I love Café Juanita. More on that below, but I had to start out the blog entry with that.
Since the last running-related blog entry, I have been trying to battle back from the same running injury that has been bugging me since late spring. It's been a long journey for me, and unfortunately I wouldn't say that I am any closer to being pain-free than I was back when I did Disney in early September. That said, I am still trying to get out there and run under varying circumstances. Most of my runs have been with friends, which has helped a great deal.
This time last year, my PR for a ½ marathon was 2 hours and 4 minutes. It now stands at 1 hour and 52 minutes. I am pretty proud of the improvement over the past 12 months, but also knew that as I was doing my final prep for Disney that I was getting close to being burned out on training, etc. I had to make a couple of changes but wasn't sure what that should be other than not racing any 1/2s for the rest of the calendar year.
Fortunately my running buddies would keep checking up on me to see if I would be interested in joining them for a run here and there, so I would do that. Even though it seemed a bit daunting getting back out there with folks who maintained their training schedules, I was glad to join them as my schedule allowed. Coach Lesley invited me to some group runs just to keep some momentum going for longer runs, and that was good too. The long runs have been around Queen Anne, Magnolia, the University of Washington, and Seward Park. The weather for these longer runs has been remarkably cooperative, which has been great considering you never know what you are going to get in late September/October/November.
I did an interval speed workout a couple of weeks ago in the morning. Gosh, that hurt. It was the 1st time I did anything close to that since the 10K I did in August, and before that it was in early June! The fact that the run was 1st thing in the morning did not help as my body definitely needs time to "adjust" before putting in some huffing and puffing on the trail! I kept up with my friends, which made me feel better, but I was dragging at the end of the last "fast mile". This week, I was able to do my 1st track workout in 5 ½ months. I was kind of nervous to see how my cardio fitness would hold up. We decided to do 1 mile of warm-up/cool-down, with 4 sets of 800 meters and a 400 recovery lap between each set. We targeted the sets to be around 3:45-3:50 for 800 meters (1/2 mile).
I was pretty psyched that while I was working my tail off on those 800s, I felt like I could have pushed a tiny bit harder. Furthermore if I had to do a 5th set, I would have been able to do it although swearing would have been involved (hehehe). But it was a huge confidence booster for me that in spite of the injury, my cardio is in decent shape as I work out what I am going to do in 2011. My hill fitness needs a lot of work though, and I see some hill repeats in my future. UGH!
I got out for 10 miles this morning after a pretty high-end food day yesterday with a team lunch at Seastar and then celebrating a friend's birthday at Café Juanita. Let me just digress for a bit on Café Juanita. I'll just say that Holly Smith is a master at making guests feel like their requests are no big deal without compromising on the quality of what is served. We had such a fun time and the service is always top-notch.
OK, back to the run this morning. I was in moderate pain for most of the run (calf), which is less than optimal, but I was glad to be out there. What made this morning weird was the fact that it got colder as the run went on, AND after climbing 200 ft. over the course of a mile (yeah, the headwind going uphill wasn't enjoyable either), we were all still cold. I don't think that has ever happened to me on a run.
I think the other thing that has gotten me re-engaged with running has been helping a friend who was trying to build up to a 5k. It has made me think back to when I started running a few years ago, and remembered how many people supported me along the way – most notably, Marc. Helping my friend reach a goal of hers has been a great deal of fun, and incredibly gratifying. It is a unique way to get to know someone as well, which I know I have enjoyed. I also get it now when another friend who paced me at last year's Seattle ½ says that she is just as proud of that effort as she is of her own PRs.
The bottom-line is that I'm getting back into things mentally with respect to my training. Now if my left side would just cooperate a bit more so I'd be able to run pain-free, that would be great!