Mind Games with Legs

Much like (I imagine) a parent must sometimes negotiate with a child to get him or her to do something unwanted, I sometimes find myself engaging in a silent battle with my legs before a long run or hard workout.

"Are you excited for 4x1000 today?" I ask them.
"I guess," they say, "but don't you just want to keep watching Scandal?"
"But you're wearing your favorite socks and your tights are keeping you warm. You look good!" I try to convince them.
"Okay, but let's take the warm up easy."
We start out slowly, per their demand, but soon we're moving at a decent clip (perhaps due to the socks).
"Warm up's over, are you ready?"
They react as I ask them to, steadily speeding up. They widen with each length of earth that they travel. I can feel them contract and stretch, react. They are powerful.

"But," they protest, "what about that pain in your hip? Shouldn't we be careful? Maybe we should slow down."
"Believe in yourselves. Remember all the exercises you've been doing to get stronger," I reply.
The first rep is done and recovery feels sweet. Soon they're itching for more.

"Where are you taking us!?" they scream as we briefly lose balance on the icy road, turning a corner.
"Can we take it easy up this hill? We're almost done with this rep anyways." I refuse. They do as I bid.

Last rep. Time (and we) have flown by. "Don't settle," I urge them. "What else is in there?" I see my pace slowly creeping below 7 minutes. We hit the mark and take a second to celebrate.
"You know, that wasn't so bad," they concede. "We felt good. It was fun. Can we do more? Again?"
"Not now," I tell them. "Remember this feeling and bring it back out for April. It's still early anyways. But since you had so much fun, how about a 5 mile tempo during our long run in a few days?"
"What about Scandal on Netflix?" they plead.

They're right. As we finish up and head back to the car, I know that we'll have this conversation again on Saturday, and many more days throughout my training. But I know they'll come through.

Cheers to the chase

Not every goal will be met nor will every dream be realized, but it is the chase that makes life worth living.

As of Turkey day, I had been running for 9 weeks post-injury. As planned, I built mileage slowly and actually followed the 10% rule. Importantly, I held back and haven't attempted anything faster than tempo pace. That said, the number of "workouts" or more accurately, "up tempo runs", could be counted on one hand. 

1xmile @ 6:55

5k @ 6:45

2x10min @ 6:55

7,5,3,1 min @ 7:00

For mileage, my leg held up for a robust week of 52miles averaging just under 8:00 pace and all on a crazy work week. 

~Off to the races! ~

This year it was unseasonably warm for thanksgiving. The family rode the gravy train to a bunch of speedy times at the seacoast rotary turkey trot in Portsmouth. Bro ran a PR. Pa dipped under 7:00 pace at 60 years old. Ma restrained her racing blood and cruised in under 22 without so much as breaking a sweat. And I surprisingly managed to crank out a sub 20 performance (19:53) off of the "speedwork" listed above and another hellish work week. Considering this is technically only my 4th time under 20 - how'd that happen? - I'm thinking I'm onto something and therefore staying with the hip rehab (Myrtle hip exercises) + mileage for another block and sticking to the extra extra extra conservative reinstatement of speedwork. 

For perspective, my highest mileage week ever was in 2010 at 55, back when I was carefree and relatively injury-naive pre-stress fracture. I have tried various times to increase to that point but have been derailed by injury over and over. It felt like I'd defined my mileage ceiling and it was disappointingly low. It still might be, but the hip and core rehab have been tremendously helpful, so maybe it's different this time. 

The 3 weeks of mileage after thanksgiving are scheduled for 52, 57, 62...

I hit the 57 mark this week which makes for both a longest mileage week ever and longest run ever (14.3). I'm still feeling great and most of the work feels like quality miles and not too strenuous.

Stay tuned for how my body and mind holds out venturing into uncharted waters of 60+. 

Sincerely, 

Robyn "hare, taking a page from tortoise" Runner

Perhaps the most telling part of this picture is the dark scar on my knee from back in September.
Very thankful that my training has healed faster than my skin.