Back at it

September 2-8

After a down week, and a weekend off, I am hoping to feel good this week. I was reflecting on why I've felt so rough the last few weeks. I know I've done some not-so-smart things with training that have left me flat. 3 35K+ runs in 15 days wasn't bright for a guy who had only run that distance 3 or 4 times before in his life. The weather didn't help with last weeks workout, and I need to accept that.
I realized that I wasn't taking care of the little things that can have a big impact on training. My hydration has been terrible over the last two weeks. I've been eating a bit too much junk stuff, and not getting enough good stuff into me for recovery. My core strength work hasn't been up to par, and I've noticed I'm getting some aches that I shouldn't be. So, on we go, but making sure we're taking care of the little things.

Monday brought another long run. I really wanted to get in another 35k run, since I think this will likely be my last chance before the marathon. I won't want to go that far next week with the Reach the Beach NH race on Friday/Saturday, and won't go that far the following week, as I'm not sure how beat up I'll be after the relay.
So, I set out to do 35k, but giving myself an out that if I felt rough, I could cut back to 32k. There was a thick fog in the air, and within 5 minutes of running my glasses had a nice layer of moisture. Fortunately, it was cool enough that I didn't notice the real heavy air. The run was relatively uneventful, which is a good thing. I cut my pace down as the run went along, getting down close to race pace for the last 10k. I went the full 35k, and was please with it. After the run, my legs were feeling pretty beat up, but I realized that was because I wore my lighter weight shoes for the run. I've been doing my long stuff in a pair of New Balance 1080v3, a very plush shoe. I've been wearing a pair of 1400 racing flats for workouts, going up to 25k in them. I do want to use them as my race day shoe, so I planned on getting a longer run done in them, but my legs were pretty beat up after it. I still have to say, this was a good run and a nice confidence builder that I'm recovering well.

Tuesday I was pretty sore, so I only ran the 8k from work to home. Wednesday, I loaded Emily up in the stroller and we ran down to daycare. I was still feeling a bit sore, so I ran the 9k to daycare, then walked to work. It leaves me about 3k shorter than I anticipated on these two days, but a few kilometers here and there isn't a problem.

Wednesday had another easy day, with a little run to daycare. I ended up doing 10k of running.

Thursday and Friday were a bit of a different story. Work had been getting busy with new clinics kicking off and new product arriving. I ended up skipping my run on Thursday because I was tired, and had a lot of work to do.
Friday was much of the same story. I came to work early, but instead of doing my usual run, I had to remerchandise the store, getting a bunch of our new product out. There was still a lot of new stuff to be received, labeled, and hung up, so I ended up working solid through to the end of the day. I did get in a quick 10k run, but it wasn't the 1k repeats I planned on doing.

This was a bit of a downer week for me. I was hoping for a good week of mileage, with a good workout. Instead, I ended up running about 25k less than I wanted. I've realized that my September running problems come with the busier season at work. I have more to do in store, so slipping out for an hour or two to run just isn't feasible. I have to really plan my weeks so I can get my runs in now, and keep my routine up through STWM.

Next week brings the Reach the Beach Relay. I'll do a medium long run, then back off for the week to rest up, and hopefully have a good series of legs. As of right now, I'm running about 6.6mi, 6.8mi, and 6.7mi on my legs. It will add up to a little over 20 miles of legs, or 32k. This will be a good test of my marathon fitness.

Weekly total: 4 runs, 63km