Dasha Runs Austin

New Years Day - 9 miles on the trail in the late morning! Average 8:56

Felt good despite running 14 the day before.   The 14 was the first "longer" run that I had done since Marathon on Dec 4th.  

Pace run on the trail - 5 miles easy, 5 at MGP.  My target MGP for Eugene will be somewhere between 7:55 and 8:00.

Run was good. Ran alone with my playlist from Sacramento, as I usually do on all of my pace runs.

Splits: 9:42, 9:16, 9:01, 9:02, 8:44 - MGP - 7:54, 7:58, 8:07 (water stop), 7:54, 7:59

Hilly Recovery Run - 7.3 miles at 9:02 pace

Went from home to Enfield, to Scenic, back down Pecos to Enfield and home.

Trying to increase strength by adding some slower hill running.  The majority of my recovery and pace runs have been done on the trail which is mostly flat

Recovery Run - 8 Miles on the trail, Avg Pace 9:01

Had bad Ceder allergy today! 

This was my first track work out since the Marathon.  Legs are getting back to normal but I am letting them take their time.  Ran with a slightly slower group this time than I normally run with.  They were done about 20 seconds slower than last time I did them. It's okay, still recovering :)

 2K's at Zilker with the Gazelles.  They were a bit slower than last time and I only did 4 out of the maximum 5.  

1. 9:08 (7:34 pace)

2. 8:52 (7:25 pace)

3. 8:58 (7:20 pace)

4. 9:05 (7:30 pace) - talking pace! 

1.5 mile warm up and cool down to get to park.

Friday is Rest day!

Yoga and some swimming at Big Stacey Pool 

Did the Point to Point with the Gazelles. The majority of this run is downhill, with some minor rolling hills along the way. 

Held a good pace the majority of the run, with a pretty strong finish. Not running any MGP miles yet.  This was 5 weeks after my last marathon. 

Splits are:  10:05, 9:32, 8:58, 8:45, 9:21, 8:50, 8:25, 8:38, 8:25, 8:35, 8:35, 8:54, 8:23, 8:36, 8:22 - Avg. 8 44

10 mile Recovery Run on the trail

 Felt pretty speedy this morning for a recovery run, not sure why.  Maybe the legs weren't as tired from the downhill point to point run as they would be from a different Austin run.

 Paces:  8:45, 9:04, 8:26, 8:30, 8:41, 8:37, 8:43, 8:44, 8:18, 8:51 - Avg 8:38

Did the Lolipop loop with Gazelles this morning.  8 Mile loop with a large amount of rolling hills.  This was pretty hard for me after putting on a good amount of miles at a good pace this weekend.  I will be moving my Monday "quality workout" to Tuesday starting next week

Paces: 8:56, 9:34, 9:36, 8:31, 8:38, 8:39, 8:36, 8:41 - Average 8:48

These paces would be very comfortable on flat or the trail, but felt very challenging on the hills.  I think that means I need to run more hills!

Recovery Run - legs felt pretty beaten up after the Lolipop loop yesterday.  

Ran from home and did 9 miles on the trail.   Good solid recovery run. Avg. Pace of 9:13.  

Still feel like I am not eating enough carbs! Trying to get the glicogen toped off.  Had a Picky Bar before the run (28g of C) and a scoop of CarbPro when I got home (25g of C).   

Easy recovery run on the trail - 8 miles.  Average pace of 9:05.

The cold front came to Texas overnight and it was cold!  I decided to go to the evening group tonight to do 1000s.  Of course I didn't know what time it started and got there 15 minutes late!  Apparently, the group changes the start time based on daylight savings.  

This was a good excuse to head home. But this Russian girl has only been in the land of y'all for a year and a half and still has some cold tolerance! 

Figured I would do about 8 miles with 6 at pace instead.  It got dark for the last two miles and the 8:09 is hesitation on the downhills... 

Splits: 8:54, 8:34 - MGP: 8:08, 8:05, 7:51, 7:50, 8:09 (and...it got dark), 7:55

So I get to the parking lot of where our group meets, look down at my arm and realize I forgot my Garmin! First long run with out since I bought it, but I survived :)  Someone I ran with the entire way had one and sent me the splits.

