Monthly Wrap-Up: July 2017

I wrote this up on Monday, July 31, and figured I should wait until August to actually post it. Rather than using the nifty scheduling feature to automatically post this on Tuesday, August 1, I told myself, “Oh, I’ll just post it Tuesday after work.” On Friday, after receiving a notice that WordPress had been updated, I came here to make sure the site was still functioning, and I saw the draft of this post sitting there. D’oh! Still, posting the wrap-up on the 4th of the following month isn’t as bad as some previous monthly wrap-ups. Also, on the plus side, I took one last look at the post and found a typo that I fixed, so there’s that.

Well, that was an interesting month. I ran in 3 different states – Connecticut for the first time, Oregon for the 4th year in a row, and at home in North Carolina – and I’m fairly certain I’ve never done that before. It was hot when I wasn’t in Portland, but I survived.

July 2017
Total Mileage:
142.52 miles
Average Pace: 11:32/mile
Number of Runs: 22
Last Month (June 2017): 130.11 miles
Last Year (July 2016): 146.64 miles
Races: None

Total Mileage for 2017 (through July 31): 948.36 miles

For the first time since February, I fell short of my mileage from a year ago. Considering I had two different trips out of town cutting into my mileage, the fact that I was only 4 miles short of last year is pretty good. Also, I increased my mileage over last month, so there’s that.

I guess I should check in on my goals, even though two of them have no updates (and won’t have any new updates until at least September).

Goal 1: 1500 miles

Average miles per day is 948.36 miles divided by 212 days, that’s about 4.47 miles per day, times 365 days for the year, comes out to over 1,632 miles for the year. Last month’s projection was 1,625 miles, so I increased it, and it still blows away my goal. At least for the next couple of months, I’m pretty sure the projection will continue to go up.

Goal 2: 6 races, with 2 that are 13.1 or greater

Once again, no races this month, so I’m stuck on 4 races with one that’s 13.1 or greater. I should have a warm-up race in September. It’s either going to be a 10K or a half. If it’s a half, that will make two races (along with Tobacco Road) that are 13.1 or greater. The warm-up race plus New York City will make 6. (And, of course, if I run the 10K, NYC will be my second 13.1 or greater race.)

Goal 3: A PR in 3 different races

No races, and that means no new PRs. (A PR for miserable weather during a training run doesn’t count.) Like I said last month, I’m probably not going to be shooting for a PR in my warm-up race (regardless of the distance), so, New York City Marathon PR or bust, I guess. (Or scramble to find a December race I can PR.)

My non-specific goals are still (with the notable exception of slow easy runs) not going all that well. I suppose I should cut myself a little bit of slack considering how busy July was. But still, not enough non-running exercise, cooking, diet improvement (except for that one week when I almost eliminated Mountain Dew), or blogging about other stuff besides running. Maybe August will be better.

Best Runs:
July 13, 7.01 miles, 10:55/mile pace
July 25, 7.01 miles, 11:13/mile pace

This is my blog, I can pick two different Best Runs if I want to. Funny how in my May Monthly Wrap-Up, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find a good run for this section during the summer months.

The first run was my first run in Portland, and it was glorious. I could have picked any of my 3 Portland runs, but I went with this one because it was the longest of the three, and I ran the last mile in 9:16, easily my fastest mile since the Teal Diva 5K. My second Portland run had a faster average pace, but it was shorter, 2 degrees cooler (although we’re talking 57 vs. 55, so not that big of a deal) and I ran the last mile in only 9:32. Yes, only 9:32. Look at me, trying to sound like a fast runner.

Before July even started, I was 99% sure my best run would happen while I was in Portland. I didn’t expect a run like I had on July 25, though. That one was done in my neighborhood, in 73 degrees and 90% humidity, and it was a workout, 1 mile warm-up, 6 miles at a moderate effort. A difficult workout in any weather. I admit that I stopped and ran into my house for water at the 4 mile mark, or exactly halfway through the workout portion, but I didn’t want to run that long at that level of effort in that weather without some water. The degree of difficulty was high on this one, and when I got done, I knew I had nailed it. (Also, in the back of my mind, I remember thinking, “Oh crap, I’m gonna need to have two best runs for July.”)

If I’m doing two Best Runs, I can do two shout outs too, right? (Of course, I can, this is my blog.)

First shout out is to my run on July 1, which was my first ever run in Connecticut, the 7th state I’ve run in. It wasn’t a great run, partially due to the humidity, but once I got off the main road, it was pretty scenic. The second shout out, which I didn’t even think about until I was getting the numbers for my first Portland run, was my run on July 11. It was a Lactate Threshold workout, and I ended up running very well, especially considering the conditions, but I also knew that it was my last run before Portland, and I think that motivated me.

Worst Run: July 22, 13.1 miles, 12:30/mile pace

There’s only one Worst Run. The only good things I can say about this one is that my phone was not harmed during this run, and in spite of everything, I managed to run these 13.1 miles almost 6 minutes faster than my first half marathon.

Once I got back from Portland, I finally felt like I had started marathon training for real. I know August is going to be tougher. I won’t have a break from the heat in Portland this month, and the mileage is going to keep going up. All I can hope is that I get a little bit of a break from the heat (which I actually got to close out the month – 61 (!) degrees on July 31), keep muddling through when the conditions are miserable, and hope that my hard work will pay off on November 5.

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 24-30

I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no such thing as a normal week. It was another hot week, but I had a really good workout run, and while it didn’t cool down for my long run like it was supposed to, I did get some reassurance at the end.

