Looks like July snuck up on us rather quickly – halfway through the year already! Here’s what my training week looked like:
- Monday – short morning stroll to start the week with an easy 4 miles later in the day to keep things ticking over. Heart rate nice and low. Feeling good!
- Tuesday – another short run, but this time the heart rate was a bit lower. Amazing the difference a few degrees can make. Lunch time I had a small window of opportunity to try out my new RC5000s by New Balance – a feather light racing flat weighing in at just 3.3oz (men’s size 9.5). I only managed six tenth-of-a-mile striders sandwiched between a short warm up/cool down, but the shoe felt fantastic. Can’t wait to log a few speed workouts and races in them later this month.
- Wednesday – July 4th and a rare mid-week 5K race. Ran surprisingly fast for the first couple of miles, but then a combination of the humidity and slightly less than fresh legs from the 50 Miler kicked in, and I struggled to keep the early pace going. Still happy with the 17:44 finish time and 1st Place Masters though.
- Thursday – nice easy 6 miler before work.
- Friday – too busy at work to snag my usual Friday stroll to Starbucks. Settled for a morning walk with Morgan and a post-work 8 miler instead. The 8 miler went well – started off nice and easy but ended at quite a good clip.
- Saturday – what a scorcher! Ran 13 miles in the swampy conditions. Plodded along for the first 6.5 miles, but then kicked it up a notch to finish strong and fast. Out in 50:30, back in 44:30. Nice confidence booster.
- Sunday – rounded off the week with another 8 miler and once again finished faster than I started. First sub-7:00 training run for a while too.
Legs are feeling refreshed after the 50+ mile recovery week. Plans for the rest of the month are to keep things nice and easy, with a goal of stepping things up late July/early August. I’m enjoying my running at the moment and am still motivated to perform at a decent level later this year. Exciting stuff!