Howdy!
You might’ve noticed that I got behind on weekly recaps last week (or maybe you didn’t because no one really cares … that’s totally cool too). This week you get two recaps for the price of one! It’s sort of like running blogger BOGO. Sort of …
Oh! Another bonus will be that I have included a few non-running related pictures, etc. throughout. My grandmother suggested that I talk about something other than running (hi Nana!) and so I figured (even though *technically* this is a running blog), she was probably right. Believe me, I truly wish that I had more time to write and spend on the blog like I used to, but I just don’t. I’m in a different season right now.
Speaking of seasons, I have been thinking a lot about the timing of events and things that happen in our lives and how our perspective on these events and happenings can shift so much over the years. You’ve probably heard that the days are long, but the years are short and I can totally see that being true. Sometimes I think back to high school or college or even just before I met Daniel and at the time, those seemed like really long “seasons,” but now each of those seasons seems like a tiny blip on the radar of my life. I know that mathematically it makes sense. When you are 18 or 22, the 4 years of high school or college make up close to 20% of your entire life, but now that you are older (and so very much wiser … haha), those 4 years are closer to 10% of your total life. Perhaps that is what makes them seem more insignificant? Not sure if that makes any sense … but for whatever reason I’ve been thinking about that a lot.
Anywho … let’s talk about running, shall we?!
Week of 06/26 through 07/02:
Monday: 8 miles (8:41 pace)
I ran 5 miles with the Daniels and 3 miles solo.
Tuesday: 2 mi. WU, 8 X 600 (2:13, 2:08, 2:10, 2:10, 2:11, 2:12, 2:12, 2:08), 2 mi. CD
I had 600 meter repeats on tap Tuesday morning. The goal pace for these was 5:40 to 5:50 pace. I wasn’t sure how doable that was going to be and I ended up being pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the 600 meter distance (one and a half laps on the track). You can easily divide it up into sections and they really felt more like 400s than 600s.
Wednesday: 8 miles (8:31 pace) + 5 miles (8:52 pace)
Wednesday morning was the exact same as Monday … 5 miles with the Daniels and 3 miles solo.
Thursday: 4 miles (8:47 pace)
I did a short easy on the TM Thursday morning before work. The first meet of the Summer Track Series was scheduled for Thursday evening, so I just wanted to get a few miles in that morning for my co-workers sake. I kid. I kid. Well, kind of … what can I say, running keeps me sane and sweet. The track meet ended up getting rained out, so it worked out that I had gotten a few miles in that morning anyway.
Friday: 13.1 miles (8:03 pace)
Friday morning Rebecca and I ran 13.1 miles so that I could check off my virtual half for the month. Friday was by far the worst conditions that we have run in yet this summer. It was 100% humidity (not an exaggeration) and the *feels like* temperature was 90 degrees at 6 a.m. Goodness. It was rough out there! We originally planned to do 7 – 8 up-tempo miles in the middle of the run, but that turned into less than 5. It was no biggie though … we got it done and got to catch up on life in the process.
It’s not every day that you get a half marathon in before work. You know … totally casual. I was kind of rushing around after the run to actually make it to work on time (which I did!), but I had a major coffee fail in the process. I usually drink a cup of coffee at home before I get to work, but since I was running a little behind Friday morning, I decided to take my delicious cup of caramel vanilla goodness with me to enjoy at work. In theory, this was a wonderful idea. In reality, the execution was flawed.
I was very fortunate because the majority of the spillage was contained in my cup holder, but was very unfortunate because my cup of goodness was about 3/4 of the way empty. It wouldn’t be that big of a deal if we had decent coffee at work, but the only coffee that we currently have is “dark magic,” and let me just tell you … it tastes like dirt (or perhaps diesel fuel).
Actual picture of me if I try to drink the voodoo coffee …
Anyway … somehow I managed to survive the day on 1/4 a cup of coffee. You didn’t know this was possible? Yeah. Me either.
Saturday: 13.5 miles (8:57 pace)
We met our friends Saturday morning for our usual long (ish) run from Warehouse. The humidity was rough again, but everyone lived to run another day.
Sunday: 5 miles (8:37 pace)
After two rough outdoor runs, I decided to take my run inside on Sunday morning, which was a very nice break! I really haven’t used our new treadmill all that much, so I’m still pretty excited to run on it each time that I get the chance.
We went to my grandmother’s for lunch Sunday afternoon. My mom brought this beautiful (and delicious) red, white and blueberry pie to lunch and it was a big hit!
After lunch, Daniel swam in the bay and I paddle boarded with him. I tried to stay beside him (which is harder than it sounds) and I almost ran him over a few times. We will come up with a better strategy next time.
Week of 07/03 through 07/09:
Monday: 7 miles (8:55 pace) + 5 miles (8:32 pace)
Daniel was off work Monday and was able to start a little later than usual, so I did a few miles on my own and then met Daniel and Kenny for a mile or so before running back to the house.
