21 Day Fix: Week 3/3 AND Miler Method #4: Week 1/6

Week-beginning Thoughts:

So, this week is going to be a bit interesting. I'm finishing up 21 Day Fix Extreme Real Time from Beachbody on Demand while also starting my fourth time through Miler Method. After my 6:08 PR mile earlier this summer, my training partner and I thought it would be fun to give the program another go in early fall, to take advantage of the cooler temps, and opted to actually sign up for the full program with Coaches Nick and Sierra Willis (instead of just repeating the plan I'd done with their training group back in 2016). 

Miler Method Histories: 

Roll the Tapes (a summary of #1 and #2)

6:08 (#3)

Since finishing our 10 days of 10 miles (10x10 Challenge) a couple weeks ago, I've had some knots in my lower calves, so I'm not really sure how this training cycle will go. I don't feel nearly as strong or healthy as I did going into MM#3 in June, but the weather's also better, and I've been doing a lot more strength/cross-training, so maybe it'll be good? 

Just like last time(s), I modified the Miler Method plan a bit to suit my schedule.As written, the plan was:

Monday: rest

Tuesday: hills/strides

Wed: easy

Thurs: tempo

Fri: optional easy

Sat: track workout

Sun: long run

I'm modifying it to:

Monday: easy

Tuesday: hills/strides

Wed: rest

Thurs: track

Friday: optional easy

Sat: long run

Sun: tempo (probably with the stroller?)

Monday

Scheduled: 5-7mi easy

Did: 5.35mi easy run @ 9:07/mi avg, 0.17mi cool-down walk, 21 DFX: Day 15- Upper Fix, 3mi bike ride with kid

I was a little nervous about my calves this morning, and wore my compression sleeves as a "security blanket" for the run. I'd planned on doing an easy 3 and, if I f felt great, I'd continue for another 2 to get to the lower end of my scheduled workout. I ended up feeling GREAT and did a little over 5, before cooling down with a walk. Hooray, awesome weather.

When I got home, I knocked out my 21DFX workout while my kiddo played outside with caterpillars. SO nice that it was cool enough to get a workout done outside. 

...then finished the day out with an easy 5.6mph bike ride with my potato. That was awesome. 

Tuesday

Did: 21 DFX Day 16- Plyo, Core Circuit, 6.29mi @ 9:58/mi avg (3x60s hills + 4x30s hills) 

Got up at 4am, which left me precious spare time to get through:

1) brushing my teeth and pulling my hair back

2) prepping my water bottle (shoulda done that the night before)

3) a 30min 21 DFX workout

4) the core circuit

and be out the door to meet my training buddies for a 4:50am 10KTuesday. 

...and then I forgot I hadn't input my workout into my watch.

...and then I realized I didn't know how to do that with my new (Polar) watch.

...so I wore both the Polar and my old Garmin (which got the workout programmed into it). :P

I didn't feel super confident in my calves today, so I kept the effort easy, especially since we hit the big hill in the neighborhood near the park. 

60s repeats:

1) 0.12 @ 8:34/mi

2) 0.11 @ 8:45/mi

3) 0.11 @ 8:44/mi

30s repeats:

1) 0.06 @ 8:32/mi

2) 0.05 @ 9:21/mi (thought I felt something in my calf)

3) 0.06 @ 9:05/mi (did feel something in my calf, but it moved downward as I ran, so I felt better)

4) 0.06 @ 8:06/mi (had training partner next to me as we did our last 30s one together)

Nutrition wasn't the greatest. I struggle with food every time I have to go into the office. I never bring enough :P 

Breakfast: Larabar

Post-run: Greek yogurt smoothie, protein mix + coffee

Morning: coffee w/whole milk, overnight oats (greek yogurt, strawberries, oats)

Snack: KIND protein bar

Lunch: spinach salad with roma tomato, carrots, celery, corn, and pork shoulder plus apple

Snack: roasted veggies (cauliflower, zucchini, celery, squash)

Dinner: roasted veggies with pork shoulder, chardonnay

Evening: a couple taco shells, peanut butter oat bar, deli meat, and some wheat thins  :P 

Wednesday

Scheduled: Rest

Did: 21 DFX: Dirty 30, 2mi walk

Got up and got my 30min workout in, and then enjoyed a morning walk on the phone with a friend before work. 

