Long runs

Yesterday I popped off a 30 mile long run in and around Jackson NH. Potentially one of my best long run efforts to date. 152 HR, 6:00 average pace. It actually felt somewhat routine, and yet I don't remember ever doing a run that long that fast before, and with a heart rate that low. I'd done a 30 mile and a 32 mile long run in the spring of 2014 leading up to Grandma's... but I really think this was a new level of quality. Even if it isn't in reality, I'm convinced it is so we're going to leave it at that. Be happy and move on because there's always another day to look forward to.

I got back to my car, sat down on the dirt to do some light stretches and looked around.

Take a second and really look at this picture. There's nothing hidden in it, just give yourself 8 seconds to try and put yourself there.

Grey sky, leafless trees, road curving slightly away from me-- on one hand it seems empty and isolating. It sure looks empty and isolating. As I sat there on the cold ground reveling in my body's soreness and looking as haggard as you'd expect, the typical fall scene around me started to feel especially...inviting... or.... approachable... almost comfortable. That packed dirt on the side of the road tapering off in the distance, the wind buzzing around me... it was all the way it was supposed to be and nothing more. I was who I was in that moment-- again--nothing more. The hard road and the freezing wind can be unforgiving at the best of times, but right then, BAM, it was like we got each other. That's what I'll always remember about this picture.

These are the things that happen to your brain after running for 30 miles straight.

AH

Putting in the work

This week I've run over 100 miles without even thinking about it. Like I've said in previous posts, I barely think about mileage anymore. Here's a quick snapshot of what I've done this week. You know, nuts and bolts stuff. I'll delve into the details later.

Monday- No running; 40 minutes of hip and glute strengthening on my own
Tuesday- 2:45 of low zone 2 running (~27 miles); 2.5 mile shakeout in the evening
Wednesday- 5x10 minutes at tempo (high zone 3, roughly 5:10 pace) with 3 mins rest between each
Thursday- 8.5 miles easy
Friday- 8.5 miles zone 1/zone2 early AM; 3x5:00 @ zone 4-5 (4:45-5:00 pace) at noon; 5 miles easy in evening
Saturday- 5 mile tempo time trial on track at 167-169bpm followed by long cooldown totaling 16 miles. 26:32 for 5 miles
Sunday- Easy 1:30 on trails
Total mileage = 103 (6 days)

Holy moly. That two day stretch with a 27 mile long run followed by 50 total minutes of tempo the next morning felt borderline suicidal at the time, but I did it and kept myself in one piece for the most part. It was an empowering two day stretch-- I knew I was pushing myself in a way I never had before. Sometimes risks need to be taken to find that next level, and I was very aware of my body's desperation as I pushed through the 10 minute repeats.  

With the addition of more up tempo stuff this week, especially the 3x5:00 in zone 4-5, I'm feeling stronger and notably faster. Interestingly, too, and probably related, I am finding it easier than usual to push myself to a high heart rate zone and hold it there. Last year I remember finding it hard to hold a heart rate of, say, 172+ for an extended time. I was surprised and happy that 5 minutes with my heart rate north of 175 didn't feel particularly hard.

Little aches and pains continue to be ever present in my life. There's always something new that pops up. Managing these issues, even when they're small, has to be one of the hardest things for me to deal with. As gratifying as highly competitive training and racing can be if things go well, worrying about and dealing with injury dominates the overall timeline. The end goal usually justifies these hardships, but they are ever present in the daily grind. As an example, on Tuesday and Wednesday I felt like my training thus far had come to a mini peak. I was feeling tired but undeniably strong. My long run had gone supremely well and I finished it with more energy and vigor than my previous long runs. Even when it seemed impossible to dig down and run tempo pace the next day, I did. I felt accomplished and ready to take anything on. Then on Saturday (following the 5 mile tempo run on the track), the soreness I'd felt at times on the top of my right foot felt more painful than usual. I dragged myself through that 16 mile run, soaked in the cold, driving rain with very noticeable pain on my foot at times. It varied, but there's no doubt it was a scary pain. Pains like that, even if they last an instant, can rip confidence away from you pretty quickly. As well as things had been going, and as insignificant as that pain will likely end up being, it was there. It reminds me of The Matrix when Morpheus says something about a "splinter in your mind," ie something that you can't help but obsess about a little more than you should. I try as hard as I can to not let it get me down, but it's easier said than done. Staying even-keeled is the key. I find myself wondering how truly elite level people who run for a living handle problems like this and if it's just a part of the gig.

Coming off a semi-dark 24 hour period where I was wondering how serious the foot problem was, the trail run I did this morning at Stratham Hill Park was rejuvenating. The pain wasn't sharp and was a total non-issue most of the time. I ran slowly and reveled in it. And even though I still feel some pain there, just like that, I feel like I've figured it out and am on the other side of it. At least from a mental standpoint I am, which is sometimes the most important one.

AH

PS- Ali and I got a Christmas tree today! The cat is clearly excited

Signing up

I signed up for the race today....

That's all for now.... 

Seacost Half race recap

My legs are totally dead today as I write this. I rarely question SC and his coaching, but I found myself wondering why I was doing a 2:15 minute run this morning at a 150 average HR over a hilly course. My legs felt pretty shredded for the last 30 minutes. I covered 21.9 miles @ 6:12 per mile. Coming off a hard run half marathon two days ago, I'll take it! Hopefully my body won't break into a thousand pieces now. Here we go-- as I try and break down the finer details of my race at the Seacoast Half on Sunday in Portsmouth.

I knew it would be between myself and Leuchanka for the win. I also knew we were both readily capable of breaking the course record, it was just a matter of who would come out with the win. A week prior to this race, on Saturday morning, we met up at the Newfields-Manchester rail trail and did a 5x6:00 tempo workout with 2:00 rest between each repeat. We were both running pretty hard, potentially testing the limits of each other and our respective "tempo" zones, but regardless, I got the sense that we were pretty evenly matched in our current fitness levels. I got the feeling that he'd be a tough guy to beat in a race-- someone who can latch on and just hang for dear life, and for a long time if need be. I took a lot from that workout both mentally and physically-- I enjoyed the element of having someone else there alongside me as we cranked through the minutes. It was an otherwise cold, thankless early morning (7:00) workout in the woods. From a training perspective, that was my last hard run before taking a few easy days to get myself ready for the race. 

In the week leading up to the half, post workout with Leuchanka I felt less than ideal. Let's say garbage actually. I had seemingly strained a muscle, albeit very slightly, in my glute doing hill repeats the week before the race. I took two days off to let that heal, then did some shorter distance runs with pickups to try and keep my legs ready for the race. My legs felt heavy and soft. Going from running 110+ miles a week with multiple workouts to single runs of 5-8 miles a few days later is a huge change and makes it a nightmare to stay positive, especially going into a race that you know won't be easy. The physical and mental shock to the system was hard for me. I was having doubts and plenty of weird aches. Deep down, I knew I needed it though, both from a mini taper perspective and a health perspective, and I tried to focus on that aspect of it. Sometimes you have to go through those weeks when there's a bigger goal down the line. I was glad once Friday came around that things were starting to come together for me.  

