WEEK 11/17 HM Training - Run#2 Hill Workout X 8 Repeats

One of my DM friends posted today that he was beginning to like hill workouts (it just so happens that he has been doing them on Wednesdays like me, too). Personally, I think that's just nutty!

I completed this workout solo - there were no mutts with me today. I also edited my workout - my warm-up was shortened, I did 8 instead of 12 repeats, and I shortened my cool-down. I justify this by saying that I did 8 very solid repeats; in fact, the last few were actually faster than my first few repeats - how about them apples? :) And this workout was an improvement over my hill workout two weeks ago under similar circumstances (the day after an 11.5K run). I was very pleased with what I accomplished, but also felt that I had done enough.

But I can say that today while typing this up (the day after), it was clearly a killer workout because my hip flexors are stiff! I am waddling around like an old penguin lady - oy! I am not sure what I did but I am clearly feeling this workout more today than I ever have previously experienced. :( I didn't go to yoga last night so this might have had something to do with it, and I didn't warm-up for as long as I always do so this could be the problem, too. Whatever I did or didn't do, I am paying for it! Thankfully, it is clearly not an injury; just stiffness from overdoing it.

And woo hoo again! My last hill workout. I won't have to do these again until the new year during my next round of half marathon training, and I am just not nutty enough to throw them in for fun anytime soon. :) I'll stick to running hills that are on the path I have chosen until 2012. Hold me to it! :)

Week 10/17 HM Training - Run#1 Hill Workout

There is a lot of good news in today's post! :)

First, it gives me pleasure to type "Week 10" in my title. I am closer to Week "17" (NFIM race week) than I am to Week "1", and it's nice to see a double digit. :) For 10 weeks, I have been following this training schedule. And for 10 weeks, I have been posting my workouts and going through all the highs and lows associated with them. It's only within the last few weeks that I finally feel that I am beginning to get somewhere with it. :)

Second, I officially crossed over into the 4-digit zone today. :) :) With this morning's run, I have officially run 1,001.2 km in 2011. :) I didn't realize that this was considered a milestone until I saw it as a "Challenge" under the "Community" tab on DailyMile. Because I have been haphazard with my mileage updates on the DM, it shows my total mileage for the year at 930 km, but I have been anal throughout 2011 about uploading all my runs and runs only to my log on Running AHEAD.com so this is my true record. :) I strongly suspect that I was within range of this milestone in 2010, but it's of no interest to me to spend time amalgamating my logs from last year - ha! Suffice it to say, I'm making note of it today in my blog for future reference in 2012. :)

My third and final good news of the day ... I had a great hill workout. Best.hill.workout.to.date! This in no way implies that I actually like hill repeats now ... just that the one I had today was surprisingly very good.

I ran up the hill the first time and it went very well ... by the time I reached the bottom, I decided not to jog lightly for one minute, but just to turn around and do it right away again while I had fresh energy ... and after the second repeat, I decided to try this again ... and again ... and again ... and the next thing I knew, I had run all ten repeats in succession without the suggested minute jog to catch my breath at the bottom. I was so shocked by this, I actually double-checked my hill repeats when I downloaded my workout to make sure I really counted all ten repeats correctly! I'm speculating that one of my dogs must have slipped some steroids in my morning coffee because I have idea where that came from?!?!

I have a 6.5K or a rest day scheduled for tomorrow. I am playing it by ear.

And I only have one more hill workout to go (next week) - woo hoo! :)

P.S. I think I am all caught up on responding to comments so if you have posted comments to me lately, I do eventually reply. :)

Week 9/17 HM Training - Run #2 Hill Work (Session #1)

Remember this hill? Ugh! It's my hill repeats hill. Ugh!

I was so NOT feeling it today. :( I almost postponed my hill workout until tomorrow. In hindsight, perhaps I should have done this; however, after thinking about this workout for the last few days, I just wanted to get it over with.

In the past, when I did hill repeats, I left the dogs at home. Today, because I wasn't feeling like I could run up a hill 8X, I decided to bring them - they could help me with my repeats by pulling on their leashes so why not cheat today by using the dogs?

