I’m heartbroken over what’s been happening in Charlotte this week. I don’t live anywhere near the protests, so I’m OK. For now, all I can do is keep going, and hope that people can come together (myself included) and work to make things better.
I did go to my high school reunion last night. (I still can’t believe it’s been 25 years.) I was worried about Charlotte dominating the conversation (or, alternately, my employer, who I’m not going to mention by name, but they’ve been in the news lately for some bad reasons), but it went better than I expected, and I enjoyed myself. And yeah, being able to say that I’m running the New York City Marathon was pretty cool.
I did find a lot of people thought you have to qualify for New York City. You can, although you have to be pretty close to an elite runner to do it, so most people get in through the lottery like I did. The Boston Marathon is the one where, except for charity runners, everybody has to qualify. With my time at the Raleigh City of Oaks Marathon last year, 5:24:37, I wouldn’t even be able to qualify for Boston as an 80 year old.
Weight Check: Friday morning, before my run, I did my official weigh-in for the week, and it was 162.6, down 1.3 pounds. That’s better. I do think I was a little hard on myself last week. Without a long run, I basically had no margin for error. As for this week, between weigh-ins, I was pretty good, with no soda or junk food, and only one beer. (This weekend is another story, but I’ll cover that after next week’s weigh-in.)
As a side note, the last high school reunion I went to was my 10 year reunion, which would be 15 years ago. I don’t remember exactly how much I weighed in 2001, but my guess is somewhere in the low 160s. So there’s roughly a 50/50 chance that I weighed less at my 25 year reunion than my 10 year reunion. Either way, I’m in much better shape at 43 years old than I was at 28.
| Day | Scheduled | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 14 miles LSD | 14.06 |
| Tuesday | Easy 4 | 4.01 |
| Thursday | Easy 4 | 4.01 |
| Friday | 15 miles LSD | 15.01 |
| Saturday | Easy 4 | 4.01 |
Total: 41.1 miles
Monday was the long run that I was supposed to run on Saturday but rescheduled because I was on call. Had I run it Saturday, it would have been 66 degrees. On Monday, it was 73. Bloody hell, it was hot and humid out there. I survived.
My 2nd fastest mile was Mile 13. My fastest mile was Mile 14. I guess I finished strong, so there’s that. I sometimes forget how pretty the McMullen Creek and Four Mile Creek Greenways are. I just wish they had more water fountains. This was my 3rd 14 miler during this training cycle. I was faster than the 1st 14 miler, and slightly slower than the 2nd, but the 2nd 14 miler was the one where it was only 63 degrees, a temperature I haven’t seen since. So my performance was decent.
In case you’re wondering about the odd mileage, last week my longest run was 7.02 miles, so I wanted to have a run that was more than twice as long as that, but wouldn’t be my longest run for this week, so I went with 14.06 miles.
Tuesday was uneventful. I guess it was a recovery run.
Thursday was supposed to be the first day of fall. It was not fall weather, except for the wind. My legs felt pretty beat up, but that’s pretty much going to be the new normal for me until at least my taper, and possibly until after I’ve recovered from the race.
Friday I did my long run a day early, and once again, a rescheduled long run gives me much worse weather. In this case, I rescheduled it so I could be with my family, so I don’t regret it. I still didn’t enjoy the run, though. It was definitely not fall weather, 72, overcast and humid, with no wind and occasional mist. I ended up with a better time than my previous 15 miler, but I felt worse afterward. Part of it was the lack of water fountains – I went back to McMullen Creek/Four Mile Creek – and I can’t help but feel like my 14 miler earlier in the week made a difference. I feel like I did a better job of pacing on the previous run, because even though I rallied a little bit on the last mile of this run, it wasn’t my fastest mile, and in general, I felt much more drained. I got through it though, and I really hope this is my last long run in really miserable conditions.
Saturday I ran in my parents’ neighborhood, and it was only 65 degrees. That’s not really fall weather, but after the past few days, it felt great. Even with the 15 miles on Friday, my legs held up decently. I still don’t like running in my parents’ neighborhood for some reason. I think it just has a lot of rolling hills that are hard to avoid, unlike my neighborhood, which has a couple of hills that are much worse, but if I need to, I can avoid them.
Next Week:
Monday: Easy 7
Tuesday: 1.5 mile warm up, 3 miles at Threshold (10:30/mile) with 3:00 recovery, 3 x 1 mile at Theshold with 1:00 recovery, 1.5 mile cool down
Thursday: Easy 7
Saturday: 17 miles LSD
Sunday: Easy 5
Back to normal, I guess, if running 17 miles can be considered normal.
I’ve got 3 race reports left to re-post: the 2016 Tobacco Road Half Marathon, where my ankle blew up, the 2014 Thunder Road Half Marathon, which is probably my favorite race performance, and the 2015 Raleigh City of Oaks Marathon, my first marathon. It’s funny, I want save the “best” for last, and I’ve gone back and forth on which race report to post last, even though it doesn’t really matter much in the long run. Ultimately, I think I have to go with the full marathon, because it’s 26.2, but even though it’s dropped to my 4th fastest half, I still look back fondly on the 2014 Thunder Road Half. Regardless of the order, I should get them all posted this week.