I went back to the podiatrist this week. I don’t know if I’ve ever described my orthotics in detail, but when I got them, they were white plastic with a thin layer of black fabric on top. Well, after 1,894.1 miles of running (and lots of walking), the fabric had started to wear down, so I wasn’t sure if I needed new orthotics or what. The podiatrist said that the fabric wasn’t necessary, that he wore orthotics with no fabric, and then he stripped the rest of the fabric away from the plastic. He said he could put new fabric on there if I wanted, but I figured I’d try them out with no fabric. So far, they’re doing OK. Added bonus: It would take a little while for the fabric to dry out after a run, especially one in the heat, but now with just plastic, worst case scenario I can just use a towel to dry them off.

Weight Check: 165.7 pounds, up 0.2 from last week. I fell off the wagon this week as far as Mountain Dew goes. I had a really mind-numbing task I had to do at work, and the only way I could get through it was with Mountain Dew. However, once that task was done, I didn’t really cut back on the Mountain Dew. Maybe next week. I managed to stay away from junk food, though. I guess my mileage helped limit the damage.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Monday 6 miles easy 6.01
Tuesday Marathon Pace, 1 mile warm up, 6 miles at a moderate effort 7.01
Wednesday 6 miles easy 6.01
Friday 4 miles easy 4.01
Sunday 14 mile long run 14.01

Total: 37.05 miles

That’s a lot of miles. It’s my highest weekly mileage since the week of the New York City Marathon. (That’s also the last time I ran at least 14 miles.)

On Monday, it was a few degrees cooler than it had been, but still warm, and extremely humid. My legs felt really tired on the first mile, but got better after that. Maybe I was still feeling the effects of last Saturday’s long run. I kept the effort “easy” but sped up on the last quarter mile. I did go up a large hill (end of Mile 2/start of Mile 3) because I was looking for a hill that would take at least 90 seconds to run (for future hill workouts), and I found it, but I normally wouldn’t include that hill on an easy run. (Side note, I had totally forgotten about finding the hill until I checked my notes for this run. I guess it was a pretty long week.)

Tuesday’s workout looked pretty scary. 6 straight miles with “moderate effort,” then add in miserable conditions (74 degrees, around 90% humidity.) The first mile was slow, almost 13:00, then I took off. Luckily, my legs felt fine. I did end up stopping at the 4 mile mark to run inside and get some water. With those weather conditions, I didn’t want to take any chances. In the end, I was really happy with how I ran, and I definitely finished strong.

On Wednesday, it was warm, slightly less humid than Tuesday, but still pretty uncomfortable. I was a little worried about my legs after Tuesday’s workout, but they still felt fine throughout this run. I probably ran a little faster than I should have on Mile 4 (although part of that was a downhill stretch), but I don’t remember really increasing my effort that much on that mile. For the most part, I kept the effort “easy” except for the last quarter mile.

Friday’s run was mercifully short, because the weather was just terrible. For 4 miles, I can tolerate it. My legs felt fine, so there’s that. Other than the heat and humidity, it was an uneventful run, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

And then there was Saturday.

First, a little background. I do keep an eye on the weather forecasts so I have some idea of the conditions I’ll be running in. All last week, I kept hearing that it was going to suck during the week, but the weekend was going to be (relatively, for late July) nice, with slightly drier air and lower temperatures.

It’s one thing to go into a run expecting bad weather and then getting it. Last Saturday, the weather was miserable, but it was pretty much what I expected.

Yesterday morning, it was 75 degrees with 90% humidity. Seriously. Either the less warm, drier air was late, or Saturday morning is no longer considered part of the weekend. I briefly considered pushing my run back to Sunday (it was 67 degrees this morning *grumble*) but I didn’t know what that would do to my schedule for next week, so I figured I needed to suck it up.

Just like last week, I stopped at water fountains as often as possible. This week, I didn’t need to include any hills, which was a relief. (My coach even specifically said to give my legs a break and stick to the flat greenways.) I trudged along, and it was bad, but for the most part, it was barely tolerable. There was a very occasional light breeze that helped. This was one of those runs where I was supposed to pick up the pace on the last two miles. I did need to take a couple of walk breaks at the very beginning of those two miles (and an additional water fountain break on the next to last mile), but somehow, I managed to make those two miles my fastest two miles, with the last mile being the fastest.

I was pretty wiped out at the end. The sheer distance, the terrible weather conditions (especially when I thought it would be better), the speed up for the last two miles, the mud. (Did I mention we got a lot of rain on Friday? Yeah, it left mud behind in a few spots.) Then I saw this, on the car parked next to mine.

That’s exactly what I needed to hear at that point. It’s nice to get some reassurance. (And I need to remember it the next time I have a tough run.)

I still can’t say it was a good run, but it wasn’t terrible, I got through it, and I had enough left to finish strong.

Next week, well, I’m waiting for my coach to update my schedule. The good news is that she adjusts my schedule based on how I’m running. The bad news is that she’s only got my schedule set through Friday. I do know I’ve got a hill workout scheduled for Tuesday, but I don’t know yet how far I’ll be running on Saturday.

Oh, and we’re nearing the end of July, so I’ll have a Monthly Wrap-Up posted at some point this week.

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 17-23

I really miss Portland weather. (I never did get around to writing a post about my trip there, though.) So, yeah, it’s been really hot this week. Really, all I can say is that I survived.

