Marathon Training Week 4

This week in training started strong, and ended kind of blah. I am only partly to blame, the weather needs to take a little credit.

Monday: Cross Training. I did a couple of Piyo workouts (Define: Lower Body & Define: Upper Body) to make about an hour of cross training. Piyo is interesting because it manages to work my muscles in a way where they hurt and/or shake while I'm working out, but they feel nice and relaxed once I stop. It's pretty nice.

Buddy helped.

Tuesday: 3 miles.  I wore my Wave Sayonaras, which really should be retired, and had an awesome run! It was still fairly humid out, but it was a little cooler than it has been, and I was feeling good! I ran 3.11 miles in 25:58 - an 8:21 pace! I was really happy to have a great run, because all this hot weather is really starting to wear me out.

Wednesday: 5 miles. Humid, as usual. I didn't plan out my route well, and ended up running up and down some dead end streets to hit my mileage. The world's creepiest ice cream truck passed me several times too. 5.01 miles at 9:00 pace.

Thursday: 3 miles.  I was SO tired and was just not feeling a run. I took a rest day, and then stayed up too late at the drive-in movies. Worth it.

Friday: Rest day. I decided to do Thursday's run on Friday, though I was whiny about it. I actually said, "but three miles is really far!" before I left. Mature. 3.1 miles at an 8:51 pace.

Saturday: 6 mile pace run. I woke up early and drove down to meet up with my old weekend running buddies. I missed them and the beautiful trails we run on! About a half mile after we started the weather took a turn and we ended up running through a crazy thunderstorm. We were drenched, but it was a lot of fun! 6.89 miles at a 9:09 pace.

Sunday: 9 miles. This just didn't happen. Saturday afternoon, while lugging laundry bags back and forth to the car, I pinched something in my neck. It was seriously painful, and it wasn't feeling better this morning. Between my neck and the fact that it was supposed to be the hottest day of the year, I opted to err on the side of not getting heat stroke and/or making my neck worse.

Instead I spent some time relaxing, and did a bit of coloring in the super-cute coloring book my friend Kate made. You should definitely check out her Etsy store: HERE!

One of THOSE People

Lately, I have been missing my weekend running buddies, and the beautiful trails we run on. I have looked into closer running groups, but all the meet up spots are about a half hour drive away. So why not tack on another 10 minutes to that drive and run with some of my favorite people?

This morning I woke up early, wolfed down some coffee and an english muffin and hit the road to meet up with the group. I didn't tell anyone I was coming, so it was fun to surprise them!

The skies were cloudy and I hit a few showers on the way down, but it's supposed to be the hottest weekend ever (or the hottest weekend of the year so far, whichever) so we were a little surprised when, about a half mile into our run, the skies opened up and we were caught in a complete downpour! There was a bit of thunder and lightning and a LOT of rain and mud, but we were already soaked, so we just kept going.

We got a good laugh out of the fact that I woke up early to drive 45 minutes so I could run in a thunderstorm. I'm officially one of those crazy runner people!

It was really nice to get to see everyone again, though one of our usual group was home with an injury, so it was a bummer to miss seeing her. The drive really wasn't so bad, and it felt really good to be on the trails instead of on the road all the time.

6.89 miles at 9:09 pace according to my watch. Not bad considering our less than prime weather conditions!

I wasn't expecting the rain, but luckily I had a rain coat in the car (and a dry shirt!), so I sat on that for the drive home. My seat still got wet, but probably less than it would have otherwise. Next time, I'm bringing a towel, regardless of the weather report!

Unrelated, but how cute is this dog?

I hope your Saturday is off to a great start!

Some Randomness and a Movie Night

I've gotten really bad about blogging lately. Between work, random house projects, and marathon training, blogging seems to be the thing that gets dropped first. So today you get a super random update. Aren't you excited?

We got this big (10'x20') canopy for the patio area. Since the grill is pretty much our only way of cooking right now (other than the toaster and the waffle iron), we needed to make sure the weather wouldn't stop us from having dinner.

My Wave Sayonara 2s should really be retired at this point, but I had a super great run in them this week, so today is not that day.

Buddy likes to lay in the narrowest spot in the house. That way you can't go anywhere without him knowing. Don't you love our kitchen floor? It's getting replaced. For sure. And the cabinets...and the counters...most of the kitchen really.

