Checking in
Monday goal: Stretch & strength (core)
Actual: 30-min Biggest Loser video + 10 min core work
Next day: Very sore
Tuesday goal: 5x400 @ 5K pace
Actual: Achieved!
Pace: 7:55 per mile
Wednesday goal: 3 miles
Actual: 3 miles
Pace: 10:26 per mile
+ 1 hour yoga
Thursday goal: 3 miles + strength
Actual: Nothing
Friday goal: Rest
Actual: 1 hour yoga
Saturday goal: Cross-training
Actual: 25 miles cycling
Sunday goal: Cross-training
Actual: 41 miles cycling
Monday goal: Stretch & strength (arms)
Actual: 20-min Jillian Michaels video + 5 min arm work
Next day: Jillian is a sadist
Tuesday goal: 3 miles
Actual: Nothing
Wednesday goal: 30-min tempo run
Actual: 32-min tempo run (3.15 miles)
Pace: 10:24 per mile
+ 1 hour yoga
Pro tip: Go biking with your grandparents
I improvised a bit from Hal Higdon's schedule this past weekend to make room for a trip to Texas to see my grandparents and get psyched up for RAGBRAI, a bike ride across Iowa held every July. My grandparents are avid cyclists (yes, they are that awesome), and we're riding a few days of it at the beginning of the week together. Luckily, I don't have to haul my own bike all the way from Chicago to Council Bluffs, then back from Des Moines (where I'll depart halfway through to return to the rest of the work week). Why? Because I'll be riding a tandem recumbent bicycle with my grandfather.
I'm going to let that sink in. A tandem recumbent.
Grandpa prepares our noble steed. Yes, those are baby doll legs as a kickstand.
We are the bomb, y'all.
So instead of the 3- and 5-mile runs that Hal had planned for me on Saturday and Sunday, we logged more than 60 miles on the bike (5-6 hours of riding) in the Texas heat. Besides my butt falling asleep and Grandpa losing his lunch on the second, longer ride, it went perfectly. The recumbent style bike uses a different set of muscles than a regular sit-up bike, so part of the goal of the weekend was to get me used to the format and work out any kinks beforehand. My gracious grandparents invested in clip shoes for me, and so I've been getting used to those in spin classes but sitting on a bike for hours at a time is a whole new experience.
During the longer ride, I had the pleasure of hearing from my friend Kay that she completed her first half-marathon that morning. I joked that she should go ahead and sign up for her next one, and she told me she already had -- a shorter run, but another one. Running is addictive, y'all. Congratulations Kay!
Screw you too, scale
Of course, no weekend visit to the grandparents and excessive biking activities would be complete without binging on delicious calories. We ate much and well, and I made the mistake of weighing myself on Saturday. I prefer to think the scale was having a grumpy day, or perhaps I was bloated, but it would appear I've gained back the weight that I'd spent two months slowly shedding. That feels very frustrating, especially in the midst of an energy-sapping workout regimen. And though it's a mistake too many of us make, it's so difficult to live the truth that the scale DOESN'T matter. It feels good to see a lower number than you're expecting, especially over the course of many dozens of pounds. But worrying about five pounds here and there -- if you know that you fluctuate within a given range -- is a waste of energy.
Speedwork isn't so scary
I completed my first interval speedwork last Tuesday with LaJuanda. We ran 5x400 @ 5K pace, meaning we ran five sets of 400 meters (1/4 mile) at "5K pace," which we surmised to mean that if we're going for a 9-minute average in a half-marathon, we should be running a 5K at around 8 minutes per mile.
You guys, that is crazy sauce.
We were dying by the last one, but I admit that it was pretty neat to be done with the day's workout in just 20 minutes. Marathon training acclimated me to spending two hours or more on a training run -- a TRAINING run, not even the races -- so short workouts feel like a treat.
The idea of speedwork is that in order to train your body to run faster in general, you should run faster than normal for short spurts. And it definitely has an interesting effect -- I ran my slowest in the last few weeks the next day, at almost 10:30 per mile, mostly because it felt so slooooooow, like I was barely moving, and I got frustrated and kept slowing down even more. But as LaJuanda says, I got the mileage in, so no worries.
Yesterday we did our first tempo run -- meaning it starts with an easy warm-up, builds gradual speed in the middle, peaks about 2/3 through, then cools down at the end. We started slow, gradually sped up, and broke into a sprint at mile 2 for about 1/2 mile. My lungs were burning, and I stopped to walk for a minute before jogging the last 1/2 mile, but it felt good to run for the first time in a week.
And now I'm off...to run!
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