28 March - Sessions 70-76

1940 BST - Long time no write! It has been a busy week! I had a good week in DC at the Navy Yard. Hopefully I was able to drum up some business. I took a stack of about 30 or so business cards and I gave them all away. We'll see what happens.

So Sunday last I did the 20 miler. I wasn't sore at all the following day. I was glad it was a rest day, but I was surprised I wasn't sore. Good news! Back to training on Tuesday. Not much to say about it really, you can look at the Garmin data, links below. Same goes for Wednesday. Tuesday was an easy day, 6 miles @ 65%. Wednesday was quicker 7 miles at 75%. I was up at 0400 both days so I could get my training in and be at the Navy Yard by 0730. I skipped Thursday's interval workout. My week had been pretty busy up to that point, up early (0400 the pervious 2 days!) gone all day and not back at the hotel until 1800 or later. By the time Wednesday evening rolled around, I did not feel like getting up at 0400 again. I figured I could just go when I was done working, even if it was late afternoon/early evening...except I forgot I had made arrangements to go over to a friends house for dinner. I decided that skipping it all together wasn't all bad. after 2 1/2 weeks of this trip, I was pretty tired. And, up to that point I had done a pretty good job sticking to my program. An extra day of rest would be good. I then figured I could do the interval workout on Friday in place of my SnC workout. I had a good SnC session on Wed.

I didn't do a good job of keeping track of time while at my friend's house. I had a good time talking and before I knew it it was 0030! I didn't get back to the hotel and into bed until after 0100. Needless to say I didn't get up to go running. That was ok too as I knew I'd have a long day traveling home and all. My flight left DC at 1700 with a connection in Newark to Heathrow for a 0630 (GMT) arrival. My flight was 3 hours late getting into Newark and I ended up on the 2305 flight to Heathrow arriving at 1015. By the time I got through immigration, baggage claim, etc it was almost 1200. I arrived at home just before 1400. I was pretty wiped out. It was a long journey home after a busy three weeks in the US on both coasts. I had taken 3 extra days off, but I figured that I probably needed it all things considered. It also gave my calf a few extra days rest. That pesky calf is still bothering me.

So my final session of the week was a half marathon at 85%. I was still pretty tired from the trip, but I needed to get back on the wagon! Overall I suppose it was a good run, but I felt it was a less than stellar performance. Even though I was tired, I felt pretty good the first 6 miles or so. I started to get very tired around mile 10 and my stupid calf started bothering me too. When it starts to ache I always wonder if the next step I take will derail my training with a pulled muscle or worse. That didn't happen and it seemed to not be too bad. Usually on runs like this I do two splits: the first and last half. So I could better review my performance, I did another split when I felt myself getting very tired around mile 10. If you look at the data you'll see a significant drop in performance those last 3 miles. That is a trend I have notice the last 3 sessions. If you look at my other runs from earlier in the week, you'll see the second split was much slower than the first. I'm not sure what is going on, but it has me a little concerned. Good thing I still have 9 weeks to go.

It is good to be home. I missed Tanya and the kids and I was very happy to see them. We had a very nice weekend. Interval training tomorrow. I haven't decided if I will get up early or train at lunch time.

Edinburgh Marathon Training Session 71
Edinburgh Marathon Training Session 72
Edinburgh Marathon Training Session 76