week 9: my season is in the toilet

Attempting to run again. Finally.

(Monday, 3 March)
Ran to Garfield and back along Hillcrest/Rosalind. About 46 minutes, my first real run in a looong time. Now that I write this, I'm thinking this may be the biggest break I've taken since summer 2006. My legs just felt dead dead dead, the breathing was moderately bad. This was about 8.45 pace (maybe 8.15-8.30 in some spots) and I was really struggling. Not a good feeling.

(Tuesday, 4 March)
Had Susan all to myself this morning. Attempted to do a workout, which I was not really prepared for mentally, but we did it. The goal was to do 2 - 2 - 2 miles on the track, at 40 seconds below 10k pace (7.30) and then 20, and then at. The volume was a little to ambitious, as was the pace.

So, there's two things. One, I'm going to have to reevaluate what I'm going to do at Ben Brown on Saturday. Two, I'm not going to be able to run 43 at Oxy in ten days. There's not much else to say.

The workout we ended up doing was: 2 miles on track (14.34, 7.21/7.13) then one mile on track (6.46) and then two intervals down lombardy, ~4.50 to Allen, about 6.45 pace, then short rest and then Allen to SM. Breathing was hard, upper body hurt a lot, everything was tough. It's never going to be harder than this. This is what I wrote to Scott about it:

It pretty much felt awful - hard to get air and my upper body was
really hurting for some reason (like chest, shoulders). The legs are
okay, it's just the breathing. I mean, it felt as bad as if I had been
running much faster than that but I wasn't, if that makes any sense.

So, the good news is I ran as hard as I could, and I don't think it
ever could get much tougher than this. So the practice at just trying
to stay controlled mentally was probably valuable.

I feel like in terms of the effort level and the mental extremes I felt just holding 6.46 pace for those last 2 laps in the mile we did on the track was some of the most difficult running I've ever done. I don't know if that should be encouraging that I could do that, or terrible. Basically, if I'm going to be running even close to the ballpark at any of my recent 5k or 3k times, it's going to take an effort level that I would have found unimaginable a few months ago. I need to reevaluate everything.

Also, Susan asked when the season ends, and I said end of April, and I realized that's next month. So basically my season is over.

(Wednesday, 5 March)
Lacy long, it felt moderately bad. I didn't really notice a difference with the new albuterol inhaler. Everything still feels tough. Hills are tough, flats are tough, talking is tough, nothing is "conversational". Maybe this'll teach me to shut my trap.

Also, thanks for the kind words, Mark.

(Thursday, 6 March)
*Definitely* noticed a difference today with the inhaler. DEFINITELY. My legs still felt sluggish and I'm not near where I was a month ago, but damn, the drug works! We did 9 on 2 off at Lacy times 3, and I ran the Mark/Ian 800 loop twice to get a pace on my mile during the first interval and I cruised in 3.28/6.51 and I don't think I even cut it off on the second circuit. The other intervals were probably not quite as fast, but they weren't that much slower either. And the difference in how I felt Tuesday doing 6.45 on the track and today doing 6.51 in the park was absolutely incredible.

I'm not quite as scared now about Ben Brown. What a relief. I didn't get any horrible side cramps, and I didn't wheeze, and I didn't have to think about breathing as hard as I could. Whew.

Also I asked Kevin Chaves about running at Stanford, and he said the trails there are actually quite good (Mark can you confirm?). So, I'm looking forward to that visit now a bit more.

(Friday, 7 March)
Did my prerace in the morning to clear out the afternoon for slogging... man I am a good girl. Felt like shit as usual when I do my prerace from Wilson, but I think it was because I was tired and sleepy and didn't get any tea before I left. Got to remember to stretch this afternoon and take my steroid inhaler.

(Saturday, 8 March)
Ran at BB with Matt, Mark and Ian in attendance. It was totally sweet to have them there; all I had to do was enjoy the meet and enjoy running and I didn't have to worry about a gaggle of runners and shepherding and such. I was glad to run the 1500. I didn't have to worry about my time/speed at all, all I did was think about the race competitively and tactically. Went out in 82-83 because there was this one girl who just ate up the field. She died though. Got in a bad place early on, but just kept focused on moving up, and holding my ground when I got in a good position. Some chica thought the race was over after 2.5 laps. I was like... uh... She's never going to live that one down.

It was cool with 2 laps to go though, I was in 3rd and the announcer said my name (correctly!). I moved into 1st with about 300 to go and then dropped the hammer again where I always see Leer doing it, just going into the final turn, to twist the knife a bit. After watching the tape Julie made I was surprised by how much ground I put on them in the last few hundred meters, it was almost 4 seconds.

So the time was very slow, but as a confidence booster, it was a success. I just did exactly what Ian told me to; stay in a good position, move up, reel people in, and rely on my holding strength when I do make a pounce. It felt good to execute a plan successfully.

Ran the XC course I've heard so much about as my cooldown. It looks like a real nice course! I would like to run it some day. I bet I would run well there.

(Sunday, 9 March)
Off. Worked today. What a difference a week (and albuterol) can make.