It was a pretty good week, running-wise.
I have no idea when I’ll have my New York City Marathon report finished. This is why I’m not a professional writer, I could never hit deadlines. (Never mind that I’d also have to have at least a little bit of writing skill.)
Yoga Update: Wait, what? Yeah, I started doing yoga. A friend recommended a YouTube channel, Yoga With Adriene. She seems pretty cool, and she’s done a few 30 day introductory series at the beginning of each year, so I’m working my way through the one from 2015. My flexibility and balance are pretty piss poor, but I’m getting by. Maybe it’ll help my running. It’s part of a plan to diversify and get into some physical activity that isn’t running. I’m not giving up running, I just want to branch out a little, that’s all.
Weight Check: 168.8 pounds, up 1.7 from last week. Well, crap. It wasn’t a great week eating-wise, but I didn’t think it was that bad, especially when I was already starting from 167.1. Buckle down this week, I guess.
| Day | Scheduled | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 3 miles easy | 3.11 |
| Tuesday | 4 miles easy | 4.01 |
| Wednesday | 3 miles easy | 3.11 |
| Friday | 4 miles easy | 4.01 |
| Saturday | 8 miles easy | 8.01 |
Total: 22.25 miles
Monday warmed up a bit to 50 degrees. I missed the steady rain earlier in the morning, but it was still damp and there was occasional mist. My legs felt OK. I felt like I couldn’t find a steady pace, although the pace graph doesn’t look that bad. I did manage to get a little faster near the end, though.
On Tuesday, it was cold. 33 degrees. My legs felt fine, or at least they felt well enough that I didn’t notice anything bad. My pace was both faster and more consistent than Monday’s run, and it was over a longer distance, so I was pretty happy with this run.
Wednesday, I figured I needed a treadmill run, and planned it before I saw the forecast. It was about 24 degrees outside, so I lucked out. My legs felt fine, but, as usual, my mind didn’t. I started out at 11:46/mile, went to 11:32/mile after 1 mile, then went to 11:19/mile at around 2.5 miles. It was a good, solid (but mentally excruciating) run.
On Friday, it was a bit windy, but otherwise pretty nice running weather. My legs felt fine. I managed to speed up a little bit on each mile, but didn’t really increase my effort until near the end. Overall, a solid run.
Saturday was the first time since New York City that I felt like it was a long run. It was nice running weather, 52 and partly cloudy. My legs felt pretty good. I decided to go to the greenway closer to my house to make sure I got done before heavy rain moved in (and I made it home before the rain started). The water fountains were shut down for the winter, so I just ran all the way through without taking any breaks.
Other than mile 3, which was noticeably slower and I can’t figure out why, I kept a pretty steady pace for the first 6 miles, just over 11:30/mile. I sped up a little bit on mile 7, getting down to 11:03, and when I got to mile 8, I decided to see how fast I could finish, and I was very pleasantly surprised. 9:22! At this point, I honestly wasn’t sure I had a mile like that in me, especially after 7 miles. (Then again, my fastest mile ever came on the last mile of a 10 mile race.) So, yeah, I was pretty happy with this run.
This week, I’ve got some speed work(!) and a 9 miler. And a lot of work to do on that freaking New York City race report. And more yoga. Namaste, I guess.