This is a really good, summertime beer. Grapefruit IPA, yes please!

I am a super lazy member of Influester, and somehow managed to get picked for their Sunshine VoxBox. I am pretty excited to try out the Vaseline spray moisturizer, and I have been looking for those sriracha almonds every time I go to the grocery store. I love getting to try out new things for free! (Who doesn't?)

Thursday night we decided to go to a drive in movie theater. Dogs are allowed, so Buddy got to come with us.

He was pretty happy to be invited.

We saw Minions and Jurassic World. Minions was really cute and funny and Jurassic World was way better than I had been led to believe.

There are actually a couple of drive ins near us, so there's a definite possibility that we'll be going again.

Have you gone to a drive in? 

Do you now have the "stranded at the drive in" song from Grease stuck in your head?

How about now?

Marathon Training Week 3

These weeks are creeping by awfully quickly. I'm following a 16 week training plan (well, an 18 week one that I skipped the first two weeks of), which means my marathon is in 13 weeks already - what?!

I actually followed my training plan this week for a change.

Monday: Cross training. Yep, that's twice now I've managed to do Piyo. I always feel really good after I do the workout, I just have a really hard time actually doing it for some reason.

Tuesday: 3 miles. It was about 80 degrees and ridiculously humid. I felt like I was running through water, and I just couldn't make my legs move any faster. 3.11 miles at 9:15 pace.

Wednesday: 6 Miles. My TomTom has bluetooth, so I've gotten really bad about plugging it in. I just sync it with my phone to upload my runs. Somewhere around 4 miles, I looked down to see a sad dead battery symbol, so I had to estimate my time/pace based on what time I started my run. It was another humid day, so I was taking it slow and just getting my miles in. I ended up running 6.02 miles (I ran out and back and I turned around at 3.01) at around a 10:38 pace.

Thursday: 3 miles. We finally had some cooler weather, and I was feeling really good. I had a pretty good pace going, and really pushed the last mile. I ended up running 3.1 miles in 26:43 - an 8:36 pace. My last mile was a speedy 7:46!

Friday: Rest day. I spent some time hanging out at the laundromat and "helped" Tom with the driveway project.

I just started reading Marathon by Hal Higdon, and that helped pass the time at the laundromat. It's pretty inspiring so far and has a lot of fun quotes and stories from different runners.

Saturday: 6 miles. This weekend was supposed to be really hot, so I planned on getting up early(ish) to run - and I did! It was a little cooler running first thing in the morning (I started at 7:30am), though the temperature did go up about 10 degrees while I was running. 6.1 miles at 9:21 pace.

Sunday: 12 miles. The wake up early plan didn't go quite as smoothly today, though I still managed to get out the door by 8:30am. I wore my fuel belt (which I am not a fan of), and ran on some roads I haven't run on yet. It was way hillier than I thought it was going to be. It was also pretty hot as most of the roads weren't very shady.

I disturbed some people at the gas station that was my turn around point by bringing my sweaty self inside to use the restroom and buy water to refill my water bottles. I got some funny looks!

Most of the uphill was on the way home, so I was dragging, and I had to walk a couple small sections of hills, but I finished my 12 miles at a 10:16 pace. Not bad at all considering the weather and my poor course research.

After I got home and ate everything in sight, I spent some time playing with Buddy in the yard. He's still not very good at the "drop it" part of fetch, but he is getting a little better about bringing the ball back.

I was really excited to find these at the grocery store the other day.

We used to have them when I was a kid, and I haven't seen them in years (and I always look when I'm at the store). So when I saw them, I had to buy them, regardless of the fact that we don't have an oven right now.

It's ok, because we do have a waffle iron.

Not quite the same as when you bake them, but delicious nonetheless.

Have you used your waffle iron for things other than waffles?

We have done cinnamon rolls and we've made cornbread in the waffle iron too. :)

Cruising Speed and Literally Tons of Gravel

I'm not happy until I hit about 4 miles. The first few miles of my run, I want to turn around and go home, walk, or sit down. I'm creaky and tired and whiny. Somewhere around 4 miles, my body is awake and ready to go. That's when I can slip into what I call my cruising speed and actually enjoy my run.

