Imagine a huge sigh of relief. That’s me right now.
I did roughly 1000 things differently this week, which isn’t good for figuring out exactly what fixed the problem (or what the actual problem is or was), but the important thing is that I got through my long run.
Weight Check: 163.7 pounds, up 1.6 from last week. I really couldn’t care less. One of the things I did differently was not drinking no calorie soda, just in case there’s something in the artificial sweeteners. Also, I wasn’t drinking them during my last training cycle which (understatement) went just slightly better than my current training cycle. So I did have some regular Mountain Dew and regular Coke. I did limit my caffeine intake a little bit, so it wasn’t like I went straight back to 60 ounces of Mountain Dew every day. I also cut back a bit on beer. I’m still under 164, so I’m not overweight.
| Day | Scheduled | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 5 miles easy | 5.01 |
| Tuesday | 4 minutes easy | 4.01 |
| Wednesday | 5 miles easy | 5.01 |
| Friday | 4 miles easy | 4.01 |
| Saturday | 16 miles easy | 16.01 |
Total: 34.05 miles
For the first time since August 20 to 26, the numbers in the 3rd column match the ones in the 2nd column. (OK, with an extra .01 on each run, but you know what I mean.) Huge sigh of relief.
Monday was not as hot, only 68 degrees, but still humid. My legs felt terrible. I’m not sure how I got through all 5 miles, but I did, very slowly.
On Tuesday, the weather was back to completely miserable. My legs weren’t 100%, but they felt a little better than Monday. I tried not to pay attention to my watch, and had no idea what my splits were until I checked the data, and I was kind of surprised that I got faster on each mile. I didn’t feel great, and it was slower than I’d like, but I got through the whole thing, which I don’t take for granted right now
Wednesday was only 66(!) degrees, but still really humid. My legs felt OK. My pace was fairly consistent, though mile 3 was a little slow for some reason. I kept it easy and got through it.
On Friday, it was more miserable weather. My legs felt OK, though. I took it easy with my upcoming long run. I managed to speed up a little bit on each mile. Considering everything, it was a pretty decent run.
Also, I noticed that as the week went on, my average pace had slowly gone down, and I felt like that was a positive sign.
I remember when I first saw that I had 16 miles scheduled for Saturday. I laughed, and it was definitely one of those “laugh to keep from crying” laughs. Considering my last few long runs, I figured I’d be lucky to make it to 13.1 miles. But I figured I’d give it a shot.
The weather wasn’t great, but the clouds at least kept things from warming up too much. My legs felt OK for the most part, and though I definitely felt fatigue on the last two miles, it somehow felt different than the fatigue I’ve experienced in my last few long runs that caused me to cut them short. I’d like to think I could have gotten through one more mile if I had to, but I’m glad I didn’t have to.
I had my watch show the time of day rather than the distance/time/pace for most of the run. So instead of relying on distance, I figured out after I started that I wanted to have Gu at around 8:50, 9:40, and 10:30. It turned out that ended up being 4, 7.85, and 12 miles, which is pretty close to when I would have had them if I had been going by distance.
I’m still not 100% sure what got me completely through this run, but as slow as it was, I’m really happy with it.
My mileage was definitely down this week by design. One of the possible reasons for my troubles is overtraining, and, well, reducing mileage is about the only way to fix that.
This week, I’ll have a very small increase in miles. Also, Monday is October 1, so I guess I’ll do a wrap-up for September. (Spoiler alert: It won’t be a cheerful post.)