5 Mile Wave

Goal:
5 Mile Wave at 3:00-3:05/2:45-2:50

Actual:
2-ish warmup
3:03/2:53
3:02/2:54
2:58/2:51
2:59/2:55
2:59/2:53
2 mile cool down

14.5 miles for the day

I've been spending so much time watching the Olympics that I haven't been going to bed at a reasonable hour, so needless to say that when my alarm went off, I wasn't having any of it.  So, I just did a short double and then texted Matt to see if he wanted to workout in the evening.  Matt is almost always guaranteed to be willing to workout in the evening.  I wasn't feeling too hot, so when we went to the Dilworth Speed Loop, I just figured that I would go on feel and try to not focus on the time.

We started out and Matt would be a little ahead of me on the fast, and then I would get a little ahead of him on the easy part.  Essentially, I should have slowed down more on the easy portions of this workout, but I felt good so I just kept going.  Matt dropped off after 4 miles, so I was left solo for the final mile.  In the end, I didn't hit the goal times for the fast portion, but I also went too fast for the easy portion.

Week in Review

95 Miles
4 Doubles
19.5 Mile Long Run
2 Failed Workouts
1 Bike/Car Accident

This marks my second week of running in the upper 90's for my mileage.  Fortunately, this time around it felt much easier. Somehow I even managed to run only 5 miles on Friday and still hit 95 for the week.  In my spare time, I watched hours of the Olympic Games, sometimes fast-forwarding through events like the men's road cycling since it lasted like five hours.  I've seen more heartbreak than victory at this point, but then I remembered that out of the 10,000 athletes that have made it to the Olympics, only a couple hundred of them will walk away with a medal. So, in the end, the Olympics is typically filled with more heart-wrenching defeats rather than inspiring victories.  However, I still believe that every athlete at the Olympics is a Champion in some way shape or form because they can say that they are one of the top athletes in the world.

Speaking of the Olympics, I'll be flying to London next Thursday to watch the women's 10,000m track final and the women's marathon.  I'm not sure what kind of mileage I'll be able to hit while I'm in London due to the expected crowds in the places I would typically run--Hyde Park--but I'm crossing my fingers that I'll still be able to get in some pretty high volume.  I'm running with Meagan's friend Emily Kroshus who also happens to be good friends with Heather Magill, so that should help me at least get some solid miles in without even thinking about it too much.  I can't wait!

Workout Fail

Goal:
8 mile progression from 6:20-5:50

Actual:
3-ish warmup
5 Miles in 31:00 (6:12 average)
4 miles cool down for 12 miles total

Yeah this workout was an epic fail. I know that my latest goal is to not drop out of workouts, but I think this deserves a special exception given the circumstances.  Essentially, I ran within 2 seconds my road PR in a 5k on Saturday night, and then 12 hour later, ran for 1:40 at Salem Lake in the humidity.  Then I floated a river in the sun for three hours.  I think that this alone took a lot more out of my body than I had expected.  In hindsight, I kind of wish I had just not done a workout at all today, but there were so many people running a tempo from the dowd that I couldn't resist.  In the end, I got in 5 miles of a poor tempo at a slower pace than I'm used to, but at least I got in some sort of decent workout in this weather.

Week in Review

73 Miles
2 Doubles
13 Mile Long Run
5k Race in 17:04
$380 in prize money

This was a down week to prepare for the NC 5k Championships at the Beat the Heat 5k in Winston Salem.  I posted a good pre-race workout, enjoyed racing at the 5k, and got in some solid miles at my old stomping grounds at Salem Lake.  The heat and humidity is probably at an all time high, meaning it's absolutely awful and sweaty and squishy and just plain nasty.  Every run ends with a puddle of sweat on the sidewalk, at least four gatorade bottles consumed, and a soaked pair of shoes that require newspaper to dry out. In just two weeks I'll be in London, spectating at the Women's 10,000m final and the Women's marathon.  Can't wait!