Training – Week 2 – Almost 30 miles, 2 new pairs of shoes, and HOT HEAT

This week was another good week. As I type this I am sore. One of my ailments this week was soreness in the lower parts of my legs. Today I am sore, but I believe it is not from running, but from serious HORSE basketball games last night. I was trying moves and shots that this body just cannot do anymore.

I was upset that I was not able to run the Sunburst this weekend. However, I am glad that I did not travel back to Indiana with my kids and wife because the black flag was waved and the race ended due to heat. I would have been upset to try and run this race to only not complete it due to heat. Another sign that I made the right choice to prepare my body for my big races this fall.

Here is a breakdown of the week and plans for the upcoming week.

Monday – I ran 4.1 miles today. Actually, I ran closer to 5 because I went for a .7 mile run while the kids rode their bikes.

Monday was supposed to be my rest day, but being Memorial Day the YMCA is closed which means I cannot get my lifting in. I decided to run what I am to run tomorrow today and lift tomorrow on my rest day.

This was not smart. 5 days in a row of running is not what this body needs. I am not an experienced runner, nor do I have a runner body. Being only my 2nd week back in training there was nothing easy about this run.

It was very hot and I have only ran once in the heat so far this year so the heat took a toll on me. I was not properly hydrated having only had coffee in the morning. No matter how slow I ran it was hard.
I am glad to get it in and be done with running until Wednesday. This run is important to keep me on track with my race goals even if it was hard and not easy as designed.

Off to enjoying the 90 degree heat in Iowa with kids and the sprinkler.

Tuesday – I did not run with anyone today. I took the day off from running. My legs were dead and quite sore. I did go in and lift upper body just trying to get some strength and tone back.

Wednesday – The day of rest was well needed.

I really felt good after starting off with my knees feeling like a 90 year old man. My Garmin watch died as battery was low so that was frustrating, but having someone else to run with allowed me to track the time.

This morning the 5 miles seemed to fly by. It did not seem like we ran for 39 minutes. It was actually a fun run with the nice push at the end running around a 7:20 pace the final mile or so.

I hope to have more great days like this, but you cannot always feel this way.

Thursday-

Decided to get out for a run despite the rain and heat. I had planned for a 4-5 mile run, but I took a road out too far and next thing you know I am running 6 miles. I picked up the pace because it started to rain and I did not want to get poured on. My knees are killing me lately. I did figure out that if I lace my shoes up too tight it leads to my foot pain so that is nice. Now I just need to have my lower legs stop being sore and I will be good.

Mile splits looked good for this run. Did not realize I was moving at this rate.
Mile 1: 7:55
Mile 2: 7:27
Mile 3: 7:44
Mile 4: 7:49
Mile 5: 7:35
Mile 6: 7:34

This run lead me to being sore and tired.

Friday – 4.5 mile run – Dead Legs and Sore Knees –  4.51 mi 00:34 07:36 pace

I had to fight to keep up with my pace. My legs were very heavy from running the evening before. My knees hurt quite a bit today also. However, still ran a good time. The run felt like it took forever, but was glad to get it in before the heatwave kicks in.

Saturday – rest day, but I did play some serious games of H-O-R-S-E that really made my feet, ankles, and legs very sore on Sunday. I did the first round of my new challenge of being able to complete 100 push-ups. I cannot believe how sore I am after knocking out a few sets.

Sunday – I ran 8 miles. I ran two 4 mile intervals testing out my two new shoes(review of shoes coming later). I ran four miles, felt really good. Stopped for about 2 minutes to change shoes, drink some water and GU and took off for another 4. This last 2 miles were tough as the heat starting to take away all energy that I had. My heart rate was steady above 175 which is quite high for me. I did finish and had to take a nap after eating and trying to restore liquids and carbs and proteins and all the other good things the body needs.

This week I managed 29 miles of running. That is a lot of running for me. Maybe too much of an increase after only running 24 last week, but not all of this was high octane running. Look forward to moving my long run up to 10 miles this week and having another great week of running.

Week 3 will be another big week before scaling things back to allow the body to recover in week 4. Have a great week and continue to enjoy your summer.

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