Sunday, July 10, 2016

All by Myseeeeeellllllf

Week of July 4-11, 2016:

Mileage: 53.3, with 1 tempo run, 1 long run, and 1 double.  All of my runs were solo, which made me appreciate my running partners even more than I already did!

Monday - Cross-training Monday with a combination of spin bike (25 min.), elliptical (25 min.), and strength (40 min. of the basics) at home, due to no bootcamp class on the holiday.  I also slept until 7:30 a.m. by some miracle, so this workout was super late for me!  This workout was my one that wasn't completely alone, as Albani did the elliptical and bounced on the exercise ball for awhile with me in the workout room. We also went to Silver Dollar City on Monday (which should count as additional cross-training) - happy 4th!

There was not enough leg room in this frog
She went on River Blasters without us, as we didn't want to get soaked

Patriotic face paint
Tuesday - 12 miles total, all base and all solo.  8 miles a.m. (7:23) and 4 miles runch (7:19).  Nothing to complain about here.

Wednesday - 10.1 miles base pace (7:28), solo again.  It was extremely sauna-esque for this run even at 5:30 a.m., so I am thankful that I run pretty well in the heat (e.g., I die a little less than most people die).

Thursday -  8 miles total with 2 miles warm-up, 4 miles tempo (6:17 average), 2 miles cool-down.  This workout was meh; not wonderful but not horrible either.  My goal pace was 6:15 for the tempo miles, and I think part of the goal is to run these Thursday workouts with miles on my legs from Tuesday and Wednesday (so that I learn to run better with miles on my legs, which will help at the end of my marathons).  I could feel those miles during my warm-up already during this run, and I could tell I was going to have to work for it on this tempo! 

My first two miles were right on - both exactly 6:15 - but I didn't have pep in my step and I was pushing for that pace instead of relaxing and holding back at the beginning.  The third mile on this course is always the slowest due to a little more uphill, so I fought for a 6:20 there.  Then I tried to drop my final mile to nab my 6:15 average, but all I had left was 6:18. So my total time was 25:10 (goal time was 25:00, but of course I wanted to make it 24:5X).  

It was 76 degrees with 90% humidity, so heat-graded I did fine I'm sure.  But I was a little disappointed because last month my 4 mile tempo on this same course, also in hot conditions, was 6:13 average, and also because I can usually drop my final mile in tempos but didn't have it on this one.  But it could have been much worse! I was supposed to run strides at the end of this run but I forgot...I need a better system to remember these!

Friday - Cross-training Friday, as I alternate running 5 days a week vs 6 days a week, and this was a 5 day week. As my mileage has been increasing, my desire to cross-train has been plummeting! I think it's important for me to keep strength training for injury prevention, and because I would hate to lose all of the strength I've gained (I started bootcamp with 8 lb dumbbells and now I use 20 lb dumbbells!). So, I got it done...all by myself because I had to be at work early so couldn't go to bootcamp, and ended up doing this at lunch (2 lunch workouts in a week = very rare!). 40 minute elliptical to warm up and 30 minutes strength training. 

Saturday - 16 mile long run (7:31 average). I haven't run this far alone in at least a year, so I am pretty sure that also means that I've never run this far at this pace all alone.  I ran two 8 mile courses and that split it up nicely mentally, and allowed me to grab a bottle of water that I left on the top of my mailbox mid-way.  I didn't pay much attention to my Garmin but looked at my splits when it beeped, and was also pleased that I picked up the final 3 miles. During the last mile I did the 6 strides that I forgot to do on Thursday, and this may have made me learn my lesson about remembering them because it was sure harder to get the leg turnover going and to recover between them having run 15 miles already! After this run, I feel like I am officially marathon training. And it officially takes 2 screenshots to get my time and splits in, so it's a real long run - right?!!

Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Sunday - 7.2 miles base (7:38). I started off this run feeling like I was running about 8:45 pace (and had no qualms about keeping it easy, whatever that was) - so was pleasantly surprised when my first mile beeped off around 7:45. I have gotten much stronger on my Sunday recovery runs in the past year, as I used to barely slog through 3 miles at 8:30-8:45 on these days!

I am looking forward to running most, possibly all, of my runs next week with running friends again!

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