Training Update!

Its been a couple weeks since my last update, and I wanted to fill you in on how things have been going!  So aside from my crap-tastic week last week. this week has been pretty good.  Here's what I've been up to so far...

Monday - 1 hour easy XT. Strength

Nothing super exciting to note.  Nichole had me switch some things because of my lack of training last week, and my bugger of a hip was bothering me.  Did this on the bike with a strength DVD afterwards.

Tuesday - 2 mi. WU&CD, 10x45 sec. hill w/equal distance jog down (jog immediately down, no resting).  7 miles total

Did this inside on the t-mill since our roads are awful.  This went well.  I felt strong and focused on the hills and the time flew by.  My WU & CD felt good too.  Sometimes they can feel much harder than they should, but today it felt easy and relaxed.  Legs felt good too.

Wednesday - 6 miles easy

Stayed at a really slow, easy pace, and avg. around an 8:45.  Legs felt a little more tired today but my hip/knee still feel good.

Thursday - 2 mi. WU&CD. 5x1mi. Tempo (7:10), w/1 min. recovery.  9.25 miles total.

Nichole mentioned for me to try and stick with the 7:10 and 1 min. recovery for as many as I could, but then to feel free to slow down or take more rest if I'm struggling, and struggle I did!  Woof!  Since when did these times become hard?!  I had a hard time after the first one, and that was the only one I was able to do at a 7:10 average.  My next two averaged about a 7:15, my fourth about a 7:20, and my last one around a 7:25.  I stuck with the minute rest for the first 3 repeats, then bumped it to 2 minutes rest for the last couple.  Not sure if I just psyched myself out or what, but I felt like I was working hard to keep these paces.  I was breathing heavy after each one, and it took a good 30-40 seconds to catch my breath.  I havent done a tempo workout in a long time, so I'm hoping that with the speedwork I have coming that it wont take long for my times to go down.

Friday - REST DAY! Thank goodness!
Saturday - 13 miles easy with 2 miles FF (fast finish)
Sunday - 5 miles easy

Looking forward to my long run Saturday.  I'm just crossing my fingers and toes that the road conditions and termps are better so I can run outside this time.

my first turkey trot!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! 

Can I just say how happy I am its almost the weekend?  I have some fun festive plans this weekend and cant wait to get them started :)



Ok, but first things first.  I want to recap my turkey trot race that Jake and I ran on Thanksgiving.  Every year I would always tell myself I would run our local trot, but each year would come up with some excuse not to do it. So this year I finally did, and as an added bonus, Nichole had me use this race a a guage to see where my speed is at.  Not sure if thats a bonus because it was hard, and hurt.

The race started at 8:15, and I had a couple miles of warm up to get in, so Jake and I got to the start early to get that done.  There were a ton of people that showed up to race, and we saw a bunch of friends.  The race had a few distance options (1k,3k, and 5k), so there was an opportunity for anyone/everyone to do it.  Very inclusive and family friendly, which is nice for a race like this.

Jake and I lined up, and I told Jake to keep an eye on the pace, and I would just hang on.  I knew going into this that is wouldnt be a PR race - far from it, but I was at least hoping for 22-23 minutes.  Remember, paces and times are all relative, so what may be slow/fast for me, might be different for you.

Jake and I took off and I tried to distract myself by looking and smiling at everyone running/walking, all the kids and the people in turkey hats (which Jake and I totally had but forgot at home!).  I started to struggle early on ( like mile 1.5!), and my breathing was labored the whole time.  I honestly felt like I kept slowing down and couldnt speed up - I was afraid to even know my pace.  We got to the final 800m and I did my best to pick it up and at least finish strong, and crossed the line at 22:24.  So, my slowest 5k (race) time this year by far, but I was pleased to know where I'm starting from.  When I first started working with Nichole in January, I was running paces set for a 25-26 minute 5k, so all things considered, I'm ahead of where I was last time by quite a bit.

I did mention to Jake while we were running our cooldown, that even though my effort today felt the same as when I ran my PR in July, I could tell how much strength I've lost in my upper body and the ability to really push myself.  I know it will come back, but it was just crazy how noticable it was.

post-trot blurry iphone pic



All in all it was a good, day, and I did a total of 8 miles for the day.  I also plan on doing a training recap later.  Things have been going well this week and I also got my next months plan - hellooooo long runs!

Oh, and as another bonus  to racing, is that I didnt feel bad eating this giant plate that afternoon :)

YUMMM - can I eat this all the time?!

Things that make me happy

Good afternoon and happy Monday!

Ok, so I've been MIA lately.  I had these grand plans of posting all about my Thanksgiving break and the fun stuff that we did, but I'm going to be honest, last week was one of the most stressful weeks I think I've ever had.  I'm not going to go into details, but the combination of being sick the first part of the week, and some personl stuff that was going on, it was one of the worst, yay!

But I'm feeling back to normal, and instead of a long, drawn out post, I wanted to share some thing that have made me happy over this past week.

1. My dog.  Seriously, its like dogs know when something isnt right, and all she wanted to do was snuggle with me all week long....it was the best :)

2. My Christmas tree!

its much more festive now since we added our ornaments, but I love how sparkly it is!

3. Good chats and fun times with friends.  I dont have any pics to document this, but there were quite a few hilarious and awkward moments.

4. Planning my cookie list for this year.  Every year around Christmas I take a day off work to bake all my Christmas cookies.  I get up really early, turn on every single Christmas movie I own, and bake all day.  I usually have everything packaged up by that evening, and its the best time ever :)

5. My long run.  13.1, which I did after not running all week ( for said above reasons), on the treadmill.  I got to the gym and it was packed, and by the time I was done there werent many people left - pretty sure people thought I was crazy.  I felt pretty good, except when I was done and my legs hurt, and I now have a sweet blister on the toe - yay running feet!

6. Baking.  I made some festive winter cupcakes for a friend's daughter's birthday on Saturday.  I think they are pretty darn cute.

per request they were gluten-free vanilla

6.  Last but not least, this guy, and this picture.  Makes me laugh every time :)

an oldie but a goodie picture, taken many moons ago, but never fails to make me bust a gut!  I'm sure Jake really appreciates this...

 

I also ran the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving.  I'll get that race report up asap!  So hope you are all have a great start to your week, talk later!