"There are no compromises." -Once a runner

shameful... work got in the way

I can't decide whether to call this an easy workout or a difficult distance run.  I did 1 mile warmup then 2 miles marathon pace and 1 mile easy x4 then 1 more cooldown.  I did this on an indoor track because of the heat (high of 95 and still 89 at 8pm).  I don't know my paces because I didn't have my watch.  I am pretty sure I went faster on the marathon bits than the workout last week that was basically this with tempo miles in place of the recovery miles.  I wish it was still early and I could get a few more miles in today.  I couldnt stand the indoor track anymore though.  14 miles on a track is only acceptable because the alternative is filling my shoes with sweat in the first 5 miles of any run outside.  Tomorrow I will run 13-16 miles on trails.  I need to make up for missing sunday.  I was just too busy to run.  But I did my presentation today at work so that is over with.  However, my family still wants to spend lots of time with me as it is my last free summer in med school.  So it will be difficult getting in my miles for the rest of the summer (next 4 weeks).  Its funny that I have no problems getting any amount of running in during med school but I have problems getting my miles in during the summer.

Really bad chaffing from yesterday's run.  I didn't even realize how bad today's run was making it until around mile 7 (I was planning on doing 2 loops of an 8 mile trail).  This week of running really isn't going my way.  I don't know how the chaffing will be tomorrow.  I used some gold bond which seems to help the healing.

 The saving grace is that I actually needed an easy day but wasn't going to give it to myself because I want to hit 70 this week.  Yesterday I did that marathon pace workout and afterwards I did some plyometrics which made me sore.  Next week was a planned cut back week.  Maybe this week will be the cut back week and I will do 4 weeks of high mileage before the next cutback week.  Tomorrow is gonna be easy because thursday night there is a xc race in the area. 
 

13 miles very easy.  11 trails and 2 on roads.  It was planned as 12.5 all on trails but at 11 it got too dark and I had to walk a half a mile to a road and then it was 2 miles on the road to where I started.  This was the first enjoyable run this week.  Despite my chaffing yesterday a combo of gold bond, body glide, and a speedo (for support).  Runners are probably a bit too open but w/e.

Did the XC series put on by the nashville striders today. It was free! There was a cold front that came through last night, so it was a mild 85 at the start. I was late getting off work so I only had time for 10 striders before the race. Then I jumped in my car and tried to "pre-cool" by turning the AC on full blast because I read about it recently. It would have been better if I had some ice water to pour on my head. I have 2 pairs of cross country spikes and this was my first cross country race. I tried wearing them on trails before and it wasn't great. But on the dirt and grass path they were wonderful. They really gave me a ton more traction than trainers and were super light (5.4oz). It was apparent that all of the high school teams were there and a few college runners as well. But when we went out, nobody pushed the pace much. I would have gone out faster but would have felt silly out in front of these super skinny college runners. So I stayed right behind them and slowly most of the highschoolers fell off (but not all of them, darn them). At 1.5 miles a pack of 5 took off and I stayed back with another 8 or so runners. By mile 2 the chase pack was spreading out with 3 guys in front of me but still in range. With .5 to go there was a big downhill and I passed all 3 of the guys in front of me. After that I just kept it steady and almost caught the last guy from the lead pack but didn't. It was fun that it actually felt like a race whereas most road races feel like hundreds of concurrent time trials. I ended up with an 18:12 which I was pretty happy with considering my recent times in this heat and that this was a cross country course which was flat for half and hilly the other half. And almost all of the course as grass which is slow.  Also I wasn't tapered for this race.  Next week is my cut back week and I will be able to taper for it.  Hopefully I can go sub 18 if the weather is horrible.

So here are the things that were different from recent races that might have made the difference.

1. xc flats vs trainers

2. pre-cooling

3. less warmup

4. less humid, but hotter in the evening despite 'cold' front (they should have called it a less hot front)

5. evening race could have meant that I was more loose at the start

anyway, did course 2.5 times to cool down and get some miles in

easy run at home at night.  75 degrees!  

65 miles in 6 days (because I didn't run last sunday) is good enough for me. Next week is my planned cut back week, but I wonder if I should not hold back on that until my end of the summer family trip. I hate family trips, and this one promises to be especially painful. My mom wants to drive up to providence with me where we will meet my dad and drive on... to maine... Don't get me wrong, I like maine, but I don't like not being able to run or spending 25 hours in the car with my mother.