 105, 0.5% correction, T-pace target pace 9:14. T-pace splits: 9:12, 9:13, 9:09, 9:10. HS Track.

Other
  • Monday evening: tennis doubles match - we won 7-5, 6-2, and the team won overall!
  • Wednesday morning: foam rolling and stretching
  • Thursday morning: foam rolling and stretching

Health
  • Fortunately no injuries from the car accident.
  • My headache has been really bad over the last few days - I drove to visit my mom and back and sitting in the car always seems to kill it.
 


Week of May 13 - 19, 2019

Running
  • Tuesday, May 14: 3EA, target pace 11:56, splits 11:54, 12:14, 11:53 - GPS screwed up on mile 2. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Wednesday, May 15: 2 WU + 4 x (150-m @R + 150-m RI + 150-m @R + 300-m RI + 300-m @R + 150-m RI) + 1 CD, T+D 105, 0.5% correction, target R-pace 7:48
    • first set: 6:17, 6:24, 6:47; I could tell this was WAY too fast and I was going to die if I kept up this pace. I purposely pulled back a bit on the next sets.
    • second set: 6:56, 6:46, 7:36; in the 300-m interval, two boys chased a ball onto the track immediately in front of me and I had to slam on the brakes or fall over them; this was about 225 m and I stopped the interval there.
    • third set: 7:25, 6:59, 7:24; in the 300-m interval, the same two boys got in front of me again (!!) but I could go on with a brief pause.
    • fourth set: 6:56, 6:33, 7:28
  • Thursday, May 16: 3EA, T+D 124, 1.5% correction, target pace 12:05, splits 12:05, 12:04, 12:07. Route: around the neighborhood.
  • Saturday, May 18: 5EB, T+D 144, 4% correction, target pace 11:34, splits 11:36, 11:32, 11:32, 11:35, 11:28. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Sunday, May 19: 2WU + 4 x (1 @T + 2-min RI) + 1 CD, T+D 126 to start and 139 to finish, 2 - 3% correction. HS Track. This run didn't happen right. The track was in full Sun. I was really tired and dehydrated from the previous day's run and previous two days' tennis (see below). I had decided to do this run in the morning after the prior day's afternoon 5EB because it was supposed to be 20 deg hotter in the afternoon - no good choices. I got the warm-up done and the first T-pace interval at the target of 9:20. After this interval I was just feeling really bad physically and mentally. I stopped and took a break in the one tiny bit of shade. I decided I would do the next 3 miles as LR, EB, EA, then the CD mile. I couldn't keep up the LR pace in the first mile and went into EB. I did EA for the next two miles and then did about 1/3-mile CD. My HR stayed in the 160s BPM throughout, even the CD. I had brought water for the run and was drinking, but even so, my ears got plugged up because I got so dried out. I called it quits on the CD when I started to feel cold even while running in the full Sun.

I'm a little bummed about missing this run today, but it really wasn't going to happen. I hope that I didn't get so burned out this weekend to wear myself out too much for my 5K on May 27. And I really, really hope it's not too hot for the 5K. This weekend is our first summery hot and humid weekend, and I'm definitely not used to it. I miss running in the winter!


Other
  • Monday
    • morning: foam rolling and stretching
    • evening: tennis doubles match - we lost 6-2, 6-4, and the team lost overall, too.
  • Tuesday morning: foam rolling and stretching
  • Wednesday morning: core routine as previous, foam rolling and stretching
  • Thursday morning: tennis strength phase 1, as previous
  • Friday
    • morning: prehab routine, and foam rolling and stretching
    • evening: tennis singles match - I won a great match 5-7, 7-5, 1-0. We played for 2 hr 10 min and I got over 8000 steps! The team won overall, too!
  • Saturday morning: 2-hour tennis practice
  • Sunday evening: 1-hour private tennis lesson


Health
  • Headache is still bad. I'm ramping down to go off the amitriptyline since it didn't work and ramping up on topiramate to see if it will work.
 
