It has been the kind of week where I really have to think about what I did on Monday as I sit down to write this – I have been so busy that one day has just flowed into the other, and the only common thread has been that I would like to go to bed early.
I was feeling good on Monday morning, it turns out that prioritizing recovery really does have an impact on your body after a long run! I slept in that morning, and after work I walked over to the pool and got in 30 minutes of laps. We have reached the point in the summer where people seem to have forgotten that the public pools exist, so despite warm temps, I was literally the only person in the pool for 90% of my swim. But that meant that I was able to snag the longest lap lane, so I was happy. When I got home after den had made pasta to go with the leftover sauce that we used to make pizza on Sunday, and it was delicious.
Tuesday morning I had three miles to get done, and as usual I headed to my parent’s house to run. Dad was having some technical difficulties with strava as we got going, and then I looked at my watch and saw my garmin was having issues too, reporting a completely inaccurate and impossibly fast pace – so I threw out the first 5 minutes of the run, and restarted my watch.
I felt really good that morning, despite the humidity. There were thunderstorms predicted for later that day, and the air was heavy in anticipation of them. As I made my way through the second mile I thought about how my brother, Tom, had been hitting the treadmill lately with the goal of 10-minute miles, and decided that for mile 3 I was going to push the pace, just to see how it would feel and what I could manage, without too much discomfort. By the end of the mile I was breathing heavy, and my heart rate was up, but my mile buzzer went off with a 9 minute mile, and given that I was struggling to run a 12 minute mile two months ago, I was freaking proud of that 9. After the run I took a 10-minute core class on the peloton app, and then a 5-minute post-run stretch.
I had to skip a run on Wednesday morning, to attend an annual memorial mass that my family has for my Grandma. My initial plan was to run after work, but during the day I while chatting with my running buddies, we decided to do our long run on Sunday instead of Saturday, so instead I decided I would run Thursday and Friday morning, since I would have Saturday to recover before my long run. I still fit some movement in on Wednesday and headed to a yoga class with my friend Nicole that night.
I got up even earlier than normal on Thursday, so that I would have time to get in 6 miles before work. I headed to my parents’ house, and we got outside while it was still dark. I ran along as the sun came up, keeping the pace easy, and just kept moving forward to get through the miles. Dad even made me breakfast when we got back to his house.
After work I met up with some members of the tri-team for a “bootcamp” style HIIT class. It was a “lower body” day, and we spend 45 minutes doing dynamic movements, banded exercises, and lots of squats. I was dripping with sweat by the end of the class, and proud that I had made it through 45 mins of intense strength training. I knew I was going to feel it the next day.
Remember how I said I was going to run Friday morning? Well, I had a failure to launch. After the HIIT class on Thursday night, my body was tired. I told myself that I would just run after work – which also turned out to be a lie. By the time I got home from work Friday night the muscle soreness had fully set into my legs, and I could not talk myself into going for a run. Instead I had an early bedtime, so that my early morning on Saturday would feel a little more tolerable.
In a rare occurrence, the early Saturday was not so that I could run, but instead so I could volunteer at a NYRR race with Mike! We headed into central park and helped man the bag check for the morning’s race. We had a good time helping runners out, and both agreed that if it wasn’t such a pain to get into central park we would do this more often. Once we got home from the race I spent the rest of the day relaxing, feeling a little stressed about the 15 miler we had planned for the next day.
It was another weekend of meeting up with Mike and Michal to get in our long runs together, and Michal and I were determined to do a better job with our salt experiment this time around. Michal set an alarm on her watch to remind us to take salt every 20 minutes as we ran along, and it really helped. I also managed to not drop my salt after the first use, so that was a plus as well.
I decided to run with my hydration vest, since it would just be the three of us out there with no support. In addition to water in the bladder, I popped a handheld water bottle filled with liquid IV into one of the front pouches, because I really did not want a repeat of the fatigue I felt after last weekend’s humid long run, and I felt like better fueling would help with that. I was also stocked up with Ucan and Huma gels (I didn’t have enough of one brand to get me through the whole run, so it was a bit of the mix and match game), which I planned to take every three miles. In the past I have typically done gels every 4-5 miles, but with the slower paces I am running these days plus the humid weather, I decided to fuel a little more frequently this week. I packed my knee strap in my vest, but hoped I would be able to get through the run without needing it.
After a slight morning delay, we still managed to get out onto the Bethpage trail before 7 am. We started our run heading north, with a plan to go out for 4.5 miles and then turn around, so that Mike and Michal could refill their waters at the car at mile 9, plus a stop at a local hotel for a water fountain refill around mile 5. We chatted as we made our way through the gentle rolling hills, and groaned in unison as we slogged through the two hills that really felt like climbs on this part of the run. We kept the pace conversational, and cheered our salt containers together when the alarm went off reminding us to take more.
We took turns talking about our lives, and I was reminded how thankful I am for my running friends – there is just something about suffering through a long run together that really bonds you together, and I don’t know how I would have survived the last year if it were not for the people that running has brought me together with.
It was humid, but the sky gave us cloud coverage that was amazing compared to the sunny skies of the previous weekend. We all felt good when we got to mile 9, happy that we just had to do 6 more to reach our goal of 15. This time we headed south on the trail, doing 3 miles before turning back, with a bathroom pit stop around mile 10. When we reached our turn around point at mile 12, I started to feel like I was getting a blister on my foot but tried not to think about it too much. The cloud coverage held, and while we were all tired as we approached mile 15, we agreed that we felt good! I was so happy when we reached the end of this run and could not stop telling Mike and Michal exactly that. It was the running confidence boost that I needed after the prior weekend’s difficult 12 miler.
We stretched together for a minute before loading into our cars and heading home, and when I peeled off my shoe I did discover a giant blister on the side of my big toe. Welp. At least it didn’t pop. But my runs were done for week 7, and I was happy with how the week had gone.