Chickamauga Training Recap: Week #14

This felt like a really "off" week for me. I had a hard time getting my motivation going and felt residual leg fatigue from my long run (not quite 18 miles) last Sunday. I think it's probably time for a massage sooner rather than later.

Monday, October 10
Plan: Rest
Actual: Rest

Tuesday, October 11
Plan: 3 miles + boot camp
Actual: Rest

It was rainy and gross all day (including when I left for work) which meant bootcamp was canceled and I was not really feeling an outdoor run. I was starving as I left work so I told myself I would allow myself to go home, eat and digest before hitting up the gym. Except...I never made it to the gym. Not exactly sure what happened, but asi es la vida.

Wednesday, October 12
Plan: 45 minute tempo
Actual: 50 minute tempo

For runs like this, I always hit the 'mill so I can push myself/keep my "prescribed" paces honest. In this case, the tempo section is supposed to be run around 10K pace. Well, I don't have a really recent 10K time, so for my tempos I have been taking my PR 10K pace and subtracting 15 seconds/mile. I would like to think that my 10K time is improving, but who knows? (I'll find out in a couple of weeks)

I run the 1st 10 minutes at a warm up pace and then start cranking an additional .1mph every 60-90 seconds until I reach tempo pace. Hold tempo pace until 15 minutes left in the run. Crank down .1mph until I reach warm up (cool down) pace and stop. I ended up going longer this time because I wanted to reach a "round" number so I extended both the tempo and c/d sections by a couple of minutes each.

This was a really rough and challenging run. My legs never felt like they got in the groove and my breathing was a bit labored at times (but it was mostly just my legs). It was kind of discouraging, but you take the good with the bad and move on.

Thursday, October 13
Plan: 5 miles
Actual: 4.25

I was hoping Amy would be able to join me for our Mountain Brook loop again but she had dinner plans, so I was flying solo. When we ran this loop last week we totally ran out of daylight so I was hoping to hit the trail a few minutes earlier. Well, despite the best of intentions/effort, I ended up at the trail the same time and knew I didn't want to race daylight alone (especially since we got stuck in the pitch black at the end of our last run), so I opted for the out and back route that we used to do almost every Sunday. I needed every singly second of daylight I had to complete this mileage and though I wanted more, I didn't have a safe way to add in anything else.

Friday, October 14
Plan: Rest
Actual: Rest/Travel

I wasn't thrilled about taking yet another rest day this week, but I had a super early morning taking the dogs to the vet and then my aunt Paula was in Birmingham getting her car serviced so she offered to drive me down to Auburn for the football game (and I could ride back to B'ham w/Matt who was already in Auburn and had worked there Friday).

It was a crazy hectic day between being up at the ass crack of dawn, working (heavy on the meetings for a Friday!), meeting my aunt, driving down, going to my cousin Jimmy's HS football game, getting stuff ready the tailgate, etc. Though I drank plenty of water, I barely ate due to all of this and ended up with an expectedly crappy run the next morning.

Saturday, October 15
Plan: 10-12 miles
Actual: 10 miles + 3 mile walk

The Auburn/Florida game was at night so I didn't have to be worried about pounding the pavement at 5am but with other things going on, I also couldn't sleep the day away. I finally peeled myself out of bed at 7:30 and was out the door by 8.

I was planning to run the same 10 mile route I ran last time I was in town, but I must have been (I was) totally zoned out when it came time to turn and just kept going straight. At one point I thought, "I really don't remember these hills" (they were pretty intense at this point) and kept looking for my turn only a few minutes later to realize that I was almost at Kinnucan's and had totally missed the turn long ago.

My pace wasn't really off or anything, but I wasn't properly fueled and felt zapped even as I did power through hills. It was also much warmer than expected and was glad I had opted for a tank (last minute decision) but wished I had opted for my running skirt (also a last minute decision NOT to wear that). I tried to get myself into a rhythm of taking a 1 minute walk break every 2 miles but sometimes I would be on a nice downhill (I didn't want to waste that!), so I would just keep running until I hit an incline. I also had to stop a couple of times to adjust my ponytail since it kept falling out. I had no idea of the running club's route this morning so I was totally on my own for fueling, and I was rationing my water/gatorade mix (22oz) like it was my job.

Also toward the beginning of my run, I encountered another runner coming up a hill (moving from a run to a walk) and she looked exhausted and a little bit anxious. As soon as she got within shouting distance she asked me how close a certain cross street was. It was about half a mile away at that point and I told her so, but poor thing she said "Are you sure? It's not like 5 more miles or anything?" I could tell she was so desperate to just be done and hypothesized that she was visiting a friend in the area and had "gone out for a run" and gotten lost and/or wrongly estimated her distance. I felt so bad and thought maybe I should turn around and run her to her destination or offer her water or *something*. I didn't and still kind of regret it even now.

For the record:
Pre-run fuel: pack of keebler wheat and cheese crackers (I forgot my own food and scrounged around for something that sounded even halfway appealing), water
During the run: 22oz of water/Gatorade mix (arctic freeze) and a couple of Honey Stinger chews (orange) at no particular interval
Wore: UnderArmour capris (again), Auburn tech tank, WigWam Ironman socks, blue Mizuno Wave Nirvana 7s, UnderArmour head band
Accessories: Garmin, Nathan handheld water bottle, Nathan shadowpack (waist belt)

The walking was the parking at Kinnucan's and then trekking to and from the stadium (not even counting the additional walking around campus) At least this time I didn't get a blister!

Sunday, October 16
Plan: Cross (choice)
Actual: Walk (distance??)

I took my aunt's dog for a couple of loops through her neighborhood. I had hoped that Matt and I would take the girls for a walk once back in B'ham but we ended up barely even making it to the vet by pick up time. We were well on the way back to the Ham when Matt realized he'd left his work laptop at this friend's house so we had to turn around and retrace our steps. It cost us at least an hour of driving time and by the time we got home it was almost dark.