Thursday

Scheduled: 10-15min WU, 10min tempo, 5min rest, 200/300/400/600/2x200 (with 2min rest between), 10-15min CD

Did: as written (6.51mi @ 9:01/mi avg), 21 DFX Pilates, Strength Circuit

I love track days. I wasn't really sure how today was going to go, but was still looking forward to getting back into workouts. Today was a ladder at mile pace (6:00 goal)

Tempo: 1.38mi in 10min

200 0:39.8 (way too fast-- should've been 0:45)

300 1:05.4 (too fast- should've been 1:07.5)

400 1:29.4 (good- should've been 1:30)

600 2:30 (I took the "Do this all at mile pace (you can go slower on the 600 if you're feeling tired)" direction from my coahes a little too liberally)

200 0:46.6 heh... yeah, this was slow

200 0:43.0 stronger finish = yay

It felt nice to be back on the track, and I liked the variety in the ladder (though the 600 was definitely hard). Considering it's been a couple months since I've done any speedwork (with a focus on distance, via the 10x10 challenge, and a couple weeks off from running for my calves), I felt good about where I was at today. Plus, it's always great to go into a hard day of work already having accomplished something hard before 6am. ;)

The evening was a bit of a struggle for me. Miler Method workouts + my actual WORK mean I'm struggling to fit in the 30min workouts from 21 Day Fix. I'll be glad when this week is over and I'm "only" doing Miler Method for my workouts. I got the Pilates done after the kids went to bed, knocked out my Strength Circuit (from Miler Method) and then headed to bed.

Friday

Scheduled: 4-6mi recovery run

Did: 4.05mi @ 10:05/mi avg, 21DFX Lower

Uggggghhhh. Here's how my morning went:

2:15am start hearing baby noises

2:35am decide baby is definitely awake; get up, feed/change/put baby back to sleep

2:50am opt to go to the basement in an attempt to sleep without sleeping cat/husband noises

3:15am hear baby crying, but know my husband's on call for that

3:15-3:59am continue to hear baby crying, be unable to sleep or even relax

3:59am baby stops crying and appears to be back asleep

4:00am my alarm goes off

I'd planed on knocking out my 21 DFX workout, then heading out for a ~4mi run. That meant I'd need to get up at 4:00 if I was going to be done, showered, and ready by 6am when my family is up. 

...but SO TIRED.

I reset my alarm for 4:30 and decided I'd skip the 21DFX workout this morning (which meant I'd have to do it in the evening, UGH), and then, within 5 minutes, the baby was making more noises. 

I had two options:

1) continue attempting to sleep, which guaranteed the workout wouldn't happen, but I might function better at work... if I actually got to sleep

2) accept defeat on the sleep front and go workout, something I could control completely

I opted for #2, and enjoyed a nice recovery run, going super easy. 

Did lower fix after dinner, and was very grateful to go to bed knowing I only have two more of these workouts. 

Saturday

Scheduled: 8-10mi easy, 21 DFX: Day 20, core circuit

Did: 10mi easy @ 9:57/mi avg, 1mi walk, 21 DFX: Cardio, core circuit

I've had a pretty good track record this year of 10mi (or more) runs every weekend, but took the last two off due to calf issues. It felt nice to be back on the greenway with my husband pushing the kids in the double stroller for what's become our Saturday morning ritual. I had a few times where my calves felt a little tight, but nothing that lingered long enough for concern. 

Used the baby's second nap of the day to knock out the 20th 21DFX workout (cardio), and finished off with the MM core circuit before watching the first quarter of the Clemson football game.... and promptly falling asleep. 

