Once again, this week turned out to be a pretty solid week of training. I have fallen back on my new mantra of “keep showing up” to keep myself from letting myself off easy.

Monday 55 minutes regular
I felt good and solid through this run. The heel was not an issue. I’m pretty sure that the soreness in my left heel comes from muscle tightness in my calf or related muscle so I’m focusing on making sure that I have enough time to stretch fully.

Tuesday tempo intervals
As opposed to a full tempo run, I had intervals of 7 minutes at tempo pace. These intervals felt tough but doable. I felt really strong on the warm up and very thankful for the short recovery between intervals. Next week I’m back to a regular tempo as opposed to intervals so I plan to pull out that mantra and show up for the entire time of the interval.

Wednesday strength training
We did so much ab work, so much. I knew that I would be feeling all that work later and still felt the soreness on Sunday. I made sure to push hard and Ellis made sure to push us incredibly hard. I enjoyed the workout.

Thursday 55 minutes regular with hard effort intervals at end
Even though we did not do legs on Wednesday, my legs still felt a bit fatigued. Once I started talking and took my mind off them, I settled in and the fatigue went away. I pushed really hard on those hard effort intervals at the end and even logged a sub 7 minute pace, barely, in the last interval.

Friday stationary bike
I did not win the battle regarding getting to the gym. Thanks to changing events at school, I had a lot on my mind Thursday when I went to bed so I did not feel like heading into the gym. I plan to make this a habit (showing up, not the habit of skipping like I already have) as soon as I possibly can.

Saturday 130 minutes with 4 moderately hard efforts near the end
I felt really strong and stead for the majority of this run. It helped that the temperatures cooperated during the first hour or so but since I live in South Carolina, the weather quickly stopped cooperating. By the time I finished, the temps had reached 71 after starting at 48. Mom ended the run at 10 miles while I continued on to finish a little more time and the intervals. Looking back, I’m pretty sure that the reason that these intervals felt as hard as they did, even though they were supposed to be moderate effort had to do primarily with the heat. The terrain is also not very amenable to harder efforts but I plan to continue running in this area since San Francisco is not known for the flatness of the course. These intervals drained me and drained me so much that I considered multiple times during the last couple minutes of the interval, dropping down and walking. I dug out that mantra of “just show up” and kept pushing. I did have to nearly stop on the last interval when a mail truck crossed the sidewalk right in front of me to deliver mail but even as tempting as stopping would have been I pushed forward. I know that I gave it all I had because I felt as near to throwing up after as I have been after a run. My pace did not show this effort which is why I am nearly 100% certain that the heat/humidity played a significant factor. I am pleased with this run since I executed the run as prescribed, something that I have had difficulty doing with long runs in the past.

I am pleased with my performance this week and the steady progress that I feel that I am making. Twelve more weeks to go!