Monday, January 30, 2006

WEEKEND RECAP

I ran an easy 6 miles on the treadmill Friday night. Saturday I was hoping to get to practice about 30 minutes before everyone else, since they were “only” going 2 hours and I wanted to get in 20 miles. By the time I got up and helped get the girls going, I only arrived a few minutes before practice. I could always add on afterwards, right?

Evan met my training group Saturday morning and joined us on the run. The number of “fast” runners in our group is fairly low, so it was nice have Evan along. We ran out-and-back on Sheppard Road, which is the route that this Saturday’s half marathon follows.

Basically, Evan and I ran with Jenna and Joyce for the majority of the run. With about 3 miles to go we went up a hill and I started falling behind. I used the downhill to catch back up. The last 2 miles I was just trying to hang on. I was getting a little discouraged until I told myself that I’m running with people that ran 2:47, 2:49 and 2:57 last year. That helped shed some of my negative thoughts. Any thought of adding on at the end we dashed by this faster pace (we probably averaged sub-7:30). However, I figure 16 strong miles is better than 20 easy to moderate miles sometimes.

This gave me 97 miles for the week. Daws has an example where he added up his weekly miles and they were “only” 99, so he threw his shoes on and went out for a mile run. He agreed that physically there’s probably no difference between 99 and 100. However, mentally the difference was huge to him. I did have thoughts of running 3-4 more miles in the evening, but after dinner with some friends and putting the girls to bed, I just wanted to relax.

This week I plan on cutting back a little. I think that will let my last 2 weeks “soak in” while providing a mini-taper for my first race in 3.5 months. I started the week with two 10-mile runs, yesterday and today. They were boring an uneventful. Maybe even unblogworthy.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was a good run on Saturday. Using the magic of the Gmaps-Pedometer I measured it at around 16.5, maybe a little over given hills and going wider than the tangents I drew on the map.

It averaged out at 7:27s for the full 16.5 miles, but when you think that we just jogged up the hill a lot of it was probably closer to 7:20. Can't complain about it, took me at least 4 miles to warmup on Sunday's 22 miler after Saturday.

cheers!

psbowe said...

Nice job on hanging on for that long on the run!
I think I should start keep track of my weekly mileage too even though it's very little to track.

Beanie said...

How arbitrary is the number 100 anyway? Why not 110 or 120? Or what's that joke about "100" being a round number, but "88" being
even rounder? Who decided 100 was the be all and end all of training???

Don't mind me, I'm just jealous ;)

Beanie said...

PS - remind me if you don't mind, what is your marathon PR, and what do you hope to hit this year?

Chad said...

Evan, I don't have THAT kind of time on my hands. :-) 16.5 wouldn't surprise me because 16 was 7:38 pace and I know we were going faster than that. I actually felt really good on Sunday.

Belle, out of sight, out of mind. Tracking may help you pay more attention to it and as a result, get you out the door more often.

Yes Yvonne, I've heard and said all those statements before. The Beck article I linked to the other day talks about those same things.

Hmm, you're going to put me on the spot already, huh? My marathon PR is 2:58:10. I hope to run 2:58:09 this year. :-)

Anonymous said...

The Gmaps-Pedometer is very quick, took me about 5 minutes, if that, to measure the route we ran.

Unknown said...

Another great week on the mileage front. Since we're putting you on the spot, what is your next marathon?

Chad said...

Rob, I just signed up for Grandma's which is June 17th. Then Chicago in the fall.

Chelle said...

If I was even up to half the mileage that you're at, I might think about tackling Grandma's again. That was fun last year.

Trisaratops said...

Wow. I'm in...awe...uh, you guys are fast. :) Great job on the run!

Chad said...

Chelle, and you'd probably beat me again.

Thanks Sara. As Greg Lemond said, "It doesn't get easier, you just go faster."