After a six week layoff from running post DC marathon to let my foot heal and then a slow and careful buildup of my long run since then I finally made it to double digit miles on my long run again. I ran the mary on 3/20 and it took me till 6/6 to get back in business. Considering I had six weeks of no running I'm pleased it only took me 5 weeks to build back up to double digits.
After another long workday yesterday getting me in bed around 11pm I was back up early this morning to turn the rig on and then had planned to go run outdoors. However the 90% chance of showers, severe thunderstorms, and a tornado warning changed my mind so I headed for the treadmill in the hotel's gym.
Now here's a little sidebars about hotel gyms. Many of them are pretty awful. A high percentage of them (no matter how nice the hotel) have older busted up cardio gear. Many of them have no windows, set the thermostats way too high for a workout space, have no fresh air, and are pretty damn depressing in general. They like to use uplifting paint colors like dark brown or grey. This particular gym is no different. Its all dark beige. The carpet looks about twenty years old and is covered in stains. It doesn't smell very good in there. This is kind of the way things are in hotel gyms. There are exceptions and I've worked out in some gorgeous facilities in all the years of my travel. But this one is particularly bad. In fact its so bad that they have vouchers at the front desk for free day passes to another gym thats about 8 blocks away. This morning however I was tight on time and with the bad weather figured I'd brave the hotel gym. I also try and look at these awful gyms this way.... they are mental training. If I can block out all the depressing distractions and focus on my training it just makes me stronger. I have friends I travel with on the road who get all uptight about bad hotel gyms and just choose to not workout and complain about the gyms. Me... I HTFU and get my workout in.
So... I stepped on the treadmill this morning with the plan to do ten miles. I wanted to finally get my long run up to double digits. My previous long run being an 8 miler the week prior. So... I proceeded to get going on my way and started running. My original plan being to take it easy and run 9's the whole time and just enjoy a long slow run. But being on the human hamster wheel made me want to get it over with quicker and I felt strong so I slowly goosed the pace up to 8'30s. That lasted for a mile or two and then I bumped it up to 8's. That lasted till mile 6 and then I started boosting it slowly from there. Eventually I ended up running 7's toward the end for the last couple of miles and I ended up with an average of running 7'57s for the entire run. I'm really happy to say that I felt so strong at ten miles that I decided to go for 11. I did this mostly as I really want to get my long run to 13 miles and then leave it there until I start marathon traiing again. That will get me used the HIM distance and make it seem like an easy regular occurence and it also means that it will make for an easy transition back into marathon training much later in the year. So I wanted to run 11 so that next weeked it would only be a two mile bump to 13. So next weekend (when I'll be in lovely Seattle / San Juan Island) I'll have a lovely half mary training run. Sweet!
So a great day today! I'm really pleased with the 11 miler. My legs feel a little sore from the hard brick yesterday and the long run this morning but I feel good and they feel like they should. So I'm really pleased. Another solid week of training.
Next up....
figuring out what my workout schedule is going to be next week with all the travel and trying to get some OWS and swim training in with my coach next week too and losing a day to travel next week. I also need to start looking for some good biking / running routes for my two days in Seattle before I head out to San Juan Island next week.
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