Well August was rather lame to say the least. Time out- yup just like the little kid who has misbehaved, I had to go sit in Time Out. :-(
Autumn Thunder Moscow Half
Me, who almost never gets sick had a sore throat for a couple days that started 5 days before the half. I was quick to get on the immune boosters to stop it from getting worse and it never turned into a full blown cold, but I was just feeling BLEH most of the rest of the week. When the half rolled around, the weather was perfect 16-18C and cloudy. It was a bit windy on the outbound portion of the 2 loop course so I spent the first 7k of said outbound tucking in behind some guys to cut wind and just kind of easy peasy-ing at 4.07-10. I was just sitting in 7th place. Top 8 place and get nice gift certificates for about 300$ of gear from the Asics shop. OK once I hit the turnaround I decided to actually move my sweet ass. I picked up to 4 min pace and passed 2 ladies. Marina is new this season but pretty damn fast at races we have done up to a 10k. She went with me and we worked together. Just before 10k, I caught my friend Sasha and he rabbited me the rest of the way at about 4.4.02. He also pulled me away from Marina who ended up only a bit over a minute behind me at the finish. I couldnt' quite catch 3rd lady even though I was closing the gap in the 2nd half. Finish 1:26.58 (hell 1:27). Far from the 1:25 I was primed for. I honestly had doubts about breaking even a 1:30 because even the slightest bug in the days before a race will completely eff things up. I ended up 4th.
The half was supposed to be my key tempo workout pre 50k. The following weekend, I went out for my last looooooong run did a 3 hr long run on the 11th (7 days after the half and 2 weeks pre 50k World Cup). That was Sunday. Monday, I took a rest day and by Wednesday, I did my final looooong interval workout (10x1000m)before beginning The Taper. On Thursay, I f#cked up- TRAIL CRASH in the last 2km on my way home from an ez run. Muddy and bloody I was but I really pissed off my left ankle. It was swollen and nasty like an evil shin splint at the top of the foot creeping up the ankle. I basically twisted/ pulled the sh!t out of the tendon. Beating the crap out of it further could lead to a nice stress fracture which is the very last thing I need. I did something similar in 2009 after the Solnechnogorsk Marathon. The cure to that OWWWW was 10 days of easy soft surface running and it subsided. Well shit, I did this one TEN DAYS before I was supposed to run the 50 in Daugavpils. Friday all I could muster was a wimpy sloooo as molasses run in the woods. Saturday, I needed to know how or if the leg would respond to speed so I ran the Nike 7k. Might I add I ran that clenching my teeth- there was no way in hell I was going to risk that leg on a 50k on pavement :( 7k was a 27.20 which is not great but not bad on a really pissy ankle. I just ran even steven no pushing pace and it would have put me right at about the 39 flat +- for a 10k. Again, I was just parked out in the low 3.50s/km not feeling like wanting to risk anything harder.
I had until Wednesday to decide WTF to do because my train tickets were booked for Thursday. The ankle was still stiff and sore on Tuesday early in the day but began to get better. Wednesday, it was better still, but I had to make a very difficult judgement call on Daugavpils. In Sub 3:40 shape- yes want to risk further f#cking up my leg and being out the rest of the season-no. Our team manager in Daugavpils said he'd rather see me rest the leg than screw it up too especially since 100k Worlds were just announced in DUBAI 20 DECEMBER! It's very unlikely I'll go because it will be hotass hell there and in December I really need to work as much as I can because I'm flat broke after my annual trip to the US for a month in October.Yeah our team manager would like me to go but going from snowpack to the desert is about as rude as it gets. If I sink $ into a race to go somewhere, I do it where I can out down a solid performance. I died a slow and miserable death in the Netherlands in 28C 100% in 2011 and just don't want to do that again if I don't have to. I was showing signs of heat stroke at 92k and it was just not a fun day. I think after 2 cancellations and moving the venue this yr, IAU /IAAF were getting desperate and this is what we got. The only way I see Dubai is reasonably doable is if they run us at NIGHT which I doubt will be the case.
As Luck would have it, as soon as I returned my train tickets, the ankle worked itself out by the weekend, but I couldn;t risk going to Daugavpils on a sore leg not knowing if it would be ok to race on only to DNS after getting there. So, at least this year I will run Valmiera fresh on September 15th and would like to try and kick some ass to make up for missing the 50k.
So back to the time out. I took a 10 day time out of ez running on soft trail just easy stuff15-17k with ICING on the ankle and shin daily. After 10 days of screwing off, I did my first speed workout at our 1000m final at Moscow State on the 28th. I was not feeling particularly motivated to be honest and just ran a lame 3.26. I ran in the Nike Zoom Streak-xc which is a featherweight multi use flat. I didn't want to risk re- f#king up my ankle running in my no support spikes and lane 1 was totally buried under cut grass anyways so spikes weren't going to help as they would just collect loose grass. Afterward, I ran a 5000 as a tempo run and by the time we ran it was totally DARK! I finished 2nd woman in the race and first overall in the 1000m summer cup.
Mostly I just went out to celebrate the TEN YEAR anniversary of our running club. Holy crap, has it been that long???? I joined them in mid 2004 when I was still in Anchorage and here in the summers for grad school.
Pix to come soon from the 1000
On another note, Scrapper, the little green sweetie, has been keeping me busy. I never go away long enough to warrant needing a birdsitter, but am worried about leaving this guy for a month when I'm in the US which is the only time I'm gone more than a few days. He is such a cutie and after being BIRDLESS since I left Alaska, I now have an awesome feathered friend again. He's so cuddly and loves his headscratches and treats.
MY pretzel!
