Our hero turns around and gazes over the rugged terrain his quest has taken him through. He’s dealt with rain, snow, heat, and cold… all in the same week. He’s run long, fast, short, slow, and everything in between.
Monday: 7 miles. The week started out with a not-so-bad 43F in the morning. Ran through the park and the subdivision next to it. I felt faster than I was, but still not slow. 7.11 miles in 1:03:47 for a pace of 8:58/mile. I did see a nice sunrise in the process.
Tuesday: 5 x 800 intervals. Ran these entirely in the park, and ran them in short sleeves because it was 61F out! I knew rain was expected and checked the weather on my phone, which said rain was expected at 7 AM. I was starting at 6 AM.
It lied. It started raining shortly after I arrived, which made it difficult to see. I was shooting for 3:15 – 3:25 per interval (6:32 – 6:53/mile pace), and made it to 3:28 (6:56), 3:26 (6:52), 3:27 (6:54), 3:35 (7:10), 3:40 (7:21). Perhaps I shouldn’t be using McMillan’s Speed Paces (the stamina paces are 3:31-3:37 (7:04 – 7:16/mile pace). One of these days, I’ll figure out the right ones. Overall, 6.5 miles in 54:26 (8:22 min/mile pace).
Wednesday: 3 mile recovery. I slept in and ran this at lunch in my neighborhood. I really tried to slow this down, since I have a habit of going too fast when running late in the day. I really tried to slow myself down… to no avail. 3.15 miles in 26:23 (8:23/mile pace).
Thursday: 7 miles @ M Pace. I didn’t sleep in (for once!) and got out to the park on a chilly 33F morning. No rain in the forecast until 10.
It started misting when I was close to the end of my M pace portion, so I only had a little over a mile of total running. My watch did beep at me a fair bit as I was making my way around the subdivision next to the park, and the park as well.
I did keep the M pace portion within my goal range of 7:33 – 7:53 by getting that 7 miles in 55:13 for a pace of … 7:53! Overall, 9 miles in 1:13:37 (8:11/mile pace).
Friday: 10 miles. It snowed. It may not have been too bad, but nothing was plowed when I woke up and conditions were expected to be slick, so I used the dreadmill. Had some knee pain during the early part of my run, but it subsided. 10.01 treadmill miles in 1:38:17 (9:49/mile pace, although I felt like I was going faster).
Saturday: 3 miles. Friday morning’s snow melted only to be replaced by more. Given the same situation, took to the dreadmill again. 3.06 miles in 28 minutes (9:09/mile pace).
That’s it for the week. I still hate the dreadmill, but it was nice to have given the snow because if there’s one thing worse than the dreadmill, it’s falling on ice! Just under 39 miles this week. Next week has more miles, hill repeats, and a long long run.
I ended the week on Saturday night doing some shopping and bought a pair of New Balance 1080s, which should work better for me for the longer runs. I might buy another pair of shoes soon after my tax return running stimulus program comes in. 🍻