my nyc pearl

week in review (6/22 - 6/28):
total miles: 53.7 (shorter than planned, but decent)
time spent running: ~7 hours 45 minutes
avg hr: 161.83
avg pace: 8:49/mile (avg temp: 84.8*)
off days: 1

two short days (~5 miles) and a rest day kept me from meeting my mileage for the week but i did beat last week. an extra 1.31 miles just barely counts as increasing.

sunday (long run day) was my first "quality workout" and since there are only two quality/workout runs per week, i realized i don't have that many hard/challenging runs in this program. i hope on those tough days i will be able to remind myself that i only have 36 workout-runs and there are no excuses to skip one or cut it short. afterall, it takes an irritant to get a pearl. [chris lear, sub 4:00]

i went out for a super easy run sunday evening to loosen things up and shake things out from my morning run, and also to squeeze in a few more miles for the week. the legs felt ok during and after the run, but monday morning they were quite disagreeable when i headed out for some easy mileage. i treated them to a dip in the atlantic after the run but i don't think the water is cool enough to really help. i'm hoping they're just tired from that quality run since it was the first time in quite awhile that i pushed myself.

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and so it begins

ooh boy, today was my first "quality workout" of nyc training. i was slightly dreading it this morning when i got up at 5-something. i've been running easy for about six weeks now, and the thought of breathing hard and having tired legs was psyching me out a bit. nevertheless, i laced up and hit the road around 6:30am. it was already 83 degrees and 75% humid, but it didn't really bother me. i knew i've already been running in warm temps for a couple weeks now and that i could handle it.

i'm following one of jack daniels' marathon plans from his book "the daniels' running formula". today i thought i may need to befriend the other jack daniels' in order to survive this training plan. sad, i've only done one workout so far.

today's workout was supposed to be something like - 15 minutes easy, 30 minutes marathon pace, 5 minutes threshold pace, 25 minutes marathon pace, 5 minutes threshold pace, 5 minutes marathon pace, 15 minutes easy. (yeah how am i supposed to remember all this? run with a notebook?) i ended up modifying it a little, but i'm telling myself it's ok because hey it is my first real workout-run in awhile. plus i ended up doing 7 miles at marathon goal pace which i feel is pretty decent for the first attempt. (right?)

my actual workout was: 2 miles easy, 4 miles marathon pace, 1/2 mile easy (thanks to phantom pee break), 3/4 mile threshold pace, 3/4 mile easy (lazy...), 3 miles marathon pace, 1.5 miles easy. really all i did was cut out the five minutes marathon & threshold pace and throw in a few minutes of easy running in the middle.

though i was overwhelmed before hand about hitting my marathon and threshold paces, i found myself hitting both of them without the imminent feeling of death. what a relief. (hey, i've been chugging along at close to 9min miles for awhile now.) the marathon pace was easier (obviously) to hit than threshold but i got a boost of confidence when i continued to clock marathon pace miles up until mile 11. maybe this won't be so bad afterall.

sunday (6/28) am run: 12.5 miles, 1:37:29 (avg pace 7:47), avg hr (173)

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homeward bound

i'm headed home for some r&r. today was supposed to be my last day (actually may 29th originally), but my position was extended in the eleventh hour. better than being sent to the house.

ahh the luxuries of being a woman working at a construction jobsite. this lovely facility comes with it's own padlock to keep the construction men and their bodily functions out. ladies only, all 5 of us. it's not entirely bad since there aren't many of us and it gets serviced every other day. i got 'trapped' in there once when the portajohn guy came to service them. i was going #1 and trying to text (the cell service around here is awesome) and then the thing starts rumbling a little (from the service truck pulling up). i'm thinking what the heck is going on? then i hear the guy opening the stall next door, a loud noise (the vacuum thingy), and begin to smell some not-so-pleasant smells. i gave up on the texting and got out of there asap. vomit.

some random life-on-the-road stats from the past three months:
~7,861 miles of driving (thank goodness i got a rental!)
85/93 days spent sleeping in not-my bed
7, maybe 8 homemade meals eaten
265 meals eaten out (fast food galore, and some o'charley's/applebee's/chili's)
7 pounds lost -- thanks to 505.65 miles ran (218.21 on the 'mill)

peace out kentucky.

just kidding... i'll see you again soon.

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