Intention for the week: To have a solid week of training in prep for 2 upcoming races: The first “All-Comer’s” meet of the season and the annual Butte to Butte 10k. Never mind that I’m running 1600 on the track one day and then a road 10k five days later….Easy peasy!

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Intention for the week:

This week marks another race at week’s end so the intention is, as always, rest up and kick butt!

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I’ve been a little slack on writing my intentions for the running week, so I’ve made a commitment to get back at it. This week’s intention is: Final full week of training before my next race. Focus on hamstring strengthening exercises (I have chronic HHT) especially with the increased speedwork and hill work. Remain focused on completing the appropriate number of Bulletproof exercises (4-5).

This week, my “better half” is away on a photography retreat.  The retreat is called: Wild Wild West Adventures where my husband is taking photos of “Figures in the Landscape” (I call it: Eight Days in the Desert with Models!!).  So, for your viewing pleasure, I will toss a few of his latest pieces (of landscape) into this submission!

From the movie Forrest Gump. This is the actual road where Forrest quit running!

Monday, June 5:  Five miles easy Garmin-free!  The dog and I really enjoyed it.  We came across a poor raccoon who’d likely become roadkill the night before. :(. There were five turkey vultures hanging around him. I told Eli (my pup) that this is what happens when you play in the street, so take heed!

Tuesday, June 6: Six and a half miles total. The workout began with a 2-mile warm-up followed by 6 X 300’s at 5K pace on the track with 100m recovery jogs in between. We then hit the trail for 1 mile of tempo @ 10K pace and back to the track for 4 X 300 @ 5K pace with gradually acceleration. Woo Hoo!!  Bulletproof workout in the afternoon.

Wednesday, June 7: Bulletproof workout and upper body workout.  No running.

Thursday, June 8: Six miles total. Three slow miles and then into a short fartlek: 1,2,2,1 with 1 minute recovery in between.

Friday, June 9: Four miles easy with the dog. As an update, nothing left of the poor raccoon. The vultures cleaned him up quickly. A deer came out to check on us. Eli got a little spooked but he was mostly curious.

Saturday, June 10: Seven and a half miles total. Wonderful mix of hills and tempo 800’s.  Felt very strong!  Bulletproof workout.

Sunday, June 11: Bulletproof workout and upper body and core.  No running.

Total mileage: 29 miles, baby!

Lately, I’ve gotten in the habit of doing my easy runs without my Garmin. I’ve noticed that, even though I’m cognitively aware that one is to run based on “feel” versus “pace”, I find it really challenging to run this way. No matter how fatigued I am, if I’m running a “10K pace”, then I run a VERY SPECIFIC pace per mile no matter what I’m feeling.  Of course, this is not helpful, so to support myself, I now practice many days “sans Garmin” and I’m really liking it. I’m also focusing more and more on getting those Bulletproof exercises in 4-5 days per week. I know only too well that when I let this slide, my chances of injury increase immensely. So, with that said, here is last week’s training log:

Monday, May 29: Five easy miles with no Garmin. A lovely run with the dog. Bulletproof exercises. This week, these exercises consisted of:

1. Curtsy Lunges (20 reps)
2. Clockface abductor exercises (3 sets of 48 reps on each leg)
3. Side planks (3 sets of 45 seconds on each side)

Tuesday, May 30: Fartleks. 1,2,3,3,2,1 (minutes) with one minute recovery in between each interval.

Wednesday, May 31: Easy 5 miles with the dog. No Garmin. Upper body workout and Bulletproof exercises.

Thursday, June 1: Stairs and hills combo workout. Total mileage: 5 miles. This was run in a warm rain and it was a killer workout, mostly because of the lack of rest between stairs and consecutive hills.  Definitely a max HR workout where I felt the necessity of opening my mouth as much as possible to get the most oxygen in the body.

Friday, June 2:  OFF

Saturday, June 3: Coach was using this workout as a race simulation.  It was a combo workout of hills, mile repeats and track work. Total mileage was 7.5 miles. I really felt this workout because it started with hills and went into mile repeats. My legs and lungs were worked!  THEN, I did the Bulletproof exercises!

Sunday, June 4: 3.5 mile easy run with the dog. No Garmin. Nice! Bulletproof exercises and upper body workout.

As a very cool side note, I outraced “Flap Jill”, the female running pancake, in the Eugene Marathon 5K this year, which means that I am the proud recipient of a year’s worth of pancake mix!  I’m open to suggestions as to what to do with a year’s supply of Krusteaz. In all honesty, I think the pancake mix should go to the running pancakes.  Can you even IMAGINE what it must be like to running in a pancake suit?

