PADRunner - enjoy the rest day

Jimmy - nice job on the 10k.  Your speed is really improving.

Scotty - enjoy the days off, as much as you can with a colonoscopy in the middle.  I keep saying no when the doctor asks if I want one, but one of these days I'll have to go.  DH's doctor told him he was somewhat anemic and they needed to do a colonoscopy to make sure he wasn't bleeding internally, so he finally broke down and had one, and then the doctor said, "No you're not anemic.  Sorry about that."  But at least he was clear, and won't have to do it again for a while.

D - enjoy your bike ride.  At least it's cooler to ride than run.  You create a little breeze as you go.

Bin - Three weeks until your trip to Hong Kong?  Is that your first vacation there?  Good luck on the 10k.

Awood-  have fun with the intervals.

Mitch - enjoy your rest day.  Do you alter your running schedule when you're on night shift, or do you try to keep to the plan regardless of your sleep patterns?

Jack - so you decided to go for it after all.  Have fun.

HopesMom - how much snow did you get?

Z - happy birthday!

AFM:  the sun is shining and it's up to about 30, so I may run outside after all.  Today is Fastnacht in Pennsylvania: by tradition, people made a kind of potato donut to get rid of the sugar and lard in the house before Lent.  Now around here, it just means really good donuts on sale at the Mennonite markets and churches.  I need to burn off some sugar.

I ended up with a 2 mile warmup, followed by 7X800 intervals with 400 recovery and then just jogged it out for 10 miles even.  I may have thrown in some inclines at the end there for good measure.

Happy Birthday, Zelanie! Love your fishy tune in the other thread!!!

Belated Happy Birthday, She Can!

Combination of you-only-THOUGHT-it-was-the-end-of-flu-season and management's endearing ready-fire-aim approach to workflows that I supervise has kept me busy at work, missing lunch breaks and staying late. Should only be temporary and I still made time to run a couple of times last week and did a 20 mile bike ride with family on Saturday. Weights and core with the trainer tonight.

So, I'm trying to use the training log here on RA (got the Pace Bunny in my sights) but I'm pretty darn clueless. My Garmin helps me track distance and pace, but how do I know if it's an "Easy" run or not? What data are important for me to track? I only recently realized that I've been using pretty much the same level of effort with my workouts.  I try to go slower on the days when I want to build distance and faster toward the end to push back fatigue. Maybe because I run/walk I don't have many levels of intensity? I think I've been reading too much about training for a half and realized how little I know. Maybe it's time for a Dummies book?

Bacon - I divide my runs up into: 1) easy if it's a normal short run, 2) long if it's either the longest run I've done to date (coming back from injury) or, now that I'm running more, anything over 8 miles.  3) Trail run if it's on trails or dirt roads (usually much slower than my street pace),4) Fartlek if it's a complete mixture of speeds (I sometimes get bored on the TM and play with short faster bits and hills, more or less randomly. I do it occasionally on the street, but not as consistently as my treadmill runs.) 5) Tempo if two miles or more are at HM race pace.  And 6) intervals if it's structured interval training (something I rarely do).  The main purpose of separating them for me is to try to have some variety in the types of runs I do, but to keep the vast majority in the easy category. I really like the RA logs, and use them to track running, walking and biking miles.  I also use the log to keep track of shoe mileage and to compare my runs this year with runs I've done in the past on the same course or at the same distance.  I can look back and see where I ran 10 mile or 12 mile runs and how they went.  I also can keep track of the few races I've done.

Cherie - hurray for a post race massage.  After your last effort, I think you deserve a rest day.

My run today was a real mixture.  It was colder than I like (27) but sunny, so I headed outside.  I had a hard time when running into the wind, but not when my back was to it.  Because it was cold, I started out running much too fast.  My lunchtime donut did bad things to my stomach, so the first two miles were awful.  I was nauseous and my legs felt like lead. I wanted to turn around after the first mile, but that was the top of the hill, so I decided to keep going into the flat neighborhood beyond.  By the end of the second mile, I decided to keep going, but I was still struggling, so I thought I'd head home, take a break, and then do another mile on the TM. But by the end of the third mile, I was having a good run, so I headed into another neighborhood to add a loop.  By the time I got home, at 4 1/2 miles, I was sorry to end the run.  I felt pretty good about it, because I had started out so badly, and only willpower kept me going when I just wanted to go home and get warm.