Marathon Training Week 10

I'm a pretty big fan of cutback weeks. I hit my mileage this week, and had a couple of good runs.

Even though my pace hasn't been where I want it to be (I'm still blaming summer weather and the hills around here), some of the hills that I run all the time haven't felt as steep lately. I'm not saying that the hills aren't tough, but I feel like I'm finally feeling stronger.

Monday: Cross training. My lazy yoga game is still going strong. One hour of yoga, followed by some headstand practice where I didn't fall right and tweaked my neck. It was better after a few days, but it definitely put a damper on some of my runs.

Tuesday: 5 miles. My neck was sore from my yoga wipe out and my legs were sore from my long run. I mostly just wanted to stop the entire time. 5 miles @ 10:04

Wednesday: 5 miles. I felt way better for this run. My neck and legs felt a lot better, and it was a little cooler out. I'm so ready for fall to get here. 5.06 miles @ 9:21

Thursday: 5 miles. Remember when I was insanely tired last week? I made it until later in the week this time, but it caught up to me again. I may have actually napped for a little while this time. Tom insists that I was asleep at one point, but I didn't feel like I did.

Friday: Rest day. I decided to get Thursday's run in on Friday. It didn't feel amazing, but it was faster than earlier in the week. There was a noticeable difference as the soreness from my long run subsided. 5.03 miles @ 9:10

Saturday: 8 mile pace run. This run made me a little nervous. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to hit a goal pace (9:00) since I haven't been very speedy lately. It ended up being a really good run, and a nice boost of confidence. 8 miles @ 8:52

Sunday: 13 miles. You know you're marathon training when you say, "I only have 13 miles today." Only. I guess it's all relative! This run definitely felt short compared to last weekend's 18 miles, It was a pretty uneventful run overall, though I could have done without the humidity. 13 miles @ 10:18

Miles this week: 36.09

Cooking, Cleaning, and Hanging out Upside Down

I've been busy busy cleaning the house the last couple days. 

I had a mellow morning on Wednesday and made myself some biscuits and gravy. I have tried several times recently to successfully make my grandma's biscuit recipe (I have the recipe, I just don't have the touch). I'm getting closer. These ones were good!

At around 1:00 someone made an appointment to come see the house at 4:30, and I ran all over the house to get it clean in time.

Buddy and I went to Rockefeller Preserve and wandered around for all of 15 minutes before we decided it was much too cold.

We drove around town to kill time until we could go home.

Another person made an appointment to see the house this morning, so I did some quick dishes, swiffered the floor and packed the dog into the car. Since I knew it was going to be too cold out to be outside, we drove up to the new house to check out the snow (and because I hadn't been up to see in in a long time).

I got 4 mile runs in both Wednesday and today - fairly uneventful, as cutback weeks tend to be. The only thing less interesting than cutback weeks are taper weeks.

I've also been spending some time upside down.

I find this arm positioning way easier than the tripod stand I was doing the other day. I still have terrible balance, but I'm getting a few more seconds of balance off the wall, so I'm getting better.

It's fun. :)

I made stuffed chicken breasts for dinner tonight. As an added bonus, they actually turned out the way I wanted (this is not always the case when I cook).

They're stuffed with goat cheese and arugula and wrapped up with prosciutto - hard to go wrong with that combination!

I win at dinner tonight.

Look What I Can Do

Happy Friday!

On a whim this morning I decided to try to do a headstand. I think there have been too many amazing yoga pictures on instagram lately and I was getting jealous. While I don't like the super slow speed of yoga, I'm always impressed by some of the postures that people can bend themselves into.

So, quite naturally, I googled it. I read a few articles and watched a couple of videos and decided to try it.

Everyone has to start somewhere, right?

But then I wanted to keep working on it. So, after my run (2 easy miles, nothing terribly exciting), I tried again (and again, and again...).

Once my base felt stable, and I trusted that I would catch myself on the wall, I was able to get fully extended.

My form could still use some work, but for one day of practicing, I'm pretty proud of myself. I got to the point where I could balance without touching the wall for a second or two before I would go back to the wall and/or fall out of it.

The pictures are actually screen shots of videos I took, that's why they're a little blurry. It worked out to be a nice training tool so I could see what I was doing afterwards!

Buddy and I have worn a path in the yard, it's nice to not have to trudge through the deeper areas of snow.

Don't let that blue sky fool you - it was cold out! We're talking negative wind chills. Not my favorite.

Buddy enjoyed the sun from inside instead.

He's so cute.

My goal is to go to bed at a reasonable hour so I can meet up with the group in the morning (for the first time in over a month!). Hopefully I can still keep up with them! :)

Can you do a headstand? Any other fancy yoga moves?