Week 1, for the 4th time

9/8: Rest
9/9: 6 miles, TM. 54+min
9/10: 5 miles, TM. 20 minutes of strength. 45+min.
9/11: 6 miles, TM. Hills for breakfast. Literally. It was 4:30am. 58+ min
9/12: Rest
9/13: 11 lonely solo miles, outside. 1hr47. 10 minutes of strength
9/14: 5.2 miles, TM. Easy recovery pace. 49+min

Total weekly miles: 33.2
Total run days: 5
Total strength sessions: 2
Total rest days: 2

I am counting this as my official first week of training.

I. Am. Tired.

I had forgotten what it was like to be a slave to training. On one hand, I think it will help take the thinking out of the training. On the other hand, T-I-R-E-D. Back to consistent pre-5 am run sessions. This week felt pretty solid, even though I had a rough 11 miler yesterday. My friend was out of town this weekend, so I was on my own for my long run. 11 miles is the longest consecutive miles I've run since the half back in May. I couldn't find the wireless headphones and didn't want to worry about wires, so I just went sans music for my long run. I started about 7am, and the sun was starting to peek over the hills. The air was crisp and glorious. I wore shorts, a s/s t-shirt and my trusty hat. I haven't had a real need to fuel during any of my runs for a couple of months, and yesterday was the first time in a long time having to strategize about when to take in my GU and chews. I had some leftover watermelon GU chomps (like candy!) and a salted watermelon GU that I had received from one of the Stride boxes. Both were delicious - 1 chomp each taken at miles 2 and 5, and then a GU taken at mile 8, mostly because I hadn't planned well in the water department and I calculated that I wouldn't be passing a water fountain until I hit the near 9 mile mark. I was careful to take tiny "sips" of the GU to last me the mile to the water, and I think it helped avoid any cramping and stomachaches.

Yesterday I really struggled with my endurance and the distance. I can't believe I used to be able to run 11 miles at a much faster pace than I did yesterday. Sometimes the thought of going any faster or making anything hurt is just daunting. The thought of getting back to where I was last year feels impossible.

Overall, it was a solid week. My runs really didn't hurt, I got the miles in and I had plenty of movie reels playing in my head during my long runs.

Post long run was spent eating lots of curly fries and scones at the fair.
Gluttonous reward for a relatively successful first week of training.


BANANA SPLITS!

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:47:22.0	11.00	9:50
1	10:13.8	1.00	10:14
2	9:54.0	1.00	9:54
3	10:10.4	1.00	10:10
4	9:33.3	1.00	9:33
5	9:39.3	1.00	9:39
6	9:48.9	1.00	9:49
7	9:40.2	1.00	9:40
8	9:49.9	1.00	9:50
9	9:24.4	1.00	9:24
10	9:27.5	1.00	9:28
11	9:38.8	1.00	9:39
12	:01.7	0.00	8:53

Slow as ass but I got er done.


*Waaay T.M.I. but I kind of feel like we're there in our relationship.
So.. after any outside run longer than 6 miles, I definitely suffer from Runner's flu, and end up visiting the toilet about 5,6 times for the remainder of that day. It's very annoying and inefficient.