Month: June 2021

Hey friends!

Here is what training looked like the week of 06.14.21 – 06.20.21:

Monday – Easy: 7 miles (8:25 pace) 

I ran after work Monday and it was quite the struggle! It was hot, yes, but I think the main problem was that I was still not recovered from Saturday’s quality session. I managed to get 7 miles in, but it wasn’t super pleasant.

Tuesday – Easy: 6.3 miles (9:18 pace) + PM – Strength (30 minutes)

I was supposed to do a workout Tuesday morning, but given how bad my legs felt on Monday afternoon, I thought better of it. Until I get used to having quality miles sprinkled back into my weekly routine, I’m going to need more time in between the workout days. Typically 2-3 days would be fine, but for now it will probably be more like 3-4 or 4-5 days in between. I struggled again Tuesday just to run easy miles and several walk breaks were needed. Argh.

It has been a few weeks since I have done legs at the gym and I had a sneaking suspicion that Gabbi would have that in store for me this week … and I was right! How wonderful. Legs are already trashed? Seems like as good a time as any to make sure they truly felt like garbage. Ha! We did kettle bell squats, walking lunges with weights, a single leg kneeling to standing exercise (also with weights!), the hip abductor and adductor machine, the leg press machine and a couple other things that escape me at the moment. It was a good workout and oddly enough, I don’t think my legs were any worse for the wear afterwards.

Wednesday – Easy: 7 miles (9:04 pace)

I met friends again Wednesday morning for some nice recovery miles. I think (at least I hope) this might a consistent staple in the weekly routine for the time being. Yay!

Thursday AM – Quality: 9 miles (7:14 pace) + PM – Strength (45 minutes)

I finally got my workout in Thursday morning! As an added bonus, it was COOL when I walked outside. Of course, cool is relative. It was 68° w/ a dew point of 62° and compared to what we’ve been dealing with, let me tell you that this was a real TREAT. My workout was a two mile warm up, 6 X 1k at threshold with 2 minute recoveries and a two mile cool down.

With the workout distance in kilometers, this one would’ve been well suited for the track, but I decided to program the distance into my watch and run on the road instead. For whatever reason, I have a really hard time getting out the door earlier than usual to drive to the track. I used to live within running distance of the track, which apparently spoiled me. Now that I don’t live within running distance of the track, it seems that I simply can’t be bothered to make it happen. Ha. Thankfully, there is a nice, flat stretch of road that has minimal traffic that is currently within running distance. That spot has definitely become my go-to spot for workouts. The plan was to aim for around 6:15 on these and either stay consistent or progressively get a tad faster. My splits were 6:23, 6:06, 6:07, 6:11, 6:02 and 5:55 pace. I’d say that the goal was accomplished!

After work I went to the gym for a 45 minute group strength training class. I got there a little bit early and did a few minutes on the elliptical to kill the time. For the class we did three sets of seven different exercises for one minute (pushups, planks, battle ropes, step ups, wall ball, wall sit and spin bike). It was a good workout and the time really flew by!

Friday – Easy: 4 miles (9:20 pace)

After a big day on Thursday, I wanted to make sure to take it really easy on Friday. I did a couple miles on the driveway before work and that was it. Overall, I was feeling pretty tired and run down, but I guess that is to be expected.

Saturday – Easy: Elliptical (40 minutes) + Strength (15 minutes)

Saturday was a total washout thanks to Tropical Storm Claudette. Not gonna lie, it was really nice to have a legit excuse to stay in pajamas for the majority of the day and alternate between reading and napping. I read an entire book and think I took three mini-naps! By late afternoon, however, I was a bit stir crazy and so I decided to go over to the gym for a few minutes for some light cross training. I didn’t really want to do too much, but I did want to do at least something … so that’s pretty much exactly what I did!

Sunday – Easy: 7.7 miles (8:25 pace)

I was supposed to do a quality session Sunday, but decided against it. My legs were finally feeling back to normal, which was nice, but I still didn’t want to really push it. I settled for a “sailboat loop” from home before going to church with my dad. I got in a short walk with my mom after church as well, so all in all, it was a solid day of family activities!

Totals – 
41 miles running
3 miles walking
70 minutes elliptical
90 minutes strength

Thanks for reading along! Talk to you guys soon.

Hey friends!

Here is what training looked like the week of 06.07.21 – 06.13.21:

Monday AM – Easy: 3.75 miles (9:04 pace) + PM – Easy: 5.35 miles (7:47 pace)

Monday started off with a somewhat literal bang! My tire blew out as I was on my way to meet friends to run. I was less than a mile away from where I was meeting them, which was both good and bad. Good that I was close, but bad because I just kept driving and destroyed the tire. Long story short, the run got cut a bit short because I was trying to figure out what to do with my life.