My legs really did not like this run today.  I've been running on the trail way to much lately and really need to change things up during the week.  When we get the "Grove loop" it is hard to get excited when you have already been out there every day the previous week.

Did the entire loop, with a 3 mile addition up Lake Austin Blvd. 

I had planned to run this a bit harder but did not feel 100% recovered from my pace run on Thursday night.

16 miles - spits: 9:53, 8:56, 8:49, 8:46, 8:28, 9:18, 8:59, 8:24, 8:46, 8:40, 8:39, 8:50, 8:44, 8:51, 8:42, 7:55

10.5 mile recovery run with my friend Lisa.  Ran from home, down 6th Street towards downtown and up Duval to 51st St. Turn around and come back.

Weather was perfect.  About 9:00 min pace.  Felt good despite running 16 yesterday.   

Busy morning, did not get out to do recovery run until 2PM today.  It was 73F degrees! Where did my heat training go?

Ran from home and did the 7 mile loop on the trail.  8.8 miles at 9:20 pace. Saving legs for hill workout only 15 hours later...

Meriden hill work out this morning: 5 x 1000 (hilly) 

Haven't done this one with the group before, so I did not what I was in for :) Parked at the RunTex on Lake Austin without realizing it gives you only a mile warm up. I usually need 2-3 miles to get going.  Went okay despite this.

Went with a faster group today that I haven't run with before and it was awesome!  It felt good to get the push.  

1 mile warm up 

1. 4:57 (7:51 pace) - start down 11th St

2. 4:56 (7:53 pace) - start down 11th St

3. 4:58 (7:56 pace) - start down Meriden

4. 4:57 (7:50 pace) - start down Meriden

5. 4:57 (7:50 pace) - start down 11th St

+ 5 miles on the trail

(in true Dasha style - they are very consistent..whatever that means)

Added 5 miles on the trail to get the miles up for the week.  Felt good on the cool down and finished with an 8:20 mile :)

9 mile recovery run on the trail this late AM.  Took it easy today, pretty tired from yesterday and want to try and get in about 12 miles tomorrow.   

Went to group today to do the 8 mile fartlek workout with the plan to add on a few miles after.  I am trying to run with a group that is a bit faster than the one I trained with last time around, and they were doing this work out today.

2 mile warm up

3X3 min on/1 off

3X2 min on/1 off 

5X1 min on/1 off

2 mile cool down 

Fartlek miles: 7:40, 7:45, 7:54, 8:13  

Since I can be nutty sometimes...I did another 5X1 min on/1 off during my additional 3 miles that I did post work out. :)

11 miles at 8:43 average.   

I wasn't very excited to do 18 miles so close to finishing a marathon, but it happened.

Back to friday evenings filled with anxiety and trying to find yet another carb to eat....

Austin Marathon course, lots of hills, and a nice downhill finish.  The last three weeks of hill work outs seem to be working because I felt a lot stronger on the hills today.

Didn't do any MGP miles today because of 3M Half next weekend, but after that I will bring 4-6 miles at MGP back into my long runs. Still sped up a bit on the last 4 miles.  

Splits: 9:09, 8:43, 8:46, 8:42, 8:51, 8:44, 9:01, 8:50, 8:57, 8:46, 8:46, 8:57, 8:44, 8:24, 8:10, 8:14, 8:15, 8:53 (easy cool down add on mile into the wind!) 

67 mile week in the books, and it all starts again tomorrow..... 

Recovery run on the trail with the fast guys.  Average pace 8:46.

Felt pretty good considering I ran a hilly 18 miler yesterday and only got a few hours of sleep.

Need to run faster on the long runs... 

Late morning 8 mile recovery run on the trail.  8:50 avg. pace.  Weather was incredible! One of those days when you feel really lucky to live in Austin!

My Eugene schedule has an 8 mile MGP run tomorrow or I could do mile repeats with the non-Boston group.  Can't decide... 

Realized I forgot to include my Berlin Marathon training run in my Marathons for 2012 :) I guess it's going to be one of those 3 marathon years again!

1 mile repeats at Zilker this morning.  I actually kinda love workouts like this...

