Weekly update, currently in my 3rd week of hill phase. Well once again I missed my long run last week. Last Thursday I wasn't able to fit it in because of bad weather. Then I ran a somewhat disappointing race on Saturday, so I decided to take Sunday off and just relax and enjoy the day and not think about running. Monday morning I had to push myself to get out and do my long run. I am glad I did cause I had my best long run ever. I managed to get 12 miles in under 2 hrs and maintain an avg HR of only about 73% of max. A month ago I couldn't even muster an 11min/mi pace at that kind of effort. This made me feel all better about my race. Here's how the race went: I was really thinking around 45. However it was already kind of warm and humid by the time the race started. I also didn't get a good warm up in before the start. So the first mile I felt like I was already pushing pretty hard to just hit 7:30. I then figured on shooting for sub 47. I already started feeling cotton mouth after the first mile marker. On the second mile I come to the realization then the next water stop is probably not until the 2 mile mark. I finally get to this one and I am so ready to drink. My mile split was under 7:30 so I am still good there. At this point I'm not in a crowded section, I see the runner in front of me get water. When I come up there is only 2 people at this stand one pooring the other handing out. Only the one handing out was holding an empty stack of cups. I think I actually yelled "Damn it!", as I passed by. At this point I am like f*ck! I have wait another 2 miles before I get water, and a lot of negative thoughts start poring in about how I feel and how much farther I have to go. I am able to maintain my pace for the next couple of miles. Most of the second and third mile where in well shaded neighborhoods, so I didn't feel too bad. However about halfway through the 3rd mile we turn on to a major concrete road with the sun blazing down. I started to feel really really hot at this point and was struggling. Finally I get to the water station at mile 4. I didn't even bother to check my split because all I could think about was water. I ended up walking for about a minute and let my self drink almost a full cup. The moment someone ran by my I started running again, only quite a bit slower. At this point I was telling myself to just break 50. I told myself If I don't break 50 that I'll be very disappointed after the race. So pushed on despite how bad I felt. Most of mile 5 and half of mile 6 was one long straight gradual incline through the city. Ahhhg this was miserable but I kept going. Half way through mile 6 is a big U turn and one final gradual uphill of a bout a half mile. I steadily make it up to the top. Then realize the finish is close and the worst of it is over. My pace picks up. After the last turn the final straight is about a quarter mile. I catch and pass a younger guy in front of me. But another guy slowly creeps by me. I am pushing to try and pass him back but I didn't have enough to. Still a good finish though. I see the clock is below 49 and I am relieved. After talking to a number other runners I realized that a lot of other people struggled on this one. I think if I had a better warm up, a more confident mindset and under better conditions I probably could have come close to 45. But at least I have a baseline for next time. This week may actually be 60+ mile week. I started Monday with a long run to make up for the lack of one last week. I'll finish off with one on Sunday of 15 miles so by having 2 long runs on the ends of this week my mileage will be high. I ran a very tough Lydiard style hill workout yesterday. It was the first one in a while with bounding involved. I am fairly sore today and my recovery run today was pretty slow as a result. Tomorrow will be a double starting off with a tempo run. then a real easy Saturday of 4 miles and finish off with the long run Sunday.

Wow! Glad everything worked out for the best. Sounds like you took the proper path on this one. Better safe than sorry as it were. Sounds like you'll be back on the road soon enough.

PR'd in my 5k last Saturday, by almost a minute, I officially ran 21:59; 21:57 Garmin Time. I may have started out too fast with a first mile split of 6:35. The first mile was mostly on a decline which was also the cause for the fast split. Well It wasn't quite as fast as I was hoping to get at this point but I'm fairly happy with it for now. Lately my training hasn't been as consistent as I would like it to be and it's been getting me frustrated. I've been trying to maintain about 50 mpw but I keep missing key workouts every week due to other priorities. Preparation for our new family arrival is taking up a lot of my time and focus so its been affecting my training to where I don't feel very confident about breaking 20 min before the end of this month. I think its about time to back off the intensity a bit and just get back to running for the sake of just enjoying the run and to not put so much pressure on myself to get in every workout.

 

Once the baby gets here the focus will be less on getting faster and more on dropping weight. Right now I am at about 175 which according to BMI charts is about 10 lbs. overweight for someone of my height and medium build. I think this is what's really holding me back from being able to improve to where I would like to be, or even to where I should be right now for the kind of training I'm doing. Ideally I would like to get to about 145 lbs over the course of the next year. The weight alone should allow me to run about a minute per mile faster then what I am doing now. In training this would allow me to cover more mileage in the same amount of time which will also result in faster race times. The plan is to use an online calorie counter and just try to make healthier, nutrient rich diet choices, while maintaining about 25-35 miles a week. Eventually once I get used to a new daily routine with the baby and my weight gets to where I think it should be I'll get back to more serious training again.