Happy Sunday and happy new year! Just a short and sweet recap today. I have a few fun posts drafted for later this week, so definitely stop back in.
The Phoenix Marathon is 55 days away (just under 8 weeks!) At least 2 weeks of that time will be the taper, so that leaves 6 weeks of hard work. I can handle that!
Here’s how this week of training went:
Monday: Easy 7 miles in the morning with some run club friends.
Tuesday: Minneapolis got dumped with quite a bit of snow, so I did my 5 miles on the treadmill.
Wednesday: Yasso 800’s: 2 mile warm-up, 6x800m with 2 minute rest in between each and then a 2 mile cool-down. My Yasso’s were supposed to be at a 7:00 min/mile pace, but that didn’t happen. I gave it my best effort, but I blame the slippery, snowy trails (and maybe I’m not in shape/ready for Phoenix!) I tried my best, but not all workouts are successes. This one was not.
Thursday: REST. I still ran one mile to complete my #RWRunningStreak– at least 1 mile every day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. Our New Year’s Eve was somewhat low-key; our friends hosted an intimate party that included a blind champagne tasting.
Let’s just say that the blind tasting demonstrated that I do NOT know that much about champagne. I rated the Veuve the lowest. I clearly do not have a sophisticated palate!
Friday: 6 mile New Year’s Day Run. Matilda the vizsla joined us too, though she’s hiding behind Dustin in the below picture. Our photographer’s hand was a little shaky, obviously! Must have been the cold.
Saturday: Long run with the Calhoun Beach Running Club. I had 14 miles with marathon pace: 3 mile warm-up, 10 miles at marathon pace, 1 mile cool-down. Dustin joined me for this run so he could get familiar with what my goal marathon pace (between 8:15 min/mile and 8:20min/mile) feels like so he can pace me at Phoenix. It was a sunny but cold winter day; the trails were in decent shape, but I definitely was working hard! I hit the paces, but it is hard to think about doing it for another 16.2 miles…
Sunday: Arms & Abs class at [solidcore] with a great group of girls to celebrate New Year’s the healthy way (we did plenty of planking in the class too!)
After the class, I had 8 easy miles to run. Dustin and Matilda joined me for the first 4 and then I did another 4 on my own.
Total: About 49 miles, one [solidcore] class. It was a bit of a cutback week in mileage. Next week will more- including a 20 miler!
As I alluded to above, I successfully completed the #RWRunningStreak challenge. I covered 260 miles in the 37 days. I was participating in the streak with a group of mostly my sisters’ friends. Whoever ran the most miles got to choose a charity to which the organizer of the streak would donate $100. I won! I felt a little silly admitting just how many miles I had run because it was so high…I am well-aware that there are people that think I run too many miles, so I was hesitant to post my total in the group of mostly strangers, but my sister encouraged me to “come forward.” She pointed out that it’s all for a good cause anyways.
The $100 was donated in my name to the Anti-Cruelty Society in Chicago. The Anti-Cruelty Society (SPCA of Illinois) is a private, non-profit humane society that does not receive government assistance. It is one of the largest such organizations in the United States. I am excited about my “donation” to this charity, as you know that I love animals! Glad my miles went to a good cause.
I liked the charity idea so much that I decided to add the same incentive to my plank challenge.
As an added incentive for you to keep up with the plank challenge, I plan to make a $100 donation to a charity at the end of the challenge. If you make it all the way to the end of the challenge, I will put your name in a drawing to pick the charity and the donation will be made in your name as the winner of the 30 Day Plank Challenge.
Participating in the challenge is “on your honor” and I don’t expect you to plank for the full five minutes to have completed the challenge, but I do hope you will plank every day that the schedule says so, to the best of your ability. How does that sound?
The blind champagne tasting sounds like a lot of fun! I probably wouldn’t know the difference between many of those, either. Sounds like your off to a great start to 2016 fitness-wise, too! With your 2 min rest between your Yasso 800s, did you walk, stop completely, light jog?? Just curious. 🙂 I’d like to do some of those but I’m never sure what I should be doing for “rest.” Thanks!
Great question Katie! When we have done Yasso’s on a track, we would do one lap recovery, doesn’t matter how slow. However, since I was doing them on a trail, my coach said two minutes recovery; he doesn’t care if I walk or jog…I try to jog 🙂
Good luck, let me know how you like the workout!
Blind wine tastings often turn out like that, unless you have a really trained palate for the type of wine you are tasting. And that’s just fine – drink what you like! Let me say, do not try the *good stuff* ($100+) unless you want to ruin your ability to enjoy affordable champagne… I splurged for a La Grande Dame for the millennium that was amazingly better than any champagne I’d had before or since. Great job with the training. I had a rough November/December fighting a hamstring injury so I am forced to live vicariously through other runners’ exploits.… Read more »
Oh no, I’m sorry to hear about the hamstring injury! What happened? How long will you be out of commission? I hope you heal quickly!
I’d be curious to try this La Grande Dame….maybe next NYE 🙂
High hamstring tendinopathy is the current diagnosis, though we can’t be sure. Might be getting an MRI soon if there is no progress. My best guess is that I never fully healed from TCM (thanks, Summit Hill!). My workouts got progressively worse during November. I couldn’t do speed workouts – felt like the top gears weren’t even there. And for medium to slow runs, after about 4 miles I would lose efficiency and start to strain the lower hamstring due to overcompensation. I’ve been seeing a physical therapist (she is also a runner) to try and figure this out. After… Read more »
Ugh, that’s frustrating. I’m sorry to hear that Eric, but it sounds like you are doing all the right things and are hopefully on the mend. At least its the middle of winter…a good time to cut back a little bit and focus on strength. Just trying to look on the bright side- I do hope you get it figured out and can get back to hitting the pavement.