Weekly Recap 11/2 - 11/8: Perfect Fall Weather

Happy Sunday! It was a beautiful week here in Pittsburgh, with warm days during the week changing to crisp fall weather this weekend. I've been loving the cool mornings and fall weather. I'm joining Holly from HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin for their Weekly Wrap. Join us--it's fun!

I've been following the guidance in the Hansons' Half Marathon Method book I used for my last half to ease back into running after your goal race and week of rest with two weeks of easy runs. This was my second week of easy runs, and I added a few running days. I was incredibly tempted to get back into the Hansons' routine of six days of running with Wednesdays off. I'm really missing that routine. But there will be lots of time for that later, so for now I'm keeping it to five days of running.

The other thing I've been doing is to not look at my watch at all during my runs. If you follow elite runner Tina Muir's blog (and you should!) you know that not looking at your watch is one of the strategies in her guide to racing better by internalizing your pace. I can't tell you how much I've loved these carefree runs this week--just me running in the dark early mornings before the rest of the world wakes up, leaves crunching under my feet, the rowing teams out with their boats slicing through the river, Downtown's lights twinkling on the other side of the river, the cool fall air smelling wonderful, and just feeling so alive and happy. This is why I run!

But while running this week was wonderful, the rest of life, not so much. First, we watched my friend's greyhound for a few hours one evening last week. Her second greyhound recently died, so her greyhound is very sad and lonely. Because he and my dog are friends, I thought it would be a fun night for everyone. Well, her dog was very out of sorts, and let's just say there was a big miscommunication between him and my cats. The night was stressful for everyone, and my one cat is apparently so upset that she is pooping and peeing outside the litter box. She has done that before, and I've used the Cat Attract litter. That's really helped and I hope solves this current problem.

The bigger issue is that the night after we watched my friend's dog, my own dog got very sick. I woke up at 2:45 a.m. to hear him walking around downstairs. My first thought was that our house ghost was taunting him, but he came upstairs to wake us up to go outside, where he had diarrhea. The next morning he stayed sleeping when I got up to go running, so I assumed he didn't have to go right then. When I got back an hour later, there was diarrhea everywhere. Like, everywhere. I might be permanently scarred from having to clean it up all up. Plus I also had to clean up cat pee and poop, all before even heading to work. Django had diarrhea for two full days plus had no appetite and was very lethargic. This is the first time he's ever been sick since I had him, and I was a very worried momma and would keep waking him up to make sure he was still alive! On the third day I was able to take him to the vet, where they gave him fluids and an antibiotic/anti-inflammatory. He almost immediately started feeling better and quickly got his appetite back. He's still on a "bland diet," which is either boiled chicken or ground meat and rice. He's in heaven. I am supposed to give him three or four mini meals of the bland diet a day, so now he's starting to think that every time I go into the kitchen he's going to get some chicken and rice. But, he's definitely feeling better, so I'm relieved.

Okay, on to the recap! This week I ran 18 miles.

Monday
3 miles easy in the morning and the Yoga for Runners video from Runner's World at night
Athleta Sour Apple Malibu Hike Half Zip
Lulu Black Speed Tights

Tuesday
3 miles easy
Brooks Quarter Zip
Athleta Asphalt Relay Capri
Lulu Beachscape Bang Buster



Wednesday
Wednesday will be a full day of rest once I start training, but now my mileage and intensity are so low that I don't feel like I need a full rest day. I did 22 minutes of lower body and core strength training.

Thursday
4 miles easy--58 degrees in the morning!
Lulu Black Mesh What the Sport Tee &
Bumble Berry All Sport Bra
Athleta Grey Be Free Knicker

Friday
51 minutes of lower body, upper body, and core strength training

Saturday
5 miles easy
Lulu Black Pace Pusher LS,
Space Dye Twist Ultra Violet Pace Rival Crops
Pretty Purple All Sport Bra & Bang Buster


Sunday
3 miles easy
I met Anna, who I haven't seen in a long time because of schedule conflicts, and we ran on the trails in Frick Park. It was 36 degrees but very sunny, which made things feel much warmer. This was supposed to be an easy run but we ended up running a lot of hills, which I guess you do on trails. It was still a lot of fun running through the fall leaves and enjoying the beautiful fall day. I said I want to start doing trail running until it starts snowing, so I was happy to finally get in a nice run on some trails.

Lulu Cosmic Teal Mesh with Me Longsleeve,
Bruised Berry Cool Racerback,
Heathered Slate Speed Tights

This week I'll add some mileage as well as some speed work and do three or four sessions of strength training but my big goal is to get some runs in with Django, since I didn't run with him at all this past week and the Turkey Trot is coming up. Have a great week running and working out!


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