Intention for this week of training: Psych myself up for the “Big 10” on Saturday (gulp).
Coming from me, a former 400 meter track sprinter, this is a LOFTY goal to run TEN miles. But now that I’ve committed myself to racing 10k’s this year, it’s a necessity. So, all week long, I’ve been thinking about Saturday’s long run.

Monday, April 17:  Boston Marathon, baby! No training. Just sitting, eating, giving myself a facial and watching the marathon. And, what a marathon it was.  Just so you know, I will NOT be a marathon runner.  That said, I have a lot of respect for those who choose to race this distance. I live vicariously through marathon runners and I enjoy the experience, of watching marathons, immensely!

Tuesday, April 18: Back on the track with 12 X 400.  I warmed up two miles and then I hit the track.  Each 400 was run at 90%  effort with a 200m jog recovery in between. I got to 8 repeats and then I had to go to the bathroom BADLY.  With much urgency, I ran straight to the bathrooms to find that they were LOCKED. Needless to say, the mental and physical effort required to complete 4 more 400’s was epic. Yet, I persevered and completed these 400’s, but not without breaking into a clammy sweat and an exceptionally high heart rate. Man, was I happy to have completed that workout. Total 6+ miles.

Wednesday, April 19: five easy miles along with the Bulletproof workout and upper body strengthening. Felt quite good.

Thursday, April 20:  6 + miles with hills, and lots of them!  Felt good and strong today. I had a muscle spasm in my right rhomboid and my coach noticed, right away, that I was running at an angle. I think the rhomboid was the culprit. Legs felt good, though and the pace felt honest.

Friday, April 21: Work seminar all day so I took the day off from running but I did do my Bulletproof workouts and some upper body strengthening. I focused on psyching myself up for tomorrow’s 10 miles.

Saturday, April 22:  This is it. Ten miles planned. I choose to run this baby by myself, without the dog (why would I put him through this distress?) at 7:30AM. I  decided to do the first 5 miles in a loop from my house and back and then evaluate the body and soul.  Everything was good at five, so I headed back down the country road for another mile and a half down and another mile and a half back home again.  Eight miles.  How did I feel?  Good!  Okay. Two miles to go.  As I went into the 9th mile I began to tank. Yep. It was time for those figs to come out–the ones that I packed in my waist belt. One fig, two figs and, PRESTO! Before I knew it,  I was at one mile to go! Wow. How do ultra-marathoners do this distance times 10?? I thought on this and then distracted myself and pulled it together. I’m felt better after the figs. I’d been running one hour and 20 minutes. I’d never done this before. I willed myself into a sub-eight minute mile for the final mile of the run. And, I’m done (done in!). Ten miles. I did it! Lots of chocolate milk and lots of warm clothing afterwards. I had run my “marathon” and I was feeling pretty proud of it! My old track coach would have been impressed. :)

Sunday, April 23: Ran 3 easy miles with the dog, Bulletproof exercises and upper body strengthening work.

Ta Da!  30 miles.

I began this week with the intention of “leaning in” to running and taking it day-by-day. I’ve been somewhat tired and swamped at work this week, having taken on an extra client load. There is always an adaptation period for me.

Monday, April 10: Began with a 5 mile easy run on Pre’s Trail. I had the intention of running 6 but I was dog-tired (literally) today so I listened to my body and cut it short. I was super tired all day today and it took me much of the day to feel like myself.

Tuesday, April 11: A nice mix of trail track and road.  Finally feeling “normal” again, I started the day with a nice 2-mile warm-up with Eli and then went into a workout that consisted of 3 loops on the trail of 600m @ 10K effort, 200m JR, 100m stride, 50m JR, 50m walk. I repeated this three times.

From here, I ran to the hilly cemetery and did one loop of  lung expanding hill work before running back, this time, to the track to finish off the workout with 2 X 400m repeats. All in all, an excellent day. Total of 6+ miles.

Wednesday, April 12: OFF :)

Thursday, April 13: This was an evening workout at 6pm. My body was compromised after a long day at the office and I felt it. Tonight’s workout was a tempo paced 10K within the context of a race: The Oregon Track Club’s Monthly Race Series. As many of us know, tempo runs are challenging, and for me, a 6-mile tempo is nothing short of pure suffering.

It’s somewhat “easier” psychologically, though, within the context of a race. So, I toed the line and went for it. The first three miles felt pretty good but as I came around for the second loop of the two-loop course, I was beginning to doubt whether or not I could complete the next three miles. I’d started at a pace of 6:57 but each mile had gotten gradually slower and my mind began questioning why I was doing this.

Fortunately for me, a guy came up from behind and began to lead. I made a decision in the last 1.5 miles to hop onto his back while the skies fell with rain, gusty wind and hail. My only concern was to stay with him. We crossed the line, one second apart, and he got me to my 6:58/mile pace… Bingo! Exactly what I wanted.

