Weeks 17 & 18: Some time off and a tough return

Greetings to all! I hope no one was too worried last week when I did not post; we took some family time away and could not run for various reasons. While our vacation was wonderful, it was a tough week to miss in training. We were scheduled to run 3-5-3 and 10 miles for our long run, and though we did a ton of walking and stair climbing, it really is not a substitute. In terms of overall fitness, I don't think we lost much, but in RUNNING fitness? Yeah, it was tougher than we thought it would be getting back on the road.

Upon our return, we picked up our training with week 18 as scheduled (well, except for the long run, see below). We did not want to injure ourselves, so we did take it a bit easier on pace, which was no problem due to the ever present heat and humidity! Our first run back didn't go too badly. The second one was dubbed a "slog" due to our slowed pace and the fact that we felt like we were running through a sauna. The third run was better as it was in the morning and we had the lovely company of Christy (and thanks to Adam for getting breakfast while we were pounding the pavement).

The long run was awful! We headed out early but the heat was already coming on. We were fatigued and sore from the weekday runs; within the first few miles I had to stop and stretch my calves and Chris and I both had to take a walk break. Now, we were only scheduled to run 7 miles---it was a step-back week---but we'd had a step-back week the week before (when we didn't run at all). Next week jumps up to 12 miles, and it seems impossible (for me) to do 9, 0, 7, and then 12. So we decided to cover 9 again, if possible, even if we had to walk.

So walk we did, mostly up hills, and we kept a slow pace and drank a lot of water. We called this run a "wog". In the end, we didn't quite hit 9 miles, and we probably walked about a mile, so I estimate we truly only ran 7.5 miles or so anyway.

Stats for Week 18:

Tue 7/31       3.05 miles in 30:46

Wed 8/1       5.01 miles in 55:47

Thu 8/2         3.04 miles in 30:43

Sat 8/4          8.51 miles in 1:36:48 (an 11:24 pace--even with walking, fast enough for us to complete the marathon if necessary)

Chris says he is sure we will be back to normal next week--I sure hope so! That 12 miler looming ahead is looking a little scary....

Thanks for reading!