It took longer than I expected, but my legs finally feel normal again. And while Tuesday’s run didn’t quite work out as planned, it still got me over 1500 miles for the year, so I’ve at least hit one of my 2017 goals.
Weight Check: 163.6, down 2.4 pounds from last week. Wow. I only had Mountain Dew twice this week, and drank lots of water otherwise. I guess it worked. I know next week will be…challenging. But at least for a very brief time, I’m not overweight. (164 is the magic number for someone like me who’s 5′ 8″.)
| Day | Scheduled | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 3 miles easy | 3.11 |
| Tuesday | 1 mile easy, 4×1 mile at goal 10K pace (9:00-9:05/mile) with 3 minutes in between, 1 mile easy* | 5.51 |
| Wednesday | 3 miles easy | 3.11 |
| Friday | 3 miles easy | 3.11 |
| Saturday | 8 miles easy | 8.21 |
Total: 23.05 miles
Tuesday didn’t go as planned, so it has an asterisk, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
Monday was 46 degrees and overcast, which is probably my favorite weather to run in. My legs felt better than Saturday, still not quite 100% back to normal, but close. I kept the effort easy until the end.
On Tuesday, I ended up having to cut my workout short. I was fine on the first two intervals, but on the third, I felt like I was going pretty much all out and I was still over 10 seconds above my goal pace. I figured it wouldn’t get any better on a fourth interval, so I skipped it and ended with just over a mile on the cool down to get me to 5 and a half miles.
I’m not sure what happened. It wasn’t the weather (42 and overcast). My legs felt OK up until late in the 2nd interval, then they got really tired. I walked half of the recovery between the 2nd and 3rd interval, but it didn’t really help. Maybe I wasn’t 100% recovered yet, or maybe it was just a bad day.
I went back out there on Wednesday, and my legs weren’t quite 100%, but they were good enough. The weather was cold, but not too bad. It was a better run, but still not quite where I wanted to be.
Friday was better. It was kind of cold, 36 degrees, but not too bad. My legs felt fine. My last full mile may have been a little faster than I was aiming for, but it’s tough to slow down when it’s cold. Overall, a pretty good run.
On Saturday, it was cool and windy, but not too terrible. I did kind of put off my run, hoping it would warm up a little bit, and didn’t start until 8:51 AM.
My legs felt good. I kept the effort easy, and except for mile 3 (about 20 seconds faster than mile 2, not sure what happened there), my paces seemed pretty reasonable. I decided to push it on mile 8, and then, since I was still about .2 away from my car (and since I had cut my workout run short earlier in the week), I kept going to make it 8.21 miles total.
This was easily my best run since the race. After Tuesday, I really needed a run like this.
Next week, I’ve got a race on Thanksgiving, the Trophy Trot 10K. It’s named after Trophy Brewing, so at least I know they won’t be serving Michelob Ultra after the race. After New York City, I’ve got some motivation to do well in this race. It’s going to be kind of cold, 36 degrees is the forecast as I write this, but I once ran a 10K when it was 20 degrees. I can take it.
Oh, and speaking of New York City there’s a small chance my race recap will be done early this week. But don’t hold your breath.