My warm-up run to the hill felt sluggish and slow, more so than usual. This is when I made a promise to myself to complete all 8 repeats regardless, even if I had to walk up the last few, because it was about strength building, and nothing else. Even a walk up the hill was better than nothing. :)

I was thinking about this when a cyclist rode up beside me to tell me how great my dogs looked pacing beside me. I smiled, thanked him for his compliment and told him it had taken a lot of practice (for the record, being complimented about my dogs is probably nicer than receiving compliments about myself so a brief exchange likes this makes me very happy!) :)

Thankfully, the hill was quiet this morning so I had very few cars to worry about when counting my repeats (if interested in my training program's instructions on hill repeats, see this post). The first few went well. Unfortunately, what I predicted would end up being the case - 8 repeats 'running' up the hill was not going to happen today. :( I made it to five before I was crying uncle. :( I walked up the 5th time up, was pleased to see that I could run up on the 6th repeat, walked again for the 7th, and then finished with a run up on the 8th - woo hoo! 6 out of 8 is not bad when not feeling it!

And to top things off, within a short distance of my hill repeats location, there is a small water park for children. I tucked my iShuffle into my water belt pocket (I have ruined two previous ones by running in the rain with them - #3 continues to survive because of my paranoia!), and then enjoyed a brief run over / head dunk / run through spray before continuing on my way. Angus, the waterfowler dog, loved it ... Wallace ... not so much. :)

I am a-ok with my workout today. I did the best that I could when I knew I wasn't physically feeling up to this kind of workout. It is what it is. I hope to have it in me next week when I am scheduled to do 10 repeats. :)

I have either an easy 5K or a rest day tomorrow. I will play it by ear and see how tired I feel first thing in the morning. I recently crossed over into the 960 km zone for total mileage for the year; therefore, I am a little more motivated to run recovery runs now that I am within range of crossing the 1,000 km mark. :)

GYM UPDATE

I know I usually say, "great class!" when I blog about my Kundalini Yoga class, but tonight it was exceptionally good. It has everything to do with the kriya that worked the areas of my body that needed stretching. It was as if the instructor knew ahead of time where my body would be feeling it after a hill repeat workout. :)

I receive an email every week from YogaToday.com. One of my DailyMile friends uses it regularly and she shares her thoughts on her yoga sessions/practice often on the DM. I have not purchased/downloaded a class from it yet so I can't really speak for it, but I usually check out the free weekly offering. This week, they are featuring a Kundalini class, focusing on 3 of the 7 chakras. If interested in seeing what Kundalini yoga is like, check this class out.

I also picked up a DVD from the library after class on Ashtanga yoga (I placed three on hold). I want to check it out and see if it provides a nice variation at home from what I do twice weekly at the gym. :)

Half Marathon Training Continues! Phase II: Strength Work (Hill Work)

"How to Run a Personal Record: Cover the Ground in Front of You Faster Than Ever Before," by Dave Kuehls, pg. 14 - 15.

Hill Work:

One of the two cornerstone workouts for the Strength Work phase, hills are run on Tuesdays during the week (Note: Wednesdays in my case because I pushed the schedule by one day so that I have two workouts on the weekend, hence why I have Mondays off.) The key, of course, is finding the right hill. Look for one about 100-200 meters long and about the grade of a highway exit ramp, something challenging but not severe. Footing is also important, so some trails may be off limits. Traffic may be another impediment, so some roads may not be ideal. Scout out possible hill work locations while still in your Road Work phase, so as not to be stuck when hill work comes upon you and you are without an adequate hill.

For hill work, after a warm-up jog, you'll run several times up a hill, then follow that up with a cool-down jog. On the hills, you should shorten your stride, leaning into the hill and dropping your arms so that they pump near the waist. Start conservative at the bottom of the hill and try to maintain pace the entire way up (this is Strength Work, not speed). Always "run through the hill." That is, as you approach the crest, don't slow down, but maintain your cadence even as the hill levels out. On the way down, run slowly and carefully, as injury is more likely to occur going down a hill than going up. At the bottom, jog for a minute or two before beginning the next hill climb.

Wk11/D1 - A Very Good Hill Workout X 8 on a Tuneless Tuesday

Warm-up: 1.7K @12:05

Avg. Pace 7:14/km

Hill Workout X 8: 4.0K @31:40

Avg. Pace 7:53/km

Cool-down: 2.0K @14:08

Avg. Pace 7:03/km

A good day for a good hill workout. :)

I'm so glad that I took yesterday off as a rest day. My training program schedules an easy 8K every Monday, but I generally opt to take a rest day after a Sunday race. As it turns out, I was bone tired yesterday, as in, anything I did took great effort. :( There was no way I could have gone for a run; I just didn't have anything left to give after a crazy busy week. I believe that after 10 weeks of training, my body is tired and that I needed to take my "rest day" options just to have a bit of a break, especially before I begin the final "Track Work" phase of my training. Today proved to me it was the right thing to do. :)

Today marks the beginning of my last week for the "Strength Training" phase. I feel very good about getting outside to complete this workout before it started to rain ... again. I left the dogs at home :( and left the iPod at home, too, because it's Tuneless Tuesday (side note: I ran without music last Saturday, too! I missed having it on a sluggish run, but I did it). Me, myself, and I were not accompanied by any snipers on this run. I am pleased to report that those buggers did not appear today!

