Running Down the Dream: No Nonsense November

November 2021 in review!

Total mileage for the month: 256.2

Nov. 1-7: 75.3
Nov. 8-14: 18.4 (I took 5 days off without an injury, believe it or not!)
Nov. 15-21: 66.3
Nov. 22-28: 72.6
Nov. 29-Dec. 5: 80.7

Meeting Des Linden

Races:

Nov. 7: Bass Pro Marathon in 2:54:26 for 2nd overall female and a new Missouri state marathon record for age 41. I was happy with this based on how I felt going into the race, though it was not really what I wanted.

Workouts:

Nov. 2: 3 mile tempo (6:09, 6:17, 5:58) on rolling hills (3 warm up, 3 cool down). I tried to notch onto half marathon effort for this one, and was pleasantly surprised to go sub-6 for the final mile, especially because it felt so good. I felt terrible on my last little workout before Milwaukee so it was nice to not repeat that!
Nov. 30: 6 miles alternating paces every 0.5 (14.8 miles total on the morning). I paced Abby's wave tempo for a rust-buster workout. My confidence was super low going into this; I was worried I wouldn't be able to do her workout with goal paces of 6:30/7:10. After getting her out too fast (i.e., I'm a crap pacer when I haven't worked out for a month), I was pleasantly surprised with how good those paces felt and I moved to the outside of the loop while she ran the tangents, so I could run a little faster but still help her. About halfway through I decided that I wanted to feel out my own wave tempo paces for the final 2 miles, and since David was running with Abby I felt okay about going ahead at the end. My paces each half-ish mile (I took manual splits so most were not exactly 0.50) were 6:11, 6:58, 6:29, 6:59, 6:31, 7:00, 6:34, 7:03, 5:50, 6:34, 5:53, 6:25, giving me 6.25 miles at 6:31 pace for the whole thing. Since I wasn't even sure I could run 6:30 pace for a half mile before this workout, I was really happy with how it turned out, particularly the sub-6 pushes at the end. This was a great illustration of happiness being reality minus expectations, because this is probably one of my slower workouts of the past several years, but I was absolutely thrilled with it because I expected 6:30 pace to feel like a sprint and it felt like marathon pace.
Strides: Nov. 1, 5, 6, 15, 18, 22, 25, 29.
Doubles: Nov. 1, 2, 13, 18.

#nocluenovember

Long Runs:

Nov. 7: The Marathon, and 27.7 miles total.
Nov. 21: 13 miles (7:41), followed by Rebecca's birthday celebration in the parking lot!
Nov. 28: 16.1 easy (7:51), helping Abby to 21 miles as part of her Houston Marathon training.

Ten on Thanksgiving

Running Highlights:

I set a new PR for the most days I've ever taken off running when not injured or super sick, at 5 days after Bass Pro. The only one I actually wanted to take off was day 1, but I haven't taken any real breaks in 2021, and with running a 50k and 3 marathons (plus 6 other long races), I knew at some point I needed to fully recover before I can rebuild stronger. Now that I'm on the other side I can say it was a good idea, but I wasn't in the best mood for those 5 days!
I saw Des Linden at Missouri S&T in Rolla with my running group! We did a fun run (the reason for my Nov. 13 double), participated in a VIP meet-and-greet (thanks to Casey knowing the XC coach), and listed to an inspirational speech.
50k training started November 29, 16 weeks out!

Des Linden run

Rebecca's birthday parking lot party post-run

I saved this years ago & it is still true - also applies
to the 50k, I know I have a faster one in me in March :-)

Life Highlights:

We spent Thanksgiving with my parents and Jon's parents, and cut our Christmas tree on the Ibbetson farm the following day.
Albani made a pie from scratch while I was at work the day before Thanksgiving! She did not get this skill from me.