Okay, actually this will be the "last eight days" in review since I'm tacking on yesterday to last week for reasons that I'll explain later.
This was my last "tough" week before I start a 2-week taper leading up to the Crazy Horse marathon on Oct. 7th. I had a pretty aggressive schedule mapped out for this week considering the mileages I've been running lately, and I actually ended up having to tone it down a little because my body was just flat out tired by midweek. The week ended on a good note though, as you will see:
Sunday - Rest. And by that I mean physical, not mental. I went through an emotional rollercoaster as the Seahawks fell behind 17-0 to the Cardinals, came back to take a 20-17 lead and then ended up losing 23-20. I hate football....
Monday - 9 miles including 6x600m speed intervals on the track. This speedwork session felt much better than the one I did the week before. Hit all of the splits dead on.
Tuesday - 11 miles easy. The goal here is to run a moderate distance on tired legs to teach your body to run through fatigue, like you do toward the end of a marathon (well, hopefully it's at the end, if it's at the start you're pretty much screwed). Mission accomplished; the first 6 miles felt good and then I was tired, but not totally wasted, for the last 5 miles.
Wednesday - 8.1 miles easy. I had 12 miles on the schedule and set out to do just that but the speed workout from Monday caught up to me in a bad way. I was drained by the time I finished my first 6 mile loop. Stubborn as I am though, I refused to stop at 6 miles and headed out for another loop but then common sense finally took over my feeble mind and I turned back 1 mile into the loop.
Thursday - 6 miles in the morning, 4 in the afternoon. The goal here was to get some miles in without abusing myself too much. Mission accomplished again.
Friday - 6 miles recovery. Trying to get as rested as possible for the race on Saturday, which at this point I'm still telling myself I'm not sure I'm going to run.
Saturday - 1 mile warmup and a 5K race. Finished 1st overall, which sounds really impressive as long as I don't mention that there were only 9 runners. Oops. Ironic that I get a victory while running the slowest 5K I've run in over a year. I get an age group medal, plaque, and a bunch of food (much more than anyone should eat after a 5K) for my "effort". The plaque says "Top Male" which for some reason I find funny in a subtly sexual way. I think if I ever organize a race, the plaques will say "Alpha Male" and "Alpha Female".
Sunday - 18 miles. I usually do my long runs on Saturday but pushed this one back because of the race. Honestly, I wasn't really looking forward to it, but it ended up going great, which is usually what happens when I'm dreading a run. Since the race was in the evening and I ran this run early in the morning, I ended up logging 22 miles in about a 15 hour period. "Relaxed" in the afternoon by sitting in the car and listening to the Seahawks-Bengals game on our Sirius radio (we always get Vikings and Broncos games on TV around here). It was a great game, made even greater by the fact that the Hawks pulled this one out 24-21. I love football...
So, less than two weeks left until Crazy Horse now. The goal from here on out is pretty much to not hurt myself.
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