Week of May 20 - 26, 2019

Running
  • Monday: 3EA, T+D 141, 3.5% correction, target pace 12:20, splits 12:18, 12:11, 12:14. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Tuesday: 2WU + 8 x (150-m @R + 150-m RI) + 1 CD, T+D 110, 1%correction, R-pace 7:50, splits 6:09, 6:33, 6:08, 6:09, 6:38, 6:18, 6:22, 6:30. HS track. My core really feels it after these intervals.
  • Friday: 3EA, T+D 119, 1.5% correction, target pace 12:07, splits 12:10, 12:00, 12:02. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Saturday: 4EB, T+D 110, 0.5% correction, target pace 11:11, splits 11:04, 11:07, 11:07, 11:13. Route: Allegheny Valley Trail, going toward Emlenton.
  • Sunday: 3EA, T+D 122, 1.5% correction, target pace 12:06, splits 12:03, 11:53, 12:08. Route: Justus Trail, going toward Oil City.

Other
My goal for this week was to get some rest, because I've been feeling tired and beaten up lately.
  • Monday morning: foam rolling and stretching
  • Tuesday morning: foam rolling and stretching
  • Wednesday
    • morning: foam rolling and stretching
    • evening: tennis singles match - I lost 6-1, 7-5, but fortunately the team won overall.
  • Thursday evening: tennis doubles match - my partner and I won 3-6, 6-0, 1-0, and our team won overall, too!

Health
  • Headaches have been continuing. Not better, but not really worse. I've got an appointment in early July to try botox injections if my new medicine hasn't helped by then. Um, yay.

My 5K race is tomorrow morning!
 


Mercer Freedom 5K Race Recap, May 27, 2019

The Mercer Freedom 5K took place in Mercer, PA, which is near where I grew up. I did this race because it was at an approximate time that DopeyBadger said I should put a race, and I thought it would be nice to do one near my hometown.

This was an extremely low-key, low-tech race. I thought that since a timing company had race results from last year (and was scheduled to do it this year, too), it would be chip-timed, but that was not the case - read on. There were 166 runners this year, about the same number as last year. Pre-registration was $20 by mailing in a paper form to Pizza Joe's, the sponsor - veterans ran for free. You do get a reasonably nice T-shirt, no medal. No map of the race course online, just a description of the route. Shrug.

Race day turned out to be gorgeous and sunny, with a T+D of about 110. Start time was 8:30am. My mom went with me to the race. It was almost an hour drive to Mercer. I had a normal full breakfast, and we got to Mercer at about 7:15am. We walked around to find the start... on the street next to the Post Office. Check. They sort of had a map of the course. Walked around a bit, used the bathroom at the convenience store, and my mom sat in the car and read a book while I did some easy running for a warm up.

I found someone who looked like he had run the race before - yep, a veteran of both the race and the military - and he filled me in. The race was all downhill on the way out and all uphill on the way back, with some rollers, but we go a bit father out than we come back. The finish line isn't all the way back, which I had known. So that was helpful - I planned to go faster on the way out to bank up a bit for the uphill on the way back.

I had been concerned about my bib, since there was no chip on it...when you get to the finish line, someone pulls the tag off the bottom of your bib and then your time is marked. They have volunteers at the end pulling the tags off and marking down the bib numbers and times. Perhaps I'm being obtuse here, but exactly why do you need a "timing company" for this? Well, I wasn't doing this race for any kind of proof of time, so no big deal about the precision.

Go get my mom out of the car at about 8:10am to head to the start line. With the small crowd, she would at least have a good view at the start and end. I had told her to note the start time and walk to the finish line to look for me 27 minutes later, plus or minus about 30 seconds, since DopeyBadger predicted 27:07 for me. :)

So, when I picked up my bib, I asked where the start line was, because there was absolutely no indication of it. I was told "at the pole". Sure enough, we all lined up on the street between two telephone poles. Here's a pic from my mom of us all lined up. I am in front, to the right of the person in white who is just to the right of the flag.403864
The race director (?) came up with a bullhorn and said, "The race course is the same as it was last year...[quick summary]...you will start on the siren." There was one wheelchair competitor, and he was sent off about a minute early.

I'm not sure they ever actually closed the street that we started the race on. A couple of cars came through in the five-ish minutes before we started, and we just kind of moved aside for them. We were only on this main street through town for about 1/2-mile, and then we were on an unpainted paved side road that was in fact closed, so maybe they didn't bother since everyone was through that first section pretty quickly.

