The week started out pretty bad but the weekend running was excellent.  I think the heat and humidity at the beginning of the week didn’t help too much and it was a perfect weather weekend!

Monday: Cross train today. I went to the YWCA again and swam.  This week I swam 350 yards – each lap is 50 yards so that would be 7 laps.  I started out by swimming 2 laps without stopping and did almost the whole thing freestyle and then did a few more laps with lots of rest and plenty of backstroke thrown in.  It is amazing how quickly swimming can elevate your heart rate!

Tuesday: Three miles at a comfortable pace. This was a horrible run! I felt horrible when I rolled out of bed – tired and stuffy nose – and then my legs felt very sluggish.  I did the downtown loop which is 3 miles and ran it in 24:34.  I guess that is a comfortable pace so I shouldn’t complain but I’m a little disappointed.  It was 67 degrees during the run with lots of sunshine and about 60% humidity – so a decent running day.  Hopefully its just a blip on the screen because I felt really good yesterday…

Wednesday: 6 miles. This felt pretty sluggish along the Greenway towards the river. It was 60 and sunny so a pretty nice morning for running, a little humid but not bad in comparison.  Nothing spectacular I ran it in 47:45 so just under 8 minute pace.  It felt pretty bad and I never really felt good along the whole run.  I came home and rehydrated, etc. Not sure what my problem is… but hope it ends soon!

Thursday: Three miles, comfortable pace. I decided to try getting out of the slump by running naked today.  Well ok not actually naked – like without clothes on, but the other naked – without a watch, GPS, or even a mp3 player.  I did a 3 mile loop that I already knew (the Powderhorn Loop) and just went out for an easy 3 miles.  No idea how fast or slow it was but it did feel a little better.  It was a nice morning about 66 but pretty humid and a little overcast.  I followed the run with strides and core work.  I felt decent afterwards.

Friday: Take the day off. Enjoyed the rainy relaxing morning.

Saturday: Run 6 miles at marathon race pace. A beautiful morning for a run.  I think the temp was right around 60 for the entire run and it was a mixture of overcast and sunny throughout.  This was my first run with the fall marathon class produced by the MDRA. We met at Marathon Sports were they gave a short talk about shoes and later a 30% discount on the entire store.  From there we ran 10.5 miles around the chain of lakes – hitting Lake Harriet, Lake Calhoun, and Lake of the Isles.  There was a group of 5 of us who ran at the same pace for pretty much the entire distance.  It started raining on us (mostly a drizzle) with about 2 miles or so to go and that felt good.  The trails were a little crowded but not as bad as I’ve seen them before. It was a pretty uneventful run – I had turned my Garmin on, but it lost the signal while inside the store and I told it to stop searching and never told it to find a signal again so about a 1/4 of the way through I looked and realized it was only keeping the time.  A little disappointing but they are pretty sure the distance is accurate.  Oh well, the saddest thing is that I would like to know what some of our paces were throughout the run, we were definintely moving at a decent clip before slowing down a little in the second half.

Sunday: Run 13 miles today. Ok so I’m having to completely reconsider my training schedule and revamp it to fit in with the marathon training class that I’m taking. I’ve started the process and will update you next week, but I couldn’t decide what to do this weekend if I should stick to the 13 miler or do more of what my body felt.  Yesterday’s run was the long run for the training class so it made sense to just do this one a little easier.  So I chose a place that would give me trails and the opportunity to run longer if I felt like it or just run 6-8 miles if I didn’t.  I started the run at the Minnehaha Depot heading towards Fort Snelling – there is a paved bike path between the two but I was planning to hit the trails in the area on the way.  There isn’t a single dirt trail that spans the distance and there are no trail markings nor a map that I know of.  So I got lost a lot but saw some really cool things and ran on a nice variety of rocky trails, sand, dirt, wide track, and single track.  Some decent ups and downs and even a place where I almost had to slide down! So yes it was a fun run towards Fort Snelling.  When I got there I was planning on some water at the Visitor’s Center/Gift Shop, but it was closed, ugh.  I was able to get a little water out of a spigot on the side of the building.  On the return trip I pretty much stayed on the paved trail – taking one detour that was pretty easy to follow.  I tried to pick up the pace a little bit – hitting goal pace for the last 1/4 mile or so.  It was a fun run on a beautiful morning (62 degrees).  I ran the 7 miles (+) in 1:05:30.  I added the + sign because the Garmin isn’t 100% accurate while running trails.

Weekly Totals:

Running: 29.5 miles

Biking: 58 miles

Swimming: 350 yds

Hal’s Tip of the Week: If you are training through the summer, one way to avoid hot weather is to run early in the morning. The days are longer. Use these extra hours of daylight to get out before the sun rises too high. Temperatures are cooler, the air cleaner and the scenery prettier in the hours around dawn. If work schedules force you to run midday, be sure to wear a cap to protect against the sun–and drink plenty of water! If you are training through the winter, midday may be the best time for you to run.

Week 4

[tags] Marathon, Training, Hal Higdon [/tags]