LIIFT4: Week 3/8

Week-beginning Thoughts:
This lifting thing feels good. I like it. 

Monday

Did: LIIFT4, 4mi tempo @ 8:24/mi avg, Big 5

Had nightmares from 8pm until 1am that had me up about every hour.

Got up with baby at 1:30am.

Then was overcome with anxiety about the state of the world and spent the next two hours in a state of dread/anxiety/panic/worry/fear, compulsively online shopping for powdered milk and other random things that I felt like we had to have to survive. 

I just want to keep my babies safe for ever and for always

Finally got back to sleep around 4, and then my alarm went off at 5. I laid in bed half awake/half asleep for another 50min, got my butt up at 6am, and struggled through my LIIFT4 workout. Man, I was really glad for my trainer's smiling face and encouragement to "go heavier" on the weights. Super proud to be doing 25lb dumbbell chest presses now. :)

Had a somewhat stressful day of work, and felt the urge to run it out in the afternoon. Focused on my arm swing, and wound up with a pretty nice progression run: 

9:00
8:36
8:19
8:00

It felt good to go fast again. I need more of that in my life.

Tuesday

Did: 10KTuesday suuuper easy @ 10:02/mi avg, LIIFT4
After a nice night of sleep, it was great to get up and just run easy for an hour by myself. I definitely struggled with the idea of jumping right into a lifting workout when I got home, but logic ("if you don't do it now, you won't do it... just push on, it's only 30min") won out. 

alright, here we go-- another solo run

got our lifting done

celebrating with coffee from my Top 100 mug :)
better days... sigh

Wednesday

Did: 6mi with my family @ 9:16/mi avg
Felt stressed and needed a run. Took kids and husband out for a nice one on the greenway.

hee hee
matching track suits :) 

Thursday

Did: LIIFT4 + 4.08mi PRO @ 8:42/mi avg
Pushed through a shoulders/back workout in the morning, had a webcam conf call during the day, and enjoyed a fast run in the sun to close the day out.

9:07, 8:45, 8:37, 8:16

Friday

Did: LIIFT4 plus 5mi @ 9:22/mi avg
Woo-hoo! Finished out a third week of LIIFT- definitely feeling stronger, and I was able to increase most of my weights this week. :) 

Enjoyed a solo 5-miler in the afternoon to escape from the world. I'm starting to get back to appreciating solo runs. 

Saturday

Did: 10.02mi @ 9:41/mi avg, Big 5
Enjoyed a nice ten mile run around the greenway with baby and husband. This ten mile route is becoming really comfortable, and doesn't even feel like a long distance anymore :)

Sunday

Did: 4.71mi double stroller run @ 10:15/mi avg, Big 5
Oh, man. This was a tough run. Hills + double stroller = HARD. Definitely took a few walk breaks (30s or less), but loved getting out with these munchkins. 

Total Weekly Mileage: 40.17

Week-ending Thoughts:
This STFH thing is really working for my mileage. Damn, 40mi in a week? I haven't hit that since marathon training, and it didn't even really feel hard... even though I also had four strength sessions on top of it. 

I guess everyone has their own way of coping, and mine happens to be pretty running-heavy. lol.

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5K Training: Week 6/12

Week-beginning Thoughts:
Halfway through = good time to re-evaluate my plan and see if it's working for me. I modified a lot of my progression runs to have a tempo component instead.

Monday

Scheduled: rest
Did: rest
Just a long day of being tired :P 

Tuesday

Scheduled: 6.22mi with some hills
Did: 6.33mi @ 9:12/mi avg, Big 5
Unintentional progression run today :D Felt fun and easy.

Wednesday

Scheduled: XT
Did: rest
Yeah, this XT thing isn't ever going to happen... I should probably just own it. 

Thursday

Scheduled: 1.5mi WU, 3xmile (7:28)/400, 1mi CD
Did: 1.5mi WU, 3xmile (7:15, 7:12, 7:07), 1mi CD = 6.51mi @ 8:39/mi avg, Big 2
When you wake up at 4am to the sound of pouring rain, it's pretty hard to roll over, hop out of bed, and get set for mile repeats at the track. I am consistently grateful for my teammates, who also keep showing up. 

Let's do this.

As it turned out, the rain stopped by the time I arrived at our parking spot (yay). I wasn't feeling a 7:28mi when the warm-up was over, but vowed to do what I could, and enjoyed mental math for the first 200m, trying to figure out what I needed to hit at various points. I ended up deciding to base everything off a 2:00 400m, lapping my watch each quarter mile, and keeping track of how far below 2:00 I was on each lap, recognizing that I needed a total deficit of 32s over the four laps in order to hit my 7:28 goal.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy 1:50s were coming, focused on my forward lean and arm swing, and ended up with an exceptional workout.

