Week 12:
I had planned on doing yoga on Monday, but that just didn't happen. Oh well.
Tuesday, February 25th:
I did a pretty difficult interval run on the treadmill. I basically did the same as what I did 2 weeks ago, but instead of 12x 400m intervals with 200m jog, I did 6x 800m intervals with 200m jog. The 800m intervals were done at the same speed as the original 400m intervals, which was my 10k pace (6.6mph). I did the jogs super slow, at 5.0mph. This is not a speed I would ever be comfortable with on its own, but it was a good recovery jog.
Joey advised that I skip KBs this week, since they basically wrecked me last week. He said that once I'm done with my training, I can get back into that, but right now it's too much on my body.
The one day off on Wednesday turned into two days off, since I wasn't feeling well on Thursday. Thursday's run was just an "easy run," so I felt a little better skipping it than I would if it were one of the speed runs. I decided that I would stick with the "cut down" run on Friday, and that if I felt up to it, would fit in a few miles Saturday morning. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, so if I have the energy, why not?
Friday, February 28th:
Like I mentioned, this is a "cut down" run. That basically means negative splits the whole way through. Joey advised that I start out with my typical warmup, and then each mile, increase the pace by 0.2. Then end with a cooldown mile at my starting pace. This is how you're actually supposed to run a race, but it's hard to mentally push yourself to go faster as your body is getting tired.
I started with a 1/2 mile warmup at 5.6mph. I took a couple minutes to stretch out and loosen up, then I did another mile at 5.6. From there, I increased 0.2mph every mile until I ended with the 5th mile at 6.4. I did a cooldown 1/2 mile at 5.6mph, for a total of 6 miles.
Saturday, March 1st:
A run did not happen today. I had to be in lab for most of the day. I first came in around 8:15, for just a little while. Then I had to be back in at 1:30, and was there the rest of the day. I took the time in between to do a lot of well needed relaxing. I also met Joey out at Old Navy and Bed Bath and Beyond to get new jeans and sparkly nail polish.
Sunday, March 2nd:
I did not time my run very well on Sunday. I was supposed to do 8 miles. Since there was a snow storm predicted for Sunday night/Monday morning, I figured this would be my last chance for a while to run outside. It also started off as a beautiful day. When I woke up, I was just starving. I decided that I had plenty of time, I would just start off the day with breakfast and coffee and run a few hours after that. A few hours turned into most of the day. Joey called me a little before 2, warning me that the nice weather was leaving. I got up and got ready to go, picked out an 8 mile route, opened the door and...saw that it was pouring. I was so pissed. I didn't know how long the rain would last, and didn't want to risk getting my phone soaked, so I headed to the gym.
For the first couple miles, I felt good. I didn't start out feeling as tight as I have been, which was nice. I decided to switch up the pace every mile, just by a little. I did mile 1 at 5.6, mile 2 at 5.7, mile 3 at 5.8, and mile 4 at 5.7. I was halfway through mile 4 (I believe at 5.6 again) when things became less fun. I wasn't really hurting, so I'm not sure what the problem was. I think I may have just gotten really bored? Especially thinking about the fact that I wasn't even halfway through the run. I told myself I could walk for a few minutes once I hit 4 miles, and I feel like that 4th mile was the longest one. After walking for a few minutes, I started up again. I had just hit 4.5 miles, when I realized I needed to use the bathroom. The women's bathroom was undescribably nasty, so I had to lock myself inside the men's bathroom. Which, btw, didn't have any toilet paper. And then, I had some bathroom issues myself. I felt really sick after that, and decided to call it a day. I was frustrated, pissed off at my landlords because of the bathroom situation, and feeling sick.
Week Total:
Tuesday: 5.5 miles (treadmill)
Friday: 6.0 miles (treadmill)
Sunday: 4.5 miles (treadmill)
Weekly Total: 16 miles
Week 13:
Monday, March 3rd:
After a disappointing end to the previous week, I tried to make things up this week. Monday ended up being a snow day, and after hanging around the house most of the day, Joey suggested that we go to the gym for a bit. He mostly wanted to go so he could use the hot tub, but I decided to make up for some of my missing miles. I ran 3 miles on the indoor track, and even managed negative splits! I ran mile 1 in 10:31, mile 2 in 10:13, and mile 3 in 9:25. From there, I decided to try the assisted pullup machine again. I did 3 sets of 10 at 100 lbs assistance, and did some wall sits in between the sets. Next time I'll try to do them with 90 lbs assistance.
Tuesday, March 4th:
I was planning on doing my intervals on Tuesday, but I got home late, and I knew we had to run some errands after dinner. Joey told me that I should switch Tuesday and Wednesday, which meant doing a light strength workout on Tuesday. That's when he surprised me with a kettle bell! He bought me one for my birthday, and couldn't wait to give it to me :) So I carried my brand new 25 lb kettle bell down to the gym, and did a short workout there.
First, I did a 10-2 KB ladder. Then I did 30 pushups (6 sets of 5). I ended with a lot of crunches, which really made my abs sore!