At any rate, they set off a hoot from a police siren to start us, and everyone took off like a shot. The first 1.75 miles are generally downhill, but the first 0.5 miles are really downhill. Folks were sprinting like they were going to dive forward. I was thinking we were going crazy fast, and saw, yep, like a 7:00 pace. I pulled back pretty quickly and fell way back, but figured I'd be passing most of them later on. I did want to take advantage of the downhill to bank some time for the second half of the course.

In that first half-mile, we ran by the very nice small-town square with their war memorial, where they were having some Memorial Day ceremonies later on. They also had an absolutely enormous US flag suspended over the street from two fire truck ladders (for the parade later that day) that we ran under, which was really cool.

After approximately a half-mile, we got to a Y-intersection, and we took the right leg onto a less-major road into some farming country. The road was still paved, but smaller. The downhill was much less steep and got into some rolling small uphills, but mostly downhill. The Y-intersection was the finish line that we would come back to.

My first mile came in at 8:14, which is probably one of my fastest race miles, since this is only my third 5K race and all of my other races have been longer. I was happy with that, since I knew the return was going to be hard. The course continued with some rolling hills but mostly down until about 1.75 miles, which was the turn-around. From my Garmin, I can tell that from the start to 1.75 miles, it was about 200 ft of elevation loss, with some rolling gain in there.

Then the return 1.35 miles was mostly uphill, with some rollers. Mile 2 came in at 8:53. Mile 3 was 9:56. That last mile was hard, because the steepest part was toward the end. I started fartleking it, running a little easier toward a landmark, then harder toward a landmark, then easier and so on. The elevation gain on the return was about 100 ft. Garmin says the total elevation gain was 150 ft, so the rollers added the extra.

I got up to the chute, and my mom was ready for a great photo:
403865
And then I had to have someone tear the darn tag off my bib! Fortunately they really were ready to do this. Done. I forgot to hit my Garmin right away...I got 27:40 on my Garmin.

My mom and I had a long uphill walk back to the town center and Pizza Joe's for the results. Based on the previous year's results and my time, I had a chance of placing in my age group, so I wanted to stick around and see. I got a bottle of water and we walked back.

A lot of the runners gathered around Pizza Joe's and we waited for quite awhile. Someone finally came out and said that there was some of glitch in the timing, and so that's why there was a delay. Shortly after that, they posted the list of results in the window of the pizza shop - it just had all the runners in place order, along with age group placement, but no finish times. I got 4th in my age group (no award), so we left. (They had people dressed in Civil War period costumes to give out the awards.)

Later that evening, the timing company posted the results online along with the finish times. I finished in 27:08 (Note: DopeyBadger's training plan predicted 27:07). I was 4 out of 16 in the 41-50 age group - I was 3 seconds behind the 3rd place woman, and somehow I don't even remember seeing her. I was 84th out of 166 runners total, and 24th out of 74 women.

This was a fun race that fit my training plan goals for the moment. It was definitely a different perspective to do such a small-town race.
 
May 28 - June 2, 2019

Running
  • Tuesday, May 28: 3EA, T+D 151, 4.5% correction, target pace 12:25, splits 12:29, 12:26, 12:14. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Wednesday, May 29: 3EA, T+D 154, 5% correction, target pace 12:31, splits 12:22, 12:17, 12:25. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Saturday, June 1: 6EB, T+D 139, 3.5% correction, target pace 11:28, splits 11:11, 11:20, 11:27, 11:23, 11:28, 11:31. Route: Rock Creek Trail, going north.
  • Sunday, June 2: 2WU + 4 x (1.25@T + 3 min RI) + 1CD, T+D 141, 3.5% correction so T-pace 9:30. Splits 9:30, 9:34, 9:55, 11:09. I couldn't do the third interval and went with LR pace for the fourth interval. I had to cut my CD a tenth short due to lightning. The run came to about 8.7 mi.
My schedule had a R-pace interval run scheduled mid-week, but I couldn't fit it in because of a tennis match. Thank goodness DopeyBadger had me take it out, because I would've done it on Wednesday when the heat index was 94 F. It was nasty outside!

