Running Report June 8 -- June 13

This was a little bit of a different week because on the Saturday previous at night I sustained an injury and I didn't even know if I would be able to run on Monday.

MONDAY 6/8/15
Ran three easy slow miles untimed. 

Week 3 miles
Month 40 miles
Year 440 miles

Thoughts: I started out with the intention of just walking three miles because I was in a significant amount of pain.  However, with the type of injury that I had, the muscles loosed up as I continued to move and so I ended up doing a very slow jog the entire three miles. 

TUESDAY 6/9/15
Ran three miles fairly slow. 

1. 5.32
2. 4.49
3. 4.03
4. 3.45
5. 3.57
6. 3.52

Total time 26.00 average of 8.40 per mile.

Week 6 miles
Month 43 miles
Year 443 miles

Thoughts: I still did not want to push my body to do anything and so I was happy just to get out and jog three miles and be ok by the end of the run. 

WEDNESDAY 6/10/15
Ran another three miles.  Anyone see a pattern for this week?

1. 3.59
2. 3.47
3. 3.48
4. 3.39
5. 3.42
6. 3.39

Total time of 22.36 average of 7.32 per mile.

Week 9 miles
Month 46 miles
Year 446 miles

Thoughts: Here I pushed it a little bit and my body responded.  I was feeling somewhat better.

THURSDAY 6/11/15
Last but not least, the last of the three mile runs for the week.

1. 3.25
2. 3.24
3. 3.21
4. 3.21
5. 3.23
6. 3.09

Total time 20.04 average of 6.41 per mile. 

Week 12 miles
Month 49 miles
Year 449 miles

Thoughts: I was very happy with this run because I had been injured and was still recovering.  This was my fastest three mile run since my training for the Phoenix in 2014.  It was certainly very difficult, but I felt like I didn't have to go all the way to the bottom of the well.  I think as I continue to have a hard run every week I am building up tolerance to feeling pain and the extending that pain for longer and longer.  I would like to think so anyway. 

FRIDAY 6/12/15
Ran six miles today.

1. 4.11
2. 3.55
3. 3.37
4. 3.39
5. 3.38
6. 3.32
7. 3.42
8. 3.35
9. 3.36
10. 3.49
11. 3.42
12. 3.53

Total time 44.55 average of 7.29 per mile.

Week 18 miles
Month 55 miles
Year 455 miles

Thoughts: I purposely chose to do this six mile run at 7.30 pace because it would make the pace for the next days long run seem that much more doable.  Yet I wasn't pushing to hard such that I would have two hard days in a row and then the long run.  So this was say a medium effort workout.  Not a recovery run but not a hard pace either.  Distance was a little longer and pace was a little faster, but all still under control and calculated. 

SATURDAY 6/13/15
Ran 11 miles in the morning before to much of the heat set in.

1. 4.04
2. 3.50
3. 3.48
4. 3.51
5. 3.51
6. 3.54
7. 3.55
8. 3.50
9. 3.50
10. 3.49
11. 3.51
12. 3.58
13. 3.46
14. 3.53
15. 3.50
16. 3.53
17. 3.46
18. 3.54
19. 3.46
20. 3.52
21. 3.51
22. 4.02

Total time 1 hour 25 minutes and 16 seconds.  That is one second over exactly a 7.45 pace. 

Week 29 miles
Month 66 miles
Year 466 miles

Thoughts: Before hand I was planning on running at an 8 minute pace.  After the first mile I changed plans to a 7.50 pace.  After a mile and a half I revised it down to a 7.48 mile.  A 7.48 miles is what the Runners World calculator suggests you should run your long slow run at if you want for your training runs in order to train for a 3 hour marathon or a 3.05 marathong or something like that.  About half way through this run, I was feeling good so I decided that a 7.45 pace was with reach, and that it would not draw to much from the proverbial well, if you will.  At 8 miles I hit my watch and it told me I was exactly at a 7.45 pace so that was cool.  All I would have to do is run exactly 7.45 pace for the next three miles and all would be well.  As is typical though, I got this idea that I didn't want to play it so close and so I would speed up for a mile and half and "bank" some time, then for a mile I would hold even at 7.45 and then the last half mile I would have some time to play with and to slow down a little bit if I need to.  This is what happened. 

I am very pleased with how this week turned out in comparison to how I felt this last week might go when I was contemplating it seven days ago.  Despite my injury (sorry, public forum doesn't get private information) I feel that I am 95 recovered and that I had four good days of training in there.  I don't feel like I lost anything this week.

This is the end of week two of training.  While during the runs there are some real challenging times, I feel like I am progressing well.  Each week is getting me in shape for the next week.  The months of training before the 18 weeks of training got me in shape for this first half of my training block.  Now I feel like the first half, the first nine weeks, is going to get me in shape for the second half or nine weeks, which is where I will do a ton of miles and I will get in "marathon shape".  The Saturday long runs going from week 10 to 18 are as follows: 19, 20, 12, 20, 12, 20, 12, 8, Marathon.  I count my blessings for whenever I am able to run healthy.