As if my lengthy Strava activity titles aren’t already enough, I’ve decided to start writing a weekly blog post to recap my training and share whatever thoughts I’m having about running at the time. This is mostly because I have a lot of feelings about this sport and I need a place to dump them – and my husband can only take so much of my rambling. I also tend to spend less time thinking about stuff if I write it out, and goodness knows I could use some extra space in my head! Plus, I enjoy reading my friends’ running blogs (and occasionally even the running blogs of people I don’t know in person), so maybe someone out there will enjoy reading mine, too.
At any rate, I suppose I’ll start by giving some background about what I’ve been up to since the Frederick Half. After pouring my heart and soul into that race and coming up just short of achieving a lofty goal (despite setting a number of PRs in the process), I have wanted nothing to do with hard running. I was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted for probably about two whole months. I continued running almost daily, as per usual, but hard efforts were few and far in between, and I had more “bad” days than I’d had in a while. After running a paltry 20:30-something in the brutally-humid Independence 5000 on July 1, I realized that I needed to take some kind of a break. I didn’t want to stop running, though, so I decided that until further notice, I was just going to run for the sake of running – wherever and at whatever pace I wanted. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the change in my attitude was almost instant after I began doing that. The joy of my beloved hobby quickly started to return.
Still, though, the heat and humidity this time of year are tough. It’s hard to get excited about going out when the dew point is in the 70s (and let’s be real here: especially in a long running skirt). Because of this, I haven’t wanted to commit to any fall racing goals just yet; I’m just not in the mood to train to race at the moment.
That being said, my mileage right now is still pretty high – I’ve averaged in the low 60s over the past four weeks, and I haven’t even done any fairly significant long runs. I have just genuinely been enjoying going out for longer jaunts. Also probably unsurprisingly, this has led me to start thinking about the prospect of trying my hand at training for a longer distance fall race. I haven’t run a marathon since Gettysburg 2014, and part of me can’t help but think about how after five attempts, I still haven’t really gotten any closure in my relationship with the 26.2 distance. I’m not committing to anything yet, but I do kind of have a 3:43 PR that is just begging to be shattered…
Anyway, here’s the recap of the week:
Monday, 7/24 – 6.2 miles @ 8:43 on the treadmill. This was the day after I had run 15 hilly miles through Middletown in the blazing heat, and also two days after Run for the Pie, so I kept it short and very easy. My legs seemed to enjoy the flat goodness of the treadmill, and I actually felt a lot better than I thought I would.
Tuesday, 7/25 – 7.2 miles @ 6:59 with Louis on Tempo Tuesday, with the first 5K in 19:40 (6:38, 6:12, 6:13) and slower for the rest. My office had a dessert party during lunch on this day, and I ate two bowls of ice cream and some cake. I was so full all afternoon that I ended up skipping the usual 5K Tuesday warm-up loop. By the time I started running, the group had already left, and I had to run fast to catch up with them. I did, and then I just kept going fast. The 6:12 and 6:13 miles were done around the cemetery, and this run marked the first time ever that I hit two sub-6:20 miles during a training run, so I was pretty stoked.
Wednesday, 7/26 – 7.6 miles @ 8:33. Wednesday mornings after a hard Tuesday evening session are notoriously difficult for me, and this day was no exception. As usual, I took it very easy and opted to stick with a reasonably flattish route close to work. The weather was a bit cooler and less humid than it has been lately, so this run felt a good bit less painful.
Thursday, 7/27 – 9.5 miles @ 8:36. I woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat and some congestion, and by the time my alarm went off in the morning, things hadn’t gotten much better. I had initially hoped for this to be a harder effort on a hilly route, but I opted to keep both my pace and terrain a lot more conservative in hopes of not exacerbating whatever illness had befallen me. This seemed to work, as my body didn’t feel particularly stressed, but I still wouldn’t exactly suggest that running 9.5 miles while sick is a smart decision.
Friday, 7/28 – 5.1 miles @ 8:58 on the treadmill. I noticed a marked improvement over how I felt yesterday, but I still opted to play it safe and slow this morning. I have been really hoping that I might be able to get a solid long run in this weekend, but I’m coming to terms with the fact that that might not happen. At any rate, I’m doing my best not to lose fitness while this sickness runs its course, but simultaneously trying to be careful not to push my body too hard. It’s a fine (and unfortunately quite blurry) line.
Saturday, July 29 – 16.3 miles @ 8:27. Perhaps against my better judgment, I went for the long run, after all. I slept incredibly well and woke up early, and after a little lounging around with my husband, I decided that I felt well enough to attempt a long run at an easy pace. The plan was to run to church from my house (since Curt and I had to be at the church for a 10am meeting, anyway), and if I wasn’t feeling it along the way, I would call Curt and have him pick me up. Of course, that didn’t happen – the weather was excellent for this time of year (high 60s, a bit breezy, and rained lightly for the final six miles) and thanks to my determination to keep the effort level very relaxed, I felt great.
Sunday, July 30 – 8.5 miles @ 8:31. The weather was fantastic this morning: sunny and a start time temperature of 58 degrees. With all of the stuff I have going on at church, Sundays are always extremely busy for me, so I wanted to keep the effort level of this run pretty low in order to avoid taxing my already-weakened system too much. I added a hill at the beginning of the run (~180 feet of climb over .75 miles), but otherwise I ran the route that I usually run when I want something flattish and close to home. I felt pretty solid, but I could definitely feel the 16 miles in my legs from the previous day.
Weekly Total: 60.6 miles, 2158 feet of elevation gain
I was absolutely thrilled to end this week with over 60 miles, especially since I thought that I was going to have to scrap my long run thanks to that sickness. I didn’t get as much quality work in as I would have liked and my nutrition this week could have been better, but I’m still incredibly grateful that I was able to run every day.
runjdon 