Starting off this post with a gratuitous picture of Matilda the vizsla. You guys said you wanted more, right?
Actually, thanks for all your comments on my naysayers post. I am glad that there are people who find value here! And I definitely don’t want to discourage commenters from sharing their opinions- I do welcome a ‘healthy’ debate, I swear. But it felt good to put it all out there and respond to some of the comments.
So, I’m writing this weekly recap from…Minneapolis. Not Manila.
If you’ve been following closely, you might remember that I was supposed to leave on Friday for work for five weeks, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, my trip was cancelled for now.
When it comes to training for the Phoenix Marathon, this is a good thing! I know that my coach is pretty excited about it. It also means that I won’t be doing 20-and-22 milers on the treadmill. Definitely a good thing.
So this week turned out a little differently than I had expected. You have to roll with the punches, I guess!
Monday: I had off of work for the holiday. It was still really cold, so I did my 4 mile tempo run on the treadmill. Just over 2 miles to warm-up, 4 miles at 7:40, 2 miles to cool down. 8.3 miles total.
Tuesday: Double run day. I had to be at work at 7 am, so I took the first run to the treadmill, as my gym is very close to my office. 5 miles in the morning and another 6 on the treadmill after work. 11 miles total.
Wednesday: Warm enough to run outside- woot woot! I had 10 recovery miles before work (Much coffee was needed at work that day…)
I was surprised my coach put such a long recovery run on my schedule as usually he would split a run like that into two 5-milers. Part of his reasoning for the double runs is that when running less than an hour, I am not tapping into my glycogen stores. Two 5-mile runs are easier on the body than one 10-mile run but a double run still allows me to get more miles on my legs. However, 10 miles in one run takes much longer, so it’s harder on the body. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him about why that run wasn’t split, but I’ll let you know.
Thursday: I overslept and didn’t do my morning workout. I was able to get out of work in time to run with Dustin to the Calhoun Beach Running Club (about 1.5 miles), where I was scheduled to do 1000m repeats. However, after the jog to the club, I realized that it was just too slippery to go fast that night. I called off the workout. Safety first! Instead, I ran with Dustin at around an 8:15-8:30 pace (faster than my normal easy runs). 8 miles total.
Friday: Flapjack Friday at Mill City Running with my friend Laura. We met before the official run to get in some early miles and then ran a few more with the group. Morning run followed by pancakes with nutella= a win in my book!
Saturday: 20 mile long run: first 16 easy, final 4 at goal marathon pace.
I met my friend Christie at 7:15 for about 5.5 miles before the run club starts at 8, then did about 10.5 with the club. The final 4 miles of my 10 were at my goal marathon pace (8:15 min/mile). It was tough to do the faster miles at the end of a cold and windy 20 miler, but I was relieved that I was still able to hit the paces on tired legs. I guess I was eager to get done to join the rest of the run club at Urban Eatery for brunch- motivation!
Sunday: Arms & Abs at [solidcore]. All of the [solidcore] teachers are awesome, but I particularly love the owner Alyssa’s classes. I don’t think she usually teaches on Sundays in St. Louis Park, so it was fun to have her subbing today.
Even though the class is really tough on the core and arms, I still managed to plank for 3 min 40 sec after for the Plank Challenge. Are you still in?? We are getting really close to 5 minutes!
After the class, I had 5.3 easy & snowy miles with a few run club friends and Matilda the vizsla. Matilda was super excited when we ran into Dustin, who was out doing his 20 miler on Sunday morning (he wasn’t feeling great Saturday morning.)
It was also the second day in a row that my running friend Christie and I were “twinning”- unplanned, I swear!
Total: 70 miles- My first 70 miler of the Phoenix training season. 1 strength class. Lots of planking and stretching.
Phoenix is creeping up on me quickly. I’m excited!
In non-running news, on Saturday night, Dustin and I finally saw the new Star Wars movie. My expectations were kind of low- sorry to any big fans out there, but that’s not my favorite kind of movie. But I was pleasantly surprised. I liked it more than I expected. And hey, it made Dustin really happy to go see it. Guess that means next movie will be Brooklyn!
**Have you seen any good movies lately?