High Volume and a Tough Double

I've been busy as a bee with my training in February. 100+mile weeks have become the norm with some killer workouts in there to boot. recovery, knock on wood is also good so long as I get decent sleep. Now, I do not ordinarily double because I still have memories of how hard that was in college when I used to run the 10,000m on day one and on day two come back and run the 5,000. My coach told me to go all out in the 10 which was my main event then and give whatever I had left the next day in the 5. I remember being able to hold on for the first 3 km or so on day two, then it really got tough coming off a hard 10.

So, how in the sam hell did I end up doing a 1500/mile double??? This was NOT the plan. However, thanks to poopy orgainization and moving the Moscow Masters Champs from the 18,19 Feb to 25,26th, things got totally screwed up. Now, had I known that was going to happen, I'd have run the Moscow Open Champs the week before just before I left for Vilnius. My times are fast enough this yr to have run in that meet. I had planned to run the 3000 for time on the 19th and the mile on the 26th. Under no conditions could I sit out the mile because it was the final race in the winter mile series and a sit out would mean handing over my 2nd place in the standings to the next person- NO WAY! If I get beat fair and square, I'm ok with that but simply handing over a top 3 slot is totally not me and I won't do that! So the 3000 got moved to the 26th and pretty much ruined my weekend plans. DAMMIT! So, coming off my high volume weeks, I had to decide to risk the 1500 the day before or run the mile fresh and go for a season best. My task in the mile was simple-just show up and defend my slot in the standings. Could I do this on a day 2 race? Unless my legs totally fell off, this was a doable task I just had to accept I would not run a super fast time. Now, I have already hit theAll-American standard in the mile 3 times this season with relative ease. The 1500 would be the toughest event where I could still realistically do this. In the mile in January my 1500 split was just 2 sec. shy of the standard and I went out slower than I needed to hit the 1500 standard. So, I decided to risk it. It's the pits because I can hit the standards in the 3 and 5000 in training during interval sessions with ease and I really wanted to put down a solid 3000. I haven't run a 1500 since I can't remember save for one I jumped into four yrs ago I think my last 1500 was in college. I had a clear plan and I knew exactly  where my splits needed to be to hit the 1500 standard. In training, I've been hitting it no problem, BUT where I train the track is not steeply banked and I  can still get decent speed. Where we ran the 1500, the turns are steeply banked (steeper than where we run the mile) and they tend to beat the crap out of my shins and and ankles and slow me the hell down. Plus, there was the other issue- about the only woman in the 35+ group who could run me to that standard was the same woman I'd be running the mile with the next day. There are possibly a couple more, but they rarely show at these meets. I seriously doubted Lena M would  do the double....She DID! I was glad to know I wouldn't have to run up front alone. We have put down solid times in the mile bcause we push each other. It's a lot harder to push the pace when you are on your own. So off we were and I stuck to my split plan like glue-yes that meant not farting around but being ballsy enough to go out at 3.30/km pace  and work from there. With about 250m to go my shins and ankles were killing me from the damn steep turns. Actually, we both fell just short of that standard-dammit. This is cake on an outdoor track too:( My coach ran 11 sec worse on this track than he did in the 1500 last month on a flat track. He said the turns slowed him too. Awesome, I fell just shy of where I needed to be in the 1500 and just wrecked myself for the mile the next morning. Oh and the 1500 was at 6pm too so there woulod be little time to recover. I didn't even bother to wait for the awards and neither did Lena M- we got out medals for 1st and 2nd and headed home to rest for the next day.

                                                               small, but fast crowd

                                                                       about to lap this lady...

I got home and jumped into the ice bath for 25 min, massaged out my legs, ate dinner, and off to bed. I nodded off only to wake at 2am unable to sleep because my left shoulder on the backside was bugging me. I must have lain on it and aggravated it. This is not the first time but this time it was hurting enough to keep me up til  after 3 and Ihad to be up at 7:30-dammit!  I woke up afain at 5 and was up another hour or so  with the damn shoulder again. So,  sleep didn't happen like it needed to. When I got up my legs were ok-not great but not totally dead. OK, time to abuse caffeine:) I prefer to add Fein to my morning tea of glass of Emergen-c otherwise, I will not wake up.
Off to the track for more fun on pooped out legs! Now this was almost comical.  Lena M has been first in the standings all winter, then me, and then Ana. We all ran last night but Ana just did the 400. Needless to say, we were all a far cry from 100% today and just needed to run this mile as a formality to keep our spots in the standings. I seriously thought Ana had the upper hand and if she kicked at the finish might be able to beat us both after last night. I was so sure I'd probably get beat by both ladies that I bet my coach over lunch! Well, Ana led us through 800m and then backed down and Lena and I just worked the 2nd half to the finish. I was glad we went out in the first half very pedestrian and both of us still had enough to gas it a bit  in the 2nd. I finished a close second again but it really didn't matter because even if I had won today, the standings would not have changed. Needless to say, we were about 8-9 sec off out previous times last month coming back on tired legs today. I took on this double with no rest/taper, just did it as a glorified speedworkout. He he and I now owed Coach lunch:)
Tomorrow I go long again. My 3000 plans seem to be scuttled which is the pits because if I run the college meet in 3 weeks, it's at the track that has the steepest banked turns in town. Lena said she put down a good time there and I laughed and said I remember...that's then you LAPPED me a couple years ago!  See, I had planned to run the marathon here on the 10th then run te 3000 on March 18th-8 days is enough to recover speed wise because I'd do the marathon as a tempo run for  the 100k. Well, about a week or so ago said marathon was moved to the 17th and still we do not know WHERE it will be held. If it's somewhere where pavement is clear, I'll probably do it, otherwise, Coach said best to bust ass in the 3000 on the 18th and then go long the next day. After I run the 100k, my speed will be trashed a while so I'm itching to run some fast track stuff while I can.

