Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

Day off.

Let's get this out of the way right up front: I like running on the treadmill. I don't know if this is frowned upon in the running community the way liking to ride rollers is frowned upon in the cycling community, but training indoors appeals to me, especially when the weather gives me a reason to stay inside. Training inside may not provide the sensory stimulation, etc. that training outside does, but it does allow for very precise workouts. And in my experience, those workouts can make you very strong and very fast. And that's very satisfying.

Needless to say, I was back on the treadmill this morning. I upped my mileage a bit and threw in some tempo work so that I can (hopefully) run faster in the 10K than I did in the 5K.

• 20 minutes at an 8:00 pace
• 15 minutes at a 6:00 pace
• 5 minutes at a 9:00 pace
• 6 minutes at a 6:11 pace and 9 minutes at a 6:30 pace (this was supposed to be 15 minutes at 6:11, but I quickly felt like I couldn't hold the pace and needed to slow down. I probably should have stuck it out)
• 20 minutes at an 8:00 pace

After a brief cool-down, I wound up with 10.5 miles in just over 75 minutes. Then I went home and ate a big bowl of Grape Nuts (after the run--that's the trick).

With any luck, I'll have new shoes tomorrow, but to give my legs a rest from the pounding I'll be skiing instead of running. I'll probably be at Mountain Dell, but TUNA is grooming the East Canyon road tonight, so I may take advantage of the opportunity to ski up Big Mountain on a freshly groomed trail.

I was happy to be back at the Evil Weight for this morning's weigh in, but that was where the good news ended. I was too cold and too tired to ski Big Mountain this morning, so I headed to Mountain Dell. I planned to ski two laps on Main+Mitten and one lap on the Big Loop; unfortunately, I wasn't feeling strong enough for that, either. It's too bad, because conditions were great. I ended up skiing one lap on Main+Mitten and another on the Lower Loop, about 5 miles total. I'm not sure why I felt so weak today, but I suspect that it's a combination of not having eaten enough after yesterday's run and not having gotten enough sleep over the past few days.  

After yesterday's shortened workout, I kept feeling worse and I was pretty out of it by the end of the day. I was worried that I had gotten sick, but so far there have been no symptoms other than fatigue and a bit of a headache. I still think it's because I haven't been sleeping well.

Speaking of which, I had another restless night, but I still got up early to put in my miles down at the rec center. I ran for 75 minutes at a mellow pace, and I felt pretty good the whole time. It seems like my legs are finally adjusting to the pounding. I hope they're ready to do some work tomorrow.

I recently read that setting the incline on the treadmill to one degree can mimic running on the road and take some strain off certain parts of the body, so I increased the incline for my run this morning. I couldn't feel any initial difference, but I seemed to fatigue more quickly during my intervals and, consequently, had to dial back my effort for the day. I'm not sure if the fatigue was because of the incline or because I did a long (for me) run yesterday and one day wasn't enough recovery. Either, way, I'll be taking it very easy tomorrow morning.

Today's run: 10 minutes at an 8:30 pace followed by 15 minutes at a 6:15 pace, followed by 5 minutes of recovery at just under a 9:00 pace. I only made it through 5 minutes of my planned second interval (same pace) before dialing it back to 7:00 for 5 minutes and then finishing the workout alternating between a 7:50 and an 8:30 pace. In the end, 8.33 miles in 62 minutes.

I ran five easy miles at an 8:30 pace this morning. It felt a little harder than I think it should have, probably because of all the birthday cake I ate last night (birthday cake . . . mmm). I ran 2.5 miles before stopping to take off my shoes. I figured that I should at least try running barefoot before the craze cools down (assuming it does, I suppose). My plan was to run the last 2.5 with no shoes, but after a mile my feet felt like they were blistering, so I put my shoes back on to finish the run. Maybe I should have gone completely barefoot instead of wearing my socks.

Cowed by the weather forecasts online, I abandoned my plans for a long day of skate skiing and instead opted for a long run indoors. And by long I mean 15 miles in 2 hours, which probably doesn't count as long for most runners. But keep in mind that that's longer and farther than I've ever run in my life. At least, in a single day. Hooray for me.

Naturally, the weather turned out to be much better than predicted, so I feel somewhat foolish for having spent so much time running indoors. Still, I'm happy with the effort. I started at an 8:30 pace and increased the pace by 7-8 seconds per mile every 10 minutes. After 90 minutes I was running at a 7:15 pace, which I decided to hold for only 5 minutes before gradually winding the pace down to end the run.

In the end, my average pace was about 8:00 per mile. But I wonder, did I get a better workout by starting slow and increasing the pace, or would I have been better off running at a steady 8:00 pace for two hours?