Week 7

Mon 8/26 – rest

Tues 8/27 – 5 mi / 47 min

Considering that I haven’t run in a week … gasp … this was acceptable. The legs didn’t feel as fresh as I would have liked, but nothing went horribly wrong. It wasn’t exactly cool out and it was at the end of a long day … and up hill both ways … so I’ll take it.

Wed 8/28 – rest

Thurs 8/29 – 10 mi (2 x 5 mi loops with one quick break to collect a time point) / 93 min (or so)

Doing 3x persister assays this week (persister assay = 14 hr day) there weren’t a whole lot of options for the long(er) weekday run. So, this baby got crammed in between the 5 hr and 7 hr time points, with a brief mid-run break to take another 6 hr sample. This is the way that I would recommend doing all runs. To be honest though, it really wasn’t all that bad. I did the same loop twice, but in opposite directions and didn’t get lost, AT ALL!! After the first loop I shoveled part of a Clif bar down the hatch and guzzled as much water as I felt I could without regretting it on lap #2. This was all very lady-like shoveling and guzzling, if you were wondering. I took my time point, grabbed another bite of Clif bar, another swig of water, a bag of fruit snacks and was out the door. Now we all know I’m a bit slow (mentally in this case) but simply reversing the direction of my route really helped break up the monotony! I was super impressed by how much it helped and would recommend doing this even from one day to the next. It also helped switch up the long gradual inclines/declines vs. the quick ups and downs.

Fri 8/30 – rest

Sat 8/31 – 16 mi / 155:30 min

Phew!! What a run! There is really no comparison to starting your day with 16 miles from 6-9 am @ ~73F with 93% humidity! BLEH!!

And really, all of the credit goes to the amazing (Dr. Dr. to be) T-Sweet. We struck a deal that I’d run from my place to hers bright and early on Saturday morning (~4 miles) and then do the rest of my 16 miles (her 12 miles) together with two 6 mile loops around P-ton. The agreement was that I’d buckle down and run hard to keep up while she slowed down to give me half a chance. (Don’t let her name fool you, T-Sweet is a machine!) We did the two loops, stopping at T-Sweet’s in between for me to guzzle down more water than I probably should have and for T-S too much on a single ice-cube (I’m telling you…A M.A.C.H.I.N.E.). Besides some mild insescent complaining by yours truly for more or less the entire second loop about being too thirsty and too hot and too tired and we are running too fast… The ever patient T-Sweet graciously put up with this nonsense and towed me through to finish all 16 miles, soaking wet, at a 9:43 min/mi average. Talk about a very grateful and proud Dr. Trot! 🙂

It was awesome having such wonderful company to entertain me and speed me up for the long run. Breaking the monotony of solo runs was much-needed! I definitely would have drug things out much longer had I been alone.

A shower and then compression socks and comfy clothes were at the top of the docket for the rest of the day. Upon diving into said shower, it quickly came to light that I had forgotten to load on the Body Glide before heading out the door…

In related news, confusing your gentle and exfoliating face wash bottles is a mistake that you only make once.

Also, in the event that this whole science thing doesn’t work out for me, I apparently have attire appropriate for long-run recovery and circus performances. 

 

Sun 8/25 – 8 mi / 76ish min

Total mileage = 39 miles 🙂

A good week! Finally! The weather was good and I could work my runs into the day and then ont he weekend things shaped up nicely. Considering that it was a very full work week I’m happy with this. As long as the weather holds I think this should be reproducible in weeks to come as well.

The should and shins are feeling good  and the lungs are doing great. The things that I do need to get on top of are the calves and the right hip. These are all a bit tighter than I’d like them to be and addressing this before they get worse or cause pain in other areas is important. Stretching and foam rolling more diligently before and after workouts in particular will be a goal for this week. Stretching and rolling daily would be ideal

Agh! Speaking of goals for the week, core exercises?!?! What happened to you? Where did you go?