Sunday

Scheduled: 15-20min WU, 10min tempo, 10min CD, 21 DFX: Day 21, 

Did: 21 DFX Yoga, workout as scheduled + 1mi walk with stroller 

Baby woke up at a normal hour today (4:30), which meant I had an easy feed/change cycle before having about an hour to myself (before everyone woke up for the actual start to the day). While I enjoyed finishing off 21 DFX with yoga, I'll also be grateful for the extra time next week to do other things, like knock my run out early, sleep, enjoy some coffee and a book in my reading nook, or, more likely, pack my lunch for work. :P 

I wasn't sure what to expect out of my tempo run. I'm normally around a 7:30 pace, but had two "other" factors today:

1) I was pushing a stroller, albeit "just" the single with the baby

and

2) after a sneak peak of fall, the humidity is back in full swing. I hadn't even left my driveway before the weight of it felt heavy all over my body. Ugh. 

I ended up doing slightly more than 10min of tempo due to a missed lap button press on my watch, but was around a 7:47. Not bad. I probably should have run faster, though, since I definitely felt like I could've kept going at that pace for awhile... Oh well. Lesson learned for next week! 

gorgeous morning at the river

Total Weekly Mileage: 36.6

Week-ending Thoughts:

• I'm proud of myself for sticking it out for all 21 days of 21 Day Fix Extreme. It's a nice program, and I think I'll come back and repeat it again when I'm not also in the middle of a running training cycle. 
• It's nice to have an online training community again. 
• I think the Atlanta humidity is worse now than it ever was earlier this summer. :P
• I'm not excited about having to go back into the office full-time this coming week, and worry a bit about how the extra stress and time spent showering/doing my hair/getting dressed/packing ALL THE FOOD (no, seriously, my biggest concern to going back in-office is just figuring out how to prep/pack all the food I need to get through a day and how many reusable containers I'm going to have to wash each night) will impact life and training... but "I've had worse". 

Running at 39 Weeks Pregnant

Week-beginning Thoughts:
Alright, this kid can come anytime after 10KTuesday.... 

Monday

Did: 2.72mi with stroller @ 10:48/mi avg

Ran the little one to daycare this morning :) 

Tuesday

Did: 6.29mi @ 11:11/mi avg, chorus
This was such a fun run. Not only was I celebrating the fact that, 5 days from my due date, I was happily, comfortably running a 10K, but we were doing it in a cool torrential downpour of rain through tons of puddles, which was just... fun. Like, I was literally smiling the whole time. So grateful to have made it this far and be able to still enjoy runs. That said, I've definitely gotten to the point where a 6mi run, though comfortable, is kind of boring. I'm just getting through the mileage, and definitely ready for the next "thing". 

Bonus: new short haircut was awesome in the rain

Wednesday

Did: 2.77mi walk with stroller
Daycare pickup walk :) 

Thursday

Did: 1mi WU, 1600/400, 1200/400, 800/400, 400/400, 1mi CD = 5.66mi @ 9:20/mi avg plus 2.77mi walk with stroller
Today was an unexpected win, thanks to the 66 degree weather. Omigosh, SO NICE.

T-3 days

1600: 9:07 (9:29 prev week, 9:48 before that)
1200: 6:26 (6:54 prev week, 7:16 before that)
800: 3:58 (4:08 prev week, 4:38 before that)
400: 1:41 (2:01 prev week, 2:05 before that)
Um, what? Weather makes a difference.
 

Friday

Did: 2.07mi with stroller @ 10:48/mi avg, ~2mi walk with stroller
Had a chill two mile run with the stroller this morning along the river. It felt good to have a super short distance goal for the day (just enough to hit 1250mi pregnant), and stop a few times along the way to discuss wildlife or have a picnic with some geese with my little one. After coffee and a shower, we returned to the river for another two-ish miles walking with a friend and her newborn. 

