One more week down – 20 miles this week, so down from last week but I had a couple days with stomach issues that had me limiting my miles.
Besides that though I did have a decent week – I got a 4 mile speed run in where I got progressively faster every 5 minutes I ran – I like these runs for both speed training but also for endurance, because you are pushing at your hardest when you are your most tired – it really helps to push you harder to do these. At least it does for me anyway!
I also got a 7.5 mile run in – after already doing multiple miles with the family earlier in the day out trying geocaching for the first time…we aren’t very good apparently, but it was a really nice walk and a great day to just be outside moving around.
That run ended the first 3 weeks of the challenge but I didn’t get a chance to post anything so I am posting today after today’s run.
And today I pulled off 9 miles…outside! This is pretty significant as I have been exclusively running inside trying to reduce the variables on what has been messing with my left ankle, so this represents an indication of my improved confidence that I have the issue fixed. I am looking forward to more outdoor runs!
I used the run today as a chance to figure out where I am running wise – I ran without any liquids with me and did not have breakfast before I headed out, plus it was the day after a 7.5 mile run. This gave me the opportunity to see:
- how I perform doing 2 longer runs on consecutive days (important to know for Goofy and Dopey Challenge training for sure) – I did well here – I see that I am still capable of doing consecutive days – overall endurance and running capability need to be improved but that will come with time and consistency
- I did well without carrying a water bottle for the distance – not something I usually recommend but it does show me that I can use my internal reserves fairly effectively if I need to. So no major concerns there.
- At around 8 miles I was definitely running out of fuel – that means the wall is nowhere near where I want it to be for a marathon – I did better than I expected but it shows how far down I have come and how much I need to improve. This helps highlight that I need to work at increasing my long run distances (to push that wall back out).
Overall, it wasn’t the best week of running ever but I learned a lot of important things that will help me up my running and improve. And now I start to work on improving!
With that I will finish off this blog and head into week 4 motivated and ready to get better!
Follow along on the blog and on YouTube to see how I am doing and to find out where I end up!
Talk to you soon!
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