Autumn Thunder Moscow Half
Me, who almost never gets sick had a sore throat for a couple days that started 5 days before the half. I was quick to get on the immune boosters to stop it from getting worse and it never turned into a full blown cold, but I was just feeling BLEH most of the rest of the week. When the half rolled around, the weather was perfect 16-18C and cloudy. It was a bit windy on the outbound portion of the 2 loop course so I spent the first 7k of said outbound tucking in behind some guys to cut wind and just kind of easy peasy-ing at 4.07-10. I was just sitting in 7th place. Top 8 place and get nice gift certificates for about 300$ of gear from the Asics shop. OK once I hit the turnaround I decided to actually move my sweet ass. I picked up to 4 min pace and passed 2 ladies. Marina is new this season but pretty damn fast at races we have done up to a 10k. She went with me and we worked together. Just before 10k, I caught my friend Sasha and he rabbited me the rest of the way at about 4.4.02. He also pulled me away from Marina who ended up only a bit over a minute behind me at the finish. I couldnt' quite catch 3rd lady even though I was closing the gap in the 2nd half. Finish 1:26.58 (hell 1:27). Far from the 1:25 I was primed for. I honestly had doubts about breaking even a 1:30 because even the slightest bug in the days before a race will completely eff things up. I ended up 4th.
The half was supposed to be my key tempo workout pre 50k. The following weekend, I went out for my last looooooong run did a 3 hr long run on the 11th (7 days after the half and 2 weeks pre 50k World Cup). That was Sunday. Monday, I took a rest day and by Wednesday, I did my final looooong interval workout (10x1000m)before beginning The Taper. On Thursay, I f#cked up- TRAIL CRASH in the last 2km on my way home from an ez run. Muddy and bloody I was but I really pissed off my left ankle. It was swollen and nasty like an evil shin splint at the top of the foot creeping up the ankle. I basically twisted/ pulled the sh!t out of the tendon. Beating the crap out of it further could lead to a nice stress fracture which is the very last thing I need. I did something similar in 2009 after the Solnechnogorsk Marathon. The cure to that OWWWW was 10 days of easy soft surface running and it subsided. Well shit, I did this one TEN DAYS before I was supposed to run the 50 in Daugavpils. Friday all I could muster was a wimpy sloooo as molasses run in the woods. Saturday, I needed to know how or if the leg would respond to speed so I ran the Nike 7k. Might I add I ran that clenching my teeth- there was no way in hell I was going to risk that leg on a 50k on pavement :( 7k was a 27.20 which is not great but not bad on a really pissy ankle. I just ran even steven no pushing pace and it would have put me right at about the 39 flat +- for a 10k. Again, I was just parked out in the low 3.50s/km not feeling like wanting to risk anything harder.
I had until Wednesday to decide WTF to do because my train tickets were booked for Thursday. The ankle was still stiff and sore on Tuesday early in the day but began to get better. Wednesday, it was better still, but I had to make a very difficult judgement call on Daugavpils. In Sub 3:40 shape- yes want to risk further f#cking up my leg and being out the rest of the season-no. Our team manager in Daugavpils said he'd rather see me rest the leg than screw it up too especially since 100k Worlds were just announced in DUBAI 20 DECEMBER! It's very unlikely I'll go because it will be hotass hell there and in December I really need to work as much as I can because I'm flat broke after my annual trip to the US for a month in October.Yeah our team manager would like me to go but going from snowpack to the desert is about as rude as it gets. If I sink $ into a race to go somewhere, I do it where I can out down a solid performance. I died a slow and miserable death in the Netherlands in 28C 100% in 2011 and just don't want to do that again if I don't have to. I was showing signs of heat stroke at 92k and it was just not a fun day. I think after 2 cancellations and moving the venue this yr, IAU /IAAF were getting desperate and this is what we got. The only way I see Dubai is reasonably doable is if they run us at NIGHT which I doubt will be the case.
As Luck would have it, as soon as I returned my train tickets, the ankle worked itself out by the weekend, but I couldn;t risk going to Daugavpils on a sore leg not knowing if it would be ok to race on only to DNS after getting there. So, at least this year I will run Valmiera fresh on September 15th and would like to try and kick some ass to make up for missing the 50k.
So back to the time out. I took a 10 day time out of ez running on soft trail just easy stuff15-17k with ICING on the ankle and shin daily. After 10 days of screwing off, I did my first speed workout at our 1000m final at Moscow State on the 28th. I was not feeling particularly motivated to be honest and just ran a lame 3.26. I ran in the Nike Zoom Streak-xc which is a featherweight multi use flat. I didn't want to risk re- f#king up my ankle running in my no support spikes and lane 1 was totally buried under cut grass anyways so spikes weren't going to help as they would just collect loose grass. Afterward, I ran a 5000 as a tempo run and by the time we ran it was totally DARK! I finished 2nd woman in the race and first overall in the 1000m summer cup.
Mostly I just went out to celebrate the TEN YEAR anniversary of our running club. Holy crap, has it been that long???? I joined them in mid 2004 when I was still in Anchorage and here in the summers for grad school.
Pix to come soon from the 1000
On another note, Scrapper, the little green sweetie, has been keeping me busy. I never go away long enough to warrant needing a birdsitter, but am worried about leaving this guy for a month when I'm in the US which is the only time I'm gone more than a few days. He is such a cutie and after being BIRDLESS since I left Alaska, I now have an awesome feathered friend again. He's so cuddly and loves his headscratches and treats.
Mr Sticky Beak going for a raisin YUMMY!
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| mmmmmmmm RAISINS! |
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| put your old socks to use as birdie toys |
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| raisin diving |
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| PRETZEL! |
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