I was going to post the full story about how I lost my car key last week, but with all the things going on in the world, it just didn’t feel like a good time to post a silly story like that. I’m hoping that sanity will prevail this week, and then I can post it sometime early this week.
My marathon training starts Monday. I have a plan. Now, we see how well I can follow it.
Finally, my warm-up race will be the Yiassou Greek Festival 5K on August 27. I ran it last year. It’s a relatively flat course, but it should give me a good idea where I stand after a month and a half of training.
Weight Check: 170.7 pounds, up 0.9 from last week. I’m disappointed. I had a Mountain Dew on Tuesday. Apparently I’m the only one in my neighborhood who had to get up and go to work on July 5, because everybody else was shooting off fireworks all night long Monday night, and so I was sleep-deprived on Tuesday. I usually try to limit myself to just one beer when I go out (mainly due to the excess calories), but I had two beers when I went out with friends on Wednesday, then I went to a party on Friday where, even though I ate mostly healthy things, I grazed way too much.
My mileage is going to increase this week (more on that later), and that should help, but I have to be careful, since my appetite will also increase, and I need to make sure I’m not stuffing my face with junk because I’m starving.
This Week’s Runs
Monday: 6.21 miles
Tuesday: 4.01 miles
Wednesday: 4.01 miles
Friday: 4.11 miles
Saturday: 11.01 miles.
Total: 29.35 miles
I wanted around 29 miles with an 11 miler, and that’s what I got.
Since Monday was a holiday, I went over to McMullen Creek/Four Mile Creek Greenway. I also decided since I didn’t need to worry about getting to work on time, I’d try to get in 6 or so miles. The weather kind of sucked, although it was overcast, so at least I didn’t have the sun beating down on me. I survived. My thought for the day: I’d like just one outdoor run where it doesn’t feel like I’m aqua-jogging. (I’d argue that I got that later in the week.)
Tuesday, I got back on the treadmill. Mentally excruciating, but a lot less humid. Wednesday was still hot and humid, but for some reason didn’t feel quite as bad as the previous few days. Friday was slightly less uncomfortable than Wednesday. Progress, I guess.
And then there was Saturday.
OK, first of all, I was dreading 11 miles after last week’s 10 miler. Second, I was checking the forecast all week, and they were saying it was only going to get down to 75 Saturday morning, and heat up fast. I heard a forecast on Friday morning that predicted a low of 77. That’s insane. I was seriously thinking about doing my 11 miles on the treadmill. I’d have to break it up, but I could do it. Eventually, I decided to get up early Saturday, see what it felt like outside, and if conditions weren’t completely miserable, I’d drive up to Freedom Park.
Well, we had a nasty storm Friday evening, and I guess that was enough to cool things down a little bit. It dropped down to 70. So I headed up to Freedom Park.
It was still tough, and there was some debris from the storm, but I took it easy, stopped at every water fountain, made it through the 11 miles, and even had enough in the tank to speed up at the end, and my fastest mile was Mile 11.
Next week, I have a training plan to follow. Here’s what it says.
Monday: 6 miles easy
Tuesday: 3 mile warm up, 6 x 20 second hill sprints w/1:30 recovery, 1 mile cool down
Thursday: 6 miles easy
Saturday: 12 miles LSD
Sunday: 7 miles easy
First, LSD is short for Long Slow Distance. My training plan does not involve any drugs. Second, because I’m not quite where I wanted to be going into my training (I had hoped to have my average weekly mileage in the low 30’s, not the high 20’s), and this represents a significant jump in mileage, I may end up cutting back the miles for Sunday. I’ll just see how I feel that morning.