Races Like a Girl

If by “recovery” you mean light running combined with heavy drinking.

I’m still working on my race debacle post-mortem (which may get thrown out the window after I get my blood tested next week). I still have one area (the nine week basebuilding period) to pore over before putting that together. For now, here’s what I did in the three weeks post-race.

This is more for me than for anyone else. Just so I’ve got a record somewhere that I can get to easily. Feel free to stop reading now if you have something more interesting to do such as, say, flossing.

June 1-7

Overall mileage for the week: 25 miles

Notes: I don’t know why I ran the first two after the Newport race so hard. I think I was testing myself to see if was still running weirdly slow as I was on race day. It was hard to tell given that I was running at elevation and up and down significant hills in Ashland.

The remaining runs were a little faster that I’d normally do for recovery runs. But I was running with Jonathan, who runs faster than I do, so we compromised on pace. They were also more or less flat, so I haven’t noted elevation change.

June 2: Ashland, OR. 5.5 miles at 9:09 pace. HR 75%.
This was a run from Iowa St. down to Lithia Park and back up again. Climb: +426/-452.  1,900 above sea level.

June 3: Ashland, OR. 5.2 miles at 8:15 pace. HR 77%.
Pretty much identical to previous day’s run, but done in the opposite direction so I could finish with the downhill portion (I’m no dummy).

June 4: Bend, OR. 3.4 miles at 9:33 pace. HR 71%.
Crap run in Bend, probably because I was at 3,600 feet above sea level. Bend’s maps could use some work too, as they reflect future plans more than today’s reality.

June 6: Eugene, OR. 4.2 miles at 9:20. HR 71%.
Ran a loop along Pre’s Trail, which is very pretty and chock full of other runners, many speedy and/or practically nekkid. Enjoyed this run a lot, even if it was a bit windy (and I a bit winded).

June 7: Corvallis, OR. 6.7 miles at 9:15. HR 70%.
Lovely run taking us out along cow and sheep pastures and then through the campus of OSU. I liked this town. Weather was perfect.

June 8-14

Overall mileage for the week: 15 miles

Notes: Just two runs this week, although I should note that I did a grueling seven hour hike on Wednesday which featured a climb up 5,000, then down 5,000 over a total distance of around eight miles. So my legs were destroyed for the following few days.

June 8: Troutdale, OR. 5.8 miles at 9:26. HR 71%.
One of the most unpleasant places to run I’ve ever encountered. I’m never going back to Troutdale.

June 14: Portland, OR. 9.2 miles at 9:19. HR unknown (forgot the strap).
This was a tough run in Forest Park, an enormous park that runs northwest along the NW and SW areas of town. Like the Ashland runs, this was a significant up and down course: Climb: +887/-928.

June 15-21

Overall mileage for the week: 35 miles

Notes: Back home again, so no locations are noted. Monday was a long travel day followed by a Tuesday of catching up on shopping, unpacking, laundry and work. I was tired and jetlagged anyway.

June 17: 4.7 miles at 10:09. HR 72%.
First run in the summer heat (unless you count the horrible freak heat wave in late April). Felt terrible and slow. Was also coming off of several days of intense travel and not enough sleep, so I didn’t expect to do well.I know this will pass as I get acclimated.

June 18: 5.0 miles at 9:55. HR 67%.
Pouring rain sent me inside to the treadmill. Felt better on this run, having caught up on sleep.

June 19: 4.7 miles at 9:15. HR 81%.
I’m experimenting with running hard on these “comeback” runs. Can I speed the process of acclimating to the heat and humidity by pushing myself in those conditions? We shall see.

June 20: 8.1 miles at 9:42. HR 76%.
Forecast for Sunday was steady rain so I decided to do a slightly longer run today in case I had to do Sunday’s on the treadmill. Probably ran too hard, but I couldn’t stand crawling along to keep my HR closer to 70%.

June 21: 12.2 miles at 9:25. HR 79%.
At this point 12 miles is a “long run” so I did it at long run effort. It was quite humid out in addition to being warm. I sweated out around 20 ounces of water. This is just a taste of what’s to come.

Filed under: recovery, travel | Tagged: marathon, newport, oregon |