I'm BACK! Time to get back to work.
Tuesday, July 22: 7 miles (treadmill) - started a new pair of shoes
We got home from Australia yesterday, so today was my first real training run in nearly 3 weeks. I honestly had no idea how it was going to go. And, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it went amazingly well! What a relief! Coming back from our lengthy summer vacations the past two years and trying to get back into marathon training had been a challenge and required a slow build up, which then greatly limited the actual amount of training to be had before race day. So, this run was a big confidence booster to see that I'm not starting back at week 1 with only 13 weeks to go.
Wednesday, July 23: 5 miles (road)
Back to the heat and hills with the Sole Survivors. Oh, what a slap in the face it was! The workout was a hill workout - the Marshes in West Austin = the Warshes. I think I would have been okay if I had been consistently training for the past few weeks because it wasn't necessarily harder than anything that we had previously been doing. But, I had a hard time cresting some of the hills, and I could feel the 100 degree temperature during my "hard" efforts. K actually joined us for this workout and even he suffered.
Thursday, July 24: OFF
I switched my off day from Friday to Thursday to better accommodate our daily schedules this week.
Friday, July 25: 5 miles (treadmill)
Easy 5 miles on the treadmill. Probably would have been better to do this on Thursday as scheduled to go into tomorrow's long run with fresh legs, but I am already fairly refreshed after our vacation anyway so I don't think it hurt anything.
Week 12 Total: 17 miles (getting back in the saddle again!)
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
MCM Training Week 11
So, not much running happened while we were in Australia. There were the 4 days that we spent on the boat on the GBR so really what was I gonna do there? Otherwise, our days were just really full with various activities with not much down time.
I snuck in a short afternoon run around the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney on Thursday, 07/17/14 while K was climbing the Harbour Bridge. The run was high on scenery, but not high on mileage. There wasn't much mileage to be had there, and I honestly didn't have a lot of time either before going to the opera at Sydney Opera House that evening.
I snuck in a short afternoon run around the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney on Thursday, 07/17/14 while K was climbing the Harbour Bridge. The run was high on scenery, but not high on mileage. There wasn't much mileage to be had there, and I honestly didn't have a lot of time either before going to the opera at Sydney Opera House that evening.
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| I liked this statue in the garden - reminded me of Manneken Pis in Brussels |
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| Do you see K up on the bridge? |
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| Heading back into the city |
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MCM Training Week 10
Not much to report in terms of training for Week 10 because we left for Australia on 07/03/14.
After sleeping off the jet lag once we arrived in Brisbane, we went for a morning run to explore the city on Sunday, 07/06/14. K and I ran together, and he even gave me a nice compliment noticing that I seemed to be in pretty good shape - so much so that he had to "stride out" a bit so that we could run together (rather than shuffling along at a snail's pace for him, I guess). We ran about 5-6 miles, mostly along the paved path on the banks of the Brisbane River. We stopped frequently to take pictures, so I wouldn't say it was much of a training run - mostly just a good way to get our bearings and see the city.
A few pictures from along the way:
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| Story Bridge over the Brisbane River |
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| Sunrise over downtown Brisbane |
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| Nice view of where we started |
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| Entering the mangrove...watch out for crocs! |
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| Crossed over the Goodwill Bridge to get to the South Bank |
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| Wheel of Brisbane |
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| Roma Street Parkland, the world's largest subtropical garden in a city centre |
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| A beautiful oasis in the middle of the city |
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| View of the city over a small lake in the park |
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| Relaxing water feature near one of the main lawn areas |
Thursday, July 3, 2014
MCM Training Week 9
Saturday, June 28: 12 miles (road)
Still in recovery week, we were scheduled to do 7-10 miles this morning. But, Angela and I decided to do 12 since she missed the long run last weekend and I will miss the next few weeks of training. I felt fairly good overall and think I dealt with the humidity somewhat better than I have for the past few Saturday am runs. I did bring some extra Tailwind mix for the 2nd half of my run, but I still found myself taking a few cups of Gatorade at the last few water stops due to thirst. No soreness afterwards.
