Hey friends! Here is what training looked like this week:
Monday – 6.0 mile run (9:00 pace)
- Temperature: 63℉
- Humidity: 44%
- We were finally back in town after several days away. We had a great trip to Kentucky to celebrate my sister-in-law’s 40th birthday, but being home is always the best. We stayed in a house with a lot of other people, which was a lot of fun, but was also fairly draining. Plus traveling always takes a lot out of me in general. The good news is that my legs felt great after a bit of a cutback week.
- I went over to see my mom and dad in the late afternoon so that they could see the little man for a bit. I was able to run while he hung out with them. He changes so much week to week that they are always blown away when they see him. He got his first tooth and started crawling while we were away, so there was a lot to catch up on!
- I love running from their house as this was my “home turf” for quite a few years as well. It’s so beautiful there.
- They took Ward out for a stroll while I was running and I ran into them around mile 5. It was fun to get to see a few Ward smiles mid-run. There isn’t much in my book that tops a Ward smile!
Tuesday – 10.0 mile run (7:20 pace)
- Temperature: 75℉
- Humidity: N/A (indoors)
- Tuesday was a workout day!
- The workout had a 3 mile warm up and a 3 mile cool down with 23 minutes of a cutdown fartlek tempo that looked like 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 minutes “hard” with 2 minutes of easy running in between each set. The only goal was to try to drop the pace down as the intervals went down. Otherwise, it was just go by feel. I’ve been doing a lot of unstructured speedwork (i.e., fartlek workouts) and I’m really enjoying that. No pressure on pace, but just run what feels right!
- We got a good bit of rain on Tuesday, so I took this one to the treadmill. If I’m going to run on the treadmill, I’d much rather it be a workout than an easy run. I can stay very focused and my mind is much more occupied during a workout than an easy run on the treadmill. I get a little bit bored on those easy days.
- Average paces per interval were 5:59 for the 5 minutes, 5:47 for the 4 minutes, 5:31 for the 3 minutes, 5:20 for the 2 minutes and 5:07 for the 1 minute.
- Doing this one on the treadmill felt a little bit like cheating because I had to choose the speed and I knew exactly what I was running, which is typically not the case for a fartlek.
- Either which way, I was happy with how it went and felt like I accomplished the intent of the workout, which was to get a little bit of speed in without overdoing anything since I had a race coming up on Saturday!
Wednesday – 10.0 mile run (8:35 pace)
- Temperature: 57℉
- Humidity: 58%
- I am sad to report that I’ve become a bit of a weeny when it comes to cold temperatures. Perhaps it’s a bit like summer running and I’m just not acclimated yet … we’ll go with that. I waited until mid-afternoon when the temperature was at its peak to get out the door. Gotta love a good work from home “lunch break” run!
- I ran back and forth on our road and ended up with 800 feet of elevation gain.
- It was super windy out. I’m pretty sure wind is my least favorite element to run in. Unless of course it is a point to point race and the wind is at your back the entire way.
- This was my first mid-week double digit easy run since returning to running postpartum. My workouts go into the double digits every now and then, but the easy runs haven’t until now. A silly little milestone perhaps, but one that makes me happy nonetheless.
Thursday – 6.3 mile run (8:30 pace)
- Temperature: 40℉
- Humidity: 76%
- I went to the office on Thursday, so I did have to get my little booty outside while it was still chilly. As long as you are dressed appropriately, it’s really not so bad.
- Side note: There used to be a Runner’s World “Cold Running Calculator” that you could use to input all of your conditions and it told you what to wear. I tried and tried and tried some more to find that this week, but was unsuccessful. If anyone still uses that, please send a link!
- I went with tights, long sleeves, gloves, a hat and an outer windproof light jacket. That seemed to work well for an easy run. I would’ve been overdressed for a workout or a race.
Friday – 4.0 mile run (8:25 pace)
- Temperature: 59℉
- Humidity: 25%
- Friday’s run was a short little shakeout run before Saturday’s race. I tried to keep it nice and easy and felt pretty good.
Saturday – RACE: Turkey 10!
Sunday – 8.0 mile run (8:35 pace)
- Temperature: 42℉
- Humidity: 79%
- I ran with Rebecca on Sunday! We didn’t get to run together the whole time Richard was away on deployment, so we had plenty of things to catch up on.
- It’s always nice to wrap up the week with a run with a good friend!
Weekly Total – 58.5 miles (7:55 pace)
Thanks for following along! Talk to you guys soon.