Derby Training Week 9... Dreadmill, I Hope to Never See You Again!

After my last 2 weeks, this past week has been a fabulously exhausting week. Loved it! Hope I don't crash this week.

Sunday I ran my 5K so that counted as 3 miles. No warm down so I was sore as hell on Monday.

Monday I ran 9 miles and got ready for Big Sky.

Tuesday I traveled all day.

Wednesday I did my pre-conference Wilderness and Urban Survival course all day then did 5 on the dreadmill and about died.

Thursday I spent the whole day doing Wilderness Medicine classes and took an extra Map and Compass Navigation class. No running. We get a break from 10 am to 4 pm. This is where you can either take your extra classes or do fun stuff. Most people went skiing. The powder here at Big Sky is unbelievable!! The only bummer for me this week is that I had so much other stuff I wanted to do with the extra classes and running that I didn't get to go skiing. The one-day lift tickets were $83 and I couldn't justify paying that plus ski rental for just a couple hours of skiing. Big Sky though is simply wonderful and I definitely want to come back here with my family to go skiing. It's not crowded at all and the runs just look divine!

Classes run from 7:30 am - 10 am, 4 - 6:30 pm, then from 8 - 9:30 pm so it ends up being a pretty full day.

Friday I ran 13 miles on the dreadmill during my break. Someone had a pulse oximeter and I found out my oxygen level here is 92%. That means I'm breathing about 15% less oxygen here than back in Indiana. Your pulse ox is suppose to be 100%. Back when I was a medical student, we would try to hold our breath to see if we could get our pulse ox to drop. You simply cannot hold your breath long enough to get your pulse ox to drop by more than 1-2%.

OK, I digress... anyway, I felt somewhat better than Wednesday. My 5 mile time was 53:35, which was about 5 minutes better than Wednesday. Woohoo, I was feeling pretty good. I decided to slow down at 7 miles to drink some Gatorade. It was all downhill after that. I just couldn't get going again. I had to walk a little again at 10 miles, then again at 11.5 miles. The last couple were pretty ugly. I finished 13 in 2:21:50. Not the pace I planned. Plus, I discovered that I list to the left when I run on the treadmill as my left foot hit the side a couple times. Anyone else list to one side when they run on a treadmill? I hope I don't EVER have to run that far on a treadmill again!

Since Friday was Valentine's Day, I treated myself to a chocolate cupcake with raspberry caramel buttercream swirl after my run.

I am definitely in the Run-to-Eat Club!

 

Saturday was another full day of conference classes. I took an extra Winter Survival Class during our break and got to play in the snow and build more fires. I am dying to show the kids how to build an igloo when I get home! I just have to go buy some snowshoes (to tramp down a "quarry"), a hiking shovel and a snow saw. Rumor has it there is lots of snow in Indiana right now.

 

Saturday was another "rest" day. I squeezed in a 50 minute deep tissue massage between my afternoon and evening conference classes. Not exactly the massage I was wanting as the masseuse couldn't massage hard enough and then couldn't figure out what to do with my legs. She asked what my "problem spots" were and I told her my left hamstring and glute. I think that freaked her out a bit since it wasn't my back... she ended up doing something to my calf that sent my foot into pedal spasm... and made me yelp and flex my knee so I could relieve the foot spasm... and it was pretty much downhill from there...

 

 

Week 9 Total Miles: 30

 

This was a recovery week in the training plan so I hit all my miles. The only thing that was different from the training plan was that I was suppose to run a half-marathon, or I suppose, do my 13 all out, but 2:21:50 was the best I could do given the conditions.

 

Today was the last day of my conference. Classes were done at noon. I did 4 more miles on the dreadmill. This time my left foot hit the side of the treadmill and made some God-awful squealing sound on the belt as it drug along and I almost took a header but grabbed the rails just in time.

 

I would be happy if I never saw a treadmill again!

 

The shuttle bus is coming to get me at 3:10 am to take me to the airport so I think I'd better take a nap now!