Hoka 10k 2018

Hoka 10k 2018

Sunday, January 29, 2017

CTLR: 5 more weeks!!

Countdown to Little Rock

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Five more weeks?! Are you serious?!! Holy crap. This week was so much fun. Another 50 mile week in the books! I can't believe it. I like this little routine I'm in. These strength workouts are becoming part of my normal routine and I'm lovin' it!!! I also made a return to Highbanks, and...gasp...I'm starting to like yoga. Not the intense, crazy crap. I don't have the body for that.

  • 1/23: 10 miles, 8:53/mile. The dang weather app said 49 degrees, 16 mph wind, and 80% chance of rain before I went to bed. Therefore, I decided that sucked and opted for the treadmill instead of meeting my friends. Reality: lots of good feels with very light rain that would have felt awesome. Whatevs. To avoid boredom, I started slower and changed my speed every 1.4 miles. I also took a gel at 5 miles. Practice makes perfect!
    My face because I just tolerated 10 miles on a treadmill.
  • 1/24: 20 miles, 8:35/mile. Oh boy...the 20 miler. It never fails that I am always scared to do it. A really short work day meant that I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity not to have to get up at 5 am on a Saturday. After work, I met my friend Kimberly who ran the first 15k with me. She is SO SPEEDY! She was pushing a double stroller and I told her I would just go whatever pace she could do. Umm...we averaged 8:24 for that section of the run! Ha!!! My original plan was to run a 9 mile warm up then 3x3miles at race pace (with 1 mile recoveries in between). When I saw the average of the section I ran with her, I decided those were my race pace miles! LOL. At that point, I said I wasn't going to look at my watch and I would just run what felt good. I'm confused. When I see my averages, I feel like I'm running way too fast for my long runs. I'm trying this whole "run by feel" method. Ugh. I dunno. I guess all I can do is hope that I feel this good on race day and can pull off running a marathon at a faster pace. As far as the refueling aspect of this run, I added salt tabs to the mix. During my last 20 miler, I started getting tight around mile 17. I wondered if taking salt tabs in addition to my gels would make me feel any different. It didn't seem to have an effect...or maybe it did. I have no idea. I took a tab at miles 10 and 15. I also took gels at 5.5, 10.5, and 15.5. I started getting tight earlier in this run mostly because of the route and the inclines that I had at certain points. Then again, after I conquered the inclines, I felt much better and not as tight. I am thinking way too much for this to be just a run. LOL.
    My second 20 miler!! EEEK!
  • 1/25: Yoga, 30 minutes. I was going to run an easy 6, but 1) sleep didn't happen. 2) it took me a few hours to get my pelvis working again so I probably didn't need to run anyway!
    My number 6 did NOT look like that.


  • 1/26: 5.22 miles, 9:52/mile. I met some long lost friends at the rec center for some 5@5 action. The wind was a bit crazy, but Emily used her magical route powers to avoid it for most of the run.
  • 1/27: 8.3 cycling miles, 30:19; upper body strengthening. I was SO tired when I woke up. I just wanted to turn on my music and ride really slow. Unfortunately, a dude got on the bike beside me and started chatting me up. I had no way out. TOO EARLY, DUDE! I ended up riding further and harder than I intended so all is well.
    As far as the strength workout, I think I hurt my shoulder catching James over and over during his swim lessons Wednesday night! I had to decrease the resistance today.

    Check out those guns. LOL!!
     
  • 1/28: 8.05 miles, 9:37/mile. HIGHBANKS!! Love, love, love running there!!! It's some of the best hill action you can get in Columbus...the land of minimal, whimpy hills. Although Highbanks isn't true trail (more of a gravel-like path through the woods), I wore my new trail shoes to see how I liked them.
    Fun with Brooke at Highbanks!
  • 1/29: 6.77 miles, 8:39/mile; Yoga (YMCA Hatha Yoga Class). I met with some close friends for a little bRUNch! We ventured out to Marion's hood a.k.a. Delaware, Ohio to eat at The Hamburger Inn...HELLO delicious cinnamon rolls!! Everything was totally normal about this run except: 1) it was a little slick; 2) we heard a coyote; 3) an old lady scared the shit out of me. She told us to be careful on the slick path as she had a cane in her hand. Ha!
    [Karen, Meg, Dani, Marion, ME in the back]

