Theory Debunked?

Hello, readers! If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you might remember this post, in which I expressed my skepticism about the need to run 40-50 miles a week to be a "good" runner. I wrote, "I would think that as long as I have the cardiovascular capability to keep my heart-rate at a 160-180 pace for an extended period of time (which can be attained in ways other than running 4 days per week) and more importantly the muscle strength to carry me through 26.2 miles (which can also be attained in ways other than running) I should be able to finish the race, right?" After just two weeks of triathlon training, which includes only two very short runs per week, I have to admit that I was wrong.

When I swim or bike, my heart and breathing rates do get very high--even higher than they do on my usual mid-to-long runs, and I have been doing one of those three activities six days a week. Nevertheless, I have still noticed a serious decline in my ability to run comfortably at even a 10:30 pace. My breathing comfort zone the last month or so of marathon training was a four-in-three-out cycle, but when I tried that pattern today I found that I simply didn't have the lung capacity for it and I had to switch to a three-two pattern. Let me reiterrate: It has only been two and a half weeks since the marathon! It is truly alarming how difficult my run was this morning. It was supposed to be an "easy" 30 minute run, but I ran it pretty hard. If not for my Garmin, I would have sworn I was running 9:30 miles, based on my breathing and heart rate alone. My overall average was, in fact, only a 10:24. My only source of pride from today's run is that I ran it in a "negative split" which is runner talk for running the second half faster than the first.

This past week was a week of time-trials. I'll do the same distances again in a month or so and see if I have improved. I swam 400 meters in 7:54 (I have no idea if that's any good or not), biked 16k in 35:18 and ran 3k in 16:54. My shoulders are definitely feeling the hard swims from this week, and my glutes are definitely feeling the biking, but over all I feel good. As much as I love running, it is nice to be mixing it up a little bit.

Personal notes:

• Still no job yet, but I have gotten several more leads this week. Hopefully one of them pans out!
• Rob and I drove to Florida last weekend. We went primarily to attend a wedding reception dinner thing (They had actually already been married, twice: once in a Muslim ceremony and once in a Christian one--fascinating!) but we spent Friday night in Pensacola with my favorite redhead, Lucy, and managed to squeeze in a second dinner with my parents on Saturday night. I always love to see them:) Sunday was terrible--it took us close to 16 hours to get back home, because traffic was really heavy. Listening to East of Eden the last 4 hours or so was very helpful though. We'll be making the drive back to Pensacola in a couple of weeks for another wedding, and the weekend after that I will be flying to Jacksonville for another wedding. Weddings galore!
• We won trivia last week. I have never been on a winning trivia team before, so that was kind of awesome, I must say. We are going to go back next week and spend our winnings and play again.
• Atlas had her last round of puppy shots yesterday. She was supposed to be spayed as well, but we just can't afford that right now. Turns out she wouldn't have been allowed to anyway, because she has developed a heart arrhythmia that may or may not go away as she continues to develop.