End of the Week Recap 9/19/10

Hail my running brothers and sisters!  Week 8 of marathon training is done.  I've considered calling this week, Hill Week or the Hills are Alive with the Sound of Pain.  Instead of tempo run this week, I traded it for hill sprints.  The run was short, but hard.  Oddly enough, this is the same description that I can apply to my long run this week.  I was on schedule to do 20 miles at 8:48/mi, but I decided to do my run through Percy Warner Park (because I'm a glutton for punishment).  My long run ended up only being 15.5 miles at a 8:57/mi pace.  I would whine about this, but that is a brutal course with hills that go straight up into the air.  I swear!  Not to mention the wildlife!  In the middle of my run, I had to slow down as a gang of wild turkeys filled the road.  Now, I don't know if wild turkeys are prone to attacking innocent, tired runners, just trying to get through their workout, but I really didn't want to find out.  Thankfully they meandered off the sides of the road and seemed to take no notice of me (though I could swear I saw one giving me the evil eye!).  Other than a brush with a family of Bambi's and wild chipmunk, the rest of my run was fairly uneventful (except, of course, for my cursing and gnashing of teeth as I trudged up and  down the hills of PWP).

My mileage for the week was 30.94 miles at an average pace of 8:41/mi.  I did 42 minutes of actual cross-training and conditioning (Thank you dear for buying me that kettleball for Christmas!), and I weighed in at 164.4 lbs this morning.  Not too bad overall.

Random bits:  Big Bang Theory premieres this Thursday on CBS at 8/7 Central.  Set your DVR's.  I already have.  This week's parochial cross-country meet was a scorcher, but my kids (my son and the ones I coach) all had impressive runs despite the heat.  It makes a dad and coach proud to see those kids toughing it out and finishing strong.  Go Bears!  Allegedly, Android 2.2 (Froyo) should be coming out on the Droid X soon.  I'm betting on Tuesday, 9/21/10, as that is the last day of summer.

Well that's all I have for this week.  Run hard and keep the faith!  Later kids.