XT!
<3 my tribe! Stone Mountain 2 mile sunset hike. :)
Monday
Distance - 6.2
Pace - 9:32
First one to the parking lot gets to .. go home!
Unexpectedly zippy for a Monday morning. Which belies the fact that I am feeling so generically tired, 12 weeks in, and with 10 weeks to go! I was hoping for a short 5 miles, or a slow 10k. But apparently, Michele is BAAACKK, and chasing her kept me movin', as did the thought of stopping sooner! ;) Eventually, though, I was REALLY pushing the pace, all by my lonesome again, and to heck with it, lets just see what I can do when its not 80 degrees out .. because ... why not.
Then .. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Oh wait, no. Just the start to the work week. Mergh. Is it October yet? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
Tuesday
Distance - Nada
Guilt trips. Guilt trips everywhere. I wanted to do 8 miles. I left them for 7:15 PM. Solo. Bad idea. Instead, I spent some time doing all the chores and driving around that I had been ignoring for weeks. Ah life.
Wednesday
XT or REST
Missing a training day really wrecks havoc on a 5x week running plan. 4x a week = almost no problem. There's another spare day. But if you miss a Tuesday, your choices are to shove it in on Wednesday, and then hope that making your long run a 4th consecutive work out in the week is not a bad idea. (Hint: it is). Or you take the (now 2nd) rest day as prescribed, and live with more guilt.
I am giving myself an in-between. The punishment I reserve for especially bad behavior: tomorrow, I work out at 5 AM. Lol. By default, I will probably push harder than I would have for tempo or speed work elsewhere, and the 4 AM start will get me back on early morning schedule. Fingers crossed, I wake up. :)
Saddest thing ever!
Thursday
Distance: 1 WU, 5 x 1000 / 400m, 1 CD
I had such well-meaning intentions for this work out. But things conspired against me! (for realz). The 1 WU was a little more work than I would normally shoot for (although, truth be told, not a lot more than the pace Kyle and I kept the week before at Fowler). But I for sure heard a little heaving breathing coming from my general direction up the hills to the track!
Then there was the darkness. 5 AM track work is rough! Its a little cooler .. but in July, almost not even THAT much cooler. No air movement, lots of humidity. Eeew. But the worst part was for sure not being able to see my watch. How can you try to hit a target that you can't see? I'm not an elite .. I have no idea what my target pace 'feels' like. In the dark, I'd also lose track of which line was the go, and which line was the stop. And finally, not only no pod to run on top of, like at Suwanee, but I couldn't really even see where the rest of the folks running with me were AT ALL. So ALL of that is going to get the blame. I hit my 4:59 (aggressive target) once. 5:10 (more accurate for what I am trying to do in Chicago) maybe twice, and twice off by over 30s or more. Even the second one I *really* tried on, I couldn't see to stop my watch, and ended up unpaused when I looked down something like a million seconds later. Mergh. After that one happened, I basically aborted the work out. Ran a couple of 'easy laps' just to say I got 5 in, and called it. I felt totally fine on the way back to the car .. which is pretty much not the way I am supposed to feel. So .. yea .. mergh. But oh well. Got up, got out, got something done. Progress.
Needless to say, I will be back. I think if I bring my Garmin instead of the Tom Tom, that will help with seeing metrics. And if I actually charge my headlamp, I'll also be able to sometimes see buds. So we WILL try again.
In fact, I am thinking that resistance is futile. I might as well go ahead, suck it up, and hit up another #10KTuesday. We already lost Kyle that day to 5AM. And all my other runs are becoming morning runs. The Tuesday evening sticks out like a sore thumb, and for that reason, is becoming the problem child.
But .. we'll see. I don't like bothering fast people either. If I can't hang, and I end up pulling people back, I won't do it.
My cray cray fast friends. <3
Friday
Distance - 4 miles
Avg Pace - 9:45
I am seriously missing hubby, who keeps a completely opposite schedule from me. :(((( (Runner girl, guitar dude .. suckage). So I ditched Riverside for some extra cuddle time, and ran 4 on my lunch break.
Squishing a run into the middle of my day felt very rushed, and I think I won't try it again; too much backed up at work. But I couldn't let the mileage dip under 30 at this point, so done. I guess I'll have to plan a post CHI date night with hubby in October!
Saturday
Distance: 18 (friggin) miles
Avg Pace: 10:14
18 miles is a long distance to run ...
No, just kidding ... I am pretending to be a blogger, so you get the deets. But the 1st sentence really does pretty much cover it.
It was nice to mentally be able to break up this run. This one had a lot of segments. First, we did 6.4 in loops around Armour. That was a little draining mentally, but lots of friendly faces, and runner buds to help, as did the fact that relative to later, it was a smidge cooler in the dark.
The stop to stretch and OFFICIALLY begin marathon training was not TOO jarring. In fact, I think it was a perfect catch of my breath. How much fun to see ALL THE FACES again. :) That said, there were a good bit more stops in the second leg, too: a quick 10 seconds to refill bottles at 3 of 10 miles (my 9.4 mark), another very quick refill at the end of the belt line, and of course, traffic lights where there are none at Riverside. I have to keep reminding myself of that, because I really am getting WAY too "pace greedy." I'm thinking about numbers relative to what I am putting out for 18 miles. but I still have 8.6 to go! Plus race day course semantics, plus never having tried this before. Yes, I am decent at math. Yes, I can tell you what I *should* be able to target at 10%. No, I should not get to far ahead of myself!
In my corner: heat training. I didn't realize just how badass I was being out there this summer. When your entire pod starts walking, and you're in at +6.2 miles over their distance, and not only can hold the pace, but have enough to push the pace at the end, hot dog, that's a kick ass feeling. It probably helped that the ATC gods (or just god in this case) took SOME mercy on the elevation. It was more than Riverside, but not a ton more. On the other hand, as Michele and I always say .. it just depends on the day. Thursday for me sucked. Saturday rocked. Everyone gets a little of both.
At about 15 miles, I found a new mantra. The final water stop had run out of hydration. We were all out. Michele said: this is when the shit hits the fan, isn't it? I spent about 2 miles telling myself that the shit was NOT hitting the fan. "The shit is NOT hitting the fan. The shit is NOT hitting the fan." And it wasn't .. until Brandi. lol. I met up with her along Monroe, and she, another participant and I finished out my 18 mile loop and a half back at Armour.
I knew Brandi was there for me, and I knew she didn't want to push my pace, but I do always push a little extra right before stopping, and I know her natural pace is FAST. So I for sure tried. That said, I pushed REALLY hard to finish the mileage this way. On returning to home base, one of the other run leads said, "I thought about running out there and serving as Brandi's body guard. It looked like you might stab her at any minute." hahahaha!
The Brandi effect: miles that start with a "9," when I really didn't even know if I wanted to finish them period! (First 6.4 were cut off .. dumb watch .. but if you have to ask me if they were faster or slower, you don't know me too well .. Judy Out too Fast Barrett, at your service).
Whatever happened to my dang hair in this picture is never allowed to happen again. I look like Adolf Hitler. Or that I am going bald .. but only on one side of my head. lmao. I have a widow's peak, and it is usually a little crooked (I blame two sets of forehead stitches as a kid), but this is ridiculous
Total: 34 (respectable) miles
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