    Cinnamon roll, bacon, and coffee courtesy of The Hamburger Inn.
    After church and nap time, James and I went to the Y so we could both have some fun. I was so nervous about attending a yoga class. I'm easily embarrassed about these things. As soon as I entered the class, I told the instructor I was new AND nervous. She made me feel at ease (and so did all of the 60+ year olds in the room! LOL.) Eventually, others my age showed up. I will definitely go back. It was a good mix of stretching and a few strength moves...I even tried a headstand!
    Gym time with my boy.
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Some random pics of my loves this week:
 
Chocolate chip pancakes.

Roly-poly

I love my little, sweet Roop.

So in love with this ham.
 

Sunday, January 22, 2017

CTLR: 6 more weeks!!!

Countdown to Little Rock
 
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Wouldn't this be awesome!
The question I have for myself is "Why must I always have some form of a plan?! Why can't I just let things happen?!" My brain is wired to have a plan in place...even if that plan flops. The past couple of weeks, I've been trying to set a plan in place for my marathon. I still have no idea what my body is potentially capable of (which makes planning a little difficult). I have to distinguish between my dreams, reality, and showing myself some postpartum race grace. I think I have finally settled on dividing this race into halves. I'm planning to join a pace group for the first half to see how my body handles things. The first half is supposed to be rolling (based on reviews I've read). The second half has some significant hills, but it also has a stretch of flat. My thought is that, if I feel good after the first half, I can conquer the hills, take advantage of the flat section, conquer the last hill at the end, and just finish like my life depended on it...all of this in hopes of a potential negative split. I have never done this in a marathon and it's never been a goal to negative split, but this course seems to be appropriate for it...at least on paper. Sure, there are other factors, but at least my mind is at ease with a plan.
  • 1/16: 6 miles, 9:02/mile; Core workout. My goal today was to average 9mm or slower. I easily could have run outside but wasn't feeling it for whatever reason. I could still feel the effects of my 20 miler, so I tried to stretch really well post-run.
    Big eyes!
  • 1/17: 8 miles, 8:19/mile. Race pace run. A short work day meant I was able to enjoy this awesome shorts and short sleeve running day! Per usual, I was freaking out all day about this workout. My goal was to run 2 warm up miles followed by 6 miles between 8:15-8:20/mile. My previous race pace runs were run on the treadmill and progressively from 8:34 to 8:13. I wanted today to be a test of sorts to see if I could run the entire distance in the faster end of my range (which is why I was freaking out!!). I was slightly nervous about the wind (15mph), but comforted slightly by the fact that it felt so nice out. My warm up miles were [9:24 and 8:54]. I didn't feel that awesome running those miles so I didn't go into my race pace section feeling confident. I was trying to keep an eye on my watch during my first fast mile to ensure I could feel what my goal pace felt like. I clocked in at 8:08 and attempted to make a change the second mile. When the next one was [8:10], I just gave up and tried not to run at a feel faster than that...FAIL. The remaining miles were [8:04, 8:01, 7:59, 7:46]. The last two miles were the toughest because of the wind. I didn't realize I was going that fast because I was just trying not to let the wind slow me down. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that I could run that speed, but I really wanted to be more disciplined with my pacing. After today, I really have no idea what pace I can run a marathon. It makes it so hard to train! A coach friend gave me an idea on something to try during my next 20 miler. It should give me a better idea of what might be appropriate regarding race pace.
    Took my run to the streets of Hilliard.
  • 1/18: 8.1 cycling miles, upper body workout. My calf felt like it was cramping up while I was riding. It was really weird. Later that evening, I noticed my Achilles bothering me a bit. This is nothing new for me. I've had this a few times before, typically after a hard week of running or a hard workout (HELLO last week and race pace run!). I'll see how it feels in the morning!
  • 1/19: 8.01 miles, 8:15/mile. TRACK DAY!!! I finally decided on a ladder workout (except I ended up taking out the intended 1600 because I didn't want to run more than 8 miles). I knew I wanted to run the intervals at 5k pace...I just didn't know what that meant for me right now! I don't really have a 5k pace at the moment. I decided to use one of those fancy Runner's World calculators to predict race times based on my goal marathon paces. Based on that, my goal was to maintain a pace of 7:15-7:30/mile. Goals: 400m- 1:49-1:53, 800m- 3:38-3:45, 1200m- 5:27-5:38. What I ran:
    
