Just like that, it's December!

Week of November 28-December 4, 2016...seriously, December!!?

Mileage:  50.6, with a fartlek workout, a hilly run, a double, a short long run with a fast finish, and two bootcamps and some extra core work.  I didn't quite have mileage in the 50s scheduled this week, but a mile here and a 0.2 or 0.3 there put me over (in the big picture there is really no difference between a 48 mile week and a 50 mile week, but I sure prefer the latter).

White River posted their professional pictures this week, and I ended up with some really good pictures of Missy and I right after we finished, and some really bad finishing photos.  However, I was really happy to have some clock shots even though I have double chins in them!

Happy!

This was the best of the worst!

Monday - Cross-training Monday with 35 minutes on the elliptical to warm-up and 55 minutes of bootcamp.  We had a substitute instructor for bootcamp, and she worked our arms more than usual!

Tuesday - 7.3 base miles (7:32) on farm roads with Missy.  This was one of those runs where I was freezing for the first half mile, then had my sleeves rolled up by the end.  It was about 40 with a wind chill of 35.  It's getting to be the time of year where we don't stand around stretching and talking after we finish running!

Wednesday - Workout Wednesday!  9.4 miles: 2.3 miles warm-up, a fartlek of 2 x 4', 3', 2', 1' with recoveries equal duration to the next push, 1.4 mile cool-down (the warm-up and cool-down distances were based on when I got to where I wanted to begin the harder run portions and on when I finished two cycles of the fartlek, so that's why they are random distances!).  Missy and I ran the warm-up and cool-down together and did our own things on the workout, but even not running together it's so nice to have someone else out there!  My goal for this workout was to keep all of my pushes under 6:00, and I accomplished that with them ranging from 5:39-5:56.

I attached my data from Garmin Connect, which shows each split, and also from Strava, which shows mile times regardless of when your watch takes split data, because these fascinated me.  My overall pace for the 9.4 miles was 6:48, which I thought was good considering there was only 20 minutes of fast running total in the run (therefore 44 minutes were warm-up, recoveries, and cool-down).  When I looked at my Strava data, I realized that even with over half of my faster miles being the end of my warm-up and the recoveries, those splits were 6:18-6:30.  I told Jon, "I think I just ran a sub-40:00 10K in my fartlek."  It wasn't long ago at all -- spring and early summer in fact -- that this pace for 6 miles was a very solid 6 mile tempo run for me (e.g., running hard the whole duration instead of for less than half the duration), and let's not forget about those two 10K races I bombed in the spring (NOT sub-40:00 or even remotely close), so it really made me excited about my progress this year!  Then I realized that it really wasn't that big of a deal considering I want to try to run a 13.1 miles at 6:15 pace in January!  Eeeeee!  Two steps forward, one step back with appreciation, eh?  I DO appreciate each and every run, though, I promise - just always striving to do better.

I also did a 10 minute core workout on Wednesday, mainly plank variations.

Garmin Connect splits by lap

Strava splits by mile

Thursday - 11.2 total; 8 base pace (7:38) on one of my hillier routes from home in the morning.  I avoid this route because I know I will never run the second half faster than the first (see elevation chart below), but I am going to try to change that.  I realized this week that now I no longer have training for a flat marathon or marathon recovery as an excuse to not run the hillier routes from my house!  In fact, I need to run them for Phoenix training, as that course is a net downhill and I need to get used to that kind of pounding.  So my goal is to run at least one of my base runs on a hilly route each week.  Then I also did 3.2 miles at lunch (7:42).  I've made it my goal to run as many second runs as possible on lunch when it's actually daylight over the winter - and also some of my single runs when it's super cold, although those are harder to fit in.  On this run I learned that my office is 1.4 miles from a high school track, so that may be very helpful if I have any track workouts on cold days!

Elevation of Thursday morning's run

Friday -3.6 mile shake out (7:25) before a 60 minute bootcamp.  During this run/workout I was mainly just feeling ready for the weekend and not wanting to go to work on Friday!

Saturday - 13.1 miles; 11 base pace, then 2 impromptu fast finish miles in 6:22 and 6:22 (I couldn't have done them that even if I'd tried) - 7:24 average for all 13.1.  I ran with Missy from one of our usual meeting spots, and on Friday evening I told her "I figured out the hilliest course possible from Mentor for us!"  Since she's crazy like me, she was in!  We started at 6:30 a.m. so no headlamps were needed, and it was amazing to run in daylight (and to "sleep in" until 6:00!).

The loop was really perfect; it ended up being about 12.85 miles, so we had to run just a tad past our vehicles at the end, and it had 625 feet elevation gain per Strava.  The first 9 miles had most of the elevation, then the last 4 were flatter (aside from the Mentor hill we had to finish up), making it a perfect loop to do a fast finish up to 4 miles on.  It will also be easy to tack on an additional out and back to increase the distance, which could be done with flatter miles or with more really hilly miles, as our long runs increase for Phoenix. 

At some point I told Missy that I wanted to run the final mile at goal marathon pace, and then as we discussed that it somehow turned into picking it up a little on mile 11 and then running the final two at our marathon goal paces.  Somehow that then turned into running them at 6:22!  The first 6:22 was fairly easy because it had a lot of decline, but the second one I had to really work for because of the Mentor hill at the end (we almost talked ourselves out of fast finishing up that hill, but then said, "well, it's supposed to be a hilly run, it will be good for us").  I finished this run feeling good and salivating for more miles.

Sunday - 6 mile recovery run (7:37).  I woke up early to run as usual, but it was raining and 37 degrees, so I decided to wait until the rain passed or to go after church if my weather app was correct that it would rain until 10:00.  Cold rain is the worst!  I ended up falling asleep reading while waiting out the weather, and then my family let me sleep for nearly 3 hours!  Unfortunately we ended up missing church because of it, but it was sweet that they thought I needed the rest (apparently, I did!).  I ended up running at around 11:00 and I was groggy and hungry, but I also felt a lot better when I finished than when I started (typical recovery run magic)!

Winter running is a challenge for me since I run my weekday runs before the sun comes up, and next week's forecast is going to be the start of some really cold mornings, but I am ready to give it my all!  I'm hoping to avoid the treadmill, as training on it just isn't the same, but typically in Missouri there are some days it's just not safe to run outdoors due to ice on the roads.  Albani is dying for it to snow already, but I keep saying that I hope it waits until I'm in Arizona or at least until taper week!