The Road to Steamtown - Week 2

Don't let the calendar fool you - summer started in Central Virginia this week.

 

 

3 runs for 24.9 miles
1 mile swim
1 hour of Bodypump

Running miles logged so far: 158.65
Same time last year: 133.3

It was a disgustingly humid week Monday through Friday. So humid that when I got up in the morning, the windows of my house had so much condensation on them that I couldn't see outside. The morning temperatures weren't bad, but it doesn't matter if it's only 65 degrees when that is accompanied by 110% humidity.

Thank all of the weather gods that a cold front came through on Friday night, taking away some of that humidity. Otherwise, Saturday would have been terrible.

Training highlights:

• It was cloudy on Monday, which made the progressive speedwork session with Greg at least partially tolerable.
• I'm so very thankful for well-to-do-neighborhoods where the rich folks have automatic sprinkler systems for their lawns. We may or may not have run through quite a few of their sprinklers in the past week.
• Return to the pool on Tuesday, where I put in a mile. The first few laps felt pretty awful, but I was surprised when I got over it quickly and pounded out the rest without too much trouble.
• Running "on the edge of Midnight" with Kit, Ed, and Paul on Saturday. If we can keep up with Ed all summer, we are going to kick some butt in Steamtown.

Photo courtesy of MTT Photos

Training lowlights:

• Though the weather was killer and it didn't feel good, Wednesday's tempo run with Kit was a great test of our grit and determination. I couldn't help but add some commentary to our split stats.

                Mile 1 - 8:28 (Hey the weather's not SO bad)
                Mile 2 - 8:02 (Oh look... we're fast. Ah well.)
                Mile 3 - 8:02 (Ooohkay so it's really REALLY muggy out, I don't feel so great)
                Mile 4 - 8:15 (Let's slow ourselves down. No need to kill ourselves.)
                Mile 5 - 8:20 (SLOW DOWN)
                Mile 6 - 8:27 (Ok, so apparently this is as slow as we go.)

• Once again, I failed to get in two sessions of cardio-based cross training. I had an exhausting and stressful week so by the time Friday rolled around, I did not want to get out of bed to go bike or swim. So I didn't. This is going to have to change... fast.
• Husband and I went to Bodypump at 6:00 am on Thursday, only to discover that it was "express" class, which meant it didn't include abs or shoulders and lasted only 45 minutes. I was pretty unhappy about it (I think Husband was fine with it though). When we finished I didn't feel ready to stop so I went upstairs and did a fast one mile run around the indoor track, then used the roller and did a lot of stretching before I finally decided to hit the showers.

Unfortunately this is another very stressful week for me at work and after our short break from humidity, it is scheduled to be even more hot and MORE humid this week (highs that feel like 100 degrees on Wednesday). I don't have high hopes for it to be a great training week, but kind of hope that I'm wrong because it would be nice for something to be good this week.