Perseverance

Neither of my longer runs this week went as planned.  The heat is at least partially to blame, and overestimating my current fitness is level is most likely another culprit.  Bad runs are lessons to learn from, and I will use what I learned to help make better decisions next week.  (I hope...)

This week : 

M : pub run 4.7 / 8:10 / 121 ft

T : TRX class @ GVF 50 minutes

horseback ride 1:40

W : run 4.2 / 7:49 / 312 ft

(medium effort hill run)

R : run w/Corey 10 / 8:37 / 305

(2x 2 mile, 1x 1 mile, 1x 0.5 mile)

F : yoga 50 minutes

Sa : group bike 23.1 / 14.3 mph / 1125 ft

run 3.3 / 8:02 / 240 ft

(easy effort)

Su : run 9.7 / 8:24 / 597 ft

total bike miles : 23.1

total run miles : 31.9

Thursday's plan was to run the repeats at 6:30 pace, which is my eventual goal half marathon pace.  If I was smarter, I would have known that I am not ready to train that pace yet and I need to start at a more realistic place.  The first 2 miles went fine, but halfway through the 2nd repeat my lungs died and I started to slow.  I had to walk the recovery after that, trying to calm my breathing and my HR, but my body wasn't cooperating.  I decided not to abandon the workout, but didn't even try to hit the 6:30 pace for the mile or 1/2 mile.  I just put it whatever effort I could, and I walked the 1/2 mile recovery between the mile and 1/2 mile.  I will do this workout again in a week and a half or 2 weeks, but I will probably try for 6:40-45 pace instead of 6:30.  

Today I hoped for 10-12 miles, but after staying up too late having too much fun with friends last night, I knew it was optimistic to hope for.  I hardly drink alcohol anymore, and I'm usually good at saying no when other people offer me drinks, but last night I did not do such a good job of saying no.  I drank plenty of water after waking up this morning, but the drinking still took a toll on my body that did not mix well with trying to run 10 miles in 80+ degree heat, even with the nice breeze and the low humidity.  The first 6 or so miles were fine, but as I got slower and slower after that, I knew it wasn't worth it to keep pushing and so I cut the run short. I probably should have been satisfied with one 10 miler this week anyway.  

The good news is, I made it 30+ miles 2 weeks in a row!  I just need to start working towards getting that 30 miles in 4 runs instead of 5 and trying to bike at least once a week.   

And in other news, I signed up for the Pittsburgh marathon this week! There were 2 years between my first two marathons, 4 years between the second and third, and now I am going to have 2 in one year... I'm hoping to stay in some semblance of marathon shape while focusing on half marathon training so that I won't have to spend all winter and spring building back up, but every week I miss another long run is taking me further from that fitness level that I am trying to maintain.