Antarctica is oh, so close! Keeping my fingers crossed that Dustin and I stay healthy all week and are safely en route to Argentina next weekend.
Here’s how training for the marathon went this past week:
Monday: I ran after work this day: 2 miles easy, then 10 hill repeats of 0.20 miles each at 3-4% incline at 8 min/mile, recovery for 0.10, 1 mile cool-down. Hills are tough on the treadmill, but it made the time go by quickly. 6 miles total.
Tuesday: 8 miles easy on the treadmill before work.
Wednesday: 5 easy miles on the treadmill before work.
I often have an audience when I run on the treadmill. Matilda the velcro vizsla always wants to be near her human!
Thursday: Another 5 miles on the treadmill before work.
Friday: 4 miles on the treadmill before work, Discover Strength 45 class after work <– this was my only strength training for the week and it left me quite sore!
Saturday: 11 miles OUTSIDE with Dustin! Yay! It was only about 11 degrees, but the sun was out, the skies were bright blue, and I had great company. The miles flew by.
Since Dustin is still dealing with his hamstring injury post-Houston marathon, he is considering running Antarctica with me, so he figured why not run with me on Saturday to see how he felt at my pace. It’s totally up to him if he wants to run his own race, but its not like either of us are racing Antarctica; it’s just about the experience and I’m excited to potentially have a running buddy during the experience.
Anyway, I had a wedding shower to rush to after the run, so I was glad I only had 11 miles on the schedule. That evening, Dustin and I enjoyed dinner at Kaiser Furukawa in the North Loop.
Yum! Felt like I was in Kyoto again.
Speaking of Japan, remember when I ran the Tokyo Marathon? If you didn’t read the blog then, you can catch up on that trip and marathon here, here, here, here, here, and here. It was so much fun. I was reminiscing a bit, since the Tokyo Marathon was this weekend. It still stands out as one of my favorite marathons of all time!
Sunday: 10 miles on the treadmill. Not quite as fun as the long run the day before, but it was -11 degrees outside so I hopped on the treadmill and watched the movie Roma. Any else watched it? It was nominated for a ton of awards and I always enjoy a good foreign film, but I have to admit, it was a little slow for treadmill viewing.
Summary: Just about 50 miles of running, one strength training session.
There will be 8 weeks between the Houston Marathon and Antarctica (which will be on March 17th), so my coach had me do back-to-back 10 milers most weekends and one 20 miler. Next weekend I’ll do one more 10 miler a week out. I really liked this plan as the 20 miler gave me confidence for the 26.2, but I didn’t have to bounce right back to multiple super long runs after running the Houston marathon.
Other than running, I spent a large portion of the weekend getting myself organized for the trip.
I’m pretty proud of myself that I think I’ve got everything, and I put it all in my suitcase and weighed it and it was only 34 pounds. There’s a 44-pound weight-limit on the flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, so I am relived I am far enough under that there will be room for souvenirs 🙂
We will have laundry service available on the boat, so definitely helped to reduce how much I packed, but between the 80-degree temperatures in Argentina and the cold of Antarctica, it was not easy to trim things down! I think that the packing cubes I purchased from the Container Store will really help keep things organized.
That other little puppy in at the above picture is my sister’s malti-poo Lola that we are dog-sitting this weekend. She’s the cutest! Here she is passed out after all-day playing with Matilda.
Last week, I mentioned this flask that I have to use during the Antarctica marathon because we’re not allowed to bring any disposables/plastic onto the land.
I’ll be filling it up with this massive container of GU- 15 servings!
I. AM. SO. EXCITED. Antarctica, here I come!
I’m linking up with Running on the Fly and Confessions of a Mother Runner check it out here:
You have some serious packing skills – I guess you have to for this adventure. Those packing cubes are a great idea. Those dogs are so cute! Love your viz!
I am not normally so organized, but I have to be for this trip!
I love your packing cubes! Must go looking for those
Lola is so cute – until you IDed her I wondered when I missed you getting another dog — I’m relatively caught up. In the one where Matilda is your audience I couldn’t help but think how she was the dog version of Meatloaf Cat
Meatloaf Cat?? I must google this guy.
I would love to get more dogs or cats! But my husband thinks one is enough and I often work long hours so he does a lot of the care.
Or google meatloaf cat and prepare to giggle. One of my favorite memes
It’s when they tuck their legs under them and look, well, like a meatloaf. Hadn’t thought about dogs’ ability to do same
Love the Gu solutions and much less packaging plastic, too. I’m pleased I’ve taken to Raspberry Tailwind and have just ordered a 30-serving pouch. I was very interested to read about your between-marathons training plan and, esp as I can’t run as many miles as you per week, am going to stick to the 20 miles 10 miles back-to-backs between my mara and ultra.
I have yet to try Tailwind, but need to!
It’s so close! I love the organized packing cubes. Genius!!
Thanks Angela!
How exciting! You are definitely very prepared for your trip and I love those packing cubes that you picked up at The Container Store. Such a nice way to keep everything organized.
I love that Tilda was overseeing your packing as well, LOL.
Haha, yes, she was supervising.
Wow, you’re gonna have both extremes with the temps…but it will, indeed, be worth it for the experience! Excited for you…hope all goes well in these final days!
It will be quite a range of temps over one trip!
Oh my gosh! The Antarctica Marathon?!!? So excited for you.
I love those packing cubes. I am some too but they’re not labeled like yours.
Yep! Antarctica!
Packing makes it super real (as if it didn’t feel real already, right??)! So exciting! What temperature are you expecting the race to be?
It’s feeling more and more real!
The weather on race day could be really terrible sideways blizzard snow or it could be sunny and 30 degrees.. We won’t know until we get there!
I’ll bet those 11 miles outside felt great! Even if it’s cold, no wind & sun make it feel a lot warmer. Bandit is often curled up on the chaise next to my treadmill while I’m running — he’s the first dog we’ve had that isn’t bothered by the noise. Of course I am partial to Lolas. 🙂 I have packing cubes that are somewhat similar, but by a different company. Still, those look kind of neat too. I know that they actually do take up a bit more space in my suitcase, but it’s worth it to be organized!… Read more »
The sun makes all the difference!
Interesting that the cubes take up more space. I’m hoping they at least keep me organized!
I have always wondered if those packing cubes were helpful? You have some serious skills girl! Another great week of training. Almost there! Thanks for joining the linkup
I feel like they will be helpful, but let’s see if they keep me organized on the actual trip 🙂
Matilda and your sister’s Malti-poo are soooo cute. Just too cute.
I’m so excited for your trip, and I really hope you have the best time ever! I read someone else’s post on their experience with the Tokyo Marathon and they raved about it too.
Tokyo was awesome!
Thanks for reading Eri!
Lola is so cute! Your trip is so close!!! Good luck and have fun on your trip!
Thanks Deb!
I don’t know how I missed this last week, but squeeeee! it’s getting down to the wire. I am so excited for you and I can’t wait to see how it all goes.
Thanks Wendy!
I can’t wait to read the recap of this adventure!
I’m going to echo Coco’s comment – those packing skills! LOL. And I actually thought I was organised but I see I need to up my game, LOL! Just a few days left now!