Weekly Wrap-Up: July 23-29

I retired a pair of shoes this week and bought another pair (although that pair will have to wait until next week to get broken in).

First, my 4th pair of Brooks Adrenaline 17s.

This is after my Saturday run, which was their last run. They got me through this year’s Teal Diva 5K. And they were the shoes I wore last year in New York City. (Sigh. Not finishing that race still sucks.) Still, they were a good pair of shoes, and it wasn’t their fault that I got a stomach bug on race day.

With my reduced mileage earlier this year, it took until late July to finally buy a pair of Brooks Adrenaline 18s, which were released last year in late October.

Yeah, the 18s look very, very different. They still felt pretty comfortable when I tried them on, and that’s really all I care about. I do kind of like the new look, though.

As far as my running this week, it was hot, but I managed.

Weight Check: 164.0 pounds, down 1.6 from last week. Woohoo! I’m officially not overweight. I know that in reality it doesn’t matter that much, but it still gives me a small mental boost, and I’ll take whatever I can get. I guess I ate fairly healthy stuff this week, and I ran enough to cancel out any bad stuff.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Monday 6 miles easy 6.01
Tuesday 5 miles easy 5.01
Wednesday Progression Run: 4 miles easy, 2 miles comfortably hard 6.01
Friday 5 miles easy 5.01
Saturday 11 miles easy, 3 miles at moderate effort 14.01

Total: 36.05 miles

Monday was a few degrees cooler, but very humid. My legs felt a little tired, especially on the uphills, but it wasn’t too bad. I managed to increase my pace on each mile while keeping the pace easy until the end.

On Tuesday, it rained before and after my run, and it was one of those days where I wish it had rained during my run. My legs felt a little tired on the uphills, but otherwise they seemed OK. I started pretty slow, but managed to speed up (Mile 3 was 1 second slower than mile 2, so it wasn’t a perfect negative split). I still kept the effort “easy” until near the end.

Wednesday, it was foggy, which means 100% humidity, so it was pretty miserable. My legs felt surprisingly OK, though. For the “easy” part, I kept a fairly steady pace after I got through the first mile. I picked up the effort on the last two miles, going hard but not all out until close to the very end. Considering the weather, I was pleased with the results.

On Friday, the weather was its usual terrible self. My legs felt OK. My paces weren’t quite as consistent as I’d like, but there was nothing too out of the ordinary, and I think I did a decent job of keeping the effort consistent. I had gotten some feedback from my coach to not speed up at the end of my easy runs. I felt like I had to make a conscious effort to not pick up the pace at the end, but it seemed to work.

Saturday was tough, because it’s a long run in July.

It was really hot, 75 and humid, but there was an occasional breeze. My legs felt OK until near the end.

I had Gu at 5 and 10 miles. I stopped for water roughly once per mile.

I tried to focus on my effort rather than pace, and I think I did OK for the easy part of the run. I made it through mile 12 at a moderate effort, but in mile 13, the heat was getting to me, and I decided to walk and slowly jog for the rest of the mile so I could hopefully finish strong with mile 14, and it seemed to work. In retrospect, with the heat, maybe I should have adjusted and run 12 miles easy with 2 moderate at the end. But I still got through it and managed to finish fairly strong.

It would be nice if I could get all the way through a long run without struggling like that. I’ll get plenty of chances to get it right.

Next week, it’s the end of July. (Good riddance.) I’ll post a monthly wrap-up later in the week. August will be pretty rough, too, but I’ll figure out a way to get through it.

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 16-22

That was a really busy week. The running was…OK, I guess. Long runs in my neighborhood suck, though.

Weight Check: 165.6 pounds, up 0.3 from last week. I’ll take it. I had a stressful week, so my diet wasn’t great. I’m relieved I didn’t gain more.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Monday 1 mile easy, 5 miles at marathon pace 6.01
Tuesday 4 miles easy 4.01
Wednesday Fartlek: 20 minutes easy, 6 x 2 minutes hard with 2 minutes easy in between, 15-20 minutes easy (or until 6 miles) 5.01
Friday 14 miles easy 14.01
Saturday 5 miles easy 5.01

Total: 34.05 miles

Wednesday was a little short, but I’ll explain that later.

