A taper of sorts.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 5.3 mi, trail (Lakewalk), 132 bpm
Wednesday: 6.7 mi, road, 131 bpm
Thursday: 7.3 mi (4 x 1 mi), paved trail (Munger), 147 bpm
Friday: rest
Saturday: 6.2 mi, trail (SHT @ Becks Rd), 144 bpm
Sunday: 9 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk), 144 bpm
Total: 34.6 mi

Winter is coming. It’s depressing to think about, and the weather is still nice so it’s easy to forget, but it’s looming. The days are shortening, and I’m starting to realize I can’t lollygag around home and still get in a workout before dark. Twice this week I was caught out at dusk with no headlamp and no reflective vest.

Monday I took a rest day because my hips were hurting. I wasn’t especially concerned because both sides hurt and it felt more like muscular soreness than a real injury, but I did not want to take any chances. I don’t really like to take Mondays as rest days, since it means I don’t have flexibility later in the week, but sometimes it’s necessary. I felt much better on Tuesday so clearly it was worth it.

Tuesday & Wednesday: boring runs of no interest.

Thursday I ran 4×1 mile on the Munger Trail and it was hard. My hamstrings did not like it. I felt for awhile like they were on the verge of snapping, like violin strings, when one slight turn of the peg would be too much.
My repeats were:
9:20 @ 175 bpm, 9:30 @ 176 bpm, 9:34 @ 175 bpm, 9:40 @ 173 bpm
I had to slow a bit on the 3rd repeat because I thought I was going to barf up my energy bar, and on the 4th repeat I guess I just got gassed. Strava says I set a mile PR. Hooray I guess.

Friday I had planned to run and didn’t and that was fine. Saturday I did a trail run and bonked like 3 miles in, thanks to some bad timing. I had a gel and felt better but it was still not the best run.

Sunday I ran the Lakewalk from Brighton Beach to Canal Park, which was one of my goals for the season. I didn’t really want to run 14 miles, so I wasn’t sure what to do, then had an epiphany, I could ask my husband to pick me up at the Rose Garden and drive me back to my car. I try hard not to ask him to do stuff like that too often, but the Rose Garden is fairly close to my house (not close enough to run! and all uphill), so it wasn’t a huge burden for him. The Rose Garden/Leif Erikson park is a Pokestop, which meant it was crawling with people not paying attention. Canal Park was also teeming with tourists. I should have known this, and attempted the run anyway, so it’s my own fault.

I managed to do yoga or some other quick strength training almost every day this past week, so I am going to pat myself on the back. I guess the hip soreness scared me into getting my stretches in. Now it’s time to take it easy with a lot of gentle running leading up to the race on Saturday.