I guess I owe you an update on the first two weeks before I can go on with the third week.
Week 1
I am running 3 days a week for this program. I would have liked a 4 day a week program, but this actually is a bit better for my traveling schedule. If I miss a run it is much easier to try to fit it in during the week since I have extra days off.
Monday was a 3 mile easy run. Those should be no problem throughout the course of the training. Wednesday was a tempo run of 5 miles. I got that one in just fine as well. The 8 mile long run on Saturday had to be pushed to Sunday. Fortunately our church in Mexico does not start until 11:00. That always gave me extra time to get a nice run in if necessary. (In contrast, our church we go to in Florida starts at 9:00, which is never enough time for lazy me to get a run in before church.) I only ran 7.7 miles since that was the best route I could come up with that got me home close to the distance.
Week 2
Not so good. Monday’s run did not happen at all. Oh, look! Neither did Wednesday’s run. Saturday’s long run of 9 miles ended up as a 4.5 mile run. That was the week we were traveling from Merida, Mexico to Florida. We were up and out the door early each day. Early being a relative term. Anyway, not much time to run.
Week 3
Monday’s easy 3 mile run ended up as a 3.32 easy run. Just an out and back course that I may make a regular route. There is a nice hill about 1/4 mile from the house. I go down to leave the house and then back up to get home.
Wednesday’s 5 mile tempo was pushed to Thursday afternoon. I was taking a seminary class and had to be up early each day trying to get my reading and studying in for the day. I was up by 6:00 each day, with some days up well before 6:00. My best time to run was Thursday afternoon before I had to be at an appointment. I was physically beat by the time Thursday rolled around. I only got 3 miles done and it was not even close to tempo pace. I do not feel badly about this since I at least attempted the run. It was certainly better than just scrubbing it and not running at all.
The long run on Saturday was supposed to be 10 miles. I made several mistakes during this run that doomed me. I am somewhat glad it happened this early in training. I have not been doing runs this long in a while and I had forgotten a few basics. I did not fuel or hydrate well. When I knew the run was falling apart I adjusted my route to make it a 7 mile run. But by doing so I also eliminated the last couple of gas stations that I could have stopped at for more food and drink to get me back home. At 6.5 miles I had to make the phone call to have someone come and pick me up.
Lessons learned and I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks being able to be home enough to get back on track with the training. Rough start, but I am not discouraged nor feel like I have put myself too far behind.