Decided to give myself a recovery week even though I didn't really need it physically. Mentally though... yeah, I needed to allow myself some rest. Got a solid block of ruck training coming up and need to be ready for it.
Monday
Did: 3.17 mi @ 8:13/mi avg + 23 min yoga for hamstrings
Got out on the trail after dropping D off at school and felt awesome! The legs seem to have come back to life a bit.
Later during lunchtime, I did a bit of yoga at home to stretch out the hamstrings. Ivy decided to help coach me. 🐶
Tuesday
Did: 6.28mi @ 9:13/mi
Scott traveling for work this week meant no track morning, so did a 2x loop of the 5k cross-country course at work. It was much warmer out than I'd anticipated and apparently still pretty exhausted from the weekend running! A much more difficult run than expected.
Wednesday
Did: 1.06 mi @ 9:10/mi + 0.9 mi pup walk
Quick single mile after morning school drop-off. Decided to keep it short and sweet based on how tired I was yesterday. Pup walk in the evening was nice.
Thursday
Did: 15 min treadmill run + 30 min strength + 1.1 mi pup walk
Did just a bit of upper body strength work in the work gym with a treadmill warm-up. Finally feeling recovered. The run did not feel like a struggle.
Walked in the evening with pupper.
Friday
Did: 1.3 mi warmup + 2.03 mi @ 6:43/mi avg
Friday evening was the BMW 2-Miler Performance Classic - the next in the Corporate Shield race series. It's the only evening race in the series, and has the fun features of being held on the BMW performance test track AND serves beer & pretzels afterwards (like a good German company would do!). I warmed up with an easy mile around the track with a couple of strides at the end to get myself loosened up after a lot of easy short runs this week. Felt good but the sun was warm and there's zero shade on the course.
I hoped to have a time under 14 minutes - consistent with some of my better times on this race - but did not expect much beyond that. My course PR was 13:53 in 2021, the last time I ran this race, and that was a COVID year so it was at an odd time (small wave starts at varying times throughout the day).
The course is mostly flat (~30-40ft gain over the 2 miles) though the first mile contains most of the up and down, second mile being very flat.
I started off and told myself just go for consistent, sustainable, hard pace - but don't go crazy. It's so hard to gauge at the beginning of a run, with everyone around you fueled by adrenaline along with this course in particular having the most downhill around 1/4 mile in.
Mile 1 = 6:40
Felt good but knew I didn't have much to be able to kick faster at the end. Just wanted to hold on and remain steady. A couple folks that I had passed at the beginning caught me in the last half mile. Tried to reel in a few more people as I approached the finish but also felt cardio-wise I didn't want to go harder.
Mile 2 = 6:47
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| Part of the Milliken team! |
Saturday
Did: 10.01 mi @ 9:38/mi avg
Slight struggle bus of a run with the group from Unity Park this morning... intended to do 11 and started off fine, dark run up the trail, turned around at 5.5 miles out, but on the way back started having a side cramp that wouldn't go away and I could run/breathe right to get rid of it. Walking was fine, so I walked a bit then ran another mile and a half til I decided 10 miles was enough and walked the rest of the way back to the car. Not sure what causes the side stitch.... I didn't have food beforehand, but I usually run on an empty stomach. I didn't get my usual half cup of coffee, so maybe that was it? But I'm not sure what coffee would have helped... ah well, still good to get 10 good miles in!
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| And a pretty sunrise |
Sunday
Did: 8.02 mi @ 9:57/mi avg
This was longer than I'd intended to run this morning, but it ended up being great! The plan was to meet a portion of the BRR team that was out doing 16 miles from Unity. I was going to loop through Furman with them and call it good enough, but we didn't have an exact plan of when/where to meet. I got out right around 8 and started running south on the trail towards where they were coming from... eventually found 2 of them, turned and ran with them til their turn-around point in TR, ran back, found the other 2 of the group, ran with them for a bit, and stuck with them til they departed from Furman and I ran back to my car. It rained the entire time and felt amazing!
A little over 33 miles for the week.... not bad considering I felt like this was a "low mileage" week!
Next up will be some discussion of ruck training/planning that will carry me through the remainder of the year (well, til December at least)... stay tuned.
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