Weekly Wrap-Up: September 18-24

Old habits die hard. I used to use “Weekly Running Report” as the title my weekly recap posts on my old defunct blog, but decided to switch to Weekly Wrap-Up here. Every once in a while, I slip back into Weekly Running Report, and apparently I did it two weeks in a row.

Running this week was…challenging.

Weight Check: 165.0 pounds, down 0.6 from last week. Slow progress, but I’ll take it. It’s mostly the miles, though. I’m not really eating any differently, and I’m still drinking Mountain Dew.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Monday 7 miles easy 7.01
Tuesday 3 mile warm up, 8 x 90 seconds uphill hard with a job back down in between, 2 mile cool down 7.01
Wednesday 8 miles easy 8.01
Friday 6 miles easy 6.01
Saturday 16 mile long run 16.01

Total: 44.05 miles

On Monday, the weather was OK, humid but only 65. My legs were still pretty tired from my long run. My pace was a little slower than I’d like, but it stayed fairly consistent. Not a great run, but considering how poorly my long run went two days earlier, I’ll take it.

Tuesday was a hill workout. The weather wasn’t too terrible, but like I’ve said before, hill repeats are tough at any temperature. My legs definitely felt it on the last two repeats. The 1st 3 intervals were kind of all over the place, but starting with #4, I got faster with each one, and finished #8 with my fastest average pace. I took a walk break of about a tenth of a mile at the start of the cool down, then switched to a jog, and my legs didn’t feel quite as bad as I expected. Still, I didn’t do a full 2 miles for the cool down, stopping right around 7 miles total, partially due to my legs and partially due to the time.

Wednesday was a mid-week 8 miler, which is unusual for me. The weather was tolerable. However, my legs did not recover at all from my hill workout. It was a struggle, and the extra mile didn’t help, but I got through it somehow.

Friday’s run was better. I’m still waiting for fall weather, but it wasn’t too terrible. My legs felt fine. My effort stayed pretty easy (except for the very end). There was a noticeable difference in my pace between the first 3 miles and the last 3, but the increase in pace was probably because of the terrain more than anything else.

Saturday…well, I’m running out of ways to introduce a long run that doesn’t go as planned.

So, every September, there’s an event called Festival in the Park. I’ve never actually gone, but I hear it’s a lot of fun. The problem is that it means that Freedom Park is not an option for running. I had to move my long run to the Four Mile Creek and McMullen Creek Greenways. That means I’d have access to a grand total of 3 water fountains. (My route that starts in Freedom Park gives me access to at least 9 water fountains.)

Also, this wasn’t just a 16 mile long run. It was actually supposed to be 4 miles easy, then 2 x 4 miles at marathon pace with a half mile easy in between, then 3.5 miles easy.

For pretty much the first time ever, I had stomach issues during a run. I have no idea why. The only thing I can come up with is that since I was closer to home, I don’t think my pre-run snack had as much time to settle, so that may have caused an issue.

(I should add that in this case, “stomach issues” just meant a lot of discomfort, there was no vomiting or any other expulsion.)

I stopped at around 10.5 miles (after 2 miles of the second 4 mile interval) to get my stomach to settle down. After that, my stomach felt better, and I got one good mile in, but after that, I had no energy left, and the rest of the way (the last mile of the 2nd interval plus the 3.5 miles at the end) was a slog.

The weather wasn’t too bad to start with, but because I started a little later than I wanted to, it warmed up quickly, and that didn’t help.

I had Gu right before the 1st 4 mile interval, during the 1/2 mile in between, and after the 2nd 4 mile interval. I wasn’t sure about the last one, but I figured I’d take it and hope that maybe it would make the last 3.5 miles a little more tolerable. (If it did, I didn’t notice.)

I’m disappointed, but there is one good thing I can take away. After the 2nd interval, I ended up in the parking lot (which I planned, because that’s where one of the water fountains is). I considered stopping there, skipping the last 3.5 miles, and driving home, since the last mile of the 2nd interval was so bad, and I didn’t really expect things to get any better. Somehow, I managed to keep going, and while the last part was brutal, I finished it. I even…well, “sped up” probably isn’t the right phrase, let’s go with “got less slow”…on the last half mile.

I have to say, though, that I don’t feel quite as bad about this week’s run. Last week seems like it really messed with my head, more than I admitted in last week’s post. This week, I’m still worried about how my training is going (and really starting to wonder if I need to adjust my goal), but I haven’t let my long run get to me. I’ll go back out there tomorrow and give it another shot.

This week, I’ve got a Fartlek workout, and, uh, a 20 mile long run. No pressure.