Weekly Mileage: 43.3 miles
As we entered August, I was losing the summer battle of humidity, and turning to the treadmill for so much of my weekly mileage. I got outside a few times this week, but used the treadmill for most of my quality miles.
Since Mike and I plan to run the Walt Disney World half together in January, we have discussed at length our need to run together more, that way we get used to running together and can easily accommodate each other’s running style. We live less than two miles away from each other, so in theory this is an easy task to accomplish. But factor in wildly varying schedules, and regular runs together turn into the occasional NYRR race together that we schedule months in advance.
But on this particular Monday night the stars aligned, and we were both free so we decided to meet up for a 5ish mile run and a Yoga class. As we looped through the streets of the neighborhood, I couldn’t help but wonder if Mike was secretly running for congress or something, as it felt like once a block someone was shouting “Hi Mike!” Despite the humidity, we found a comfortable pace and chatted about race plans, goals, and life in general until the time approached to head for yoga. We were booked for an 8:00 class, AKA Vanessa’s hard class, and we made it there right on time. It was a challenging practice, but I was feeling so good by the time we made it to savasana…. And then my Abs felt not so good for the following three days, as Vanessa had given them quite the workout in class. I even texted Mike to see if he was on the same page, and we agreed that it was a good soreness at least.
Since Monday is usually an off day for me, I kept the Tuesday morning mileage short. Dad joined me on his bike for a little more than three miles, that wound up being slower than I had hoped. A combination of the air and lacking a rest day, I tried not to beat myself up about the pace too much – rest days are important. Work ran late on Tuesday so the usual strength training session got called off, and I headed to swim instead. The pool was in a long course configuration and we were doing repeats that were of higher distances, so I eventually wound up with flippers on. It was a good workout, but I was exhausted by the end of the session, and decided to do my Wednesday run at night instead of in the morning, and luckily Mike was free again, and we made plans to meet up at the gym.
In the spirit of me having poor time management skills, Wednesday night did not go exactly to plan. Dennis and I had to go pick out suits for the groomsmen, so we headed to the stores with the best man and my brother, and the process was painless enough, but took longer than anticipated. I had agreed to run a mile with Tommy, who is getting back into his running routine of the one mile loop near my parent’s house, so after shopping was done we headed out together. Once we had completed the loop, I headed to planet fitness, where Mike was waiting for me. We hopped on the treadmills, and got to work. I had a threshold run to complete, where my goal was to complete two sets of 2 miles at an 8:14 pace, with a 2 minute jog between sets. Knowing that last week I had a workout that was a four mile repeat at this pace, I wasn’t too worried about hitting this goal. Once we for the treadmills moving and the warmup mile was done, I popped on my headphones and with the help of some fast paced music, got through the miles, with only a slight struggle. I felt accomplished hitting the prescribed paces. Mike, I am still impressed that you kept a sweatshirt on for the duration of that run. Planet fitness felt like a fiery inferno and I’m pretty sure that I sweat out at least 16 oz of water, so Kudos to you man, and your tolerance that I do not possess.
After finishing my Wednesday run late, I decided to continue this week’s trend of night time running on Thursday, to not squeeze too many miles into a short period. So, after work Desi and I headed to the gym, about 50 minutes on the treadmill. My training plan says that my “easy” pace should be around a 9:17, which I firmly believe is a lie, but I decided to set the treadmill to approximately that pace and stuck there for the five-mile run. We then got in a core workout and a short arm circuit before calling it a night.
Then it was at last Friday. I actually dragged my butt out of bed this morning and made it to swim, where there was a lighter crew than usual. We started the workout with 4 sets of 100m repeats, that alternated in varying orders between “fast” and “slow” 25 m segments. I was, invariably, the last person done every round. Once we got the tough stuff out of the way, we changed gears to longer reps, and at the end of the workouts I had gotten in over 2,000 m at a slightly faster pace than usual.
