Training recap – September 3-9

Penultimate week – stepping back a bit, but keeping up the fun.  Add to that a holiday, the start of the school year, busy at work and a sick kid at home.  Oh, and it decided to get summer-hot for a few days.  Craaaazy…

The plan was:  to run two or three times during the week, 3-4 miles per time, and do 7-8 miles next weekend.

The reality:  

Monday – 4.78 miles, 54:05

Labor Day showed up bright and clear, and the Math Teacher was back from her weekend jaunt to the big city.  I thought we were doing three, she thought we were doing five.  We decided to split the difference and came up with a flat, easy four-mile route.  Love running and chatting and catching up… and then we missed the turn for four miles, which meant we double-back (never!) or just keep going.  So.  Nearly five miles.  Good for the soul, right?

Wednesday – 2.3 miles, 21:22

Yeah, I wrote about this one.  A pleasant early-morning run is a super-nice reward when you almost blow it off and sleep in because [insert bestest excuses here].  But yes, I do need to figure out my low-light running gear, because the dark days, they are a-comin’.

Saturday – 7.43 miles, 1:20:52

Since the Math Teacher is running the 10K next week, and I’m doing the half, our long-run plans are pretty different.  Our game plan for today was for me to start out with three, then to meet up and run the next five together.  It worked pretty darn well, from what I can tell!   

first part 2.83 m in 28:00 (9:53 pace) – the vest was too much for the temperature, and my (#*$% run belt refused to stay on my hips. GARRROOOWWWLLLL.  Finally got fed up enough with it to double back to the car and drop it all off, putting the gels in my pocket instead (I love RunningSkirts! Just sayin’).  But now, my three-mile plan was messed up, so I started randomly running around various blocks until I thought MT would be at our meet-up point.  I don’t think I left her there too long… (sorry, friend!)

second part 4.61 m in 52:56 (11:28 pace) – much improved gearwise, and generally uneventful.  Except we kept MT at near-redline pace.  And we ran The Hill without stopping (her first time!  And only my second! We ROCK!).  And I wouldn’t let her ease up at the end on the downhill – I told her we were “practicing our finishing kick” when really I just REALLY wanted my coffee. J  And when she reads this, I’m totally gonna hear it.  (Hee!)

Planned for this week:

Oh, wow, it’s race week.  I’ll be honest, I don’t know how to structure a race week.  I think I’ll run a couple or three times, keep it short at 2-4 miles per time, and just see what happens. 

The other thing is to start considering what comes next.  I know the races I intend to run next year (Capital City half in May, You Go Girl! in September, Portland Marathon (full!) in October).  I’ve got some goals I’m kicking around for the short term in regard to things-I-need-to-work-on and things-I-ought-to-be-doing, but there has to be some manner of things-I-haven’t-tried-yet and things-just-for-the-heck-of-it.  So I’ll be kicking around ideas this week and trying to put them to paper this week. Or next.