I noticed that this is going to be post #100 on this blog. Cool.

Weight Check: 165.5, down 3.3 pounds from last week. Holy crap! There’s two reasons I lost weight. The first, which I had no control over, was the heat. Running 13.1 miles when it’s 75 degrees with over 80% humidity is going to cause a little bit of weight loss. The other, which I had complete control over, was *gasp* I cut back on Mountain Dew. I had 2 cans for the entire week, instead of multiple 20 ounce bottles per day. I actually drank more water this week, so I’m pleased with the results. I still have another pound and a half to go before I’m not overweight, but this is progress, and I’ll take it.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Tuesday 6 miles easy 6.01
Wednesday 2.5 mile warm up, 6 x 90 seconds uphill hard with a jog back down in between, 2 mile cool down (until I reach 6 miles)* 6.01
Friday 5 miles easy 5.01
Saturday 13 mile long run (include hills if possible) 13.11

Total: 30.14 miles

It’s weird only seeing 4 runs. Also, I’ll explain the asterisk for Wednesday in a bit.

First, there was Tuesday. My first run after Portland. The weather was absolutely terrible, 75 and humid. I was definitely back in North Carolina. My legs felt a little bit tired from my trip, but they somehow felt a little better in the second half of my run. I kept the effort “easy”, and I survived.

On Wednesday, I, uh, chose the wrong hill. I ended up having to change this workout a little bit. I found out the hard way that the hill I picked only takes 60 seconds to run. I realized that 9 x 60 seconds would have me running uphill for the same amount of time, so I did that instead. The temperature was a couple of degrees cooler than Tuesday, and while it was still uncomfortable, it could have been worse. My legs felt a little tired during the warm up, and they were pretty worn out after the hills.

Friday was hot. It was bad, but I was expecting it to feel worse. My left calf was a little sore at the beginning, but I guess running stretched it out and it was fine by around the halfway point. Other than that, my legs felt OK. I kept the effort “easy” except for the last quarter mile or so.

So, Saturday. I needed to run my longest distance since March, my first true long run since July 4, after running slightly lower mileage over the past 3 weeks, and I’d be running in 75 degree weather with 80% humidity. Oh, and I was supposed to include hills. What could possibly go wrong?

I survived. That’s pretty much all I can say. It was rough. I even had to take a couple of walk breaks outside of stopping at water fountains over the last few miles. I still managed to find enough energy to speed up at the very end, and I made it to 13.1 miles. I did get a couple of uphill climbs in during the first half or so, then later I felt like I was in survival mode and wanted things as flat as possible. I got through it, though. It was mildly disappointing, but given everything else (and looking back at my two 13.1 mile training runs last year), I think I did OK.

Next week, it’s finally back to a “normal” schedule, and allegedly the temperature is supposed to drop a couple of degrees. I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve got a workout involving Marathon Pace, and a 14 mile long run. Yes, a 14 mile run. That’s why I said it was “normal.”

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 10-16

I love Portland. I really think it’s my second favorite city (after New York City, of course, but it’s hard to compete with the city where I was born). I don’t think I could ever move there, because it’s too far away from my family. But maybe I could just spend my summers there so I wouldn’t have to run in this insane heat.

The running was great (55 degrees on Friday!), of course, but overall I had an amazing trip. Perhaps later this week, I’ll *gasp* put up a post that isn’t really about running and jot down some of my thoughts. I’m not promising anything, though.

Weight Check: 168.8 pounds, down 1.2 from last week. I also did an unofficial weigh-in right before I left for Portland and was at 169.1, so I lost 0.3 while I was gone. Lots of walking and a little bit of dancing (!) made up for plenty of beer. I did end up drinking a can of soda (usually Coke) with my lunch each day due to the combination of not great sleep and the fact that my body never quite made it all the way to Pacific Time, so I needed a little bit of caffeine to make sure I made it past the end of the day in the Eastern time zone.

I’m still about 5 pounds heavier than I’d like, but I do feel like I’ve made it through a rough stretch without too much damage. Things should settle down a bit, and with that, hopefully my weight will go back down.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Monday 6 miles easy 6.01
Tuesday Lactate Threshold, 2 mile warm up, 5 x 5 minutes at Threshold pace with 1 minute easy in between, 2 mile cool down 7.01
Thursday 7 miles easy 7.01
Friday 6 miles easy 6.01
Sunday 5 miles easy 5.01

Total: 31.05 miles

Wow, I managed to break 30 miles in a travel week where my longest runs were 7 miles.

I definitely need to rely on my notes for any details of the first two runs before I left for Portland.

On Monday, the weather wasn’t quite as nice as Sunday, but still tolerable, especially for July. (I thought 70 degrees and humid was a break from the heat. After seeing the weather in Portland later in the week, I look at that observation and laugh.) My legs felt a little iffy on the first mile, then they were fine the rest of the way. I kept the effort easy until the last quarter mile or so.

Tuesday, the heat and humidity were back after a couple of relatively nice days. This was a tough workout at any temperature or humidity. My legs felt OK for the most part, just a little tired at the end. The last interval was my fastest interval, which is nice. I actually finished the last interval at exactly 5.0 miles. I don’t think I could do that again if I tried. The 2nd mile of my cool down may have been a little faster than it should have been, but I have to admit that I had started thinking about how my next run would be in Portland, and that motivated me to run a little faster.

