Running/Hiking Week in Review

March 5-11

Tuesday: 5.74 miles of running followed by a .62 mile uphill walk "cool down."
I explored new territory and found a route along lots of horse ranches.

When you are loaded, you spend lots of money on a fancy gate for your ranch.

Wednesday: Arm weights + crunches. Specifics on Daily Mile.
5.21 miles of running followed by a .76 mile uphill walk "cool down."

I attempted speed work in a new park that I thought was flat, based on what I saw from driving past it a few times.  It turns out I was wrong and that speed work is very challenging on an incline.  But I still tried all the intervals I set out to do.
 
Goal was 6x800 in 4:08 with 90 second rest intervals. 4/6 weren't bad.

Friday: 5.7 mile tempo run.  Goal tempo pace was 9:20; my average pace was 9:07.  Flat route for a change.
Pushups+Crunches, more here.


Saturday: 8.15 mile run, Average pace was 9:42. I don't really know what this run was as it wasn't quite an official long run.  Just running.

Total running miles: 26.18

Plus a little hiking:
Sunday: 5.22 mile hike at East Canyon.

Elevation Gain: 1153', all in the first half.

 
I guess while it's maintained by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, it's technically the Santa Susana Mountains.

Snake hanging out in the middle of the path. Luckily it isn't the kind that rattles.

Also came across this crazy little lizard. Bronze body, bright blue tail.

At the top, looking West-ish

At the top, looking East-ish

On our way back down, looking North East

Does reading about fast runners make you faster?

Apologies in advance, but there are not many pictures in the post...except for a couple of screen shots of my running splits.

So I put off Sunday's long run until Monday morning.  I had an appointment early in the morning which meant I had to take half a sick day from work.  So after my appointment I had a couple hours until I had to be at work- perfect for my long run. 

I ran this at a comfortable pace and tried not to stare at my watch, taking a cue from Alyssa and Kara with their no-Garmin sub-4 marathon last weekend.  I'm pretty sure just reading about their amazing Baltimore Marathon experience improved my training.

I didn't go full No-Garmin, or I wouldn't have these splits.  And it was still on auto-lap, beeping every mile.  But the goal was to not keep my eyes glued to my Garmin like I sometimes do.  Maybe it was the cool 60 degree day or that I took a rest day the day before or maybe listening to music helped, but I was surprised with my paces.



A couple things... I only had time for 11 miles and change, not the full 13 as per my training plan. I guess I will do a slightly longer long run this weekend, then maybe scale back the following weekend?

Also, my long runs are supposed to be half marathon pace plus :20 or :30 per mile -- which would mean 10:25 or 10:35 based on my most recent half marathon.  These yet still comfortable! I am hoping that means with a couple more weeks of speed work until the Philly half marathon I will have a good shot of improving my time.

Speaking of speed work, this was my Wednesday afternoon:

Goal was 10 x [400 @ 2:05, 400 rest].  I did it in the rain.  I'm pretty pleased!

This morning before work, at the crack of dawn, I fit in a 5 mile mid-tempo run.  Goal pace was 9:33-ish and I ran my five miles at: 9:41, 9:38, 9:33, 9:34, and 9:32.  This pace felt a little harder than my last mid-tempo run last Friday.  Despite it being tough, I wasn't too far off with my paces.  This was also my first run in my new running shoes - no need to break them in, they were perfect straight out the box.

Off to host my brother-in-law and his girlfriend as they visit the great state of NJ this weekend!

Belated Weekend Post

Friday  after work I squeezed in a mid-tempo run before happy hour with Dan and his classmates? colleagues?  I was pleased with my ability to swing by the grocery store on my way home, squeeze in a 4.5 mile run, and freshen up (The run should have been 5 miles, but I was urgent to get home to shower, walk the dog, and get out the door in a matter of 10 minutes).

Goal pace was 9:33.  Keeping my eye on the clock and the downhill at the end of my run contributed to the too-fast last half mile.

Saturday we went for a ~16 mile bike ride. 

The first 6 miles was on muddy canal towpath, which I did not photograph because I was occupied with not falling into the canal or mud. In addition to muddy spots there are still spots where the towpath was flooded from the hurricane.  All the smaller gravel was washed away leaving bigger gravel.  It doesn't appear to have been fixed yet.

We stopped mid-way along the towpath to take some pictures.

Here's a not so muddy part of the towpath:

After 6 miles we got off the towpath and decided to stick to the roads and we biked another 10 miles.

My legs felt tired on our bike ride, especially on some of the hills toward the end.  Perhaps spinning on Thursday night and a Saturday bike ride are too close together.

This can count as dinner, right?

