Crazy Week!

Last week I fell off my perfect attendance training log a bit.

I missed a track workout.  #RunnerProblems

Typically my training plan has workouts for Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday.  It was thrown off a bit last week because my hard track workout that usually falls on a Tuesday was on a Wednesday due to my race on the Sunday before.  Tuesday last week was an easy four miles.

I thought it was the perfect day to try out a pair of new shoes I had gotten - Brooks Pure Flow 3s.  These are a pair of 0 mm ramp shoes.  I could definitely tell this when I tried them on - they felt different but for the most part, my thoughts were that they felt good.  They also were on clearance, and since I have been curious about this type of shoe, I went for it.

The sales person recommended easing into them.  I thought an easy 4 miles was easing into them.

The second I started running in them, they felt weird.  Again, I didn't equate weird with bad - just different.  I actually liked how light they felt in comparison to my more traditional 10 mm ramp shoe.  By the end of the four miles though, my calves were feeling it.

I woke up on Wednesday morning and yikes.  My right Achilles was SORE.  I had my monthly book club meeting that evening so if I was going to get the track workout in that day, it was going to have to be in the morning.  I didn't really feel like pushing my leg in a hard workout while it was sore, so I pushed it back to Thursday.

Ok, so Thursday arrived.  I tried to get up early, but a glass of wine threw off my sleep on Wednesday night.  I hit snooze on my early morning alarm, rationalizing that I could get it in that evening.

Evening came and the general contractor that we have been trying to get a hold of for months was going to stop by.  Ok, I'll do the track workout after he leaves.   Unfortunately, he didn't leave until close to 9 PM.  Track is no longer open.

I made the decision on Friday to stick with the original plan and that the track workout was a wash.  6 easy miles with hill sprints for Friday early morning was done.

The only workout left in the plan was 10 miles, with the last 4 miles at 6:50 pace.

I went to a concert Friday evening, and despite the fact that I had zero alcohol, the 5 hours of sleep that I ended up getting that night took a toll.  (Hello, I'M GETTING OLDER!)  Feeling so tired combined with the 90+ degree temps plus humidity led me to, once again, delay the workout.

Yesterday ended up being much cooler.  It was 64 degrees at 7 PM when I left my house.  I had my music on, I had no expectations for the run - I didn't even know if I would go the whole ten miles.  It was one of the those runs where everything clicked.  I felt in control, at ease and was in the mile I was running without having a panic attack about how many miles I had left to go.  My first 6 mile splits were:

7:21
7:25
7:33
7:30
7:18
7:24

Then I had to pick it up.  I had mistakenly thought my goal pace for the last 4 miles was 6:40, not 6:50 so when Mile 7 was 6:42, I felt that I was right on.  Mile 8 was 6:46 and I over compensated for the slow down with a 6:31 Mile 9.  But I felt good and a great song came on my iPod so I went with it and pushed myself to have a fast final mile.  It worked - 6:24.  Overall, ten miles done in 1:10:56 which is a 7:05 avg pace.  This is faster avg pace than my half-marathon PR (a 7:06 avg pace).

Upcoming races
The next 5K I am registered for is the Race for the Bacon on July 28.  My long goal is the Milwaukee Running Festival half marathon on November 6, where I hope to have a half-marathon PR.
I am taking this 10 miler as a good sign that my goal is not too far fetched, along with the fact that I do not have very many half-marathons under my belt.  My current PR was set last September after a pitiful training summer.

Here's hoping that the upcoming week goes a little more smoothly in terms of getting the workouts in!