    I was proud of my performance, but it left me thoroughly confused about my abilities. My actual paces ranged from 6:28-7:02/mile. Oh well...only one way to find out!
  • 1/20: Leg workout. Not sure why, but I was super excited to do this workout. I think I just love being at the gym...making my muscles scream.
    Bridge with stability ball.


  • 1/21: 12.01 miles, 8:31/mile. Well, probably went a little too fast. My legs were a little tired from my leg workout. Again, I didn't look at my watch, but I knew something wasn't right when Marion said something along the lines of OH $H!T after the first mile beeped. Ha! We ran at the O trail for the first time in forever. We used to run there all the time, but it got a little old so we took a year off. It was nice to get back out there!
    Some of my peeps. [ME, Theresa, Marion, Meg]
  • 1/22: REST. Legs are still feeling the effects of the leg workout...but I love it.

Monday, January 16, 2017

CTLR: 7 more weeks!!!

Countdown to Little Rock
 
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Roop turned 5 months this week! I never put bows on her head but I was feeling frisky.

My goal for this cycle was to peak at 50 miles (typically I'll peak at 58-60). In order to stick to my 4 days of running per week plan, I would have had to do some combo of 20/10/10/10 or 20/12/10/8. Honestly, I just don't think my bod can do that yet...especially in this awful weather. I don't think getting 50 miles is a problem, but not in 4 days...at least not yet. I decided that I would increase to 5 days of running on my three 50 mile weeks.
 
  • 1/9: 6.1 miles, 9:01/mile; Core workout. I met Meg in New Albany for a little 6 mile loop. She agreed to start a little early so I'd have a few minutes to chat with the other NA ladies at Starbucks. This run felt very easy and the miles flew by. It was about 15 degrees outside, but felt like a heat wave compared to my weekend run.
    Nothing compares to the sexy look runners have after a freezing cold run. [Meg, ME]
  • 1/10: 10 miles, 8:27/mile. I did a little Hal Higdon-ish tempo run on the treadmill. After a 3 mile warm up (9:14/mile average), I ran 7 miles starting at 6.7 mph, increasing every half mile until I reached 8.0 mph. (miles 4-7.5 averaged 8:24, the last 2.5 miles averaged 7:37). Most of it felt comfortable, but 8-9.5 felt tough. I was even a good little runner and took a gel at mile 5!
    Cuddles with my girl.
  • 1/11: 6.01 miles, 8:57/mile; upper body strengthening. I met some friends for an easy 6 miler. Good thing easy was the plan because it was SO SLICK! It was much warmer than usual so I had no idea it would freeze. Fortunately, the sidewalks weren't all that horrible and we had no fatalities. Jen and I played a little game of keeping each other's pace in check when we seemed to get out of control...I'm proud of us! LOL!! I had some unexpected extra time in my afternoon so I decided to take advantage of it and get in tomorrow's strength workout.
    No falls today! [Jessie, ME, Meg, Jen]


  • 1/12: 7.6 cycling miles, 30:07. Nothing crazy...just tried to get my sweat on.
    New tank..."Challenge Accepted."
  • 1/13: 20 miles, 8:38/mile. Some days I'm just on it, and today was one of those days. In fear of potential freezing rain over the weekend, I decided to run after work today. It was a gorgeous day to run. It was a little chilly, 30 degrees, but the sun was shining beautifully. I knew I'd be running solo so I brought my music just in case...I never put it on! I can't believe I ran 20 solo miles without music. It was actually very nice. My intention was to run really easy knowing that I was scared to attempt this distance. I was guessing 9-9:15/mile or so. I kept with my trend of not looking at my watch. I had no idea what my pace or splits were until I hit 16 miles. The first 9 miles were rolling hills so I figured they were slower. I had flat the next nine with the last two rolling. I started to tighten up a bit after 17 miles and just wanted to finish. My last three miles ended up being my fastest [8:14, 8:12, 8:16]! I was a good little runner and took gels at 5.25, 10.25, and 15.25 miles. I'm looking forward to cutting back my long run next week!
    "2-"

    "-0"


  • 1/14: Yoga. I originally planned to run my 8 miler, but 1) the slickness of the roads were unknown and every running plan I made fell through, 2) I was tired from my 20 miler and knew I'd have a more enjoyable run if I waited until Sunday. I decided that yoga might help me stretch out those places that were sore and still give me some strengthening.
    
