Cowtown week 12

After Saturday's 20mi, I swam a bit on Sunday and got on the bike trainer on Monday. Neither were exceptional sessions.
We got Terri a stand mixer as a gift on Saturday. She was really excited. I caught her rubbing it and talking to it later that day.
I guess in part to break it in she proceeded over the next 48 hrs to produce: blackberry bars (really good), blueberry muffins (ditto) cupcakes and a carrot cake (really really good).
I managed to spend some quality time with the muffins.
After that rampage, no surprise that Tuesday's track day was ragged. 4x1200. Target was 4:56. Nope. Times ranged between 5:05 and 5:11. Achillies pain was nominal. But the calf feels weak.
Wednesday I did kettlebell work. It had been a while. I am pretty sure that the kb got heavier over the past couple of weeks as it sat in my garage.
Thursday was 10mi tempo run. I was about 30sec/mi faster than my goal marathon pace. It was 65 degrees this morning. Crazy warm. Ran ok but felt flat from yesterday.
In reviewing the heart rate data from the tempo run, it is clear that the effort level was good. Avg hr of 167.
It is funny, back on 12/2 this same hr produced a 12.1 at a 7:47 pace. Today it was only good for 8:17. 30 degrees warmer makes a difference.
Saturday's long run was 15mi. Coach mike had originally told me race pace and had put 8:42 on my trainingpeaks Calendar. So I was a bit freaked when I got to Valero and saw that he had 8:08 to 8:35 written on the board. I got it done at 8:21. But it was ugly. I ran 3x5 and got slower each lap. But I guess there isn't much point in an easy run.
I struggled the rest of the day. Achillies hurt and I was tired. I had to take Ellie to a birthday party at 1:30pm and I slept in the car for an hour or so. Not the best.
Next week we are going to try for 22. I was hoping that would mean an easy Thursday run but nope. Looks like a hard 8. We shall see what happens.
Good news though- I woke up Sunday to more improvement in my achillies. I can walk normally for short stretches.
Looking good.

Cowtown week 11

Got my 20miler in today. 2:55. So-so. But I was nursing my achillies and had not gone long in a while.
I went back to my eating plan for day before and I think it helped. No issues during the run down below.
I also ran in tights. That went well.
Also tried my fuel belt single bottle clip on to carry pickle juice. That worked as well.
No music. Like that as well. Keeps me calmer.
I ran 2 laps of 5mi out, 5mi back. That meant that I did not get to drink hardly at all. I guess I wanted to see if it would effect me. It did. Missed the cal as well. Had a gel every 30min but that was not quite enough.
I turned up the pace every 5mi except for the last 5 as my hr was too high in part due to lack of fluids.
My legs started to feel heavy at about mile 17.
I had very little pain from my achillies which really surprised me after how much it hurt on Thursday.
On the whole, I feel much more confident after this run then I did before it.

Mid week 11

It is Wednesday. This week my plan is to get to arrosti Monday Wednesday and Friday, run Tuesday Thursday and Saturday and do very little else.
Monday I was a bit gimpy. Did arrosti. Tuesday morning I had track. 10x400m at 5k pace minus 15. Hit the times. Got achillies pain around rep 6. Also had very high heart rate. Thought I was gonna hurl towards the end. Good stuff.
Today, I am less gimpy than Monday. I plan to do 10rnds of swim 100m, 10 push-ups 20 sit-ups for time the. Go to arrosti. Keys see how it goes...

Cowtown week 10

Got to arrosti Friday morning and by Friday evening I could feel an improvement.
By Saturday I was walking comfortably. So I decided to Crossfit in the garage. I had planned to put the run off till Monday.
But on Sunday morning I decided to go for it. It was only 15mi. I got it done. Ran around the house so I got a good bit of hill work in. I even got 3mi in with the dog. I sore now and limping a bit.i am trying to ice and hoping that arrosti can work more magic next week.

Late week 10

It is Thursday evening and I am at the Airport ready to head home from 4 days in Dc. I got in a 1200m swim on Monday, did the interval run for the week (2x2mi on 5min rest on Tuesday morning and did the tempo run (10mi) on Wednesday night.
I ran on some o the trails that seems to cover the dc area.
I am pretty sure that they are nice but it was completely dark during both sessions and I couldn't really see much.
I was slow during both runs. The intervals hit the target time range (7:30 to 7:50) but I ran the tempo at 8:15 instead of 8. And joy of joys I re injured my achillies! Luckily I had not called to cancel my arrosti appointment for Friday morning.
It is the more traditional achillies pain this time. It started to hurt about 4mi in to the run. I kept going. When I woke up this morning it was swollen and sore. I cannot push off without a good bit of pain and am limping around the airport.
I am hopeful that arrosti will work its magic and that I will be good to go Saturday. If not, I will push off till Sunday. If not Sunday, we will figure something out.
A few weeks ago running 20mi was just another Saturday. I hope that I can get back there in the next month.

Cowtown week 9

Getting over being sick this week. And injured. Still managed to get some decent work in though.
Thursday's tempo session was a little slow and Saturdays long run was 16 instead of 20.
I has gi problems in the long run. Could have been anti biotics. Could have been that I did not use my day before the race diet plan.
We will try again next week.
I noticed this week that I was short of breath and faded quick in most sessions. Still sick I guess. It will pass.
The achillies was fine today which is really good news. I am optimistic that I will be back on track by next weekend.
Next week I have to travel for work for 4 days. I hope to get a few runs in.
I put Crossfit on hold till after the race. Time to focus a bit more.