Mentally being off the track is so great and the hills thrown in makes it a lot of fun :) Plus the weather was perfect! 

Gilbert had us do 4 since a lot of people are running 3M Half this weekend.

1.6 mile warm up

1. 7:10 (go straight from parking lot)

2. 6:59 (turn left down hill)

3. 6:57 (go straight from parking lot)

4. 6:59 (turn left down hill)

1.6 mile cool down

Drove home and felt like doing a bit more running around the hood, so added on a nice hilly 2.2 miles.  

Total 9.4 for the day. Overall, felt pretty good for running 34 miles in the last 3 days...

Downtown Austin got quiet the rain storm last night!  Got to log those sleep hours at like 3. The animals were not happy.  The car alarm went off twice from the thunder!

Did 7 super easy recovery miles this morning.  Ran from home and did the 5 mile loop.  The trail made it out okay from the storm, but definitely has some major puddles and new "rivers."  

Ouch. Super sore core today from my in front of TV core work yesterday!

Group had two options today, 800s or a 1 min on 1 min off fartlek.  Was planning on doing a fartlek today but the trail isn't in very good shape (in my opinion) so I chose to go to the track.  Rolled my ankle yesterday just doing recovery, so I figured this was overall the less risky option.  

Went to the track and did 8 x 800 a little bit slower than I normally would since I ran mile repeats on Tuesday. Normally they would be 3:20s.    

1. 3:28 

2. 3:28 

3. 3:28 

4. 3:29

5. 3:28

6. 3:30

7. 3:28

8. 3:28

If my current career does not work out, I think I will become a pacer.  :)

Rest day. No running, no yoga!  I have the 3M Half Marathon on Sunday.  I am not going to race it, but will still be running it about a minute faster than I would normally do a long run.

Planning to run it in about 1:40 (7:38 pace).  The race is largely downhill so that is probably about a 7:50 anywhere else, or close to my MGP that I hope to run at Eugene.  

My hamstring feels a bit tight after the speed work this week.  I think this calls for a visit to my favorite ART guy, Dr. Z, before the weekend! :)   

AND - tomorrow I get to carbo load!  

Went to the annex this morning at 8 to do my little pre-half marathon run.  Ran into Mike and ended up running with him, which was great because it assured I would only do 3 miles.  In my head I was all set for 7!  

My knee/hamstring is feeling so much better after the ART yesterday.  So happy about that. My doc is going to be at the finish, so I am happy knowing I can get some more ART if I don't feel 100% after the race!  :)

After my run, I walked up to Gilbert (coach) and said that I am going to run 1:40.  He said, no, 1:38.   Ugh.  I looked it up on the "calculator" and it makes more sense based on my recent repeat times, full marathon goal, etc...  I told him I wanted to take it easy. He said "WHY??"  We shall see what happens...Gotta go eat some more carbs :) 

 Playlist done. Check. It's go time. 

I ran the 3M Half Marathon this morning.  The weather was great, 30s F, no wind.  I actually kept my long sleep and headband on the whole time.  However, we got to the start almost an hour early which was a mistake.  I almost froze to death.  Where did my Russian genes go?

The race is in Austin, TX - goes point to point with a net down hill.  However, looking at my Garmin elevation, there is still a lot of rolling hills that come into play through out the course.  

I felt pretty good this morning, so I decided to just go by feel and settle into a pace that felt pretty comfortable.  I did a good job carb loading yesterday - had about 450g of carbs and had 2 bars this morning (1 of them 2 hours before the start, and another one right before = total 56g of carbs). Two salt pills before the start, none during.  During the race I had two Carb-Booms! at miles 4 and 8.5.  I tried a new flavor, raspberry, yuck! Switching back to Peach-Banana... I have really learned the last year that nutrition is key

The race was pretty comfortable for the most part. I ran by myself with my iPod and had a good time. :) I saw a lot of people on the course that I train with, which made me pretty happy. Saw my buddy Randy at mile 7 and realized how lucky I am to have become a pretty strong runner this past year, while meeting such great people and having so much FUN!! 

