This week was the peak week of the first cycle of my Philly buildup.
Aug 14, Monday:
65 min strength session.
Aug 15, Tuesday:
Progression run my accident. It just felt so good. It was supposed to be a base day. Splits> 8:43, 8:09, 8:00, 7:47, 7:32, 7:10, 1:22 for 0.2. 6.2 in 48:36, 7:50 ave. Was forced out of a nap, my body hot and screaming. Stiff at the start, so I started, slow, but after 2 days off of running, my legs wanted to stretch out. They still felt fresh at the 5 mile mark that the schedule called for, so I kept going.
Aug 16, Wednesday:
4.5 in 35:02, 7:47 ave. Tempo run day. 1 mi warmup in 8:38, 3 mi @ 7:29 pace, 3:54 for 0.5 mi. 76 degrees. Easier this time than last time (a week ago), though still not a walk in the park. Stopped 0.5 mi early, partially because of a slight twinge developing in my right knee, partially because a boy was probably waiting for the treadmill.
Friday midnight - Hunger Games release party!!!
I had forgotten to track it until my dad emailed to let me know about the Walmart release parties, where you could get a DVD+Pendant combo. They'd also be giving away packs of trading cards. I was so excited. I wore my Katniss gear and drove out to my local Walmart, only to find out that they weren't having the party because they weren't a 24-hour Walmart, so I drove to another.
There, they had cake (none for me). I got the DVD, and later when I opened the cards, I found that I had gotten one of the random packs that had an autographed card! (Clove)!! The odds were in my favor!!!
I had thought about bringing my Bow, but good thing I didn't, since nobody else was dressed up. It would've been even worse if I had worn the bow into the Walmart that wasn't having the party, haha.
Aug 18, Saturday:
It was supposed to be a 4 mi base day, but my legs felt fresh after a day off, and they wanted to be stretched out. 3.5 in 29:01, 8:17 ave. 0.25 warmup, then 4x[1/4 @ 1 degree, 1/4 @ 5 degrees, 1/4 @ 7 degrees], 0.25 cooldown in 2:06. Did a hill workout, to work my muscles while keeping things still not too intense. Although it was quite a challenging workout after all. The first rep was fine. The second, I was getting into it. The third was tough. The fourth, I didn't know if I'd be able to finish, but I pushed through to stay on my mileage target for the week.
Aug 19, Sunday:
Longest LR in a while! Since the March marathon, in fact! The longest after that was 13.3, which was a couple of weeks after the marathon. 15.2 in 2:23:22, 9:26 ave. Always fear the LR a bit, but gotta get it done. I've been reading Born to Run. It starts somewhat slow, but it picks up and gets hard-to-put-it-down exciting after a while. Ultramarathoners are able to do what they do by learning to love the pain, be its friend. I thought about that some while I ran. I also thought a bit about Kara and Shalane's performances in the Marathon. You could tell they gave it everything. I have such respect for that. That's what I love about this sport. Inspiring.
(Aww, friends :) )
Meb's performance was also incredible. To finish 4th in his last Olympic marathon. He gave a gutsy effort in a brilliant race.
Anyway.... back to my baby run... I had a brownie during it, and it was so good that I thought "if I can have a decadent brownie every time I do a LR, I'll do a LR every weekend!!!". It was a leftover packaged brownie from the airplane... not bad other than the high sugar content, which was fine for LR food, since sugars get processed differently during exercise and won't do damage then. It was good.
I had knee pain on my outer right, lower knee at mile 8.5. I tried to run it off, do small steps, but it didn't work this time. I thought I'd have to cut the run short - boo. Straying from the plan. But, I stopped, deep-tissue massaged my Tibialis anterior, then went on. This time, I tried purposely overstriding but still keeping my landing foot perpendicular to the ground during landing. That helped, and my knee was fine for the rest of the run!!! Another tool for my arsenal. It sucked to encounter it during the run (although I did feel it on my past 2 runs... will need to be careful about that and foam roll and/or massage), but knowing that I can get through it through a quick massage break is a good lesson for the future.
I had 2 bottles of water - one halfway, and one towards the end. Glad to have 2. Normally, I only bring 1, but during my last 9.7 mi run, 1 wasn't enough.
My gear was sooooo wet with sweat afterwards. Nasty stuff, haha. Glad to have all-weather floormats in my car.
My iPod shuffle was struggling a bit during the last part of my run, with the sound cutting in and out a bit, from the sweat, I'm pretty sure. Poor iPod.
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