Week 12 offered something unthinkable not two or three months ago: running in the afternoon. Yes, the temperature has come back down to Earthly levels in such an abrupt change that it took me by surprise. A pleasant surprise, indeed. No longer am I relegated to only running before the sun rises for fear of melting.
Is it hot in here?
My training plan is affectionately known as the Pfitz 55/18. If we break it down, it represents an 18-week plan that peaks at 55 miles. It only hits 55 miles once, and it happened to be week 11. Looking back, it wasn’t too bad. However, being in the midst of the onslaught of miles is another story.
Since moving to Tejas I haven’t been much for running with music. The original motivation was because I had no idea where I was going and didn’t want to make a wrong turn, leaving me stranded somewhere across the Mexican border with only my wits and running shoes to get me home while single-footedly handedly taking down a major drug cartel and saving an entire village from a natural disaster (calling Hollywood, I smell a blockbuster! What do
you mean “no”? Need I remind you of the gem Volcano? I could be played by Jet Li or Samuel L Jackson. Get back to me.).
We’re more than halfway through Week 10, but last week (9) was a week of no middle-ground. It came down to “do you want to run 6 miles, or do a long run?” Well, looking back, my answer is most certainly “6 miles”. The long runs were rough; each time I was just counting down the time until I could stop. At least the shorter 6 mile runs (three of them last week) were short enough that I could deal.
Bouncing back from an injury is always a tough process. On the one hand you want to get back as soon as possible. On the other hand you don’t want to start too soon and set yourself back. And in some freakish odd cases, on the third hand you don’t want to get back to it at all because you like sleeping in. Fortunately I only have two hands, so that alien third option didn’t apply to me this time.
Ok, I’ve been trying to get this post out the door for almost a week, so bear with me if it gets a little concise towards the end…
As I alluded to in my Week 7 Recap, things haven’t been going according to plan. If you’ll remember, I shifted my schedule by a day to accommodate life getting in the way. Because I had to work Saturday morning (fail), my long run found itself set for Sunday. Well, Saturday morning I woke up early, slid out of bed, and nearly fell over. Son of a fish… My left foot sent a piercing stab of pain screaming from the floor up to my brain as if I stepped on a bolt of lightning.
Last week, the seventh to be exact, was a bit of a roller coaster, eventually ending in a derailment and horrible crash. Through six weeks I was pleased with my progress. Holding a streak of 28 straight scheduled runs had my spirits up and I was making solid progress. Week 7 offered my first real “long” run of 18 miles. Overall the week was shaping up nicely and set to be my first 50 miler in awhile.
In the world of marathon training, there are a few common practices: run progressively ridiculous-er distances, eat exceedingly cornucopia-er amounts of food, and (ideally) dreamier hours of sleep. But with all this excess there is some moderation to be found. Week 6 is what I call a cutback week: after weeks of incremental increments, weekly mileage is decremented to offer some refuge from the battery of fatigue-inducing pavement pounding.
I’m pretty good about striking a balance between running and the more important rest of my life. On occasion,though, something has to give, and I think the picture below gives a pretty good idea of how it generally shakes out. That’s just fine though, as far as running goes on my priority list, I’m not sure it even cracks the top 5. It’s all about hitting that balance that allows me to run as often as I do (which provides you the good fortune to read this blog!).
The Boulder is a Metaphor for Life; the Road is a Metaphor for Running
Sunday I ran the Hottest Half Marathon in Dallas, as determined by you the people in my poll. To get it out of the way, I was promised hot, and it was hot. Ohhh it was hot.
Start: ~84 feels like 90 | Finish: ~90 feels like 99
