End-o-feb

While Sarah snoozes in the haze of post-brunch euphoria, I thought I'd run down quickly what I've been doing the past two weeks running-wise. I'm more or less happy with how things went in February, and am hoping taking a very down week this week (aka: run if I feel like it, which I've done twice) will help cure all ills. Not being able to get on any soft surfaces for a couple of weeks in a row really doesn't feel good - my shins / plantar fascia / hips were all complaining really loudly.

Week beginning Feb 6th -

Sun: 8 mi, 58 mins - Would've done more but got out a little too late and didn't want to get hit by a car.
Mon: off
Tue: 6 mi warmup / cooldown (roughly)
5 sets of 3x400, 60R, 3 minutes between sets, @ 3k 5k 3k 5k 3k pace.
This went pretty well and I actually went a little faster than assigned on a few reps (supposed to hit 70's and 74's). With Murner, Foote, Chris, and Dan L.
9.5 total
Wed: 9.5 mi, 68 minutes - On the treadmill @ work, lifted.
Thu: 8.46 mi, 60 minutes - Treadmill.
Fri: 4 mi, 32 mins - Stupidly went outside. Fuck you newtonites! Shovel your damn sidewalks like decent civilized human beings. Or hire someone to do it for you. You can afford it.
Sat: 8 mi, 59 mins warmup / cooldown

Ran le mile @ Valentine's, ended up with a 4:24 (which is exactly what I was shooting for). I was a little worried that I was just going to run a 66 and my legs would explode - I've never really run the mile off just 3k work before. Every training program up until this year has always included a huge volume of mile race pace work even before I get to my first race. It's a little scary going into your favorite event and feeling totally unprepared, so I ran very conservatively. As soon as the gun went off, I just dropped to the back and chilled - I was seeded at 4:20 so the front of the group was going to be running 63-64's...at the beginning, anyhow.

It was definitely a different kind of experience, running from the back like that - and being very conservative. For one, I had absolutely no traffic to deal with. I was sitting about 2 meters behind everyone else in dead last, and no one was attempting to cuddle or make out with me on the track. Almost every other race I've run indoors, I've had to fend off would-be suitors from my lane. The other difference is that I wasn't really in as much pain as I normally would be at the 800 mark, so I was able to make more conscious race decisions rather than relying on furious animal instinct to get me to the line intact. Admittedly, my conscious race decision was "chill out, you don't want to blow up" and I waited till 400 left to pass some people, but I could've made the decision otherwise too. I feel like there were maybe a few seconds left out there from running too conservatively, but the consequences of going out too hard were great enough that I think it made good sense to play it how I did.

Anyhow, total for the week: 49 mi, 343 minutes.

Week beginning Feb 13 -
Sun: 10.25 mi, 77 mins - Around BC for a small eternity. I think this was the day I saw Archard and Sasha out there. My hamstrings were extremely blackened toast after the mile.
Mon: 9 mi, 65 minutes - With Stewbeef and Willycizzle around BC.
Tue: 45 mins warmup / cooldown
4x 600 60R 400 2.5R (35, 34 pace) 6x150 at the end
Was supposed to be 5, just suckin' hard. Foot hurt, so I did it in trainers, and was around 2 seconds off every 600 and 1 second off most of the 400's.
9 miles total
Wed: off
Thu: 6 mi, 45 mins - slow around the res, but nice day.
Fri: 6.5 mi warmup / cooldown
1.5ish miles of 6 x 1 minute on, 1 minute off
Felt godawful, started pouring during the cooldown.
Sat: 7.8 mi, 56 mins - still felt like trash.
50 miles, 366 minutes o'erall

The next day I finished off indoor with an 8:51 in the 3k at USATF-NE's, playing it exactly the opposite of my mile at Valentine's - went out a little too quick, wound up in no-man's-land, and was in ruinous agony from 600 to go. Still a respectable time, but I wish I had split it a little more intelligently than 2:52 / 2:58 / 3:01. Going out in 2:52 actually felt surprisingly good - I didn't feel that bad till maybe 1k or 800 to go, which is a far cry from my experience at Terrier where I didn't feel great from maybe 1400 meters onwards. I would've liked to run faster than my opener but I feel like I'm at least in better shape, which is all I really wanted headed towards outdoors. Huzzahhhh.

Now I'm going to go eat a clementine. Au revoir, pour maintenant.