This week in long runs...

Now you tell me what's up with that. Because last week I was DYING and this week I was going along like nobody's business. And it wasn't just me...last week the entire group looked near death half-way through our run and this week we were all, like, whatever. This running is strange business! It must have been more than just the humidity last week...

At any rate, 8.5 miles today! One hour, thirty-seven minutes, and fifty-one seconds. I am in minimal pain considering.

It was a very even run, in that at no point did I feel awful, nor at any point did I feel like I could go forever. It was one foot in front of the other the whole way.

Uhhh...I really have no other details to share. Except that there was a HUGE dead cockroach in my living room at 5 am this morning and I haven't seen a HUGE dead cockroach in my apartment in close to a year. But that has nothing to do with anything.

So I'm going to go start my laundry.

Back in the saddle.

Two days with no running. Two!! I realize I go two days without running every week, but I never go the two days that I went without this week, and especially not when going only one day without after Saturday's long run (if you can follow that sentence). It's wreaking havoc on me! I feel like I haven't run in ages and ages, even though "ages" is really only 48 hours. Or is it 72? It's too hard to do complicated math, like "counting days," after a run...

Not much to report about today's run, either. Except that I was AWESOME. Three miles in 33:55 (11:24/11:16/11:15). So is the slump over?! Er, considering this Saturday's run is going to be 8 miles (!!), I'm not counting my chickens just yet.

And since today marks one month since I started this blog, I will officially record my Month 1 total miles run as 47.5. I would like to think that next month's total will be a bit higher, but maybe not because I have a vacation and a reunion coming up in October and the running might take a hit there for a while. But who knows? We'll see!

Er, no running tonight.

The half-marathon schedule(s) finally came via electronic mail and it seems to me that the rousing speech we got last Saturday about increasing our training must have been geared towards the full marathoners. For I, myself, did not see anything on the schedule(s) that indicated that I was anything except ahead of schedule re my mileage. Ergo, no running tonight.

But I'll be back at it tomorrow. And I did cross-train this evening. I was quite proud of myself for doing so, too, because I forgot earlier and I thought, 'hmmm...maybe I'm too tired?' But I knew I wasn't really. So go me.

This weekend I started a mile-counter on the sidebar so that I when I need a motivational-boost, I can simply look over there and congratulate myself on the many, many miles I've run. But I wasn't sure how accurate the count was. So far, my pedometer has always been well over the distance calculated by Google on our long runs on Saturday. On Monday, in an attempt to figure out if it was calibrated correctly, I wore my pedometer on my two mile run, knowing the distance was exact around the track. What did my pedometer read at the end?

1.88 miles.

Huh. Granted, I was running quicker than usual and thus my stride was a tad longer, but there is a very real possibility that my calculations have been a tenth of a mile off for every two miles I've run on Saturdays.

In which case my tally could be as much as a mile short (!).

WHO KNOWS, my friends?! All I know is that I enjoyed the night off and that right now, I'm going to bed. Until tomorrow...

Here we go.

Running after one only day of rest?? Alas, yes.

So...we got this e-mail ("we" being my half-marathon group) last Friday and apparently we aren't training hard enough. The two days a week I've been running? No! It should be three! The two or three or (that one time) four miles I run after work? No! I should be aiming for five!

I'm not sure such a schedule is physically possible or mentally helpful (um, hello, it's not like I have all this time on my hands and absolutely nothing to do except run...I also have to blog about running!) but wanting to be a good little half-marathoner I thought, 'OK, I'll bite. What is this schedule that I'm supposed to be following and whatnot?'

Our leader-man promised to bring the schedules to our group run on Saturday morning but he forgot. "Just e-mail me!" he said. "I'll send you everything to you in an attachment!"

I e-mailed him as soon as I got home and have not heard anything since.

So I really don't know what the hell I'm supposed to be doing, but I do know that giving myself only one day of rest after a long run will build endurance or whatever so, er, yeah. I ran today. Though only two miles. Baby steps! I'm kind of tired. And I ate leftover Mexican for dinner which isn't exactly an energy booster.

I went out waaaaay too fast and did the first mile in 11:04 and then was just dead for mile two (11:12). For real. I was dragging across the finish line. I almost always am able to finish strong and run the last tenth of a mile pretty fast. Not today. It just wasn't all that great, any way you look it. But anytime you train, there are periods where you peak and trough.

What I learned today was a) I'm totally troughing, and b) next time I'll lay off the Mexican. Blech.