Bonus miles

Last week training went fairly well. The heat is definitely slowing me down but I'm trying not to worry too much. I keep telling myself that training in the heat is about perceived effort and not necessarily pace.....meaning that everything feels harder in the summer so I can slow my pace some and still have the same heart rate (effort) when its hot out compared to a faster run in the cold.

So here's how my week was broken down:

Monday: 4.07 mile recovery run on the treadmill. I've been doing more of my recovery runs on the TM to beat the heat....even slow running when its hot jacks my HR up so its not a true "recovery."

Tuesday: 8 mile tempo run with 4 miles at LT pace. Here's where the effort vs. pace came into play big time. It was 88 degrees when I headed out for this run at 7:30pm. It was the first time I ran in shorts and just a sports bra since it was so hot. My pace for the LT miles was about 20 seconds/mile slower than what I was running over the winter, but my HR was right where it should be. After I was finished, I put my hands on my hips as I was cooling down and my hands actually slipped off my body because I was so drenched with sweat....gross!!

Wednesday: Rest!

Thursday: 10 mile general aerobic run. I ran on the Newton Hills for the first time in about 2 months. Overall I felt pretty good for not having run on hills in a while. My water boy (aka Bryan) was out for a bike ride so he would swing past me every couple miles to give me a drink :)

Friday: 75 minute vinyasa style yoga class

Saturday: 4.1 mile recovery run

Sunday: 16 mile long run. It was great to meet up with Janette and John for this run as it was hot and I was dragging. Going to the beach the day before a long run probably isn't the best idea (not enough water or food). John was setting the pace and Janette and I were just holding on for the ride! It was about 80 degrees for this run and about mile 14 I started feeling pretty bad.....lightheaded and actually cold. I took a gu to get some sugar and slowed down a bit to finish. Given the temps, it turned out to be a pretty good run. I just need to be better about hydrating and eating properly the day before my long runs!

So the title of this blog is "Bonus Miles".....where did that come from you ask? Even though I am an engineer with a MS degree, apparently I can not add properly. I had written in my training schedule that the weekly mileage was 40. After inputting my runs into my online training log, I realized I had actually run 42.17 miles!! 2 bonus miles...nice :)