Mike and I broke an adult friendship record on Saturday and saw each other for the third time this week (we went to school together from 3-12th grade, so this didn’t used to be a particularly difficult feat). We met up at the gym around 9 am to get some miles in on the treadmill before heading to a yoga class. Guys, this run was ROUGH. My intention was to warm up and then start the workout with 800 m repeats at a 7:35 pace, then after three rounds run for 20 minutes at a 9:04 pace before doing it all again. Mike opted to do the same style of workout, but adjusting the paces to be more his speed. I made it through the warm up and the first set of 800 m repeats, but when I hit the 9:04 portion of the run, I just could not get my heart rate down – even though that is a pace that I hit pretty regularly, my heart rate was sitting at about 190, where it had been for the 7:35 repeats, and refusing to come down unless I was walking. Knowing that I had a long run to get through the next day, I opted to cut the run at 4 miles. We headed to a slow flow yoga class from there, and it took the better part of the hour before I was feeling better. Sometimes, all you need is a good yoga class.
The long run this week was a doozy. It was the first time this year that I was planning to run 18 miles, so while I knew I had accomplished this mileage before, it was still an intimidating task. Dad agreed to accompany me for the journey, and picked the Cedar Creek to Jones Beach path as the path of the day. I got to his house a little after 7:30, and by 8:00 we were parked near Jones Beach Theatre and headed towards cedar creek. The first few miles felt good, all ringing in within a 9-something pace, but then I felt myself slowing down, as the sun rose in the sky, and the heat and humidity intensified. I took a gu at mile 4, hoping that I was just feeling a little fatigued. We hit cedar creek right around the 5 mile mark, and began the trot back to jones beach, where my feelings about this run rapidly declined, and I started to feel like I need a sip of water every quarter mile. This path has little to no shade, and by mile 8 I was starting to feel like an egg that was being fried. Drinking water was now making me nauseous, and when I took a second Gu it was everything I could do not to throw it back up. When we reached the car again at mile 10, I stopped at the bathroom at the beach, and was seriously tempted to lay down on the floor to feel the fan for a moment. I felt beyond overheated, and tried to cool myself down by splashing some water on my face. I was light headed, but the time out of the sun improved my conditions considerably. It was like as soon as I went inside I was questioning if it could really be THAT bad out there, where I had just been dreaming of an Icee on the beach boardwalk. When I came out of the bathroom I discussed the options with Dad, and ultimately decided to move the run onto a treadmill. Eighteen miles would have been a huge mental struggle on a treadmill, but I could do 8. I really wanted to just get them done outside, but the remainder of the path had even less shade than the portion that we had been on, and didn’t want to risk my health because of my stubbornness.
So, as Dad drove back to the house I rallied the troops. Kasey was already going to the gym anyway, and Emily agreed to come keep me company on the treadmills for a bit. The prospect of this brightened my spirits, and I was ready to keep moving when I got to the gym. I loaded up the treadmills cupholders with my water bottler, inhalers, and running fuel, and accepted that I was just going to be that weirdo at the gym that was eating on the treadmill. You gotta do what you gotta do, right? By the time Emily headed out I was through five miles, and was beginning to bargain with myself, thinking of ways to trade off these final three miles for some other activity. But I reminded myself of the upcoming race, using sport beans as a reward for each mile that I got through. When the treadmill finally rolled into the end of the 8th mile, I was so relieved, and so ready for a nap. I got back to the apartment, took a shower, shoveled some pasta into my face, and promptly passed out. The sun had really done a number on me, and when I woke up an hour later I had a splitting headache. Despite all the water I had drank, I was certainly a little bit dehydrated. I dragged myself out of bed to get more water and food, and the pulled on some compression sleeves before resigning to the couch for the rest of the day. Sometimes I feel lazy when I spend my Sunday relaxing after a long run, but this week it was just so relaxing to hang out with Dennis and watch way too much arrested development, and then head to bed nice and early.
Also accomplished this week: I finally got some more running decorations up in the apartment!
There were moments that I was on the struggle bus, but I still got through my mileage, and for that reason I am happy. I hope that my runs bring me the same sense of accomplishment next week, and that this training continues to stay on track until race day. The next challenge? The 19.5 mile long run that sitting on my schedule for next weekend. Yikes!