I knew going into the race that I had been doing a lot more volume that Leuchanka, which gave me a sense of confidence that I didn't quite have when we raced Great Island 5k a few weeks prior. I also knew my overall fitness had improved since then. Were those two things enough to beat him? That's where the race starts.

As the gun went off, Leuchanka and I sprinted down the hill from the high school and basically kept sprinting (or what felt like sprinting) until we hit the mile mark. We went through that mile in 4:57 if I remember correctly, which was certainly helped by the downhill and overall excitement of the race going off. Over the next few miles we clicked off some 5:00-5:09s and I was starting to felt pretty confident about how I stacked up. He seemed to be working a little harder than me at that moment, although that's impossible to gauge with real confidence. As I said before, I felt that racing a longer distance played into my strengths, and I wanted to play up that perceived advantage as best I could. I wanted to press the pace early and often, and just hope I had enough in the tank to make it home. Around mile 4 as we took a turn along the beach, I sensed our pace slow down almost imperceptively, at which point I picked it up to test Alex and see how he responded. I grabbed a slight gap, and knowing the wind was brutal I kept pressing on and tried to establish a little more real estate so he wouldn't be able to draft off me. Before I knew it I was running by myself. I didn't have a great idea of how much distance I had put on him, and not wanting to look behind me, I kept pressing the issue and pushing forward. People told me I had 50-200 meters on him at different points, but I think he stayed pretty much 10-20 seconds behind me for the rest of the race. Not enough to relax by any means. 

My race plan was to run roughly 5:05 pace for the first few miles, check my pace slightly going through New Castle at about the 7-8 mile mark (gets a little hilly), then crank it home back around 5:00 pace for the last couple miles. I think I'm probably fit enough to run a half in the 66-67 minute range but the issue I had at Seacost (that was shared by everyone) was that very windy conditions prevented any super fast times. In a way, the race plan faded out of my mind once I was crossing the causeway in New Castle and felt like I was getting punched in the stomach by the wind. 

Things got a little desperate feeling at that point as I wondered how much cushion I had. My legs were screaming at me and I felt like I was running sideways. Luckily we both slowed down at basically the same rate-- I had a couple 5:20+ miles in there that felt particularly awful around miles 9-12. I checked behind me taking that final turn toward the high school and was finally able to relax. I saw Ali as I turned up the hill and seeing her standing there smiling was the best feeling of the day. Crossing the finish line was great, but not as good as seeing her and turning up the hill. Even though my time was a minute or two slower than I was hoping, the effort was there and my body responded when it needed to. There's not much to be disappointed about.

 Ali and I at the finish. She's usually stuck with holding something of mine at the end of races

                                             I know I just posted this photo, but I couldn't resist

    My mom came to watch! Loved seeing her there

On a side note, I felt so happy to hear so many volunteers and racers cheering me on. Seeing so many people I knew made the race that much more enjoyable. Definitely a positive to running a local event!

As I'm coming off this race and looking ahead, the real training begins.

Onward!

AH

Seacoast Half

The Seacoast Half Marathon was this morning, which, after all is said and done, ended up being a pretty satisfying day for me. There's a lot I want to say about the race as it unfolded, specifics on strategy and the mental battles going on in my brain, but I want to leave that for my next post when I have the chance to digest the race for 24-48 hours. I wanted to stick with the basics and say that I'm feeling especially grateful to be able to run at this level again. That's about it. No doubt I have a long road to keep improving, but this was a major stepping stone for me in both a mental and physical sense. I know deep down that I have a higher ceiling that I haven't touched yet. I have a lot more to give. Now things will really start to crank up for me as I head into the real marathon building phase with about three months until the Trials. I'll leave it at that for now.

AH

Busy

Training is picking up a notch for sure this week. While I was feeling a little flat early in the week and even at the end of last week, today the legs were a little more spry. So funny how cyclical training like this is. I said to Ali that my mental and physical state after some really good or bad runs usually means down the road, whether that's 4 or 14 days later, things are bound to flip to the opposite side, usually with the same intensity. What's that they say about actions and reactions....

It's just impossible and unrealistic to be feeling good all the time. Making real gains in your training means having ups and downs. Big ones and little ones, and staying level headed as best you can throughout the process.

This past weekend I was also in upstate NY for my college friend Streets' bachelor party. It's always so fun seeing my college buddies. Such an entertaining group dynamic that I really miss sometimes. As you might imagine, that weekend wasn't super conducive to hard training, so I moved some days around and took a day off (which was planned) and an easy run. On Monday I was still feeling pretty flat trying to do a "step up" style workout which was 2x15 minutes at tempo (z3) HR immediately followed by 5 minutes at z4 HR. I couldn't make it happen for the second set and had to bail towards the beginning of the 5 minute chunk. I think my body was still catching up on sleep and recovery from the weekend.

Tuesday I did 21.6 miles in Jackson at mostly z2 pace. Sort of stayed on the edge of z1 and z2. Average for the run was 6:15 pace, and my legs were feeling a little better at this point. I was dealing with some pain in my right hip area that was a little concerning. I have since done a bunch of hip exercises and things have definitely calmed down a lot and I'm not as worried about it. It's amazing how much of a difference that makes for me right now. I can't slack on that stuff. Easy 30:00 double later that afternoon.

This morning was an easy 7 miles followed by an hour long "plyo run" in the PM. This entailed a warmup, then 4x strides, butt kicks, high knees, karaoke, and high skips for 30 seconds each with 30 seconds rest in between each drill. Harder than you'd think. Very different than just straight running, as doing all that repetitive jumping felt like I was waking up other aspects of my gait cycle that I don't typically use. I covered about 8 miles during that run, bringing me to about 43 miles in the last three days. Fairly typical mileage wise from the last couple weeks. I do have some more intense workouts later in the week which should add to the workload a lot compared to previous weeks. Hills tomorrow, then some quick track work on Friday.

AH    

10 mile progression

Got out this morning for a planned 10 mile progression run. HR zone 1-2 for first 3, then z3 for miles 4-6, then z4-5 for 7-9. My legs were still feelin' it for yesterday's 20 miler so being able to execute this well was a big plus. 

Happy this went well. I had my doubts in the beginning as my calves were sore and the top of my foot was achy. I worked through the kinks and am quite pleased. 

AH

Two hours

Went for a two hour run this morning, planned zone 2 HR the whole way. Zone 2 is characterized as "aerobic," for SC, aka not recovery, but not tempo. Kind of a sweet spot. I maintained what I thought was a solid pace throughout, averaging 5:54 pace with a HR average of 155, covering 20.6 miles. I looked back at a similar workout from April of 2014 when I did 90 minutes of zone 2 running and averaged 155bpm and 5:55 pace. Pretty. Darn. Similar. This made me happy because that was two months before Grandma's and I know I was pretty darn fit at that time. The contexts are certainly different but still interesting to see the similarities.

Need to work on some speed, but otherwise I'm feeling good and mentally amped to dive into the week ahead.

