Highs and Lows- Week 8

I was teaching Baby Boo about numbers. Care for me to share my thoughts on running 5k's?

Y'all already know about my EGD experience so I'll spare the details. It set the tone for how I felt during the week. Fortunately, I felt a lot better by the weekend so my runs were more tolerable.


 

 

LOWS:

• Recovery Run. The day after Emerald City Half, I did a 6 mile recovery run. I'll be honest and say that I felt like complete crap. At this time, I wasn't aware of my esophageal issues. Looking back, that might be one reason I felt that way. The other is that I was just plain tired from the race the day before. If it weren't for Dani's company, I might have quit!
• Easy 7 miler. Again, I felt like poo...I even ran 30+ sec/mile slower than I normally would in hopes it would feel ok. The poo-ness didn't kick in until the last two miles but it was enough to make me want to get it over with. I felt SO tight and my breathing just wasn't right.

  

  Post hilly run. I wish I had a pic of my pony tail. I opted for the pony instead of my usual braid. MISTAKE! My hair was so knotted up and lookin' cray cray.

• Hilly Sunday. It's not the hilly part that's a low...my foot was bothering me and is still being annoying. After I got home from my long run yesterday, my dogs escaped the yard because some jackass left our gate wide open. I was running like a spaz down our road to catch our dogs before they got run over. On top of that, I was barefoot. As I was chasing after my Aussie, I tripped over a section of the sidewalk that was uneven and elevated. The anterior part of my ankle has been hurting since. After about 2 miles of today's run, I didn't feel a thing. It wasn't until the last hill in the last mile that it was bothering me again. I'm hoping if I take it easy the rest of the day and avoid running tomorrow, it will be better. I seems to be muscular...but what do I know?! I'm a lowly DPT. 

  

  Ice, Ice Baby...or, in my case, Peas, Peas Baby.

  
  

 

HIGHS:

• Rest days. I needed them like crazy this week. Thank goodness my first rest day fell on Tuesday (when all of the doctor appointment crap went down). I also rested on Friday since that was test day. Marion and I had grand plans to do our long run Friday morning but we both had chest pain issues this week! I probably could have tried to run Friday morning but my diet restrictions for the test wouldn't have allowed me to provide my body with the necessary fuel.
• Even Steven Workout. I got this idea from a workout Lynn did in the early stages of her marathon training. Basically, as interval distance decreases, pace gets faster. I like trying different workouts and this didn't disappoint. I converted Lynn's original workout from minutes to distance in miles. I can't do things by minutes...it's just weird for me. Here's what I came up with: 

  

  1) Interval distance. 2) Recovery distance. 3) Goal pace in (...)

  I turned it into an 8 mile workout. Although my focus was keeping the prescribed paces for each segment, I was excited to see that my overall average was 8:07 (which is in my 8-8:12 goal range)!  We (Amanda, Theresa, Danielle) did well and actually stayed close to the prescribed paces:                                                                                                                     1.25mi (7:52)
  1mi (7:38)
  0.75mi (7:18)
  0.50mi (6:56)
  0.25mi (6:34)
• Running in the rain. During my hilly run, it was SO HUMID the first 4 miles! I thought I was melting. As we turned around to head back, it started to sprinkle and eventually came down harder. It was the most amazing feeling. The humidity was lower, there was a very slight breeze, and I was being showered with the most awesome rain.
• My longest long run since Flying Pig. It's amazing how tolerable these runs have been the second half of the year. They are a lot easier and less scary than before. I met an awesome group of girls at the Genoa Trail this week. We had several distances to cover so it was an interesting out and back experience! Marion and I needed 18 miles so we met to get in 4 miles before the others arrived. Dani joined us for 2 extra. Amber, Karen, Liz, Amy, and Jess joined for distances of 7, 11, and 14. We have some math geeks in the crew to keep up with that! It was such a gorgeous day with so many runners on the trail.

  

  Dani trying to take a selfie while we were running. When you are desperate to get in a picture, it helps to have a giraffe neck.

  Two highlights: 1) Hurdling over a barrier of sorts onto a trail where Amber intended to throw us in the water for a duathlon. 2) The anal cyclist yelling at all of the runners to move over on the trail when he had more than enough room to go by. I'm pretty sure we weren't even in his lane but whatevs. He wasn't near as bad as the O trail guy who always yelled "Single file, ladies!!!" LOL.  I was happy with my average (8:40 min/mile) and even happier that I rocked out my 18th mile in 8:01.

  

  
  The long run crew. Amber, Jess, me, Dani, Marion, Karen, Amy, and Liz. Thanks for a great run, ladies!!! Side note: Bazinga boobs. I cannot control that when I'm working out. Maybe I need to wear band-aids.
  
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  My favorite quote of the week:

  

  
  What's next for Lisa? An insane speed workout on Tuesday IF my foot feels better. I also have my first 20 miler of the training season along with my biggest mileage week.