This week featured a nice barf session, some frostbite, my first group run and a distance PR. Here’s how it played out:
Monday AM: 10 miles of T pace and I pace intervals with Richie
Tuesday AM: 6 miles treadmill with Richie + full body strength training
Tuesday PM: 4 miles Easy (8:39 pace)
Wednesday PM: 6 miles Easy (8:21 pace)
Friday AM: 9.5 miles Easy (8:30 pace)
Friday PM: 3.5 miles Easy (8:56 pace)
Saturday AM: 14.64 miles with group (9:02 pace)
Sunday AM: 8.36 miles Easy (9:10 pace)
Total: 62 miles (2 miles more than my previous weekly PR)
You’ve read about Monday’s puke session (and if you haven’t you really need to). Wednesday, I went to the doctor for a physical. I had him check out a number of things, including some little bumps I had on both feet. I assumed they were warts and would have treated them with the standard salicylic acid band-aid things, but I figured I was going to the doctor anyway and may as well get a professional opinion. It turns out they’re corns. The doctor pulled out his can of liquid nitrogen and sprayed away, leaving me with frostbite on both feet. I did 6 miles that evening and felt okay, but I was limping around Thursday morning so I took Thursday off.
Richie convinced me to get up at 3:45 am so we could drive up to Clearwater and meet a running group at 5:00. We arrived just in time and the group set out almost as soon as we pulled into the City Hall lot. The first round was about 6.5 miles as a warmup. We arrived back at City Hall around 6:00 in time to meet some other people. Then, we all set out for various distances. Richie, his friend Brett and a woman from the group set out for 14 additional miles. I stuck back with the rest of the group and ended up finding a nice young German woman named Layla who wanted to run 8 miles. We ventured across a long bridge to the beach, then ran on Clearwater Beach for 2 miles before crossing another bridge to Sand Key. We hit the bathroom/water fountain at a Marriot. Layla and I bid farewell to a couple other runners who were heading for longer distances a turned back.
On the way back, we passed Richie, Brett and Beatrice. They were still cruising along rather well. The final bridge at 13 miles was a tough climb, but we took it nice and easy and made it back to City Hall. Layla looked at her watch.
“7 minutes faster than last week,” she remarked. I wasn’t sure whether to say “I’m sorry” or “you’re welcome”, but she looked pretty happy with it, so I just said “Good job!” We stretched and Layla left as a few more runners trickled in from various distances. The City Hall fountain was looking mighty inviting, and when another runner jumped in, I followed suit. It was nice and cold from an evening rainstorm – a perfect post run “ice bath”.
All in all, it was a great experience. I got close to 15 miles, Richie got 20 miles and good practice for the hills of New York and a good time was had by all. As an added note, Richie ran a local 5K the next morning and won in 16:27. So, he’s in pretty good shape.
i don’t understand you people who get up at 3:45am on the weekends to run. i suppose if i didn’t have to get up that early during the week i *might* be more up for it on the weekend! group runs are a good change of pace though, hope your jacked up feet are doing better, and congrats on the new weekly-mileage pr!
Sound like the group run was a fun thing! And I had to chuckle at your comment on my blog. If you were running with someone like me – you would have had to go a *whole lot* slower!
I kind of like the group for the social dynamic and acountability, but I also don’t like it because of the type A personalities that build a structure of competition in my club. I guess I’ve gotta take the bad with the good.
345am is insane! I like the program so far. I personally use iTrain for my workout program http://bit.ly/iTrain
Wow! I really liked reading about that group running dynamic. 6 mile warm-up and then splitting out to do your own thing. I’ve been reading a lot of running blogs where runners hit mileage like this and I’m wondering why I’ve never been able to cross the 5 mile threshold lately? Just pondering as I type:) You’re motivational!
Awesome job this week. Including the fountain swim finale.