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Training week 1 in review July 20 - 26th


Well I completed week 1 of my 58 week training schedule today. This was plain and simply a painful week. My whole goal was to get 50 Km under my belt at a very slow pace, and that is exactly what I accomplished. What made this painful was the fact that the end of June and most of July were devoid of any physical activity. During this period of time I ate unhealthy and came down with a terrible cough. So this entire week was ran while I was sick. It definitely had a negative effect on my week but because I am not too concerned about anything but distance at this point in my training schedule it wasn't a big deal.

Highlights

Some highlights included consistent improvements in my split times each day. This is the great part about the early stages of training is that improvement comes easily. Later on small improvements are hard won.

I improved my diet, and switched closer to my 90% veg diet again.

Last night's 15Km run in the rain was definitely a highlight. The entire sky was ablaze from the sunset, it was pouring rain, lightning was streaking across the entire sky, and there was a double rainbow all at the same time. The sky was just riddled with drama. Great run.

I ran my first loop of the chip trail ever while pushing both my kids in the double wide stroller, and ran with Vye for the first time ever. I thought that I did really well considering I was pushing a 3.5 and a 2 year old over a trail and through deep gravel. This lap did effect my average pace for the week but I am not concerned because I am only worried about distance and time on my feet at the moment, speed will come later this year and early next.

I feel I was less grumpy, was more ambitious, and I accomplished more this week than the past weeks when I didn't run.

Some Weekly Stats

Weekly Distance: 51.4 Km (32 miles)
Total Run Time: 4:36:50
Weekly Calorie Burn (running only): 3409 (35oo = 1 lb of fat)
Average Pace: a slow 5:22 mins per Km or 8:29 mins per mile

Challenges

Any time I exceed 15 Km runs my right hamstring flares up. I have a chronic tear and I need to sort that out before the big dance. I really need some massage therapy to help relieve the trigger spots but it is pricey so I will probably just sit on a tennis ball and roll around a bit.

Coughing my lungs out.

Getting used to early morning runs.

Today's run, I was low on fluids and carbs and was getting used to running 5 or more days a week again.

Next Week's Goals

Simply to add 5 Km to the weekly distance (55 Km total). I am really going to increase my mileage slow this fall.

Shave a few seconds off each of my splits.

Kick this cough.

Stretch.

Conclusion

Well I am very happy with this week and though I have a dauntingly ginormous elephant to eat, I can now say I took my first bite and I look forward to my next. I love training because it allows me to have an outlet for my obsessive compulsive disorder to run its course. I have a crazy training log with 30 columns of data and I am able to compare and obsess over every detail of my training regime. I am able to compare my times with climatic conditions, food, fluid intake, sleep and dozens of other variables, and search for subtle patterns and go crazy with the details. I don't know that OCD is a disorder, on the contrary, I think it is a blessing.

I worked my core three separate times this week and I enjoyed the improvements. I hope to run better as my core is improved. I currently weigh 141.2 lbs and hope to gain some weight this month since I will really struggle to keep my weight healthy come fall. The extra pounds are needed at this point in the game just to get me through my training runs.

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