AH

Great Island 5K race recap

Yesterday I ran the Great Island 5k in New Castle. It was a perfect fall day for a race and I was pumped to be out there. I found out when I arrived that Nate Jenkins and Aliaksandr (sp?) Leuchanka (AL) were running as well so I knew I wasn't going to be walking away with this one easily. AL has been running well all season and Nate is always a super tough competitor when I've raced him in the past. I didn't know exactly what kind of shape each of them were in, so I focused on myself. I tried not to think too much about the training I had put in over the previous 5 days, as the miles have really piled on. I actually didn't add it all up until just now, where I count 93 miles of running in 6 days if you include the mileage from race day.

I knew I was in for a battle as soon as the gun went off. The three of us separated from the pack and it was clear nobody else was in the picture. I got out and led for about the first mile, which we covered in 4:48, the quickest of the race. I felt good, straining, but ok. I felt some slight twinges in my right groin but overall nothing too scary. I threw in a surge or two here and there to try and test those guys but they hung really tough. From that point I knew it would come down to the last few hundred meters.

I relaxed slightly and Nate jumped ahead going around this corner by the water that led into a quick little downhill. He was trying to break open a little gap by using the downhill, but AL and I stuck with him. Ripping through some of those turns was really fun, and the race itself can be pretty tactical from that perspective. Especially when you add in all the little tiny ups and downs.

Me, dude in the back, in my attempts to stay with the leaders

Through the next mile or so I was hanging on the back of these two as we were all clearly working pretty damn hard. Turning down on Pit Lane and then back onto 1B I was gassed, let off the pedal for a moment and lost a little bit of ground on the two of them. I worked my way back a little bit and was momentarily inspired by the cheering crowd with about 500m to go, but was burning on all cylinders at that point and though I was gaining for a short time, it wasn't something I could keep up through the finish. I ended up crossing in third, momentarily disappointed to have lost, but overall pretty pleased with the way I competed and the time I was rewarded with. After just a couple months of dedicated training, and only a few weeks of hard training, I was pretty proud of myself.

When I add in the fact that I'd run a moderately hard 13 miles the day before and done plenty of tough running and mileage over the days prior, I had a lot to be optimistic about. At the same fitness level but with fresh legs I'm confident I could've run much faster and been more competitive with those guys in the latter stages of the race.

Looking back, it was a lot of fun really racing people again. It's been a long while since I've been in those dire late race scenarios where everyone is just crushing each other and themselves for a small little edge. It's without a doubt the best and most exhilarating part of running. Also the most stressful. Too bad I didn't come across with the win on this one, but hey, there are always more races on the calendar.

AH
 
Results:
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/15/nh/Oct11_22ndGr_set1.shtml

Seacoast Online article:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20151011/SPORTS/151019886

Rapid fire updates

Tuesday I did the longest run of my year, 23 miles on the roads surrounding Jackson, NH. I did 3x15 minute pickups up to about 5:50 pace, which was very comfortable and easy feeling. The distance was the toughest part of this run. I was never in real discomfort, but I could tell my body is certainly still adapting to this kind of running. I got back, ate a solid lunch, then headed back out for a 30 minute shake out jog on the soft trails. All told almost 27 miles on the day!

Wednesday (yesterday) I had a 10 mile zone 1 or 2 run in the morning. I have to say, this was one of the most satisfying efforts I've had all season. Really caught me off guard. I was running super comfortably around 6:00 pace and couldn't have been happier. It was one of those perfect fall days and the perfect temperature for a long sleeve shirt and shorts. In the grand scheme it was a filler kind of day, but mentally this stood out to me in terms of how well I seemingly recovered from the effort the day before. Now this will probably all come back to haunt me and my body will react to the training effect of that long run soon enough, but for that day I was absolutely thrilled. Easy double in the afternoon capped off a solid day.

Today I hit up the track for a 5xmile workout. After a short warmup I covered the miles in 5:08. 5:08, 5:08, 5:04, 5:00, each with a 200m jog in between (about 2 minutes worth). A longer 4ish mile cooldown, plus an easy 30:00 double in the afternoon brought me to about 57 miles of running in 3 days.

Feeling good! 

Now time for sleep.

AH

Quick recap on the week thus far

Update on notable runs this week:

10x3 minutes up a steep hill in Jackson on Tuesday. It was super rainy but otherwise really nice running weather. I was running hard and felt really good despite the difficulty of the whole thing. It reminded me of running up Bald Eagle hill in college, specifically in the '09 cross country season when Kevin McGoldrick crushed my spirits and beat me up the hill on multiple occasions. Would've loved to have some company out there the other day as it got a little lonely cranking up that hill time and time again. It's tough not having teammates sometimes. I forget how great that was to have someone there going through the same difficulties, working toward the same goal.

Easy 8 miles on Wednesday.

Today (Thursday) was 7x800 with 90 seconds rest on the track, reminiscent of my 5x800 effort on the track a couple weeks ago. That workout I did 2:30, 28, 27, 24, 23. This time I was 2:29, 25, 23, 24, 21, 23, 23, or something along those lines. Those 90 seconds flew by but I held my own I think. Especially happy with the improvement compared to a couple weeks ago. Still a long way to go, but it's certainly some progress.

After the track workout I went to see SC at the gym, where he showed me some super helpful core and hip exercises. These were TRX style exercises (hey, first time for everything) that use bands with loops on the end, tied to a bar overhead. All body weight stuff that focused on glutes, hamstrings, hips, and adductors. Overall it was exactly what I was looking for in terms of added strength work. Very functional and helpful for running.

Easy bike planned tomorrow. Great Island 5k next weekend.

AH

A sneaky 75 mile week

Since I started training with SC, I have become less and less focused on weekly mileage totals. I dial myself into the assigned workouts for the day and focus most of the time on my heart rate rather than mileage or pace. This is starkly different than my mindset in college where weekly mileage seemed to be the ultimate measuring stick for one's fitness and ambition. Because of this shift in mentality, a 75 mile week snuck up on me without even expecting it. Actually, I did 75 miles in 5 days of running because I took Monday off and Wednesday went on a bike ride. There will be much more aggressive weeks to come, but this week was huge for me. I think I'll look back on this as the time when I really got my teeth back into my training. I feel like I control my own fate now.

The highlight of the week was definitely the out and back negative split 20 miler I did on Thursday. It felt so good to really roll like that and get some legitimate distance in at the same time.

On Saturday I did some "cruise intervals," aka some up tempo bursts of speed during an otherwise normal run. I had 4x10 minutes at 5:45 pace. Here's what that looked like:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/910590739

First off, I'm not sure if that link is going to work. If it doesn't work, that's ok. I hit 5:45 pace chunks right on, which felt pretty darn easy. My heart rate during those segments was 157, 147, 155, 160. There were some downhills on that second one, which would explain the dropoff there. I felt great and covered about 15.5 miles on that run, along with an easy four mile shake out later in the afternoon.

As an aside, the smell of the autumn air has to be one of the best things a runner can experience. The cool crispness is heaven to breathe in.