By the time I reached my hill base, I was feeling strong. Such a good sign! And my first foray up the hill went exceedingly well, the 'easiest' I have ever run up this hill. :) Another good sign! I didn't "fly" up it nor did it feel "easy," just for clarification, but it was good to have the sensation that if I had come across this steep of a hill early on in a race, I could have run up it without it wiping me out!

I was sharing the hill with two skateboarders so I spent my time at the hill watching out for them. I also remembered my sore hip flexor on the left side from last week so I made sure to vary where I ran on the hill this week - some of the trips up were done on the inside right, some were done in the middle, and others on the far left sidewalk. As I type now, I am not feeling the same tenderness that I did last week so I think this helped.

I actually felt good about each trip I made up. I honestly didn't think I had it in me to run up this hill 8 times, but I tried concentrating on one trip up at a time rather than on the number I had left to run. This seemed to help. :) I also tried to lose myself more in my thoughts so that I wasn't solely focusing on the challenge the hill was giving me. It was only on the last hike up, when my pace was slightly faster than a walk (!) that I had to resort to my counting game to distract me from how hard it was for me. But I have to tell you, the feeling of accomplishment, running up and down 4 km of hill, is great! :)

I then ran home and happily noticed my pace picking up near the end.

I am yawning up a storm while writing this so I think I will sleep deeply tonight. Once again I have the option of running 5K or a rest day tomorrow. I will play it by ear and see how I am feeling, but I think right now that, if I can sleep well tonight, I will be out running tomorrow. :)

GYM UPDATE

It took effort on my part to go to yoga last night. This is the busy class with Grace, not Kundalini yoga that I enjoy so much on Wed. and Fri. We did a lot of work on our legs and boy! was it needed after my race on Sunday so I am very, very happy about making it to last night's class. I did notice today when running that my legs felt great. However, my shoulders were a little tight. We did not work on arms/shoulders too much last night so it was interesting for me to "feel" today how we hadn't. I really find that it makes a difference!

Wk10/D2 - A Challenging Hill Workout X 6 on a Tuneless Tuesday

Warm-up: 1.6K @11:27

Avg. Pace 7:10/km

Hill Workout X 6: 3K @23:04

Avg. Pace 7:39/km

Cool-down: 1.8K @12:42

Avg. Pace 7:09/km

I am still running up the hill in this pic. :)

Today was very interesting (for me). I headed out solo toward my chosen hill and the warm-up run felt very sluggish. When I look at the Garmin time now, I realize it wasn't that bad; it just felt that way. But it was enough to make me start thinking that todays' workout was going to be a bust; I just wasn't it feeling it. And it got me to thinking, where did all these snipers in my head come from?

Once I reached the hill, I took off my water belt (loaded with water in case), snapped it around a street light, and took one mini bottle with me. I remembered that the last time I did this workout, my mouth would be dry by the time I reached the top of the hill, hence why I kept a mini water bottle in hand during the actual workout this time.

The first hill climb went well, but it was tough. After a minute of easy jogging at the bottom, I tackled it again. This is when the snipers in my head reappeared. I started thinking that I wasn't ready for this workout today and that I couldn't do 6 hill climbs consecutively. And as I ran back down the hill, I thought about how I was going to change this around because I needed to.

By the third climb up, I started changing my thinking ... my legs love this! This is great! This is easy! I am becoming so strong by doing this! I think I'm losing lost 10lbs. just by doing this! This workout alone is shaving my speed by 5 seconds! I wish I could do a hill workout everyday!

And then I was at the top of the hill again. Woo hoo! I was half way to goal! :) Now to repeat ...

During the fourth climb up ... one 1,000, two 1,000, three-1,000 .... all the way up to 24 1,000.

During the fifth climb up ... one 1,000 ... all the way to 27 1,000. Must be getting a little slower if I go by this count ...