Saturday

Did: 5K Stroller Race in 28:45
Last time I was pregnant, I ended up delivering the day I was supposed to be running a race. Therefore, deciding to do a race the day before my due date this time seemed like the ideal way to jinx myself into labor. (Spoiler alert: it didn't work)

We got the family up and out early in the morning, and headed over to the one 5K I could find within a 30min drive of our house on July 27. I was thrilled to have seen strollers weren't just permitted, but there were NO seeding requirements at all for them, which meant I could have a fun race with both my little ones :D 

I figured I'd run around a 33-35min race, especially since:
1) I'd probably want to stop an pee somewhere
2) it was probably a hilly course... 'cause Atlanta
3) I've been running high-10s as my go-to pace for the past few weeks

Nope. I didn't need to pee at all. The course was pretty flat (by ATL standards) and mostly shaded. Finally, the stroller gave me a momentum boost on the downhills, and race-day adrenaline kicked in for the rest. Not only did I finish well under 30min (WHAT?!?!), but, since it was a smaller race, my munchkin(s) and I took home a 1st Place AG medal. The only thing that could have improved the day would have been doing into labor afterwards... 

Sunday

Did: ~3.5mi walking
Thought I might've been going into labor last night, but noooooope. Having my parents around thwarted running plans for the morning, and evening running just doesn't happen, so I settled for a little over a 5K of walking... some of which may have been around the park with a giant waffle cone filled with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (aka dinner when you're hormonal and still very pregnant on your due date). 

 

Total Weekly Mileage: 19.86mi run, 10.5mi walk

Total Pregnancy Running Mileage: 1254

Week-ending Thoughts:
All this talk about how running/walking/being active induces labor is CRAP. 

Countin' Down (38w Pregnant)

Week-beginning Thoughts:
Wooooooo, maternity leave! :D Here's hoping Bump's in a good spot for the remainder of this pregnancy and I'm able to use some of my newfound freetime to run happily. Achilles is still slightly sore to pressure in the evenings, but no trouble when taped. 

Monday

Did: rest

Mmm, all the naps. :D 

Tuesday

Did: 6.35mi @ 11:29/mi avg, Big 2, plus 3mi walk & chorus
Woohoo! A run that felt good! I took a few walk breaks, more to check myself than out of necessity, but this run felt really good the whole way through. I even followed up with walking my munchkin to school (though walking an empty stroller back home was a bit wonky). After chorus this evening, I had almost 11.5mi on my watch for the day. Yay! 

Wednesday

Did: rest
OMG. I stayed our full chorus rehearsal last night (7pm-10pm), got home, couldn't sleep (as usual) until like 11:30-12am, and, for the first time EVER, got to sleep in without an alarm or anything to do at all until nearly noon. IT WAS AMAZING. :D Living the dream, truly. 

Thursday

Did: 1mi WU, 1600/400, 1200/400, 800/400, 400/400, 1mi CD = 5.58mi total @ 9:35/mi avg, Big 2
Another fantastic track day! Yessssssss. I'm super appreciating not having to run the YMCA hill these past few weeks and just warming up on the track. I didn't feel faster than last week, but splits say otherwise:

1600: 9:29 (9:48 last week)
1200: 6:54 (7:16 last week)
800: 4:08 (4:38 last week)
400: 2:01 (2:05 last week)

Friday

Did: 3.15mi with stroller @ 10:34/mi avg
Enjoyed a nice ~5K pre-dawn run with my toddler and some friends at the river. 

Saturday

Did: 4mi @ 11:15/mi avg, 0.5mi walk
Planned on doing 4-5mi today, and opted for the shorter end due to having to pee a lot + OMGHUMIDITY. That was probably the right call, considering I came back had some  French toast, and then napped for a few hours without any respite from the fatigue I've had since dinnertime yesterday.  Legs, abdomen, achilles, etc. all felt great, though; my only problem was the moistness :P 

Sunday

Did: 4.26mi walk @ 17:37/mi 
Wanted to be active today, but running four days in a row isn't something I've done for quite awhile, so I opted to drag the family out for a walk to/from the local city park. 