Day off tomorrow and a bit of a recovery week ahead. Thanks for reading everyone.

AH

This is your delicious treat for reading through the whole post

Kittery 4 miler

Quick update regarding my recent training and my first race SINCE JUNE 2014. Let's allow that one to sink in for a second. Actually, it turns out this is a loooooooooooooong update.

This past Sunday was a race morning for me for the first time in well over a year. These mornings are occasionally a little unnerving for me, but I had very little anxiety leading up to this one despite all the emotional and physical ups and downs I've felt in the past 15 months. All that time was leading up to this point where I was putting the same racing singlet on that I wore at Grandma's. I couldn't deny the feeling that I was a different runner with a hugely altered sense of appreciation for the sport and being able to be a part of it again. I thought about all I've had to do just to put this singlet on again, and with real purpose I wanted to prove to myself that I still have a whisper of the ability I had last year.

I drove to the race with Ali, registered, and spent a few minutes chatting with other local runners and friends. I warmed up for about 25 minutes, got back to the start, did some strides, and felt pretty ready to go. This race was small, and that was a big part of the appeal for me. It was close, low key, familiar (I did it in 2013) and not a 5k, which is always nice. 

I started the race a little quicker than I was planning, but I felt surpassingly comfortable settling into low 5:00 pace. I checked myself down once or twice to avoid getting too carried away in the beginning stages which certainly helped me maintain a consistent speed through the middle miles. I knew nobody in the race would be threatening the lead, so it was really a solo mental battle between myself and my hips. I felt a little twinge of pain in my right groin/hip area about 2 miles in, which persisted through the finish line in varying degrees. For a moment I considered stopping, not because it was too painful to keep going, more that I was afraid of it getting worse. Luckily, it didn't, and stayed manageable, which has been the story over the past couple months. 

According to my watch my splits were 5:16, 5:22, 5:07, 5:13 for a 5:14 average. Truthfully I think the course was a little bit short, as my total distance came out to 3.98 miles. Despite the potentially short course I found it amusing that my average pace for this race was exactly the same it was at Grandma's. It was a great day and amazingly fun to be back out there on the race course. Turns out racing can be fun and not always be stressful.

Continuing with the rest of my week, I put in a 6 mile tempo run on Tuesday (~5:35 average) and felt strong but still pretty tight in my groin and hip, which bothered me a little, comparable to how it felt in the race. As a little cherry on top for the week, I ran a two hour out and back negative split today (Thursday), this came after some all-out hill sprints the night before. I covered about 20 miles and averaged 5:35 pace for the return journey. Each hard effort I feel noticeably more efficient and speedy. 

There's no doubt things are happening quickly. I have seemingly gone from nothing to being in pretty reasonable shape within a very short time. I knew I could be quick about it, but I never expected this kind of turnaround for myself.  I don't want to jinx it, but theres' a real possibility that this buildup might actually seem easier for me to handle, mentally and physically. I don't know if this is because I'm just a year older, I understand the training system I'm in that much better, or what, but based on what's been happening over the last few weeks I'm really surprised by my body's ability to respond to training stresses whenever it's necessary. I wonder if deep down my body internalized and is beginning to recall what I was doing 18 months ago in regular training. Maybe I'm just that much closer to my so called "physical peak." Either way, I better not get too carried away and hurt myself again. That would be devastating.

Speaking of which, my plan is to dedicate even more time that I currently am working on core strength and stability. I can still sense some discomfort on my right side, although it's been consistent and hasn't worsened. As it stands, it's pretty manageable, but it would be the ultimate setback if it got considerably worse. I also worry about my mental ability to go out and deal with it on a daily basis. Either way, I want to really shore things up with that area soon, whatever it takes.

AH

Road breakthoughs + the big W

I'm finding more things to talk about as I keep getting stronger and faster. I can sense my body building itself back up after harder workouts, and doing so in a noticeably positive way. It's almost like my body is beginning to understand and react to the pressures I'm applying to it. Run, recovery, run, recovery, run. Patterns. I can feel my mind starting to fall into some familiar patterns as well, where I'll think more intently on my next workout (or race) than usual.

The workout that really made my week last week came on 9/13, exactly 5 months before the trials. Didn't realize that until I wrote it out in that way. Huh. I guess that's pretty cool. Whether it's cool or not, here's what happened: I did an easy 90 minutes at Stratham hill park in the morning, then about 5-6 hours later was heading out for a second run. Usually my second run is an easy recovery sort of thing, or in some cases a chance to work on speed. In those cases I'll do drills, strides, and some hopping around to build some strength and power. Today was different even than those days, with a 10k fartlek planned of 2:00-1:00-1:00-:30-:30-:30 alternating fast and slow running. The workout went great; I started aggressively and held on to those fast paces throughout the run. Here's a breakdown. Blew myself away. This was my first indication that I am getting into very modest race shape.

  
This legitimately doesn't look impressive, but bear in mind this is what I did over 7.6 total miles. So my average pace was drastically pulled down due to a very slow warm up and cool down, which made up about 1.5 miles of it. My "fast" two minute splits were 5:20, 5:30, 5:05, 5:08, 5:03, 5:03, and 5:07. Enough to boost my confidence considerably.

Jumping ahead a couple days, my run in the mountains on 9/15 was shorter than last week's jaunt, but also significantly more elevation gain involving a cruise up to Mt. Washington's summit. I was far more confident compared to last week, so much so that I deliberately reminded myself that I still am a total noob on the mountain running scene and shouldn't get too confident any time soon. My body, too, is getting noticeably stronger out on the roads and on the trails. I went up Tuckerman's trail and back Lion's head trail, which included a little flat running to and from Wildcat parking lot, where I left my car.

                                                       Always nice to have clear signage

                                                           From the base of the ravine

                                 Near the top of the ravine, before heading towards Washington

Amazing views and lots of climbing. It was very windy the whole time, even at the base. Once I got to the peak of Washington, the winds were a sustained 63mph (according to the guys working up there at the time). It was a little creepy as I was the only non-worker up there at the time. I didn't spend much time and continued on my way back down Lion's Head, where I saw a few people and felt like a little less of a weirdo.

                                                                    Wow! Video!

I'm getting bored of this post as it happened days ago and my mind is now on to a four mile race I'm doing tomorrow in Kittery called the Seaside Four Miler. I did it a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. Nice course and I always like an unfamiliar distance. My first race since my marathon last June. Can't wait.

AH

Lafayette/Lincoln/Little Haystack

Today was Ali's first day of work at her new job in North Conway, and my first day of serious running in the mountains. This made Mt. Major last week look like a small gig. More elevation, some super tricky descents and climbs, and a completely cloud covered summit made this outing pretty memorable.

I woke up at 5:00 and made myself a quick breakfast of PB/J+banana. I was out the door by 5:30 and got in my car to head toward the Franconia area. Turns out it was an hour long drive to get there. I didn't realize how spread out places are up here... it takes a long time to get between towns. Anyway, I digress-- I got to the Lafayette trailhead parking at 6:30 and found the Old Bridal Path trail quite easily. 