I did, however, manage to get in a few miles after work to make up for what I missed. Not that it would’ve been a big deal to miss out on those miles, but I felt good and wanted to get it in, so that’s what I did. I did a few twenty second strides after the evening portion of the run to prime my legs for a workout Tuesday morning.

Tuesday AM – Quality: 9 miles (7:26) + PM – Strength

Tuesday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 2 X 10 minute @ threshold w/ 3 minute recovery, 4 X 1 minute @ interval with 1 minute recovery and a 2 mile cool down. I certainly seemed to pick a heckuva week to add back some official quality miles to my schedule. Tuesday morning at 5 a.m. it was 75° w/ a dew point of 74° (rough for sure!). The two ten minute blocks were supposed to be at threshold pace (approximately 6:15) and the four one minute blocks were supposed to be at interval pace (approximately 5:45). With that being said, the goal wasn’t so much to nail a specific pace as it was supposed to be to run the appropriate effort. Theoretically that should always be the goal, but I think it’s even more important when coming back from an extended period of down time. I have been maintaining a really solid base level of running fitness, but I haven’t been doing any quality sessions, so I’m not as speedy as I once was and also my internal speedometer is a bit rusty.

I tried my best not to look at the paces at all during the workout. I glanced down a couple times on the threshold miles mainly to make sure I wasn’t taking it out too hot. I averaged 6:13 for the first set and 6:09 for the second set. I averaged 5:32 for the minutes on, which was definitely a bit too spicy, but the paces felt doable at the time. I will say that afterwards, I was cooked. My stomach also decided to revolt immediately after the workout, which is also likely a sign that I over-ran it a bit. Thankfully there was a bathroom really close by! Otherwise, that wouldn’t have ended well. It had been quite a while since I have pushed myself that hard. I had almost completely forgotten what those post-workout endorphins felt like! Ahh-mazing!

Thankfully, Tuesday’s strength session was chest and triceps. I don’t think I could’ve handled any sort of legs that day.

Wednesday – Easy: 7 miles (8:56 pace)

I met friends again Wednesday morning for some nice recovery miles. I can’t believe that I went months without really running with anyone to speak of. I’ve missed this!

Thursday – Easy: 6 miles (8:44 pace) + Strength

I planned to get out before work Thursday morning, but right as I was about to run we had a little pop up shower. In hindsight, I totally should’ve gone ahead and run anyway, but in the moment, I decided to knock some chores out and enjoy extra coffee time at home with Richard before work. It was 87° with a feels like temp of 98° when I ran later that afternoon. Holy hotness! To say that run was a struggle would be a bit of an understatement.

After my run, I went to the gym for a 45 minute group strength training class. We typically do the class inside, but this week we were actually outside. It was actually shady with a nice breeze and felt so much cooler than it did when I was running. Thank goodness! I don’t know if I would’ve survived otherwise. This week’s class was a bit more cardio than strength focused (I think technically all the classes are high-intensity interval training (HIIT) style). We did 5 X 30 seconds of jumping jacks, push ups, high knees, mountain climbers, jump rope, sled pulls, kettlebell swings and battle ropes. The time flew by!

Friday – Easy: 8 miles (9:07 pace) 

I struggled again on my easy run Friday morning. I think it’s going to take me a little bit of time to get used to incorporating quality runs and strength training into my regular routine. I’ve done Pilates in conjunction with heavy training volume in the past, but never anything with weights.

Saturday – Quality: 13 miles (7:45 pace)

Saturday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 3 X 2 miles at threshold pace with a half mile recovery and a 2 mile cool down. The plan was to drop the pace a bit on each set (goal paces were 6:30, 6:20 and 6:10). Thankfully Rebecca and Kara convinced me to start at 5 a.m., because if I had gone any later, it would’ve been ugly. It was 79° w/ a dew point of 72° when we started. I just thought Tuesday was rough. Nope! Saturday was brutal. I think it’s more of an insult because May was so nice. We typically ease into the intense heat gradually, but this year it’s like a bit ole slap in the face.

