As I write this, I’m on call for work. I won’t make any comments on my workload until I’m done at 5:00 PM, but I will say that my Saturday morning run was uninterrupted, and for that I’m thankful.
I signed up for my next race after New York City, the Charlotte Southpark Turkey Trot 8K on Thanksgiving Day, November 24. It’s my first 8K race, so it’s a guaranteed PR. I should be able to run 4.97 miles 18 days after my marathon, and if I can’t, well, from what I’ve heard a lot of people walk the course.
This week, I’ll be posting 3 more old race reports. First, the 2015 Charlotte RaceFest Half, where I was disappointed in my performance. Next, the 2016 Teal Diva 5K, where I was disappointed that the course was only 2.85 miles. And finally, the 2015 Joe Davis Memorial Resolution Run 10K and 5K, which makes a good palate cleanser because it went better than I expected.
Weight Check: 163.9, up 0.8 from last week. My mileage was way down this week, so that didn’t help, but that was due to circumstances beyond my control (work schedule). The part I can control, diet, wasn’t good. All 3 days that I went into the office, I had a Mountain Dew, and I did a little more snacking than usual. Next week is a new week, I guess.
I’ll be traveling next weekend (more on that later), so I have no idea when my next weigh-in will be.
| Day | Scheduled | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Easy 7 | 7.01 |
| Tuesday | 4 mile warm up, 10×20 second hill sprints with 90 second recovery, 1.5 mile cool down | 7.01 |
| Thursday | Easy 7 | 7.02 |
| Friday | Easy 7 | 7.01 |
| Saturday | Easy 4 | 4.21 |
Total: 32.26 miles
Monday went pretty well despite (what I thought at the time) was not great weather.
Tuesday, the weather was worse, and I did hill sprints. I’ve made the comment before that hill sprints suck at any temperature, so I might as well do them when the weather is miserable. The problem with that is that for this workout, I still had a 4 mile warm up, and that was pretty rough. It wasn’t a great workout, but I still managed to make my last interval my fastest interval, so there’s that.
I’ve realized that when my Garmin tells me my elevation gain, I need to take it with quite a few grains of salt. For my 10 hill sprints, my total elevation gain was 0. No, that’s not a typo. Trust me, there was plenty of elevation gain.
After I saw that my Tuesday workout came in at 7.01 miles, and I had runs of 7, 7, and 4 miles left for the week, I figured I needed to add an extra .01 to one of my runs just so I could say one of them was my long run for the week. I went with Thursday. Other than that, it was unremarkable.
Friday was the hottest run of the week. I also had to make a pit stop after 1.2 miles. All things considered, I did all right.
It was weird running in my neighborhood on Saturday. The only reason I planned a 4 mile run was because I was on call, so when I got to the 4 mile mark a little bit away from my house, I kept going and got a little extra mileage. I figured that as low as my total mileage was going to be, every little bit would help. The weather was less miserable, so that was nice.
Next Week:
Monday: 14 miles LSD
Tuesday: Easy 4
Thursday: Easy 4
Friday: 15 miles LSD
Saturday: Easy 4
Yeah, this is a little unconventional. I had already planned on moving my Saturday long run for this week to Monday next week after I was done with being on call. I wasn’t planning on leaving town on Friday afternoon, but apparently Friday night is the best night to get together to celebrate my Dad’s birthday (which was back on the 9th), and I was already going up to Greensboro for my 25th High School Reunion next Saturday night. I didn’t want to try to find a place in Greensboro to run 15 miles on Saturday morning, so I figured I’d move my long run to Friday while I’m still here, and then throw in a 4 miler Saturday morning in my parents’ neighborhood.
So, yeah, 25 years since I graduated from high school. I don’t know that I would have been the least likely person from my high school class to run the New York City Marathon (or any marathon), but if you ranked all of us from most to least likely, I’d be pretty low on the list. In high school, I was scrawny and definitely not athletic. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve worked hard and run a marathon, something I once thought was impossible. Now I get to show up at my reunion and tell people I’m running the New York City Marathon this year. That’s pretty cool.