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.
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.
Ah, Week 5, what can I say about you? Not much. Monday was tough, Tuesday was fine, Wednesday was typical, Friday was extended, and Saturday, well Saturday is noteworthy.
In fact, it was noteworthy because I didn’t run at all on Saturday. Instead of 16 scheduled miles, I ran zero. How can that be?
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Ah, perfection. It comes pretty naturally to me. Through 4 weeks, I haven’t missed a single training run! I owe most of that to you, my dear reader, for holding me accountable. On more than one occasion I found myself on the “skip today’s run” side of the fence, but knowing you would heckle me to no end, I hopped the fence (with only a few minor injuries, mind you) and got myself out there.
Now we’re really getting into this training thing. It’s week 3 and I’ve upgraded to 5 days per week. The 40 39.93-miles-per-week boat has also set sail.
I see a theme developing with the Monday runs: uneventful, middle-distance, snooze-fest. I have a feeling the updates for these are going to be brief and uninspiring. Or nonexistent.
Tuesday: more boring, lack-of-update update. It’s early in this Weekly Recap thing, but I definitely think it’ll evolve into brief, heart-warming snippets, rather than forced, lackluster summaries. Like this one. Sigh.
We ran to work again on Wednesday. This time I held my own a little better. I felt like I was running with the group instead of just trying to keep up. It turned out to be Tim’s last run to work before he relocates to Malaysia. The skeptic in me thinks I was brought in as a replacement, but I’m ok with that.
Friday showed me exactly how close I can get to skipping a run but still pull myself out of bed. So close, in fact, that while I was taking the dog on her pre-run walk, I was scheming how I could go back to bed and run later in the day. To be honest, this very post is what gave me the final kick out from under the covers. I didn’t want to have to explain why I didn’t run to you all …you.
And finally Saturday. Oh Saturday, you hurt me good. Tempo run? Hill workout? Long run? Check. Check. Check. Running with this group of guys is proving intense! We headed out for 14 miles (per my request) and, as most of the routes done with the group, I was unfamiliar with where we were going. I should have known Mount Bonnell wasn’t going to be a party, unless your idea of a party is running up a steep hill, followed by a steeper hill, followed by stairs to the moon… all after having already run 8 miles. Woo. Needless to say, I was spent after that. Good stuff.
Actual Stairs
As you know, a founding principle of this blog is to innovate. That actually doesn’t sound right, but let’s go with it. I’ve linked each day of the week in the table to provide an onslaught of data at your disposal. It will even show a map of where I went, though none will be as amazing as this one. Just click the day of the week and hold on with all you got. Week 4 here I come!
| Distance | Time | Pace | Heart Rate | |
| Monday | 8.17 Miles | 1:07:55 | 8:17 min/mi | 155 bpm |
| Tuesday | 4.00 Miles | 38:51 | 9:42 min/mi | 137 bpm |
| Wednesday | 9.70 Miles | 1:17:01 | 7:56 min/mi | 158 bpm |
| Friday | 4.03 Miles | 38:31 | 9:34 min/mi | 141 bpm |
| Saturday | 14.03 Miles | 1:48:20 | 7:43 min/mi | 164 bpm |
| Total | 39.93 Miles | 5:30:38 | 8:16 min/mi | 155 bpm |
