The last few weeks (pre-50K)

I've started several blog posts since my last one (dog bite weekend), but they have failed for various reasons--e.g. Forgot to save (that was discouraging) and lack of time (working is so time consuming!).

A few bullet points of catch-up...

*After a couple days of recovery from The Incident, I was back on track with two runs on Wednesday and Thursday and a couple of medium long runs the weekend of August 11-12. Saturday - 15.21 miles in town, Sunday - 11.25 miles in town, met my parents at Starbucks and went out to their house to watch the Men's Olympic Marathon on tape.

*The Men's Marathon rocked! It was also great fast-forwarding through the commercials...it made for a very efficient use of time. LOVE Meb!

*The week of August 13-19 was my peak week (EVER!) and also my birthday week. Monday - 7.51 miles easy. Wednesday - 7.75 miles with 7 x 800. Thursday - 8.3 miles, and I can't remember if any were at approximate marathon pace. Saturday - 23.1 miles! Then I walked around an art show for about a mile, met my parents for lunch, then walked around some more and walked home for a total of 3.25 miles walking (total 26.35 miles on my feet = my Birthday Marathon). This was also a HOT day and I think I started around 6 a.m.

*Sunday, August 19 was my birthday. I celebrated at the Mud and Chocolate Half Marathon Trail Run. If the Half Marathon really was 13.1 miles (my Garmin measured a little short, but it was rather heavily wooded on the trails), then I ran a total of 14.7 miles with my warm-up and a little extra after. (Then I had a real birthday party at my parents' later, with lobster rolls and my favorite apple cake.)

*Total mileage for peak week 61.36 miles!

*Then I went into three weeks of taper. The first one was really just a typical cutback week...Tuesday - 6.27 miles easy, Wednesday 7.60 miles with five tempo-ish, Thursday 8.15 miles with 6 at sort of marathon pace (~10 minute). Saturday 12.75 miles, Sunday 10 miles in under 100 minutes (thanks to an intentionally fast mile 3 to "fix" my average pace). Total for that week 45.78 miles, which just happens to be 25% less than peak week. Sunday afternoon we went for a 15 mile bike ride through town and on the Centennial Trail (stopping for burgers at Cedarcrest on the way home).

*August 27-September 2 I knocked it down another 25% to 30.55 for the week. (There may be a flaw in my math but you get the idea.) This was also the first week all summer (except for when I did the Tunnel Marathon) where I ran only on one day (Saturday).

*I ran on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, all easy miles except for 8 x 800 on Wednesday.

*My total mileage for August - 205.34.

*My one weekend run was 9.32 miles on Saturday before Rod and I left for a weekend in Waterville. I ran in town and in the first mile I tripped on the sidewalk and fell hard on my knees. Luckily I was wearing capris so my knees didn't get too bloody, just a little fabric burn which did become scabs later in the week. The bruising was pretty painful, but I did plug on and managed to finish 15K. (Once upon a time I had 10 miles on my schedule but that was before I had travel plans for the day...I am just impressed at myself (a little) for getting up at 6 a.m. on Saturday to do the run early.)

*We left at about 9 to drive over east. Later in the afternoon we rode our mountain bikes around the hilly gravel roads at Rimrock, about 5.75 miles. We had a bit of an adventure (if you can call it that) in Waterville where we learned that our favorite restaurant was closed for a private party, and the few other places were closed for the Labor Day weekend! We were looking desperately at food options in the tiny market, when we found out that the Harvest House would let us come eat there anyway (despite the private party). We had really delicious steaks with gorgonzola sauce, and went back on Sunday for both lunch and dinner.

*On Monday morning I had a really nice run around Waterville. I have worked out a great loop route from Waterville, toward Badger Mountain Ski Hill, and back into Waterville on a different road. I think it would be about 10 miles if I went all the way to the ski hill, but I've never had time for that. This time I did the minimum distance to complete a loop, which turned out to be 7.5 miles. It was a beautiful day with the early morning sun lighting up the wheat fields.


*On Wednesday I did my last run before McKenzie, 6.25 miles with 4 x 400 on the track. Obviously quarter-mile speed work was absolutely unnecessary for a long, slow, trail run, but I wanted to give my legs one last reminder that they could run a little bit fast, in anticipation of trying to get some speed back after the 50K experiment was done!

Well, that's it, pretty much my whole month of August through the beginning of September. Next up, McKenzie River Trail Run. (Spoiler alert - I made it!)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad