Pfitz, Week 2 (33 miles)
Week 2 — your new Delta Tau Chi name is “Quads, They Burn.”
I’m DEFINITELY feeling the effects of increased mileage during the week. In looking through my past training schedule, I realized the last time I ran more than six miles during the week was my 9-mile birthday run in November. Although I racked up 150 miles in December, my longest runs were on the weekends when I hadn’t been standing all day cooking.
To make matters worse, I’ve decided to do two other exercises I hate (in addition to planks): lunges and squats. Actually, I should say I’ve decided to follow my physical therapist’s advice and do the exercises as they help build my core. For the lunges, I hold a 4 lb. medicine ball out in front of me, lunge forward on one leg, turn to each side, then come up to standing. I then repeat on the other leg. For the squats, I cross my arms at chest height and then squat.
On Monday I did 10 lunges on each leg and two sets of 15 squats. That afternoon I ran a little over 8 miles, which included speed work, so by Tuesday morning my quads were pretty sore. Of course my yoga teacher decided we were ready for new poses — the triangle and pigeon — plus she had us do more warrior poses. My quads didn’t appreciate the extra work and I grumbled and groaned throughout.
Although I refrained from doing the lunges and squats on Wednesday, my quads were still sore during the afternoon run. I must be a masochist, as I chose a rather hilly route for the 10 miles. We live at the bottom of Phinney Ridge, and the run took us over the ridge (I swear the hills are at a 45-degree angle!) Thursday was either a cross-training or rest day, and considering it was Valentine’s Day I chose the latter (I wanted to get an early start so I’d get home in time to prepare a nice dinner for my darling).
On Friday I was ready to do some more lunges and squats (in addition to my typical arm weight routine), but since my cook date went so long I ended up bagging on my 5-mile afternoon recovery run. Sure, I felt guilty, but I didn’t get home until well after 6 p.m., and by then it was dark and rainy. I vowed to make up for some of it during the next day’s long run, and boy did I. The beginning of the run followed the same route as Wednesday’s, but it also included the loop trail through Discovery Park, which is also quite hilly. Although I was scheduled for a 13-miler on Saturday, it ended up being just under 15. With the extra mileage I ran earlier in the week, I’m only behind a mile and a half.
Here’s the recap:
Sunday: Nuttin’, other than walking to Greenlake for the start of the Love ’em or Leave ’em 5K (my darling ran it with friends)
Monday: Abs, arms, stretching, lunges, squats; 8.25 general aerobic run with 10 x 100m strides. Overall pace: 9:38, avg. HR: 145
Tuesday: Yoga
Wednesday: Abs, arms. 10-mile hilly general aerobic run; overall pace: 10:24, avg. HR: 140
Thursday: Not a damn thing (unless you count lifting a few glasses of champagne “exercise”)
Friday: Arms, abs, squats, lunges
Saturday: 14.75-mile long run w/Freakin’ hard-ass hills; pace: 10:36, avg. HR: 141
February 18th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Geez Betsy, you just keep getting faster, while I keep getting slower. 10:36 for close to 15 miles of hills is awesome.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Oh, thank you! But I gotta tell ya, it wasn’t pretty!