The month of May is just flying by, isn’t it? We’ve been treated to some really perfect running weather lately in Minneapolis too. High 40’s, no wind, beautiful sunrises…I am loving these morning runs! A great time for of the year for running.
I’m now seven weeks out from the Idaho marathon; here’s how training went this past week!
Monday: 8 solo miles before work, intentional recovery pace, 9:30 min/mile. Plenty of time to stop and smell the flowers!
Barre class at the Bar Method after work
Tuesday: 7 miles before work with a few friends, 9:15 min/mile.
I had an appointment to get blood drawn for Inside Tracker; has anyone done this? I’m hoping it’s worth the cost; I will keep you posted on my thoughts after I get the results!
The appointment was downtown right across the street from my office, so I decided it was finally time to step foot inside the office again…I hadn’t been there since March 12, 2020! Our office is technically open, we just don’t formally return until after Labor Day. I worked in the office for a few hours, long enough to get lunch at Sushi Takatsu! I definitely missed all the great lunch options downtown.
Wednesday: Workout Wednesday!
3 miles easy, 2x(5 min at marathon pace, 1 min hard, 4 min at marathon pace, 1 min hard, 3 min at marathon pace, 1 min hard, 2 min at marathon pace, 1 min hard, 1 min at marathon pace, 1 min hard), recover for 5 minutes (jog) and then repeat that whole thing again! It was essentially 20 minutes of continuous work alternating between marathon effort and hard effort, short break, another 20 minutes of work.
11 miles total, 8:45 min/mile average. My friend Julie joined me, which was lovely. She pushed me, for sure! It’s always great to have a friend for workouts.
(This pic is in front of our crab apple tree in the front yard. It smells amazing right now!)
Thursday: Rest from running! I did do a class at The Bar Method after work and there’s always a lot of dog walks in there, but no running.
Friday: 6.2 miles with Julie before work, a hilly route through the Sculpture Garden. 9 min/mile average.
Saturday: Long run day! My long runs have been a bit of a struggle; I feel great during the week and on the weekday workouts, but then drained on Saturdays. This Saturday wasn’t quite as bad as last weekend, but still not my strongest.
3 miles easy, 4x(2 miles at 8:30, 0.5 mile at 8, recover 1 mile), cool-down to 18 miles, 9 min/mile average. I did okay on the 2 miles at 8:30 (though it felt harder than it should), but struggled to bring it down below 8 on the 1/2 mile repeats. Argh. I was plenty hydrated, rested, fueled, (I took two Maurten gels throughout the run.) I am not sure what’s going on; I’m ready for a strong long run!
Sadly, my friend Christie is injured right now, but the silver lining was that she was kind enough to set up by the bunny on Minnehaha with Gatorade and water for all of us. Such a treat on a warm, sunny, long run!
And another crab apple tree picture!
After the long run, we took Ruth to the Howe for brunch; they are very dog-friendly, with a whole separate dog menu! (And a tasty menu for the humans too.)
After brunch, we took both dogs to the Bryant Lake dog park in Eden Prairie to meet up with my sister and her family (and their dog Lola) for some play time.
Ruth’s recall definitely still needs some work; the dog park is totally fenced in, but quite large, and she had no interest in staying close to us the way Matilda does! We have some work to do in that area.
After the dog park, we went back to my sister’s house to catch up for a bit. My niece recently turned EIGHTEEN (I can’t believe it) and is off to the University of Wisconsin in Madison next year. She just found out she made the cheerleading team too! Go Badgers! I’m so excited for her.
Sunday: First Oiselle Volee in-person meet-up since 2019! We met at 8 am to run a loop of Bde Maka Ska, but I ran from home to get some extra mileage, 7 miles, 9:05 min/mile average.
When I got home from that run, I realized I was at 57.5 miles for the week; I decided to head out with Dustin and Ruth for 3 bonus miles to get my 60! I hadn’t hit 60 in 2021 until now!
Summary: 60.5 miles of running, 2 barre classes.
I’ll wrap up this post with three NON-running updates from this week.
- We had to get our chimney rebuilt; (the joy of a 1920’s home!) Local readers, we used Mohler Chimney and they were great! Not a fun way to spend money, but it had to be done.
2. Once or twice a week, Ruth goes to doggy daycare because well, she’s a vizsla and needs the extra exercise during the week! They posted this picture of all the vizslas there that day. Can you tell which one is her?
3. And finally, a friend of a friend started a small business selling her State Fair Blue Ribbon winning brownies and they live up to the hype! Check out “That Good Brownie.” You won’t regret it!
And that’s a wrap; I hope you had a great week in fitness, be sure to visit all the other bloggers who link up with Running on the Fly and Confessions of a Mother Runner Check it out!
Your weekly mileage always has me in awe, so impressive! Your crab apple tree is beautiful! We had one, in our backyard, when we moved here (19 years ago), but it was in a bad state and we had to have it removed a couple years later. I loved all the pink/red/purple blossoms. Your marathon is gonna be here soon…you’re almost to taper!
I do run a lot of miles, but mostly easy! Plus I’m 7 weeks out from 26.2!
wow awesome mileage this week! This month is flying by. I have looked at inside tracker a few times Not sure what it would tell me that my regular check up blood work does not. Interested to hear what you think
I will share more in a post, but its not so much “am I healthy” but more “how do I make small tweaks to work towards peak performance as an athlete”. Several of the ranges for biomarkers aren’t concerning to a general doctor, but for Inside Tracker, they recommend changes to help “perfect” them, so to speak.
