Weekly Wrap-Up: October 8-14

I got through the week. I lost power, the weather finally got better, and I made it through 18 miles. I don’t think any of last week was pretty.

Technically, my taper has started, but considering I’ve been running reduced mileage since, oh, August, I don’t know how to tell the difference.

Oh, I did finally get to see a sports medicine specialist last week. He said my legs seemed perfectly OK. Which is nice, I guess. I just wish they could move me a little bit faster.

Weight Check: 164.8, up 2.4 pounds from last week. Yikes. It was a bad, stressful week. I suppose 164.8 isn’t that terrible, it’s less than a pound overweight for me. I still need to buckle down a bit this week. I don’t need to be carrying around a bunch of extra weight for 26.2 miles in New York City in less than 3 weeks.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Monday 6 miles easy 6.01
Tuesday 4 minutes easy 4.01
Wednesday 6 miles easy 6.01
Friday 4 miles easy 4.01
Saturday 18 miles easy 18.01

Total: 38.05 miles

Monday I had the day off and got out there a little later than I’d like, so it was a little warmer. My legs weren’t 100%, but better than I’d expect so soon after a long run. I did manage to speed up a bit in the 2nd half of the run, and I did increase my effort a bit near the end.

On Tuesday, I went with the treadmill. My mind didn’t like it, but my legs did. As usual, I stayed at 5 mph, or 12:00/mile pace, the whole time.

Wednesday the weather was really miserable. It had rained, so everything was damp, I could see mist with my headlamp, and of course the humidity was 100%. My legs felt OK, though, and I got through it.

At some point Thursday, as Michael came through, I lost power. (Side note: I’m glad Thursday was a strength training day so I could safely stay inside as the storm approached.) When I woke up Friday morning, I still had no power. I decided the easiest thing to do (since I’d have to drive into the office, which I normally don’t do on Fridays) would be to go to the Y so I could get on the treadmill and take a shower afterwards. It was the first time in a long time that the weather outside the Y (low 50s) was better than inside. My mind hated it, of course, but my legs were fine with it, and I stuck with the usual 12:00/mile or 5 mph pace the whole time.

Next was Saturday.

I got through it.

The weather was much nicer, about 57 and lower humidity. My legs felt OK at first. Even from mile 10 to about 15, they weren’t too bad. I started to feel worse at 16, and at 17, I had to walk. But at 18, I decided to try running again, and it was really tough at first, but as I went along, I started feeling better and gradually increased my pace, getting up to somewhere between 11:00 and 12:00 per mile pace near the end. So it was a nice recovery.

I stopped for water roughly once per mile (not because it was hot, but because that’s how the aid stations in NYC will be set up), and since I wanted to have Gu 4 times throughout the run, I went with 3, 7, 11, and 15 miles.

I don’t feel great about mile 17, but I’m glad I was able to recover. My theory is that I don’t really have as much of a base as I’d like, and that could be why the last two weeks I’ve struggled near the end, although it’s still much, much better than running out of steam around mile 10 or 11.

So, yeah, now it’s time for the taper, I guess. I do have a 13 miler scheduled for Saturday, which I will of course turn into a 13.1 mile run, because I’m stubborn like that.