August 3rd-9th Training

Monday: 9.5 miles (6:32); 6.3 miles (7:12)

Tuesday: 10.6 miles (6:25); 5.6 miles (7:15)

Wednesday: 14.6 miles with 4 mile road tempo, .60 mile jog, 5x3:00 gradual uphill. Another muggy morning.  Ran 20:31 for the four miles and didn't feel as smooth as I would have liked.  On the hills, the plan was to run around 10k effort and I eased into them so I wouldn't die because I suck on hills.  Covered .57-.58 on the first four and turned on the old man jets for the last one and covered .61 miles; 4.6 miles (7:24)

Thursday: 6.1 miles (7:09); 4 miles (8:20)

Friday: 7.6 miles (6:41); 4.6 miles (7:26)

Saturday: 12.4 miles with 4x2 miles with 2:00 jog. I ran this on the track and since there were benches in both straightaways and I had to run around them, I don't feel guilty calling them two miles, instead of 3200m.  The plan was to run 10:10, 10:00, 10:00 and 9:50 with my times ending up: 10:07, 9:56, 9:57, 9:48. The first three were pretty easy and I was able to recover quickly.  On the last, it was mostly smooth for the first 2k, with fatigue slowly coming in after that.  I could have done a 5th in sub 9:40, but it would have hurt.  Decent session; 7 miles (7:14)

Sunday: 22.5 miles (6:25). Really swampy out there.  I was worried about this because of yesterday's session and I was running on little sleep (10 hours total for the past two nights, courtesy of a lot of school prep and going to see the UFC in-town last night).  But since misery loves company, I ran with Craig Padgett, who moved to Nashville a few months ago.  The plan was to run at whatever pace I felt like, so I enjoyed relaxing the first few miles.  I dropped him off at 17 miles and headed out for a few more.  I was able to start running sub 6:00 pace pretty easily and I felt really smooth until about two miles to go, when it started to get a little bit tough.  But the heat was kicking in, and this was my longest run since the Country Music Marathon in April.  Great run and it was one of those days where your toes got water-logged from sweat.

Week Total: 115.4 miles. Wow, big week.  Lately, I've felt like I need more extension at half-marathon and faster pace, so this was a productive week.  Now, I haven't done "real" hill repeats in years and have never done such extensive work the day before a long run, so it doesn't look like my typical training.  But starting this past week, I've been getting some workout help and once I have everything finalized, I can officially fire myself and spend my time worrying about running my workouts, rather than planning and running them.  And with someone else checking over them, I'm much less likely to quit being a sissy in some of them.

This next weeks begins the official start of the school year.  I'm teaching at a new school this year, and while in the past, I was stuck doing my runs during lunch and in the evenings, this year, I can do my main sessions in the morning, as long as I'm done by 6:45am.  The main thing now will be making myself go to bed on time.  I actually do better during the school year because I start up my diet plan again (which should help me shed my summer pounds) and with a busier schedule, I'm much more productive.

Back at the grind for the next four weeks.