Hi all!! I hope everyone had a good weekend as we enter MID JULY!! Where has the time gone??
I know what I’ve been doing–running!! And this week was a pretty good week in that department.
Last Monday I spent my usual 45 minutes on the bike and did a few core strengthening videos at home. Nothing too exciting.
Tuesday morning I had all the intentions of doing some strength training videos but I had my monthly lady visitor (sorry guys, tmi) and I was not in the mood for anything at all. In fact, I pretty much laid in bed all day until it was time for me to run.
I made it out to my run club at 6 and had 5 miles on the plan. It was super hot–nothing new–and I wasn’t feeling well. I think that’s why I ran so fast, 9:17/mile–I wanted to get it over with lol!
Hot run.
I still wasn’t myself Wednesday and continued to rest until it was time for me to run. Wednesdays are speed work days with my run club so I made it out to the track with the hopes I could muster the energy for a good run.
On the plan were 6x800s. My coach asked me what my goal pace was (4:00-05) and he said he’d pace me. This was both a good and bad thing. Good because it would hold me accountable, bad because it would hold me accountable.
I nailed the first 800 at 4:04 and the second at 4:02. Things were getting speedy with the third one at 3:58 and the fourth one was back at 4:03.
I was loving the consistency; I was on a roll!!
And then my hands started to itch….
here we go again. 😦 I let my coach know I was feeling an allergy attack coming and that I was going to have to cut the workout short.
I was super bummed.
Thursday morning I managed to crawl myself out of bed to run with the 5 at 5 crew. I was still feeling the effects of the previous night’s Benedryl so I took the 5 miles nice and easy, 10:09/average.
Friday was a rest day I took full advantage of.
My long run schedule for Saturday had 14 miles and I knew I would have to have an early start. I woke up before my alarm (at 3:15!!) and in my still half asleep brain, forgot to pack fuel in my water pack! I didn’t realize this until I had already met up with my friend crazy enough to run with me at 4 in the morning. She had extra fuel I could use but I was worried as it was not anything I had tried before.
The plan was to run 6 miles and then meet up with the rest of our run club at 5 a.m. Our friends we were meeting up with had 8 miles on their schedule so it worked out perfectly in that I’d have company for my entire run.
My splits for this run were all over the place. From the start, I just couldn’t get into a good rhythm.
Nowhere near as consistent as my 800s on Wednesday lol!
When we finally met up with my 5 a.m. friends, my 4 a.m. buddy needed a potty break so I hung out with the other gals. While I waited, I took the unfamiliar Gu and knew it was not going to work (Mocha is not my go-to flavor). My other friend had some Honey Stinger chews (which are super yummy) but I think with the combination of that and mocha, my stomach was just not feeling it. I had to stop to use the restroom when I got to mile 8.
And it was just hard to get going. I couldn’t maintain a steady pace and the whole run just felt uncomfortable. When we got to the bridge that signaled one mile left, I did some quick math in my head and saw that I was near to averaging my goal LSD pace of 10:00/mile. I’d have to pull off a pretty fast mile 14 to help pad the average but I’ve been liking finishing strong anyway so I went for it. Mile 14 was 9:06!
Splits still all over the place but yay last mile!
It was a tough run but I was still very pleased that I got it done. Plus, it’s these tough ones that make us mentally stronger, right?
Total mileage for the week: 26
–How do you get yourself into a nice rhythm when you just feel off?
–Do you have a preferred flavor/type of fuel?
I hope everyone has a Happy Monday!! ❤ , helly
