Training in Montana

3 chilly miles this morning. Went fairly slowly. Achilles felt okay on the ups, great on the downs.

24 degrees with 15 mph wind = 11 degree wind chill. Wore the new neck gaiter plus a few other clothing choices. Felt very warm and sweaty at the end. Much better than cold and chilled.

3.5 treadmill miles. Walked a bit at 4.0, ran at 5.5 for a mile, then 6.0 for a mile or more, and 6.5 for the last 1/2 mile at least. At 6.5 felt a bit of a tug on the achilles but no pain.

The woman running on a treadmill behind me was the only Montanan to qualify for the Olympic Trials marathon. She's amazing. I've still never talked to her but I will someday. Seems like a super nice person but very shy.

4 miles! Longest I've run in a long time. Gorgeous morning, clear skies, yellow morning star in the East with the beginnings of sunrise. Cold, 21 degrees, but no wind so it was actually really nice (with the right clothing, of course). Best run I've had in a while with weather, legs, etc. And the legs are really sore from doing Boot Camp yesterday at noon. I ran it too fast the very last stretch before home. There's a really quick down and up dip and on the up I tried to push it like I normally do, but the achilles wasn't too happy about that. I tried to limit my range of motion on the up but clearly didn't do it. The last 1/2 mile to the house I had to slow it down quite a ways to stop the left achilles from screaming. After I stopped no pain, so life is good. Going to try and hit the noon spin class. I sleep better when I'm exhausted and I'm not able to run enough right now to exhaust myself.

Noon: Spin class, aka sweat fest 2012. Yikes that is a sweaty place! When the bandanna headband is soaked, AND dripping sweat, it was a sweat fest. I had a great realization that I need to do more of that to increase my heat tolerance. Plus, it's cross training, a fantastic cardio workout, and it's just kinda fun. But only with Chris, the good instructor. Others are too blah. Nice to be back as I hadn't been to spin class since March or so.

Noon Boot Camp class. It was a fantastic cardio & muscle workout as I felt beat all day and slept well that night. It's nice to feel sore in muscles I forgot that I had.

6 miles! Longest run in a long time. It was a tough 6 as my muscles are rebelling from doing Boot Camp Wed & Fri, and Spinning on Thursday. A great 3 days of tough workouts then a nice hour-long run. Due to the achilles I had to run really slowly and it was successful. Achilles felt good. 

At basketball tournament later on I did sets of eccentric heel drops. They seem to be working.