Another good week. I’m going to go ahead and give myself another A. It was tough convincing myself to run on the 4th of July, as well as both Saturday and Sunday, being that we were staying in eastern Long Island for a wedding. But, I still managed to knock out the mileage. I am really starting to enjoy running again, which is exactly the feeling that I was working so hard to get back. I still have a long way to go pace-wise and trim wise. But, I’m really glad to be enjoying the process again. Also– Helen, thanks for pointing out the oversight. I will make sure to affix the “nerdy stuff” tag this week

Weekly totals:

Count: 6 Activities
Distance: 39.69 mi
Time: 05:19:36 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 1,749 ft
Avg Speed: 7.5 mph
Calories: 5,755 C

On tap for this week:

Well, I did much better this week. In fact, I think that I’m going to give myself an A. I did the proscribed workout every day that I was supposed to this week. Even though I wasn’t able  to hit my target pace again, on Saturday, I blame it partially on the miles that I did on the bike, the previous day. And on Sunday, I (accidentally) threw in an extra mile (in the rain). So, in the effort category, I definitely deserve an A this week. I have to say though, mileage-wise, this training program seems a little too easy compared to the one that I did last year. I guess we will see how it does. If my pace doesn’t start dropping in another couple of weeks, I will switch it up. Here are my running totals from the last week-

Count: 6 Activities
Distance: 36.13 mi
Time: 04:48:56 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 3,158 ft
Avg Speed: 7.5 mph
Calories: 5,217 C

Here are my totals, including biking-

Count: 10 Activities
Distance: 70.39 mi
Time: 07:12:54 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 4,415 ft
Avg Speed: 9.8 mph
Calories: 8,917 C

Two notable experiences this week: On Saturday, while running in Jersey, I saw a huge dead alligator snapping turtle. It was freaky looking. Now I finally believe Reagan’s story about seeing a gator cross the road on the Sprain Parkway. On Sunday my run was in Central Park, it was overcast and light rain for most of my run, until the last 3 miles, which turned into the craziest thunderstorm, ever. It was raining so hard that I couldn’t even hear my feet sloshing on the ground.

Here is what is on tap for this week–

It has been pretty patchy for me, over the last three weeks. But this weekend, I did try to get out and redeem myself, a bit.

I’m really hoping that I can springboard off of this weekend and get back into the saddle. Since I have been such a slacker, I dropped in some extra distance on both Saturday and Sunday. I’m glad to report that even though I was feeling sluggish, overall they were good runs. The only setback I had was running through crazytown. Crazytown is what I like to call a part of the Hudson River path where half of Spanish Harlem congregates to grill and play volleyball on the weekends. Running along the path in that part of the park is like playing frogger, except as a car, not the frog. There was a woman standing next to the path, who looked right at me, and still walked out right in front of me. She was carrying a large bag full of canned food, which smashed my shin open. Thanks, crazy town!

Here is what is on tap for this week–

Grade= F

Milage= nominal

This week, I earn a solid F. I didn’t evaluate last week, but I earned an F then also. I was going to give myself a pass for last week, since I scored my fastest half-marathon time, to date, on Sunday. Alas, I was a total POS this week. I was feeling a little under the weather in the middle of the week, but I had no excuse to miss my long run today. I plan to make up for it, starting tomorrow.

Grade: C+

Total Miles: 55.88

This was a hard week for me. Even though I missed two 6 mile runs. I really had to dig deep for the longer runs. I didn’t really do any tempo work today. So who knows how my pace is doing. I guess I will find out next weekend. We will be running the Philly Half-marathon on the 18th. I’m pretty excited. It has been a few months since I have actually run in a race.  We are going with some of our good friends. It should be a really good time.

Grade= C+

Total Miles= 28.55

Last week’s effort was pretty weak. Although, even if I had run the two additional scheduled workouts, it would have only been an additional 8 miles. This week is a lot more grueling. I have already had a good start. So, I’m hoping for better than C-range for this week.

Grade=A

Total Miles=49.96

Average Pace=7:11 per mile

This was a pretty good week for me running-wise. I was frustrated with my pace on the shorter runs, but I was able to really pick it up on Wednesday and Today. I was able to push out a 7:05 pace today for 16 miles. That is probably the fastest pace that I have ever had for more than 10 miles. I don’t want it to seem like I’m bragging, because believe me, I’m well aware that 7:05 is not some sort of amazing pace, especially when you take into account that there are plenty of people who can do a marathon at better than a 6:00 per mile pace. But I’m just saying, for me, I’m feeling pretty good about this week. Six weeks until the Hartford Marathon and 10 weeks until NYC. Woot!

Grade=A

Total mileage for the week=56.15

I feel like I may have been a bit generous with the grade. Even though I did all of the mileage this week, I haven’t been at my normal pace all week. But, I’m just about to crest the half way mark in my training program, so I feel like I have some time to bring up the speed a bit. Plus the 20+ miles that I did on Saturday was the longest distance I have done this year so far, since I didn’t do a spring marathon this year. Next week is another pretty hard week, then week 12 is a bit of a break. The end.

Alright this evaluation is a day late, and the one below is a week and one day late. But here goes. Last week, I earned and “I,” for “incomplete.” That is nicer than an F, right? Plus, I really was sick, and I went from zero miles for 10 days, straight to a 14 mile run. So, I couldn’t just give myself an F. Total Miles last week=14.27. So, whatev. I’m already on track for a perfect score, this week.

As for the weekend ending on August 7th. I tried to tough it out, at the beginning of the week, even though I was getting sicker as the week progressed. I managed to fire off just shy of 35 miles before making the decision to lay low. But I do feel like a complete dud for missing my 18 mile run that was scheduled for that Saturday. All factors considered, I’m going to score that week with a C+. Definitely not my best, but certainly not the worst.

Here’s to being able to breathe!

This week, I earned an F. I only ran 2 of the 7 runs that were scheduled. It would have been a super easy week, with my longest scheduled run only being 9 miles. Oh well. I guess if I was going to be sick, this was the week to do it. I did step it up a bit today, though by doing close to 10 miles, when the training program only had 2 scheduled.  It was only supposed to be a 7 miles run. Reagan and I ran most of it together. We decided to do some speed work coming back across the bridge. I said that I would wait for her back on the Manhattan side. So I waited for 10 minutes. I knew that she wasn’t 10 minutes behind me. So I started getting really worried that she had been hit by a bike or something and ran back across. I got all of the way to Jersey and figured out that she must have found some sneaky way to elude me after coming back across. So I started my watch again and headed back. She was home waiting for me with Gatorade. Such a sneaky little devil.

The best part about today, is that I felt about 80% better. I should have no problem doing the 10.5 m scheduled for tomorrow morning, at my normal pace. Hopefully this will be the last F that I earn.