    I'm a natural...Bahaha!!!
    My yogi sister gave me this workout:
  • 1/15: 8.01 miles, 8:39/mile. What a roller coaster! Try to keep up: Woke up at 6:30 to run with Theresa at 7:30. The hubs received a call that he was playing drums at church (he was not previously informed). I had to cancel my run (literally as I was getting ready to leave) since he had to be there at 8:30. Planned to run after church since it is 1 minute from the Olentangy Trail. That didn't happen because I accidentally fed Ruthie from the same boob two times in a row and my left boob was in so much pain I had to feed her. Problem...she was with the hubs on their way to Marysville and I didn't have my pump. I had to drive to Marysville to feed her. She refused to eat so I had to deal with the pain until she was ready to eat. There was no way I was running in that pain! She finally ate, James finally went down for a nap, so I set off into the paths and streets of Marysville. I was trying to hurry to make it back in time to celebrate my nephew's birthday. Phew! So glad this day is over.
    I just LOVE her!!!
 
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As I was thinking about my week and my postpartum progress, I realized that I'm finally getting to the put that my old easy pace is starting to actually feel like my easy pace again. I can also see the physical changes that are coming along with the strengthening that I've been doing. The part I think I need to start testing a bit is my speed. After surviving these most recent long runs, I feel like my body is strong enough to start testing the speed again without injuring myself. Anything is the 7's is so tough right now. When I've done my last two tempo runs, those brief two-ish miles in the 7's were rough...sure, it was after running 6-8 other miles, but still! I can tell I need to start working on the speed part. I think I'm going to start pushing my race pace runs to the faster end of my range. I also have a scheduled track workout this week. I can't remember why, but I missed my last one (the week I was sick maybe?). No matter the outcome, I will continue to listen to my body and will certainly cut back if I need to.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Izzie Davis

Isabelle Jenkins, Isa-smell Stinkins, Spaz...she had many names.
 
This whole situation was completely unexpected. It shook us to the core. As of last night, we received about as much information as we can, for several weeks, regarding her passing.
 
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We stayed up SO late Saturday night watching football. Everything was normal. James was in bed, Angel was curled up in a ball beside Jimmy, and Izzie was making her way from room to room patrolling the house. The girl was so full of energy. She was trying to get Jimmy to play Frisbee with her outside at 10:30 p.m.! Crazy girl. We stumbled up to bed just after midnight and all was wonderful in the world.
 
We slept in the following morning since I didn't have to run. I'm not sure the exact time but it had to be close to 9 a.m. I heard Jimmy get up out of bed and go downstairs. He was trying to get the girls (Izzie and Angel...we refer to them as "the girls") to go outside and potty. Izzie is always prompt and responsive to our requests but I noticed that Jimmy said her name about 4-5 times. The next thing I remember is Jimmy yelling frantically, "Lisa, hurry! I think Izzie is dead!"
 
I quickly snapped out of my slumber, frozen for a split second...not really registering what he was saying. I heard him scream the words again as I was running down the stairs. I saw Izzie lying in her normal side-lying sleep position with her legs straight out. When I approached her, I knew he was right. She was so stiff. My heart sank.
 
At this time, I couldn't cry. I felt the urge to be strong for my husband. He was hysterical. I knew I had to stay strong enough until we figured out what to do. My first thought was to call Izzie's vet (who I have programmed in my phone). I wasn't thinking about the fact that it was Sunday and they weren't open. The only other thing I could think to do was contact my running friend, Deb, who is a vet. She was so kind to give me her phone number and let me call her. It was then that I broke down. I had to say the words out loud to her. I told her what was going on and she graciously guided me through who to call and what to say/ask. She's the one who suggested a necropsy (autopsy) to ensure that Angel would not be affected by whatever took Izzie.
 