You know what that means, though:
I could've gone faster :P

Friday

Scheduled: 3mi easy
Did: 3mi @ 9:49/mi avg on treadmill
I am SO glad I started doing these "treadmill Fridays". The only thing getting me out of bed in time to run is the promise of running easy, easy miles while distracting myself with some Netflix. It's far more appealing than running solo pre-dawn outdoors. 

Exhibit A: challenges of getting dressed in the dark...

Saturday

Scheduled: 9.5mi (1mi WU, 3x2mi(16:00)/800, 1mi CD)
Did: 5mi WU, 3mi tempo, 2mi CD = 10:00mi @ 9:00/mi avg
My usual Saturday training buddy was out of town today, but I was able to engage another teammate to run the first bit of my workout. Since she wasn't up for tempo miles, I decided to do 5mi easy with her, 3mi of tempo, and then close down with another cool-down mile. The first five went super easy, which was a bit of a shock since we were mid-to-low 9s for almost all of them. 

...and then it was time to drop the hammer.

I had a roughly 1mi stretch of road that I'd planned on just doing a couple ONBs on for the tempo: out hard, back hard, out hard, and then easy. I knew I should be able to do an 8min pace for the three miles, but also knew I didn't really want to. There's that "this is good mental training" bit. :P 

The "out" stretch is downhill, and it showed in my 7:40 first mile. IThe back was a little harder, and I tried to imagine the last hill of the Hearts and Soles race, and channel a bit of that. I had to keep reminding myself that, if it was really too fast to maintain, then I'd have no choice but to slow down my last mile, and that would be okay. It's much better to push yourself to your limit and find out in training than to shy away from pushing yourself because it "might" be hard. 

Mile 2= 8:05. Not too bad, for a 100+ foot of gain. I definitely didn't slack on the first few miles, though. My last mile was a good one. I dropped my handheld about 0.5mi in and focused on using my arms. 7:38. Awww, yeah.

...and then I kept running hard to finish a 5K. 

24:12. That's SOLID. And that's after 5mi of hills. On a morning where I had limited sleep. 

I'm feeling REALLY good about my next 5K race effort. 

...and then I spent 7hrs rehearsing, singing, and dancing with my show chorus,
wearing a 20lb weight in the form of a Squishy baby :) 

Sunday

Scheduled: 4-5mi easy with stroller
Did: 4.0mi with my family @ 9:29/mi avg
Fun family morning on the greenway. 

Total Weekly Mileage: 29.84

Week-ending Thoughts:

• I am in REALLY great shape, but I need more mental training to be able to capitalize on my physical condition
• Life has improved exponentially with my new job/shorter commute
• I am happy :) 

5K Training: Week 3/12

Week-beginning Thoughts:
Totally gonna enjoy these last two weeks of maternity leave/family time. :)

Monday

Scheduled: rest
Did: XT= at-home bootcamp

Opted to swap Monday with Wednesday so that I could rest on Christmas. It was actually really fun to parent both kiddos solo this morning and try to get my workout in (no, for real, it was genuinely fun). My oldest enjoyed doing my workout alongside me for a bit, and then ran around doing laps while I finished. The youngest sat happily in the sit-me-up chair and laughed while I tickled toes and made silly faces. Win. 

Tuesday

Scheduled: 6mi hills

Did: 6.29mi (1mi WU, 4mi PRO, 1mi CD) @ 9:22/mi avg, Big 2, ~1mi greenway walk

Looking ahead, next week looked a little more strenuous than this one, so I swapped my Tuesdays to better prepare myself for a fast 1mi on New Year's Day at Resolution Run. 

10:32, 9:40, 9:05, 8:49, 8:02, 9:52

Wednesday

Scheduled: XT rest

Did: 3.11mi easy on treadmill @ 9:19/mi avg, 1.5mi walk

Didn't plan on running, but was up early with a baby who didn't want to sleep... Hoped that being in the swing + listening to footfall would fix that problem, but nope. At least I got a nice 5K in? 

Thursday

Scheduled: 1mi WU, 4x800m(3:28)/400m, 1mi CD

Did: 1mi WU, 4x800 (3:27, 3:23, 3:27, 3:22), 1mi CD = 5.4mi @ 9:00/mi avg, Big 5

Ugh. Did NOT feel like getting up for this workout. Super glad I kept my first few weeks as "you only have to do four of these" for speedwork, and always super grateful for my teammate meeting me. 

Checked my watch every 100-200m for the first one, just to make sure I could latch onto the pace.

DIdn't check my watch at all for the first lap of 800 #2, and was 4s slow... had to fight to make that up on the second lap, and then ended up overshooting.

Watched my watch for 800 #3, and it showed. 

Let myself go a little faster on #4 and focused on engaging my core to stop twisting. 

