Texas weather is KA-RAY-ZEE!!! [32M]

So, I'm currently sitting in our hotel room in Spokane, just waiting until it's time to leave for the airport. We will for sure make it to Seattle today, but after that, there's no telling! Dallas has a winter weather storm predicted from 6am today thru noon tomorrow (Monday). AKA, we'll be very lucky if our plane gets to land in Dallas at 7:15 tonight!!! And, to make our return home even more exciting, tomorrow the weather forecast shows sleet, Tuesday it shows snow, and Wednesday and Thursday the lows are 26 and 29 respectively. We may as well just stay here in Washington if that's the weather we're going home to, haha! The nice thing about Spokane is that there's zero rain and zero wind (at least for the four days we've been here!).

So to recap last week's training, I give it an A-. It was a slight jump in mileage, up 3 from last week, 6 from my previous season high, and I had one very good workout... at least it was very good by feeling! The rest of the week was nothing special and I actually felt somewhat beat up and sluggish most days, but I'm still giving it an A- because I got the mileage in despite all the pains I had. Lately I have been so cautious about potential injuries that when things hurt more than one day, I would stop part way through my run to keep them from getting worse. Last week may have been my first week with pains where I actually got in every mile, including the optional ones. The speed fartlek on Tuesday gave me a glimmer of hope that I am getting more fit, and it was also a reminder of what it's like to feel fast and smooth again.

This week I will probably be starting up a new plan that Jake has laid out. He recently read Vigil's book and is really excited about some of the training philosophies and workouts he picked up. He showed me a skeletal plan on the plane ride up and I really like it. The workouts are more structured than usual and they build up to a little more work than the old plan, which gives me a lot more confidence! If all goes well at the doctor with my ankle/arch, I'll do a one mile time trial this week and that will determine my paces for most of the future workouts.

Sunday, November 24th
Rest day. Was supposed to be 7 miles (it's a down week), but my ankle and arch are still a massive pain, even when just walking. Figured it was best to wait and see if I could try running outside tomorrow instead of forcing another chunk of miles in on the treadmill. My doctor scheduled a Doppler Ultrasound on it for tomorrow, but that will depend on if we get home by then or not!

Monday, November 25th
7M natural run in the neighborhood. It was cold and misty, so I started in my baggy wind pants (my tights are in the wash!) and it made for a very uncomfortable first four miles, haha! But honestly, I really enjoyed this run! It was nice to have the fresh air on my face and be running outdoors. Mile splits were 8:07, 7:58, 7:34, 7:14, 6:56, 6:55, 6:40 for a 7:20 average pace. I felt like a new person when I took those sweatpants off after four miles, haha! My ankle is the same and I still have shin pain, but I only had pain in my quad for about 3/4's of a mile in my sixth mile. Feeling very thankful for this one!

Tuesday, November 26th
3M easy, 3M aerobic tempo, 1M easy. Finished with a 6:50 avg for the workout portion. Today we tried something different! Jake would like to start running by HR, so today was day one of that! Either I have a super high max HR, have been overtraining, or have been misinterpreting effort in my workouts! Warmed up 3 miles averaging 8:15 pace and with an average HR of 158 (last mile avg HR was 165). Did a few drills, changed shoes, and then did my 3M on the track. It was super windy (mostly why we started the HR thing today). After 500m I checked and my Garmin said 6:02 pace and HR of 176, so I put the brakes on. He wanted my HR between 168 and 172. Well, it didn't work. I slowed down and slowed down and slowed down and my HR continued to climb. First mile: 6:46, HR 181. Second mile (still trying to drop the HR): 6:59, HR 185. Third mile (giving up on dropping the HR, just trying to hold steady): 6:45, HR 187. Ouch. My garmin says that's 88% of my max HRR. Lots and lots of work to do! 1 mile cool down in 7:57, avg HR of 169.

Wednesday, November 27th
5M easy run + drills and 6 strides. Day 2 of HR running. Umm, yes, I have definitely been running too hard on my daily runs. That or I am terribly mistaken on what my HR/HRR % should be for daily runs! My HR was very high in the first mile, but after that it was picture perfect for what I wanted. 180, 157, 158, 160, 160. I was hoping to stay between 155 and 160 so the last four miles were right on. I don't know the paces as the Garmin doesn't pick up accurately on our gravel trail. I do know it's about 5.2 miles for 4 loops, which would mean I averaged 8:02 pace today. It's funny because I've always said I am a loud breather when I run, but today I couldn't hear myself breathing out loud at all. Any time I did hear myself, I looked down and my HR was over 160... ding ding ding! I will have much slower runs for the next month or so as I get into this new routine, but I think it will really reduce my aches and pains and help my workouts. I felt like I was literally jogging today! So freeing!

Thursday, November 28th
5M run. We went to Old Settler's Park near Hutto and ran a loop that was about 1k long around the perimeter their soccer fields. It was pretty decent footing, but it took a while to warm up! I did eventually get more comfortable though! 160 average HR for the full five miles, but man was it slow! 8:38 average pace! Phew! I am embarrassed by how my HR is with such easy paces! Shins, left foot, right arch/ankle, and left quad are all still bothering me though. :(

Friday, November 29th
2.5M easy, 4 x 1M @ 6:25 w/ 400m recovery. Did most of my warm up on the track in the opposite direction because my legs felt so heavy and clunky on the grass at the nearby golf course. I thought it would be a poor workout because of the 'off' warmup and I just didn't have any kind of pep in my step, but the PERFECT weather was enough to turn the tide! 6:24, 6:20, 6:15, 6:09 for the repeats, none of which were out of control. After the second one, I wanted to drop four seconds on the next and ended up dropping five, so right where I wanted. Then Jake surprised me and made it 4 reps instead of 3. I wasn't sure how it would go because I wanted to continue my trend of dropping 4-5" per rep, but as soon as I came thru 400 in 90, I knew it wouldn't be a problem! Got to ease up a couple times when I heard splits and was still able to cut down by 6"! So at the end of the day, the pattern was cutting 4", 5", 6"! :) I'm math girl! :) The total recovery time was just under 3:00 between each rep. Pains today were shins (mostly during warm up), right ankle, hamstring, and hip, and left quad and knee. 

Saturday, November 30th
Rest day.