Two training logs for the price of one! I’ve been on a two-week recovery block following the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon, my A-race of the season.
Week of May 1-7: Instructions from coach were 0-16 miles; 3-4 runs of 3-4 miles, no more. Unfortunately, when you’ve run every day for the past 5.5 months, “off” doesn’t come that easy.
Monday: 9 miles on the spin bike, 33 minutes, 131 AHR. Got my HR up to the 160s on a few intervals but mostly kept it easy. More of a shakeout than anything. Thought about taking the day off, then Guilty Gertrude got me. I compromised (with myself) by only staying for the first half of class.
Tuesday: 4 mile trail run, 41 minutes, 130 AHR. Oh trails, I’ve missed you! I love running trails but that means driving to the park, which is more time-intensive than just running from my front door. Also, easy runs on trails always take longer because you go slower, and my available time for running is usually pretty tight. So anyway, I was really happy to be on the trails with my bestie!
Wednesday: 4 mile run in the morning, 33 minutes, 134 AHR. To be honest, I was expecting to feel a little better than I did. Taught Pilates in the even — the foam roller class, which means some of it was really hard core work, but part of it was also just foam rolling. Clutch recovery week situation.
Thursday: Massage. Complete rest day. Was going to go to an early spin class but slept instead. You know the old object in motion remains in motion law? Well, the first four days post-race were kind of a slowing of momentum and on Thursday, I rolled to a stop.
Friday: 4 miles, 32 minutes, 140 AHR. Treadmill in the morning — cold and raining outside. Yuck. No. Dialed it up a little in the last mile, basically one-tenth of a mph every 15 seconds.
Saturday: 16.3 miles spin class, 55 minutes, 141 AHR. My average HR belies how tough this was. My quads were like, excuse you? Early class (7:15) because, well, IT’S DERBY DAY!!! I was buying wine and propane at 8:30, haha.
Sunday: 4 miles, 33 minutes, 131 AHR. Easy peasy with bestie and the jog stroller. And the baby. We took him too. Beautiful weather (finally).
Totals: 16 miles run, 25 miles spun/spinned/spanned, 1 hour Pilates taught.
Week of May 8-14: Coach said 16-24 miles, 3-4 runs of 3-6 miles. He also sent me an email on Wednesday when he updated my training plan that said, “I think open training log days give you anxiety and they must be filled. A good sign of energy needing burned.” He’s right. I’ve become so accustomed to running every day that I get antsy if I don’t do something. And that something needs to be logged or I get a case of Guilty Gertrude. Used this week of shorter, easy runs to get back into morning running because it’s getting hot.
Monday: 6 miles in the morning (46 min / 151 AHR), little bit of progression (8:11 down to 7:11 then a cool down mile) because it was 40* and perfect outside. Wanted to see what my legs would do. In the evening, I taught a Pilates class. And on the way to teach, I bought a bicycle! Before I moved into Mr. Chic’s condo, I had an apartment in a bike-friendly area and I only worked a couple miles away. For about a year, I didn’t have a car so I bike-commuted everywhere (or took the bus, which is not something people do in Louisville if they don’t have to). Sometimes it was a pain, but in general it was a great adventure. I loved exploring on my bike and problem-solving how to get somewhere or how to transport things. I even perfected a system to take my laundry to the laundromat on my bike! (Also, you stop letting laundry pile up when this is the case.) But, when I moved to the condo and a couple months later took a job that was 25 miles away … biking wasn’t really an option. We also didn’t have room to store three bikes — Mr. Chic is a triathlete. I’ve been bike-less for about 6 years now, and it was high on my list of purchases once we bought our house.
Tuesday: Original plan was to go to a spin class in the morning but I slept instead. I had a hair appointment in the afternoon and had decided, once I finally woke up, that’d I’d just take a rest day. I was limited to four runs this week per coach’s instructions, and I was signed up for a 5k on Sunday (surprise!). Had a glass of wine while getting my hair done, came home, had another glass of wine while reading outside, and then Mr. Chic headed out for his workout. At this point the bike temptation was too great. I had ridden it around some Monday night, but I hadn’t switched the cleats out on my cycling shoes. It only took a few seconds to switch them, and then I rode a little over 5 miles around in my neighborhood. Since it has ben 6 years since I rode outside, I figured staying in the neighborhood and practicing unclipping and shifting and such would be a good idea. And then once I rode 5 miles, I though it would be a good idea to throw on my running shoes and run basically as hard as I could to the nearby park, around the park, and back. Why? Because I had two glasses of wine and a guilty conscience. 7 miles total for the day, averaged 14 mph on the bike which is no surprise since our neighborhood is all cul-de-sacs and I kept slowing down and turning around. Averaged 7:20 on the run. Sorry coach! (Note to coach for the day says: “This is what happens when left to my own devices.”
Wednesday: Taught Pilates in the evening.
Thursday: 6 miles (47 min / AHR 155) with 10x 30/60s (30 seconds hard, 60 seconds easy), with the efforts probably about 5k pace, maybe a little faster (HR got to 170). It was rainforesty outside. Was supposed to teach Pilates Strength in the evening but my car battery was dead when I left work and I couldn’t get there in time.
Friday: Day off. Like a real rest day. Weird.
Saturday: 6 miles easy and early (48 min / 145 AHR) before working an event most of the day. During the event I presented a workshop on running your first 5k!
Sunday: Race day! 6.15 miles total. My sister found this Mother’s Day 5k event and we ended up with a big group — my mom, my sister, my mother-in-law, her sister, and me.
This race isn’t really much for a race report. Last year was the first year of the event and it was not competitive. And my expectations for myself were pretty low, since I haven’t done much for two weeks. I felt good during my 2-mile warmup, and when I got to the start, I didn’t see many people I knew. There was one woman I knew up front, and a few other women lined up near the front but nobody I knew. Honestly, I thought I might be able to win the whole thing.
The course was all sidewalks so it was pretty congested and nuts in a few places. A high school boy went out pretty hard so I spent the whole race chasing him. I didn’t catch him, but I beat the third overall finisher by 90 seconds and the second female by 2 minutes. The course was short, but I ran pretty consistently and about what I had expected considering it was warm and sunny, plus all the turns and congestion. 1 mile cool down and cheering. Then everyone plus two more sisters came to my house where I cooked brunch. Pro tip: lots of prep the night before helped a ton. However, don’t attempt this if you can’t take a nap after. Once everyone left around 1:30, we had errands to run and then I had to drive 45 minutes to my littlest sister’s birthday party. By the time I drove back, I literally just landed face-first on the couch. Woof.
Totals: 25.8 miles run, 5.34 miles biked, 1.5 miles walked.
P.S. “Put down the umbrella drink and get back to work!” — Subject line from coach’s email. Training kicks back up next week, building up to the Chicago Marathon!
TGRUNFIT 