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Monday, January 18, 2016

Naples Half / Broke Man's WWU Training Week 11

Sunday's race

Welcome to another Weekly Review linkup with Hoho Runs and MissSippiPiddlin. My training cycle focuses on the Paradise Coast Half Marathon. You can read about the race in Week 1's recap

Week of Jan 11-17 

Monday: 3 miles, 8:38 pace
Tuesday: 2.3 miles, 8:31 pace
Wednesday: 1 mile, 8:43
Thursday: 5.1 miles, 8:57 pace
Friday: 3 miles, 8:45 pace
Saturday: Broke Man's shakeout run, 1.5 miles
Sunday:  Broke Man's WWU, 3.7 miles, 8:41 pace – recap coming!

Total: 19.7 miles
Total this cycle: 249.5 miles

It was a fall back week, but I fell back a little too much. Eek. My weekly total was supposed to be 25 miles and my long run was supposed to be 7, but I cut runs short for reasons below. A treadmill would have been amazing this week!

Monday's run was supposed to be 5, but I had behind-the-knee pain around mile 2. I tried to stick it out, but it got tighter as I went. I'm thinking it was a result of dodging ice Sunday and Monday. I ran home and did a ton of stretches. It went away.

Tuesday's cool moon

I worked from home Tuesday (too lazy to get dressed and go outside). Alex came with me for the first mile, but bailed before we were done because the "feels like" temp was 4 degrees. I ran another loop until our neighborhood was too dark to continue. I felt really good and wanted to keep going but my thighs were starting to tingle and go numb.

Wearing all my glow-in-the-dark stuff
Wednesday was a mile. I ran right at sunset, so I had to get decked out in all of my finest hi-vis gear. The "feels like" temp was 2 degrees and even though I wanted to keep running I tried to be reasonable and go back inside.

The temps rose Thursday, so Alex and I went to a nearby neighborhood for a 45 degree run. I had a tempo workout scheduled, so I ran a mile warm up on the track and took my 3x1mile tempo repeats out on the road with Alex. I found myself running a little fast, but he stopped at a few different playgrounds to do pull ups while I kept running ahead (and tried to reign in my pace). There were a few hills along the way to keep it tough. Once we finished the middle miles we were back at the track and I did my cool down. This was my longest run of the week! Whoops.

Later that night, I stooped down to pick up my tiny dog and my knee hurt! It was terrible. When my leg was bent, the front of my right knee was super tight and there was a stab of pain. It felt like a reverse charley horse. I stretched out, iced it, and decided to see how Friday's run went.

Sunrise Friday

Friday morning I ran one mile to test my knee. The pain was significantly reduced and honestly didn't bother me while running, so I added two more miles. The pain remained, but it was dull and only when I bent my leg at an extreme angle or went up and downstairs. The bad part of Friday's run was how out of breath I felt. I stopped several times during miles 2 and 3. I'm not sure what was going on, but I decided to forgo my 6 miler and finish when I hit 3.

Race director & the shakeout crew
Saturday morning was the official shakeout run for the Broke Man's Winter Warm Up. (I'm an ambassador for the race.) The run only ended up being 1.5 miles. I was hoping for more to bring up my weekly milage! After the run Alex and I helped with packet pickup and getting the swag bags ready. The line was wild! We were there from 10-1 and hardly saw a break in action. Luckily, we were able to relax with a beer once our shift ended.

The big race was Sunday. The Broke Man's WWU has three distances (3.5, 7, and 13.1) and is one of the races I've been training for during this cycle. It wasn't a goal race, but the 7 mile distance was perfectly in line with this week's plan. In the end, I only ran 3.7 miles! I will have a full recap once official photos are available (unless they take too long), but long story short: The first 7 miles include two laps and I was over the course by 3.7. Since it was a low-key event, I decided to take advantage of the ability to cut it short. Plus it was really cold and I wanted some coffee!

Real talk
All-in-all a crappy week distance wise. I tried to schedule around the coldest days and it didn't work out. If I had it to do over (knowing what I know now about the hilly, looped race course) I would have gone to my normal training group on Saturday for 7 miles and still participated the shakeout run.

Grrrr. So cold, but I love Buffs
I must admit I've reached the point in my training cycle where I'm getting tired. I felt pretty terrible at the race Sunday and it wasn't even close to the half distance. Sure the weather this week was very cold and I had weird aches and pains (I also blame the weather for those), but it was an easy week and I should have nailed my miles. I'm hoping I can ramp it back up this week.

I don't think I can get my sub-2 half in Florida because of the temperature difference (I'm a stronger runner in 40-50 degrees), but sometimes I feel like I need to find some powerful motivating force to just get it done at Paradise Coast so I can go back to running for fun. I was really nailing this training cycle and PR-ing like crazy until about two weeks ago. Now I want to hibernate and run 2-3 miles at a time. I'm enjoying my run streak (day 78), but I'm getting a tired of making time for hour-long runs midweek.

Have you ever have a tough week when the milage is relatively low?
Did the weather affect your week?


8 comments:

  1. When I got to the end of your post about being tired at this point in your training cycle, I just nodded my head. It happens to me at some point during every training cycle. Good luck with a Florida half marathon. I just ran the WDW Marathon and the weather was dreadful, 70 degrees and 98% humidity at the start. I found the conditions miserable and tried hard to keep my pace for the first 5 miles then gave up on my race day goal. If you have good weather, go for it, but otherwise, stay calm and run a smart race.

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    1. Thank you for the advice! I don't know what to expect and maybe my back up plan will be to enjoy the scenery and take photos. I'm dreadfully behind on blogs, but have been looking forward to your WDW recap. I'm going to go read it now!

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  2. I hate to read your having issues with that knee, take care of it as it sounds like it's not going away until it' healed. I was about at the end of my rope in marathon training. It could not have come to an end any sooner for me. We get burnt out, change things up and get back in it. I hope you will find yours again. It's there just be patient.

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    1. I know! My knee seems to hurt when it's cold. Maybe I'm becoming one of those old ladies who can predict the weather with her aches and pains. I also think I need new shoes. I was hoping to make it to my half with my current pair, but they have over 300 miles and got a little gross on a trail run. It's time to retire them...

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  3. I got that behind-the-knee pain when cycling the very long miles during my injury. It was the first time I had experienced it too. But if I'm reading your post correctly, you had a different kind of knee pain later in the week? Hopefully, all you need is a little rest. I think we all get to that point in training where we are tired. It's part of the journey. You've had a strong cycle and you'll do great in Naples! Thanks for linking with us Elizabeth!

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    1. I've noticed my knee only hurts in weather under 25 degrees... so maybe it'll be a non-issue in Florida. Thanks for the encouragement! :)

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  4. It looks like you had a good week of training! Kudos for getting out in the cold! I rearrange my training schedules often if I'm not feeling it. Sometimes your body just needs a break and it's nice to cut back every now and then. I hope your knee pain feels better. I agree that the weather can definitely play a role in joint and muscle pain. I've noticed mine bothers me if it's cold or rainy.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! The cold has been tough. I was spoiled by the mild winter last month. I'm doing much better this week, so perhaps it took a week or two to get used to! Have a good week :)

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