...and training resumes

As much as I would love to just stop time and hold on to my First Place Female forever, the training must go on. There's more out there. There's a sub 4 marathon, for one. There's the Gulf Coast Half Ironman. There's Ironman Florida '08. True to the agreed modification of "The Plan" between me and Michele, we met at Joe's house at 6:00 Sunday morning, the day after the Star Tri. The goal - 15 miles. Our paces have been down below 9:20 on these runs, but I was just going for a finish on this one. We took off at a fairly conservative pace, and I immediately started wondering how I'd ever make it to the end. But one mile at a time, I kept getting closer. We were doing the Pomroy route twice, plus 2 added subdivisions to get the extra mile. After the first lap, around mile 8 or 9, I noticed that Michele started dropping back a bit. I didn't know if she was tired, or Joe was picking up the pace, or what, but I didn't feel like I could catch Joe at the time, so I turned around and looked at Michele as if to say "Why are you back there and will you come back up here?!?!" And she didn't hesitate, she picked up her pace and caught up with me. And I don't know what it was, but for the rest of the run she was on fire. I just kept her pace, and we ended up having a great run. It wasn't as good as our past mid-long runs have been, but it was GREAT considering it was on a day following an all-out triathlon effort! Below is the BIM report for the splits. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1078 ft Location: Manchester, TN Elev. Gain: -7 ft Date: 09/02/07 Up/Downhill: [+544/-551] Time: 06:10 AM Difficulty: 4.2 / 5.0 Weather: Mostly Cloudy with Haze 76F temp; 76% humidity 79F heat index; winds SE 3 Performance Distance: 15.11 miles Time: 2:22:05 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 24 /mi Heart Rate: 155 bpm (Avg) Calories: 2083 174 bpm (Peak) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 37 +0' 13 6.2 -0.2 136 +16 ft 2 9' 43 +0' 19 6.2 -0.2 147 +13 ft 3 9' 54 +0' 30 6.1 -0.3 152 +26 ft 4 9' 27 +0' 03 6.3 -0.0 153 -16 ft 5 9' 21 -0' 03 6.4 +0.0 155 -23 ft 6 9' 27 +0' 03 6.3 -0.0 158 +10 ft 7 9' 13 -0' 11 6.5 +0.1 155 -20 ft 8 10' 06 +0' 42 5.9 -0.4 152 -10 ft 9 9' 19 -0' 05 6.4 +0.0 155 +7 ft 10 9' 34 +0' 10 6.3 -0.1 157 +33 ft 11 9' 31 +0' 07 6.3 -0.1 159 +33 ft 12 8' 58 -0' 26 6.7 +0.3 160 -50 ft 13 9' 10 -0' 14 6.5 +0.2 163 +23 ft 14 9' 15 -0' 09 6.5 +0.1 161 -26 ft 15 8' 28 -0' 56 7.1 +0.7 166 -20 ft end 7' 21 -2' 03 8.2 +1.8 171 -3 ft Versus average of 9' 24 min/mi

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The problem was, when Michele caught up with me, Joe slowed a bit to run along with us for a while. I don't know if something about the slowing down caused his knee to flare up or what, but he dropped back and we didn't see him again. As it turned out, his knee was extremely swollen, and he had decided to go back and call it a day. I'm sure he will be back for this weekend, though, pushing the pace back down again.

After the run I hurried home, quickly took an ice bath and then got ready for church. When we all got back from church I made Tuna salad sandwiches, ate two of them because I was starved, and then took a 3.5 hour nap.

Monday morning I got up and met Justin at 6:30 for a 20 mile ride. We did the Normandy loop, talked about all things triathlon, and then I went home and he continued riding. We didn't push the pace...I think we averaged around 16 mph, but that was about right with the way my legs felt. He run several miles the day before as well, so he was cool with taking it easy. The Pfitz plan had me running a 5 mile recovery for this day, but I substituted my ride instead.

And Pfitz also prescribed a 10 mile general aerobic run for this morning (Tuesday). And I just didn't see any way I could do it. My legs had been so tired Sunday night that I would find myself tensing up in my sleep because of the way they felt. But Michele showed up at my house at 4:30 a.m., and we set out. You just never know what's going to happen on a run, though, until you get out there and give it a try. This turned out to be one of the best 10 milers yet. Except for the fact that at mile 6 I had the sudden urge and panic to visit a restroom. And then as I would approach a convenience store, the urge would subside ever so slightly. Just enough to get far enough down the road that it was too far to turn around. I almost stopped 2 times, and I would have stopped at Walgreen's had it been open at 5:45 a.m. But I kept going, and the panic I was feeling did a good job of keeping my mind of the run, that's for sure. Notice how the last two mile increase in pace:

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1052 ft Location: Manchester, TN Elev. Gain: -3 ft Date: 09/04/07 Up/Downhill: [+646/-649] Time: 04:36 AM Difficulty: 3.4 / 5.0 Weather: Fog/Mist 69F temp; 93% humidity 69F heat index; winds Calm Performance Distance: 10.14 miles Time: 1:36:01 Speed: 6.3 mph Pace: 9' 28 /mi Heart Rate: 149 bpm (Avg) Calories: 1448 164 bpm (Peak) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 27 -0' 01 6.3 +0.0 -69 ft 2 9' 33 +0' 05 6.3 -0.1 -7 ft 3 9' 50 +0' 22 6.1 -0.2 +66 ft 4 9' 27 -0' 01 6.3 +0.0 -10 ft 5 9' 14 -0' 14 6.5 +0.2 -59 ft 6 9' 42 +0' 14 6.2 -0.2 +59 ft 7 9' 33 +0' 05 6.3 -0.1 -19 ft 8 9' 25 -0' 03 6.4 +0.0 +10 ft 9 9' 07 -0' 21 6.6 +0.2 -49 ft 10 9' 13 -0' 15 6.5 +0.2 +69 ft end 8' 26 -1' 02 7.1 +0.8 +6 ft Versus average of 9' 28 min/mi

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Also, did you notice that average HR?? I think they may be my first run other than a recovery run to average under 150 bpm. At mile 7.5 we came upon some water Michele had set out for us, but I couldn't stop. Anyone who's ever had the "runner's trots" knows what happens as soon as you stop. So I just kept going and she grabbed the bottles and caught back up to me. Even the slowing to drink caused some serious commotion. But, alas, I made it home. Of all days for a route to be long, today our route turned out to be .14 miles too long.

And it's just a good thing it wasn't .15 miles too long...it could been BAAAAAAD!