I had 2 great days of running, yesterday I ran with a bunch of friends and it was a blast- Nancy Stewart (who is probably the premier women’s runner of her age but has taken a break from it), Julie Collins who is a good friend, Steph Orman, Tuba, and my friend Jim. It was just a great group, everyone gets along and supports each other to run well and race well. We’re all trying to get together for lunch soon, and I hope to run with them again soon! My legs are finally freeing up but I have to be careful because when running with people that are slower than you, your running biomechanics change- when that changes, you increase your chance of injury.

Your body actually runs most efficiently at a pretty steady clip, so what we all have a tendency to do is slow down when we run together… and I am the worst culprit of that because I love running with my friends.  But if I increase my pace, I actually feel better and recover faster.

Remember, the faster you run, the more you’re pumping blood through your vessels and increasing your chances of removing lactic acid, so you want to run just below that anaerobic threshold -  that’s where you’ll get your best recovery miles in.

So today I ran a 6:30 pace for 9 miles and it felt fabulous! this is the first time in about a month where I felt that my legs were beneath me and they were going at a pace that felt comfortable and they were recovering!

I’m so excited! For my morning workout I’ll be running with 5 of us women and my friend Jim.  It’s so much fun, but  I really need to start opening up my stride and going faster because I’ve been running slower and that may be part of the reason  I’m a little sore.  I’m wearing a new form of shoes- the Brooks Defyance 3 to help increase my chances of relieving my plantar fascia tear- this shoe has a more stable platform than what I’ve been wearing in the past, so I’m looking forward to running in it!

Busy day today! I had my run this morning, and I’m going to try to do a 20 minute tempo just to do something upbeat, it’ll be the first time in two weeks I’ve done anything with speed. Then, tomorrow I’m going to do my long run and then after, I have an 11am appointment to fix a table in the house, then 12pm pilates, 3:15 picking up of the little ones, then a 5pm triple header- Daniel’s starting a basketball game, Madeline has speed and agility, and I’ve got to pick Katie up from gymnastics….

I’ve been basically filming my life with a flip video camera, and it’s been working out well- except for this morning. Katie wasn’t amused with it…

Daniel’s got his USA Track and Field gear on today for school- he’s dressing up as Jesse Owens!

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Well, we got a late start again this morning, and I’m afraid my running partner, Jim, will have completed half his mileage by the time I get there. I have a dream that one day we’ll all be to school on time and I’ll actually meet my running friends before they’ve done 3 miles. At least Daniel provided a little entertainment this morning to brighten things up:

I’ve had to re-adjust my days… I’m not used to having this much time to myself  (I typically have two workouts a day).  Because the tent inhibits my recovery and I am so over trained,  I’m taking off 6 months from the tent which again will inhibit my ability to train but will increase my chances of recovering as quickly as possible.

I’ve cut my miles back to 45 miles/week just to get my body and hormones back in balance from over-training that I did between September and December.  Bermuda’s race in January was over the top for me.

The plan is for me to carry a little more fat, giving me little more estrogen in my body which allows my body to stabilize so I’m not training quite so hard.  The negative is that I had to pull out of the elite races I had planned for this winter/early spring season so I’m now shooting for the April time frame hoping that if things in the next month come together, that would be a realistic time to get going again.  If I can be back into good running mode in the next month or so, then I can start putting a good base together in being ready to go for races.

Worst case scenario, I really want to be ready for the Peachtree Road Race- it’s a race my kids can go to, it in my back yard, and it’s the largest 10k in the nation…10ks are my favorite races. It’s the race I ran well at 2 years ago, and I know most of the people involved in it, and sponsoring it so it’s a great opportunity to be with friends and people I know as well as the elite running community that comes in not only nationally, but internationally.

I also see Heart of the Summer (the Minneapolis road race) as one of the best races for me to hit a record in for a few reasons:
-I’m from Minneapolis and I have a lot of local support at that race
-it’s a nice, flat course that I’m familiar with

Some of the elites from the Minneapolis pro runners are there like Katie McGregor who is one of the best 10k runners in the nation, so she’s a great person to pace with and try to make a record with.

Woke up yesterday morning feeling sick, I had a bad cold… but I decided I needed to run anyways, so I did 9 miles on the treadmill downstairs. I started out at an 8:30 pace and ended at 6:30 pace and felt generally pretty good.  But as the day progressed I felt worse and last night I had a horrible night and woke up sick again.  I’m taking the day off today, which works out well because it’s Sunday and I usually only run a few miles on Sunday anyways. Hopefully I’ll feel well enough tomorrow to run.  blah

I have my long run today, even though I haven’t been feeling right and all my hormones are off… then I’m going to Daniel’s school to help out with the lunch shift, then go back to help out with the Teacher’s luncheon.  Then people are coming to take the altitude tent out of our bedroom- which is fine with me because Jim hates it and I can’t sleep in it for 6 months because of my hormones… although my kids are quite entertained by it.

Since I’m taking it easy, I started  my 9 mile run today at an 8:30 pace and dropped down to 6:40 at the end, and actually the 6:40 felt really comfortable.   Its an indication that I’m having a relatively normal day amongst the rest…we’ll see how it goes.

On one side, my calf is really tight- I attribute that to dehydration.  I have been so frustrated with my whole running situation that I haven’t been very good at hydrating.  Anyhow, I still attended my pilates class because I’m religious about that, and I’m still wearing my Chung Shi’s because I’m trying to relieve my plantar fasciitis.. I think I’m going to make a shoe change to back to something with a tighter seem around the arch.

I’ve stopped doing massage for the time being because the type of massage I do is very hard on the body and can act like a workout.  So instead of it having a loosening effect, it is contributing to my over-training.

Tomorrow my girlfriends are doing their long run so I might join them… but they are running a little slower so it shouldn’t take much out of my body.