Friday, April 14: 4 miles easy with the dog in the late afternoon. No watch. No cares. Just running.

Saturday, April 15:  Two mile warm-up with the pup. Then I joined the group for a one-mile loop on the trail at 10K pace, a jog to a gravel road and two 200m hard strides, a jog back to the trail and into a short Fartlek of varying paces and back into 1/2 mile at 10K pace. Finished the workout with 2 X 400m on the trail, just in time to watch the start of the Easter Egg Stash Dash. Super day.

Sunday, April 16: Another awesome negative-split 6-mile run with the dog. Upper body workout and core. Done!

Total Mileage: 34 miles.

Tomorrow we watch the Boston Marathon! Woo Hoo!

It was a week back to the grind, as we say. Our family just returned from a Spring Break trip to Hawaii on Saturday and, although it was nice to be back to routine, it was hard to leave those sandy beaches and balmy weather. Fortunately, I am completely in love with my dog and he was joyously awaiting our return. A definite bright spot in our early morning arrival.

Monday, April 3: Five easy miles with Eli through the park near our home. A beautiful, spring-like day (Oh, right! It IS spring!). Just lovely fresh air and birds chirping. A happy-to-be-alive kind of day! Eli was a little sluggish.  He had a lovely ultra marathon runner-woman sit for him (thank you, Chelsea!) so I suspect his week was loaded with miles. for myself, I added in an upper body workout and a Bulletproof Workout ( This week, Bulletproof consisted of Split Squats, Mountain Climbers and Hip Hinges).

Tuesday, April 4: Solid hill workout. I did a hill workout in Hawaii almost a week ago and I have to say that it is “easier” with friends. I did this workout with the group and coach.  5.5 miles. I bought new running shoes! Spring has, indeed, arrived!

Wednesday, April 5: NADA. Day off.

Thursday, April 6: It’s my honey’s birthday so I began the celebrations with a nice leisurely morning with my husband (meaning, we actually got to see each other before he ran off to work). I chose to do the evening group workout today so that I could spend time with him and also just to shake things up a bit.  A 2.5 mile warm-up was followed by 2 consecutive miles of On/Off 440’s on the trail and 4X100m strides. A lovely, short and sweet workout. 5.5 miles.

Friday, April 7: Five easy miles with the “Gentleman” dog.  Same park, same lovely experience.  Had to keep it chill for Saturday’s upcoming challenging 10K workout. I topped things off with a Bulletproof and upper body workout.

Saturday, April 8: A “mirror” workout that alternates track and trail. I got to run with Jim today, a nice surprise because it’s tax season and Jim is an accountant. I thought he wouldn’t be up for air for at least another few weeks. The workout was all run at 10K pace. It began with 800 on the track and then a run to the trail where we ran 2X400 and 3X200, all with a 200m recovery in between. From the trail, we ran back to the track and did the exact same thing. Then, a run back to the trail for another 800m. This was an awesome workout. I felt good. I had great company and I finally felt back to myself after my lizard lounging in Hawaii.

Sunday, April 9: Topped off a good week with 5 miles with Eli. another Bulletproof and upper body workout.

Total mileage: 32. Not bad for a sprinter, eh?

The training intention that I set for myself for this week in my journal reads as:
Prep for “Lucky Clover 10K”. Not a “goal” race but a “get your feet wet and play with the edge” race.

So this week started off  a little on the slow side as I decided to be smart and listen to my body. Sunday had me in a bit of Posterior Tibialis pain tizzy and I’ll be darned if that was going to take me out of contention to race on Friday. So, I took Monday off completely and walked the dog. Basically, I endured another day off and practiced my make-up for Friday’s race. Green mascara, anyone?  :)

Tuesday, March 14:  800, 1200, 800, 1000 trail, all at tempo pace with 1:30 active recovery. This was all on the trail and it was all about getting into a tempo groove. My 2 mile warm-up with the dog went well with zero pain from the weekend. I did 1000m to cool down and called it good.

Wednesday, March 15: 4 miles easy with the dog. Bulletproof running exercises, upper body strengthening and core work.

Thursday, March 16: Off.  Yep. A day of tapering.

Friday, March 17:  Race day (or, more accurately, race night ). 5:30PM

10K road and trail mixed race. I literally used every tool in the box to loosen up before this run.  The cool thing about this race is that you get to choose which loop you do first, road or trail. I chose to do the road first because it was on the bike path and, for me, the bike path is BOOORING. I get easily irritated on bike paths and the last thing I really wanted was to end the race in a bad mood. After all, this is my third 10K, ever. I wanted it to be enjoyable. I love the trails so this was my choice for the second half of this 10K.

