Training Log Archive: Kat

Warm-up running around the grassy field with Scott, including four strides at the end.

The Hanney 5-mile race. The course was entirely on paved road except for the finish chute, which was on grass. It was quite windy most of the way, but a nice day otherwise - perfect sunny temperature.

Despite knowing that the most important thing in a race is to keep at the right pace early on, I still started out way too fast. I had a very fast first mile, then died on the second mile, focused on putting one foot in front of the other on the next two miles, and half-heartedly sped up on the last mile. My splits were something like:

6:16 first mile (and this would have been even faster had I not seen the mile marker up ahead and slowed down)
6:59 second mile (slowed way down after the first mile, more so than I meant to)
15:02 for third and fourth miles (at that point, I just wanted to finish the race)
7:02 fifth mile (sped up a bit, sprinted the last 100 meters)

Given that I can run a 5-mile tempo run at 7 min/mile, this "race" time is absolutely horrible. The worst part was that I knew I'd ruined any chance of a good time at the first mile marker and the next 29 minutes were all about survival. I am happy I finished, though. For one thing, I now know what it feels like to go out too fast and then die, so I can better avoid it in the future. For another, today was good mental endurance practice.
I plan to do this race again next year and get it right.

C • 36:20 in January 2006 3

Cool-down running on the grass with Scott.

My hips have been hurting recently when I run. Is there anything I should be doing about that? Ice? Heat?

C • Hips 1

An awesome workout. I had the entire lane to myself and was feeling really good today.

warm-up: 4x100 free easy
main:
8x25 free on 30 sec (had 6 seconds rest on average)
6x50 free on 60 sec (had 13 seconds rest on average)
4x100 free on 1:50 (had 15-20 seconds rest)
6x50 free on 60 sec
8x25 free on 30 sec
2x{2x50 fly/back on 70 sec, 50 free on 60 sec} (had 15+ sec rest after fly/back 50s)
cool-down: 4x50 free/back easy
TOTAL: 2,300 meters

I was going to swim today and make tomorrow the rest day, but I was very busy and ran out of time.

It was a rainy and chilly day in Oxford today, so the only people to show up to Club Run were SGB, Helen, and myself. We started out quite briskly because of the cold, but then kept up the pace and even sped up a bit when Helen left. SGB and I went all the way up to Port Meadow, through the nature reserve and a bit beyond that, then back through more meadows and mud. We were running quite quickly and were probably doing 7:30/mile on the paths, if not faster, but I'm sure we were slower on the muddy and rolling meadows, so I've put average pace down as 7:45. My knees hurt on the paths (which are rocky ground covered by a layer of mud), but seemed better on the grass.

Nice easy swim by myself at the Iffley Road pool. Not that many people and nice to be back in a real swimming pool where there are flags hanging so that I do not bump into the wall when doing backstroke.

I didn't have a planned training in mind, but I did something like:

400 easy warm-up (100s and 50s with small rests)
8x25 free on 30 sec
4x50 free on 60 sec
4x100 free on 10-15 sec rest (left shoulder felt a bit funny here, but maybe just sore from doing push-ups yesterday)
2x50 kick (free)
2x50 fly/back
50 kick (free)
2x50 free
50 kick (dolphin kick on my back)
50 drill (free)
50 back
4x50 easy (free/back)

TOTAL: 1900 meters

Right after the swimming. Next time I need to bring some work with me in a water-proof folder so that I have something to think about while I do this.

C • mental games 4

An easy run to the right of Christ Church meadow and up along the river to Port Meadow and back. Knees felt a bit sore right from the start - running on gravel/dirt paths is not the same as running on Swedish moss.

Travel to England.