Week 4 of 2012 and Week 9 of Marathon Training
After last weeks disaster of a long run I was REALLY hoping this week would be better...and IT WAS! :)
Monday - 3 miles - 5th and King Loop - (35:12 - 11:43 pace)
Monday is usually rest day, especially after a long run, but a friend at work asked if I wanted to run and I really can't pass that up. Especially on the short runs (which I hate for some reason) it's always better to have a running buddy. I also knew this week was going to be super busy and had to fit the runs in wherever I could. Since nothing was going on after work on Monday I went for it. We ran a loop down 5th Ave and up King. We've run this loop before but it was extra hard this time. Our first mile went great. We were going downhill...and also down wind, but we were loving it. THEN, we turned up King where it is uphill most of the way and against the wind, so we were pretty much hating life for the rest of the time. But...we did it! We survived the loop...hills, wind, etc. One older lady walking her dog even told us we were making good time because we passed her once on 5th and then again towards the end. That always makes you feel a little better. :)
On Tuesday we had a lovely fun staff meeting with HR where we were informed of the next steps in our school closing at the end of the year. Nothing ends a day better than one of those meetings. UGH. As frustrated as I was and wanted to run, we went to get Mexican food instead. :) El Vaquero always makes you feel better...or something.
Wednesday - 7 miles - Treadmill - (1:13:29 - 10:29 pace)
After having Parent/Teacher Conferences until 6:30 the last thing I really wanted to do was run. I was supposed to go meet up with some friends from the soccer team for wings and the Buckeye Basketball game. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I'm not sure which) by the time I got there only 2 teammates were left so we chatted for a bit and watched some of the game and headed home. I got home around 8ish and still needed to run. I wasn't about to run 7 miles in the dark, cold rain so I drug myself to the workout room at the apartment for a nice jaunt on the treadmill.
I'm not sure how much you recall of my love of the treadmill, or the apartment workout room for that matter, so I wasn't really looking forward to this. When I got to the workout room the door lock thing was broken, so I got some instant anxiety. I walked in the dark building and proceeded to turn on all of the lights and the TV as loud as possible. One perk of working out late is no one else is there and you can watch whatever you want. American Idol was on so I decided to watch that, but unfortunately it was only an hour long and I only caught the last 15 minutes. However, afterward the new show Touch was on and it was GREAT! I highly recommend everyone to watch it! Apparently it doesn't start again until mid March so now you just have to wait.
...ANYWAY...as I was running and getting sucked into this show I temporarily forgot about the fact that I was in a public place and was not able to lock the door behind me. When I was about 5.5 miles in to my run and one of the most exciting parts of the show I look over and there i a girl STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO ME! I screamed and almost fell off the treadmill...no joke. She was just there to work out and getting on the elliptical but it scared me! I was like, "Oh...sorry I didn't even hear you come in...sorry the TV is so loud." And then I spent another 15 awkward minutes running next to her. HAHA Luckily I haven't had to see her since...
Parent/Teacher Conferences happened again on Thursday and I was dead to the world after work on Friday so no running happened.
Sunday - 10 miles - Olentangy Trail Out & Back - (1:51:21 - 11:08 pace)
Sadly Janene's legs are still hurting so I was on my own with this one (Get Well Soon Janene!). I managed to get up early and went to the 1st service at churc!h (And I saw Bobby Carpenter there), so I was able to get my run in earlier than normal. It was nice and sunny outside and I was really looking forward to spending some time outside. At the park where I start there weren't very many people, so I made a loop around the pond before setting out on the trail. As the day progressed more and more people started popping up on the trail. I was doing a pretty good job of keeping my miles at a steady 11:08 pace (except for mile 5 and mile 10 when I found some bursts of energy somewhere and ran 10:39 and 10:16 respectively). I always love when my last mile is my fastest mile!
A couple of things I learned on this run:
So that's the recap of Week 4. January is almost over and I'm only 62 days away from the Marathon! AHH
Slapbet Total = 81 miles (Only 919 to go!)
