Weekend Long Run on a Weekday

If you follow this blog, then you know about my training predicament this week.  For the first time this season, I’m having to adjust my schedule.  Thanks to all of your advice, I’ve made a plan of action.  And so, for the first time in my life, I’m going to have to do my normal weekend long run on a weekday.

I’m going to get up super early to run 17 miles.  It should be interesting.  Luckily with the time change, the sun comes up earlier, but I know I’ll still be in the night darkness when I get up.  Running with my old constellation pals.

My running buddy, Orion!

I won’t be able to run at my normal long run spot, so I have no idea what my route will be, just going to wing it.  I kind of like not knowing where I’ll be going.  It’s good to have variety in your workouts.

And the weather is supposed to be in the 40’s.  A rarity in Texas.  I can’t wait to run in humane conditions!

That said, usually after a long run like that, I’m pretty useless to be around.  I only want couch.  But being a school morning, I still have to go to work afterwards.

Don’t be fooled by the fancy photo, I’m actually not wearing pants.

I work as a TV producer dude, and luckily I don’t have any shoots after my run, just an edit session and some script writing.  So at least I get to spend most of the day sitting.  Butt I do see a buttload of tea in my post run morning future to keep me going.

One extra bonus (redundant?), I get to eat something other than my normal Irish Oatmeal for breakfast.  Usually I save my cheat meal day for after my long run.  Ya know, like pizza or tacos.  So I plan on rewarding myself with a little something naughty after the run.  Hooray for that!

Migas Taco from Torchy’s Tacos. You may be in my belly soon.

I must say it has been weird, as you should know, the long run is not all about the day of, it’s about the days leading up to it.  Proper hydration, proper nutrition, etc.  And I must also say it was quite weird having a rest day in the middle of the week.  And it’s always awkward when I’m stiff from running, and so I kind of do a Frankenstein’s Monster walk around the office, which results in having to answer questions about my gait.  But we do what we gotta do, right?

What about y’all?  Ever have to crazy manipulate your training sched to accommodate something else?  How often do you mix up your routes?  What’s your go to cheat reward meal? 

 

Dopey Challenge Training – Week 3

Week 3 of 18 is run and dun.  The Disney Dopey Challenge is 4 straight days of racing (5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2), and so it takes a lot of training to get ready for it.  Here’s what my week looked like:

Sun: yoga, Mon: rest, Tue: 3 mile run + weights, Wed: 5 mile run, Thu: 3 mile run + weights, Fri: rest, Sat: 4 mile run, Sun: 14 mile run

The highlight was the Sunday 14 miler.  I was a tad worried heading into it, not because of the distance, but because of the weather.  You see, on Saturday morn it was in the mid 80’s with a humidity percentage near like a quadrillion.  My easy 4 miler felt like twice that far.  My legs felt heavy, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to handle the 14 miler the next day.  But you know what, I felt great Sunday morning!  And it didn’t hurt that the humidity on Saturday finally turned into rain!  We had a pretty nice storm all afternoon.  After it passed, it left a nice cool evening.

The morning was cool too.  I planned to do my long run before sunrise at White Rock Lake in Dallas.  Problem is that I overslept…oops!  Not too late, but by the time I got down there, the sun had just come up, and with it some heat came.  Not too hot.  It was still in the 60’s at the start of the run, but did get up into the 80’s that afternoon.  A pretty gorgeous day.  And running at White Rock Lake is good because there’s a 9 mile loop around the lake, there’s tons of other runners and bikers and sailors and kayakers and picnickers and you get the idea.  There’s also a couple trails that branch off of the main trail.  For this run, I took one of them for the first time – White Rock Creek Trail.  It was a beautiful trail with lots of nature in the heart of the city.  It went through a green belt up north.  I took it until I got the extra 5 miles that I needed to get to 14 total.  There weren’t a ton of runners on that trail, more bikers, but I liked it.

Anyway, I felt pretty good, so much so that I caught myself smiling a few times during the run.  I did just read that smiling can help trick your body into going faster and/or stronger.  Something to do with brain receptors and neurons and whatnot.  Either way, it felt good to smile and run.  I also did just read that your “wall” is reached at the point of your previous long run.  I think this may be true.  My previous long run this season was two weeks earlier – 13 miles.  Yes, at mile 13 I wanted to be done.  But like always, I sucked it up and finished.  That’s how we build endurance – by slowly building the miles.

Anyways, week 4 is underway.  Today was 3 miles with weights.  Tomorrow 6 miles.  Bring it week 4!

How far along are you in your race training?