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.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Books:

• Genius the Game by Leopoldo Gout
• The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
• The Light of Luna Park by Addison Armstrong
• Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
• The End of Something Like That by Ann Dee Ellis
• The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien
• Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney
• Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel
• Send for Me by Lauran Fox
• The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura

Themes for the month:

• The heights of our joy are measured by the depths of our gratitude.
• Be thankful for what you have and you end up having more.