Training Update – Week 5

Week 5 already? Nothing really exciting here, but in the spirit of logging the journey back, here it goes!

Training recap:
Mon – 5 easy. Nothing really interesting or not interesting about the run.

Tue- OFF!!!

Wed- 9 miles moderate with Craig and it was just BEAUTIFUL out! 32 sunny degrees felt just glorious. Supposed to be 8, but the route was long. Hip/hamstring bothering me a bit, especially near the end of the run.

Thur- 7 miles with strides, ended up with an 8:11 average pace and a HR monitor that kept reading 200+ which was CLEARLY not right. Strides were fun, although I sometimes wonder what my neighbors think of me… sprinting back and forth in front of their homes 🙂

Then my at-home strength circuit.

Fri- 10 miles moderate, which ended up to be at a HR average of 173 and 8:23 pace.Say what?!? 8:23 pace is “moderate” for me now? Granted, it did snow that morning so there was a gross layer of slippery junk on the roads, which does render my push-off totally useless… and thus make me very slow… and it WAS a hillier route… but still, no excuses, I know where I’m at and know I have SO far to go :). I was able to sync up with Jake for most of the run over his lunch break. That guy always helps the miles fly by! Thanks for the company and conversation!

Afterwards I grocery shopped and was definitely favoring the hip. It was more sore than it’s been in a while – it didn’t bother me too
much on the run (unlike Wed and Thur), but was pretty tender afterwards.
GRR. I tried to shorten my stride and pull my hip into place which put a big damper into my “Supermarket Sweep” grocery shopping style. JK, I do NOT run around the store like a crazy woman, but it’s an amusing thought… I really did like that game show growing up :).

  I vowed to take tomorrow’s “very easy” workout indoors to the elliptical.

Sat- 35 minutes easy elliptical (vs. the written 4 mile EASY recovery run) and a good solid hour of lifting, stretching and PT work. I met Brian at Anytime Fitness for this. I had forgotten how much I really do like the elliptical (well… ). It’s fun to be able to set up the watch right in front of me and drift in and out of bad-TV consciousness. HR averaged 160.

Except my headphone cord is a wee bit short for their machines, so my head is forced to be just a *little* too close to the screen. Awesomeness.

Somehow I talked Brian into accompanying me for my 12 the next morning :).

Sun – long run of 12! I recruited “a crowd” for this run. SO fun! We had two dogs and 5 people. Conversation continued throughout. Pace was slow (just sub 9s), but often we were navigating roads with a slippery layer of snow. Not sure if that makes much of a difference pace-wise, but I think it does. I kept my HR average below 170, which was the goal. YEAH, my first 12 miler! (Actually 12.8, which almost rounds up to 13!)

Other life news:


Nate has been putting in a lot of ski hours lately, and today he took third at his ski race. The prize? Two loaves of awesome bread! One of them was bacon cheddar, and while that sounds like it would be gross, it was actually really good!

Mesa is hating winter more than ever before, I think. There was one run last week that I took her on that she just outwardly refused to run. Another “fun” scene for the neighborhood: crazy runner lady dragging her Vizsla behind her, trying to tell it that running will be FUN and to come ON! Mesa won the battle and we trudged back into the house and I put booties on her feet. She then was willing to cooperate, begrudgingly.

Yep, pretty much. Photo from cutestuff.co

She also tries to walk outside with the fewest number of feet on the ground, as in a “handstand walk”.

photo from flickrhivemind.net

Is is spring yet?

What else? The stockings are hung, presents are (mostly) wrapped, and I think the sprouted onion I attempted to plant is not going to make it. Big time excitement at our house :).

Until next time!
~Nichole