A Good Week

After returning from six days of conferences and a fun weekend sandwiched in the middle, I felt doughy, lazy, and anxious to kick my training into high gear. A work-filled Wednesday paused my return, but Thursday I got to it.

Tempo Thursday started at 6AM, with a quick run including 3 miles at half. marathon pace. I quickly took off to work for a 7:30 meeting, and was pleasantly surprised that my strategy of baby wipes worked well enough that I didn't feel gross.

Lunchtime yoga followed, and it was a welcome return. After work, climbing rounded our my return to the world of the fit.

Friday I got in a few easy miles, but mostly relaxed and got caught up at work before another out of town trip I'm on today.

Saturday started with what was supposed to be an easy 6. It turned into almost 8, but at least still easy. I went to yoga at 9:30, and man was it challenging. I really like the Saturday instructor at Pipeworks. He is very focused, calls you on your bad form and laziness, much like my favorite spin instructor. Plus, he ends he class with some deep ideas (ones that make you think, not the usual banal stuff).

Running and yoga would have been plenty, especially considering the Buffalo Stampede I was set to run Sunday. But I didn't stop there. I climbed hard until about 1:30, and got excited to try some really challenging routes.

Needless to say, I was spent by the time I went home, nearly 6 hours after starting my workouts!

After all that, I was concerned about how well I would do in the Stampede 10 Miler on Sunday. I started the race with the idea of just running about half marathon pace, maybe 7:45/mile. Of course, my first few miles were under 7:30, I got a little tired and slowed a bit. I saved some energy for the last we miles, and finished strong in 1:18:30, good for second in my age group.

All in all, it was a productive week. Now I need to ramp up weekend mileage and get my weekly count closer to 50.

Miles this week: 33
Total miles in 2012: 1001

Oh, I passed 1000 this week, about three months ahead of that mark last year!

Again, (it) Goes Unnoticed

Okay, throwback music references aside, I have been out of town on and off for work for the past week. The resulting insanity on my schedule caused me to forget to update last week, and cut into my running as well. Okay, those are excuses. I don't have any room for those. I'll say it here so I have to stick to it: I will keep up with my training, and I will update my blog!

I did a fantastic Tempo Thursday with the group two Thursdays ago. It kicked my butt, but I felt faster than ever. I am super excited to do these workouts every week, and was bummed to miss last week because I was driving to San Francisco. I got in an abbreviated tempo workout that morning, but it wasn't the same.

I did an appauling job over the weekend of getting runs in. I've been doing a good job on the long runs thus far in CIM training, but this weekend I let it go a bit. I had a fun time Friday night, slept in until pretty late on Saturday, and didn't run until around noon. I got to run the Los Gatos Creek Trail, which was pretty (no American River Parkway, but nice enough).

Photo Courtesy http://www.sjparks.org/Trails/LosGatos/LosGatosPhotos.asp

Long story made short, I did a ten miler. I'd been prescribed a 17 miler, and I would have been happy with 15. I did a fast 15 the weekend before, even increasing speed over the last few miles. I'd never done that before! I'll get back to business this weekend, with the Buffalo Stampede 10 Mile Race, then a few extra at the end.

Tempo Thursday is tomorrow, and to prove my commitment and bad-assery, I will be going to Tempo Thursday, then jetting to my office for a 7:30 meeting. For the sake of the folks in my meeting, I hope I'm done in time to change. It would be even better if I can employ baby wipes first...

Here are my updated stats. I'm just doing annual, since I had two weeks in there:
Total Miles in 2012: 968

Weekly Summary: I made it to 900 miles!

I hit the 900 mile mark this week! Last year, it took until the week ending November 13 to surpass 900 miles. I am so excited to be about two and a half months ahead in terms of mileage, without major injury. It feels good to be progressing in my overall training, upping mileage, as well as hitting PRs.

Monday: Off
Tuesday: 5 with Chips (warm, strides, 5x 400 progressively faster with 400 jog, cool)
Wednesday: Yoga
Thursday: 7.5 at my first Tempo Thursday (15 min. warm, 4x 5 minutes around/under 7 min mile, 15 min cool)
Friday: Run 2.5 easy, yoga, climb
Saturday: 10 by myself from the Hatchery
Sunday: Off

Total This Week: 25
Total Miles in 2012: 922

Last Week: No More Miles, But Less Pain

Last week I kept my total mileage down once again, but did manage most of a speed workout, several short morning runs, and a less painful 12.

Monday: Off
Tuesday: 6.5 mile Chips workout (warm, strides, 1000-800-600-400-200 progressively faster with ~400 jog, back up ladder to 1000), cool. I only did back up to 600 then cooled down.
Wednesday: 2.5 on Stonegate easy (time crunched)
Thursday: Really sad 1 mile on Stonegate, so I could stretch and roll
Friday: Off
Saturday: 12 with Chips from Gold River
Sunday: Off

Total This Week: 23
Total Mile in 2012: 897

Rejected!

To veer slightly from running for a few moments... I've been a regular blood donor for years, and donate every 8 weeks or so when I'm not training for a marathon. This year and last, I've been more a sporadic donor as I've been in training a good amount of the year. One can only donate blood every 8 weeks, because that is about how long it takes to folly replenish the lost red cells. Since red cells carry oxygen to the muscles, it makes sense to me that donating within 8 weeks of a race (full marathon) will dramatically impact performance. For that reason, if I have a marathon in the next 8 weeks (or a half in the next month or so), I wait to donate.

I went in this morning, a few weeks post marathon and about 14 weeks from my next marathon. Perfect timing. They did the first finger stick (test for hemoglobin, or iron in the blood), and my count was 0.1 too low. I didn't sweat it, because I failed on the first try last time, since they got the new fancy machine instead of the "blood drop test" they used to use.

This time, my second test, I can up a whopping 0.8 short! Not only can I not donate today, I'm ineligible for a full month! Practically speaking, this means I won't donate until after CIM, since by then I will be two weeks out from an important half marathon, and 8 weeks after that will be CIM.

I'm pretty bummed out. I feel that donating blood is a small way I can help others, and I take pride in doing my part. Donating blood is easy, and it really does make a difference. I don't volunteer much, and so donating blood really is my little way to give back. To make it worse, I would have hit 3 gallons donated today.

Furthering my bummed-out-ness, I saw on my form a new code. I asked the person testing me, and she said that they code everyone for eligibility to donate platelets, since that is a more important product and expires more quickly. They apparently tested me last time I came in, and I didn't have enough platelets to be eligible. Double rejection! She said I'd likely be ineligible anyway because I don't weigh enough, but still...

Okay, rant complete :(

Getting back...

I ran a marathon, then went on an epic road trip, and just got back into running a little last week. I did a paltry and painful 20 total for the week, after doing 5 (SBA 5k with warm up, etc.) the week before. As of yesterday:

Miles in 2012: 874

Weekly Summary Catch-Up

Since the San Francisco Marathon, I've run 5 miles. I warmed up, did the Susan B. Anthony 5k, and cooled down. I've pretty much taken two weeks off, though I did cross training in the meantime (climb, hike, drink beer). I plan to start running again this week, since CIM training should be starting soon.

Miles in 2012: 854