It’s officially the start of my taper, even I feel like I’ve been tapering since August.
Monday’s run kinda sucked. The rest of the week was…good? Who stole my legs and replaced them with somewhat functioning ones? And why didn’t you do that in August?
Saturday was the biggest pleasant surprise of the week. It was one of those runs that will stick in my mind for a good reason. (Unlike certain other runs that I wish I could forget.)
Weight Check: 164.8 pounds, same as last weigh-in. I did my official weigh-in on Saturday morning, before my run, because I knew I’d be heading up the road to visit my parents that afternoon and wouldn’t be home until Sunday afternoon (this is also why I’m posting on Monday), and I’d rather do my weigh-in first thing in the morning. I’m OK with a zero when my weigh-in comes before my long run.
| 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 | 13 miles easy | 13.11 |
Total: 31.15 miles
On Monday, the weather was nice (59 degrees), but that’s the only good thing I can say about the run. My legs felt pretty rough, and my paces were both slow and inconsistent. Recovering from a long run is not fun.
Tuesday was my now usual treadmill run. My legs felt much better than Monday. My mind hated it, of course, but my legs really needed the break. I kept it at 12:00/mile, 5 mph the whole time.
On Wednesday, I got one last day of really miserable weather, I guess. My legs felt OK, but they didn’t want to move all that fast. I settled into a rhythm in miles 2, 3, and 4, started to slow down a little on the last mile, but then pushed some more at the end. Not great, but I got through it.
Friday felt cool, but really comfortable. My legs felt OK. I kept a fairly steady pace (and effort) on the first three miles, then started pushing a bit during the last mile and finished strong.
Then there was Saturday.
Yeah, this run is clearly a front-runner for Best Run for October. Hell, it could be my Best Run of 2018 (although right now, that’s a really low bar to clear). But it didn’t start out all that great.
When I got up, I knew it was going to be kind of warm and humid with a chance of rain. And I really didn’t want to go out there and run. I finally stopped stalling and drove over to Freedom Park. I ended up starting at 8:55 AM, which isn’t good. At least I knew that it wasn’t really going to get much warmer than the temperate at the start, 63 degrees.
I got through the first mile in 12:22, and thought, hey that’s not bad. I kept going, and I felt good. Yeah, it started raining, and at one point I had to get around some people doing a walk for the Hydrocephalus Association. On the plus side, some volunteers from Adopt-a-Stream were in Little Sugar Creek cleaning things up, and I made sure to thank them, since it’s nice to be able to run along a creek that isn’t full of junk.
I was able to keep a fairly steady pace between 12:00 and 12:30 per mile. I did have one mile that was 11:32, which was probably a bit faster than I should have been going at that point, but it wasn’t enough to mess things up. When I got to mile 12, I had enough left in the tank to push it, so I did. Mile 13 was my fastest full mile, 11:24, and since I couldn’t stop just a tenth of a mile away from a half marathon, I kept going, and in the last .11 I had an average pace of 10:51/mile.
Oh, and as it turned out, it was my last run in my 5th and final pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 17s. Here’s a picture after I finished. I know, parking lot, but I was able to stand under a tree and not get rained on.
They didn’t make it into any races, but they did get to go to Portland with me, and I’d say they went out with a bang.
Man, I needed that run.
Well, it’s now less than 2 weeks to New York City. This week, I’ll continue to taper (Spolier alert: My first run of the week this morning went well), and my long run will be only 9 miles. Yeah, only 9 miles. A few weeks ago, 9 miles seemed at the edge of my ability. Now, I’m feeling pretty good about it.