Thursday was glorious. Portland Running! (At least that’s how it shows up in Garmin Connect, except without the exclamation point.) The weather was beautiful, even if it was overcast, because it was 57 degrees, or 15 degrees cooler than Tuesday. Also, my legs felt fine. This was one of those runs where I was supposed to speed up a bit on the last mile, and I did, quite a bit more than I expected.

Friday was also a pretty solid run, and really, the only difference was that the sun was out, and and I only had to run 6 miles, but again with a speed up on the last mile. My legs still felt fine, and my pace was fairly consistent. When I sped up on the last mile, it wasn’t quite as fast as Thursday, but it was still a good run overall.

And on Sunday, I just tried to savor my run. I knew it was my last run under really nice conditions until maybe mid-September if I’m lucky, or longer if I’m not. I still took it easy, and my legs may have been a little tired at first, since I walked around quite a bit on Saturday, but it was a truly easy run, and I enjoyed it.

This week, I’m sort of back to normal, although I did get a rare Monday rest day. I’m writing this after my Tuesday run. (Spoiler: It was hot and humid and miserable.) I’ve got a hill workout on Wednesday, and a 13 mile long run (which I will, of course, turn into 13.1 miles). Also, it’s going to be really freaking hot. I miss Portland already.

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 3-9

It was a strange week. Most of it was tough, but I got a little bit of a break with my somewhat unexpected Sunday run. A Tuesday long run and not one but two runs while I was on call, and neither got interrupted by work. (One was delayed a little bit, and the other did get interrupted by something else, but more on that later.)

Next week I’ll be running in Portland. And I thought last week was strange.

I did manage to get my June monthly wrap-up posted in a somewhat timely manner, considering I was about 500 miles away from home for the first 2+ days of July.

Weight Check: OK, before I give you the number, I have to add the disclaimer that my last official weigh-in was before my trip to New York. And this morning, I was at 170.0, up 2.5 pounds. Gaining that much is not good, and for me, 170 pounds is definitely not good. However, I was up around 172 in the middle of the week, so I did manage to reduce the damage a little bit. I still drank too much Mountain Dew, but I did an OK job of avoiding junk food for the most part. (After I got home, that is.) Also, for what it’s worth, I weighed myself before I ran today.

I’ll probably make a note of my pre-Portland weight, but I’ll wait until after I get back before I do my next official weigh-in.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Tuesday 12 mile long run 12.01
Wednesday 3 miles easy 3.11
Friday Fartlek, 20 minute warm up, 10 x 2 minutes at 10K pace with 2 minutes easy in between, 15 minute cool down (until I reach 6 miles) 6.01
Saturday 6 miles easy 6.01
Sunday 3 miles easy 3.11

Total: 30.25 miles

I was really glad to break 30 miles this week. Also, after last week’s screw up where I stopped at 3.01 miles, due to the luck of the training plan I had not just one, but two chances to turn a 3 miler into a 5K, and I took advantage.

So, Tuesday long run. Brutal weather, 74 and humid. I had gained about 3 pounds while I was out of town, and my legs didn’t feel great, so these were not ideal conditions for a run. I took it easy, and my legs somehow got better as I went along. I stopped at a water fountain at some point during every mile except the first and last. I had instructions to pick up my effort on the last two miles if I felt good. I don’t know that I felt good at the end when I sped up, it was more like I just wanted to finish sooner, but my 2nd fastest mile (barely) was mile 11, and my fastest mile (by a lot) was mile 12. I’ll take it.

Wednesday, the humidity was really terrible, probably worse than Tuesday. Luckily I wasn’t out there for very long. My legs were a little tired after my Tuesday long run, which I kind of expected, but I got through it and my pace ended up being decent after the first mile. I kept it at an “easy” effort except for the last quarter mile or so, and like I mentioned earlier, I decided to bump it up to a 5K.

On Friday, I had another fartlek workout. Running 10 intervals is no joke. It’s one of those things where it’s probably going to suck in any weather, so I might as well do it when the weather’s really bad. Still, I kept the pace on the intervals fairly consistent, even if I had to walk a little more on the recovery intervals near the end. I still managed to make my last interval the fastest one, so there’s that. I was a little surprised that I only needed about 0.6 at the end to get to 6 miles, which, even with some walking right after the last interval, still took me way less than 15 minutes.

Saturday, I woke up early due to a work issue. Once that was resolved, I got outside, and after half a mile, I had to come back because nature called. I was so worried about having my run interrupted by work, then something completely different stops me. Go figure. Anyway, I got back out there, and weather-wise, it was still pretty brutal. This was one of those easy runs where I’m supposed to speed up on the last mile, and I did. (I need to ask my coach if I’m the only athlete she’s got that actually likes these “speed up at the end” runs.) I did want to note that if it wasn’t for work, this is when I would have done my long run, and I’d say the Saturday morning conditions and the Tuesday morning conditions were pretty equally crappy.

Sunday’s run was optional, but since my legs felt OK this morning, and I knew my mileage was a little low due to travel, I wanted to do it. It was several degrees cooler, which was nice, although still pretty humid. I had to deal with another work issue before I started, and this one probably delayed me by about half an hour. When I got out there, my legs initially didn’t feel as great as I had hoped, but after the first mile, they got better. It ended up being a pretty good run, and once again, I turned a 3 miler into a 5K.

This week, I have two runs before I leave for Portland, one of which will be my first Lactate Threshold workout. I think it’s another one of those workouts where I’ve probably done something like it before, it just didn’t have a name. It looks kind of scary, though. I hope the break in the humidity lasts until Tuesday morning. If not, I’ll just have to comfort myself with the knowledge that once I get through that run, my next run will be in Portland. I have no idea what kind of mileage I’ll fit in while I’m out there, but I know it’ll be much less humid, and the view of the Willamette River is much nicer than the view of my neighborhood.

