I’m a day late, because my nephew had his 1st Birthday Party on Sunday. His actual birthday isn’t until next week, but yesterday was the best day for everybody to get together. Somebody gave him a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt, which is hands down the greatest present ever given to a 1 year old. Anyway, I got to hang out with both my nephews for a few hours, and they’re still the best.
My first week with a coach was…less than ideal. Let’s just say that I’m glad my coach is more of a build you up type of coach and not a drill sergeant type of coach, because otherwise I’d probably be getting called a maggot (and a few other things that I try not to say here) right about now.
Weight Check: 166.9, up 1.2 pounds from last week. Not good. I did weigh in Saturday morning before my long run, but I still shouldn’t be relying on a long run to bail me out. Also, I spent the rest of the weekend with my family undoing any benefits I might have gotten from my long run. Eventually I’ll figure something out.
| Day | Total Miles |
|---|---|
| Monday | 6.01 |
| Tuesday | 4.11 |
| Wednesday | 5.21 |
| Friday | 6.01 |
| Saturday | 10.01 |
Total: 31.35 miles
I probably should switch up the format to indicate what each run was scheduled to be, but I’m already late and want to get this thing published soon. Maybe next week.
One benefit to working with a coach is that she’s asked for as much detail as possible for my runs in order to make any necessary adjustments to my training plan. So (in theory) there should be no more “I don’t remember anything about this run” comments in my Weekly Wrap-Ups.
Monday was hot and extremely humid, even at 6:55 AM. My legs felt OK, though. I sped up for the last 1/4 mile or so, but otherwise, I kept a pretty consistent “easy” effort. It’s hard to describe any pace as easy in these conditions, though.
Tuesday was still hot and humid, but not quite as bad as Monday. My legs felt a little tired at first, but felt better later in the run. I went with an “easy” effort (at least as easy as it gets in these conditions) most of the way, except for the last 1/4 mile or so where I pushed it a little.I was about a tenth of a mile from home when I got to 4 miles, and I ran it in.
Wednesday was my first workout, and it was hill repeats. Last year, I had some hill sprint workouts where I had to go all out for 20 seconds uphill. This one was longer intervals (1 minute) but not quite all out, around 5K race effort, with a 2 mile warm up, and a 2 mile cool down. I ended up making it a 2.11 mile cool down. I guess I ended up about a tenth of a mile from home again and ran it in. Consistency?
The weather was still warm, but cooler. My legs felt fine. I did OK. One thing that I noticed that was really odd is that in Garmin Connect, the elevation gain/loss for my intervals was all over the place. I noticed that with my hill sprint workouts last year, too, and the most egregious one was for 10 hill sprints where I supposedly had 0 elevation gain for 9 of them, and for the other, I had an elevation loss. However, my coach uses a website named Final Surge to keep track of my run, and it’s set up to automatically import data from Garmin Connect. Well, when this workout was imported, the elevation gain was very consistent, varying from 45-50 feet of elevation gain for all of my intervals, and that seems about right. It’s just odd, though, you’d think the data would show up the same on both sites. (You’d also think that if there was a discrepancy, Garmin Connect would be more accurate because, you know, I’m actually using a Garmin device.) Shrug. Anyway, I got through the workout. Hopefully it’ll help prepare me for the 59th Street Bleeping Bridge in November.
Also, Wednesday was also Global Running Day. “Celebrating” it with a hill workout is less than ideal, but that’s what was on the schedule. I did take a picture at the end of my run to mark the occasion.
Thursday was a rest day. (Well, I did some bodyweight exercises, as I was scheduled to do some strength training.) I had to mention it here because this was by far the coolest morning of the entire week. D’oh!
Friday was still fairly comfortable, though. My legs didn’t feel all that great at the start, but they got better after a couple of miles. I kept the effort easy until the last mile. This was my kind of run, it was 5 easy miles followed by a final mile with moderate effort. I pretty much always try to speed up on the final mile, so I really liked this one.
Saturday was my long run. I drove up to Freedom Park. My legs felt a little stiff and tired early, but got better as I went along. I accidentally left my Gu at home so I didn’t have any mid-run fuel, but I stopped at water fountains roughly every mile. It was warm, but not unbearable. If it was like this for the rest of my long runs this summer, I could live with it.
So, overall, I felt like my paces were a bit disappointing this week, but I got through it, put in the miles, and hopefully my body will adjust a little bit to the heat.
Next week, I’ve got a couple more miles on the schedule, including an 11 mile long run, and something sort of new, a fartlek workout. (I know the name sounds weird, that’s why I included the link to prove I’m not making it up. Besides, I’m not that creative.) I’ve done something similar before, it just wasn’t labeled as a fartlek.