Surprise! I am behind on posting again. Before we get into July, I have the last couple weeks of June training to recap. I’ll “try” to be concise. In my last post, I left off after three weekends of long runs, each one longer than the last. I was definitely ready for a little break! I had my usual short midweek runs planned and five miles on the weekend. I build these easier weeks into my schedule for an opportunity to recover from the previous long runs. And I definitely felt the need for recovery. My left hamstring had been sore all week after my 10-mile run on Saturday. I don’t remember if I was too sore to run or just too lazy to get out of bed, but I missed my first two mile run on Thursday.
My hamstring was finally feeling better when I went out on Friday, but then my hip flexor felt sore as I started to run. This could be prevented if I actually did strength training and all the other things I should be doing outside of running. Luckily, my hip loosened up and felt fine by the end of that slow on purpose two mile run. There was nothing special about this run except for a stunning sunrise!
My friend Candace had asked what my weekend running plans were on Thursday. I had five miles scheduled. She had seven. At that point, I had no interest in doing an extra two! But since I missed a run, I decided to just do it! And I got to run somewhere new for the first time. We ran from the neighborhoods south of my house to Flamingo Crossing and back. We even saw some Disney College Program participants doing the walk of shame early in the morning going from one of their housing complexes to the other! 😂 Running with Candace in a new location made what would have been a very boring run much more interesting. It also made the time go faster so no complaints!
Sadly, the recovery week was over and it was time to start three more weeks of building mileage, while the heat was also increasing. I actually did what I was supposed to do in the last week of June with three miles Thursday and two on Friday. I could definitely feel the heat and humidity. My wife was shocked that I only ran two miles when she saw how sweaty I was Friday morning.
Then came the big one. The first of three big ones! Eleven miles on Saturday, twelve the next week and fourteen after that! Despite the higher mileage, I was actually excited for these runs. They felt long enough to warrant driving to more scenic destinations rather than running in the neighborhoods near my house. The area I live in is beautiful, but I always appreciate a change of scenery. I was completely wiped out after my 10-miler two weeks earlier so I really wanted this 11-miler to go better. I debated slowing it down by changing my walking intervals from 45 seconds to 60 seconds, but for some reason I just wanted to give 30(run)/45(walk) intervals another shot.
The decision seemed be a good one! I started this run near downtown Winter Garden and headed north on what I consider the most scenic section of the West Orange Trail. This is a paved rail trail that I have been running on for years and I love it! Unfortunately, I couldn’t actually enjoy the scenery for the first few miles since it was too dark to see anything when I started at 5:10am!!
Everything was going well. My legs felt good. My heart rate wasn’t too high. And I was keeping a good pace! My main priority for the first part of the run was to get to my turn around point before the sun became a problem. I felt very accomplished getting to that 5.5 miles mark well before 7am! At that pointed I started to make my way back to the south and west and never had the sun in my eyes! Plus, I could now enjoy the views along the trail and its beautiful canopy of trees. Trees = Shade!!
I did slow down a little in the back half of the run, but still felt good. I was able to maintain my 30/45 intervals all the way to the end, including on the giant hill that I knew was coming in the last mile. I usually walk up that hill, but not this time! It was definitely hot and I was tired after eleven miles. Overall I felt I felt great though and was thrilled with how well this went compared to the ten miler just two weeks earlier! It turns out this one was almost 25 seconds slower per mile, so that’s probably why it felt better. I was actually surprised how fast the previous run was when I looked back on it, but that didn’t takeaway from the sense of accomplishment from this one.
I had hoped to cover my next two long runs in this post, but failed at being concise as usual! That means, you’ll just have to come back for the next post to find out how twelve miles of hills and my first super long run went! I’ll wrap this one up with a photo of my final run in June. A rare Tuesday morning run around the neighborhood. 56 miles completed in June, up from 44 in May! We’ll see how far July takes me!
Until next time, please let me know if you liked this post by commenting below or on social media!
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