I’m flying back from Portland next Monday. On a related note, my next weekly wrap up is going to be late.

Monthly Wrap-Up: June 2017

It wasn’t easy, but I expected June to be worse than it was. Yay?

My Connecticut run didn’t happen until July 1, so it will have to wait until my next monthly wrap-up (and then it’ll have to share time with my upcoming Portland runs). At least for June, all my runs were in North Carolina.

It was my first time working with an actual professional coach, and so far I think it’s been pretty good. I’m still working on adding a few new things to my routine (stretching, foam rolling), but overall, I think I’m on the right track. *knock on wood*

June 2017
Total Mileage:
130.11 miles
Average Pace: 11:28/mile
Number of Runs: 20
Last Month (May 2017): 137.20 miles
Last Year (June 2016): 89.67 miles
Races: None

Total Mileage for 2017 (through June 30): 805.84 miles

Last June was the end of my injury recovery, so I won’t have to bring it up again in next month’s wrap up. (Really, I don’t need to bring it up ever again, because it wasn’t much fun.) My June mileage was down slightly, mainly due to the stupid calendar, although my trip at the tail end of the month didn’t help (but the trip was totally worth it).

Let’s check in on my goals for 2017, now that the year is…half over?!?!?

Goal 1: 1500 miles

Average miles per day is 805.84 miles divided by 181 days, that’s about 4.45 miles per day, times 365 days for the year, comes out to over 1,625 miles for the year. Last month’s projection was 1,633 miles, so I slipped a little more, but that still blows away my goal, and I suspect that the next couple of months will see that projection go up.

Goal 2: 6 races, with 2 that are 13.1 or greater

No races this month. I still have 4 races overall, and only 1 so far that’s 13.1 or greater. I’m looking at a warm up race, most likely in September, before New York City, and those two races would put me at my goal.

Goal 3: A PR in 3 different races

I still have 2 PRs this year. I probably won’t be shooting for a PR in my warm up race, so I guess I’m going to have to PR in New York City. No pressure.

I’m still struggling with my non-specific goals (with one notable exception which I’ll get back to). I’m not doing a great job at the non-running exercise, but with my marathon training about to ramp up, I really need to get on that. My diet? Cooking? Ha! And my June blog output consisted of exactly 4 weekly wrap-ups and the May monthly wrap-up. Sigh.

The one goal that’s actually been going well? Slower easy runs and faster hard runs. Especially the slower ones. It’s made a huge difference. I’ve found during my long runs this past month, even as the temperature and humidity have gone up, I’ve managed to slow down enough that I don’t need to take very many walk breaks. I still have to stop if I want to drink out of a water fountain, and I usually walk a few steps after the water fountain, but other than that, I feel like I’m doing a little bit better.

Best Run: June 24, 12.02 miles, 11:58/mile pace

A run when it was 74 degrees and humid, where I had to use Runkeeper on my phone because I forgot my Garmin watch (and had to carry the phone in a Ziploc bag so it wouldn’t get fried by sweat), and then I had to stop in the middle because somehow I managed to turn off my phone’s GPS in my pocket, where I got mud all over my shoes as a result of some recent flooding, and where I finished with my slowest average pace of any run in June. And this is my best run of the month. I wasn’t expecting that either. It’s that whole overcoming adversity thing, I guess.

This is one of the runs I was talking about when I mentioned that the slower paces were helping my long runs. Honestly, if this had happened last year, it would have turned into a complete disaster, probably with an average pace close to 13:00/mile. Instead, I was actually faster after I stopped to turn my phone’s GPS back on that I was before. Go figure.

I’ll also give a shout out to my June 28 run. It was a fartlek workout, and while it wasn’t my fastest workout run this month, it happened to be my last run of any type for June, and it was really nice to end a month with a run that didn’t completely suck.

Worst Run: June 17, 11.01 miles, 11:54/mile pace

My phone died because of this run. My waterproof arm band didn’t protect my phone from sweat, and it stopped working, so I had to replace it. That will “win” the Worst Run award any time. I suppose this didn’t completely suck as a run, though.

While June felt like I was just continuing to work on base building, July is where things are going to start ramping up…after I get back from Portland. And except for the trip to Portland, I expect a month of terrible weather, but again *knock on wood* I feel like I’m handling it just a little bit better than last year. We’ll see.

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 26-July 2

I had a really great trip. It was for a family reunion. I have some amazing Cousins. (Everybody’s considered a Cousin, whether they’re a first cousin, second cousin, or whatever. Even if you marry into the family, like my Mom, you’re a Cousin, too.) One of my Cousins is an ultramarathoner. I should have known I wouldn’t be the only runner. But really, they’re just great people, and I feel lucky to be a Cousin.

So I ran in Connecticut for the first time. That’s the 7th state I’ve run in. The current list, in chronological order, is North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Oregon, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. I noticed over the weekend a bunch of people on Facebook started posting these maps of all the states they’ve visited. My states visited map has a few more states – 25, plus D.C. – but apparently there’s 18 states that I’ve visited but haven’t run in. Yet.

And lost in all of this, Sunday was the 6 year anniversary of my first run. That means that it was also 1 year since I started this blog. I’ll say this, I think I’m in a much better place as a runner today than I was a year ago, even if I can’t really credit the blog for my improvement.

