Two Killer Run Workouts

10 days ago is when I did that hard hilly run. It was the next day that my heel was telling me to ease back a bit. I babied it, and was able to do my foggy hard run last weekend at my parent’s house in southern Minnesota last weekend.

I had an easier run early this week, and then 2 hard runs on Thursday and today (Saturday).

Thursday’s Workout: 8 x 3 minutes HARD. This didn’t sound so bad at first glace. Then I realized that that HARD time and the EASY time would add up, and I’d be running quite a while. I ran straight through for 1:09:57, and it was HARD to not stop and walk for a moment after intervals 6, 7, and 8. All-in-all, it was 10 miles of straight running. And my heel felt OK!

Saturday’s Workout: long run with 2 x 10 minutes HARD near the beginning. I woke up today with an achy heel. It wasn’t bad, just “annoyed.” I was worried about my upcoming 75:00 run. I stretched it well, massaged it a little, and made like a baby and headed out.

I don’t run with a Garmin or anything, so I had no idea how far I’d be running over those 10:00. I started at one of my mile markers so I’d at least have a 1 mile split. That split was 5:50, so I knew I was moving well! Post-run, I mapped it out, and I had gone 1.69 miles over those 10:00 - that’s an average of 5:55 / mile.

[Note: I didn’t have such a valley to go in and out of as seen at the far side of the elevation chart. I think that would have been the true elevation had I jumped off the Franklin Ave Bridge, ran across the water, and then climbed back up on the other side as opposed to taking the bridge. Call me old-fashioned, but I chose to take the bridge.]

After a few minutes of easy running, I had another hard 10:00 to do. Mapping that run out afterwards, I found that I went 1.70 miles. CONSISTENT!!! Awesome!!

North to south, with a little loop back at the southern edge.

I had 5 more miles of “zone 2” running to do, and I did those in 6:37, 7:05, 6:41, 7:01, and 7:14 (easing up the Marshall hill for the last mile). Those final 5 miles were a LITTLE hard, but they weren’t “tempo” pace or anything. I kept telling myself this while running those final miles: “Remember Steve, this is what EASY feels like. You CAN go harder. THIS is EASY. E-A-S-Y.”

With everything tallied up, I ran 11.13 miles in 1:15:09.

I got home, stretched a bit (my heel was just a LITTLE sore, but it held up well!!), and then got ready for an ice bath:

All the ice in my fridge, 6 small Rubbermaid containers of ice, and 1 large Rubbermaid.


Becoming one with the ice.


Shrinkage.


The ice cubes melting and big ice blocks out of their containers.

13 minutes in an ice bath will heal what ails you! ;) When I got downstairs, I found Kermit high on the funk that was given off by the shirt I used on my run to wipe the sweat off my body:

Seriously, my swass is like crack to her.
Only, as you can see, it doesn’t suppress her appetite like crack would.... ;)

OK, time to work on some syllabi, pick up the house, and massage my heel a bit. Happy weekend everyone!!