My running week 8/14-20

I don't know what to call this week. Do I call it a bonus week? Do I call it a week where I came back from an illness to start doing workouts? Do I call it the last week before the PAIN arrives? Do I call it the last week before it's go time? I'm not sure. Does it matter? Are these questions meant to be answered? I'm not sure? This week marked the beginning of returning to work, although it's not full time teaching yet. One thing that I'm glad is that I've gotten a more definite plan for what I'll be doing in work and when it will happen, so I have some directions. Before I begin the training log recap I will have to start with things I don't like: the weather.

Let me tell you something if it's rather cool outside don't taunt me with it getting rather warm in the afternoon. And if there is a nice gentle breeze don't taunt me with humidity. I want it to be one way and not a hodge podge of different things. Also with the weather being nice it's a cruel reminder that it's not going to last because there will be another heat wave, and I'll start cursing it for being so hot. So weather if you want to get cool, I'm fine with that, but stay cool. Once the temperatures start dropping I don't want it to suddenly climb back up for a couple days. That's not cool, that's just mean.

Sunday: 10 miles. Felt better. Was somewhat rainy. Did some strides after the run. Those felt good.

Monday: 9 miles. It was a bit chilly when I went out to run, so I kept my shirt on. But it was humid. Not cool weather.

Tuesday: 13.07 miles. I did a fartlek workout here. It was 2 minutes on with 2 minutes off. I did 10 of them. Ran more than what I wanted to mileage wise. But other than that it felt pretty good doing some speed. I felt really relaxed on them. I guess you have to factor in the fact that the recovery time was pretty lengthy. There was this guy I passed on the third interval, he ended up racing me at the end of the interval. I was not pleased he did this. If I was fit I would have put the hammer down on this guy, but I kind realized that this was not the time or the place to do it.

Wednesday: 11 miles. I would say this was a run under control. A run the day after a workout so I kept it easy. Did 4 strides. Saw someone getting arrested while I was doing strides. This running in the early morning is going to be interesting.

Thursday: 7 miles. I was thinking...this might be my last workout of the year. There is no way I could do them early in the morning, unless I wanted to get arrested. So this might be the swan song of 2011. What I noticed on this track is that it's much tougher than others I have been on. It's still ruberized but it's a tough track. And doing 20 x 300 it really beat up my quads up. I'm still feeling it in my quads on Saturday. I did 100 meter walk in between each one. Not up to fitness to do 100 meter jog. I would say that I averaged 54 seconds (72 quarters) for this workout. Is that good? I'm not sure.

Friday: 9 miles. I woke up tired. I felt tired for the first mile. Got into it after that, but I wanted to treat this as a true recovery run. No strides. Quads a bit beat up. Must embrace pain.

Saturday: 11 miles. Well I wasn't to enthusiastic about running this early, but did it. Not that bad out. Not that bad of a run. Felt sore still but nothing that would cause concern. 4 strides not to bad.

Total mileage: 70.7