Weight Check: I decided to write this up Monday afternoon, so I haven’t done a weigh in since Thursday, June 29, so that’s going to be my official weigh in, and it’s 167.5 pounds, down 1.2 from last week. I don’t really remember how I ate before I left. (I know it was really bad while I was gone, though.) It’s still higher than I’d like. Hopefully by next Sunday I’ll be able to cancel out all the damage from my trip.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Monday 6 miles easy 6.01
Tuesday 5 miles easy 5.01
Wednesday Fartlek, 20 minute warm up, 4 x 4 minutes hard with 2 minutes easy in between, 15 minute cool down (until I reach 6 miles) 6.01
Saturday 5 miles easy 5.01
Sunday 3 miles easy 3.01

Total: 25.05 miles

8.02 miles in Connecticut. That puts it ahead of New Jersey (only one non-treadmill mile) but sadly, still behind my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 10.21 mile run in Ohio.

On Monday, the weather was much, much better than the previous week. My legs were a little tired, though. (Maybe they were tired during the previous week and I didn’t notice because of the heat.) I kept the effort easy, although I pushed it a little for the last quarter mile or so.

Tuesday, the weather was still pretty nice. My legs felt OK. I kept an easy effort most of the way, and again pushed a little on the last quarter mile.

On Wednesday, I did a fartlek workout, and could not have asked for better weather for late June. 60 degrees, still a little bit of humidity, but not nearly as bad as it’s been. That certainly helped. My legs felt OK for the most part, just a little tired near the end, which is understandable.

It was really weird not running for 2 days when my legs were healthy and not recovering from a marathon. I could have squeezed in a run Thursday morning, but I followed my coach’s plan.

Saturday I ran for the first time in Connecticut. There were some rolling hills, but at least the scenery was kind of cool. The weather was a little more hot and humid than I’d like (and certainly worse than earlier in the week), but it wasn’t terrible. I did all right, I guess, and my car key was safely stored 500 or so miles away, so there’s that.

(Edit to add: I forgot to put in my post-Connecticut run picture, so here you go. You can see both my bright blue shoes and some of the flowers they planted outside of my hotel.)

Finally, on Sunday, I didn’t even realize it until I started writing this up, but I stopped at 3 miles. I can’t believe it. I almost always turn scheduled 3 mile runs into 5Ks. I guess all the traveling got to my brain. Anyway, it was a decent run, although my legs were a little bit tired, since I had been standing around a lot talking to people at my family reunion on Saturday. (I still had a great time there, though.)

Next week, I’m not going anywhere, but I’m on call this coming weekend, so I’m going to celebrate America’s birthday with a 12 mile long run. I’ve also got a fartlek workout scheduled for later in the week. And we’re in a new month, so I need to write a wrap-up for June.

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 19-25

73, 72, 70, 75, 74. Those were the temperatures this week at the start of my runs, and the humidity for each was was somewhere around 90%. Somehow, I survived. I also had an interesting long run, although at least this week, I managed to avoid killing my phone with sweat.

Also, it was my last “normal” week for several weeks.

Weight Check: 168.7 pounds, down 0.2 from last week. Well, I suppose it beats the alternative. It’s still too high, and there’s still too much Mountain Dew in my life.

There’s going to be travel next week (More on that later), so I have no idea how that’s going to affect my weight, and I also have no idea when I’ll do my next official weigh-in. It’ll either be Thursday before I leave, or the following Tuesday after I get back.

This Week’s Runs
Day Scheduled Total Miles
Monday 6 miles easy 6.01
Tuesday 4 miles easy 4.01
Wednesday 2 mile warm up, 8 x 1 minute uphill hard (jog
down hill in between), 2 mile cool down
5.61
Friday 6 miles (first 5 easy, last mile moderate effort) 6.01
Saturday 12 mile long run (include hills if possible) 12.02

Total: 33.66 miles

Hey, I finally reformatted the table to include my schedule.

Monday, I stepped outside, felt the heat and humidity, and thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I may have added another word before kidding. (Also, I probably should have saved that thought for later in the week.) My legs felt fine, though, and after a slow start, I got through the rest, and even finished strong in the last quarter mile or so.

I got a late start Tuesday and didn’t have enough time to drive over to the Y and get on the treadmill. You know the weather is pretty miserable when the treadmill sounds like the better option. My legs still felt OK, though, and I survived.

Wednesday was a hill workout. They’re not fun at any temperature. My legs felt a little tired during the last couple of intervals, but otherwise, they were OK. I did manage to get my fastest pace on the last interval, so there’s that.

Friday was the hottest run of the week. My legs felt OK, and I managed to speed up for the last mile rather nicely.

And then came Saturday. Lately, it seems like there’s always something with my long runs.

First, when I got to Freedom Park, I realized I left my watch at home. So I had to use RunKeeper. That meant I had to keep my phone available. Of course, after last week, I wasn’t taking any chances, and I had brought a Ziploc bag for my phone. So, yes, I had to use RunKeeper on my phone while it was wrapped in plastic.

Second, we got a decent amount of rain throughout the week. Nothing while I was running (either Saturday or anytime during the past week), and not enough for there to be any flooding on Saturday, but there was enough to wash some mud up onto the path underneath a few of the bridges. Running through the mud isn’t very much fun.

Adding in a few hills wasn’t much fun either.

