Myrtle Beach Mini/Kiawah Full Training Week 7 (9/21-9/27)

Milestone hit!

With this week's running, I hit a monthly mileage high! For the first time ever, I ran over 100 miles in a month (and I have a few more runs to go this month). And in addition to running this week, I finally got to a Body Flow class at East Shore Athletic Club. I love Body Flow! The class time won't always fit into my schedule, but on the weeks it does, I'll be there! 

Workout summary:

• Monday: OFF
• Tuesday:  
  • Track Tuesday - 12X400s with 200s as recoveries plus warmup and cool down (6.23 miles total) 
  • Body Flow at East Shore Athletic Club
• Wednesday: OFF 
• Thursday:
  • Easy run - 3.25 miles (8:30 pace)
  • Strength/conditioning at Journey
• Friday: Easy run - 7.01 miles (8:56 pace)
• Saturday: 
  • Barre class at Journey
  • Family bike ride - 8.65 easy recovery miles
• Sunday: 
  • Long run (easy) - 13.05 miles (9:34 pace)
  • Yoga at Journey

Total miles:  Run -   29.54 miles / Total runs: 4 / Total core workouts: 3 / Total strength/conditioning workouts: 1 / Total crosstraining: 1

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It's insane to think how little mileage I've been running and racing on, and I'm really anxious to see how this increased mileage translates to racing. As long as the weather holds up (humidity, be gone!), I think I'll see some PR-level improvements, especially since I've also been doing speedwork and strength consistently. 

Speaking of weather...

This coming week is a little bit of a cutback week as far as mileage and additional workouts. I'm planning on running the Isle of Palms Connector Run 10K on Saturday, as long as the weather isn't supposed to be really humid, so the rest of my workouts will be a little easier and less intense. I need the break anyway, because it's always good to rest and recover. If it's humid, I may decide I'm "did not start"-ing the Saturday race, though. I just can't take these slogfests and I certainly don't want another slogfest logged officially. I had enough of that crap over the spring and summer.

I'm not some elite athlete here that has to race all of the races nor do I need accolades for how badass I am for running sick or injured (and let's face it, asthma plus humidity equals sick for me here in Charleston). If there's anything I hate about living here, and anything that would make me move, it's that. I'm so tired of not being able to breathe for most of the year. 

However, if the weather holds up and my asthma stays in check, I think I'm in good shape. The time my coach thinks I should be running sort of scares the bejesus out of me, but she's positive it's what I'm capable of. It's a pretty massive PR, so we'll see. I've had massive 10K PRs before - I went from my first 10K in 54:22 to my second 10K in 49:25 in about a year's time with weekly mileage averaging 15 miles per week. So...maybe my coach is on to something? Her biggest piece of advice: get out of your own head. I need to work on that one. 

Journey Cycling & Fitness Studio - my favorite place for non-running workouts

My speedwork session this week was pretty awesome. I repeated the same workout I did two weeks ago at the track and the weather was as close to identical as it can get. My split paces were about 15 seconds faster than the last time, so I'd say that's improvement. I did 12x400s with 200s as recoveries. Splits: 6:28, 6:22, 6:22, 6:31, 6:22, 6:27, 6:28, 6:32, 6:31, 6:43, 6:13, 6:36. Happy to see those improvements and like my higher mileage overall, I'm hoping they translate into an official record at a race soon. 

All my other runs were in the easy zone this week and I think I've gotten over the shoe issue I had been having for a few weeks. I switched from the Brooks Pure Flows back to the Pure Cadences and things seem better. Whatever works. I'm sticking with it. Now I just need another pair of Cadences to rotate.  

The trails were a muddy mess this week from all the rain. my poor cadences took a beating

Sunday's long run was a sleep deprived wheezefest. B is teething like mad and was up until 3 and then woke up for the day at 7. So yeah. Good times. And then my inhaler was empty, but I didn't realize that until I was mid-way through my run and needed to use it. Awesome. My legs were tired and heavy during the run, but I don't think it would have been nearly as miserable if I had had my inhaler. But I got it done and it's the longest run I've done since April. Two weeks from now my long run is 14 miles. That will be the longest I've run since 2012.

All kinds of milestones happening over here. Now, if they would just translate into a humidity-free PR on race day, I'd be a happy runner.