Wednesday, March 5th:
Today is my birthday! I had to come in early for lab meeting, but the rest of the day was pretty nice. The lab celebrated my birthday with apple pie and ice cream (I specifically mentioned at the last lab birthday celebration that I didn't like birthday cake, and they listened!), and then headed home. There, I did the run I was supposed to do on Tuesday. It was hard! This was my "alternating tempo" run, which alternated my 10k pace with a little over my goal pace.
Thursday, March 6th:
I had a pretty nice run today. It was just a 5 mile easy run, which really takes off the pressure. I can go as slow as I need to, since that is what I'm supposed to be doing. One thing I've noticed with all of this running, is that my slow pace is getting slower and slower. I think that my legs are just more fatigued going into each run than they used to be, and it takes longer to get them loose and happy. I ordered calf compression sleeves, and I can't wait until they get here! They're so sore post-runs.
For this run, I started out super slow at 5.5 mph, and then increased the pace each mile. Yay negative splits!
Saturday, March 8th:
This began my giant weekend of running. I slept in, so I didn't actually leave for my run until close to 10. My plan was to do 6ish easy miles, with zero focus on the pace. I knew that Sunday's run would be a doozy, and didn't want to wreck my legs by pushing the pace too much. (Note - that was my plan 2 weeks ago, and I ended up going way too fast. I also was really hurting after Sunday's run, so this time I decided to stick to my plan.) Joey came up with a route for me, including a side path he showed me last weekend. The path worked out really well - it was nice and quiet, and gave me some extra miles. It was a bit muddy from the melting snow, but not enough to make my pretty shoes too dirty haha.
Week Total:
Monday: 3.0 miles (indoor track)
Wednesday: 6.5 miles (treadmill)
Thursday: 5.0 miles (treadmill)
Saturday: 6.09 miles (outside)
Sunday: 11.16 miles (outside)
Weekly Total: 31.75 miles (new weekly record!)
I had planned on doing yoga on Monday, but that just didn't happen. Oh well.
Tuesday, February 25th:
I did a pretty difficult interval run on the treadmill. I basically did the same as what I did 2 weeks ago, but instead of 12x 400m intervals with 200m jog, I did 6x 800m intervals with 200m jog. The 800m intervals were done at the same speed as the original 400m intervals, which was my 10k pace (6.6mph). I did the jogs super slow, at 5.0mph. This is not a speed I would ever be comfortable with on its own, but it was a good recovery jog.
The one day off on Wednesday turned into two days off, since I wasn't feeling well on Thursday. Thursday's run was just an "easy run," so I felt a little better skipping it than I would if it were one of the speed runs. I decided that I would stick with the "cut down" run on Friday, and that if I felt up to it, would fit in a few miles Saturday morning. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, so if I have the energy, why not?
Friday, February 28th:
Like I mentioned, this is a "cut down" run. That basically means negative splits the whole way through. Joey advised that I start out with my typical warmup, and then each mile, increase the pace by 0.2. Then end with a cooldown mile at my starting pace. This is how you're actually supposed to run a race, but it's hard to mentally push yourself to go faster as your body is getting tired.
I started with a 1/2 mile warmup at 5.6mph. I took a couple minutes to stretch out and loosen up, then I did another mile at 5.6. From there, I increased 0.2mph every mile until I ended with the 5th mile at 6.4. I did a cooldown 1/2 mile at 5.6mph, for a total of 6 miles.
Saturday, March 1st:
A run did not happen today. I had to be in lab for most of the day. I first came in around 8:15, for just a little while. Then I had to be back in at 1:30, and was there the rest of the day. I took the time in between to do a lot of well needed relaxing. I also met Joey out at Old Navy and Bed Bath and Beyond to get new jeans and sparkly nail polish.
Sunday, March 2nd:
I did not time my run very well on Sunday. I was supposed to do 8 miles. Since there was a snow storm predicted for Sunday night/Monday morning, I figured this would be my last chance for a while to run outside. It also started off as a beautiful day. When I woke up, I was just starving. I decided that I had plenty of time, I would just start off the day with breakfast and coffee and run a few hours after that. A few hours turned into most of the day. Joey called me a little before 2, warning me that the nice weather was leaving. I got up and got ready to go, picked out an 8 mile route, opened the door and...saw that it was pouring. I was so pissed. I didn't know how long the rain would last, and didn't want to risk getting my phone soaked, so I headed to the gym.
For the first couple miles, I felt good. I didn't start out feeling as tight as I have been, which was nice. I decided to switch up the pace every mile, just by a little. I did mile 1 at 5.6, mile 2 at 5.7, mile 3 at 5.8, and mile 4 at 5.7. I was halfway through mile 4 (I believe at 5.6 again) when things became less fun. I wasn't really hurting, so I'm not sure what the problem was. I think I may have just gotten really bored? Especially thinking about the fact that I wasn't even halfway through the run. I told myself I could walk for a few minutes once I hit 4 miles, and I feel like that 4th mile was the longest one. After walking for a few minutes, I started up again. I had just hit 4.5 miles, when I realized I needed to use the bathroom. The women's bathroom was undescribably nasty, so I had to lock myself inside the men's bathroom. Which, btw, didn't have any toilet paper. And then, I had some bathroom issues myself. I felt really sick after that, and decided to call it a day. I was frustrated, pissed off at my landlords because of the bathroom situation, and feeling sick.