I honestly didn’t have high expectations for this run, especially after struggling through my easy runs on both Thursday and Friday. I also know that I probably should’ve adjusted the goal paces a bit beforehand, but I just told myself to get into it and see how I felt. I surprised myself on the first two sets, averaging 6:32 and 6:21. Even though those were doable, I was also getting really hot. I paused my watch for a minute or two after the second set, got some water and let the cold water fountain water run all over my face. It was glorious! I think that gave me just enough of the pick-me-up I needed to go forth and conquer the last set. I guess I got a bit overly zealous and I ran the first mile of the last set in 6:07. Granted, this was close to what I was supposed to do, but it also turned out to be a bit much. I made it halfway through the last mile of the workout (so close!) and stopped to walk. I walked a tenth of a mile before convincing myself that I could indeed finish this thing. I finished it up with a really solid half mile (but forgot to lap my watch at the end of it (fail!)).

All in all, I am definitely considering this one major victory. This was a BIG workout in BIG heat and I did the dang thing. That was also my longest run all year. WOW! Welcome back, eh?!

Sunday – Easy: 6.5 miles (8:31 pace)

I finished up the week with some easy miles. I also did 30 minutes of Pilates at home in the afternoon, which seems like a nice, relaxing way to wrap up the week!

Total – 58.6 miles of running + 1.75 hours of strength

Hey friends!

Here is what training looked like the week of 06.01.21 – 06.06.21:

Monday – Easy: 8.0 miles (8:13 pace)

We woke up to wonderful temps in the low-sixties on Memorial Day! It felt so good out. It was also so nice not to have to rush out of the door super early like I do on a regular work day. After lounging a bit and leisurely drinking my morning coffee, I did an easy 8 mile run from the house. We had plans to go out on the boat with my mom and dad mid-morning. I ended up water skiing 3 miles while we were out on the bay. Hopefully this will be the first of many ski sessions of the season!

I wasn’t oddly energized when we got back home mid-afternoon and I even ended up doing about 30-45 minutes of Pilates + random strength/stretching type stuff. Not gonna lie, I surprised myself by skipping a nap and getting that in!

Tuesday – Quality: 2 mi. WU, 4 mi. tempo (6:14 pace), 2 mi. CD

After over a month of zero quality sessions, I decided to dust myself off and give it a go on Tuesday morning. This was a bit of a spontaneous decision for sure! I went back and forth between doing a 5k time trial and doing a 4 mile tempo. The goal of both would be to get in a solid effort and give myself a better gauge of my current fitness level. The thought of a time trial was NOT appealing (special shout out to Spring of 2020 for that!), so I ultimately settled on the tempo effort. I made it a progressive tempo and was able to do 6:33, 6:16, 6:13 and 5:58. After an entire month of no “fast” running, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I’ve gotten some solid base building in during the last month or so and it seems like my fitness level stayed a bit higher than I expected.

Wednesday AM – Easy: 7.65 miles (8:46 pace) + PM – Strength

Wednesday was Global Running Day! I celebrated by running some miles with one of my very best running buddies, Rebecca. We haven’t gotten a chance to run together in quite some time (life is hard sometimes), so this was a treat. We’ve run thousands upon thousands of miles together over the last decade!

Wednesday evening I went to the gym and did some strength work. I started with a 300 meter row, did 30 minutes of strength work with Gabbi and ended it with 15 minutes on the elliptical.

Thursday – Moderate: 4.1 miles (7:04 pace) + Strength

I woke up to rain Thursday morning and decided to take advantage of a nice opportunity to sleep in a bit. I had a short window of time after work to run before going to the gym for a 45 minute group strength training class. I made the most of the 30 minutes that I did have and ran a bit quicker than normal. The group class was a lot of fun! We did 3 rounds of 8 different exercises with shrinking duration and shrinking rest. For example, the first time through we did each exercise for one minute w/ 30 seconds in between, the second time through we did each exercise for 40 seconds w/ 20 seconds in between and the last time around we did each exercise for 20 seconds w/ 10 seconds in between. It was a great workout! It’s nice to have some dedicated strength training time in my regular training mix.

Friday – Easy: 7.9 miles (8:18 pace) 

I ran from home before work Friday morning and kept it super easy because I was definitely feeling the strength work from the previous two days!

Saturday – Easy: 6.0 miles (8:19 pace)

We went to see Richard’s family for the weekend. After being up later than usual on Friday night, I slept in and got a later start Saturday morning. I think we might officially be to the point where this is no longer acceptable from a weather perspective. The heat and humidity zapped me and I struggled to get an easy six miles in.

Sunday – Easy: 10.5 miles (8:23 pace)

I wised up on Sunday and got out the door a bit earlier. It was actually raining for the majority of the run (just a light drizzle) and that felt really nice. I got in my “long run” for the week on a nice out and back stretch of country road (half paved and half dirt).

Total – 52.6 miles of running + 2.0 hours of strength