Highlight of the Week: Running 40 miles for the week!

Monday | August 12, 2019: 5 m run + teaching strength class
Run location: hood, Temp: 76°/77°, Time: 58:00, Pace: 11:35 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: stiff
Strength: body bars and soft balls, Felt: good
Tuesday | August 13, 2019: 5 m run
Run location: hood, Temp: 71°/71°, Time: 58:33, Pace: 11:42 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: sluggish and stiff
Wednesday | August 14, 2019: rest
Thursday | August 15, 2019: 12 m run
Run location: Pine Dunes lollipop, Temp: 63°/62°, Time: 2:13:46, Pace: 11:09 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great!
Friday | August 16, 2019: teaching strength class + 5 m run
Strength: body bars and soft balls, Felt: fine, just had a slight headache!
Run location: hood, Temp: 78°/78°, Time: 55:59, Pace: 11:11, Difficulty: medium, Felt: too hot! enjoyed the breeze though
Saturday | August 17, 2019: 10.2 m run
Run location: Redbox return loop, Temp: 65°/71°, Time: 1:55:55, Pace: 11:22 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: really good! annoyed with rocks – should’ve worn gaiters!
Sunday | August 18, 2019: 3 m run
Run location: hood, Temp: 79°/79°, Time: 32:11, Pace: 10:43 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, hot

Notes:

• Gosh, I’m glad I took last Sunday off when my back felt horrible. I ran Monday, and my back was okay, but super stiff. I had to really focus on engaging my core (huh, maybe I should always be doing that?), and five miles of that was enough. It felt the same Tuesday morning – it didn’t hurt, I just felt stiff.
• I am to the point of summer where I am thinking a lot about cool fall runs. I know they are still months away, but I can fantasize!
• Thursday was one of those mornings where the cats woke me up at 5:00 am and I thought “should I run, or go back to bed?” I’m so glad I got up to run. The weather was decent, and I felt great (man, was traffic annoying though – cars were NOT moving over for me).
• Cars were actually not giving me as much space as normal this week. Are people pissy it’s back to school season? I did see a friend while running though – who gave me a lot of space, honked hi, and rolled down the window to wave! That was fun.
• I haven’t run a 40 mile week since July 8-14! I wasn’t expecting it this week, but I had more free time Saturday morning than I thought I would, which helped. Since I ran more, I didn’t only listen to podcasts while running, which I have been for weeks. I enjoy them, but they slow me down. Music speeds me up a bit and gives me time to think, which I hadn’t realized I’d been missing until Sunday’s run!
• I’d been following the drama (since March) with the IAAF lowering the entry standards for all track and field events, particularly the marathon. It blew my mind that they announced this less than a year before the marathon trials, and that the new entry standard for men was one (2:11:30) that no American man had met yet during the qualifying window for the marathon (several women had met the 2:29:30 qualification). Then things got super confusing with being able to qualify (despite time) by placing top ten at the World Championships in Doha this year, top five an IAAF Gold Label Marathon, or top ten at a World Major Marathon. So all these people who thought they were qualified to go to the Olympics now had to run that time before the trials, AT the trials (on a hilly course), or place in one of those events, to get to go to the Olympics. What the what, guys. What is the point of the trials at that point? That just makes it in to another race, instead of a race that determines WHO get to runs the Olympics. That’s not doing much for our sport. But on July 22, the IAAF granted a Gold Label for the 2020 Olympic Trials on an exceptional basis, so, like before, the top three men and women at the race will be considered to have achieved a qualifying time and be nominated to go to the Olympics.
• All that being said, I am beyond excited for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. BEYOND. My August prediction for men’s and women’s top three are as follows: (M) Galen Rupp, Jared Ward, Scott Fauble, (F) Jordan Hasay, Amy Cragg, Kellyn Taylor. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!
• One last thing! Steven wanted to watch the two movies we’ve seen about Steve Prefontaine, so we watched them both this week. There are things we like about both movies, but Without Limits is our favorite. What’s yours? (poll below)

 Loading ...