I am not happy with another failed T-pace run. I couldn't do the mile repeats on May 19. Today was better, but not good. Hydration seems to be an issue for me on the hard runs, so I am working on that. I drank over a gallon of fluids yesterday (Sat), but I also sweated a lot with the 6EB run and tennis practice (see below). Today, prior to the T-pace run, which I did at at 4pm, I drank about 70 oz of fluids. I took 60 oz of Tailwind with me (about 300 cal in the water), and it looks like I drank about 40 oz - I was actively trying to drink a lot. I did not notice signs of dehydration during the run, at least, so that is good. I just couldn't get my legs to run faster in the last two intervals.

Other
  • Wednesday morning: prehab routine, like previous, and foam rolling and stretching
  • Thursday
    • morning: prehab routine, like previous, and foam rolling and stretching
    • evening: tennis doubles match - my partner and I lost 6-4, 6-2, and our team lost overall
  • Friday morning: foam rolling and stretching
  • Saturday morning: 2-hour tennis practice, mix of doubles and singles

Health
  • Nothing new: headache continues, better and worse; the new medicine doesn't seem to be doing anything, which is no surprise.
 
R-Pace Workout That Went Right

So I'm posting because it's nice to post about a speed workout that went right after that darn T-pace workout this past Sunday that I couldn't hit the second two intervals on.

The R-pace run for this week was scheduled for today (Wed), but I had to do it yesterday or tomorrow because I have a singles tennis match tonight. Yesterday had a T+D of 120, while tomorrow is forecast to be 140 - 150, so yesterday it was.

The workout was 2WU + 3 x (150-m @ R + 150-m @RI) + 5 x (300-m @R + 400-m @RI) + 3 x (150-m @R + 150-m @RI) + 1 CD. My R-pace is 7:46 so the 150-m should take about 45 s and the 300-m 90 s, but I have typically been doing them faster.

First 3 150 m:
  • 37.1 s (6:22) (we love gratuitous precision - we can do tenths of seconds but not thousandths of miles****)
  • 37.5 s (6:40)
  • 37.6 s (6:21) (this read out as a slightly longer distance - I am doing manual laps)
300 m:
  • 81.1 s (6:56)
  • 89.4 s (7:18) - I had huge problems with the manual laps on this one - I think it was at least 4 seconds too long
  • 84.1 s (7:24) (this read out as a slightly shorter distance)
  • as I started this interval, I realized that I had been sort of hunching over on the sprints - not really looking at my feet, but not really looking ahead, either. I start these with a "rolling start" at the beginning of the straightaway on the track, and as I started this one, I sighted at the other end of the straightaway, and it was like I was taking off. 80.5 s !! (6:56)
  • 78.2 s (7:07) (this read a slightly shorter distance)
Last 3 150 m:
  • 37.1 s (6:30)
  • 40.5 s - could NOT get the manual lap to go - at least 3 s too long
  • 38.3 s (6:48) - yeah, I was getting tired

Overall, really, really happy to have rocked this night!

But....it took forever to do it. After the 300s, I started thinking, "Seems like I've been out here a long time." Looked at my watch - "yep, thought I'd be done by now."

The run on my calendar is listed as about an hour in length. Intervals, yep, OK. Well.... looks like the amount of recovery interval time that was included was about equal to the amount of R-pace work interval time, when I'm supposed to spend 2 - 3 times longer in the recovery interval. So that's an extra 12 to 24 minutes to add on to the workout time. I tend to be toward the long end of the recovery interval time. I cut my CD mile to about 2/3 of a mile and the workout lasted 1:21. I needed to get home. :)

Also, I ran 6.2 miles. The training schedule said it should be 5.3 miles. I just added up all the intervals and converted the meters to miles and got 6.2, so not sure where the issue is there. The 5.3 miles didn't clue me in that the hour time was off nor vice versa since those matched up pretty well - if it had said an hour and 6.2 miles, then I might have wondered.

Ah, well, no matter on that.


****OK, precision rant. Garmin apparently claims that they can time laps to the tenth of a second, as they are putting tenths of seconds on these laps. And yet, they can't give me lap distances to greater precision than than one-hundredth of a mile. (150 m is 0.0932 mi, or according to Garmin, 0.09 mi.) Does this matter? Yes.

