Saturday, April 30, 2011

Can you say "I.T. Band"?

We ended up doing a 23 mile run on Saturday.. I'll make it short just to say the weather was great but my I.T. Band wasn't.  About mile 14-15 it really started to hurt.  At one of the cars with 6 miles left to go, Rich asked me if I wanted to stop and cut it short... should've said yes.  Had to walk, power walk and do a shuffle run to finish.  But I DID finish!  The best part was that it didn't knock me on my butt later like I thought it would... thought stairs, etc. would be bad the next few days.  Honestly, iced my knees well, rolled them out, took a shower, more ice, and Advil did the trick.

Monday- lifted at gym
Tuesday-lifted at gym

Wednesday- got up at 5:15 a.m. and did our 6.5 mile run... deer were everywhere.  Maybe now that it's lighter on our runs, I'm just able to see more.  Deer count: 45ish

Thursday lifted at gym
Friday- plan for the weekend was to run 10 on Friday night and then 15 on Saturday.  We ended up doing a different trail to avoid the pavement... Didn't have GPS so we estimated we ended up running 8-9 miles.  But it was a tough 8-9 with some very steep hills/sections.  Deer everywhere again!  Deer count: 30

Saturday (today)- woke up to tons of snow... we decided not to go slush through mud, so we went to gym and lifted.  It was a tough/longer sessions, but good.  Feeling strong!  This will help during the long runs ahead.

Lace 'em up!  Chainsaw

Thursday, April 21, 2011

YESSSSS!!! Week off

Well, after the 7 miles on Friday and 10 on Saturday from a almost 2 weeks ago... here's what I've done since.

Monday thru Friday-  I didn't do jack crap and loved it.  Rich was out of town for spring break.  I'd like to think of this time as planned tappering.

Saturday (April 16)- we did a 17 mile run along most of our regular long course route.  The weather was great!  Started at 5:30 and finished around 9:00ish.  I felt good during the run and recovered fairly well.  Deer count: 8

Monday- did leg, core, and upper body work.  We did a sushi lunch at Harmon's Grocery Store... was actually good, but Rich said it's probably only a C.  I've got to go to a place sometime with an A rating... can't wait!

Tuesday- I bailed on the early morning run... tired and looked like it was raining.  I might have to just run in the rain sometime... but I'll wait for it to get warmer first.

Wednesday- leg, core, and upper body work again (pull ups, sit ups on inclined bench, etc.).  We did an interesting exercise.  I put my feet in the TRX straps about a foot off the ground in push up position...however, then I walked back on my hands slowly with my feet going up into the air until I am  close to being vertical standing on my hands (can't get completely vertical or would probably fall over) and then doing push ups in that position... again, like a hand stand and then bending arms so head is close to ground and then pushing body back up.  It was very tough and balancing is a bit tricky.... it was cool to be able to do it 3 times for my first try.  Not too shabby.

Thursday (today)- got up to run at 5:15... started around 5:30 though, compliments of Rich being late... we did our hill course of 6 1/2 miles.  Only having to run the first 30 minutes in the dark, which is nice.  Weather was still a little chilly, but good for a run.  Felt okay, but legs were still a little tired from the leg workout from yesterday.  Deer count: 4

The plan is to take tomorrow off (Rich can't meet in the day due to an event at UVU) and we were thinking of either doing 10 miles Friday night followed by 15 miles on Saturday morning... but my parents are doing an Easter Egg hunt on Friday night, so we are going to try and run 25 miles on Saturday (if we don't run out of time).  This will be a good test of our endurance and nutrition level and our energy replacement while we run.

Lace 'em up!  Chainsaw

Saturday, April 9, 2011

snow, snow, snow

Thursday- our schedules just didn't work out so we bagged our lifting day.

Weekend plan- planned on running 10 miles on Friday night, starting at 7:30 followed by 20 miles Saturday morning starting at 5:00 to help us get used to running on tired legs.

Well, we did our regular 6-7 miles route, but started it backwards.  It snowed the whole time... it really got bad when it was dark, so visibility was already bad, but then with the snow hitting us in our faces, we decided to cut the run short at 7 miles... also, the trails were very muddy with puddles so our feet were soaked which caused us to get a little cold.  Deer count: 4

Saturday- everything started well... until we stepped out of our car.  The plan was to do the same route as last week... so started at Water Tower.  But just like Friday night... it snowed the whole time.  Since the first 4-5 miles is on pavement, no problem.  But once we got on the trails, it again got muddy and tough to run when avoiding puddles.  There were some nice spots where the trail/road was gravel, which didn't cause mud...also, some nice spots when just running in fresh layer of snow.  We could have mustered up the strength to continue, but we were both feeling pretty fatigued and just decided to stop at 10.  No complaints from me.
Deer count: 7  oh, add 2 more... saw 2 in my backyard around 11:00.

Lace 'em up!  Chainsaw

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Crap

Man I am crappy at this blogging thing.  Here's the quick catch up from last week...
Wednesday- core/weight lifting work
Thursday- Run at 5:15.. did regular run in foothills doing  6 1/2
Friday- we bagged it... scheduling between the two just wasn't working

Saturday-  We ran 20 miles... started at 5a.m. so I'd be done at 10:00 for Suzie to go into work.  It was a tough run... very cold and dark at first... warmed up just enough where it was a perfect temp by the end (after taking off a shirt layer at mile 14 at the water tower/car parking lot-  we loaded up on food and drink!!).  I ran out of water and perpetuem early (started sipping slowly around mile 7 to make it last but ran out around mile 10), so I was feeling just a tad dehydrated.  After getting new fluids at car... kind of got bloated and tough to run for the first 3 miles...plus it being more uphill than down didn't help. Course we did: ran 12 miles loop...started at water tower, ran down on payment for the first 5ish miles to Mt. Timp park and then up the fire roads over to Gizzly hill.... down and back up Grizzly was brutal and just hiked back up... footing is very loose rocks.  Went through blue rock valley (ran past 4 sleeping bags just laying in the open next to the trail- they must have been cold with the frost coming down on them in the morning... I was talking really loud before seeing them, so I probably woke them up... I'm sure they were thinking, who the crap was up on the trails running this early!?!?!).  Recovery: actually felt overall pretty good on the run... muscles a little sore after (Suzy made a comment of how stiff I looked when I was walking down the stairs), but overall muscle recovery was okay... that's why I love trail running.  I was pretty nauseous and had heart burn for the rest of the day... but this always happens after a long run, so pretty normal.  Deer count: around 20

Monday- no rest for the wicked... we got up at 5:15 and ran 6 1/2 in hills.
Tuesday- did bodywork during my lunch hours
Wednesday- raining hard (plus cold) outside, so did 70 minutes on the treadmill at Elevate doing the 5 min walk at 10 incline at 3 speed and alternated with 0 incline, 6 speed run.  Rich and I both commented that this was tough to do... running inside on treadmill, after so much time running outside.  I did use my Ipod though, which was nice just to zone out to good tunes.

Lace 'em up!  Chainsaw