Eat Drink Run Woman

Angie asked me about my weekly mileage on the Pfitzinger plan, so I’ve added the numbers to each of the weekly posts. At first glance it would appear the program does not follow the 10% rule, where you only increase your mileage each week by 10%. However, that isn’t the case; it just appears that way due to how I’ve shifted the schedule.

Pfitzinger has you start your week on Monday and end with a long run on Sunday. I prefer to do my long runs on Saturday, so I’ve shifted it a day. However, there have been a couple of instances where I’ve had to do my long run on Sunday (once when I was sick, the other when I ran the Mercer Island half instead of the scheduled long run). So you’ll see a jump from 35.85 miles in week 5 to 57.65 miles in week 6. I started week 6 with the MI half and ended it with my regularly scheduled long run. If I were to recalculate my mileage based on a Monday-Sunday schedule, then it’s more in line with what the program calls for (and doesn’t increase more than 10% each week).

I definitely feel I’m getting stronger and faster with the training. I’m sure part of it has to do with dropping a couple of pounds (although the orgy of food and drink that is Easter certainly didn’t help. Back on the program!). Even with my long runs I find I can run a fast pace toward the end. I haven’t been as diligent about my gym routine (I really need to get my core conditioning in), but I guess I shouldn’t beat myself up about it too much.

Sunday: I REALLY wanted to run the St. Patty’s Day Dash, but I thought a day of rest would do me good given my 17-mile run the day before and my 10-miler the day after. Instead I saved a table at FX McRory’s while my darling and a couple of friends ran the race. I felt pangs of regret as the runners started streaming into the restaurant. I’ve run the race 11 times and have always had a blast, despite having to weave through 15,000 other runners. Oh well, there’s always next year!

Monday: not the best of days. My client wanted corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day, but she’s VERY particular about how it should be prepared. In the past I’ve started it simmering on the stove, then she takes over once I leave. However, she’s been in ill health so I thought she’d appreciate it if I took care of everything. In order to get the corned beef cooked before I left I had to use my pressure cooker. Mistake! I could tell she wasn’t happy, which made for some tense moments.

I was looking forward to my 10-mile lactate threshold run to help rid me of the day’s stress, but having to do speedwork up a hill and into a headwind was no picnic. I somehow managed to keep an 8:48 average pace over 5 miles, so in the end I was happy. I slowed considerably while slogging up the Fremont Avenue hill, but finished with a 9:16 mile. My overall pace for the 10.25 miles was 9:22.

Tuesday: back to yoga this week. I was thrilled to hear we’d be doing a bunch of restorative work (my aching body really needed it). My afternoon run was supposed to be a 4-mile recovery run, but since I was meeting friends for dinner I decided to pick up the pace a bit. My first mile was 8:57, second mile was 8:46, third was 8:39 and the fourth was 8:20!

Wednesday: 1.5 hour gym routine. I’ve decided to do fewer arm exercises so I can concentrate more on core conditioning. Normally I do 10 different exercises, so I’ve scaled back to 5 each day (I’m still doing those 10 exercises, I’m just breaking it up over a couple of days). This way I’m able to get in more ab work and my PT exercises. I dawdled a bit before heading out on my 11-mile afternoon run, which proved to be a poor decision. The weather was quite nice when I headed out, but with a little over two miles to go I started feeling raindrops. Within minutes it turned into a cold, torrential downpour. Thank goodness I wore a rain jacket! However, the rain did have one benefit: my quads were quite sore for much of the run, so I kept my pace to a little over a 10-minute mile. But given the rain was so cold it basically iced my legs, allowing me to speed up to a 9-minute mile toward the end (knowing I’d soon be in a warm car drinking a cold can of chocolate milk certainly helped spur me on as well).

Thursday: rest day from running, although I got in a little over an hour of core conditioning in the morning.

Friday: since I was catering a dinner party on Saturday I decided to do my 18-mile long run today. My cook date was a fast one (I was home by 2:30), but we didn’t get out the door until almost 4:30 (my darling joined me for the run). Our route took us around the south end of Greenlake, through Cowan Park and onto the Burke-Gilman. Given I had already run a lot of miles during the week I was determined to keep a 10:15-10:30 pace. This proved to be a challenge for my darling, so at mile 5 he gave me a choice: have him continue to run with me, or have him run ahead at his pace, allowing him to get home before me and start dinner. I chose the latter.

Once again it was a tough run as my quads were pretty sore. I’m sure it didn’t help that I was listening to Steve Runner‘s race report of the 110th Boston Marathon where he barfed several times along the route. But once I didn’t have to worry I was slowing my darling down I just ran at the pace that felt most comfortable. I took a couple of walk breaks to eat some shot blocks and kept plodding along. I told myself if I was feeling really bad by mile 14 I could take more frequent breaks. But somehow I managed to keep going. When the Phedippidations podcast was over I had only two miles to go and I was right at the edge of Greenlake. I switched over to my running playlist and smiled when I saw “Take me Home, Country Roads” was the first song. Knowing I was so close to home I was able to pick up the pace, running mile 17 in 9:16 and mile 18 in 8:40! However, I immediately collapsed on the couch and just barely had the energy to drag myself to bed a couple hours later. Overall pace: 10:09.

Saturday: I was supposed to run 7 miles with 8 x 100 meter strideouts, but given the party I decided to just run four miles. But once again I managed to speed things up: 9:18 for mile 1, 8:59 mile 2, 8:50 mile 3 and amazingly, 7:57 for mile 4! Overall pace: 8:46.