I love that photo of the tulips – so colorful and pretty and reminds me of Spring
I did Inside Tracker a few years ago and found it to be very helpful! You get a lot of useful data.
I imagine it felt odd to be back in the office again, but it’s awesome you were able to order lunch from one of your favorite places!
SO much data from Inside Tracker; it was actually a bit much to digest at first, but it helped to have my coach and my sister (a doctor) take a look too.
So weird to be back in the office!
You are right, it has been perfect weather for running this spring! Those cool mornings really bring some nice runs. You are going to do great at your marathon!
I haven’t seen my trail friend who has a vizsla for a long time–since we had snow on the ground.
Perfect running weather in May! Though I think its going to be rainy here for a large portion of the week…
Oh, sad you haven’t seen your vizsla friend! Hopefully all is well.
Mmmm, now I’m thinking about brownies!
So sorry about your friend, but you did at least benefit from it!
We used to take our dogs to daycare (when they were puppies). Sadly it’s not quite as dog friendly here as it was in Austin.
I was really struggling with my short long runs (haha!) for a while but lately things seem to be going better. Of course I’m not running all the miles like you!
Matilda used to love daycare, but doesn’t really need it now, but Ruth does! She has lots of spare energy
First off, if I’m ever reincarnated and come back as a dog, I want to live at your house! Doggy daycare, dog restaurants, dog park… she’s living the life!
Your Wednesday workout is a killer. You run a lot of miles! Your long run sounds impressive to me, but I get that it feels a little harder than you’d like.
Congrats to your niece! I’m so excited for all the graduates this year.
Ha, I love it! Yes, I suppose we do spoil our dogs and focus on our activities on them. But we don’t have kids, so these are our ‘children!”
I’m in awe of your mileage. But then again I’m not training for a marathon.
I ran my first long run in warm weather… we decided that we need aid stations lol
yes May is flying by. ands this weekend’s weather was awesome
Training for a marathon is a whole other thing vs. keeping a good solid base for a half, which you do well!
That crabapple tree is gorgeous! Glad the chimney repair went well. Home maintenance is a constant battle — luckily my husband deals with most of it.
Congrats to your niece!
Brownies are my kryptonite! I love the Starbucks brownies and usually treat myself once in a while instead of baking a whole batch at home.
I think That Good Brownie is only local right now, but I bet you would love them. Delicious!
Congrats on your amazing week of running! I have no idea which pup is Ruth. Last time I tried to guess between Ruth and your Vizsla guest, I got it wrong.
Haha, no worries! it’s so obvious to me which one is Ruth, but I realize they all kinda look the same to others!
Big miles for you this week! Awesome! It was so nice of Christie to support the group with a makeshift water station. She’s a good sport. So many Vizslas! Too cute! May is speeding by!
Christie is a good sport! I appreciate it, the cold Gatorade was a lifesaver.
Great job on the 60 mile week!! The temps are starting to rise, for sure.
I’m curious about Inside Tracker, as well. Shalane is pitching it on Insta. I am sure it provides a lot if interesting data, but I am cautious about how actionable it will be, whether you can (or should) change your biometric results, and unless you’re on the frequent testing plan, whether there is too much variation in results to base changes on and track results. But I’m definitely curious about their product.
I received my results and should write a post about them; I had my coach and my sister (a doctor) review them, as some of them were concerning, but my sister said they were actually still in very normal range, but Inside Tracker isn’t really about ‘normal’ vs. ‘peak’. They have diet changes and I think recommendations on rest days, but yes, the most benefit would be to do the testing 3-4 times a year. It’s not cheap, so not sure I will do that.
Nice job on the mileage! I wonder if some of the struggle on the long run was just overall fatigue(?). Hopefully, you get a good one in there soon!
Could be- but residual fatigue is generally just a part of training for a marathon!
OMG seven weeks!!!!
I want to go somewhere with a dog menu. How fun. Luna’s recall is crap. She is a total velcro/barnacle pug, but she is also like a sassy teenager and thinks she runs the world. I can’t even take her to the park
The viszlas! I love them!
Your new chimney does look nice, even though I’m sure it wasn’t how you wanted to spend your money.
Thanks Jenn! It’s weird as Matilda’s recall is amazing, she just never wants us to be out of her sight, but Ruth could not care less
Ha!
way to go on your mileage this week Jessie! I’d have done the same, going for the 60 if I was so close! Your crab apple tree is amazing! I can just imagine how good it smells! We have a Japanese Maple in our backyard that is just flourishing from all the rain we’ve had (a positive I guess). I cannot tell which doggie Ruth is!! Maybe 2nd Left?
Ruth is the farthest to the left
It’s so obvious to me, but I get that its just not for other people, ha!
Amazing mileage – I did 26.2 last week (I was supporting PickupthepacePaul’s fundraising effort, who was doing 11 maras in 11 days, seemed rude not to do a mara distance in a WEEK!). And lovely pics, too. Love the doggy daycare one!
Congrats on the mileage! I am so excited about your marathon. I know you are going to do great. I have heard about Inside Tracker but haven’t tried it. I know it isn’t cheap and I don’t know if I want to spend the money. I haven’t done any bloodwork in years but am curious about it.
I miss Takatsu and those yummy sushi bowls! I also have not been back downtown since March 2020 and I’m sure it will feel weird when we can go back to the office.