Week Three: (Un?)Lucky Duck

 

Marathon Training Week Three (Week of June 24, 2013):

Monday: 34-minute run after a day at Lake Huron with my sister-in-law and the kiddos

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: LONG RUN! 50 minutes.

Thursday: Return to Texas (Detroit—>Chicago—>Houston—>College Station)

Friday: Off (day of recovery from Thursday’s travel + Camping Gear 101 lesson)

Saturday: Bike ride for groceries + 30-minute evening run

Sunday: LONG RUN!  63 minutes of running + 45 minutes of walking

Total minutes run this week: 177(!)

I want to keep this short tonight because I’m trying to get to bed early.  Tomorrow Paul and I will make the long trek to Albuquerque, and we want to leave with the sunrise.  Today I did something that was both fun and colossally stupid: I got lost during my long run.  And because I got lost, I ended up doing a 45-minute walk after my long run, thus increasing my mileage by several miles today.  I figured it’s not all bad, as I’ll be in a car all day tomorrow, and the last few days have been kinda low on fitness because of the busy-ness of traveling from Michigan to Texas.  I’ve been feeling a bit tired this evening but otherwise feel okay after my epic fail today.

As for the title, I was unlucky when I got myself lost.  But!  I was really lucky that this morning’s weather was great for a long run: about 20 degrees cooler than yesterday with tolerable humidity.  I’m really pleased with myself that I got my long run done today, in addition to all my prep for our trip.  So on that high note, I will sign off.

Happy running, my dears!

PS  The two photos are from Lake Huron, which I now adore.  So big, so beautiful, so cold! ;-)

Weeks 1 and 2 are on the books!

 {How I want to remember this summer}

Marathon Training Week One (Week of June 10, 2013):

Monday: 50-min. run

Tuesday: Traveling (College Station—>Houston—>Baltimore—>Detroit)

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Off

Friday: 20-min. run

Saturday: Off

Sunday: 10K! Finished in 1:10:26 (so, a 70-minute long run for today)

Total minutes run this week: 140.

Marathon Training Week Two (Week of June 17, 2013):

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 30-minute run, I think

Wednesday: Walked several miles with the parents

Thursday: 24-minute run

Friday: Off to Ohio for a wedding!

Saturday: Busy being a bridesmaid

Sunday: Gone to the beach with my big brother and the kiddos

Total minutes run this week: 54

Marathon Training Week Three (Week of June 24, 2013):

Monday: 34-minute run after a day at Lake Huron with my sister-in-law and the kiddos

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: LONG RUN! 50 minutes.

Whew! Okay, that was a marathon-length catch-up.  I’ve been blogging a little bit over at my other blog, but for the most part, I’ve been eating ice cream, chasing kids around, and playing the game of Life with my six-year-old niece.  It’s been a nice vacation up here in the Mitten; tomorrow I return to Texas for a breather and to prep for my next and final trip of the summer.

(Whew! is all I can say about that right now.)

On the running front, things are going okay, I guess.  JD and I ran a 10K a few Sundays ago; we didn’t set any records for speed, but we did get 6.2 miles on the books for our marathon training, so that's not too shabby.  Last week was a bit of an underperformance for me; my friend Shawn Marie got married over the weekend.  When I got back to Michigan and my brother asked me if I wanted to go to the beach with him and the kids, I couldn’t say no.  So I didn’t.  The next day, my sister-in-law and I took the kids to Lake Huron for a few hours, and that was completely lovely: hot sand, cold lake, a picnic lunch, and two very happy children hanging out with their friends at the lake.

This week I hope to redeem myself.  I’ve got two runs done, including a long run today, and I hope to run on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to get some solid mileage on the books.  I had a moment of despair about marathon training earlier this week when I was kinda beating myself up about not having enough discipline to stick rigidly to the marathon training plan I’m following.  Since then, I have forgiven myself and moved on.  A wedding weekend and a few days at the beach don’t have to derail me, right?  And hopefully while we’re traveling, Paul and I can get in some work-outs in between our vacation fun.  I fully intend to eat ice cream and drink wine while we’re out West, but I also hope to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, hike through forests, and wander the streets of Denver.  And that, I suppose, is the truth about marathon training: it’s got to fit around regular life somehow.

Happy summer, dear readers!

