Each Day Is a Gift

I dee-doe-dah-doe around the house all morning, catching up with laundry and such.  By the time I went out for the run, the weather got weird.  A patch of dark clouds followed me with rain and breeze for the entire middle 5 miles.  Hope it was not a bad omen.  I think I outsprinted the dark cloud on the last mile.  Walked 0.25 mile home with the sun beating down on me...so much for cooling down. 

7 miles in 1:01:07.  AP: 8:44.  Splits: 9:19, 8:50, 8:38, 8:42, 8:43, 8:42, 8:10

Went to the HS track to do the "Break the Taper" interval workout.  It's been a long time since I ran on the track.  It was winter of 2007 when there was snow on the track.  The HS has installed artificial turf and new track surface last year.  

Warm up with couple minutes of Dynamic Flexibility Exercises and 1 mile around the track.  Wow, the track is so springy that my warm up mile came in at 8:52.  That's too fast.  The plan was to run 10 x 400 at 5K pace with 1 min. rest.   By the 6th interval I was getting very tired, hot and thirsty.  The Dance Company and Football Team came out to the field and was warming up on the track.  I didn't want to embarrass myself or my son; so I cut it short with only 8 sets and jog for 5 laps to cool down.

Time (pace) for the 0.25 mi intervals:  1:51 (7:28),  1:43 (6:54), 1:45 (7:01), 1:49 (7:19), 1:48 (7:13), 1:49 (7:19), 1:52 (7:30), 2:00 (8:10)

5 miles TT: 45:24  AP: 9:04

Ran with Wendy and Mary 2.5 easy pace.  AP: 9:40

Around the World Core + Fast Abs 30 reps.

Bicep, tricep lifts 3 X 15

AM/PM Yoga

Breakfast:  yogurt, Kashi cereal, banana, apple, EmergenC, 16 oz water

My quads were achy last night sitting for 3 hrs at the SL Community College Honor Dinner/Program.  The food was good (Marriott's food isn't the best).  We had fresh fruits and mediteranean and Asian skewers for or'derve (sp?)  The dinner was spinach salad w/ candied walnuts and grapes, halibut with herbed rice and aspargus, dessert was black forest chocolate cake.  The academic people sure like to talk and so did the senators.

Anyway, this morning I woke up with the same achy legs.  Had to hurry to get the run done so I could make it to my meetings and temple.  Ran the "Break the Taper" workout:  3 X 2000m at 10K pace with 2-3 min. rest.  Half mile into the run, it dawned on me that I had set the Garmin at 20K interval instead of 2K.  So I stopped, reset the thing and ran for another mile for warm up.  T. was 53, sunny, a bit windy (headwind for 3/4 of the run).  I don't really know how to do this workout other than run the 2K as if I was racing a 10K. 

Lap splits:  Warm up ~ 9:25;  1st inerval @ 8:51 w/ RI @ 9:16;  2nd interval @ 8:27 w/ RI @ 8:55;  3rd interval @ 8:05 w/ RI @ 9:00

6.25 miles in 53:20  AP: 8:50

Had no time to stretch well.  With all that sitting for hours in meetings and in the temple, my left knee (I think it's the IT) is huring and the quads are sore.  I hope I haven't done any damage.  This taper thing is so tricky.  No running tomorrow so I can run 12 on Sat.  I probably won't do Sasha's 5 miler race.

I slept in this morning.  The quads are still a little tight.  The ligament on the outside of the left knee (I used to know all these anatomical parts.  Now my brain is mush.) is still sore.   I am not running today.  However I have lots of errand to "run" and a busy evening.  Hope the legs are up for 10-12 miler tomorrow.  Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

 THANKS RACHEL & LOWELL for a GREAT 12 miler!  Ogden here we come!

Dr. Rachel confirmed it...I have ITBS.  She showed me some stretches and went as far as laying down on the parking lot to show me one I could do all day long in front of the TV.  What a great friend!  I should be good to go for Ogden if I #1 Faithfully stretch that IT, #2 Hydrate properly per Lowell's instructions.  

What a great morning.  So excited about the run that I was up at 4:30 am.  Picked up Lowell at their motel in Sandy and got to PRT right at the same time Rachel pulled in.  Lowell, Rachel, Annette and I ran the route we did on Easter Sat. 4 weeks ago. 

There are a lot more runners and walkers this morning.  The T. was perfect in the mid 40's, sunny, NO wind!  Lowell and Rachel took turn telling stories while I huffed and puffed and listened.   My IT was bugging me until it got warmed up.  Then it got really bad running downhill on the return.

My Garmin was still set at metrics and stopped after 9.66K.  I need to look at Rachel's splits later.  At mile 10, Lowell announced that we would run 1 mile fast and back down on the last mile.  Rachel obeyed and took off like the wind.  She has speed in them long legs and even turned around to run us in the last mile.  Lowell gave us some great tips and advice for Ogden.  I'm glad he came all the way from Idaho to run with us.