I just ran 150 meters in 37 seconds. That's a speed of 4.054 m/s, assuming infinite precision on the 150 meters and 37 seconds. That means that I was moving 4.054 meters in each second. 4.054 meters is 0.0025 miles, or 2.5 thousands of a mile. So apparently Garmin can measure more precisely in time than they can in distance. I suppose that's true - their timing may be more precise than their GPS distance measurements. Or it may just be how they are bothering to format things when they display them.
 
R-Pace Workout That Went Right

So I'm posting because it's nice to post about a speed workout that went right after that darn T-pace workout this past Sunday that I couldn't hit the second two intervals on.

The R-pace run for this week was scheduled for today (Wed), but I had to do it yesterday or tomorrow because I have a singles tennis match tonight. Yesterday had a T+D of 120, while tomorrow is forecast to be 140 - 150, so yesterday it was.

The workout was 2WU + 3 x (150-m @ R + 150-m @RI) + 5 x (300-m @R + 400-m @RI) + 3 x (150-m @R + 150-m @RI) + 1 CD. My R-pace is 7:46 so the 150-m should take about 45 s and the 300-m 90 s, but I have typically been doing them faster.

First 3 150 m:
  • 37.1 s (6:22) (we love gratuitous precision - we can do tenths of seconds but not thousandths of miles****)
  • 37.5 s (6:40)
  • 37.6 s (6:21) (this read out as a slightly longer distance - I am doing manual laps)
300 m:
  • 81.1 s (6:56)
  • 89.4 s (7:18) - I had huge problems with the manual laps on this one - I think it was at least 4 seconds too long
  • 84.1 s (7:24) (this read out as a slightly shorter distance)
  • as I started this interval, I realized that I had been sort of hunching over on the sprints - not really looking at my feet, but not really looking ahead, either. I start these with a "rolling start" at the beginning of the straightaway on the track, and as I started this one, I sighted at the other end of the straightaway, and it was like I was taking off. 80.5 s !! (6:56)
  • 78.2 s (7:07) (this read a slightly shorter distance)
Last 3 150 m:
  • 37.1 s (6:30)
  • 40.5 s - could NOT get the manual lap to go - at least 3 s too long
  • 38.3 s (6:48) - yeah, I was getting tired

Overall, really, really happy to have rocked this night!

But....it took forever to do it. After the 300s, I started thinking, "Seems like I've been out here a long time." Looked at my watch - "yep, thought I'd be done by now."

The run on my calendar is listed as about an hour in length. Intervals, yep, OK. Well.... looks like the amount of recovery interval time that was included was about equal to the amount of R-pace work interval time, when I'm supposed to spend 2 - 3 times longer in the recovery interval. So that's an extra 12 to 24 minutes to add on to the workout time. I tend to be toward the long end of the recovery interval time. I cut my CD mile to about 2/3 of a mile and the workout lasted 1:21. I needed to get home. :)

Also, I ran 6.2 miles. The training schedule said it should be 5.3 miles. I just added up all the intervals and converted the meters to miles and got 6.2, so not sure where the issue is there. The 5.3 miles didn't clue me in that the hour time was off nor vice versa since those matched up pretty well - if it had said an hour and 6.2 miles, then I might have wondered.

Ah, well, no matter on that.


****OK, precision rant. Garmin apparently claims that they can time laps to the tenth of a second, as they are putting tenths of seconds on these laps. And yet, they can't give me lap distances to greater precision than than one-hundredth of a mile. (150 m is 0.0932 mi, or according to Garmin, 0.09 mi.) Does this matter? Yes.

I just ran 150 meters in 37 seconds. That's a speed of 4.054 m/s, assuming infinite precision on the 150 meters and 37 seconds. That means that I was moving 4.054 meters in each second. 4.054 meters is 0.0025 miles, or 2.5 thousands of a mile. So apparently Garmin can measure more precisely in time than they can in distance. I suppose that's true - their timing may be more precise than their GPS distance measurements. Or it may just be how they are bothering to format things when they display them.
Nice work!!
 
Well done! These R paced workouts continue to paint a picture that your endurance is no where near your anaerobic power. Probably something more like this with a full conversion:

Screen Shot 2019-06-06 at 1.26.52 PM.png

But like Christian saw with similar results in his R workouts, this is probably years away and would represent close to your max potential.