After last weeks disaster of a long run I was REALLY hoping this week would be better...and IT WAS! :)
Monday - 3 miles - 5th and King Loop - (35:12 - 11:43 pace)
Monday is usually rest day, especially after a long run, but a friend at work asked if I wanted to run and I really can't pass that up. Especially on the short runs (which I hate for some reason) it's always better to have a running buddy. I also knew this week was going to be super busy and had to fit the runs in wherever I could. Since nothing was going on after work on Monday I went for it. We ran a loop down 5th Ave and up King. We've run this loop before but it was extra hard this time. Our first mile went great. We were going downhill...and also down wind, but we were loving it. THEN, we turned up King where it is uphill most of the way and against the wind, so we were pretty much hating life for the rest of the time. But...we did it! We survived the loop...hills, wind, etc. One older lady walking her dog even told us we were making good time because we passed her once on 5th and then again towards the end. That always makes you feel a little better. :)
On Tuesday we had a lovely fun staff meeting with HR where we were informed of the next steps in our school closing at the end of the year. Nothing ends a day better than one of those meetings. UGH. As frustrated as I was and wanted to run, we went to get Mexican food instead. :) El Vaquero always makes you feel better...or something.
Wednesday - 7 miles - Treadmill - (1:13:29 - 10:29 pace)
After having Parent/Teacher Conferences until 6:30 the last thing I really wanted to do was run. I was supposed to go meet up with some friends from the soccer team for wings and the Buckeye Basketball game. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I'm not sure which) by the time I got there only 2 teammates were left so we chatted for a bit and watched some of the game and headed home. I got home around 8ish and still needed to run. I wasn't about to run 7 miles in the dark, cold rain so I drug myself to the workout room at the apartment for a nice jaunt on the treadmill.
I'm not sure how much you recall of my love of the treadmill, or the apartment workout room for that matter, so I wasn't really looking forward to this. When I got to the workout room the door lock thing was broken, so I got some instant anxiety. I walked in the dark building and proceeded to turn on all of the lights and the TV as loud as possible. One perk of working out late is no one else is there and you can watch whatever you want. American Idol was on so I decided to watch that, but unfortunately it was only an hour long and I only caught the last 15 minutes. However, afterward the new show Touch was on and it was GREAT! I highly recommend everyone to watch it! Apparently it doesn't start again until mid March so now you just have to wait.
...ANYWAY...as I was running and getting sucked into this show I temporarily forgot about the fact that I was in a public place and was not able to lock the door behind me. When I was about 5.5 miles in to my run and one of the most exciting parts of the show I look over and there i a girl STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO ME! I screamed and almost fell off the treadmill...no joke. She was just there to work out and getting on the elliptical but it scared me! I was like, "Oh...sorry I didn't even hear you come in...sorry the TV is so loud." And then I spent another 15 awkward minutes running next to her. HAHA Luckily I haven't had to see her since...
Parent/Teacher Conferences happened again on Thursday and I was dead to the world after work on Friday so no running happened.
Sunday - 10 miles - Olentangy Trail Out & Back - (1:51:21 - 11:08 pace)
Sadly Janene's legs are still hurting so I was on my own with this one (Get Well Soon Janene!). I managed to get up early and went to the 1st service at churc!h (And I saw Bobby Carpenter there), so I was able to get my run in earlier than normal. It was nice and sunny outside and I was really looking forward to spending some time outside. At the park where I start there weren't very many people, so I made a loop around the pond before setting out on the trail. As the day progressed more and more people started popping up on the trail. I was doing a pretty good job of keeping my miles at a steady 11:08 pace (except for mile 5 and mile 10 when I found some bursts of energy somewhere and ran 10:39 and 10:16 respectively). I always love when my last mile is my fastest mile!
A couple of things I learned on this run:
- I really enjoyed having Fruit Punch Powerade in my water bottle. After my hands stopped freezing from holding it, I was loving it.
- I really do not like Mandarin Orange Gu. Last week Janene gave me some Gu since she doesn't really like it. The Vanilla Bean she gave me was AWESOME! It tasted like frosting. The Orange that I bought however...YUCK! I'm not sure if it was the flavor or the fact that I was washing it down with my Powerade, but it was not doing it for me today. For those of you that have never tried Gu, it's a little packet thing that is supposed to give you extra energy. You are supposed to eat them after like 45 minutes to an hour of running. They are the consistency of molasses and there are all kinds of interesting flavors. You have to drink a lot of liquid with them to wash them down and then just PRAY that they don't upset your stomach...especially when you are miles from the car or a bathroom. So yeah...of the 3 flavors I've tried I would rank them 1 - Vanilla Bean, 2 - Chocolate, 3 - Mandarin Orange. We'll have to try some of the others and see where they fall in the ranking.
- Some people make running look too easy and I can only wish to make it look so effortless some day. I know I'm a hot mess when I'm running, but I just embrace it. :)
- I hope they find the lost dog that I saw multiple postings for along the trail :(
So that's the recap of Week 4. January is almost over and I'm only 62 days away from the Marathon! AHH
Slapbet Total = 81 miles (Only 919 to go!)
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