Mon: 7.5 miles
Tue: 9 miles, including hill bursts plus steady state mile
Wed: 10 miles, including Mono Fartlek
Thu: 7.5 miles plus drills
Fri: 13 miles
Sat: 6 miles plus drills
Sun: 11 miles, including TriAdventure Summer Sprint 5k
Total: 64 miles
This was a pretty good week all considered. I got in all the work I needed and wanted to, although once again the weather had a significant impact on the quality of that work. A great example of that would be Wednesday’s workout. Andrew and I departed from the Ramada that evening with an eye on the sky, fully understanding that it was likely we were going to get wet. We didn’t see much lightning or hear much thunder, though, so we thought it might not be that bad and even tried to devise a route that would keep us away from the storm as much as possible and maybe even allow us to run around it, so to speak. This worked quite well for the first 30 min and enabled us to start our fartlek workout in dry conditions. However, during what I think was the second interval, I saw some fierce lightning and we both could tell we were in trouble. We still tried to keep to the side of the storm for as long as possible, but my quote at one point was “We’re about to run straight into the belly of the beast,” to which Andrew responded “And that’s a BIG beast!”
The last several intervals were done in monsoon-like conditions with lightning striking all around us. We completed the last interval just as the storm was getting to its height, so we wisely sought shelter in a picnic pavilion in Wasena Park, where we got to hang out for 25 minutes with a rather interesting gentleman who said he was from Harrisonburg and currently living in a tent. During that time, we witnessed crazy lightning, rain that came down in buckets, fierce wind, and finally hail, all of which reaffirmed our decision to stop and wait things out. However, when we were finally able to resume running and complete our 2.5 mile cooldown, we had both tightened up bad and quickly learned what it’s like to feel old – ha, ha.
Friday’s medium long run didn’t see an epic storm, but it was miserable nonetheless. The heat/humidity struck again, and I struggled to log 13 miles. I managed a 6:44 average for the last 7 miles, but the effort and the pace definitely didn’t match. Afterward, I had really bad cramps and figured out I’d gotten myself pretty dehydrated, and not as a result of failing to pay attention to fluid intake during the day. I also decided that gauging effort in this sort of weather is really hard. What is a very reasonable goal pace in decent conditions isn’t necessarily attainable when the conditions are brutal. I guess all we can do until this weather final breaks is do the work at whatever pace is manageable and hope the training effect still takes place and it all pays off come the fall.
Anyway, I concluded the week with my first foray into triathlon at the TriAdventure Summer Sprint in Christiansburg, VA. I completed the 5k run portion of the event, while Josh Stick did the swim and Ed Shepherd rode the bike. We won the team competition by almost 15 minutes and were well ahead of the first individual competitor as well. It was a LOT of fun, and we’re thinking about teaming up again in the future. I’ll try to put up a recap and maybe a couple pics in the next day or two.
As usual, there’s more of the same on tap for this week. I really like the way I’m feeling and the general direction my training is going. I also remain excited about some of the changes I’m making and think those things will pay big dividends a few months from now. However, for now the focus remains on CDR, and with just four weeks to go I’m getting more and more concerned about the weather. I hate to do it as nothing more than a glorified long run, but if it’s a tough weather day, that may be how it turns out. All I can do is prepare as best as possible and see what happens.
I conclude with simply one word: RUPP! Actually I can’t stop with just that. If you didn’t see the Olympic 10k final, go online and watch it. What a race! It’s been a great Olympics so far for USA distance running, and I’m looking forward to watching week two! Go USA!
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