Total Weekly Mileage: 19.11mi run, 7.5mi walk

Total Pregnancy Running Mileage: 1234.12

Week-ending Thoughts:

• I'm not running the same distance I did with my first pregnancy at this point, but I'm feeling SO much more comfortable each mile, not taking any planned walk breaks (only breaks to pee/fix clothing), and am not training for a half marathon. 
• So crazy to think that, at this point next week, I might have a new squishy baby
• Running continues to be a source of joy, inspiration, and happiness... except when putting my shoes on. Oof. 

 

Recovery Week (37w Pregnant)

Week-beginning Thoughts:

Last week of work before maternity leave... Crazy! 

Monday

Did: rest

Had a little bit of Achilles soreness today during my day. :/ It started on yesterday's run, so I'm thinking maybe my body didn't like sprinting to the finish of the Peachtree with ~30 extra pounds on it as much as I did... Been icing each night and will probably tape it for the morning. 

Tuesday

Did: 6.25mi @ 10:48/mi avg

Taped my Achilles and had zero issues. Phew. I feel so great running that it'd be such a letdown to have to take time off these last few weeks (especially once I have tons of free time on maternity leave) due to a silly injury. No bladder (or other GI) trouble. No discomfort. No foot issues. Just another good, moist run. :D Still can't believe how great running feels. 

Wednesday

Did: rest

Thursday

Did: 1mi WU, 1600/400, 1200/400, 800/400, 400/400, 1/2mi CD = 5mi total @ 10:30ish/mi avg
Today was probably the first OMG hot/humid day of running all summer, where there wasn't even the slightest breeze anywhere along the track. We even skipped the YMCA warm-up hill, parked at the track, and just did our warm-up on the flat, squishy surface. That didn't help. 

yeah, this was after, like, a mile

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but decided I'd do some sort of ladder, and hoped for a total of 5mi. Some quick mental math gave me the following workout: 1600, 1200, 800, 400 (with 400 recoveries in-between) and a 1mi WU, 1/2mi CD = 5.00. 


1600: 9:48
1200: 7:16 (9:41/mi)
800: 4:38 (9:16/mi)
400: 2:05 (8:20/mi)

Taped my Achilles again and had no real issues. It's still slightly sore to touch in the evenings, but seems fine to run on, esp with the KT tape. 

Friday

Did: rest

Saturday

Did: 4.2mi + 0.8mi + 1.23mi on treadmill = 6.23mi run @ 11:20ish/mi avg, 1mi treadmill walk, 0.75mi trail walk

I was supposed to run ten miles today. This is the first run of my pregnancy that I've cut truly short, and I'm so disheartened by it. Today's been awful. 

I felt fine enough when I started, but, within a mile, I had to pee. Okay, not a big deal. Stopped, took care of business... and then I had to pee again before mile 2. By mile 2.5, I felt some back end trouble coming, and agreed with my running partner that turning our 7mi loop + 3mi ONB into a series of 3mi ONBs was probably the best call. At mile 3, I knew I needed to swing by a literal bathroom, which meant cutting our run short and just heading home for an unknown period of time. 

So, after 4mi, I took a bathroom break at home (hooray, I made it!), and then decided to head back out for more mileage. I made it a little over quarter mile before the bladder pressure returned, and I decided to head home again. If I was going to have to pee every freaking five minutes, it was much better to do so from a treadmill less than 15' from a toilet than roadside in broad daylight. 

I think I stopped six times in the ~13min I was on the treadmill to pee, often times with only a couple drops actually coming out. W.T.F. >_<

At that point, I knew nothing I did was going to change how uncomfortable running was this morning. The best thing I could do for myself and my sanity was acknowledge that the baby bump was not in a good spot, and just STOP. 

...so I walked another mile on the treadmill. 

...and then stopped. 

I'm grateful that it's taken almost 38 weeks to have a bad run this pregnancy, and hopeful that this is just a one-day thing with the bump being in a bad spot... So glad this didn't happen last week before Peachtree! 

what's up with you today, Bump? 

