Mon: 7.5 miles
Tue: 8 miles, including 6 hill bursts
Wed: 8 miles (trail fiasco)
Thu: 7.5 miles
Fri: 11.5 miles, including aerobic (MP) intervals
Sat: 7 miles
Sun: 17.5 miles, including 4X1 min on/off
Total: 67 miles
Overall this wasn’t too bad of a week, but it was definitely up and down, both in terms of what I accomplished and how I felt while doing it. Thanks to overdoing it the weekend before via a race on Sat followed by too hard of a long run on Sun, both in nasty hot/humid conditions, I started the week of in a bit of a hole, and I don’t think I ever fully recovered. I struggled to get my legs feeling decent, and another week of high humidity and warm temps didn’t help with that at all.
I actually felt better than I thought I might on Monday, but that was followed by a tough day on Tuesday. The hill bursts that day didn’t go too bad, and I ran a fairly solid steady-state mile after those as well (6:09), but the rest of the run felt like I was trudging through quicksand located in the midst of the Sahara Desert. Wednesday was nothing short of a fiasco. The heat index that afternoon was supposed to be 105, so we decided to head to Carvin’s Cove in search of some shade. As things turned out, a storm rolled through, so the temperature wasn’t all that bad by the time we started our run. What ensued, however, was a 60+ minute reminder of why I’m not a trail runner. The trails were wet and rough, and I was hating life while slogging around at 8 min pace dodging puddles, rocks, roots, and mud. On top of that aggravation, I felt lousy too. Overall it was just a miserable run, and I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Andrew was with me, and he and I both vowed to never return to the Cove. We both felt like we just wasted a run. How I used to do 2 hour long runs out there I don’t know, but I have new respect for those who run fast on that sort of terrain.
Friday was the best day of the week by far. It consisted of a 3 mile w-up including a couple strides then 7 miles alternating sections at marathon pace with sections at marathon pace plus 30 sec. I wound up running 4 miles “on” in 23:54 (5:58 avg) and the 3 miles “off” in 19:29 (6:30 avg) for a total of 7 miles in 43:23 (6:12 avg). It was definitely a little faster than marathon pace (6:10 would be more accurate), and due to the sauna-like conditions, the effort was much harder than marathon pace, but I wasn’t too concerned about hitting exact targets. It was more important to get in an extended effort that was solid but somewhat controlled, and that’s what I did. I felt good about it until Sat and Sun, both of which felt like crap. I don’t worry about easy days like Sat, but I like my long runs to be strong and feel decent, and that just wasn’t the case on Sun. Considering the dew point was in the 70’s and we ran some serious hills throughout, it wasn’t a bad run, but it just didn’t feel good at all. Even when I feel rough early, I normally get my legs under me for the second hour of a long run and I’m able to close it out well. That wasn’t the case this go ‘round, although I did manage to run 4X1 min on/off starting at the 1:45 mark, and the “on” sections were 5:30-5:40 pace according to Andrew’s Garmin. Not a fun day, though, and it didn’t leave me feeling very confident for CDR in six weeks.
More of the same on tap for this coming week as I continue to try to get stronger and fitter while battling the summer conditions. Hopefully I’ll get my legs under me and have a better go at it than I did this past week. In the meantime, it can be easy to lose faith and confidence, so I try to keep reminding myself that regardless of how I feel right now, if I stay at, the hard work will eventually pay off. Like the title of this blog, I just gotta keep rollin’!
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