This was a pretty good step back week.  For the most part the temperatures were great although the humidity tried to ruin that whenever it could. A good week was topped off by a good weekend of camping and hiking around to celebrate my 27th birthday!!

Monday:Four comfortable miles. It was a little hard to run comfortably with 80% humidity but I managed to run 4 easy miles in the 70 degree temps. I tried out a new loop downtown running to Nicollet and making a square through the middle of downtown.  I probably won’t do it again because I had to stop at a lot of intersections which really broke up the run (good and bad!) I did the 4 miles in 30:49 threw in a couple of accelerations and completed Week 3 Day 1 of the hundred push-up challenge (completing a total of 64 push-ups), and other core work.

Tuesday:7-9 miles. Met the training class at the Edina Community Center again (for the last time) for a 9 mile run.  We had a good run and I felt pretty good throughout. It was to be a conversational run and we had discussions during the early parts as to what a conversation actually meant! We did 3 loops around Bredesen Park; 2 on the inside and one on the paved outer loop.  Our leader got us a little lost on the first loop! Our overall run was 9.75 miles in  1:12:17 which is 7:24 pace.  Our fastest mile was a 7:08 and our slowest was a 7:54 (1st mile).  Overall it felt like a very solid run with a lot of pace variation throughout.

Wednesday:Four comfortable miles. I ran in the evening again and didn’t really like it! It was 83 without any real humidity so it should have been fine, but I felt tired and sluggish.  I was a little impressed to see that I ran 29:07 for 3.75 miles which is around 7:40 pace.  Most definitely a little tired! A total of 72 painful pushups for Week 3 Day 2.  I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it through.

Thursday:Rest Day! It was a nice day of rest!

Friday:8 mile run. This was a very wet run so I was quite glad when it started raining.  It was about 70 degrees at the start but 98% humidity – so it could have rained pretty much at any point.  I ran toward downtown – across the Stone Arch Bridge – around Hennepin and Boon Islands across the Plymouth Bridge and back home for a nice 8.75 mile run! I did this easy run in 1:12:57. It spit a few rain drops while on Boon Island but didn’t start raining until I was on the West River Parkway heading home!  This is a very scenic run. 82 pushups on Day 3 of Week 3!

Saturday: 10-12 miles. After the run Friday morning we packed the car and headed to the Minnesota North Shore and went camping at the Finland State Forest Campground. I almost didn’t run but decided I really couldn’t miss the opportunity to run on some very scenic trails.  I decided to run on the Superior Hiking Trail, north from Lake County Rd 1. I had to power walk within the first mile as I hit some steep inclines! The trail was quite rugged, as to be expected, with a lot of rocks and tree roots, so even the downhills where quite hard and dangerous. It was worth every second of the 1:20:25 run and every inch 1,500 elevation gain over 4 major “summits”. Talk about some amazing vistas!  They made it worth the effort for the ~7 mile run. It was cool up there as well – not sure an actual temp, but I started in long sleeves and got cold even while sweating.  The air off Lake Superior has a nice cold tinge to it.  After the run I waded into the Baptism River at Lake Superior for a nice ice bath!

Sunday:Cross training. Lots of hiking and exploring waterfalls for my birthday!!

Weekly Mileage:

Running –  33.3 miles

Hiking -15 miles

Hal’s Tip of the Week: To improve your ability to concentrate, visualize your race during workouts, particularly during marathon pace runs. “Put yourself into an emotional marathon mode,” says Bob Williams, a coach from Portland. Oregon. “Picture different parts of the course.” One workout, practice cruising miles 8-12; the next, rehearse miles 12-14. If you’re running a hometown marathon, run specific portions of the course during practice for familiarization. If it’s an out-of-town course, and you’ve run it before, replay the memory. Running Boston: Is there a hill similar to Heartbreak Hill near where you live? “Training on terrain similar to that on which you plan to race is essential,” emphasizes Williams.

Week 8

[tags] Marathon Training, Hal Higdon [/tags]