Hello from Shorewood. I’m flying back into Vegas later today.
In a twist of irony, I flew out here expecting to run an eventful half marathon during an uneventful stay in Milwaukee. Instead, I DNS the half marathon and end up spending a lot of time checking out Shorewood, which is quite a nice part of town.
Shorewood, immediately north of Milwaukee’s northern city border, is a lot like Capitol Hill or Upper Queen Anne in Seattle, very relaxed but with a lot of coffee/food shops, and multiple parks within (somewhat lengthy) walking distance. Notable is I had enough to check out in Shorewood alone that I didn’t actually visit the nearby UW Milwaukee campus, the Riverwalk, or Downtown Milwaukee at all.
I was surprised last night to discover I walked 13.86 miles total between multiple excursions yesterday. I guess I basically did that half marathon after all? Albeit, it took 5.5 hours total between multiple round trips and I was walking casually for much of it. However, I did visit two of the area’s beaches (Atwater Beach and Buckley Park), both of which require a steep descent down stairs or paths, then a subsequent climb back up. Hiking up these hills wasn’t exactly running uphill in the Cococino Forest, but the climbs were a bit steep!
The Milwaukee job market isn’t exactly hot, plus my current situation is too good to walk away from, or else I’d consider moving out here. The rental market is actually fairly affordable out here, and that probably has to do with the muted economy out here. There is one very active running group in Shorewood, and they have a bunch of open tracks. I wouldn’t have access to altitude, but you can train much more easily in a place like this. And they have hills, unlike Chicago. You could even do all your hill repeats at a place like Atwater Beach if you wanted to.
In any case, I’m heading back to Vegas after a mostly relaxing long weekend. Part of the reason I didn’t want to attempt the race Sunday was that I woke up that morning with some of my best numbers I’ve had in a while.
My body battery nearly hit 100 for the first time in over a couple months. My overnight oximeter reading (as expected) was over 92% for the first time in a while (thanks obviously to being at lower altitude). I had slept well over 8 hours overnight, despite an early end to the day via time zone change. I knew from experience that running 13 miles hard would screw all of that up the next day and I wouldn’t return home particularly well rested.
Along with that having been sorted (I didn’t sleep a bunch last night, but I didn’t need to), I now have a battle plan in place for training going forward ahead of Indy. The Vegas heat is beginning to recede enough that I can resume morning workouts, so body permitting I want to start running Easy Intervals in the morning, as well as stop by the gym en route to work and do my strength training then. I have to touch-and-go the latter depending on crowds at the gym in the evening, so going in the morning makes that less of a problem, plus avoids some morning commuter traffic. I then have more time after work for elliptical workouts, which account for most of my aerobic training. Then I can do a long run workout once every couple weeks or so, away at altitude if still needed, to specifically train for Indy.
My left ham pain is lingering and mild, and doesn’t impede running for the most part. I’ve been hiking and running across streets without any problem, with or without my backpack. In DNSing I mostly didn’t want to risk aggravating it, as the morning pain persisted a bit more over the past few days. I probably will take it easy today (aside obviously from traveling; I might do a shorter workout tonight), and plan a full rest day from training tomorrow. Once I resume training Wednesday I’ll see how I feel.
If this revised routine works in September, I may be in better shape than expected after all this for October and the marathon the following month. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, more to come once I return to Vegas.