And finally, during the sixth and final sloooow climb ... one two buckle my shoe, three four shut the door, five six pick up stick, seven eight lay them straight, nine ten a big fat hen ... again! One two buckle my shoe ...

It was with great joy that I jogged down the hill for a final time, collecting my water belt, giving myself a few minutes to walk, and then running home. :)

It was busy while I was on hill. Three cyclists and three runners went up in the time I was doing my workout so I was impressed to see all of these individuals tackle it. The majority of cyclists and runners I saw, however, took it down (that would be me at any other time!). There was a young couple who drove down the hill and parked at my starting point at the base of the hill for some reason (?) so I had an audience while running up and down.

And today was Tuneless Tuesday. Last week, when I headed out the door, I was thrown off by my change in schedule (Monday off after race day Sunday) so it was only when I was running home last week from my first hill workout that I realized what day it was ... :( Today, I did remember, and my workout, warm-up and cool-down went just fine without music. :)

W9/D1 - My First 'Cold and Damp' Hill Workout

Warm-up: 2.1K @7:05/km

Hill workout X 4: 2.0K @7:36/km

Cool-down: 2K @7:04/km

Finally! After eight weeks of 'Road Work' with five weeks of striders twice per week, I am progressing to the next phase, 'Strength Training,' and doing something a little different ...

Today I chose to run solo because I wasn't sure if today's new workout was worth taking the dogs with me. There were two pairs of sad, disappointed eyes on the other side of the door when I closed it behind me. :( However, it proved to be a wise decision.:)

First, I ran 2K along the bike path from home to get to the hill. I was scheduled to run "1 mile" (1.61 km) as a warm-up , which is perfect because the hill I am using for these workouts is just over 2km from my place. I am using the hill on Park St., directly beside Nancy Campbell Collegiate Institute and Harris Park.

I re-set my Garmin when I arrived and ran my first time up. Cool! I was pleased that I could do it, and it was a good challenge. I ran 'into' the hill, swung my arms down by my waist and maintained my pace at the crest of the hill ... just as the book instructs me. I felt very good and thought that maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all. :) I ran back down, jogged for one minute at the base, and then started my second climb. Not as easy as the first time! I did it, but it was definitely more challenging. Repeat running down the hill and jogging for one minute at the base before ascending a third time. Okay, really not as easy as the first time and slower than the second time. "Aha!" - I get it now why these are repeated. One last time ... descend, jog for one minute, head up for fourth and final ascent. The toughest climb yet. Wow!

The hill didn't "break my heart," but it gave me a good butt kicking! :)

One interesting observation while I was out - there was a barefoot runner in Harris Park while I was doing this. We were in sync with one another - I ran up and down and met up with him at the corner of the park when I was doing my minute jog while he was running from one end of the park to the other and back again. He was in bare feet and running on the grass. I discreetly watched him and assumed that he was keeping his eyes out for needles (!!). I lived in my bare feet as a kid growing up in the country and hated wearing shoes, but as an adult, I am very nervous about bare feet in a city park.

I reset my Garmin a second time, and then headed home by running a cool-down 2K. At first it felt like I was a little sluggish as I recovered from my last hill climb, but then something very cool happened. My pace picked up considerably and I was running strong. I peeked at my Garmin and saw that my pace was 6:30/km. Very cool! I had two hills on the way back home so I was unable to maintain this pace the whole way, but I had a nice "re-connect" with my race pace from Sunday. :)

Quite the power workout! Challenging, but definitely worthwhile. The book warns not to focus on speed/pace on the hill as this is a "strength" exercise. It is also suggests that I either run an easy 5K tomorrow or take a rest day, depending upon how I feel following this workout. Right now I am feeling "good" so I am counting on running 5K tomorrow, but I will have to see after tonight's sleep. :)

On a planning note, I have a tempo run planned for Thursday. I am scheduled to run 20 minutes at "race pace" or at a faster pace. Originally, I was thinking of running this at 6:45/km, but I just did that on the weekend in my race. :) Instead, I think I will aim for 6:30/km and try my nest to keep my pace between faster than 6:40/km. I have never done tempo runs before and the book warns that it takes a little bit of time to finesse so I am thinking this a realistic, conservative goal for my first attempt.

On a final note, I am officially registered for the Around the Square Run (5K & 10K) in Goderich. I signed up for the 10K as a fun run. This is the new run that is replacing the Embro Highland Games 10K in the Runpiker Series. Interestingly, it is limited to 350 people. I was #315. :)