The run on my calendar is listed as about an hour in length. Intervals, yep, OK. Well.... looks like the amount of recovery interval time that was included was about equal to the amount of R-pace work interval time, when I'm supposed to spend 2 - 3 times longer in the recovery interval. So that's an extra 12 to 24 minutes to add on to the workout time. I tend to be toward the long end of the recovery interval time. I cut my CD mile to about 2/3 of a mile and the workout lasted 1:21. I needed to get home. :)

Agreed, looks like your R paced runs got coded funny for RI. Shouldn't have been coded as 150m but rather something more based in time.

Also, I ran 6.2 miles. The training schedule said it should be 5.3 miles. I just added up all the intervals and converted the meters to miles and got 6.2, so not sure where the issue is there. The 5.3 miles didn't clue me in that the hour time was off nor vice versa since those matched up pretty well - if it had said an hour and 6.2 miles, then I might have wondered.

Looks like the R paced 300m RI was off as it had you had 5 intervals with 2 RI, but it should have been 5 RI.
 
Well done! These R paced workouts continue to paint a picture that your endurance is no where near your anaerobic power. Probably something more like this with a full conversion:

View attachment 406791

But like Christian saw with similar results in his R workouts, this is probably years away and would represent close to your max potential.

It just has to be before I get to old LOL!
 
June 3 - 9, 2019

Running
  • Mon, June 3: 4EA, T+D 103, 0.5% correction, target pace 11:59, splits 11:58, 12:00, 11:57, 11:55. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Tue, June 4: R-pace intervals - this workout went really well, and I described it here.
  • Thu, June 6: 4EA, T+D 145, 4% correction target pace 12:24, splits 12:20, 12:18, 12:29, 12:16. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Sat, June 8: 5 EB, T+D, 137, 3.5% correction target pace 11:27, splits 11:30, 11:25, 11:28, 11:28, 11:34. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north.
  • Sun, June 9: 3WU + 3HM-Tempo + 1T-pace + 1CD, T+D 130, 2% correction. Target HM tempo pace 9:44, target T-pace 9:22. HM tempo splits: 9:43, 9:32, 9:53 (last mile was definitely GPS not tracking me well - pace jumped off in the last few tenths ). T-pace mile: 9:16!!! Route: Rock Creek Trail, going north. It was not flat! I was very happy to hit a run that had "T-pace" in it!

Other
  • Monday morning: foam rolling and stretching
  • Tuesday morning: strength workout, then foam rolling and stretching
    • squat with 60 lb: 3 x 8
    • pull-ups: 3 x 8 (4 unassisted, 4 with chair assist)
    • Bulgarian split-squat with 40 lb: 3 x 8 per leg
    • Bench press with 60 lb: 3 x 8
    • Plank: 3 x 60 sec
  • Wednesday
    • morning: foam rolling and stretching
    • evening: tennis singles match - lost 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (11-9) in 2 hr 20 min of playing! So close! At least my team won overall.
  • Thursday morning: prehab routine like previous and foam rolling and stretching
  • Friday
    • morning: foam rolling and stretching
    • evening: private tennis lesson
  • Saturday morning: 2-hour tennis practice

Health
  • Headache continues. Oddly for some reason even though I had the headache on Thursday, I felt really good. I was in such a good mood and had such energy. Friday was such a let down because it didn't last, and Saturday slammed me with really bad headache pain, but not out of range of previous experience. Sigh.
 
