Playing catch up!

Somehow I thought that during going home, packing, driving back out to STL, and unpacking, I would have time to journal/blog. Um yeah no. So now we gotta get caught up. The past four days haven't exactly gone according to plan. But I don't find myself extremely dissatisfied with that which is nice. Here are the workouts by day:

7/9 Thursday:

• Had a run planned, but ended up not taking it because I was busy all day with packing and family. I did spend some time playing basketball with Coen though and hanging out on the playground and chasing people slash getting chased at the riverfront in the evening, so it wasn't necessarily an inactive day, which was nice. 
• Decided that the flexibility was good to have. We got home late in the evening, so I axed the morning swim because I was feeling honestly pretty beat up and the reality is that my overall health trumps my fitness pursuits any day. 
• I also decided that I should quantify the entire "I'm doing what I should be doing X% of the time" thing. I think if you're doing what you should be doing 80% of the time, you're in an okay place. I would rather be up around a 90% hit rate than an 80% hit rate, but I won't beat myself up over 80%. Lower than that and I think it'll be an indicator to me that I need to kick myself in the butt a bit to get moving. So I thought I would start recording these numbers both by month and overall.
• Hit rate: 3/4 (75%)

7/10 Friday:

• Today's Workout: 
• AM Swim - base work
• PM Run - 10-15k, build by halves/thirds, pace doesn't have to be aggressive but does have to be controlled.
• Summary: Skipped the AM swim, replaced with a run. 8.42 mi, 1:18:34, 9:20 pace. 
• Pace splits by mile: 9:49, 9:31, 9:36, 9:16, 9:16, 9:13, 9:06, 9:06, 8:42.
• Hit rate: 4/6 (66.7%)
• The pacing was bang on, I was really happy with the quality of this effort. I was pretty tired towards the end but not completely destroyed, which was also good. One of the longer run efforts I've had recently, without it edging into pure long run (slowly slowly) territory. Good job Jess!

7/11 Saturday: Took the day off, as planned, to drive back to STL.

7/12 Sunday:

• Today's Workout: 6+ mi base run
• Summary: 3.55 mi, 35:16, 9:56 pace. Ran w/ Henry, so distance/pace brought down. Treated it as more of a recovery run than a base run.
• Pace splits by mile: 9:47, 9:39, 10:15, 10:10.
• Hit rate: 5/7 (71.4%)
• Henry hasn't gone running in a while, it was hot, I don't blame him for this. Less of a real workout for me, but at least I got out and sweat. I thought about including a quality measure for hit rate, but decided against it because if I wanted to discredit weaker workouts (where I miss the target distance or pace or whatever), I would also have to give extra credit to stronger workouts (where I do better than the target distance/pace/etc.), and I really don't want to encourage deviation from the goals of my scheduled workouts that way. Some days are going to be unintentionally lighter (as we'll see for the Monday log) but I want to be satisfied with the effort so long as I'm out there and "showing up". 

7/13 Monday:

• Today's Workout: Long run, 8-10+ mi, easy pace (key session).
• Summary: 6.95 mi, 1:11:20, 10:16 pace.
• Pace splits by mile: 10:10, 10:14, 10:16, 10:14, 10:03, 10:16, 10:39.
• Hit rate: 6/8 (75%)
• It was 84 degrees and sunny, the heat was really rough. I was happy with how steady the pace was though, until the last little bit, when it feels like my body gave out completely. I was suffering way harder than I was expecting to and turned in for home early, didn't hit the target distance which was disappointing. I think a lot of it is just my brain holding things back in the heat, because the recovery was quick enough that I don't think the limiting factor was fitness today. Really just need to build up more heat tolerance and more mental composure and ability to endure.
• Also it's worth noting that I went to bed late on Sunday (had some wine and heart to heart time w/ Henry) and woke up early to return the Uhaul. I took a three hour nap in the afternoon because I felt pretty blown out. Probably a combination of already being tired and workout exertion. 

So now it's Tuesday! I have to bring that hit rate up so I need to make sure I get a run in this evening. The plan is a negative split 10k effort, I will probably actually split this up by thirds (easy workouts 9:30-10:00, building 9:00-9:30, threshold < 9:00). Really hoping there's time to get it done and still get in a solid night's sleep. AM swim planned for tomorrow, so the ZZZ's will be needed. That's all for the catch up post!

Much love,

Jess

Back in the saddle

Sort of. First run in St. Louis! Although I would like it to be noted that yesterday should count as a physically active day. Henry and I went to visit the Arch (okay not so active) and then spent about 1.5-2 hours climbing around the City Museum (which was very active). 'Twas fun (for me at least, Henry seemed to enjoy trying to fit in too small spaces a lot less than I did...).

Today's workout: Short base run.
Summary: 3.86 mi, 36:50/36:56 total time, 9:33/9:34 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:01, 9:45, 9:40, 9:50.

The goal was actually to hit 4 miles, but I stopped at the light on Kingshighway and just couldn't get going again. According to Garmin, the temp was 84 F, which doesn't sound outrageous to some people but is absolutely insane for me. And I know it gets way hotter here during the summer. So I'm doing my best to adjust. Will probably be taking my runs short and slow for the time being to give my body a chance to get used to the heat.

I think the shift in climate/conditions is important for me though. I always say that there's no room for ego in training. You have to work at a level that your body is actually capable of in order to maximize your returns on training hours. It's a mentality that I first learned from coaches in the gym, but in reality extends to any kind of training that you do. The heat is the sort of challenge that really forces me to address this issue of ego. Usually, if you go too hard during a run and die towards the end, the only consequence is that you finish the run slower than you want to. As much as that sucks (and really compromises the gains you make during those workouts), it's not a "real" consequence in a lot of ways. If you don't balance your effort and goal-setting properly on a run in the heat though, there's a very real chance that dehydration will get you. The little extra bit of risk in the equation means that I have to be more aware and cognizant of where my body is at and be patient and reasonable when I'm planning and executing my runs. Sometimes that makes me feel like I'm holding back or not working hard enough, but days like today are good reminders that control and awareness are skills that I need to learn and manage in order to be successful both in training and racing.

Speaking of which, I read an interesting article on Triathlete.com today about negative splitting the bike leg, and the author made a point of saying that if you don't feel like you went hard enough on the first half of the bike leg, you have the entire run leg to fix that, but if you go out too hard, you'll spend the entire run leg paying the price. I think I have to learn a bit of this mentality. I have a lot of fear and lack of confidence in my ability to bring races back strong so I err towards going too hard in the opening miles, but time and time again I've shown that I do my best training and racing when I ease into the harder efforts and build over the course of the first half before really firing up all the cylinders. Today was not a good day on that front: I took it out way too aggressively and paid for it trying to get back up the hills towards home.

All in all, there's a lot to be learned from this heat. I'm only really going to get the chance to run tomorrow and Wednesday and then it's back to Canada and a hectic/erratic schedule, so I'm going to try to take advantage. The goal will be 4.5 controlled and slow miles tomorrow. Hopefully building up to 5 miles by Wednesday. But we'll see how everything plays out. There's supposed to be quite a bit of rain coming our way, so the plans may not hold out the way I want them. Fingers crossed!

Much love,
Jess