The crazy week that was...

It's been a week since my last post and I've got a TON of stuff to talk about, so I'll try not to make this too long. Digging into the "you probably didn't know this about me" files, I don't think I've mentioned this but I play trombone in the marching band at MSU. For this past week, I got hired to be the trombone instructor for a high school band that was doing their annual preseason band camp on the MSU campus, and I got to hang out with the instructors of other instruments, most of which also play in the MSU marching band. This camp started at 6:30am every day (which seemed like no big deal to me) and ended at 8:30pm each night (alright...so I can get a great night of sleep, sweet!). I had never done this camp before and what I didn't know was that the instructors go out every night and hang out somewhere....so making a long story short, I pretty much got 6 hours of sleep each night this week and was never home other than that, so I never had any time to post anything in the blog.

MONDAY 7/31: This was the first day of camp and also the first of three straight days of stifling heat and humidity that gripped so much of the nation. Since the heat was so bad, we all took a big break from 3:30 until 6:40, so I took advantage of that and went running on a treadmill at IM West. This week is my first "taper" week for marathon training, so I did 5 miles at 7:13 pace. Everything went smoothly...really the only problem I encountered was when I accidentally dropped my iPod and subsequently almost flew off the treadmill while trying to pick it up. Oops :)

TUESDAY 8/1: The second day of heat and humidity. I think our high got up to 94 and the heat index was around 104, and I'm sure many of you can relate to that. Anyway, we took another big break in the afternoon and were able to find an indoor pool in Haslett that would let a bunch of campers swim for free. So we all transported them over there, and since I had my swimsuit with me, I figured why not go for a swim too? So I did a few laps and then noticed that they had an aquajogger float, so I put that on and did some aqua jogging. The kids were all giving me weird looks, but I didn't care!

WEDNESDAY 8/2: Really nothing to report, I used this as a rest day because the heat was tiring me out.

THURSDAY 8/3: Today it was a little cooler, only in the 80s, but it was still humid. We were able to get outside for a practice in the morning before it started monsooning on us. So that was episode 1 of getting soaked. Later in the afternoon we went out again, but we didn't learn from the first time...we got drenched again by a sudden downpour. Since it was already about 3:30, the director decided to just cancel the rest of what was planned for the afternoon and have everybody come back around 6:45. So I went home, checked out the radar, and noticed that this pocket of rain was the last one to pass through and looked like it would stop raining pretty soon. Cue the running shoes, I was gonna go out for another 5 mile run. It was still raining while I was stretching, but it coincidentally let up to a drizzle as I was finishing up. The cold front had passed through, so it was 69 degrees when I went out there, but it was HUMID as heck! After a while, I couldn't tell whether my face was wet because of the drizzle or the humidity. I wanted to do this run at 7:14 pace according to my training plan, so I tried to duplicate the pace that the treadmill sets for me. Around the end of mile 2, I detoured in the wet grass to get around some canadian geese, and I ended up splashing through a HUGE puddle. A lot of water got into the mesh of my shoes and waterlogged my socks, so now I was carrying some extra weight on my toes....nice. On the third mile, I kept track of how fast I was going and ended up pulling off a 7:20 mile. Ok, not bad. So I tried to keep that pace for the rest of the run. When I got back, I stopped the watch at 32:35. Do the math...divided by 5 miles, that's a 6:30 pace, which REALLY surprised me. I did feel like I was going at a swift pace, so the 6:30 pace wouldn't surprise me. But how do I account for the 7:20 mile? I was thinking that maybe I just started the split at the wrong place because I know for a fact that the course is 5 miles. Oh well...I'll figure it out.

FRIDAY 8/4: Nothing special, rest day.

SATURDAY 8/5: End of camp! Which means I can sleep again! I lifted weights today because I hadn't done that in a week.

And now it brings us to today, Sunday 8/6. Because this was a taper week, I shortened up my long run to 6 miles. Also, since my 10 mile race on Saturday has a lot of hills, I incorporated a bunch of hills into the run. I made it so that I hit a steep hill about halfway through, and then ran up and down it 5 or 6 times. Finishing time was 47:10, which is almost 8 minutes a mile...but then when I mapped out where I actually ran, I realized I accidentally added another half mile, so it ended up being closer to 6.5 miles, which makes it a pace of 7:15/mile. Perfect, just what I was hoping for!

So yes, a very crazy week. Getting back to the music topic, one of the trombone guys in this high school band I was helping out was a runner, so I had some good conversations with him. He had to be at least 6'5" and can do a 5K in 17:30...when's the last time you've seen a tall AND fast runner?

And so ends week 4 out of 16 of marathon training. This week was 16.5 miles, and week 5 looks to be about 25 or so. Bring it on! And go Tigers! Ivan Rodriguez is the man for hitting that walk-off home run last night, and then the pitchers all took over today to help sweep the Indians! Bring on the Twins ;)