Monday was a rare pleasant surprise. The weather was terrible. My legs weren’t 100% recovered from my Saturday long run. I wasn’t expecting much from this run. I took the first mile very easy, then started pushing. I managed to improve my pace on each mile, and while I was definitely pushing a little harder than a normal easy run, it was never all out (except maybe at the very end). I did stop just after 3 miles to get some water, but other than that, I ran with no walk breaks. Also, I had a Gu before I started, and that may have helped. So I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with this run.

On Tuesday, the weather was still pretty miserable. My legs seemed to be OK, though. I did manage to improve my pace on each mile while keeping the effort “easy” until near the end. I’ll take it.

Wednesday once again had miserable weather. My legs felt OK at first, but I definitely felt fatigue after (and probably during) the last interval. I was pleased with my paces on the hard intervals, and really happy with my pace on the last one.

I was really tired during the cool down. I took a few walk breaks, and decided I would only go 5 miles total, which still gave me a 15+ minute cool down. I do think, looking at my pace chart, that I got a small mental boost after I decided to make it a 5 miler.

I don’t like cutting workouts short, but with my long run looming on Friday this week, it felt like it was probably the right decision.

Speaking of Friday…

I got through it, but I hope I never have to run 14 miles in my neighborhood again.

The weather was slightly less miserable than recently. My legs were OK for a while, but got tired at the end.

I didn’t have access to water fountains, and just a water bottle I left outside my house. I ended up stopping 7 times for water. Two of those, around 4 miles and 9.4 miles, I also had Gu. Since it was an early start (I needed to get done before work) I didn’t have much time before the run for fueling, so I just had an extra Gu maybe 5 minutes before I started.

I didn’t really need to make any effort to add hills to my run. It was significantly more hilly than my last long run.

There were a few spots, especially from around mile 7 to mile 10, where my legs wanted to go a little faster, maybe 12:00/mile, but I didn’t think I could sustain that pace, and I took a few extra walk breaks during that stretch just to try to slow down a little.

The last two miles were still pretty rough, but not quite as bad as the last 3 miles last week. I knew I’d had less water than usual for a long run, and my run was more hilly than usual, so I tried to play it safe. I definitely didn’t feel completely drained like last week.

Overall, it wasn’t quite as bad as I’d expected. I can’t call it a great run, but it could have been worse. I still don’t want to do any more long runs in my neighborhood, at least not in summer.

Saturday’s run felt anti-climactic. Of course, I was on call for work, so I was worried about getting paged during my run. The weather was fairly miserable. My legs were pretty much dead, since I’m used to having a rest day after my long runs. I made it through the 5 miles, was even able to speed up a little at the end, and didn’t get any calls from work during the run (before and after are a different story).

I adjusted my schedule, and (except for Wednesday) got my miles in, so there’s that.

Next week, my schedule looks a bit more normal. This time, my 14 miler will be on Saturday, and very likely on the greenway with plenty of water fountains.

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 9-15

The week started out well. The end of the week? Uh…it started out well.

I’m finally caught up on all of my backlog of monthly wrap-ups, and one nagging race recap, so there’s that. Also, added bonus, I successfully scheduled both of my posts during this past week. Go me.

Weight Check: 165.3, down 2.8 pounds from last week. Wow. I was thinking (hoping?) there would be a loss, but 2.8 pounds? Nice. A lot of that is my increased mileage, but I guess I’ve been eating OK as well.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Monday 5 miles easy 5.01
Tuesday 4 miles easy 4.01
Wednesday Progression Run: 5 miles easy, then 1 mile comfortably hard 6.01
Friday 5 miles easy 5.01
Saturday 13 miles easy 13.11

Total: 33.15 miles

Well, I got my miles in.

