Life & Training

Hello friends!

Is it just me or did this week feel extra long to anyone else? I know we had a holiday Monday, but still … it felt long. Oh well, the good news is that we survived and since we did, now it is time for a weekly recap. I got an email this week that said there are 7 weeks until the New York City Marathon. What the what?! That seems so soon!

Monday

Monday was a pretty low-key day. Daniel had to work, so I did a little bit of work from home myself and ran a few errands. Nothing super exciting. But low-key is pretty much my favorite, so I was content. Monday evening Rebecca, Lizzie, Squishy and I did an easy five mile recovery run. We had all run long (and fast!) on Sunday, so it was nice to get in some easy miles, although we were all struggling a little bit.

After our run, Rebecca and I took a “then and now” picture with Squishy. It’s so hard to believe that she is already turning one, but at the same time it feels like she has always been here. Rebecca and I ran (and walked towards the very end) tons of miles together throughout her pregnancy and we have run tons of miles with the stroller this year. Squishy loves it. She just doesn’t like it if we stop.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning I woke up extra early to meet Rebecca at dark:thirty for a medium-long run. We got 12 miles in and I got to work by 6:30 am! Boom. I had a very productive day and left feeling tired like I was in much better shape for the September 15th deadline.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning was back to the usual #workoutwednesday. This was the first workout I have done since the whole rib situation, so I was ready to get back to it and interested to see how I felt. It has been just over two weeks since my last workout, but for whatever reason like feels like so long ago. Of course my head had me questioning whether or not I had lost all of my fitness. Dramatic much?

I had 3 X 2 mile repeats on the schedule with a goal range of 6:25 to 6:30. I headed to the treadmill and got going early. Here’s what I did …

2 mile warmup: starting at 6.0 mph for 2 minutes and increase the speed by .2 every 2 minutes

1st 2 miles: averaged 6:31 (9.2 mph)

2nd 2 miles: averaged 6:27 (9.3 mph)

3rd 2 miles: averaged 6:24 (9.4 mph)

2 mile cool down: at 6.5 to 7.5 mph (not adjusted at regular intervals)

I ended up with 10 miles in about 74 minutes, so right about a 7:25 average pace. I was pleasantly surprised with the results of this workout! I love early morning runs and workouts because they give me lots of time to think and pray and get my day off to a good start.

I was planning to do a post Wednesday, so I was thinking about what I was going to do while I was running. I have been wanting to do one of those What I (Fill in the Blank) Wednesday posts. I have seen WIAW (what I ate Wednesday), WIWW (what I wore Wednesday), etc. You guys probably could care less to know what I ate or wore. Heck, you might not want to know anything else about me, but alas you are reading my blog so we will just pretend that you do. What I came up with to share is WILTW (What I Listened to Wednesday). In case that didn’t work out, I also took a few pics of what I wore as well.

So … here is WIWW.

• Workout clothes: One awesome benefit of having a treadmill is that it doesn’t matter at all what I wear for my workout. I’m usually in something that I would probably not otherwise wear in public or admit to wearing on the internet.
• Real work outfit: I do dress in something other than running clothes every now and then.
• After work clothes: Usually after work I promptly change back into my running clothes (even if I am not running again). One of the main reasons I was thinking about doing a WIWW post this week is because I had a fun little activity scheduled after work. I had a hometown photo shoot as part of the Runner’s World cover search. All of the finalists are having a hometown shoot and we are all going to NYC next week (woo hoo!) to participate in a photo shoot there. I am so excited about that! Runner’s World is treating us so well. Daniel and Rebecca came to the shoot here to watch and they got some pretty cool pictures. I only did two outfit changes, so it wasn’t as good of a WIWW opportunity as I was thinking it would be, but it was a lot of fun and now I am even more excited about NYC.

And … here is WILTW.

