October in Review + 20 Miler for Philly

October In Review

Total Miles: 170.7 up from 121.2 last month. (151.2 miles from October 2010.)  Highest mileage month of the year, and second highest ever!  (Highest was April 2010).  Heck ya!  This includes a mini taper the first week in October since I raced a half.  WHOO! 

Total Time: 26:54:05 up from 18:56:33. (23:52:41 last October.)

Total Runs: 23 for an average of 7.42/run.

Highest weekly mileage:

10/24/2011 — 10/30/2011:

50.0 Mi

7:59:30

My second 50 mile week ever. :D

Favorite run: My mid-week double digit run.  See below.

Most hardcore run:  Either my 8 mile run with 4 at tempo, or my 600 m intervals.  I managed to find some sub 7 speed in these ol' legs of mine.  So that was fun.  Apparently I failed to blog about the intervals.  Meh.  Just imagine greatness, I guess.  :P

Favorite race:  Fargo FM half marathon.  Well, half of it was good.  So perhaps I should say the Fargo quarter marathon. :)

Bike Miles: 0.  I thought about it, does that count?  Between 8 hours of running, and a gazillion hours of school + work, biking is just not happening.  And that's sad because its still nice enough to do it.  Sorry Princess Leia.

Favorite Jams: Beyonce's Love on Top.

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So quick recap of last week since I was too lazy to blog apparently, I did intervals.  They were fast (for me) the recoveries were slow (for me).  Interval paces on the 600s were in the 6:30s-6:40s.  Heyo!

 

And on to my favorite run of the month, the 11 miler on Thursday.  After doing 8 miles, the night before with some speedy 600s, I was concerned my legs would be d-e-a-d.  But I didn't have class, due to fall break, so I was going to take full advantage and get my run in while crunching around on some fallen leaves.  I was prepared to take the run slow, since the name of the game is injury free, but my legs weren't having it.  I was in the 9:20s for most of the run with a low HR.  I'm sure the 46 degrees didn't hurt the cause.  And yes, I was the only one out there in shorts and a tee.  Hey, I put on a tee shirt, not like I'm crazy wearing a tanktop! The last few miles were a little scary since the sun had completely set.  I also slowed down since I always seem to fall, and the odds of this only increase when it's dark.  :/

 

I did 11 miles in 1:44:13 for a pace of 9:29.

 

Friday I somehow convinced Kyle to join me for part of my recovery run.  I did 2.5 miles without him and then he joined me for the last 1.5 miles.  We ran for about 4-5 minutes, then took a walk break, and repeated until we were done.  A dude in vibrams sprinted past us on a walk break, and that lit a fire under Kyle.  Of course that next running stretch had to be in the 8:30s.  Come on dude, this is my RECOVERY RUN.  But it was fun to have his company, and he didn't throw me in the river when we got there, so overall, I'd say that's a win!

 

Saturday morning was the last (and only) 20 miler of Philly training.  Eep!  After a glorious 11 hours of sleep (yes, seriously), I finally rolled out of bed and hit the trails.  I was bummed that I was too lazy to get up early, because the trick or treat trail run was going on, and I meant to intersect with the route and cheer my friends on.  Grr. 

 

After putting in 30 miles in a few short days, my legs were trashed from the start.  Which is good, I suppose.  Nothing wrong with getting in some major miles on super tired legs.  Mental toughness, I'm chasin' ya!  The first 5 miles were pretty pokey and in to the wind, which sucked.  Especially because weather.com had told me the wind was to be a light 3 mph breeze.  Liars.

 

I finally got some pep in my step about an hour in (probably didn't hurt that the wind was at my back) and decided to add some difficulty to my run (you know, because 20 miles isn't hard enough) and added a long hill in the middle of it.  I heard there are about 2 decent hills in Philly, so might as well get a little practice since I suck at them.  Adding pain to the current... uh... pain.... is the awful smell blowing over from the meat packing plant.  It. Was. Terrible.  I could taste the crap.  And of course this is right by our penitentiary, so I was on high alert for an escapees.  So much fun.

 

When I finally hit ten miles and turned around, I was assaulted by the wind, yet again.  And the smell of the meat packing plant.  Barf.  Luckily I had some downhill miles to attend to.  After the downhills, life started to suck.  I always seem to lose some steam during the middle 3rd of a run.  The wind wasn't helping.  Somehow I managed to kick up the pace a little bit during the final 3 miles to finish strong.  Not my fastest 20 miler, but definitely my most consistent.  And I finished feeling like I could easily run for another hour, which I haven't always been able to say at the end of a 20 miler.  I hit 9:20 and 8:40 for miles 19 and 20.

 

I did 20 miles in 3:12:34 for a pace of 9:38.

 

And apparently I took a total of 2 photos this weekend, but they were important hydrating photos, so enjoy.

Sunday morning mimosas. 

 

Me:  How much do you think you'll drink?  What size champagne should I get?

KK:  Jeri... it's 10am, I'm not going to drink.  Get whatever you want.

 

And then Sunday night I had the grossest beer ever to wrap up the Old Chicago Halloween mini-tour.  If I wanted apple juice, I'd order apple juice.  Ick.