My Running Journal, 050410

Hey, look at that, I have a blog!

I haven’t forgotten about it, but I have been lazy. Not running as much as I was, and definitely not writing as much.

Both of which I should be doing. But I am at a point where I don’t have a huge amount to say. I’m still doing Crossfit work five times a week, and have been going on trail runs on Sundays. I feel that I am teetering right on the edge of overtraining – I know that I can push harder, but I have feeling that I will start to see longer and longer overall recovery times between workouts, and I’d prefer that to not happen.

I’m definitely way off on following the Higdon schedule that I started – but I have a feeling that, overall, I am at least as strong and fit as I would have been had I stuck with it. To be perfectly honest, I have a feeling that I am much stronger overall because of the Crossfit than I would be if I was just running. Having a good strength base will contribute to my success as a marathoner.

I’m pretty sure that I could run a half marathon tomorrow if I wanted to. I know that I would be slow, but based on what I did on Sunday, 13 miles doesn’t seem like a long way. Sunday I tested out my legs – I went on 5k trail run on the Leif Ericksson trail here in Portland in the morning, and then hiked a trail on Dog Mountain in the afternoon. The morning run I did without my metronome, and while my overall cadence was too slow, I did finish the run in 29 minutes. Which is by no means fast, but I was at a cruising speed where I was trying to focus on my form more than anything else. The first ½ mile absolutely sucked, and I was wondering if my aerobic capacity was shot – but then I remembered that the first ½ mile or so always sucks, I just haven’t been running enough recently to keep that in mind. Assuming that I pay attention to my cadence, I will go faster.
The afternoon hike was by no means a leisure stroll. Dog Mountain starts with a ½ mile climb that covers 700 vertical feet by way of switchbacks. At the .7 mile mark the trail splits, and you get to choose between “less” difficult and “more” difficult. Note that “Difficult” is a component of both. My buddies and I decided to go up the more difficult trail and come down the less difficult trail. More Difficult was 2.2 miles to the summit, while less was 2.6. More difficult was an aggressive trail, with sections that must have been 45-50 degrees in pitch. So steep in some sections that I could probably have put my hands out and climbed if I wanted to. Which made for an interesting hike. Round trip was a little over 7 miles, and I got to test my downhill running technique on the way back to the car.

Between the hike and the run, I was more fatigued by the end of the day than I was when I ran the Haulin’ Aspen half marathon a couple of years ago. Based on what I did on Sunday, I think I could handle a 13 mile run without too much issue.

I’m going to stick with Crossfit as my primary training mode until the end of this month, and then I’ll assess if I am doing as well as I think that I am.