If you look at my splits they are consistent, in true Dasha style.  Except for mile 10, ugh, so embarrassing!  This was the mile crossing town that has a good amount of hills in it and at 8AM this morning had us running right into the sun!!  I slowed down a lot more than I wanted to, but quickly got right back on pace.  Also - the ending was a bit rough physically and mentally.  It was uphill and the finish was in sight, but looked so far away!

Finished, went right to the Rogue tent to see Dr. Z and got some recovery ART.  He said my leg was fine and just needed a beer and a nap :)  He told me to take 2 days off, lets see how that goes....

Splits: (1) 7:36, (2) 7:20, (3) 7:23, (4) 7:21, (5) 7:29, (6) 7:31, (7) 7:26, (8) 7:20, (9) 7:33, (10) 7:52, (11) 7:23, (12) 7:22, (13) 7:18 (.1) 7:33 = Average Pace 7:31, 1:38:31

Power Yoga earlier in the day.

Met Ken and Craig for an easy 6 miles around the lake that ended up being in pouring rain.  

Legs felt pretty good.   

7 Miles on the trail with Bonnie this morning.  The group did 40 minutes running followed by 20 minutes core.  We hid from the pack and kept going around the lake :)  of course we got in trouble when we got back!  Avg pace of 9:00, legs still tired.  

Going to do some core on the floor and swim some laps tonight.  

Austin seems to have forgotten that today is February 1st.  Ran around 9AM and it was hot and humid - about 72F when I finished.  

Did 10 miles on the trail. The legs seem to be coming around. Hopefully they will be ready for long run this weekend! My schedule has 18, but I think I will stick to 16 to make sure I actually recover.

Did some hot yoga after the run, and needed a nice can of coconut water and salt pills after that :) 

By personality I am a pusher.  I push myself harder than anyone else ever could.  Sooo when my body/brain says you got to take it easy I listen.  (this does not happen very often :)  )

There was a lot of confusion today on what the group was supposed to do, and I think we still got it wrong.  Options where a progressive-tempo run, 6x1000 at 10K pace or 8x1000 (with 400m recovery) at HMGP.  

I decided to do 9x1000 (with 400m recovery) at something between MGP and HMGP.  I just couldn't get my head around running fast today. Long, okay.

2.6 mile warm up

1. 4:50 (7:44 pace)

2. 4:51 (7:45 pace)

3. 4:51 (7:45 pace)

4. 5:01 (8:01 pace)

5. 4:59 (7:58 pace)

6. 4:56 (7:53 pace)

7. 4:35 (7:24 pace)

8. 4:47 (7:39 pace)

9. 4:46 (7:37 pace)

3000m of active recovery between intervals - 1.9 miles 

2.7 mile cool down 

Total of almost 13 miles, didn't realize this until now when I added everything up.  Turned into a pretty good interval workout.

Finally a rest day since the half marathon!  I am taking this day to mentally prepare for the hill-torture that we have to put ourselves through tomorrow. 

Did some Core Yoga instead. 

 As Kanye says:

"Work it, make it, do it, makes us

Harder, better, faster, stronger

Now that that don't kill me

Can only make me stronger" 

He better be right - otherwise, I don't know what the purpose of this morning was! 

This was a hilly beast of a run.  I dropped the final part of it to "take it easy" but instead ended up running up Congress. At least I got the downhill finish.   

Felt pretty good most of the way but my hammies started to give out at mile 15 on the wet trail.  Felt better once I got back on the road.   

The splits are pretty consistent and I didn't crash at the end, so I think thats a win for this Saturday morning.   And I got in another 68 miles in this week. So I'll take it!

Splits: 9:40, 9:00, 8:52, 8:44, 8:48, 8:31, 9:05 (Mt. B), 8:43, 8:32, 8:34, 8:35, 8:39, 8:24, 8:42, 8:48, 8:45, 8:41, 8:36 - Avg. Pace 8:46 

8 recovery miles on the trail this morning. 45F and raining, not so fun.

Pretty tired but oddly not very store from hill-torture.

10 mile recovery run.  Went to the 7:30 "friendly" gazelles today since this is my last week of fun-employment. Had a nice 7 mile recovery run with them, then went back out for an additional 3 miles. Average Pace - 8:55.  