Here's an always classic "before" picture. There's no "after" picture by the way, so don't get your hopes up. Notice the classy Connect 4 board off to the side. 

Here's some signage beckoning me into the wilderness. 

As soon as I got going, almost all my fears about my right sided hip pain (it's been acting up in the last few days) went away. I felt pretty good and I was making very steady progress up the trail. Things got steep though, as you might imagine-- I was climbing up Lafayette after all. I maintained a running gait, or at least something closely resembling a running gait, until I tripped myself up on a root about 25 minutes in. The thought flashed through my head-- I'll need to bag this run and go back-- but I sustained some minor cuts on my knee and jammed my index finger. My finger injury was the worst, so overal I didn't have much to complain about. 

I was forced to walk, aka fast hike, for a few sections that were comically too rocky or steep to run. I progressed pretty quickly and got to the Greenleaf Hut in about 50 minutes. I've been judging my effort on these fast climbs without much specificity; I run until my lungs or my legs can't take any more, and walk accordingly. I check my heart rate now and then for curiosity's sake, which usually peaks out around 170bpm for the steep and runnable sections. 

The best landscape picture I was able to capture before I got into the clouds.

I had a quick chat with a few folks who were staying at the hut and asked them if they knew anything about the weather. I was concerned, based on things I've read and heard, that the Franconia Ridge can be pretty gnarly if the weather turns bad. It's above tree line for a few miles and I was afraid of things getting worse. They confirmed that any potential storms wouldn't come until the afternoon, so I decided I'd continue on and see what the summit was like...

That blend of mild fear and isolation in this picture is all real. I snapped this at the top of Lafayette, where it was easily 60 degrees with a 15-20mph wind, making it feel like 50. It was wet too, where the air almost felt heavy going into my lungs. It wasn't a place you'd want to hang out for very long. But it was so invigorating, too. The footing was damp but not too slippery, and the few times I reached down to touch the ground or a rock I savored the feeling-- I was really getting into it at this point. The visibility was terrible, of course, so realistically I didn't stick around for long once I got to the top. At this point I hadn't seen any other hikers in this section of the mountain, so I was feeling a little like the stupid guy taking a selfie above tree line and everyone else knew something I didn't and I was about to get swept clear off the mountainside. I pressed on despite the anxiety as the wind was much calmer off the southern side off the mountain. 

The traversing section ensued. Definitely the coolest part of this whole run, I got to open it up a little more when the footing was good. I was really getting my teeth into it at this point, feeling a little more mentally engaged and aware of my surroundings in the larger scale. I had some serious tunnel vision as I worked my way up to that first peak. At this point I felt more comfortable in a general sense. 

I got to the Lincoln and Little Haystack peaks, then took a short jaunt up to Liberty before turning and heading down Liberty Spring trail. I was at about 2:30 when I turned down Liberty Spring, which brought me basically down to the level of the road by 3:15. I found the Pemi trail and excitedly headed towards the parking lot where I started. When I got to The Basin, however, I misinterpreted a sign and accidentally followed the Basin Cascade trail for a mile. Once I realized my mishap, I sat down and ate the peanut butter and fluff sandwich I brought with me before going back to the junction. This might have been the low point in the day, but the Flutternutter really helped me out. I finished the last two miles at a nice steady pace as the trail leveled out and there were few roots and rocks to be found. I emerged at the Lafayette Campground and found my car! It's always a nice feeling to see something as familiar as your car when you've been running in the woods for a while. 

Here is a quick snapshot of my loop along with some nerdy running data.

Can't wait for the next one!

AH

The long run

I set out this morning with some good momentum at my back, and the day turned out even better than I could've expected. In the back of my mind I still expect disaster when I put my running shoes on. Pretty much every time I've returned from a run over the last 3 or 4 weeks Ali will ask me "How'd it go?" and I'll say something along the lines of "It went well, actually." The word actually being the key one in that response. I'm still getting accustomed to things taking a serious turn for the better.

I put together my longest run since last June and busted out 16.4 miles. Most of the run was easy, zone 1 or 2 HR, with 20 minutes at zone 3-- not dissimilar to last week's longer one. I was comfortably moving along in the heat at just under 7:00 pace until I hit 5 miles, which, like last week, is when I decided to put in that little extra burst of effort. I ran the next few miles at about a 5:52ish average, which included some hills and plenty of bright open sunlight. I was stoked when I finished it, feeling quite spry and like I could've done another one. I stuck with the plan though and reminded myself that if I stuck it out for the whole planned 1:45 I'd easily put in a lot more distance than I have in recent history. Not smart to push the heart rate and the longer distance on the same day, especially when I still consider myself pretty fragile. Here's a couple snapshots of my data in case anyone out there wants to nerd out a little bit.

Obviously I still have a long way to go. But these numbers will only get better. Holy moly I couldn't be happier with how this went today. It's really something I can hang my hat on.

In other fun news, Ali (she's an Occupational Therapist, aka OT) is taking a job in North Conway as a "traveler," which basically means she's temporarily going to work at a hospital up there for a 13 week stint. We won't see each other as often, which will be the worst part-- I'll see her on weekends and once during the week. All things considered though, it'll be a great gig for both of us for a lot of reasons. In terms of my running (this is a running blog, after all) it couldn't be a better setup. I am not-so-secretly thrilled at the prospect of using Jackson (where she'll be staying during this time) as a home base for some awesome mountain runs over the next few months. My plan is to go up there on Monday nights after work and wake up early on Tuesday and spend the whole morning/day running on the trails in the surrounding area. Easy access to the best trail running in the state.

The week ahead looks exciting. I'll keep this updated as I go along.

AH

Running up Mountains

This morning's planned two hour trail run has been on my mind for the past 8 days, since SC uploaded it to my schedule and I took note. I've been patiently waiting, anticipating the day. I tried not to make a big deal of it in my head or talk about it too much, because I didn't wait to jinx myself, but there was no question I had a good feeling about this one from the beginning. This whole week I've felt that my body was ready for an increase and I couldn't wait to immerse myself in the isolated brilliance of the trails.

In planning this adventure, I got my water vest packed up and ready to go the night before, along with the necessary gels/food for during after the run. I spent a solid five minutes counting back from when I would need to be back home and weighing how long it would take to get to Mt. Major and back until I practically passed out when I realized I'd need to leave the house by 5:00am. I nearly bagged the whole idea, but only for a moment. I had myself convinced from the beginning of the week that I'd drive to Major for this run, and once something like that latches on to my brain, there's very little I can do to reverse it.

***Here's a side note example of this: I once waited an hour for AAA to come jump start my battery-dead car at a similar early morning hour last January. I did this when my car was parked right by my house and there was no need to use it that day other than to drive to a destination to do a run. On this occasion, I was wanting to do hill repeats of Mt. Aggie, and was really pushing my luck in 1) getting to work on time 2) getting pulled over for speeding or 3) blasting my car off the road in my frenzy to get there. I was so laser focused on doing that specific workout on that specific day that anything else would have been a grand disappointment; however childish and stubborn that mentality is, it's a real thing for me sometimes. I'm really much more Type B in my daily life, so it's weird to think about how and why that shift happens to me sometimes in my running life.

