Monday, May 17, 2010

Weekend Training Update

My weekend running went nearly as planned. Originally, I had planned on a 30 mile trail run Saturday to further acclimate myself to trail running for my upcoming race, and a 15 mile road run on Sunday to reach my weekly mileage goal.

Unfortunately, I woke up Saturday with little energy to run, let alone 30 miles. I never had a thought in my mind not to run Saturday, I just put it off for a little while. Eventually, I got my stuff together: Camelbak Water Bottle and Belt, 2 peanut butter sandwiches, SaltStick Caps, Kodak Playsport ZX3 Video Camera, and I was out the door by 8:45AM. By the time I made it to the trail, I was read to run. The weather was perfect - sunny and cool (mid-60s). I was re-energized and ready to tackle the 30 mile run.

I decided to make a 10 mile loop so I could stop by my car to refuel and fill up my water bottle if needed; used my car as a makeshift aid station. It really worked out well. I felt good up until I was closing in on 20 miles. I eventually became a little fatigued and made a decision to only run 25 miles. I'm not sure if this was a mental breakdown, or just being smart and listening to my body. Either way, I decided to stop at 25. I think you can see in the video that I was low on energy. You'll notice that after mile 20, I took of my t-shirt and switched to a sleeveless running shirt. I was getting pretty warm by that point.

The cool thing about Saturday's run? I had a deer run right in front of me on the path. It stopped about 10 feet from me so I had time to take a short clip of it. Later on, I saw another deer running through the field.



On Sunday, I was totally revived. I think I ate really well after my run on Saturday, and refueled properly. I decided to mix up my 15 mile Sunday run by running a 10K, 5K, and then another 10K with a minute break in between each. This made for a nice "speed" workout. I quote speed, because I am not fast by any means. I was happy with my first 10K time. I believe it was just under 46 minutes.

So, I ended the week with 66 miles. One mile beyond my plan at the beginning of the week. I'm really comfortable with running in the 60+ mile range now. I hope to increase this into the 70s after my next race.

2 comments:

  1. Cool video! I can't believe you were able to film the deer for that long. I never have my camera or flip with me when i see deer and i see lots of them. it was very intrigued with you...kept turning around and posing a few times.
    Wow! You only did 25 miles that day? Slacker! Just kidding of course. Most people don't even do that in a week or a month. To only be off your goal this week by 1 mile is not bad at all. I'd call that a very successful week. Keep up the awesome mileage!

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  2. Always good to listen to your body! (Or mind, for that matter) Nice run and 25 of 30 definitely seems like a success, especially in light of the extra mileage earlier in the week.

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