Run With It

Here is my training log for the week of 10.16.17 – 10.22.17!

Monday AM – Easy: 5 miles (8:43 pace) + PM – Easy: 5.2 miles (8:10 pace)

I woke up to steady rain Monday morning and decided to hop on the treadmill for a few miles.

Fall finally made its much anticipated arrival Monday afternoon! Woo! Plans were made for an impromptu group run after work and I just couldn’t say no. It felt absolutely amazing out.

Tuesday – Easy: 6 miles (8:34 pace)

I did an easy loop with Daniel early Tuesday morning. I was off work Tuesday (no more taxes!) and I had Girls on the Run Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday AM – Hills: 10 miles (8:18 pace) + PM – Easy: 5 miles (8:49 pace)

Let me just say, I am not a fan of the hill repeats. I’ve done hill repeats outside and handful of times and have also tried them on the treadmill [check out this post for a “fun” treadmill hill workout idea]. This week’s workout was outside. I Strava-d a quarter-mile segment that climbed about 60 feet.

My schedule called for a 2 mile warm up, 12 X 400 repeats up a moderate hill (4 to 5 percent incline) with a jog down recovery and a 2 mile cool down. The goal was to run at a hard, but manageable effort up the hills. There were no set pace goals (thank goodness). Running up and down a hill 12 times is basically a challenge, regardless of pace. For what it’s worth, I did track my paces (because … data). My splits were all between 1:45 and 1:50, which is between 7:00 and 7:20 pace. I basically feel like I am running in quicksand when I try to run up a hill and my training buddies (Young Daniel and Sasser) left me in the dust! I know that hills will make me stronger and faster, but it certainly didn’t feel that way in the moment.

Basically, my theme this week was, “I’m free [from work]. Let’s say yes and run all the miles [within reason] when anyone else wants to run!” Jessica wanted to run Wednesday evening and so, duh! I did. The weather was still quite nice (this wouldn’t be the case later in the week) and we had a wonderful run!

Thursday AM – Easy: 5 miles (8:35 pace) + PM – Easy: 5.6 miles (8:20 pace) 

Daniel and I did a loop Thursday morning. He had a work thing to go to Thursday evening. After Girls on the Run, I decided to head to the local group run and keep myself occupied for a little bit while he was gone.

Friday – Easy: 8 miles (8:00 pace)

Young Daniel, Sasser and I were back at it Friday morning for some 10 X 30 second pickups with 1 minute recoveries. This mini workout has made its way into my schedule several times recently and I’m loving it. Our pickups were faster this week than they have been. It was the perfect start to a Friday!

Saturday – Easy: 4 miles (9:29 pace)

I got in an easy run with Jessica Saturday morning before heading to Apalachicola for the Run for the Bay Half Marathon Sunday.

Sunday – Long Run: 21 miles (8:07 pace)

I will likely write a separate recap of this race in the next day or so, but basically my plan was to run a 2 mile warm up, run the half marathon at a brisk pace (close to my goal marathon pace) and to run a 2 mile cool down to get in a 17 mile quality long run. I wasn’t able to hit the pace that I wanted (6:45 to 6:55), but the conditions were far from favorable (75 degrees with a dew point of 73 and 20 mph winds at the start). Fall decided to take a few days off.

I averaged 7:21 for the first 5 miles of the half (on the bridge straight into the wind) and then was able to drop it down a tad. I averaged 6:59 for the last 8 miles of the half (off the bridge for a couple of miles and then 5 more miles back across the bridge). I got my two miles in afterwards and went out to cheer for Rebecca, who was running the ultra (31 miles). I ran a few more miles with her at various points along the way and ended up with about 4 more miles total, giving me 21 miles for the day.

Rebecca and I both came in first overall at our races, so that was really cool! To be fair, the race had so many distances (5K, 10K, Half, Full & Ultra) that there were less than 50 people per event (it seemed like). Haha. Whatever though … we’ll take it!