The Week in Running

After my last two posts, I think it's time to get back to posting about running. I've had enough deep thinking for this week. I track my weeks from Monday to Sunday. I do this because it seems to me like Saturday and Sunday should be lumped into the same week, rather than split into two weeks. Running has gone well this week - I'm still fighting a little fatigue and my heartrate's been creeping up on me a bit. Before the relay it was typically bouncing around between 135 and 142, so this really doesn't look too bad. It is the norm for it to be elevated a bit after I've had an episode - this actually looks pretty good compared to where it's gone in the past. Here's how the week went:

Monday 7/31: rest and pilates
Tuesday 8/1: 8 miles, 1:42:27, avg hr:135, no high
Wednesday 8/2: 6 miles, 1:14:37, avg hr: 140, high: 165
Thursday 8/3: morning: 7.2 miles, 1:29:48, avg hr: 142, no high
evening: 3.5 miles, 42:21, avg hr: 152, high: 167
Friday 8/4: rest and pilates
Saturday 8/5: 5.2 miles, 1:04:07, avg hr 145, high: 164
Sunday 8/6: 10.2 miles, 2:05, avg hr: 145, high: 159

Total for the week: 8:18, 40.1 miles

The other thing to notice about all these runs is that they are all a little over a 12 minute pace. A few of the longer ones involved a couple of breaks during the run, so the pace is a bit better than it looks. I've added about 30 seconds per mile since the relay. Bummer. I keep reminding myself that a faster pace isn't what I'm after here, the goal is distance.

This coming week will be a little lighter in mileage - next weekend is the Haulin Aspen Half Marathon. Now that it's here, I find that I agree with Thomas about cutting back too far this week - I had only planned to run about 25 miles total for the week, instead, I think I'll be bumping that up to about 30 to 32.

The half is going to be fun, but challenging for me. Here is the course description:

8 miles of climbing - all in the first half of the course, climbing approximately 1300 feet, 5 miles of flat at descending terrain follow.

Sonya hasn't been able to get the time off work, so Jenny and I will be tackling this on our own. The good news is that the forecast is for about 82. That's down from where it has been. This will be my first major trail race - I did the Bizz Johnson 5k on trails last fall, but there was no climb in it, and it was short. I'm a little nervous and a lot excited. We've rented a house and have from 9 to 12 runners staying on any given night. This should be fun!

On a side note, for those who read Rob's blog, I thought you might be wondering why the other two ultra runners in our group are not planning to pace him. It's because they are both running Hood to Coast again this year. No worries though, George, who was one of Rob's pacers last year, is on tap again for this year. Sonya has decided to come help me crew as well. Everything is falling into place.

One last thing. My latest adventure in fueling and hydrating during running seems to work - not a single bit of upset tummy today. I'm mixing up a Zipfizz, pouring half out into a glass for later, then adding water to dilute it. I bought some Sharkies to try last night and they worked great - I ate one at every walk break (which we changed to 7 run - 1 walk for the long runs). I'm going to stick with this combo a while and see if it holds.

That's the latest and greatest from this runner. Thanks for stopping by.