This has been a tough running week! I’ve had bigger mileage weeks in the past, but my legs have never felt like this before. They don’t feel injured, just completely exhausted. The “cumulative fatigue” from the Hansons Advanced Plan is in FULL EFFECT!!
I haven’t been able to post any this week, so I’m just going to focus on the SOS (Something of Substance) runs on Tuesday (Long), Thursday (Speed), and Saturday (Tempo).
Long – Tuesday
After an 8-mile easy run on Monday with Nathan and Brian, I met them again for my scheduled 14-mile “Long” run at the Edwin Warner Nature Center at 5am. I was expecting cooler temperatures with lower humidity on Tuesday morning, but it was still 77º with high humidity and dew point. There was a cold-front approaching, but it did not arrive until around 7:30am (bummer).
I decided to relax my Long run pace goals (8:05 to 8:25 per mile), since hitting this range consistently in high temps and humidity is just not feasible. I told Brian and Nathan that I really just wanted our overall average to be less than 9:30 per mile for the run.
From the very beginning of our run we kept encountering large swarms of GNATS!! I guess they were stirred up with the high humidity and approaching cold front. I was wearing a bright yellow singlet, and it was mostly black from the gnats by the end of the run. I also ended up with more than I like to think about in my mouth which is disgusting.
Anyway, we started off with a 6.25-mile loop in the park and then grabbed some fluids back at the cars. The heat and humidity were tough, but my legs felt fairly decent. Brian had to head out after the first loop, so Nathan and I did a 4-mile out-and-back into the surrounding neighborhood, and my legs continued to feel really good, and the pace continued to get quicker.
Nathan had to head out after the second loop, so I finished the final 3.75-miles solo, and ended up having the best splits of the day. Here’s an overview of the run:
