Week in Review

Goal: 80-90 Miles

Actual:
85 Miles
4 Doubles
15.5 Mile Long Run
2 Workouts
1 Dance Lesson

Considering I was in Atlanta for three days this week and in a car for a full day, this was definitely a successful week.  I performed all the workouts on the plan and hit my target mileage, despite high temperatures and no training partners for two days.  I enjoyed a fabulous visit with my sister who came all the way from California to hang out!  The humidity here didn't scare her away and we were able to enjoy a couple of my easy runs together as she rollerbladed alongside me through the houses of Myers Park.

Our trip to Atlanta was filled with several, expensive trips to Whole Foods in Buckhead and some wedding shopping at Lenox Square.  Vanessa was a good sport when I took off for five hours to attend Ottie and Sheryl's wedding where I reunited with several of my Wake Forest teammates and reminisced on past memories that I would have rather forgotten.  Of course, I was the designated driver and spent almost thirty minutes carting around several very drunk former teammates before finally settling on dropping them off at Taco Mac for them to continue on in their drunken activities.  It was at that moment that I wished Garrett were there because either 1) he would be my sober wing man or 2) I would be in the backseat participating in the debauchery with my friends, acting just as obnoxious.  Clearly, option 1 was what I was stuck in, which was fine because I had a lot of fun hearing their antics.

Next week I'll be in Charlotte for the entire time and am looking to hit 95 miles, which will mark my all time high!!!

8x800m repeats

Goal:
8x800m with 2:00 rest at 2:40-2:44

Actual:
3 mile warmup
8x800m in 2:43 (1:58), 2:42 (1:51), 2:41 (1:52), 2:41 (1:47), 2:40 (1:48), 2:44 (1:55), 2:41 (1:50), 2:43
3 mile cool down for 10 miles total

Had a nice crew out in the morning for this one...Billy, Caleb and Spada all met at the Speed Loop for some 800m fun.  We alternated the 800m route by going back and forth, which meant that the even numbered intervals were considering harder and more uphill.  However, this change in the route made it a bit easier to mentally handle 8 repetitions.  At the start of the first interval, I kept my new plan in mind and stayed in the back of the pack to let the boys take the lead.  Caleb stayed next to me for the first 6 intervals, who again proved to be a trusty sidekick to keep me going.  While I hoped this effort would feel a lot easier, it felt somewhat difficult and I was ready for it to be over after 5 reps.  I didn't want to bail in front of all the guys, so I pushed my own discomfort aside and kept going.  Really, finishing a workout is quite simple when you put your mind 100% into the game and just convince yourself it's really just not that hard.  That's what I did today.

Now off to Atlanta I go for Ottie and Sheryl's wedding!

5 Mile Wave

Goal:
5 mile wave at 3:05/2:50

Actual:

3 mile warmup
5 mile Wave at an estimated 3:10/3:00
1.5 mile cool down for 9.5 miles total
4.5 miles in the PM

Since I spent 9 hours in the car and returned home from Indiana last night at 10PM, this workout was doomed before I even laced up my shoes.  It's difficult to stay hydrated while in the car for that long and it probably prevented healthy blood flow from my legs.  I didn't feel bad on my warmup, but once I started the workout, it was really difficult to hit my target paces even though my breathing was fine.  My legs just didn't have that extra gear.  It was definitely hot and humid, and I think that some days it affects me more than other days.  Today was not particularly a great one, but even after my Garmin died, I maintained a hard/medium effort for the whole five miles.  My cool down was ridiculously slow, but it was all that my legs could muster.  Looking forward to a better workout on Friday.

Week in Review

63 miles
1 Double
2 Workouts
0 Long Runs

As I perused Facebook today, I saw that all of my friends either hit triple digit mileage weeks or at least came very close to that.  I did not.  Of course, after the initial disappointment in my measly 60-something mileage week faded, I realized why I had a lower mileage week and my self pity party ended. Why?  Because whenever I visit Garrett, time becomes very precious and priorities shift. For example, a typical baseball schedule goes something like this:

• Be at field (in 105 degree heat) for baseball game from 4-10:30PM
• Eat with Garrett from 10:30PM-11:30PM
• Shower and hang out from 11:30-12:30AM
• Sleep and wake up at 10:00AM

As you can tell, the schedule above isn't very conducive to summer running because going to bed at 1AM and waking up at 5AM to beat the heat don't really mix so well.  I only get 5-6 hours to spend with Garrett during the day, and considering that these are the only two days I'll see him over the course of four months, those are some very precious hours.  So precious that leaving to run for 2.5 hours is the last thing I wanted to do...so I didn't.  In fact, every time that I visit Garrett in season, my running numbers plummet so drastically that I should know by now that trying to hit my mileage targets is most likely never going to happen. So, all of that to say that I didn't do my 16 mile long run this morning as Mark had outlined on my training plan.  To my defense, this long run was the least important of my three workouts this week, so this was the one to skip.  As much as I would love to pretend that I'm a professional runner, I am not, and for that reason life sometimes gets in the way--whether it's spending quality time with loved ones, staying late at work to meet a deadline, or getting sick.  While running brings me so much joy, sometimes it takes a lower priority because it isn't the end-all, be-all in my life.

Enough about that--in more exciting news, I got a new training plan from Mark Hadley to take me through Philly.  I've got some big goals for Philly and I want to play my cards right this time, so I'm really trying to adjust some major things:

1. Actually finish my workouts.  How will I do that?  I'll actually run closer to my marathon pace.  I typically try to PR in all of my workouts.  What I've realized is that for marathon training, it's not necessarily about running as fast as you possibily can for as long as possible.  Instead, it's more about making your marathon pace (or 5-10 seconds faster than your marathon pace) feel as easy, relaxed and comfortable as possible. I want 5:50-6:00 pace to feel like a walk in the park, so I'll need to actually slow some of my key workouts down to ensure I finish them all.
2. Shorten the distance in my speed workouts.  Instead of trying to hit 5-6 miles of quality speed work, I'm not only going to hit 4 miles.  This is because I typically feel great on one workout, feel like shit on the next, and mediocre on the third...and the cycle repeats.  I'd rather feel great on all three and the key to this will be to reduce the amount of miles I'm trying to post some fast time on.
3. Run more doubles.  I want to finally hit the upper 90s or even the triple digits this time around, and that usually means more doubles to run!  While this will be a slight adjustment, it really won't be too terrible as it's just a couple of miles here or there.

I'm really excited to execute my training plan into a reality (of course, next week since I skipped my long run this week).