We called OSU vet clinic and they instructed us to bring Izzie to their Dublin location as soon as we could get her there. At this time, James was just waking up. My poor husband had to pick up Izzie and bring her downstairs so that James would not see what was going on. I gave him a blanket and we covered her up. I don't know how, but we managed to feed and change James in addition to throwing clothes on ourselves so that we could take Izzie to OSU. This as all a blur and I have no idea what really happened. I know there were a lot of phone calls going on at this time.
 
Jimmy took Angel downstairs to say her last goodbye to Izzie. We knew that we couldn't bring her with to the clinic. We let poor Angel sniff her. OMG...I can't even...
 
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I asked Jimmy to put Izzie up front so that James couldn't see her. I sat in the back with James and we all cried our entire trip to the clinic. When we arrived, they confirmed what we already knew to be reality. We filled them in on everything we knew and told them our request for a necropsy and cremation. They allowed us to sit in a private room while they did a few things. After signing some paperwork, we realized that, once we left this building, it would be the last time we would ever see Izzie. I can't describe to you guys the feeling I had in that moment. I was surrounded by my clueless two year old telling us all about "cold snow," my sobbing husband that I couldn't stop hugging, and my sweet precious Aussie lying on the table in my blanket.
 
They told us to take as much time as we needed. Honestly, we could have stayed all day but knew it wouldn't make a difference. We tried to explain as much as we could to James that he needed to say goodbye to Izzie. We let him pet her and give a kiss (which he did every night before he went to bed). Jimmy and I took turns giving our last hugs, pets and kisses to our sweet girl. I didn't want to leave her. It was the worst feeling in the world.
 
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We literally spent the entire day crying. Jimmy and I tried to take turns taking care of James so that the other person could be alone to cry. Sometimes we couldn't help it and just cried together. You guys, I know these things happen all the time but it's never easy. The rest of the day was crap...the next day was crap...and today is still hard.
 
We did get our preliminary results of the necropsy. The cause of death has not yet been identified but they do know this:
  1. She did not have any sort of chronic illness/disease process.
  2. She was not poisoned in any form or fashion.
  3. Whatever the cause, it was nothing Jimmy and I could have detected or prevented.
From what I understand, they sent in tissue samples of some organs for further testing. If something is found, we will not know for 6-8 weeks. My sweet husband has been making all of the hard phone calls the past two days. He found out today that Izzie has been sent to Schoedinger Funeral Home for cremation and we should expect to get her back in 7-10 days.

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I'm weeping as I type all of this. I still can't believe this has happened. The sting is still very present. It seems that my car is my safe place for letting it all out. I've pretty much been crying in between each patient that I see during the day. I miss her so much. The house feels so different without her. 


Sunday, January 8, 2017

CTLR: 8 more weeks!!!

Countdown to Little Rock
 
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James loves playing with his little sister, and she loves laughing at him.
 
Life was hectic the week after Christmas, to say the least, and working out was mostly non-existent...SO...I'll summarize it for you here:
 
I realized I was insanely sick on Monday. I didn't run from Sunday afternoon until Thursday evening! Geez. When I finally had enough energy to make it happen, I tolerated a solid 6 miler at 9:15/mile average. The next day, I just wanted enough to meet my goal for the month. If I ran 4.57 plus my planned 18 mile long run, I would have exactly 160 for the month. The 4.57 miler happened (9:16/mile average), but the 18 miler did not. I made it only 6 miles and knew I could not make the rest happen. My average for that 6 was 9:45/mile. Most of my miles were between 9:50 and 10:10. I was feeling like complete crap. I knew I needed a rest day. I didn't get upset about it because I knew I had Monday off of work. That would be the perfect opportunity to try again! With that in mind, I rested on Sunday because my body needed it. I did no strength workouts this week.
 
