M'kay

6 miles Easy in 47.54 (7:59/mi, avg HR 152).

Started out very sluggish today...slower than normal on uphill half. Ice covered by a dusting of snow, so at least traction was better than yesterday.  Once downhills hit, regained normal energy in legs and actually went a bit harder to push average pace back in to normal range. Core exercises and stretching afterwards. Focused on stretching as left leg again troublesome overnight, probably due to sitting in car for a few hours yesterday.

7.5 miles Easy in 58:27 (7:47/mi, avg HR 156).

Warmed up quite a bit faster today. After reading some more of "Brain Training For Runners", decided to focus on activation of core muscles by pulling belly button towards spine while running. Tough to do, but seemed to cause a pace and a tad bit of effort increase (mostly to do with keeping those muscles "activated") which resulted in a pretty fast easy run, despite the fresh snow conditions which made things very slick.

Running in the snow may actually be helping me, since it certainly helps prevent overstride...the only way I've managed to stay upright so far is to keep my CG under me and to pay close attention to balance. Also curious that my easy run pace has increased without a large effort increase over the past couple of weeks, coinciding with all this snow and ice.

Followed up with core exercises and stretching.

Brooks Adrenaline (Yellow) - 210 miles.

3.75 miles Easy in 31:29 (8:24/mi, avg HR 155) uphill warmup.  10x20 second Strides w/ 1:00 rest (2 miles, 16:42, 8:21/mi, avg HR 159).  3.75 miles Easy in 27:51 (7:25/mi, avg HR 155) downhill cooldown.

Well, today was eventful.  Snow covered most of my route, significant enough to make footing an issue when attempting speed greater than slow easy paced running.  Interrupted by a work phone call 3 miles into my warmup.  Strides were run at the appropriate effort, and my legs/feet were moving quickly, but as a whole, my body didn't move much due to a high slippage factor.  Not sure if I met the intent of the Strides workout, but it was definitely a moderately intense workout today.  By the time I made it back home, my legs were Tired 

Brooks Adrenaline (Blue) - 494.5 miles.

7.5 miles Easy in 59:16, 7:54/mi, HR 156.

Tired and heavy legs today. Sudden spike in work related software trouble reports is definitely impacting my recovery cycle. Need to get to sleep early tonite to recharge for tomorrow. Hoping the snow melt continues so I'm not forced into a treadmill Steady State tomorrow, as half the road is still covered. Core exercises and stretching after the run.

Brooks Trance - 363 miles.

6.25 miles easy in 49:52, 7:59/mi, avg HR 149.

Today was supposed to be 14 miles, 10 Steady State. Body was not willing to cooperate. Some serious work issues this week raised my stress level pretty significantly the last couple of days. Combined with the slog thru some serious (for these parts) snow on the ground the last couple of days and my body was just plain worn out. Thankfully, I realized it after one SS mile that took way too much effort and was slow to boot. Decided to bail on the scheduled workout and run tomorrows today.

If I feel better tomorrow, I'll run the SS workout tomorrow and push my long run to Sunday, which will give me an easy day between harder efforts. If not, I'll likely just freelance tomorrow and get back on schedule Saturday. If I'm still pretty tired, I may try to convince myself just to take tomorrow off completely. Hopefully the work stress is coming to an end as I seem to have fixed the things that have been causing problems.

Brooks Adrenaline (Yellow) - 216.25 miles.

2 miles warmup in 17:02, 8:31/mi, avg HR 141.  5 miles Steady State in 35:27, 7:05/mi, avg HR 170.  2 miles cooldown in 16:21, 8:10/mi, avg HR 151.

Today I tried to make up (some) of the Steady State workout I aborted yesterday.  Unfortunately, the roads got worse overnight, so I was stuck running on my treadmill (which I haven't used in months).  The digital readouts on the treadmill quit about 5 seconds into the warmup, leaving me with Garmin and my footpod for time, speed, and distance info.  My footpod accuracy has never been good, so I'm really not sure how far I truly went, but if it errors, it always errors on the conservative side, so I'm pretty certain I went at least 9 miles total, perhaps more.

Treadmill running for me is more work that outdoor running.  My breathing is usually more labored, my HR elevated, and my legs just feel like they have to work harder, so I went into the workout feeling like I'd take what I could get today.  As it turns out, I got 5 SS miles on a bit slower pace (maybe?), which is only half what I'd scheduled for yesterday, but its 5 miles more than nothing.  I did take 3 mini-breaks during the session, when I could tell I was crossing my threshold, but kept them to 15 seconds or less.  All in all, not ideal, but better than nothing.

Depending on how I feel, I'll either push the long run to Sunday, or execute tomorrow and keep the pace slower initially. 

Brooks Adrenaline (Yellow) - 225.25 miles.

18 miles in 2:23:47, 7:59/mi, HR 149.  

Tried to take it nice and easy today.  Seemed to be working, except somehow the overall pace seems high in retrospect.  Did stop at around 7.5 for a few minutes to talk with a neighbor, which made starting again a bit tough (got a bit cold and stiff), but felt pretty good throughout.

Decided if I felt up to it to go run a race tomorrow, either a 10k or a 1/2 marathon.  It'll be an early rising time for me (~ 5am), but I'm feeling the need to let the horses loose.  I just hope after 2 moderately difficult workouts I have something left.  Probably not PR material, and probably not my smartest move, but I'm just feeling like I need to go run a race, so I think I will.

Time to retire this pair of shoes.

Brooks Adrenaline (Blue) - 512.5 miles.