MidSummer Night's 30k Training - Weeks 5, 6, & 7

Well, I HAVE been running quite a bit, but I have not been blogging about it because things have been super busy. It just seems like there is much more to do in the summer and to be honest, by the time the kids are in bed at 8pm, I just want to sit on the couch and watch this guy go yard:

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Week 5

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Treadmill Tempo day! I ran the standard 10 minute warm up with a 5:06/km 20 minute tempo and the rest to round out the run. The tempo felt super easy. Time to run a bit faster! 8k, 45:39.

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday:  A short loop around my neighbourhood just to get my legs a bit tired before the long run on Friday. I was feeling a bit off as my stomach had some gas, and it was hot (I actually ran with water!), but I didn't look at my watch and ran a very decent easy pace: 6.1k, 36:10

Friday: I started the LDS at 0640 and it was already 25c plus humidity. It was hot. I was drenched with sweat within the first kilometre and my stomach was still mildly protesting. I stopped at Starbucks and used the washroom, washed my face and refilled a water bottle. That was about 6km into a planned 24k route. As soon as I started running again, I knew there would be no way I'd be able to finish and remain healthy. I made the decision to cut the run short and started to head for home. This allowed me to drink much more freely then I had been and I also walked whenever I wanted to. If there was a sprinkler, I ran throug it as well. This is my very first ever DNF, but I'm glad I made the decision. I ended up drinking all of my water in the shorter run so there is no way I would have made it through 24k. 14.65k, 1:37:54

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: I wasn't going to let Friday keep me down! With my husband's blessing, I headed out to the Running Room for the group run on Sunday and managed to snag a 19k route from my old clinic coach, Chris. There is no marathon program at the store this summer due to low registration, but luck was on my side having him there with a route. I was also lucky in that my friend Julie was there to run a bit of a shorter distance. We decided to run together for the first bit and headed out nice and easy. It was still a hot day but the humidity wasn't as bad as it had been on Friday. Once I left Julie, I decided to pick up the pace and ran 4 KM at 5:28/km which was very difficult in the heat. I ran through every sprinkler I saw and finished the run happy. 19.25k, 2:03:51

Total KM: 48, Total Time: 5:03:34, Average Pace per KM: 0:06:19

Week 6

Monday: Treadmill recovery run. I headed out to the gym at lunch time and watched Sportscentre while taking it easy. 6k, 37:20

Tuesday: Rest. I played fastball that night.

Wednesday: Neighbourhood loop to get the legs tired before my long run the next morning. I ran easy again, without worrying about pace and enjoyed clearing my mind. 6.1k, 36:44

Thursday: I had to be in the office on Friday for a meeting, so I worked from home on Thursday. This was a scheduled cut back week and I decided to run a Daniel's long tempo run instead of a LDS. 15 minute warm up, 3x6 minute tempo (5:12-5:01-4:53) with 2 minute jogs as recovery. Then 30 minutes of easy running before 2x10 minute tempo (5:05-5:04), 2 min job in between. The rest easy to get home. This was a fantastic run except I was running with my piece of shit blackberry for music and it kept asking me to "say a command." I almost threw the damn thing into the road. 18k, 1:43:19

Friday: I was at work and we were away camping all weekend so in order to maintain my new four run a week schedule, I did another recovery run over lunch on the gym treadmill. 5k, 30:31

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Rest

Total KM: 35.1, Total Time: 3:27:54, Average Pace per KM: 0:05:55

Week 7

Monday: After camping all weekend and a super busy workday on Monday, I was ready to clear my head with a neighbourhood run. While I should have done a tempo run, I decided to forego it and to just run easy instead. My mind cleared and I enjoyed myself. 7k, 40:51

Tuesday: Rest. I played fastball that night.

Wednesday: I hit up the gym treadmill and decided it was time to increase the tempo pace. I ran 10 minute warm up, 24:27 (3 miles) minutes at 5:01/km and the rest to cool down. This felt great! I love getting faster! 8k, 44:03

Thursday: A scramble golf tournament with a cart. I golfed okay for having not set foot on a course in over two years.

Friday: Although I worked from home, I had childcare duty in the morning and had to drop my oldest off at camp. I managed to squeeze in a short run before the work day: 7.5k, 43:48

Saturday:  My in laws were at our house for a weekend visit, so my husband was happy to have me get my long run done in the morning. I started just after 6am on a beautiful, sunny, breezy day and executed a lovely LSD run. I didn't watch my pace too much and ran by feel. I didn't need to walk at all and only took one gel about 12k into the run. 24k, 2:24:30

Total KM: 46.5, Total Time: 4:33:12, Average Pace per KM: 0:05:53

I am really glad I decided to be okay with running only four days a week in the summer. It is making my training plan much more reasonable and enjoyable and I'm not feeling any ill effects of missing a middle distance run. I just hope that I will have strong results to back it up come race time.