I got through another week. My long run wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped, but my runs during the week went fairly well, so there’s that. (Also, I had a brain fart on Wednesday.)
Also, I was so relieved by my long run last week, I forgot to mention that, when I was still trying to figure out what was going on, I made an appointment with a sports medicine specialist. The earliest I could get an appointment was this Tuesday. Things are better now (I think, I hope, knock on wood), but I’ll still go, and maybe the doctor will have a better idea what went wrong and how I can avoid it happening again before November 4.
Weight Check: 162.4 pounds, down 1.3 from last week. OK. I went out with my friends during the week and didn’t drink any beer. I guess that helped. All I know is, this not drinking beer thing better work.
| Day | Scheduled | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 5 miles easy | 5.01 |
| Tuesday | 4 minutes easy | 4.01 |
| Wednesday | 6 miles easy | 5.01 |
| Friday | 4 miles easy | 4.01 |
| Saturday | 17 miles easy | 16.02 |
Total: 34.06 miles
Monday was full of pleasant surprises. The weather was much better, and my legs felt much better than I expected. There was a little bit of fatigue when I had to go uphill, but otherwise, they were OK. I still kept the effort easy. but I did gradually speed up on the last 2 miles.
On Tuesday, I decided to give my legs a break and got on the treadmill. I set it to 5 mph (12:00/mile) the whole time. My legs were fine, my mind hated it, but I got through it.
Wednesday I had a brain fart, and only ran 5 miles instead of 6. Oops. Well, they were 5 pretty good miles. The weather wasn’t too bad. My legs felt fine. I did speed up a little bit at the end.
On Friday, the weather felt like August, but my legs were fine. I kept the effort easy with a long run on the schedule for Saturday, but I still managed to speed up a little bit on each mile. I was pleased, especially considering the conditions.
As for Saturday, the bottom line, it wasn’t as good as last week’s long run, but it was much better than any of my previous long runs. I’m still a little disappointed that I couldn’t get to 17, but considering that there were a few weeks where there was no way I could even get to 16, it’s not too bad.
The weather was pretty miserable, but at least the clouds stuck around, so it didn’t get any worse. My legs felt OK for most of the run, but definitely got fatigued near the end.
Like last week, I set my watch to show the time of day for most of the run, and used time instead of distance to determine when to have Gu. I ended up having it at around 4.1, 8.6, and 12.3 miles. I also stopped at water fountains along the way.
The last two miles were pretty rough, and I knew I’d need to stop at 16, but I got through it.
This week, I’ve got an 18 mile run scheduled. That should be my longest run for this training cycle. Not ideal, but at this point, my only goal is to cross the finish line in New York City.