Monday: Off – Initially I planned to run tonight, but I
didn’t get home from work until 7 or so.
Foiled.
Tuesday: 5.5 Miles – 1:04:43 – Average Pace 11:43/mile
Despite the cool and rainy conditions that greeted me as I
stepped outside to go to the gym, I opted against running one of more normal
weekly routes to go to the gym and get some elevation gain on the
treadmill. Once again, I was unable to
use the incline trainer and it’s generous 30% incline because of the douche
bags who consistently use it, but run at 0% grade. As usual, I set the grade to 15% and hiked
at 15:00 pace for 2 miles. I really
didn’t feel very good and I seemed to be dizzy or unstable for pretty much this
entire run, especially the first 2 miles.
I then dropped the incline down to flat and put in 3 faster miles at
7:30 pace to stretch out my legs and finished with a .5 mile cool down. Stopped a little short of my goal mileage for
today, but I wasn’t too concerned about it.
Wednesday: 4.73 Miles – 59:42 – Average Pace 12:37/mile
Met up with Martha after work to run the Trinity Loop
trail. I didn’t really have any goals
for today’s run, other than getting 4-5 miles.
Fortunately the weather cooled off a bit, but unfortunately, the
humidity was at 89%. I let Martha set
the pace, and just followed along. The
trail is pretty nicely groomed and well shaded.
Some vert would be nice though.
The route we took went through the loop trail to the Woodshed and
back. Nice easy run.
Thursday: Off – I had thoughts of possibly getting in my
long run for the week late on Thursday to avoid the heat, but after getting
home, having dinner and settling into a board game with Christy, I decided to
abandon that idea and plan for an early morning start.
Friday: 30 miles – 4:04:46 – Average Pace 8:09/mile
Woke up early and took my time getting ready, while still
trying to figure out the exact route I would be running today. I knew that trails were out, thanks to all of
the rain that we got in the area this week.
I would have liked to have just run a simple 15 mile out and back, but I
couldn’t think of a route that would keep me relatively safe from all of the
traffic. I ended up settling on running
my 2 usual 8 milers a total of 4 times for 32 miles. The first leg started off very sluggish for
me. In fact, my legs felt like
garbage. I couldn’t seem to get into a
rhythm for probably the first 3.5 miles.
It was about this point where I was almost hit by the truck of a city
water inspector. I managed to get out of
his way and flail around enough that he finally noticed me. Asshat.
Apparently that activity got things moving and I had to stop for a quick
bathroom break. Fortunately, a port a
potty was nearby. Whew. The remainder of this leg was pretty
uneventful. I made it back to the house
in 1:07 or so. I stopped to refill my
water bottle and feed the dogs and remembered that it was garbage day so I put
out the trash and headed out for the second leg. This leg was even more uneventful. However, I was feeling better and getting
into a groove and thanks to a long downhill section followed by a lot of flat,
I completed the second leg in about 1:05.
Christy was awake this time when I got back so I chatted with her for a
bit while filling my bottles. I then
chose to change my shoes and socks, which were soaking wet from running through
sprinklers. The Brooks Ravenna 3’s do
not drain worth a damn, and I didn’t want to suffer later. With happy feet, I headed out for more fun. As I was moving through this portion I
decided that I didn’t want to do the exact some routes again, so I opted to add
a few miles in CP Hadley park before heading down to the dead end at Risinger. With the sun coming up and the temps quickly
rising, I was going through my water significantly faster than the first 16
miles. I stopped at the 7-11 for a
Gatorade and a bottle of water. I hung
out here for a bit longer than I would have liked. I opted to take the longer route around the
block as my return, figuring that I would hit the marathon mark pretty much at
my doorstep. I realized that all of my
splits to this point had been less than 9:00/mile and figured that if I pushed,
I could beat my old marathon PR. I tried
to stay consistent all the way back to the house, and ended up at 26 miles even
at my doorstep. Once again, I had to
stop to fill my bottles and use the restroom.
After the short break, I crossed the marathon distance at about 3:33:xx,
which is about 9 minutes faster than my PR.
I am really happy about this, considering I was pacing myself to be able
to finish 30+ miles. I ended up deciding
to head out to the end of the Candleridge Park trail which is a little 2.1 mile
trip from the house. After slogging
there and back, I hit 30 miles at 4:04:46 right at the entry to my
neighborhood. I thought for a minute
about putting in another mile to finish the 50k, but I decided I was satisfied
with the effort. I walked the remaining
.25 miles to the house as my cool down and called it a day. I’m really pleased with the result of the
run. I am confident that I can improve
on the time in a race environment with more ample calories. The water intake was pretty spot on. Regardless of the hot temps and high
humidity, I managed to lose only 1.3 pounds.
I might have this hydration thing under control yet.
Saturday: 3.07 Miles – 25:01- Average Pace 8:09/mile
I chose to go for an easy recovery run today after
yesterday’s effort, even though my schedule called for no mileage. I am really surprised at how well my legs
feel today. Only a little tightness in
my hips. Temp this morning was 73
degrees at start with 94% humidity.
Definitely felt a lot hotter than it really was. I’m surprised that my “recovery pace” was the
same as yesterday’s run. I followed my
usual pattern for long and recovery runs (5 min run/30 sec walk) and got home
feeling like I just went for a nice stretch.
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