Monday, June 20, 2016

Marathon Monday: Week Two is Through

I have now finished Week Two in my 18 week training plan. :) That means I'm over 10% done! You can read about Week One here.

Monday is always cross-training, and I typically whenever cross training comes up I bike, but on Monday I waited too long and it got dark outside. I decided instead to do a combination of yoga and some simple body weight exercises like push-ups, squats, lunges, and planks.

Tuesday I had 3 miles on the schedule, so I did one of my common 3 mile loop routes. It was pretty warm...around 80 degrees with 70% humidity (I know that may not be super warm for those of you in Florida!), and it was sucking the energy right out of me. At about 2.5 miles, I started to feel light headed and I realized that I hadn't eaten much since lunch time--it was now around 6 pm. A good reminder to make sure to fuel your body properly for all runs, even short ones! I ended up finishing 3.1 miles at a 9:49 pace. When I got home I searched for a snack to bring my blood sugar back up, and I found some delicious blueberries which I ate while I stretched outside.

Nova clearly thought she should get some blueberries too :)

Wednesday I had to run 5 miles, and I made the strange decision to do it at lunchtime. It looked like it might thunderstorm later in the day, so I wanted to get it out of the way, but it sure was hot! It was again about 80 degrees, now with 75% humidity and the sun beating down on me. I think it's good to do some runs in these conditions to get acclimated properly to the heat, but they definitely aren't easy! I ran around campus and ended up with 5.5 miles with the first 5 miles at a 9:42 pace, and the last 0.5 miles at a 10:03 pace as a 'cool' down.

Thursday was another 3 mile run on the schedule and I decided to do the same route as Tuesday. The run felt much easier than the past two days, maybe because humidity dropped down to about 50%. I ran around 5:30, and then immediately afterwards had a concert with the community band I play in. My parents are watching my nieces for a few weeks, so they came to watch the concert and these are the pictures I got during the concert from Dustin and the girls.

They have lots of fun together. :)

Friday was a rest day and I appreciated that!

Saturday I was supposed to run 5 miles. I slept in a little bit later than I wanted to, so by the time I was ready to run, it was midafternoon. I wanted to avoid the sun a little bit, so I decided to run on the trails close to my house for the majority of the run. It's about a mile to the trailhead, so I spend 2 miles on the road and a little over 3 on the trails. I love running on these trails because they are pretty, shaded, and not too intense. :) The only bad thing is it does tend to feel rather humid running through all of the greenery.


Sunday is long run day--this week I had 9 miles to run. I managed to start earlier than last week by about an hour, so I was still pushing the daylight a little bit, but it was much more enjoyable. A few miles into the run I got to see a beautiful sunset. I typically run without listening to anything, but sometimes for long runs I'll listen to podcasts--for this run I listened to an episode of Ten Junk Miles. If you haven't listened to them at all, you should check it out! They are ultrarunners out of Chicago and they are very entertaining. They got me through my 9 miles on Sunday at a 10:20 pace.

I guess it's a little before the actual sunset, but the sun was setting behind a giant cloud and it was pretty. :)

Overall I ran 26 miles this week, which I'm really happy with. I need to continue to work on a few things like fueling properly and planning my runs so I'm running in the best temperatures possible (maybe I'll have to run a few morning runs, ugh!). Generally, it felt like a good week.

Do you have any podcast recommendations? 
As I was preparing for my last half marathon, I listened to Serial during all of my long runs. Since then, I have only listened to Ten Junk Miles, but I'm getting close to catching up to the current episodes, so I'm going to need another option. :)

8 comments:

  1. Great week. Heat and humidity are killers, it was 118 out here in az this weekend, just going outside became endurance training lol.

    Planning is def huge, meals and runs times are vital, keep at it, you'll get it.

    No podcasts for me, typically no music but occasionally when I'm suffering pretty bad I'll throw the headphones on for some rock music.

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    1. Oh my gosh, one of my friends lives in Tucson and he posted a screenshot of the forecast...so hot! I like the heat, but that might be a little much. :) Music kills me because I'm constantly estimating how long the song is and how far I have probably gone based on how many songs I've listened to, ha!

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  2. 80*F with 70% humidity? That's it? Pshhhh that's NOTHING! Haha, just kidding! I know that can feel just terrible!

    I wish I had some podcast recommendations for you, but lately all I've been listening to on runs is music. Serial was such a great podcast for running! It totally sucked you in and made you want to keep running even after you were supposed to be done because you wanted to hear what happened next! Maybe give season 2 of Serial a try? I haven't listened yet, but Sarah was such a great storyteller that it can't be bad!

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    1. haha I concede that we are somewhat wimpy here in the summer. However, when it's 50 degrees in the winter in Florida and you are all complaining that it is freezing--we are laughing at you. :) I have heard mixed reviews about season 2 of Serial, but Sarah was really great--I'll at least listen to the first episode and see if it sucked me in like the original did. :)

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  3. Nice job on a solid week! I love listening to podcasts on long runs, too, but I haven't heard of this one. I'll need to bookmark it for my next solo long run!

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    1. Definitely check it out, they are really entertaining!

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