So yes, I felt like a crazy person waking up at 4:40 in the morning. It was easy to reassure myself though-- I knew it was be the best possible way I could start my day and I was stoked about the adventure. In standard "super early, semi-stressful morning wake up fashion," I instinctually woke up minutes before my alarm went off. And, in a wild shift from our typical routine, I woke up the cat and started my day when she was still pleasantly sleeping beside me. She bounced back quickly though and was owl eye awake well before I had shaken off the cobwebs and even made it to the closet to get changed.

I was off and headed to Mt. Major before 5:00am, and arrived in the parking lot around 5:50. I was surprised to see about 7 other cars already there. It was still pretty dark out-- just barely light enough to run on the trails without even the thought of needing a headlamp, but if I had arrived there 15 minutes earlier it might have been a different story. Everything was gray and muted looking because of the low light, but getting incrementally brighter by the minute. The air had a touch of night time still on it. I figured the cars contained early morning sunrise seekers, which I had ambitions of myself, so I quickly got my things in order and headed off on the trail to the left of the parking lot.

Things ramped up quickly as the trail I chose was the steeper of the two ways to get up to the Major summit. I kept my heart rate below 168 deliberately, not to get too far outside my zone three. For a few moments I found myself fast hiking, and once or twice using my hands to clamor up a larger rock face, but for the most part I was in a running gait going up the mountain. I got to the top in about 22 minutes, which was amazingly fun and rewarding. I know Major isn't anything too impressive elevation-wise, but it was so cool to get up to the summit in such a short amount of time. Plus, I got to see this:

Pretty cool, right? I didn't stick around for long here at the summit, but I had my phone with me (in case I were to get lost or stranded or something-- seemed like a good idea.) Plus, my posts will be soooo much more legit if I carry my phone with me on long trail runs and snap pictures along the way.

I continued along around the summit for a minute and found the other trail down to the parking lot along with another trail that headed off the back end of Major. I checked my watch at the juncture and told myself I'd go 30 minutes in that direction away from the parking lot then turn around and head back. Should add up to two hours. Once I got further away from the summit, things got even more awesome. I started to settle into a nice groove and felt a huge wave of calm as I put some more distance on my legs. Here I was on the top of a mountain, traversing around on trails I've never run on, early in the morning, nobody else around, and I couldn't even believe how happy it made me. The air was cool but I had a satisfying sweat going and sense of purpose about me--I was making real gains here, both mentally and physically, and I knew it as it was happening. It's not often that that happens in this sport. Maybe it's because I've been away from the running game for so many months, or maybe it's the primal-ness of trail running and the sense of freedom it evokes-- whatever it is-- I felt so happy when I was out there today. It's hard to put into words.

Me, in a quasi-euphoric-enough-to-take-a-selfie, state

The trail took lots of turns and ups and downs but I managed to stay on course and head back to the car with plenty of time to spare. So much time, in fact, that I had to putz around for about 20 minutes in the lower elevations to get myself up to 2 full hours.

I've been riding the high from this run all day. I really want to map out some 15+ mile loops for when my runs build beyond the 3 hour mark. If anyone knows of some relatively simple loops for me, being inexperienced in the finer details of the trail network of the Whites, I'd love to hear about them. I'd be looking for anything between 10-20 miles. Loops or out and backs.

Physically (injury-wise) I'm holding strong. Runs like this are an inspiration for me to work through any groin/hip pains I might have in the future with the strength work and stretching I've been doing. It's gotten me this far, hopefully it's good enough to get me to the Trials in one piece.

AH

12 miles with 20 tempo minutes

Another encouraging one today. I was slated to do an 80 minute run with 20 minutes in the middle at HR zone 3, which comes out to 159-167 bpm. Otherwise known as tempo pace, ideally I'm looking for a uncomfortably maintainable speed where I'm breathing hard but feel like I could keep it up for a long time. It's a speed and effort level I've always enjoyed implementing into my workouts. Pushing that threshold has always been fun and more exciting than long, slow distance runs. For reference, in case you were curious, my marathon heart rate average at Grandma's was 167 over the whole thing.

So I headed off along 1A, mostly because I wanted to hit the paces and be consistent with my heart rate. I warmed up for five miles (about 34-35 minutes) and got right into it. I sped up and kicked it to 5:50-6:10 pace, keeping my HR typically between 163-167, depending on the terrain, which had just a few little bumps once I turned back inland about 2 miles into it. Physically, I was really happy with how my right hip felt. It was the best I've felt on that side in months-- the first time in a long while where I wasn't obsessing about it the whole time. Well, I did feel good on the trails a couple weeks ago, but this was definitely the first time on road run where I've felt this confident. I covered almost 12 miles total on this run, so it averaged out to 6:44 pace.

In an interesting shift, my main focus for pain was right in the middle of my groin, seemingly near the top of, ahem, my pubic bone. It was an interesting pain, mostly an ache sort of thing. Nothing sharp or alarming the way my sides have felt in the past. The fact that my right side didn't bother me was enough to make me feel amazing. Like I've said in previous mini breakthroughs over the last 3 months, any shift or change in the location of the pain is encouraging and something to celebrate.

The week ahead is looking nice and heavy, at least compared to my last couple weeks. I've got a 2 hour run in the trails on Saturday with some moderate distance trail/road runs in the meantime. I still have plenty of drills and core work sprinkled in there as well. I'm feeling great at the moment though. I hope things stay the course!

AH

Miles

Finally feeling like I'm getting some miles in. SC has been very (and with good reason) conservative with me over the past couple months, so for the first time ever in our athlete/coaching roles I actually asked for more mileage. He obliged, of course, and gave me an hour long run on Monday with 20 minutes in HR zone 3, which is 159-164. I went out and my right groin was bothering me slightly, although it was pretty manageable pain wise and didn't get worse as the run went on, even when I picked up the pace about three miles in. Reason for some concern, but I pressed on. I managed to average 5:40 pace for those 20 minutes, which I was totally thrilled about. No question it was very hard. I probably overcooked it, to be honest. I touched a HR of 180 at one point going up a hill towards the end, which was definitely overdoing it. I didn't care though, my body and mind were reveling in the elevated intensity and challenge of it. It was a definite test, whether or not it should have been in the eyes of my coach.

Afterwards I had very mixed feelings about the run. I couldn't have been more happy with the speed I was able to hold, not to mention I covered almost 9 miles-- one of the longest road runs I've done (maybe the longest?) since my surgery. No question I'm getting stronger. I still had some pain on my right groin though, which was really hard for me to get past over the next few hours. I was reminded by the lovely Ali Sylvester of the progress that I have made and not to dwell on it. It was just what I needed to hear. I have a lot to be happy about.

