my highest running mileage week ever!

First we should talk about my weekend runs.  Yesterday I was hungover and ran 3 miles with a headache that refused to go away. It was through some of my favorite trails up near UBC but I wasn’t feeling it. In fact I actually went back to bed after I got home. Then today I was stoked to go to Burnaby Lake as the main trail around the lake is 10.6km and I have never been there before.  Unfortunately, I don’t think I fueled enough  to begin with and then since I got lost on the way to the trails  it had been about 3 hours after I ate that I began running.  Because of that I was not feeling the last 2 miles or so.    Bah humbug!  The park was beautiful though, and it was easy to add a few side trails, in fact it was exactly 7 miles when I hit my car.  Perfect. I will definitely be back there for more running.

But… despite all that. This was my highest mileage week ever!  I am feeling quite a few little aches and pains, mostly around my Achilles and lower shin areas (spinning probably did not help), so I did ice today. But overall it wasn’t a big deal to do this kind of mileage.  My weekend runs totally would’ve rocked if I had had one less pitcher of beer on Friday night, and a full bowl of cereal for breakfast on Sunday.

So this week I ran 20.9 miles, which brings my September total to 71.86. Considering my highest mileage week ever was 19.63, along with my highest month at  67.04 back in April I am feeling pretty good. I know I am faster then I was then and I can definitely feel myself improving.

My goals for this week are to eat more(!), (sometimes it is hard to eat back enough when you are eating healthy), and stretch a bunch.  This is why I track calories by the way, I am trying to make sure I eat enough!!

Saturday’s Run:

Slow and freaking painful, on a rough trail with several hills. Boo.  3 minutes slower then Thursdays run. Seriously people, why did that porter have to be on special?

• Distance: 3.15
• Time: 36:05
• Pace:11:42
• Avg HR\Max HR: 147\173
• Calories: 317

Sunday’s Run:

The stats actually read pretty decent for a long run especially since that also included a water break or two.  In fact it is 8 seconds slower then Macmillan suggests… but that seems awful slow so we will just accept that for now.

• Distance: 7 miles
• Time:1:14:18
• Pace: 10:50
• Avg HR\Max HR: 143\172
• Calories 696

So I end this on a happy note. I have some yummy looking squashes in the oven and an epsom salt bath somewhere in my future after my longest mileage week ever. If I don’t cross train next week I should beat it again. 

healthy meal idea of the day:

Try baking fish in parchment packets with veggies and some aromatics, plus a splash of soy sauce or white wine.   You can read my experiment with this here.