Week 14

Mon 10/14 – rest

Tues 10/15 – 6ish mi / fast enough

I was really excited to get out the door today. My muscles were antsy and the fall weather was beautiful. I did the customary work 6 miler and could have just kept going (why doesn’t this happen on the days I get so freaking lost?!?!).

Wed 10/16 – cross: flag football

So my group mates’ coed flag football team is in the playoffs and were a girl short of having a full team today. Being the competitive flag footballer that I am, I couldn’t stand the thought of them having to forfeit for being a man…er…woman…whatever…down, so off to flag football I went. (Either that, or Steph is a good guilt tripper…or maybe a little of both…)

We played zone defense this time instead of man, which I am still thanking god for. Considering the aftermath of the last game when we did play man, my legs were none too thrilled about a repeat offense. With two nice catches and too many tackles for my little mushy brain to count I managed to do something that resembled contributing to the team’s win and advancement into the Princeton Coed Flag Football Championship game. Great! Right? Also, rumor has it that we will not be playing the team that showed up wearing war paint during the regular season. This is comforting.

Thurs 10/17 – 8ish mi / fast enough

Yet another day of experiments that make no sense. Who the hell doesn’t want to do academic research? It was really nice to just zone out for 8 miles with Rihanna and Lady Gaga.

It was not nice to feel the consequences of last night’s football game again. It’s crazy how 2×40 min of coed flag football can tear up the leg muscles! “Oh I run marathons…I ran 30 miles last weekend…I put down 45 miles last week…how hard can it be?”  Idiot.

The legs felt super tight and heavy and fatigued. It’s a very strange tightness and fatigue because it isn’t in the running muscles. Rather, it’s buried deep in some pesky neglected muscle fibers that I apparently have for sprinting — for short bursts of speed, starting and stopping. Yet, ask the running muscles to do their thing for 8ish miles and these other fibrous friends now have to chime in with their 2 cents. Maybe this means I should incorporate some speed work into my workouts after Nov 17th comes and goes. Maybe.

Bitching aside, 65 F and calm made for a great run. Nothing hurt in a worrisome way, my purple and bright orange outfit was cute and and super comfy…

and I was able to just chill with my two besties ( see paragraph 1) and run hard til the end. Good. And then back to work for more beloved head:wall interactions…

Fri 10/18 – rest

and … Happy Birthday to me!!

I’m not quite sure why Dr. Trot’s birthday rule had to be put implemented the week before Dr. Trot turned the big 3-0. Regardless, here you go…

Sat 10/19 – 6 mi + 1 hr hiking

It was a beautiful day to be outside, ~65 F and partly cloudy and calm. The run went well, legs and lungs and shins and knees etc… cooperated. When you’re 30 it only takes 3 whole days to recover from a little game of flag football. Super cool. 

The hiking trip was inspired by a random wild hair up my ass and so after work I set off for the Sourland Mountain Preserve, about 10 miles from town. (Please don’t judge the park by its website making abilities.) I didn’t want to be out for super long (or get my dumb ass lost) so I just took one long trail up the mountain from the parking lot. It was cleared enough to be convenient to hike up but wild enough to feel like I was on a little adventure.

And the view from the top was fantastic (but not really done justice by this picture…)

 

Sun 10/20 – 12 mi

I split this run up into two parts to accommodate my time points at work. All went well, the weather is still cool and the body cooperated. I was a little concerned that the 12 was going to start feeling long towards the end, but it really flew by. I didn’t bring any water or snacks with me, but I did hydrate well before hand and then refueled (wisely) during my quick stop back at work. Yeah for actually not screwing that up for once!

I can’t believe that next week is my last real long run before the marathon! This thing is coming up fast now! 🙂

Total mileage =  32ish mi

I hit my cutback week miles (which, funny enough, is the same number as my last high mileage week! oops! :-o) and things felt good. I had speed and power on the short runs and up the hills and at the end of each run. I also didn’t poop out after 10/12 miles or want to just pack up and go home. This is nice 🙂

One more high mileage week to survive without doing something idiotic and then the taper 🙂

Threads – tanks and tees, running skirts or capris for the chilly mornings, + compression for the long runs and Mizunos (Wave Creation 11s and Wave Elixer 6s)