But the worst part happened at the 6.36 mile mark. I had been keeping my phone in my pocket. I did take it out every so often just to check it, but for the most part, I relied on the audio updates from RunKeeper every 5 minutes. (Fun fact that I discovered today: The default RunKeeper voice has a name, Kat.) Well, at some point after 6.36 miles, I noticed that my average pace was really slowing down. I checked my phone, and sure enough, the time was increasing, but the distance was stuck on 6.36. Some further investigation revealed that somehow, bouncing around in my pocket, I managed to turn off GPS on my phone. After going through the steps to turn it back on, I have no idea how I managed to turn it off in my pocket. So I did some quick math, figured I’d go 5.66 miles to get me to 12.02, and started a new activity.

I probably ran about half a mile without my GPS. It’s hard to tell for sure. I do know it was a little over 8 minutes from when the GPS was turned off until I stopped RunKeeper, but I know I stopped at a water fountain in there, too.

Somehow I managed to run the 5.66 mile portion of my run faster then the 6.36 mile portion. Near the end of the run, my legs started to feel a little tired, but I still managed to speed up a little. I’ll take it.

Next week, I’m headed up to New York*. I think that’s the easiest way to describe it, because I’ll end up spending some time in New Jersey and Connecticut as well. Speaking of Connecticut, if all goes well I’ll be able to add it to the list of states that I’ve run in. (I picked up New Jersey in 2015, and New York…well, you know.) I had to adjust my schedule quite a bit, and it’ll be a step back week with no real long run. But hey, I’ll get to run somewhere that I’ve never run before. Oh and my next Weekly Wrap-Up (and Monthly Wrap-Up) will be late.

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 12-18

Happy Father’s Day to all of the Dads out there in general, and in particular, the winner of the 70+ age group at the 2017 Teal Diva 5K. (Part of me wishes I had congratulated Mom for winning her age group when I posted on Mother’s Day, but then, that would have spoiled my race report.)

I found out the hard way that the armband that I’ve been using to carry my phone isn’t exactly sweat-proof, despite claims of being waterproof. Well, I’m getting a new phone, although on the plus side, my old phone came back from the dead after it dried out completely, so the transition will be a little bit more smooth. I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to safely carry my phone during really sweaty runs like Saturday.

In spite of my armband troubles, and the fact that it was 72 degrees and really humid, I’m actually really happy with my long run this week. I didn’t expect that either.

Weight Check: Do I have to? Sigh, OK. 168.9, up exactly 2 pounds from last week. I’m not happy at all with that. The only thing I can say was that was before my long run, since I drove up to my parents’ house (for the 2nd week in a row) later that day. Now I have to buckle down this week, when I’m on call for work. I swear, running in the heat sometimes feels easier than trying to manage my diet.

This Week’s Runs
Day Total Miles
Monday 6.01
Tuesday 4.01
Wednesday 6.01
Friday 6.01
Saturday 11.01

Total: 33.05 miles

Another long (but good) weekend means I haven’t reformatted my This Week’s Runs table to include what each run was scheduled to be. The short answer is easy runs every day except Wednesday and Saturday.

Monday was the best weather of the week, but my legs were still a little sore. I think during the previous week, I was doing my bodyweight routine, and I think I went a little too heavy on the leg exercises. I’m going to tweak the routine a bit, maybe replace some of the leg exercises with some that will work my core, and see how it goes.

During a lot of my runs, if my legs are sore at the beginning, the soreness tends to go away after a mile or two. This run went kind of like that. The problem is that right around the time that my legs started feeling good, nature called. I put it off, took a few walk breaks to avoid having an accident, and made it to the end, but my pace on the last couple of miles wasn’t what I would have liked. (Considering the alternative, I’ll take the slightly slower average pace.)

Tuesday, I decided that my legs needed a break, and despite the protests from my brain, I got on the treadmill. I stayed at a steady pace, 10:43/mile, for the entire run. It definitely helped my legs, even if hurt my brain.

Wednesday was my first official fartlek workout, even though I’ve done some interval runs the last two years that were kind of similar. I started out with a 20 minute warm up, then 5 x 3 minutes hard with 2 minutes recovery in between, then a cool down of at least 15 minutes to get me to 6 miles total. (Spoiler: At my pace, my cool down took longer than 15 minutes.)

It was a little more humid on Wednesday, but it wasn’t too terribly hot, only 66 degrees. Once I warmed up, I ran my intervals, and it went pretty well. I was shooting for 8:25-8:30/mile pace, and my splits were 8:45/mile, 8:46/mile, 8:35/mile, 8:28/mile, and 8:18/mile, so I got better as I went along. My legs felt a little tired at the end, because I had really pushed it, but there was no soreness, so I was pretty happy with the resutls.

Friday was warm and humid, uncomfortable but not completely unbearable. My legs felt fine. I kept it at an “easy” effort until I started pushing in the last quarter mile or so. It was a pretty uneventful run, which isn’t necessarily bad.

Then came Saturday. The weather sucked. It was 72 degrees and really humid. If there was one bright spot, it was overcast the whole time, so the temperature stayed pretty steady, although that also meant the humidity stayed steady, too. I was scheduled for an 11 mile run, with the last 2 miles at a moderately hard effort. OK.

