Weekly Wrap-Up: August 13-19

Didn’t I just write one of these?

Anyway, this week went OK.

Jury Duty Update: I was called for jury duty on Thursday. I spent most of the day sitting in the courtroom while other people got interviewed, but they reached their limit before they got to me, so I got to go home. Mecklenburg County just has you serve for one day or one trial. Having been called for jury duty twice, put on a jury twice, and ended up with a hung jury twice, I was relieved to not end up on a jury again. And with that, we won’t need a Jury Duty Update for at least two years.

Weight Check: 164.7, down 4.2 pounds from last week. OK, that’s better. I did make an effort to eat better, and other than last night where I did a lot of grazing at a party, I think I was successful. The number of miles I ran probably helped, though.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Monday 7 miles easy 7.01
Tuesday 1 mile easy, 6 miles at moderate effort 7.01
Wednesday 5 miles easy 5.01
Friday 5 miles easy 5.01
Saturday 16 miles easy 16.01

Total: 40.05 miles

I finally made it to 40 miles in a week.

Monday has the typical bad weather. My legs were still really tired from my Saturday long run. The fatigue really showed up in mile 6, but I did manage to recover on the last mile. I finished just over 30 seconds faster than last Monday’s 7 miler, so I’ve got that going for me.

On Tuesday, the weather was still pretty uncomfortable, but not quite as bad as some other days. My legs felt OK for most of the run, with a little bit of fatigue near the end, but I expected that, and it didn’t seem to slow me down. I felt like my paces were pretty good, and while they weren’t that steady, I can see where the hills made them faster or slower, but my effort seemed to stay pretty consistent.

I had a Gu before I started, and I stopped for some water at around 3.9 miles (I stopped my watch for that). Overall, I think it went pretty well.

Wednesday, I saw a temperature below 70! It was a nice surprise, although it was still pretty humid. My legs felt OK. I still kept the effort easy. The run was uneventful but just a little bit less miserable. I’ll take it.

On Friday, the weather was back to normal, which is bad. My legs seemed to be OK, though. I kept the effort easy with a 16 miler on the schedule for Saturday. I did manage to speed up a little bit on each mile, which is nice. It was uncomfortable, but uneventful.

Saturday was my 16 miler. I wanted it to go well. No pressure.

The weather was fairly miserable, but the cloud cover kept the sun away, and there was an occasional breeze, so it could have been worse. My legs held up OK. I had Gu at 4, 8, and 12. I stopped for water just about every mile.

I did take a walk break in the middle of mile 15, but otherwise I only walked around my water/Gu stops. My pace was slow, but mostly consistent, and I was able to rally a little bit on the last mile.

It was definitely my best long run in a while. I’d still like to be a little bit faster, but mostly, I’m pretty relieved.

Next week, more miles. I’ve been looking at the forecast, and I’m afraid to say anything or else I’ll jinx it, but let’s just say I wouldn’t be afraid of jinxing it if it showed lows of 75 degrees the whole time.