Weekly Wrap-Up: October 10-16

Well, that was a week.

I was hoping to get two posts up during the week, but that’s not exactly how I expected it to go. When Friday rolled around, I had one idea that just wasn’t worth a separate post, and one that I’m working on that’s not ready. So I threw together my flashback to my last (and, as it turns out, still my only) 20 mile training run. Maybe that wasn’t worthy of its own post, but I figured it was a fun story. Then, of course, getting a scare that I thought could keep me out of the New York City Marathon was absolutely worth its own post.

Big Toe Update: The redness on top of the joint was gone this morning. I had a planned rest day today, but I decided to try 10 jumping jacks. I didn’t have any issues. Knock on wood. Tomorrow is going to be my first run where I’ll have a chance to test it out. By the way, the anti-inflammatory drugs they gave me are not only industrial strength, but industrial sized. Yikes. (Side note, maybe they’ll also help with some of the random aches and pains I’ve been experiencing from running so many miles.)

Dental Update: I got 2 fillings on Tuesday. The one on the right side was fine. The one on the left required a second dose of Novocain, which caused the left side of my face to be numb for about 3 hours. Then, once I got feeling back, I realized that the filling was keeping me from biting down all the way, so I had to go back and get it filed down a bit. Not fun. Also, just below the tooth with the filling on my left side, my gums are sore when I brush my teeth. Other than that, I guess my fillings are OK, and so hopefully I can now retire the Dental Update.

Weight Check: 161.7, down 0.9 pounds from last week. I expected a loss, since I had two long runs since my last weigh-in, even if one was shorter than I expected. I’m also lucky that I lost, because I went overboard with the Mountain Dew this week. Thursday was really bad, because I had something I needed to do at work that was absolutely mind numbing, something that makes the treadmill feel like a run through Freedom Park, and the only way I could plow through it was with Mountain Dew. My eating wasn’t too bad this week. I had a beer on two nights, but apparently with these industrial strength anti-inflammatory drugs, I’ll have to pass on the beer this week. Like I said yesterday, it’s a bummer, but New York City is worth it.

Total: 35.15 miles

Monday, my legs recovered surprisingly well from last week’s long run. The weather helped, it was beautiful out there.

Wednesday I gave my legs (but not my mind) a break and got on the treadmill. My legs felt fine, my mind did not.

Thursday wasn’t great, and I noticed some fatigue in my legs, but that’s pretty normal at this point. I can’t complain about the weather, 48 degrees is ideal for me.

Friday was a little warmer, but other than my toe, I felt pretty good and finished strong. I even got a reverse split, which I haven’t been able to pull off recently.

I don’t have much else to say about Saturday’s run, other than my toe issues didn’t seem to slow me down. I’m still disappointed that I had to stop early, but I managed an 11:30/mile average pace, which I’m pretty happy with. Also, it was 54 degrees, but felt cooler, and was overcast for the most part, so that’s pretty good running weather.

Next Week
Monday: Easy 7
Tuesday: 2.5 mile warm up, 6 x 90 sec @ 5K pace (9:15/mile) w/90 sec recovery, 6 x 1:00 Repeats (9:00/mile) with 2:00 recovery, 6 x 30 sec Repeats with 1:00 recovery, 1.5 mile cool down
Thursday: Easy 7
Friday: Easy 4
Saturday: 16 miles LSD

I guess all of those runs should have an asterisk. I’d really like to get my 16 miles in this weekend. It’s still not 20, but it’s more than the 13.1 I did this weekend. It’s definitely a mental thing, though. It all depends on how my toe (and really, the rest of my body) feels. We’ll see how it goes.

As far as posting here, I’ve got two posts in the works, maybe I’ll get one of them done. Maybe *gasp* I’ll finish them both.