Week 6 of training is in the books.  Overall I felt like this was a decent week.  I had a few aches and pains along the way.  My 7 miles on Thursday was done on the treadmill and I definitely pushed it (averaging less than a 10 min/mile pace, which is pretty quick for me).  And then following that the next day with a long run was a good test for my body/legs.  On Saturday morning I felt the result of the previous two days and woke up sore all over.  I still managed to get out and do my 5 miles though, which was again a good test of running on tired legs.  I’ve been trying to do some foam rolling after my runs since I’ve increased my mileage a fair amount compared to previously.  Last year I probably averaged between 15 and 22 miles per week.  So far I’ve been averaging in the mid to high 20s this training cycle.

Here’s a summary of last week’s running.

( ) = # of miles on my plan

Tuesday – 3 (3)

Thursday – 7 (7)

Friday – 10.05 (10)

Saturday – 5 (5)

Sunday – 4 (4)

Weekly Total – 29.05 miles (29)

We were hit with another round of rain this past week.  More importantly or impactful, we had some strong winds.  This resulted in a power outage on Friday from 2:15 pm (I know since I was in the midst of catching up on some of my shows) that lasted until 10:30 pm that night.  I had received a phone call from the power company at 4 pm saying power would be out until the following day at 12 pm, so it was a nice surprise that it came on later that night.  Apparently a tree fell on some power lines on the nearby train tracks, which required some specialized equipment to remove the tree, lines and then replace the lines. With the power out, it gave me no choice but to complete  my chores before it got too dark.  We then went out to dinner and watched a movie (luckily my wife’s laptop had a full battery charge).  Then it was lights out early (we were asleep when the power came back).  I had unplugged the power supply to the TV since I knew that it would turn on once power was restored and figured that might be in the middle of the night.  My wife had previously purchased some candle-less candles that came in very handy.

It was raining a decent amount on Friday morning but I decided to head out and do my long run anyway.  I elected to go down by the river trail to see what it looked like.  We had had a few days of dry weather and I wanted to see what the river levels looked like.  The river had receded and you could actually run on the bike trails (that were previously under water).  The receding water had left a thin layer of dirt/mud on the trails so it felt a little strange underfoot – not like running on a smooth surface.  There was a section that was really muddy and forced me to climb the berm and run on top of it.  The rain wasn’t so bad but the wind was biting at times and made me question why I was doing it.  As you can imagine there weren’t many people out.  A few other brave souls were out running though and one guy gave me a thumbs up from afar as you and I both kept on our runs.

I rewarded myself post long run with some bad for me food. Fish and chips and fried clams to boot.  There’s a small local fish and chips shop run by Koreans that I like to go to (and I like supporting local businesses).  So I stopped in and picked up their daily special.

With the large amounts of rain that we’ve been getting, a lot of the area trees and plants have started blossoming early.  Since Saturday’s run stayed dry (looked like looming rains), I managed to get some shots of some trees.  One of the trees has these really cool looking purple-pink and white flowers.  The flowers are extremely short-lived on the tree and fall off relatively quickly – especially with the strong winds.

There are a number of them in our neighborhood and I really like purple so it helps.

Another tree that has bloomed is the one that has a very distinct smell.  The flowers give off the odor of a certain bodily fluid (aka semen).  It’s very strange.

And there are a ton of Camelia trees in our neighborhood (including a few on our property).  I like them because of the various colors that exist.  These also tend to make a mess when they drop their flowers.

And finally one of our bare Chinese Pistache trees and one of our lavenders.  I’m just glad the lavenders have survived this long (we had previously tried to plant them in years past and they’ve all died).

I also broke in two new pairs of shoes in the last week or so.  I haven’t run in Mizuno shoes previously and so am trying my first pair with the Mizuno Wave Catalyst.  I’ve only done one run in them but so far they seem all right.  I also did my first run in a shoe I’ve previously run in, the Altra Repetition.  My original pair is getting towards the end of its life with close to 450 miles on it so I’ve started in on its replacement (same shoe, different color).

I think the Repetition is billed as a trail running shoe (it is a maximalist zero drop shoe), I’ve found it to be a great road shoe.   I’ve done a half marathon in my previous pair as well as a decent amount of long runs.  I’ve been a fan of Altra now for a few years and also run in the Altra Provision 2.0 currently  as well.  As I’ve said before, the diversity in shoes that I use in training I think helps to keep me from getting injured (*knocks on wood*).

-StewsCat