Total solar eclipse. This blew my mind.

An eclipse!

Monday 8/21/17: Both Grandma’s birthday AND a total solar eclipse, followed by a 3.5-mile recovery run. On hills. Of course.

Tuesday 8/22/17: Flying back to NY.

Wednesday 8/23/17: Evening tempo stuff: 1 mile warmup, 2 miles around 10:00/mile, minute jog, 1 mile around 9:20/mile, minute jog, 1 mile around 9:15/mile, 1 mile cooldown. Hard work but it felt good.

Thursday 8/24/17: Off because I was too lazy to get up and climb before work.

Friday 8/25/17: Easy 4 miles before work.

Saturday 8/26/17: Off.

Sunday 8/27/17: Serious long run! 18 miles, across the Manhattan Bridge and then up the Hudson River Greenway all the way to Harlem. Slightly slower than planned, but the initial pace felt very sustainable and I picked up the pace to 10:00/mile average for the final 2 miles. Average pace 11:27/mile.

Totals: 32 miles running and that’s all! 6 weeks until the marathon.

Over halfway.

Monday 8/14/17: Off. Tired but not feeling bad from yesterday’s long run.

Tuesday 8/15/17: Easy 3 miles in the morning. First run in my Brooks Revels – so far, so good. Heel dips after the run.

Wednesday 8/16/17: Al Goldstein 5k after work with one mile each of warmup and cooldown. I ran the race in 25:54, which made it my second fastest 5k ever!

Thursday 8/17/17: Morning climbing session! And foam rolling.

Friday 8/18/17: 3 miles before work. I had 5 on my schedule but really wasn’t feeling it, between the humidity (ack!) and a slightly sore right quad/groin. I’m not sure if climbing or the 5k is to blame for the soreness. Evening: flight to Portland for Grandma’s birthday and solar eclipse viewing weekend.

Saturday 8/19/17: Off, hanging out with the family and chasing toddler nephews.

Sunday 8/20/17: 13 mile long run on the hills outside Salem, Oregon. I love running out here. It’s hard; the first four miles of the route were uphill, and the first two on gravel, and I had 1,000+ feet elevation gain over 13 miles. But it’s gorgeous and the air is clean and dry and the views are like nothing else.

Totals: 24 miles running, 1.5 hours climbing.

Wow. Halfway there!

Monday 8/7/17: Easy recovery run after work in the cool rain. 2.5 miles.

Tuesday 8/8/17: Off.

Wednesday 8/9/17: Morning workout: 1 mile warmup, 7×1000 meters (with 45 seconds walking rest in between), 1 mile cooldown. This felt really good. I was supposed to run the 1000s around marathon pace (6:20/km) but my speed kept inching up with each one. I guess I should’ve stuck to the plan but I felt good and strong increasing the pace.

Thursday 8/10/17: Strength work at home (light yoga, myrtls, pushups) after work.

Friday 8/11/17: Morning run: 6 miles, 10:40 avg pace. Bought new shoes after work (Brooks Revel).

Saturday 8/12/17: Off. Possibly the laziest day of my life.

Sunday 8/13/17: The training plan had 12 miles scheduled but I switched it for next week’s 17 miles … and got through 16.2 total. It was rough and hot, and it didn’t help that my watch was spazzing out and not synched up to the GPS right. (So yeah, that 16.2 is a guess.) 11:30-11:45 avg/mile.

Totals: 32 miles running; my bike is sad and gathering dust in the corner.

PopTarts turned out to be a great gel replacement. Awkward to carry, but tasty and they sit well in my stomach.

Week 7! Mileage is inching up!

Monday 7/31/17: I meant to ride 15 miles or so this morning but didn’t get up early enough so … 3.4-mile bike ride. Sigh.

Tuesday 8/1/17: Morning run, significant humidity. 5 miles at 11:00 pace, plus heel dips at end.

Wednesday 8/2/17: Unexpected day off. The evening 5K was canceled due to thunderstorms in the forecast. The storms never happened but it was incredibly humid and I decided to not run at all.

Thursday 8/3/17: Morning run (initially planned for Wednesday evening). 7 miles with the middle miles faster, running by feel. It was nice to realize that even though this was hard, I felt strong through the whole thing. 10:45/mile average.

Friday 8/4/17: I woke up with a slight sore throat so I ran after work instead. 4-mile regular run, faster than it should have been but it was fun. 9:16/mile average.

Saturday 8/5/17: Morning foam rolling! This felt good and I need to focus on doing it more regularly. I got out for a few loops of the park on my bike in the afternoon.

Oh my gosh these waffles.

Sunday 8/6/17: Long run: 15 miles across the Manhattan Bridge then up the west side of Manhattan along the Hudson River. The weather was incredible (high 60s at the start!) and overall this run felt really good. I spaced out and forgot to bring gels, but I stopped by a bodega in Chinatown and bought some PopTarts and they ended up being surprisingly good running fuel. I grew up on the things so I guess my stomach knows how to handle them. I felt some pain in my right foot during the last few miles and it has me thinking it might be time to buy new shoes – I wore my Hokas but they have (*checks Strava*) 321 miles on them. I’ve been alternating between the Hokas and a pair of Brooks Launch 3. I really love the Launch but they don’t have quite enough structure/support to use for long runs regularly. I want to check out the Brooks Revel (okay, because they LOOK COOL) to see if they might be an acceptable replacement for the Hokas. Anyway, good run, faster final mile, 11:08/mile average pace and ate some amazing waffles afterward.

Totals: 31 miles running, 13.5 miles biking, really hoping I have time to climb a little next week.