Week of June 10 - 16, 2019

Running
  • Monday, June 10: 5EA, T+D 141, 3.5% correction, target pace 12:20, splits 12:08, 12:18, 12:23, 12:19, 12:19. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north. This run was originally supposed to be 7EA, but because I had a lot planned for this week, DopeyBadger adjusted it to 5EA.
  • Wednesday, June 12 (morning): 5EB, T+D 107, 0.5% correction, target pace 11:11, splits 11:15, 11:09, 11:16, 11:14, 11:17. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north. This reminds me of why I wish I could run in the morning all the time! This run was originally supposed to be a T-pace/I-pace combination run, but again adjusted due to my other activities this week. Squeezed it into the morning.
  • Friday, June 14 (morning): 5EA, T+D 105, 0.5% correction, target pace 11:59, splits 12:05, 11:53, 11:54, 12:00, 12:00. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going north. Another gorgeous morning!
  • Saturday, June 15: 7EB, T+D 137, 3% correction, target pace 11:27, splits 11:27, 11:27, 11:23, 11:21, 11:30, 11:31, 11:31. Route: Sligo Creek Trail, going south.
  • Sunday, June 16: 3WU + 4 HM-tempo + 1T-pace + 0.5 5K-pace + 1CD. T+D 149, 4.5% correction. Target HM-temp pace 9:58, T-pace 9:36, 5K pace 9:06. Route: Rock Creek Trail, going north.
    • HM-tempo splits: 9:56, 10:09 (this is WRONG - I was set within my target pace window and my GPS went to never-never land at about 0.8 miles in. I tried stopping to let it re-center on me. This didn't work. I tried running much, much faster. This didn't work. By the time it finished the mile, I was almost a quarter-mile off of where the mile should've ended. Grrrr.), 10:10 (this is right - I was tired)
    • I got partway through the last HM-tempo mile and was just beat. I was taking lots of breaks and was in a lot of trouble. Contemplating whether the cool breeze was really cool and due to me being soaked with sweat or whether I was in heat exhaustion. I was falling way out of the HM-tempo pace and clearly wasn't going to be able to hit the T-pace or 5K-pace. I pulled back to the T+D-adjusted LR pace for the remaining fast paces and then did the CD mile.
    • LR target pace: 11:19. Splits: 11:21, 11:22, 11:41. (Darn last 0.5-mile finished in a woody section and the GPS went crazy.)
    • This run was a big fail. I was not looking forward to it, especially given the heat and humidity, but I tried to psych myself up to it as a challenge. Got done with it feeling like I hadn't accomplished any of the goals of the run.
    • I drank over 2 L of fluids during the day before the run. I took 68 oz of low-concentrate Tailwind on the run and drank about 60 oz of it during the run. I still had one of my ears plug up by the end of the run. It was 86 F and 63 F dew point at the start and about 83 F and 65 F dew point at the finish - not fun. Hopefully my HM race will be a bit lower in T+D, but it will likely be in the 130s. Sigh.
I feel like I haven't been doing very well in this training cycle. It is not giving me a good feeling for my race on July 14. I haven't been enjoying this cycle as much, but it is at least partly the summer weather and I think my neck/headache issues are just casting a pall on a lot of things for me. Starting to wonder what I'm doing with the running, but on the other hand, I can't imagine not doing it, and I definitely have goals that I want to achieve.

Other
  • Monday morning: prehab routine, like previous, and foam rolling and stretching
  • Tuesday
    • morning: strength workout
      • Romanian deadlifts: 3 x 8 with 60 lbs
      • chin-ups: 3 x 8 (in each set, 4 or 5 unassisted and the rest with a chair assist)
      • reverse lunges: 3 x 8 each leg with 40 lbs
      • decline push-ups 3 x 12
      • starfish side planks: 3 x 30 s per side
    • evening: tennis singles match - I lost 6-2, 6-2 but fortunately my team won overall.
  • Wednesday evening: tennis mixed doubles match - my husband and I won 6-2, 6-2, but unfortunately our team lost overall.
  • Thursday
    • morning: foam rolling and stretching
    • evening: tennis doubles match - my partner and I lost 6-3, 6-2 and the team lost overall, too.
  • Friday evening: tennis singles match - I lost 6-3, 6-3 - my opponent was about 20 years younger than me. This is when I wondered about the wisdom of doing that 5EA run earlier that morning. Fortunately my team won overall.
  • Saturday morning: 2-hour tennis practice

One of the tennis teams that I am on has singles and doubles both, but I played singles only for them, because they didn't have enough ladies to play singles. When they recruited me, they said they didn't care how well I did, which was good because I only won 2 matches out of the 6 that I played. (But I did play 6 of the 14 matches they had!) They really aren't a very good team.

