After weeks of mediocre training, it was fantastic to finally have a week like this past week. I mean, look at me...I'm so beside myself that I'm standing on my head!
This week featured my best long-ish run of the training cycle to date, the 8-miler on Saturday (aka, today). Details in the "by the numbers" section." I also had a few epiphanies: First, it is easier to negative split a run when your body is still half asleep during the first half. Second, leftover pumpkin ravioli is an adequate pre-long-run breakfast. It even stays down.
SHAMELESS PLUG: This upcoming week I'll be kicking off a 4-week stint of teaching FREE beginner-friendly yoga classes, on behalf of Yoga District, at two City Sports locations in DC on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. The classes are at the Georgetown City Sports location on Wednesdays, September 26, October 3, October 10, and October 17 from 7:30am to 8:30am, and at the 19th Street City Sports location on Thursdays, September 27, October 4, October 11, October 18 from 7:30am to 8:30am. Classes will be sequenced for the not-so-bendy: runners and cyclists, I'm referring to you! Check out my group classes teaching schedule for more info.
SHAMELESS PLUG: This upcoming week I'll be kicking off a 4-week stint of teaching FREE beginner-friendly yoga classes, on behalf of Yoga District, at two City Sports locations in DC on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. The classes are at the Georgetown City Sports location on Wednesdays, September 26, October 3, October 10, and October 17 from 7:30am to 8:30am, and at the 19th Street City Sports location on Thursdays, September 27, October 4, October 11, October 18 from 7:30am to 8:30am. Classes will be sequenced for the not-so-bendy: runners and cyclists, I'm referring to you! Check out my group classes teaching schedule for more info.
Last week by the numbers:
Sunday – The 7 miles that I put off from Saturday to rest my right hamstring. I saw a raccoon while running along the National Mall. "Raccoon" is not a euphemism for "tourist with bad eye makeup."
Monday –
Rest. I even went to bed at 9:30, after eating the senior citizen's special at Sweetgreen. Or at least it seemed that way.
Tuesday – 4 miles. More than half of this route was on city streets, during rush hour. I was hit by a car while running 4 years ago, so I don't mess around with traffic during rush hour. I stop at all lights. 2-ton car > Stephanie. As a result, my pace was slower than my pace on Sunday's 7-miler. Amusing.
Wednesday – Rest. Standing on my head at the Lincoln Memorial.
Thursday – 4 miles total: 1 mile warmup, 7 x 400s w/ 2:10 rest & Pilates reformer. I need to do a little ground-truthing at a track in the next few weeks. As I did with the 5x400s I did in August, I set my Garmin for .25-mile intervals and hoped for GPS accuracy. I was shooting for 2:00s, or maybe just under. Then I clocked 7 400s ranging from 1:49 to 1:56, with five of them under 1:53. I pretty much can't believe that these are really my times for 400s because this is kinda speedy for me – the fastest 400 that I did last month was 1:56, and now it was my slowest?? Really, I'm super envious of people whose long runs are done at this pace.
Friday – 3 miles. Rest. I decided to nix this run for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that I woke up with what felt like a strained left hamstring. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. Really. I walked the 3.5 miles that I was originally planning to run.
Saturday – 8 miles & massage. Best training run of the cycle to date, if you take out the part where traffic lights and construction messed up the last 1.5 miles. Even still, my overall pace was faster than Sunday's 7 miles, which is awesome on several fronts. First, last week I was freaking out a little bit because I took a glimpse at my training log from a year ago, and saw that on September 10, 2011, I was (slowly) running 8 miles. And the week after that. And 9 the following week. And in the first week of October, 10. I felt behind. Then I realized that the Army 10-Miler is 2 weeks later this year than last year....Also, chasing the run with a massage was a genius idea. I complained about my hamstrings, and my massage therapist went straight for the glutes and calves. Holy. Moly. I plan to do a jello impression for the rest of the weekend.
