On Saturday, Glenn and I took the boys to the Jordan Y and hit the monon. He had been feeling a little sick the day before so scratched the 15 miles he had planned to run and did my 70 minutes scheduled with me. I couldn’t remember what the plan said “workout” wise. It was either 70 minutes easy, fast finish or strides at the end. Either way, I decided I’d just run the first half easy and decide if I felt good enough to try to fast finish.
We headed south on the monon from the Y down to 54th street and back– around 8:30 pace the whole way down, which felt comfortable, but certainly no jog. At the turn around I decided I’d go for a slow progression finish and try to hammer the last mile or so. (There is an intersection at 75th street back up to the Y and I had my mind set on really picking it up once we crossed that intersection- it’s 1.5 miles from the Y.)
I am telling you. I was grunting. Shaking the arms out. Taking all the deep breaths to calm myself down. My legs felt pretty darn good, it was the cardiovascular side of things that were working hard. I haven’t pushed like that in a while. I brought in the last mile at 6:47 and worked for every minute of it. This is about what half marathon pace effort was feeling for me over the summer. I feel happy about the workout, but also know that it’s one of the first steps to picking my speed back up. Glenn was running one step ahead of my the last 15 minutes and I knew he was doing it to push me.
It’s really nice to be married to someone who runs faster than you, who can help you work a little harder. I don’t think I’m a baby by any means when it comes to running; I’m willing to work hard whether I’m running with someone or not, but the extra push is helpful no matter who you are. Maybe I ran that last mile 5 seconds faster than I would have on my own, I don’t know, but I enjoyed having the support. And on that note, if you’re not willing to grunt in your hard workouts, you’re probably not working as hard as you think you are.
This training is going to be interesting. I’ve never actually trained for a marathon specifically with so much cross training. Based on how my foot feels after even two days in a row running though, I think it’s necessary. I can’t just run 3-4 days a week and be in the shape I want to be in to go for any sort of PR or a time even close to my PR, so I’m hopeful the biking and swimming will be a great substitute while making me stronger in other areas that runners tend to neglect. Won’t know until I try.
There is a certain confidence that running high mileage brings on race day, that I’ll be missing out on. You know, when you are running close to 10 miles almost everyday- you feel like 26 miles really isn’t all THAT FAR. I won’t be running anywhere near that this cycle, but I think I can bring the confidence in how fit I am in other areas and I honestly think I’m going to enjoy spending time on the bike and in the pool to substitute. Change of scenery.
I did a 45 minute run yesterday with 3 X 5 minutes at effort. Yesterday (on the treadmill), 7:00/min miles felt like effort, so I hung there for the first three minutes of the 5 and then picked it up by one notch at minute 4 and then again for the last minute. I was working hard, but not out of control hard. I’m scheduled for a 40 minute run today and want to do yoga. Yoga will be the priority though because I think my body needs that more. So we are going to hit the 9:45 yoga class at the Y and if I have time, I will sneak in some running before and maybe a little after. I only have a two hour window once I drop the boys off and will be itching to get Lou home to nap, so we’ll see!
Here’s my week of workouts: (or at least my plan for now)
Monday – 1500 yd Swim
Tuesday – 45 Min Run with 3 X 5 Min hard (I ran 3 Min easy between efforts)
Wednesday – 1 Hr Yoga + 40 Min Run
Thursday – 45 Min Bike
Friday – 1500 yd Swim + 30 Min Run (6 X 15 Â sec Strides)
Saturday – 70 Min Run Easy
Sunday – Rest or Bike
But impotently though Big Lou’s birthday is this Friday! My boy is going to be one. It’s funny, he seems so much younger than Marshall did at one. Some of that is probably because he’s not walking and Marshall was like running 5Ks at that point and he also only has two teeth, whereas Marshall had like 6 when he was one. The two couldn’t be more different in looks or personality. And I love that.
I have made all of the cakes for Marshall’s Birthdays but decided I just don’t want to so, we headed to Taylor’s Bakery and ordered a cake for Big Lou! I’m excited to see how it turns out! Here is the link to the post about his 1st birthday.
Here is just a small example of how different they are- when Marshall was a baby he was ALL OVER Cadence all the time, like rolling on top of her. This video below is about as interactive as I’ve ever seen Lou with her.
And this is random but I think funny. Our friends Emily and Andy got Marshall this blow up Mickey Santa for Christmas- this was all he wanted and kept asking for was a blow up balloon (that’s what we call them here- we drove around every day looking for blow up balloons in peoples yards the entire Christmas season). We told him when the Christmas tree went down, blow up Mickey would have to go home too until next year. (Otherwise we’d have blow up Mickey eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with me for the next 12 months.) Well he found where Glenn hid blow up Mickey and was all excited and confused. This went on for like an hour and we had to place a call to Santa to ask him why he left Mickey.
That’s it, that’s all I got. Happy Wednesday!