AH

Goods and bads

On Tuesday I had the day off and a four mile run on the docket. It was raining very heavily outside when I was wanting to run, and though this is probably the first time I've ever decided to run indoors during rain, it seemed like the right decision. It didn't seem worth it to get soaked and cold for the sake of a measly four miler. Once I got to the gym, I hopped on the treadmill and settled in comfortably at 7:00 pace. I felt pretty good and my heart rate stayed low. By about three miles, however, my right hip started to light up on me, and though I got through the last few minutes with some pain, you can probably imagine I didn't leave there feeling particularly good about myself. It felt like I had just back tracked to the middle of winter when I'd go on the treadmill for 10 minutes just hoping I'd see some improvement, but inevitably leave feeling worse. I was at a loss. I had no idea what to make of it. Was it just the treadmill surface? Was I running "tighter" than I typically would on the roads or trails? I still have no idea, but my opinions on treadmill running couldn't be any lower at the moment.

I took yesterday off-- a combination of feeling badly for myself and not having a functioning bike-- and stayed in a fog most of the day. I woke up this morning and looked at my schedule, which had a bunch of continuous fartlek type drills during a normal easy run. I reluctantly went out there and started jogging along and was actually surprised to feel more in control of my right side than on Tuesday. I felt no pain over there during the course of the run, which was about 40 minutes (watch died towards the end) and included 1) strides 2) high knees 3)butt kicks 4)high skips and 5) karaoke. That's the running kind of karaoke, mind you. D Street isn't open this early.

So at the moment I'm back to feeling pretty happy. I won't be going on a treadmill again unless it's absolutely necessary, and even then I probably won't. Just not worth it.

Meeting with SC tomorrow to discuss the week ahead. As long as I push aside that treadmill run as a fluke, I'm feeling good about my prospects.

AH

 

Trail running

I have lots of things to talk about today. I've seen several improvements over the last couple weeks with a lot to be excited about. So that's what I'm going to focus on here. I'm most pumped about the trail running I've been able to do lately, sometimes with no noticeable pain on either side of my hips.

I used to love running on trails, mostly in high school where we had really easy access to a pretty extensive network right on the GDA campus. We also would take trips out to parks in the area for long runs during cross country season. I have some really fond memories of running with my high school team, and many of those memories took place out on runs in the woods. In college we still trained on trails, but not nearly as much as I did in high school. I think this might have been because we just had way more options in terms of road runs around Bucknell. The trails around there you either needed to drive to, or they weren't very good. We were also running a lot more miles, so it just ended up being easier to hop on the roads around the school than drive to a park somewhere. That being said, we did subject ourselves to running on the fields on campus a lot, now that I think about it. That was a 1.5-ish mile loop around the practice fields and golf course that we did all the time. Not true trails obviously-- just a softer surface.

Anyway, I digress.

Since I started working with SC I've done a ton more road running. This has been mostly my decision making, and I've chosen to stick to the roads because I can just run so much faster on that surface. Why run on some trail somewhere at 8:00 pace when you can (seemingly) get much better (read:faster) results on the road? Whenever I did run on the trails I was frustrated at the softness and non-responsiveness of it. I just loved the speed of the roads, and I got some really amazing training runs in on that surface that wouldn't have looked so impressive if they were on undulating single track.

The game has officially changed with the reality of this injury. Obviously, I've needed to work on more core strengthening and even change my gait a little bit by engaging my glutes more. The ever evolving plan to keep myself strong in the core is to do some really long, slow runs on hilly trails. I started by doing 45 minutes at the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth about a month ago, and have basically been building from there. The most recent breakthrough I had was 1:45min run on the trails surrounding Mt. Aggie in Maine yesterday where I covered over 11 miles. Yes, it was a lot slower than my normal road pace, but the key was the time. That's what I'm latching my brain on right now. I have no consideration for pace, only heart rate and time, and it's a pretty amazing reality. It had to have been the most satisfying run since my marathon last June. Had to be.

Trails are so much less stressful than road running, for so many reasons-- I know you probably don't need me to tell you that, but it's just so fun when you take away all the speed expectations you might be used to focusing on. You're just out there plopping along at a relaxed pace, and yet your feet are stepping quickly from rock to root and your mind is so engaged on where to plant them next. The hills are steep and challenging and the downhills are sometimes a suicidal rush of speed, but ultimately it's a really cool combination of sensations, and something I'm not entirely used to. I love it though, and had forgotten how satisfying a couple hours in the woods by yourself can be.

I'm stoked to keep building up my base and hopefully keep the pain on my right side at bay, or even maybe work through it entirely in the coming months. Eventually I'll be hoping to go up to the white mountains and do some traverses, 5+ hour adventures with just me and my little water vest.

Speaking of which, I have been using this new vest for these long trail runs. It's amazing and doesn't bounce on me at all. It has tons of useful storage (which I haven't really needed yet) and a 2L water bladder. I love it. I feel awesome out there with everything I need on my back-- food, water, whatever else-- to run super far. Yeah. It's a lot of fun.

More to come soon!

AH

Little breakthroughs

Well, I didn't expect this.... probably had the most encouraging run I've had since last summer just a few moments ago. It was an unassuming jog-- I didn't really have time for an hour+ on the bike so I wanted to try running again. Things started off slow and steady but I had practically no pain at all on either side today. The biggest difference I think was that I rolled out my adductors a lot and did more active type stretching of my groin than I typically do before running. Not only did I have minimal pain, but I felt like I had something left at the end of the run-- a big contrast to the past couple weeks where I practically feel like walking by the end of a four mile jog. You just never know.

I was bolstered by the lack of a twinge in my side and picked up the pace for the last mile or so and covered 6 hilly miles, averaging 6:46 pace. The fact that picking up the pace slightly and mixing in hills didn't even cause pain made me even more happy with myself. I ran into the Coastal group running from Runner's Alley towards the end and seeing them was a huge emotional boost too. For a few miles in there I felt more like myself out there than I have in so so long. Best run in over a year. End of story.

AH  

Status quo

Another five mile run today in about 35 minutes where I focused on keeping my cadence nice and high. It was much cooler today compared to yesterday's run when I basically did the same five mile course. My heart rate was lower than yesterday and my pace was quicker, but I think that was more due to temperature. My body is feeling ok. More or less, it's status quo right now-- same slight discomfort on my right side that still feels somewhat manageable at this point. For the first few minutes I can't feel it at all but it pops up around a mile in and stays pretty steady through the rest of the run. I'm curious to know how it'll react when I increase my mileage or speed. No real point in thinking about that right now though. I'm just happy to be out there putting some reasonable mileage in.

I need to keep working on getting my real running legs under me. It's nice that now I've established some kind of baseline on which to build. I think the next step will be to hit some 6-7 mile runs in the coming weeks.

AH

Biking

Went out for a bike ride yesterday--planned on going about 15 miles but 1) didn't check my tire pressure before leaving and 2) blew a tire about 5 miles in after accidentally running over a small rock. Luckily, I was only five miles in and was able to jog home to get my car and pick my bike up. It would've been interesting if I had gotten further out before that happened. Lesson learned... tire pressure is important.

