The Monday Report - 2 weeks out!

I'm kind of glad that I'm only writing these reports every 2 weeks, because my training at the beginning of this session was somewhat better than awful, but I turned it around this last week! It's a good thing to, because Rock 'N Roll Nashville is 2 weeks away! I'm so very excited. I'm hoping to complete it in 2:45, which I'm hoping is an attainable goal, given my dismal performance this spring.

I have big plans for my summer training, so I'm hoping my fall races get me closer to my 2:30 goal. It's going to have to involve speed work, which I hate, so I'm already trying to mentally prepare myself. The bright side to summer training is that the kids will be off from school, and I will have a babysitter for Baby Girl, so my schedule won't be as dependent on weather and how she's feeling. Yay!

So let's get to it, here's the recap.

My one and only run during week 3, was a quick little 3 mile jaunt that was rather enjoyable, even if it was warm. I don't know what happened the rest of the week, and why I ended up not doing anything else, but it is what it is. I ended the week with 3 miles out of 19. Not great.

Luckily, I got a lot of work done on the blog and was able to refocus the following week, and nail most of of running workouts. I need to be able to focus and get my strength work done, but I hate strength so much. Will someone come to my house and make me do my strength workouts? I guess that's where my gym membership helped, because the machine made that dreaded strength work an easier pill to swallow, but I don't have the gym membership anymore, so I really just need to buckle down and get that crap done. Or if someone has a bullhorn, and will shout at me to get it done.......

So this last week was warm, and lovely training for Nashville, which is bound to be hot. One of the biggest hurdles for me when running Nashville are the summertime temps, because Virginia isn't that hot yet. I mean, we're getting there, but we still have a lot of springtime temps left, and 80+ degree running is so much more difficult than mid-50's and 60's. So I am happy for our mini-heatwave. I wasn't real happy with my pace times this week, but I know that's not the only number to focus on, and there was a huge non-number victory this week! I'll get to it in a bit, but it was HUGE! Like I knocked a mini-goal off my list big.

So back to my numbers. They weren't great, and slower than I was anticipating. I don't know if it was because of the heat, and the accompanying humidity or if I was just off. Who knows, but the miles did get run and that is the most important thing. I logged 19 out of 22 miles this week. Yahoo!


Monday was a lot of fun. I ran 4 miles, while Dana ran a 5k. It was so much fun. I'm so glad that we're able to run "together" via a cellphone and her mac. We listened to her Zombies, RUN! 5k during this run, and during one part, I was startled by the scream heard through her phone. It was all apart of the story, and we had a laugh about it. Dana will be reviewing the 5k she ran, and I can't wait to read her full review!

I did have a funny happen on Wednesday, while running what was supposed to be a tempo 5-miler. It ended up being a 5k and then the remaining 1.89 miles to finish up the 5 miles. Someone didn't plan her breakfast well and then paid the price for it, but racing home counts as tempo work, right?

Dana very kindly talked to me for 3 hours on Saturday morning, as I banged out 10 miles before work. I'm ever so glad that she was there, because while my pace was all over the place for that long run, I was able to conduct an experiment and then talk through the results. Over the past few months, I've been noticing that the gatorade gels were upsetting my stomach, so Saturday I decided to try a controlled experiment, where I would only fuel  with gatorade drink. At about 7 miles, that decision bit me in the ass. My legs were fatigued and I was exhausted. Luckily, I planned ahead (read: I had gels left over in my pack from RnR DC) so I popped one gel at 7 miles. By 7.5 miles I was already feeling better, so I popped one gel at 8 and another at 9. I needed the fuel, and they didn't upset my stomach, even with the liquid gatorade in my pack. Next week, I'll be starting the gels at mile 6, just so I don't hit that wall first, and hopefully they'll help carry me over without the fatigued feeling.

So just to share, my average moving pace for the run was 14:12, which is slower than I like for a trail run, but not terrible considering my training this spring. Below are the average moving paces:

1. 13:59
2. 13:42
3. 13:23
4. 14:24
5. 14:18
6. 14:43
7. 15:29
8. 15:11
9. 13:00
10. 14:04

So you can see mile 7 was painfully slow. I was hurting, so after taking the gel, there was a concentrated effort to pick up the pace, which I accomplished. I will also say that at during mile 10, was Henry Hill, and anyone who's been to the Manassas Battlefield knows of Henry Hill, or the hill that is behind the Visitor's Center that is very long and quite steep. The path up the hill is about a quarter of a mile and gains about 100' in elevation.  I've never been able to run all the way up that hill, but I did on Saturday!

Dana asked me if I was alright, and I had to remind her that it was a freaking big hill. Then she asked if I was having a heart attack, and replied, "No, still running." Of course, when I got to the top of the hill I still needed about a tenth of a mile to finish 10, and I was asking her if 10 was ever going to happen.

So while the first half of this stretch could've been better; the boon of achieving my mini-goal of running all the way up Henry Hill was definitely a much needed win.

Here's to getting these last 2 weeks out of the way!