Monday, May 24, 2010

Getting my act together

After slacking for two months post-marathon, I'm finally getting my mileage back ... a little. I crossed the 50 miles/week mark, and started the new week with a 15 miler. AND I did two workouts. Little bit of patting myself on the back, thank you.

This week included a really sloppy trail run, a ridiculous hill workout, cruise intervals and four easy days. First week without an off day in some time. I'm feeling okay, the lump on either shin doesn't appear to be changing with more or less running ... so I might as well do more.

So about that hill workout. Since my coach seems to love this particular little hill, I make sure to invite him to do the workout with me. This is the third week I've done Maple (the name of the street), and there's at least one more week to go.

I included a nice graph so you all could see how much fun this is. Start repeat at 440 feet, end .29 miles later at 530 feet. Comes out to be about 5 percent grade on average, but it's really more like 2 or 3 percent for the first two-thirds, then 7 or 8 percent for the last third. Ugh.

We have two different markers on the way up just to check pace, the first one at about 43 seconds and the second at 1:13. Then the steep last part to clock around 1:48-1:50 for each one.

Just for kicks, though, this week I:
1. Almost ran into a deer
2. Almost got ran over by a tractor

As if the workout wasn't bad enough, this time it involved obstacles. Great.

And, in what may be one of my dumbest plans ever, I started the One Hundred Push Ups challenge. I haven't been able to stretch my arms out all week. You begin by doing as many push ups as you can for an initial test, then follow the six week program to build up to 100 at once. You do your push ups every-other day, and in five sets with a break between each set. Tonight I did 50 total and I'm strangely proud of myself.

My friend Diane is also doing the program and said if nothing else, we will be great arm wrestlers once it's over.

Coming up this week is my first 5k in ages. I don't think I've done one on the roads in about nine months, yikes. I'm going to get thoroughly spanked by my friends Rebekah and Heidi, but if I can run about 19 flat, I will consider it a good start to my "season." After this one, I've got 5ks two weekends in a row, which will be an insane amount of racing for me.

Menu for this week:
- Tapas plate with marinated chickpeas, Manchego and proscuitto
- Ravioli with pesto (and leftover baguette from tapas plate)
- Sausage casserole (it was so good last week!)
- Some sort of chicken and greens dish, got mustard greens and swiss chard at the farmer's market this weekend

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