Training Log Archive: Kat

A long run with Wylie, the Australian guy I've been chatting to during my swimming sessions. We went the usual way around Christ Church Meadow, up the river, across Port Meadow, either 2.5 or 3.5 loops around the Nature Reserve (I actually took a split on the second loop - it was 13:23), then across Port Meadow, a bit on the pavement till we crossed the river, then down to the bottom of Port Meadow along the other side of the river, then back home. He had a GPS gadget with him, but it didn't look like the newest model and I think it was a bit off with its estimates. I agreed with it that we went about 7:30 min/mile for the first two miles or so, but then it claimed we were going 8:15 or even 8:30 per mile when doing the Nature Reserve loop and I think that can't possibly be true. I do not have the best sense of pace, but I do know that the effort was somewhere between easy and tempo pace. Honestly, it felt closer to 7:40 min/mile pace. Maybe because the GPS gadget updates every few seconds it doesn't realize that in that time the path has dipped and turned, so we end up running more than it thinks. Anyway, I feel that we were definitely running pretty quickly for the first 1.5 hours and only the last half hour or so felt somewhat "easy." Wylie is not that much faster than I am, but I definitely felt he was controlling the pace, even though usually we were side by side or I was a bit in front. Since I'm not doing intervals this week, though, I thought running a bit faster than normal would be ok today.

C • ice baths 2

I've just finished reading Paula Radcliffe's book and was intrigued by some of the things she mentioned, such as taking an ice bath after hard runs. I don't have access to big bags of ice, so I can't quite pull this off, but I did try turning on the cold water, plugging the drain, and sitting in the bath for ten minutes, immersed up to the waist. Not that bad, actually, except that my toes went numb.

C • book 3