Friday, August 25, 2006

Plan B

Last night found me shuttling my son from Cypress to our church for a youth Fall kickoff celebration taking place Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The event started at 7 pm last night. Plan A was to drop him off early enough to be able to drive out to TH park for the SMARTie Hop workout. This is an easier workout and Coach suggested that I would be able to do it (minus the ). Unfortunately, plan A fell apart as there was a wreck on 290 which caused such a delay that DS was 10 minutes late for his event. So, after dropping him off at Wooday and Voss at 7:10, there's was no way to make it to Memorial and Eldridge by 7:00 without a time machine.

Not to worry, plan B was activated and worked out really well. Plan B was to complete workout at Memorial Park. So, which workout? What to do? I really didn't decide until I got there. I had a lot on my mind thanks to Coaches Steeeve and Bill's talk about "the big picture", having fun, using a training progam as a "guideline", and other things. Also, I had not run since Monday and was concerned about doing a hard run after being "down" a little this past week. So, it that spirit, I decided to do a 30 minute run at easy effort. My schedule called for a 30 minute tempo run. I missed my 20 minute easy run yesterday so I combined the two workouts this way. I took the 30 minutes from the tempo run and the "easy" from the 20 minute easy run to come up with a 30 minute easy run. Like that thought process? Guess I could have had a 20 minute tempo run but with a 10 minute warmup and 10 minute cooldown, where's the tempo? :-)

I had not really eaten since lunch and I figured this was going to be a problem. I did have a Clif bar in the afternoon but that was just supposed to get me through until supper. I was feeling a little hungry. I figured now would be a great time to try a different gel flavor. I picked up a Triple Berry flavored Gu inside the tennis center before heading over to stretch. I liked the flavor a lot better than the Vanilla Bean I took on my 8-miler. Still, to me things taste a little different when you're running so I'm going to have to try this flavor during an actual long run. I'll pick a couple up for tomorrow's 6-miler. I won't need more than 2. Anyway, that really seemed to do the trick, energy-wise.

I did some extra stretching before taking off. I don't talk about it much but my ankle is still stiff and weak. I'm sure the SMARTie Hop and Silly Walks-type exercises are just what the doctor would order for strengthening and engaging those accessory muscles in the foot and lower leg. I need to take a look at the Silly Walk routine and start doing that on my own before workouts or on my days off. Anyway, the stretching felt good. I put away the HRM and just decided to run. I even took that little pod thing (actually called an accelerometer or something) from my shoe. I felt naked. Scary thought! The only stats I recorded were mile splits on my stopwatch. During the run, I did a few very brief pickups. They were maybe 30-50 yards. Just accelerating for a very brief distance to about 85% of an all out sprint. I don't know if you call this a strider or a mini-strider. I don't think that's called a pickup. Heck, I don't know. I just wanted to give my body and especially my ankle a small hint of what it feels like to move a little faster. I think I did 3 of these, two during my first mile and 1 on the second mile. Once, I stretched out my stride a longer. The other two, I exaggerated a faster, shorter turnover. I was just sort of playing around with different strides and seeing how it felt. It was all good.

Overall, for an easy run, it was a bit quicker than usual. Stats:

Total time: 30:03
Total distance: ~2.15 miles
Mile 1 - 13:46
Mile 2 - 14:08
the change(~.15 miles) - 2:07 (~14:00 m/mile pace)

I had fun last night. Didn't feel like I killed myself but didn't walk either. Overall, a pretty good workout. 6 miles on Saturday.

3 comments:

TX Runner Mom said...

Sounds like a good, fun run! Good luck with your class...sounds like we are both going to be pretty busy!

Junie B said...

Mile 1 - 13:46
Mile 2 - 14:08


THATS FABULOUS!!! and i am SO hoping the gel's work for me like they seem to be doing for you!!

Anonymous said...

Of everything you said, the first sentence in the last paragraph was the most important.

You had fun.

'Fun' offsets alot of the grind on those humid, humid mornings.


doug