                                                     Our mile crew this yr- from left: me, Lena, and Ana:)  

So Now What?

I haven't blogged in over a month. I've been very busy putting in 100 or so  mile weeks and preparing for the 100K. I raced a couple times in January more just for the glorified speedwork. The first one was the 2 mile xc run on very ooshy rainy freezing rainy snow on January 7th. I donned pink from head to toe for this one because it has been five years since I lost my mom to breast cancer on January 6th. I figured the least I could do would be to go out and win one for her which I did. Several guys and a few ladies wore regular track spikes for this thinking they would help as we all post holed along in the snow. HA! I just looked at them quietly before the start remembering how I too made this mistake ONCE in my first winter race in Alaska nearly 16 years ago. DOH- they don't help worth squat, you need spiked trail shoes. Lightweight icebugs saved the day and 1800m into the race I surged to win this one by over 20 seconds. I knew Mom was watching from upstairs so had to kick some ass for her sake if for no one else's. I miss her more than anyone in the world and get really bothered when people sometimes complain about their moms for one reason or another.

On the 22nd, I had another good mile at our indoor meet finishing a close second and hitting the All-American standard for a 3rd time this season this time by quite a bit. I was surprised my speed was still there. I was coming off a 167km week with long runs,long intervals, and tempo runs in there. I had done some killer workouts but recovery has been good so far, touch wood. The final mile in the winter series will be on the 26th.

On Feb 4th I raced the 2 mile again in the xc series at -25C mind you. The final is the first Saturday in March and so far I am now leading the series. I made a point to chick as many guys as possible because you get points based on how many people you finish ahead of-yes girls get points not only for beating other gals but for chicking guys too! I'm not sure how fair that is though because not all the ladies can chick the guys too. So the course is the usual 3 loops this time on packed snow. I donned my Skinny Raven singlet on top this time in true Alaskan style since it was butt cold. I chicked a couple few guys along the way and went after another in the final loop. With 450m to go and heading into the final uphill I surged after sitting on the guy's heels. I can't wait til the final 100 or so or I risk being outkicked. If I can open a gap early and hold on that's how I win things not by waiting til the final 100-200m. So up the hill the raven flew opening just enough to keep from getting caught at the finish. I felt kind of sorry for the guy because he sure was speeding up when I got on his heels trying not to get chicked:) I needed as many points as I could get though because the final will come down to me and the woman in close 2nd in the standings. I won and was 7 seconds faster than I was in January when it was near freezing  not -25!

In fact, that's where the dilemma begins. I am in far better shape now than I was when I took 3rd in Riga in 2009. Looking at my workouts leading up to that and comparing them to where I am now is like comparing apples to oranges. Everything is much faster across the board from short to long. With that Coach told me I need to get out and run a marathon for time preferably mid March leading up to the 100K. He said I could very likely  PR-ha these old bones?! I kind of feel I'm at least very close to being able to approach that.I have not run a marathon for time since my last good run in Riga in 2009. So, we shopped around to see what's on the calendar in Europe and came up with Barcelona. It's a month before the 100 so I'd hvae plenty of time to recover and be good to go. OK, sounds like a plan.

Well, as luck would have it my damn work visa is taking longer than expected and I have to do ANOTHER  visa run to Vilnius in the interim in a few days to pick up another double entry 3 month visa while I wait for the work visa to process in a month or so. Translation- between now and May I get ONE OUT and I need to use it for the Worlds. I'm flippin' stuck in Russia now and if I go out in March, I'll have to file for ANOTHER damn visa to come back AND be able to leave again in April for the Worlds. Livid is an understatement. I'm disgusted. I went to work for myself to have more freedom, which I will, but it's taking flipping forever( damn Russian bureaucracy). I have all my Russian visas in my US passport because I travel on that one and my work visas are filed based on quotas for US citizens. Yes, and Latvians need Russian visas too and my US passport is the one with my Russian visas. Bloody hell. This is my only window to run a fast marathon this year. Post 100K it will be into May before I recover and hot weather time. I won't be able to do squat about a marathon til the fall. I wanted to try and requalify for Elite Development in Chicago by running Barcelona. Chicago is not worth the trip unless you have either Elite Development or corral A start because of the crowds.

Running a marathon for time in Russia is asking for nothing shy of a miracle because of all the reasons I have written about in earlier posts. There is one in Rostov that looks flat, but it's 3 weeks out from the 100. Weather at that time is decent usually not too hot/cold. Coach would travel with me to crew, but we need to contact the RD for more info on this marathon. I haven't been to Rostov since the 90s on my way back from Krasnodar. There is also one in Moscow on March 9th, but running that for time is not realistic. It's too early in the sense that everything is still very iced over at that time. All I have to say is that if the economy did not suck rocks everywhere, I'd have bailed from Moscow long ago. Being held up like this til springtime is for the damn birds. If there were decent jobs in Riga, I would have gone ages ago:-(

Scratch Kyrgystan off the agenda now too. I can still go to Kislovodsk for 3 weeks in March to train, but the altitude isn't what I feel I need to increase my hemoglobin levels before the 100. You have to be at 2000m + in order to do that and benefit from the effect. Kislovodsk to me is like training in the "mountains" of New England. They are glorified hills but not the altitude I am looking to train at. Time to look into that altitude tent methinks.

All dressed up and nowhere to go:-( Pic from the mile.