Wrapping it Up

Sunday = Funday

Where has this weekend gone? I'm not ready for another M through F again, and I also can't believe that next weekend is my f'ing race. I am excited and nervous, but also sad that this stage of my training is over with. Sometime this week I'm going to try to lay out a few things on here: 1. Race goals. 2. Training recap. 3. Next steps. 4. Plan for 2009. That is a lot, but the shit needs to happen.

On Friday I was a little sore after the Thursday track workout, but mostly lethargic due to no running scheduled for the day. I was actually really annoyed that I couldn't run. It was such a nice day out, so I decided to go for a long walk around the hood and do one of my favorite things: thrifting. I went to as many thrift stores as I could find and made them my bitch. I got a few fun things and that made me reeeeeally happy. Plus, happy to get outside and enjoy the sun.

Saturday I went for an easy 3 miler, then drove all over the greater Portland area. It was a fun little ticky tour but by the end of the day I was exhausted.

TOTAL MILES = 3.54
AVG PACE = 9:09

Today I drove around the greater GREATER Portland area, looking for places to get hitched. Another long exhausting day. I should have done my run 1st thing in the morning, but we wanted make the most of the sunlight hours, so we left. I ended up running at 6 p.m. after having a late lunch:

• grilled cheese
• tater tots
• Rainier (beer)

Despite the shit I had in my system the run went fine. Started off sketchy with lots of wardrobe malfunctions culminating with my screaming on the Hawthorne bridge out of frustration. Once I got over myself I did okay and ran the regular loop twice.

TOTAL MILES = 6
AVG PACE = 7:59
AVG HR = 161 bpm

I made my goal of this one to keep my HR under 169, which is the high range of my Zone 3. In looking at my Garmin I was surprised to see that I kept having to put more speed on to jack up my HR. I think this is a good problem, meaning that my heart doesn't need to go as fast to get the work done. I don't know....probably will have to consult the coach. In the end, based on my frequent checking of the Garmin for HR, I figured I'd go higher than the 169 avg, but I clearly didn't. I hate to depend on the Garmin so much, but until I know my body really well (which is taking a while...) I need to monitor it this way. The problem now is that I'm not getting the information that I need (i.e. average HR so far, or whatever you would call it). I gots to remember what to change my settings to before going on a run instead of afterwards when I recap since it does me no good.

This week is the final countdown! I only have TWO workouts this week - one easy 3 miler and one two mile TIME TRIAL. I am going to see if I can negotiate with the coach to allow me to do the TT on the marked path instead of the track. I kind of loathe a two mile TT on the track. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how I've improved since then.

Have a good week people. Stay strong. You can do it.