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.
| 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.