Theme of the week: Just trying to get in some more miles and build that base.

Runs:

Sunday, August 4 – mini fartleks

8 miles.  11:21 per mile.  Strides: 164 per min.  Heart rate: 149 bpm.  Temps: 75-85 deg F.

This run started with a slow first two miles (12:49 and 12:32), and then I ramped up the speed and did some mini-fartleks.  This run felt pretty good even as temperatures climbed.  Solid  effort.

Monday, August 5 – Two runs

4.4 miles.  11:33 per mile.  Strides: 163 per min.  Heart rate: 145 bpm.  Temps: 75-80 deg F.  And then, 1 hour later…

4.6 miles.  11:39 per mile.  Strides: 163 per min.  Heart rate: 146 bpm.  Temps: 80-85 deg F.

I had to drive to the airport in the middle of this run, so I ended up splitting it up into 2 runs with an hour break in between.  This was a very hot, very sweaty run, and I think doing two shorter runs let me run a bit faster than I would have if it was just one long run.  This was a good effort, and I was tired after this.

Tuesday, August 6 – Long run

17 miles.  13:20 per mile.  Strides 157 per min.  Heart rate: 137 bpm.  Temps: 70s and 80s deg F.

Sometimes, long runs just fall apart.  I had planned to do 20 miles (once again), but I had also lifted weights the day before and woke up with a twitchy right calf muscle*.  This whole run was a bit sluggish, and at 16.33 miles, I decided 17 was good goal.  I have a feeling running on already tired legs (weight lifting plus 9 miles the day before) is doing a good job of mimicking how I’m going to feel when I hit 20 miles in the marathon.  How I’m probably going to feel:  Not great, and everything hurts all over. 

* Before going to bed on Monday, my right elbow was also twitchy – apparently 12 pounds for a bicep curl x 10 curls is too much for my arms (my arms are somewhat wimpy but getting better).  My calf muscle twitching was odd – I can only think that the single leg calf raises (lifting my whole body weight with one calf at a time) was too much, although I don’t have problems with running x 15,000 steps per leg, so I guess I use more than just my calf muscles when I run.  Calf muscle mellowed out and seemed fine once I got going.

Wednesday, August 7 –Recovery run

6.2 miles.  11:52 per mile.  Strides: 161 per min.  Heart rate: 142 bpm.  Temps: 70s-80s deg F, very humid.

I started this run very slow (13:31 mile 1, 12:42 mile 2), but was feeling very good despite how much pain I was in by the end of my 17 mile run the day before, and did the last three miles at an 11:00 per mile pace.  I felt good (and very, very sweaty) on this run.

Thursday, August 8 – Hilly run

8.2 miles.  12:50 per mile.  Strides: 159 per min.  Heart rate: 134 bpm.  Temps: 70s-80s deg F, humid.

Cooler temps, I did a pretty hilly 8 mile run.  I took the pace very slow but felt good and did some short hill sprints on some of the hills.

Friday, August 9 – Tempo run x 2

6.2 miles.  11:36 per mile.  Strides: 163 per min.  Heart rate: 143 bpm.  Temps: 70s-80s deg F.  And then, about 50 minutes later…

3.1 miles.  12:01 per mile.  Strides: 163 per min.  Heart rate: 142 bpm.  Temps: 70s-80s deg F.

Another run this week interrupted by another trip to the airport.  This is probably good for my speed training though, because these are ending up a lot faster than if I had just done a 9.3 mile run.  Each run was about one mile warmup (slow), followed by a sustained pace at slightly faster than an easy pace, then 5 minutes cool down.  Legs were quite stiff starting up the second run.

Saturday, August 10 

9 miles.  12:08 per mile.  Strides: 162 per min.  Heart rate: 143 bpm Temps: high 60s, 70s deg F.

Temperatures were much cooler on this run.  I did some fartleks of variable lengths, and just took it easy for most of the run.  This felt pretty good to wrap up an almost 67 mile week.  I was feeling a bit tired at 7 miles, but overall pretty good.

Running wrap-up.

1.)  This was a much better week than the previous week.  Speed, mileage, and how I was feeling were all pretty good.

2.)  67 miles in one week means a lot of very long “not long” runs.  But, my legs are feeling pretty darn good and I feel like I am getting more muscular and toned in the last couple of weeks, which I guess is good for the marathon.

3.)  Average speed seems slow, but I have been doing some more sustained tempo runs and fartleks.  Speed is always a work in progress.

4.)  If anyone was worried about that 158.5 pounds last week, please be assured I wasn’t.  My weight is slowly coming back down and Saturday’s weigh-in was back under 154 pounds.

Total miles this week (August 4 – August 10):  80.23 miles (up 7.6 from last week)

Total steps this week (August 4 – August 10):  159,940 steps (up 13,900steps from last week)

Average steps per day (August 4 – August 10): 22,848 steps (up 1,986 from last week)

Total running miles this week (August 4 – August 10):  66.93 miles (up 6.5 from last week)

Average running speed this week (August 4 – August 10): 12:17 per mile (9 sec faster per mile than last week)

Average resting heart rate this week (August 4 – August 10): 58 bpm (down 4 bpm from last week)

Elevation gain this week (August 4 – August 10): 1,992 ft (up 57 ft from last week)

Total miles this year (2019):  2002.1 miles

Total steps this year (2019):  4,100,000 steps

Average steps per day (2019): 18,468 steps

Total running miles this year (2019): 1,591.84 miles

Average running speed this year (2019): 12:18 per mile

Average resting heart rate this year (2019): 58 bpm

Elevation gain this year (2019): 53,403 ft

Current thyroid medication:  187.5 mcg/day levothyroxine per day (12.5 mcg increase)  (I started this dose on 1/13/19), (175 mcg every day + 25 mcg tablets every other day).

Weight, weight fluctuate

Weight: 155.9 lb (down 1.5 lb from last week).

Weight January 1, 2019: 158.3 lb

Weight change since Jan 1, 2019: – 2.4 lb

Previous week: July 28 – August 3, 2019

Next week: August 11 – August 17, 2019