February 26 - March 5
Sunday
I had cross training and did an hour of elliptical (6.2 miles)
Monday
It should have been a rest day but I needed to run (ever have one of those days) and ended up running 2 slow miles in the morning...which all I was gonna do...but by the evening I really needed to run so I ran a quick 5K to see where my fitness was. It was around 26 minutes which I was quite proud of.
Tuesday
It was nice out and I met up with Amanda for an easy 3 miler. I totally enjoy these runs with Amanda and it's nice not to worry about speed or how many miles we need.
Wednesday
My training plan was calling for 8 miles now. 7 seemed like a great number and to be completely honest 8 just seems like SO much more (yea I don't get it either!) That morning there were tornado warnings and it was raining and I just didn't want to run outside in the rain and wind (and more tornadoes?!) I ran on the treadmill and I attempted a tempo run. In reality I started at marathon pace (6.4) for the first mile and then after that increased the speed to 6.7 and every mile increased it again to .1 to ended up at 7.3 and then back to 6.4 for the last mile. It hurt but I was pretty proud of this.
Thursday
Amanda suggested running at her house and we made a loop around Ellet which ended up being 3,25 miles. It was fun running somewhere where I had no idea we were going and just following Amanda.
Saturday
I met up with a several friends at 6:15 am (!!!) to run around Akron. My friend Cathy gave me her old garmin (I just had to buy a new charging cord) and attempted to run with it. However, it's very "touchy" and I had trouble with figuring out how to work it. The first 12 miles of this run were all part of the old and new Akron course and fun. There were 7 of us and it made it "enjoyable" and a pace that I could run for awhile (10:30ish pace). We stopped at 12 and parted with everyone except Amanda. We also stopped long enough to get water and fuel (which I wish I had something at this point but didn't have anything). And went back out along the towpath from downtown and south. These miles were NOT fun and I actually walked like a mile of this part. My mind got all negative and I cried for the last 1.5 miles. Thankful Amanda pretty much told me to suck it up and we weren't going to stop until we got back to the cars. We ended up back at the cars with 18 miles in about 3 hours and 25 minutes. I can't believe that I would have still had to run 8 miles after that! And what would you do after running 18 miles, well you'd go to SkyZone and jump around trampolines with your kids and go to lunch. My legs felt surprisingly well after all that and my legs have stopped with the whole restlessness I was getting after long runs.
Sunday
I didn't feel like doing anything but I knew I had an hour of cross training to do. I decided to do half an hour of elliptical (3 miles) and then I rode a bike for the other half an hour (8 miles). I then took some time stretching after the whole 18 miles.
March 6-12
Monday
I knew I had a race on Sunday so I thought I should still try to get all the miles in (I was scheduled to run 17 miles over the weekend) so I ran 4 miles. After that I did talk to a friend and she told me that she thought that didn't sound like a good idea if I really wanted to try to PR so I decided the rest of the week I was going to run all my weekly runs but take off both Friday and Saturday.
Tuesday
I ran on the treadmill with the incline at 2% for 3.1 miles. It's suppose to be an easy day so I have to run with an incline or I have trouble running slow. But with the incline I wonder how "easy" it really is and if I am still not really doing it right.
Wednesday
The weather was perfect for running outside. The was a wind advisory but it didn't start until like 10 so I knew I had time to get my 8 mile run outside. I had spent Tuesday evening trying to figure out the watch and had it all set up to run. However, I wasn't really excited about this run. I had convinced myself I would run out two miles on the towpath and turn around get some water and then run two miles out the other direction for the 8 miles. And then when I got to 2 miles I convinced myself that i could get to 3 miles and only have to run 1 mile out and back after. Then I got to 3.5 miles and and finally got to 4 miles. Maybe it was the wind (it was windy BUT nothing like it was in the afternoon) but boy those 4 miles I had to work hard for them. When I turned around it was "easier" and I actually had a negative split run and had an average pace of 9:18. It was a good marathon pace run (even though I still have trouble believing that I could run this pace for 26.2 miles!)
In the evening a bunch of my running buddies were meeting at Sand Run to run and my buddy Joseph was gonna walk, I decided I would be fun to meet up with them and bring the kids and walk with Joseph.
Charlie really didn't want to be the picture
Thursday
I convinced Amanda to come to my hood and run around. It was another "easy" 3 miler and I took her on my favorite loop. However for some reason my brain wasn't working and every time I told her to turn right I actually meant left and vise versa (it definitely made for entertaining run!)
Friday and Saturday were rest days. By Friday evening I really wished I had done something but I woke up on Saturday feeling bad. I'd been battling allergies all week and Saturday morning I woke up to not being able to hear much (other than my pulse) and was glad to rest. I did end up at the minute clinic for some help getting my ears unclogged.
Today was my first race of 2017. My favorite (no seriously!) race, the Shamrock 15K, which says it's the hilliest 15K in NEOhio (or so the organizers say!) My friend Cathy was running the 5K and Megan, Brittany, and me were going to tackle the hills. This is the 5th start for me on the 15K (previously I had a 6 or 7 year run of the 5K) and I had hopes of a PR (1:23:XX). But due to the whole allergy thing, it was freezing, and windy it just wasn't my day. I did well over the first 5K, it was all downhill. I think the first mile was 7:45 which is just to darn quick but I totally took advantage of the downhills and got done in 25:48. The 4 mile is on a small flat section and had another sub 9 mile. And then the HILLS, HILLS, and more HILLS. The first incline I always just walk up and trying to gather myself for the rest of the hills. But because all I could hear was my horrible breathing (which may or may not have been as bad but it sounded bad to me) I struggled the rest of the time. I totally walked more than I want to say. However, by mile 7 I got a "second" wind and told myself to be under 1:30 and ended up with 1:28:46. Obviously not a PR but it was the second fastest time I have had on the course.
Before the start, we're happy!
So glad to be done!
Cookies and soup for the win after race.
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