Training Log August 6th - 12th, 2007

Monday - 6.8
Super humid day, it was insane. I was rested and tolerated the humidity okay.

Tuesday - 4
Matt Pilates with 4 miles of running afterwards. Humidity continues to be pretty brutal.

Wednesday - 6.8
Not feeling so great. Running is sluggish

Thursday - 4.5
Warm up, 6 x (1' pickup with 2' recovery jog), cool down. Each pickup felt forced and uncomfortable. By the time I went to bed my tailbone/lower back was so tight I could barely bend over. I suspect a new exercise I did in my pilates session strained something.

Friday - 5
Back a little better but I can feel it down hills and around turns. Tightness centered on my tailbone.

Saturday - Back better after warming up. Busy day packing for stay downtown for the race AND packing for next week's family vacation which will start promptly after the race is over. I feel distracted and out of sorts :-(

Sunday - 14.1 miles
Warm up and strides, Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon - 1:25:41. 11th Overall and 3rd in 40 - 44 AG. Warm and humid but not as beastly as it had been most of the week. Thank God! I ran with the 1:25 pace group until 11 miles when I had to let them go as I was struggling with the pace, in a matter of seconds they were too far ahead to ever hope to catch up with them again, definitely disappointing but I put my attention to trying to keep it together the best I could and get to that finish line. my 13th mile was poor but I was able to sprint and finish faster than last year and weather conditions this year were definitely not as good as last year. Things were definitely difficult after the 10 mile. When I ran the half in March it was the same thing, althouth it was at a much slower pace as I finished that in 1:31:02. The 10 mile mark seems to be a sort of a threshold for me. Hmmmm, I'm going to have to think on what to do about that. Of special note is my 10 mile split of 1:04:50 which is faster than I ran at the Fox Trot Memorial race in 1:05:12.
Splits: 1 - 6:34; 2- 6:28, 3 - 6:25; 4 - 6:20; 5 - 6:25; 6 - 6:32; 7 - 6:29; 8 - 6:36; 9 - 6:24; 10 - 6:33; 11/12 - 13:09; 13 - 6:56; 13.1 - :44.

Weekly Summary
Total Miles: 44.9
Just a weird week. The taper felt crappy and I had a lot of trouble keeping focused all week. Work issues and the hectic schedule of getting ready for our vacation didn't help. I think I'm just due for a really good break and that's just what I'm going to do with my family. Next week will be what I like to call "active rest". Run if and when I feel like it. Sunday's race was good but still felt short of what I had really hoped for which was to slip in under 1:25.