Summary
Last weekend (Nov 22- 24) I was with the family in Palm Springs at a swim meet for Julia. We were generally having a good time - although Julia's times were slightly slower than expected and she was not all that happy. We drove out on Friday and were drove home later in the day on Sunday.
That Sunday (the 24th) marked the "2 weeks left" milestone for CIM and was supposed to be a gentle, easy 8:30/mile run through palm springs. It was not. Instead, I was tired (despite having only hiked up to Bob Hope's home the day before with Nicole during the first couple events that Julia was participating in. It's hard to say how you would feel running when you are walking and hiking, unless you are in serious pain of course. On this day I felt fine hiking with Nicole and enjoyed our time together. It was only slightly strenuous as it was uphill to Hope's "Contemporary Castle" that seemed like nice little destination that you could really only get to by hiking.
On Sunday my run from Palm Springs south towards Palm Desert was uncomfortable. I was sore. I was stiff. my left tendon was more sore than normal. running Slowly felt hard. While it was not that cold - ideal running temp (60) actually - I never felt good, it was never easy. In the end I did about 15 miles and not the 18 planned.
My guess is that I was (and still am) suffering from long-term accumulated fatigue that really overcame me with the speed work I've stepped up in November. I've done 12 hard runs, in October 9, September 6, August 1 and July a grand total of ...zero.
Here's a recap of the last 17 days:
Nov 12-19: the last of the treadmill experiment (30 days just on a treadmill)
- November 12: 14 miles at 8:20/mile, easy
- November 13: 10 miles at 8:10/mile, easy
- November 14: 2 miles at 8:20, 3 x (10 min at 6:25/mile, 4 min at 10 min/mile), 2 miles at 8:20
- November 15: 7 miles at 8:20/mile
- November 16: 1 mile at 8:20, 18 miles @ 7:20, 1 mile at 8:20 (20 total)
- November 17: 7 miles at 8:10, w/10 100M accelerations at 5 min/mile
- November 18: 11 miles w/8 x 2 min @ 6:40/mile
November
20: Tempo run up and down the coast. 14 miles total with 6 at tempo
speed. I had planned to do 8 miles at tempo, but was too tired. The
section shown below is the tempo part. I wanted to average 6:50, but did
6:58 instead. I was just too tired.
I ran up the coat from 4th street in Del Mar, and began the tempo at the north end of Solana Beach at the last building on the north/west side of 101. That was both a marker of about exactly 3 miles, and a way to begin the tempo downhill as I progressed through that stretch along the beach to Cardiff. I came out of the chute - as always, but more so on this day - quickly. I ran the first mile in 6:12 which is beginning to become a bad habit. This seems to fill me with lactic acid that hits me somewhere around the middle of mile two, or, 10 min or so into the run, which in this case was in the middle of the long gradual uphill towards Swamis.
I managed the uphill at 7:21 (1:10 slower!) but my HR was departing the proper tempo range for me of 145-158 and entering V02Max range - which as we know is not what you do on a tempo run. However I managed to keep right at what must be the threshold for me of about 158 - a line I need to always remember - and go back down to a 6:43 pace up to Nytro where I hit mile three and turned around.
What I recall about the return trip was the high level of discomfort I was in. My pace for mile four went back up 30 seconds to 7:09, and then, the "cruise" I was waiting for down the hill never showed up and the discomfort continued. Despite that I pushed it again - still in the high 150s - back to 6:46. At this point, running past the Chart House and the Kraken, I recall having made the mental decisions that today would be only 6 miles of tempo...if that. Well prior to the end of mile 6 I was already slowing down for some relief. I jogged back to 4th street around 8:10/mile, sore and tired.
November 22:
November 24th:
November 26th:
Thanksgiving Day - November 28th:
The Father Joe's Turkey Trot 2013 was in Balboa Park in an ideal course on an ideal day, and I should have been doing it in 18:30 - but ended up in 19:38 - tired and sore. Look how fast I went out expecting to go really fast for the race, but ended up so fatigued that I died after mile one and had to slow way down.
