Another busy week, so no updates here. Also, another hot week. I decided that Friday looked slightly less miserable than Sunday, so I moved my 7 miler that had been scheduled for Sunday to Friday.
Weight Check: 167.2, down 2.1 from last week. Wow. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of that weight loss happened during my long run. In the past, when I’ve increased my mileage, my appetite has increased too, and it sometimes has led to some poor choices when it comes to food. This week, more than anything else, I was tired. Really tired. So I drank a lot of Mountain Dew. My eating was OK, I guess. At least for one week, I was able to outrun my diet.
| Day | Scheduled | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Easy 7 | 7.00 |
| Tuesday | 2 mile warmup, 5×4:00 at Threshold Pace (10:30/mile) with 1:00 recovery, 2 mile cool down | 6.31 |
| Thursday | Easy 6 | 6.01 |
| Friday | Easy 7 | 7.02 |
| Saturday | 13 Miles LSD | 13.10 |
Total: 39.44 miles
On Monday, my legs were dead. I pushed through, but I was kind of worried about my workout scheduled for Tuesday. I was so ready to be done with the run that I stopped my watch right at 7.00.
I considered pushing my workout back a day, but somehow, my legs made a miraculous recovery, and they were fine on Tuesday. Go figure. My average pace for the intervals: 10:13, 10:13, 10:12, 10:09, 9:48. I was pleased.
Thursday and Friday were pretty unremarkable, just hot. I did add an extra extra .01 to Friday’s run to make up for Monday.
Then there was Saturday. It was bad, but I’m still trying to process what it means in the big picture.
Moving my Sunday run to Friday probably didn’t do me any favors. But man, it was brutal.
On the one hand, heat isn’t something you should mess around with. It really can kill you. Still, I felt like there were times when I was walking that I should have been running. I did manage to pick up my pace for most of the last mile, so there’s that.
The plan I’m using this year is basically the same as the one I used to train for a marathon last year. It’s pretty easy to compare where I was a year ago to where I am now. Right now, it’s not looking so good. I know it feels warmer than last summer, and that’s part of why I’m not as fast as I’d like. But in May and June this year, I was still working my way back from injury, I couldn’t put in the miles that I really needed to prepare for marathon training, and this is the result.
I can’t defer the New York City Marathon. Ready or not, November 6 is coming. I really wanted to do better than I did last year at the Raleigh City of Oaks Marathon, but right now, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to.
It sucks. All I can do is keep going, keep pushing, and hope that I see some results. (And hope that it finally cools off a little.)
Next Week:
Monday: Easy 5
Tuesday: 3 mile warm up, 8 x 20 second hill sprints with 1:30 recovery, 1 mile cool down
Thursday: Easy 7
Saturday: 3 mile warm up, 4 x 1 mile at Marathon Pace (11:00/mile) with .25 mile recovery, 3 mile cool down
It’s a step back week, which I could probably use right now.