Back to reality!

Week of August 8-14, 2016

Mileage:  57.2

Monday - Monday was back to a 5:00 a.m. alarm, work, and burpees at bootcamp!  None of this was quite as hard as expected, thankfully.  The worst part of returning to work after a week off was having to look professional/presentable (i.e., not being able to wear running shoes at all times and having to wear a little make-up).  Cross-training Monday consisted of a 30 minute elliptical warm-up and 45 minute bootcamp.

Tuesday - 9.4 miles with 2 miles warm-up, a fartlek of 7 x 3 minutes on/3 minutes off, and 2 miles cool-down (7:13 average for the whole 9.4, with the ons ranging from 5:54-6:33 pace) - back to workouts.  I ran this on a rolling course so my paces on the hards varied based on the elevation changes in any given 3 minutes, but I like to do fartleks this way since they are effort-based and rolling hills are good for me, as is being less obsessive (for half mile time-based repeats I would have run a flat course).  6 of the hards were under 6:15 pace; the 6:33 one was up a long incline the whole way.  My right quad was a little sore from bootcamp, which I expected because it "seized" up a bit when we were going back and forth between lunges and lateral jumps, but I didn't feel it during this run, just afterward when I foam rolled.

Wednesday - 12.1 miles base pace (7:25).  This run didn't feel like reality for the first 5-6 miles; those miles felt like running aimlessly into a dark abyss!  It's getting light later now (boo!), and I started this run a little earlier than most since it was a little longer than my typical weekday morning distances, plus it was super foggy!  My headlamp is great in normal dark conditions, but doesn't do much for me in the fog, plus it needs new batteries (we are out of AAA but they are now on the grocery list!).  Stepping outside for this run was like stepping into a sauna, and I was dripping when I finished, but otherwise it was an enjoyable run!

Thursday - It was back to school day for Albani!  I ran 12.5 miles total:  8.5 recovery miles (8:04) with Missy in the morning, with 6 strides in mile 8, and 4 miles (7:37) in the evening.  It was 7000% humidity for all of this!  The heat index was 105 for my evening run, and it wasn't as bad as I expected, but I was drenched in sweat and ready for bed at 8:30 p.m. (I blame vacation hang-over for this more than running, though).

My 3rd grader!

Some were more awake than others

Albani selected the dresses for us; she still likes to match me so I am taking
advantage of this as long as I can!

Bandit was stoked too

So grown up!

Friday - 3 mile shake-out (7:34) followed by 40 minutes of bootcamp.  I was so tired when I went to bed on Thursday night that I contemplated running the easy 3 only and skipping bootcamp (my coach gives me running workouts only and bootcamp is something I add because I find it very beneficial for strength and injury-prevention; he approves of it but it's not written on my schedule, because you know I wouldn't skip anything written on the schedule!).  But I set my alarm for early enough to do both and once I was awake I figured I might as well try, and I could always leave bootcamp early if I was too dead.  My body felt tired at the beginning of this run but good at the end, and bootcamp was fine.  Often times starting is the hardest part!  It's always a pretty good day when you use heavier weights than the man next to you who outweighs you by probably 50 lbs!

Saturday - 14 mile long run (7:19 average for all) with 10 miles base pace followed by 4 cut-down miles (drop 5-10 seconds per mile).  I love fast finish long runs, and as this workout was written my last 4 miles should have been 7:20, 7:10, 7:00, 6:50 at the fastest, but I've found that paces between 6:50-7:15ish are kind of weird gears for me and I always end up wanting to go a little faster or a little slower on those miles in this workout.  I felt great on this run and it felt short after having 20 last weekend!  I ran this one alone, and had to get up at 4:30 a.m. for it because I had Missouri State University adjunct professor orientation on Saturday morning (I am teaching a class in their ABA Masters program this fall for the second time).  I was happy to feel great at the end and to finish with a 6:27 mile! I often feel better finishing long runs at 6:30ish than 6:50ish, I guess because the 6:30ish push is truly hard and the 6:50ish push is faster but not throw down (technically it is marathon goal pace, which is still a weird pace for me). My overall pace average was exactly the same as the last time I ran this workout in July, but this time I ran from home by myself and the course had over 400 feet of elevation gain - last time I ran in Wichita with Kim on a course with 0 feet elevation gain!  And my final mile was 6:27 this time on an uphill finish compared with 6:28 last time on pancake flat.  Yay.

Long run splits

Sunday - 6.2 miles base pace (7:25), with the 4 middle miles with Casey.  The 14 mile long run didn't take much out of me so I felt good on this one.  I was pretty tempted to run 9 in order to hit 60 miles for the week, but I will be there soon enough!

I'm really enjoying the Olympics track and field and can't wait to watch the women's marathon! I DVRed it this morning when it aired and have been avoiding the Internet for any spoilers. I saw the men's 10K results on Facebook before I got to watch that one - boo! But I am watching both this afternoon.