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  • 1/2: 18 miles, 8:49/mile; Core workout. FINALLY!! I was determined to get this 18 miler! I broke it up into three 6 mile loops. That wasn't completely intentional, but it seemed to work out well. My friends Meg and Jessie wanted to get 6 miles with the goal of 9-9:30 average. This sounded perfect because I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to tolerate running. I figured it would be a great warm up and a good test to see if I'd be able to tolerate the rest of my run. We ended up averaging 8:59/mile. Amanda met me for the next loop. She had absolutely no agenda but to run easy. Again, I didn't know what to expect, but my body responded well. We averaged 8:27/mile which is in my race pace range for my marathon! I like to try to throw in some race pace miles in some of my long runs. The last loop was the most challenging...mostly because I was solo and starting to fatigue a bit. I was good about taking my gels (miles 6 and 12). I think I was just tired from my week of being sick. My body just wasn't used to running again. I averaged 9:04 for the final loop. I was very happy with my run, and it gave me a little confidence going into the second half of my training cycle.
    Loop 1 help from these lovely ladies! [Jessie, ME, Meg]
  • 1/3: 7.5 cycling miles; leg circuit. My hammies were tight and my legs fatigued from my long run. I powered through, and I'm hopefully stronger for it!
  • 1/4: 7.05 miles, 8:49/mile. The average really means nothing because the workout was HILL REPEATS! Woo Hoo! Amanda recruited me to do this with her. At the time I agreed, I didn't realize I had hills this week anyway. Perfect...torture with others is much better than solo torture. I didn't have a specific workout so I just did what she did...except not as far because she's faster. We ran approximately 1.5 mile warm up and cool down with 15 x 1 minute hill repeats at 4-6% grade (about 4 miles of hills). For those familiar with Dublin, we did the Cardinal hill at Dublin Rd/Emerald Parkway. I was initially overwhelmed by the number 15 and didn't see how I could survive. Amanda decided we'd break it into three sets of 5 and that seemed to help mentally. We survived and even ended with that pesky gradual hill on the way back to the gym. Might as well go all out, right?!
    Hills, hills and more hills.
  • 1/5: Upper body workout. My legs needed a break so I opted for some upper body stuff.
  • 1/6: 8 miles, 8:33/mile. Race pace run on the mill! These will either make you feel really awesome or bring that confidence way down. There is never an in between for me on race pace day. Fortunately, this was a good one for me this week. I did a two mile warm up increasing from 6.4 to 6.7 every half mile (9:22 to 8:57/mile). I followed that up with 6 miles in my race pace range. I don't have a solid goal for the marathon so I gave myself a range. I started at 7.0 (8:34/mile) and increased my speed by one every 1.5 miles until I reached 7.3 (8:13/mile). I felt comfortable the entire time! Woo Hoo!!
    When I'm not running, I'm 1) thinking about running, 2) hanging out with my running buddies, or 3) eating. Having some fun at Theresa's cat party.

    Happy Birthday, Ciatee!

  • 1/7: 12.08 miles, 8:36/mile. This was a cutback week since I've spent the entire training cycle ramping up my long run. I figured I deserved it after being so dedicated AND being sick the week before. It was a perfect day for a shorter long run because it was freaking FREEZING outside. We started around 6:30 a.m. When we finished just before 8:30, it was 2 degrees with a real feel of -8!!! Say WHAAAT?!! So many words spewed out of the mouth during this one...well, when my mouth could move anyway. Jokes aside, I actually dressed well and felt warm for the most part. My hands were the only part of me that suffered some miles. Also, fueling is so difficult during these cold runs. I desperately wanted to drink water but the spout and cap were frozen shut. I also couldn't will myself to open up gel (not that I really need it for 12 miles but I'm trying to practice during every run over 8-10 miles). My legs felt like toast during this run. I figured they would since I did my race pace run the day before. I didn't look at my watch and could have sworn I was running 9mm or slower. I might as well have called this a race pace run (average only one second slower than the higher end of my goal!).
    If we had balls, we would've frozen them off. [Marion, me]
  • 1/8: REST.
    New shoes...trail shoes!!! Adventures are coming my way!
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I feel like my paces are all over the place. I figured they would postpartum because the body is so weird for a while. I promised I would do things by feel this time around and not get so hung up on paces. With that being said, it does make it hard to plan runs with others or make goals for races. Even though it's against my personality to let these things go, I'm going to continue to go by feel and not get so worked up about my inconsistencies right now. I am so excited to run this marathon (less than two months away!) and continue my journey of deciding whether or not I actually like the marathon! LOL.
Summary someone wrote about my marathon. I could only laugh.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

CTLR: 10 more weeks!!

