A Week Like A Roller Coaster

This past week started out with OK weather. Then Mid week it got into the upper 80's and the by the weekend, crappy windy and rain. That made it interesting for the track team I coach. Thursday was a meet during the day. IT was sunny and 88F out. The kids were hot and did they best they could under the circumstances. It was the first real hot day of the summer. Then summer was over. Saturday was the last meet of the year for them (yes, a very short season). This time is was cloudy, windy, upper 40's and to make it even more perfect, it was drizzling. And with the way the track was set up, they had to run into the wind for the final straight away. The kids were really tough though and not overly complaining.

Today it is VERY windy and cool but no rain. I assume the weather is about the same 2 hours north of here where Paul is running the Green Bay Marathon today. Tough marathon conditions.

My running was like a roller coaster this week as well. Monday I got in a really good 7 mile tempo run. I didn't go out thinking I would tempo it, but I came in at about 8:10 pace. Then Tuesday I ran with the kids an felt really tired for 2 miles and then did 3 more slow miles. Wednesday it was starting to get hot. Mid 80's. I struggled again this time feeling a bit dizzy on the 5 miles run. All I could muster was 9:20 pace and that was a struggle. On my log, I even rated it only a 1 on quality.

I took Thursday off to rest some, plus I was in the sun all day at the track meet. Friday I bounced back somehow and did 5 at 8:23 pace and it felt easy. Weird.

Before the track meet on Saturday, I decided to get in a long run. I did 16 miles. The first 8 at 9:05 pace. and the last 8 around 8:32 pace. It was one of those runs where I felt like I could have kept the pace going for many more miles. I'll take that as good news.

So now the week is over and this roller caster may finally end. I hope so. Paul and I are planning on running a marathon in 2 weeks. We are not sure which one as there are 2 very close that we can drive to the morning of the race.