I was so hungry this morning that before getting out of the door I had to eat a bowl of low fat coffee ice cream!! I think that's a new rock bottom for a running addict.  

#1 - 2Ks at Zilker park this morning.  This is actually my favorite "speed" workout, the longer the repeat the better I tend to do.

Felt pretty good today - a bit tired on the 5th one, but thats expected.  I think that ice cream yesterday made everything better.

Warmup: 1.45 miles

1. 8:42 (6:57 pace)

2. 8:32 (6:49 pace)

3. 8:24 (6:43 pace)

4. 8:26 (6:44 pace)

5. 8:34 (6:51 pace)

Cool down: 1.35 miles at 8:19 pace  

I am going to try adding in a double today. Will go and do 4 miles or so in the afternoon. 

#2 - Swam 1 mile at Pure Quarry pool 

#3 - Did my first double in a very long time.  Ran 4.25 miles on the trail around 3PM. Pace was pretty good - 9:00 average but I felt pretty tired.  I think this is something my body needs to get used to again.  Or maybe it was just the mile in the pool!

Met a friend for a pilates class after to get some core in.   

Cold morning!  Had some oatmeal and a latte this morning waiting for it to warm up. No such luck.

Had a pretty efficient run this morning.  The place where we park for our group has a car wash service that does your car while you run. Had them scrub the car down while I did an 8 mile recovery run.

Thinking of doing a 10 mile run tomorrow with 8 miles at MGP.  Will see how I feel about that in the morning.  

Evening: Hot Vinyasa - 75 minutes at Bfree Yoga

The group was doing a 1 min on 1 min off fartlek which I did not feel like doing.  Decided to go for a little pace run instead.  I think I pulled something in my leg the other day, which made for a miserable pace run but I got through it.  

Ran on the trail, a couple miles on Lake Austin Blvd, back to the trail and finished at RunTex.

Splits: 9:22, 8:49 - 7 MGP Miles: 8:07, 7:37, 7:57, 7:53, 8:05, 7:59, 8:02 - Average for the total run (incl. warm up) was 8:13

Had to skip long run today and rest my legs.  Hammie is still pretty sore and walking with a bit of sad limp. I don't do well in the cold, so if you are going to miss a workout today was a good one to miss!  

Met the group for breakfast after - which is my favorite part anyways.  My friend Craig put the idea of doing Cozumel Ironman 2013 into my head.  A couple of my friends are thinking of doing it...so I think I am in.  Oh my.  

Yoga before work.  

I have been letting my hamstring rest up, and it seems to be responding pretty well.  Have had ART on it 3 times now, and have been doing my triggerpoint.  Not as much as I probably should.

I think I may try and go for an easy run on the trail tomorrow if it feels the same or better tomorrow AM.

1. Yoga at Lunch.

2. Swam 1 mile at Pure Quarry Lake after work.

Feeling better.  I think another day or two and I should be mostly there.  Feel about 90% better than I did last Thursday.  

My sports doc wanted me to try and run a mile today...so of course I went over a bit and did about 1.5 miles.

Leg felt tight but no sharp pain - so I will take that.

Going to try and run 2-3 miles on Wednesday morning, probably on the trail.

Tomorrow morning it's of to swim 1 mile at the pool..which unfortunately takes so much longer than running 1 mile. 

Was so nervous to go try a "real" run yesterday...  Met my friend Ken for an easy 4 miles around the trail.  Felt pretty good! No sharp pain around where the hamstring probably tore, just general soreness around most of the leg/hip. Pace was actually fine, around 8:30 average. I was so chatty because I've been kinda missing out on my social life with this whole injury thing!!

Saw my doc this morning, and based on that update he cleared me to run distance! No speed work for 2 weeks, but I can run however much I feel comfortable on the trail.  He said that the slower running will not reinjure it, and that I should just continue to stretch the psoas and quads.  No doc appt until a week from now! Yay!

Will rest it today (Thursday) and hope to try another 4-5 miles tomorrow morning.

Mile swim...really loving all of the swimming in the morning.

On Monday, I am actually starting a swim clinic with a local group called T3 to get my stroke more efficient.  Pretty excited about it..first step to the tri world I guess. :)