What Should I Do This Weekend?

Here's a quick summary of my workouts last week:

Monday - 6.3 miles tempo-ish run
Tuesday - 5.6 miles normal (included in the same post as Monday's run)
Wednesday - 19.25 miles !!
Thursday - REST
Friday - REST
Saturday - 4 miles normal w/ Angela and Olivia in northern Michigan - also, some paddleboarding = arm workout
Sunday - cross train - 12 miles biking, leisurely on a tandem bike

Even though I didn't get a run in on Friday as planned, I'm still really happy with the runs I did this past week and glad to have gotten my mileage up (both long run mileage and total weekly mileage which was about 35 miles).  I would still like to get that weekly mileage up a little more over the next 3-4 weeks before I taper.  But I say that every week.

I haven't decided yet what I want to do this weekend.  I might go to Madison, WI to watch the Ironman Wisconsin and in that case I would probably shoot for a 20 mile long run on Saturday.  But after all the driving this past weekend, a day trip to Michigan planned for the following weekend, and then UD Parents Weekend at the end of September, I think a weekend without traveling will be nice.  So if I stay here in Chicago this weekend, I can do a half marathon on Sunday or do a long run either day.  Here's my plan for Monday through Friday at least.  Obviously Monday already happened, so I just put in what I already did.

Monday - hill workout ~4.5 miles
Tuesday - 10-12 miles
Wednesday -6 miles
Thursday - Speed Workout - Mile Repeats
Friday - 5 miles

And now it's September!  As far as August running mileage, I ended up with 140 miles. If you've read some of my other posts, you know that I am comparing these couple months of marathon training to how I did during 2010 when I was training for the Columbus Marathon. In August of that year, I ran 145 miles, so I'm pretty much at exactly the same.  I was hoping to be significantly higher for the August mileage, but the beginning of the month was pretty low-mileage.

September should be a big increase over 2010 because I only had 98 miles that month. I want to shoot for close to 200 miles this September.

I decided I needed another picture and thought I'd include another one from the lake weekend, but then I thought - why not find a picture from last September?  My soul was sold away to the public accounting world for most of the month, but then I got to go to Nashville to celebrate Grace's Bachelorette party!!  Are you aware that according to whatever spell check system this blogging software uses, bachelorette is not a word?  It wants to correct it to bachelor.  That is weird.  And now I just typed it in Microsoft Word and it is a word there.  Google Blogger must not think that girls have fun too.

What are you planning to do this week?  Or this weekend?

Have you ever been to Nashville? 

Hot Trail Run & Bike Fail

The humidity won yesterday's battle. I went back to the Elk Grove Forest Preserve for a run, with the intention to do 2 loops to get in 15-16 miles since I will be traveling this weekend and unable to do a long run. Mom came with her bike too so she could get in her own exercise biking around while I ran and so she could hold water, Gatorade, and Gu for me. Unfortunately, nothing turned out quite as planned.

I ended up running 9 miles in 1:13:40, so about an hour short of my plan. At first I was disappointed with myself for not just pushing through it and I knew I wouldn't be able to get it in any other day this week. But I figured 9 miles in that heat/humidity at the pace I was going was still a very quality run! I also impressed myself with my ability to master a very consistent 8 minute mile.

Mom coming to the trail with me means I have a personal photographer. Putting my hair in a very tight bun was a way better decision than a ponytail flopping around all hot on neck. Anyways, when my intention was to do 2 loops, I wanted to do the first a little slower and then try to do my 2nd loop faster than my first. My splits for 9 miles were: 8:31, 7:59, 8:00, 7:59, 8:02, 8:01, 8:03, 8:14, and 7:50. I felt strong and relaxed but it was very hot and humid. Even when I stopped after the 9.1 miles when I met mom to take my Gu, I intended to keep going, but then the thought of finishing 6 more miles on that loop was very overwhelming.

Catherine has been telling me a lot about varying your paces during runs instead of always running the same pace for each run. I think this is what I'm going to really try to work on over the next few weeks. I can't keep running 8 minute miles for every run because then my body will get too used to it. Luckily last week, I had the 2 races which were a little faster and the long run that was closer to 8:10-8:15 pace. I was with other people for each of those runs which forces me to change it up from my normal pace. When I'm alone, I get too comfortable with the standard 8 minute pace.

Even though I didn't go as long as planned, I can't really consider it a failure since it was still a good, longer than normal run. Mom's bike ride wasa failure though. About halfway through the loop, she hit a bump and got a flat tire. This meant she had to walk her bike back the rest of the loop which was really miserable in the heat with all of the bugs too. They will really get you if you aren't moving fast enough.

When we got home I made a great salad with hard boiled eggs and obviously drank a lot of chocolate milk. Bailey ate my 2 packs of Gu that were sitting out. So now she owes me $3.