Monday Training Update: Week Ending 8/20
This was the plan for the week:
T - 4.5 miles @ EB + Strides
Th - .5 miles @ WU, 4 miles @ tempo, .5 mile @ CD
F - 4 miles @ EA
Sa - 7 miles @ long run (blind)
As I alluded to in an earlier post, we had a family emergency earlier this week, and the scheduling conflict it created made it so that I had to move both my Tuesday and Thursday runs to indoor runs during my lunch break at work. I have to say, the treadmill is growing on me a little. I still much prefer running outside, but I also like being able to sleep in an extra hour. That said, it's still tough to mold my work schedule around that (I have to stay late to accommodate the longer break, and that's tough because I also do daycare pickup). I also ended up having to cut the .5 mile CD off my Thursday run because I had a meeting 20 minutes after and needed time to shower and cool off a little.
Friday I was back outside and it was HOT and HUMID. Ugh, that run was gross. I couldn't get comfortable at the EA pace, so I ended up running faster than my pace called for. Effort-wise, it felt fine. And if you look at my splits each mile, you can see that I kept trying to get myself to slow down. I suspect that after a few runs on the 'mill, my pace and mechanics were just off a little.
Saturday was a shorter long run, at just 7 miles. The original plan was for
@MoanasPapa and I to run it together and take turns pushing our kiddo on the jogging stroller on a pretty trail near a coffee shop we like. Typically we don't bring her on the long run, but said family emergency made our go-to childcare (my dad, who lives with us) unavailable. Anyways, as we were getting ready, we found out that the front tire tube on the stroller has a huge hole in it. We ended up deciding that I'd do my run Saturday to stay on cumulative fatigue schedule, and he would go Sunday since it was going to be pretty hot by the time I was done. We also decided that I'd just run a local route instead of driving to the trail we had talked about running on.
@MoanasPapa decided to load our kiddo on to his bike and ride part of the way with me, which was great fun. They stayed with me for 2 miles, then detoured to play at a park along the trail. I ran another 1.5 to the turnaround, then headed back and picked them back up at mile 5. Boy, I was glad I did, because I had been dreading the uphill that would come in the last mile of that run, but I ended up distracted by all the talk about how much fun they had at the park and all the things my toddler can do on the play structures now, so it made that part go by really fast. I also did pretty well with my pacing, for a blind run. Strava has me at 12:08/mi, which would be too fast, but my Apple Watch's activity app has me at 12:30, which is 3 seconds off (on the slow side).
This coming week is the toughest week of the plan. Same T, Th, F runs as last week (hopefully all outside this time), but Saturday is 10 miles. It will be my last long run before the half. I think I feel ready to do 10 miles. I don't know that I feel ready to do 13, especially with the pace requirement that Parks imposes. But, I'm putting my trust in the plan and in my determination, and hoping it all comes together in the end.