Week 19 Summary: Only 8 miles

Mileage

Scheduled: 26 miles
Ran: 27.2 miles

Cross training

Push-ups: 175
Crunches: 400
Rock climbing

Week notes

Matt and I were finally able to get to the climbing gym after having to skip 2 weeks due to conflicting schedules. I only did push-ups and crunches 5 of 7 days this week, though I was able to consistently do 35 and 80 (40/20/20) every time, respectively.

The first three runs this week (Monday-Wednesday: 3, 6, 3 miles) were quite tough this week, even though the mileage was relatively short. The 20 mile run last Saturday took a noticable toll on my body. Thursday's run (6 miles) was easier, though the wind that morning made it challenging in a different way.

The group run on Saturday was the last one before the marathon next weekend. A quick tally from the weekly summaries on this training log show that I've run approximately 502.4 miles since the TNT training began. If I hadn't fractured my collar bone in February I would have run at least another 155 more in that month off. One more week of short runs and the 26.2 miles next Saturday will make it about 542.6 miles. Wow.

Team in Training group run

About 60 minutes before the run:
Ate 2 eggs and 1.5 slices of wheat toast. Drank 1 cup water.

Weather: Cool. ~45-55 F. Sunny.

Attire: Yellow & white Supernova Classics, short synth running socks, cotton boxer briefs, black Nike synth shorts, white synth t-shirt, green GoLite synth wind shirt, blue bandana, orange sunglasses, bandages.

Actually left on time, got to the park 5 minutes early. Stretched during group announcments. Only Bayshore (~8) and Alaska (3) participants were there. Kim and Sue were not there. Ran with Julie the whole way.

Mile 0: Warmed up slowly for the first mile with Coach Ken, Sarah, Ken, Dave, Julie and myself.

Mile 1: Coach Ken and Dave took off. Julie and I got ahead of Ken and Sarah to run our pace.

Mile 2: Coach Ken waited for us, then stuck with us for a mile, encouraging us to run a faster pace (9 min/mile) since it's a shorter distance.

Mile 4: Left shin and calf muscle started really getting tired. I'm not sure I've recovered from the run last weekend.

Mile 6: Took off my jacket and tied it around my waist. Continued a mile past the TNT picnic table and then turned back.

Mile 8: Finished after ~70 minutes (8:45 min/mile). Did not take any water/food breaks due to the relative shortness of the run.

Cooled down by walking in the parking lot and stretching by the picnic table. Drank a few cups of water. Ate a bagel. Stood around and spoke to the Bayshore people for a little while before heading home (and stopping for some coffee on the way). One of the things we got a laugh about was how at the beginning of the training in January we were all scared of the first 7-and 8-mile group runs. Now, after we've done considerably more than that (including the 20 last Saturday), we were all thinking thinking of today's run as "only" 8 miles. It's amazing how one's perspective can change.

My left shoulder was a little sore during the run. I especially noticed it when taking off my wind shirt. I think I will need to take some time off from running after the marathon to let it heal more.