Well, they really got lucky in the particular courts and matches that they won, and now that they season is over, they finished in second place in the league. That means that they advance to the first level of championship play-offs - there are a series of play-off levels that finish at the national level. They are, of course, thrilled! They issue is that the play-off matches happen on the same weekend (July 12 - 14) as my HM race (July 14). There's no way I can play several difficult singles matches outdoors in hot and humid conditions and hope to do well in my race, so I have declined to play in the the play-offs. Fortunately, the team captain is very understanding about it. Honestly, they are going to be steamrolled by some of the really killer teams, so they should go into the play-offs looking to just have fun and not expect to win. (I may sound cynical. I have a lot of experience in this sort of thing...)

Health
  • Sigh. The headache continues. This past week, I've also been getting some numbness in the back of my neck and pain radiating down the ridge of my left shoulder. Great. This happens when I'm at my desk for awhile. Go figure. I've been trying to stand at my desk, but I'm not sure that's helping much. Talked to my neurologist, and he increased the dosage on my headache med and put me back on the muscle relaxer. We'll see. I've been continuing to do my PT stretching, in what seems more and more like the little Dutch boy putting his finger in the dike.
 
10:09 (this is WRONG - I was set within my target pace window and my GPS went to never-never land at about 0.8 miles in. I tried stopping to let it re-center on me. This didn't work. I tried running much, much faster. This didn't work. By the time it finished the mile, I was almost a quarter-mile off of where the mile should've ended. Grrrr.

Does this mean in reality you believe you ran 1.25 miles in 10:09? Because that's an 8:07 min/mile and might explain the later fatigue.

Sunday, June 16: 3WU + 4 HM-tempo + 1T-pace + 0.5 5K-pace + 1CD. T+D 149, 4.5% correction. Target HM-temp pace 9:58, T-pace 9:36, 5K pace 9:06. Route: Rock Creek Trail, going north.
  • HM-tempo splits: 9:56, 10:09 (this is WRONG - I was set within my target pace window and my GPS went to never-never land at about 0.8 miles in. I tried stopping to let it re-center on me. This didn't work. I tried running much, much faster. This didn't work. By the time it finished the mile, I was almost a quarter-mile off of where the mile should've ended. Grrrr.), 10:10 (this is right - I was tired)
  • I got partway through the last HM-tempo mile and was just beat. I was taking lots of breaks and was in a lot of trouble. Contemplating whether the cool breeze was really cool and due to me being soaked with sweat or whether I was in heat exhaustion. I was falling way out of the HM-tempo pace and clearly wasn't going to be able to hit the T-pace or 5K-pace. I pulled back to the T+D-adjusted LR pace for the remaining fast paces and then did the CD mile.
  • LR target pace: 11:19. Splits: 11:21, 11:22, 11:41. (Darn last 0.5-mile finished in a woody section and the GPS went crazy.)
  • This run was a big fail. I was not looking forward to it, especially given the heat and humidity, but I tried to psych myself up to it as a challenge. Got done with it feeling like I hadn't accomplished any of the goals of the run.
  • I drank over 2 L of fluids during the day before the run. I took 68 oz of low-concentrate Tailwind on the run and drank about 60 oz of it during the run. I still had one of my ears plug up by the end of the run. It was 86 F and 63 F dew point at the start and about 83 F and 65 F dew point at the finish - not fun. Hopefully my HM race will be a bit lower in T+D, but it will likely be in the 130s. Sigh.

Between the heat and the several tennis matches this week, I wouldn't even worry about it. Just be sure to allow your body to rest up and rejuvenate soon with a lighter load. The lower T+D on Wednesday showed what a nicer day can feel like.

Looks like the ear plugging could be related to breathing or an increase in blood flow around the ear based on a quick google.
 
Does this mean in reality you believe you ran 1.25 miles in 10:09? Because that's an 8:07 min/mile and might explain the later fatigue.

Yes. So probably more like 1.15 or 1.2 miles, but definitely significantly too much. I run through that area all the time and know where the mile "markers" are...at least in the winter when there are no darn leaves on the trees. It seems that leaves mess up GPS signals much more than one would expect that they should. I guess they all act like little tiny antennae or something.

I got my Garmin VA3 last July-ish, so this is my first spring-to-summer with it. It really seems to be suffering GPS issues as the trees have leafed out in the spring. There are sections that I run through regularly that frequently have problems.

That made me think to double-check my GPS settings...yep, set to GPS + GLONASS, which is as good as it gets.
 

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