Today a 12 mile easy run was on the schedule.

It has been a while since I did 12 miles and with my hip still acting up I was looking to make the run a comfortable and soft as possible. So what better than to take to the old trail route in Mercer County Park.

Having to run a bit on tarmac I didn’t take my Salomon Speed Cross that I normally use for trail running but maybe I should have as I tripped over a rut halfway in on the trail. Maybe it was the trail gods telling me something.

Best trail shoe ever!

Run was exactly on spot doing 5:28/km:

The wife had to go training today at Gold’s Gym, so I packed my things and went for a quiet 5 mile easy run. Man its boring to be on treadmill.

Only good thing is that the cool air and low humidity kept my at a 143bmp average which was quite nice for a change. Oh: And the treadmill is easy on my bad hip!

Amount of miles for this week 30.44!

Today’s run was plagued by bad timing. I should have gone out for my run early but work kept me home until 3pm.

As always during the mid afternoon it was around 90 degrees and today also had a totally hysterically high humidity that I really struggled with. I bought my North Face Enduro Boa Hydration Pack which really is good for long runs in the heat, but I still struggled, being well above my 75% max heart rate that I should keep below on these kinds of trips. I tried to compensate with taking a few breaks in the last kms but it didn’t have the desired effect:

After a few days in Niagara and Ithica I am back in the hood.

Today run was 2 miles at marathon tempo (4:54); 4x1mile intervals at tempo pace (4;33) and then finishing off with 2 mile at marathon tempo.

Looking out the windows did not vouch for an easy run as I could see dark clouds and also hear the thundering not too far away. Thus I decided to find a route that was close to the house in case the rain and lighting decided to come my way.

And sure enough. After my initial 2 miles an 2 of my intervals lightning began to strike a bit to close for comfort and I decided to head for the treadmill in the basement. It was quite an intimidating experience running with lightning striking to more than a few hundred yards away.

The training went ok. My hip is acting up, but my times are still good. intervals were done at 4:25 without problems. Heartrate finished at 183bpm/92% of max.

I didn’t feel like going for a long run today as I still felt my hip being a bit sore, so I changed my schedule so I did my normal Thursday 3 mile run today. I still felt my hip but not as much as the previous days. It is still hard staying at the marathon pace of 4:54 when I just run without looking too much at my Garmin so I ended up 4:46. But I just to keep trying

Niagara is a nice town to in as long as you keep next to the river and waterfalls. The rest of the city is not really worth mentioning.

These are some of the photos I took in Niagara:

My general state starting this week was a bit on the weak side. even though I have had 5-6 weekly sessions since June, it has been a long time since I had 4 running sessions in 5 days. Furthermore my hip is still acting up a bit with some pain. But as it seems to disappear quickly during runs I better continue my training

This week is basically like my week 1 except for the face that I start out Monday with run instead of a bike ride.

Monday:
Mondays are dedicated to my long, easy runs. Starting out this week with 8 miles and ending in November with 20 miles.

I did the run at the towpath where I have spent a lot of time doing longs runs during winter and spring. It was however a long time since I had been there and it was nice to be back. I decided to do the first 4 miles out just next to the towpath and then double back through some of the residential areas that are next to the Carnigie Lake. It is still tough to stay within the 5:13-5:50km pace and I ended up doing 5:06/km. I think using my pulse-belt to keep me going slow enough would be benefical.

Tuesday:
This was supposed to be my rest day, but I felt like going for a bike ride so I went out for a few hours. But I should have stayed home. My legs felt exhausted and my brain was playing tricks on me thinking a lot about overtraining and dropping my marathon etc.

Wednesday:
After my terrible Tuesday I decided that it was time for a much needed rest day.

Thursday:
Back at my favorite run of 5k at marathon pace (4:54k/min) followed by the 4x100m sprints. The 5 k was easy and this time I lowered the rest time between each sprint to 1 minute but I was still 3-4 secs faster pr sprint than last week. I hope this is a continuous trend

Friday:
This was my first time in a long time that I tried to wear my pulse-belt while doing a workout. I tried to stay at no more than 75% of my max pulse since it was considered a 1 hour easy run. I was surprised that calculated pace of 5:10/km didn’t stand a chance. That was way too fast! I ended up doing an average of 5:20/km which I thought was quite slow but considering the heat of 90 degrees this was perhaps okay.

Afterwards I had a closer look at my calculated pace that I calculated at McMilland Running and found out that my easy runs should be around 5:13-5:50/km.

Saturday:
This was the first day of our vacation in upstate New York and since we stayed a few days in the Ithica area this was a nice opportunity to go running along some of the gorges that are in the area. I went for 6.5km run that included around 300 steps both going up and down. Pretty tough run but it was done at an easy pace so I made it through all right.

Sunday:
You know it: Rest day!!!

Så fik jeg sneget mig ud på en 16 km rute som gik over forventing. Jeg havde håbet på 5.00 min pr. km og de første 5 km fik jeg da også rundet med 4:58 min/km uden besvær. De næste 4 km holdt jeg lidt igen så jeg havde noget i tanken til sidst og jeg kom igennen med 4.59 min/km.

Selvom der var liiiidt langt hjem stadig følte jeg mig godt løbende og skruede op for tempoet. De næste 4 km gik godt og jeg kom igennem på 4:52 min/km. Derefter var det bare at give alt hvad jeg havde i mig og se om det holdt hjem. Det gjorde det og de sidste 3 km løb jeg med 4:48 min/km. Gennemsnitstid for turen: 4:55 min/km. God følelse i kroppen og klar til næste træning.

Gennem hele turen prøvede jeg at huske at få noget “mad’ i form af energibar indenbords og selvom maven hoppede lidt på de sidste kilometre så gik det over alt forventning. Nu mangler jeg bare at finde en gel der er til at holde ud og smage på uden at den skal skylles ned med vand. De clif bar shots jeg har, smager decideret af lokum og kan ikke spises uden af blive skyllet efter.