Summer came early this year. Rough week (and it would have been rough even if I hadn’t gotten a year older), and I even added a day of running, but I survived.
Weight Check: 172.2 pounds, same as my last weigh-in. I suppose it’s good that I didn’t gain any weight, especially considering that I kind of indulged a bit to celebrate my birthday. I’d still like to lose at least 5 pounds, though.
| Day | Scheduled | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 5 miles easy plus strides | 4.01 |
| Tuesday | 3 miles easy | 3.11 |
| Wednesday | Progression Run: 3 miles easy, 4th mile moderate effort, 5th mile comfortably hard, tempo effort | 5.01 |
| Friday | 3 miles easy | 3.11 |
| Saturday | 9 miles easy | 9.01 |
Total: 24.25 miles
So, uh, Monday. Not a great way to start the week. The weather was fairly uncomfortable. My legs felt pretty bad, probably from my long run on Saturday. With the extra day of running scheduled this week, I decided I’d be better off stopping after 4 miles. I didn’t do any strides.
On Tuesday, the weather was worse, but my legs felt better. They still weren’t 100%, but they were close enough. After a slow first mile, I was able to pick up the pace a little bit while still keeping the effort fairly easy until right near the end.
Wednesday was possibly my first Progression Run. There isn’t even a category for it on RunningAhead. I called it a Tempo run, which was close enough, I guess. The weather was miserable, but my legs held up fairly well, with just a little bit of expected fatigue near the end. It was hard to estimate my effort, since I felt like I was running in a sauna, and anything faster than a brisk walk felt really difficult, but I did what I could. I was pretty happy with my pace on the last mile (10:09), especially with the heat and humidity.
On Friday, the weather was still miserable. My legs felt OK. I had a little trouble finding my pace on the first mile, but after that, I kept it fairly steady and as close to easy as I can get in these conditions, with a small push near the end.
Then came Saturday.
I forgot my watch and had to use Runkeeper instead. I also forgot to bring Gu.
Anyway, the weather was pretty bad, although there was an occasional breeze, and at some point (somewhere around mile 3 or 4) there was a little bit of mist, and that was kind of refreshing. My legs felt surprisingly OK. My coach had recommended that I try to include some hills in my run if possible. I didn’t actually do that, since I was worried about the conditions, but based on my performance, I probably could have handled a couple of hills.
I was pleasantly surprised. I did have this one spot where the path was covered in mud from recent rains, and I walked through there, mainly because I didn’t want to kick up a bunch of mud, and I had to cross it twice (the first was during mile 2, the second was probably during mile 6 based on my splits), but other than that and when I stopped for water, I didn’t take any walk breaks. When I got to the last mile, I felt good enough to really push it, so I did, and finished with my fastest mile.
This week, I’ve got hill repeats on the schedule (another reason I figured I could skip the hills on my long run), and generally miserable weather. I’ll get through it somehow. Also, maybe this week I’ll catch up on some of my backlogged posts (Teal Diva 5K write-up, March and April wrap-ups).