Thursday Tempo and a Long Sunday Run

I just haven't been myself this past week. I took Tuesday and Wednesday off, did pretty well on Thursday night's tempo run, clipped out on Friday and Saturday, and did a long run today.

I'm hoping to come back to my normally scheduled program, and refocus on my meal plan this week. I've been a bit ... emotionally off, which brought me to discover the joys of red wine and beers of the stout variety, particularly something called a Milk Stout. Oh baby, one bottle of a Milk Stout, followed by one bottle of a Chocolate Stout ... cap the WHOLE thing off with some ice cream ... and it's a nice mixing of maltose and lactose induced happiness.

This week begins a new week. One without alcohol until Friday night, no cheating on the meal plan, and no angsting or emo-ing whatsoever ... until Friday night. It will be totally okay if the Milk Stout releases a little bit of those things, but that won't happen until Friday.

So anyway, here's the deal on this past Thursday.


It was a tough run, and I was surprised to see my heart rate at such a low point even though it felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. I did notice a little bit of difficulty breathing with this tempo run, which may be the reason why I felt so fatigued despite what the heart rate monitor said. I've been wheezing a little as I progressed into the run, and it was much more pronounced as I was closing in on the final two miles. I'm hoping that this condition will just go away on its own. It never happens when I'm cruising along at 80% of my max or lower.

Today's run was long, hot and slow. The majority of it was spent on a gravel muddy trail, which made it incredibly difficult to find speed. You can pretty much tell when I found paved surfaces from the heart rate graph below.

That complete plummet around mile 11 was when I found a water fountain and hosed off my face after slurping down a gallon of water. I noticed when I trotted off after the fountain that my back was in a bit of an uncomfortable state as I progressed. I think I was bent over in that awkward drinking fountain position.

Interestingly, today's 14 mile loop burned less calories than last week's 13 miler. Go figure. This coming Sunday is gonna be a 16 mile day. It definitely won't happen on a treadmill, and I REALLY don't want to go on the trail again. Maybe I'll get up extraordinarily early on Sunday, and just run a stretch of road somewhere before the cars show up. After all, isn't that what real runners do?