More (or less) training:

Week of September 18-24

The goal for this week was to continue to build volume. I had planned to run between 115-120km and as it turned out these plans were overly-ambitious.

Monday Sept. 18: 5:30pm, 57' easy.
-Lots of stop and go as I literally ran a few errands.
-12km total

Tuesday, Sept. 19: 5pm, 20' warmup, 15' tempo, 6 x 800m (on grass), 20' cooldown. -800's were between 2:40-2:50, but the route was long by about 50m.
-15km total.

Wednesday, Sept. 20: 6:30pm, 60' easy on the treadmill
-ran between 8.4-8.5 mph
-(round up to) 14km total

Thursday, Sept. 21: 12:30pm, 18' warmup, 5K Milk Run, 20' cooldown.
-1st place in 17:19. Very informal, friendly race. According to race maps, the route was supposed to be 5.1km.
http://runthere.com/routeview.php?rtnum=3804
-Ran hard, got lost and had to pause for a moment. Pleased with the effort.
-14km total
9pm, 23' easy on treadmill. (5km total)

Friday, Sept. 22: sick with cold, felt like crap.
7pm, 30' easy
-Had to do it.
-6km total.

Saturday, Sept. 23: No run and the 20 day streak is broken! Library day...

Sunday, Sept. 24: 12:00pm, 70' easy
-Lots of stopping and stretching with very tight calves and heel cords.
-15-16km

Weekly total: 82km

All in all, I'm pretty disappointed with how this week went and I am frustrated that this head cold persists. Is my body trying to tell me something? I will try to listen to whatever message that may be. I hope to be able to put in solid week and get back up to 100km with a potential XC race on Saturday.

Below is a(n) (ridiculous) idea I came up with last week during an easy run.


Gum-Chewable Easy

Many runners make the mistake of running too hard on their easy days. I have certainly committed this fatal error before. While on an easy run last week I came up with an idea, a method of ensuring easy pace on easy days. And I'm not talking about HR monitors or Ratings of Perceived Exertion. I'm talking about something much simpler: chewing gum! I have actually done this many times before without realizing what I was doing. At easy pace, I can chew gum quite comfortably. If pace rises a tad over easy pace, I notice a marked difficulty in my gum chewing capabilities. Chewing gum while running helps to prevent clenched teeth and tight face muscles, keeping the jaw relaxed and fluid. And if you are chewing Trident (recommended by 9 out of 10 dentists)you may even be helping to fight cavities. Thus, by ensuring a gum-chewable pace, and by chewing Trident, a runner is allowing him/herself to recover and, at the same time, helping to keep the dentist drill at bay. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me. See if it works for you!