Sunday, August 19, 2012

Training recap – August 13-18

Well… back to reality, I guess. This week felt like the routine was back (yea!  I love routine) with a few surprises thrown in – namely, HEAT.  We had our once-per-summer foray into the high-90s for a couple days this week, sandwiched between some mid-80s day.  Substantially warmer than our usual 75 degree average high, and much hyped, but short enough to be manageable.

What was NOT manageable, however, was running in these temperatures with no acclimation.  So deviating from the plan was necessary: one of the short runs was dropped, another advanced a couple days.  Regardless, it still was a 16-mile week, which is a success in my book.
The plan was:  Whatever the weather would allow for, but hopefully a 5-mile, a 3-mile or two, and an 8-mile long run.

The reality:
Tuesday – 5.0 miles, 50:41
This was the run I pushed up a couple days.  Tuesday was the last day of “normal” temperatures before the heat came, so I cleared out for an early lunch hour.  Oh, man... this one just hurt. The longest stretch I could run without stopping or walking was 1.4 miles (so that 50 moving minutes took more like 65 actual clock minutes, at least seven of which passed while I got sidetracked drank water at the running store). I was glad for a slow work day – when I returned, my face apparently matched the neon salmon color of my shirt. 
Friday – 3.1 miles, 29:08
So Friday was the second-hottest day of the stretch, but it still cooled down well overnight, and I’d arranged for a day off of work.  After dropping the kids at camp I headed out for an easy three miles.  It was warming up quickly, but the pace and path were familiar, and after not having run in three days it felt pretty good.

Saturday – 8.1 miles,1:26:17

Met up with the Math Teacher and her daughter for the first three miles – the adults kept a nice easy pace and watched the teenager bound away from us, gazelle-like… less than halfway through the first of two laps, it looked like she’d lap us before we were done.  But she waited for us a couple times, before we lost sight of her (love that girl!).  Kept Math Teacher at some fairly assertive splits:  11:07, 11:15, 11:20.
Parted ways after two laps, and I continued for the five-mile loop.  Sidebar – it was SO nice breaking it up like that, and especially having company for part.  This was the longest non-race run I’ve ever attempted, and I’m not shy to say that I find the distances mentally daunting.  The numbers look so big!  Even though I know next year, when I’m working on my marathon training, an 8-miler will just be what I do at lunch.  Yikes, who am I becoming?
Off on my own now, I took the pace up near my “designated” half-marathon pace and worked to keep it there.  At first I thought my splits were too aggressive, then I realized I was running comfortably and what did I have to lose?  Miles 4 (10:27) and 5 (10:21) were flat and easy, Mile 6 (11:35) was The Hill*, I recovered quickly on Mile 7 (10:05) and as usual LOVED the downhill-mile-to-Starbucks for Mile 8 (9:17) – ah-MAY-zing how I run faster when there’s coffee at the end of the run!

The nice part?  If I run like this at the half, I will make my A-goal with time to spare.  Yea, confidence!
Now the one thing I have to add to all this is some stretching – I typically grab my coffee and head straight home.  Yesterday I followed my longest-ever-non-race-run with standing in the kitchen cooking all day and I tell you, my legs are STILL furious with me.  Might some stretching have helped?  Might it still help?  Maybe once I get this posted I should grab the foam roller and figure out what I’m supposed to do with it.  Hm.

*I’ve whined about The Hill enough, but this time it didn’t seem quite so bad.  One of these days I’m going to have to do a pretty detailed comparison of how much I’ve improved on that mile.  That could be a good thing to see.

Planned for this week:
Last week’s plan worked pretty well – I’m settling into a pattern of a mid-week five-miler, plus a couple 3-mile sanity runs for the workweek.  And then I’m getting my long runs up – next week I hope to do ten miles – my longest run preparing for the half-marathon in September.  The weather this week is supposed to be much nicer (just 70s) so that ought to help.

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