Labor Day Weekend Training Review

It's now Sunday night, and with the bulk of my Labor Day weekend behind me (sadly), I thought I'd review how the main part of the training went. I still have a 4 miler scheduled for tomorrow, but that shouldn't be a problem. My real test was Saturday's 10 miler. So, how it go?

Thursday's 5 miler was uneventful. The weather was pretty cool, although not as cool as Friday and Saturday turned out to be. But still, much more comfortable than the usual Baltimore late summer weather of the Three H's: hazy, hot, and humid. My only slight concern was that I felt a little tenderness on my right shin, which I was worried might be the beginning of shin splints.

Friday's 3 very easy miles also went fine and my shin felt fine, which was a relief. I've been running in new shoes for the last week or so, and I think that will end up helping a lot, as my old shoes had many hundreds of miles on them and were several years old. The short run was perfect to keep my legs from feeling too stiff on Saturday, while also not over-taxing them before the long run. 

Saturday was the real test of the weekend. First time I have tried to hit double digit miles, even if it is under LSD run conditions. But it was a highly successful run and I'm very happy with how it went. I actually started the run at Ft. McHenry, which meant driving to the park and doing an out and back route. But I wanted to vary up my routes a bit so the runs don't get boring.
The route I laid out went from the fort, through Federal Hill over to M&T Bank Stadium and up past Camden Yards, along the harbor and then down to Federal Hill Park before turning around and backtracking. 

The weather was great; low humidity and somewhat cloudy; temps in the low 70's. I started out slow, with the goal of taking it easy for the first half of the run to ensure I didn't flame out on my way back to the fort. That worked really well, as I got to the stadiums and felt great. I had to dodge a ton of people once up there, though, as I had forgotten that it was Baltimore Comic Con AND the Orioles were playing the Yankees this weekend. I normally do all my long runs in the morning, when nobody is out, but this time, due to my wife's schedule, I had to wait until the afternoon. So, it took me a bit of weaving and stopping and starting to make it down to Federal Hill Park. But I felt really good when I got there and ate an energy gel. 

I changed my route a bit going back to avoid the crowded Inner Harbor, but basically picked up my original route when I got to M&T Bank Stadium and then followed my plan back to the fort. And I still felt pretty good as I got back onto Fort Avenue. My legs really started to feel tired and then sore around mile 8 or 9 and once I got back to the fort for the final trip around the perimeter back to my car, my legs definitely felt sore. 

But I made it, in about 90 minutes, which was fine for my first long run of 10 miles. I was wiped out the rest of the evening, but woke up this morning feeling OK. My legs didn't feel too tired, which was a good sign. 

But today's short 3 mile run was a tale of two halves, really, and I think I was more tired than I felt earlier in the day. The first 1.5 miles of the run was tough. I felt sluggish, my legs felt weary, and my breathing was labored. But then things improved and the second half, while still uncomfortable, at least felt less awful and I made it just fine. Still, I could tell my body was tired from running four consecutive days. 

So, I still think I will be OK to do the easy 4 miles tomorrow morning, given that 3 miles today wasn't super taxing. I'll see how I feel, but Tuesday will be a total rest day regardless, so that should give my legs some time to recover. Then it's a couple runs before next Sunday's Run to Remember 11k that goes along a similar course to what I ran on Saturday.