Countdown to Little Rock
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Things I learned/realized this week:
-My cycling days have become more like active recovery days. When I plan my workouts, I have to consider my life schedule in addition to this gorgeous weather we are having. It seems like the past three weeks, my cycling days have fallen on days that my legs are toast or days that I don't get enough sleep to function.
-Flexibility is on a whole new level this time of year. Not only because of the weather, but because of the holidays. Last week, I did my long run after work on Friday because the weather was going to be crap all weekend. This week, I did my long run on Wednesday morning to avoid having to do it while visiting family in WV.
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  • 12/19: 8 miles, 8:30/mile. Don't let that average fool you! This was my tempo run day. I opted for the treadmill because it was stupid cold outside and I don't like running fast when it's that cold. I did a 2 miles warm up [9:17/mile average], 5 mile tempo, and a 1 mile cool down [8:53]. My tempo portion began at 6.8 mph [8:49/mile] and increased every 0.4 miles until I reached 8.0 mph [7:30/mile]. That meant my last two tempo miles were sub 8. Those two miles were hard and initially made me want to quit. It made me realize that I have a long way to go!!
    I'm pretty sure it was in the teens that morning, but it was steamy in the gym.
  • 12/20: 7.4 cycling miles, 30:01; strength workout. As mentioned above, I treated this as an active recovery workout. I kept the resistance on the lighter side and tried not to fall asleep.
  • 12/21: 17 miles, 8:48/mile. WHAAAT?! I can't believe that happened! I'm so happy with this run. I wanted to get my long run out of the way since we'd be traveling to WV for the holiday. My friend Theresa wanted to get a later start on her run, so I got in a slow 3 mile warm up before meeting her [9:23/mi average]. T and I ran the next 5.5 miles together before separating [approx. 8:40/mile]. I explored Dublin and made my way back to T's for the rest of the run [approx.8:40/mile]. My goal for today, if I felt up to it, was to get a few race pace miles mixed in with some easier ones. Five of my miles were within my race pace range and three more were only 2-3 seconds from my goal range! Only two complaints: 1) There were still some areas of ice and snow on my route and 2) that dang hill about a mile from Theresa's house that I absolutely hate. I used to own that damn thing but it's the death of me right now.
    T was in the shower by the time I finished so I had to selfie with her snowman. I hope I didn't creep out her neighbors!
  • 12/22: 6.01 miles, 9:06/mile. I intended to do my 10 mile run today, but I was tired from my long run and traveling. I checked out a bike trail about 15 minutes from my mom's house. I can't say it was nice scenery because winter is pretty ugly when there isn't snow on the ground. I can imagine it's pretty gorgeous in the fall. I did love the rolling hills. We just don't have that in Columbus.
    So much sun.

    One of my hills.

  • 12/23: CORE. I thought about getting my 10 miler out of the way so that I didn't have to worry about any running over the weekend, but my leggies needed a break.
    Roop wanted to help me out.
  • 12/24: 6.01 miles, 8:52/mile. So...about that 10 miler. I just couldn't do it. Two or three miles into my run, I needed a bathroom....BAD. The longer I ran, the worse it got. I had planned a 6 mile loop followed by an out and back to get 10 miles. When I finished my loop, I decided to use the restroom before finishing. It was bad...woman problems and all. UGH. At this point, I just wanted to get home to the family.
    The run might have sucked but we had a nice ugly sweater brunch for my mom's birthday that morning.
  • 12/25: 4.01 miles, 8:31/mile. Went on a short, quick run to distress myself. Little did I know, the drama storm had not hit! LOL. Gotta love the holidays.
    Christmas miles.
 
Well, the running week didn't go exactly as planned, but I ran all of my miles. Nowadays, my running seems to go less my way and more with the flow of life. I will not get worked up over it.