So, if you live in Central Florida (and potentially beyond), you probably (hopefully?) spent the afternoon hunkering down inside because it was quite a storm!  I saw quite a few uprooted trees via people’s Facebook posts.  SCARY!  This is but a continuation of a theme for this week – weather just screwing up the best laid plans.  My Weather Channel app has been open way to much for my taste this week as I scrutinized the hourly forecasts and placed bets on whether or not I would have to modify my workout plans.  On the whole, this was another successful week in training despite some setbacks.

Monday – Off as planned.  I had a little sensation in my left lower leg so it was probably smart to go easy on the running.  Plus, I was granted 1 off day in this week’s plan.  I did go to my Kazaxe class at my gym so I still got a nice workout in.

Tuesday – As with every speed work day, it was all nerves till after work when it was time to head to the track.  I was watching the weather like a hawk since we had some rain forecasted but it looked like it was going to hold off till well after our track session.  We got 2 laps into our warm up when there was thunder and lightning and staff at the facility forced us to evacuate the area.  BUMMER!  Anyway, I headed to the gym for a nice short-filled treadmill version of my 8 x 400 plan.  I set the treadmill at 9.5 mph for the intervals (about 1:37) and took equal time rest.

Wednesday – Easy 3.1 miles at 9:30 pace.  I was a little frustrated that easy wasn’t faster but I need to really remember the purpose of these runs.  The psychology of it all is a work in progress.

Thursday – Another easy 3.1 this time at 8:52 pace.  I probably took this harder and faster than I should have but I was glad to feel better than the day before.  Need to keep this in perspective.

Friday – I woke up SUPER early to help with a friend’s little running-related project (hence the .05 of running) with a start time of 6:30 am (yikes!) and ended up in a fog for the whole work day as a result since I didn’t manage to get to be early enough the night before.  I had tempo miles scheduled that day but I was so exhausted, I originally intended to swap out for the 3 easy miles I had scheduled for Saturday.  I ended up being so tired (plus there was crappy, rainy weather after work) that I scrapped running for the day and decided to try to sneak in the miles before or after my other workouts this week.

Saturday – I had originally wanted to get in my tempo run for the week at the track but I was a bit unsure about the track’s availability given the shift in day and with storms in the forecast, I was sort of playing timing by ear.  Instead, I mapped out a nice little route in my neighborhood that was mostly straightaways.  To try to make up Friday’s missed miles, I extended my planned .5 warm up to a full mile and extended the .5 cool down to 2 miles.  I planned to do 4 tempo miles at 7:50 pace using quarter mile splits of 1:57 to monitor my pace accurately.  Most of my splits were either right on or fairly close but I had a few outliers.  I ended up with a final pace of 8:01 per mile.  Not too bad for my first attempt.  My “tempo runs” of the past haven’t really been proper so I was so proud of myself anyway.  I’ve never done more than race distance at anywhere near this pace so it was a great exercise.  Hopefully I’ll get to use the track next week.  Oh, and I got to try my super snazzy blue Nike shorts for the first time (although I did chafe a bit but for 7 miles, that’s probably to be expected):

Sunday: Well, apparently yesterday left me with a little bit of an injury that I refused to really take seriously before today’s long run.  I didn’t shorten the distance but I did, however, take the pace really easy so try to go easy on my lower leg.  It probably about 100% humidity, hot, and a bit rainy in sections but I got through it.  I ended up with an average pace of 9:53.  I don’t think my injury feels much worse post run but it certainly doesn’t feel better.  After consulting with my dad (it’s on the inside of my right lower leg just above the ankle), I think it’s just a bit of tendonitis.  Since I still have a planned rest day next week, I have shifted it to Monday to give this a chance to chill out and will monitor from them.

All In All

Things are going well.  I am staying on track with building up mileage, finding a way to get in my hard sessions, and on the whole am enjoying running more than ever before.  It used to be tough for me to stay motivated enough to get in more than 3 runs a week but now I am running almost every day and I am falling in love all over again.

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How was your week in training?  Any milestones or setbacks?