So today I went out and tried again and had much better success. I mapped my route out to 16.5 miles, which took me a little over an hour. I felt like I was moving along pretty quickly, especially out in the back roads of Pease. I was channeling my inner Jens Voigt (sp?) out there on the roads hammering the flats. Super nice though. This was my first time biking out that way. I'm used to running it.

Before the biking I did 15 minutes of hip strength aka squats and standing lunges. Those are getting easier but only slightly. 

Back running again tomorrow. Looking at a schedule of 2 days of running, 1 day of biking/cross training. I'm pretty happy. Long way to go but the hips are feeling strong at the moment with very minimal pain.

AH

Core + Trail running manana

Another run yesterday with similar success to the day before. I did four easy miles and kept my heart rate in check below 158. That was three days of running in a row, the most days I've managed to string together in a while. Today I was considering biking, but it's been raining very steadily all morning and I decided to dedicate myself to a good 45 minutes of core work instead. I hit all the key exercises including some pretty intense planks that basically left my body at complete failure. Not to be dramatic, but I maxed myself out doing those planks. Felt borderline pathetic but satisfying.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and get on the trails and do a slightly longer run... hopefully 40-45 minutes. I wrote about running on trails a while back, and the plan is still to do a lot more trail running in the latter parts of the summer as I (hopefully) keep increasing distance. I'll try and go somewhere local tomorrow like Urban Forestry or Stratham Hill Park.    

AH

Going rogue

I had a good feeling about the day as soon as I woke up and started moving around. Yesterday SC dug like hell into my quads in addition to some pretty intense hamstring stretching/strengthening, so today I could feel the lingering soreness for sure. This soreness acted as a distraction from my typical right sided pain, which I think was the root of my positive outlook on the day. SC had some biking on the schedule but I elected go rogue and run, based mostly on this whim that I might feel pretty good today. 

So I set out and did a comfortable 5 miles, very happily clicking along at about 7:00 average, slightly quicker on the second half. The pain on my right side had shifted ever so slightly to my groin and hamstring, and felt more like a stretch than pure discomfort. It's a strange thing to describe, but the junction of where my hamstring and adductors connect up into my groin was gliding more fluidly and independently than usual. I have become so used to a pulling sort of sensation that reveals itself as pain in the front of my hip, but I had much better luck this time around. 

I'm very happy with how that went. I hope it continues. I really really hope. Tomorrow might be terrible and bring me back to square one-- I have to remember that's always a possibility. That's how fragile I feel! I try and stay level headed even when I have a mini-breakthrough like this but it's impossible not to let my mind wander at the possibility of really training and increasing mileage and intensity. And of course I did The Countdown, backwards from February, assessing how much time I really have until the Trials.... Always a scary thing to do. 

Good thing I have the cat here to take pictures of. Perfect distraction. 

AH

Core work with the cat

Today I focused more heavily on the strength side of things than I can usually tolerate on my own, which was a good feeling. It's difficult for me to generate the focus to work through, say, 60 squats followed by 60 stationary lunges still knowing there's a lot more to do... Not to mention I'll hop on my bike right after and ride for a while. It's a time intensive process and all the individual steps bring out a certain loathing in me. I'm so used to going outside and just running. One step, done. It's an interesting change and a different mindset I'm not used to. 

So after going through a series of core strength exercises I popped outside and rode my bike for about 30 minutes worth of hill repeats up Sagamore. I did five repeats at a steady but not all out pace, seated, to try and engage my core and glutes as much as possible. This was the second time I've done these hill repeats on my bike and it's been enjoyable. It doesn't take as long to feel like you've gotten some work in. Next time I ride (Thursday) I should go on a longer one. 

Tomorrow I'm slated to run four miles and meet with SC for more core and massage. My right side has been bothering me on and off today and I've been going through the typical mental hoops associated with that feeling. I play tricks and little mind games to convince myself that it's not really there or that it's changing or somehow different. And many times, especially recently, I do feel like it's different. Occaisionally I become self aware of the mind games I'm playing-- I realize, yes, it's all mental smoke and mirrors and self-induced Jedi mind trickery. But then I step back even further and remember that that's how I have to be in order to stay sane. It sounds weird but I think of it as a healthy cycle of self preservation. It is also much easier to stay positive now that I'm feeling little hints of progress. 

Addiecat managed to get her head completely through the sleeve of my shirt this morning (which I dramatically and unnecessarily took off while doing that core stuff). It cracked me up and gave me a quick break between squat 22 and 23 to snap these pictures. She's more flexible than I am, that's for sure. 

AH

Progression to butt running

Admittedly, it's been a few weeks since my last post. I don't want this to become a habit as part of the point of this whole blog is to expose all the menial details of the daily grind of running. I'd like to be clear that I a) haven't been sitting on the sidelines eating Twinkies and b) have taken my butt walking to a whole new level and implemented it into my running gait. This has been a fairly recent development, but I went out for a short run (25 minutes) about 6 days ago and felt that familiar pain on my right side once again. This is the "mirrored but not as bad" pain I have been dealing with on my non-surgical side for the last month. It's still fairly unclear what overcoming this pain will require: more strength training, another surgery, more time, it could be a number of things. Anyway, the moment the pressure/pain started to creep up, I immediately shifted my focus to pulling my right leg back with my butt and almost forcibly overextending my back kick. It really felt like I was yanking my leg back with my butt. This, magically, took the pressure off that spot and shifted it out and to the side of my hip and even up my side.

Any small shift in an injured spot is an amazing feeling. Your brain gets so used to dealing with such a specific pain that the notion of it moving around and changing is like a new lease on life. That's how I felt when I finished my slow 25 minute jog that day, and I've been able to recreate that sensation in the 3 runs since.

In other news, I've continued to do a fair amount of strength work (although I skimped while on vacation last week visiting my Grandparents-- happy birthday Grandma!!!) and am back meeting with SC on a thrice weekly basis. Our meeting yesterday was optimistic. I'm definitely getting stronger and more flexible and I can see it in the exercises I'm doing. Much like it was when I was running, the moment I feel comfortable doing something, he pushes it one tiny step forward. I feel like I'm actively moving in a good direction though. Mentally, I'm putting all my chips in the "getting a really strong core = no more pain on either side" scenario. Even if I have a small tear on my right, people can apparently overcome it with dedicated core training, enough to make it a non-issue. That's what I'm going for right now.

As a part of my slow but steady mental shift away from the utopian "only running more will make you a better runner," I participated in my first spin class a couple weeks ago and am going to another one tonight. The college runner version of myself just turned in its grave. I will freely admit that I got a lot out of it the first time. It was legitimately the hardest I've worked since my surgery and felt good to suffer in such a satisfying way. I missed that feeling.

Looking ahead, I'll keep doing my every other day 4 mile run (~28 minutes) with lots of core strength in between and keep on walking with my butt. Seriously, I recommend it to anyone. I heard it can help with your lower back too, if you have lower back pain, which makes sense. Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be able to start really increasing my distance and get back into running shape.

AH

Sis (flew all the way from Portland OR!), Bro, Mom, and me

Wanted to share some photos from my Grandma's birthday party. Tons of fun and great to see the whole fam!