Sunday

Did: ~10mi cycling, 2hr dancing

Thank goodness I woke up feeling more comfortable today!!! I didn't want to chance a run shaking Bump back into a bad position before Song of Atlanta Show Chorus front row auditions, so I opted for a bike ride instead. This was generally a good plan, though it still had its own challenges. The highlight of the day, though, was just feeling normal again and being able to enjoy front row auditions :D Hooray!!!

Total Weekly Mileage: 17.52mi run, 10mi biked

Week-ending Thoughts:

• What a roller coaster of a week. I've gone from feeling amazing at Thursday's speedwork to absolutely dejected over Saturday's bladder troubles to thrilled to perform our dances on Sunday. Oh, the emotions... 
• Here's to another week of who-knows-what :P 

Peachtree Training: Week 12/12 (35w Pregnant)

Week-beginning Thoughts:

Another Monday...

Monday

Did: rest

Tuesday

Did: 6.32mi @ 10:25/mi avg, Big 2, chorus

Despite the 100% humidity, the weather this morning (67 degrees) felt pretty perfect. I even caught myself feeling great during some sub-10 stints along flat or downhill parts. Hooray for feeling awesome with less than 5 weeks to go!

Wednesday

Did: rest

Thursday

Did: 1mi WU, mile/400, 800/400, 400/400, 200/400, 1mi CD = 5.13mi total @ 9:56/mi avg, Big 3
This morning's 72 degrees and 95% humidity wasn't exactly a setup for success, but I think Bump's dropped a bit in the past few days, and is in a much more comfortable position for running, because today was EPIC.

After the mile repeats a few weeks ago (where I barely scraped out a 10min/mi pace), I wasn't expecting much from today.. but my first lap was a 2:15, putting me solidly in range for a 9:00 mile. Oooooh.

After the sub-9 mile, I got the idea in my head that it'd be pretty cool to see if I could drop my pace by a minute/mile for each repeat, which seemed reasonable since the distance halved each time, and I had a solid 400m to recover. 

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Mile: 8:49 (8:49/mi)
800: 3:52 (7:44/mi)
400: 1:38 (6:32/mi)
200: 0:43 (5:44/mi)

Friday

Did: rest

Saturday

Did: 5.42mi @ 11:04/mi avg + 4.8mi with stroller @ 11:01/mi avg = 10.22mi @ 11:03/mi avg, Big 2
I cannot believe I'm four weeks from another baby, and still feeling SO comfortable running. Today's ten miler wasn't even taxing. :D My biggest struggle on the runs wasn't my digestive system or bump; it was just boredom. It takes so much longer for me to run a mile these days, and I find myself thinking "bleh, I can't believe it's been forty minutes and I haven't even hit four miles... how much LONGER?". It's kind of strange, too, because it's not like a ~2 hr run is long for me. I ran much longer durations for marathon training without boredom. Maybe it's also because I'm doing half my mileage solo, though? 

I had an early first half from 5am to 6am (solo), came home, picked up the kiddo, and then was on the greenway for part 2 by 6:45am with the stroller. Both runs felt good, though there was a marked difference after about 3mi (just like marathon training, it feels like it takes me 3-4mi to "warm up"). 

just me and a couple potatoes... :D

Sunday

Did: 4.01mi @ 10:51/mi avg, Big 5
Running in the sunlight is no joke. :P I'll be starting Peachtree at 7:05am this coming Thursday, and figured it was probably in my best interest to at least run somewhat close to that time pre-race. It was humid, but not as terrible as I'd worried about. I took a couple 30s walk breaks, less because I "had to" and more for "what does this feel like?". Still a solid average for the day after a double digit run. :D 

Total Weekly Mileage: 25.69mi 

Week-ending Thoughts:

• A few weeks ago, I wondered if I'd make it through this pregnancy running. These days, there isn't a doubt in my mind I'll still be capable of 20+ mi weeks in a month.
• Pretty pumped for Peachtree :D