July 21st-27th Training

Monday: 9 miles (6:48); 6.3 miles (7:06); Weights

Tuesday: 8 miles (6:42); 7.4 miles (7:15) with 4xhill blasts (11.10 average)

Wednesday: 11.4 miles with 9 mile medium progression. Goal was to last longer than two weeks ago, where I died a miserable death.  Same goal of three mile segments in 19:00, 17:45 and 16:30.  Ran 18:46 (6:15, 6:11, 6:20), 17:38 (5:56, 5:52, 5:50) and 16:22 (5:27, 5:27, 5:28).  First section was easy, even with some rollers.  Second wasn't that bad and I was happy with the third.  I had to push some the last 1/4 mile to make sure I broke 5:40 because I was 5:35ish at that point.  But overall, I'm pleased because I ran an extra mile, felt stronger and ran faster.  And the misery index was over 15 degrees hotter.; 6.8 miles (7:18); Weights

Thursday: 9.4 miles (6:49); 6.1 miles (7:08)

Friday: 10.6 miles (6:47); 3.4 miles with strides (7:20); massage

Saturday: 11 miles with 4 mile race in 22:15.  Since I have a double this weekend, I wanted to win as easily as possible.  I took the lead from the beginning and the high schoolers weren't very fiesty.  Had about 10 seconds at the mile in 5:30, which was nice and easy.  Ran 5:25 the second mile, which increased the lead some more, so I relaxed and ran 5:41, 5:39 the last two to win by about 20 seconds; 3.7 miles (7:19)

Sunday: 9 miles with 10k in 34:10.  Jumped on a last minute triathlon relay since a group needed a runner and I'm a pushover. Sad part was the course was about a minute short.  Got there at 6:15am and didn't run until about 4.5 hours later, which was already over 90 degrees with a dew point in the 70s.  Course was very hot and hilly and after a 5:09 opening mile, I decided to just keep it steady and I was still really struggling.  I poured water on my head at every station and it was ice cold on my head but hot by the time it reached my butt. I was planning on running again in the evening but I was so drained from the heat.

Week Total: 102.1 miles. This would have been much higher with a Sunday long run but oh well.  I was happy to nail my progression and I'm feeling much better day-to-day.  Got my blood test results from 2.5 weeks ago and my hemoglobin dropped into the 12s and my hematocrit dropped to 37 (normally I'm a 16/48 guy). The hematologist didn't say much, so I spent an hour researching every thing on my blood test and am 90% sure I have hemolytic anemia, hopefully as a result of the pounding of running.  It makes sense because I put on some weight, took several weeks off and jumped right into pounding on the concrete in shoes that were too beat up.  I went to my work clinic today and got them to do a haptoglobin test, direct Coombs test, peripheral blood smear and to rerun my CBC, thyroid and iron panel.  The hematologist makes over $300 G's but I had to do the work on Google. Go figure.