This just in: Getting a DNF in New York City still sucks. Also, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
It was my lowest mileage week since 2014, but I got some mileage in.
Since I don’t have much else to talk about this week, I do want to give a shout out to the Charlotte Marathon. The race was yesterday. The last time I ran the half, it was still called Thunder Road, it was 2014, and it was a pretty good day for me. In my race recap, I ranted that they served Michelob Ultra after the race, which is not good (opinion) and not local (fact). Well, I have to give credit where credit is due. This year, they had beer from NoDa Brewing. Specifically, they had special purple cans of their CAVU blonde ale (which normally comes in sky blue cans, because CAVU is an acronym that pilots use, and stands for Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited). It’s not my favorite NoDa beer (I’m just not a fan of blonde ales. I find them drinkable, but they don’t do anything for me), but it’s definitely local, and still better than Michelob Ultra (admittedly a low bar to clear).
Weight Check: 166.0 pounds, down 1.4 from my last weigh in. That covers 9 days. I carb loaded before the race, only ran 11+ miles (but got sick and didn’t eat much the rest of the day), ate a ton Monday when I got together with family, and once I got back, I sort of buckled down. I only had Mountain Dew once. I actually had ginger ale a couple of times. It’s still got a little bit of sugar for a quick energy boost when I need it, but it doesn’t have caffeine, so, in theory, it’ll have less affect on my sleep. Hopefully I can do well this week, because Thanksgiving is coming up fast.
| Day | Total Miles |
|---|---|
| Saturday | 3.11 |
Total: 3.11 miles
Well, that was pretty simple.
As far as my recovery goes, the stomach bug cleared up quickly. I felt fine on Monday, and ate normal food again. (I didn’t mention it in my last write-up, but I ended up eating saltines and drinking ginger ale after the race. I’d much rather be eating a cheeseburger and drinking a beer.) My legs felt a little bit stiff on Monday, because I still got through 11+ miles in New York City, and that included the Verrazano Bridge, which is a fairly steep climb (and then downhill). In all the “excitement” on Sunday, I forgot to foam roll, so that didn’t help.
My coach said in an e-mail that I should take a few days off from running, so I did.
Thursday, I did drive over to the Y and walked on a treadmill for 2 miles. It was 47 degrees and raining, which I might have run in, but for walking, I wanted to stay inside. The treadmill is still mentally excruciating even when I’m just walking.
I spoke to my coach on Friday, and she gave me the green light for a run on Saturday. Also, she had written up a recovery plan for the rest of November, and while my original plan was to just have fun at the Trophy Trot 10K on Thanksgiving, now I want to crush it, so she tweaked the next two weeks to hopefully make that possible.
Anyway, I went out on Saturday for the first time since New York.
It’s hard to describe how my legs felt. I guess they just felt out of practice. The weather felt colder than 36 degrees because of the wind and the low humidity, but at least the sun was out.
I forgot to switch my Garmin back to automatic laps (I did manual laps in NYC because GPS is flaky and the miles on the course are clearly marked), so I don’t have a breakdown of each mile. I tried to take it easy, except for a little push near the end. Between the long layoff and the weather, I felt like a 5K was the right distance.
I may not have felt great, and the weather wasn’t all that nice, but it was good to be back out there.
Next week, I have a workout on Tuesday, a “long” run of 8 miles next Saturday, and a few shorter runs the rest of the week. I’ve got my October wrap-up ready to post, then I just need to write up New York City and that Halloween run.