• Workout playlist: I plug my iPod into the treadmill and I love having music to run to. Another perk of having a treadmill is that I can listen to whatever I want out loud and not disturb anyone else or worry with headphones. I have an old iPod that I only use for running. It is over five years old, but it is still going strong (especially considering all the sweat and jostling that it gets when I run with it). My playlist Wednesday was a pretty random shuffle of songs …
• In the car: On my way to and from work, I rarely change the station from K-LOVE. I just love this station. It truly is nothing but positive, encouraging music, news, stories, etc. I enjoy some worship time in the morning on the way to work and it puts me in a good mind-set to be ready to tackle whatever the day brings. My favorite song right now is “My Story” by Big Daddy Weave. Fun fact: this band got their start at University of Mobile, which is where Daniel went to school. Here are a few of the lyrics …

If I told you my story

You would hear Hope that wouldn’t let go

And if I told you my story

You would hear Love that never gave up

And if I told you my story

You would hear Life, but it wasn’t mine

If I should speak then let it be

Of the grace that is greater than all my sin

Of when justice was served and where mercy wins

Of the kindness of Jesus that draws me in

Oh to tell you my story is to tell of Him

If I told you my story

You would hear victory over the enemy

And if I told you my story

You would hear freedom that was won for me

And if I told you my story

You would hear Life overcome the grave

 This is my story, this is my song

Praising my savior all the day long

• At work: Occasionally I will stream Pandora during the day, but this isn’t an all the time thing. I try to reserve it for “special” times, so basically on Fridays or if I feel like I just need a little extra something to get me through the day. I usually rely on coffee in times that like, but sometimes even caffeine is not enough. The struggle is real. Anyway, I currently have my work Pandora station set to “90s country,” because let’s face it country music these days just isn’t the same as it was when we were growing up.

I feel like an official blogger now. My first WIWW and WILTW post. Well … It is technically not on Wednesday, but I reckon that gives me something to work towards. Can’t knock it completely out of the park the first time right?

Thursday

Thursday morning Lizzie and I did an easy eight miles before work. I saw Dr. Justin again Thursday evening and the ribs are definitely on the mend. One more visit and I should be good to go.

Friday

Friday I was supposed to do a hill repeat workout. The workout is usually 12 miles, so I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do my typical route before work, as it would be too early and too dark. My coach had mentioned that I could do this workout on the treadmill if I needed to, by adjusting the pace and the inclines to simulate what the “pickups” would be like on actual hills. I texted him Thursday evening to ask questions like what incline do I need to go to, how long should I stay at the incline and what pace should I do for the pickups. He suggested a 4% incline, but basically said that exact incline/pace/time wasn’t critical.

Um … I don’t understand. Exact numbers aren’t necessary? I can’t comprehend this. My brain is exploding a little. Maybe I’m just weird, but I like exact amounts and goals. I told him that I could deal with it, but then I didn’t. Ha. I ended up doing the workout outside, just shortened the distance so that I could run on some actual hills and could start when it was lighter out. Daniel and I did a couple easy miles after work, so that I could still get the total distance for the day. #runnerdproblems.

Saturday

This week has been an easier, cutback week for my marathon training group and they were happy to only have 13 miles on the schedule today. They have done 15 twice now and we jump back up to 16 next week, so this week was a nice breath of fresh air. Speaking of fresh air, the weather is getting amazing. It felt pretty good out this morning, but it has been getting even better all day and tomorrow morning we are supposed to have temperatures in the low 60s!

I stayed on foot with the group this week (and successfully stayed upright). I was a little wary of getting back on the bike, mainly just because of the photo shoot coming up this week. All of my wounds are pretty much healed up, so if I can make it through this next week without falling that would be really nice. I’m setting some pretty lofty goals for myself these days.

After the run, I headed to Squishy’s birthday party! She is absolutely adorable and she was really loving her some birthday cake.

I came home after the party and took a nice, long nap. It was glorious. Sleeping has to be one of my very favorite activities. Now we are (and by we are, I mean Daniel is) watching some football and relaxing at home. I plan to take full advantage of those low 60 degree temperatures tomorrow morning for my long-run. I have to do some up-tempo miles in the middle of the run, so hopefully the temperature will help make that doable. I will definitely take any help that I can get!

I think we are officially caught up now. This has been a good week of training and I have some really fun stuff coming up next week! Hopefully I will be able to fill y’all in on some of that when I get home. I hope everyone is having a great weekend and enjoying some wonderful, fall weather.