IDENTICAL TEN MILE RUNS

Tom Petty!

After the twenty miler on Saturday I took Sunday off and then ran Monday at run group. The weather forecast had the high that day 102F but I think it only got to 96 or so. It was also cloudy and muggy later in the afternoon, so it wasn't that bad. Hot and humid, but without direct sun it was much more manageable. I ran an easy six miles knowing I still was recovering from Saturday and had a lot of miles coming up in the next few days.

So a lot of shit is fucking up my normal schedule this week. Tuesday I had a Tom Petty concert I was going to. Normally that is my night off (and bowling league) but since the end of my week was screwed up I had to run anyways. I ran ten miles from my office after work down the east bank of the Portland Waterfront and then on the Springwater Corridor all the way to Oaks Park and back. All told it was ten miles at a pace of 9:19/mile. It felt good! To my body it just felt like a normal six mile weekday run. Took longer, but didn't wear me out.

Repetition!

Washed up at the office and then went to the concert. It was excellent. Same thing the next night, Wednesday. Had my sister's birthday dinner at 7pm so I took off for another ten mile run. This time I was going to run along the west bank of the waterfront but the Steel Bridge was undergoing a lift and I didn't want to wait so I ended up running the exact same friggin' route again. I wanted it to be over so I ran faster, this one came in at 8:45/mile. By the end I was starting to tire and by the next day (aka now) my legs were very sore.

So the back to back ten milers definitely were a good workout. I plan to run three miles tonight and then six on Friday. That means I will have ran every single weekday this week. And if you count the seven days from last Saturday until Friday I will have ran 55 miles! That is a lot of miles and I am starting to feel it, having run 46 miles now in five days. I am glad I only have nine more to go before my vacation!

I leave Saturday morning to fly to the East Coast for nine days to visit some friends in Pennsylvania. It sounds like we are possibly camping for a good chunk of that, so I hope I am able to run from the campground. My goal is to get 24 miles in during the trip (thinking four runs of six miles) to just keep my base up, then hit it hard again when I get home. A down week will actually be good for my body at this point... I just need to make sure it doesn't become an off week.