Bye Bye July...

A little review of July:

Total miles: 158.8 - my most since I came back to running 13 months ago. That's 21% more than June (which had been a 30% up-tick from May). However, there were also a few cross-training days in the month, too. It's a decent number - certainly more than some of the blogs I read and certainly way less than other blogs I read.

Three runs of 12 miles or more. That's definitely the highlight of the month as I move into Marathon season.

Six trails runs - this did a lot to keep me healthy.

Speed work was comprised of two good interval workouts and two races. These all went well.

There were also three tempo runs. I'd say 1 of these was excellent, 1 was fair and 1 sucked. This is my weakness right now.

Two races: a five mile run with a PR that I felt OK about and 1 mile time trial that had nice results, all in all.

During the month, I trained with Clif Recovery, Accelerade and Ultima Replenisher electrolyte replacement drink. I was unimpressed with the Clif (too sugary, doesn't dissolve well and only tastes ok), felt Accelerade was decent because it's readily available in most stores pre-mixed and fell in love with Ultima. Ultima's barely-any-sugar formula is especially great for diabetics and makes an ideal combo with gels on long runs. I think I'll probably move back to Endurox for recovery drinks, though. Tastes great, dissolves easy and seemed to "work better" than the Clif for recovery. One problem - my local retailer has stopped carrying Endurox, so I need to find a new source.

What's on tap for August?

* Not necessarily more miles. With cross training, the total for the month likely won't go much higher than it is now, and could go down.

* More longer runs. The weekend runs for the next 4 weeks will be 15, 13, 20 and 18 miles.

* Better thinking on tempo runs. I waffled on what I wanted these runs to be during last month. This month, I'm sticking to my plan.

* First half-marathon since last September. However, it's the Half-Wit Half Marathon - a nasty trail race, so it'll be a great workout, but won't give me much of a gauge of where my fitness is.

* Stay healthy. Stay healthy. Stay healthy.

I didn't say much about the diabetes because - thankfully - there isn't much to say. Just came from a check-up and my most recent A1C was 6.6. In the next month, I need to get a better feel for how to handle blood sugars on the really long runs, but all's good on that front right now, too.

Comments

  1. Joy | Love | Chaos6:54 PM

    Ooooh...deep seated jealousy that you're doing Half Wit. I *love* that race (er...run?). Can't risk a turned ankle or loss of any limb this year with only a few weeks out to my A race.

    Have a total blast! Oh, and did you see the great article on Ron in (i think) Runners Times?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The gun in my basement.

Image
In my basement, I have a safe. And in that safe, under expired passports and birth certificates, there's a gun. It's unloaded. Hasn't been loaded in probably twenty years, and yet every time I take it out, I check to make sure. If you're a gun nerd, it's a 9 shot .22 revolver. On this website , it says that "it is true that many people have been killed by a .22 LR in the course of history," but the writer concludes that this weapon is a bad choice for self defense. I didn't buy it for self defense. I didn't even buy it. It was my father's and after he died, my mother gave it me, along with an Elgin watch he'd worn for years. The watch was weathered and worn and I took it to be restored. The jeweler refused, saying it was worthless. Two decades later, the watch is still in my jewelry box. There's no need for it to be locked up. I have no idea if this gun is in my possession legally. No idea if my father had a permit for it, or w...
Read more

Happy D-Blog Day, Uh, I Guess...

So according to diabetics blog-wide, today is D-Blog Day, the day when those of us affected by diabetes are supposed to blog about it. Or draw awareness to diabetes... Or something like that. I'm really a bad poster child for the disease. Not because I'm not in great control (actually, I am), but because I've just never been bothered by the disease so much. Red sums it up well in Shawshank Redemption: "Get busy living, or get busy dying." So if living means three blood sugar tests a day, so be it. If living means being hooked up to an insulin pump, go to it. That being said, I feel for anyone with diabetic kids... I'm a tough guy about the disease. I wouldn't be if my kids had it. If either of my kids had diabetes, I'd be screaming about the politicians who are spending money on wars instead of research, and I'd be yelling about the schools that make it difficult to be a diabetic in the classroom. But my kids don't have diabetes, so instead I ...
Read more

The Bright Side

“ And if you ever get scared, look on the bright side: You’ve got a new life.” – Amos Lee Last month, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Since then, I’ve tried to write this essay a few times. The first attempt followed a narrative arc rife with suspense, with a few years of frustrating doctors’ visits, mysterious symptoms that came and went and the all-around sentiment that the batteries that powered my body were no longer able to sustain a charge or be fully refueled at the end of the day. But if you Google Lyme disease, you realize there’s nothing unique about that story. In fact, the reality that my own diagnosis came only two years after all of this started makes this a much shorter story than it is for many. The theme of the second version was more pitiful, tinged with regret about what this had taken from me over the past two years and what it might take in the future. But honestly, that one didn’t get far at all. If there’s a good time for something like ...
Read more