Week 10 Training Reflections
This was a pretty atypical week, but I had a blast almost every single day. Sunday’s long run was a bit shorter than it would’ve been on account of having guests, but I got to do it with my friend Jeff, which was great. Running in the Whissahickon during a light drizzle is honestly one of the greatest feelings. The nature just feels loud, if that makes sense. As is usually the case with long trail runs, there wasn’t any pressure to go fast, which was great for some quality friendship time. However, I am a bit frustrated because there was a roughly 2000 meter discrepancy between the GPS of my $600 Garmin Fenix 6x Pro and that of Jeff’s iPhone. Maybe I’m just trying to make myself feel better about my splits, which are always a LOT slower on the trails, but I think the iPhone was more accurate. I know that I slow down, but there are so many moments where I see 7:00 / km splits, and it just doesn’t feel like I slowed down that much. I wonder if this has something to do with being in the woods. Jeff also made a good point in that the watch is using GPS alone, while the iPhone is also using mobile data. So now I’m wondering if I should have held off on the Fenix and gotten the Forerunner 945 LTE. Granted, I didn’t even know it existed until a week ago. Plus, upon further investigation, it seems the battery life pales in comparison to that of the Fenix. I am very content with my watch’s battery.
Monday’s pieces were pretty good considering all the drinking I’d done on the weekend, and without work, I was able to go for the 50 Mile ride on the SRT that I’d planned with Jason, Becca, and Emily. Jeff was supposed to be there, but oh well. The ride was slow, but the weather was nice, and having friends along for yet another workout was fantastic. My heart rate data really highlighted how different my body is from those of people who don’t work out for 15–20 hours every week. I don’t mean this as a condescending humble brag; they have lives. It’s just interesting how different our rates of perceived exertion and heart rates were!
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On Thursday, I skipped my scheduled lift because the weather was gorgeous and I just really wanted to run. I put on my Grey Altra Escalante 2s, and for what may have been the fourth consecutive run, I started experiencing some pain in the bottom of my left foot. I’m still really confused about this because they only have about 550K on them, as opposed to the red pair, which has over 700K and has never given me issues. I never considered that there may be differences between different copies of the same shoe. This was, however, enough for me to officially retire the pair. On my next recovery run, I’ll be testing out the red pair to try and determine whether they really do need to be retired. I may convert them into a lifting shoe since my Nike Metcons are just getting really worn down.
The foot pain persisted for a couple of days, so I took Friday afternoon off. The 2Ks that I rocked with Bill on Saturday were pretty powerful, but dang were my legs tuckered out by the end. My big general-fitness takeaway from this week was that I need to get back to the gym do more yoga, and sleep more. As far as rowing goes, more high-rate work will be great. I’m almost at the point where I actually get faster when I rate above a 30.
