Monday, August 1, 2016

Made it!

Thank God July is OVER! We made it through, people. The worst is behind us, at least until August gets here. Ok fine, August is usually the worst month for me. But this July was terrible and I'm glad it's in the rear view.

Swim: 32,800 yards, 10 swims, 1 race
Bike: zero, thankfully
Run: 104 miles, 17 runs
Strength: 4 times
Yoga: 6 times

The only race in July was the Little Uno open water swim. Almost 33k in the water is a ton of yards, so that's really going great. My masters coach found a flaw in my left arm motion when I'm breathing to the right, so fixing that has really helped the last week or so. July was also the first time since Umstead 100 training back in March that I have topped 100 miles in a month. I guess really that means that April, May, and June were under that magic number, but I'm glad to be back on a marathon training plan nonetheless. Strength training and yoga are consistent with expectations, I wish I could do more.

There was a couple of cool speed milestones in July. First I've already written about the 5k running time trial where I ended up with a 21:48 treadmill PR. I felt good at the end of it too, not my normal "hold on until death" thing that typically happens at that speed.

Then Friday 7/29 in the pool I got a nice breakthrough. We did an 1100 yard warmup, then coach said "1000 freestyle for time. Go." and we took off. AFTER THAT he wanted to do 25 yard sprints. after that. ugh. Now 2 years ago those times were always around 20 seconds. Last year I did all of that volume getting ready for the Swim Around Charleston and got those times down around 16 seconds consistently, and a few times got 15 seconds. Friday I hit 14 seconds 6 of 8 times, and even nailed a 13.8 second sprint!! That's insane. For reference, the olympians are barely breaking 12 seconds.

Friday night I came down with some kind of sinus thing that kept me in the recliner on Saturday. But Sunday I did make it to church then hit the gym for the 10k time trial on my training plan. Again this is on the treadmill since it's nearly impossible to walk from the car to the gym door without melting. I did the first half at an 8.0 mph speed, then increased to 8.1, 8.2, and did the last mile at 8.3. I think the total time was 45:40, which again is a new *treadmill PR for that distance.

August Cometh
I am so ready for this heat to break. August is usually the worst month of the year for the heat, but I can't imagine it can be any worse than July. Humidity was over 90% most of the month, heat index was typically between 112* and 118* - TYPICALLY. There is no rational explanation for that. I have no races scheduled for August. The end of August typically brings us the start of College Football, so that's really all I have to look forward to this month. That and lots more treadmill miles. Maybe this heat will break? please?

12 in 8 marathons update
Turns out, the deferment we got last year for the Kiawah Island marathon only got us a discount on this years race. On top of that, it looks like my brother is going to be moving out of the area soon anyway so we'd have to pay for a hotel room. And together that pushes any Charleston races out of the budget. I hate that, because I absolutely love going down to Charleston to race, but it is what it is.

I did get registered for the New River Trail 50k in Galax VA on October 1st. This is the race that my training plan is designed for, and was the first race on my spreadsheet for the streak. Very glad to have this one on the books. I'm definitely registered for 3 of the 12 now.

I'm thinking about replacing Kiawah with the North Central Trail Marathon in Maryland. Anyone ever heard of this? it seems like a small race, but could be a fun part of the state between DC and Baltimore. It's on trails, November 29, so everything else seems like it will fit my schedule.

Topless Year
I got a few pics with the top down in July. It wasn't easy. A black leather interior in a convertible is a terrible idea.

July 4th, topless and tanked for the holiday

7/24, my niece Kaileigh was in town for her birthday
That is it for now. Keep your head up, I hope you are having a good summer. I'm still blue and waiting for fall when I can run outside again.

2 comments:

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

Those are some hot and humid temps! Yuck! We had unseasonably hot/humid weather in July as well. Our heat index was in the low 100s which is warm for us. My friend that moved back here from Austin, TX said the humidity is way worse here, which surprised me as I thought Austin would be worse. There were a couple of miserable weekends where I wasn't sad to not be running... But I still miss running soooo much.

You put a solid month of training in, though! Way to go on those pool sprints! I was hoping to swim at a local lake with Phil tonight as there is a lake that sets up a course so you can swim across and back. But I came down with a chest cold this weekend so it's not a good time for me to tax my breathing by swimming. So instead I'll go to the gym and use the elliptical while he has fun in the water. Womp womp.

Abby said...

I am not ready for July to be over.
I mean I freaking hate the heat and humidity, but I had the month off.