Monday was close to Portland weather, 61 degrees and not that humid. My legs were still pretty tired from last Saturday’s long run, though. I really felt it in mile 3, but then it got a little better, and I was able to rally nicely on the last mile.

On Tuesday, the weather was still pretty decent for July, 65 degrees and reasonable humidity. My legs were a little tired, since Monday was the first time I did bodyweight squats in a few weeks. (My strength training hasn’t been as consistent as I’d like over the past few weeks with my schedule.) I was still able to increase my pace on each mile while keeping the effort easy until the last quarter mile or so.

Wednesday, the weather got more July-like, 69 degrees and humid, although it still wasn’t as bad as the previous week. My legs felt a little bit of fatigue, especially on the uphill parts, but it seemed to get better as I went along. I was able to improve my pace on each mile, and on the last mile, I was pleasantly surprised. I was never going all out (except maybe at the very end), but it was definitely a hard effort, and I still felt fairly comfortable. And 9:33 for that last mile? I’ll take it.

On Friday, the July weather that I know and don’t love returned, 76 and humid. My legs felt fine, or maybe I just didn’t notice them because of the heat and humidity. I kept my effort “easy”, or at least as close to easy as I can get in these conditions, except for the last quarter mile or so. I survived.

Saturday…sigh. That was disappointing.

The weather was pretty rough, 73, humid, and lots of sun. (Also, I somehow managed to leave my visor at home. I swear, I’d leave my head behind if it wasn’t attached.) My legs were OK until about the 10 mile mark, when I basically hit a wall. It was my longest run of this year, and it’s going to end up being my highest mileage week since before last year’s New York City Marathon, so it’s not a complete surprise, but still disappointing. I was definitely too fast on mile 2, but otherwise, I thought I did a decent job with my pacing.

I stopped for water roughly once every mile and had Gu at around 5 and 9 miles. I included a few hills.

It was only fatigue, though, no pain, so I should be OK. I’ll just get back out there next week.

Next week, my schedule will get messed up thanks to being on call for work, and I’m going to somehow run 14 miles in my neighborhood on Friday before work. I’m not sure how I’m going to pull that off, either. But at least I don’t have any more posts in the backlog.

Monthly Wrap-Up: June 2018

June ended in Portland, which was great. Before that, though…

June 2018
Total Mileage:
116.34 miles
Average Pace: 12:02/mile
Number of Runs: 21
Last Month (May 2018): 104.81 miles
Last Year (June 2017): 130.11 miles (Finally, I feel like I’m within shouting distance of last year’s total.)
Races: None

Total Mileage for 2018: (as of June 30) 386.23 miles

The heat was insane while I was in North Carolina, then I got to Portland, and it was so much better.

Best Run: June 29, 3.1 miles, 10:53/mile

Fastest run of the month, and a really fun group run? Hell yeah that’s a Best Run of the month. I even got to talk to somebody during the run and got confirmation that, as fast as I was going compared to my usual pace, I was still able to carry on a conversation, which is one of the ways you can tell if you’re going at an easy pace. And it was in Portland, so I got to run along the Willamette River, which was just icing on the cake.

My only regret was that I got to an intersection where I had to stop right when I was at 3.1 miles, so I wasn’t able to do my usual 3.11 miles. If that’s my biggest complaint, I’m doing OK.

Worst Run: June 18, 6.01 miles, 13:16/mile

You know how Andy had to crawl through a river of sewage to escape in the Shawshank Redemption? That’s what the rest of June felt like. I have too many runs to choose from for the worst, but this one was the slowest, and seemed to frustrate me the most.

Well, hopefully recharging in Portland at the end of June will lead to a better July. It’s going to be hot, but I hope I can adjust and maybe even improve. I just have to remind myself that it won’t be like that on November 4 in New York City. (And if it is, I’m just going to take a nice leisurely stroll through the 5 boroughs.)

