Races Like a Girl

This week’s training theme:

Holiday training brings a different sort of “sacrifice” (such as running with indigestion)

Oh, I celebrated this past week. Don’t get me wrong. But I paid for it in the form of much Alka Seltzer consumption and running with discomfort. I have no regrets, though. I did not slack off in my training, and that took a lot of discipline.

The Christmas excesses are definitely winding down, however. We’ve got three bottles of wine left to get us through New Year’s and then it is over. Back to a few drinks a week, daily calorie counting and no more refined sugar, simple carbohydrates and saturated fat.

I’ve now been training for a month with no obvious ill effects. Well, just one. The muscle below my left eye has been twitching for the past few days. I’ve done some “Google diagnoses” and think it’s a combination of fatigue (ya think?), dehydration and possible electrolyte deficiency. The recommended treatment is adequate sleep, lots of water, bananas and Gatorade. I should be getting all those things anyway.

(One side rant. My local Pathmark was carrying Gatorade Endurance. I picked up two bottles to train with a few weeks back and now, mysteriously, they’ve stopped stocking it. The Gatorade site claims they carry it, but that is a lie. Now I have to find another supplier. Grr. On a happier note, I discovered that Yuengling makes a delicious dark beer (Original Black & Tan), which for some strange reason Pathmark does carry. So, in a way, the universe maintains its equilibrium, at least as far as Pathmark’s beverages inventory is concerned.)

I’ve noticed two distinct patterns in terms of my physical state during the week.

First, Thursday seems to be my roughest day in terms of fatigue. So I’ve decided to not care about pace at all on Thursdays, but instead just go by heart rate (and a very low one at that). The result is usually a slow run at 10:30+ pace. It’s weird to think that that used to be the fastest I could run.

Second, I have delayed onset muscle soreness that I could set my clock by. For the past few weeks I’ve woken up at around 1AM on Tuesday and Friday nights with a terrible ache in my legs. This week I took ibuprofen both evenings before going to bed, which seems to have nipped that problem in the bud.

A look back at the week:

Nothing earthshattering happened this week, save for the start of recovery “doubles” days. But I did manage to run over 77 miles. And I’m pretty darned proud of that. Also, all of my runs were outside. Some patches of ground are still quite treacherous, but it was a welcome break from staring at the wall.

I also had planned to do five miles of hills at the tail end of Friday’s 12 miler. But I didn’t feel up to it, so I decided to compromise and do a fast finish run instead, over flat ground. I’m figuring that with one half marathon and at least four harder, longer runs scheduled to be done in Central Park, I’ll get some good hill work in that way.

• Monday: 6.1 miles (AM) and 4.2 miles (PM), recovery pace
• Tuesday: 10 miles, easy pace, too icy for strideouts
• Wednesday, 14.3 miles, long run (steady) pace
• Thursday, 5.8 miles, recovery pace (slow — again, quite tired!)
• Friday, 12 miles, long run (progressive), last two at 10 seconds faster than marathon pace
• Saturday, 6.1 miles, recovery pace
• Sunday, 18.8 miles, long run (progressive) pace

Total mileage: 77.3 miles

Paces this week:

• Easy: 8:30
• Long: 7:50 – 9:30
• Recovery: 10:15-10:45

This week’s quote (which I post tongue-in-cheek, as this week my body told me I wanted to eat everything):

If you feel like eating, eat. Let your body tell you what it wants.

— Joan Benoit Samuelson

Coming up in training week five: The return of the dreaded Tuesday tempo run, and some “fueling” practice on Sunday’s fast finish long run! Plus three more miles piled onto the apple cart.

Filed under: training, westchester |