Weekly Wrap-Up: August 8-14

I’m actually writing this Tuesday afternoon. I’m back from Portland. I had an amazing time. I miss running there (among other things).

I screwed up my training plan again. Apparently I’m not on call on September 24, the day of my high school reunion. I’m on call the weekend of September 17. So I don’t have to change my work schedule after all. I think I’ve got my training schedule nailed down finally. I swear I didn’t have this much trouble last year when I was using basically the same schedule.

Weight Check: 166.2, down 1.5 pounds from last week. Like I mentioned previously, I waited until Tuesday morning after I got back for my weigh in. I knew I’d be drinking beer in Portland, and probably not eating well. (Yes and yes.) But I got in a few runs, I walked a lot, I even danced (!) a bit. And I did all right. For kicks, I weighed myself before I left, and I was at 166.8, and that was mostly due to my two runs here before I left. Any time I can go out of town and come back lighter is a win.

Total: 26.43 miles

I don’t remember much about Monday and Tuesday, since they were both before I left for Portland. Luckily, I recorded some comments each day. On Monday, I wrote: “Brutal conditions. I survived, barely. Is it time to go to Portland yet?”

My training plan uses some shorthand to describe the workouts. Normally, before I put a workout in the “Next Week” section of my wrap-up, I re-write it so everyone else will understand it. I forgot to do that last week, so now I need to translate that workout into English. TH is Threshold pace, which right now for me is 10:30/mile. I sometimes question whether some of these complicated workouts should be more simple, but then I remember the guy who created my plan has run the Boston Marathon multiple times, so I defer to him.

My splits on the intervals were 10:09, then 10:19 and 10:13 for the two miles (average 10:16/mile), then a pace of 10:12/mile and 9:45/mile to finish. I’m usually happy when I can get my best pace on the last interval, although I may have paid for that split. My “cool down” (I call B.S., there was nothing cool about that part of the run) was miserable. The only thing that got me through that 1.5 miles was counting down to Portland. “1 mile to Portland Running”, “Half a mile to Portland Running”, “Tenth of a mile to Portland Running!”

“Portland Running” is how I knew my next runs would show up in Garmin Connect, by the way.

Anyway, Thursday was a nice run, although I was expecting to go a little faster. Still, I was happy with the miles, and for the first time in months, I really enjoyed running.

So, Friday. I was at WDS, and every year on Friday morning (or at least the 3 years I’ve been there) they have a 5K Fun Run. It’s a group run, so I basically have to get started when someone says to go. Sadly, my Garmin watch GPS had an epic fail. I power walked for a bit, hoping I could catch the GPS signal, but the tall buildings got in the way. I finally gave up. I waited until we had crossed the first bridge, and then pulled out my phone and started Runkeeper. Also, near the end, I had to stop for a light, and I figured I wasn’t going to get a full 5K anyway, and stopped Runkeeper early. Of course, as I approached the actual finish, people were cheering (of course people were cheering, it’s WDS), so I started running again. With that and the time before I started Runkeeper, I definitely ran farther than 2.54 miles (which is why I marked it with an asterisk), but officially, that’s all I’m going to count.

Sunday there was this huge bike event going on, and the bridges were all closed to traffic. I think I probably could have still run on the sides of the bridges, but I didn’t want to take any chances, so I stayed on one side of the river. I was a little pushed for time, but I managed to squeeze in 4.16 miles. I ran well, and wish I had had the time to run longer. (I don’t remember the last time I wanted a longer run back home.)

I officially ended up with 11.91 miles in Portland. So close to 12. Bummer.

Next Week:
Tuesday: Easy 7.5
Thursday: 3.5 mile warm up, 10 x 20 sec hill sprints with 90 sec recovery, 1.5 mile cool down
Friday: Easy 7
Saturday: 14 miles LSD

One note about this week’s schedule. I split up a week of training into two weeks to work around my time in Portland. However, Tuesday was the one day where I’d be running at home both weeks. I didn’t really want to do the workout twice, but since the total mileage of the workout was 7.5 miles, I decided to turn it into an Easy 7.5 run. (I’ve also completed that run, and it was…quite interesting, mostly in a good way.)

By the way, I really miss the Portland weather.