Weekly Wrap-Up: January 23-29

My parents were here this weekend. Other than having to switch my long run to Friday, it didn’t affect my running. And, well, it affected my eating, which I’ll reluctantly talk about in my Weight Check.

I went to a Charlotte Checkers game Saturday night with my Dad. I got him a ticket to the game for Christmas. I also ran Saturday morning, although it’s not quite the same as the Charlotte Checkers 5K (which I still hope they bring back). I will say that our seats were a lot better than the seats that I got for running the race in 2013 and 2014. The Checkers lost, 2-1, primarily because Manitoba’s goalie put on a show, but it was a good game.

I finally got back to a 10 mile run for my long run, and I even got (barely) over 30 miles this week.

Weight Check: 166.2, up 2.3 pounds from last week. Oof. I love my parents, but whenever I see them, I usually end up gaining weight. My Mountain Dew consumption before they arrived probably didn’t help things much. I know what I need to do: Buckle down, drink water, stay away from junk food, and keep running. Let’s see if I can do all of that this week.

This Week’s Runs
Day Total Miles
Monday 6.01
Tuesday 5.01
Wednesday 5.01
Friday 10.01
Saturday 4.01

Total: 30.05 miles

Monday I decided to add an extra mile just so that, if everything else went as planned, I’d only need 4 miles while my parents would be here on Saturday to get to 30 miles for the week. I also decided that I really should hit the big hill in my neighborhood, which I hadn’t been doing recently. Running up a hill doesn’t really qualify as easy running, and I’ve been trying to do a lot of easy running. I figured that, starting this week, I’d make sure I did one run that’s still mostly easy, but still includes the big hill. So that’s what I did. Monday seems like the best day to do this, since typically I’ll be coming off a rest day, with an easy day usually scheduled for Tuesday.

My legs didn’t feel great, but they got better as I went along, even after climbing the big hill. I’ve been trying to do some bodyweight exercises on my rest days, and the routine I’ve been using has some squats and lunges. For those exercises, I’m trying to do way fewer reps than recommended, just because I don’t want to kill my leg muscles. I may have done a few more than I should have last Sunday. It’s tricky, since I want my legs to get stronger, but I don’t want to push myself to the point where it hurts my running.

Tuesday was back to just a fairly flat easy run. I don’t remember anything about this run, so I can only defer to my (brief) notes: “Not great, but I survived.” OK, then.

Wednesday I got on the treadmill for my now weekly tempo run. Of course it’s still mentally excruciating, but after about a mile warm up, I ran for 3.5 miles at a 9:31/mile pace, and for the last half mile, I bumped it up to around 9:22/mile. Regardless of how my brain felt, my legs felt fine.

The Y was still displaying their “Happy New Year! Please observe the 30 minute limit on cardio machines” sign, but at least on the treadmills, it looked no different than July, and there were always multiple open machines, so I was able to stay on my treadmill for almost 50 minutes without the staff saying anything.

Friday I took the day off work because my parents were coming into town that afternoon. Since I didn’t want to ditch my parents for two hours or so on Saturday morning, I did my long run a day earlier than usual. I drove over to the McMullen Creek/Four Mile Creek Greenways. It got cold, and there weren’t many people there, but I ran fairly well, and my legs felt decent. For the first time since December 22(!), I hit 10 miles. I had a pretty good excuse for not doing 10 miles on January 14, and I had some scheduling issues (and bad weather on January 7) that shortened my long runs, but still, I’m not really thrilled that I went over a month without a double-digit mileage run.

Saturday morning I finished the week with an easy 4 mile run. I told my parents it would take me about 45 minutes, and I got home in 44:09, so there’s that. My legs were a little tired from the 10 miler, but it wasn’t terrible.

Next week, I hope to get at least 10 miles next Saturday. Ideally, I’ll get enough mileage during the week to get 11 miles on Saturday. The ideal ratio for me is 2:1, 2 miles during the rest of the week for every mile in my long run. So, last week I had 20 miles for my non-long runs, and 10 for my long run. For an 11 miler, I’d need 22 miles during the week, so if I can pick up 2 miles on my shorter runs, I can go for 11 next Saturday. We’ll see how it goes.