We join our hero at the end of a long run. This is not how this week was supposed to go, nor was this how the month was supposed to go. Our hero was supposed to be victoriously crossing the finish line of the Flying Pig Marathon to cap off a Sunday after crossing a finish line for the 50 West Mile on the prior Friday. Summer races are getting precariously close to the chopping block, and the odds are even money on fall races happening.
Monday: 6 miles. Coming off a refreshing break from the park and subdivision next to it, this was back into it. The morning was chilly only to break to a nice 65 in the afternoon, and this was expected to be a nice day before a few days of rain. 6.31 miles in 54:53 (8:42/mile pace).
Tuesday: 12 x 1/4 mile intervals. I’m learning with the new watch, and this was the first time I’ve done intervals. There’s goods, bads, and uglies. The good: it works. The bads: I have to define my warm-up and cool-down on the fly. The ugly: having to scroll the wheel on my watch to unlock it to end warm up and begin the first interval. I need to figure a few things out with this watch. Anyway, kept these in the park. Splits were 1:46, 1:45, 1:38, 1:44, 1:43, 1:44, 1:45, 1:44, 1:43, 1:43, 1:44. The stamina pace goal is 1:46-1:49 (one was at 1:46). The speed pace goal is 1:33 – 1:38 (one was at 1:38). I’m squarely in-between those pace ranges. Overall, 7.73 in 1:04:21 (8:19/mile pace).
Also on Tuesday, I decided to enter the 1000k Virtual Race Across Tennessee.
Wednesday: 5 miles recovery. Ran this around most of the subdivision, cutting off a small portion to keep it down to five miles. 5.24 miles in 45:37 (8:42/mile pace).
Thursday: 35 minute tempo run. Ran in the park and subdivision, and this was similar to last week with one notable exception – I actually used the lap button! The tempo portion was 4.5 miles in 35:50 (7:58/mile pace). Overall, 6.51 miles in 53:55 (8:17/mile pace).
Friday: 13 miles. I went downtown for this one to run a course that is similar to the Flying Pig Half. When I started up Gilbert, my legs were feeling spent. I pressed on up the hill and back down. 13.31 miles in 2:01:17 (9:07/mile pace).
That’s it for the week. 39.1 miles for the week, 156.4 miles in April. 13.31 miles (2.1%) in the Virtual Race across Tennessee.
Next week is more of the same, and I’ll be doing some more macro-level planning to ensure I make it through all 634.84 miles of the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee. While 1000k = 621.37 miles, the route shown on their website is listed as 634.84 miles so I’m using that. 🍻