...I'd have a picture of Ben Franklin in my pocket. As planned, I got to the somewhat elusive century mark this week. For some reason, I feel like I can top 90 miles per week fairly comfortably, but getting those last few miles to hit triple digits takes a lot more planning and effort than it seems like it should. Here's how I did it this time:
Monday - 12.5 miles in the morning, 5 in the afternoon. I had Presidents Day off of work, so I had the luxury of sleeping in after the previous week's long run. This was a welcome treat because I usually dread the Monday morning run more than the Sunday long run, but not having to do it at 4 AM helped matters considerably.
Tuesday - 10 miles in the morning, 5.5 in the afternoon. Back to work, so back to early morning running. The 10 miler was pretty slow.
Wednesday - 10.25 miles with 8 strides.
Thursday - 11.05 miles, including 2 miles easy, 20 minutes tempo, 10 minutes easy, 20 minutes tempo and 1.5 miles easy. This tempo workout didn't go as well as last week's, especially the first 20 minute interval, but the second 20 minutes felt better.
Friday - 8.7 miles in the morning, 6 in the afternoon. By far the worst day of the week running-wise. The morning run was supposed to be 10, but 8.7 was a struggle even at a slower than normal pace. Just after I got to work, the wind picked up and it started snowing. So, the afternoon run was done on the indoor track. The first 3 miles felt absolutely horrible: stomach issues, weak legs, mild dizziness. It wasn't pretty. I stopped for a bathroom break and forced myself back onto the track and, magically, started to feel much better. I actually extended what was supposed to be a 5 miler to 6 because I was feeling so good by the end. Crazy.
Saturday - 9 miles with 8 strides. Felt better than Friday, but something still felt off with my stomach.
Sunday - 22 miles. Stomach issues are finally gone. I ran an out and back course that featured about 1500 feet of total elevation gain. The hilliest portion was between miles 9 and 13, where I practiced running the uphills strong (but not too strong) and then pushing the pace on the downhills. Those four miles felt good. A couple of miles afterward felt a little less good, but then I finished strong the last few miles.
Total - 100 miles
8 weeks til Boston....
On a non-running note, Shannon and I saw "Slumdog Millionaire" on Saturday afternoon. It was really good and, since it's the only one of the Best Picture nominees I've seen, I'm glad it won the Oscar last night. Of course, I hadn't even heard of a couple of the nominees. Either I'm culturally deprived, or the Academy picks some weird-ass nominees.
1 comment:
Congratulations on the Benjamin! Hehe. You are a machine. Great job especially on the hilly 22 miler, what a challenge. You'll probably find the hills in Boston to be no problem.
I haven't seen any of the Oscar-nominated movies. I'm more of an at-home movie watcher so they are all on my Netflix queue.
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