Friday

Scheduled: 3mi easy rest

Did: 3.27mi stroller run @ 9:51/mi avg, Big 5

Couldn't help myself this morning... Took the littlest out for some calming miles. 

Saturday

Scheduled: 7mi PRO + 2mi

Did: as scheduled, 9.51mi @ 9:48/mi avg

For at least half of my Saturday long runs this year, we've met at the same place and run around the same streets. I decided I wanted something a little different today, and ended up making a route that took us up some of the largest hills we run. Fortunately, the hills were in the first few miles of the progression run, which made my overall pace a bit slower than last week, but gave our legs a different workout.

10:53
10:28
10:27 (barely made this progression, but it was also the largest elev gain)
10:12
9:38
9:08
8:38

Bonus: I was able to come home, shower, eat breakfast (made by my awesome husband), and then go nap for ~two hours. SUCH a treat.

Sunday

Scheduled: 4-5mi easy stroller run

Did: 4.01mi @ 9:36/mi avg with husband :)

Stayed up waaaaaaay too late (~1am) watching my Clemson Tigers advance to the natty = slept in and did an easy run with my husband mid-morning. 

Total Weekly Mileage: 31.61

Week-ending Thoughts:

Hrm. No rest day this week. Oops? 

5K Training:

Week-beginning Thoughts:
This is the week I will make a plan.
This is the week I will make a plan.
This is the week I will make a plan. 

Monday

Did: rest

Tuesday

Did: 6.3mi @ 9:51/mi avg, Stroller Strides
Good run. Good Strides class. Also: I MADE MY 5K TRAINING PLAN TODAY.

Wednesday

Did: Stroller Barre, Big 5
Strides is gettin' me these days... or maybe it was wearing 4" heels last night at the SOA holiday party. Definitely needed to stretch today! 

Thursday

Did: 1mi WU, 3K Indicator (13:36), 1mi CD= 4.23mi @ 8:46/mi avg, Big 5
Spent the past ~12 hours anxious about this workout. I always get that way before any sort of run that I have any sort of pace goals for... even though I really didn't have any pace goal in mind for this one, just a "go fast" guideline. 

Really freaking proud of what I ran, though--- my fastest indicator ever. Bonus: it was about 30s faster than what I ran at 4mo postpartum after my first pregnancy. 

Definite confidence-booster going into this cycle. :D

Also pretty cool to see what my predicted times are for various distances at this fitness level:

Friday

Did: 3.07mi treadmill run @ 9:51/mi avg
Life got in the way this morning and derailed my pre-dawn run plans. Fortunately, I know how to motivate myself. The only way I'd let myself start Season 3 of Outlander was to do it while running on my treadmill. Mission = accomplished.

Also, if you haven't watched Outlander, you're MISSING OUT BIG TIME. 

Saturday

Did: 2mi hike + 7mi @ 9:21/mi avg
Woke up in the gorgeous North Georgia mountains thanks to my company's holiday retreat, and did a nice 2mi trek through the wilderness alone. #OptOutside

if I could handle tree roots, I miiiiiiiight consider doing more trail runs and signing up for an eventual ultra
('cause my running bestie just did her first and I found it super inspiring) 

...and then, when we got home, I made myself get out on the greenway and do what was on my training plan for the day: 5mi progression + 2mi cooldown. I did NOT want to run today, but I wanted to have run. To hold myself accountable, I told two of my teammates about the run before I went, knowing that they actually would Garmin-stalk me afterwards to make sure I did it. That helped.

I played mind games with myself to get through the progression miles. I let myself run the first mile at whatever my body wanted, and then started picking mini goals for the next. If I ran the first in 10, maybe I could do 9:30/9:00/8:30/8:00 for the last four?

Splits:
9:59
9:38
9:09
8:44
8:16

Not too shabby for a day when I didn't feel like running, and was solo. 

Sunday

Did: Stroller Strides, 4.02mi treadmill run @ 9:50/mi avg, Big 5, 4mi walk
I've only got one more week with my amazing Fit4Mom group before their holiday break, which precedes the end of my membership (since I go back to work full time in 2020). I opted to go to Strides today instead of my normal Sunday Runday so that I could say thank you and good-bye in-person to one of my favorite instructors, who was super welcoming on my first day. Both my kiddos enjoyed it too.

...of course, that meant I had to do my run solo later in the day. UGH. I am so over not running first thing in the morning. lol. Got it done, again, thanks only to the motivation of letting myself watch another episode of Outlander on the treadmill.

...and then, as a bonus, we took the family out on a walk to enjoy this almost-60 degree weather the week before Christmas. 

Total Weekly Mileage: 24.67mi

Week-ending Thoughts:

1. Proud to be "in training" again
2. Having to interrupt your day to run after the sun comes out sucks
3. Outlander is amazing
4. Fit4Mom is also amazing

Peachtree Training: Week 7/12 (30w pregnant)

Week-beginning Thoughts:

I continue to be grateful to be able to keep running throughout this pregnancy. My pace may have slowed a ton this past weekend, but I can still do what I love (and, more than that, NEED, with all the life stress). 