Sunday the bananas I picked up at the store Friday afternoon already looked like this:

So I turned them into this: 

Then we went to a greyhound adoption group (the one we got Molly from) fundraiser at a local winery.

Molly made some friends:

 

And we picked up some wine and random locally made salsa & pickles being sold at the event.

 

Then we came home and made apple crisp.

There are seven apples in the apple crisp.  And there are still 10 apples leftover.

We're debating trying to make apple sauce...or just making another apple crisp.

Because my legs were tired on our bike ride Saturday I decided to postpone Sunday's long run until Monday.  I think it was a good idea to give my legs a rest instead of having a crummy long run...My legs hadn't had a day off since Tuesday.

What was the highlight of your weekend?
Anything fun planned for next weekend?

Longest Post Ever.

Week in Review:
Monday- an easy 3.02 miles
Tuesday- 6x400@5k pace = 3.60 miles
Wednesday- Strength stuff in my living room
Thursday- Chocolate cake with cherries + Milk Stout for hubby's birthday.
Friday- 30 35 minute tempo run in the morning = 3.32 miles
Saturday- half marathon expo

Good thing it was a little bit of a taper this week, because work whooped me this week.  I can also tell how busy/tired I am because my Gmail inbox is over 150, which is ridiculous.  I need to take some time to clean that up tomorrow.

Monday's dinner... and leftovers for lunch throughout the entire week:
Creamy Caprese Pasta from How Sweet it Is.
I actually read the recipe on her blog that day, before going grocery shopping after work.  It looked awesome and sounded easy enough so it became dinner that night.



-I used half whole wheat penne and half whole wheat rotini...cleaning up the leftover pasta in our pantry.
-I had 17 ounces of pasta instead of 16.
-I initially cut up 4 oz of mozzarella, but ended up using more like 6 oz after slicing some extra for the top of the pasta dish before it went in the oven.
-The sauce I used was vodka sauce (see above, operation: use what's in the pantry)
-It completely filled an 8" x 8" x 4" deep baking dish






Tuesday: Haircut:

It was long overdue.  Last chop was November.


Details of my Tuesday Speed Work:
After my hair was blow-dried and had anti-frizz stuff in it, I put it in a pony tail and ran.

Goal pace was in the 9:24-9:28 range.
Not very consistent...but consistently faster than 9:24!

I shocked myself with that first 400...while fast, it was strangely NOT uncomfortable!  Maybe after this fourth half marathon is past me, and my legs have recovered, I'll see how fast I can run a mile.  I might be pleasantly surprised.

Wednesday I did strength stuff in my living room:

2 x 10 stability ball pushups

10 chest pushups on knees

10 tricep pushups on knees

3 x 25 regular crunches

2 x 40 bicycle crunches

2 x 45 sec plank on forearms
2 x 20 stability ball crunches

2 x 15 second laying on back with legs straight, feet 6" off ground
15 up and outs (for lower abs - lay on back, legs straight up in the air, bring down and then out straight in front of you. Repeat.)
2 x 20 russian twists w/5lb weight
plank sequence: 20 sec plank...turn to right side, left arm in air: 8 reaches with left arm, 20 sec plank, turn to left side: 8 reaches with right arm

10 jumping jacks

3 x 20 deadlift-->upright row w/5lb weights (see Tone It Up video here, at :58)

2 x 10 tricep extensions w/5lbs

2 x 15 squats with 5lbs
2 x 10 squats
2 x 10 lunges w/5lbs in each hand, arms at sides

30 second wall sit

2 x 30 lunges with bicep curl - alternating sides

No, not in that order. Yes, I wrote it all down as I did it.

Saturday:

Half marathon Expo/Packet Pickup in Philly.

 Parking Garage Fail ^

 Race Shirt - men's sizing only, so I hope my husband likes it.

Looking forward to the souvenir pint glass at the finish line :)

I think this is what I'm wearing tomorrow:

Sweaty band?  + Sunglasses if it's sunny. Or hat instead?
I'll probably bring it all and decide last minute.


Current forecast for tomorrow? Pretty perfect:

Race number pinned on. Garmin is charging. Pre-Race jitters starting to set in.

Going to try to force myself to bed at 9:30 (yikes), for a 5am wake up.

Then at 5am I will try to choke down a banana and some almond butter on toast when my body doesn't even know I'm awake and hungry yet.  Then a 45 minute drive to Philly, then run!

A Goal: sub-2:15 would be amazing! ( <10:19 pace)
B Goal: 2:15-2:17 would still be a PR (10:19-10:28 pace)
C Goal: sub-2:19 would also still be a PR :)  (<10:37 pace)

Tempo Run + Tuesday Happenings

Today after work I did a 40 minute tempo run.