Race Report: 2018 Teal Diva 5K

Well, this is probably the worst physical shape I’ve been in for a race in a long time. I may be a little disappointed in my time, but I still did OK.

I probably should mention the reason I’m doing this race for the third time, even though I mentioned it in last year’s Race Report. A family friend named Dolores passed away in 2015 from ovarian cancer. She was funny, honest, and caring, and the world’s a little less interesting without her in it. I was part of a fundraising team formed in her honor, Dolor’s Ovary Achievers. Like last year, I didn’t really raise any money, I just signed up for the race, made a separate donation, and made sure my parents got signed up too. I’d also like to point out that our team raised the most money of any team this year, over $4,000.

The race moved to a new location this year. Instead of being in Mooresville, it was at Freedom Park, which is really cool. One, it’s a lot closer (25-30 minutes, instead of about 50 minutes), and two, I know the course like the back of my hand, since that’s where I go for the majority of my long runs. They also moved it up a couple of weekends. The last two years it was Mother’s Day weekend, this time it was the last weekend in April. Also, this year, the race started at 9:30, which I wasn’t crazy about because it would be warmer, but it was pretty nice for all of the walkers.

They had packet pickup at Charlotte Running Company in Dilworth on Friday. I had to work – I was actually on call – otherwise I would have taken the day off and driven up there to pick up my packets (and my parents’ packets, too, since they were back for another year). Luckily, one of my friends was able to go up there and do packet pickup for everyone. The packet just included a bib and a t-shirt.

They added a race in Charleston, so this year, they actually had to put the city name. It would be nice if they also included at least the year, if not the race date. I was disappointed (but not surprised) that the t-shirt was a cotton/polyester blend. I might still wear it for short easy runs in reasonable weather, but those seem pretty rare.

Fun fact: I’ve never had a local race where the packet pickup is at the Dilworth location of Charlotte Running Company. Thunder Road had an expo each year at the Charlotte Convention Center, the 2016 Turkey Trot and 2015 Charlotte RaceFest had packet pickup at Dick’s Sporting Goods in South Park, and every other race has either been Run For Your Life (where you can usually pick your location – I choose University because it’s close to work) or Charlotte Running Company in Ballantyne, with the world’s worst parking lot.

Another fun fact: 30 is the lowest bib number I’ve ever gotten for a race. I guess I registered early.

Anyway, a bunch of us went out to eat Friday night. I had a calzone and a beer. I found out that my nephews were sick and couldn’t make it this year. My brother-in-law stayed home with them, and only my sister made the trip. I was bummed that I couldn’t see my nephews, because they’re the best. I did get to do Facetime with them a couple of times over the weekend, so that was cool.

I had trouble getting to sleep Friday night, but once I fell asleep, I slept relatively well for the night before a race. I got up, made sure my parents were awake, then showered, used the bathroom, got dressed, ate a couple of Chocolate Chip Clif Bars, drank some water, and brushed my teeth.

I ended up parking in a different spot than I normally do, because I didn’t want my parents to have a really long walk. I still ended up having to drop off Mom, then find a place to park in the street.

We got there just before 8:30. I knew they wanted to do a team picture, but not everybody was there yet, so I checked and made sure I’d have enough time for my warm-up mile. I went out and went south from Freedom Park (the opposite direction from the course), turned around and came back, and completed my 1.01 mile warm up in 11:22, or an 11:17/mile pace. I was back just in time for the team picture.

I then went through my warm-up stretching routine, and waited around for the race to start.

It was in the mid 60s, which was warmer than I’d like, but the humidity was pretty low. The sun was out, but I was able to stay in the shade.

Just before 9:30, we lined up for the race.

Some people came through the arch from the other side, so that’s why you see some people walking away from the start.

Someone said a prayer, and then we were off.

Mile 1: 9:27

Some of the walkers didn’t get the memo to stay back and let the runners go. I had to navigate through a lot of traffic, especially in the first quarter mile. It got better after that, but I know I expended a little more energy than I should have.

