Weekly summary

Here's an update of how the week went so far.

Monday: The alarm sounded at 4am and I layed in bed debating whether I should sleep in or get my lazy ass up and run. If I sleep in then I know I'll regret it the entire day. Of course, I ended up running. Went for an easy 7.5 miles. I wanted to run around 9-10 miles, but time wasn't on my side. The legs felt a little tired and heavy, probably from the last couple days. (52:02)

Tuesday: Ran 11 miles with a fartlek workout (10 x :30 w/ 1' recovery) in the middle. It felt great to get in some leg-speed. I always think that this is not much of a workout, but I'm always toast afterwards. Part of the workout is that I don't take the recovery too easy. I usually stay around 7:15-7:30 for the recovery. (1:14:03)

Wednesday: Easy recovery run. I got off from work very late last night (10pm) and only got in about 4.5 hours of sleep. I was feeling very tired so I only ran 7 miles (49:07)

Thursday: I didn't do much because I had to conduct my company's Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). The APFT consists of 2 minutes of push-ups, 2 minutes of sit-ups, and a 2-mile run. It is a good test of your physical fitness. Since I entered the Army, I have never scored lower than a 365 on the APFT extended scale. The max score is a 300 (100 in each event), but you can score higher if you do more pushups, situps, or run faster than the maximum according to your age group category. You can only score over a 300 if you max each event first.
On my last PT test, I accomplished my ultimate APFT goal of scoring over a 400 (scored a 402). I did 124 pushups, 108 situps, and ran a 10:20 2-mile. That's an average of 1 pushup/second, almost 1 situp/second, and a 5:10 pace. I can say i'm proud to be a part of the 400 club. I'm not sure who are in it, but I know there are only a few. My next APFT goal is to score over 400, but with a sub-10:00 2-mile. Running sub-10 may seem easy, but try running it immediately following 2 minutes of situps. The situps kills your quads that you almost feel like you have no strength.

Friday: Today is the start of a 4-day weekend before going to the field for 10 days. I actually slept in today to catch up for all the lack of sleep during the week. I ran 7+ miles this morning at a comfortable pace and then 4+ miles easy in the afternoon. The weather was awesome, thanks to Ernesto. High 60s and overcast. I plan to run a 7 Mile race (mostly trails & a little pavement) tomorrow in Charlotte (NC). I just feel the need to get out and enjoy the racing scenery again. It's also great just to be around other runners. I will see what my fitness is like tomorrow. I'm not shooting any PR since its mostly trails. I'll let you all know how it goes. (am: 50:32; pm: 31)