Happy Sunday and welcome to May! I’m so glad spring is in full swing; it’s wonderful to run outside without worrying about whether or not the trails will be icy, isn’t it?
Here’s how training went this past week for the Brookings Marathon that I will be running with my sister (her goal is around 4:20-4:25):
Monday: 6.65 miles with my friend Christie before work, Discover Strength training session after work.
Tuesday: 5.5 miles before work
Wednesday: Rest.
Thursday: Track workout!
3 miles to get from my house to the track, then 3 x (3x200m with 200m jog recovery), 400m between sets, 3 mile cool down. I went so much faster on the 200m’s on the track than I do on a normal workout! I will definitely being doing more workouts on the track.
In the past, I’ve driven to this local track; I had mapped it out via the running trail and thought it was closer to 2 miles to run there, but the route I took was exactly 3 miles. A few extra miles didn’t kill me! 8.5 miles total.
Friday: 8 miles before work, met up with my friend Vicki for part of it. I was treated to this lovely sunrise!
Saturday: 12 miles total with a workout in there:
It started with 5 miles easy- I was joined by my friends Vicki and Tricia for this part. Then 5 miles of alternating between 8:30 and 7:45 every 1/2 mile, then 2 miles easy at the end for 12 miles total.
The 5 miles of “work” were challenging, but it was a beautiful morning and I managed to come pretty close to most of the paces. Gorgeous sunny day in Minneapolis!
That afternoon, we took Matilda (our vizsla) out to Elm Creek off-leash park, which is a huge wooded area where she can run around to her heart’s desire. It was a bit of a drive for us from Minneapolis, but worth it for Matilda to have an awesome day outside in nature.
She wore herself out in about an hour and a half, so then we used our Sidewalk Dog Pup Passes to check out Omni Brewery in Maple Grove and then one last stop at 10k Brewing in Anoka.
Those two breweries are on the Pup Pass every year and we never usually make it out that far into the ‘burbs to get the ‘stamp’/beer from these two, so it was great to have a reason to be out that far!
Matilda crashed at the brewery. Fun day at the dog park, I guess!
We keep the suburban party going with dinner at Lat14 in Golden Valley.
Sunday: Dustin has been traveling a lot to New York City for work and mentioned how he was going to do a drop-in at Solidcorewhile there next time Well, I pointed out that he rarely joins me for solidcore here in Minneapolis, so he was convinced to join me for an Arms & Abs class at 9 am. (Yay!) After the class, I went for a 5.5 mile recovery run on my own.
Summary: 47 miles of running, 2 strength workouts, (Discover Strength and Solidcore) and one rest day.
The Brookings Marathon is this Saturday! The weather is looking pretty good and I’m excited to spend the weekend with my sister Erin. I also will be racing the TC 1 mile on Thursday night (it’s part of our running club’s race circuit). Racing a 1 mile two days before a marathon is NOT a smart thing to do, so I probably will hold back at the mile so I have enough in my legs for 26.2 with Erin on Saturday!
By the way, for the TC 1 Mile (and other races too, of course), I decided to buy a pair of the Nike Vaporfly 4%. I feel like there is a certain “speed” expectation that goes along with wearing a pair of these. But hey, even we ‘regular’ runners could benefit from being 4% faster, right?
If you’re new here, you may not know that I recently ran the Antarctica Marathon. It was the trip of a lifetime and I wrote lots of posts about it (HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE). I thought a nice memento from the trip would be a canvas print of one of the many penguin photos that we took while there. It turned out pretty well, don’t you think?
And, just for fun, here are a few other items that I recently saw on Instagram that I thought you might enjoy.
Have a wonderful week, we will be in touch after my 32nd marathon on Saturday!
I’m linking up with Running on the Fly and Confessions of a Mother Runner as part of their Weekly Rundown. Check it out!
Oh gosh…1-mile races (at least in my recent experience) are Beasts LOL I’m not a natural-born sprinter, so it may have taken a lot more effort for me than others, but my recovery was pretty humbling. But, I’ll definitely do it again 😉 Best of luck this next weekend!! Thanks for linking with us 😉
I am a little concerned about doing the 1 mile two days before a marathon…eeks!
That is so cute how Matilda zonked out at the brewery! I love it! I have a few friends who got the Vapor Flys and said the same thing. They sure are pretty though! Good luck at the 1 mile race and pacing your sister at the marathon!
Did your friends like the Vapor Flys? I figure they are worth a shot 🙂
I love running to the track for my track workout too. Great idea. Good luck with the Brookings Marathon. You are so lucky to be able to run it with your sister. I think that is so cool! Good luck this weekend!
The track makes all the difference!
Thanks for the good luck wishes Laurie!
OMG that canvas print of the penguin…steal my heart! It is so cute and it came out great 🙂
I cannot believe that the race is next weekend – time is certainly flying by quickly this year!
Aww, thanks Kim, glad you like the penguin!
You had quite a week! I guess when you run fast you can fit in more miles before work. 😉 I LOVE that print. That was a great idea and it turned out perfectly! Good luck this weekend, I know you and your sister will be awesome!
Thank you so much Coco! The penguin turned out great!
Reading about your track workout makes me tired! You sure had a solid week of training. Love the penguin photo! I have been trying to work on my photo skills a bit more. You and your sis are going to have a fantastic time next weekend can’t wait to read all about it
Thanks Deborah!
Good luck and have fun at the marathon this weekend. It looks like you have been doing some great training and have even been treated to some great sunrises!
Thank you Sandra!
Love the Matilda pics and have shared your blog with my vizsla-owning frend over here! I was interested to see your run to track as my track is about 3 miles from home, too, and I’ve been considering running to sessions there (it’s more fiddly to get to by public transport than just running). Were you super-tired on the way home and did you have to carry your spikes in a bag? A great week and hope the marathon goes or has gone well depending on what the dates are!
I’m trying hard to convince my husband to get a second vizsla…I’m so close!
what a great week of running! and I love that Matilda had her day out as well. Too bad you guys had to suffer though all that good food and drink as well 😉 So maybe a weird question but do you not taper before a marathon? Good luck on Saturday – to your sister too!! Curious if the vapor flys help!! LOVE the penguin print – what a beautiful keepsake!!
Matilda had a great little Saturday 🙂
Good question Renee! I do taper- I only did 12 miles for the long run. And this marathon with my sister is about 40 minutes slower goal pace than I think I could run right now…I didn’t do QUITE as much of a taper as usual!
Glad you like the penguin, I am so happy with it!
Good luck in the Brookins Marathon!
I love the penguin print. It came out great!
Matilda looks content. She is definitely loved.
Thank you Zenaida! Matilda is most definitely loved!
I hope you have great races this weekend! That picture of the penguin is amazing. It looks awesome!
Thanks Lisa!
LOVE the penguin photo – and what a gorgeous sunrise. Re: waving at strangers in the meme — there was just a giant row on a friend’s FB about whether men are “allowed” to say hi/wave to women. Ooph. I had a chuckle last weekend — was talking to my mom about her trip to her husband’s MN family for their reception there as they got married here in NY in December and the WA/MN folks were understandably worried about weather and chose to have a reception in spring for them. One of the lakes they were near & walked?… Read more »
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I LOVE that canvas print (and the “things you say to your dog” also hold true for cats haha!)