Mile 2: 9:48

I was still hanging in there, barely. Since it was a simple out and back, we turned around at the halfway point, 1.55 miles.

Mile 3: 10:24

Ouch. I had nothing left. I did enjoy seeing my family and friends who were walking through here in the other direction, but it wasn’t enough to make me go faster.

Last 0.07: 8:06/mile pace

OK, I did manage to rally at the very end. My Garmin said 3.07 miles, but considering it also said 30:13 (official finishing time was 30:14.1), I think the course was just about the right length, a huge improvement over the past two years.

I was a little bit disappointed that I missed 30 minutes by only a little bit, but I would have been a whole lot more disappointed if I had lost my car key. Luckily, it made it to the finish line too.

I got a bottle of water right after the finish line. It took me a few minutes to find the post race snacks. They had bagels and bananas, and probably a couple of other things that I might remember if I hadn’t waited over two months to write my race recap. (Sorry.)

It was small enough of a race that they only did 10 year age groups, so my last race as a 44 year old wasn’t even halfway through the age group. A few really fast 40 and 41 year old guys showed up (Get off my lawn!), so I had no chance of an age group award, even if I had been in PR shape.

My Mom defended her title as the first place (and only) finisher in the 70+ female age group. Some 73 year old dude swooped in and ran 42:01 (which is pretty impressive for a 73 year old) so my Dad had to settle for second in the 70+ male age group. He did beat a 78 year old by a little over 3 minutes, so there’s that.

Overall, like I said earlier, I was a little disappointed, but considering that it had been just over 3 months since my hernia surgery, I think I showed a lot of progress. And if nothing else, I had fun and helped raise a bunch of money for ovarian cancer research.

Vital Stats

Full Name of Race: Teal Diva 5K
Location: Freedom Park, Charlotte, NC
Date and Time of Race: April 28, 2018, 9:30 AM
Bib Number: 30
Official Finishing Time: 30:14.1 chip time (30:26.2 gun time). 82nd of 338 Overall, 39th of 112 Men, 10th of 29 in Age Group (Male 40-49)

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 2-8

I should have mentioned this in my last weekly wrap-up, but since this one technically covers July 2, I’ll say it here. Monday, July 2 was the 2 year anniversary of The Key Runner, and the 7(!) year anniversary of when I started running. I celebrated by spending 6+ hours on planes, and didn’t get to run. It’s OK, I did plenty of running the rest of the week.

This week also marked the official start of my 2018 New York City Marathon training, although you could argue my training started the moment I had to drop out of the 2017 race.

I miss running in Portland.

Weight Check: 168.1, down 4.2(!) pounds from last week. Woohoo! This is what happens when I go from 23 beers in 6 days to 0 beers in 6 days. I still wouldn’t mind dropping another couple of pounds, but this is much, much, much better.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Tuesday 5 miles easy 5.01
Wednesday 6 miles easy 6.01
Friday 5 miles easy 5.01
Saturday 12 miles easy 12.01

Total: 28.04 miles

No workouts this week, just some “easy” runs to get back into running through the soup. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I miss running in Portland.

Tuesday was the toughest run of the week. I had spent over 6 hours on planes on Monday, and I was still a little jet lagged. 76 degrees and humid. I didn’t miss this weather. My legs were a little tired from travel, but not terrible. I did better than I expected on the first three miles, but I slowed down a bit for the last two. I knew I didn’t drink enough water during my travels on Monday, so I didn’t want to take any chances with this insane heat and humidity. Also, this was my first day of NYC training, and it’s not a sprint, it’s…well, you know

On Wednesday, the weather was as bad as Tuesday, but my legs felt a little bit better. At mile 3 and at mile 4.5, I stopped my watch and went inside for water, but other than that, I didn’t stop to walk. I kept a fairly steady pace on the first 4 miles, slowed a little bit on mile 5 due to the heat, but managed to rally on the last mile. It definitely went better than I expected.

