I'm not real happy with the month of July, and I can't blame it on travels or work. Not really. Monday night when we got back to Austin, I threw on my Nike Skylons for a neighborhood 5-miler, but only made it 5 steps. The San Francisco hills had hammered my quads bad, so I turned around and walked back up the driveway. Tuesday, I figured on running an easy 8, but Roger caught me early on the trail and we ended up doing 9.5 miles with 6.7 of the miles at a brisk 6:37 pace. Big positive surprise. It was good to open up a bit since most of what I've been doing during this Tahoe training has been around 7:30 to 7:45. Wednesday, I woke up in downtown Los Angeles. I usually don't run on business trips. Too complicated. I'd rather watch TV and order room service. But I got up early and went off to explore. This is another city that's not particularly runner-friendly. I ran down the sidewalks on Alameda Blvd, caught every red-light, and eventually found a small, dusty park with a one-mile run/walk loop that at least got me out of traffic. I ran for 50 minutes; not sure about the miles. Maybe 6 or 7.
Thursday was an honest 9.2 miles from Zilker. Friday, Leticia and I had planned on going to a film festival in Woods Hole MA, but as I was driving over to pick her up at 5:15 a.m., I realized that I was sick of flying, and after some brief discussion on the way to the airport, we decided to pull the plug and stay in Austin. So, I had a full day to run, but didn't.
Saturday was hot and humid and horrible, and I realized again that I hate training during the summer, that I'm a fall runner, and wondered what in the hell I was thinking when I signed up for the triple; I'll never be ready ...and this isn't fun. Enough whining. Mike's injured, but Roger and I run seven or so and then meet Greg at "the Rock" for another 11.5. I tried out a new workout drink that I found at RunTex. Can't remember the name. The grape flavor tasted good, but didn't give me a noticeable boost. Still, I count this as a successful fueling exercise since it absorbed quickly. The run itself felt so slow that I only took credit for 18. My heart was beating too fast. Afterwards, I felt light-headed and wobbly. I probably didn't eat enough carbs on Friday.
Sunday, I'd hoped to run 18 again, but stopped at 14. Could have gone further, but my dang heart was beating too quick again. Or at least, it felt that way. ...So, I ended up just short of 57 miles for the week. I know this isn't enough, although July's total miles will be a high for me. The plan for next week is to top 70 and get some confidence back. I don't expect this to be a problem if I can get seven runs in. I've bought three pairs of shoes in the past three weeks, so I'm well stocked for the Journey.
FML. 1.5
4 years ago
2 comments:
Don't be so hard on yourself, Scott! Training during the summer is hard enough without all the work-related interruptions to throw you out of rhythm. You'll get on track soon.
Jeff
My thought about the heart rate is - are you hydrating enough before and after the runs?? I ran a horrible 8 miles last week and had the light headed thing going on and felt like it was a struggle the last 3 miles (it was over 100 degrees!) but can attribute it to sitting at the horse show all day, drinking 2 diet cokes and 1/2 liter of water. No surprise. I'm hating the heat too and am thankful not to be training for anything big right now - I can blow off runs without worry. Hang in there. Visualize the nice cool weather in Lake Tahoe!
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