Monday Tuesday Training Update (Week 9): Week Ending 3/18
This was the plan for the week:
M - 4 @ EA
Tu - 5 @ EB + strides
Th - 1 @ WU, 3 @ tempo, .5 @ CD
F - 5 @ EB + strides
S - 8 @ LR (blind)
So week 9 was significantly backed-off week relative the prior week. I got to looking at my plan and realized that week 8 (the prior week) was the second-toughest week of this plan. The context helped me feel much better about how run down I felt.
Anyways, how'd I do in week 9? Well, I had to make some adjustments. As I've written previously, I had to skip Monday because we were traveling. Tuesday's run was cut by a mile for time, and I definitely was still feeling a little run down. I went in to Thursday prepared to back my tempo run down to an EB run if the tempo felt too tough, but it felt totally fine. I had some knee tightness, but nothing major. Friday's 5 miler was even more comfortable, and I felt like I was pretty much back to form.
Saturday's run was a bit of a bummer in that A) I had to cut it short for time and B) my blind pacing wasn't great. I'm still not sure what happened, but I thought I had an alarm set for 6:30, which would have given me plenty of time to get my run in and get back in time to shower, eat, and head to gymnastics with our kiddo. But either the alarm went off and I silenced it (which is unlikely) or I blatantly didn't set it. Anywhoooo... I woke up at 7:22 when my kiddo did. I knew we had a jam-packed day and I also needed to leave a window for
@MoanasPapa to get his LR in, so I decided to scramble and get in what I could, which ended up being about 6.5 miles. It wasn't my most enjoyable run, I think mostly because I kept watching the clock to make sure I got back in time to shower before we had to leave. As it was, I cut it close. This run was also blind, and I overran it. My average pace was 10:45, a full minute faster than I am supposed to run my LRs at. I'm usually better at hitting LR pace or close to it, so I'm not sure why the overrun happened.
I missed yesterday's run. We'll see soon if it ended up being for good reason. Today was back on schedule, and the run felt nice and easy (only four miles?! and two of those at WU/CD?! i'll take it!).
TWO gear updates:
- I had my first run with the Garmin and I can tell I'm going to like it a lot better than the AppleWatch for running. For the time being, I'm still using the AppleWatch the rest of the day. I know it means I'll miss out on some Garmin metrics, but I like and use a lot of the every-day features of the AppleWatch, I just thought it wasn't a great running watch. I'm happy that I got it for under $250, too. We put the extra cash we had set aside for the 645 towards new clothes for our kid, who is growing like a weed.
- I got a pair of Altra Escalantes at REI this weekend. I plan to use them as walking shoes on the weekends/at theme parks. After the calf/ankle/foot pain I had on the Universal day when I was in LA, I got to thinking about what was going on. I realized that I typically prefer to walk in flat shoes like flip flops or Toms, or even barefoot. But I also wanted to give myself some cushion. The Altras fit the bill on both fronts. I won't run in them because I like the running set up I have now, but I wore them to the grocery store Saturday afternoon after my (abbreviated) LR and felt even better than after I finished my run... I really like the heel cushion in particular. I can't help but think that it's funny how much I've shifted towards function/physical comfort over style - they're nothing at all to look at, but it's important to me to feel good as a runner these days.