Training Recap: Week 8

Tuesday August 13

Best. Run. Ever. Well, for me anyway! I ran the round trip from home to the beach, twice. Last night, I bought a knee brace, and tried it out today. I was a little hesitant about using a knee brace... not sure why...? It felt funny while walking down the driveway, but once I started running, I hardly noticed it! But I ran the full 5k, no stopping (apart from a quick ponytail adjustment) and zero knee pain. This is the first time in a long time that I didn't have tired quads during my run.

I felt pretty awesome the whole run. The last 400 m was my favorite... I was huffing and puffing like crazy (complete with nose whistling... wth that was about, I'm not sure), my cheeks and arms were tingling, my brain was like "slow down!" but my legs just didn't listen. I'm not sure how my lungs kept up! 

Distance: 5 km
Time: 27:43
Average Pace: 5:32/km

Splits

1 - 5:36
2 - 5:39
3 - 5:32
4 - 5:35 
5 - 5:19

I think those are my most even splits ever. Except the last one. 

Thursday August 15

Another good run. Not as good as Tuesday's run, but still. I decided I'd go the river way today, to run TDH on the way home. On the way down, I noticed that the field in the distance isn't yellow anymore. It was yellow on Sunday, yellow-ish yesterday when I walked Molly, and green today.

It was SO WINDY today. I had to work extra hard to move forward, even going down TDH! As a result, I took a walk break at the end of River Rd. Just before I stopped to walk, I was beside the little brook that runs to the bay, and a great big heron flew out of the brook, right over my head. It was so windy that it was having a hard time getting away from me! I ran along straight across the 20, and went until the pavement stopped, then turned around. I paused again once I was back on River rd to adjust my hair. The wind was behind me, and was blowing my ponytail around onto my face and neck.  I'm gonna need a head band of some kind to keep my wipsy hair out of my eyes, too. 

I stopped AGAIN for a breather before tackling TDH. I got the whole way up, and when I got to the driveway, it was only about 4.2 kms, so I just kept going to make the full 5k. No knee pain again today. I'm glad, because I thought the big downhill was what caused the pain on Sunday. This weekend, I'll probably do my long run on the flat trail in Ktown.

Distance: 5 km
Time: 28.26
Average Pace: 5:41/km

Splits

1 - 5:34
2 - 5:48
3 - 5:57
4 - 5:57 
5 - 5:08

Sunday August 18

This morning was my scheduled long run. I didn't get last weeks long run because my knee started hurting shortly after I started. Well, this week, my knee started hurting at about km 10. I was only about 2 km from home, and it wasn't hurting THAT BAD, Just every now and then there would be a little twinge, so I kept going, and then added one more to reach my goal of 13k. 

The second I stopped running, my knee was hurting so badly I had trouble walking back home. I even considered calling my mom-in-law to come get me, and I was only about 400m from home. 

I iced it right away, and then again later in the day. Ice doesn't seem to help it... and I'm not sure if I should continue icing it or not. 

Anyway, back to the run. From home, to the beach, back up to River rd, out to the Anne museum, and then backtrack to about halfway down to the beach again. I felt pretty good for most of the run. My splits are all over the place, but I think km 6 and 7 were the best. I felt the best, I felt like I was running at a good pace, I was breathing ok, and I was really on a roll. Which was a nice change from the km before that which was all up hill and took me 7:08. Like I said, at km 10, my knee started hurting, but that last km is my fastest. I always seem to pick up the pace when I know I'll be able to stop!

Distance: 13 km
Time: 1:22:57
Average Pace: 6:23/km

Splits

1 - 6:04
2 - 6:38
3 - 6:23
4 - 6:08 
5 - 7:08
6 - 6:06
7 - 6:02
8 - 6:15
9 - 6:54
10 - 6:03
11 - 6:57
12 - 6:21
13 - 5:56

I guess I will have to contact a physiotherapist about the knee. I don't want to, because I don't want to hear that I shouldn't run.