My third week of training was my down week. I generally like to run 2-3 “up weeks,” where I increase my mileage, followed by 1 “down week,” where I cut mileage back in order to rest. For instance: last week I ran 40 miles, this week was 27, and next week will be 38. I was glad this was a down week because I found myself all over the place with a friend moving into my house, people coming in for a 5K, working, etc. It was good to have an easy week on the legs, but I’m looking forward to kicking the training back into high gear this week.
Monday – off
Tuesday – 6 miles in 48:13 (16 mins at 6:41 pace, 2.39 miles)
Wednesday – 3 miles in 38:19 (stairs)
Thursday – off
Friday – 5 miles in 40:14
Saturday – 4.6 miles in 36:09 (5k in 20:42)
Sunday – 8.5 miles in 1:14:17
Total – 27.1 miles
On Tuesday, I did the first tempo run of my marathon plan. 2 mile warm-up, followed by 16 minutes at goal marathon pace (goal pace is 6:49, I actually ran it at 6:41). I finished up with with a cool-down, bringing my daily mileage to 6. Wednesday I met friends at the Century-Tel Center after work and did some stairs to get ready for Colorado. The heat made the stairs slow going and I was glad when they were over. Friday was an easy 5 after work before having a lazy night. Saturday morning I ran the Hot Pursuit 5K in Shreveport with a time of 20:42. I wasn’t overly impressed with my time, but the heat was bad and I haven’t done much speed work lately so I’ll take it. I ran 1.5 miles before the race to warm-up but didn’t do a cool-down. After a long Saturday night and 3-4 hours of sleep, I headed out at 7 pm for my long run. Once again the heat drained me and i wound up cutting the run short to 8.5 miles.
Closing thoughts
The heat has been pretty miserable lately, and I’ve tried to adjust my training (and expectations) accordingly. I was happy with my tempo, and will start building on it every week by adding 4 minutes while trying to hold the same pace. I want to get to the point where I know what the pace feels like and can run it without even thinking about it. Practice makes perfect. I’ll wrap this month up with 150 miles in the bag, which is tied for best month I’ve had this year. Looking forward to next week and next month.
Starting a petition to change the name to “Rabo-ing”
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