Friday, the weather was still pretty miserable. My legs felt a little rusty at first, I guess due to the day off, but they recovered pretty well. I managed to speed up on each mile without increasing my effort too much until the very end. Considering the conditions, I’ll take it.

On Saturday, all things considered, it went fairly well.

The weather was a degree or two less hot, but no sun and a slight breeze helped, and then I got a nice refreshing rain shower from around the 6.5 mile mark to just before 10 miles.

I stopped for water around once per mile. I had Gu just after 4 miles and just after 8 miles. I did walk a little just before and after each water stop. There were a few spots where there was mud on the path from Friday afternoon’s storms, so I had to walk through those patches to avoid slipping. I didn’t take any other walk breaks.

My pace seemed like it wasn’t quite as consistent as I’d like, but other than mile 10, nothing was too fast. And even after mile 10, I slowed down and recovered on mile 11 before really pushing it on the last mile. My legs felt OK throughout the run.

My coach’s description of the run said, “If possible, include some hills on this run.” I did, and I think I managed to get enough hills to (hopefully) improve my running without completely killing my legs.

For my first 12 miler of the year, it turned out all right, and I was really happy with the last mile, 10:45.

Next week, I’ll get a slight break in the weather on Monday and Tuesday. (This morning would have been relatively great running weather, but it’s my rest day. Womp womp.) I’ve got a 13 mile long run on the calendar, which means I’ll run 13.1 miles, of course. Also, and I hope you’re sitting down for this, my Teal Diva 5K recap is finished. It’s not worth the wait, but it’s done. I’ll wait until tomorrow to publish it, and then maybe, just maybe, I’ll do my June recap and be *gasp* completely caught up.

Monthly Wrap-Up: March/April/May 2018

Yeah, I’m going to do 3 months at once. It’s the only way I can catch up. June is still fresh enough in my mind that I can do it justice, so it’ll get its own write-up (hopefully) within the next week.

March 2018
Total Mileage:
71.09 miles
Average Pace: 11:56/mile
Number of Runs: 18
Last Month (February 2018): 16.66 miles
Last Year (March 2017): 140.11 miles *sob*
Races: None

Total Mileage for 2018: (as of March 31) 87.75 miles

This was the month where I went up to New York for my Uncle’s funeral. Over the course of the month, I made slow, steady progress. I was still very clearly in recovery mode from my surgery, though.

Best Run: March 31, 6.01 miles, 11:30/mile

This was the one run where I felt like I owned my parents’ neighborhood. It was a good way to close out the month.

Worst Run: March 14, 5.01 miles, 12:35/mile

As I put it in my weekly recap that week: “Some days, like Wednesday, I’m out there running, nothing is going right, and I find myself thinking, ‘Why the hell do I put myself through this?'” I did recover a bit that week, so there’s that.

April 2018
Total Mileage:
77.33 miles
Average Pace: 11:30/mile
Number of Runs: 18 (including warm up run before Teal Diva 5K)
Last Month (March 2018): 71.09 miles
Last Year (April 2017): 140.55 miles *more sobbing*
Races: Teal Diva 5K, 30:14.1 (Recap coming very soon, I swear.)

Total Mileage for 2018: (as of April 30) 165.08 miles

More slow, steady progress. Also, a race.

Best Run: April 28, Teal Diva 5K, 30:14.1 (9:46/mile average pace)

Even if I was 14.1 seconds from my goal, it was still a fairly successful run, and gave me a good indication of how far I’d come since surgery. Also, we raised a bunch of money for ovarian cancer research, and the course was the correct length this year, so there’s that.

Worst Run: April 16, 5.06 miles, 11:28/mile

I had trouble picking out a run bad enough to mention here, which is a good problem to have. This one was kind of strange, and I had tired legs, and I only did one stride instead of 6 at the end. I’d gladly take this as my worst run any month.