Sunday, June 29: 3 miles (treadmill)
Easy 3 mile recovery run at the gym.
Monday, June 30: 8 miles (treadmill)
The medium long run is starting to creep up in distance, so it's going to take some planning to make sure I have the time to get the full mileage in on Mondays. I had some major tightness in my right calf during the first half of the run, but otherwise felt pretty good.
Tuesday, July 1: OFF
Today was scheduled to be a cross-training day, but I just didn't have the time to get a workout in with my work schedule and getting ready for our trip. That's 2 weeks in a row that my cross-training workout hasn't happened. I don't like that either because I really enjoy weight training. But, life gets in the way sometimes.
Wednesday, July 2: 6.5 miles (road)
We ran the same quality workout that we did 2 weeks ago: 1.25 mile warm-up followed by 4 mile repeats at tempo pace (with 3-minute recovery between them) then 1.25 mile cooldown back to Rogue + 4 strides. I felt nervous all day today, likely for several reasons. But, I also think that I was anxious about our workout, particularly the possibility that I would not be able to hit the times that I did last time (especially since it seemed hotter tonight). But, no worries there. I ran the first lap at 8:19 then 2 laps at 7:59 with the final one at 7:56. Still way faster than I likely should be running based on the workout pace chart that Bobby gave us, but I apparently can so why not? Unless that's not the point of the workout...
Thursday, July 3: 5.5 miles (treadmill)
Really proud of myself that I made sure to leave some time in my schedule today to get my run in before leaving for our trip.
Friday, July 4: OFF
Week 9 Total: 35 miles
And now a training interruption for the next 2 weeks while we are on vacation...see you in week 12!
Still in recovery week, we were scheduled to do 7-10 miles this morning. But, Angela and I decided to do 12 since she missed the long run last weekend and I will miss the next few weeks of training. I felt fairly good overall and think I dealt with the humidity somewhat better than I have for the past few Saturday am runs. I did bring some extra Tailwind mix for the 2nd half of my run, but I still found myself taking a few cups of Gatorade at the last few water stops due to thirst. No soreness afterwards.
Sunday, June 29: 3 miles (treadmill)
Easy 3 mile recovery run at the gym.
Monday, June 30: 8 miles (treadmill)
The medium long run is starting to creep up in distance, so it's going to take some planning to make sure I have the time to get the full mileage in on Mondays. I had some major tightness in my right calf during the first half of the run, but otherwise felt pretty good.
Tuesday, July 1: OFF
Today was scheduled to be a cross-training day, but I just didn't have the time to get a workout in with my work schedule and getting ready for our trip. That's 2 weeks in a row that my cross-training workout hasn't happened. I don't like that either because I really enjoy weight training. But, life gets in the way sometimes.
Wednesday, July 2: 6.5 miles (road)
We ran the same quality workout that we did 2 weeks ago: 1.25 mile warm-up followed by 4 mile repeats at tempo pace (with 3-minute recovery between them) then 1.25 mile cooldown back to Rogue + 4 strides. I felt nervous all day today, likely for several reasons. But, I also think that I was anxious about our workout, particularly the possibility that I would not be able to hit the times that I did last time (especially since it seemed hotter tonight). But, no worries there. I ran the first lap at 8:19 then 2 laps at 7:59 with the final one at 7:56. Still way faster than I likely should be running based on the workout pace chart that Bobby gave us, but I apparently can so why not? Unless that's not the point of the workout...
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| Alabama Shakes Speed Group |
Really proud of myself that I made sure to leave some time in my schedule today to get my run in before leaving for our trip.
Friday, July 4: OFF
Week 9 Total: 35 miles
And now a training interruption for the next 2 weeks while we are on vacation...see you in week 12!
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