I’m okay with that.

{Summertime in Texas has begun!}

Week of June 2, 2013:

Sunday: Morning run (40 minutes)

Monday: Noontime run (22 minutes)

Tuesday: Off to Houston for fun!

Wednesday: Houston—>Dallas drive

Thursday: Afternoon walk with Jeremy around the UT-Dallas campus (which is AMAZING!  Such a great campus.)

Friday: Evening work-out combo (11 minutes of running, some biking, some walking)

Saturday: Noontime run (34 minutes)  

Total minutes run this week: 107.

Not a bad running week, eh?  Especially during the first of my three (THREE!) trips this summer.  I knew that I wouldn’t be doing much or any running while Paul and I were visiting friends around Texas, so I tried to front- and back-load my week to get 120 minutes of running onto the books.  I fell a bit short (13 minutes—gah!), but I also got some variety into my week.  Jeremy estimated that we walked for 3-4 miles on Thursday (and a glorious walk it was, too, with so much great conversation and beautiful architecture that I was overwhelmed), and on Friday I got a little bit of everything into my evening work-out/trip to HEB for supplies.

Tomorrow my marathon training officially begins!  Exciting!  And within the first week I will go off the plan, as JD and I are running a 10K a week from today.  My training plan calls for a 40-minute run, but eh—why not go for 60+, right?  Right!  I’ll probably trim the other runs so that I don’t exceed 130 minutes total.  However, I’m also planning to run 50 minutes tomorrow because I don’t want to jump straight from 40 minutes (my current LSR distance; LSR = Long Slow Run) to 60.  So…there will be some major tinkering with the schedule for Week 1.  I’m okay with that.  Are you?

(As a bonus, if I manage to crank out 50 minutes tomorrow morning, then I ease the pressure on myself later this week.  Long travel days from Texas to Michigan always exhaust me.  So this week is probably going to be all wonky no matter what, but I will do my best to get my 130 minutes of running onto the books.)

Have a great week, dear readers!  I’ll see you in Michigan.

I Reserve the Right to Stop and Pet a Cat

            

{A favorite photo from the Feels Like Flying archives}

Week of May 26, 2013:

Sunday: Evening bike ride to Target and HEB

Monday: Noontime run (40 minutes)

Tuesday: Evening run (28 minutes)

Wednesday: DIY yoga for a few minutes (my dinner date showed up early!)

Thursday: Bike ride commute to work

Friday: Evening run (32 sweaty minutes)

Saturday: Bike ride to HEB + Late morning run (20 minutes)

Total minutes run this week: 120.  BOOYAH!

Week of June 2, 2013:

Sunday: Morning run (40 minutes)

Happy Sunday!  Today is a lovely, lovely day.  I ran this morning in cool, humid weather, which was quite nice after the heat we’ve had lately.  My 40 minutes went by fast, especially because I stopped to pet the most adorable black and white cat.  She was sauntering through her garden when I ran by, and I paused to say hello.  She came out to greet me, and we spent a few happy minutes together while I cooed at her, telling her how pretty she was.

I think Chrissy hit the nail on its proverbial head when she said in a comment regarding tired legs, “That's why your long run paces are so slow - you couldn't go faster if you wanted to!”  Yes, indeed!  I felt good this morning, but I think the reason for that is because the pace was gentle.  I would have quickly become exhausted if I had tried to push it at all.  Slow and even, with frequent walk breaks—that is my marathon-training style.  I’ll talk a little more about my planned walk breaks in a future post, but today, I skipped the walk breaks since I was feeling good and I was kinda worried about making it to brunch on time.

Beyond running, I am having a great day.  After my run, I had brunch with some friends, and my friend Juliana made Colombian corn cakes, which were amazing.  So tasty!  We also had scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, granola with yogurt, and plenty of coffee.  Juliana’s friend Daniel joined us and regaled us with stories about traveling in the Middle East.  Before that, we discussed polygamy, Mormons, Amish people, and Roma.  Apparently my friends find these insular cultures as fascinating as I do!  Now I am filled with great food and have the afternoon to work on my to-do list.  I’m getting a lot of little stuff done this weekend, but I think this afternoon I shall attempt some more serious scientific reading—at least until my focus wears out and I wander off to write a packing list for this week.

How’s your weekend been?