I haven’t been doing a very good job at getting many doubles in so far this summer. I don’t really *need* to do doubles, but at the same time my training plan calls for 1 – 2 optional secondary runs per week, so I feel like I am missing out if I don’t get them in (totes normal … I know). I got off work a little early Monday afternoon, caught a quick nap and got a double in that afternoon. Part of the reason that I haven’t been able to run (or blog for that matter) as much this summer is because I am working full-time (as opposed to part-time the last few summers) and I am just so dang tired when I get home. Man, I tell ya, adulting can really be rough sometimes.
Tuesday: 4 miles (9:06 pace)
I started off my fourth of July with an easy 4 mile run. I was going to do 5, but then I decided to be festive and do 4 miles for the fourth. We had a fun, busy day of playing on the bay ahead of us and I definitely didn’t want to be too tired to miss out on any of that!
The bay is typically calmer in the morning than in the afternoon, so we decided to go out early and take advantage of the smooth water. Here are a few action shots from the day!
Brooks has always loved the water. I think it has something to do with the fact that he was introduced to it at a really young age (read: he fell off the boat when he was a wee tot). It’s either that or because he is a golden retriever and it’s in his blood. Who knows.
Baby Brooksy! P.S. Look at those paws!
We let him swim and play fetch with his water toy for a while and after that he is content to just ride on the paddle board with me. We love to go “surfing” on the board! I also got to ski for a little bit, which was fun. We had a family lunch at my uncle’s house on the creek and after that we were all primed and ready for a nice afternoon nap.
Wednesday: 2 mi. WU, 6 X 1000 (3:48, 3:48, 3:44, 3:48, 3:55, 4:00), 2 mi. CD
Woof. If I had to describe this workout in one word, it would be brutal. I don’t know if it was being out in the sun all day the day before or the fact that the heat index was at 93 degrees at 5 that morning (I mean … c’mon … how is that even physically possible) or some combination of those two, but for whatever reason, this workout was BRUTAL. I don’t remember being that hot and miserable during a race or a workout in quite some time. At least I had a good attitude about it eh?
For realz though, I am at least happy that I got the workout in and I did all 6 repeats that were prescribed on my training plan, even though I really, really wanted to cut it short. Sometimes showing up and putting in the effort (even if the paces don’t exactly reflect said effort) is worth something.
Thursday: 5 miles (8:44 pace)
Daniel and I did our standard loop Thursday morning.
Friday: 2 mi. WU, 6 X 1 mile (6:54, 6:46, 6:44, 6:36, 6:34, 6:28), 1.5 mi. CD
Friday morning I had a fun little 6 X 1 mile workout. The good news is that the repeats were done at LT pace and not at V02 max pace. Friday was the first morning so far this summer that I used the pace adjustment calculator to adjust the paces from my training plan to properly reflect the temperature and dew point. It seems like we had a fairly mild summer up until the month of July arrived and since then, it’s been a little rough. I’ve also been doing shorter workouts this summer and it doesn’t seem like the pace adjustment is as necessary for short repeats.
I adjusted my goal pace from 6:20 to 6:40 and headed over to the track and got it done. Daniel came to the track with me and rode his bike around the track while I ran. I won’t go to the track by myself in the dark and so I was very thankful that he was willing to ride his bike in tiny circles while I did my workout! He had a race on Saturday, so he wasn’t really needing to get in a major workout or anything anyway, so that worked out well.
Friday evening after work we headed to Meridian, Mississippi for Daniel’s race Saturday morning. We got there just before 8 p.m. and just in time to pick up his packet. We checked into our (super sketchy) hotel and crashed.
Saturday: 2.7 miles (8:27 pace) + 5.3 miles (8:40 pace)
The race took place at Bonita Lakes Park in Meridian. I was able to squeeze in a short run before the race started. There was a wonderful running path around the lake and I really enjoyed running there.
The race was a sprint triathlon and was a third of a mile swim, a 17 mile bike and a 5K run. Daniel’s half Ironman is in September and this was a good practice run for him. I’m trying to convince him to do a race recap, but we are currently still in the negotiation phases of that discussion. Ha. In case it doesn’t happen, I’ll briefly summarize …
He placed 19th overall and 5th in his age group. His swim was 9:45, bike was 47:40 (20.8 mph) and run was 20:35 (6:39 pace) for a total time of 1:19:49. I don’t know a whole lot about triathloning, but I know enough to know that he did AMAZING!
I won’t say too much in case he decides to write a recap, but I am SUPER PROUD! I loved watching him race.
I finished up the remaining portion of my run Saturday evening after a glorious little nap.
Sunday: 13 miles (8:39 pace) + 1/3 mile SWIM
We had a good group Sunday morning for a long (ish) run from Warehouse and an added bonus was that Lizzie came to run with us! We don’t get to see enough of her these days.
Daniel somehow convinced me to go swimming with him this afternoon. I haven’t done laps of swimming (i.e., I couldn’t decide if it was correct to say swam or swum) since possibly high school. 5 minutes in the pool felt like 30! Holy Moses. I am definitely not in swimming shape. That was humbling!
I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little “tri-curious” after watching his race yesterday though. Hmm.