Monday

Did: rest

Tuesday

Did: 1mi WU, 4mi PRO, 1mi CD + 0.3mi run/walk cooldown = 6.39mi @ 10:18/mi avg
With how slowly my weekend runs were and how bump-tastic I've felt the past few days, I really didn't think today was going to go terribly well. Fortunately, with the only assignment being "progression", I had zero goals for an absolute pace, and could call the run a success if I went 11:45, 11:44, 11:43, 11:42 on my splits. :P 

The first mile felt slug-tastic to me, but wasn't too bad. Then we picked up the pace, but it was almost unintentional-- just talking and running. I never felt like I had to focus on my pace or push harder than I wanted to (mentally or physically), and that was such a great confidence booster--- especially after I saw my paces!

Wooooooo!

Wednesday

Did: rest

Considered running, but got home last from chorus last night (YAY, CHORUS), and had to be out the door by 5:45. When my alarm went off, I decided to lay in bed instead of hopping up and getting out the door. The idea of solo running just wasn't appealing today. 

Thursday

Did: 1mi WU, 12x400/200, 1mi CD = 6.91mi @ 9:23/mi avg, Big 2 (because I can't bend the right way for the other three anymore with this bump)
What a GREAT workout. I struggled up the warm-up hill, and the subsequent mini hills that lead to the track, but, once I got on the flat rubber, things improved dramatically. I had tentative hopes of making it through twelve 400s, but decided eight would be sufficient, if I was done at that point.

I felt so awesome throughout the workout. The 200m recoveries were definitely enough, and the shorter 400m distance felt great to push through. I've been feeling super bump-tastic and big all week, and it was so refreshing to feel fast, strong, and agile for a few fleeting moments.

Also, splits were awesome:

2:08

2:00

1:56

1:58

2:01

1:58

1:58

1:54

1:51

1:50

1:53

1:46 (wooooo)

Friday

Did: 4.15mi with stroller @ 10:48/mi avg, Big 2
Great early morning run with the riverside crew and my potato(es) this morning. Nice and easy... and there were donuts afterwards. ;) 

Saturday

Did: 13.33mi with stroller @ 10:38/mi avg, Big 2 AND a 3.5mi walk around the zoo
I felt really good going into today's run. I had my teammates with me for the first part (first time in awhile I didn't have to do solo miles), and then my family went down to the river together to meet up with some more friends for part 2. 

I felt good throughout the first part of the run (and didn't even have to pee-- yessss), though it was definitely humid. After a quick shirt change, some graham crackers, and a drive to the river, I embarked on the last 7.5mi of my weekly half marathon. It was nice to run with some people I don't normally run with (thanks to our pace differential), and on a new route too. I finished feeling good, strong, and, had it not been for the sun coming out, I could've also done another 5K+ comfortably. It's really nice to have runs like these where I'm so happy and comfortable when the bump is more and more intrusive on my daily life's "normal" activities.

Fierce family photo

(I think we were being sharks here for some reason?)

Sunday

Did: 2.36mi with stroller @ 10:52/mi avg, Big 3, 2mi walk with stroller @ 17:something/mi average
While yesterday's run felt great during and immediately after, by the time evening rolled around, my bump was definitely "tired sore"-- just from having ligaments hold up a 15lb weight for 2+ hours of running. Even with the Gabrialla support band, that's a lot for my body to support for so long. I wasn't sure if I'd run today or rest, but I woke up feeling recovered (at least in that vein--- I slept like crap, so that wasn't ideal) and decided to take my munchkin for a short 2ish mi jaunt before meeting my other running mama friend for a stroller walk with the kiddos.

Potato and I had a bit of an adventure "mudding" through a section of trail that looked far better than it actually was once we got into it. So much for the thorough wash-down I gave the running stroller yesterday after my husband pushed (read: sweated ALL OVER) it. The tires were caked with mud, as were my shoes and legs, by the time we go through it. Of course, the potato laughed with glee and thought it was "great fun". lol. 

Total Weekly Mileage: 33.14

Week-ending Thoughts:

• So happy that running is still so comfortable
• Bump is getting heavier, and it's definitely more difficult to manage both ambiently and during runs-- still not something that's a true deterrent, though, since I'm comfortable during runs
• Amazed that I haven't started wanting walk breaks yet (though I'm sure my overall pace might improve if I did)
• No calf cramps this week!
• Current worst part of running: having to do laundry multiple times during the week because I have 2-3 pairs of shorts/bras that fit comfortably :P
• Humidity and heat are definite factors, and I'm grateful for my teammates' desire to run before the sun comes up