The Week of 03/17/2014: Clever title goes here

I don't have a lot of clever quips about training this week.  I got to bed late a couple of nights midweek, and it caused me to choose between getting enough sleep or my miles in.  Clearly I need to be disciplined enough to do bot, so that is my goal for next week.

Also, I needed to do some body sleuthing to determine the cause of some leg discomfort.  I need to do more stretching (especially calves and hamstrings), and get serious about doing some core strengthening.

---

Monday 03/17/2014

Scheduled:  4 Mile Recovery Run
25º, Overcast.  The run went fairly well, though it was difficult to stay at recovery pace, my body wants to run about :45 to a minute per mile faster.  I'm glad that I finished the run when I did, as when I left for work freezing rain was coming down.

Tuesday 03/18/2014

Scheduled:  5 Mile General Aerobic Run
I skipped my morning run to catch up on much needed sleep and ended up running this in the evening.  First off, for the fist time in hundreds of uses, my Garmin 610 flaked out on me.  During the first mile I was seeing an average lap pace that would indicate that I was moving around 25 miles per hour, which gradually eased out to a first mile split of 10:41 (Which I knew wasn't right based on my surroundings when the lap alert chimed).  Later when I uploaded my run to Garmin and could see my map I confirmed that the first half mile or so appeared that I was moving via helicopter.  So at first glance I am not impressed with the recent firmware update.

Secondly, I was bothered during much of this run with a tight left shin.  I needed to stop several times to stretch it.  Before mile 2 was done I concluded that my planned 12:00 pace was going to be untenable and even began considering ditching the run and cutting it short.   Thankfully I did not and in mile 4 I started to feel like my normal self.  In the fifth mile I opened it up a little and ran it in 11:40.  There may be people who can just run without a warmup or stretching, but I am not one of those people.  Lesson learned.

Also, conditions for this run were 28º and snowing, the snow just beginning to accumulate.  Maybe not perfect conditions for some, but for me it was a lot of fun - I love running when it's snowing.

Wednesday 03/19/2014

Scheduled:  6 Mile Recovery Run
I changed this to a rest day and rescheduled this run to Sunday.

Thursday 03/20/2014

Scheduled:  5 Mile General Aerobic Run
I cancelled this run and extended my rest.  Legs felt a lot better today.

Friday 03/21/2014

Scheduled:  XT (Swimming)
Got in a quick 1000 yards in the pool this morning, had an appt. that I needed to get to.
Did my traditional 500 warmup, followed by a 500 cooldown.  No main set.

Saturday 03/22/2014

Scheduled:  8 Mile Long Run
09º, Clear.  It was a beautiful clear day for a long run, though with the slight breeze it was cold enough to send me scampering back into the house for my balaclava before I got started.

I thought that I had been doing a good job of stretching, but the first 2 miles of this run really let me know that I have been neglecting my calves and hamstrings.

Sunday 03/23/2014

Scheduled:  REST
07º, Clear.  I ran a 5 mile recovery run as a makeup to one of the midweek runs that I skipped.  I actually meant to run a 6 but I was about a half mile in when I realized that I had turned on to my 5 mile route instead of going straight on my 6.  The first couple of miles today were much better.

The easy pace plus the added stretching between yesterday and today paid off.  I was feeling good enough by mile 4 that I was considering tacking on a 2 mile loop to work it up to a 7, but in the fifth mile my butt started getting cold.  Since my butt is directly attached to the tight hamstrings that have been wreaking so much havoc on the rest of my legs lately , I decided to call it a wrap before I overdid anything.