Started the week at 200 miles for the month of January, and hopeful of getting close to my all-time monthly high of 266 miles. With a 25k race lined up for Saturday 30th and another long run opportunity on Sunday 31st, I felt pretty confident I’d get there. Here’s how the week went:
Monday: Nice gentle eight mile recovery run that took about one hour. I’m trying to get my feet used to a fairly new pair of Adidas Supernova Glide, but they felt clunky and very stiff. Wondering if brand name shoes purchased at Outlet Malls (in this case the Adidas Outlet Mall in Williamsburg, VA) would be any different to the same model shoe that specialty running stores carry? Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Tuesday: Runervals Up, Up & Up Hill Climber DVD — here we go again. Not getting any easier and I struggled a bit with the 10, 11 and 12% at the end. Still a great workout though, and I’m hoping all this quad burn will pay dividends at the HAT Run 50k on March 20th.
Wednesday: News starting to break about a possible/probably snow storm heading our way for the weekend, so decided to go semi-long in the hope of banking a few extra miles. So, my planned ten miler turned into a thirteen miler but it actually went very well. Legs were initially a bit tired from Tuesday’s hill workout, but thankfully they soon warmed up to the task.
Splits: 8:00 7:20 7:22 7:22 7:18 7:12 7:18 7:07 7:04 7:00 6:54 6:44 6:30
Nice to have temps in high 30s with little to no wind. Perfect for a shorts, long sleeve & gloves run.
Thursday: Just an easy eight miles. Not a very exciting treadmill run, but always good to watch some old Tour de France classics on DVD.
Friday: Started the day with a hurried five miles before work. It was very cold and windy out, so nice to get back inside to warm up. Highlight of the day, however, was probably picking up my new Brooks Green Silence from Running Etc.
This brand new model from Brooks is unique in that each and every part of the shoe has a sustainable element, including soy-based inks and recycled materials. The color may not be green, but you’ll definitely make an eco-statement with the Brooks Green Silence racing flat! At just under 7 ounces for my men’s size 9.5, it should be pretty speedy too.
As you can imagine, I couldn’t wait to finish work to try out the Green Silence, and managed to sneak in a quick four miles before darkness set in.
Splits: 6:42, 6:32, 6:31, 6:06
Initial impressions are great. The shoe is light, springy and responsive and feels a lot like a minimalistic Brooks Launch (another favorite of mine). The off center lacing is a bit funky, but I didn’t have any issues with keeping them snug. Looking forward to seeing how these work out for me.
Saturday: Well, the predicted snow storm arrived and the 25k Distance Series race was cancelled. Good call by the race director — it would have been virtually impossible to get to Fort Story, let alone run 25k on the roads now covered by 6-9 inches of snow. I did, however, venture out for a few miles and slogged through five of them for about 43 minutes. Not used to this type of running though and it was a bit of a struggle and a lot of work for the quads and hamstrings.
It was a good opportunity to try out a test pair of La Sportiva Wildcat GTX Trail Shoes though. To be honest, I’d worn these on a few muddy trail runs in the past and hadn’t been that impressed with the feel — quite bulky, stiff and heavy and not my type of shoe at all. Of course, the shoe is designed for far more rigorous terrain than you’ll find in Virginia Beach, so my opinions are probably not 100% fair to La Sportiva. However, today in the snow, the shoe performed like a champ — the traction was great and thanks to the excellent Gore-Tex membrane, my feet stayed totally dry and warm! Maybe I could get to like these after all?
Sunday: Decided to take a day off. It snowed a bit more overnight and although I *could* have gone out to run, I figured a rest day would probably do me more good in the long term. A rare wise decision by the bulldog, eh?
So, I closed out January with 252 miles and about 51 for the week. Not a bad effort, and the best thing is my legs feel fresh and ready to take on another month.
Happy Miles!
