Peak Week (and taper week #1)! Not the 40+ miles I’ve seen in previous cycles but I threw down a few miles and workouts.

Week 15:

Monday 10/11: Watched as much of the Boston Marathon on TV as I could around my meetings. So inspired by this and Chicago (especially Nell Rojas and Emma Bates and Edna Kiplagat, but yes, also the actual winners). Did an easy run late afternoon, soaking up the good weather and trying to stay under Zone 3 for Heart Rate for 5.7 miles on Stryd (Garmin said 6 even).

Tuesday 10/12: Upper body day at the gym – assisted dips and pull-ups, bench press PR, cable rows and pull-downs PRs. Jog home plus some extra for 2.6 miles/30 minutes. Day 0 of a Stryd 10K plan for my next real goal race in January (and a tuneup 5K or two along the way). I figured a good way to motivate my consistency through winter (and through NYCM taper) was to actually have a date for an honest to goodness PR attempt (hopefully will be my first since 8K/5 Mie PR November 2019). Not gonna keeping beating myself up for ‘wasting’ my March 2020 fitness on a hilly half – time to seize winter/spring 2022.

Wednesday 10/13: Next Stryd workout – warmup with a few faster moments, 15 minute tempo, cool down for 5.2 miles total. My chest was so sore from Tuesday’s upper body workouts at the gym, but the pain calmed down a bit after the first mile or so. Worth it to get into the lower 9’s for my tempo pace; hoping to see the mid-8’s again in a couple months.

Thursday 10/14: Rest day for running, heavy compound lift day at the gym (squats, deadlifts, plus hip thrusts). Finally bought some of my own protein powder at Target afterward.

Friday 10/15: Easy 3 miles with some mid-run strides thrown in, as per Stryd plan. It was WARM (over 70) and sunny and I honestly just couldn’t handle it anymore/wanted to save something for tomorrow and walked the last mile.

Saturday 10/16: Decided to move my long run to Sunday due to sleeping poorly (and my running buddy’s dog passed away Thursday night). Kind of kept pushing out a workout time at all and ended up not going to the gym.

Sunday 10/17: Herbie woke me up at 3:30am to puke (I had taken some Sleepytime tea at 9pm to try and get a better night’s rest). Then my own stomach was giving me issues so I decided to just run later on after all my errands and do what I could, then finish the rest Monday and count it as a Jack Daniels style bunched run. I also pulled my trapezius muscle doing absolutely nothing at all on the couch. 9.6 miles total – 7.3 outside, 2.3 on the treadmill.

Total: 28 miles (could have/should have been higher if the long run was all there, but glad I got a few in over 5 miles)

Week 16:

Monday 10/18: 8 more miles as part of that bunched run. I chose the first several miles on a fairly familiar route, then did the last few with some big hills. Nice cool weather.

Tuesday 10/19: 4.4 miles in Central Park, doing another of those 15 minute tempos from Stryd. These are fun! But I’m still dreading longer tempos just a bit. Wore long sleeves and shorts but it was just a touch too warm (it was cold in the morning when I packed my stuff).

Wednesday 10/20: Rest day

Thursday 10/21: Easy 2.2 mile run that I abruptly ended at Dairy Queen by getting in line for a Blizzard.

Friday 10/22: More beautiful weather – tank top and shorts. 3.2 flat miles on one of my usual routes. Managed to resist the pull of Dairy Queen this time.

Saturday 10/23: 1.4 miles running with Arya the husky. Was supposed to do 12-14 taper miles in the AM with my running buddy but we were both feeling worse for the wear.

Sunday 10/24: Pumpkin patch rest day.

Total: 16 miles over 5 mostly short runs