Monday, 65 minutes with hill repeats near end, 7.42
Since Mom took my clothes and gear with her Sunday to wash after our long run, I did not have my favorite shorts, running belt or my OrangeMud vest. I made it work anyway. When I checked the weather and saw 82 as the temps, I knew that I needed to bring hydration with me. I put my phone in a bag and tucked it into my sports bra and carried my bottle in my hand. While I do not prefer this, I made it work. As I started to run, it felt like my left shoe was loose and I had a hard time keeping my knee from collapsing. I focused on form but kept feeling that so at my turn around point I tightened the laces. Yes, it felt tight but I felt instant improvement in my form. I will make sure to tighten my laces in the first place from now on. As I finished up the second half of my run, I focused on strong and steady rather than a “fast” pace since the back half of my run holds a lot more hills than the front half. By the time I finished, I still felt great. I’ll take that.
Tuesday, 50 minutes regular, 5.82
I couldn’t wait to run but my legs did not enjoy this run. They felt tired, more than likely because I have run three days in a row with the first day of the “streak” containing a long run. I had already decided against the tempo run originally scheduled. Good thing I had because my legs would not have put up with it. With about 20 minutes to go they actually felt wobbly. I decided that I would stop at 5 miles and then just walk the rest of the way. Thankfully, after waiting at the signal my legs felt strong enough to finish the full 50 minutes. Unlike Sunday and Monday, I did remember to foam roll. Ouch! (In the best way)
Wednesday, rest
Even though I want to make sure to keep up with strength training, I learned the hard way that three days solid of running starting with a long run makes my legs really tired. I focused on stretching and foam rolling instead.
Thursday, warm up, 9 x 2 min. 90% effort w/2 min b/w, cool down, 7.90 miles
I headed out for speedwork equipped with my flipbelt to hold my phone and my OrangeMud vest to hold my hydration. I knew that my pace might not be as fast as I would like thanks to the 80+ degree temperatures. Thankfully, my plan called for effort rather than a specific pace. My legs felt sluggish on the warm up but eased up after a few minutes. My first interval felt hard because I headed down a fairly steep hill and I had to reign myself in while putting forth a 90% effort. Another one of the intervals before I turned around felt incredibly hard because I headed up a hill. (You can’t really avoid hills in Greenville.) At the turn around, I paused to tighten my shoelaces, this time on both shoes. Once again, I found myself surprised at the different in how I felt. My legs felt springy actually. I pushed through, completed all 9 intervals, and finished strong. I didn’t think I would enjoy the run when I started but I finished grateful for the run and really loving it.
Friday, 40 minutes regular, 4.76 miles
Even though I had the “day off” since “Spring Break” started today (hard to tell the difference when you’ve been home for weeks already), Mom had a lot to do and didn’t make it over until my usual start time. Since the temps were about 20 degrees cooler than yesterday, that made the run that much more pleasant. My legs felt fantastic at the start but somewhere around halfway they felt heavy. I ran through that and again stopped at the halfway point to tighten the laces. It perked up my legs and we finished strong even though someone decided to honk at us as we ran. Don’t get me started on that.
Saturday, 150 minutes long run, 15.69 miles
I still have not decided what to do about the marathon. I have ruled out an aggressive training plan off the table. I will try for a PR hopefully in the fall or winter of this year. So, today I decided just to run for 150 minutes instead of alternating with moderate effort. I felt fairly good throughout although a little irritated that in one 2.5 mile stretch I counted 256 cars. Yes, I think traffic had diminished a little from the past couple weeks but with a stay at home order, that’s too many people out and about. My legs felt tired at the end but I felt fairly decent throughout the run. Afterwards I could feel my right hamstring towards the knee so I will focus on foam rolling and stretching later.