Thankful every day!

Week of November 21-27, 2016

Mileage: 45.1, with a bootcamp, a set of strides, a Turkey Trot 5K, a double, a strength workout, a short long run, a 3 day work week, and Thanksgiving!  In our world, we are often only thankful for things when we don't have them - whether it's petty things such as cell phone service or the latest fashion or gadget, essentials such as food and warmth, or things that make our lives tick like the special people around us and our health.  I challenge myself to be thankful for the big and little things each day.  It's easy to forget about how much goes right each and every second of our lives.  Who do I think I am that I could for a moment not be extremely grateful when my life is so good that I not only have the opportunity to run for a hobby, but also to blog about that hobby!

My sweet family

The best parents and grandparents

Monday - Back to bootcamp on cross-training Monday (40 minute elliptical warm-up and 45 minutes bootcamp class)!  I felt solid during the workout - even through the side step squats, weighted squats, jump squats sequence - so hopefully I didn't lose much through my race recovery and tapering phases when I laid off the strength training.  I also wasn't sore from the workout, which I was very happy about!

Tuesday - 7 miles (7:33); 6 base pace then 6 x 20 second strides in the final mile, with Amy and Ashley.  We about blew away on this one, making me realized how fortunate we've been to have very few windy mornings recently.

Wednesday - 6.1 miles base pace (7:42) with Missy.  I tested out my new pair of New Balance Vazee Pace shoes that I got free through the Strava Back Half Challenge on this run.  I've had them for a few weeks now, but I didn't want to try anything new right before or after my marathon or right before my half, so I made myself hold off on trying them (which wasn't easy because they reflect and glow in the dark!).  I've never run in New Balance shoes before, I selected this model based on the recommendation from my local running store, and I liked them a lot on this run!

I mostly run in Hoka One One Cliftons; I never would have tried Hokas had I not had a foot issue in early 2015, but at that time the Cliftons were the only reason I was able to train through that problem. Although that issue is long resolved, I've stuck with them because they've worked for me.  I think their 4 mm drop makes me run more efficiently, and the Vazee Paces also have a 4 mm drop.  I'm going to continue primarily with my Cliftons, but I've been wanting to find a faster shoe for racing that doesn't have the moon shoe look that the Cliftons have - and come on, who races a 5K in Hokas (note my shoes here...yep!)??  I have a pair of Saucony Kinvaras that I've tried to love, but they just feel too stiff and I only wear them on 3-4 mile runs.  So here is hoping the Vazee Pace shoes can serve my racing shoe purpose!  I'll try them next week on a faster run day and see what happens.

I don't buy shoes for looks, but that was a nice bonus with these!

Thursday (Thanksgiving) - 11.3 miles total with 8.2 in the morning (3.1 warm-up, 5K Joplin Turkey Trot in 18:42, 2 cool-down) and 3.3 mile shake out (7:38) in the evening.  I continued my pattern of only running 5Ks in the 18s in holiday themed races that I run on tired legs and without any goals - and I was absolutely thankful for my time on this course with 160 feet of elevation gain.  Full race report here.  Ironically enough, my next 5K is a Christmas themed one!

Friday - 3.2 mile shake out (7:42) and 30 minutes of strength training, both with my sister-in-law.  We run different paces but did the same stretch of road to run "together", then we did strength training in my in-laws' living room with 7 children around.  This further confirmed that one child is the perfect number for me!  She has three under age 5, so I am uber-impressed that she's working out (or making it through the day, really, haha!).

Saturday - 10.1 miles base pace "long run" that I ran a little too fast (7:00), followed by a 1.1 mile cool-down (8:11) that wasn't on my schedule, but that I needed after a fast finish.  I ran this on dirt roads near Big Hill Lake in Southeast Kansas, and my relaxed easy pace hovered around 7:05.  I guess that is just the difference between running pancake flat roads as opposed to the rolling roads of the Ozarks that I usually run (and perhaps also because I got 9 hours of sleep the night before)!  I picked it up a little bit on miles 7-8 (6:55ish) because I really needed to use the bathroom!  I am never eating at El Publeto in Parsons again!  Then miles 9-10 I picked up to 6:40ish pace, which is my Phoenix Marathon goal pace.  It was a really nice run aside from the digestive distress!

Sunday - 6 miles easy (7:40).  My weather app lied to me before this run, claiming that there was no windchill (the wind was 15 mph!), so I was under-dressed, AND El Publeto continued to haunt me, but I got it done.  Thankful for the sub-par runs too!