Saturday Catch Up Post

Have I been worse at running or blogging lately?  It's probably a tie, but at least my lack of blogging probably leaves more Internet bandwidth for people to post pictures of sarcastic kitties and hence performs a valuable public service.

I had a goal of 15 miles this week and it looks like I'm going to fall a little short.  I had a really busy week of work again, but I don't want to blame that. I worked late into the night Sunday and Monday nights, so I didn't wake up early enough to go for a run on Monday or Tuesday morning, but I should have been able to get a few miles on Monday night, or a short run on Tuesday evening.  I didn't want to wear myself out or be up late on Tuesday, since I had to be out the door at 5am on Wednesday morning for a two-day trip into my company's Philly office.

I finally started to right the ship a little bit on Wednesday evening, which was great because I ate ALL DAY.  I only make it into my company's downtown Philadelphia headquarters two or three times a year, and I always bring a few boxes of one of York County's local delicacies, donuts from Maple Donuts (it's the name of the shop, not all of the donuts are maple flavored) into the office.  If I show up without the donuts, I am probably putting my continued employment at risk.  And since I am unable to resist donuts, I had two of them for breakfast.  I spent most of the day in an intense meeting, and of course there were sandwiches, salad, and brownies for lunch and then soft pretzels later in the day.  CARB LOADING!


But anyway, back to the point of this.  I had been hoping to get some miles in while I was in Philly on either Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.  While I thought it might be cooler on Thursday morning, I decided to head out on Wednesday night since I know my track record for morning runs lately is horrible, and it make Thursday morning more convenient if I didn't have to get up at 5am to run some indeterminate amount of miles.

So, I hit the old dusty trail at about 7 on Wednesday evening.  It was actually the Schuykill River Trail and it was not dusty at all.  I actually began my run from my hotel in Center City, which was a mistake.  There was just too much pedestrian traffic to really get any momentum until I get West of Rittenhouse Square.  Once I joined the trail at Walnut Street, though it was clear sailing.  I headed northwest toward the Art Museum and Manyunk, and there were a lot of runners and bikers out on this gorgeous evening, and its easy to see why this is one of the most popular places to run in Philadelphia.

It also paralleled the route of the second half of the Philadelphia Marathon. There was no way I was in any shape (or had time to) make it out to Manyunk and back, so I did a 3.something mile out and back (no Garmin) in 1:10:41, so I'm calling it 7.5 miles.  


And then I went to Nodding Head Brewery and had an amazing bacon cheeseburger.  I admit it, I run so I can eat more.

I planned to get up on run on Friday morning so I wouldn't have to run long this morning after fencing, but I was just too tried from my business trip and didn't make it out.  6.2 hilly miles today gets me 13.7 for the week, close but no cigar.

 My goal for next week is 20, so I think I'm better off just giving myself tomorrow off and having good runs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and then getting the last couple on Saturday.  Schedule is going to be tough this week, so getting out there to run consistently is more important than an arbitrary mileage goal.