Because Hal says a 45 min tempo run should be 15 minutes of warm up, 20 minutes of 10k pace (ish), and 10 minutes of cool down-- my goal for a 40 minute tempo run was: 12ish minutes of warm up, 18ish minutes of 10k pace, and 10ish minutes of cool down.

Here are my laps:

It's weird that those times add up to 42:16, but Garmin thinks it's 42:18?  
I don't care about the total time, just an observation...

What's super awesome is that my goal for the those 18ish minutes in the middle was a 9:49-10:07 pace (that's the 10k pace based on a half marathon goal time of 2:16-2:20, according to the McMillan running calculator).  I was shooting for a nice round 10:00 in my head.  And really excited to have hit the faster end of that range!

Time to treat myself to something calling my name in our freezer...

That's right, 3 pints of delicious ice cream from an awesome local dairy (for only $5!)

To be honest, I tried to pick up some delicious cupcakes from my favorite bakery on Monday after meeting my husband for lunch...but I forgot they are closed on Mondays!  So sad :(

Since I was unable to get cupcakes, I clearly needed to get ice cream Tuesday morning.

Tuesday was a pretty awesome and productive day:  I had off from work.
-I got an oil change
-Donated two large bags of clothing (finally!! That was part of my decluttering goal)

 (This is actually less than half of what I got rid of.  It was this plus a large kitchen sized garbage bag).

-Thought about getting a car wash to get the salt off my car, but realized there was still lots of junk on the roads to get sprayed onto the clean car.  Car Wash can wait.  Instead, I got the above-mentioned ice cream.
-Met a friend for lunch
-Used my Massage Envy gift certificate
-Went for a short 2ish mile easy run with the hubs when he got home.  Not as long as the 4ish easy miles in my training plan, but I wasn't going to turn down a running partner.

Tweaking and Tempo Run

Bear with me while I tweak my blog based on my recent poll.

I'm trying out one sidebar with two columns. 11 voted for one side bar over 7 voting to leave it with two side bars.

About Me is now at the top of the side bar, with Blogs I Follow and the Archive right underneath.

More people said the font is easy to read (9) than not easy to read (4).

More people said ditch the dark brown w/light font (7) than keep it (5).

And people said leave it alone (7).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Tonight I went to spinning.  It was another good class with the new guy instructor.  He may make us work harder than the Monday night instructor (according to my Heart Rate monitor).  Both instructors are good, just different!

Then after spinning I planned to get in my 35 minute tempo run.  And I did! But the gym is still crazy with all the undergrads back.

After spinning I stalked the treadmills for about 10 minutes while talking to a friend.  Even all the ellipticals were taken.  I gave up and got my stuff from my locker.  I figured I'd run outside under street lights (because of ice) even if it meant I'd have to loop around a short route to get the time in.  

Then!  On my way out of the locker room, a man stepped off his treadmill.  Yessssssss.

So I gave my tempo run a shot.

Here's what Hal Higdon says a tempo run should be: This is a continuous run with a buildup in the middle to near 10-K race pace.  A Tempo Run of 30 to 45 minutes would begin with 10-15 minutes easy running, build to 15-20 minutes near the middle, then 5-10 minutes easy toward the end.

I have a hard time thinking of my run in minutes instead of miles.  But I walked for a minute or two, then ran for another 10 minutes at 5.3 mph and a 1% incline.  

When I hit the 1-mile mark, I had been running easy for 12 minutes, and I switched to 6.0 mph (10:00 pace is in the middle of my 10k pace range of 9:49-10:07 and it was easy to remember).  I told myself I'd hold that pace for 15 minutes.  The first half crawled by while I watched some Real Housewives Reunion on closed captioning with Lady Gaga on my mp3 player, trying to distract myself as much as possible.  As I approached 15 minutes, I thought "I can do this another minute, no problem!" So I did it until 16 minutes.

Then I switched back down to 5.3 mph for the easy end of my run, for 5 minutes.  I slowed it to 5.1 for another 2 minutes, then I was done.  Yippee.  

Total of 3.24 miles in 35:01.  

Does anyone else do tempo runs?  How do you do them?
This is my first time doing them the Hal Higdon way, which I think is the real way.  I feel like Runner's World Smart Coach just gave me a pace to run for the entire tempo run.  Or maybe they didn't provide much direction.
Have any tips to provide?  

I think I like my hills and speed work runs better, because they require a little less thought!  The tempo run would have been a little harder for me to plan outside, (I plan in miles, not minutes) so I'm glad I did this one on the treadmill (glad + treadmill!? in the same sentence?  shocking, I know).


Sorry for the lack of pictures tonight, I'll try to find something fun to post a picture of tomorrow.