Well, I feel like I should say something about the 15th anniversary of 9/11, but I don’t really have anything profound to say. Remember those who were lost, cherish those who are still here, and find a way to not just keep going, but make things better. Then do all that again on September 12, and September 13, and so on.
I wasn’t really happy with my post about my now retired pair of shoes. I posted it anyway, mainly because I said I would in last week’s Wrap-Up. There’s a pretty good chance that the next pair of shoes that I retire will just get a couple of paragraphs in a Weekly Wrap-Up instead of their own post. I’ve read a bunch of running blogs, and never seen anyone write about a pair of shoes, so I figured I’d try it. Apparently, there’s a reason I’ve never seen anyone else do a post like that. Maybe if I was better at telling stories, I could have turned it into something good. Oh well, I just throw a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what sticks.
Weight Check: 163.1, up 0.7 pounds from last week. I weighed in before my Sunday run. I did weigh myself after my run, and was back down to 162.1, but I try to be consistent with my weigh-ins and do them as soon as I can after waking up. (OK, I do use the bathroom first.) So I’ll stick with my pre-run weigh-in as the official number.
I broke down on Thursday and had a Mountain Dew. I also had beer 3 days this week. It wasn’t a great week of eating, but I think I limited the damage. I’m still not overweight, so there’s that.
| Day | Scheduled | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Easy 7 | 7.01 |
| Tuesday | 1.5 mile warm up, 1 mile @ Threshold (10:30/mile) with 1:00 recovery, 2 miles @ Threshold with 2:00 recovery, 1 mile @ Threshold with 4:00 recovery, 6 x 30 sec Repeats (9:00/mile) with 90 seconds recovery, 1.5 mile cool down | 8.55 |
| Thursday | Easy 8 | 8.01 |
| Saturday | 15 miles LSD | 15.01 |
| Sunday | Easy 4 | 4.01 |
Total: 42.59 miles
Monday was Labor Day, but I still had to stay close to home because I was covering for a holiday in India. Luckily, nothing came up on my watch. The run itself was decent. The weather was nice, although having to run close to my house for 7 miles gets a little old after a while. Granted, that’s usually what I do on my workout runs, but with the workouts, I’m changing my pace a lot, so that gives me some variety. With an easy run, there aren’t any sudden changes. Plus, since it was a holiday, the neighborhood was pretty quiet. I got through it, though.
Tuesday was one of those workouts that’s probably more complicated than it needs to be, but it was effective. The weather was still nice. My splits were 10:10, 10:12 (10:18 on the first mile, 10:06 on the second), 10:17, 8:00, 7:52, 8:04, 8:09, 8:14, 7:22(!). So everything was under my target pace, and the last interval was my fastest. I’ll take it. I do wish I had run an extra .01 at the end, though, because seeing my total for the week at 42.59 hurts.
Thursday was the the only time in my training plan where I do an 8 mile easy run during the week. (Some of the workouts are longer – like Tuesday – and there’s a Saturday run one week before the race that’s 8 miles.) I could have done two four mile loops in my neighborhood, but that would involve running up the really big hill in my neighborhood twice, so I just added a little extra to my 7 mile route, mainly in the relatively flat parts of my neighborhood. The weather still felt OK, and I had a decent run.
Saturday, the heat came back. I was pleasantly surprised. My run didn’t completely suck. I guess I did a better job of pacing early. I even managed to speed up to 10:40 on the last mile. It was still tough, and the weather wasn’t good, but I did all right.
Sunday was a 4 miler in my neighborhood. I’m pretty sure it was intended as a shakeout run, and while my legs didn’t feel great during the run, I have to say, as I write this, they’re feeling a little better. Consider my legs shaken out. The weather was still pretty miserable, but I only had to put up with it for 4 miles, so I survived.
Next Week:
Monday: Easy 7
Tuesday: 4 mile warm up, 10×20 second hill sprints with 90 second recovery, 1.5 mile cool down
Thursday: Easy 7
Friday: Easy 7
Saturday: Easy 4
Hill sprints. That’ll teach me to complain about overly complicated workouts.
I’m on call this week, and next weekend, so I had to juggle my schedule a bit. My next long run will be on Monday, September 19. If I’m busy with work on Saturday morning (or if I’ve been up almost all night Friday night due to work), I might push my 4 miler back to Sunday. Also, it’s supposed to cool off this week, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
I’ll also be publishing 3 old race reports this week, the 2015 Charlotte 10 Miler, the 2016 Charlotte 10 Miler, and the 2016 Charleston Half Marathon.