Monday: 0
Intentional zero. This will be a light week.
Busy and demanding workday from 7:30am to 5:00pm. After having the past four days off (Veterans Day', Friday vacation day, weekend), it was tough going back to work. Reminded myself that this is my last full work week of the year, as I have Thanksgiving week off, then every Friday off in December, plus 1 1/2 weeks at Christmas. That made it a little easier!
Tuesday: 1 walk, 8 run
AM: CCC at Avondale. After another (and final) session of clearing the road edges, ditches, and stone walls of choking overgrowth of weeds and vines, my shoulder is pretty sore from swinging the bladed weed-whacker. Good thing we're five days out from Philly. No more strenuous work until after Philly.
PM: Traditional post-Rhody final sweep of course. Except I started at sunset with Brady, and we only had about 20 minutes of daylight. Picked up two remaining course signs and just one remaining flag. Even with my headlamp and course familiarity, I went off course (just for a few seconds) twice. I missed the turn at the water stop, and then somehow got off course right around Rhody Rise. Brady had had enough of my shenanigans by then, and mercifully led the rest of the way back to where I had parked at Kings Factory Road trailhead. It was really nice having him ahead of me as he sensed and took every turn in the trail, both natural twists in the trail, as well as trail intersections where he instantly and correctly selected the trail that Vin Gormley continued on.
Wednesday: 7 run, 1 walk
Today's training plan was "Dress Rehearsal", which equates to mimicking what you're planning to in the marathon, including wearing the same planned attire, and running two of the miles at target marathon pace (the rest easy). So I did. Parked just off Shore Road to eliminate hills this close to marathon and reduce mileage from 8 to 7, as I went for an around-the-pond.
Felt pretty good. I've put the work in, and am both excited and nervous about Sunday. Four days to go.
With Jana working tonight, me having a long work day (project implementation going to about 9pm), and Brady in need of some attention, I broke away from the computer just before sunset to take Brady to Avondale for a walk. I needed the distraction, and it was funny watching him chase bunnies. (Fun for me that is; probably not fun for the bunnies.)
Thursday: 5
Easy recovery pace with Brady at Ninigret Park. Followed that up with stopping at John Ward Physical Therapy to thank him in person for sponsoring Li'l Rhody Runaround and catching up with him. When I told him I am running Philly this weekend, he commented that he had run Philly years back as well.
Friday: 5
Solo easy run on the Clamdigger course late afternoon. Chilly breeze. Finished up with 6 x 100 meter strides.
Well, well, check out this e-mail that I received today:
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| Yeah, this probably isn't too helpful. |
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| But scroll down in the e-mail to the English language version: I got in! I threw my name into the lottery last week, and certainly had no expectations, so I'm pretty thrilled about this! (215 applicants did NOT get in.) --- Good thing it's not 'til summer, as I'll obviously have to do some research and planning on this one. Immediately reached out to Adrian Massie, the only person I know who has run this race. |
Saturday: 3
Easy run from the house into Misquamicut and back, before taking the train with Matthew down to Philadelphia. 29°, but with almost no wind, it didn't feel cold.
Sunday: 28 run, 1 walk
Philadelphia Marathon! Separate write-up to follow.
Weekly mileage: 56 run, 3 walk
Weekly synopsis: A rewarding running week, to say the least! I put in the training efforts over the last few months, and I feel I executed exactly to plan on this final taper week. I got my just rewards at the marathon!
Weekly highlight: Returned to my first marathon course (although slightly altered since 2003), and got a new PR at my age!
Weekly lowlight: Certainly nothing directly running related this week! I was going to say learning from the owner that The Bakery, a favorite coffee and scone stop of mine post-runs, would be closed from Thanksgiving until spring. That is, until I saw this FB post:
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| Yes! Count me in! |
So then what? While it doesn't overshadow the great week I had, I was saddened to see multiple incidents of people yelling at each other on the streets of Philadelphia, far away from the marathon, but seemingly imbued into the daily city life.
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