Happy Monday! It went from warm weather in the 60s on Thursday last week to a few snow flurries and a very cold day yesterday, and the weather is supposed to get back to 60s this week! I'm joining Holly from HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin for their Weekly Wrap.
I'm still in my training off-season, building mileage from taking a break after my mid-October goal half marathon. Last week I wanted to add in more speed that's different from the speedwork I'll do in my next training plan, do three or four strength workouts, and continue my daily plank and Weight Watchers tracking challenges. I did everything I wanted to except I just plain forgot to do my planks on Monday and Saturday. Otherwise, it was a great week.
I ran 25.4 miles last week. Here's how it went down.
Monday
Easy run: 4 miles (38 degrees)
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Turkey Trot race tee
Lulu First Base Tank
Oiselle Lesley Tights |
Tuesday
Easy run with hill sprints: 4.15 miles (43 degrees)
The book Racing Weight advocates doing sport-specific power training to improve performance and body composition. For runners, the book recommends doing 6-10 X 8-10 second sprints up a steep hill each week. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong! After a 1.5-mile warm-up, I started my sprints, expecting the workout to be short and pretty easy. After all, 6 X 10-second sprints is only one minute of hard running. Well, it was really hard! I did 6, and that's pretty much all I could do. The book cites a study about how athletes improve performance and reduce body fat by doing this type of workout. I can see why after doing it. I liked that it was a good workout in a little bit of time. I plan to do this workout each week until my training starts.
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Lulu Heathered Slate Pace Pusher Long Sleeve &
Bordeaux Drama Speed Tights |
In the evening I did 20 minutes of upper body strength training and planks.
Wednesday
Rest day. I did 10 minutes of hip opening yoga poses, which felt so incredibly awesome, followed by my planks. I couldn't fit in a longer yoga session during the week, and my body really missed it.
Thursday
Tempo run: 5 miles (61 degrees)
Yes--it was 61 degrees at 5 a.m.! Just what I wanted for my speed workout, ha ha. The plan was do a true tempo run, with the first and last miles warm-up and cool-down, the second and fourth between 10:30-10:40 pace, and the third mile between 10:00-10:10 pace. After my warm-up mile, I sped up and, despite the heat, felt amazing. Ah, how good that first mile usually feels! I had no problem keeping my pace and imagined that maybe I got a lot faster overnight. If only it worked like that! Split was 10:28. Then the middle and fastest mile started. That mile battled me from beginning to end. It felt like that awful running-at-5K-pace feeling, I started to get nauseated, and all I could do is hang on and try not to silently curse nonstop. I made it through that mile (split was 10:08), and my body was like, Okay, that's enough! I slowed down a lot in the first part of that fourth mile and was struggling to try to get to a 10:30-10:40 pace range. Finally in the second half of that mile I recovered and was able to speed up enough to get somewhat close to my goal, finishing at 10:44. This was a tough workout!
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Lulu Clear Mint Swiftly Short Sleeve &
Jeweled Magenta Mesh Bang Buster
Athleta Grey Be Free Knicker |
In the evening I broke out the pilates ring I'd gotten as a gift a while back but hadn't tried yet and found a 10-minute abs video online to do with the ring. It was a great workout! The ring definitely makes the workout more intense. I ended with my planks.
Friday
I did 37 minutes of lower body and core strength training and planks.
Saturday
Long run: 8 miles (32 degrees)
I met Gretchen and Anna at North Park. I had learned about a haunted trail there last month and had walked part of it with my husband and dog. Gretchen, Anna, and I decided to run 4 miles on the trail and then go back for a total of 8. It was cold--32--but a really beautiful morning for running. We chatted nonstop so didn't notice any ghosts if there were any! Unfortunately, the trail was much shorter than I thought. It ended in a cemetery and spooky tree, but nothing scary happened. We got back to the trailhead at just over 4 miles so ran around the lake a bit to make up the extra miles. This was a fun run! It's always nice to run with friends, and chatting really makes the miles fly by. While it was fun, the pace was a bit tough for me. It ended up being what my long run pace should be (11:47), but I haven't run that fast for that long since the race, so it was a bit of a challenge. Overall, it was a great run though!
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| About to start our scary trail run. I was supposed to be scared but couldn't stop smiling! |
It was a beautiful day, and we took a long walk with Django to the park near us in the afternoon.
Sunday
Easy run: 4.25 miles (33 degrees, feels like 30)
This was to be the last training run with Django before the Turkey Trot, so I was hoping we'd do 3 miles. Django had other ideas. He was just not interested in running. It was one of those run-10-steps-stop-sniff a stick for 2 minutes-pee-repeat-100-times kind of runs. I eventually got him to do 1 mile. I think the Turkey Trot is going to be more like a Turkey Walk for us. We'll see! I brought him back to the house and, by that point, was starving. Between sleeping in a little and then our 1-mile run taking forever, it was well past my breakfast. I obviously couldn't eat a full breakfast then immediately run, and I had a ton to do and needed to get my run out of the way. I wanted to do 4 more miles and figured I would be fine. Well, my body had other ideas. No one was cooperating with me this morning! All I could think about while running was food, and I couldn't make myself stop thinking about eating. My stomach took over and made me turn around before I wanted to, so I only got in 3.25. Oh well. Breakfast tasted awesome though!
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Lulu Race Your Pace Long Sleeve (I think?),
Black Speed Tights, Neck Warmer & Ear Warmer |
Afterward I did 17 minutes of lower body strength training and planks.
Django likes cold weather, so we headed to the dog park at Hartwood Acres in the afternoon. I don't usually take him to dog parks because I don't trust other dog owners to be in control of their dogs like they should be, and because Django has had some bad experiences with other dogs. I usually only take him if we're meeting other greyhounds because a pack of greyhounds running around really intimidates other dogs so they won't mess with the greyhounds! But I figured there wouldn't be many people there because it was so cold (it felt like 26 when we went), and I was right. There were just a handful of dogs. Django didn't like the aussie who kept barking at him and trying to herd him, but he loved the three little dogs who were there. In general, he likes small dogs and calm dogs, is wary of big dogs, and really dislikes hyperactive dogs. He got to run around a lot though (of course he will run there but not with me!) and had fun. It was a cold but fun day!
This upcoming week will be my last week running five days a week before I increase to six in December. I'm really looking forward to the holiday weekend! Happy running and working out this week!
Labels: django, running with Django, weekend running, weekly recap, weekly wrap
