I just jogged (& walked) trails today, but I was out there 3.5 hours, because I want to make a map to print out of the trails in a particular park -- including ones not on the documented maps -- and I can use the fabulous RA map feature to make it. But I ran out of steam and didn't get everything, so I'll see if I can use a paint program and splice in some more routes from another run. My rear end hurt afterward. 

But I like the idea that I may have the best known trail map of that park, shortly.

Also, I followed a fire break to another park, which I'd not even thought about as a possible place to run to.

Yeah, I'm still a little bit over on the picking flowers plan

Meh.  I was 18th woman, but 1st in my age group.  Sometimes you just get lucky with that age group stuff.  Three women passed me at mile 25.  I had nothing.  When you know you are going to be passed and the tank is on E?  That is the worst feeling in the world.  I held them off for two miles before that.  I did better than I thought I could, but I had the bad feeling that it was just a matter of time. 

Did I hurt myself?  I don't know.  After the double Monkey two weeks ago and the 100 two weeks before that, I felt empty.  It wasn't bad on the ups, and it wasn't bad on the downs, but on the few flattish areas, my legs felt like I was wading through knee deep water.  It was a very weird feeling.  It is rough to dig in and come up with some crap that is slower than your easy run pace.

I know I shouldn't be racing.  My training suffers and I have become a crappier runner for all this racing this year.  Almost 1000 miles of racing is stupid.  It is not happening next year.  I am looking forward to 2011.  I  look forward to feeling good for workouts, and to be able to race my races and not just survive them.  I am looking forward to hurting.

I watched Long Green Line recently, and there is a long interview with Sebastian Coe, and I was shocked when he said he never had a race harder than his training runs. A friend of mine told me that there is a slogan about that "Train hard, race easy". I don't think I've done too much of that, and it makes me think about trying to work some of my training runs harder -- at some point.  But I have a miniature version of WG's problem, with races getting a little in the way -- doing a marathon next weekend, so not going to do any hard workout this week.

 

 

 

*Just sell the kids to the gypsies, already.  You know you want to. 

This weekend I was very, very tempted.  Heh.

Hell, a RA gathering in my backyard and I can't go.  This sucks.

 

I'm not listening to that broad.  

Ha, you're a killer, WG. Don't get so down on yourself. You're learning. Like Jimmy Buffet says, "I'm growing older, not up."  Keep racing. It's fun. 

 I remember those days when I was in my 20's and thought I was invincible.   A good friend of mine that has run a 2:20 marathon in the past still tells some of the people he coaches that he will either get them fast or injured. I'm too old to follow that advice, wish I would have known him 20 years ago, I'm sure I would have followed his advice. 

I am not in my 20s and I am not invincible.  However, despite a relatively modest level of overall running talent I seem to have an unusual talent for absorbing large volumes of quality training without getting injured.  My only Achilles heel with this is that I can train myself into anemia if I am not careful.  As of yet, the anemia has been the only "injury" to ever bring me down. 

I have trained more and at higher paces than many more talented runners and therefore beat some of them.  The ones that are more talented and train as much still beat me.  Others have as much or more will to succeed than me but get injured.

I have a good friend I ran against in HS and with in college.  In both settings he always beat me soundly, just more raw talent.  In HS he was running sub-17 his first year of XC, I worked 4 years to get low-17s on similar training.  In college he was our 2nd runner most years and I was not on the travel squad until senior year.  2 minutes faster over 8K, same training.  We ended up living close after college for a few years, but I was a year ahead of him so had taken up 90-100 mpw a year earlier.  He could not keep up with me so he adopted my training and soon despite his success in college (33ish 10K, 4 flat 1500m) he was running even faster.  On a steady 80 mpw doing most workouts with me, he was running 31:30 10K and almost caught up to me in races (I was doing 90-110 mpw).  Then the injuries started, and he could never get enough consistency to run that fast again. 

This is why Ritz has never fulfilled his potential.  The dude has the talent to do so much more than he has, but I'm not sure he has ever gone a full year uninjured.  You can't reach your potential in the marathon when you keep getting injured.

 

The one thing that sucks about not being in the 20s anymore is the time it takes to recover!  I used to take a pretty good beat down throughout the week and could recover quite easily.  Noticing now that when the beat down happens, I have to add a few extra days to the recovery.  And speaking of Achilles...no, I don't to go there.  It's interesting how training habits need to change as the years go by.

I don't seem to have the recovery issue yet....after only a couple weeks of getting serious it's time to put in the volume that limits me and not recovering from workouts, at my current volume I recover quickly.

My major age-related issue is what I think is some sort of metabolic issue that the common panels cannot diagnose.  My core body temp has dropped a few degrees and when I stop running I get low thryoid-type symptoms...though as long as I run regularly they go away.  I am cold all the time.  My whole family has low thyroid but I test normal, I think I am messed up somewhere else in the pathway though.

The result is that I have developed very poor heat tolerance.  Coupled with moving several hundred miles south, I can no longer train seriously in the summer.  So fall marathons are no longer reasonable if I expect to perform very well.