Week Total:
Tuesday: 5.5 miles (treadmill)
Friday: 6.0 miles (treadmill)
Sunday: 4.5 miles (treadmill)
Weekly Total: 16 miles
Week 13:
Monday, March 3rd:
After a disappointing end to the previous week, I tried to make things up this week. Monday ended up being a snow day, and after hanging around the house most of the day, Joey suggested that we go to the gym for a bit. He mostly wanted to go so he could use the hot tub, but I decided to make up for some of my missing miles. I ran 3 miles on the indoor track, and even managed negative splits! I ran mile 1 in 10:31, mile 2 in 10:13, and mile 3 in 9:25. From there, I decided to try the assisted pullup machine again. I did 3 sets of 10 at 100 lbs assistance, and did some wall sits in between the sets. Next time I'll try to do them with 90 lbs assistance.
Tuesday, March 4th:
I was planning on doing my intervals on Tuesday, but I got home late, and I knew we had to run some errands after dinner. Joey told me that I should switch Tuesday and Wednesday, which meant doing a light strength workout on Tuesday. That's when he surprised me with a kettle bell! He bought me one for my birthday, and couldn't wait to give it to me :) So I carried my brand new 25 lb kettle bell down to the gym, and did a short workout there.
First, I did a 10-2 KB ladder. Then I did 30 pushups (6 sets of 5). I ended with a lot of crunches, which really made my abs sore!
Wednesday, March 5th:
Today is my birthday! I had to come in early for lab meeting, but the rest of the day was pretty nice. The lab celebrated my birthday with apple pie and ice cream (I specifically mentioned at the last lab birthday celebration that I didn't like birthday cake, and they listened!), and then headed home. There, I did the run I was supposed to do on Tuesday. It was hard! This was my "alternating tempo" run, which alternated my 10k pace with a little over my goal pace.
I had a pretty nice run today. It was just a 5 mile easy run, which really takes off the pressure. I can go as slow as I need to, since that is what I'm supposed to be doing. One thing I've noticed with all of this running, is that my slow pace is getting slower and slower. I think that my legs are just more fatigued going into each run than they used to be, and it takes longer to get them loose and happy. I ordered calf compression sleeves, and I can't wait until they get here! They're so sore post-runs.
For this run, I started out super slow at 5.5 mph, and then increased the pace each mile. Yay negative splits!
Saturday, March 8th:
This began my giant weekend of running. I slept in, so I didn't actually leave for my run until close to 10. My plan was to do 6ish easy miles, with zero focus on the pace. I knew that Sunday's run would be a doozy, and didn't want to wreck my legs by pushing the pace too much. (Note - that was my plan 2 weeks ago, and I ended up going way too fast. I also was really hurting after Sunday's run, so this time I decided to stick to my plan.) Joey came up with a route for me, including a side path he showed me last weekend. The path worked out really well - it was nice and quiet, and gave me some extra miles. It was a bit muddy from the melting snow, but not enough to make my pretty shoes too dirty haha.
When I got home from being out all day, I had a package waiting for me! I ordered calf sleeves from amazon, and I was so excited they came in. My calves have been dying lately, and I was really hoping they would be a magic fix. So far, I can't tell if they're completely fixing things, but it feels nice to have them on.
Sunday, March 9th:
I can't even begin to tell you how much I did NOT want to do this run. Joey can definitely attest to the whining I did Saturday night, basically saying over and over "but I don't WANNA!!!" My other 11 mile run was so painful 2 weeks ago. I also had to work in the time change, since I wanted to get plenty of sleep, but still wanted to not be out on the run super late. I think part of the problem last time was that I didn't even start until 11:30, meaning it was 1:30 when I got back, and well after 2 by the time I was showered and could eat. I planned this time to leave by 10:30, which would still feel like 9:30 to me. Surprisingly, I made it in time!
The route that Joey came up for me wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It included the giant hill down by the river, but in reverse. I also had a stop built in once I hit the transit station at just under 7 miles - I went in there for a few minutes to use the bathroom, eat some GU, and drink some water. I ended up going slow, but not horribly slow. I also felt okay the rest of the day, which was not the case last time! In the end, I made it through, I'm just glad that this is the longest I'll have to run for at least the next few weeks!
Monday: 3.0 miles (indoor track)
Wednesday: 6.5 miles (treadmill)
Thursday: 5.0 miles (treadmill)
Saturday: 6.09 miles (outside)
Sunday: 11.16 miles (outside)
Weekly Total: 31.75 miles (new weekly record!)
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