Outrageous October

October 2021 in review!  

Total mileage for the month: 347.1

• Sep. 27-Oct. 3:  70.0
• Oct. 4-10:  50.5
• Oct. 11-17:  90.1
• Oct. 18-24:  95.4
• Oct. 25-31:  72.9

Tracking/cheering for our Chicago Marathon
friends post Sunday run

Races:

• Oct. 3: Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon in 2:53:46 for a masters course record, 3rd overall female, 1st masters female, RRCA masters state champion, and happiness with everything except the weather.
• Oct. 16:  Garmin Kansas City Half Marathon in 1:24:06 for 2nd overall female/1st masters female on the hilliest half course I've ever run.

Lack of daylight is back in full force

Workouts:

• Oct. 12:  Fartlek of 4 x 3:00 on/1:30 off/2:00 on/1:00 off/1:00 on/0:30 off.  My on paces were 5:36, 5:50, 5:23, 6:03, 6:02, 5:44, 5:58, 5:49, 5:59, 5:50, 6:03, 5:23 in that order.  Though this was an effort-based workout, you didn't think I could go without looking at my splits, did you?  I don't always workout 8 days post-marathon, and when I do I don't usually feel as good as I did on this one, so I considered it a huge success.  Rebecca ran the first half of the workout with me, which of course helped (see also, why I ran the first 3:00 at 5:36 pace), and it was 46 degrees with no wind, which of course REALLY helped!  
• Oct. 20:  Mixed system workout of 4 x 1:00 on/1:00 off, 3:00 jog, 4 mile tempo on rolling hills, jog to hill, 4 x 0:30 hill sprints.  My 1:00s on at faster than 5k effort were 5:33, 5:43, 5:35, 5:38, my tempo miles were 6:12, 6:12, 6:20, 6:08, and my hill sprints were 5:34, 5:32, 5:27, 5:22.  I was feeling the Kansas City Half in my legs on the hills, even with pushing this workout back a day because I didn't feel recovered enough to do it Oct. 19 as originally planned, but it went well enough considering.
• Oct. 24:  18 miles via 3 easy, 2 tempo (6:21, 6:17), 8 easy, 2 tempo (6:35, 6:34), 3 easy.  This workout also got pushed back one day, due to thunderstorms from about 2 a.m. until 4 p.m. on October 23 (I did get a run in the morning of Oct. 23, mostly between storms, but there wasn't actually time for 9 miles let alone 18).  I thought it might be a good thing to have an extra easy day between workouts, but this did not go as I'd have liked.  I felt like I was running on empty from the start of the first tempo, and it did not get any better, hah.  I again blamed the Kansas City half - although a friend pointed out that summer returned for this run (it was around 68 degrees with 100% humidity), so that was likely also a factor.
• Oct.  27:  Fartlek of 2:00/1:30/1:00 (equal duration recoveries) for 6 miles - push paces were 5:35-6:09 and pace for ons and offs together was 6:37 (3.5 warm up, 3 cool down).  This wasn't the marathon-specific workout I had originally planned for this day, but after how I felt in my previous 2 workouts I thought this was what I needed.  It was extremely windy, which confirmed to me that and effort-based workout was a winner, and it went well enough.
• Oct.  30:  2 miles at marathon pace-ish on the tail end of a 12 miler turned 13.5 miler in 6:31, 6:25.  We ran the Bass Pro half marathon course, which is also half of the Bass Pro marathon course (miles 1-10ish then 24ish to the end)
• Strides: Oct. 2, 8, 11, 15, 19, 22, 26, 29.
• Doubles:  Oct. 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27.

Gloves + short sleeves = perfect
workout weather!

Long Runs:

• Oct. 3:  The Marathon.
• Oct. 9:  14.1 miles (7:55), easy aside from 10 x 0:30 pick ups (5:41-6:01) at about the beginning of each mile from 3-12.  This was the first day following Milwaukee Lakefront that I felt like I could run a normal amount, which worked out nicely because I hoped to get in 12 miles.  It will surprise no one that I got in 14, hah!  I then did 11 on Oct. 10.
• Oct. 16:  20.2 miles, including the Garmin Kansas City Marathon with about 3 miles warm up and 4 cool down.  I wanted to get in 20 this day, and figured if I felt great I'd do 22.  The hills in the race really took it out of me so 20 it was!
• Oct. 24:  18.1 miles (7:41) described in workouts above.  Casey had to pull me along on this one!
• Oct. 30:  13.5 miles (7:34) on the Bass Pro Half Marathon course, plus one wrong turn and back to our cars from the finish.  I ran with Casey and threw in 2 fast miles towards the end.

Oct. 23 monsoon run

Running Highlights:

• I recovered well from my marathon, which I'm thankful for.
• A couple of my coaching athletes ran marathons at Chicago and Prairie Fire, and though the weather conditions didn't allow them to completely show their fitness, Elise still PRed in Chicago and I expect Colin will be notching a huge PR in the Bass Pro half next weekend.

Hoppy Halloween!

Life Highlights:

• My birthday on October 26 began with predawn buttercream, because my running buddies are awesome!  Overall it was a normal (work, teaching class, 2 runs, relaxing at home), but good day, reminding me of how many amazing people I have in my life.

8th grade

Best way to start the day!

Books:

• First Comes Love by Emily Giffin
• The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
• One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp
• Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Troublemaker by Linday Howard
• Vortex by Catherine Coulter
• The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
• Lethal by Sandra Brown

Theme for the month:

• Always learning!  I'm doing fine physically, but I am not in race-mode mentally, though I'm not exactly sure why.  At some points after Milwaukee I thought I'd try to run in the 2:40s or even try to PR at Bass Pro, but now I've settled on just having blast and aiming for sub-3, 2:59 being fine.  Then I will be making myself take a break from running for a week (which I don't want), and taking a break from racing for probably the rest of 2021 (which I do want).  I think this season was a little hard on me emotionally because I didn't really have any race times that matched my fitness; race after race I was happy with how I placed but weather conditions didn't line up for me to run the times my workouts showed I was capable of.  Perhaps it was great timing for that though, and onto 2022!