I think the pile of soaking wet running clothes in my hamper on Sunday sums up last week’s training pretty nicely. I don’t think I’ve ever sweat so much in a one week period, and cannot imagine humidity like this for an entire summer. NYC, what’s going here? Hats off to the folks who live in these climates, not sure how you do it.
Anyways! I think the running was as good as it could have been given the conditions; I’ve also had a pretty busy week life-wise, so it was another test on my ever-developing work/life/running balance skills. The details:
Monday – 4 miles easy, 50 minutes yoga
Tuesday – 9 miles with 2 x 10 minutes @ tempo pace, 2 minutes rest in between sets, strength (arms, abs)
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creation via the hospital cafeteria: roasted carrots, asparagus, beets, kale, goat cheese, tuna, spicy ginger slaw #nom
Wednesday – 7 miles easy, strength (abs, legs)
I started a new part-time job after work on Wednesday with a private nutrition practice in the city, and am super, ridiculously excited about it. One of my goals when starting at the hospital was to find part-time work to explore more of my interests and develop my counseling skills (and also to help pay the rent and student loans…). This job focuses on a few very specific and very challenging patient populations, and I have a ton to learn about them. It’s fascinating to me how I can feel so comfortable in the hospital and yet still so green in this new position. I love that about nutrition though – always things to learn, different kinds of patients to work with and hopefully, a new way to positively influence some lives.
Thursday – 8.5 miles with 5 x 30 second strides at the end of the run, strength (abs, legs)
Friday – elliptical, spin class, strength (arms, abs)
I pondered taking the day off, but am freezing my gym membership this month to save $$ and this was my last chance to take spin class with my favorite instructor. Even though it makes me feel guilty (teacher pleaser?) I didn’t push as hard as usual to help “save” the legs for the weekend.
Saturday – 13 miles with ~5 mile warm-up, 3 minutes on, 1 off, 5 minutes on, 2 off, 7 minutes on, 3 off, 5 on, 2 off, 3 on and finish the run
Oy. So hot, so humid. But I still wanted to do a workout in the long run, so decided on a short-ish one that I’ve done well with before.
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The pick-ups (during miles 6-9) should have been more like 85-90% effort, but I just couldn’t hang and figured it was better to complete the workout a little slower than to bag it all together. It was as much of a mental challenge as it was physical, and I feel pretty good about where my head was at even though my brain felt like it was cooking along with the rest of my body. I didn’t take any fluids with me since the mileage was fairly short, but I started fantasizing about available water fountains halfway through the run and basically took a bath in each one I passed. Lesson learned for next time!
Sunday – 9 miles easy, strength (abs, legs)
Wanted this run to be fairly long-ish to practice running on tired legs, and despite the ongoing humidity (which was worse than Saturday, if that’s possible), I felt pretty good.
Total: 50.75 miles
My first 50+ week in a while, and (knock on wood) I’m feeling pretty good albeit a little tired. I get July 4 off of work (but not July 5, boo), and am running a 5K race in the morning before enjoying some sun, delicious food and fireworks. I’ve only run one 5K (last summer), and while I’m definitely not in 5K “racing” shape, I’m just excited to be racing again, period. It’s been far too long!
Question: Do you bag a workout if you’re not feeling it? Or adjust speed/expectations and keep going? Running a holiday race?