The trail did not disappoint! It was muddy and grassy and loaded with gravel and dirt. The sweet thing was that I was running alone for most of this race, so I got to run with the river and the birds and the occasional dog with walker. I LOVED this portion of the race. The only thing is that 10K is a long time to be alone and in my head. I’d write about it here, but it’s worthy of a blog post all its own. I’ll leave the “contents of my race head” for another post on another day.

I ran a PR 10K time despite the nature of the course and I came in first woman and 3rd overall. Woo Hoo! Time to celebrate (meaning crash at home).

Saturday, March 18: Whoa. The effort of last night had no mercy. I couldn’t run. I couldn’t do anything. EVERYTHING hurt. Plus, I had a massive bruise on my right ankle, likely from my left ankle hitting the right repeatedly throughout the race.  Form issues!

Sunday, March 19: OK. I made it out for a 4 mile run with my friend Thomas but it was SLOW. 8:14 and I felt like I was going to drop dead of low blood sugar afterwards (nothing that a slab of cheesecake didn’t cure). Not good.

I felt somewhat more recovered in the late afternoon so I engaged in my Bulletproof running exercises and upper body strengthening. I felt stronger (thank goodness!), at least from the waist up!

I  I try to set a personal intention for every week of running. I got this awesome idea from the “Compete” training journal put out by Lauren Fleshman and Roisin Mcgettigan-Dumas. So, this week’s intention was:

Hit the training hard for an upcoming road/trail 10k on St. Patty’s Day and still allow for a nice taper the following week.

For the sake of efficiency, I will explain what I mean by “Bulletproof” workout.  Every week, I do a set of 3 exercises that help to strengthen my running form. These are my workouts from an online group (Bulletproof Running) with trainer, James Dunne, in the UK.  The workouts this week are as follows: 1) Hip Flexor/Ilio-Psoas strengthening with the exercise band (3 X 60 sec, each leg). 2) Front plank with alternating leg lifts (3X60 sec). 3)”Runner’s Arabesque” (one legged hip hitches 3 sets of 10 on each leg).

Monday, March 6:  Five mile run with Eli (my crazy Black Labrador Retriever).  It was a beautiful day and I took it EASY (as in 8:32/mile average).  It was an unusually spring-like day in Eugene and we both were awestruck by the mist, clean air and first real signs of spring flowers.  Super enjoyable.  I run because of days like this.  I followed this up with my “bulletproof” session and upper body (push-ups, pull-ups and TRX for back strengthening).

Tuesday, March 7:  Track, track, track workout. Yep. It’s getting that time again. I did a 2.5 mile warm-up with Eli, my friend, Judith, and her pup, Bailey. It was a warm-up Fartlek of sorts with all of the pit stops for peeing and sniffing ( the dogs, of course!). This then moved into a 500 on the track (gradual acceleration), 300 jog recovery and straight into a 400, 600, 800 at tempo pace with 200 jog recovery in between each and then a cutdown of 400, 300, 200 with 100 jog recovery in between each of these.  Finally 2X 400 topped off the workout. 800 cool down. Total mileage: 7.5 miles

Wednesday, March 8: OFF from running. Bulletproof workout and upper body strengthening.

Thursday, March 9:  Tempo and hill run mix:  I LOVE cemetery running and today, we got to run in TWO of them!.  I have a dark sense of humor.  I’m always thinking that, should I drop dead from running, I’m in the perfect spot.  I tell my coach that I want to be buried in a mushroom spore suit.

Friday, March 10:  Another day off from running (primarily because I have my “long” run on Saturday). Many of you will find it quite humorous that my long runs have never been over 9 miles. Hey! I was a sprinter, remember? I find 5 kilometers long! Bulletproof session and upper body workout were also completed. Woo hoo! Three of these this week! Feeling good!

Saturday, March 11:  “Long” run. Today it was 8, with 2 middle miles (miles 4 and 5) at tempo pace. I considered bringing food in case I got low blood sugar. But, I made it through the miles without. Phew. “Marathon” is not, and will never be, a part of my vocabulary! Average pace: First 3 miles: 8:24. Middle two miles: 7:03. Last three miles: 8:23.

Sunday, March 12:  Four easy miles with my wonderful running partner, Dave. We ran parts of the upcoming 10k course. We didn’t time the paces. Just a lovely run through the Filbert groves. Had some Tibialis Posterior pain.  I’ve never had this before. I’m thinking it might be the combination of the “Runner’s Arabesque” moves this week along with the long run on Saturday. I might have to nurse this puppy and take Monday off from running. In any event, I aim for 30-miles of weekly mileage and I did not disappoint!  Let’s see how the foot feels this coming week.