Cruising speed varies from day to day. Some days it is a 10:00 mile, some days it's an 8:00 mile. It doesn't matter. It's the beautiful spot where my breathing is even, I'm not pushing myself, I'm not plodding, I'm just happily running along. Sometimes it takes thinking about a song (I've been running without music lately) *ahem, Lady Gaga* that just has the right beat to keep my mind busy and my feet moving.

One of my running buddies (man, I miss them!) has told me that the fact I'm not happy running until mile 4 tells him that I'm going to make a good marathoner. I hope so!

It's supposed to be HOT the next couple of days, so I actually woke up early for my run this morning. It was a cool 60 degrees when I woke up, 62 by the time I finished my coffee, and 70 by the time I finished my 6 miles for the day. Good thing I started early!

Tom rented a tractor the other day and ordered a bunch of gravel for the driveway.

Friday morning he was already up and outside laying out landscape fabric before I woke up. I joined him, coffee in hand, and tried to be useful. I'm not very useful first thing in the morning.

We got most of the fabric down before the first truckload of gravel arrived.

Yes, we had more than one truckload of gravel delivered. We had about 42 tons of gravel delivered.

Tom spent most of the afternoon spreading the gravel out, and now we have an absolutely enormous driveway. We've been parking on the grass, so this will be a nice change.

Buddy is getting more comfortable in his yard, though he still doesn't go very far from the door if he's out there on his own.  It's fun to actually get him running around, and we're working on his fetching skills. He's not very good.

But he's having a good time!

And he's a little crazy.

He also ran through the screen door yesterday. It's a good thing he's cute!

Free-Range Buddy

It's official - Buddy is no longer an on-leash all the time dog. Now he's a free-range dog! You know, within the fence.

Tom worked his butt off in the heat/humidity for a couple of days, clearing the areas where we wanted to put the fence and pounding in all the fence posts. He was determined to finish the fence yesterday, so I tried to be helpful. After a long, hot, humid afternoon, we had the fence up.

Buddy isn't quite sure about his yard yet. He doesn't like to go outside by himself, so he stands and stares at the door for a while if we don't go out with him.

He keeps checking out all his escape routes, just to see if there's fence there, but otherwise he hasn't touched the fence at all.

And now we're working on fetch. He's not so good with the bringing the ball back, but he loves chasing it and playing keep away.

I think he's still adjusting to all the extra activity. :)

Marathon Training Week 2

I'm still here! I've been alternately really busy and relaxing, neither of which was really conducive to blogging.

We spent the long weekend up at the lake house with Tom's family for the 4th of July. The water in the lake was warmer than when we were up there in May, so we had a lot of fun tubing. Tom even convinced me to try kneeboarding - it's hard! It was fun once I actually made it up to my knees, but it took a few tries!

So here's a look at my second week of marathon training - it sort of veered off course...

Monday: Cross training. Check it out - I actually did Piyo! The amount of pain I was in is evidence that I really need to cross train more often.

Tuesday: 3 miles. Done and done. I ran around the neighborhood at a pretty leisurely 9:55 pace.

Wednesday: 6 miles. Ok, so here's where things got tricky. Wednesday was supposed to be 6 miles and Thursday was supposed to be 3, but we were leaving for the lake house on Thursday afternoon, so instead I ran 9.25 miles (10:05 pace) on Wednesday and took a rest day on Thursday. It was hot and hilly around the neighborhood, but I managed to run all the hills. I was also smart and carried water with me.

Thursday: 3 miles. Like I said, not so much with the running on Thursday. A lot of time in the car instead.

Friday: Rest day. We spent a lot of time out on the lake, tubing and just cruising and enjoying the sunshine.

Saturday: 6 mile pace run. Nuun  put on a virtual run for its ambassadors/team Nuun over the weekend, it lined up perfectly to help motivate me to run while we were in vacation mode. So on Saturday morning I headed out for a 10k on the hilly roads around the lake house. Why are there hills everywhere I go?

It was decently warm and disgustingly buggy (one flew in my mouth - not ok), but I kept telling myself it was supposed to be a race, so I managed to finish my 10k in 55:43, an 8:58 pace! I'm pretty happy with that.

Sunday: 6 miles. Yeah...that didn't happen. I wasn't on the ball enough to run before we left the lake house, and it was after 10pm by the time we got home. Oh well.

I tried this InstaBoost from my RunnerBox the other day. It's basically energy pop rocks. Buddy was not a fan of the sound.

He's so cute.

Are you training for anything right now?