I’ve noticed that when I have a long run in the heat, I can usually keep my pace pretty slow for the first mile, while my legs are still getting warmed up, but after that, I sometimes need to take walk breaks, not because my legs are tired, but because I’m running too fast and that’s the only way I can slow myself down. Well, somehow, during this run, I managed to keep my pace fairly slow for 9 miles. The only walk breaks I took were at water fountains. I managed to hover around 12:00/mile for most of my miles, with mile 6 (when I stopped for Gu) noticeable slower, and I slowed down a bit on mile 9, knowing that I had two tough miles to go, so I tried to save my energy.

When I got to the 9 mile mark, I sped up, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much energy I had left. I had hoped that I could get down to around 11:00/mile. I somehow managed a 10:27 and 10:29. This was a pleasant surprise.

So, yeah, that was a pretty good run. (Even if my phone got sort-of ruined.)

With my upcoming travel (sandwiched around a full week of on call for work), this is going to be my last “normal” week for a while. I’ve got a hill workout and a 12 mile long run on the schedule. And it’s going to be pretty freaking hot, too. Hopefully I’ll find a way through it.

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 5-11

I’m a day late, because my nephew had his 1st Birthday Party on Sunday. His actual birthday isn’t until next week, but yesterday was the best day for everybody to get together. Somebody gave him a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt, which is hands down the greatest present ever given to a 1 year old. Anyway, I got to hang out with both my nephews for a few hours, and they’re still the best.

My first week with a coach was…less than ideal. Let’s just say that I’m glad my coach is more of a build you up type of coach and not a drill sergeant type of coach, because otherwise I’d probably be getting called a maggot (and a few other things that I try not to say here) right about now.

Weight Check: 166.9, up 1.2 pounds from last week. Not good. I did weigh in Saturday morning before my long run, but I still shouldn’t be relying on a long run to bail me out. Also, I spent the rest of the weekend with my family undoing any benefits I might have gotten from my long run. Eventually I’ll figure something out.

This Week’s Runs
Day Total Miles
Monday 6.01
Tuesday 4.11
Wednesday 5.21
Friday 6.01
Saturday 10.01

Total: 31.35 miles

I probably should switch up the format to indicate what each run was scheduled to be, but I’m already late and want to get this thing published soon. Maybe next week.

One benefit to working with a coach is that she’s asked for as much detail as possible for my runs in order to make any necessary adjustments to my training plan. So (in theory) there should be no more “I don’t remember anything about this run” comments in my Weekly Wrap-Ups.

Monday was hot and extremely humid, even at 6:55 AM. My legs felt OK, though. I sped up for the last 1/4 mile or so, but otherwise, I kept a pretty consistent “easy” effort. It’s hard to describe any pace as easy in these conditions, though.

Tuesday was still hot and humid, but not quite as bad as Monday. My legs felt a little tired at first, but felt better later in the run. I went with an “easy” effort (at least as easy as it gets in these conditions) most of the way, except for the last 1/4 mile or so where I pushed it a little.I was about a tenth of a mile from home when I got to 4 miles, and I ran it in.

Wednesday was my first workout, and it was hill repeats. Last year, I had some hill sprint workouts where I had to go all out for 20 seconds uphill. This one was longer intervals (1 minute) but not quite all out, around 5K race effort, with a 2 mile warm up, and a 2 mile cool down. I ended up making it a 2.11 mile cool down. I guess I ended up about a tenth of a mile from home again and ran it in. Consistency?

The weather was still warm, but cooler. My legs felt fine. I did OK. One thing that I noticed that was really odd is that in Garmin Connect, the elevation gain/loss for my intervals was all over the place. I noticed that with my hill sprint workouts last year, too, and the most egregious one was for 10 hill sprints where I supposedly had 0 elevation gain for 9 of them, and for the other, I had an elevation loss. However, my coach uses a website named Final Surge to keep track of my run, and it’s set up to automatically import data from Garmin Connect. Well, when this workout was imported, the elevation gain was very consistent, varying from 45-50 feet of elevation gain for all of my intervals, and that seems about right. It’s just odd, though, you’d think the data would show up the same on both sites. (You’d also think that if there was a discrepancy, Garmin Connect would be more accurate because, you know, I’m actually using a Garmin device.) Shrug. Anyway, I got through the workout. Hopefully it’ll help prepare me for the 59th Street Bleeping Bridge in November.

Also, Wednesday was also Global Running Day. “Celebrating” it with a hill workout is less than ideal, but that’s what was on the schedule. I did take a picture at the end of my run to mark the occasion.

Thursday was a rest day. (Well, I did some bodyweight exercises, as I was scheduled to do some strength training.) I had to mention it here because this was by far the coolest morning of the entire week. D’oh!

Friday was still fairly comfortable, though. My legs didn’t feel all that great at the start, but they got better after a couple of miles. I kept the effort easy until the last mile. This was my kind of run, it was 5 easy miles followed by a final mile with moderate effort. I pretty much always try to speed up on the final mile, so I really liked this one.

Saturday was my long run. I drove up to Freedom Park. My legs felt a little stiff and tired early, but got better as I went along. I accidentally left my Gu at home so I didn’t have any mid-run fuel, but I stopped at water fountains roughly every mile. It was warm, but not unbearable. If it was like this for the rest of my long runs this summer, I could live with it.

So, overall, I felt like my paces were a bit disappointing this week, but I got through it, put in the miles, and hopefully my body will adjust a little bit to the heat.

Next week, I’ve got a couple more miles on the schedule, including an 11 mile long run, and something sort of new, a fartlek workout. (I know the name sounds weird, that’s why I included the link to prove I’m not making it up. Besides, I’m not that creative.) I’ve done something similar before, it just wasn’t labeled as a fartlek.