May 2018
Total Mileage:
104.81 miles
Average Pace: 11:42/mile
Number of Runs: 20
Last Month (April 2018): 77.33 miles
Last Year (May 2017): 137.20 miles *not worth sobbing, just a sigh*
Races: None

Total Mileage for 2018: (as of May 31) 269.89 miles

I moved into a new age group (Male 45-49), the weather got warmer, and my progress leveled out a bit, but I did increase my mileage, and resumed running 5 days a week.

Best Run: May 19, 9.01 miles, 11:32/mile

At least last month I had a race to make it easy to determine the best run of the month. May didn’t have that. I went with this one as my best, because it was a 9 miler and conditions were crappy (70 and humid), but I still managed a respectable pace.

Worst Run: May 7, 5.01 miles, 12:01/mile

This was the hill repeat workout where I discovered I can’t count to 10. I did 12 repeats instead of 10. Once again, no run jumped out at me as really, really bad, so I went with the one where I screwed up.

And that’s it. I hope I never have to recap 3 months at once again.

 

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 25-July 1

I’m back from Portland. The running was great, the rest of the trip was even better. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I’m going to miss being there in general, and running there in particular.

Weight Check: I’m writing this on Tuesday, July 3. After flying home on Monday, this morning was my first chance to weigh myself. And, uh, 172.3, up 2.4 pounds from last week. Yikes. I use an app called Untappd to keep track of the beers I drink. Over a period of 6 days, I had 23 beers. One was in the airport in Phoenix during a layover, the rest were in Portland. The city has amazing beer, and lots of it. And while I did do some walking (and running) while I was there, it apparently wasn’t enough. I’ll be cutting way back on the beer this week and ramping up my mileage, so hopefully I’ll be able to bring my weight back down.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Monday 4 miles easy 4.01
Wednesday 5 miles easy 5.01
Thursday 4 miles easy 4.01
Friday 3.1 mile group run 3.10
Sunday 4 miles easy 4.01

Total: 20.14 miles

It was a step back week, and I needed it physically. Probably mentally, too, but being in Portland did wonders for my mental state.

Monday was one last run at home before I left. The weather was miserable, my legs were tired from my long run on the previous Saturday, but I was motivated by the fact that I was headed to Portland the next day, where it would be in the mid 50s in the morning and the running would be great. (Spoiler alert: It was.) I kept the effort easy except at the very end, and I’m just glad I got through it, and I felt like I’d earned a break.

On Wednesday…Portland Running! (At least that’s how it shows up in Garmin Connect, except without the exclamation point.) Absolutely beautiful weather. My legs were a little tired, but even with that, I was much faster than any of my recent runs just due to the temperature difference. I do love running in Portland.

Thursday was still beautiful weather. My legs felt better. I forgot to do my warm up stretching, so mile 1 ended up being a warm up, but after that, my pace was steady (and good).

On Friday, I participated in a 5K group run. It was for fun, not a race, although there were definitely some people there who were much, much faster than me. It started a little later (some people’s bodies weren’t still stuck on East Coast time, stupid jet lag), so it was a couple of degrees warmer, but not that humid. I did start out a little too fast because of the other runners, but I found someone to run with at a slightly slower pace after mile 1.

My coach often says that when judging the right effort for an easy run, it should be easy enough so that you can carry on a conversation. For the first time ever, I was able to confirm that I could indeed hold a conversation at that pace. A good run, and it was fun being able to run with others for a change.

Sunday was bittersweet, because I knew it was my last run in Portland. At 62 degrees (but with low humidity), it was the “worst” weather I saw in Portland for a run. It’s still at least 200% better than anything I’ll see at home for the next month or two. I was a little too fast on the 1st mile, and it affected me a little in mile 3, but I rallied at the end. Between the scenery of the river and the good weather, I tried to savor this run as much as I could, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I’ll miss running in Portland.

For the rest of this week, I’ll just try to hang in there and slow down for the heat. Also, maybe I’ll finally catch up on my Teal Diva 5K and March/April/May/June (Yeah, now I have to add June to the list) recaps.