Well, the week in general and the weather in particular didn’t go exactly as expected.
The Joe Davis Run For Recovery 10K was rescheduled for next Saturday, January 14. I’ve never had a race rescheduled before. Luckily, the only thing I had planned for the 14th was a long run.
I’m sure I’ll mention this again in my race report, but I have to give the race organizers credit, they made the call to reschedule early Thursday afternoon. Not only that, but they’re still going to have Thursday packet pickup next week. I still won’t be able to make it down to Rock Hill on Thursday evening, but I always appreciate when a race has Thursday packet pickup, and if they didn’t have it after rescheduling, I would have cut them some slack.
I don’t blame the organizers for the fact that they probably could have run the race Saturday morning. Based on the forecasts, it was the right call. As it turned out, the worst weather ended up further north than expected. I only got a dusting of snow and some sleet, and I suspect Fort Mill got about the same.
Oh, and I made a change to my training this week.
Weight Check: 162.5, down 4.1 pounds from last week. Wow. I guess I buckled down. It’s especially surprising considering my Sunday run was after my weigh in. I did drink some Mountain Dew when I went back to work, but I only had beer once this week, so I guess that helped.
| Day | Total Miles |
|---|---|
| Monday | 5.01 |
| Wednesday | 5.21 |
| Thursday | 5.61 |
| Friday | 9.01 |
| Sunday | 4.11 |
Total: 28.95 miles
If I had know I was that close to 29, I would have added a little more to Sunday’s run. Oh well.
Monday was when I decided to try something different. After a warm-up mile, I took off and really pushed the pace. My legs were tired, but I kept going, and my pace got gradually faster over the course of the run.
Wednesday, I did almost the opposite. I forced myself to run more slowly for the first 4+ miles. I did speed up at around the 4.5 mile mark so I could finish strong.
Thursday was similar to Wednesday, although I stayed slow for a full 5 miles before speeding up. Also, it was colder on Thursday, so it was harder to hold back, but I managed.
Friday ended up being my long run. At this point, my race had been postponed, and with the weather, I figured I wouldn’t be able to run on Saturday. I had taken the day off from work (I have some carryover PTO, and I figured it would give me time for packet pickup), so I drove over to McMullen Creek Greenway and put in 9 miles, making it a decent long run.
I might have been able to run on Saturday, but I figured I’d wait. I knew it was supposed to get really cold Saturday night (it got down to 17 or so), and I wanted to wait until there was sunlight and slightly less cold temperatures. I was also worried about ice, but when I walked outside around noon, the roads seemed pretty dry, so just before 2 I went for a run.
It was still pretty cold for early afternoon, around 29. I probably ran a little faster than I should have for an easy run, but again, when it’s cold, it’s tough to slow down.
Overall, I’m satisfied so far with my fast/slow strategy. I still need some practice, and slowing down when it’s cold is always going to be difficult. I’m pretty sure it will pay off in the long term, although it might not make much of a difference in next week’s race.
This week, I’m going to skip Monday because it’s going to be really cold, then I’ll get back out there Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I think I’ll stick with slower runs on those 3 days because of the race coming up. I’ll take a rest day Friday before the race, and then I’ll probably run on Sunday just so I can get 5 runs for the week. That’s the plan, anyway. After the past week, there’s no telling what will happen.