Good week (but sore legs)

Since I was off I managed to get my 3 runs in this week. I ran 5 miles on the hot streets of Washington on Wednesday, 5 on the treadmill on Friday, and just slogged out 14 miles back home.

As per my little calendar, I probably should have put in 16 or 18 today, but my legs were sore. Part of it is from recent ramp up in running. But I actually think a bigger problem was all the walking I did in D.C. I don't have good tourist shoes, and at the end of the day that really hurt me. So today I started heading back home just after 6 miles. When I was close to home I felt I can stuff another 2 miles in, so I went on a detour. (I actually felt like doing another detour to get the mileage closer to where I thought I should be - but I didn't want to tempt fate anymore.)

I did much better than I've done the last few weeks. I left earlier in the morning, and the weather wasn't as bad. At the end I could feel the sun coming out - and I was glad I was almost done!

I finished off the month with 85 miles. I haven't run that much since before my last marathon 2 years ago. (To be fair though, there were 5 weekends in August!) It's left with me with a nice gentle ramp over this year. (A slight jump this month - but remember, 5 weekends!)


Of course, if you look at it near the training for my last marathon, you can get a better sense of where I stand.

June/July/August 2007: 317 miles.
June/July/August 2009: 203 miles.

It's ok. My expectations are lower as well. I'd just like to finish it feeling well this time.

Still weekend warrior-ing

...and it's not a good thing.

So from my last run of 12.19 2 weeks ago, I ran once in the first week 3.69 miles. Then 13.30 on the weekend. This week I did nothing. Zero. And then 15.77 miles today. I wonder why it's so hard!!

Anyway, here are some graphs for the purpose of analysis.

Last week's run:


In the first graph each bar is a "lap". And so the short bars are when I was running. They all kind of seem the same height, but over time I was walking more and taking longer walking breaks. The second graph shows the splits by mile. You can see how the time for each mile increased as the run went on.

It was really hot last week, and very hard to stay out there so long. This week I tried to get out earlier. I ended up waking up early, but I just can't get out the door. I watch the end of the marathon in Berlin today (too bad about Kara Goucher) and just futzed around until it was late. Within about 5 minutes of running it started drizzling - which was actually nice. Most of the run was bearable, but the last hour was really hot and unbearable again.



Three graphs this time. The first one is the laps. The second one shows the running laps in closer detail. You can see that I was able to keep the running time even up until those last few "laps". In the third graph you can see I was doing pretty well through about 14 miles. (The dips on 10 and 12 was when I was feeling a bit stronger and went a little more than a mile without a walk break.) The last two miles was when the heat got to me and I was walking about as much as I was running. I couldn't keep up the running for more than half a mile at a time - even though I was only a couple of miles from home.

Anyway, I was happier this week, but I definitely need to get some mid week running in. I'm taking a few days off this week, so it looks a little more promising.

In other news, Shoreturtle celebrated his 5th year of running anniversary (and 1000th post!). This made me look my first post up, since I knew it was in August. Well, it turns out my first post was on his 1st running anniversary. And so this blog is officially 4 years old. ( I'm only up to 335 posts. Like many other things, this blog has become a little less productive as it aged. But hopefully it still has some value!) In any case, Happy Blogiversary to me!

Weekend Warrior + One

Since my last post, I've just been kind of winging it. I made a schedule, but can't seem to stick to it. Definitely a bad thing, but I hope to get better in the weeks to come. It's hard though, with the weather and work conspiring to get in the way. (And laziness too.)

I see to have become a weekend warrior + one. That is, I run one long run on the weekend, and seem to only get one short run in during the week. In the last three weeks, this is how it went.
Week 1: 5.65 on Friday (treadmill), 3.08 on Sunday (too hot, had to call it quits!)
Week 2: 6.18 on Monday (kind of a make-up), 4.1 on Friday (treadmill), 10.15 on Sunday
Week 3: 5.35 on Friday, 12.19 on Sunday

I really need to get in more mid-week runs. So today I'm kind of resting from my 12 mile run yesterday. Tomorrow I'd like to go to the track. But I was on call over the weekend, and now have a case in the operating room tomorrow morning at 7:30. Which means I can leave my house the latest at 7. So I can definitely make it to the track - but I have to go around 5:30 at the latest. Hard to get that motivation when I'm tired. And then in the evening I run out of time or it gets too hot or I'm too lazy....

Anyway, one more rant. Weather.com is totally inaccurate. Last Sunday it projected rain starting at 10. Not rain, but "isolated thunderstorms". This was the forecast Saturday night, so it was less than 12 hours in advance. And so I made myself get up early so that I was running by 7:30. It was really dark as I headed to the park, and by the time I was about 30 seconds in it started raining. No isolated thunderstorms, just heavy rain for 2 hours straight. (I was walking back around 10, and that's when it stopped!) My running shoes were wet all week.

Fast forward to yesterday. Forecast says rain. I make the decision to run anyway, and since I'm on call I head out early. I pack my hospital-issued phone in a ziplock bag and take it with me. Beautiful perfect weather. About 3 drops of drizzle over a 2 hour run!

Somehow it makes me feel in control to check the weather online. But perhaps I'd just be better making up the weather in my mind. Anybody else have the same experience?

Finally, I've been doing the run/walk thing for most of my runs lately. I think I'm just not in shape enough to keep running all that time. I never really liked this in the past, but it's what I've got now. One thing I'd like to work on is shortening the breaks. Right now they can be from 2 to 4 minutes in length. I think if I get it down to 1 minute or so, I'll be a little happier.



This is yesterday's run. My pace for the running segments was 9:44, 9:36, 9:33, 9:32, 9:13, 9:27. Overall, my pace for the run was 10:18. Not horrible, but not great. I think I'd like to get that below 10:00. At least for the marathon.