Olympic Triumph by the U.S. Women

The Olympics continue, and what a ride it’s been so far!  Michael Phelps concluded his legendary career, and Emma Coburn wins the bronze in an American Record (and PR) effort!  It’s amazing how far the American steeplechase group has gotten, as the U.S. finally medaled from both the men and women (congrats Evan Jager!).  Jenny Simpson ran a gutsy race for bronze, and the marathon women all finished in the top 10 on a nasty, sunny, and humid Brazilian day.  Shalane, Desi, and Amy all gutted out some amazing performances, and have nothing to be ashamed of – what a great accomplishment!    

Wednesday, August 10^th – 6 miles (1 up, 3 mile tempo, 2 down).  Olympic pact of running every day continues, as I barely made it out the door late at night for this one.  Original plan was to go the track, but didn’t want to lose too much time away from the Olympics, so thought a short tempo was the quickest workout to accomplish.  Very humid and sticky outside, but I had the benefit of Megan and her friend sitting outside.  I asked them to hand me water on my second mile (they did, no problem), and I had a good cheer section as did loops around the neighborhood.  Targeted goal half marathon pace (~6:45), and ended up averaging ~6:35 (6:30/6:39/6:35) splits.  Very pleased, as it was super nasty outside and I haven’t done much tempo work other than those 5K’s a month or so ago.  Slow cooldown to end the night, then back to the couch for more Olympics events!

Thursday, August 11^th - ~6 miles.  Recovery, out and back towards Drost, then 1 mile with Megan around the neighborhood.  Nice and easy, legs were a little tired from the tempo from the night before.

Friday, August 12^th - ~4 miles.  Run before work – looped around the neighborhood and on the trails.  Finally, the city decided to mow the grass on the trails, as the weeds had gotten a good 3’-4’ high!  But they decided to do this during my run, which made maneuvering around some trucks on a narrow trail pretty interesting.  10 strides afterwards to call it a day – started to get pretty warm and sunny towards the end of that run.

Saturday, August 13^th - ~5 miles.  I woke up with all intentions to do my long run.  I dressed and stretched and actually got my shoes on, all ready to go.  But Mother Nature had other intentions for me that morning as it poured and poured and poured.  It was that type of rain where you would be soaked within 5 seconds of being outside, so I deferred back to bed and decided to sleep in a little before trying again later.  Well, it did let up eventually, and I got outside late morning with the idea of doing my long run if I felt ok.  Well, the humidity from the nonstop rain made the trails feel like a sauna, so I made a U-turn at Drost Park and called it a day with 5 miles.  ~42 minutes I think, blah.

Sunday, August 14^th – 6 miles.  So much for a long run, as I got a late start with Crystal on the trails.  Watched the Olympic Marathon during the morning, and didn’t do too much later that day.  We ran a couple loops around her neighborhood before going out and back on the trail on Old Faithful.  Stomach was destroying me, and we cut the run short at 6 miles.  49 minutes and some change overall, pretty solid all in all.  At night, watched the Greatest of All Time, Usain Bolt, win his 3^rd consecutive Olympic Gold Medal in the 100m final.  Absolutely stunned to see him come back for the W, and amazing to see this human (not sure he actually is!) continue to dominate his craft.  So blessed to watch the best ever, at the twilight of his career.

Monday, August 15^th – 6 miles.  Out and back with Crystal on the trail towards Marine.  The plan was to go slower, but I’m ran with Crystal so that never goes to plan.  The weather was spitting rain, which felt incredible.  We started out slow (~8:20), but could feel us both picking up the pace.  I haven’t really ran much in the 7 minute range, so it was interesting to revisit that pace.  7:36/7:15 to close out a solid run.  47:12 overall.

Tuesday, August 16^th - ~4 miles.  Nice and slow after work while looping around the trails and neighborhood.  Legs were tired, but made it through ok for the most part.  Humidity has rejoined us, but the slow pace felt great.

Wednesday, August 17^th – 4 miles (1 up, 8x200, 1 down).  Late night track work with Crystal.  The original plan was to do a longer fartlek at tempo, but decided to tweak the plan a little bit since I am fairly certain I am doing Crystal’s steady state later this week.  Nice that I’m already re-writing the plan I’m using lol  Anyways, the evening felt ok temperature wise, but pretty still air.  The idea was to hit the 200’s around 37 seconds, and jog the recovery while we both alternated leads.  I figured this shouldn’t be too bad, as I felt pretty confident I could hit 37’s in my sleep.  Well, I led us off and realized that 37’s are a lot harder when you haven’t been doing much on the track, as I had to push on the last 100 meters to hit the split on the nose.  We alternated through 5 splits (I fell off a little towards the end of that) before I had to take a much needed bathroom break while Crystal kept going (original workout was 10 repeats).  Rejoined and led her through the last 2 reps before doing one more solo to finish the day.  36-38 for the first 5 splits, 35, 36, 36 for the last 3 repeats.  Slow cooldown to finish, and very pleased.

Easy run tonight after work, then 3 mile steady state on Friday.  Long run Saturday, then easy Sunday to conclude my Olympic running.  A few more marquis events to come, but fully expect King Usain to complete the triple, Centro to medal in the 1500, and Eliud Kipchoege to win the gold in the men’s marathon.  More to come!